Claiming the East Wind by Anna Hackett

Chapter One
    She was the virgin sacrifice for a greedy wind god.
    Skye Santini clasped her hands together and tried to wrestle her nerves into some sort of submission.
    She was failing. Big time.
    Swallowing hard, she stared up at the beautiful villa. A cool, brisk wind blew in from Lake Como and tossed her hair around her face. She scraped it back. She could do this. She wanted to do this. Besides, she wasn’t exactly a virgin and the male locked inside wasn’t exactly a god. He was a man. A man who usually ran the finances for the successful company he and his brothers had built, Venti Enterprises.
    Oh, and he was a WindKeeper on the verge destroying the entire world.
    “This is insane. Skye, you can’t do this!”
    Skye turned and watched her sister storm up to her. Rayne never held back from saying what was on her mind. She was also a trained Aurae warrior and the best big sister in the world.
    “Rayne, I’ll be fine—”
    “Fine?” Rayne gestured wildly. “The man has succumbed to his vice. He has no memory of who he is, no idea of his power, and no clue about the danger lurking close by.”
    Skye looked again at the building. Vines climbed up the side of the cream-colored villa. Windows overlooked the manicured gardens that reached down to the lake. It was beautiful and she imagined, on most days, peaceful.
    Today it was nothing of the sort.
    The water of the lake churned, whipped into a frenzy by the wind. Storm clouds cluttered the sky. And she felt a darker force looming nearby, watching her, watching the house, like a large, crouching beast.
    Yes, Apeliotus, the last remaining Venti Tempesta , was close. Desperate not to lose his freedom.
    That made it even more important that Skye do this. “Rayne, he won’t let his brothers in and we’ve sent in other Aurae warriors. He booted every single one of them out. It’s time to try something different.”
    And Skye was as different as possible. She was no warrior. She was nothing, just a woman who’d hidden away from the world for far too long. Who’d let her stronger, loving sister protect her.
    Now Skye needed to do something worthy. It was time to stop letting her past keep her from having a future.
    “No.” Rayne lifted a stubborn chin.
    “Rayne.” A deep male voice.
    A handsome, imposing man climbed the last few steps and stood beside Rayne. It still amazed Skye that her sister had linked herself to this…angry man.
    Luca Venti. Keeper of the North Wind. And it’s vice of anger.
    Oh, he kept it leashed. Skye could see that. But still…she wrung her hands. She was good at assessing a man’s capacity for rage.
    “Remember,” he said, “you once told me we have to trust them to stand on their own?”
    Rayne’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t mean for my baby sister to be some sexual sacrifice to your brother!”
    Luca touched the nape of her neck and Skye saw a flash of emotion in his face. The way he looked at Rayne, and the way her sister softened for him, it made Skye a little envious.
    “I know. I didn’t want this either. But we have to do everything we can to save Soren before Apeliotus gets to him.”
    Right, which meant Skye, who had very limited experience with men, had to entice the WindKeeper. Her stomach roiled. Legend said that the female keepers of the seasonal breezes, the Aurae, could soothe the vices of the WindKeepers. Aurae blood ran in her veins.
    Her gaze cut back to Rayne and Luca. The man certainly seemed calmer whenever he was around her sister. Skye stared at the windows of the villa, her thoughts turning to the WindKeeper who’d locked himself inside. He had no memory, and was dangerously close to losing himself forever to the vice of greed. She wondered if he was looking down on the people trying so desperately to save him.
    A long time ago, she’d prayed for someone to save her. She hadn’t needed a crowd. Just one person able to see past her silent suffering to a girl too afraid to talk. Just one person willing