by M. L. Briers
“True, but I don’t think you’re going to rub elbows with the rich folk, more get down and dirty on pack land,” Erin tossed back. Then she wiggled her eyebrows. “And speaking of dirty…”
“Which I wasn’t…”
“Which I was – what does this Joe guy look like?”
Kirsty tossed another look back over her shoulder to find Erin with a big, stupid grin on her face. She knew that look. “Like a big, bad wolf,” she said, trying not to play her game.
“And?”
“And a bad boy biker guy with shoulder-length hair, big blue eyes, a square jaw that could have been chiselled from marble, and I’m guessing under those clothes there was a body of a sex-god.”
Damn, she needed to date more. But the thinking of the wolf guy as anything other than a paycheck was bad news, and she didn’t want to go there.
“But, you’re only going for the spell – right?” Erin’s wicked chuckle snapped Kirsty into the present.
“Right!”
“Yeah, and what happens if one of these big bad wolf, sexy biker guys happens to sniff in your direction?”
CHAPTER THREE
~
Oh, bloody hell. Kirsty hadn’t thought about that.
The flashing sign that had popped up in her mind that said ‘free money for work she loved’ had kept her mind on the straight and narrow. Still, even if Joe wasn’t her mate – which she was pretty sure he wasn’t – there could still be one lurking in the pack somewhere.
Dang – that would make life more complicated – try the spell, kill a mate, and make it home for dinner tomorrow night. It was takeout night, and Mr Fong’s Chinese special was calling her name, she wasn’t about to miss that for something as trivial as true love.
“Murder, death, kill,” Kirsty tossed back.
“You’ve watched Demolition Man one too many times, my dear,” Erin said with a chuckle.
“It’s impossible to watch Demolition Man too many times, Stallone at his best, Sandra Bullock kicking butt, and Wesley Snipes going all badass on everyone – it’s just a shame they never made a sequel.” She snatched her bag from the bed and groaned under the weight of the contents; maybe she should learn to pack lighter.
“Says you, but hey, maybe you can make one this weekend – demolition witch and the pack of wolves.”
“It doesn’t have the same ring to it, and it sounds more like an Indiana Jones movie. Besides, I’m just going to…”
“Check out a legend, look at new spells, save a vampire from going insane, duck a few sexy wolfmen looking for a good time…”
“I did not say that…”
“So, you’re open to a one night stand?” Erin shot back with a wicked grin and the sparkle of mischief in her eyes.
“Tall, dark and furry is not how I like my men,” Kirsty said, dropping the bag on the straight back chair by the bedroom door ready for the early morning when her brain wouldn’t be awake before she’d had at least two cups of coffee.
“Riddle me this, Batgirl, does fate know that?” Erin asked, pushing up and heading for the door. “Or does fate even care?”
Then she was gone, and Kirsty was stumped. Perhaps she wasn’t making the smartest choice in life, but then she’d always been something of a maverick where life choices were concerned.
Was she really tempting fate by going onto wolf land? “It’ll be fine,” she told herself and groaned. How she hated the word fine, and yet, she’d been using it a lot lately, but it would be fine – she was almost, maybe, kind of sure of that.
~
‘Call me if you need to be rescued.’
Erin’s words kept ringing in her ears as she drove to pack land, and the closer she got, the louder those words sounded. Maybe fate was trying to tell her something after all – but that was silly; if fate had wanted her to meet a mate, then it would be unlikely to warn her in advance.
No, Erin had made her crazy with her warnings – first last night and then this morning – but what if she was right? Were money and new magic worth dying, or worse, being the mate of a big, sexy wolf shifter?
Wait, what was she thinking? Being the mate of a sexy hunk wasn’t the end of the world, just the end of her freedom to make stupid choices like this one. Not that this was a stupid choice – or maybe – ugh!
Chicken and egg, she could drive herself crazy thinking about it.
Yep, she’d take the risk.
When she spotted the wolf pack mark that had been carved into the thick trunk of a tree, she said a silent blessing and pulled onto pack land with only the thump of her heart for company as it echoed the fast pace of the music on the long winding road to wherever it was she was going.
The strange thing was, from the moment she’d turned onto pack land, she felt as if she was being watched, but she didn’t see any wolves or people until she reached the first cabin. An older woman with long hair and piercing green eyes peered at her as she swept the porch, and Kirsty tried not to stare as she drove by, headed for what looked like the largest cabin of all.
The cabin dominated the others along the way. A mixture of styles and sizes kept her interest for only a few seconds, but each time she was drawn back to the two-story, wooden structure that looked like a Swiss Hotel than a cabin.
Maybe the alpha had a big ego to go with his job, but to the winner the spoils, right?
Or maybe she was way off, and that place was like a meeting house, a shifter bar, or community hub, and the alpha didn’t live there at all. When she gained on the place, and Joe strolled out from inside, she felt a little disappointed that she’d been right the first time.
Of course, the alpha had the best cabin and the most oversized ego.
Kirsty pulled up and said one more blessing before she got out of the car. Joe was standing there to meet her. “Toss your keys to Bob, and he’ll park your car around the back,” he informed her, and when she turned to see who Bob was, she found him standing right behind her.
“Because that’s not creepy,” she said and tossed her keys at the older man who chuckled. “Yeah, real funny.” She didn’t like Mr Creepy Pants already.
“Let’s go in,” Joe said and motioned to the large cabin with the wrap-around porch downstairs and the large balcony upstairs. She’d stayed in worse venues.
“Oh wait,” she said, reaching back into the car and yanking her overnight bag across the seat. With a grunt, she yanked it out. “And I need the case in the back that’s got some spell ingredients in it.” She wasn’t looking forward to dragging that puppy up the stairs.
“Bob will bring it in,” Joe informed her.
Kirsty turned a frown on Mr Creepy. “Be careful with it, no spell ingredients, no spell,” she informed him.
Bob’s eyebrows slowly rose towards his hairline, and he looked over at Joe, Kirsty followed his gaze and waited. Joe nodded, and Bob snapped into action. Without another word, he climbed into her car, and it was speeding away before she had the chance to have second thoughts.
“Let’s go, time is money,” Joe said, and he was right by her side, taking the case from her hand before she’d even noticed he’d moved.
Now, she was having second thoughts, but what was she going to do – run after her car to make her great escape?
~
Kirsty eyed the room. It really could have been a hotel in the Swiss Alps – fancy – not that she’d ever been abroad, she barely made rent most months unless her online spell site was getting good traffic.
She wasn’t entirely sure the place was a home – at least – the handful of sofas dotted around the open fireplace said someone had a big family or liked entertaining.
“You live here?” she asked when Joe motioned for her to take a seat.
“I have a room upstairs,” Joe informed her. “I’ve put you in one of our unused cabins for tonight.”
“Thank God,” she muttered, and when he frowned, she shrugged. “I like my privacy,” she offered back, rolling her eyes to the sofas, just as Bo
b walked in carrying her spell case.
“Case?” Bob said, hauling the large trunk over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. It would have taken her a two-handed grip and a lot of putting her back into it to drag that sucker in herself.
Kirsty gave another little shrug. “I like to travel light, but that has a few things a witch can’t do without.”
“Kitchen sink, broom closet, and torture chamber?” Bob grunted as he swung the trunk off his shoulder and Kirsty squeaked in alarm when she thought he was going to drop it. She made the effort to reach for it, even though it was ten feet away, but it didn’t even make a sound as he placed it on the hardwood flooring.
Kirsty didn’t know whether to growl at Bob for scaring her or kiss him for not damaging the trunk and its contents – both of which were like a newborn to her. Bob grunted as he turned on his heels and she did the same so as not to be outdone, and she knew the man would have heard her with his big old wolf ears.
Jerk.
“You have trust issues,” Joe said, walking to the nearest sofa and sitting.
Oh boy, he could say that again, and the more she realised where she was and what she was doing there – the worse those issues seemed to nag at her. “Gee, I wonder why?” she said, turning to look at him. He looked comfy and relaxed, she, on the other hand, felt as though she’d seen the pack outside busily building a stake at which to burn her.
Why the heck had she willingly walked onto pack land? In the words of her best friend – had she lost her friggin’ mind?
CHAPTER FOUR
~
Courtney walked into the house, kicked the front door closed behind her, and dripped mud onto the polished wooden floor as she stomped towards the staircase. There was a strange scent in the air that mixed with the mud she’d dredged up from the bottom of the river when Tom McAlpine had thrown her in – and boy was she going to make him pay for that when she got her hands on him.
She stopped in place and sniffed once, twice, three times was the charm to get over the scent of the rotting vegetation smell right up her nose and found what she was looking for. She turned to discover her brother and a woman she’d never laid eyes on before sitting on opposite sofas looking back at her.
“Who’s she?” Courtney demanded.
“What happened to you this time?” Joe asked at exactly the same time.
“Tom,” she said.
“Witch,” Joe offered – talking over each other once more.
“Witch,” Courtney said and lifted her hand to sniff some of the mud clinging to her skin. “I thought it was the river that smelled bad.”
“Haven’t you learned to stay away from Tom yet?” Joe asked at the same time she’d spoken, and then he grumbled a growl. “Don’t be rude; she’s here to help our brother.” That sentence, he had managed to speak alone.
“He’s a fricking vampire, what can she do?” Courtney said, thumbing her nose at Kirsty.
“Maybe give him his wolf back,” Joe said, giving her a long hard look of impatience.
Joe had tried to keep her in check since their brother had become a vampire, but Nathaniel was the only one she’d ever listened to before, and now she wanted nothing to do with him. Teenagers.
“Great, a bloodsucking wolf, just what we need around here to go with the bloodsucking vampire,” she shot back.
Joe pushed to his feet. “Courtney, that’s not…”
“Whatever, bro, I’m going for a shower,” she replied and started up the stairs.
“Clean the damn mud up when you get out,” he called after her, but she only grunted in return.
Far be it from Kirsty to get involved in family drama, but she did have to feel sorry for Joe when he sighed and plopped back down on the sofa opposite her. “She seems nice,” Kirsty said; a mixture of sarcasm and the need to draw his attention back from his sister, hopefully before his head imploded.
Dead men didn’t pay you for your time.
Joe turned a killer look on her, and Kirsty decided to offer him a wicked little smile in return. There was nothing wrong in keeping the man sweet until she’d got her money and a look at those books he claimed to have. “I apologise,” he said.
“Don’t bother,” Kirsty said. “You should have seen me at her age – that,” she said and waved an absent hand at the stairs. “Is a lightweight.”
Joe sighed again, but at least his shoulders slowly came down from around his ears as he relaxed a little. “Great, it could get worse, shoot me now,” he said and caught the look of interest she gave him. Because that look wasn’t unnerving and didn’t give him pause for thought about bringing the witch to pack land. “She’s always had a special bond with my brother and since…”
“He was turned into a bloodsucking monster of unfathomable evil she’s been going off the rails?”
“Something like that,” Joe said and shrugged.
“Thought you said he had it under control?”
“He does,” Joe said frowning. “But, my sister doesn’t see it that way,” he admitted.
I can sympathise with that,” Kirsty said. “Maybe you should too.”
The frown lines cut deeper into his forehead, and he tilted his head to one side like she’d said something that didn’t compute. “I can, but she can’t go around…”
“Being a teenager?” Kirsty said.
Joe sat forward on the seat and leaned further in towards her. He was still five feet away with a long, wide walnut coffee table between them, and yet he felt really close. “That behaviour is…”
“Wild?” Kirsty cut him off. “And how did you behave when you were her age?”
The look on his face as he thought back to those times was a cross between amusement and longing, but they faded into another frown. “She is not going to be like that!” he rushed out, adamant.
“Why, cos she’s a girl?” Kirsty tossed back with a small chuckle that let him know just how stupid he sounded. “Boy, do you have some waking up to do. Welcome to the real world, and here’s a clue; you can be as male chauvinistic as you like, but girls just wanna have fun.”
Joe pulled back and turned up his nose at the idea of his little sister having any kind of fun that didn’t involve girlie sleepovers under the stars, learning how to put on makeup, and dressing up in heels for the occasional party. “Define fun,” he said, and Kirsty heard the rumble of a growl beneath his words.
“Boys, making out, sex…”
“Okay, stop defining right there,” he said and pushed up to his feet again. “I need a drink.”
“Sounds like a Scotch moment,” Kirsty said, grinning to herself when he strolled out of the room on fast legs. She covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled into her palm.
There was no saying she couldn’t pull a little wolf tail while she was there – just as long as the big, bad beastie didn’t turn around and bite her for her trouble.
This might be fun after all.
~
“Oh, my Goddess!” Kirsty exclaimed as the excitement of what lay before her hit home.
Joe had taken her to the attic. It was one large room with a high ceiling, bright and airy with a window at each end and not the cobweb-draped, spider-infested gloomy room she’d been expecting at the thought of crawling around an attic.
With a large desk at the furthest end, butted up to the wall under a window, and a plush leather office chair, she could have easily made the room her home.
What was better than no gigantic spiders were the shelves and bookcases stacked with old leather-bound books and what looked like journals. “I think I just found witch heaven.”
Joe couldn’t quite grasp her enthusiasm, but then he wasn’t a witch. But Nathaniel had seemed to like it up in the attic until he’d become a vampire. “Madeline said the legend was in a grey bound book, so I pulled everyone out I could find and put them on and around the desk for you,” he informed her.
Kirsty snapped to attention and headed straight for the piles. So many books, so little ti
me, but there was no time like the present to get started. “I might need more than a day,” she said absently over her shoulder, waving him away.
Joe was happy with that. He’d got the feeling when she arrived that she wasn’t exactly happy to be on pack land, but her newfound enthusiasm at the sight of the room was what he’d been hoping for.
He started down the stairs, but paused at the sound of pages turning and turned to look at her. The morning sun that streamed through the window seemed to give her an otherworld look, and he was hooked.
Joe’s beast rose, and he had the damnedest urge to scent the air, an urge he fought with all his might. He tore his gaze away and forced his legs to carry him down the stairs and away from that temptation.
When he reached the landing, he pressed his back to the nearest wall and closed his eyes to try to get a grip on the beast within him. He didn’t even hear the footsteps that drew close.
“What’s wrong with you?” Courtney demanded. “You see Grandma’s ghost or something?”
Joe tried to shake it off, but he couldn’t. The only thing he could do was get the hell away from that temptation. “Something like that,” he said, strolling down the hall as his sister watched him leave.
Courtney hadn’t seen her brother that rattled since Nathaniel had been turned into a vampire. She had to wonder what the witch had done to him to turn him a whiter shade of pale.
She liked witches about as much as she liked vampires. But Joe was determined to do whatever he could for their brother before the deadline was up. One month, one month and then Nathaniel was going to have to leave pack land for good, and all because the elders refused to change the law and allow him to stay.