by M. L. Briers
“Well, I never saw that coming,” Nathaniel said, turning a curious look on his brother.
Joe frowned and looked around them for what his brother was talking about, but they were alone. “What?”
“You found your mate,” Nathaniel said, and Joe’s heart hit his ribs and raced like his wolf was on the hunt.
Joe held up his hands in mock surrender at his chest. “Now hold on a min…”
“No need to play coy, brother,” Nathaniel said, tapping his temple once more. “But the question is; why were you trying to hide that from me?”
“I wasn’t,” Joe replied.
For one long moment, Nathaniel caught a snatch of something flash through his brother’s mind, and he drew back. “You don’t trust me with the witch,” he said.
Joe wasn’t sure if he did or he didn’t, but he didn’t want to take that risk, it seemed too great. “It’s not…” He stopped talking the moment he had a space in front of him where his brother had been standing.
“Damn it!” Joe bit out, searching the area for any sign of his brother, but as he was well aware, his brother had become even faster at disappearing these days. “That could have gone better.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
Kirsty needed a break. She’d been at the books all day, and her eyes were starting to cross as the words blurred into each other.
That expensive office chair might have been top of the range, but her back still hurt, and her backside was humming as it came back to life. She tried to make her legs work properly on the two flights down to the ground floor with the empty plate in her hand, and she finally felt some sense of normalcy by the time she reached the last step.
Now all she needed to find was the kitchen. She needed two things – caffeine and sugar – the go-to pick-me-up for any college student studying for their exams.
Time was ticking, and she wanted to get right back to those books.
Kirsty followed her nose with a strange sense of irony. She was on pack land where she’d requested the hard and fast rule that the shifters didn’t sniff while she was around. But the scent of coffee in the air couldn’t be denied, and she hit the door moving fast, and – thwump! It hit something hard.
Kirsty jumped at the sound of the loud curse and grimaced for the darker ones that followed. She had the idea of turning on her heels and heading back upstairs to feign complete innocence if anyone came looking for the culprit, but that wasn’t going to happen. For one thing, she didn’t think her legs would make the two flights of stairs without first filling herself right to her boots with sugar.
Gingerly, she pushed the door open, and there he was – Mr tall, dark and furry, yanking his tee over his head and grumbling a growl. The wet patch of coffee had seeped through the fabric, and his chest was practically glowing red.
The drink must have been hot – but her sense of guilt was elbowed into the back of her mind as she took in his muscled chest, and had the sudden urge to lick the damn coffee from his skin.
Kirsty wasn’t sure if it was her need for coffee that sent that image into her mind or his rock hard abs, but whatever it was – she liked the idea, and it was growing on her by the second. “That’s a really stupid place to stand, don’t you think?” she rushed out, trying to deflect from any thought he might have that she was to blame for their little encounter.
She also wanted to deflect from the sight of her red hot cheeks that must have been glowing just as brightly as his scalded skin at just seeing him half-naked, and of course, the thought she was having of what the rest of him naked would look like.
Joe heard her words and slowly raised his gaze to hers. Was she for real? “Well, I wasn’t expecting Broom-Hilda to be flying through,” he replied, his tone laced with sarcasm.
“Oh,” Kirsty said and offered him a mocking smile. “So, you admit to standing behind the door like an idiot?”
Joe opened his mouth to give her both barrels but decided that keeping her onside was far more important than teaching her a life lesson in apologising. “Why are you here?”
Kirsty raised her eyebrows. “Short term memory loss, did I get your head with that door?”
“Not here-here, but here,” he said, motioning around him.
Kirsty took a long moment to mock him by pretending to think about it. “I didn’t know I was to be locked in the ivory tower and only released on completion of my work,” she said.
“That’s…”
“But, a girl needs more than tasty – very spicy – chicken to die for,” she said, and he looked down at the empty plate in her hand. “Water is more important than food…”
“Damn, I didn’t…”
“Think? You’re male; it’s to be expected – hence, I came to find my own,” she said, and sidestepped him into the room. “After all, the only person, a woman, can rely on is herself.”
Kirsty made her way to the sink and placed her plate down. She had the sudden urge to splash water on her face, or maybe just stick her hot head under the faucet, but that was a complete nonstarter.
Then she remembered why she was there and turned to find the coffee pot, and she almost growled at the thought of the taste of it on her tongue.
Joe bit down on a curse. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t part of his pack, or that she was a witch, what mattered was that she was a guest in his home, and possibly his mate, and he should have been providing for her needs.
It appeared that as an alpha, he wasn’t doing his job for the pack because of his obsession with his brother, as a brother, he wasn’t doing his best for Nathaniel by his lack of trust, and as a possible mate, he wasn’t doing his best for Kirsty either.
Joe didn’t even want to think about Courtney’s needs and how he wasn’t meeting them as a brother and guardian should. He was failing on every front, and he needed to get his mojo back.
Joe started towards Kirsty, but she was already heading for the coffee pot. “Let me get you a…”
“I’m capable of pouring a coffee, you’re not even capable of drinking one without spilling it down you,” she tossed back over her shoulder.
Joe stopped in his tracks, a look of disbelief on his face as she snatched a glance in his direction. “I was doing quite well until a hellion came crashing through the door,” he replied, giving her just as much sarcasm as she’d shown him.
“Hellion?” Kirsty said and snorted a chuckle. “Ah, poor baby, did your ego take a slap?”
“No, but my head did, twice,” Joe informed her. “I think you’re dangerous to have around.”
Kirsty pilled the sugar into a mug and nodded with a smirk. “Keep thinking that and we’ll get on just fine,” she said. “You on your side of the house and me on mine.”
“On yours?” he said frowning. “What, you’re moving in now?”
Why didn’t the sound of that scare the living daylights out of him? Instead, it sounded appealing.
“In – here?” She asked and pointed to the floor with the teaspoon. She snorted another chuckle. “Sure, and oh look,” she said, pointing to the ceiling and his gaze followed. “Pigs are flying, and hell just froze over.”
Joe grumbled a growl and turned his attention back to her.
“Made you look,” she said with a wicked smile.
Yes, she did make him look, and not just at the ceiling as she mocked him, but he didn’t want to look anywhere else but at her. There was just something about her – that was probably because she was his mate.
Damn, he wanted to headbutt the nearest cupboard, or wall, or anything hard that would jolt his mind out of the thoughts that were spinning like a twister inside. She couldn’t be his mate – could she?
“I’m at a loss for words,” he lied. There was a lot of words he could have gone with, some of them curse words, but most of them on how damn frustrating she was.
“And yet you just found six,” she said, filling the mug to the brim and returning the pot to its base. Then she realised that she’d overfille
d it, and leant in to slurp up a big gulp.
“That’s not how a mug works, it comes to you, you don’t go to it,” Joe said.
“And end up spilling it down the front of me like you did?” she said with a mocking smile, but she did take the opportunity to get a good look at his muscled chest once more. “Pass.”
“Spill?” he asked.
“Careless,” she shot back, not even showing the first signs of owning up to her hand in the incident.
Joe raised his hand and opened his mouth, but not one single word came out. She was frustrating, exasperating, and damn hard work, and yet, this could be his life forever and a day.
Damn, but he hadn’t seen that coming when he’d tried to help his brother. Fate was sneaky.
“I need sugar,” Kirsty announced.
“Half a pot in your coffee, not enough?”
“Not if I’m going to burn the midnight oil on those books, no,” she informed him.
Joe remembered the peach cobbler that Catherine had brought over. “Fridge, peach cobbler,” he said, motioning, and she wasted no time in heading in that direction.
Kirsty’s eyes lit up when she opened the fridge and saw the sugar calling her. “And you were going to starve me,” she tossed back over her shoulder, lifting the dish like it was the Ark of the Covenant.
Joe felt her words like a punch to the gut. His beast growled within him, and he held back that growl from reaching his throat.
Mate or no mate, she was a female, and he would never treat a woman that way. “I resent the implication that I would do something like that,” he grumbled.
“Resent away, but while you’re at it, point me in the direction of the bowls, I do so hate to get my fingers messy,” she shot back and offered him another wicked smile.
Kirsty was fast on her feet, he’d give her that, and he was going to have to up his game to keep up with her. Joe had a million and one things to worry about, and verbally sparring with her shouldn’t have even been on his to-do list, but it seemed like fate had put it there. That was unless his nose told him otherwise – and his beast urged him to take her scent, but still, he refused.
He’d made her a promise that nobody was going to get Sniffy-Mac-Sniff-Face with her, and he aimed to keep it – even if it killed him – which it just might.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
Nathaniel knew he could skulk off and lick his wounds, or he could just keep trying with his family. Joe, not trusting him was one thing, and he thought he knew the reason why – but his sister turning her back on him was something completely different. They’d always been close, and he hated that she couldn’t see him for who he still was deep inside.
Nobody liked a vampire, and with good cause. Still, he wasn’t just any vampire – he was her brother, and that had to count for something, didn’t it?
No matter what the pack decided about his future, and no matter how hard Courtney fought to keep him away – he’d try until his dying day to make things right with her.
That was the plan, but teenagers always had a way of surprising you. He jumped to the biggest bough of the old oak outside her bedroom window and tapped on the glass. Nothing.
Nathaniel could hear the sweet sound of her humming and the tinny music from her headphones and tapped louder. Nothing.
He rolled his eyes, took a breath and tapped harder. It made him jolt when the blind shot up and the window was thrown open, and there she stood, eyeing him with resentment and anger. He knew that look well; she’d worn it a lot as a child after their parents had died.
“You can’t keep doing this, Nathaniel,” she said, wrenching off the headphones and tossing them behind her onto the bed.
“Sure I can, right up to the point where you stop treating me like the enemy,” he offered back, trying to keep it light between them, and hoping that he didn’t get another blast of her sullen brooding.
Courtney tossed her long hair back over her shoulders and folded her arms as she cocked just the one eyebrow at him. He knew that look too; she used it with the teenage boys that followed her around, boys he would willingly kill with no thought or conscience if they stepped out of line with his baby sister. “You’re a vampire, how am I supposed to treat you?” He was surprised she didn’t follow it up with the word; der!
“Like I’m still your brother…”
“We talked about this,” she said, in a tone that was reminiscent of their mother. “My brother is dead…”
“And yet, here I am – surprise…” Courtney almost whacked him with the window when she tried to yank it closed, but he was faster and caught it before it shut completely. “Come on, Eeyore…”
“Don’t call me that,” she warned him.
“But, it’s your name…”
“No, that was what my brother used to call me when…”
“You were little and sad…”
“I’m neither of those now, so I’d appreciate it…”
“You’re not sad I died?” he asked, teasing her and hoping for a smile.
Courtney pressed her lips together and looked anywhere but at him. “How can I be sad when you rose from the grave?”
“So, you’d rather I hadn’t come back?”
“Like this?” she asked and motioned to him.
“It’s still me…”
“And the elders won’t let you stay, so why are you still hanging around?” she demanded.
It was cruel. He still looked like Nathaniel, but he wasn’t.
They were going to make him go away just as her parents had and then all she had left was Joe.
“I live in hope,” he offered with a shrug. “Come on, Eeyore…”
“I’m warning you…”
Nathaniel offered her a mocking grin. “Whatcha gonna do, little…?”
Thwomp! He certainly hadn’t been expecting his little sister to sock him one on the jaw, and he hadn’t exactly taken care with placing his feet onto solid wood.
He fell out of the tree like Newton’s apple and only just missed the woman walking by.
Kirsty let out a screech that made his ears hurt when he fell at her feet, and if she’d taken two more steps then he would have been on top of her like that damn apple – that would have been – awkward.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kirsty demanded, jumping back away from him, and feeling the buzz of magic at her fingertips as her internal witchy alarm bells screamed at her.
Nathaniel picked himself up and dusted his clothes off. “I’m a fallen bloody angel,” he bit out. “Thanks for the catch.”
Kirsty knew her magic was at her fingertips ready and waiting to take him down should she need it, and strangely enough, she felt like she needed it. “Listen, Lurch, one more step and I’ll…”
“You’ll what, witch?” he demanded, taking that first step and feeling the full force of her magic as it hit him in the chest.
That was two for two, and he decided he needed to stop asking that question around females.
Nathaniel didn’t have time to watch the world go by as he sailed backwards through the air and landed with a bone-rattling thud on the grass verge. The sound of his sister laughing like an angel from above calmed his agitation, and the sound of heavy footsteps running in his direction made him think twice about getting to his feet.
“What the hell is going on?” Joe growled, and that growl made Nathaniel long for when he could achieve one just like it.
“You have vampires dropping from the damn sky, that’s what,” Kirsty bit out, flustered by the turn of events.
“Nathaniel?” Joe demanded answers as his brother sprung to his feet. He’d promised to keep the witch safe, and while she didn’t look hurt, he thought his brother was still out of line.
“It was me,” Courtney called down, still chuckling at her brother’s plight. “It was all me.”
“Nathaniel?” Joe said again, but his brother just raised his hands at his sides and shrugged.
“I saw the whole thing,�
�� Conrad, one of the elders informed him as he strolled towards them.
“Wow, your brother looks like Lurch and he looks like Grandpa from the Munsters,” Kirsty said, eyeing the man. “These are some strange days.”
“I was attacked, twice,” Nathaniel put in, not trusting the elder to tell it how it was. He knew the elders wanted him gone, and he wasn’t going to make it easy for them.
“It’s true,” Conrad said, and Nathaniel frowned, he hadn’t expected the man to agree with him. “First your sister punched him right out of the tree, and he almost fell on …” He stopped and eyed Kirsty from head to toe and back again. “Witch.”
“That’s right, Grandpa, a witch. You’d better watch your tone; I might turn your wolf into a toad,” she offered back.
While she’d hate to zap an elder, she knew that this was no helpless human old man, and she was done playing nice witch when wolves were throwing vampires at her.
Conrad offered her a grunt. “She zapped him with her magic, picked him right up and threw him clean across the way,” he said. “And I don’t like it…”
“You don’t like it?” Nathaniel said. “Imagine how I feel.”
“Can’t,” Conrad said. “I still have my soul.”
Nathaniel took a step towards him and stopped himself from taking another. He pretty much had his bloodlust under control, but his temper did still get the better of him at times. But that was probably a throwback from his alpha days and what had landed him in this vampire hell-mess in the first place. “I’m with the witch, watch your tone,” he said and wished he could still give a hearty growl.
“See,” Conrad said. “Now he’s siding with a witch and threatening the council…”
“Just you,” Nathaniel shot back.
“He shouldn’t still be on pack land, but now you bring in a witch,” Conrad grumbled.
“And I have a nice cabin to stay in and everything,” Kirsty said dryly. “Hell, I might never leave.”
“This is what the pack has come to under your leadership,” Conrad bit out, eying the alpha with contempt.