by M. L. Briers
“Holy hell,” Samuel snorted as he strolled in to stand at his brother’s side and he eyed the chaos around them. “Good luck with that,” he muttered with a sly grin, before turning on his heels and stalking back outside again with the rumble of his brother’s deep growl echoing in his ears.
“Ok, now hold on a damn minute,” Nathan growled out; loud enough over the chattering to bring everyone’s attention his way – along with one stray zap that he assumed came from the newcomers. “Who did that?” He eyed them all.
“Did what, dear?” Dorothy looked innocently guilty as she normally did, and he grumbled another growl.
“You know what,” Nathan grumbled.
“Oh, did I misplace my magic?” Dorothy asked, looking even more guilty, but this time there was a small mischievous smile that touched the corners of her lips. “My mistake – it was meant for her…” She tossed up a hand towards Pamela, and the women sneered back.
“I’ll take that zap and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, and couldn’t get to if it wanted. Not with the way your backside has slipped down around the backs of your damn knees,” Pamela offered back.
Nathan rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and then his large shoulders at the thought of dealing with yet another elder.
“That may be, but I have a mate,” Dorothy offered back, lifting her chin in victory and eyeing the woman with satisfaction.
“What in the name of the spirits is going on here?” Nathan grumbled.
“False advertising!” Summer shot back, eyeing the man with one raised eyebrow and a whole lot of wariness as he stood there looking like He-Man with his big muscled arms on display.
She wasn’t impressed.
“Says you!” Angela snapped back.
“Says you,” Summer offered back, turning her attention towards the elder.
“Did not,” Angela snapped with a glare at the young witch.
“Did…” Summer started, but the loud, deep, warning growl of the alpha made her snap her attention back towards him.
“Can we not bicker, ladies?” Nathan growled.
“This is what you came here for, Gran?” Summer said, tossing up a hand towards the alpha, and Nathan frowned – his eyes scouring the area for some semblance as to what the witch was talking about. “A Neanderthal?”
“Hey, that’s my Neanderthal!” Sarah grumbled, and then shook her head as she caught her words. “Watch it.” She snapped.
“You have to admit that he is rather impressive, no?” Pamela said as she eyed the alpha, and that confused look on Nathan’s face turned into disbelief.
“Excuse me?” He grumbled. “I’m not a lump of meat, and I’m standing right here.”
“Yes, turn around, and we can talk about you behind your back…” Pamela offered with a sour grin.
“Happens all the time,” Angela mumbled.
“Sarah?” Nathan looked for help.
He might have been an alpha to his pack, but he was at a loss as to what to do with four feisty witches, three of them elders, especially when three of them were eyeing him from head to toe as if they were sizing him up, but for what he didn’t know.
“There’s been a slight… advertising hiccup,” Sarah said, grimacing a little as Pamela snorted with contempt.
“Out and out fraud,” Summer offered back.
“Now, hold on,” Angela scowled at the younger witch once more. She’d just about had enough of the woman, and she was more than willing to start the zapping all over again if she had too.
“In what sense?” Nathan looked to his mate for answers. In his mind, everyone else was insane.
“Apparently,” Sarah held onto the truth of it.
“I advertised something of a matchmaking service for elder witches, but I didn’t know that I was going to get the wicked witch of the west there as my first client…” Angela bit out.
“Matchmak…?” Nathan cut off the word as he grumbled another deep growl, this time fuelled by annoyance. “With the pack?”
“No, with the trees…” Angela shot back.
Nathan’s whole body snapped to attention, and his eyes flicked towards his mate. He felt the bubble of annoyance within him, even if his beast did find amusement in the situation.
“Really?” He said, but Sarah had covered her mouth once more and was chuckling into her hand.
“It’s not my doing,” Sarah managed to get out.
“It’s not her doing,” Dorothy said, turning an accusing look towards Angela.
“She was a blank page when I mentioned it to her,” Pamela admitted.
“I can’t believe you’re pimping my pack,” Nathan grumbled another growl that was all mixed up with a groan.
“Your pack is my pack,” Angela said back. “And I’m not pimping anyone – they could be mates!” she tossed up a hand towards the new witches, and Summer looked horrified at the thought.
“Don’t you dare rope me into this!” She spat out in disbelief. “I don’t want one of those…” she pointed an outstretched finger at the alpha and Nathan yanked his head back on his neck in disbelief…
“One of those? Really?” Nathan grumbled at his mate.
“It’s all a matter of taste, sweetheart,” Sarah offered back with another snigger.
“Yes, and I have taste!” Summer folded her arms across her chest and snorted her contempt for all of them. It seemed like the world had gone mad around her.
“Yes, why would anyone want their one true, life-long, sexy as hell mate when you could settle for someone less?” Angela ground out, eyeing the young witch as if she was a petulant child.
“That’s not the point,” Summer shook her head.
“Yes, it is,” Angela snapped back.
“No, it’s not,” Summer hissed.
“Oh, it really is,” Dorothy agreed.
“No, it’s really bloody well not,” Summer said, starting to get flustered.
“I’d say it is,” Sarah offered.
“I don’t want your opinion…” Summer eyed her.
“I have to agree,” Pamela said, tossing up one shoulder at her granddaughter and hating to side with people who weren’t kin over her own flesh and blood.
“For hell's bells bloody sake. What’s wrong with you people?” Summer bit out.
“Love…” Dorothy shrugged.
“The thought of it,” Pamela agreed.
“Mates,” Sarah said.
“Really good sex…” Dorothy added, and Nathan groaned. It wasn’t the kind of thought that he wanted in his head – Dorothy and Hank going at it – he shuddered.
“Wow!” Summer tossed up her hands in disbelief. “Fine. Gran, you stay. I’m going to look for a room somewhere that’s not here.”
“Good luck with that,” Sarah offered. “There’s nothing even remotely close.”
“Remotely being the word,” Dorothy nodded.
“Can’t get much more remote than this,” Angela offered with a sly grin.
“Well…” Summer took in a deep breath and shook her head. “Poop it!”
“Welcome to the Inn; we hope your stay will be a happy one,” Sarah couldn’t help but chuckle, especially as the young witch looked as if she was chewing on a wasp.
“Oh, you need to beware the vampires,” Dorothy offered, and the two new witches slowly turned their heads towards her and eyed her with disbelief. “Long story.” She muttered on a shrug.
~
~
~
“Wolf shifters – vampires – and mating!”
Summer tossed her shirt down on the bed and stomped into the bathroom. She flicked on the shower and ran her hand under the spray to check the heat level. Then she set about stripping off the rest of her clothes in a huff of annoyance.
“Of all the stupid things that my grandmother has done – this takes the biscuit – and the chocolate cake – and the damn...”
Summer turned in place, and her eyes caught sight of him leering in the window. The man might as we
ll have been licking the glass from the look on his face.
“I…” she sucked in what felt like all of the air from the room into her lungs, just as his eyes went wide, and the palms of his hands hit the glass.
“No, wait!” He growled out on a rush of panic.
Summer was already letting out an ear piercing scream, along with a blast of magic that shot Samuel backward through the air. The ladder that the beta had been standing on got caught around his feet, and flew away with him, as did the bucket of water that he’d been using to wash the window.
There was one thing he was certain of, and there was no getting out of it – he was going down.
CHAPTER FOUR
~
“Timber!” Monty called out.
He found great pleasure in watching the grumpiest shifter of them all sail through the air on his impromptu journey that the vampire credited to a witch, because only a witch could do that kind of thing, sight unseen.
The vampire had heard the scream of the banshee, and he’d shot around to the side of the Inn to try and discover what kind of hellfire demon was attacking the place, only to discover, much to his pleasure, that Samuel had managed to miff off another witch.
It wasn’t hard to do, not when you had the winning personality of a wet mop.
Samuel hit the ground with the kind of bone-jarring thud that Monty could sympathize with – not that he would ever show that kind of emotion towards the growly beta – and the sound of every last molecule of air leaving the shifter’s lungs caused the vampire to lean over the man and offer him a wide grin.
“Form, too much flapping of the arms, you’re not a bird, and you can’t fly. Grace? Ha! Non-existent, no points for that. Style? I’ve never quite seen it done like that before; people usually use the rungs of the ladder to get back down, so ten out of ten…”
Samuel sucked in all of the air that he could gasp back into his lungs and panted against the pain.
“You … can … go … and f…” Samuel panted, but he never got to finish his offering because of Chloe, Monty’s newbie vampire mate, appeared on the other side of his prone body and leaned over to stare down at him.
“Wow! That’s one for the books, and I’m soooo glad that I was here to witness it,” she snorted a chuckle. “Who got you? Dorothy? Sarah? Oh, say it was Angela and make my millennium,” she gushed.
“You aren’t even one hundred yet – a millennium is a long time away for you – so no bragging!” Monty chastised his mate.
“Fine, but still,” she pointed at Samuel’s chest before she exploded into a fit of chuckles.
“Funny,” Samuel growled, because he could because he was done with the pain, panting, and trying to breathe.
“I thought so,” Monty grinned harder. “So, who did you miff off?”
“I have no damn idea who that little…” Samuel growled again, but the sound of the bathroom window as it was ripped upwards, stole his attention away from the vampire and towards the brunette.
The witch was wrapped in a towel and peering down at him with a dagger filled gaze.
“Pervert!” she hissed out.
Samuel grumbled a long growl and tried to push up. His body groaned with the effort, and he knew he needed a few more minutes to repair whatever damage the witch had done.
“How was I supposed to know that you were naked?” Samuel growled.
“Don’t you say it like it was my fault!” Summer snapped back. “Men, how quick to blame the victim.”
“Victim!” Samuel growled harder. “I’m the one lying here – where are your wounds?”
“Are you threatening me?” Summer bit back, feeling just a tinge of remorse for the man’s fate.
She’d screamed out of shock, and she’d zapped in self-defence – what she was defending, well, she wasn’t entirely sure about, but the man was a peeping Tom, and he deserved what he’d gotten.
“How am I threatening you?” Samuel bit down on his annoyance and tested his body once more to see if his blood had healed him yet.
“I don’t know,” she snapped back.
“And that sums up most damn witches,” he growled out.
“Hey!” Chloe snapped.
“Careful, love, not a witch anymore,” Monty reminded her.
“But I was…” she eyed the helpless beta, and he snapped his gaze towards her.
“Oh, don’t you get any ideas, vampire-ess,” he grumbled another long growl.
Samuel still didn’t trust Chloe as far as he could throw her. Newbie vampires were unpredictable at best and ravenously evil at worst. He wasn’t sure where she stood in the grand scheme of things.
“Be nice, or I might just let her have you,” Monty warned, but he did it with a smile.
“And shifters are just big, muscle-bound, buttheads – oversexed – overstuffed with testosterone – and over inflated with ego!” Summer shouted out before she reached up and slammed the sash window back into place.
“Well, that told you,” Monty chuckled.
“She’s not entirely off base with that one,” Chloe shrugged.
“Go away and let me mend in peace before I go up there and rip that witch’s head off and hand it back to her on a platter!”
“Oooh, someone fell off the ladder on the wrong side this morning!” Chloe shot back with a sneer. “Can I eat him?” She eyed her mate with amusement.
The sound of Samuel’s warning growl made Monty roll his eyes within his head. As if.
“Not right now. He’s sour mood would spoil the taste,” Monty offered back.
“I’m willing to risk it,” Chloe shrugged again.
“Well…?” Monty deliberated on it for a long moment, and Samuel’s growl got meaner, deeper, and longer. “No. I don’t want to mess with the alpha’s head.”
“Saved by the alpha,” Chloe grinned. “Ah, speak of the devil.”
Nathan was taking long strides towards his brother. He had his hands fisted at his sides, and he looked miffed.
“You wanna tell me what the hell you were playing at?” Nathan growled down at his brother, as he stopped and eyed the man from head to toe.
It wasn’t lost on him that his beta wouldn’t just be lying there for the fun of it. The man was obviously injured, but still, he had to be dealt with.
“You said to wash the damn windows. I was washing the damn window when the witch attacked.” The beta growled back.
“She was naked…” Nathan growled out.
“Yes, yes, she was,” Samuel agreed. “Probably the only damn plus side to this whole day so damn far. Now, if you’ve finished berating me – I’d like to get back to healing.”
“I…” Nathan lifted up a fisted hand and snapped his index finger out towards his brother. “Sarah is not best pleased.”
“Oh, well, I’m bloody ecstatic!” Samuel growled back.
“Make it right,” Nathan snapped.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Apologise…”
“For being blasted across the damn garden? Sure, maybe she could stake one of the vampires while she’s at it.” Samuel growled.
He was willing his body to heal just as fast as it could – why? Because he wanted to get right up there and wring that witch’s neck.
“Why bring us into it?” Chloe snorted her disgust. “We didn’t do anything.”
“We weren’t peeking in bathroom windows and leering at naked witches,” Monty tossed out a sneer in the beta’s direction.
“We’re not perverts,” Chloe folded her arms across her chest and cocked an eyebrow down at him, unimpressed.
“I’m not a damn pervert. I wasn’t peeking,” Samuel growled out in his defence. “I was washing the stupid damn w-i-n-d-o-w.”
With sheer will and determination that was being fuelled by anger and the need to kill each one of them; Samuel managed to make it up onto all fours, where he panted out his breath like an old man needing a well-earned rest.
“You scummy little weasel,” Summer bit
out as she stomped across the nicely mowed lawn towards the shifter. Her arms were swinging at her sides like a soldier on parade, and her eyes were on fire.
“Wolf actually,” Samuel growled as his head came up and he hit her right in the eyes with his meanest glare.
“Looks like a weasel from where I’m standing,” Chloe offered, stirring the pot and getting a knowing smile from her mate for her effort.
“Looks like a big old jerk from where I’m standing,” Summer hissed out like she had a rattlesnake just coiled and waiting to pounce out at him.
Samuel growled inwardly. He’d had more than enough of being the bad guy in the scenario that they were painting.
He’d been doing what he’d been asked to do, and she’d blasted him. How the hell could his brother tell him to apologise?
He pushed upwards, finding the strength within his pride that he needed to gather his body to his full height, even with the twinges of pain. In his mind, the woman was a she-demon of epic proportions, and he’d love to tell her exactly what he thought of her.
“How do I look now?” He growled, and her eyes followed him up to his full height, and much to her annoyance; she found that she needed to crane her head back on her neck to be able to take him in.
CHAPTER FIVE
~
There was one good thing to be said about the beta getting up onto his feet. The man was that big that he blocked out the sunlight from Summer’s eyes, even if it did give him a sunny halo around his head.
“Like an even bigger jerk,” she offered back.
Summer was well used to men with muscles showing off just how big and mean they thought they were. She had magic, and she’d bet a pound to a penny that her magic trumped his muscles any day of the week.
She wasn’t about to back down, but then she had the distinct impression from the look in the beta’s eyes that neither was he.
“Ok, that’s enough,” Nathan stepped up to try to stop things from getting any worse. His mate was already miffed off with him, and he didn’t need things to escalate further.