by M. L. Briers
“Excuse me?” J.C had an expectant look on his face as he folded his arms across his chest and eyed the man from the other side of the room.
He knew that he needed to keep a reasonable distance from the unmated females or all hell could break loose with the testosterone fuelled shifters. It felt like walking on eggshells, but he’d been a part of Marley, and subsequently Sage and Geri’s lives for a long time, and he wasn’t giving that up just because fate decided to find them mates.
They felt like family. Like the siblings that he’d never had in his past life, and he was sticking to them like glue for as long as they’d let him, no matter what anyone else wanted.
“There are a couple of rafters to choose from in there, you should feel right at home,” Josh offered back.
He was grateful for the vampire. Without him they would have had to trust in human medicine to care for Sage, and a trip to the hospital was like walking a tightrope for the shifter community – they’d never needed to go, and none of them could risk having their blood taken for any reason.
Marley shot J.C a wicked grin, full of mischief and fondness, and Josh couldn’t wait for the day when she offered that to him. He never thought that he’d envy a vampire, but he did then.
“Oh!” J.C exclaimed with an overly exaggerated burst of enthusiasm. “Vampire humour … I get it … bat jokes!”
“Well, you fired the first shot,” Marley reminded him and the vampire shrugged.
“I have nothing against bat humour, but I’m definitely not sleeping in the damn barn, so he’d better be joking.” J.C offered back.
“We’ve got a spare cabin out on the far side of pack land. It’s mostly used for fishing …” Josh didn’t get any further.
“Far side …? Fishing …? You think vampires spend their days fishing?” He offered back.
“I think a certain vampire should say thank you and get over themselves,” Geri offered back, practically grumbling into her coffee cup.
“My just reward for saving a mate…?” J.C said to nobody in particular as he made a point of considering it.
“J.C stop…” Marley couldn’t help but smile.
“Stop what?”
“Stop trying to guilt people into things. That’s how you ended up living at my house,” Marley shot back, and Josh’s ears pricked up as his interest piqued. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t wondered about it.
“No,” J.C offered back. “That was…” he narrowed his eyes and tried to find a different word… “Okay, I have nothing…”
“Guilt.” She offered back brightly with a small shrug. “Lonely vampire out in the world all alone, no friends…”
“I wouldn’t say no friends…” J.C frowned.
“No real human contact for so long…”
“I had plenty of human contact…”
“Feeding doesn’t count,” Marley berated him.
“Fine…” he sighed.
“The need to connect…”
“Okay, now you’re pushing it a little. I feel bad for me.” J.C frowned. “You make me sound so pathetic…”
“You were pathetic,” Geri chuckled.
“Well, why don’t you just tell everybody?” He rolled his eyes.
“Dude, I think you’re still pathetic,” Chance offered back with a smug grin.
“Says the man whose mate is sitting as far away from him as she can get.” J.C grinned back.
“J.C…” Marley eyed him for a long moment before he blinked and tossed his hands up in the air.
“Fine, I’ll take the punishment cabin in the middle of nowhere,” he huffed.
“Oh – poor – baby,” Geri muttered, cracking a smile as she eyed him from the other side of her coffee cup. J.C sneered back.
“So, who are we eating…?” He teasing and rolled his eyes when both men growled back at him. “I mean what are we eating for dinner?” He offered a smug grin to the alpha.
“Charred vampire,” Chance offered back.
“I see, it’s going to be pick on the vampire night,” J.C shrugged. “I’m big enough to take it…”
“Certainly ugly enough,” Chance muttered back.
“You get one meal at the family table and then after that you can fend for yourself until you leave.” Josh offered.
“Just point me in the direction of some unmated she-wolves and I’m good too…” It wasn’t the growls that stopped him in mid flow … “leave?”
“You heard me,” Josh growled back.
“Marley?” J.C shot her a look…
“He is kind of a package deal…” She offered with a sympathetic look towards the alpha.
“A vampire on pack land indefinitely … never going to happen.” Josh shook his head.
“That’s no way to woo your mate…” J.C offered back. “We’re sort of joined at the hip.”
“Then get unglued … having the witches here is…” Chance cut off his words when Josh growled a warning at him.
“You’re saying we’re not welcome here?” Geri scowled at her mate.
“There are some, like Dram that won’t like it,” Josh said, knowing that his brother had let the cat out of the bag already, and it was probably better that they knew.
“How many?” Marley asked.
“I don’t know, but we’ll probably find out sooner rather than later now that Dram has seen you,” Josh said and watched as she considered his words.
“Well that settles it,” J.C shrugged, “I’m not leaving.”
Josh resisted the urge to groan. He got where the vampire was coming from, but he didn’t have to like it.
“Just so as you know that the mates are ours to protect now,” Josh growled.
He might not have groaned, but he was unable to keep his beast from his voice. It was only natural that the wolf took offence at the vampire’s intervention.
“Why don’t you just tattoo our backsides with property of…?” Geri sneered back.
“Sweetheart, that’s what the mark is for,” Chance teased, but the death glare that he got in return made him clear his throat.
“Dude, be more Kenny…” J.C frowned as he berated the man.
“Kenny?”
“Rodgers … you gotta know when to hold ‘em …” J.C got a scowl in return. “Come on, I’m black and I know Kenny Rodgers, damn it!” The vampire spat out in disbelief.
~
~
~
Luke had washed up as best that he could before he’d put the supper on, but his body had taken quite a pummelling from Dram’s wolf, and his skin itched from where his body had healed.
He’d checked on Sage before he jumped into the shower, and he’d only taken a few short minutes to get the grime off of his body, and the scent of Dram’s wolf that had been driving his beast nuts.
Then he dried himself and pulled on a clean pair of sweatpants and a shirt, walking out of the bathroom and into the bedroom still towel drying his hair, when he almost tripped over his own feet at the sight of the bed … their bed … empty.
“Ahhh! Not again!” He bit out, tossing the towel on the floor as he padded into the living room on bare feet with his heart pounding within his ears…
The front door was wide open and Sage was nowhere to be seen…
“Damn it to hell!” He growled, and then in that moment … he remembered that she had vampire blood in her veins.
‘Josh…’ He used the telepathic link that existed between all pack members, and cursed for having to do it.
‘I’ve lost my mate again…’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
‘Again?’ Josh ground out.
“Damn, that female sure does like playing hide and seek,” Chance chuckled at his brothers misery.
“Please tell me that Sage didn’t run off again,” Marley almost begged.
‘Fine. Track her sent, we’re on our way.’
‘Yeah, I got a problem with that… She’s using her magic to mask her scent… All I can smell are eggs,
and not nice eggs, like three-day-old left out in the sun eggs.’
“I certainly wouldn’t wanna be him right now!” Chance chuckled.
“You and me both.” Josh said with a small shake of his head. Only a witch could think of something that wrong.
“Must be like scenting a fart of the very worst kind.” Chance sniggered.
“Who farted?” Geri looked confused.
“The vampire!” Chance offered back.
“The one who smelt it dealt it!” J. C. Sneered back at the beta.
“Let’s go find Sage,” Marley said as she placed the paring knife down on the side and turned towards the back door.
The quick, hard, sting of a witch’s magic caught her right on the backside and made her jump in place. She slowly turned her head towards Geri, and offered the woman a dark glare, that made the witch pull head back on her neck and frown in confusion.
That one look told Marley that it wasn’t Geri’s magic that had hit her. Her eyes flicked towards the window, and the top of Sage’s head with all that spiky hair, and then the witch’s her went up and her wide eyes were peering back in at her.
“Relax, I think I just found what we’re looking for,” Marley hissed.
Josh followed his mate’s gaze towards the window just as Sage’s head was ducking back down. He groaned inwardly, but there was also a sigh of relief for his brother.
‘Head towards the main house, Luke. Your witch is at the back kitchen window.’
‘I think I’m getting the urge to kill her again.’ Luke growled. On one level he meant it, even if he knew he would never act on that instinct.
“One little witch … Your brother can’t even manage to keep a hold of one little witch.” J.C. rolled his eyes. “Hell, you should try three at once.”
Josh sighed inwardly. He’d rather not, but he knew that now that they were in the pack there was going to be times in the future where he might have too.
He wasn’t looking forward to that day one little bit.
~
~
~
Dinner around the large kitchen table had been something of a quiet affair. Watching Luke toss his mate over his shoulder and carry her away while she bit out every curse word known to man had been a spectacle that Marley didn’t think she’d forget too soon.
The vampire had been quiet by his standards, tossing out a jibe here and a baiting remark every so often, but neither shifter had decided to bite down on them. That didn’t mean that there weren’t grunts and growls, there were, but both Josh and chance were more interested in their mates then in the vampire’s snark.
With dinner done and the dishwasher loaded; Marley and Geri’s minds were on other things. Night had closed in a while back and it wasn’t just the time between then and bed that they were thinking about, but their sleeping situation as well.
“We should top and tail it…” Geri whispered as they stood like conspirators at the kitchen sink.
“Sleep with your feet in my face? Yeah, no!” Marley snorted back.
“Ok, well you should know that I like to snuggle in my sleep…” Geri offered back and Marley shot her a look of disbelief.
“I’m not sleeping with you…” Marley hissed back at her friend, just as Josh strolled into the kitchen and both women snapped to attention at the sight of him.
“I bet you say that to all the girls…” he teased.
“I bet you hear that a lot yourself…” J.C grinned from his seat at the kitchen table, and he heard Marley groaned just under her breath.
“Stop poking the wolf before he bites you,” Marley shot back.
“Don’t you have a cabin to go and hunt down?” Josh eyed the man with contempt.
“Didn’t want to leave without saying good night,” J.C offered back as he pushed up to his feet… “Now, you gave your pack the heads up about me, right? I’d hate to go out there and have to kill anybody…”
“They’ll stay away from you and you do the same,” Josh growled back.
Some of his pack weren’t happy, and Dram had already been doing the rounds bleating about his truck and the witches and making some noise … but he’d warned his people to give the vampire a wide berth, and he expected that to hold true.
“I hope so. I would so hate to get blood on my new shirt…” J.C offered back, and Josh took a long step towards the man, a warning growl rumbling into the air between them…
Marley reached out with her magic and zapped the pair of them. She wasn’t taking sides because they were both acting like idiots.
J.C grunted and stared at the ceiling, while the alpha’s head snapped around and he glared at her…
“I’m definitely too young to be the mother or two grown ass, big muscle bound, testosterone junkies … so can we act our age?” She threw scorn on the pair of them, didn’t pick a favourite, and didn’t take sides…
“No…” J.C offered back with a shrug, “Technically, if I were to act my age I’d be boots in the ground.”
“Sounds good to me,” Josh growled.
“A juicy bone and some kibble sounds good to you…” J.C shot back…
“Stop! Right there!” Marley hissed at the pair of them. She lifted her hand and pointed her finger at the vampire. “You go night-nights, and you…” she turned that finger and her withering gaze on the alpha, “one hour of TV and then it’s off bed.”
“That’s not fair, I’m older…” J.C chuckled.
“Don’t think I won’t smack your heads together…” Marley bit back.
“Child abuse…” J.C offered over his shoulder as he started for the back door. “Maybe you should rethink the whole Pups thing with that one.”
Marley opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of a low hum that turned into something of a gentle growl rolled towards her, and when she flicked her eyes towards the alpha; he had a very strange look on his face that she wasn’t sure she liked…
Damn, pups with her sounds good… Josh thought as his eyes took her in.
He could imagine her stomach swollen with his pup and he more than liked that thought. It warmed him right through…
First you gotta woo her … and she’s right … acting like a stroppy teenager with the vampire isn’t going to do me any favours in that department.
A woman needs a man … and I need that woman in my arms … in my bed…
“Hey!” Marley snapped her fingers and got the alpha’s attention.
“Bed…” he growled out, and the look of surprise on her face snapped him right out of it.
“A little sudden, don’t you think?” Marley placed her hands on her hips and snorted her contempt for him…
Can’t come soon enough in my book… He grinned…
“I meant, I need to show you where your bedroom is for later,” he corrected himself with a winning smile.
“Sure you did. You’re lips say one thing and that bulge in your jeans tells the truth…” Marley offered back to him, as sweet as pie, but her eyes spoke of cynicism and amusement.
She’d got him there. Unfortunately, since the moment that he’d scented her and discovered her as his mate, he hadn’t been able to shift that damn hardness, except for when he’d shifted into his wolf, and he didn’t think spending time with her in his fur was the way to woo her.
His beast growled at his dismissal, but man and beast both knew that it wasn’t the wolf within him that would woo her…
He needed to up his game.
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
“Eat your food,” Luke grumbled a growl at his mate as she sat beside him at the kitchen counter and twiddled her fork in her food.
“I’m not hungry,” Sage frowned down at the plate.
“Prefer a liquid supper?” He raised just the one eyebrow with his enquiry and she shot him a glare.
“You can’t keep tossing me over your shoulder and carrying me off!” Sage protested.
It was annoying … more than annoying, it was undignified … not that s
he prided herself on her dignity or anything, but hanging down his back staring at his backside was a great view, but she’d felt stupid …
“Were you in search of the Scotch bottle?” He teased and she huffed.
“How could you tell…?” She tipped her head to one side and regarded him with contempt.
“Might have been the glazed look in your eyes…” he shot back.
He wasn’t about to feel guilty for anything. She was the one who had gotten drunk and crashed the truck, he was just doing what mate’s did and was keeping her safe, especially while she had vampire blood in her system.
“Do you really think that because you witch-napped me…”
“Witch-napped!” He growled for real this time. The deep rumble rolled through the air and over her skin, and diggity damn it, but she liked that feeling … it was soothing, in a sexy kind of a way. “Now hold on there…”
“Oh, what would you call it?” She demanded. Her eyes were wide and she questioned him with just a look and the raised fork that she held out towards him like some kind of a weapon.
“For your own protection…” he growled back on a deep scowl that took his eyebrows down to cover those sinfully sexy eyes of his.
“You kidnapped me for my own protection?” She snorted a chuckle.
“It’s not kidnapping!” He growled.
“Abducting me and holding me against my will…? Sure … it’s not,” her tone was dripping with sarcasm.
“I did not abduct you,” he turned on his stool towards her, planting one large hand on the counter top, and her eyes noted it as her whole body noted him.
Big, tough, strong, and very, very sexy… She hated him just for that.
“I think someone has the memory of a goldfish or is lying through his fangs…” Sage shot back.
“Did you forget the little incident with the truck and the vampire blood?” He growled out, annoyed with the fact that she was being stubborn about it. He’d keep her safe whether she liked it or not!
He watched her squirm a little. Her nose twitched slightly as she gave a small grimace…