by M. L. Briers
The sound of a tortured, angry roar seemed to echo through the trees all around her, and for one long moment she froze in place- her mind in turmoil as she finally realised just what it was that she had done…
The hunt was on, and she was the prey.
Janette’s hand fisted the stick and she shoved it into gear. She used her magic to click the door locks into place, knowing that wouldn’t stop him from getting in should he choose to try, but it made her feel a whole lot better, and she had a damn strong feeling that he would choose to try should he catch up to her.
“Simple, don’t get caught!” She ground out.
She’d run from him and his wolf would be baying for her- but it wouldn’t be blood that the beast wanted, but to mate, to bond, to claim her as his by any means possible. Her only hope now was to get away, and make it damn fast… but when did things ever go the way that you wanted them too when fate was ganging up on you?
Her eyes locked onto the sight of him- butt naked- angry as hell- big hands fisted as his sides, and looking as if he was going to devour her whole when he tore out of the trees and into the clearing…
Oh crap!
With three of the longest strides that she had ever witnessed anyone taking in her entire life before- he came towards her and startled her into life- she hit the accelerator just as he launched himself through the air and landed with a bone thudding splat on the wing of her car- sliding off like some cartoon character as she hit the brake in panic.
Not the smartest tool in the shed then?
She yelped at the sight of him springing to his feet, and her foot shot off of the brake and hit the accelerator in panic- only this time when he launched his body at the car- he got a direct hit on the bonnet.
The whole damn thing shook, and so did she, as she gripped the steering wheel with both hands as if she was trying to strangle the very life out of it, and bit down on the whimper that turned into a long wheeze…
Then her foot pushed down hard on the accelerator and she was off- with the shifter clinging on for dear life, like some kind of surreal road kill spread over the bonnet, and with his claws embedded into the metal wings of the car…
“Go away- go away!” She repeated that phrase so many times that she couldn’t have counted them all if she’d wanted too.
With a hefty bump into some kind of pothole- that jolted the car and made him growl in annoyance- she was off the muddy beaten pathway and out onto a back road that, frankly, didn’t seem that much better.
Janette tried to concentrate on the road ahead with all of her best intentions, but it was kind of hard not to look at the man who was offering you a death glare from the other side of the windscreen. Silly wolfman!
“Pull over,” he growled out. His deep, unforgiving tones rumbled inside the small, and feeling somewhat smaller by the moment, interior the car.
He’s going to damn well kill me not matter what I do… She reasoned, and from the look that he was giving her she knew that she was right. It was all or nothing- fight or surrender, and she wasn’t the type to just lay down and die- not that he’d kill her- well, hopefully not, but as good as with a forced mating that she didn’t want and wouldn’t be asking for.
“Sure, and why don’t I just offer you my damn neck and shoulder while I’m at it!” She snapped out- sounding just as ludicrous as he had with his demand.
His head was bobbing and jarring around as the car managed to find every bump, every damn pothole on the road, and she was flicking from him to the road and back to him again, trying her best to ignore him, but not quite managing to do it… especially when a deep, hungry growl rumbled through him.
A rush of relief went through her body the moment that her eyes locked onto two figures who were standing beside a pickup truck ahead, and with a silent blessing to all that was good and right with the world; she eased her foot off the accelerator…
Now at least she seemed to have choices- she could pull over and beg for help, and hope that they were able to handle the madman in her bonnet. Or she could drive and drive until his arms got tired and he fell off.
But the closer that she got to them the; more imposing they looked. From the size of the men, and considering her present problems, she couldn’t be entirely sure that they weren’t related to the hulk on her car in some way…
Out of the frying pan and into the damn fire? I think not…
“Keep going.” She told herself as shook her head to dismiss them- to dismiss him, and deciding that the only sure thing to do was to keep going. Even if they weren’t his ilk- they probably couldn’t handle a shifter in full mating mode.
This was a like a nightmare that she couldn’t wait to wake up from, only, it didn’t feel as if she was sleeping…
“Pull over!” Maverick roared once more- something caught his attention, and his eyes were snatched away from her by the sight of the truck and two of his pack standing at the road side as he zoomed on through, and he groaned inwardly… This was not going well…
~
CHAPTER FOUR
~
Justice, the alpha of the white wolf mountain pack, lifted his hand and pointed in disbelief at the sight of his brother, and beta, spread out over the bonnet of a car that had just zipped by… His mouth opened, his brain stalled and he went to speak, but Rowan got there first…
“Pinch me, I’m dreaming!” Rowan spat out, before the rip roar of laughter cracked the air between them as Rowan tossed his head back on his neck and let it all out…
“Get- in- the- damn- truck.” Justice growled out between clenched teeth.
He’d seen many things in life, but the sight of his butt naked brother looking like bear road kill over a bonnet of a car- wasn’t something that he’d ever hoped to witness.
‘What in God’s name do you think you’re doing?’ He growled long and hard into the link that served every member of his pack.
He slammed the driver’s door and growled in annoyance at the time it took for the engine to fire to life- he should have run after them… it would have been faster, and he needed fast right now so that he could catch Maverick and kill him!
‘If he starts the sentence with the words, funny story, I think I’ll bust a gut,’ Rowan chuckled. But when Justice snapped his head around on his neck and growled a long and hard warning in his direction, he snapped that laughter off.
‘My mate is a runner,’ Maverick groaned out as the car hit yet another bump in the road and sent his body up before crashing back down again on the unforgiving metal. This was not his idea of a fun day.
Rowan’s good mood at seeing his brother’s plight was silenced by those five words, but only two of them really mattered mate and runner, and you could have heard a pin drop inside the truck as both men tossed over the meaning behind what he was telling them. Rowan was the first to break that self imposed silence.
“Ah, crap,” he bit out, wincing with the knowledge of just what Maverick’s wolf was going through right then. He might never have experienced it, but it was a warning that had been passed down through the generations of the one guiding principle of finding your mate- whatever else you do- don’t ever let them run.
“Idiot woman,” Justice growled on a shake of his head as the tension tore through him, and his jaw muscles worked overtime as he weighed up the consequences of his brother’s actions to date.
“She might not know…” Rowan offered…
‘Damn bloody witch,’ Maverick growled through the link and caused Rowan to wince again.
“Ok, so yeah,” he tossed up one shoulder and waved an absent hand. “Stupid woman.” He agreed with his alpha’s previous assessment.
‘Make her pull the hell over before we reach the main road,’ Maverick growled, but Justice didn’t like that scenario one way or the other.
Sure, it wouldn’t be ideal for his naked brother to be seen riding on the bonnet of a car as they drove from pack lands, but allowing him to take his mate without her damn consent might also be
something that they wanted to avoid.
“What do we do?” Rowan asked, and Justice couldn’t contain the growl of annoyance that rumbled through him.
“I could kill her myself,” he answered and Rowan bit down on another chuckle.
“That’s kind of defeating the purpose, right?”
“Shut up and let me think,” Justice growled back. His idiot brothers just might be the death of him, or even of the pack, but one thing he knew for certain, he wasn’t about to rule anything out just yet.
~
~
~
Janette saw the truck in the rear view mirror and her heart kicked her ribs before it sank inside of her. If it wasn’t bad enough that she had the damn shifter on her car that she couldn’t shake off, now she’d picked up a cling-on behind her too. She had to wonder what else could go wrong for her today…
Damn, I shouldn’t have thought that- it’s like tempting fate- fate, yeah that wonderful thing that is working out for me so far- Pah!
Her eyes flicked to the side mirror as the truck grew closer. The shifter on the bonnet gave a hearty growl, and she slammed her palm against the horn to just show him how much she appreciated that growling right then.
It was bad enough that she was torn between just who to concentrate on first, him or the truck. But as he didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast, except for where she was driving him, she turned her attention to the two men in the truck that had pulled up alongside her.
“I’m warning you to pull the hell over,” Maverick growled and she dismissed him with a snort of contempt.
Rowan lifted his hand and pointed one stubby finger at her, motioning for her to pull over to the side of the road. She scowled back at him.
What did they think she was- insane or something?
“No!” She snapped back with a shake of her head.
“Pull it over now,” he mouthed, his brow drawn down in a scowl and obviously trying to look as imposing as possible, and she shook her head again…
The front tyre hit a bump in the road and her head shot around as the thud of the man’s body on the bonnet startled her almost as much as the way the steering had tried to wrench to the left- She’d had hopes that he was no longer clinging on- those were dashed when his black eyes stared back at her.
He growled and she beep the horn once more.
“Get off!” She hissed at him, and got another hearty growl for her trouble, and he got another beep for his. She knew that had to be annoying the hell out of him and hurting his eyes by the way that he winced, rolled his eyes, and then grunted.
Another pothole in the road managed to dislodge one hand from the car, and his claws ripped into the paintwork as he tried to stabilise himself. Janette’s mouth fell open on a gasp of annoyance…
“Can you not?” she hissed.
“A paintjob is the least of your damn worries,” Maverick growled through gritted teeth as he stabbed his claws back in through the metal and heard her gasp in annoyance again.
The sound of a loud burst of the trucks horn made her jump in place. For once it wasn’t her doing the honking.
She snapped her head to the right only to see Rowan pointing ahead like a madman, before the truck disappeared backwards and she watched it go… She snapped her eyes to the front again and saw the blockade across the roadway ahead- with a shrill squeal that jarred Maverick’s hearing more than any damn car horn ever could- she slammed her foot down on the brake at the same time as she pulled the wheel a hard left…
If she wasn’t so damn occupied with trying to save her own backside then she might have laughed at the sight of the big bad shifter being bounced around on the bonnet, up and down, side to side, as the car travelled across the uneven field…
She might even have laughed when his claws were finally dislodged once and for all and he sort of disappeared off the edge of the bonnet as his claws made that nails down a blackboard sound in his desperate attempt to hold on.
His eyes were wide- his mouth was open, knowing what came next for him, and certain that it was going to hurt like hell… but she didn’t, and she couldn’t, because she was too busy kissing her backside goodbye as she hurtled towards the large trunk of a tree that had seemingly jumped out of nowhere in front of her…
Gonna hurt, gonna hurt… gonna…. Ewwwww!
She tensed in placed. Every inch of her body knowing that she was in for one hell of a bang, and desperately trying to gather her magic to offset the consequences of her actions.
The bumper crumpled- the bonnet followed as she was thrust forward in her seat. The seatbelt locked in place to keep her from headbutting the steering wheel- and she was thrust back hard against her seat once more as she used her magic to release the seat lock, and it dropped backwards, taking her with it.
Suddenly she was lying there staring up at the roof- shock and anger rushing through her in equal measure- as the worst of it came to a stop around her… she went to raise her head, just as the loud detonation of the airbag signalled her luck in not receiving a broken nose from the impact… and she closed her eyes against the myriad of emotions that all vied for her attention at once.
“Well- that was… different…” she breathed in and then she breathed out again- thanking her lucky stars that she was still in one piece and trying to shake off the shock that held her frozen in place.
The palms of two large hands slapped against the passenger window and she tossed her head to the side to see Maverick slowly raising his head into view. The fierceness in those black eyes of his locked onto her and she felt the hard jolt of knowing what came next- and the realisation that she could do little about it now that he’d managed to kill off her damn car…
“That…” he started and then took a gulp of air, “was not my idea of a hot date.”
“Then you should get out more,” she snapped back. Her hand reached for where her seatbelt was still tethered, caged in and helpless wasn’t a good look for her, and she pressed the button repeatedly in an effort to be set free- but the damn thing was jammed…
“Mine,” he growled, and she noted that his fangs were partially down- signalling in more ways than one that the beast was well and truly at the door.
Her heart hammered a bass line at the sight of him looking all beastly that wouldn’t have been out of place in a nightclub, and she struggled to unlock the belt as she bit down on a curse.
“That’s the problem with shifters- it’s all about, me, me, me!” She ground out nervously- finally using her magic to spring the belt loose, and it pinged across her body and back into place beside the door… She pushed up onto one elbow against the back of the seat and eyed him right back.
“Maverick,” the deep shout went up from one of the two men from the truck that were now heading in their direction. “Stand down.”
“Maverick?” She snorted. “Guess your mother kind of expected you to go rogue,” she sneered- more than miffed that- because of him- her car was totalled and fit for nothing more than an early funeral at the car wreckers yard. She loved her car, it was the only thing in life that she did give a damn about.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m not going rogue- I’ve found my damn mate,” his growl said it all- but pushing up to his feet and flashing his crown jewels at her through the window certainly snapped her mind to clarity… His thick hard length jutted away from his body like it was screaming loud and proud at her that she was his mate, and she had to swallow down hard against the lump that was wedged in the back of her throat.
That’s… not good… She winced and rethought that statement, well, it’s good.. I mean, look at it- that’s really, really, good… she gave a half chuckle in her mind like a dirty old woman at a male strip show, and yet it so doesn’t bode well.
The moment that he gripped the handle of the door and found it locked, he let out a grunt of annoyance that brought her a certain sense of clarity about her situation. Then his claws dug in around the seal and he yanked the passenger door clean away. She
had a good mind to rebuke him for that as she watched the door being tossed across the landscape and yet, she felt there were other, more pressing concerns to deal with first.
Janette used her feet against the cushion of the seat to scramble into the passenger seats in the back- the sound of his growl, as he shoved his upper body into the car and tried to reach for her, played over her nerves and sent her adrenalin soaring within her…
She had to do something and she had to do it fast!
Janette’s hands came up in front of her to ward him off, and she blasted him with a good jolt of magic that ripped him backwards out of the car and onto his backside on the ground once more… Her eyes searched for him as she craned her neck to find him down on the ground, and she half wanted to clap her efforts and half wanted to curl into a tight ball and play the I can’t see you so you can’t see me- game that children so loved.
A roar of deep laughter from somewhere close by snatched her attention, and she flicked her eyes sideways for just a second to see the two shifters from the truck stalking towards them.
“What part of go away do you not understand?” She ground out at her so-called mate, and pulled her body up onto her knees on the seat, sitting ready and willing to give him another wakeup call should he try again…
With an angry roar, he bounded back up to his feet like a damn Jack-in-the-box- he even swayed a little on unstable legs as he shook off her magic from his body. Then he dropped his chin down towards his chest and growled like a man possessed, his top lip curling slightly to reveal those fangs once more.
Janette’s eyebrows almost covered her eyes completely as she scowled back at him. If looks could kill then he’d be a dead man walking, and walking he was, with one large step he was at the back door, and without saying a word- he ripped it from its moorings and tossed it away like the first one- like it weighed nothing at all.
Janette felt the whimper that got lodged in her throat- and with about as much grace as a bull in a china shop- she scrambled over the back seat and into the boot. She was well aware that she may have flashed him her wears as the skirt of her summer dress rode up to her hips, and her lack of underwear was an issue, but she didn’t give a toot… this was self-preservation in its strongest sense…