Brothers - Pack Special- Complete Set (Books 1 - 8)

by M. L. Briers

  “Friend, not friends, none of the others had that rosy cheek glow that says she’s hot blooded and likes to…” he paused and considered it. “Cuddle,” he offered with a smile that said he was congratulating himself for his restraint.

  “Cuddling you would be like hugging a snowman,” Morgan shot back.

  “Vampires, as you well know, are not cold blooded creatures, and being called a snowman makes me a wee bit snarky after my run in with Chelsea.” Connor hated that myth and he rolled his eyes at her.

  “Just you then, or is that cold hearted?” She toyed with him and his eyes came back to glare at her.

  “I am unique, but not that unique,” Connor assured her in his loftiest tone.

  “Personally I thought you were gay,” Morgan offered, ducking down behind her mug to hide the smile on her lips.

  “Who told?” He teased. He didn’t run from his masculinity. He’d dabbed in his many lifetimes, and he wasn’t ashamed of it. Love was love, sex was sex, and life was to be sampled and enjoyed.

  “You have a way about you and a lack of women in your bed.” Morgan offered back, and he rolled his eyes at her again.

  “That doesn’t make me gay, it makes me busy and choosy,” Connor offered back.

  “Well, I’d say perving over my shoulder was an act of desperation for new blood, so to speak.”

  Connor grinned then. He liked these witches. All of them had fitted in well – even Chelsea, the kickass witch with a knack for trouble, and all of them were feisty and mischievous in their own way. He’d long since thought that the pack could do with a little shaking up.

  “Mmm, blood,” he had a little happy grin on his lips as he rolled his eyes to the grey sky and considered it.

  “Vicky isn’t the one for you to toy with, she likes bears.” Morgan informed him to a scowl of disbelief from the man.

  “Bears!” He scowled harder to make his point. “Nobody likes bears.” He spat out as if the very thought disgusted him.

  “I do,” Chelsea said as she stalked towards them and planted her backside down next to him with a slight huff. He gave her a double take, then raised an eyebrow and leaned back to check out her backside.

  “Sat on something you shouldn’t?” He grinned and she frowned.

  “Tyler’s foot,” Chelsea offered back and Connor scoffed.

  “I know I should have given him that birds and bees talk before now.” Connor planted his face in his hands and chuckled to himself at his own funny. Chelsea’s fist hit his shoulder with a little added magic and he groaned as the pain set in.

  “I don’t need a dead arm,” Connor lifted his head and shot her a look.

  “Why, it’ll match your dead everything else,” Morgan shot back.

  Connor drew himself upright and gave her a slow clap of his hands. One eyebrows curved upwards on his smooth forehead.

  “A witch funny,” he announced with mock enthusiasm. “Try harder next time.” He added deadpan.

  “Touched a nerve there,” Morgan informed Chelsea and the other witch nodded in agreement.

  “Definitely.” Chelsea agreed and Connor shot her a look and she snapped a smile onto her face. He snorted.

  “Please don’t do that, I’m the one that’s supposed to give people nightmares, not receive them.” Connor offered and she lifted her fist to punch him again, but his hand came up between them and he lifted his index finger to stop her…

  So she zapped him instead. He groaned again.

  “And for your information, not that you deserve any, Tyler and I were fighting…”

  “Ooo, troubles already?” He leaned in and teased.

  “Mock fighting, keeping up my skills, you may remember he agreed to it?” She offered with an acidity in her tone that made him smile.

  “Touch a nerve?” He mocked her and she snorted.

  “Liar, liar, bum on fire,” he grinned knowingly and she snorted, but didn’t deny or confirm anything. He chuckled harder and she rolled her eyes.

  “Perv,” Morgan offered. “Which is why I would never dream of introducing you to any of my old friends.”

  “What about new ones?” Connor replied with another winning smile.

  “That would make me complicit, and I wouldn’t want to feed your lust…” he chuckled and grinned wildly, “for blood.” She bit out and he snorted with a shrug.

  “Here,” Chelsea placed her elbow down on the table and held out her wrist towards him. “Make it fast so Callum doesn’t see.”

  Connor’s eyes shot around the area and he looked as if the whole hungry pack were going to rush at him from the surrounding bushes. He drew back in mock horror.

  “Are you trying to get me lynched?” He spat out.

  “Would that matter, you’d just bounce back up again.” Chelsea offered and he snorted, but it was Morgan that laughed the hardest.

  “Fine. Pick on the damn vampire,” He pushed up to his feet.

  “Shouldn’t that be damn-ed,” Morgan asked and he huffed before taking himself off.

  “I have to admit,” Chelsea leaned in and whispered. “He is kind of growing on me.”

  “I heard that!” Connor called back and she rolled her eyes.

  “Not just the wolves with big bloody ears.” She snapped.

  “But that goatee is probably what’s holding him back from finding a woman.” Morgan teased.

  “I think he grew it to prove that he could.” Chelsea chuckled.

  “I think he grew it so he could stroke it, like a villain with a cat, only cats don’t like him.” Morgan sniggered when he hesitated and turned back to look at them over his shoulder. Then he lifted his hand and slowly stroked over his facial hair, before he winked, and took off on fast feet away from them.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Vicky knew that she’d been insanely stupid the moment that she’d tried to get her damned motorbike up the mountain with the fresh snow laying on the ground. Her leg hurt like hell from where the bike had come down on it as she’d skidded over the ground, and yet that was the least of her worries.

  He was here somewhere, tracking her as she made her way through the woods. She just hoped that these were the right woods, and that she wasn’t bringing too much trouble to Morgan’s door.

  She’d hidden her scent as best she could. With Morgan’s help she could do more, so much damn more to cover her tracks, but right now – she just needed to make it to Morgan’s cabin before he found her and ended her.

  She’d been careless. She’d gone up against a man that was older than sin and wiser than anyone she’d ever known, and with a habit of killing anyone who crossed him, and she’d crossed him.

  It may have been in a good cause – but maybe she shouldn’t have skimmed from his purse and should have just sold her damned bike to get Natalie away from his clutches, and there was the crux of the matter, she hadn’t wanted to see the young witch indebted to Vane for the rest of her life.

  The girl would at least have had a chance at having a life away from vampires.

  Now Vane was coming for her. In his mind someone had taken something from his possession and he wanted his revenge in flesh and blood.

  Vicky could only imagine what that scenario looked like, but she didn’t want to be his blood slave nor his revenge screw. The man had dark appetites that others had not survived – he didn’t exactly treat his woman with kid gloves, and she’d be damned if she was going out that way.

  She’d been too valuable to him before for him to use her in that way. Her magic was strong and he’d suckered her in way back when she didn’t know any better and had made it clear what would happen if she left his employ. No all bets were off.

  The sting of the bare branches that scratched her face as she went was nothing compared the way that her damn leg was throbbing. She’d guessed under normal circumstances she would have been visiting a healer, not stumbling through the darkened woods like an idiot.

  She cursed as her foot found a large hol
e, big enough for the toe of her boot to disappear inside and it pitched her forwards. Her hands coming up to save her forehead from hitting the tree trunk that she hadn’t known was there.

  Vicky cursed again at pain in her ankle. If it hadn’t of been her good leg she’d probably have thought it not so bad, but now she was hobbling over the rough terrain, practically feeling her way in the dark.

  She had her mobile phone of her, but risking turning it on and drawing Vane’s attention was a no-no. She knew that the man was somewhere near, she could just feel the hairs on her arms lifting as if he was breathing down the back of her damn neck. Toying with her.

  She knew Vane and she knew he liked the hunt, the chase of a good prey, and she’d been that, leading him across the countryside in an attempt to draw his attention away from Natalie and giving her a chance to run.

  There it was. The ping against her shields that told her he was close. Too damn close for her liking, and she had no way of outrunning him, even on her best day, and this wasn’t even close to her best day with a bum leg and a painful ankle.

  Vicky shot a look back over her shoulder, feeling him close by, even if her magic couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. It just felt his eyes were watching her, and he was ready to pounce.

  Darkness behind her, darkness in front of her… perhaps staying to the road might have had him on her sooner, and yet there might have been some small hope of someone driving the mountain track… unlikely.

  The sound of a crisp twig snapping sent her pulse racing and another shot of adrenaline into her system. Her heart was thumping like a damned drum and her skin was freezing cold from the weather and circumstance, and yet sweat still broke out down her back and on the palms of her hands.

  Vicky heard another sound from behind – the rush of the wind? She tossed a look back, knowing that she couldn’t see a damn thing, and yet out of habit and fear, she’d tried.

  One foot in front of the other, she kept going, right up to the point where she collided with a tree trunk…

  She was almost knocked backwards off of her feet as her head snapped around on her neck and her eyes recognised that it was material that covered this particular tree. Her heart kicked her ribs. Her eyes snapped up to the face of the man who held his index finger to his lips, silencing any protestations she was about to make.

  She felt the arm lock around her body, and with a push upwards they were high in the treetops. The winter wind taking her breath away as he leaned in a whispered against her ear.

  “I take it you want to live through this night,” Connor whispered against her frozen flesh.

  Vicky’s heart lodged in her throat. She knew what he was, but she didn’t answer him and risk Vane hearing her.

  Out of the frying pan and into the fire – she’d found herself in the clutches of another damn vampire.

  ~

  CHAPTER TWO

  ~

  Connor had sensed his presence within the woods. Vampire. Old and stealthy just like him.

  Without knowing her story it was a sound idea to live to fight another day. He might have even taken the vampire’s side over hers, but he wasn’t about to drop down and have that conversation in the middle of the woods on a moonless night, and with a vampire on the prowl to boot.

  The man had obviously been tracking her, and he seemed to be doing a damn fine job of it. Except for Connor’s intervention, he probably would have had her by now.

  A witch. Fae. Trouble with a capitol T.

  Connor decided to get the hell out of there before the vampire realised that he was up in the treetops with her. What sane vampire looked for a human in the treetops? Not him.

  The fact that his body was on high alert, not only for the other of his kind, but from the witch herself, gave him little time to worry about the feel of her in his arms or the way that his body responded to the scent of her blood.

  He’d recognised her face, he was certain of it. He just didn’t know from where, but he wanted her to live long enough for him to find out.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Connor had no choice in the matter. He couldn’t take her to Justice, the loved up alpha didn’t exactly have his mind in the game right now, but he would be putting the pack at risk from the unknown source of the witch’s troubles if they stayed on pack land. He had to take her home.

  The woman was a squirming, wiggly bundle of trouble, and he wasn’t sure if she actually wanted to be saved by the way that she was moving against him, but one thing was for certain – she wasn’t making his life any easier.

  “Be still before I drop you.” Connor whispered against her ear.

  The scent of her blood was intoxicating, and he’d lost his concentration a couple of times as his bloodlust swelled within him, and yet they were still closing in on his house.

  “You’re breaking my damn ribs,” she hissed back.

  The immediate restriction around her, the punishing crush of his embrace, eased, and she almost sighed with relief.

  “Apologies, now stop squirming.” Connor warned her and wondered what the hell was wrong with him all at the same time.

  He knew exactly how much pressure he could put on a human body before he risked breaking it, but he didn’t seem to be able to get this woman close enough to him…

  “It’s my fault that you don’t know your own strength?” She whispered back, her lips pressed almost, but just not quite, against his ear.

  Connor guessed that he’d spent too long worrying about the packs needs and not enough about his own. If just having the woman in his arms, pressed against his body like this made him harder than damn steel then he really needed to get out more and get laid.

  Not this one, he told himself, she was more complicated – she’d be a challenge. She invoked the bloodlust within him that he’d believe long since buried only to raise its ugly head within the heat of battle.

  He could scent her blood and it stoked the kind of response within him that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  That was dangerous – especially for her.

  “Trust me when I say that I know exactly how much pressure to put on each and every bone in your body before I break it.” Connor took in her scent once more. Wild flowers and summer meadows – a scent that provoked an image from when he was human. He hadn’t thought on those days in a very long time.

  “Trust you? You’re kidding, right?”

  He groaned at her words. Made certain that she heard that just before he took the quick way down from the branch to the rooftop of his house, and heard her gasp in a startled breath as they dropped in freefall.

  Vicky looked around in the darkness. The strange shapes of the rooftop, planted in the middle of nowhere made her head spin, but she had no time to consider anything as he stalked across the flat roof and down a few steps to enter, silently, into the darkness of somewhere decidedly cold.

  “What the hell is this?” Vicky tried to push him away in earnest now. The man might have rescued her, but that didn’t mean she was out of danger. Swapping out one vampire for another, one she had no clue about, left a bad taste in her mouth and her body on alert.

  “Home,” Connor offered as he put her down onto her feet and took the smallest step back from her – immediately holding up just one index finger to still her from action.

  She might not have been able to see him too well, but he could see her. Her eyes were narrowed in suspicion and mistrust, her mouth slightly parted as if he’d caught her in the act of saying something, and every inch of her body was practically rigid with inaction… he guessed that her magic was just brimming beneath the surface ready to be unleashed.

  “Admit to yourself that I probably just saved your life, say thank you, and keep your damn magic to yourself.” Connor thought he’d summed that up quite nicely, but as he’d learned a long time ago about women – it probably wouldn’t stop her from doing or saying everything else that popped into her mind – he just didn’t want her to act on it
before he got a handle on what ailed him and fuelled that bloodlust deep within.

  “Thank you,” she bit out. She guessed she was grateful, and yet being trapped in his home wasn’t an exactly ideal solution to her problems.

  “That’s it?” Connor twisted his head and narrowed his eyes on her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “No cutting barb, no acid tongue?” Connor folded his arms across his chest if only not to reach out to her again.

  “You said-”

  “Yes, I know what I said, but you’re female, and a witch, therefore what follows is usually a mouthful of venom and a kick in the balls, no?”

  Vicky opened her mouth to speak, frowned hard at his words, and closed it again.

  “I’m guessing you’re in shock.” Connor looked her up and down.

  “Yeah, that’d be it.” She folded her arms and mirrored his stance. The look on her face said she was questioning his sanity.

  “Alcohol, this way.” He lifted his hand and pointed.

  “Oh,” she said, looking somewhat interested with that offering. “What is this place?” She felt the hard stone beneath her feet and had to question it. It wasn’t your everyday run of the mill semi-detached with a picket fence, but then he was a vampire.

  “Castle,” he offered back and she shot a look back at him over her shoulder. Not that she could see much in the dull light. “A mini one. But it does have a dungeon.” He leaned in and whispered, and noted the way that she tripped over her own feet.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Her voice was muted as she muttered to herself, but he heard her loud and clear.

  “Scared?” he teased and she snorted.

  “Not now I know who you are.”

  That piqued Connor’s interest. He knew he’d seen her before… just where? If they’d been intimate, he would definitely have remembered.

  “And who do you think I am?”

  Vicky stopped in her tracks and turned back towards him. Her arms hung by her sides and she showed no intent on using her magic to strike out. He relaxed, just a little.