by M. L. Briers
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
GENERATIONS
BY
M.L BRIERS
Copyright © 2017, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2017, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap.
Table of Contents
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
GENERATIONS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER ONE
~
Celine sat in the back of the SUV and listened to the annoyingly predictable sound of the family bickering all around her.
The trouble with witches, and when you had so many of them together in one place at the same time, was that they tended to be independently minded, and that of course led to bickering, and bickering always led to a headache, and Celine was sure that she felt one coming on.
It had taken monumental arm-twisting and a great deal of under handedness on her part to even get them to be in the one place, all at the same time, and for a whole week to boot. Now she was re-thinking if it really had been worth all of the double – dealing.
Sunday dinners at her house was one thing … they begrudgingly came, and left, as soon as they could … but a family holiday – where nobody could pull the escape cord … well, that had taken some effort on her part.
Now they were all making snide comments and getting on her nerves. She had to wonder why she had even bothered.
“It will be an adventure,” she announced over the top of the chatter and the snarky jibes, and managed to bring a stony silence to the inside of the small space at last.
It was little wonder that her brain sighed in a silent thank you in relief.
“Famous last words,” Sarah, her granddaughter and the youngest of the family, piped up as she folded her arms and pushed her back against the seat, pouting rather unbecomingly.
“Hopefully not,” Celine offered back. “I’m only in my late 50s and flatly refused to be gone from this world at such an early age.” She announced to splutters of veiled laughter from her grandchildren.
At least they were gracious enough to do it behind their hands.
“Mum’s in her late 40s, Gran. That whole timeline isn’t going to wash,” Jessica said from the front passenger seat, and Celine arched an eyebrow at her - giving her a withering stare and resisting the urge to zap her with her magic.
“Fine, very early 60s.” She conceded. “I had your mother young. A mistake I hope that none of you girls will repeat,” she countered with a huff in a voice. “The point remains – this is a holiday of sorts, and a chance for us to hone the magic and our craft.”
Jessica shot a look at her sister, Rory, as she sat in the driver’s seat, and Rory was still silently sniggering at their Grandmother’s words. The woman had a daughter and three granddaughters, and yet she still tried to knock over ten years from her true age.
“By the way, thanks for making me your mistake, mum,” Abi rolled her eyes to stare out at the scenery from the window.
It was always such a treat to be around her mother, one she normally only had to endure on Sundays.
“That’s not what I’m saying, Abigail, and you know it,” Celine offered stiffly, and Abi rolled her eyes again at the outside world, as she sat on the opposite side of the car with Sarah as the buffer between them.
“Are we there yet?” Sarah piped up, feeling an argument between the two coming on and fast, and really not wanting to be in that middle seat a moment longer.
“Ha! Not even close," Rory sniggered back on a lie. “Suck it up, little sister.”
“Can we go faster?” Sarah groaned…
“I know you’ve always regretted having me…” Abi offered back. Not willing to let it lie now that it was out there. It itched under her skin like a parasite that she wanted to claw out.
“At such an early age, yes.” Celine protested. “Having you, no.” She said, adamantly.
“Well, okay," Jessica piped up. “Who wants to play spot the license plate?"
A deafening silence greeted her ears as all five women flinched.
“Are we five?” Sarah groaned. “Who here is five years old?” She said, folding her arms and huffing once more.
“Fine, I’ll start. The letter M," Jessica said, and all five women looked at the open road ahead in deafly silence…
The lonely, twisting, open country road that snaked through the low mountain, and where they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of another car in at least last half an hour…
“Good choice," Rory chuckled. “Maybe next time we can play spot the streetlight?” Sarcasm dripped from her voice and Rory turned and eyed her with a death glare.
“It shut them up, didn’t it?” Rory hissed back.
“I resent the implication that I needed shutting up," Celine announced and the other women groaned inwardly.
“Are we there yet?” Sarah asked again and Rory chuckled at her sister’s misery.
“Two miles - ish.” Rory said, letting her sibling off the hook and letting her know just how much longer she would have to endure being the fodder in the sandwich between the two older women.
“Floor it,” Jessica hissed from beside her.
“Don’t you dare!” Celine berated her.
Back seat driver! Rory thought, and how she hated those.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Gran,” Rory assured her.
Then her foot pressed down gently on the accelerator and increased their speed just a little, a little by a little. Jessica shot her a smirk as the countryside flew by them a little faster, and their destination got a little closer a whole lot sooner.
~
~
~
“Look, a mountain,” Sarah offered as she stood by the side of the SUV and stretched out her muscles from the long drive.
She was more than grateful to be out from between the two women and the stale air in the back of the car … she might as well have been sucking in sulphur as she had the brimstone to go with it.
“Oh look, another mountain,” Jessica tossed back with fake enthusiasm as she faced in the opposite direction.
“One there too,” Rory added, somewhat unimpressed by their surroundings as she filled the tank, and waited f
or her mother and grandmother to buy snacks from inside of the shop.
Three heads turned at the sound of another vehicle pulling in, and they eyed the pickup truck.
“Oh look, a local,” Jessica chuckled.
“Do you think these mountain people know what personal hygiene is?” Rory grinned.
“Do you think they have inside bathrooms?” Jessica offered back, knowing that she was yanking on Sarah’s chain and that the younger sibling would bite on that one.
“We’d better have an inside bathroom!” Sarah bit out - not fond of the idea of being so in touch with nature as to bathe with spiders and bugs outside.
She liked her creature comforts, and not sharing those comforts with creatures that had more legs than she did.
“Tin bath in the shed, wasn’t it?” Rory teased as she leaned in and whispered.
“No electricity, but we brought plenty of candles,” Jessica teased from the other side of her.
Then the driver’s door to the truck popped open and all three of them stared long and hard at the man who unfolded his large body from inside, and he eyed them right back.
“Holy crap, it’s a mountain man!” Sarah exclaimed.
“That’s no ordinary mountain man,” Rory said, as she felt the ping on her shields from what he was, and instinctively, she drew her magic closer.
Dane eyed the three of them as they stood there staring at him. He didn’t much care for strangers on the mountain, because it was damned annoying to have to keep the pack from roaming too far towards the tourist’s cabins.
The three of them were definitely strangers, and he’d spotted them right off from back down the road as they stood out like a sore thumb with their city car.
If he’d had his way then those cabins would never have been built, and the pack had tried to buy the land from old man Cooper, and had offered a real good price, but the old man was convinced that tourism on the mountain was a good thing, and had turned the packs offer down.
Then he’d gone ahead and built the cabins anyway.
Fancy large cabins to cater to the rich from the big cities! How he hated tourists, tourist season, and all that it implied.
But this … This was a damned abomination.
Three witches stood there staring at him like three little piggies; and boy would he like to shake his Wolf loose and chase them right back down the mountain where they belonged.
Dane took one long step towards them and noted that two of the witches, the ones on either side of the littlest which, snapped to attention … And then the door to the shop opened and two more strolled out as if they own the world.
His world.
“I think they could at least offer a choice of …” Celine clamped her lips together at the ping to her shields from the supernatural.
Her eyes located that wolf shifter and she gave him a frosty glare; bringing the man to an abrupt halt in his tracks.
“Oh … Nooo,” Abigail ground out, sensing the man, and what he was. “Please tell me that you checked out the area before you booked us in.” She muttered towards her mother.
The fact that her mother flinched gave her the answer that she was looking for.
“How could I expect there to be mutts?” Celine offered back, part innocently, part snarkily, and the man growled…
It wasn’t even a closeted half growl, but a full blown growl that made the windows rattle in the car’s frame.
CHAPTER TWO
~
“Way to go, Gran,” Rory bit out.
The wolf shifter had obviously heard the older woman’s slur regarding his heritage. How could he not with those wolf ears?
“Five damn witches….” Dane was slowly shaking his head in disbelief. “What is it … a convention?” He sneered.
“Back off fluffy,” Celine announced to a groan from Abigail, and the man snapped his head back on his neck and growled even harder.
“Way to go, Gran,” Sarah chuckled.
At least her daughters were enjoying their grandmother’s lack of tact. Abigail wasn’t so easily impressed.
“Yes, how has the government not called on her diplomatic skills before now?” Abigail offered to her youngest by way of berating her, and giving a sideswipe to her mother.
“You … people … need to leave,” Dane growled out, long and hard so that there couldn’t be a moment’s doubt in their minds about what he was telling them.
“Us … people …” Celine sneered. “Have a booking, and ergo, no intention of leaving.”
“Get off my mountain,” Dane sneered back, he could do it just as well as the old woman could.
“Oh, why don’t you go pee up a tree and mark your territory elsewhere,” Jessica bit out.
She’d dealt with enough of the supernatural in her life so as not to be bothered by one big mountain mutt and his posturing, or impressed by his growling.
“You know what?” Dane’s eyes shone with glee as he flicked them to each woman in turn, “I know where you live.”
“Hardly, Doofus … we’re renting. We live elsewhere,” Sarah snorted a chuckle at his expense, and watched as the man tried to suck in all of the oxygen from the mountain in one breath in, with his chest expanding to what looked like an insane size …
Her eyes took in the view, and she had to admit, although never to him, it was quite impressive…
“Don’t even think it,” Jessica hissed a whisper in her ear and she curled her lip in disbelief.
“I wasn’t,” she lied.
“Uh – huh, how’d you know what I was talking about then? Hmm?” Jessica shot back, and watched as embarrassment flamed in her sister’s cheeks and made them a nice rosy red.
“Bite me,” Sarah sneered back at her, and was rewarded with the sound of a hearty growl from the mountain man… “Hey!” She snapped out at him on a scowl.
“I’d get off the mountain before I take you up on that offer,” Dane growled back.
“Don’t you threaten my granddaughter or I’ll make sure your wolf gets a short back and sides and freezes its backside off this winter!” Celine’s voice was like ice.
“Way to go, Gran,” Sarah chuckled again.
Being her grandmother’s cheerleader was becoming second nature to her in this fight, and the old broad could dish it out when she wanted too, and it appeared that she wanted too.
“I’m warning you,” Dane lifted his hand and jabbed a finger through the air towards them, “if you stay, be it on your own heads.”
“It’s; on your own heads be it,” Celine sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Really, don’t they have schools up here?” She snorted in contempt for him, and started for the SUV.
Dane grumbled and growled at the older woman. He’d lived his whole life showing respect to the pack elders, and elders were elders, even if they were witches … but that one … Geez, she’d give the most cantankerous elder in the pack a run for their money.
“Get off the mountain,” he bit out as he watched them all climb back into their city car.
Rory hit the button and the driver’s window rolled down. She saw his eyes flare as he waited to see what she would do next. His whole body looked primed for action…
“Go chew some kibble,” she hissed at him, and then she turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life…
Leaving the big bully fuming in her wake was better than sex … Well, not exactly better than … but it did give her a warm buzz of tingly goodness all over her body.
Sucker!
~
~
~
“Five…” Scott took a moment and mulled that over. “Five!”
“It’s like the Addams family of witches. There is a short one, then two other young ones. Then a mother aged one, and an elder…”
Dane grumbled at the thought of the elder. That woman was a she-demon, but it had been Rory’s parting remarks to him that had itched and festered inside of him the most.
The nerve of the woman! He’d surel
y like to show her a thing or two.
“And they’re renting on Cooper’s land?” Scott eyed his brother.
The alpha liked to get all of the facts in order before he rushed to judgement on anything. Especially when those facts came from one of his brothers … they tended to have a fisherman’s view on everything … prone to over-exaggeration.
From the look of the beta; the run-in with the witches must have been particularly challenging. His wolf looked like it was sitting right under the man’s skin and the beta was pumping his fists as he paced back and forth in the old barn that they’d been converted into a workshop.
Dane was usually a lot more controlled than that. He’d seen the man keep his cool in the face of a three she-wolf stand-off, and that took some doing when the fur was flying.
“Yes,” Dane bit down on his annoyance. He’d warned them to leave –whatever happened next, that was all on them. “I covertly followed them and they took the turnoff for the big house.”
Luke had been quietly listening to the conversation as he worked on sanding down the curve of one of the arms of a rocking chair to a nice smooth finish. The packs pieces sold well to tourists and posh city stores alike and they made good money at it.
The added bonus was that it was a job he liked. It seemed to equal out his beast and settled it a little inside of him. But he also had another job as the packs enforcer, and he liked that job too. It meant he could bust some heads when he wanted.
He’d been around the block with witches and their mischief a few times. He was older than the alpha and the betas, and wise enough to know that he didn’t have the temperament to be an alpha.
When the old alpha had died, he could have challenged for the position, but instead he’d willingly accepted Scott’s offer of enforcer within the pack, because it was more befitting his temperament.
Now he listened with interest as he put down his tools and rested his backside against the workbench. He folded his big muscled arms across his broad chest and eyed the two men for a long moment to see just how the brothers were thinking of handling it.