by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER NINE
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“Is she your mate?” Paul asked, not wanting there to be another misunderstanding as he raised his eyebrows high on his forehead and a million and one questions went through his mind … The first one being…
How was the Alpha going to react to a witch in the pack?
The look of glee that spread across Paul’s face annoyed the hell out of Luke and the enforcer grumbled another growled as he watched the young beta take in the information…
“Oh, this is good…” Paul assured him.
“That’s your opinion and you can keep it to yourself,” Celine offered in a lofty tone, and Paul snapped his eyes towards the matriarch and grinned wildly…
“In law?” He chuckled at Luke and the enforcer’s face dropped. The lack of amusement coming from Luke only spurred the beta on in the shiny new happy place that he’d just found for himself.
“Shut up,” Luke growled.
The three siblings sniggered and drew Paul’s attention towards them. He eyed them for a long moment…
“And they are…?” He asked, and Luke shuffled on his feet for a long moment.
He had no damn idea what to say to that question…
“We’re the step kids!” Sarah announced with glee and Paul spat out another chuckle as the enforcer groaned inwardly.
Luke knew what was coming. He knew his pack and they were going to have a field day with that one.
“Congratulations Papa!” Paul offered to the enforcer, really enjoying himself at Luke’s expense, and the man’s discomfort was more than evident, which only made it sweeter.
Abi chuckle behind her hand. Only her daughters could be so mischievous, and Luke snapped his eyes towards his mate and grumbled something under his breath…
“Family is family,” Luke finally growled out.
“And it’s so …” Paul waved a hand on a chuckle, “big.” he offered with a look of pure glee.
“Don’t be a…” Luke bit down on a curse that he knew would more than likely have started the old woman off again on another rant, “butthole…” he offered instead.
“Butthole…?” Paul sniggered. “Wow, you actually said butthole. Has the old ball and chain got you cleaning up your act already?” He chuckled.
“Not so much of the old, and trust me when I say this … I’m warning you…” Luke growled.
“Drop it, Paul,” Dane warned, and Paul turned his attention towards his brother and eyed him for a long moment.
“Don’t tell me…” Paul gave a slow, small shake of his head as he narrowed his eyes on his sibling and enjoyed watching the man fidget under such scrutiny.
Dane always did that when he had something to hide, and he seemed like he was hiding something now that Paul really wanted to get to the bottom of.
“Shut up,” Dane growled back, before the man had even said the words.
“Who is it?” He was practically chaffing at the bit, eager to know… his eyes flicked from one witch to the other… “Please tell me its grandma and make my millennium…”
“Well, really!” Celine bit out.
“I have that misfortune,” Rory raised a hand and Paul’s eyes snapped towards her…
“Whoa, my commiserations!” Paul chuckled.
“Yeah,” Rory bit back.
“What are the odds? Two witch mates…” He was practically salivating over the news…
“Just…” Dane started to warn his brother off, but with only one word out of his mouth, it was already too late…
‘Luke and Dane have found their mates!’ He announced with glee through the packs internal intercom.
‘And they are witches!’
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“Life as we know it is over,” Scott grumbled a growled as he shook his head on his neck and his shoulders slumped.
“Oh, buck up, boy!” Richard bit out with glee as he used the arms of the rocking chair to push himself up onto his feet. There was a look of pure amusement in his eyes… and a little bit of wicked excitement about the old man.
“Witches… !?” Scott reminded him.
“Should be a lively mating…” Richard wiggled his eyebrows with glee, clapped his palms together, and started out of the barn with as much haste as Scott had seen come from the elder in recent years.
Scott tipped his head to one side and considered the elder’s words. Then he gave a small shrug and grunted in agreement.
Luke finding a mate would be spectacle enough.
The enforcer was set in his ways, and I don’t even know if I’ve ever really seen him making conversation with a woman that didn’t involve a lot of grunting…
But Dane…
Oh my brother … finding his mate, and a witch to boot…
Yep! The elder’s right … it should be a lively mating!
It certainly wasn’t something to be missed.
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“I’m starting to feel like a sideshow freak,” Sarah offered out of the corner of her mouth in Jessica’s direction, as people started to gather around the bonfire and the barbecue that Luke had started to get going.
They were obviously curious about the witches and wanted to find out more … or maybe mating was something of a spectator sport for the pack, because they all seem to be carrying a ton of food with them and looked like they were going to settle in for the long haul.
She’d much prefer to watch a good game of football, but each to their own.
“I’m starting to feel outnumbered,” Jessica offered back.
“They won’t bite.” A deep voice boomed out from behind the two of them, and they both jumped in place and shot a look behind at the elderly man with the main of white snowy hair.
His eyes sparkled with glee, and he had a wide grin on his lips as if he knew something that they didn’t.
“What are the odds?” Sarah offered back.
She was more than a little wary of the man as he looked them up and down, as if he was deciding how much barbecue sauce he’d need to dress them with for the fire.
“Who’s who then?” He demanded, and he slapped his palms together and rubbed his hands with glee.
“My mother, Abi, and Luke, and Rory and the other guy,” Sarah pointed to each in turn.
“That’s Dane,” Richard chuckled.
“That’s right, weird guy, weird name for a wolf…” Jessica offered back.
“And you young ladies are…?” He enquired.
“Leaving, real soon…” Jessica frowned at him.
“Not if he’s your mate,” Sarah chuckled and Richard’s deep chuckle of amusement drifted back to them, joining with Sarah’s like a melody.
“Ah, if only I were a few…” He narrowed his eyes and considered his words carefully…
“Centuries … younger?” Celine bit out, eyeing the man as if he was about to pounce on her granddaughters…
“Well, hello…” Richard’s smooth tone ruffled Celine’s feathers.
“Someone want to come and claim grandpa?” Celine announced and Richard snorted.
“We are about the same age,” he offered back dryly.
“Yes, but I still have all my faculties,” Celine shot back with a withering stare…
Richard scented the air as if he was looking for the steaks that weren’t yet on the barbecue, and Celine recoiled at the sight of him with his nose tipped up … sniffing. The man looked like his beast, and she frowned long and hard at him as he slowly turned his head towards her and sniffed a few times in her direction…
“What’s next, pee up a tree?” Celine bit out and the elder narrowed his eyes on her for a long moment before he grunted and stalked off in the other direction.
“Way to go, Gran … Such a diplomat.” Sarah sniggered, but she wasn’t sniggering when she caught sight of Paul through the milling crowd, and he was doing the exact same thing from across the way.
The only difference was he was ey
eing her right back.
Sarah nudged Jessica’s ribs with her elbow, and her sister grunted in annoyance as she caved in on one side to protect her ribs.
“Can you not …?” Jessica started, but Sarah cut her off.
“Heads up, we’ve got another sniffy one at one o’clock…” She lifted her hand and pointed a finger towards Paul, just as the man brought his eyes, and his nose in their direction…
“Umm…” Jessica scowled as his eyes narrowed on them, flicking from one to the other.
Then he was heading in their direction.
“That’s not good,” Sarah rushed out, as she snapped her fingers and zapped the beta, bringing him to a dead stop as the pain coursed through his body and his muscles locked up tightly…
“What are you doing?” Jessica hissed as people started to notice that the beta wasn’t his normal self.
The sound of chatter went around the gathered pack … all eyes turned towards them, and Jessica elbowed her sister right back…
“Do you really want to take the chance?” Sarah offered back quickly, wrinkling her nose at the prospect of maybe becoming a mate, and Jessica took only a moment to think it through…
“Nope. Let’s make a run for the car!” Jessica offered as she turned on her heels and slammed right into a solid wall of muscle…
“Leaving so soon?” Scott grumbled, biting down on his annoyance for all things witches, as he caught the woman in his hands and lock them tightly around her upper arms.
He meant to put her away from him without doing her any damage or letting her do any to herself from the collision, but the moment that she snapped her head back on her neck and his eyes met hers …
He was lost…
“A little help…” Jessica bit out as panic gripped her.
“Ooops,” Sarah panicked as well at the sight of her sister in the man’s grasp.
Both Sarah and Jessica zapped the Alpha as one.
Scott felt the pain stab through every inch of him. His muscles started to lock up and he knew that pretty soon there wasn’t going to be a lot that he could do about it.
He managed to release her upper arms from his hands, just in time before they fisted into tight balls, but instead of his arms dropping; his hands slipped around her body and his strong arms locked up tightly.
“Noooo,” Jessica bit out as she felt the weight of the Alpha’s body start to drag her down with him towards the ground.
His knees were going and she didn’t have the strength to keep them both of their feet. Gravity was surely taking over.
A heartbeat later and they were in a heap on the grass, and she snapped off her magic, hoping to give him some sense of control back to his body, but it didn’t do her much good because Sarah hadn’t release him from hers…
Jessica was stuck like glue to the Alpha, and no matter how she twisted and turned … She just couldn’t seem to break free.
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“What in God’s name are you doing to my granddaughter?” Celine bit out as she started across the grass towards the Alpha, like a woman on a mission, and not a good one.
The matriarch had a face like thunder and an attitude to match.
“Whoops!” Sarah snapped off her magic from the Alpha, but she kept the beta locked right where he was standing…
“Sarah!” Abi admonished as she started away from Luke, but the enforcer followed hard on her heels.
He wasn’t about to let his mate get into the thick of it without him there … and there were unmated males in the vicinity, nope, there was no way that Luke’s wolf wasn’t going to be protective of her.
“What? It wasn’t me…!” Sarah bit back, snapping her magic completely off and allowing Paul the chance to drop to his knees on the hard ground. For which he was eternally grateful.
“It takes two to tango,” Rory chuckled.
“You’re just a scream,” Sarah shot back with a sneer. All that was missing would have been if she’d poked her tongue out at her sister to complete the look, and Rory had kinda … sorta … half expected her to do it, and was maybe a little disappointed when she didn’t.
“Can we not break the wolves?” Abi grumbled.
“But girls will be girls and witches will be witches,” Celine said looking rather pleased with herself.
“I think it’s gonna take a lot more than that to break me,” Scott growled as he started to push up from the ground, and from the witch that he had been wrapped around.
Jessica scrambled to get away from the Alpha. She couldn’t move fast enough, detach herself quickly enough, and get far enough away from him before something bad happened … Like finding out she was a mate.
Normally she would have said the odds were on her side. How often did two wolves from the same pack find their mates on the same day?
What were the odds that fate had another kick in the pants in store for them?
Well she was more than determined that she wasn’t going to fall foul of fate.
Jessica was just starting to scramble to her feet when her attention was snatched by the large hand that was thrust in front of her face that the Alpha offered out to her to help her back up.
Jessica held in place, motionless, and she lifted her eyes from his hand and they roamed up his large, muscled body, until they found his chocolate brown eyes, and that connection sent a shiver of something warm, and tingly down her spine.
“Jessica did it as well,” Sarah protested.
Jessica was hardly listening to the sound of bickering and excuses that were going on around her. There was just something about the Alpha that she didn’t want to like, the trouble was, right then, she couldn’t think of a damn thing, but she’d find something...
Although, somehow … she didn’t think it was going to be that easy.
CHAPTER TEN
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“What in hell’s name are you doing?” Sarah demanded.
She’d felt the heat of someone come up behind her, and when she turned to look over her shoulder, there he was…
The one that had been eyeing her from across the way.
The one that she and Jessica were trying to flee.
It was worse than that … He was gently sniffing the air around her, towards her, and as he slowly turned his head in her direction … He was totally sniffing her.
“That’s … not … good!” Paul looked sick to his stomach, and Luke had to do a double take of the beta to make sure that he was seeing what he’d thought he’d seen.
“Get away from me … Shooe … Go!” Sarah scowled as she waved her arms around erratically. “Go on … Get … Be gone.” She was starting to feel the panic rise within her again, and Rory’s sniggers didn’t help any.
“Ahh, poor baby,” Rory said, enjoying the moment.
“You did this!” Sarah brought her wide eyes towards Rory, and pointed an accusing finger at her.
“Did not!” Rory shot back without even knowing what her sister was talking about. “Did what?”
“You said it … This is all you … You did this …” Sarah was ranting, and although it was a little bit amusing, Rory still didn’t have a clue what her sister was talking about. “How could you?”
“Have you lost your mind?” Rory asked, she was still none the wiser. How could she defend herself again madness?
“You said it … you did. You said, and I quote … May all your problems be Wolf shaped.” Sarah hissed. Her fiery eyes were still accusing, and Rory frowned as she considered her words.
“Ooooo…” Rory winced. Then she lifted her chin. “So I did.” Rory chuckled.
Then the witch folded her arms across her chest with a smirk and knew that it would be worth the zap that she was obviously about to receive, but she just couldn’t help herself…
“Well, lookee-lookee what I did! And it serves you right, ha!” Rory hissed back with glee.
“I really don’t like you right now!” Sarah hissed.
Sarah’s e
yes narrowed on Rory, and she knew that look well, it was always a sign that her sister was about to strike out. Rory reinforced her shields before Sarah could zap her. With enough concentration the magic just bounced right off of her shields.
“Still the baby of the family I see,” Rory grinned, but she wasn’t grinning a moment later when she felt the hard sting of Celine’s magic as it pierced her shields.
Rory bit down on a curse as she turned to look at her grandmother, for only her grandmother could match her magic for magic.
“It’s never wise to gloat, dear,” Celine offered with a small smirk of her own.
“Taking sides, Gran?” Rory said.
“Perish the thought. I love you all equally,” Celine said as she inspected her fingernails.
Jessica still hadn’t moved an inch, maybe swayed a little in place, but that was a given. She was held in place by the look in the Alpha’s eyes and that outstretched hand.
Taking his hand would be like admitting defeat, and she wasn’t done for yet. She knew … she just knew…
“It’s just a hand,” Scott said. The amusement in his eyes played on her nerves and without a doubt it rubbed her up the wrong way.
“It’s not the hand that I’m worried about,” Jessica hissed back.
“This is not happening!” Sarah grumbled. She didn’t want to be a mate, she was damn sure her sisters didn’t want to be mates either.
How could one chance meeting end so badly?
“At least you will all be together – that’s one blessing … I suppose.” Celine added in dramatic fashion.
“Who knows Gran, maybe you could find a mate too!” Rory sneered back.
“Spirits, please no,” Dane said, but he swallowed down hard when all five witches turned their heads towards him, and offered varying degrees of death glares.
“Jeez, Dane, dig that hole!” Paul chuckled and Dane grumbled a growl as his shoulders went down, and he muttered something to himself.