by M. L. Briers
“Just take my damn hand,” Scott chuckled, amused by the woman’s reluctance to accept his help.
“Oh boy, do you know what you can do with that hand, and the rest of you for that matter.” Jessica muttered.
There was no way in this universe, or even a parallel universe, that she was going to touch anything on the Alpha.
“Harsh,” Rory offered.
“She takes after her grandmother for diplomacy,” Abi said.
“Yes, that one does have a good head on her shoulders,” Celine announced with a little more glee than was necessary.
“Cantankerous old boot, aren’t you?” Richard said.
“And I suppose you’re just a bundle of joy!” Celine sneered back.
Jessica finally pushed up to her feet without the help of the Alpha. She stood there eyeing him with suspicion, like she expected his wolf to burst from within him at any moment.
“I’m guessing you have a problem with wolves … I’d say you need to get over that pretty damn quickly,” Scott chuckled. That sound was deep, warm, and as sexy a sound as she’d ever heard in her life before.
That didn’t fill her with a fuzzy warm glow either. She was ready to get her zap on and she didn’t much care who she zapped … Except Gran … Because Gran could get good and mean.
“I’d say why bother? I’m not going to be here long enough to worry about it.” Jessica scowled back at him. If he thought she was going to roll over and play dead then he had another thing coming.
Scott’s beast roared within him. The Wolf clawed to be set free.
Mine.
It wasn’t as if that was unexpected. The instant that he’d felt her within his arms he knew that she was his mate. But hearing the claim from his beast still rattled his nerves.
She was a witch and he didn’t mean that in a derogatory term – she was an actual witch.
What the hell was fate thinking bringing him a witch mate?
He didn’t have anything against witches, and he guessed that was a good thing. It looked to him as if they were going to have four of them in the pack…
Mischief and mayhem.
Mayhem and mischief.
One thing was for sure, things were certainly going to get a lot more lively from then on.
He could hear the chatter from the gathered pack. He might not have been able to pick out what each and every one of them was saying, but he had a general idea. Because, if he’d been on the outside looking in then he would have been saying the exact same things.
Four witches. It was lucky it was such a large pack.
Scott held onto his wolf. He forced the beast back into the cage and slammed the door.
His mate might have declared her intention to run, but he was an alpha and he had other ideas.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“I guess we’d better feed you before you go,” Scott said, keeping his voice as even as he could when inside all hell was breaking loose with his beast.
His words certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons within his pack, and the chatter became faster and louder.
Scott had absolutely no intention of letting her leave. At least, not until he’d tried his damnedest to woo her … But she didn’t need to know that, no then, not yet.
Jessica gave an unladylike grunt of annoyance before she turned on the heels and stalked away from him. It gnawed at him to watch her go, but every plan had its downside.
“Hey,” Rory scowled at her sister, “are you seriously considering leaving?”
“Do I strike you as a lamb to the slaughter?” Jessica tossed back with a glare over her shoulder for the alpha.
“You know what happens if you run,” Rory warned.
“I know what happens if I’m caught. That’s the difference. I don’t intend to be caught.” Jessica said.
“Yeah, but look who’s doing the chasing.”
~
~
~
“You look troubled,” Luke said.
His hands might have been busy flipping steaks on the barbecue, but most of his attention was centred on his mate. She was uneasy, he could feel her emotions coming from her in waves that battered against him, and he didn’t think it had anything to do with him, more what her daughter had told the alpha.
Abi was worried. Like everyone else she’d heard Jessica’s intention to leave.
Even putting aside the question of what would happen to her mate if she did leave him, and the very real possibility that he could go rogue. Jessica’s mate was an alpha and the odds that she could somehow shake him if he was hunting her weren’t good.
“My daughters are headstrong,” Abi said.
“Then they’ll get along just fine here,” Luke smiled, a glint of amusement danced within his eyes as he took her in.
“You heard her – what am I supposed to do? I’m her mother, but she’s not going to listen to me…”
“None of them have listened to you since they hit puberty,” Celine said, and Abi rolled her eyes at the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Newsflash, mum, I never listened to you either so less judging,” Abi snapped back.
The sound of Celine huffing as she rolled her eyes and walked away made Luke chuckled. The pack might have respected their elders and sought their wisdom when the occasion called for it, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be a pain in the backside too.
“Don’t tell me, her bark is worse than her bite,” Luke chuckled.
“Actually, I’d say her bark is mild compared to her bite,” Abi grinned.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said, and he would too. One thing that he’d learned in all of his years as an enforcer was to never underestimate an opponent.
~
~
~
Sarah scowled a look back over her shoulder at Paul who followed on behind her. She walked over towards her sisters, who were looking mighty conspiratorial as they stood under an old oak tree away from the gathered pack, whispering back and forth between themselves.
“Looks like you picked up a stray,” Rory gave the beta something of an evil eyed glare that stopped him in his tracks.
“That’s not funny,” Paul grumbled a growl as he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and scowled back at her.
“It is from where I’m standing,” Rory offered back to him with a quick shrug off her shoulders and a devil may care attitude.
“You know that I’m going to be your new brother, right?” Paul said.
“That would imply that your brother is wolf enough to woo me, and frankly I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet.” Rory said and was immediately greeted by a low growl from somewhere off to her right. She ignored it. “All he does is growl.”
The sound of that growl immediately snapped off, and Rory desperately wanted to allow the laughter inside of her to spill out. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was yanking his chain.
“And it would also imply that I’m going to allow you access to me,” Sarah tipped her chin up in the air, and scoffed at that idea.
“Don’t you know that a wolf always rises to a challenge?” Paul offered back with the kind of drop dead gorgeous smile that wouldn’t be amiss on a movie star.
“Don’t you know that a witch …” Sarah floundered … it was that smile of his … it had somehow messed with her mind as well as her body. She gave both sisters a wide eyed pleading look…
“Is just a bitch by another name,” Candice offered with a barely there smile upon her face, but it was her eyes that spoke volumes. She didn’t want them there anymore than they wanted to be there.
“Speaking of bitch’s…” Jessica offered her a wicked grin, but the fire within her eyes should have warned the she-wolf off.
Candice let a low, deep growl rumble through her chest. The thought of four witches gazumping the packs females and snagging the four best suitors for themselves had certainly set a few tempers soaring.
“Oh, he
re we go…” Luke grumbled a low growl of his own, but his was pure annoyance that his time with Abi was about to be taken up – not wooing, but sorting out his own pack.
The three witches stood shoulder to shoulder. If something was about to kick off then they wanted to see it coming, and they also wholeheartedly believed in getting in the first strike, because with the supernatural, you never knew if you were going to get a second.
“That’s enough,” Luke hadn’t moved from Abi’s side.
He was now in protection mode, and she was his mate. Although, he didn’t think it would go down at all well if something happened to any of her kin. Especially, as he’d been the one who had brought them to pack land.
“Walk on, Candice,” Paul growled a warning at the she-wolf, but she kept on eyeing the sisters.
“I’m just saying,” Candice sneered at Jessica…
“When we want your opinion, we’ll whistle,” Rory offered as sweetly as she could.
“That’s enough, girls,” Abi warned.
“This is exactly my point,” Celine said. “Our two worlds don’t mix, or shouldn’t.”
“It’s fine, mum,” Abi sighed.
She really didn’t want her mother throwing a hissy fit in the middle of the barbecue, especially when things were going so badly to start off with.
“No,” Luke growled. His eyes were on Candice and that growl brought her attention back around to him. “It’s not fine. Stand down, Candice.” Luke warned her, and at his steely tone, the young she-wolf seemed to deflate.
“You seem to forget who you’re talking too,” Scott leant his shoulder against the oak tree, and Jessica practically snapped to attention at hearing his voice just behind her left shoulder…
Stealthy … she grumbled. Very stealthy. I’ll have to remember that.
“Candi,” Mark, her brother, detached himself from the group that were standing watching what was happening, and he rushed to his sister’s rescue once again. She had a habit of digging herself into some big, deep holes that he always seemed to be pulling her out of.
“I was just saying,” Candice growled, annoyed that everyone was taking the witches side.
“Walk on,” Rory offered, and Jessica gave her sister a quick jab in the ribs with her elbow.
“Leave it now,” Jessica hissed out on a whisper, but the alpha heard her words, and given the circumstances, he was impressed that she had the leadership to try to stop the situation from escalating.
“She started it,” Rory grumbled back.
“And now it’s done,” Jessica’s tone said that there was no more to debate.
Sometimes when Abi wasn’t around she felt like the mother to her siblings.
“And what pray tell do we have here?” Tobias strolled into the midst of the gathering like he belonged.
All five witches snapped to attention. Luke groaned and rolled his eyes back into his head at the sight of the vampire, and all that his appearance entailed.
Witches and vampires together could be an unholy mixture. And this particular vampire was more abrasive than most – with a personality that only a mother could love.
There might have been two mothers among the witches, but he sincerely doubted that there was going to be much of a love in.
“Tobias, don’t start.” Scott was in no mood for the vampire’s antics. He wanted to make it clear right off the bat that matings were a definite no-go area for him.
“Me? Start? Whatever do you mean?” There was a glint of amusement in the vampire’s eyes, and that look, more than anything else, caused Scott to groan inwardly.
The alpha eyed the group. He could see the expectation and anticipation in each and every member of his pack – they were expecting non-compliance from the vampire every bit as much as he was.
“I’m guessing that this is the vampire that’s going to see to me,” Celine’s cut glass voice brought everyone’s attention towards her.
“Mum, I really think that you want to rephrase that,” Abi said as she closed her eyes and shook her head in dismay.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“While that’s a very … Generous, offer…” The vampire said, but he got no further when Richard slowly shook his head on a grumbled groan…
“Trust me, you don’t wanna mess with that one,” Richard looked anywhere but at Celine.
The elder had been watching and listening to her since the moment that he’d arrived, and that woman could give the vampire a run for his money.
She may not have had fangs and claws … at least not in the physical sense … but he sensed that the woman was formidable.
“Or maybe I do,” Tobias looked as if he had a joke that only he knew the punchline to, and he wasn’t about to share. “And, oh look, the pack are having a barbecue and I wasn’t invited.”
“There’s plenty of room on the grill, jump right on,” Rory sneered.
“Oh, it’s a cliché … a vampire hating witch,” Tobias looked unimpressed.
“I don’t hate vampires. I just don’t trust them,” Rory gave a small shrug off the shoulders.
“Now, see, there’s your problem, right there. You were talking about the species in general, where in fact, as individuals, we are all unique.” Tobias offered her a small frown, “and how would you like it if I said that all witches had warts on their noses, wore pointy hats and pointy shoes, had black familiars, and needed to be burnt at the stake?”
“I’d say someone wanted to swallow their fangs,” Scott growled.
“I see someone’s been infected with the mating bug,” Tobias offered to the alpha, and received a grunt in return.
“Oh, you have no idea,” Richard offered with another small shake of his head.
“More than one?” Tobias looked around. It was only then that he noticed the fact that four of the males were shadowing four of the witches. “Well, well, well, this is a turn up for the books.”
“Tobias … It wouldn’t be a good idea to rattle anyone’s cage today,” Luke growled.
“I’m hurt that you would think so little of me,” Tobias grinned. He had a wicked glint in his eye, and Luke knew that look well. Tobias folded his arms across his chest and regarded the witches with amusement. “Maybe I’ll just stick around to watch the fireworks.”
“Or maybe not,” Scott offered back.
“It says something about a pack when they befriend a vampire,” Celine snorted her contempt for the man.
“Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing about witches,” Tobias hooked just one eyebrow high on his forehead and stared back at the matriarch as if she was a coiled Viper getting ready to strike.
Tobias guessed that he couldn’t blame her for her prejudice. From the moment that his kind had walked on the earth, vampires had been the bane of the witches existence.
“Tobias,” Paul growled…
“Not you to…” Tobias rolled his eyes, “well that’s three … I’m guessing there’s one more.” Tobias rolled his eyes towards Dane. “Something you want to tell me?”
Dane followed suit and rolled his eyes, but the man only grunted in reply.
“Gee whiz, thanks a lot,” Rory’s snarked at her mate.
“Oh, now you want to be my mate,” Dane grumbled back.
“Am I sensing a little tension?” Tobias grinned.
“Tobias, I probably…” Dane considered it for a moment, “no, I do, like you more than I like Paul, but right now you need to take your head and shove it right up your chocolate whiz way.”
“Well, that’s a very graphic description,” Tobias said. “I don’t think any of us will be mistaking your meaning on that one.”
“Seconded,” Rory said.
“Thank you,” Tobias said.
“Not you, him,” Rory pointed a finger at Dane. “What he said.”
“My, aren’t you two just made for each other?” Tobias grinned.
Celine snorted her contempt for that statement, and brought the vampire’s attention b
ack towards her. The man was readable, normally vampires held a blank expression like a mask, but this man was different. She could see the mischief within his eyes, and she knew that look well: every member of her family had the exact same look.
“You disagree?” Tobias asked the matriarch.
“Oh how perceptive of you,” Celine sneered back.
“Oh, do tell?” Tobias almost begged.
“Oh, do go away,” Celine bit out.
“I’m getting the distinct feeling that you don’t like me,” Tobias, always with a flair for the dramatic, pouted.
“Don’t take it personally … I don’t think that woman likes anyone,” Richard grumbled.
“Someone’s feeling particularly morose today,” Tobias said turning his attention to the elder.
Richard grunted in reply. When he’d heard about the matings, the old man had been quite looking forward to it, but now it left a little sour taste upon his tongue.
“That would be the company I’m keeping,” Richard grumbled again.
“You really are a cantankerous old…” Celine aimed a glare at the elder, but Abi stepped in before her mother could finish her rant.
“Well isn’t this…?” Abi said, but then she was lost for something to say. Her mother on the other hand wasn’t.
“Buzzard,” Celine wouldn’t be silenced.
“Gran’s really on fire today,” Sarah chuckled.
“Now there’s an image…” Tobias started, but the sound of Scott’s deep, hard, warning growl rumbled through the air towards him and silenced him on the spot.
“Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea,” Luke grumbled.
“Whatever would make you think that?” Abi chuckled back to her mate.
Luke was impressed by the fact that his mate was still somehow managing to keep a sense of humour even in the face of so much annoying animosity. The woman seemed to have a pretty even temperament, and he liked that about her.
“Yeah, I wonder,” Luke gave a small shake of his head. “Well, this is my pack, warts and all, and I guess that its better you see it now rather than later. This is what you would be letting yourself in for.”