His Mate - Brothers - Generations

by M. L. Briers

  Mum’s probably mated…

  How the hell long is Sarah going to last out…?

  That leaves me … and Gran … but, Goddess do I not want to think about Gran doing it!

  So me … that leaves me … and how long until the mating pull gets to me?

  That’s probably what he’s waiting for…

  She pushed up in the bed and glared at the door in the darkness…

  Oh, that damn alpha is just sitting outside that door waiting for the mating pull to suck me in!

  I should have known.

  I should have seen it coming with his … well, if you need anything…

  Ha! And Pah!

  I have your damn number Mr Wolf, and I won’t be calling it!

  Or will I?

  She swallowed down hard at the thought.

  Didn’t the mating pull get to everybody?

  Shouldn’t I just kill him and get it over with?

  Kill him? No … a little harsh … but then he’ll turn rogue and be dead anyways so technically I’d be cutting out the middle man, so to speak…

  But I’m not a killer … maybe I could magic the vampire into … no…

  Jessica flopped back down against the pillows and sighed again.

  There’s no hope for me…

  I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t.

  What if I didn’t mate with him and he turned rogue, and then his pack had to kill him, and I could never come back and see my family…?

  Wait … my family are all mating!

  My family are all going to be staying on the mountain and … except Gran … I Can see her laughing her head of as she drives off and leaves the old coot behind, with a wave and a smug smile on her evil lips…

  Actually … I kind of can’t…

  I supposed it would be good for Gran to have someone her age to keep her company as she grows older…

  That leaves just me.

  I wouldn’t have my family. I wouldn’t have my one true love…

  Never to find love again … never to be loved so completely…

  Goddess, what am I doing?

  I don’t know if I’m arguing for or against anymore.

  He is kind of funny … in an alpha kind of a way.

  He’s definitely hot … so hot…

  Don’t think … just sleep. Turn off your brain … say goodnight Lucy!

  Fat damn chance!

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “So tell me about where you live,” Paul asked.

  He was stretched out on the bed at one end and Sarah was stretched out on the bed at the other. He was laid on his side with his elbow propping him up, and his head was resting against his upturned hand, while she was lying on her stomach, both legs bent at the knees behind her with her ankles crossed in mid-air.

  She looked so damn cute that he was almost desperate to scoot across the bed and snatch her up – kiss her long and hard until she was breathless from his kisses – and then let nature take its course.

  Instead he was driving himself and his wolf crazy by being patient, giving her time, and using that time to learn everything that he could about her.

  “I live on the outskirts of a large town. That’s me, mum, and Rory, we all live together … or we did, I guess Rory lives here now,” she considered that for a long moment. It felt strange to know that her sister wouldn’t be going home with them … “and mum … I think that was probably mum that just…” she hooked a thumb over her shoulder towards the window, and Paul grinned.

  “It certainly came from outside,” he offered back. “It could have been your Gran…”

  “Don’t make me think about that!” Sarah pulled a face, wrinkling up her nose and shaking her head with disdain. “I really, really … yuck!”

  “You think older people don’t have sex?” Paul chuckled.

  “I like to think they don’t, anything else is just too much to deal with,” she shot back on a frown. “I think it’s really just the thought of Gran … no I can’t…” she shook her head. “Please don’t make me think about it.” She chuckled.

  “Okay, change of subject … favourite music…?”

  “All!” She shrugged again, happily.

  “Favourite food?”

  “Anything my mum cooks,” she gave a large nod. That was an easy one.

  “Favourite … television show?”

  “Anything with a female kicking butt, and no witch shows … they get it so wrong it’s annoying!” on that note she shook her head.

  “Female butt kickers, no witches, got it,” he grinned.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “Sports, any music, lasagne…”

  “Mum’s lasagne is amazingly good,” she grinned.

  “Think she’ll make it for me?”

  “I think if you ask her nicely she will,” Sarah offered back.

  “And is it like mother like daughter, do you like to cook?”

  “She’s sharing her secret recipes with me, but I’m still only learning.” She offered back, and then she pushed up onto her side and found that she liked that view of him better – she could take him in all of the time like that.

  “Are you going to cook me lasagne?” he gave her a teasing smile.

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe as in yes?” He pressed – that smile turning dazzling as he turned on the charm.

  “Maybe as in, don’t count your chickens,” she teased back.

  “Because you’re going to cook one of them for me?” He chuckled, and that deep, smooth sound made her ears prick up and her insides flutter. The man took sexy to a new level.

  “Pushy …” she chuckled, “very, very pushy.” She admonished him.

  “Well, you never get anything you want if you don’t push just a little.”

  “Okay, so what do you want?” Sarah asked and he didn’t even take a breath before he answered.

  “You.”

  Sarah’s mouth dropped open in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that. Then she felt the girlie giggles rise within her and she tried to bite them back, but they fell from her lips anyway.

  “Go ahead, mock me,” he teased and she rolled over onto her back and laughed harder.

  And then there he was. In the blink of an eye, he’d moved across the mattress and was by her side, looking down on her. That dazzlingly, sexy smile of his spellbinding her to the spot.

  Paul reached out his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek. Colour flooded her skin and she drew in a breath…

  “What are you waiting for?” She sounded breathless even to herself, and brazen beyond belief, and yet … he definitely didn’t seem to mind one bit as he leaned in and took her lips with his.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  ~

  Jessica wasn’t sure how long she’d laid there in the dark. She’d tried to count sheep, and then she’d thought about damn wolves chasing them all away on a hunt … she’d tried to think of the most boring and mundane thing she could … like one of her Gran’s stories about when she was a child … and then she’d thought about wolves chasing her Gran away…

  And then the sound of another one of those damned howls went up and shook absolutely everything in the room around her, including the bed, and she sat bolt upright and practically growled into the semi darkness of the room…

  “Not another bloody one!” She ground out before she threw herself backwards against the pillows and resisted the urge to scream, good and loud and wake up the whole mountain!

  I hate wolves!

  I hate mountains!

  I hate holidays!

  I just want to go to sleep!

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Morning was just breaking through the chink in the curtains when Jessica finally resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t getting any sleep. She’d tossed and turned inside the covers all night … two howls! Two matings! Two more members of her family weren’t going
home.

  Coffee was calling her name, and she slipped out of the bed and looked back at it with disdain. She had the urge to make it up and smooth away the signs of a sleepless night in those twisted sheets, and then she had the urge to make the alpha do it himself as a punishment for giving her the damned sleepless night.

  A little lead headed and a lot annoyed with herself for not being able to turn off her brain, she yanked on her clothes before padding to the door on sock clad feet, and then she yanked it open…

  Of course, he would be sitting there looking all sexy as hell and like he’d had plenty of damn sleep!

  Alphas! Mates! Men!

  She felt an irrational urge to kick the puppy, and maybe if he hadn’t of dragged himself to his feet, she might just have done it as well.

  “Speak to the damn hand…” she held out her palm towards him, set her shoulders as best she could with the imaginary lead weights that were tied to her backside dragging her down from lack of sleep, and started on by him for the downstairs, the kitchen, and coffee.

  “I’m guessing you’re not a morning person,” Scott offered from behind her as he kept step with her the whole way – like a faithful dog behind its master.

  “Not a morning person, not a damned you person, not a mountain person, a non person until I get my coffee…”

  Jessica mumbled something unintelligible to follow that, but from the sound of it, Scott figured it wasn’t polite.

  When she reached the downstairs hallway, she stopped in her tracks and eyed the area. How the heck was she supposed to know where they’d left the kitchen?

  “Kitchen!” She grumbled, and Scott obliged by wrapping his hand around her wrist, lifting her hand to his face, and speaking to her palm…

  “Turn left, end of the hallway,” he said with glee, and his eyes practically sparkled with life, amusement, and everything else unholy at that time in the morning when she hadn’t had at least two cups of java.

  Jessica snatched back her hand and he was sure that he heard a growl roll through her chest … one thing was for sure; his wolf’s ears had pricked up at that sound.

  “I’m not even laughing on the inside,” Jessica offered back through narrowed eyes and a small sneer.

  It was all that she could manage in her fuddled state, but get a couple of cups of the black stuff inside of her, overloaded with sugar, and she’d be good to go.

  “No sense of humour in the morning … check,” Scott offered back, all smug and with a bright shiny smile … and she grumbled some more as she turned right and started off …

  Scott’s large hands came down on her shoulders and spun her back the other way…

  “Doesn’t know her left from her right … check!” He was teasing and playful, and she had the urge to smack him with a skillet … that was when she actually managed to find the damn kitchen.

  “Don’t you have a poor, innocent little rabbit to slay, a tree to pee up, or a bird in said tree to growl at?” She grumbled, shrugging off his hands, and noting the way that her insides had taken a rollercoaster ride without even setting foot in a theme park.

  “Not right now,” he said leaning in towards her and whispering at her ear, “I’m all yours.”

  Jessica groaned as she entered the kitchen and devoured the empty coffee pot with her eyes … mine … she said, chuckling to herself as she stalked towards it…

  “Don’t fall off the mountain on my account,” she sneered back at him.

  Her hands reached for the prize and she snatched it up … lost then to where the vital ingredients were so that she could make her heart’s desire, give her body what it needed, and that tasty treat that would kickstart her brain.

  “Let me help you with that,” he said, moving to stand beside her. His hands were already busy opening cupboards and finding what she needed, and she could have blessed him for his timely intervention … anything was acceptable when there was a coffee shortage.

  “Only because I’m not too proud to accept help.”

  “I’m betting it’s more a fact that you are coffee hound,” he gave her something of a knowing look with his eyebrows arched just daring her to deny that fact.

  Jessica grunted. She wasn’t about to admit anything, especially, just how badly she needed that coffee.

  The sound of the back door opening took their attention towards it, and her mother came breezing through the back door with Luke behind her, and Jessica could miss the happy-happy joyful look on her face.

  Jessica couldn’t deny her mother happiness, even if it was another nail in her own coffin.

  “Good morning,” Abi said, looking decidedly like the cat that got the cream.

  “For some,” Jessica offered back.

  “I take it that howl that we heard last night was you?” Abi offered back with a small grimace when her daughter grumbled a grown.

  “Can I just get my damn coffee?” Jessica snapped.

  “Why don’t you go and sit down and I’ll make it,” Scott offered back, amusement playing in his eyes once more.

  “I can make coffee.” She huffed and blew a stray strands of her hair from in front of her eyes.

  “It might not be drinkable,” Abi chuckled, and her mother was way too happy and upbeat for her to be able to deal with at stupid o’clock in the morning, with no sleep, and no coffee to fuel her very being.

  “It’s not that bad…” She grumbled.

  “Please, I’ve had fryer fires where the oil looked more appetizing and smelled better than your coffee,” Abi scoffed.

  “Settled,” Scott frowned, “go sit, I’m not drinking sludge.”

  “It’s still coffee…” she huffed, but did what she was told and moved across the other side of the counter to one of the stools. She could have sat at the kitchen table, but she wanted to be first in line for the good stuff. “In varying shade and textures.”

  “That’s what I’m looking to avoid,” Scott chuckled.

  “So I take it that you two didn’t…?” Abi didn’t bother to whisper. There were too many big, bad wolf ears around for that to even be an issue.

  Jessica scowled back at her mother in reply, but when she opened her mouth to answer Rory strolled through the internal door with Dane behind her…

  “Good morning!” Rory announced and Jessica turned her scowl from her mother to her sibling.

  “Is it, is it really?” Jessica bit out.

  “Oooo, someone fell out of the wrong side of their coffin this morning,” Rory shot back.

  “Please go crawl back under the rock that you…” Jessica was winding up for a long one and her mother stepped in.

  “So, Rory mated, we mated…” she tossed a wicked look in Luke’s direction and the man growled back in perfect harmony with her thoughts. “Who was the third?”

  “I thought it was Jessica…” Rory announced, just to annoy her sister even more. Jessica snorted her contempt for that one.

  “Must have been Sarah…” Abi said with a small shrug off her shoulders.

  “Could have been Gran…” Rory sniggered.

  “Can we not, at least not before I’ve had two cups of java … at least two to be even able to contemplate the thought of Gran … doing the deed …” Jessica gave a mock shiver at the thought, and Abi lifted her hand and opened her mouth when the sound of another howl went up and shook the windows…

  All three witches starred opened mouthed at each other…

  “That definitely came from outside,” Luke offered.

  “G-r-a-n…?” Jessica’s face twisted into a hard grimace…

  “Way to go Gran!” Rory chuckled like a schoolgirl on prom night.

  “Way to go, Richard,” Luke chuckled.

  “I’m guessing we should be happy that he mated…?”Dane offered back, pulling a face at the thought of Celine…

  “Is that a jibe at my gran?” Rory scowled at her mate … and he frowned back at her as he quickly shook his head, guilt playing on his face…

  CHAPTER TWENT
Y EIGHT

  ~

  “No!” Dane protested his innocence, but they both knew what he’d meant by it.

  “Poor – poor Richard,” Abi offered with a shake of her own head, and then she snorted a chuckle. “I wonder who will kill who first?” She announced to splutters of chuckles around the kitchen.

  When the back door opened and the vampire stood on the threshold eyeing this inside of the room and its occupants as if they were rattle snakes with something to hide, only Scott growled at him…

  “Ah-ha!” He announced, “so you’re the only unmated one in the…” he stopped and considered it for a long moment, just as Sarah breezed in with Paul in tow… “Am I missing something?” He asked. “Four witches, three matings, but four howls…?” He raised one eyebrow expectantly…

  “Give him a minute, I’m sure he’ll get it,” Luke chuckled, and it did take him a minute … and then he raised his hands and slapped them against his cheeks…

  “Oh – my – God … Grandma!” His eyes were wide and he still had his palms flat against his cheeks as he turned his head from side to side… “Say it isn’t so…?” he begged Luke in a dramatic fashion.

  “You know,” Sarah said, “since yesterday, I’ve got a mate, one … but soon to be, two, new brothers…”

  “Two?” Jessica hissed at her.

  “A new step daddy,” Sarah continued, ignoring her sister’s venom, “and now I’ve got a new step granddaddy…”

  “This family has been busy,” the vampire threw scorn in her direction. “I have to wonder what you do for an encore … all spit out offspring at the same time? Except Granny, because that would just be so against nature…” he rolled his eyes to the ceiling and considered that.

  “I think I’m a little long in the tooth,” Abi held up her hand and the vampire narrowed his eyes on her…

  “Are you still … fertile?” he asked and Luke snapped out a growl as he went to take a step towards the man…

  “Don’t ask my mate questions like that,” the enforcer growled.

  “I was just thinking that if she was … a barren wasteland…” Four witches hissed back at him like coiled vipers… “without ….hmm.” He waved an absent hand and groaned. “My blood could probably help with that. If you wanted offspring!” he snorted back. He’d had to go all around the houses to get to where he was going without stepping on too many toes, but he’d done it.