by M. L. Briers
“How long will it last?” Greg wanted to get the sniffing part over and done with and find out if she was his mate once and for all.
“Not long,” she lied.
It would last as long as she wanted it to last, or until she left his vicinity. Either way, the man wouldn’t be sniffing her.
“Then there’s only one thing for it,” Greg growled as he leaned in.
Tonya pulled her head back on her neck as far as she could, pressing right up against the wall, stupid wall, she’d rather it wasn’t there, but it was, and that meant that she couldn’t get away from the alpha. Maybe she’d been a little rash in not allowing him to sniff.
“What are you doing?” She demanded.
“The only thing I can when my nose doesn’t work,” Greg said, and then he offered her a very wolfish grin.
“Okay-okay, not a fate worse than death. I’ll give you your nose back,” she sighed.
“Too late.”
Before Tonya could do another thing, she felt his warm, soft lips against hers. There wasn’t exactly a flash of lightning or anything. No rapturous choir sang within her mind, but there was a rush of heat that tore through her body, and the accompanying tingles that rushed over her skin weren’t exactly nausea inducing.
Mine…
Greg’s beast knew its mate when they found her. His wolf roared inside of him and threatened to push forward.
Greg snapped his head back and eyed the witch with a mixture of shock and disbelief. Tonya eyed him right back. She snagged her top lip between her teeth and narrowed her eyes at him.
“M…” Greg started, but three heads poked around the corner of the wall, and he caught sight of them out of the corner of his eye.
A warning growl rumbled in his chest, he’d sensed danger, but only because he couldn’t sniff. His eyes flicked toward them and his head followed on a snap that cracked the bones in his neck.
There they were — the Christmas fairy, the fairy godmother, and his mother. Greg groaned.
“I think I’ve proven my case,” George said.
He had a large smug smile that stretched his lips, and boy did the alpha want to wipe that smile right off his face.
“A witch mate?” His mother considered it for a long moment, chewing it over, and with her mouth moving to boot.
Greg and Tonya didn’t move a muscle, talk about awkward.
“I guess I can work with that.” Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
“I…” Tonya started, but at the sound of a groan from the alpha, she pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
“As long as there are pups, lots of them,” Rachel added on a shrug.
Tonya gave a small squeak that lodged in her throat and brought Greg’s attention right back to her. It was her turn to look as if she was chewing a wasp, and Greg groaned again.
What a way to find your mate, he thought, with the Christmas fairy, the fairy godmother, and your mother looking on – judging you. No pressure there then.
~
~
~
“I’m not,” Tonya shook her head to back up her words.
“You are,” Greg nodded his head to back up his words.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not.” Tonya slapped her hands on her hips and offered her mate a glare as she faced off against him.
“You are,” Greg grumbled a growl.
“I’m not.”
“You are,” George said as he appeared at the side of them. Both heads turned in his direction, and both mates glared at him.
“Could you stay out of this?” Greg growled.
“Stay out of it?” Tonya tossed out a hand and inadvertently slapped George in the face. The fairy grunted in pain. “This is his damn fault.”
“Yes, it’s his fault…” Greg shrugged his shoulders and tossed his hands out to the side. He caught George a hefty blow to the stomach, and George folded over in pain.
“Exactly,” Tonya tossed up her hands and smacked George on the nose. The Christmas fairy snapped back upright and groaned.
“You people are dangerous to be around,” George grumbled as he took a long step back.
They both turned to glare at him again. He took another long step back.
“Stay out of this, fairy,” Greg growled.
George held his hands up to his chest in surrender.
“Hey, I just put you two lovebirds together — it’s up to you to woo your mate now, alpha,” George grumbled as he reached up and snapped his nose back into place. He grinned again.
“What’s wrong with you?” The alpha looked George up and down, and then dismissed him, just as George lifted his hand and opened his mouth to tell him.
“Well, what do we have here?” Deanna asked as she sauntered toward the group, careful not to get too close.
Her eyes took in the witch. Then she moved on to George, and her eyes narrowed with suspicion as she made a point of sniffing the air.
The woman pulled her head back as if she’d been slapped.
George cleared his throat and swallowed down hard.
Normally, the sight of a beautiful, very sexy, female would have brightened his day.
Unfortunately, there was no silver lining in coming face-to-face with a vampire.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“Oh, good, another one,” George grumbled.
“Vampire?” Greg growled at the perceived danger.
Not just the danger from Deanna being close to his mate, but, if the Christmas fairy was to be believed — and he wasn’t sure that he was — then there was another vampire around.
Greg didn’t like those odds.
“No,” George shook his head to alleviate the alpha’s worries. “Female,” he grumbled.
“I hear that,” Greg muttered in a low voice, but everybody present heard him. “Four females.”
A rumble of a growl rolled through the alpha’s chest.
‘Don’t forget me!’ Jessica’s shrill-like tones made the alpha’s sensitive ears hurt.
“We’re trying,” George grumbled.
“Five females,” Greg said and followed it up with a small sigh.
The alpha liked strong women as much as the next man, but five of them…and one was his mate, and he was supposed to woo her. His day certainly hadn’t gone as he’d planned.
“Fairy?” Deanna looked to the alpha as if the man had lost his mind.
“Three of them,” Greg offered back before he allowed his eyes to close briefly and gave a slow shake of his head in dismay.
“Interesting,” Deanna offered back.
“And tasty too,” Tonya offered as she offered a not so subtle nod of her head toward George.
“That’s a little cold and heartless, don’t you think?” George asked the witch.
He didn’t look too impressed by the fact that she was willing to throw him under the bus.
“Compared to kidnapping me with my own car?” Tonya pretended to consider that for a moment. She didn’t need to consider it, George deserved what he got.
“Well, alpha — good luck with that,” George raised his eyebrows high on his forehead and offered the alpha a look of pity.
“Say one word,” Tonya warned the alpha.
“Hey, I don’t care if the vampire eats the damn Christmas fairy.” Greg shrugged.
“The Christmas fairy?” Deanna looked at George with skepticism.
“Yes, the Christmas fairy,” the fairy godmother offered with clipped tones that sounded not only bored but unamused.
“And who are you, the fairy godmother?” Deanna folded her arms and offered Miriam a hard stare.
“Exactly,” Miriam offered back.
The women squared off against each other. Neither one was blinking or backing down.
“Deanna,” Greg growled. “Behave.”
“I did nothing,” Deanna rolled her eyes and waved an absent hand in the air in front of her.
“Y
et,” Greg growled back. “You did nothing… Yet.”
“She doesn’t look very tasty.” Deanna was playing with the alpha.
“And you don’t look very smart — but am I complaining?” Miriam’s clipped tones sounded more caustic than bored.
“Whoa, bitch slapped,” George chuckled, but the sight of Miriam’s glare as it bore into his very soul made him snap off that chuckle and clear his throat. “I mean — nice comeback.”
“Fairy godmother, thank you for your assistance in this matter,” Greg tried to head off the situation. He had his mate — he didn’t need any trouble and Deanna could be a handful.
“What am I, chopped liver?” George grumbled.
“Yum, liver,” Deanna offered with a look of glee that spread across her face, and she had a disconcerting twinkle in her eye.
“That’s not how I taste,” George rushed out his denial.
“Deanna, go home,” Greg growled.
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll come home with you,” Deanna folded her arms under her pert breasts and offered the alpha a toothy grin. She was bored and watching the alpha trying to woo his mate should liven up her day.
“That will make the wooing go well,” George grumbled.
The thought of getting home for the last call at the bar and a much-needed drink with his friends seemed like a distant fantasy.
“Wooing!” Tonya snapped to attention. Damn, but she hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh, there will be wooing,” Greg growled.
“Gee gods, I’ve landed in hell,” Tonya sighed.
“And a Merry Christmas was had by one and all,” George chuckled.
“My Christmas tree!” Rachel announced like she’d just discovered the atom.
Greg grumbled another growl. All he needed right then was to go back to the Christmas tree lot and wait while his mother fussed and picked out the perfect tree.
He had wooing to do.
He had a mate to win as his own.
Mine…
The sooner that he got back onto pack land, the better. His mate needed to see her new home, and he needed to get rid of all the other females.
Not to mention the Christmas fairy.
~
~
~
One female down, Greg thought happy thoughts, as the fairy godmother went back to wherever the fairy godmother came from, and he only had four more to go. Well, three — because Greg didn’t want to get rid of his mate — exactly.
But with the oversized Christmas tree strapped to the back of his truck, his mate in the passenger seat, and his mother and the Christmas fairy in the back seat, the alpha headed back toward home.
He tried to ignore the little fairy that was sitting on the dashboard, giving him a judgemental look and the vampire that was following in her own car. He had a mate to woo.
Not just any mate — a witch.
Greg grumbled a growl as his beast became agitated with him.
Mine…
In the beast’s mind; wooing was wooing — claiming was claiming — and he was eager to get started.
Greg — not so much.
Tonya had already shown her true colors to him. She’d already run off on him twice.
She couldn’t be trusted not to do it again. He’d have to watch her like a…wolf.
And he’d also have to get rid of his mother, the Christmas fairy, the little female fairy, and the damn vampire.
CHAPTER NINE
~
Tonya couldn’t believe how pretty and picturesque the alpha’s community actually was. Set in woodland with log cabins scattered around and the snowy scenery, it reminded her of a Christmas card.
That reminded her of the Christmas fairy, and she lost that warm glow that had raised its ugly head inside of her. She needed to be cold, calm, and clinical about this whole mess that the idiot fairy had dropped her right into if she was to get herself out of it.
Nobody could save her but her. She always relied on herself.
Tonya had agreed to go back to pack land with the alpha because it was easier than standing in a dark alley arguing with the man in front of so many people.
Awkward.
That didn’t mean that she was onboard with the whole mating thing — or that she was going to stick around longer than it took her to find an escape route. She wasn’t.
Time was ticking on the whole mating pull thing that fate had been so devious and so generous to slap on the whole deal — like an extra app that you didn’t really want but got anyway.
She was certainly getting some sort of a buzz just by being that close to him, and she didn’t like it. Well, she did, and that was what worried her the most.
“Home Sweet home,” George said.
The alpha’s eyes glared at him in the mirror, Tonya’s head slowly turned, and she offered him a death glare. He could feel the steely gaze of the she-wolf boring into his very soul from beside him.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Rachel growled.
“I have a home to go to, thank you,” George offered back.
“There’s a coincidence — so do I,” Tonya hissed back like a snake that was ready to inject its deadly venom into him.
“Yep, that one,” George chuckled at her misfortune.
“I thought the Christmas fairy was supposed to be, female, sweet, nice, all the things you’re not,” Tonya grumbled back.
“They went for a change this year,” George grinned.
‘You can say that again.’ Jessica offered as she swung her legs back and forth over the side of the dashboard.
“Lucky me,” Tonya muttered.
“Did somebody say something?” George cupped his ear and grinned at the fairy.
“You say too much,” Greg growled.
“Why are you shifters never happy that you found your mate?” George asked.
“You’ve done this before?” Greg eyed him in the mirror.
‘Don’t ask,’ Jessica said as she dramatically dropped her head into her hands and shook it in dismay.
“It wasn’t that bad,” George grumbled.
“What did you do?” Rachel demanded.
“Me — nothing,” George rushed out.
‘That’s not exactly true, is it, George?’
“How badly did it go wrong?” Rachel growled.
‘You mean apart from the fact that the witch mate nearly died?’
“But, she didn’t…” George started.
‘But, she could have.’
“But she didn’t, and that’s the main thing,” George grumbled and offered Jessica a death glare.
“Stay away from my mate,” Greg growled.
“”It wasn’t entirely my fault, the witch was drunk,” George held his hands up in surrender and shrugged his shoulders.
“Why don’t I kill him, throw him out the back door, and be done with it?” Rachel offered with a look that George thought was decidedly hungry at the idea of his demise.
“Sounds like a plan,” Greg offered back.
“I don’t think the fairy nation would be very pleased with that,” George rushed out.
‘I say never look a gift horse in the mouth.’
“Well, thanks, Jessica. Whose side are you on — don’t answer that. I already know,” George grumbled.
‘Well, you did kidnap the witch when I told you not to.’
“Oh yes,” Greg’s index finger jabbed the down button on the back window next to George.
George felt the icy blast, but he was more concerned with why his window was opening.
“Problem?” George asked.
“You can fly, can’t you?” Greg asked.
“Well…” George started, but the hearty growl from the she-wolf beside him made him snap his attention toward her.
“Fly or be thrown,” Rachel snapped a wolfish grin on her face.
“Seriously?” George asked, but when the alpha growled right alongside his mother, then he figured he had his answer.
&n
bsp; ‘Bye, George.’
It didn’t take George more than a second to transform into his fairy-self. With another hearty growl from next to him, he took to flight and exited the car through the open window.
Greg chuckled to himself as he closed the window behind the Christmas fairy. The sound of Jessica chuckling was actually music to his ears. It was also contagious.
~
~
~
“Welcome home,” Greg said.
He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the situation, but she was his mate, and it was her home now. Having a witch, and therefore magic, around the place would take some getting used to.
Mine…
“If only I were,” Tonya muttered under her breath. That didn’t stop the alpha from eyeing her with suspicion.
“Make yourself at home — because my home is your home — well, it is your home… anyway.” Greg pulled his head back on his neck, cleared his throat, looked somewhat confused as his eyebrows pinched together, and he gave a small shake of his head in dismay.
He’d never been so damn tongue-tied in his life before.
“Have you ever actually spoken to a woman before?” Tonya asked, and his lower jaw sagged in surprise. Then he snapped out of it.
“Of course I’ve talked to a woman before,” he growled back.
“It wouldn’t appear so,” Tonya said.
“Snap out of it, son,” Rachel offered as she stalked towards the kitchen and snorted a chuckle in the alpha’s direction.
“Everyone’s a critic,” Greg grumbled.
“I’ll put some supper on?” Rachel called from inside the kitchen as she let the door close behind her.
“Yum!” Deanna said as she stood in the doorway of the cabin and eyed the mates with delight.
“Goodbye,” Tonya said as she lifted her hand, snapped her fingers, putting just a little magic behind it, and slammed the door closed in the vampire’s face.
She turned to look at the alpha, who looked a little shocked.