by M. L. Briers
“Well, you did say that I should make myself at home.” She offered him an innocent smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
Greg knew there was nothing innocent about that smile, or that witch.
He kind of liked it.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“And where do you think you’re going?” Deanna’s melodic tones soothed George’s nerves by design that was how those pesky vampires lulled their next meal. But her very presence rattled him anyway.
“Cabin,” George pointed to the front door just so there would be no mistaking what he meant.
“Didn’t you get thrown out of the fast-moving car?” She asked.
“No,” George tried to look as convincing as possible, but the way that she looked at him told him that he hadn’t quite managed it.
“Yes, you did.” Deanna raised just one eyebrow, folded her arms, and narrowed her eyes at him.
“No, no I didn’t,” George tried to sound more adamant about it. But again, he didn’t think it worked, because one of her eyebrows slowly went down and then up again toward her hairline. George sighed. “Okay, I did, but the point…”
“Do they need to paint a big not welcome sign on the front door?” Deanna asked.
“It might be an idea where you’re concerned,” he grumbled back.
“I think somebody wants to feel my fangs,” she offered with a spark of delight in her eyes.
“That would be my first choice…oh, wait…” George gave a small shake of his head in disbelief.
“Then go — be gone.” She even pointed the way just in case he was in any doubt as to what she meant.
“I bought the mates together, and it’s my job to make sure that the mating happens,” George said.
“Says who?”
“Says the fairy godmother,” George was a little more forceful that time.
“Fine. Just don’t stand so close to the cabin.” Deanna snorted her contempt for him as she raised her chin and tried to look as lofty and regal as possible.
“You mean like this close?” George took a step toward the door. He’d had enough of being pushed around by strong-willed women, and he had won a point by name dropping the fairy godmother.
“I’m a little peckish, so don’t tempt me,” Deanna warned him.
George huffed inwardly. It seemed that the supernatural world had run out of a sense of humor. Maybe, someone needed to do something about that and fast.
‘Bitch slapped by a vampire — poor, George.’ Jessica chuckled, and George groaned inwardly.
Women, women everywhere. He couldn’t win.
~
~
~
“Greg, can you go and get the Christmas tree in?” Rachel called from the kitchen.
“Now?” Greg mentally rolled his eyes and sighed.
His mother wasn’t helping much by keeping out of the way while he wooed his mate. Then she appeared at the doorway.
“Yes, while I’m doing supper you and our newest pack member can decorate the tree.”
Maybe she was helping — at least it would be an activity that he could do with his mate, and he didn’t have to think too hard about it.
“Oh, witches don’t do Christmas,” Tonya offered a small shrug.
“Neither do shifters,” Rachel offered back.
“Your point?”
“We do now.” Rachel shrugged her shoulders, turned on her heels, and disappeared back into the kitchen.
“I thought witches decorated the house for Christmas?” Greg looked slightly confused.
“For Yule, yes. Just not in the way that you do. You don’t even have a Yule log yet, do you?” She asked.
“If they sell them then I’m sure my mother has one somewhere,” Greg grumbled.
The woman did like to go all out Christmas; he couldn’t turn around without bumping into something that had been Christmas-y-fied.
“You don’t buy them; you collect one — from the woods.” She motioned an absent hand towards the front door, and Greg considered that a good enough reason to be out from under his mother’s gaze and get some alone time with his mate.
“Okay, let’s go get one.” Greg shrugged his broad shoulders. Whatever helped.
That felt like a win-win situation for him. No mother and time alone with his mate to woo her socks off as they shared something that she did at Christmas.
What could possibly go wrong?
Tonya thought that was probably a far better idea than staying inside the cabin with the pack and his mother in close proximity. That mating pull was starting to burn on a low flame within her.
The bonus would be that she’d have a chance to dump the alpha and escape.
Happy thought.
Happy dance.
~
~
~
George spotted the alpha and his mate as they left the cabin and he balked at the idea. As ideas went that one wouldn’t fly with him.
Too much could go wrong when people were outdoors, and that wasn’t going to happen on his watch – again.
“Where are we going?” George asked, keeping his distance from the alpha, his mate, and the vampire.
“We…” Greg motioned toward him, “aren’t going anywhere. You were not invited.”
“Letting a witch out of the house is not a good idea,” George offered back.
“What are you — some kind of chain a mate to the kitchen sink — type of a fairy?” Tonya turned her nose up at the man.
“No,” George shot back with disbelief as he screwed up his face and sneered at her.
“Good, then but out,” Tonya offered back.
“Is she drunk?” George demanded from the alpha.
“Not drunk!” Tonya looked at the man as if he’d just grown another head. “Are you?”
“The chance would be a fine thing,” George almost sighed at the thought of being home, in the bar, with his friends, and enjoying a drink or three, maybe more.
“Mind your own business,” Greg grumbled a growl at the man.
“Firstly, it is my business. Secondly, I have experience in this kind of thing. Before you know it she will have taken off in a mad dash to get away from you-you will burst free and chase her down — things aren’t exactly rosy now — but imagine how bad it would be after that?” George offered virtually every word all in one breath.
“You’re saying I can’t control my wolf?” Greg took a step toward him, and a long, hard growl rumbled in his chest.
“You’re calling me devious?” Tonya slapped her hands on her hips and eyed the fairy with disdain.
“Yes,” he pointed towards the alpha and got another growl in return for his trouble. “Yes.” He turned that finger on the witch, who gasped in mock shock, and zapped him for good measure.
“Butthead,” Tonya grumbled.
Then she turned on the heels and strolled away.
The alpha couldn’t help but chuckle as George dropped to his knees on the snowy ground.
She’d got him right where it hurts and brought tears to his eyes. His mate was a feisty one. He’d have to remember that.
Then the vampire cleared her throat, and Greg’s attention was snapped toward her.
“That witch that wasn’t going to get away — she’s getting away,” Deanna offered.
Greg wrenched his head around on his neck, and the vampire was sure that she could hear every bone crunch into place. Then the alpha took off after his mate, as the witch stomped away from the cabin.
“She’s not running,” Greg tossed back over his shoulder, just to clarify the situation.
“Not yet — she’s not,” George bit out through the pain of the witch’s magic.
“Look at you, all kind of incapacitated.” Deanna offered him a toothy grin.
Then her fangs pushed down into place, and George twisted his head and eyed the woman until she suddenly shrieked in pain.
‘Keep those fangs to yourself.’
George had never been
so grateful to hear Jessica’s shrill-like tones in his life.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“Slow down,” Greg said.
In truth, the human was slow, and it didn’t matter that much to him; he’d almost caught up to her anyway.
“Slow down — I have a good mind to go back there and kneecap that fairy…”
“You already got him in the balls; I’d say job done…”
“For now,” Tonya tossed back over her shoulder.
“So tell me what we’re looking for.” Greg wanted to take her mind off George and bring it back to him.
“A log.” She tossed up her hands. She was still trying to shake off her annoyance from dealing with George.
“Got it. Any log will do,” Greg offered back.
“A good, sturdy, decent sized log for burning; it needs to burn in one go and turn to cinders.”
“So, a log then.” Greg shrugged his shoulders as he followed on behind her through the snow.
“If you don’t want to be here; I can do this myself…”
“I’m sure you can,” Greg said as he eyed her with suspicion. The fairy was right; he couldn’t let her out of his sight.
“Run off home then, and you can put the Christmas tree up,” she grinned to herself at the thought.
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you,” Greg assured her.
“Held captive by the alpha, sounds like a book.” Tonya chuckled to herself. It sounded like a book that she would read.
“I’m not exactly holding you captive, now am I?” Greg grumbled. If that’s what she thought then he’d have to change her mind.
He wasn’t holding her prisoner — he was trying to woo his mate. Was that so bad?
“Can I leave?” Tonya turned toward him. Her lips bowed upward slightly, and she had an amused look in her eyes. He was grateful for that at least.
Greg cleared his throat. That was a Catch-22 kind of question that he was damned whichever way he answered.
“I thought not,” Tonya filled the gap for him.
“Where’s the harm in getting to know me?” Greg took a step toward her, and she took one back, but she still had a smile on her face, so he wasn’t too worried.
“I don’t know, that sounds like a slippery slope to me,” Tonya said as she took another step back to counter the step that he’d taken.
“A dangerous slide into finding out that you’re attracted to me after all?” Greg asked taking one more step.
“I don’t think attraction is the problem,” Tonya said, admitting for the first time what he wanted to hear. He didn’t repulse — that was always a bonus.
“You don’t like Wolves? You have a fur allergy?”
Greg’s grin was very wolfish. He couldn’t have been anything other than what he was — a wolf shifter.
It was also so damned bewitching that she couldn’t seem to take her eyes from him when he smiled.
“Let’s just say…” She got no further.
As she took one step back to counter his one step forward, the ground opened up beneath her feet, and with a squeal of surprise — she disappeared from view.
“Tonya!” Greg rushed forward without a thought to what might happen if the ground gave way under his weight.
“Don’t do it!” George warned him.
Fortunately, the fairy wasn’t driven by the emotions that the alpha was experiencing, but unfortunately, Greg wasn’t listening. He blindly raced toward the open ground above the caverns.
A heartbeat later something with the force of a brick wall slammed into him from the side, sweeping him up from the ground, and taking him down beneath the steel cage that locked over her body.
Greg roared with the need to get to his mate. The vampire’s scent was thick in the air all around him, and he needed to scent his mate.
“Let me go!” Greg roared with the rage that boiled inside of him.
“You’ll bring the whole thing down on her head,” Deanna tried to reason with the man. Even though, she knew that an alpha could not be reasoned with when his mate was in danger.
Mine…
Greg’s beast pushed forward. The wolf wanted out, and it was all that he could do to keep the beast at bay.
That didn’t stop his fangs pushing down and locking into place, or his claws from elongating and raking at the ground beneath him. his beast was just beneath his skin.
“I’ll kill you,” Greg roared with blind rage.
“In that case…” Deanna wished she could say that she hated to do it — but, as she pulled her fist back and slammed it into the alpha’s jaw, knocking him unconscious, she did have a certain level of satisfaction.
“Harsh,” George couldn’t help but chuckle as the vampire pulled herself to her feet, leaving the unconscious alpha on the ground.
“Now, let’s get his mate before he wakes up,” Deanna said as she straightened her clothing, and started toward the edge of the cavern. “And if she’s dead then we have to make plans for killing the alpha.”
“Really, really harsh,” George bit out as he gave a slow shake of his head in disbelief.
“Just realism in our world,” Deanna offered back.
“Were you a grief counselor in a previous life?”
“Do you want to know what it feels like to swallow your own teeth?” Deanna offered him a look that told him she was deadly serious. George swallowed hard.
“No, not really,” he rushed out, as he pointed toward the opening in the earth. “If I shift into my fairy form I can fly down and see what’s going on.”
“Sounds like a plan, snapped to it, there’s a good fairy.” She offered him a teasing smile.
George wasn’t entirely sure if he preferred it when she looked at him like he was a tasty snack, or when she was smiling. Both looks were unsettling for him.
“Ouch!” Tonya’s faint voice came from inside the Earth.
“Well, that answers the question if she is alive or not,” Deanna shrugged, looking bored.
“I’m still going down,” George informed her.
“Have at it,” Deanna shrugged. “I’ll sit on the alpha.”
George lost sight of his surroundings for an instant as he transformed into his fairy form. By the time that his fuzzy vision cleared once more, there was the vampire, sitting on top of the alpha.
The funny thing was, she looked comfortable.
“Vampires,” George shrugged before he buzzed through the air and made a beeline for the newly formed crack in the ground.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“I see your aura, fairy,” Tonya hated to admit it, but he was a sight for sore eyes.
‘Are you hurt?’
“Let’s just say I won’t be running any marathons. I think I broke or twisted my ankle, and I have a nice bump on my head — not that it’s nice — but you get my meaning,” Tonya said as she sighed out the pain that racked her body.
‘Well, I’m of the case, we’ll get you out of here in no time,’ George said, trying to reassure her.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Tonya offered back.
She still didn’t trust the fairy as far as she could throw him, and from what she could see of the underground cavern — what his aura lit up — she wouldn’t be throwing him far.
‘The vampire is here to help too.’
“Okay, that does make me feel slightly better,” Tonya said.
‘Really? You prefer a vampire over me?’
“The vampire didn’t kidnap me, did she?” Tonya shot back, and George had to admit that she had him there.
‘No, but she did just knock your mate out.’
“Bonus points to her,” Tonya chuckled.
Although, a moment later, she did feel the rush of annoyance that Greg had been hurt, and when she tried to squash that feeling; it refused to go anywhere. She cursed the mating pull.
‘Do you think you can climb out?’
“Send a fairy to do a woma
n’s job,” Deanna’s voice rang out from above.
‘What does that mean?’
“It means, fairy, that the walls inside that cavern have just been freshly made, do you really think they are going to stay put when she tries to climb up them?”
“She has a point,” Tonya nodded in agreement.
‘I know she has a point — that’s not the point…’
“It’s not the point?” Tonya asked. “Then what is the point?”
‘I don’t have a point,’ George admitted.
“The point is I hurt his male pride,” Deanna chuckled.
Those melodic sounds should have grated on Tonya’s nerves. Instead, they soothed them.
“So, what’s the plan?” Tonya asked.
‘Why don’t we ask the vampire?’
“I think that’s male speak for; he doesn’t have a plan,” Deanna chuckled back.
‘Oh, and you do?’
“I have a damn plan,” Greg growled.
The depth of the alpha’s voice rumbled through the cavern and started to bring the loose earth down from the walls.
‘Stop growling — you’re bringing the walls down,’ George called.
Deanna turned and threw a punch at the same time. It connected with the alpha’s jaw, and the man went flying backward through the air. He was already unconscious when he landed with a heavy thud on the ground ten feet away.
“He stopped growling,” Deanna chuckled.
‘I’m not even going to ask,’ George gave a small shake of his head. He really didn’t want to know, not when the vampire’s voice was full of glee.
~
~
~
Three members of Greg’s pack were sitting on him to hold him down. To say that the alpha was being unreasonable was an understatement, but his beast was just under his skin, and his mate was still missing from his side.
The alpha was thrashing about, trying to throw off his pack, and clawing at the earth with his nails in an effort to find enough leveraged to get himself out from under them.
“I’ll kill you — I’ll kill you all — I’ll kill you — I’ll kill you all,” Greg growled over and over again.