by M. L. Briers
~
“This is not funny, George, and I will get you back for this,” Lacey said the words, but all that came out were mumbles.
George had bound her with his magic, she couldn’t speak, she could barely move, and she certainly couldn’t use her magic to kill him. In his book that was all good.
“Is this really a good idea?” Jessica asked as she tossed a look over her shoulder at Lacey on the back seat of the car that George had stolen.
“Yes,” George said.
When they first arrived, George thought he knew what he was going, where he was going, but he’d been wrong. Either someone had moved the North Pole — or the shifters didn’t want to be found.
He’d borrowed the car. Of course, he would return it eventually, if he could remember where to leave it.
“You kidnapped your sister,” Jessica dropped her face in her hands and gave a small shake of her head in disbelief.
“Well, people keep telling me to stop kidnapping witches — she’s a fairy.” George chuckled.
“She’s your sister, George,” Jessica berated him.
“Exactly, there’s a family bond — she’ll forgive me more easily,” George said, but the muffled sounds that came from the back seat said otherwise.
“Somehow, I don’t think so,” Jessica sighed.
“Well, she’s going to be living at the North Pole — maybe out of sight out of mind is more applicable,” George chuckled.
“George, do you actually know where you’re – we’re – going?” Jessica sighed again.
“No,” George admitted. “I thought I did – but, maybe…” George hit the brakes.
There were squeals from inside the car as everyone shot forward, and back again in their seats.
“You really need to learn to drive,” Jessica grumbled.
“Look, reindeer!” George said with an element of glee. There were more muffled sounds from the back seat, but George ignored it.
“It might not be Troy,” Jessica said.
“I was going to make sure that it was him before I threw my sister out of the car and drove off,” George chuckled.
“George, that’s not funny,” Jessica berated him again as something that sounded almost like a growl came back seat.
He had to admit; he was kind of enjoying throwing his sister to the wolves, or, in her case, reindeers.
“Wait, I’m imagining it — don’t spoil my happy place just yet,” George teased to the sound of his sister’s angry grunts.
“Go and see if that reindeer is Troy,” Jessica grumbled.
George did as he was told. He left the car and started through the snow toward the reindeer.
The beast stood proudly and eyed him as he walked towards him.
Then the animal started to paw at the ground, and it snorted something of a cloud from his nose. George stopped in place, he didn’t know much about reindeer, but he guessed the beast didn’t look too happy to see him.
“Hi, remember me?” George asked, and the beast snorted.
It made a sound that reminded George, a little of a cow, lowered his chin, and showed off his impressive antlers. George didn’t think that was a good thing.
“George?” The deep voice made George turned his head, just at an inopportune moment as the beast charged at him. “That’s not a shifter, George!”
George snapped his attention back toward the beast. It was coming at him full pelt. Its head was tipped down, and its antlers looked – painful.
George panicked. He snapped his fingers to try to shift into his fairy form and escape the beast, but it didn’t happen.
No damn magic.
Wide-eyed, squealing like a girl, just a little, George took off on fast feet. The beast was right behind him.
One moment George was running as fast as he could, and the next he was being lifted by those painful antlers and tossed through the air like a football.
“Well, that just serves you right!” Lacey said with a shriek of laughter for her brother’s misfortune.
“It seems you forgot that our magic doesn’t work here, George,” Jessica grimaced.
“I noticed,” George groaned.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
“And where do you think you’re going?” George demanded of his sister as she stomped across the frozen wilderness with no seeming the destination in mind.
She was angry, of course, she was, George would have been as well — but, she was still a mate. Of course, not bound by his magic anymore, she was off.
“Somewhere far, far away,” Lacey tossed back over her shoulder with a snort of contempt for good measure.
“Well, that doesn’t work for me,” George offered back.
“Too damn bad. The further I am away from you the less likely I am to kill you,” Lacey tossed back.
“Okay, that one works for me. But…”
“Do not but me, George,” She ground out between clenched teeth. Kidnapped by her own brother!
“You’ll like Troy…” George reasoned.
“Of course I will, he’s my mate — which is exactly why I’m leaving before I meet him.”
Lacey kept walking, and aside from kidnapping her again, without his magic, George was pretty powerless to do anything about it.
“Why don’t you just meet him, and then decide?”
“What part of the mating pull don’t you get, George?” Lacey snorted her contempt for the brother.
“But, if you know you’ll like him then you’re halfway there…?”
“What part of lives at the North Pole in a shack don’t you get?” Lacey tossed up her hands in dismay. “I don’t have much of a life, George, but trust me when I say that the thought of living in a bloody shed doesn’t appeal to me.”
“But you like snow…”
“I like marshmallows too, but I’m not going to live on them,” Lacey tossed back.
As she got to the top of the hill, her eyes took in the scene below, and she was speechless. Large log cabins dotted the landscape, pine trees were scattered around, and on an overcast day, the fairy lights that adorned the whole area shone brightly.
“Those are impressive sheds,” George said as he folded his arms and chuckled.
“Not the point!” Lacey said as she turned on her heels and started on fast feet back down the hill again.
“Where are you going — now?” George bit out.
“Not down there that’s for sure!” Lacey chuckled in disbelief.
You really are being a pain in the…”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Lacey hissed out.
~
~
~
“Where is she going now?” Wayne asked as he walked along beside Jessica and watched brother and sister arguing.
“I guess there’s something on the other side of that hill that she doesn’t like.” Jessica could imagine what it was.
“But that’s the clans home,” Wayne said.
“And there lies the problem,” Jessica chuckled.
“Maybe I should use the clan's mental link to call Troy.”
Wayne didn’t know if he was doing the right thing or not. Just turning up and Troy’s doorstep with someone who was supposed to be his mate didn’t seem right somehow. The man deserved a little warning.
“But it’s a surprise,” Jessica chuckled.
“I’m not sure it’s a surprise I’d want…”
“You don’t like Lacey?”
“It’s not that I don’t like her — but, up here were a pretty happy bunch and she’s…” He raised a hand and motioned toward the fairy, trying to find the right word.
“Venomous? Argumentative? Headstrong, I could go on,” Jessica shrugged.
“Please don’t,” Wayne frowned.
He didn’t know whether to be happy for Troy or really, really, sorry for him.
“She should be fine when she settles in,” Jessica chuckled at the look on Wayne’s face.
“You think?” He
wasn’t convinced.
“Well…” She said no more.
~
~
~
“That’s it!” George grumbled.
He was cold, tired, and night was closing in around them. He wasn’t about to follow his sister all over the North Pole.
“Oh, what is it? What are you going to do, George? You don’t have any magic,” she challenged him.
George narrowed his eyes as he considered his options. Then he dipped at the waist and tossed her over one broad shoulder.
The sound of her squeals were surprisingly satisfying for him.
Lacey was on the mating list. It was the fairies job to do their very best to put mates together.
Sister or no sister, Lacey was going to meet Troy.
George did an about face and started back up the hill again. There was a steady stream of swear words that came from his sister’s lips, and she did try to wriggle and escape his hold, but he wasn’t letting go.
“You’re going to, at least, meet your mate.”
“You can not be serious about throwing me under the damn bus. What did I ever do to you?” Lacey hissed.
“Seriously?” George snorted. “I can get you a list.”
“Go ahead; I’ll wait.”
“It’s that long; it’ll be ready for next Christmas!”
“Like I said – I can wait.”
“Yeah, I’ll drop it off here next year.”
“George! I’m going to kill you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
George booted open the front door of Troy’s cabin and stomped inside.
There were a million reasons why he wanted to drop his sister on her head, not least of which was the fact that she had her fingernail sunk deep into his back, and was clawing like a cat at the same time as pinching him like he’d caught his skin in a vice. But he resisted that urge the moment that Troy ran into the room, naked, and dripping wet.
“George?” Troy looked even more shocked to see George than George looked to see the muscled shifter in the altogether.
“What is it with shifters and nudity?” George grumbled.
“I was in the shower!” Troy grumbled.
“Hello again!” Jessica announced with glee in her voice from the open doorway to the cabin.
George bit down on his annoyance and spun around to give her a lecture as his sister squealed at the rapid shifting of her upside down world.
“Can you not?” George berated his mate.
“Have you seen Troy naked? Not isn’t an option,” Jessica whispered back loudly and with glee.
“Hello!” Lacey hissed out from down her brother’s back, as she wedged her hands against his spine and pushed up.
Lacey got her first good look at Troy and froze in place. From the man’s naked feet, up his muscled legs, narrow hips, flat stomach, chest, and abs that screamed; touch me, and big broad shoulders that said; put your hands here and hold on for the ride. To his thick muscled arms that told her he would never drop her, boy, did he look damn good?
Not to mention the long, thick manhood that sort of twitched a hello at her, when she revisited that area of his body a few times.
But funnily enough, it was his eyes that held her attention the most. They were locked and loaded on her, deep brown and full of chocolate-ly goodness, it was as if she could see into his very soul.
“Hello!” She said again, as her brother and Jessica continued bickering around her.
“Hello,” Troy said, offering her a lazy grin that made her body heat up and reminded her of just how feminine she was.
“George! Put me down!” She hissed.
“What?” George was distracted by his mate’s appreciation of all things Troy, not to mention his nakedness.
“Down! Now!” she hissed, feeling somewhat stupid to be hanging down her brother’s back and trying to hold herself up to take in the view of the big shifter.
“Right…” George grumbled as he made a fast turn towards Troy and his sister hissed like a rattlesnake.
He stalked the five feet or so towards Troy and practically threw his sister at the man.
“Yours!” George said as Lacey screeched at being tossed through the air like a sack of potatoes.
Troy didn’t understand what was going on, but he caught Lacey anyway. There was no damn way that he was going to let a female drop to the floor, and she was such a cute one to boot.
“Dead man walking!” Lacey bit out, but there was no mistaking the tingling thing that was going on within her body when Troy’s big, muscled everything brushed against her skin.
The man looked more than shocked, he looked positively dumbfounded, and Lacey held up a finger of warning right in front of his face.
“Now, don’t get any ideas about…”
Troy dipped his head and brushed his cheek against hers as he nuzzled against her neck. Lacey rolled her eyes in her head and muttered a swear word or two.
“Sniffing me,” she finished on a grumble.
“Mine…” Troy breathed out against her neck, and she groaned.
“That’s what I heard…” she muttered.
Troy’s head snapped up, and he stared at Lacey as if he’s just been told he’d won the lottery.
“Mine!” he said as if he just couldn’t believe it.
Then he dipped his head again and went in for another sniff.
“That’s…” Troy snapped his head back and gave a little shake of disbelief. “It’s…”
“Smells good, right?” Lacey offered back with a big dollop of sarcasm in her voice.
The rumble of something deep and growly went through his chest, and she had to admit, that sounded good.
“Mine…” Troy said again.
“Yes, Troy, yours, and you’re welcome,” George said, almost absently as he turned back towards Jessica.
“There’s nothing to say that I can’t enjoy a view,” Jessica shrugged, but there was a whole heap of amusement and mischief on her face as George folded his arms and looked unimpressed.
“So, naked female shifter walks by the door, and I ogle her, and you’re going to…?”
Jessica wanted to say that she’d be fine with it, but she really wouldn’t.
“What’s happening?” One of the elders asked as she nudged Jessica in the ribs so that she could get a look inside Troy’s cabin.
George didn’t know where to look – the woman was naked.
“You go right ahead and look, George,” Jessica giggled.
“It’s just wrong – like fairy godmother wrong,” George muttered to himself.
“I found my mate, Nona!” Troy announced with a big beaming smile and so much glee that George didn’t know whether to wince or applaud the happy event.
Lacey shot daggers at her brother, and George figured that one happy mate out if two wasn’t bad.
“Put me down!” Lacey hissed.
“Well done, Troy!” Nona clapped her hands together with glee. “Okay, everybody out, Troy needs to mate…”
“Mate! What are you freaking nuts?” Lacey shrieked, and George did wince at that one.
“Head to toe yum, how can a girl say no to our Troy?” Nona chuckled with enthusiasm.
“Gee, let me think…” Lacey bit out. “Nooooo!” she offered.
“You need wooing,” Troy announced. “I can woo you.” He said with determination.
“I need a new brother.” Lacey shot George the evil eye.
“She’s your sister, George!” Troy grinned harder. “We’re family.”
“Yes, we are,” George grinned at Lacey. “And it’s not okay to ogle family,” George muttered as he berated Jessica with a look.
“Come on, faeries, out you, go,” Nona insisted.
“I hear that,” Lacey said as she wriggled in Troy’s arms to get free.
“Not you, missy,” Nona chuckled. “What’s your name?”
“Just call me the sacrificial lamb to the damn slaughter,” she offer
ed brightly.
“Lacey,” George grinned from ear to ear.
“I like that,” Troy said.
“I’ll change it then,” Lacey grumbled.
“Oh, she’s a mean one, better watch yourself, Troy. She’s going to take a lot of wooing,” Nona chuckled.
“I’m up to the task, Nona,” Troy assured her.
“Oh, boy…” Lacey muttered as her brother sniggered. “George, have I told you lately that I hate you?”
“You keep telling yourself that, Lacey.” George headed for the door.
“Just remember, Troy. Now that this place knows that she belongs here, she’s going to have her magic back,” Nona warned him.
George almost tripped over his own feet at that little revelation. He could practically hear the glee in the air as his sister realized what she had.
Then he felt the electric shock of her magic go through his body as she zapped him and tossed him headfirst out if the cabin and into a snow bank. Even with his head buried in the damn snow, he could still hear Jessica’s rip-roaring laughter.
“George!” Lacey shrieked.
George pushed up and shook off the snow that clung to him. He grumbled a groan.
“We’ll be right outside,” George offered back, biting down on his annoyance while, somewhat, reveling in his sister situation.
“Come have tea,” Nona said.
“Sounds good,” George winced at the thought. “You wear clothes at home, right?”
“Boobs, George,” Jessica whispered as she leaned down to help him up. “They’re called boobs.”
“Don’t even start with me,” he grumbled.
Then he stomped back to the cabin, grumbled a few choice words as he eyed his she-demon sister, and yanked the door closed.
“George!” Lacey shrieked as the closed door. “I’m going to kill you, George!”
“Merry Christmas!” George tossed his head back on his neck. “Ho-ho-ho!”
The End.