by M. L. Briers
“Well I wanted a bite to eat…” He started and she back hugged the tree again. “Relax. Your Alpha’s marked you and I don’t have a need to take on an entire pack of wolves.” He sounded disheartened.
“Again with the wolves?” Kate grunted and he beamed her a smile.
“Lycans, ring a bell? Shape shifters?” He offered and she just stared at him. He rolled his eyes back at her. “Draw you a damn picture woman. Werewolves? Heard of those?”
Kate opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again.
Of course I’ve heard of werewolves you…
“You’re telling me that werewolves exist?”
“You’re living with them.” He shot back so fast that she didn’t take it in, not completely, she just stared at him open mouthed. “Wolf got your tongue?” He teased her again and this time she got the reference, but that would mean that Dex and Zoe and Riff…
“Don’t be so bloody stupid!” She bit out.
“Kate!” The sound of Dex’s deep tone’s reached through the trees and wrapped her in a blanket of hope and security.
At last, some sanity in this world.
Dex shot passed the tree that she was clinging onto and stood in front of her facing the Vampire. His back was tense with the hard muscles working over time, but she knew if the myths were true, a human wouldn’t stand a chance against a vampire.
“Dex, he’s a…” She started, but the vampires head tilted sideways around Dex’s broad shoulders and he grinned at her.
“He knows.” He chuckled and she heard that rumble that always came from Dex’s chest when he was…
Oh my god! The rumble, the growl…
“What are you doing here, George?” Dex’s tone held a much deeper quality than she had heard before. But something else was troubling her and she poked her head out to peer around Dex.
“George? Your name is George?” She couldn’t hold the glint of amusement that shone in her eyes or keep it from her tone. He raised both of his dark brows at her.
“That’s a problem for you?” He shot back and she smirked.
“Well it doesn’t strike terror into the heart like Vlad would…” She knew she was poking the bear, but she just couldn’t help it. This whole thing was just stupidly surreal.
“Well I’m sure when my parents named me George, four hundred and thirty six years ago, they weren’t expecting my vocation to be, Vampire.” He assured her with as much sarcasm as he could stash into each word.
Kate tried not to snigger, but she couldn’t help it. “George, the vampire.” She chuckled to herself.
Oh dear, maybe I am truly losing my mind…
“Nice girlfriend by the way. Manners not included.” George bobbed his head back around Dex and Kate sniggered again.
“This is Lycan land…” Dex reminded him, no too subtly and he heard Kate’s intake of breath.
“So you are a werewolf?” Her voice didn’t sound shocked, or worried, in fact, it didn’t sound like anything at all.
“No.” Dex shot over his shoulders and George’s face appeared again with a nod of affirmation.
“I already dropped that bomb, sorry. She was marked so I thought she knew.” George’s disconnected voice drifted towards her over the low growl Dex let out.
“I’m a Lycan. There’s a difference…” Dex added, wanting to have this conversation with her somewhere that didn’t have a Vampire listening in. He noted that she seemed to be taking it well…
“A bloody werewolf…?” She shrieked and he groaned. Maybe not as well as he had thought. Dex wanted nothing more than to turn around and face her, but he wouldn’t turn his back on the vampire. They had crossed paths many times over the years, but still…
Dex’s attention was torn between George and Kate as she walked around him to stand beside George in the clearing. She seemed not to care that there was a cold blooded killer next to her, her eyes were glaring at just him.
“Lycan.” He offered and she raised a brow at him.
“Does he turn into a wolf?” She shot at George who nodded, suddenly enjoying himself more than he thought he would when Dex first appeared. “And claws and fangs…?” George nodded in the affirmative again and she got a little louder as she demanded. “And does he run through the woods chewing up soft furry little bloody animals?”
Dex growled and rolled his eyes as George tried hard not to chuckle. He even folded his arms and covered the smile on his lips with his hand.
“Yes.” He spat out, looking from Kate to Dex with an apologetic look.
“So a bloody werewolf then!” Kate was adamant. Her eyes were wide and she was glaring at Dex to deny it.
Dex took a long deep breath and looked down at her. This was not going well.
“Lycan’s are different to werewolves…”
“How’s that then, do they only dine on Venison?” She snorted, putting her hands on her shapely hips and glaring back at him.
“We do not need the full moon to shift into our wolf form…”
“Oh great, so what that’s then? Sneeze and whoops I’m sorry I ate your goat?” Kate spat out before turning on her heels and walking a few steps away from him. Then she turned and started pacing a few steps back again. “I knew there was something different about you…” She pointed her index finger at him in an accusation and he went to speak, but she cut him off. “I didn’t think it was that you grew a bloody tail though!”
George spat out a chuckle and then cleared his throat as Dex’s black glare shifted to him in a warning before returning to Kate.
“Look, Kate…” He started and she snorted her contempt for him on the shake of her head.
“Oh no. No, no, you don’t get to, look Kate, me.” She informed him. “Don’t you think it would have been nice to mention your little… affliction before you slept with me?”
Dex opened his mouth to speak but nothing came to mind. She had him there, he should have told her.
“I take it this is your mate?” George asked, motioning with his pinkie finger down at Kate, who huffed up at him. Dex nodded. “Good luck with that.”
“Mate? First I’m a snack…” She threw a dismissive hand towards George and Dex growled low in his chest as George shrugged. “Then I’m a wolf’s girlfriend, now I’m a mate? What the hell is a mate?” She demanded and Dex groaned again.
“You know to make this easier I could take away her memories of all of this…” George put in and Kate rounded on him, her hands back on her hips and the anger flaring in her eyes.
“Again with the memory thing?” She demanded and Dex growled another warning that had George shrugging his shoulders and taking a few steps back to lean against the nearest tree trunk.
“Aren’t you worried we are going to devour you?” George asked. A wicked gleam in his eye as he studied her, and she shrugged.
“Maybe at first, but you already admitted you’re not looking for a fight with Dex, and he’s had plenty of opportunity to kill me…”
“And plenty of reason…” Dex growled out, only just loud enough for her to hear and she shot him a glare as George chuckled to himself.
“Ah, the mating, a wonderful thing…” George’s amusement did nothing to quell the annoyance in either mate.
“Not as much as you’d think…” Dex shot back, his eyes flicked to his mate as she glared at him. “So why are you here, George?” Dex focused almost all of his attention back on the vampire.
“I’m just passing through…”
“A word of warning for next time, the pack scented you…” Dex growled out taking a more forceful stance and George bowed his head in acceptance of his omission.
“My apologies, Alpha…”
“So what’s an Alpha?” Kate put in and brought both of their attention to her.
“Top dog…” George retorted and then held up his hand in apology towards Dex, who shifted his stance. “Top wolf. The fiercest of them. The leader.”
“Is that why you’re so damned…” She
stopped herself when he turned his dark eyes on her.
“Loveable.” George offered, looking about him in innocence until she pinned him with her eyes and huffed.
“Not exactly. Infuriating, egotistical, arrogant, ill mannered, patriarchal…”
“That memory thing is sounding pretty good right about now.” Dex hissed.
“She does know a lot of big words.” George teased and Dex gave a low groan of disbelief. This wasn’t how he envisioned telling her about himself. At no point did he see a vampire playing a key role.
The sound of paws drew both men’s attention towards the edge of the clearing where a grey wolf was skulking towards them. Kate’s eyed it nervously, she had never been up close and personal with any kind of wild animal, and this wolf was big and menacing, but as it eyed her back, she thought there was something within his eyes…
“Is he going to get snap happy?” She couldn’t hide the slight tremble within her voice as she took a step closer to George, and again Dex felt the annoyance run through him. She should be looking to him for protection, not a damn vampire.
“No. And that he is a she.” Dex growled as he reached out one large hand and snagged her wrist while she was preoccupied, yanking her towards him, she gave a slight yelp of surprise. Slightly unbalanced on the uneven ground she reached for his chest, as his arm went around her waist to stabilise her. Kate’s head tipped back and she looked up into Dex’s dark eyes, for a long moment she was caught, ensnared in his gaze as her body took on a will of its own and the attraction to him, and the desire for him washed through her.
The sound of a low menacing growl rolled through the clearing and drew both Kate and Dex’s attention towards where the she-wolf was standing. The wolf’s attention was solely focused on George who stood there motionless starring back at her.
“Zoe…” Dex started to berate her, but Kate’s shocked gasp made his attention waver.
“Zoe?” Kate was wide eyed with disbelief. Every muscle in her body tensed in Dex’s arms and she slightly side stepped around him, towards his hip. Her mind’s ability to process so many emotions at once, attraction, lust, need, desire, disbelief and fear all rolled from her and wrapped around her mate until it was all he could feel.
Zoe drew her top lip back and snarled at George. There was just something about him that she couldn’t get a handle on. She didn’t much care for vampires anyway and being this close to one unnerved her a little, even with her Alpha close, but still…
“Relax little she-wolf, you really don’t want to take a bite…” George started, still as motionless as a statue. He wasn’t planning to push his point home, or make the female wolf any more nervous than she already was.
Zoe scented the air, so she would know him if she needed to track him. Sorting the different scents from one another was as easy as stripping off her clothes, one layer at a time, until she found him there. Zoe narrowed her gaze on him, her eyes turning darker as she took one step closer and then she stopped in her tracks and snarled again.
“Zoe…” Dex put himself between Zoe and Kate. His sister was acting out, which he knew could be common for Zoe, and if she was going for the Vampire he didn’t want Kate in harm’s way. He would shift to stop his sister, but that in itself would be a problem for Kate. It might just send her running, considering how overwhelmed with all of this she was already feeling, even if she was hiding it well.
Zoe took a step backwards and turned on her paws, digging her claws into the earth she took off into the trees as fast as she could run.
“That went well…” George chuckled to himself. Taking a couple of steps backwards and resting his backside against the nearest tree trunk as Dex turned towards him.
“What the hell was that about…?” Dex demanded. None too pleased with his sister’s actions, especially as they could have put his mate in danger.
“Brother…” George got that far before Dex screwed up his face and took a step backwards.
“Brother?” He spat out and George raised one dark brow in amusement.
“Ok, I admit it. I wasn’t just passing through…” George spanned his hands in front of him and Dex narrowed his gaze in suspicion. He didn’t much like being taken for a fool and this vampire was pushing his limits.
“You lied to me…”
“I misrepresented the truth. I was passing through originally, but then I was tracking a scent…” George shrugged his admission away as Dex moved a step to the right and put Kate firmly behind him. “Not hers. She was just a happenchance.” He waved that thought away with his hand.
“So whose scent were you tracking Vampire?” Dex felt the anxiety rise within him. He already had a damn good idea. He just needed to hear the words.
“That little she-wolf, who is she?” George heard the low rumble of a growl run through Dex and resisted the urge to laugh. Now Dex really was catching on.
“My sister.” Dex growled out and saw George take that information in on a nod.
“So we truly will be brothers then.” George eyed Dex with amusement, but there was no such emotion within the Alpha. The thought of having a vampire in the pack was not something he would relish.
“What’s going on?” Kate asked as she stood beside Dex. He had been so intent on what George was telling him that he hadn’t even felt her movement about him.
“He’s Zoe’s mate.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Zoe, come out or I am coming in.”
Dex stood outside of his sister’s bedroom door and hammered the heavy wood. He’d been doing it for the past hour off and on. With about as much success as he was having now. But he’d had enough of playing the brother, now he was going to be her Alpha, because this needed sorting out and now.
“Why don’t you let me try?” Kate was almost to the top of the stairs when he whirled around to find her there. She still eyed him nervously, as if he was going to eat her for his dinner, and yet she seemed a little more at ease than she had only an hour ago.
“If you think it would help…” Dex answered, taking a few steps back away from Zoe’s door in order for Kate not to feel too anxious at his closeness. She hadn’t even walked beside him on the journey back through the woods, choosing to keep her distance from him as he led them home.
“As opposed to her brother thumping chunks out of the door, it can’t be any worse.” Kate couldn’t keep the sneer out of her voice as she approached Zoe’s door, eyeing Dex as he folded his muscled arms over his broad chest and tipped his head to one side, regarding her with a slight air of amusement.
Damn, but he’s sexy…
“Be my guest…” He offered and saw her narrow her eyes.
“As long as I’m not dinner…” She shot back and he gave a low rumbled of a growl towards her, his wolf pushing towards the surface, urging him to bond with his mate and to complete the mating process now that she knew what he was.
Kate lifted her hand and gently tapped on the door, “Zoe, I really need to talk…” Kate never got to finish. The lock snapped off the door. The door was yanked open and Zoe’s hand shot out and wrapped around Kate’s wrist. She pulled her into the bedroom. A small yelp from his mate brought Dex in front of the door, his arms dropped to his sides and his mouth opened to speak, just as the door was slammed shut in his face. The lock snapped back on.
Dex took a long breath and growled out in menace. His sister was walking a fine line.
Kate felt the room spin around her as Zoe yanked her inside and then slammed the door and locked it behind her. She was almost grateful for Zoe’s hand around her wrist as it felt like the only stable thing in a spinning world at that moment, and when the world stopped shifting around her, she felt Zoe’s fingers slip away.
“Now I know how you feel!” Zoe spat out as she stomped over to the large double bed and threw herself down onto the mattress, face first and uncaring of the impact on her body.
Kate took a moment to consider what she was doing, slightly nervous in knowing that Zoe ha
d been the wolf that she had seen only a few hours earlier, and it didn’t exactly fill her with security. But this was Zoe, and she liked her, she liked her a lot.
She hasn’t eaten you yet, not even a nip. Man up.
Kate took a slow walk towards the bed and eyed it tentatively. Her legs were still pretty shaky and had been since she encountered the damn vampire in the woods. Taking everything into account, she was surprised she was still standing and not a puddle of madness on the floor, ready to be shipped off to a padded cell.
“You have the added advantage of knowing about all of this. Maybe you could enlighten me on just what the hell is going on?” Kate decided that her legs were just still too unstable to keep standing and she half sunk, half dropped to the mattress and felt the relief wash through her. One less thing to worry about.
Zoe pulled her face out of the covers and rested up on her elbows, turning to look at Kate with an air of sympathy in her gaze.
“It must be pretty daunting finding out you are the mate of an Alpha…”
“I haven’t even got to that yet. I’m still hung up on there are werewolves and vampires…” Kate admitted and Zoe pulled herself up onto her backside, pulling her legs up under her, she winced.
“Lycan’s. And it’s not exactly something we can advertise to the outside world, Kate. There would be consequences…” Zoe offered as gently as she could. She liked Kate, and she was her sister now, she did feel bad for the woman.
“Yeah. I can imagine if the myths of being hunted are anything to go by?” Kate felt a shiver run through her body. Just the thought of Zoe being hunted down like a rabid dog filled her with fear.
“They are. We were. And I don’t think the human race has progressed any since medieval times in that respect. But our situation isn’t as important at the moment as yours. You must be scared.” Zoe wanted to reach out and put a comforting hand on her sister’s arm, but she wasn’t sure how she would react. It was obvious to her that Kate was still in shock and somewhat uneasy.
“I’ve gone through scared and now I’m slightly numb, that’s not to say I won’t circle back around to being scared again…” Kate admitted.