by M. L. Briers
If the elder wanted to berate her, then she could go right ahead, but Mia was standing by her choices.
Lewis grunted, huffed, and nodded.
“Kudo’s!” Aggie grinned, and the alpha growled.
“Wow,” Nestor said with a shake of his head. “You got sucker punched, son.”
Lewis grumbled under his breath, and not one of them could understand him.
“Oh, fine!” Mia sighed. Then she lifted her hand, drew on her magic, and snapped her fingers.
“Well, it’s about damn time,” Lewis grumbled. “If you ever use your magic on me…”
“Well, look at that,” Debbie chuckled. “You really can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lewis growled.
“It means you didn’t learn your lesson the first time,” Mia warned him.
“Well, if it were me, I’d zap him,” Jake chuckled.
“Oh, would you?” Lewis growled long and hard at his brother.
“I certainly would,” Aggie shrugged her shoulders.
“I tried that first — it didn’t work,” Mia said.
“No more damn magic — any of you!” Lewis growled.
“You do know you’re talking to witches, right?” Aggie said as she snorted a chuckle of disbelief.
“Oh, I definitely figured that one out,” Lewis growled.
“Careful, alpha,” Mia warned. “You wouldn’t want a cat to get your tongue.” She offered him a wicked smile.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
“Okay — stop, stop, stop, stop!” Jules had to get the words out in one breath because she didn’t have much to spare.
When Daniel took a small step back from her, he looked as dazed and confused as she was. He also looked hungry like the Wolf within him.
“That got real fast, real quick,” Daniel admitted.
He tried for a look of contrition, but a smug smile crept onto his face anyway and grew until he’d beamed her a really big smile.
“I noticed. I was here too.” Jules was trying to level her breathing. The problem was her body still wanted to go full steam ahead.
“Must be the mating pull,” Daniel said, and that realization didn’t do anything to quash the smugness of his smile.
“So, you’re not naturally attracted to me then?” Jules tossed back.
That made his smile disappear in an instant. He opened his mouth to speak, made a strange whining noise in the back of his throat, and grimaced.
“Okay, so that didn’t come out right,” Daniel offered back, wincing with regret.
“And yet, you didn’t answer the question,” Jules had him on the back foot, and that was where she wanted to keep him.
It was called self-preservation because if she could make herself angry at him, even fake anger, then it just might throw him off balance enough for her mind and body to level out.
“Sure — I did,” he narrowed his eyes at her and tried to replay that part of their conversation. The only problem was his little brain was still in control over his big brain.
“No, you really didn’t.”
“Are you picking a fight with me?” Daniel asked, his voice full of suspicion. “Because this feels like the time that Jake did something bad and then tried to turn it around on me — not that you would — I’m just saying, putting it out there.”
“Because you like to clarify things.”
“I do. And you didn’t answer the question.” A smile tugged at his lips.
“Sure — I did.” Her eyes were full of mischief.
“Hmm, so…” Daniel eyed her for a very long moment.
“So…?”
“So, I’m obviously attracted to you. You are so very obviously attracted to me…”
“Well, do you kiss the mirror before you go bed at night as well?” Jules offered him a cheeky grin.
“As a matter of fact, I do. But now that you’re here…” He gave a small shrug of his broad shoulders.
Jules chuckled to herself. If there was one thing about her mate, he was just full of his own self-worth.
Just because he had good reason — good-looking, a nice hard ripped body, and he sort of had a winning personality. Although, she wasn’t quite there yet — the panty dropping stage — but if he’d kept kissing her like that then she might well have been rushing towards it.
“You are so full of it.”
“Strangely enough, you find that attractive and alluring,” he said as he beamed her another winning grin.
“You just take a small step back before I stop the pigeon in – any-bloody-way I can.” She offered him a look that might have been a little too challenging because he didn’t move an inch.
“And you are still thinking about the pigeon.”
“Even when you were kissing me.” She lied.
“Oh, liar-liar pants on fire,” he berated her with just a look. She much preferred his smile.
“Am not.”
“Are too.” She went to open her mouth, but he held up his index finger to silence her. It worked. “But that’s not the point in question. The point is how am I supposed to step back?”
“Any which way you can,” she shrugged. Then she frowned hard. “Now I’m picturing you as an orangutan.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“The movie? The orangutan — Clint Eastwood? Ringing any bells in your little monkey brain?”
“Oh, ha- ha!”
“No, really, I’m serious. You do kind of have some orangutan traits. The dragging of the knuckles thing…”
“I thought that was gorillas?” He thought for a moment, looking slightly confused, and that only added to her amusement.
“And now I’m picturing you as a gorilla.”
She couldn’t stop the chuckles that flowed from her because his face was a picture or should have been. If only she’d had her phone to hand, then she would have snapped the shot with glee.
“Baby, I’m all Wolf.” Daniel puffed out his chest, and her chuckles only got worse.
“Well, if you beat your chest I’m gonna be on the floor crying with laughter.”
“You know you’re giving my Wolf a complex, right?” Daniel’s Wolf was just fine. It didn’t have a complex it knew exactly what it was, and who it wanted for a mate.
“Well, I’m sure your Wolf is very — beastly. But right now I can’t get past you looking like a gorilla.”
“Well maybe if I kissed you again…” He took a step, and it was her turn to raise her index finger, not only silencing him but stopping him in his tracks from getting too close.
“Not so fast,” she said as she narrowed her eyes at him and he narrowed his right back.
“Am I still in the penalty box?”
“No,” Jules said and watched as he raised his eyebrows towards his hairline. “You’ve been sent to the showers.”
“Are you coming with me?” He gave another winning smile. It was full of that cocky self-assurance that he liked to project.
“You have a thing about showers.” She frowned.
“And you have a thing about stop the pigeon and primates. Neither one of us is perfect.”
“So you’re not attracted to me because I’m not perfect?” She had him on the ropes again.
“Baby,” Daniel slowly lowered his gaze down his body to the hard thick length that was trying desperately to escape his jeans and get to her. “Does this look like I’m not attracted to you?”
“You’re a testosterone fuelled, twenty something, male shifter — am I supposed to believe that doesn’t happen to you at least thirty or forty times a day?” Jules tossed her hands onto her hips and demanded an answer with just the look that she gave him.
“In truth, possibly.”
“Geez, now who’s ducking the question?”
“It’s a stupid question.” He grimaced the moment that the words were out of his mouth. He knew he shouldn’t have said them — and if he’s big brain had been working then m
aybe he wouldn’t have.
The look on her face was priceless — or would have been at any other time than when he’d screwed up.
“I’m going to forget you just said that.”
“Really?”
“Hell, no!” Jules questioned his sanity with just a look. Daniel sighed inwardly and groaned outwardly.
“How about if I apologize?”
“Not even if it came with a platinum guarantee that you wouldn’t do it again.”
When she folded her arms across her chest, Daniel had the urge to bend over and kiss his backside goodbye. He knew it was the kind of comment that he’d be paying for, probably for a long time.
~
~
~
“I mean it Mia — no more magic on pack land,” Lewis growled.
“Like ever?”
“Like never ever.” Lewis folded his arms across his broad chest, and his biceps doubled in size. If she hadn’t of set him up for a fall, then she might have been impressed by his stature.
“That’s going to make tonight’s spell rather difficult then, isn’t it?”
Mia watched as the information sunk into the alpha’s brain. There was an immediate look that said panic – followed by a look that said he needed to backpedal and fast — and then he raised his eyes to the ceiling, tossed up his hands in frustration, and groaned long and hard.
“Witches,” he grumbled.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“Stop following me around like a stray that needs to be taken to the shelter and neutered,” Aggie grumbled back over her shoulder as Nestor followed her journey through the woods.
“I’ll ignore the neutered part…” Nestor grumbled.
“Why? That’s the most important part, and it’s the part that I like the best.”
“I’m following you, so you don’t get into any trouble. Not that I don’t think that you can make enough trouble of your own when you set your mind to it.”
“You bet your furry little backside I can,” Aggie chuckled.
“Well, there you go then. I’m just doing my mate duties,” Nestor said and caught another barely there frosty glance that Aggie tossed back over her shoulder at him.
“Well, I don’t need you following me around. Slowing me down…”
“Slowing you down?” Nestor chuckled. His laughter was deep, gravelly, and more than caught her attention. That annoyed the elder witch even more than his presence.
“You’re not exactly tap dancing your way through the woods,” Aggie offered back.
“I can trip the light fantastic with the best of them. When you’re done here, I’ll prove it to you.”
“Is that a threat or a promise?”
“A little of both,” Nestor chuckled.
“Do you seriously think I’m going to put myself in a position where I have your paws on me?” Aggie might have snorted her contempt at the prospect, but somewhere deep inside of her the excitement at the thought of it was blossoming.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re dumber than you look.”
“Quite probably.”
“I’m glad we both agree on something,” Aggie was pleased that she’d won that point. Even if it had been an easy win.
“Can we agree on the fact that we’re mates?”
“Sure.”
“Can we agree that we're going to bond?”
“Don’t push your luck.” Aggie shot back.
She was too far down life’s track and to set in her ways to even consider what he was proposing. At his time of life, it would have been unlikely that losing his mate would have made him turn rogue. Aggie was grateful that she didn’t have the added pressure of considering that prospect.
The three other witches didn’t have that same luxury. If they didn’t mate then the alpha and betas would more than likely have to be taken out by their own pack. She was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
As for Nestor — well, that man needed to go on the backburner for a while. She had a spell to perform for the alpha, and she was as good as her word. Even if it was a damn stupid spell.
“You might as well come out you bottom dweller. I know you’re there.” Aggie called into the trees.
“Who?” Nestor growled with anticipation.
His mate had sensed something that he hadn’t picked up on and that annoyed him. He was distracted, and that distraction could put them both in danger.
“Me?” Koren appeared not five foot away from them as if by magic. “A bottom dweller?”
“Want me to kill him?” Nestor grumbled another growl. His annoyance was more the fact that he’d missed the vampire’s presence rather than for the vampire himself.
“I’m quaking in my boots,” Koren offered back, but considering the man was a mate, he didn’t want to disrespect him too much in front of his woman. Even if that woman was Aggie.
“Now, that’s one I’d rather do myself,” Aggie sneered over at the vampire.
“I’m touched,” Koren placed his hand on his chest and rolled his eyes in his head.
“Yeah, you’re touched in the head.” Aggie shot back.
“Touched by my boot up your backside if you don’t get out of here,” Nestor grumbled.
“Two to one, whatever is a lowly vampire to do?”
“Hell, do the world a favor and crawl back into your grave and stay there for a millennium or two.” Aggie eyed him with disdain.
“Oh, I think you’re closer to the grave than I am.”
“Don’t count on it.” Aggie and Nestor said together.
“Oh look, isn’t that cute. It isn’t even like you’re finishing each other’s sentences for them. There’s more of a connection than that. Truly symbiotic,” Koren was enjoying the look on Aggie’s face — the woman was chewing an imaginary wasp. “I guess fate knew what it was doing when it put you two together.” He couldn’t help himself.
“I will hurt you,” Aggie hissed.
“And yet, here I stand…” Koren had to bite down on the pain that racked his body as the witch sent her magic through him.
The sound of Nestor’s deep, warm chuckles rolled like thunder towards her. Aggie felt her anger seeping away, and it annoyed her more than he could ever know because she couldn’t even keep up torturing the vampire upon hearing her mate’s soothing tones.
How wrong was that?
“What are you laughing at?” Aggie pulled her magic back from the vampire and offered a small zap toward her mate.
“What was that for?” Nestor grumbled. “How senile are you?”
“That was a definite senior moment,” Aggie lied.
Then she abruptly turned on her heels and walked away from the pair of them, muttering something under her breath that neither man, even with their super hearing, could understand. Nestor had the feeling that he didn’t want to know.
His mate was a hellion, and he kind of liked it.
“And she’s all yours!” The vampire announced with glee.
“Don’t push your luck. I just might have a senior moment of my own and forget that you’re a friend to the pack,” Nestor growled before he started off after his mate.
“Really, after all these years?” Koren chuckled to himself. Especially, when the elder shot him the stink eye back over his shoulder. “You choose a woman over your friend.”
“Too many damn years,” Nestor grumbled as he walked away.
“And yet, winding the man up never gets old.” The vampire muttered to himself.
~
~
~
“You do remember that you almost blew up in a car on the driveway, right?” Jake asked as he followed his mate down the hallway towards the bathroom door.
“That old chestnut again?” Debbie tossed back at him with a small giggle.
“Strange how near death experiences seem to do that — crop up. Stranger still that they tend to clarify the mind to focus on what’s really important.”
“What’s reall
y important is me getting to the bathroom before there’s a puddle on the floor,” she said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not in the habit of peeing anywhere but in the toilet.”
“Well, where I stand on that particular dilemma is an answer for another time…”
“Oh boy, tell me you’re house trained.”
“I’ll take your slur — and ignore it.” Jake offered back as she reached the bathroom door and went to grab the handle. His hand got their first, and he tossed the door open for her.
“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Debbie said as she stepped inside and turned to close the door behind her.
Jake was grinning from ear to ear. She’d obviously said something to set the man off again, but for the life of her, she didn’t know what it was.
“So you like a little conflict with your wooing?” He asked wiggling his eyebrows at her.
“As far as wooing is concerned,” she took a moment to think about it. She didn’t need that moment, but she’d decided to make him wait for it. “I guess I’d say that you have to take the rough with the smooth.”
The look on her face was downright wicked. Coupled with her words his hard length twitched within his jeans and a decidedly hungry growl rumbled through his broad chest.
Jake lifted his hand, pointed his index finger at her, and opened his mouth to speak. It was then that she tossed the door closed in his face with her magic, and he heard the lock click on.
The sound of an equally wicked chuckle echoed on the other side of the door, baiting him, and Jake had the sudden urge to use his body as a battering ram to get into that room.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
“I don’t see how I’m the bad guy in all of this,” Lewis reasoned as much with himself as with his mate. “You zapped me — you made my tongue swell in my mouth — you ran away from your mate…”
“Geez, how many times are you going to drag that one up?” Mia raised just the one eyebrow back at him. “My stupid, irrational, female brain cannot compute much more.”