by M. L. Briers
“Probably about as many times as you’re going to hold that one against me,” Lewis said.
“Fine, I’ll stop if you will.”
Mia might have been offering a truce, but the way that she folded her arms, tipped her head to the left and offered the Alpha something closely resembling the evil eye had Lewis wondering if she actually meant it or not.
He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt — but he would still err on the side of caution. She might have been his mate, but she was still a witch, and Lewis knew that they could be sneaky.
“Deal.” Lewis offered a nod of agreement. “So, now we can get back to the wooing…”
“Back? I hadn’t noticed that we’d started,” Mia said as she offered him a skeptical look.
“I guess, not really, no,” Lewis admitted. “So, now we can start the wooing.”
A thousand comeback lines whooshed through her mind and made her hesitate to pick just one. In that moment of indecision, he smiled, but it wasn’t just any smile — it was a drop dead gorgeous, hold onto your panties, as sexy as hell — smile that sent a jolt of everything that felt oh-so-good through her body, and assaulted her womb in the best possible way.
Mia wanted to groan. Even as her body wanted to jump up and down with glee and do a damn jig, while assuming the position.
She might have wanted to grumble and growl like a shifter at what seemed like the impossibility of fighting the mating pull, but how could she fight the temptation that was her mate?
Fate might have expected her to give up, to give in, but she had the type of personality that screamed out to cut her nose off to spite her face.
“What? No snappy comeback line?” Lewis asked.
Mia hated herself at that moment. Challenged to come up with something, and fast, her brain had turned into a mushy mess of lazy thoughts — and most of them involved her mate naked.
She couldn’t seem to shed the image of Lewis in the woods, no matter how hard she tried. Maybe, because she was trying so hard — it just kept popping back in there.
“Still nothing?” Lewis’ smile was bordering on victory, and it wasn’t even a well earned victory. All that he’d done was smile.
Lewis wasn’t entirely sure if his mate was having a senior moment, was constipated, or if the woman had taken to chewing an imaginary wasp again. He did kind of like having her on the back foot.
“Stupid head,” Mia practically spat out the words, and as the alpha raised just one eyebrow back at her — she wanted to groan, drop to her hands and knees on the floor, and crawl away in shame.
“Stupid head? Was that really the best that you could do?” The alpha’s voice held a teasing quality to it that riled her up and stomped all over her very last nerve.
“I have the urge to zap you until you squeal like Jules discovering a chocolate fountain.”
“When you can’t win the argument with words you resort to violence,” his teasing grin grew wider.
“Ha! Says the alpha.”
“And then deflect with a snarky comment.”
“I’m not deflecting.”
“Well, you’re certainly not answering,” Lewis offered back.
It wasn’t just the teasing grin or the teasing tone of his voice that annoyed her. It was the amusement that danced within his eyes.
Mia knew that she had lost, lost the argument, lost the high moral ground that had fallen away beneath her feet, and the thought of curling up into a ball appealed to her.
“So, this is wooing?”
Mia tilted her chin upwards in defiance. She’d be damned if she went down without a fight.
Lewis padded the few steps that it took for him to stand in front of her. Mia frowned as she pulled her head back on her neck and scowled up at him like a poop Demon had appeared in front of her.
There was still amusement within his eyes, but those eyes were darkening. There was a brief moment that flashed within her when she had the urge to take off on fast feet, but his eyes had bewitched her, confused her, and that moment of indecision cursed her once more.
One strong, muscled arm wrapped around her waist, and before she knew what was happening, he’d yanked her body forward. She hadn’t even had a chance to lift her hands and cushion the crush of her breasts against the hard muscles of his chest.
Mia managed one squeak of protest that caught in her throat as Lewis brought his lips down on hers. There was a heady rush of pure sensation that tore through her body and whacked her brain with a large sledgehammer.
Rational thought took flight. Her hands sought his impressive biceps as she looked for stability in an uncertain world.
She didn’t know which way was up, and even if she’d found it, then she wouldn’t know what to do with it. Not that her body or her mind were looking for a way out, if anything, her instinct was to get closer.
~
~
~
“Says you.”
“Says me,” Daniel offered back.
One moment things had been going really well — they’d been kissing, and he was wooing his mate. The next moment, he’d said something stupid and put his foot in it.
The instant that he’d said it he’d wished that he could take it back, but he couldn’t. Now they were bickering over nothing at all and everything in general.
Daniel knew that this was no way to woo his mate.
“And what if I don’t agree?” Jules asked as she placed her hands on her hips and craned her neck forward toward him.
“Then…” Daniel was having to think fast. He hated that.
Jules looked impatient for an answer and that only made the pressure mount upon him. He ground his teeth together in frustration and then tossed up his hands.
“I guess we’ll do things your way,” Daniel grumbled a retreat.
“Say what?” Jules snapped her head back on her neck and offered him a look of pure disbelief.
“You heard me.”
“I think I did.” Jules wished she’d been taping that moment so that she could replay it — just to check.
“You did.” Daniel tossed back on a scowl.
“You sure I did?” She just wanted to be certain.
“You can’t even stop arguing with me when you get your own way and win.” He offered her a look of amused disbelief.
“I can!”
“See!”
“What?”
“You can’t. You’re doing it again!” Daniel gave a small shake of his head and chuckled in disbelief.
“I’m not!”
“Still doing it.”
“No, I’m…” Jules stopped when he raised his eyebrows at her. “Maybe — just a little bit,” Jules admitted on a sheepish look.
“A lot. But that’s okay; I’m a big enough man to overlook your challenging behavior…”
“Oh boy, do you want a punch on the nose?” She scowled.
“No, not really.” Daniel had meant it teasingly, but he could understand how she’d taken it the wrong way.
He’d done it again. But this time, he had both of his big feet in his mouth at once.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
“As heavy as a boulder with feet like lead — he cannot move unless he faces the dead,” Aggie muttered the spell under her breath as she drew on the energy from the woods around her and funneled it into her magic.
“H-hey, what gives?” Nestor growled as his body slowly dragged to a standstill.
The elder tried with all his might to take one more step, but he could seem to manage to lift his right foot from the ground where he’d planted it. His whole body was heavy like he was carrying two more of himself upon his shoulders and he couldn’t seem to move an inch.
Nestor looked down at his feet in disbelief. But the low, somewhat evil, cackle that came from his mate pinged his brain with understanding, and he slowly lifted his gaze to Aggie.
“A little something weighing you down there, wolfy?” Aggie offered him a grin, and that
grin confirmed his worst fears.
“Magic!” Nestor growled back.
“Where?” Aggie knew that she went a little over the top as she looked around in every direction, but she was having some fun at his expense, and she didn’t see what harm it could do.
“You spelled me,” Nestor growled.
“Me?” Aggie offered her best innocent pose.
“You,” Nestor growled harder. He made that one word sound like such a hard accusation that she had to chuckle.
“Yeah, it kind of looks that way, doesn’t it?” Aggie chuckled. “But a witch has got to do what a witch has got to do.”
“And you certainly are a witch,” Nestor grumbled, but it didn’t take a genius to read between the lines of what he’d said.
“That right there. With a big capital, B. Still want a mate?” Aggie chuckled with glee written all over her face.
“I want my body back!”
“Oh, you’ll get it back — when I release you, or you face the dead…”
“What the hell does that mean?” Nestor growled.
“You’re a smart guy — you’ll figure it out.” Aggie offered him her parting shot as she turned on her heels and walked away.
“Hey! Come back here!” Nestor growled.
Mine…
His Wolf didn’t like seeing her walking away anymore than he did. Hell, he was in wooing mode — he was in protection mode, and having his mate walk away from him like that didn’t help matters.
“I’ll be back this way in — a bit, maybe longer — unless I get lost and go back another way.”
Aggie’s chuckle echoed through the trees and riled Nestor’s last nerve. He grumbled and growled, he tried to lift his legs, and he contemplated shifting into his wolf, but he guessed that wouldn’t do him any good.
“Come back here and release me — release me I say…”
“Huh?” Aggie chuckled. “Well, would you look at that, a sudden deafness has descended upon me.”
“Witches,” Nestor growled.
~
~
~
“What were you doing in there?” Jake asked.
He was leaning back against the wall with his arms folded across his broad chest and his biceps looking twice the size that they had when she went in.
“Seriously?” Debbie’s eyebrows shot up her forehead in an attempt to reach her hairline, her eyes widened, and she looked at him as if he was a whole new undiscovered species that she’d come across.
“Do you know how long you’ve been in there?”
“Well, I don’t usually time myself…”
“I feel like I’ve aged — considerably.”
“And the moral of this story is — stop bloody well following me around like an eager puppy,” Debbie tossed back and noted the fact that his eyes narrowed and his lips parted for just a second before he snapped out of it.
“You know the dog jokes are getting old, right?” Jake said. He dropped his hands to his sides and pushed away from the wall with his backside.
“Monkey see monkey do,” Debbie said with a little shrug of her shoulders.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you act a certain way then I’m going to treat you a certain way.”
“So, you’re saying I’m acting like a puppy?” Jake’s beast was reacting to her words, and the wolf wasn’t happy to be thought of by their mate as a pup.
“A lost, sometimes eager, sometimes forlorn puppy, but a puppy nonetheless.”
Jake took a moment to chew over her words. Then with a nod his head, he quickly closed the distance between them, ducked at the waist, and before she knew what was happening, he had tossed her over his shoulder, and she was hanging down his back.
“Can a puppy do this?” Jake growled as he turned on his feet and started down the hallway.
“Ooh, the question should be — what punishment do you hand out to a naughty puppy?”
As her question played ping-pong within his mind, his eyes widened in understanding, and the only thing left for him to do was to mentally kiss his backside goodbye.
Without thinking about the consequences of her actions, Debbie pulled on her magic and zapped him so hard that every muscle, sinew, and tendon within his body snapped rigid.
The beta seized up. He wanted to move, he wanted to be able to stand upright, but there wasn’t a damn thing that he could do about it when his legs gave out from beneath him, and he crumpled to the floor, taking his mate down with him as he went.
Debbie had realized what was happening at the last moment. She managed to push her upper body away from his back, but that didn’t stop her from going down with him, and ending up sprawled across his chest with her breasts smothering his face.
There was a low, deep growl that rumbled through him and against her breasts. She braced her hands against the floor and tried to push up away from him, only managing the smallest gap between them because the steel grip of his arm around her body didn’t give her anywhere to go.
“Death by boobies — what a way to go!” Jake grinned like a total idiot, and if Debbie hadn’t of just zapped him, then she would have gladly zapped him again.
“Oh, you didn’t…!”
“Oh, I did.”
“Maybe not a puppy — more a piglet,” Debbie hissed out the words as she pushed back from him, trying to break his hold around her, but she wasn’t getting anywhere fast.
“I’m too happy to be offended. Say what you like. And please — if you feel the need to smother me again then go right ahead,” Jake chuckled.
He wasn’t even miffed that she’d used her magic against him. He was mindful that things could have ended badly for her. But his little brain was overriding his big brain, and his one and only regret was that they weren’t both naked.
“Oh, don’t tempt me,” she hissed out between clenched teeth.
Debbie could feel his hard body beneath hers. The flash of annoyance that had shot through her body and sent her temperature soaring wasn’t the only thing that made her blood boil. She could feel the hard press of his length against her thigh.
Images and imaginings popped into her mind, and all of them were X-rated. Her body knew what it wanted; her mind knew what it wanted, hell, she knew deep within her soul what it was that she craved, and yet, she still had a need to fight against it.
Sure, he was her mate, and the mating pull was working its magic. But he was also an obnoxious, annoying, full of himself, male chauvinist piglet that she wanted to continually zap until the cows came home. Not that the cows would come home, because of his damn wolf.
“You mean like you tempted me with your boobies in my face?” Jake’s grin widened, and Debbie’s temper flared.
“I did not put my boobies in your face, and who says boobies?” She hissed.
“Okay, there was definitely boobies, and they were definitely in this region,” he lifted his free hand and motioned to his face.
“If you can move then let me go!”
“Just because I can move that arm doesn’t mean I can move the other one.” Jake lied.
“You…!” Debbie got no further as she centered all of her attention on trying to push up and away from him, twisting and turning her body, and inadvertently rubbing herself against his hard length.
The hungry growl that rolled through his chest and caught in his throat made a snap to attention. She held in place and glared at him with the contempt that she thought he deserved.
“Me, all me baby,” Jake’s grin annoyed her to the point where she gave a small squeal.
“I’m going to…”
Debbie didn’t get the chance to finish the threat that she was more than willing to carry out. In a heartbeat; she’d gone from being sprawled over his body to being caged beneath it.
Her heart dashed to escape her ribs, and a jolt of excitement pinged her womb as her stomach flip-flopped around like a fish out of water. She was trapped, looking up into the jet black, as-sexy-as-hell
eyes that were as hungry as a starved beast.
“I’m sorry, were you saying something?” Jake’s voice was full of his Wolf, and that deep, gravelly sound only excited her more.
“I find actions speak louder than words,” she warned.
“It appears that it’s not only old dogs that can’t learn new tricks — didn’t zapping me a moment ago teach you anything?” Jake teased.
But there was nothing teasing in the way that his body was reacting to hers. His length was harder than steel, and he ached to be buried inside of her body.
He had and need to be touching her naked skin, tasting her — everywhere — and mating with the woman who was already more important to him than his own life. He’d die to protect her — he’d live to love her.
“Get off me you big oaf,” Debbie hissed out.
“I thought I was a piglet?” Even his grin had turned hungry.
“You wear a coat of many colors — none of them good.”
“Now you’re just telling porkies.”
“Huh?”
“We both know you’re practically salivating for me…”
“I am, am I?”
“Yes. I can feel it in the way you’re holding your body against mine,” Jake teased her again.
“I’m sorry, who’s on top?”
“Your eyes are just eating me up.”
“I’m just working out the best form of attack…”
“You want to kiss me…”
“Oh, the hell I do.” Debbie bit out in false rage. She couldn’t get past the fact that he was calling her out on everything that she had been thinking and feeling.
“Your wish is my command.” Jake didn’t give her a chance to answer as he brought his lips down on hers.
There was only one moment when her mind grasped a comeback line, but that flew out of the door the moment that his warm, soft lips touched hers. They may have been laying in a corridor in the middle of the house — but neither of them noticed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
“Whatcha doing?” Koren’s voice drifted down all around Nestor as the elder stood frustratingly locked into place with his feet planted firmly on the earth.