by M. L. Briers
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
BROTHERS
DEXTER’S PACK
GEORGE
BY
M.L. BRIERS
Copyright © 2017, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2017, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap.
Table of Contents
BROTHERS
DEXTER’S PACK
GEORGE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
~
George raced across the mountain. His wolf felt fevered. The faster that he ran the worse it became.
It felt to him as if he was trying to outrun his own skin. His beast.
The darkness within him that was growing.
His brother was dead. He’d done that.
He’d killed his twin – his twin – his blood. His kin.
He’d killed a part of him. The one that had always been with him. Had grown in the same womb.
He ran as faster, faster, as fast as he could.
His claws dug into the earth and churned it up behind him. But he couldn’t outrun his fate.
It was coming.
Something dark from within and without.
He could feel it closing in on him. Like a shadow of darkness that fell across the land, across his heart, and his soul.
It was coming.
No matter how fast he ran – he couldn’t outrun his fate.
He’d triggered the curse. It wasn’t his fault. It had needed to be one of them.
One of them needed to die.
His brother would never have left it alone.
It was coming.
Hard on his heels. He could feel it in the air all around him…
He could feel it in his very soul.
It was coming.
The faster that he ran the more the fever grew. It touched his soul, burned…
He’d awakened the curse. It would rise up to strike them all dead.
It was coming for them all.
He couldn’t outrun it.
He couldn’t outrun fate.
His heart was pounding within his ears. His beast was done…
George’s wolf pulled up panting and gasping for air…
The beast craned its head back on his neck and looked up to the moon above. The red hazy ring that surrounded it … it looked like an eye…
George’s wolf padded towards the stream and dipped his head for a taste of the water. He noted the reflection of the moon in the fast running water, hanging above his head like a bad omen – that red rim seemed to be glowing – taunting him.
His eyes moved down to look back at his own reflection and his heart stopped within his chest at the sight of it –
His eyes shone red.
He’d killed his twin.
It had begun.
~
~
~
“Blood on the moon – that’s a bad sign…” Zana muttered to herself as she took the bend a little too fast and felt the back end of the bike kick out a little in protest.
Tough. She needed to make good time.
The curse had been triggered. The watchers had sent her on her way, and now she was climbing White Wolf Mountain on her way to slay the beast.
Zana didn’t much care who it was. They pointed the way and she took care of it – by whatever means necessary.
And this was necessary.
If the curse was to be believed, and she’d known a few to come true in her time, then the shit was about to hit the fan and Wolf Mountain was its kick off point.
She was in the hot zone.
Ground zero.
That was just how she liked it. Whether she was hunting rogues or saving the world, one shit demon at a time, she wasn’t the kind of person to sit on the sidelines and cheer.
Talk was cheap. Word had it that she might not walk away from this one. That was always the risk, and she was good with that.
There would be someone else to take her place. There always was.
Zana was expendable. She was a means to an end, but if her end came then she’d get a notary in some book somewhere – hell, she might even get a plaque on a wall, depending if they thought that she was worth the time and effort to create one.
She was good with that too.
There was no family, no picket fence, and no happily ever after waiting for her in the future, because she didn’t have a future. She had a right now.
She lived one mission at a time – she lived for the moment that she was inside, because the next moment might never come.
She was ready to die.
Dying was a part of life and everyone was heading that way in a long queue – it was just a matter of time as to when you reached the front of it.
Some were eager to jump the queue. That she considered a waste. She wasn’t in a rush to die, but she wasn’t going to hide from it either.
In her book – death was just a really good sleep. When the time came she might welcome it, but for then, she had a job to do.
~
~
~
Vicky turned to leave the archives. She was done for the day.
She knew to give up when her eyes started shooting across the page of their own accord and the words made less sense than they normally did. It was about that time…
The others had already left, gone home to their mates, and she needed a hot bath and food … and maybe a little time with Connor to get her blood pumping through her veins again.
She reached up and hit the lights off – the sound of a heavy thud behind her made her spin in place. She snapped out at the l
ights with her magic and illuminated the vast room…
Vicky scanned the area for signs of trouble. Perhaps a witch had gotten in without her noticing.
The only other supernatural being that could enter through the wards that the witches had placed around the room was Connor, and if he was playing some stupid, childish game with her – she’d present him with his crown jewels on a platter – smiling as she did it…
Nothing.
She reached out with her magic and tested the space for anything untoward. Supernatural in origin.
Nothing…
“That’s the trouble with books…” Connor’s voice boomed out from directly behind her and she whirled in place – shooting magic from her fingertips at the vampire, and causing every muscle in his body to contract so hard that he literally fell down like a puppet with its strings cut…
“Seriously!” Vicky bit out, snapping off her magic off, and slapping her hands on her hips as she glared down at her mate. “You bloody stupid fang monster!”
Connor groaned inwardly as his whole body burst back to life – like a flower in the morning summer sun … He cursed, he groaned, he relished sinking his fangs into her vein and drinking thirstily…
And then the red mist of his bloodlust lifted and he kicked his backside into gear, propelling himself back to his feet, and shaking off the last of her magic with a full body shiver…
“I had a fab day, honey, and how was yours?” Connor offered her a smirk, and she dropped her chin down and glared at him from beneath her eyebrows…
“Now is not the time to act the idiot…” Vicky announced, and Connor frowned.
“Hmm,” he rolled his neck on his neck, “how about now?”
“How about I shove your head up your backside?”
“Ok, if you promise to get pictures.”
“You scared the bejesus out of me!” Vicky snapped.
“That by definition is what a vampire is supposed to do…” Connor grinned, but he could see that his mate wasn’t playing around. Something had triggered her nervousness.
It wasn’t like she didn’t zap him on a regular basis. She did. But, usually it was done with love and not too much malice…
He was already on alert for anything in their vicinity that could be off…
“And a witch is supposed to slay a vampire – check the odds – things aren’t in your favour.” Vicky bit back as she dismissed him and turned back towards the room.
She had to admit, she felt better knowing that Connor had her back … something rubbed with a sound that reminded her of sandpaper against stone, and just as she cocked her head to listen harder, so she suddenly found that she was being spun around and ended up facing his broad back…
“Heard it too…” Connor said, holding up his hand to keep his mate silent – not that there was anything much in life that could stop Vicky from spouting her opinion…
He felt the magic dig to his back – and he was more than aware that she was about to try to sidestep him to his left to get a look inside the room – he swayed in that direction and heard her hiss in annoyance.
It amused him, even if he was ninety five percent concentrating on what was in front of him, but he knew his mate too well…
“Better not be a rat…” Vicky whispered.
“Tasty…” Connor offered back, and snapped his full attention towards that sound once more…
A heartbeat later and he’d shoved his mate out the door – slammed it in her face, and was across the room, before he’d even heard her curse…
CHAPTER TWO
~
Landon didn’t do it often, but when he did, he liked to do it in the privacy of his truck, and nowhere near his mate.
The woman was just tone deaf – he could sing up a storm – rainclouds and everything with his deep, gravelly tones. But he liked country and she liked … anything but…
Landon heard the deep throaty sound of the motorbike right before he saw it coming at him around the winding bend of the mountain road.
“Crap!”
He growled out – wanting to rip the damn CD player clean out of his dash and toss it out of the window – he might have heard the bike if he hadn’t of been blasting his damn music out and singing at the top of his lungs … that didn’t matter a hill of beans when the pickup truck and bike were about to collide.
Landon bit down on another curse and yanked on the steering wheel, trying his best to swerve over towards the ditch without ending up nose-diving into it, because he knew just how bad that would be. But he also didn’t want to make some idiot human a hood ornament on the front of his truck either…
He couldn’t believe his eyes when the bike turned as well. Black smoke came off the back wheel as it turned sideways on the road…
A heartbeat later and the damn thing was sliding along the road on its side, heading right for the underside of his truck, and the rider was skidding and rolling over the tarmac after it…
In those few seconds that followed; as bike and rider came towards his truck, Landon chain-cursed every dark word that he’d picked up over his lifetime.
Zana knew that it was going to be less painful to let her bike go – she hated it with a vengeance, but even her magic couldn’t perform miracles, and she needed to concentrate on what she could do to minimise the damage to her body – unfortunately, her bike was going to have to fend for itself…
That miffed her off, right there. Whoever was driving the damn pickup truck was going to get more than a mouthful of abuse from her. She was going to kick butt.
Zana heard the bike reach its final destination with the loud chewing sound of it being dragged beneath the underside of the truck, and she cursed aloud as she spun one more time and used her magic to finally cancel out the momentum.
She made one quick check on every damn bone in her body that mattered, and thanked her good senses that she’d been wearing her thick leathers…
The sound of the truck door being booted open wasn’t lost on her – in fact – it rallied her anger and determination to wring the damn neck of whoever had been behind the wheel…
“The middle of the damn road is not a lane…” She bit out.
First her head came up – then she dragged her body to all fours – and finally she pushed up to her full height of five foot six.
Landon raced forward towards the rider, only to witness the impossibility of the female pushing up to her feet. She reached up and yanked the helmet from her head – holding it there for a long moment as her cool blue eyes took him in…
“Shifter – should have bloody known…” She bit out and tossed her helmet into the tall grass.
“Witch,” Landon said, more relieved to know that he wasn’t dealing with a regular human that was lying splatted against the road, than worried about what came next…
Zana stalked towards him on long, graceful strides, but there was something about the way the woman carried herself that reminded him of another witch on the mountain – Chelsea.
It was definitely in the way that she carried herself – so much self-assurance, and in Chelsea’s case that came from being one kickass witch with an attitude to match…
Landon had expected magic – but, as the woman drew almost level with him, her fist shot out and caught him right in the balls – Landon’s pain threshold was high, but even an alpha bear shifter would end up on his knees in the dirt from a blow like that…
“That’s for killing my bike, asshole,” Zana bit out to the sound of wheezing that was all that the alpha could muster through the crippling pain.
Hell, he’d get over it, and real fast considering his healing blood. She didn’t feel a moment’s guilt – not considering he’d taken out her wheels, and it was the only damn thing in life that she cared about – that and killing the bad guys.
She had no idea if the shifter on his knees was a bad guy or not – by definition he’d murdered her bike, and that was all she needed to know.
There were a lot o
f things that went through Landon’s mind in the long, long moments, and tear filled seconds that dragged by until he could suck in a breath again … none of them good – none of them generous towards the ball-breaking witch, and all of them filled with regret for the fact that he couldn’t go back in time ten minutes and pay more attention to what the heck he was doing…
“I’ll – pay – for – that…” Landon managed to push out on panted breaths and deep gasps…
He eyed her as she bent at the waist and started to cannibalise her bike – only the things that she was yanking and snatching off it looked a hell of a lot like weapons to his eyes.
Blades – a sword that had been carefully fitted into the bike to make it look like custom trim…
Who the hell is this witch?
Buffy the damn Vampire Slayer?
Oh, crap … Connor!
“Where…?” Landon growled out…
“You’re a bear … I’m not here for you, pops,” Zana said, not even bothering to eye the man who wasn’t her intended target.
“P-pops…” he growled.
Talk about adding damn insult to damn injury!
Pops, my ass…
“Who…?” he growled.
“I don’t think you’re in any fit state to get in my way…” Zana said, bending over at the waist and wrenching her bike from under the middle of his truck.
Then she was checking for damage to his vehicle…
“Dis-missive – little … witch…” he growled. Testing to see if he could push up to his feet – the pain screamed through his balls and his stomach, and he groaned…
“Who’s about to borrow your truck…” Zana said, turning on her heels and stalking around to the driver’s side.
Landon scented the air – stupid really – considering if there was a fuel leak then he should have just let her blow herself up … but, he could only scent the bike…
The sound of his truck roaring to life made him growl hard. He loved that damn truck…
Then she reversed like the hounds of hell were on her tail, locating a pull in bay, and swinging the truck back into it. It was all that Landon could do to raise his damn hand and wave goodbye to his baby as she pulled the tyres around and headed back the way that he’d come…