by M. L. Briers
The Mating Season 2
Christmas special
Abel’s Mate
By
M L BRIERS
Copyright © 2013 by M.L Briers
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
The Mating Season 2
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
“But why does the gathering have to be here?” Adam shot Faith a look of suspicion under his brows. He didn’t like it when she had that smirk on her lips, it always meant trouble. And with Faith, trouble meant the most extreme of events that she could put her little witchy fingers too.
Faith rolled her eyes and reached for a spoon. She went to dip it into Fay’s porridge and the normally placid woman hit out, slapping her hand away, like a lioness over a kill that she didn’t want to share.
“Because, you knocked her up, and I don’t think you want us all travelling across the country for the winter solstice. I mean, what if she runs out of porridge…?” Faith eyed the porridge bowl with interest and Fay’s frown deepened.
“I offered to make you some, so hands off.” Fay shot her friend a look that could possibly kill, and Faith put the spoon down gently and held her hands up in mock surrender.
“See what you’ve done to her. One little taste of porridge was all I wanted and she’s guarding it with her life…” Faith’s head turned with the sound of the front door opening and the rush of the icy winter winds that held the first traces of this winter’s snow.
Abel shook himself off at the door. Little flakes of white clinging to his hair and his body as he scented the air, a gleam in his eye.
“Do I smell porridge?” He shucked himself out of his jacket as Faith snorted.
“Yeah, good luck pal. She’s guarding it with her life…” Faith watched Abel stroll across the room and pour a cup of coffee.
“She’s my sister and I love her, she’d let me have just a taste…” He teased, those bright blue eyes gleaming with amusement as he joined them at the table.
Faith was almost expecting Fay to grab the bowl and hug it to her chest when Abel made a move towards the spoon.
“Pick the appendage that you want to lose.” Fay growled out. And damn if she didn’t mean it.
Adam snorted a laugh as Abel backed off. He leaned towards Faith and pretended to whisper into her ear.
“I’ve seen less bad tempered bears when they wake from hibernation.” Abel eyed his sister across the table as she finished spooning the last of the porridge from the bowl and licked her lips, sated, for now.
“Ten to one she licks the damn bowl clean.” Faith muttered good naturedly and Abel snorted a laugh.
“Well when Adam bonded with her and took on the responsibility of providing for her, I bet he didn’t figure he’d have to buy every pack of porridge in a twenty mile radius.” Abel and Faith seemed to be enjoying her misery.
“Look. It’s not my fault that the pup craves porridge…” Fay still seemed reluctant to push her bowl away from her, even if it was empty.
“Whose fault is it that you have to dump half of the sugar bowl on top of it?” Abel teased and Fay caught him with a glare.
“Your turn will come Abel. Let’s see what you’ll be buying your future mate when…”
“Hold it right there little sister. And when I say little I mean the term very loosely at the moment, sugar monster…” Faith snorted a laugh, as she saw Fay’s jaw snap open in disbelief. This wasn’t going to end well for Abel.
“Insulting a pregnant woman and using her weight is never going to go down well idiot.” Adam groaned with a roll of his eyes and Abel shrugged his shoulders, his eyes glancing towards Faith to back him up.
“Don’t look at me to bail you out. I don’t have a death wish…” Faith assured him, sliding her chair a little further away from his… Just in case.
Abel heard Fay’s jaws snap shut and his eyes flashed in her direction. He could see the malice in her eyes and he quickly held up his hands in mock surrender.
“Now Fay, I was just kidding. You look…” He was lost for words, even though a million floated through his mind. “Well rounded.” He snorted, he couldn’t help himself.
The fist that connected with his jaw, and sent him sideways from the chair and sprawling across the floor, came out of nowhere that he’d seen coming.
Fay’s head practically snapped around on her neck to glare at Adam who grinned back at her. He could tell that she was unhappy she never got to use her new found Fae magic.
“Sorry sweetheart, but it’s my job to defend you.” Adam informed her, with a quick look at Faith as he dragged himself up from the table and walked to where his brother sat on the floor. Abel’s hand was rubbing the sore spot on his jaw.
“You hit like a girl.” Abel growled up at him and Adam beamed down.
“Better I hit you than Fay, her hormones would have sent you through the wall and planted your backside in the herb garden if she’d zapped you with her magic right now.” Adam informed him quietly, so Fay couldn’t over hear him.
Abel shot a look at Fay, who was giving him her best death glare, and he nodded.
“Fair enough. But don’t expect me to thank you brother…”
“Wouldn’t expect you too, brother. Now stop poking the mama bear-to-be, before she pokes you back.” Adam cautioned, as he held his hand downwards for Abel to take. Yanking him up to his feet, as he kept his back turned towards his mate.
“Is she still glaring?” Adam whispered and Abel snatched a look in her direction.
“Like a demented Troll…” Abel confirmed and Adam sighed on a wince of knowing.
“At you or me?”
“Me…”Abel confirmed.
Adam slapped his brother on the shoulder and grinned at him.
“Good. That’s me off the hook then”
“You know you’re not supposed to be doing any spell work right now, what are you looking for, something for the baby?”Faith asked as she handed Fay a wine glass of juice. She could have the glass but not the alcohol, it was a lame concession that she only need put up with for a few more weeks. Once the baby was born she could delve back into the delights of a nice red with whatever meaty kill Adam and the boys brought home, and oh how she missed a little tipple here and there.
Fay hugged the Grimoire to her chest and sipped her fake wine as Faith settled in on the sofa next to her.
“Not exactly, well it is for a baby, just not my baby.”Fay gave a small shrug off her shoulders and put the not-wine down on the table beside her. Two more weeks then she was going to put a damn teat on the first wine bottle she laid her hands on and go for it with a vengeance.
Faith hooked an eyebrow up towards her and gave her a look of horror.
“Well don’t look at me. I’m married to a vampire in case you forgot, and his fish don’t swim, they’re belly up before they’ve even been shot at the target.”
Fay’s top lips curled upwards in distaste. “God Faith, you have such a way with words, remind me not to let you help my child with his homework.”
“I’m gonna make a great Aunty.”Faith screwed up her nose and squirmed in her seat, gyrating to her own beat.
“Don’t show him that either. I don�
��t want the poor pup intimidated by women before he can even walk.”
“God, you’re such a prude. I thought time spent with Adam would have loosened you up by now…”Faith heard the front door go, and caught the icy blast that came through the living room, as Hope bounced into the room, a grin on her lips and rosy red cheeks. “It’s either really cold out there or someone just got laid.”Faith announced and Fay chuckled as Hope stuck out her tongue before slamming the door shut behind her and shedding her padded jacket onto the hook.
“Actually both, bitch face, just because you’re not getting any lately since lover boy went away.”
“Bite me.”Faith ground out. What she wanted to say was don’t remind me, but that would have shown her vulnerable side, and she never showed that.
“Ask Abel, if you’re so desperate for some fangs in your neck. He’s still unmated after all.” Hope grabbed a glass and the wine bottle and dropped down into the chair opposite them.
“Which brings me nicely into what I was researching today.”Fay unclenched around the Grimoire and rested it on her lap, or what damn lap she had left thanks to the pup swelling her stomach.
Fay eyed Faith and Hope, who looked back at her with expectation. When she said nothing Faith sighed and rolled her eyes.
“It’s the pregnancy curse, where your brain loses like a trillion brain cells right?”Faith offered trying to take the Grimoire from her lap and getting a slapped hand for her efforts. “Ouch.”Faith snorted. Turning in her seat towards her friend, she gave her a questioning look. “You know we can’t read minds. You have to tell us what you were researching, dippy.”
Fay went to open her mouth and then closed it again. It was true; she did seem to have less brain power than she had before getting pregnant, so she couldn’t really argue with that one.
“Cut her some slack, she’s going to be a mummy, things can only get worse from this point in her life onwards where her brain is concerned…”Hope chuckled as she poured herself a glass right up to the rim and her eyes caught Fay licking her lips in anticipation of how that sweet wine was going to taste. “Relax sister, only a few weeks and then you can get your chops around one of these.”Hope added, snapping Fay out of her cravings.
“Easy for you to say, it’s been eight months.”Fay bit out. Her fingers curling against the delicate pages of the Grimoire until Faith reached for them and gently uncurled them.
“Unhand the family heirloom before it bites back.”Faith told her and Fay eased her grip. “Calling the one?”Faith read the title of the spell out loud and the balked. “Whose one?”She demanded, and Fay gave a small innocent shrug of her shoulders.
“I thought it was about time that Abel got his mate, maybe then he’ll be less of a douche and more occupied.”Fay offered and Hope balked.
“Boy what did he do to you to piss you off?”Hope asked before taking a long drink of her wine.
“He tried playing goldilocks and stealing her porridge.”Faith offered with her best mortified tone, and Hope gave Fay her best shocked expression.
“Nooo.”Hope gasped and shook her head. “The nerve of the guy. We should certainly teach him a lesson…”
“Right.”Faith agreed on a nod, both of them in full blown teasing mode now. “I mean, for Abel and his man-ho ways, what could be worse?”
“It’s not a punishment, it’s a distraction.”Fay offered up innocently, and Faith eyed Hope across the way, a knowing smirk on her lips.
“A blessing.” Faith offered and Fay nodded.
“That he doesn’t want.”Hope reminded her, but Fay just shrugged her shoulders.
“He’ll be thanking us…”Fay bit her lip for a long moment, a wickedness spreading within her. “If he were ever to figure out that it was us who called her.”She said as innocently as possible and Faith and Hope stared at each other.
“This is your influence.”Hope told Faith as she motioned towards her. “You created this monster…”
“And I’m sooo proud.”Faith grinned at Fay. The wickedness of what Fay was proposing was somehow catching, not that Faith ever needed much encouragement in that department.
“ ‘Tis the season…”Faith offered on a small shrug of devilment and Fay giggled.
“To what? Punish Abel. Because, I don’t remember that in any Christmas jingles…”
“To give the gift of love.”Faith offered. “Ladies, let’s get some candles…”She quickly read down the spell. “Honey, and a ball of twine…”
“She’s mated to a wolf, there has to be a ball around her somewhere for him to play fetch with.”Hope rolled her eyes and didn’t make a move to help.
“Stop pouting, he’ll love it…”Faith rolled that thought around in her mind. “Eventually.”
“When the pain wears off.”Hope sunk the rest of the wine in her glass and dropped her head back against the seat. “Let’s pray that this doesn’t come back to bite us in the behind, and that all’s well that ends well.”
When it snowed, it really snowed up here, Fay thought as she stared out of the living room window and watched the blanket of white get visibly thicker with every minute that ticked by.
Fay rubbed a hand over her belly and sighed. Playing snowballs was out of the question, she could barely bend at the waist as it was. No snowballs, no snowmen, and no damn Christmas tree…
Fay turned on her heels and caught Joshua’s eye. The big old bear shifter that was mated to Hope was doing that a lot lately, watching her. She narrowed her eyes accusingly and he snapped out of it, deliberately looking anywhere but at her. She reached up and scratched an itch of annoyance on her neck. Maybe it was hives? Did you get hives from cabin fever? It had only been a few days since she’d been out there, but still.
Adam walked towards her with a smile and a swagger, and she felt like reaching up and ripping the smile from his lips, but she didn’t, because she was in control of her baby madness.
“Hey sweetheart, anything I can get you?”Adam draped his large arms gently over her shoulders and met her swollen belly with his perfect muscled abs. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, she missed her body. She wasn’t a supermodel, but at least she could bend in the damn middle.
“A Christmas tree…”Fay offered up the first thing that came to mind that wasn’t to do with her pregnancy, or porridge, or wine, or anything else that she could cram into her mouth to feed the pup.
Adam opened his mouth and then looked confused. “Sweetheart, you’re Fae…”He reminded her, knowing the pregnancy had taken its toll on her rational mind at times.
“I’m still human, and was more human than Fae, before I was Fae, and I want a tree.”She gave her best indignant tone.
“I never get that with humans, why they deem it necessary to go around cutting down trees so they can hang little glass baubles on them…”Joshua was pretty much mumbling to himself when his eyes met Fay’s dark glare and his jaw snapped shut, and that big old bear swallowed down hard.
“You asked what I wanted and I said tree…”Fay shrugged her shoulders.
“He meant something rational.”Abel chuckled, and Fay’s head snapped sideways around his brother’s body and she pinned him with another dark glare.
“It’s Christmas and I want a tree…”Fay growled out at Abel, before she straightened back up and looked up at her mate. She saw the corners of his lips curled upwards in a smile. “But, if it’s too much trouble…”She sniffed back the tears that were already in her eyes and stared up at her mate with big old doe eyes, as her lower lip quivered.
Adam balked as his mate started to sniffle. His back straightened, his muscles tensed, and he quickly shook his head in denial.
“Sweetheart, if you want a tree I’ll go cut you one down myself.”He assured her, anything to stop the tears from flowing, because once those tears started he was only to aware that they weren’t going to stop.
It wouldn’t end with a damn tree either, oh no, she’d pick apart everything that had gone wrong in their lives since they met, in g
reat detail, over and over until he wanted to knock himself out by slamming his head into a wall.
“Right now?”She sniffed hopefully, and he nodded quickly.
“Right this minute. I’m going to get you the best damn tree you’ve ever seen.”He started to back away from her, a big smile of encouragement on his face as he backed towards the front door. Snatching up his jacket from the hook.
“You love me sooo much.”She sniffled again, a tear running down her cheek, and all hell broke loose. Joshua and Abel were both on their feet and heading towards the front door.
“I’ll help you.”Joshua growled, reaching for his jacket as Adam wrenched the door open.
“I’ll hold it, you cut it.”Abel rushed out the front door and then slammed back into Adam’s chest as he remembered his jacket. Adam snatched it off the hook and slapped it against his brother chest as he pushed him out of the door.
“Back soon, sweetheart. Have some porridge.”Adam offered over his shoulder as they made their getaway, and Fay wiped away the tears and hummed to herself.
“Oh my god, you were so faking that to get what you wanted!”Faith accused her from the other side of the room, and Fay turned on a shrug.
“And what if I was?”Fay tipped her chin up in defiance and Faith chuckled.
“I just have to say…”Faith strolled across the room and dropped down onto the newly vacated sofa. “The pupil has surpassed the teacher, and damn did I teach you well.”
“What the hell is that?”Adam growled at Abel as he stood next to a five foot odd tree, eyeing it up for size.
“Your mates Christmas tree.”Abel motioned towards it as if he was in a cheesy showroom ad, and Adam growled his annoyance and rolled his eyes.
“That’s not a damn tree, it’s a damn twig. If I go home with that one of two things is going to happen, my mate will either rip off my balls, or she’ll burst into tears, neither of which I want to happen.”He assured his brother as Joshua called from ten feet away.