by M. L. Briers
“Yes, she could be attacked by invisible munchkins,” Connor rolled his eyes at the man, and Jacob felt a rush of embarrassment at his irrational behaviour.
He wasn’t sorry though. He would do whatever it took to protect Lily and keep her safely out of harm’s way.
But with everyone looking at him like he was the village idiot. He had to admit to himself that maybe now wasn’t that time.
“Fine…” he bit out, slowly lowering her down his body.
That might not have been the best idea. As she slide down his body, pressed as closely to him as two people could get without mating, her hands found his shoulders for stability, and he met her angry eyes…
“I should zap you,” Lily bit out, anger flashing in her eyes, but he liked her all fired up like that…
“He’s just overly protective, cut him a…” Chelsea offered, but she was zapped into silence by her friend as Lily dragged her eyes away from her mate and turned them on her friend…
“You…!” Lily said, exasperated at her friend’s actions.
“What’d I do?” Chelsea looked more than confused at getting zapped and a little miffed to boot.
“It was your damn idea…” Lily said, her tone was berating and full of disbelief. “You sent the man caveman style on my backside, hanging upside down like an idiot…”
“Well, excuse me, but that crazy bear was here to rip you limb from limb, no?” she demanded as she placed her hands on her hips and refrained from getting into a zapping contest with the witch.
Jacob growled long and hard at the image that Chelsea had drawn within his mind of Lily’s fate…
“Mate … safe…” Connor said slowly towards the shifter and Jacob turned that growl on him.
“Connor…” Vicky’s tone was berating.
“What? I did nothing…” Connor said, holding up his hands at his chest in innocent surrender to the facts.
“Don’t bait the wolf…” Vicky tossed back.
“Can we do that voodoo that you do – so well…?” Connor teased, and Vicky sighed.
“I might just join in with the zapping and bitching if you keep on annoying me,” she berated him.
“Fine. Not another word…” Connor sighed. Then he lifted his hand and inspected his fingernails, but it was too much for him. “I could sing it…”
“Please don’t. A wild animal in a mangle sounds more melodic than you when you sing…” Vicky sighed.
“Which is ironic – considering I’m a vampire…” he offered with something approaching glee.
“Oh … the irony.” Vicky bit out, dryly.
“Fine.” Connor grumbled. Turning to face the opening of the doorway. “But can we at least get the cauldron on and bubbling away…?” he tossed back over his shoulder, and flinched when Vicky zapped him…
“Are you ever going to even try to be … normal?” Dexter growled at the vampire. His voice was still full of his beast…
“Could everyone not wearing clothes, get dressed?” Lily bit out.
“You’d better get used to a little naked…” Tyler chuckled.
“Stop flashing my mate.” Jacob growled back.
“Why, worried you won’t live up to this…?” Tyler grinned, and Chelsea zapped him. “Tell me why?” He growled … turning his head to stare at his mate…
“Just … because,” Chelsea smiled.
“Because Lily zapped you and you wanted to zap someone…” Tyler nodded in knowing.
“Yes.”
“Job done,” Connor offered. “Let’s move on to finding that witch and ending her.”
“Wait…” Vicky frowned hard. “Why ending her?”
“Because…” Connor looked a little sheepish under his mate’s scrutiny.
“Because she’s a witch that’s annoying you?” Vicky offered back.
“Right!” Connor pointed his finger at her, nodding in agreement.
“Wrong…” Vicky snapped back.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Connor sighed inwardly. “Bad vampire.” He mockingly berated himself.
“We don’t kill witches unless…?” Vicky said…
“We really want to?” Connor offered back and she zapped him again. “Unless they’re mates?” he tried again and got another zap for his trouble. “Fine – unless I have to.” He scowled. “You’re turning into a grouch.”
Vicky zapped him once more, but that one he definitely knew was coming because she gave him her very best death glare to go with it.
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“They’ll come for me…” Agatha breathed out.
She’d been the witch to Zane’s clan since she was sixteen. The alpha was a friend – or he had been before that night when he’d lost his mate to that other witch’s magic.
Now she didn’t recognise the man or his bear. The beast was crazy – the man too, but he was still her alpha.
He’d taken her in, given her a home, and she owed him her loyalty.
Even if she didn’t believe what he was doing was right.
Even if she didn’t believe that the witch’s sister should pay for her crimes…
Zane didn’t turn to look at the woman. She was a means to an end and that end would be finding and killing the one who had killed his mate.
No matter who died in the pursuit of that justice.
Death was an ends to a means that he would utilise where necessary, and he found it very necessary.
“You’d better make sure that they don’t find you. I need you now.” Zane bit out – the bile and hatred for everyone and everything sat easily on his tongue.
He’d kill the whole pack of them to get that witch if he had to, and by the looks of things – he’d have to do just that.
He liked the hunt.
He liked the kill, and the only reason that he’d left that wolf barely alive was to distract the pack from his true purpose.
It hadn’t worked that time, but he still had more cards up his sleeve and he had a need to taste that witch’s blood on his tongue and not just on his claws…
It couldn’t come soon enough.
CHAPTER TWELVE
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Agatha could feel the strength of the magic that pushed against her shields. She knew that it was just a matter of time before they broke through to her.
Once that happened then Zane would be on his own.
She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that prospect. On the one hand he had been a friend – a saviour to her in many ways, taking her in when she had nowhere to go – and she hated what had happened to him, but his mate had always had a short fuse and Agatha knew that it was only a matter of time before the she-bear had picked a fight with the wrong person.
But the Zane that was out on the mountain hunting the witch’s sister to the point of insanity was not the man that she had known. He’d let the madness of his bear take him – let the loss of his one true mate draw him into the dark side of his personality.
Zane was gone in all but presence only.
He’d never be the man – the alpha – that she had known. The clan had known it – shunning him when he had turned on his own clan.
Turned crazy in his absolute desire for vengeance.
The witch on the mountain hadn’t been the one to take the amulet, to kill the mate – she was an innocent.
Agatha had helped him to track her in the hopes of finding the one who had killed Naima … but what he was doing now – well, that was wrong, and she couldn’t reconcile finding justice for the she-bear with the man’s newfound bloodlust.
Agatha allowed her shields to drop and welcomed the magic that hit her hard. There were four witches … and she could feel the distinct magic from each one of them.
The pain was crippling. It started at the heart of her magic and raced outwards to every inch of her body.
Her legs weakened to the point where they couldn’t hold her up a moment longer and she dropped down to her knees in the dirt…
Her finger curled into the soft soil and her nails raked at it as the witches did their best to disable her…
It’s for the best…
Zane won’t stop until he kills them all…
It’s not Zane anymore…
She saw the boots appear in front of her and knew that she’d reached the end of the road. The end of her life – but in that brief second as she twisted her head on her neck and looked up at the vampire that stood before her – she knew that she’d done the right thing…
The wolf that grunted in anger started towards her out of the foliage on determined paws…
“Well, what do we have here?” Connor bit out…
‘Enough…’ Dexter growled through the link, warning Jacob to call off the witches attack. The woman was down and she didn’t look like much of a threat to them anymore…
Agatha felt the pain being snatched back away from her body – it was slow to leave the nerve endings, but at least the pain had become more bearable…
‘Dexter, Isobel said that the witch dropped her shields and let them in… whatever that means…’
Dexter shook off his wolf and shifted back into his human form.
“Just make it fast…” Agatha bit out, pushing up from the ground onto her knees, determined to die with pride, as she lifted her chin and waited for the vampire to punish her for her part in the hunt…
“Nobody is going to kill you…” Dexter growled; the wolf still clung to his voice.
“We’re … not?” Connor was somewhat relieved at Dexter’s words.
The witch was young. He’d put her at twenty and he didn’t much like the idea of ending the life of someone who hadn’t really lived yet.
Agatha looked from the vampire to the alpha and back again. She didn’t know what kind of a game they were playing, but she wanted no part in it…
“If you’re hoping that Zane will come to rescue me…” She said on a small shake of her head.
Maybe once the alpha bear would have, but not anymore. The man had vengeance wrapped like a cloak around his heart and there was no room for any other emotion inside of him…
“We’re not…” Dexter said.
“We’re not?” Connor repeated and Dexter sighed.
“Do you have to do that?” He growled.
“Do that?”
“Repeat everything that I say like a question,” Dexter growled back.
“A question?” Connor’s eyes lit with mirth, but none of them were in the mood to laugh.
It was just Connor being Connor, even at times when they were facing death the vampire still liked to get his shots in where he could.
“I’m not going to help you,” Agatha said.
She might not have been willing to help Zane any longer, but she wouldn’t lead the man to his death either.
“I know,” Dexter nodded.
“He’s the smart one,” Connor offered down to the witch, and then he held out his hand towards her, palm out for her to take. “A witch should never be on her knees to anyone.”
Agatha wasn’t sure about anything. The vampire had wanted to kill her – she’d seen it in his eyes.
The alpha was a different matter…
She refused the offer of the man’s hand and pushed up to her feet under her own steam.
“Why are we not killing the witch?” Connor tossed back over his shoulder like a not so subtle warning to the woman not to try anything.
“Isobel said that she dropped her shields and let them in – which means that she wants this over with as much as we do.” Dexter growled back.
“For my sins…” Agatha bit out.
She hadn’t enjoyed her part in the hunt and she certainly didn’t relish Zane’s death now, but she knew that he needed to be stopped.
“It’s never a sin to help the innocent,” Connor offered back to her, but the look in her eyes told him that she was already mourning the bear’s loss.
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Jacob’s wolf paced back and forth in front of Dexter’s cabin. He’d allowed his beast to push forward; knowing that as a man he would never be able to take on Zane’s bear and win, but as a wolf he stood a damn good chance at beating him.
His beast was happy to be unleashed to protect their mate once more, but Jacob still needed to rein the wolf in. It was unpredictable, and before he’d met his mate that wild side within him was starting to take over.
He couldn’t let that happen again and he knew it.
He’d left his pack behind him because his wolf had been damn unhappy about the leadership, and it had shown in many ways – especially the dominant, alpha side to his personality.
The wolf might have wanted to be an alpha to their old pack for the stability that it would have given them, but the man had been content not to have had that kind of responsibility of leadership.
He had no problem in fighting anyone to keep his pack safe, but the infighting that existed within his old pack was something that he was more than happy to distance himself from.
He liked Dexter’s pack. There was a strange sense of self within it.
Three alphas in one pack was unthinkable, and no damn infighting … that was almost unheard of. Now there were four, but Dexter didn’t seem bothered by it – he never looked as if he felt challenged by so many dominant wolves, and life on the mountain was easy to live with.
It would have been easier if his wolf would keep his damn fangs to himself … but now that he’d found his mate; he was hoping that would even out his wild side…
“Well, look at you all fur and claws…” Lily’s voice made his beast soft inside, and the wolf turned to take in the sight and scent of their mate…
Her eyes drank him in. He was beautiful.
The beast was large as was befitting the size of the man himself, and his grey coat looked striking with the streak of white fur that ran from the top of his head, all the way down his back, and finished with a large flash at the tip of his tail…
One look in those wolf eyes of his and she was smitten by the beast. Wolf or not, she knew that this side of the man was what made him who he was, what gave him such strength of character.
He was truly mesmerising.
Jacob’s beast took one long step towards her – and then he drew his lips back and snarled like he’d never snarled before…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
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‘Bear!’ Jacob growled out the warning to the pack as he turned on his paws, and he put himself between any attack that was to come their way and his mate.
His wolf let out a roar in warning to let the others know that he’d scented the crazy bear in the air as his eyes searched the immediate area for a sign of the beast, and he scented the wind to try to find the direction that Zane would come at them.
“To your right…” Lily bit out at the exact same moment that Jacob caught that distinctive scent once more.
Lily raised her hands and readied her magic, but she had to bite her tongue in surprise as a strong pair of arms lifted her and turned her back into the cabin.
Tyler stepped away from the mate and out into the early morning light – blocking the open space of the doorway with his large body, and he’d given Jacob the perfect opportunity to go after Zane now that his mate was protected.
That hadn’t been Tyler’s intention.
“Damn it, wolf…” Tyler growled in annoyance.
He knew that out of him and Jacob – it was him that stood the better chance at meeting the bear head on and defeating it. He also knew that nothing really mattered a damn when you were protecting your mate, and the wolf was acting without logic and running on instinct alone.
That wasn’t always an advantage when your mind was clouded by anger and the desperate need to keep your mate safe.
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Connor didn’t trust the bear’s witch as far as he could throw her. She may have appeared benign, but he’d lived long enough to l
ook at things from all the angles.
If she was lulling them into a false sense of security and walking them right into a trap then he would end her in a heartbeat. He didn’t need Dexter’s agreement for that.
He might have kept her at his back, between him and Dexter, as they’d walked her back towards the cabins, but he was listening to her heart beating within her chest for any sign that it would speed up and give away an attack, and he was more than ready for her to make a move against them herself…
“Bear’s attacking the cabin…” Dexter rushed out, a moment before he shifted into his wolf and took off on fast paws.
“Stay here or I will end you…” Connor bit back over his shoulder towards the witch, a moment before he followed on his friend’s heels.
Agatha felt the rush of shame and guilt that went through her. She knew in her heart that her actions had led to that very moment in time, and she wanted to make it right – wanted to make everything bad that was happening go away – she just didn’t know how…
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By the time that Connor got to the cabin; the battle was already underway. Jacob was circling around on one side of the bear, while Dexter was doing the same on the other.
Jacob looked a little worse for wear, and the scent of his blood filled the air, but then Connor took heart that the bear did as well.
“Do you ever feel … not needed?” Conor looked towards Tyler, as the man stood guard at the front of the cabin…
“Have you met my mate?” Tyler shot back and Connor grinned, but that grin disappeared off of his face fast as Agatha came running out into the wide open space in front of the cabin at full speed, heading right towards the thick of the fighting…
“Damn it…” Connor bit out, making a beeline for the headstrong woman, but it was already too late…
“Zane … stop this…” Agatha bit out, pleading with the man that he once was.
She needed the man to see sense, to know that his battle wasn’t with this pack and its people…