by M. L. Briers
“What did you do?” It wasn’t really a question. Petra had a pretty damn good idea of what Jill had done. She’d woken up next to him this morning. She was going to spend the rest of her life with him…
“It was just a little thing…” Jill shrugged her shoulders like a child explaining away the insanity of throwing logic and caution to the wind. She’d not meant it in a bad way, if anything she was trying to help. Petra had never seemed settled in any aspect of her life since she’d known her. It was as if she were searching for something, but had no idea what it was. Jill knew it was a by product of her early childhood, but neither of them knew more than that. She’d wanted a little happiness for her friend, how could that be wrong?
“That is not a little thing. That is a man mountain of sinful experiences waiting to be had…” Petra balked at that very idea. While her body was only too aware of all the sinful experiences Dale would be able to deliver, and relished it with a warmth that flowed through her veins, her mind was still firmly stuck with the handbrake on.
“Which is a good thing…”Gleeful and hopeful, Jill tried to enthuse her words with both of those emotions, but Petra just glared back at her for a long moment. Disbelief was running riot through her mind, along with a heap of curses that were just too numerous to spit out.
“Which is the rest of my life kind of a thing…” Petra shot back.
“Well, I wasn’t to know that when I cast the spell…”Jill clamped her lips together, damn, she’d admitted using magic.
“Spell?” Petra lifted her brows and questioned Jill with just that long look of spit-it-out.
“Just an iddy-biddy-teeny-weeny draw-him-to-you kind of a spell…”Remorse mixed with innocence on her friends face and Petra felt the need to turn to the nearest wall and head butt it with everything she had until she didn’t have anything left. But what would be the point, the spell had been cast and must have been in play for quite a while. They’d moved to this area because of a series of events that hadn’t seemed connected or planted by fate at the time, but now… well, fate will have its way, and with a little magic to bolster it, here they were. Although if she hit her head hard enough she just might give herself a DIY lobotomy, perfect for coping with Lycans.
“What’s done is done, it’s not like he comes with a return label is it?” Petra could cheerfully have throttled her friend, and yet it was more than likely that even without Jill’s spell, fate would have led her to his door. She’d be a mate up and a friend down if she gave into temptation, and that wouldn’t be good.
“And that’s a good thing...”Jill rushed back to hopeful enthusiasm, but Petra still had the dark glare in her eyes that her friend knew only too well.
“The good thing is the karma that came back to bite you in the arse and it serves’ you right…”Petra was wholeheartedly behind that statement. If she was to suffer the mating pull and a mate, well it was only fitting that her best friend, who started the damn ball rolling, was suffering alongside her.
“This isn’t karma…” Jill dropped her eyes to the floor again and Petra took one long moment to consider what that meant. When she finally connected the dots she wanted to slap Jill upside her head for her stupidity, at the same time as wanting to curl up on the floor with laughter.
“You didn’t protect yourself from the spell did you? Oh my god...”Petra chuckled heartedly at her friend’s lack of forethought into casting her spells. Every witch knows that what you throw out there into the universe will surely come back to bite you in the backside unless you protected yourself. The more intense the spell, the more protection you needed. Jill liked to cut corners and cutting corners meant mistakes…
“Yes I…” Jill rushed to her own defence and then faltered under Petra’s knowing gaze. “Might not have…” She admitted.
“Ha! Justice, karma and fate all rolled into one.”
“Well… I can’t argue with that, but still…”
“Still, that’s what happens when you cut corners with your magic, and it still serves you right…”
“Ok, Ok I can’t deny I shouldn’t have done it… but you looked so alone…”Jill held up her hands and shrugged her shoulders. It was an honest mistake and not one she’d meant to explode in either of their faces the way that it had.
“There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely, just like there’s a difference between being stupid and stupidity…”
“Ouch.”Jill folded her arms across her chest and pouted like a five year old.
“I know you’re not a stupid person, but you rush with blindness into things too often, and now here we are.” Petra wanted to state her whole case in full. She loved Jill like a sister, but she was prone to doing things on a whim and leaving her to clear up the aftermath, and this was a situation that couldn’t be turned around. They were both going to have to deal with it, but the reality was that neither of their lives would be the same again.
“But look on the bright side…”Jill was back to her old self, hopeful and enthusiastic.
“The bright side?”
“We never have to have another first date.”Jill offered, eyeing her from beneath her lashes to gage her reaction. Petra couldn’t help the smile the tugged at her lips. Even at her maddest Jill could do that, lift her up and set her back on her feet, and not always physically.
“But no more first kisses.”Petra countered and Jill lifted her eyes and gave her a full on stare of disbelief. Petra might have been around the block a few times where her magic was concerned, but she knew absolutely nothing about the supernatural world in terms of its men. Flatly refusing to date any was probably the biggest drawback to that.
“Every kiss with a Lycan is a first kiss. Trust me.”Jill’s assurances made Petra a little hot under the collar. There was already, what felt like a low grade fever running through her body where her mate was concerned, but now it felt a little warmer in the room and she was sure nobody had turned the heating up. Petra thought on it for a long moment and then she put her hands on her hips and planted her feet, determined to uncover every last bit of information she could from her friend.
“Tell me more about Lycan men. And don’t leave anything out.”
When the back door to the kitchen opened the rush of cold air brought the scent of trouble into the room. Dale’s back might have been to the door, but he’d know that scent anywhere, and he relaxed just as quickly. He’d trust this man to the ends of the earth and back, and had on numerous occasions.
“How quickly word spreads.”Dale eyed his beta. There were only two of them who knew they had found their mates last night, and he hadn’t said a word to anyone. Brad on the other hand looked away a little too quickly under his alpha’s scrutiny to be without blame.
“I have my sources, Alpha, you know me.”
Dale was sure that the amusement in the elder’s voice was matched by a smirk upon his face, but he resisted the urge to turn on his stool and find out, letting the old man come to him. And he did, sliding up on the stool at the counter with a huff and a small groan with the effort that everyone present knew was just for show. This man was still fully able to outrun most young pups in his wolf’s body, but he liked the elder title and applied himself accordingly to the status.
“Well you’d better have some breakfast. It seems our mates are conspiring against us in the bedroom upstairs.”Dale bit out, motioning with his head to his beta to load a plate for their distinguished guest.
“I wouldn’t say no to a small snack…”
“It would be a first.”Dale shot back with a slight grin that escaped him, what didn’t escape him was the small growl from the elder.
“When you’re an elder you can impart your wisdom and wisdom states, never turn down free food.”Rafferty eyed the serving spoon that Brad was using to heap scrambled eggs onto his plate, and the younger Lycan kept an eye on his elder to know when he’d reached the desired amount of food on offer. It was the small satisfied smile that touched his lips that gav
e the game away.
“So you’re here to meet the mates?”Brad asked as he turned his attention to tossing on the bacon before he went to move onto the sausages.
“Is there a bacon shortage, are we running out of pigs in this country?”Rafferty grumbled with a frown that brought his salt and pepper brows down over his eyes. Brad chuckled to himself and went back to the bacon. Small snack my a… “You have a problem with that, Alpha?” Rafferty didn’t turn his head to look at Dale; he was still too intent on what Brad was doing with his breakfast.
“Not at all. Although, it would be nice if we got to know them first.”Dale offered before sipping at his coffee.
“I can’t help it if you young ones are slow off the mark.”Rafferty grumbled in an effort to sound old and bad tempered, but it somehow didn’t work with him. The man was just too canny to be anything more than he was, on the ball and ready with words and actions for anything that was presented to him.
“Slow of the mark?”Brad couldn’t quite see where the elder was coming from. They’d identified their mates and brought them home to pack land, how was that slow off the mark?
“Well you’ve known them for hours…”Rafferty teased.
“Of which most of it was spent with them sleeping off the drunken haze of the night before.”Dale wasn’t as fazed by the elder as his beta. He’d danced around the block with the man on so many subjects so many times that he was used to this particular waltz. Destabilise your opponent until they gave up the goods. He wasn’t about to take the bait, but he couldn’t say the same for his beta.
“Unless you think we should have mated them without their consent.”And there it was, Dale noted, his beta was frowning like a mountain bear woken too soon from hibernation and was on the defensive. Score one for the elder.
“Did I say such a thing?”Rafferty growled back. He now had the upper hand and Dale knew it, and by the way Brad looked chastised he knew it too.
“It was implied.”Brad shot back and Dale couldn’t help the small chuckle that rushed to his lips. His beta was now digging the hole beneath him even deeper…
CHAPTER FIVE
“If your mind rushed to that assumption I can’t do anything about that, boy. Perhaps you should drag your brain out of the gutter and remember that it’s your mate you’re talking about.”Rafferty snapped back on a low growl and Brad hesitated placing the old man’s plate down in front of him, so Rafferty reached for it and snatched it out of his hand. “Shame on you boy.” He berated for good measure and it took everything that Dale had not to spit out the laughter that welled within him.
“What? I… You…”Brad gave up and growled his annoyance instead. The elder had won the match and there wasn’t anything that Brad could do to save the day. Dale dropped his head over his cup and waited for the beta to make his clean getaway. “I’ve got phone calls to make.”Brad growled out between clenched teeth as he walked away.
“Enjoy that?”Dale asked after he waited for his beta’s footsteps to become a distant stomp of thunder and turned to look at the twinkle in the older man’s eyes as he stabbed at his food with a vengeance.
“What’s the point in being an elder if you can’t be a cantankerous old fart?”Rafferty gave a slight chuckle before opening his mouth wide and shovelling in a forkful of food.
“And you play the role so well.”Dale offered and watched the elder’s shoulders rise and fall in a silent laugh that was subdued by the chewing and swallowing of his food.
“Who’s your mate? I can scent her on you, it’s kind of familiar and yet I can’t place it.”Rafferty went in for another helping.
“Doubt you know her, I’ve never seen her around here before. Her name’s Petra.”
“Petra?”The old man took a long moment to think about it before he shook his head. “Doesn’t ring any bells, but then, I’m old.” Rafferty turned his head and beamed his amusement back at his alpha. He liked to play his games, and Dale respected that.
“I was leaning more towards ancient, but old is good too.”Dale offered with a smirk. He knew the hand was coming for the back of his head the moment it was raised and he did nothing to stop the slap that nodded his head on his neck. The man had earned that. His beast might have been slightly affronted by it, but Dale respected Rafferty, and to him, that was as affectionate as the old man could get.
“You maybe alpha, but your lack of wisdom is showing.”Rafferty growled good naturedly. He knew Dale could have countered his tap in a heartbeat, but it was a game they played for a number of years now. Rafferty being the closest thing to a father that Dale had ever had, having lost his own kin when he was young.
“And that’s what I have you for old man. Eat your breakfast.” Dale countered, the grin on his lips couldn’t be denied. He relied on Rafferty’s counsel, sought it out when he was faced with a dilemma, but there was no dilemma to be had now. He’d found his mate, where was the problem in that?
Petra felt Jill at her back and it somehow seemed comforting for them to be doing this together. They’d spent the better part of an hour upstairs with Jill going through everything she could possibly want to know about Lycans, mating and their sexual habits, and some things that she thought she’d rather not know, but now they’d been put out there it was kind of hard to take them back. Now they were going to face their mates together, a united front, so to speak.
Petra heard the distinctive deep male voices coming from behind the door and headed for it. The closer she got the older one of them sounded, and she hesitated only a moment, wondering what she might be walking into, before she reached out and pushed the door open ahead of her.
The sight of her mate turning to greet her made the rest of the room pale into insignificance as his eyes met and held hers. She might have been aware that she now stood in the kitchen, but she didn’t seem to give a damn. It was only him that she was interested in.
“Oh my God, it’s you…”The deep rumble of the older voice crept into her mind. His words pinged back and forth around her brain, waking it to the reality that something was amiss, and she dragged her eyes from her mate to take in his companion. “You look…” His eyes darkened and narrowed on her as if he’d seen a ghost, recognition sparked in his face, and Petra felt a chill creep over her skin as she stared back at him in confusion.
“Do we know each other?”Petra eyed him. The man didn’t look at all familiar and she couldn’t place him. Where they might have met before, she couldn’t say, but from the look on his face they had either met at some time or he was a few cards short of a deck.
“I…”Rafferty hesitated on the shake of his head. Suddenly so unsure of everything but that it was her, or her doppelganger, but no… He took in the scent in the air, familiar, and yet…
“Rafferty?”Dale turned to look at the old man. He was as white as the freshly fallen snow, and it was only slight, but he was aware that the elder was shaking.
“You can’t be here.”Rafferty growled out his caution. He was certain of one thing only, that the woman in front of him was in grave danger from their pack and she needed to leave. What had she been thinking to come here at all? Didn’t she realise that his pack would tear her apart, limb from limb, given the chance?
“You’re not making any sense, old man…”Dale growled out. He didn’t like this one bit. He’d never seen Rafferty like this, was the elder losing his mind? Talking to his mate this way, what kind of game was he playing here? Dale couldn’t quite read the situation, but he could read the elder’s emotions and they were all over the damn place.
“Don’t you realise who you’ve brought onto our land?”Rafferty dragged his eyes away from Petra and glared at his alpha, demanding an explanation.
“My mate.”Dale growled back, losing patience fast.
“But she’s of the circle…”The old man lifted his arm and pointed an accusing finger towards Petra and she felt as if she were standing on a stage in front of the world with the damn spotlight aimed directly at her. She had no idea what
was wrong with the man, but she had a bad feeling that it was linked to her past. A past that she couldn’t remember.
“A Fae, you have a problem with that?”Dale turned his whole body towards his friend and elder. With his stance he demanded answers from him, answers that the old man couldn’t seem to spit out. This joke had gone too far in Dale’s opinion, and he wanted Rafferty to rein himself back in now.
“Not just any circle. The circle. She’s a Corbin witch.”Rafferty’s words were accusing, hateful by their tone, and the old man turned his eyes back to Petra, eyeing her with disbelief, as Dale turned on his heels to glare back at his mate.
Petra felt the two pairs of eyes burning into her very soul as she stood there. If this was a joke, it was on them because she didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. One thing she was certain of, whatever they were talking about wasn’t good. A Corbin witch, what the hell was that?
“Explain yourself!” The deep bellow from her mate made her jump in place and brought her back to reality like a slap in the face. She felt Jill’s hand on her arm, protective and supportive, and wondered for a long moment when she had placed it there. But that thought was dismissed just as quickly, as her mate stalked towards her with menacing intent in his eyes, eyes that burned black with a fire of rage that couldn’t be denied.
“I…”It was the only word that Petra could push out of her lips because it was the only word that had slipped out of her mind. To say there was a rush to turmoil within her very soul would be an understatement. It was as if there was something on the very tip of her tongue that she couldn’t quite reach for, but she had no clue as to what it was.
“You need to get her the hell out of here before anyone else sees her.”Rafferty growled out. She was the alpha’s mate, and that dose of reality was enough to send Rafferty to an early grave. How the hell could fate be that damn cruel?