by M. L. Briers
Stealing His 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 Content
Stealing His Mate
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
The breakfast table was full and the conversation was lively and that was just the way he liked it. Alex sat at the head of the table and watched his family around him. These were the days to relish, the days when everything was right with their little corner of the world. The pack was happy and healthy, and they had no financial problems to speak of. All he needed now was a mate and some pups and he could consider himself the luckiest Alpha in the world.
“He’s got that look again.”Shaun nudged Zara and her fork deposited scrambled eggs all over the table top.
“Quit it, Shaun…”She growled back at the Beta, but she followed his eyes towards her brother at the head of the table and grinned.
“It’s the look of a wishful man…”Cornelius, one of the pack elders, chuckled. “Leave him be and let him imagine for a time.”He whispered to the younger’s at the table.
“If I ever get like that shoot me.”Shaun whispered as he leaned in towards Zara.
“Now that I’d have no problem doing.”Zara hissed over at him. Digging her fork in for another scoop of eggs. Shaun waited until she raised the fork towards her lips and nudged her again. The eggs hit the table and her elbow hit him in the ribs.
“Be nice little sister…”Shaun growled out on a breath as he rubbed his sore ribs and gave her a warning look.
“Or you won’t come for breakfast anymore?”Zara tossed back with wide eyed innocence and Shaun growled again.
By the time Alex dragged himself from his reverie he was watching the playful teasing going on down the table.
“What do we have today, Shaun, was it the new witch and her husband coming to pay tribute to the pack?”Alex eyed the pile of eggs on the table top and looked to Cornelius. The elder was even starting to drop his food, that wasn’t a good sign.
“Yeah, early morning. They moved in a few days ago. I sent a few patrols past their place a few times, they’ve seen the wife, says she’s a bit of a looker, but not the husband yet. Apparently he works in the city and will be commuting.”
“Why do the Fae have to ask our permission to live here?”Zara shrugged. “It’s a free country right?”
Cornelius flicked his eyes towards the Alpha by way of asking permission to explain to his sister, and Alex nodded.
“Well, young one. A long time ago the Fae and the Lycan were at odds with each other. Both had been persecuted throughout the centuries by the humans, and both chose to live in secret among them. But when the witch trials took place, the Fae asked the Lycan people for protection, for refuge. Some were granted, some were not, depending on the Alpha and the pack. It goes back to those times.”Cornelius liked to keep thing short and precise. He was proud to be the eldest of the elders and the one who contained all the wisdom and knowledge of his people, and it made him happy to share whenever possible.
“But the witches aren’t persecuted anymore…”Zara offered and Cornelius snorted.
“They may not be burned at the stake, little one, but they are still frowned upon and persecuted in other ways.”Cornelius assured her.
“But why do they still need to pay tribute?”Zara could try the patience of a saint. “Does that mean we are still protecting them?”
“Respect, and sometimes.”Alex growled gently at his sister. He liked to keep things ever shorter than Cornelius.
“So who are they? The witch and her husband?”Zara always had a million questions and Alex looked to Shaun for the answers. It was his Beta that had been dealing with the Fae.
“He’s a male witch…”Shaun started, and Zara shot him a look of disbelief.
“Male witch?”
“Yep. There are male witches you know…”Shaun teased, nudging her again and she stomped on his foot under the table. His knee came up with a loud thud into the underside of the table top, making the table shake and causing Shaun to growl out in pain.
“See what I did there? Alex says that’s called misdirection, they think you’re going to do one thing and you do another.”She gave him some more wide eyed innocence as he glared at her on a continuous growl of annoyance.
“Nicely done, little one.”Cornelius chuckled and Alex scolded her with just a look. The smile dropped from her lips and she eyed her plate.
“I can’t believe my Beta fell for it…”Alex snorted and Zara’s bright eyes flicked back up to her brother.
“She used to be sweet.”Shaun growled.
“You mean when you used to pull my pigtails and put frogs in my bag?”Zara hissed before rolling her eyes. “Gee, I wonder where I got my mean streak from?”She shot him a distasteful look and he gave her his best puppy dog eyes.
“Puberty.”Shaun growled back, as everyone chuckled when Zara’s cheeks coloured.
“You were saying about the witches?”Zara hissed out, deflecting the conversation away from her feminine functions. It was bad enough she was born female without everyone rubbing it in.
“He’s an accountant or something, at one of those big old stuffy firms. She’s some sort of arty person. Apparently she wants to be more in touch with nature, so they’re moving here, and he’s going to commute some nights and weekends… or some such.”Shaun waved a dismissive hand in front of him.
“So she’s going to be alone a lot?”Zara’s face took on that far away look she got when the lightbulb turned on over her head and she was plotting.
“Leave the woman alone, Zara…” Alex growled and Zara snapped off a shrug.
“I will, unless I’m invited.”Zara’s guilt was evident on her face. He didn’t need to be an Alpha to spot it a mile away and Shaun raised a smile towards Alex.
“Sure you will…”Shaun’s whisper wasn’t really a whisper at all and she turned and shot him a dark look. Her fork floated in the air between them and he raised his brows and scolded her before she did something she would regret.
“You’re not too old for me to sling over my shoulder, carry you down to the pond and throw you in.”He warned and the fork lowered.
“Yes I am.”She informed him and Alex chuckled to himself. Shaun had dunked her more times than he had, but then she had always followed Shaun around from a very early age. He might not have been her birth brother, but he was as close as.
“No…”He assured her. “You’re not.”
Zara snorted her annoyance at him and turned herself in her chair, putting her back to him, and Shaun met Alex’s eyes on a shake of his head and a smile on his lips. When Zara found her mate the poor Lycan wasn’t going to know what hit him, she was more than a handful.
Sofia could hear the ringing of the damn mobile, but for the life of her she couldn’t find it. This was the second consecutive call that she hadn’t managed to answer, and when the ringing stopped so did she, waiting for the sound to start again as she stood amongst the boxes and packing cases in the middle of her living room.
The sound started again and she was done playing nice this time, she
started tossing boxes and wrapping around until her eyes feasted on the little white phone, tucked between two packing case, and pounced on it.
“Would have been faster to do a locator spell…”She snapped it up and swiped the screen to answer the damn thing. “Yes!” It was somewhere between triumph and a question.
“I thought I’d come home to find you buried under a ton of crates…”Jonathon’s voice chuckled down the line and she grinned with delight, did a half turn, before collapsing into the comfortably overstuff sofa.
“You still might, but I just had to play a game of hunt the damn phone.” She heard him chuckle again.
“Let’s face it sweetheart, you’re not the most organised of wives.”
Sofia rolled her eyes and poked her tongue out at the phone.
“Well we can’t all be as anal as you love…”Sofia shot back and heard him splutter a mouthful of his morning coffee, probably over his pale blue tie, and definitely all over his laptop.
“You’re a wicked woman and will be paying for that comment when I get there on Saturday.”He assured her and she couldn’t help but grin.
“Is it feather duster time again, sweetheart?”She chuckled with a wicked grin and he snorted.
“Making you clean you mean, a fate worse than death.”Sarcasm dripped from every word and she chuckled again. So she wasn’t as anal as he was about the cleanliness of the house, or doing the washing up, or even cooking, not when she was caught up in her creations. Still, he more than made up for her lack of domestic skills and they complimented each other well.
“I have to go and meet the Alpha today, lucky you, you get to forgo that requirement of country living.”She hissed down the line and he snorted again.
“You wanted to live out in the sticks. At least with the pack nearby you have some protection for when I’m not around.”Jonathon had gone all mucho and protectionist again, and she rolled her eyes.
“When you are around it would still be me leading the charge with the baseball bat and you know it.”She sniffed a laugh and heard him sigh.
“I’m more lover than fighter, babe, it’s just who I am.”He teased playfully and she groaned.
“Well you’re lucky that you make a mean bacon and egg roll otherwise it might be curtains for our marriage.”She teased back and heard him snort.
“Just make sure you remember to eat when I’m not there. I know you, you’ll get caught up in a painting and forget, and I don’t want to come home and find you wasting away.”He practically growled down the line at her and she sighed.
“I have food in the house.”She lied and he snorted.
“Bet that’s a lie, and even if you did, you need to turn the cooker on and cook the food…should I send you an email on how to turn on a cooker?”Now he was just being mean.
“Only if you want the laptop shoved where the sun doesn’t shine when you come home Saturday, sweetheart.”She put a little venom behind her words and heard him snort another laugh.
“That might be interesting…oh, got to go babe, call you later. Love you. Bye.”And the phone went dead in her hand.
“Turn on the cooker. I know how to turn on a damn cooker…”She pulled herself to her feet and surveyed the debris around her. “I just chose not to.”
Alex growled at the printer for the third time. It just kept spitting out wonky pages of print, and he really didn’t need a temperamental printer right now when he had so much more to do.
The office door opened just as he brought his fist down onto the damn thing, the loud thud echoing off the walls.
“The manly way of fixing things, if it doesn’t work, thump it.”Her voice floated into the room and made his ears strain to listen to her words.
Alex turned his head and saw the woman standing next to his Beta. Now she was a Fae he wouldn’t mind getting to know a lot better. Not his usual type, well, she was a Fae and that was usually a no go area for him. But she was on the short side, he’d need to buy one of those little foot stools for her to climb up when he wanted to…
Alex snapped out of it. But not entirely, he still let his eyes appreciate her curves, something else that never really bothered him one way or the other either, and then there was the colour of her hair, it looked like a flame, and with those startling Jade green eyes, he’d bet her temperament matched her hair colour.
“Works for me.”Shaun offered with a grin and a sparkle in his eyes when his Alpha seemed to be struck dumb, and Sofia snorted.
“Why don’t you just shoot it, it’ll be more satisfying for you.”The way she raised just one eyebrow into a perfect arch had Alex fascinated.
“Why use a gun when you have these.” Shaun flicked out his claws and Sofia didn’t bat an eyelid. Alex did. He growled long and hard at his Beta causing Shaun’s head to snap around.
“You ok, Alex?” Shaun had never heard his friend issue that kind of a growl and he wondered if it had something to do with the Fae at his side. Shaun knew he wasn’t particularly fond of Witches…
“Who are you?” Alex narrowed his eyes on the woman and slapped himself upside his head. What the hell was that growl about? He didn’t even push that out- that was all his wolfs doing.
“This is Mrs Sofia Winchester, we talked about this at breakfast this morning…?”Shaun watched his alpha move a few steps across the room towards her, watched him scent the air. Saw his nostrils flare and his eyes widen in surprise, his eyes flicked to her ring finger, and then he started to back off towards his desk.
“You’re married to a male Fae?”Alex growled as he dropped into his chair and pushed it just a little further back from his desk.
“Yes…”Sofia eyed him with an air of mistrust. There was just something about him that was familiar, and yet…
Shaun heard Alex growl low and hard and he couldn’t understand it. He didn’t think that Sofia had heard it at first, but then he saw her back stiffen and her hands clench on her bag and he knew that she had.
“Nice to meet you, Shaun, could you show Mrs Winchester out?”Alex offered curtly as he put his hands on his desk and yanked his chair forwards, dropping his head back to his paperwork.
“Sure, Alex…”Shaun offered as he turned towards the woman and motioned for her to go ahead of him. Shaun caught sight of Alex’s eyes as they flicked back towards the woman as she turned to leave, and the low growl that rumbled through his chest, and yanked the door closed behind her for fear his Alpha was losing it.
“That went well.”He heard Sofia ground out between clenched teeth and he was going to apologise for his alpha’s attitude. He’d never seen Alex act like that, even when he didn’t like someone, somehow this Fae had managed to rub him up the wrong way, but for the life of him he couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t apologise for him either, Alex was the Alpha, if he didn’t like her there wasn’t much Shaun could do about it.
Alex kept himself locked inside the office for the rest of the morning. It wasn’t as if he could get any work done, he was pacing, his long legs eating up the floor between walls, until he felt so damn hemmed in that he almost yanked the door off its hinges to get out.
He raced outside and practically took his sister off her feet as he barrelled into her. The high pitched squeal was followed by a huff from Shaun as he caught her and set her back up straight.
“Sorry.”Alex barked out, but he didn’t stop, he stalked towards the kitchen and practically tore that door off its hinges to get inside.
Shaun tossed Zara a look of disbelief.
“Who stole his toys?”Zara growled out and Shaun shrugged it off.
“He was off with the Fae woman this morning, haven’t seen him since. I guess his mood hasn’t improved.”Shaun offered and Zara curled her upper lip in annoyance.
“Perhaps he has PMS.”Zara snorted. But Shaun was already heading into the kitchen after his friend.
Alex was going ten rounds with a tomato and a carving knife, obviously a blunt one by the way the blade kept sliding down the skin. Alex growled
long and hard, tossed the knife onto the counter, and bought the side of his fist down on top of the fruit, splattering pips and juice everywhere.
“Perhaps a Mellon would put up more of a fight?”Shaun offered, resting his shoulder against the doorframe and folding his arms over his chest. He wasn’t eager to take the place of that poor tomato, not with the mood Alex was in.
“Doubtful.”Alex growled, yanking a towel from the side and wiping off his hand before tossing it back in place.
“I’m just hedging my bets here, but is something wrong?”Shaun offered and got a dark glare for his trouble.
Alex palmed the counter and leaned in. Dropping his head down, he took a long calming breath that did absolutely nothing to calm him.
“The Fae.”Alex growled and Shaun’s interest peaked.
“Mrs Winchester.”Shaun offered on a smile. He’d quite liked her, even if Alex did treat her as if she was the Devil herself.
“And therein lies the damn problem…”Alex growled again. What he wanted to do was rip the kitchen apart until every cabinet was mere matchsticks.
“Not following.”
“She’s married…”Alex pushed off from the side and turned towards the window and the outside world. The view of the woods usually calmed him, soothed his inner beast, but not today.
“Yes she is…”
“She’s my mate.”Alex growled long and hard. Just saying it made it a thousand times worse.
CHAPTER TWO
“Oh Crap.”Shaun spat out, just as Cornelius let out a long hard sigh behind him and made him spin around. The old bugger had a knack of stealth and Shaun didn’t appreciate it.
“That’s unfortunate, son.”Cornelius nudged Shaun out of the way and strolled into the kitchen. Finding his favourite stool at the counter, he took his place.
“That’s one way to put it…”Alex flicked a dark look towards the Elder over his shoulder.
“But not unheard of…”Cornelius informed him and Alex folded his arms over his chest and sighed.