by M. L. Briers
“Three!” Lewis growled as he turned another look on Jake and the man groaned inwardly.
“I had no idea,” Jake protested.
“Which is your permanent state of being,” Daniel chuckled.
“I will hurt you,” Jake growled long and hard at his brother.
“Is that before or after the witches take over pack land?” Daniel tossed back.
“You said you wanted it done,” Jake offered towards the alpha.
“I never said anything about a coven of witches,” Lewis growled back.
Now the alpha could hear small squeals and groans that emanated from the car bouncing up the driveway. He turned his attention back towards the vehicle — just in time to witness the front bumper clipping a mound of earth.
Wrenched off from the car the bumper ended up under the front wheels — to the sound of the screech of rusty brakes and the squeal of witches.
“Jake,” Lewis growled.
“Alpha?” Jake winced. He thought he knew what was coming next.
“Run — before I kill you,” Lewis growled.
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Mia had hit the brakes, but it still wasn’t good enough. The front end of the car went up in the air before it came back down to earth with a thud, then was a loud screeching sound of metal against metal as sparks flew up all around them.
Mia knew that she was dragging the bumper along the underside of the car with her, but there was nothing that she could do about it. She groaned inwardly at the damage that was being caused to her prized possession.
When the car finally decided to grind to a halt, Mia took a second to be able to unpeel her fingers from around the steering wheel. She blew her hair out of her face and mourned the damage to her car.
“I think you’ve truly killed it this time,” Debbie offered from the back seat in a tone that dripped with sarcasm.
As the three of them popped off the seat belts, and Jules fought another round in the running battle that she consistently had with opening the passenger door, Mia cursed whatever idiot considered that muddy track and acceptable road.
“It’s not my fault this road isn’t a road but some kind of army training obstacle course,” Mia grumbled.
Her attention was snatched by the sight of the three large Neanderthals that were running up the dirt track in their direction, waving their hands in the air, and shouting over the top of each other.
“Oh look, it’s a caveman welcoming committee,” Jules snorted a chuckle.
“What are they saying?” Debbie squinted at them out of the front windscreen.
“Why are you squinting?” Jules asked.
“I’m trying to hear what they’re saying!”
“Yeah, that’ll work,” Jules sniggered as she pushed up and out of the car. “Maybe they’re practicing to be traffic cops.”
“Maybe those guys at the airport that direct the planes with the little ping-pong paddles,” Debbie offered.
“Maybe the damn car is on fire,” Jules offered, sniffing the air at the smell of smoke as she turned in place and eyed the back of the car.
“Don’t even joke about it. You know how much I love my car,” Mia grumbled.
But when Jules poked head back into the car, her eyes were wide with fear and surprise, and Mia’s heart jumped into her throat.
“Get out of the damn car — now!” Jule’s squealed.
Mia’s eyes flicked back towards the three men running in their direction. Now that she knew what to listen for she could pick out the words of warning that came from each one.
CHAPTER THREE
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Mia rushed to pop the door open. She jumped out of the car and turned back to see Debbie struggling with the back door. Her eyes flicked down to the mangled bumper that had reached up to wedge the door closed.
“Oh no…” Mia summoned her magic, but there was no time to release it as she felt a steel like grip locking her arms down in place at sides.
Then she was spun away from the car, and there wasn’t a damn thing that she could do to escape the hold that he had on her.
“I’ve got you,” Lewis growled in annoyance at the danger to the females.
Witches, yes, but the protective gene ran through every fiber of his being hand kicked into life, and he wasn’t letting go of her until he knew that she was safe.
“Let me go!” Mia bit out.
She struggled, twisting her body as best she could within the tight confines of his arms, trying to break free of his hold as he stalked away from the vehicle, away from a friend, and away from the only chance that she had to help her.
“Calm down. You’re safe,” Lewis’ hot breath and deep tones against her ear felt like a caress that played tricks on her mind, trying to soothe her as she fought against it in the hope of being free of him.
“I am — she’s not!” Mia bit out as she back-heeled him in the shin and heard him grunt in pain, but still, he wouldn’t let go. She was stuck like a medieval maiden in a chastity belt, and there was nothing that she could do about it.
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Jules had been lifted up and tossed over one muscled meaty shoulder. At any other time, she might have squealed with delight, not that she was ever going to admit to having a huge crush on sexy, hunky fireman or anything, but feeling the brush of the supernatural against her shields; she fought like a cat in a sack to be released.
Sexy, hunky fireman sweeping in to rescue you were one thing — big, egotistical, growly, bad mood wolf shifters was something else entirely. In her book, you could only take the caveman thing so far.
“Geez, woman, ungrateful for the rescue, or what?” Daniel growled at the feel of her balled up little fists pummelling against his spine.
“Get your hands off me, wolf man!” Jules hissed in annoyance in between having the breath in her lungs pushed out by his shoulder as he jogged away from the car and bounced her up and down.
“Relax, and enjoy the ride. I guarantee it’s safer than your friend’s driving,” Daniel chuckled at the witch’s protestations.
Her fists weren’t causing him any bother, but he could have done without the sting of her magic as she zapped him on every step that he took. He had to wonder what it was about witches and the fact that you could not do right without doing wrong in their eyes.
Daniel heard the loud roar that couldn’t have come from anyone but Jake, and he turned back towards the car just in time to see his brother ripping the back door from the vehicle and blindly tossing it away behind him.
The black smoke around the vehicle was becoming thicker as the fire took more of a hold around the petrol tank and for a long moment, Jake disappeared from view. Daniel’s heart pumped hard at the thought of the danger that his brother had put himself in.
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Jake reached inside the car for the squealing, panicking woman in the back seat. She was scared half to death, and he wasn’t sure if the fast words that she was muttering were some kind of magic spell, or if she was hedging her bets and praying.
Jake wrapped his arms around her at the same time as she launched herself at him from the back seat and he snatched her up. He backed away from the car with the woman wrapped around his body like a spider monkey and turned quickly away from the burning vehicle, sheltering her from the heat and flames with his body as he ran with her to safety.
“I’ve got you,” Jake growled the words over and over again against her ear until she started to calm within his arms.
One thing he knew for certain, she sure could say a lot of words in a small space of time, but he didn’t understand one of them.
His beast grumbled and growled within him. The Wolf’s protective side had been triggered by seeing the helpless female trapped in the car.
Now that she was free, safe within his arms, his Wolf should have been backing down, but it wasn’t. Something about this woman had his beast chaffing at
the bit to be released.
Jake did what came naturally — he dipped his head towards her neck and took in her scent. Every inch of his body fired to life with a fever that swept through his blood.
His muscles tensed throughout his body. His cock hardened ramrod straight within the confines of his jeans, and he groaned inwardly at the constant jiggle of her sex pressed against his hard length as he continued to carry her to safety.
Mine…
Jake’s Wolf stated its claim on their mate, but Jake gave a quick shake of his head as if dazed and confused, denying to himself what he knew to be true, as he went back for another sniff, and another, and another, and another.
It didn’t matter how many times he sniffed – how many ways that he cursed his nose — the witch was still his mate.
Jake had the sudden need to shift into his Wolf, let the beast dig a really big hole, and bury himself in it.
Today wasn’t a good day to be — him.
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“I hope you have good insurance,” Koren said as he sauntered up towards the witch that was hanging down Daniel’s back and noted the way that she lifted her head and offered him the stink eye.
“I thought shifters were bad enough — who invited the vampire?” Jules grumbled as she twisted her head on her neck and the first thing that she saw was Mia unleashing her magic against one of the shifters.
Lewis’ arms were torn away from around the witch by her magic. The next thing that he knew; he was ten feet away from her, lying on his back in the grass, and with the kind of pain to his pride that made him groan out loud.
“Well, that made me feel better,” Jules grinned before she let her head fall back down.
CHAPTER FOUR
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“My car!” Mia sighed as she winced at the burnt out wreckage of the beloved vehicle.
“My clothes!” Debbie was mentally calculating every item that she would need to replace. Not that she wasn’t up to the challenge of an all day shop fest, she was, but at that moment in time, all she had to wear was what she was standing in.
“My chocolate!” Jules grumbled and noted the look of pure disbelief from Mia.
“Your chocolate?” Mia’s eyebrows tried to reach her hairline.
“Women!” Daniel chuckled as he folded his arms across his chest and eyed the wreckage.
“Witches!” Jake growled, eyeing the witch that he’d rescued from the car and fighting the urge that he had within him to walk the short distance across the way stand beside her.
“Hassle!” Lewis grumbled as he rolled his eyes towards the vampire who took a step towards the car and gave it a thoughtful nod.
“I think she definitely killed it,” he said. “Is it wrong that I crave barbecue?”
“Is it wrong that I’m thinking about how many ways there are to kill a vampire?” Mia bit out, offering the man a death glare, and considering whether to back that up with magic.
“Is it too soon to ask if you meant to cremate it?” The vampire tossed back, and he’d been half expecting the magical zap that flooded his body with pain and made him bite down on his own tongue.
“Is it too soon to ask where you’d like your ashes spread?” Mia offered back.
“Only by a few millennium,” he bit back as his top lip twitched from the pain that she was inflicting on him. Mia released him from the magic.
“This is your fault!” She turned to offer a hard glare for the alpha.
“It’s my fault that you can’t drive?” Lewis offered back.
“I can drive just fine, but obviously you can’t manage to build a road,” Mia hissed back.
“Nobody else’s car has died on my road!” Lewis growled.
“And if one ever did in the future I’m sure it wouldn’t be so spectacular,” the vampire offered with a smug grin.
Something about the woman annoyed the alpha. He already had a rock that weighed heavy inside his stomach just from having the witches on his land. Now she was looking at him with those sky blue eyes like he was some kind of a monster.
“And if you’d let me go when I told you to neither would mine,” she snapped back at the alpha.
Mia was more than miffed. She loved her car. She already missed her car. And all because the man was an annoying jerk.
“I was trying to save you,” Lewis growled.
“Well do me a favor and don’t bother in future!” Mia bit out.
“Fine!” Lewis growled back.
“Muppet!” Mia muttered as she turned away from him. “How are we going to get home?” She noted the way that Debbie and Jules were eyeing her with amusement, and that only made her angrier.
“I thought we had a job to do?” Debbie offered back trying to sound all sweetness and light as she tossed her words back at her.
“He killed my car — I’m not working for him!” Mia bit out as she folded her arms like a petulant child and sneered at the thought of helping the alpha — that would happen over her dead body.
“Oh yes, you are!” Lewis growled.
He didn’t consider that it was his damn fault that she couldn’t drive, and he knew that she was upset about her car, but she was on pack land now, and the spell needed to be done.
“Oh no, I’m not! I’m leaving, and you can just suck it up, alpha, because there’s nothing you can do about it.” Mia turned back towards him, and if looks could kill then, the alpha would have been dead at her feet.
“Well, we’ll see about that!” Lewis didn’t give her a chance to return fire.
He reached out for her, yanked her body towards his, and in one fast swoop he bent at the waist and tossed her up and over his shoulder.
One moment Mia was looking daggers at the alpha and the next she was looking at his backside. The fact that she noted it was a rather nice backside was neither here nor there — the man was an ass as well, and she wasn’t going to forgive him for that either.
“You put me down this instant,” she demanded with a hiss in her voice that reminded him of a snake.
“Not if my life depended on it,” Lewis growled back over his shoulder. He was stalking back down the road towards the house, and she could bitch and whine all she wanted, but she wasn’t going anywhere until the job was done.
“Now that you mention it,” she bit out.
“One word of an incantation and I’ll…”
“What? Growl? Cry wolf?” Mia wedged her hands against the curve of his spine and pushed upwards.
From her lofty vantage point, she could see the others trailing along behind them, and it annoyed her to see her friends giggling like schoolgirls, complacent in her misery.
“Oh, trust me…” The alpha growled.
“Not as far as I can throw you. And that was about ten feet, wasn’t it?” Mia hissed back.
“Woman, I’m warning you,” Lewis growled at the challenge that she presented. No other woman had ever managed to rile him and his beast up to the point where he wanted to kill someone so much before.
“I’ll take it under advisement while you’re crying in pain,” Mia bit out.
There were so many things that she wanted to do to him — so many wicked and evil thoughts that flew through her mind like a witch on a broomstick — and she couldn’t do any of them while she was hanging down his back.
But self-preservation only went so far. The alpha was stomping up and down on her very last nerve, and she had never been credited with the virtue of patience or blessed with the ability not to cut her nose off to spite her face.
Mia wanted to do him harm. What shape or form that harm took was anyone’s guess, but she certainly wanted her pound of Wolf man flesh.
“Well, what do we have here?” Nestor asked. His age worn tone rumbled like someone dragging a dead body over gravel.
The elder Wolf had been taking a stroll when he’d noticed the black billowing smoke and had crossed the property to investigate. Now he was curious about the scent of witches in the air.
“Not now, uncle Nestor,” Lewis growled.
The man might not have been getting senile in his old age, but he was damn cantankerous when he wanted to be. Lewis couldn’t deal with that on top of dealing with the troublesome witches and his witch in particular.
My witch?
She’s not exactly my witch.
She’s a damn annoying, emotional, irrational, female of the pain in the butt variety.
No, not my witch.
His beast growled within him, but it was the first time in a long time that Lewis didn’t have a clue what was wrong with his Wolf. But before he could think about it a moment longer the troublesome witches were playing up again.
“Did he say uncle fester?” Debbie sniggered, trying to hold her laughter in, but it escaped anyway.
“Nestor!” The elder growled as his brow furrowed and his washed out blue eyes glared at her backing up his annoyance.
CHAPTER FIVE
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“That’s what she said – Uncle Fester,” Jules offered back, and she couldn’t keep the grin from her lips either as she watched the man’s top lip twitch with annoyance that was fast approaching anger.
“Do I look bald, fat, and stupid to you?” He growled. He pegged her with a hard glare, daring her to say the wrong thing.
“One out of three ain’t bad,” Daniel muttered loud enough for the witches to hear. His words sent them into fits of giggles and only served to make the elder Wolf growl harder.
“It’s all fun and games until I sink my fangs into your backside, boy,” Nestor snapped back.
“Would you like me to go and get your fangs out of the glass of water beside your bed?” The vampire asked as he strolled by the group, following the alpha, now that the man had started down the roadway once more.
“No respect,” the elder growled and grumbled before he turned on his heels and started away from them, muttering dark curses as he went.