by M. L. Briers
Rudd blinked twice, which was a sure sign that she was confusing even him. Her eyes wanted to flick towards Link to see if he was managing to understand her reasoning, and yet her brain didn’t want to drag her eyes away from the eye candy in front of her.
Those dark eyes surrounded by black lashes just seemed to hold her attention in much the same way as one of those little lost puppies in a pound would…
But he was no puppy. She’d been on the receiving end of his charms and there was certainly nothing childish about them. He was all man, a manly man, a man’s man, and boy what a man he was…
God, damn it to hell and a plague on all their houses! She bit out. She had to stop thinking about this guy as if he was normal. He wasn’t normal. Normal guys came from the city, they slithered up to you in a bar and offered to buy you a drink… they certainly didn’t cage you against a wall and with the sheer presence of their body alone offer to show you delights that would make your hair frizz and your toes curl… Like being in a sauna with your favourite ice cream, who cared if you came out looking like a troll who’d put their finger in the light socket as long as you managed to devour the damn ice cream before it melted all down the front of your naked….
Ohhhh, she was in big trouble with this guy… Those weren’t puppy dog eyes, those were come to bed and let me devour you eyes, and she so wanted to be devoured right about now…
Macy felt the imaginary pain of having to tear her eyes away from his. Like Mother Nature had somehow super glued them to him, and she had the urge to slap herself upside the head. Trouble with a capitol T, no… trouble in all caps.
Her eyes flicked to Link for the briefest of moments, and she saw that dumb smug smile on his face, like a ‘I told you so’ meets ‘you doubted me’, and she had to bite back on the urge to slap him for fear their host would think that she naturally went around maiming people for the fun of it. She didn’t, that wasn’t who she was. But she did stick up for herself, and for the longest moment back there, when his face was so close to her neck and her body was going into convulsions at his nearness, and not in a bad way, she just hadn’t know what to do. She’d acted on impulse, and her impulse was to get the hell out of there and fast…
“Well when you’re sure, let me know. Until then- coffee?”Rudd offered, motioning towards the front door as her eyes snapped back on him. Was this surreal or what? Coffee? The end result of her spraying him in the face with what was basically an assault weapon was him apologising to her and offering a beverage…
“Pinch me.”Macy offered out of the corner of her mouth towards Link and she yelped when he did. She turned and girl punched him in the arm, just at the moment a long, deep growl emanated from their host, and she was torn between giving Link the evil eye and her head whipping around to stare at the growly guy.
“You said to pinch you. You can’t thump me for doing what you said.”Link offered and she stared at Rudd, her eyes questioning him. Again she was torn, torn between picking up on the growl and berating her best friend for hurting her… Berating won every time…
“I said pinch me because I was wondering if I fell asleep in the car and this was all a bad dream, or a good dream, or a damn dream.” She shook her head, trying to clear more than cobwebs. Sanity, rationality, these were good things, things that she was sadly lacking at the moment…
“Well good news, you’re awake…”Link tossed his hands up with mock enthusiasm, and the innocent grin that split his face made her want to make that split permanent…
“Bad news, my best friend’s a jerk.”She spat back with all the sweetness of a viper that had been trodden on.
“Well then it’s lucky you have me.”Link informed her, teasing a smile, even through the Medusa style glare she was bestowing on him with such ease.
“And what’s with the growling?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Macy suddenly turned her attention towards their host, as if someone just flipped a switch in her brain and moved her onto the next challenge in her life.
Rudd frowned. Deep ridges creased his forehead as his eyes narrowed on her unseeing, as if he was trying to think up an excuse to get out of doing some menial task she’d asked him too… like putting out the rubbish, or worse still for a man, putting down the damn toilet seat… and then his brain must have sorted through the menu of excuses and she saw the light click on behind his eyes.
“I have a cold…”He offered and she dropped one eyebrow and raised the other.
“I thought you sounded a little phlegmy.”Link offered, trying not to chuckle as he put his hand against the small of Macy’s back and practically shoved her forwards. Her feet had no choice but to make up the ground or she risked ending up on her face on the floor at Rudd’s feet, and that would just be wrong on so many levels. Looking up those tree trunk legs, past his… No, she didn’t even want to go there, or she did want to go there and that was the problem. Damn it, who made it a requirement for life to get so damn difficult after the age of puberty?
“Watch it.”She snapped over her shoulder as Rudd stepped aside to allow her to walk back into the house.
“Sorry, I don’t know my own strength sometimes.”He offered back to her, an almost snigger in his voice, as Mr-Phelgmy growled again.
Macy gave Rudd a quick up and down inspection with her eyes as she past him, drawing her upper body back in disbelief. If that was a cold she was a supermodel, and she couldn’t remember a time when any super model actually looked like a real woman should, curvy and lush, and not airbrushed to perfection.
“You’re male, the only thing you know for sure is that your penis is always right.”Macy snapped out, eyeing the Alpha with a suspicion that he wasn’t exactly telling her everything.
“If nature gives you a compass, who can argue with that?”Link reasoned and watched his best friend walk around her mate as if he had an infectious disease.
“Watch your hands…”The Alpha growled down at him so quietly that only his ears could pick it up.
“Stop growling like a mutt.”Link hissed back, narrowing his eyes in warning as the Alpha’s top lip curled in a warning of his own.
“So help me I will sink my fangs into your backside to help you reach clarity.”Rudd growled at him and Link couldn’t help the suggestive look he offered the Alpha.
“Well you’re not usually my type, but if you keep teasing me…”And then he was gone, catching up to Macy in a heartbeat and steering her through the house towards the kitchen.
Rudd let his head drop back on his neck and questioned the spirits need to test his resolve on a daily basis.
“I will not eat anyone…”Rudd growled under his breath. “Especially not my mate…”He added, dropping his chin to his chest and steeling himself for the long road ahead. “Maybe just the vampire…”He added, starting for the house and what awaited him inside. He would woo until he couldn’t woo anymore because she might have been a little strange, a little quirky, but she was his strange, his quirky, and his mate.
Jack followed her nose into the kitchen. How could she not scent him? He was a damned vampire, not to mention her damned mate. The old sayings were sometimes just so apt, she thought, rounding the corner and spotting what she thought should be buried under the earth in a grave somewhere, long since forgotten, standing by the kitchen sink sipping coffee.
Men, you can’t live with them and you can’t exterminate them… or words to that effect, especially when the male was her mate.
It galled her to know that when push came to shove she would have a really hard time ripping him limb from limb and scattering his body parts up and down the north coast…
If only, she sighed inwardly at the thought. But Fate had Mother Nature design a kill switch… bad choice of words, she growled to herself, that would stop her from doing the dastardly deed… well, not entirely true, mates had been known to kill each other, but it was damned hard to achieve, and probably should be done shortly after encountering said mate. Which gave her a short win
dow of opportunity, she thought, eyeing him with all the tender loving care of a hungry wolf eyeing a rabbit.
When his eyes snapped towards her and that annoyingly devilish smirk spread his lips, boy did she want to ram his head through the nearest wall. But they had company, a human, and she didn’t want to upset her Alpha, so she reluctantly tried to squash the urge for the reward of pleasure she would receive from maiming her mate.
“Well hello again, Jacqueline.”Link offered, somewhat slimily, she told herself, but her inner muscles clenched with appreciation for him, and the thought horrified her.
She wasn’t surprised that her Alpha’s attention snapped towards her and then towards the walking corpse, but she was surprised by the way the Alpha seemed to move closer towards the human female, as if sensing a dangerous situation and protecting something precious.
‘Deal with it or walk away, Jack. Now.’ The Alpha’s words ground into her very psyche as he used the pack’s mental link to warn her off.
‘I take it the human doesn’t know she has a ghoul for an acquaintance?’ Jack bit back, sensing that there was more to the Alpha’s protective stance than appeared at face value.
It wasn’t the Lycan way to endanger humans, they weren’t Werewolves, they were civilised. They killed only when they needed too, and boy did she feel that need within her right now…
‘The human is my mate, and she has no idea…’
‘Mate!’ Not as bad as having a vampire for a mate, but still, a powerless human. How would he not snap her in two the first time his wolf took him over to mate with her?
“The name’s Jack.”She tried not to sneer at him, even though in her mind she did just that. Realising she hadn’t answered him when the human turned to look at her, curiosity making her act. “The last person that called me by my given name ended up in an unmarked grave.”
‘Jack, back down…’ The Alpha growled out into her mind and she pouted her disapproval.
“I’ll take my chances.”He teased back. Raising his brows suggestively and she thought she might just vomit, but the urge wouldn’t come.
The look Link received from his mate was that of pure contempt. But there was also something else that passed over her. She looked at him as though he’d just skewered a pup and offered it to her on a silver skewer, but it didn’t bother him. Fate and Nature would take its course, eventually…
“You make a friend wherever you go…”Macy teased. Payback for his enjoyment of her situation, and he snorted his amusement at her.
“Oh, Jacqueline and I are very good friends.”He tossed out, relishing the way his mate squirmed in place. He was pretty sure she wanted to use those perfect white teeth to tear into his flesh and rip his throat out, probably as her claws embedded in his chest and she took ‘stealing his heart’ to a whole new level in mating.
“Over your rotting corpse.”She bit out. She wanted to turn on fast heels and do what her Alpha bade her to do and get as far away from him as she could, before the urges within her became blessed actions, but her brain just wouldn’t tell her feet to work.
“Someone who isn’t susceptible to your charms…”Macy tipped her head to the side and gave him a faux look of sympathy.
“Don’t rush to judgement on that one Macy, she’ll come around.” Link informed her with more than a gleam in his eye. He was positively certain of it, and Macy snorted as she shook her head at his arrogance.
“You know you are resistible, Link.” She informed him with certainty. Although thinking on it, the only person she had ever known not to fall for his charms was her. Maybe she just valued his friendship too much to risk it?
“Only by you, sweetheart.”He reminded her, knowing her thoughts in a way nobody else ever had, or probably would, she mused. It was like they had a psychic connection or something…
“Damn straight by me. You’re a dog with fleas, and really, who wants to be bitten?”She tossed back. Hearing what was now becoming a familiar growl from the big guy and flicking her eyes towards him. She was almost certain she saw something akin to desire on his face, but it was quickly gone and Link’s laughter sidetracked her thoughts.
“You’d be surprised.”Link informed her, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and making her groan. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”He offered to another growl from the big guy.
“Being bitten, not being bitten by me.”Link clarified, and it seemed to her it was done more to placate the big guy than her.
“Maybe I should start calling you fang.”Macy offered and heard Rudd choke on his sip of coffee. If he didn’t know better he would have thought she knew exactly what Link was…
“Perhaps you should save the pet names for someone more deserving than I.” Link offered back, and when he shot a quick look towards the spluttering Alpha, he couldn’t help but smirk as Rudd narrowed his eyes in warning.
He’d never actually had to share with a human what he was, and this one was his mate. How the hell was he going to tell her? How the hell was she going to react? He doubted pepper spray would be a worry, more than screaming and running thing, and the last thing he needed was his mate running from him. That would bad, that would be very, very bad.
His beast would rise up to the challenge, either thinking their mate was playing catch me and mate me, or worse. His beast might see it as a hunt, and the usual outcome of any hunt was the death of the prey. Neither thought filled him with the warm fuzzy feeling of security.
“If you know any other hound dogs around here…”Macy offered back lightly, and Link couldn’t help it when his eyes flicked towards the Alpha, it was a natural instinct, hound equalled wolf, dog equalled wolf, hell even mutt equalled wolf, and his brain equated that to the Alpha.
Macy caught the quick flick of her friend’s eyes and followed his gaze towards Rudd who stood there seemingly oblivious to what had happened.
“So, you’re a mutt too?”She announced, although her definition of mutt and Link’s were obviously completely different it didn’t stop the Alpha balking at her words…
“Excuse me?”
“Love em and leave em? A different woman every night? Scratch the itch, do I need to go on?”Macy leaned her elbows on the counter top and pinned him with her gaze.
“That’s not me. I don’t do that…”Rudd denied with an emphatic shake of his head and Jack snorted in the background.
“Sure?”Macy took Jack’s contribution to the conversation as gospel, who better to know than a woman what the men around her were like. She pinned him with her eyes again, trying to make him fess up.
“Very.”He growled, his eyes flicking over her head towards the woman behind her in what looked like a dark glare of annoyance.
Busted, Macy thought, and no matter how good he looked there was no way she was going to become just another notch on his bedpost. She’d seen the way that Link went through women, it was the only difference of opinion she’d ever had with him, the only thing that irked her about him, his commitment issues.
“Two to one against…” Macy thought aloud. “At lease own your actions.”She dismissed him with her eyes, and that wasn’t all that easy to do, but she concentrated on the cup on the side before her, palming the warmth of it as it nestled between her hands.
“Oh, sweetheart, believe me I do.”The deep velvety tone of his voice had her eyes flicking back up to his face before her brain even kicked into gear. A long shiver ran through her body from her head to her toes, which were curling inside her shoes.
The look in his eye as he held her gaze spoke more to her body than it did to her mind, and she found a warm glow that started deep within her and spread outwards until the cup didn’t feel so warm against her skin anymore.
If she had to admit one thing to herself, then and there, the probability wouldn’t be that she was more than just attracted to this guy- it would be that he was dangerous, and not in a murderous way, although he certainly had a dark edge to him that told her he could take care of himself in a fight.
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Link suddenly felt like a third wheel. He wanted to spend more time with his own mate and he had no qualms about leaving Macy in the Alpha’s care, who better than him to protect her?
“How about you show me around, Jack?”He used his mates preferred name, it might make her less inclined to try to end him.
“How about I walk you to the nearest cliff and push you off?”Jack shot back with all the venom that she felt for him inside her. Her words made the Alpha drag his eyes from his mates and scowl at her.
“How about you take one for the team?”Rudd offered and watched his Beta drop her eyes to the back of Macy’s head before she rolled them on a sigh of annoyance.
“I can’t guarantee I’ll bring him back in one piece, or at all for that matter.”Jack warned on a shrug of her shoulders.
“I think I can take care of myself.”Link shot back with a devilish grin.
Macy suddenly realised, what with everyone talking around her, what that would mean, she’d be alone with Rudd again, and she wasn’t fond of that idea. Or maybe she was, it was just so hard to tell, but either way, she wasn’t about to let it happen.
“Wait up, what about me?”Macy gave Link a pleading look.
“Maybe Rudd can show you around…”Link started, but she cut him off.
“I don’t want to see… around.”She insisted he not leave her by widening her eyes and begging him with just a look, a rather pathetic look that at any other time might have gained a lot of traction with him.
“Maybe he can show you to your bedroom.”Link offered as he pushed away from the counter and moved towards his mate.
Even an idiot could tell that she would much prefer to rip him to shreds than spend any quality time with him, but persistence was the key to mating, and he could do persistence until the cows came home, or she was in his arms, either way…