by M. L. Briers
“Well, we can’t stay here.” Ashley shrugged.
“Do we really want to go with a shifter?” Eliza wasn’t so sure.
“Do we have much choice?” Ashley offered back.
“Where there’s one shifter…” Nancy warned and left that little piece of information just floating out there between them.
“I say; we take the chance. It’s him or the blizzard, and he has our stuff,” Ashley said.
“Fine.” Eliza tossed up a hand in frustration as she started toward the truck. “Why does the blizzard sound like the better option?” She muttered to herself, tossing a look back over her shoulder, just to make sure that her friends were onboard with the idea.
“Fine,” Nancy huffed as she set her feet towards the truck. “But, I don’t like it.”
“That makes three of us,” Ashley muttered as she followed her friends.
~
~
~
Drake didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one little bit as the three witches sat in the back of the cab of his truck, squished in shoulder to shoulder, just so one of them didn’t have to ride up front with him.
Every time that his eyes went to the mirror; he caught sight of the three of them glaring back at him. In some ways; it was kind of creepy.
His beast didn’t seem to like the witches presence either. It was agitated to the point of being unsettled enough that it wanted out.
Drake thought that was a great idea. It was just a shame that his wolf couldn’t drive.
He just wanted to drive them to the cabin, dump off the witches, shift into his beast, and run the snowy mountain all by himself. That sounded like a slice of heaven to him.
He hated the fact that he couldn’t scent the air in his own damn truck. But with the three wise monkeys sitting on the back seat it was more than he dared to do.
Every shifter wanted to find his mate. It was inbred within them and ran through their DNA like their lifeblood ran through their veins. But a witch mate was a different proposition entirely.
There weren’t many shifters out there that wanted a witch for a mate. Witches were devious — mischievous — and as annoying as all hell.
The thought of the rest of his life with a witch mate sent shivers through him. His beast grumbled a growl and clawed to be set free. He guessed his beast was onboard with that emotion too.
“Where are we going?” Nancy demanded, and he groaned inwardly with annoyance at the witch.
They’d already butted heads, and he didn’t feel the need to do it again.
“A cabin where you can stay the hell away from the rest of the pack,” he warned them.
“It’s not like we want to mingle,” Nancy offered back. But the elbow that she received in the ribs from Ashley made her snap her attention toward her friend.
Ashley gave a small shake of her head in warning. They needed shelter. The last thing that they needed to do was alienate the one person that could offer them that.
“What about our car?” Eliza asked. The thought of not having a means of escape played on her mind somewhat.
“When the weather clears up, someone will get it for you,” Drake assured her. “Won’t be me,” he muttered.
“Is there electricity in this cabin?” Nancy asked and received an elbow in the ribs from Ashley again.
“Does it matter?” Ashley turned a steely gaze of annoyance on her friend.
“I’m just asking?” Nancy shrugged.
“Let’s just get there, and we can find out for ourselves,” Ashley glared at her.
“That sounds like a plan. The sooner you’re out of my truck, the happier I’ll be,” Drake muttered to himself, but Nancy caught his words and the next time that he caught her eye in the mirror, she narrowed her gaze and offered him a death glare.
“What are you — like a beta or something?” Nancy asked, and before Ashley could dig her in the ribs once more; she turned her body sideways away from the blow.
“You have a problem with that?” Drake told himself to shut up and ignore her, but it was just so damn hard to do.
“I just didn’t think you were alpha material, that’s all,” Nancy offered back, and she heard Ashley groan beside her. “What?” She turned a glare on her friend.
“Will you just shut up until we reach the cabin?” Ashley demanded on a hiss of a whisper.
“I second that emotion,” Drake grumbled again.
“I’m just trying to keep the conversation lively.” Nancy shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, why don’t you tell yourself that nobody wants to talk and keep quiet?” Ashley snapped back.
“We’re nearly there — it’s just over this little hill,” Drake warned them.
That didn’t stop them from screaming at the top of their lungs like banshees when the truck’s front end pitched up in the air, and then again when it rollercoaster downward. The beta groaned inwardly as his sensitive hearing took a bashing.
“A little warning,” Nancy hissed.
“What did you think over this hill meant?” Drake growled back.
He would have loved to shake his head and smacked his ears to stop them from ringing, but he was trying to concentrate on the icy road.
“Not burping up my damn uterus that’s for sure,” Nancy tossed back in disgust.
Drake couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. He might not have warned them as well as he could have, but that was payback for the littlest witch’s attitude.
She certainly was feisty, and he liked that. Maybe a little less attitude and acidity wouldn’t go amiss, but he did like the fact that she was a big ball of fire. He just didn’t want to get burnt.
“Nobody could ever confuse you for a lady, could they?” Ashley grumbled and got a sneer back for her trouble.
“So where were you going when you got stuck in the blizzard?” Drake asked, even though he wasn’t sure that he wanted to strike up another conversation with them, he thought that any kind of local witch gathering would be better on the pack's radar than not knowing.
“Bermuda,” Eliza said with enthusiasm.
“That’s a long drive,” Drake chuckled at his own funny.
“I thought you said the cabin was just over that terror ride?” Nancy demanded.
“It is. I can see it from here,” Drake said.
The three witches leaned forward in the back of the cab and peered out of the windscreen. All that they could see was a white veil of snow.
“I can’t see…” Eliza bit of the last word. Suddenly, just up ahead, she could certainly see something, and what she could see were lights — lots of lights.
“What the…?” Drake scowled at the cabin’s illuminations.
“Are those…?” Ashley was confused.
“That looks like…” Nancy shook her head in dismay.
“I guess nobody told the pack that the guests were witches,” Eliza grumbled.
CHAPTER SIX
~
Jackie shot Amy a grimace, and Amy shrugged her shoulders. When they’d dragged their backsides out in the storm with Todd, one of the Omega’s that was just stupid enough to be walking past when they needed him, they hadn’t realized that they were doing the cabin up for witches.
In for a penny, in for a pound, they’d turned on the Christmas fairy lights anyway when they heard their brother’s truck coming up the mountain. Witches or not, the Christmas tree had gone up at a record pace, and so had the fairy lights around the cabin, with Todd’s help.
The Omega had bailed the moment that the pack had heard from Drake that he had witches in the truck. It seemed that no male wanted to be in the vicinity of the witches when they arrived, and yet the girls felt a rush of excitement.
They’d never come face-to-face with an actual witch before. To the she-wolves, it felt something like meeting a myth.
Excitement buzzed between them. They just hoped that they hadn’t insulted the witches by putting up the Christmas decorations, or not taking them back down ag
ain.
But, in the grand scheme of things, who could grumble at pretty fairy lights?
“They’re witches!” Drake bit out as he exited the truck and expanded his hands in disbelief at the state of the cabin. In his mind, it looked like a fairy had thrown up all over it. “What part of that didn’t you get?”
“Well, we started, so we were going to finish,” Amy said as she tossed her hands onto her hips and offered her brother a scathing look.
“It’s…” Nancy swallowed hard.
“Festive,” Ashley offered with a forced grin for the she-wolves, and she snapped a look of rebuke at Nancy.
“Sure, all we need is Santa and a sleigh and…” Nancy was somewhat fearful when Amy shrieked with delight and rushed off inside the cabin, and she had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. A moment later and there it was, an illuminated Santa with his sleigh and reindeer appeared next to the cabin. “We’re good to go.” Nancy cleared her throat.
“Be careful what you witch for,” Eliza bit out on a whisper.
“Ask, and ye shall receive,” Jackie grinned. “We’ve stocked the fridge, and put a few bottles of wine in…”
“Oh, thank God,” Nancy immediately apologized to the goddess as she set off through the snow toward the cabin and the promise of wine.
“Witches believe in God?” Amy asked as she stepped out from the cabin and almost ran into Nancy who was on her way inside.
“Depends which witch you’re talking too.” Nancy shrugged.
“Interesting.” Amy nodded as she considered what the witch had told her.
“You girls need to get in the truck,” Drake informed his sisters. “You girls need to get in the cabin.” He growled at the witches before he set off for the back of the truck and the suitcases.
“Somebody likes giving orders,” Nancy muttered to Amy, and the young she-wolf snorted a chuckle.
“Boy, does he?” Amy grumbled back.
“You’d think he was an alpha or something,” Nancy said louder in order for the beta to hear.
“Don’t push your luck,” Drake warned her.
“All three of my brothers are a pain in the…” Amy didn’t get any further when Drake growled a warning at her.
“Three… You say?” Nancy offered a poignant look at Ashley, and the witch shrugged back.
“I don’t like those odds,” Eliza muttered, but they caught it anyway. “You know that fate has a habit of…”
“Don’t you dare!” Ashley zapped her into silence. “We don’t want to tempt fate now, do we?”
“Weren’t we supposed to be in Bermuda already?” Eliza grumbled as she rubbed the sore spot on her arm from Ashley’s magic sting.
“That’s not fate, that’s Mother Nature’s weather gone awry,” Nancy scoffed back.
“What are you three chattering about?” Drake grumbled as he started toward the cabin with a suitcase in each hand and one tucked under his arm.
“Not a damn thing,” Ashley gave a warning look to both witches.
“Something about fate,” Jackie offered.
Ashley guessed that she couldn’t really expect the she-wolf to stay quiet for their benefit.
“I damn well hope not,” Drake growled. It only gave him more of an incentive to get the hell out of there.
“You and me both,” Nancy snorted her contempt for the man as he walked toward her carrying the suitcases.
“Out of my way witch,” Drake growled.
“Gee, as you asked so nicely.” Nancy snorted another round of contempt for the man.
“What’s his problem?” Amy asked the witch beside her.
“I was wondering the same thing. I’m guessing it’s because he’s the beta and not the alpha.” Nancy offered him a smug smile as he did a double take of her on his way by.
“Watch it,” Drake warned again.
That damn witch was jumping up and down on his last nerve. If she wasn’t careful, then his wolf just might make an appearance.
“I think that he has an inferiority complex — maybe even in all departments.”
Nancy’s smug smile turned into a roar of laughter when Blake shot a glare at her and managed to walk straight into the door frame.
He bounced backward, growling with annoyance. He didn’t mean to — boy, did he not mean to suck a breath up his nose in the hopes of knocking his temper on the head.
Every inch of his body reacted to that scent in the air. His muscles tightened — his length hardened — and he would willingly have head-butted the damn door frame, repeatedly, over and over again, if he could just take back that sniff.
There was a heady, hungry growl that started within his chest and rolled up into his throat. He bit it off.
“What was that?” Amy asked, looking at her brother as if he’d just grown another head.
“What?” Drake couldn’t help but look suspicious as his eyes darted around the area while his brain tried to work out a plausible explanation for the sound that had come from him.
“You know what,” Jackie said. She’d heard it as well.
“I said nothing,” he rushed out.
“I don’t know, girls, he looks pretty damn shifty to me,” Nancy said, as amusement danced in her eyes.
The witch was certain that she heard his eyeballs snap in the fast movement that brought them towards her. He glared. Then — he growled once more.
Mine…
“That!” Amy lifted her hand and pointed at her brother’s chest. Her eyes narrowed as if she could see right into his soul.
Drake berated his beast. The last thing that he wanted to do was to admit that a witch was his mate.
“I’m hungry. That was my stomach growling,” he lied. Then he took one step into the cabin and his beast growled within him again. “Damn it!” He just couldn’t seem to knock the animal on the head and keep it quiet long enough to make his escape.
“Oh — my…” Jackie announced as she slapped her hands over her mouth and gasped with the realization of the situation at hand.
Drake dropped the suitcases, and they landed with a hard thump on the wooden floorboards. He spun in place and offered something of a pleading puppy dog eyed look toward his sister in the hope that she wouldn’t give the game away and say a damn word.
“What?” Nancy asked.
“He’s found his mate!” Jackie announced, and Drake’s stomach hit the floor almost as fast as his chin.
“What the hell?” Nancy started to back away toward the other witches. “Do not come near me!” She lifted her hand and wagged her index finger at him. “Stay away — stay away.” She reached out a hand, wrapped it around Eliza’s upper arm, and yanked her friend forward in front of her.
“That’s…” Eliza started to protest.
“Here!” Nancy shoved Eliza toward the cabin, and her friend shrieked in surprise.
“What the…!” She turned back toward Nancy and offered her an open-mouth glare of disbelief.
“Take one for the team!” Nancy rushed out.
Eliza slapped her hands on her hips, cocked her head to one side, and looked at her friend as if she’d just announced that she was having an alien’s baby.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Eliza rushed the words out so fast that they could have been one word.
“No.” Nancy shrugged her shoulders.
“No,” Eliza demanded an answer.
“I figure that if any one of us has the mothering instincts required to be a member of a pack — it would be you. Trust me, that’s a compliment.” Nancy offered her an innocent smile. But Eliza knew there was nothing innocent behind that look in the woman’s eyes.
“And I was going to take you to Bermuda!” Eliza hissed out the words so quietly that Nancy had to strain her ears to hear them over the whistling wind.
“And we’ll enjoy Bermuda — while you enjoy the having a mate.” Nancy shrugged again. Sure, she felt kind of guilty, but still.
“If I had a Christmas list, you’
d be off it,” Eliza tipped her chin down and delivered her words with a steely glare of disbelief.
“Can we all calm down?” Ashley rolled her eyes at the antics of her two friends.
“Maybe she’s the mate!” Eliza raised her hand and pointed towards Ashley. Ashley snapped her head back on her neck so hard that Nancy was sure she heard the crunch of bone on bone.
“Maybe she is.” Nancy nodded in agreement.
“Okay, hold on — there’s one easy way to settle this.” Ashley tossed her hands on her hips and rolled her shoulders, squaring up to the problem at hand. “Him.” She lifted her hand and pointed towards Drake.
The shifter grumbled a growl. He didn’t want any part of it, even though the witch was right. He knew exactly who his mate was.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“Ooo, a real-life mystery.” Amy folded her arms and chuckled as she stood beside her sister and waited for Drake to point out the guilty party.
“Is it wrong that I just want to go and eat a bucket of chocolate ice cream?” Drake grumbled.
“You should go do that.” Nancy nodded in agreement. “While we go and drink that wine.” She was hesitant to put a foot towards the cabin because between her and sanctuary; stood the beta.
“I bet it’s the sarcastic one,” Amy said to her sister.
“I bet it’s a quiet one,” Jackie offered back.
“Which one’s the quiet one?” Amy frowned as she stared at the three witches in turn.
“Or it could be the peacemaker.” Jackie just couldn’t seem to make up her mind.
“I need a drink,” Drake growled.
“You and me both,” Nancy grumbled.
“Well, they have something in common,” Amy said on a snigger, and Nancy took a long step back from the group.
“I’m sure we don’t!” Nancy rushed out in denial. “I’m a vegetarian.”
“You’re not!” Eliza turned up her nose at the idea of Nancy ever refraining from eating meat.
“If you’re a vegetarian then I’m the tooth fairy,” Ashley snorted a chuckle at the very idea.
She’d seen Nancy elbow deep in a nice juicy steak. It was a case of keeping your hands out of the way while the woman devoured it.