by M. L. Briers
It was Christmas. He thought that magical and things were supposed to happen at Christmas, he guessed he was wrong.
“Where are you going in the snow?” Nancy asked.
She knew he was a shifter, she knew he had a wolf, and yet, the thought of him being out there alone in a blizzard didn’t sit well with her. Maybe if the damn snow hadn’t started again, it wouldn’t be so bad, but it had.
“Away,” Jeff growled.
He didn’t want to go away. This was home — this was his pack — she was his mate, why would any sane, rational person leave all that behind?
Because if his mate rejected him, then he was going to turn into a mindless, soulless, beast of a rogue that would attack without thought. Kill anything and anyone in his path.
He wouldn’t allow that to happen.
“That’s not an answer…”
“What makes you think you get to ask me that question — any question?”
“Well, der … I’m your mate.”
“Are you?” Jeff’s heart was beating in his ears.
She may not have meant it the way it had sounded, but it sounded damn good to him.
His mate.
If only.
“So you said. Of course, you could have been lying through your wolfy fangs, I’m not to know, right?” She snorted a chuckle. “I could just be the poor sap that you claim as a temporary mate until you find your real one — how would I know?”
Jeff turned on a long, hard growl of annoyance. He stalked back across the small space between them.
His dark eyes were locked and loaded on her. He looked like a predator that wanted to rip her throat out.
“Are you damn insane woman?” He growled long and hard.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
“Well…” Nancy rolled her eyes at the ceiling and took a very long moment to think on that. “That’s the thing — it looks like I might be headed that way and fast.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” He growled.
“You.” She lifted her hand and jabbed him in the hard muscles of his chest with her index finger. “You — you — you — you…” She kept on jabbing him until he reached out and snatched at her wrist, closing his hand around it and holding it between them.
“You wanna tell me what the hell you’re talking about?” He growled.
In his mind; it seemed as if his mate was having a brain fart, several of them like she’d eaten a tin of beans and couldn’t stop popping off.
“I didn’t ask for some big, testosterone-fuelled, man mountain of a Shrek style oaf to walk into my life and announce he was my mate.”
“I know that!” he growled back.
“I was going on holiday…” She tossed up the hand that he wasn’t holding onto.
“I know that too!” He growled back.
“I wouldn’t say that I was wetting my damn knickers happy with life — but who is?” She scowled at him.
“Not me!” He growled back.
“There you go. And then here you come!” She tossed up that free hand once more.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You — with the big shoulders, all those muscles on display, that sexy damn smile, and those bloody puppy dog eyes…”
“Dog jokes? Now?” He growled.
“Oh, this isn’t a joke,” she hissed back at him.
“I know that!” He growled again.
“And it’s no bloody time to go taking a walkabout outside in a blizzard!” She snapped back.
“Your point?” he growled.
“I think you’re insane!” she snapped.
“I think you’re delusional!”
“I think I want to be your mate!”
“Huh?” Jeff drew a blank.
Nancy looked at him as if he’d just thrown up on her shoes. Her mouth moved but no sound came out, but still, he could see that she was thinking.
Did I just say that out loud? She tried to replay the conversation in her mind.
Oh – my – Goddess! I did! I said it out loud!
That’s not good — that’s so not good that it’s a catastrophe.
What if I don’t?
What if I do?
What if he thinks I do and I don’t?
What if he thinks I don’t and I do?
I think he’s right — I think I’m insane.
“Do you want to run that by me again?” He tipped his head to one side and questioned her sanity.
“Huh?” Nancy tried to look as innocent as possible; it didn’t work.
“Run it by me again.” He growled.
“When you say it…?” She left it there.
“Do not go there again.” He growled.
“Where?” She was still trying to look as innocent as possible.
“It.”
“It what?”
“You know what it is.”
“Probably about as much as you knew what it was earlier,” she offered back with the sweetest smile, but he wasn’t buying it.
“Don’t,” he lifted his hand and pointed his index finger at her. She snagged that finger inside the palm of her hand and craned her head forward on her neck.
“See. You don’t know what it is.”
“I’m warning you.”
“Oh, now you’re warning me,” she rolled her eyes.
“Seriously — don’t start.” He growled.
“What are you going to do? Are you going to toss me over your shoulder and…” She shrieked as he dipped at the waist and did just that. “You need to stop doing that.” She grumbled as she hung down his back.
“Just as soon as I make you my mate — maybe,” he growled back at her over his shoulder.
“You’re what?”
“You heard me.” He started on fast feet out of the kitchen.
“I definitely think you’re insane.”
“I think you protest too much.”
“I think I might just zap you.”
“Give it your best shot.” He growled. “You said you wanted to be my mate.”
“Did not.” She hissed.
“Did.”
“Not.”
“Tell it to the hand.” He growled over his shoulder as he started up the staircase.
“Bite me.”
“I intend to do just that.”
“I didn’t mean literally.”
“Too late — you said it — it — it — it.”
“You really do have a screw loose, don’t you?” She chuckled.
“When it comes to you — probably.” He kicked open his bedroom door, stalked inside the room, and backheeled it closed again.
“And you still don’t know what it is.”
Jeff tossed her through the air. With a hearty shriek, Nancy hit the mattress and bounced, just once, before her mate was caging her in.
“It is what I’ve had enough of. You, running rings around me. It’s time I took charge — I’m doing that.” Jeff growled and put every fiber of his being into it.
“Oh, are you?” She raised her eyebrows on her forehead and glared up at him.
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s about time.”
“Huh?”
“Hey, a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do — but one thing a girl has got to do — is not to make it easy for the guy.” She offered him one hell of a wicked grin.
“Well, now that I have you where I want you — a guy has got to do what a guy has got to do — and boy, are you going to enjoy it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
~
“What are you doing?” Ashley could well have exploded his eardrums within his ears with the high shriek of her voice.
The alpha stood stock still at the back door into the kitchen like his very presence was a danger to her life. The freshly cut pine tree that he’d been trying to wrestle through the gap sagged downwards when he released it from his death grip.
“I thought we agreed…”
“Are you insane?” she hissed.
“That it was a new tradition — we were going to have a Christmas tree every year.” He rushed out before she could interrupt him again.
“Yes.” She expanded her hands and looked at him as if he’d just shifted in front of a priest.
“Then what’s the problem?” He shrugged.
“A Christmas tree!” She motioned to the pine tree at his feet and stomped her foot.
“It’s a Christmas tree.” He motioned down to it as if his mate couldn’t quite grasp the difference between a tree and a cow.
“It’s a real tree!” she shot back.
“Christmas trees normally are.” He lifted his hand and scratched his head. He didn’t get what all the fuss was about.
“Fake!” she shouted.
“Real!” he shouted back with a chuckle and a shrug.
“I’m sorry — do you remember what happened last year?” she demanded, and then she placed her hands on her hips, and the alpha had the urge to kiss his backside goodbye.
“Now, hold on a minute,” he held his hands up to his chest.
“Do you remember the faeries?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“I remember the faeries…” He started, patiently, trying to placate his mate as best he could.
Kissing her tended to work best, but she had that little twitch under her right eye, and he’d learned the hard way that meant to stay the hell away from her or risk getting zapped.
“And you thought this was a good idea?” She motioned to the tree once more.
“It’s a Christmas tree.” He shrugged again.
“And tell me who is upstairs, sleeping happily, in the crib that you made for her?”
“My daughter.” He puffed his chest out with pride.
That was when Nancy strolled into the room and hit the brakes as her eyes fell on the tree.
“Is he insane?” She demanded as she elbowed Ashley in the ribs.
“My question exactly!” Ashley folded her arms across her chest and eyed the alpha with disbelief.
“What’s going…” Eliza stopped dead in her tracks as she spotted the Christmas tree on the floor. “Oh, my!”
“And with his daughter upstairs as well!” Ashley practically growled at her mate.
“Why is everyone collecting in the kitchen?” Jeff asked as he pulled up behind the witches and offered a questioning look at the Christmas tree on the floor.
“Who did what?” Drake asked as he elbowed his brother out of the way to get a look in the kitchen, expecting to see a dead body on the floor.
“Seriously?” The alpha growled. “It’s a damn Christmas tree, not the second coming.”
“Somebody called?” Arthur called out from the living room.
“I might not believe in God,” Eliza said. “But bite your tongue.” She snapped her fingers, and Arthur yelped in pain.
“Let’s get back to the tree,” Ashley demanded.
“It’s a Christmas tree.” The alpha shrugged again.
“It’s an invitation to the faeries…” Ashley hissed at her mate.
“I squared it with the faeries.”
“You squared, or you scared,” Eliza asked. “Because faeries don’t scare that easily.”
“We came to a deal,” the alpha informed them.
“As in?” Ashley demanded.
“Fifty new trees — twenty strings of fairy lights — and something called a bubble blower?” For a moment the alpha looked confused.
“Oh, I like those — they make little soapy bubbles in the air,” Eliza grinned from ear to ear at the thought of it.
“Well, we need to get one for the faeries, so, you’re in charge of that,” the alpha informed her.
“And you trust them?” Ashley demanded.
“No.” He grimaced. He kind of did trust them — but, now he could see that was probably wrong.
“There’s nothing for it,” Nancy shrugged. “We will have to spend the day putting up wards and spelling the house.” She offered to the other witches.
“Sounds like a plan,” Eliza nodded.
“Which means that you’re on daddy duty,” Ashley offered him a smug smile.
“I like daddy duty.” He frowned back at his mate. “Do you think I’m not pulling my weight where our daughter is concerned? Because I’ve been pulling my weight where our daughter is concerned.”
“And he has a lot of weight,” Jeff added.
“He has been getting a bit porky,” Drake chuckled. “It must be the side effects of being a parent.”
“Are you saying I’m porky?” Ashley narrowed her eyes on the beta, and he noted that the other two witches were doing the same thing.
“Nooo…” Drake slowly shook his head.
“Are you saying I’m porky?” Eliza demanded.
“Why would you be…?” Drake snapped to attention.
“You’re pregnant?” Nancy demanded like it was news to her.
“You’re … pregnant?” Drake swallowed down hard at the thought of becoming a father.
“It’s not the way I wanted to tell you…” Eliza started, but she shrieked when Drake thrust out an arm and scooped her up against him.
“I love you.” Drake brought his lips down on hers.
“Well, that makes two of us,” Nancy shrugged her shoulders.
“Huh?” Jeff’s head snapped around so hard on his neck that she was sure she could hear every bone in his spine snap into place, or out of it. His eyes were wide, and he had a goofy look on his face.
“P-r-e-g-n-a-n-t,” she said, drawing out the word for as long as humanly possible.
“I…” Jeff’s heart hit his rib cage, and he had to wonder if it had ripped through his chest and ended up at her feet. “That’s…” He said no more.
“Not good news?” Nancy asked, cocking one eyebrow at him.
“I’m going to be a…” He stopped talking.
“F-a-t-h-e-r.” Nancy chuckled. “Stay with me…”
“Best Christmas ever!” Jeff bit out, as he reached out for his mate and swung her up into his arms.
“Is this your idea of romantic?” Nancy chuckled.
“Woman — shut up,” Jeff chuckled back before he kissed her.
“More rugrats?” Arthur’s voice drifted into the kitchen from the other room. “I might have to find somewhere else to spend next Christmas.”
“Yes!” Ashley said as she punched the air. “That would definitely be the best Christmas ever.” She teased the vampire.
“You’d miss me if I wasn’t here.” Arthur’s dry tone came back.
“Let’s give it a go and then I’ll tell you.” The alpha growled.
“About that tree…” Ashley pointed at the poor downed Christmas tree.
“I know — I know — leave it outside,” the alpha grumbled.
“Too late, most of it has already crossed the threshold,” Ashley said.
“So what do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Decorate it,” Ashley said. Then she turned on her heels and strolled out of the room.
“Brothers — put your mates down – we have a tree to decorate.” The alpha growled.
The End.