by M. L. Briers
“I can see this going south any moment…” Maxi didn’t get any further because Bree brought up her knee and caught the alpha right in the balls. “Now,” she groaned as the man’s hands flew to his groin and his face twisted in pain.
“Full house!” The vampire announced with glee, and he couldn’t drag his gaze from the car crash that was happening before his eyes. It was the most fun he’d had in years.
You had to give it to witches – they certainly livened things up.
Mason’s legs didn’t have the strength to hold up his weight as the pain tore through him like a red-hot poker that made him want to curl up in a ball and die. Of course, curling up wasn’t an option – just yet – the alpha dropped to his knees and then face planted the wooden boards.
“Oooohhh,” Maxi groaned, but she snapped out of it the moment that Jon’s deep, loud laughter boomed in the hallway and practically deafened her. She tossed him a look of disbelief.
Bree blew the hair from her eyes and placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the big Lycan on the floor. “That’s woman power for you! Anyone else have something disagreeable to say to me?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“That – woman – is –evil,” Mason bit out between clenched teeth as he nursed his pride and his balls.
Luckily for him, his blood was healing him rapidly, but he was still face down on the floor. When the vampire knelt on one knee, and the man’s smug face appeared before the alpha, he groaned.
“This might seem like an inopportune time…”
“Go – away,” Mason growled. “And – take – Attila the Shrew – with you.”
Jai turned to look up at Bree. “I think he’s talking about you.”
“Little ole me?” Bree beamed a wicked smile of smugness that made the alpha want to kill something. “Nah, he’s just sore, in more ways than one, that I won and he lost.”
“Evil,” Mason growled again.
Maxi was scowling down at the alpha’s misfortune when she caught the beta leaning in again. She snapped her attention towards him. “Stay!”
“Woof,” Jon scowled back at her.
“I’m gonna go and stand on the other side of your alpha,” Maxi informed him on a hard glare that told him to beware his alpha’s fate before she started away from him.
Mason was sprawled over the floor, and he wasn’t a small man, and when Maxi tried to pick her way over him – the alpha groaned and swung a leg out at an inopportune time. “Son of a…” she squealed, trying to regain her footing, but to no avail. She stepped on the alpha’s leg, and Mason yelped as her heel dug into his flesh.
The very next moment Maxi found herself of kilter when her other heel skidded against the wooden flooring, and she was going down. A heartbeat later and she’d been caught in the beta’s strong arms, still tipped to the world as if he was dipping her on the dance floor.
Maxi blinked up at him twice when his nose twitched.
“Don’t you dare!” she bit out, but when a wolfish grin started on his face and grew – she was spellbound and unable to act in her own defense.
“Just a little…” Jon felt the hard sting of the witch’s magic and bit down on a curse, but it wasn’t the witch in his arms that was the problem, but the other one.
“Down boy,” Bree snapped, but all she’d managed to do was to make him draw in a breath – through his nose.
“Oooo,” Maxi’s eyes narrowed as the beta rumbled a deep growl within the expanse of his chest. “Bree!”
Jon felt the tingle that started in his nose and worked through his body like he’d caught a cold – a damn fine one. Every inch of his body came to life in a way that he’d never known before. Everything seemed more vibrant – everything scented of her.
His body tingled like he had a mild case of pins and needles. His beast rose up within him on a long, deep, hungry growl – and then it hit him… “Mine…” he growled.
“Yours?” Maxi repeated, as her mind tried to shake off the X-rated thoughts that were clogging up her mind about the man, his strong arms, his broad chest, and his wolfish grin. “Y-yours!” she shrieked that time as it hit her just what he was talking about, and her shrew-like voice almost deafened him.
“Oh … for the love of the Goddess, are you crazy, Maxi?!” Bree scolded her.
“Maxi?” she bit back. “How is this my fault exactly, Bree?” Maxi grabbed his shirt and yanked and pushed until he straightened her up. Then she released his shirt in favor of slapping her hands against his big, hard muscles until he let her go of her.
She took a step back, huffed as she straightened her clothes, and then ground out a groan as the reality of the moment set in. Then she calmly looked at her friend and blinked twice.
“You about done?” Bree asked, and Maxi’s expression changed to one of disbelief and caged annoyance.
“I might just kill you myself and bury you in a shallow grave to allow the local – wildlife – to pee on you,” Maxi ground out.
“Harsh,” Jai said, and she shrugged. “But I like the sentiment.”
“Do not mess with me, vampire,” Maxi bit out, and her top lip twitched in annoyance. “Now is not the time.”
“I’m Jai, the alpha is Mason, and your mate is Jon.” He took extra special pleasure in announcing the last part and watched her blink once more.
Maxi’s jaw moved without a sound. It was almost as if she was having a good chew on that information. Bree snorted a chuckle, but when Maxi snapped a look her way – she pressed her lips together and lifted her hand in front of her mouth to cover up a smile.
“You have something to say?” Maxi demanded.
“Nope,” Bree kept her tone light, and she really couldn’t look at her friend for fear of bursting out laughing.
“Good,” Maxi bit back.
“Except – congratulations, it’s a wolf!” Bree sniggered into her hand but stopped the moment that Maxi shrieked and reached out to shove her friend over onto her pride.
Bree landed on top of Mason, and the man groaned once more. “Bite me,” Maxi hissed, and the low, deep grumble of a growl that came from Jon made her lock up her body in place and slowly turn a look of disbelief in his direction. “Seriously?” she hissed.
“I’m feeling some underlying elements of tension in the air,” Jai chuckled, and Maxi rumbled a growl of annoyance in the back of her throat as she snapped a look at him.
“Ya think?” she bit out, her voice dripping with sarcasm and venom.
“Yep, unresolved issues,” Jai said. “Probably of the sexually frustrated variety…”
“Oh – my – Goddess!” Maxi shrieked so loudly that all three men slapped their hands over their ears and groaned. But, when she blasted the vampire with a zap of her magic, he dropped like someone had hit him with a chimney. “I’m leaving!”
Maxi turned to the front door, took three long strides and wrenched it open. Every wolf outside looked in her direction.
“Good luck with that,” Bree called, and as the wolves started toward the front door on a fast run, Maxi slammed it shut again with another squeal.
There was the sound of a heavy thud that hit the wood of the front door and Maxi jumped in place. “It’s the wolllluuufff!” she exclaimed, and Bree roared with laughter. “It’s not funny!”
“You sounded like the cartoon!” Bree chuckled. “The little lamb with the…”
“Bite m…” Maxi hissed back, but when Jon growled again, she stopped in mid-flow, but that didn’t stop her from finishing off her words with a glare for her thoughtless friend and the big old mess she’d landed them in this time.
“I think you’ll find that’s his job,” Bree informed her with glee, cocking a nod towards the beta.
“Friends, ha! Who needs enemies?” She hissed, muttered, cursed and generally grumbled her way through a list of curse words as she loosely folded her arms and looked anywhere but at her mate, or Bree, or the down and out alpha, and certainly not at the v
ampire.
“I’m sure he only slobbers when he’s a wolf,” Bree tossed out with so much sweetness and light that it was sickly.
“I’m warning you, Bree,” Maxi grumbled.
“Well, sweetie, it’s not like I can undo anything.” Bree used her elbow in the alpha’s backside to push her body up, and the man groaned in pain once more. “Fate has chosen you a mate, and you’re just going to have to suck it up.”
“I hate you – I hate you – I hate you!” Maxi snapped back.
“Stop me if I’m wrong, but I get the feeling your friend is a little miffed,” Jai grinned from ear to ear.
“And him too,” Maxi nodded at the vampire. “Him I hate more.”
“Me?” he offered her a devilish grin.
“Go boil your head,” Maxi snapped back.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“We’ll zap ‘em and make a run for it,” Maxi whispered to Bree as she sidled up to her friend and eyed the supernatural male contingent who were conspiring on the other side of the room.
Bree considered her friend’s plan. “I did see a set of keys on the side table in the hall…”
“I don’t think we need to lock the door on the way out…”
“For a car or a truck.” Bree couldn’t help but roll her eyes at her friend; sometimes she felt as if Maxi was communicating with her home planet rather than being in the real world.
“Got it,” Maxi said with a small grimace for her crimes against stupidity, as she snapped her fingers and mentally kicked herself up the backside.
When her brain was filled with thoughts of having a drop dead sexy mate, who just so happened to shift into a wolf when the mood took him, how was she supposed to keep her mind on anything else?
“What about the wolves outside?” Bree was thinking out loud.
“We can zap them.”
“Aren’t you just zap-happy today?”
“I haven’t forgotten that this is your fault.”
“I guess this is just karma coming back to bite us in the backside — all those years when we got away free and clear from our dastardly deeds and misadventures and…”
Maxi sighed. “And now I’m paying for your dalliance with magic…”
“I didn’t hear you say no…”
“I said no to this one…”
“I didn’t hear you saying no before now.” Bree corrected herself.
Maxi folded her arms and tapped her fingernails against her skin in frustration. “I guess I just had a bad feeling about this one.”
“I guess you should have said something,” Bree offered back, and Maxi turned her upper body toward her and eyed her with disbelief as her lower jaw slid open and a small squeak lodged in the back of her throat. “Catching flies, Max.”
“So much better than catching wolves, don’t you think?” Maxi hissed out on a whisper of annoyance.
“It’s the vampire that I’m worried about…”
“Do you think he’s your mate?” Maxi shot back with a certain amount of glee in her tone at the thought. Misery loved company and Maxi was miserable.
Bree turned to look at her friend in much the same way that she’d regard an alien landing on her driveway. She blinked fast and furiously at her.
“Are you insane?”
“After knowing you all these years — probably.”
“Don’t even joke about me finding a mate…” Bree said with the kind of lofty attitude that would have fitted in with any Royal.
“Yes, that would be bad,” Maxi tossed back with a big dollop of sarcasm.
“Look, there’s nothing I can do about fate giving you a mate — but, once we kill him we can move on with life,” Bree informed her as if it was an everyday occurrence, a minor mishap along life’s road, and something to be crossed off her to-do list.
“Kill him?” Maxi gave a small shake of the head in disbelief at her friend’s attitude. They were talking about a human being — kind of.
“Well, do you want to mate with the big bad wolf?” Bree tossed back. “Have lots of little witch puppies?”
“About as much as you want to offer the vampire your vein,” Maxi hissed back. She caught the attention of her mate, and he snapped a look of suspicion in her direction. She shuffled on her feet, tried to look as innocent as possible of all plots against him, and leaned in closer to Bree. “Get me out of this!”
“I intend to — stop drawing attention to us, or that man is going to stick closer to you than perfume.”
Maxi grimaced and rolled her eyes at the thought. “I just want to go home now.”
“Then we have to be smart about it…”
“Then I’d better be in charge…”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Bree said and followed it up with a grunt of disbelief that her friend could be that harsh. It wasn’t as if she’d set out to find her a mate.
“If we had time I’d quote your track record,” Maxi hissed back. “And let’s not forget that your wicked ways that brought us here in the first place.”
“Fine,” Bree bit out in annoyance. “Have at it, genius. See what you come up with to get you out of your mess.”
“You mean the mess you created?” Maxi bit back.
“Well, we can stand here apportioning blame — or we can zap the wolves — disable the vampire — steal the keys — and be on our merry way. What is it going to be?” Bree gave her a knowing look filled with superiority that dared her to come up with a better plan.
Maxi would like nothing better to come up with a better plan — but in truth, she didn’t have one. Oh, how she’d like to kick her friend right up the backside.
“Sounds like a plan,” Maxi bit out grudgingly.
“I’m sorry — what?” Bree was enjoying a victory.
“I really don’t like you right now — don’t push it,” Maxi grumbled back.
~
“Look at those witches,” Jai muttered to the alpha and beta. “You know they’re conspiring against you, don’t you?” He enjoyed stirring the pot — or in the case of the witches — the cauldron.
Jon looked decidedly uncomfortable. “A witch mate,” he grimaced, “and I have to woo her.”
Mason didn’t much care for the idea of a witch in his pack. They were trouble, meddlesome, mischievous, devious, and not opposed to kneeing a man where he should never feel such torturous punishment. But his beta was right, the man needed to woo his mate, and the pack would just have to suck it up that they had a witch among them.
“Good luck with that!” The vampire chuckled long and hard at his friend’s misfortune. “Woo a witch?” He shook his head and tried to offer his friend a sympathetic look, but the amusement was too strong within him, and he didn’t know if he’d pulled it off.
The alpha grunted in annoyance. “I’d rather wrestle with a pit full of vipers.”
“Because that’s helpful…” The beta growled.
“We’re supposed to be helpful?” Jai chuckled again, and that sound was jumping up and down on Jon’s very last nerve. “You need help to woo your mate?”
“I don’t need help!” Jon snapped back with a dark scowl that drew his brow down, so it almost covered his eyes. He was long past annoyance with the vampire’s antics and closely approaching putting his fist in the man’s face — just for the giggles of it and the hope that it might ease some of the tension within him.
Fat chance. The source of that tension was standing on the other side of the room eyeing him like he was yesterday’s leftovers that had been left out of the refrigerator.
“If you say so,” Jai didn’t sound convinced. “Go ahead. Have at it.” He lifted his hand and motioned toward the witches.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the women snap to attention as if they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Next, to him, the beta did the same, but he did it for entirely different reasons.
Yes, he’d thrown out a challenge to the shifter, knowing that the man’s pride w
as at stake, and knowing that his inner beast would rise to that challenge. How could it not? Especially, as it was akin to throwing petrol on a bonfire.
“Fine,” Jon pulled his shoulders back, stuck his chest out, fisted his hands at his sides before shaking them out again, and took a step toward the witches.
Maxi’s head snapped around in her mate’s direction, her eyes narrowed as she took in his stance, her hand came up, and her index finger wagged at him. “No!” She snapped out. Jon hesitated in his step.
“Nice work so far,” the vampire chuckled, and the beta growled in annoyance.
What made it worse was that the alpha chuckled as well. “You really have her eating out of the palm of your hand,” Mason couldn’t help himself. Perhaps he should have tried — when the beta grunted in annoyance, fisted his hands at his sides once more, and started to stalk toward the witches — that was when the pain hit him like he’d slammed into a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour.
CHAPTER NINE
~
“Now?” Maxi shrieked with surprise as Bree’s magic took the three men down. “Give a girl some warning!”
“Sorry, I figured you’d want to hightail it out of here before the beta sunk his fangs into your flesh and claimed you as a mate,” Bree offered back with a wave of her hand, the free one, the other one was still dishing out her magic to the hapless males who were now lying on the floor. “If you’d prefer to wait…”
“Out of my way, witch coming through,” Maxi headed for the door. Her hand closed around the handle, and she paused for thought. “What about the big bad wolves at the door?”
Bree snatched up the keys from the hallway table and gave her friend a gentle slap around the back of the head. “Do I have to do everything myself?” Bree sounded exasperated. “Think of them as marionettes and cut their strings.”
“Sounds good…”
“Sounds very good…”
“Let’s do this!” Maxi pulled on her magic as she pulled on the door handle. The big bad wolves were going down.