by M. L. Briers
~
“Bree!” Maxi bit out on a shriek as she looked in the rearview mirror of the stolen pickup truck at the wolves that were chasing after them. It wasn’t just wolves, the alpha and beta were in hot pursuit as well.
“Well, I never said it was the best idea in the world.” Bree grimaced as she turned in her seat and willed the truck to go faster.
“Bree!” Maxi bit out again.
“Keep going – keep going — faster — faster!” Bree demanded as she lifted her hand and pointed the way ahead, and her backside moved in the seat as if she was riding a horse, willing the truck on.
“I’m going as fast as I can!” Maxi snapped back.
It wasn’t as if the roads around the pack land were in tiptop condition — it was night-time — and she wasn’t exactly a racing car driver. If anything, she was more demolition derby.
“I highly doubt that,” Bree snapped back. If they were going to escape the beasts on their tail, then they were going to have to go faster.
Bree pulled on her magic and used it to make Maxi’s foot slammed down on the accelerator. Maxi squealed as she was thrust back in her seat and as the truck sped up.
“You’re insane! You’re going to kill us,” Maxi squealed out.
“You’re the one driving!” Bree tossed back at her.
“I can’t drive at this speed!”
“Fine. Let me help you with that.” Bree used her magic on the steering wheel.
Maxi had never liked the idea of a self-driving car — now she knew why. She didn’t have control, and any self-respecting witch liked to have control. “You’re going to kill us…”
“I never said the plan was foolproof,” Bree tossed back with the kind of cackle of a laugh that made Maxi squeal again.
“I hate you right now,” Maxi snapped back. She was trying to wrestle control of the steering wheel back from her friend’s magic — of course; it wasn’t going to work.
“Oh look — the wolves aren’t gaining on us anymore,” Bree offered back like trying to kill them was a vindication for her actions.
“Then slow down!” Maxi pleaded.
“Not yet — but soon,” Bree chuckled.
“I feel like I’m hurtling toward death — oh wait…”
“Oh, ye of little faith in me.” Bree sniggered. But she wasn’t slowing down until they were free and clear.
Maxi snapped a look in the rearview mirror, and there was her mate, running full steam ahead, his arms were pumping at the air, and he was getting further and further away in the distance.
“That which does not kill us…”
“Bree!” Maxi snapped back. “Now is not the time.”
~
“There — my plan worked,” Bree announced as Maxi pulled the truck onto the driveway of their small cottage with a large sigh of relief and cut the engine.
“Is it wrong that I want to kill you?” Maxi bit out as she collapsed back against the seat and closed her eyes for a long moment.
“I’d say yes, but I’m biased so don’t listen to me,” Bree offered back. Then she popped the door to the truck, turned in her seat, and dropped the small distance to the ground. “I need wine!”
“Sounds good — just pop the top on a big barrel and toss me in,” Maxi said as she reached for the door handle and popped the door open.
Fresh air had never smelled so good, the cottage had never looked so good, and freedom had never been so — terrifyingly good.
There hadn’t been any sign of the pack, or her mate, for a good few miles. When Bree had finally relinquished control of the steering wheel and the accelerator to Maxi, she’d taken it upon herself to drive around and around in circles to throw them off the scent before she’d headed home.
There was only one thing that they hadn’t been able to do — and that was to retrieve their car. Hopefully, the beta was as dumb as he looked, and he wouldn’t go sniffing around for it before they could fetch it.
Maxi did feel kind of bad for the man — he’d had his mate within his grasp, and he’d lost her. Hopefully, the mating pull hadn’t yet kicked in too badly for him, and he wouldn’t turn into a blood-lusting rogue that killed everything in sight after losing his mate.
But, if he did, Maxi was sure that the pack or the vampire would take care of him in the traditional way — boots up — dead as a Dodo. She grimaced at the thought as she dragged her tired body toward the cottage and the promise of wine — copious amounts of wine.
She didn’t feel right about it somehow. She should have been ecstatic to be free of the man, and yet guilt was itching and scratching at her conscience.
Bree noted that she didn’t have her door key and doubted that Maxi had hers, but that wasn’t a problem. She lifted her hand and used her magic to open the lock. Then she tossed the door back on its hinges and stepped inside, relieved that their nightmare was over and vowing never to do something so stupid and thoughtless again – until the next time.
Bree snapped her fingers, and the lights came on. She took one step inside and ground to a halt. Maxi smacked into her back and propelled her a couple of steps forward into the room, and Bree grimaced at the sight that befell her.
“Whoops!” Bree bit out, and she sounded a whole lot guilty to Maxi’s ears.
Maxi bent sideways at the waist and looked around her friend. She groaned at the sight that made her heart hit her ribs and dumped adrenaline into her system. Funnily enough, she was overly tired anymore.
“Hey girls!” Martha bit out; the elder witch looked sheepish before she turned her head to look at the beta on one side and then the alpha on the other as they flanked her like bookends – really big bookends.
“You led them to our house?” Bree bit out in surprise that was mixed with disbelief.
Martha opened to her mouth and considered it for a moment. Then she crossed her arms and gave a small shrug. “They didn’t exactly want to go to my house, and they made a good point — who wants a rogue running around killing everybody?”
“I do!” Maxi snapped back without thinking, but when all eyes turned upon her, she swallowed down hard. “Not. I do not!” She grimaced.
“Selfish little witch, aren’t you?” The vampire said as he strolled into the room from the kitchen with an open bottle of wine in his hand, and a half filled glass of the good stuff in the other.
“Give me my wine!” Maxi bit out in annoyance, and she stalked toward the man and snatched the glass from his hand. “Salvation.”
Maxi tipped the glass and gulped down the wine. The vampire snorted in amusement. She thrust the glass back at him and eyed him with contempt. “Not one damn word,” she hissed. Then she snatched the bottle and turned on her heels.
“Easy come – easy go,” Jai chuckled.
“You…” Jon growled long and hard as he tried to keep his wolf from bursting free and letting her see the beast’s displeasure at her stunt first hand, up close and personal.
“If you value your manhood then I suggest you stop there,” Maxi hissed at him.
“Loves young dream,” Martha said on an over exaggerated sigh. Then she sniggered as Maxi muttered a series of curse words at the elder. “Meh, those forty or fifty years of mated bliss will just fly by.”
Maxi stalked towards Bree who was still standing in the doorway. “I hate you – I hate you – I hate you,” she bit out.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“I told you we should have killed him!” Bree announced, all wide-eyed and innocent of all crimes in her book.
“Meh,” Maxi grumbled something that Bree could guess at under her breath, and she turned her attention towards Martha.
Bree turned her attention toward the elder witch. “About that spell…”
“Spell?” Maxi snorted her contempt for her friend. “I have a mate!”
“Yes, yes you do, but we can’t do anything about that one, now can we?” Bree offered back, and Maxi groaned as she resisted the urge to headbutt a wall.
/> “Then at least give me a full frontal lobotomy,” Maxi grumbled.
“Ah, geez,” Jon bit out, tossing up his hand and turning away from her in annoyance mixed with disbelief. The woman was a nightmare – his damn nightmare.
“Stop me if I’m wrong — but I’m getting the feeling that your mate really doesn’t like you,” the vampire chuckled with amusement at the man’s expense.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Jon grumbled back.
Maxi rolled her eyes to the ceiling and back down to her mate. “Stop being so melodramatic; it’s nothing personal.”
“Girl,” Mason chuckled, but the beta couldn’t see the funny side of it.
“How can it not be personal you’re my mate?” Jon argued.
“You’re also a shifter, and how can I put this…?” She raised her eyes to the ceiling once more looking for answers.
That gave Bree the opportunity to jump in. “Weird — growly — misogynistic – a throwback to cavemen times…”
“Don’t hold back,” Mason growled.
“No worries there,” Martha said with a small snigger. “Bree likes to get things off her chest, it helps her two brain cells cope with the workload — she also likes to steal spells when no one's looking.” Martha shrugged.
“And back to the spell,” Mason growled.
“I’d prefer to deal with him first.” Maxi lifted the hand that was grasping the bottleneck and pointed her index finger at her mate.
“If you’re not going to drink that wine then pass it this way,” the vampire said, and Maxi scowled back at him as she clutched it to her breasts like it was a lifeline. “I guess she doesn’t like to share.”
“Well, we can’t kill him now,” Bree said with a shrug of just one shoulder.
“Thank you,” Jon tossed back, his tone dripped with sarcasm.
“There are way too many witnesses,” Bree offered the beta a smirk in return.
“About that spell?” Mason said and turned his attention back to the elder witch.
“I don’t know what to tell you — I’d like to say that it would burn itself out, but I have no idea.” Martha shrugged again.
“But it’s your spell, how can you not know…?”
“Because some pesky little witch decided to steal it before it was finished,” Martha grumbled and offered Bree a hard stare.
“In my defense…” Bree started, but Martha cut her off.
“A defense for stealing another witch’s spell — ha! Whistle in the wind there sweetie.” Martha grumbled and muttered under her breath.
“Fine,” Bree said, indignant as she tried to think up a defense for what she’d done. She looked at Maxi, and her friend snorted at her in contempt.
“Don’t look at me — I’ve got a mate to deal with,” Maxi grumbled back.
“So, this spell…” Mason growled again, annoyed that people kept changing the subject on him.
Martha rallied toward him. “Would you stop with the spell already?” She tossed up her hands in exasperation. “I have no idea what the wicked witch of badly dressed-ville has done — how can I offer you a cure when I don’t know the cause?”
“Excuse me?” Bree snapped. “Badly dressed?”
“You heard me, sweetie,” Martha offered back in a sickly sweet tone.
“And I suppose dressing like the sixties never went away is a good look for somebody?” Bree asked as she motioned up and down the elder’s body and the floaty dress that looked as if it was more suited to her younger, hippie-chick days. “Was tie-dye ever a good look?”
“It depends on how drunk you were,” Martha tossed back with a big dollop of sarcasm.
“Drunk would be good,” Maxi muttered.
“No more for you,” the vampire said as he snatched the bottle out of Maxi’s a grasp just as she was lifting it to her lips, and he stalked away with it as she offered the bottle a look of longing.
“Next you’ll be telling me I can’t have chocolate,” Maxi huffed.
“Not if you want to keep your figure for your man,” the vampire chuckled.
Maxi turned a hard glare onto the beta, and the man pulled his head back on his neck and questioned her with a stare. “I never said it.”
“But you agree with it, don’t you?” Maxi narrowed her eyes on him like an interrogator at the witch trials, and the beta tossed his hands out at his sides and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t,” he muttered.
“Your mate is a witch — you’re damned anyway,” the vampire chuckled.
“Look,” Mason growled as he turned a hard look on his beta. “If you two are going to bicker, could you at least get a room?”
“Seriously?” Maxi bit out as she tossed her hands onto her curvy hips, tipped her head to one side, and glared at the alpha.
Mason turned his attention toward the witch and eyed her up and down. “Probably not.”
“Wow, I didn’t realize shifters were so bitchy,” Bree said with a certain amount of glee, and she loosely folded her arms and offered him a smug smile.
“Speaking of bitchy — have you looked in the mirror lately?” Mason tossed back. He hadn’t forgotten what she’d done with her knee.
“Yes, and I liked what I saw,” Bree shot back as quick as a flash.
“I guess somebody has to,” Mason closed her down.
Bree eyed him with a death glare, but he wasn’t paying attention, he turned back toward the elder.
“Now, don’t you go asking me about that spell again,” Martha berated him. “I’ve already told you — it’s not my spell.”
Mason turned a slow look back to Bree. The witch was standing there looking as if she was sucking on a sour lemon. “The spell?”
“I can possibly think of an idea — I think I’m having a crisis of self-doubt,” Bree tossed back with an acidic tone and paired it with a death glare like a good accessory.
“Well, could you get to the point where you accept yourself for what you are and realize that life did hand you lemons?” Mason growled back.
“He got you there,” Martha chuckled.
Bree bit down on her annoyance. She kind of wished that she hadn’t kneed him so soon — she would love to have done it right then. Unfortunately, he’d see it coming now, and she wouldn’t be able to carry out her dastardly plan.
“Yes,” Bree turned her attention toward Martha. “Point to the alpha. Unfortunately, for his pride, I’ve already seen him curled in a ball crying like a baby.”
“I was not crying…” Mason growled.
“There were tears,” Bree offered back with a snort of a chuckle and a look of satisfaction on her face that he’d rushed to defend himself. Point to her.
Mason grunted in annoyance. “There weren’t…”
“Sorry, alpha, there were tears,” the vampire said.
“I did note a little moisture,” Jon added with a small shrug of his shoulders. Why should he be the only one to suffer at the witches hands?
“Not feeling so much like the big bad wolf anymore, are you?” Bree reveled in her minor victory.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
The alpha grunted in annoyance again. “Butthole’s,” Mason growled at his friends. He wondered if it was too much to ask for a little male loyalty, but from the satisfied smirks that were lodged on their faces, he knew that he had his answer.
“Oh, don’t hold back on my account,” Martha chuckled up at him with glee. “Really let them have it, and you should be as offensive as you like — I would.” She even punched the air.
“Thanks,” Mason bit out on a scowl of disbelief for the elder. “I’m good.”
“Define good,” Bree muttered.
“Not you,” Mason tossed back.
Bree rallied toward him, “now, listen here…”
“I’d rather you tell me about the spell,” Mason growled. He’d had enough. He wanted to know what the witch had done to his pack.
�
�Yes, Bree,” Maxi said with a certain amount of satisfaction. “Tell them about the spell.”
“It was sort of a mishap,” Bree said with a small grimace and the deep-seated need not to explain further.
“Mishap?” Mason’s tone was hard, deep, and unyielding.
“She managed to spill the potion down herself,” Maxi added. She wasn’t about to let Bree off the hook — there had been no solidarity where her mate was concerned, and so she felt totally justified in throwing her friend under the bus.
“You did?” Martha scowled at the young witch. “Who does that — who’s that careless?”
Bree turned the finger of accusation on Maxi. “It was all her fault.”
“I was just trying to stop the spell,” Maxi tossed back, uncaring, and with a shrug.
“You were?” Jon asked. He looked surprised, and his mate snorted back at him.
“Do you have a problem with that?” Maxi asked.
“It’s nice to know you aren’t as thoughtless and uncaring as your friend,” Jon said.
“I’m not thoughtless and uncaring…” Bree rushed her own defense.
“You kind of are,” Maxi tossed back, and Bree turned a slow look of surprise on her friend.
“I am?”
“You can be — yes,” Maxi offered back and watched as Bree took in the information, processed it, but she didn’t come back with an answer.
“So, the spell?” Mason tried again.
“Oh,” Bree waved an absent hand in the air. “It’s away on the wind — your pack should be fine by morning…”
The alpha breathed a sigh of relief. “Good to know. So why did we need her?” he nodded at Martha, and the elder gave him the stink eye.
“Her – has a name – wolf-it,” Martha grumbled.
“Excuse his manners, you’d think he was raised by wolves,” Jai offered a devilish grin, and when the alpha growled, Martha couldn’t help but snigger.
“Many reasons,” Bree shrugged.