by M. L. Briers
“You don’t know that. There’s an insane wolf out there after them and you- well you’re sitting her on your backside doing nothing to help…”Tanya shrugged her shoulders as if she were dismissing him, and Evan dragged himself to his feet and shrugged his broad shoulders.
“And what would you have me do?”He growled to her. He was damned if he said something and damned if he didn’t. This was getting damned annoying.
“Nothing. Why would I expect you to do anything…”The sarcasm in her voice made him growl again. Was he supposed to change into his beast and run towards them, offer them an escort? He was home guarding his pack. Her included…
“Are you normally this…?”He started and she snapped her eyes up to his making him bite down on the last word, clamping his lips together and waiting for the fallout. Could this be hormones? He’d heard perfectly sane females had turned into She-Devils when pregnant, but was this too soon?
“Go on…”She urged him, and he managed to shrug his shoulders trying to think on his feet, but he came up woefully devoid of anything that wouldn’t dig his own grave, and he was already in that hole, just how far down he wasn’t sure about. “I’d love to know what my mate thinks of me.”She gave him a small innocent smile, but it was the gleam in her eye that signalled her She-Devil was waiting to pounce.
“Anxious…I was going to say anxious.”Evan offered, even thought other words such as insane, venomous, and downright mean came to mind first.
“Yes…”Tanya snapped out and then shook her head. “No…”She threw up her hands in frustration and turned away from him. “Sometimes. I just want them to be here. Safe.”She admitted and he was at her side in an instant. He wrapped an arm around her waist and turned her towards him, easing her into his arms, he soothed her.
“They will be fine. I promise. Aidan won’t let anyone near them. Relax…”He soothed and felt her ease against him. “It’s not good for the pup…”He felt every muscle in her body tense.
“The pup? Well I’m sorry your breeding machine is a little out of sorts…”She sneered back and Evan sighed. He went to roll his eyes, but thought better of it… she might lampoon him with one of the snakes in her hair…
“Not what I meant…”
“Really? Sounded like it…”She snipped back. Stepping back away from him.
“Selective hearing…”He ground out between clenched teeth and saw her jaw drop open. Fire ignited in her eyes as she snapped her jaw shut, and he took a step backwards mentally. He had a feeling she was about to let roar again…
The sound of the car pulling up outside was like a saving grace to him and he lifted his hand and pointed towards the front door. “They’re here.”It was almost a blessed relief. He felt her mood change immediately, as if her claws retracted and she silenced the beast within her. He was just glad she wasn’t Lycan, because he’d probably have had to deal with the real beast itself.
Aidan came through the front door with Lacy in his arms. Tanya took one look at her friend and the sound that came from her lips was like a wounded animal. Frozen in place she could only stare and Lacy tried to give her a smile of reassurance.
“He’s so dead…”Tanya growled in a way that had Evan’s wolf responding within him.
“My sentiments exactly.”Dee bit out.
“Well it’s nice to know you care, but the guy’s this side of a fruit loop and I don’t want anybody getting hurt because of me.”Lacy tried to squirm out of Aidan’s arms. This was going on too long, the more she looked like a victim the more the girls would want payback. She needed to be seen to be standing on her own two feet…
“Put me down Oaf.”She hissed up at him, but Aidan just grinned down at her.
“Nearly there, short stack…”He teased back and she frowned, even though it hurt.
“Short stack? Better watch out for the knee in the nuts…”She hissed up at him, but he just chuckled some more. Finally reaching the sofa he lowered her down slowly.
“If you kick me, I’m not going to be nice about it.”He warned her gently. He was mindful of what she’d been through at the hands of one of his kind and he didn’t want her to fear him. But he didn’t want her to kick him either.
“Back off flea merchant.”Tanya growled out from behind him. Aidan pulled himself to his full height and stared down at her. Putting her hands on her hips she gave him the look that said she wasn’t impressed, and his eyes flicked to his Beta who was shaking his head in warning over her left shoulder.
“Hormonal She-Devil…”He let slip out on a hushed breath, so that the alpha was the only one who heard him, and Aidan tried not to look amused as he backed away and left the females to it.
“Anyone seen him?”Aidan stood with his back to the Fae and spoke quietly. Lycan justice would best be served without Fae interference.
“Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time…”Evan bit down on the urge within him to do some real damage to the animal that had done this to Tanya’s friend. He prayed that time came sooner rather than later, but he swore that it would come one way or another.
“We need to keep them all close to home, as in inside the damn house unless one of us is with them.”
“Agreed.”
“Good then you won’t mind sharing that with Medusa…”Aidan grinned down at him knowingly, and he saw Evan squirm slightly as he regarded his mate.
“Maybe we should just tell them all at once, or you should, being the Alpha.”Evan gestured he reverence with a small bow of his head, and Aidan couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips.
“No my friend, you have to learn to deal with your mate’s quirks at some point…”
“It’s not a damn quirk. I value my balls, and she’s…”Evan growled long and hard.
“Scary…”Aidan chuckled as he walked off, shaking his head and knowing that his time would come with his own mate. Lycan pregnancies seemed to have a habit of turning on the beast and vamping up the hormones, even in none Lycan females.
“It’s like she’s two different people.”Evan strolled after him. Unsure he wanted to stay inside the room with three Fae in case he said the wrong thing, or looked the wrong way and his female turned into Medusa again.
“Well, talk to the one you like best.”Aidan offered. Smirking at his friend’s predicament was a red flag to Karma, but he couldn’t help it.
“Right now I’m not sure I like either of them…”Evan dropped down onto the kitchen stool and sighed.
“Cheer up my friend. Soon you’ll be through it and you’ll be laughing at me.”Aidan took pity on him, but Evan still didn’t appreciate it.
“Not soon, she’s only just pregnant, what the hell is she going to be like in a month or two?”
“I hear by three months the sex hormone kicks in and it’ll be like she’s going through the breeding cycle…”Aidan offered and Evan perked up.
“Really?”His eyes flashed with the thought of his mate, demanding and needy, twenty four hours a day.
“Don’t know. I was just trying to cheer you up.”Aidan chuckled and Evan growled. Pouting again as Aidan reached for the mugs and started to make the coffee.
“Alcohol would be better.”Evan offered and Aidan raised his brows in amusement.
“So you want to give everyone but your mate alcohol, tell me, is that wise?”Aidan saw the look on his Beta’s face, somewhere between a flinch and a look of sheer horror, and shook his head.
“Good point…”
“Thank you, I have my moments…”
“Not often enough.”Evan snipped back and Aidan grinned at him.
“Come on brother, let’s give the females their coffee and inform them that they are confined to the house for a while.”
“That’s going to go down like a lead balloon.”Evan growled out again. Never one to back away from a fight, in fact he’d caused more than his fair share, it was in his nature to battle and he found enjoyment in it. But Aidan was right about one thing, his mate was scary. Not in any way he’d
ever encountered before, he just didn’t want her wrath, and the way her emotions turned on a dime…
He’d battled a lot of beasts in his time, but this was one he couldn’t fight back against, his hands were tied. She was his mate and he couldn’t kill her, couldn’t harm her, so how did he fight the beast within her, when his wolf and his protective nature for his mate, the woman carrying his pup, was ready to roll over and play dead at her feet?
“I’ve met a lot of idiots in my time, but you really push the damn boundaries…”Dee bit out. She wasn’t impressed with their display of caveman tactics. She wasn’t about to be dictated to by any man, Alpha or not, mate or not, gorgeous sexy love God or not… Damn, that kept slipping in there, she mentally slapped herself.
“I have no intention of allowing my mate…”Aidan’s back was up. He was trying hard to understand his mate’s point of view, but it was getting harder by the second with the insults that kept flying. He was Alpha, he wasn’t used to having his will questioned, especially not on matters of pack safety, and like it or not she was his pack.
“Allowing me? Someone want to tell me what century we are in, because I think I just slipped back in time by a couple of hundred years?”Dee folded her arms over her chest and cocked a defiant eyebrow in his direction.
“I’m the Alpha…”He growled out. His brow was furrowed in self righteous indignation.
“How’s that working out for ya?”Dee turned on her heels and showed him her back. Perhaps not the smartest of moves, she thought, as his fingers circled her wrist and he spun her on the spot.
“The pack bows to the Alpha’s will…”He informed her like she was an idiot. She knew enough about Lycans to know the rules. She just didn’t give a damn right now. Billy was out there and she was itching to snap his neck with her magic…
“You have a lot to learn about Fae…”She growled back at him. If he could growl, well so could she. Fight fire with fire, when in Rome, she had a million of them just itching to get out.
“Fae or not, you’re pack now…”
“Not bloody yet I’m not, and I will take this opportunity, when it arises and make Billy pay for what he’s done…”She was squaring off against him and that made his wolf more than a little rattled.
“It won’t arise because you’re not going outside…”He shot back. Towering over her and using his bulk to try to bend her to his will. It wasn’t working.
“It will arise and I’ll do as I damn please…”She reached out and slapped his forehead with the palm of her hand, a wakeup call to the fact she wouldn’t be pushed around. Not about this.
Aidan’s fists tightened at his sides. If she was a male she’d be on the floor already, his fist having been planted firmly in her face, but she wasn’t male, and she was his mate…
“Got it now or do I have to spell it out in Morse code?”She growled at him.
“Woman there are times when I want to eat you…” he stared at her hard and she swallowed back the urge to protect herself, even though she knew he was no threat to her, not violently anyway. Although the way he was growing and the close proximity of his body was a definite threat to her sexual sanity. “And not in a good way.”He snapped down at her.
“Give it your best shot and see what life without teeth is like.”How the hell was she supposed to back down? Even when she wanted to climb up those big thighs of his, wrap her legs around his waist and lick him like her favourite ice cream from head to toe…?
“Are you seriously challenging me?”His eyes flashed with something akin to disbelief, and yet there was a sexual element to the way his eyes took her in that she couldn’t ignore. She wasn’t imagining it. Perhaps her particular form of challenge had his brain considering another form of domination…
“I’d say your brain does that every day.”She wasn’t about to succumb to him, physically, emotionally, or sexually. She was Fae damn it, hear me roar, she thought, although it was fifty-fifty if she did roar that he wouldn’t take that as some kind of mating call…
“Woman…”He growled down at her and she balked.
“Oh, don’t you woman me, you over inflated ego with a tail.”
“Whatever I did to piss of the fates that they would give me you, I’m eternally sorry for.” She felt the stabbing pain within her at his words. So he didn’t want her for a mate… Well, she guessed she shouldn’t have been surprised, a Fae probably wasn’t the best prize in the Lycan world, but it still stung to hear it.
CHAPTER TEN
“I’m sure it was a long list, starting with the fact that you’re…”She dug her nails into the palms of her hands as she fisted them at her sides. It had taken her this long to realise that he’d wormed his way into her heart as well as her mind in such a short time, and now he was denying her as a mate. It suddenly felt so claustrophobic inside her own body that she couldn’t breathe properly, couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. “An arsehole.”
Dee knew that in the grand scheme of things it was a lame finish, but she didn’t feel as if she had anymore will within her to keep going right then. She wanted to be away from him, to lick her wounds in private, but this was his house, where was she to go? That didn’t stop her from turning on her heels and storming out of the room.
“Wow, I don’t believe you said that to her.”Tanya berated him. His head snapped around on his neck to glare at her, but her eyes told him more than her words. Disappointment and disbelief resided there.
“What?”He would stand his damn ground.
“Think about it, I’m sure even you can figure it out.”Tanya walked off after Dee, and Aidan turned his eyes to his Beta, who was standing there looking more than uncomfortable in his own skin.
“A little harsh…”Evan offered his Alpha diplomatically.
“In what way, exactly?”Aidan shot back, and Evan raised his brows and questioned his Alpha with his eyes. But Aidan was too damn annoyed to see anything clearly.
“You just denied your mate.”Evan offered and his words slapped Aidan in the forehead with more force than Dee’s actual slap had done.
“I…”Aidan went to deny it, but he couldn’t. His words stung his own mind with pain as he replayed them. He growled out with the force of the shame within him. “Crap.” He spun on his heels and followed the Fae.
“I need to speak to my mate.”Aidan announced as he walked into the kitchen and found Tanya and Dee at opposite sides of the counter top. Tanya was making coffee, and Dee was propping up her chin with the palms of her hands as her elbows rested on the counter top. She immediately straightened when she heard his voice.
“That worked out so well last time.”Tanya eyed him as if he was a blood sucking vampire, and he didn’t like it. It made the guilt ratchet up inside him.
“I’m tired, it’s been a long day.”Dee went to walk away, but he snagged her wrist, causing her to stop and stare up at him expectantly.
“Let me show you to our room.”She noted the look of concern in his eyes. A welcome change from the glares he had been issuing her only minutes earlier.
She was drained, emotionally and mentally. She’d tried to stay strong for Lacy today, but now the argument with her mate had just about taken everything she had left and she was finding it hard to hide behind the wall she’d built within her.
When his hand released her wrist and slipped down to hers, lacing his fingers with her own, it was a welcome connection. More so than anything else he could have offered her, and a simple nod of her head had him motioning for her to walk with him.
“Unless you’d like me to carry you?”He offered and she balked.
“What is it with you guys and carrying women?”She shook her head.
“It’s a caveman thing. Carrying off, so much nicer than dragging by the hair, don’t you think?”He growled down. She noted the wicked gleam in his eye and couldn’t help the amusement that ran through her.
Even though she still wanted to be angry with him, his touch alone sparked her surrender, his
humour eased her annoyance, and that wicked gleam in his eye set her pulse racing.
“There are times and places to act like a caveman…”The suggestive look that she gave him made him harder than a damn fence post, and he growled his understanding back at her.
By the time he’d led her up the staircase and pushed open the bedroom door, her heart wasn’t just racing it was pumping harder than ever before. She was still wounded by his words, but she wanted him with a vengeance. The supernatural equivalent to make up sex was probably amazing, she thought, stepping into the man cave and looking at the dark greens and masculine set up of the room.
“You can change whatever you need too to make it more…”
“Homely?”She offered, taking a dig at him even though the colour and general design of the room didn’t really bother her.
His brows drew down towards his nose like they were invading another country, while he did this quirky thing where he wasn’t frowning and he wasn’t grimacing, it was kind of a mixture between the two, and the deep lines that formed made her want to reach up and sooth them away.
“Is it that bad?”He growled, looking around the room and trying to see it through her eyes, but that didn’t work, he wasn’t female. Perhaps she’d want to change the colour and the satin sheets for some flowery thing…
“In truth…?”She raised her brows and watched him back heel the door closed. He nodded, still with the deep lines of weirdness on his brow. “No.”She gave an easy shrug of her shoulder and saw the look of relief wash over his face.
He yanked her towards him, pulling her body up against his as he stared down into her eyes. “I guess I’m going to have to get used to you being…”He paused and considered his words carefully. He’d already unwittingly denied his mate; he didn’t want to get it wrong again. “Difficult.”He offered, and saw a flicker of amusement in her eyes.
“Undoubtedly.”
“Can you forgive what I said downstairs? It was said in the heat of the moment, and it’s not how I truly feel…”Aidan was an Alpha. His feelings, his emotions were behind a solid wall of rock and he only let them out when need be. He wasn’t inclined towards fancy words and wooing, he’d never found the need…