by M. L. Briers
“Very damn feisty.”He groaned out as he flicked his arm and his shoulder clicked back into place.
The sound of the house phone ringing out on her nightstand sent Hannah jumping up in her bed. She’d just started to drop off to sleep, images of damn wolves swirling in the mists of her dream, and now the damn phone was shrilling out.
Hannah snatched up the receiver and tried to focus on the clock as she groaned out her displeasure.
“Wrong damn number.”She hissed into the cold plastic. That she knew without a doubt. There wasn’t anyone who had this number. She hadn’t even bothered to give it to her sisters yet as they all had mobiles and no one else knew where they were.
“Right number, right sister, lucky me.”Seth’s deep tones drifted down the line and into her subconscious, and she felt the heat start in her cheeks and work its way through her body.
“How did you get this number?”She dragged her body up in the bed and ran a hand through her hair, checking for bed head even though he was on the other end of the line and not in front of her.
His deep chuckle filled her with even more warmth, but this time it was in a place that she didn’t want to have to think about.
“I wanted to invite you to dinner…”He sidestepped her question, even still half asleep she’d noted that.
“At this time of night?”
“I’m nocturnal…”He offered and heard her groan. She really didn’t need this now. She was tired, more than tired, she would gladly sleep for a week if the house, the business, and her sisters wouldn’t have all gone to hell in that time.
“Look, fluffy…”His deep chuckle rattled her nerves. “I’m really not in the mood for this right now.”And she wasn’t, and she wasn’t sure that she would ever be. “I need sleep. I need three cups of coffee after sleep, and then, and only then, might I be in any kind of a mood to talk with you.”
“So we’re not going to have phone sex then?”Hannah’s jaw dropped open and she was temporarily lost for words. She was kind of glad that he wasn’t right in front of her because she thought she might have just slapped him.
“Ok, Seth, listen carefully…”Hannah slammed the phone down on its base and threw the covers up over her head, muttering to herself as she let loose with every swear word she had ever heard.
Fiona heard the loud thump from Hannah’s room as she came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Stopping outside Hannah’s door she could hear her sister reciting swearwords to herself and she chuckled as she walked into her own room and back kicked the door closed behind her.
The sound of something hitting her window caught her attention and she frowned. It sounded like heavy hail hitting the glass and she wondered if they were in for the snow that was threatening the area. If it was cold enough for hail then…
Fiona eased back the curtain and looked up at the clear night sky. No sign of a snow cloud in sight, as the sound made her jump in place and she could have sworn that what was actually hitting her window were tiny stones.
“What the…?”Fiona looked down and bit down on the rush of excitement that went through her on a gasp of her breath in, as she took in the sight of the Vampire below. “What are you doing?”She hissed out and watched him toss a large stone in his hand as her eyes went wide.
“I wanted to talk to you and you ran me over. That’s not very friendly…”He called back and she frowned and bit down on her jaw. Holding up her index finger she turned away from the curtain and grabbed the thick robe.
When she’d tied the belt around her waist, she yanked open the thick curtain and hefted up the window on the sash cord, and shoved her head out. The icy blast of a winter wind made her catch her breath and shiver.
“Some of us are in danger of freezing to death…”She bit down on another shiver and he grinned up at her.
“You could always invite me in…”
“Tempting, but I’ll pass on inviting the untrustworthy bloodsucker into my house thanks.”She spat out on a fresh wave of annoyance mixed with sarcasm and he just shrugged his shoulders at her.
“Then I guess one of us is going to get cold, and by one of us I mean you.”Mac offered and she rolled her jaw and narrowed her eyes on him.
“Look, Mac-Bitey, why don’t you just give up?”
“I never give up.”Mac tossed the stone in his hand again and gave her a self assured grin that she felt down as far as her toes.
“Then we have a problem, and by we, I mean you, because I’m not interested.”Fiona hissed down at him and heard the door open behind her and groaned in mental anguish at her pain.
“Sure you are, and as you have already pointed out I’m a stalker by nature, so…”
Hannah shoved her head out of the window and looked down at the man her sister was conversing with. Mac waved a hand at her and she narrowed her eyes, hoping against hope that she wasn’t seeing what she thought she was seeing.
Fiona didn’t turn to look at her sister, she knew what was coming and she cursed the vampire for putting her in this situation.
“What did I say about dating anyone… dramatic?”Hannah offered.
“Not my fault, he’s like a barnacle that I can’t scrap off…”Fiona bit out between clenched teeth and Hannah sighed.
“What are you a damn vampire magnet?”
“I’m beginning to think so…”Fiona rolled her eyes, she was being good, damn it. This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
“Get rid of him…”
“Hello, I can hear you, you’re hurting my feelings…”Mac offered with a smile that told Hannah he was more than enjoying himself.
“Oh get a life…”Hannah hissed down at the vampire as Kay nudged between them and shoved her head out of the window.
“Who’s the stiff?”She eyed him with interest and heard both Hannah and Fiona sigh on either side of her.
“Mac-Vampire…”Fiona breathed out on another sigh.
“I thought you were on a vampire cleanse?”Kay offered again, even more unhelpfully as Hannah snorted her contempt.
“He followed me home, he’s very persistent…”Fiona dismissed him with the wave of her hand.
“I never give up.”Mac announced with glee and Fiona sighed again as Hannah groaned and Kay giggled.
“He’s kind of cute.”Kay offered and Fiona snorted.
“But he has a very small penis…”Fiona threw out the juicy tit bit with a certain amount of satisfaction.
“Not true…”Mac shook his head and Kay peered further out, trying to get a better look at him.
“Is too…”Fiona retorted and Hannah frowned.
“You’ve seen his penis?”Hannah balked and Fiona put her hand on Kay’s head and pushed it downwards so as to get a better look at Hannah.
“No she felt it… well more of a grope…”Mac offered from below them and Hannah glared down at him as Fiona sighed and Kay giggled again. “I actually feel violated…”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it.”Fiona hissed down at him as Kay giggled again.
“At least this one has a sense of humour and doesn’t want to kill you, Fi.”Kay offered and Hannah saw the smile fade from Mac’s lips as he narrowed his eyes and tensed with anger at the younger sister’s words.
“But he talks to himself…”Fiona offered her sister and Kay shrugged.
“Well a little crazy is not always a bad thing.”
“I can still hear you…”He seemed to relax a little Hannah noted, as her sisters chatted between them.
“And big ears apparently…”Fiona dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “And a small penis.”She added for good measure.
“How small? It’s not always a deal breaker.”Kay lent on her elbows and turned her face up to her sister.
“Very…”Fiona wiggled her little finger and heard Kay sigh.
“Well yeah, I could see how that would be a problem…”
“I could show you…”Mac offered and Hannah groaned.
“If you pull that thing out I swear I
’m going to make it spontaneously combust.”Hannah growled down at him and he shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m just trying to speak to my mate…”Mac offered and all three sisters gasped in a breath in unison.
Hannah was the first to pull her head back, but she planted her forehead against the window frame and rolled it back and forth.
“This is not happening…”She groaned out into the silence of the room.
“Oh, Fi, what did you do?”Kay added as she turned to look up at her sister. The open mouth look of shock on her face made her want to crack out a laugh, but she also felt the need to shake her sister back to the reality of the present.
Fiona made one slight squeak a moment before she took a step backwards, swayed, and her eyes rolled in her head. She hit the floor with a hard thud.
“What happened?”Mac called out as Hannah tossed her sister a look and groaned and Kay dropped down on her knees beside her.
“She was so overjoyed with the news that she fainted.”Hannah bit out.
“Invite me in…”Mac demanded and Hannah tossed a look of disbelief down at him.
“Really?”
“Invite me in, Hannah.”He tried again, putting a little more melody in his voice and Hannah rolled her eyes.
“My damn shields are up, Vampire. You’re mind control isn’t going to work on me.”
“She’s my mate, please.”Mac stared back at his mate’s sister and saw the multitude of emotions in play over her face.
“Oh saints preserve us, come in.”She groaned taking a step away from the open window just as he appeared in the open space, climbing inside he moved over to Fiona and knelt beside her.
“You invited him in?”Kay gave Hannah a long look of disbelief. “Damn, but she’s going to be pissed when she wakes up.”
Mac reached out for her and lifted her against him, cradling her head against his chest, he lifted her easily from the floor and turned towards her bed, just as her lids fluttered open and she focused on his face.
“Are you kidding me?”Fiona groaned out. “Who the hell invite Mac-Bat in my damn room?”
Hannah took a step towards the door just as Fiona tried to get out of Mac’s arms in a flurry of arms and legs. Kay was pointing towards Hannah and she rolled her eyes.
“How comes she gets to have a vampire boyfriend in the house, especially after what she did, and yet I can’t have Declan in the house?”Mary demanded from the bedroom door and Hannah groaned.
Fiona pushed against Mac’s chest and tried to release the death grip that he had on her. “Mac-pain-in-the-arse is not my boyfriend.”Fiona hissed out her denial. She didn’t want a mate, she certainly didn’t want a damn vampire mate, and she definitely didn’t want him in her bedroom.
“No, he’s your mate. Get over it. At least this one won’t eat you…”Hannah shot out and Kay couldn’t help the chuckle that rolled through her.
“Not in any way that would cause you displeasure.”Mac offered on a devilish grin and Mary stomped her foot and turned on her heels mumbling to herself as she went.
“Put me down.”Fiona hissed at him and he cocked a dark brow at her.
“First we need to set some boundaries…”Mac informed her and she glared back at him.
“Boundaries?”She spat out in disbelief.
“You ran me down with your car…”Mac gave her a look of admonishment and she frowned at him, as Kay giggled and shook her head, and Hannah threw up her hands and turned away.
“Incorrigible…”She muttered as she walked away, and Kay followed on her heels.
“Wait. I was being good and staying out of trouble…”Fiona called after her sister, who just waved a hand in the air as she kept on walking.
“Talk to the hand.”Hannah muttered as she disappeared from sight and Kay closed the door behind her with an amused grin.
“Put me down.”Fiona told him, not best pleased with any one of her sisters or him right now.
“With pleasure my love.”Mac opened his arms and let her go, and she shrieked out a second before she hit the bed.
“Arse…”She bit out and Mac made a show of considering it.
“We can get around to that…”He informed her with a gleam of amusement in his eyes, and a big heap of desire.
“Mary…”Hannah tapped on the bedroom door and listened for her sister’s invite in. When there was only silence Hannah decided to take the bull by the horns and opened the door.
“A little privacy wouldn’t go a miss.”Mary huffed from somewhere under the covers in her darkened room.
“In this house kiddo, dream on.”Hannah closed the distance to the bed and hopped up onto the mattress beside her. Crossing her legs beneath her, Hannah looked down at the nose and eyes of her sister that were peering out from under the duvet, with what she thought was hostility, as she took a long breath and sighed.
“Double standards, right?”Hannah asked and Mary huffed again.
“Right.”Mary agreed.
“Wrong. Fiona set her own standards years ago. She’s had more boyfriends than all of us put together, and that one in there is her mate.”Hannah didn’t want to rub salt in the wounds of her little sister by saying she’d never even dated a boy before, but it was the simple truth. “Maybe I’m a little over protective of you, because you’re the youngest…”
“Declan’s nice…”
“And he’s also your mate, and you know what that means.”Hannah asked, but out of all the sisters Mary was the most likely to understand the concept of finding a mate. If there was a book or Grimoire that she could lay her hands on pertaining to the craft, she had.
“Yeah I know, Hannah. And it doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to be like Fiona, out partying at clubs and bars…”
“That’s a nice way to put it.”Hannah scoffed and Mary emerged from under the covers, a warm smile of knowing on her face.
“I guess Fate had other plans for me, for all of us, that’s why it led us here…”
“If only I could be so generous to Fate, right now I’d like a word with the Fate’s…”
“And most of them would be four letter’s and not uttered in polite society.”Kay teased from the doorway. “So, little Mary found a mate, you know you’re going to have to have sex now, right?”
“Yes, Kay.”Mary hissed, her cheeks going as red as her duvet cover.
“You know all about protection?”Kay teased her again and Mary rolled her eyes.
“I’m eighteen not eight…”
“Good thing too or I’d cut of his di…”Hannah bit out and Kay chuckled.
“Kiss chase with a wolf for the next ten years…”Kay mused and then beamed at her little sister. “Didn’t you have a crush on that boy that lived a couple of houses from us?”
“No. He wouldn’t stop following me around…”
“Good training for having a wolf mate.”Kay snorted and Hannah groaned to herself. She didn’t even want to think of her own problem’s where mates were concerned.”What’s up with you, Hannah? I thought you’d be glad to see the back of at least two sister’s after all these years, you might get yourself a life, and a man.”Kay teased and Hannah groaned again.
“If only it were that simple…”She muttered.
“Someone steal your thunder where the wedding stakes are concerned? I know you’d been dreaming of our lavish weddings…”Kay teased and Hannah snorted her contempt.
“Four sisters, I suppose the odds were in the supernatural’s favour that one of us would be a mate, but three out of four…”
“Three?”Kay saw Hannah bite her tongue and closed the distance between them as Mary dragged herself up even further in the bed. If there was one thing these sister’s of hers liked, it was a good gossip, and when they sniffed some out they were like a dog with a bone.
“Mary and Declan. Fiona and the Mac-Vampy, and I know I haven’t met any Vamps or wolves since we moved here, so spit it out, sis…”Kay demanded, folding her arms across her chest and raising just one knowin
g brow down at her sister.
“The bloody alpha…”Hannah admitted and Kay couldn’t help the snort of laughter that left her lips. Hannah’s head snapped around on her neck as she gave her sister a dark glare of warning, and Kay shrugged her shoulders innocently, trying to keep a straight face.
“Oh.”She managed as Mary sniggered and Hannah turned to look at her. Kay beamed a wide smile of amusement, but bit down on it as Hannah turned back to her. She nodded her head sympathetically.
“What?”Hannah demanded and Kay’s eyes were practically fit to burst right out of her head as she tried not to laugh.
“What?”Kay echoed back and Hannah rolled her eyes.
“I could kill Fiona.”
“Perhaps you’ll get lucky and the vampire is doing it for you.”Mary sniggered and Hannah sighed.
“I do not need this now…”Hannah shuffled to the edge of the bed and let her legs hang over the edge. The alpha, a damn vampire, and Mary had a mate, what else could go wrong?
“So what’s he like?”Kay asked giving a double tap of her brows suggestively, and heard her sister sigh.
“Mega ego, self assured, dominant…”
“Howls at the moon…”Kay interrupted and Hannah rolled her eyes. “We know the alpha traits, but what is he like?”
“Tall, dark and sexy…”Hannah offered, pulling herself to her feet and heading for the bedroom door when Kay caught her up and threw a hand over the doorway.
“Oh no, big sister, you don’t get off that easily. Spill it.”Kay admonished and Hannah rolled her shoulders and her jaw.
“Weren’t we talking about Declan?”Hannah offered, trying to divert the attention away from herself now.
“We were. And now we’ve moved on to your boyfriend…”Kay gave her a wry smile and she sighed again.
“Tall, dark and sexy, and he’s an alpha, what’s more to say?” Hannah offered. She didn’t want to think of Seth right now, at any time in fact, because it filled her with the warm and fuzzy feeling that she didn’t want to have to acknowledge, although deep down she knew that a long engagement wasn’t on the damn cards. This was mating, this was bonding, and this was a damn alpha…