by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER THREE
Chase batted down her arm to release his brother from the power of her magic and heard Connor gasp in a breath, as his body literally shook off the shock to his system. His dark eyes glared at her, as he ground his jaws together in fury.
“What the hell are you doing?” Chase demanded and she balked. What was she doing?
“He came at me, naked” She accused, wide eyed and angry, and Connor growled out a long stream of annoyance.
“I was walking past, and she ran into me.” He shot back, the fire burning in his eyes towards his assailant.
“He’s naked” She protested, motioning for added effect to Connors body, as though Chase was an idiot and she had to draw him a picture.
“It’s my house, if I wanna be damn naked, I’ll be naked, damn it. “ He growled out again, furious, and itching to rip something limb from limb. Cassidy just balked, turning to look up at Chase.
“I thought it was your house?”She wanted answers and she wanted them now. Someone had better start talking.
“It’s our house.” Chase couldn’t help but grin at his brother over her head, he was rock hard with the force of the shock she had given him, and yet he was standing there glaring and posturing like he was going to rip someone limb from limb. Even though he could see that his brother wasn’t going to make a move on the little Fae.
“Oh, you guys swing both ways – that’s cool.” The look on their faces was priceless. The way their heads came up and they stared at each other, before the horror of what she was implying hit home, and shock simultaneously crossed their faces. She had to still the chuckle that was rumbling to get out of her chest.
“Is she a damn half wit?” Connor demanded of Chase, and Chase found himself giving his brother a low warning growl.
“He’s my brother.” Chase explained, with a sigh and a shake of his head.
Cassidy grinned knowingly, she had registered that fact a few minutes ago without having to be told, but hey, all was fair in love and war, and that big wolf had given her a scare, coming out of nowhere like that- not to mention what Chase had done to her in that bed only a few hours earlier… Payback was a bitch.
“Aren’t they all, don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” Cassidy couldn’t help but give him an exaggerated wink as she walked off, gliding back into the bedroom from where she had emerged.
She certainly wasn’t about to go exploring the house, in case there were more people living here that she didn’t know about.
“Is that Fae demented? You brought a demented Fae into this house? Damned Fae and their Damned demented ways. Zapping a person with her electric magic. Damn it, to damned hell.” Connor exploded on a growl and the mutterings of a man who had been pushed to his limit, as Chase watched him stalk on by him and down the stairs.
Chase huffed a sigh and turned on his heels, walking back into the bedroom to find her sitting on the edge of the bed, like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, the thick blanket still wrapped around her shoulders, trying her hardest not to turn her eyes on him, for fear she might explode with the amusement that washed through her.
“Great first impression, Cassidy. Way to go.” Chase gave an emphatic nod of his head that she just managed to catch out of the corner of her eye.
“Well, he’ll never forget me or his pants from now on.” She muttered matter of fact, with a shrug off her shoulders, as Chase briefly closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.
“You hungry?” Chase shot her a look when she walked into the kitchen, her nose having led her down the stairs with the smell of fresh coffee brewing, and she grabbed a mug from the stand next to the pot.
“Depends if you’ve got to go out and hunt Bambi for breakfast.” Her snide comment brought his eyes up from the floor plans he was mulling over. He narrowed his eyes on her and gave her a pointed look.
“Can we dispense with the bitchiness and get back to the plain old insults? I enjoyed that so much more.” He dropped his head down with a slight resigned sigh, as she hesitated for a long moment, before pouring herself a brew.
“When are we going to see the elders?” She walked over to the counter and put her cup down, her eyes flicked over the plans in front of him, and he gave a small huff of amusement.
“One elder and when he gets up.”
“And when will that be?” She shot back, causing him to stop what he was doing and shoot her a sideways look, taking the time to check out the way his clothes hung from her tiny frame. She looked like a pup playing dress up, it would have been kind of cute, if she didn’t have that sour look on her face.
“I don’t know. I’m not his alarm clock.” He dismissed her just as easily, or at least, that was how he wanted it to appear. Inside he couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting her in his arms, especially after yesterday, safe and protected, and he had to wonder at it.
He knew his Alpha self had kicked in to keep her safe. But she wasn’t a part of his pack, she was Fae, and Fae didn’t count in the grand scheme of things where he was concerned, and yet, he had made her a promise to keep her safe, and that must have been what had driven his instincts.
Hell, just holding her half of the night, and lying awake beside her the other half, hadn’t dampened the knowledge that he could have lost her last night, and it troubled him, more deeply than it should have.
“I’d kind of like to get it done and get out of here today while…” He scoffed at her then, taking a long time to drag his eyes back from the plans to her face, trying to resist the urge as long as he could.
“Seriously?” Was all he said and she felt her irk gene kick in.
“Stupid question Alpha- obviously.” She shot back, narrowing her eyes at him as if worried about his sanity.
Chase just huffed, tearing his eyes away from hers again to stare down at the plans.
“And what does that mean?” She shot back, irritated by his behaviour. In fact everything about this man was irritating her at the moment, like an itch under the skin that she just couldn’t scratch hard enough to get rid of.
He didn’t bother looking at her this time; he needed to stay focused on something that wasn’t her. He could smell her scent, it had been enveloping his senses all night, and now it was stronger than ever within his psyche, and the more he looked at her, the more he wanted to nestle between her thighs for the duration and bring them both some completion on this strange attraction. The same attraction he sensed in her every time he looked at her.
“Have you looked outside?” It was just four simple words, but it filled her with the kind of dread that she hadn’t been expecting. He was a little too smug, and a little too careful not to look at her, for her not to want to smack him around the back of the head, just to make her point.
Goddess- how he irks me.
Cassidy’s eyes flicked to the back door that she had noticed when she had walked in. In her book, it was a good measure of thumb in strange territory to always have a clue where the exits were, just in case.
Leaving her mug behind her on the counter, she shot him a look of annoyance as she walked around behind him and headed for the back door. Hand on the handle she pulled it open, and the rush of freezing cold air whooshed over her, sending a shiver through her entire body, and the remembrance of just how cold she had been last night, before he had brought her back from that really good impression of an ice block she had going on.
Stilling her body, she took one step forwards and saw the extent of Mother Nature’s cruel joke on her. Everywhere she looked there were banks of snow, drifted high against the trees and outcroppings of natural vegetation.
Her eyes searched for the road; there wasn’t one, just a crisp white snow everywhere she looked.
Her heart pounded in her chest and her palms actually grew sweaty as she looked about her. She was stuck, worse than that, she was stuck on pack land, with Lycan’s, at least two in the house that she knew about, and she had already made an enemy of one, and the other wasn’t too fo
nd of her either.
Her eyes carried on scanning the area, looking for some hope. Tossing a look of disbelief over her shoulder, she found him watching her intently from his seat at the counter.
“Are you kidding me?” The acid mixed with disbelief in her voice, as she demanded an answer to her question, but what did she want him to say? No and then wish the snow away for her, so she could escape from him?
“Look on the bright side. If Nathaniel is being cantankerous, we have plenty of time to wait him out.” He wanted to laugh at her reaction, but he felt he might just poke the bear and get zapped like Connor had earlier, and that wouldn’t be good for either of them. He might not be able to control his inner beast and he had promised to keep her safe.
The thing that had shocked the hell out of him was just how calmly Connor had taken it. He had quite expected Connor to go for her in some way, attack out of instinct, and he had been primed and ready to defend her, having given her his word and all.
Cassidy threw her hands up in the air in disbelief, turning her back on him and staring back out at the snow. Desperately hoping that it would disappear like a mirage, and when it didn’t, she turned back to him and motioned with her hands towards the snow emphatically.
“That’s the bright side?” He just nodded gently, a slight upturn to his lips, as she shook her head in pure disbelief.
“Yes.”
“That’s the…” She pouted her lips and regarded the outside world, and just how cruel it was to her right now. It was fate getting payback for what she had agreed to do. She was shrugging her shoulders, as she debated that fact with herself, mumbling gently under her breath.
“This is just…” She shook her head again, and heard a snigger from behind her. If her irk gene had a thermometer to register just how pissed she was right now, it would have exploded the damn top right off.
She spun on her heels and glared at him, “You know you’re a… You’re…” She gave a little squeal of pure irritation as she turned away from him again, when his ripple of laughter greeted her ears, she bent down, scooped up handfuls of snow into a hard ball and launched it at him across the kitchen. Just as he had dropped his attention back away from her, hiding the laughter behind his hand like a naughty schoolboy.
Splat! Her good aim connected with the side of his head, and he growled out his lack of amusement, as she put her hands on her hips and regarded him with a grin of pure satisfaction. When he turned his eyes and glared at her, the snow clinging to his hair, and the rest fell into his lap, he looked ready to kill.
“Not so funny now is it?”
He was in front of her before she had a chance to even think about moving. The urge to take at least one step away from him, was in direct conflict with the need to take two towards him, and the need not to move one single step in either direction.
“I hear little witches can fly. Shall we put that to the test?” The low growl of menace in his tone had her heart doing the two-step, but she held her nerve. If he picked her up, she would claw him like a wildcat and hold on for everything she was worth.
“Chase, you brought her here. Think yourself lucky she hasn’t zapped you yet.” Connor called from inside the kitchen, his voice held both amusement and annoyance, and she was sure the annoyance part was aimed at her.
But Chase was still glaring down at her, and there was no way she was going to let Connor distract her, just in case Chase decided to follow through on his threat.
The heat that had rushed through her body, mainly due to his proximity, hadn’t left her completely, but she felt the cold chill of winters claws run down her back, and shivered in one long run from head to toe, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
“Get back inside. I’ve already had to thaw you out once. I have no interest in repeating the procedure.” He ground out between clenched teeth, and she felt the wash of embarrassment flood through her, that warmed her cheeks, as it also brought her some semblance of remembrance of her, near naked in his arms. And she hadn’t magically dried herself, removed her wet undergarments, and found her way into his over sized tee, as much as she would wish that to be true.
Chased seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, as his eyes turned from a glare to a slow perusal of her body, and she fought the urge to shiver again, this time with something a lot warmer than the weather washing over her.
“Do not order me around. I am not a member of your pack.” The stunted laugh, from inside the kitchen was not lost on her, as she faced up to the Alpha, while he, once again, reverted to glaring down at her.
“Woman, so help me, if you don’t get back in there, I will throw you over my shoulder carry you upstairs, dump your backside down on my bed, and show you what it means to be an Alpha Lycan to a female like you.”
There was absolutely no doubt within her mind, the parts that were still rationally trying to hold onto her sanity, that he meant every word he said, and that scared the hell out of her more than all of his glares or his growling could ever do.
“Give it your best shot.” She squared up to him, palm outstretched towards his chest, just as he took a step towards her. She wasn’t about to wait for him to grab her, by then it would be too late.
That one step towards her showed he had intent, and she hit him with everything she had. The force of the shockwave taking him clean off his feet, as his body sailed through the air and landed in a large snow drift. The wind completely knocked out of his lungs, as she stood there instantly regretting her actions.
“Whoops.” She breathed out from the slight gap between her teeth, as a wince took over her face, and she heard Connor growl out a warning from behind her.
“Normally I wouldn’t say this, but I’d run if I were you.”
Cassidy needed no more prompting than that. Taking off past Connor, who seemed to be blocking the doorway after her, she ran through the house like the hounds of hell were snapping at her heels, and when Chase got up from that snow bank, he probably would be.
“Get out of my way.” There was so much menace in his eyes that Connor felt his wolf respond in a way that was totally instinctual, he was the Beta and Chase his Alpha. If Chase was going to push the point, Connor knew that he would comply.
What he needed to do, was try to buy some time for Cassidy to get out of harm’s way, while he tried to cool Chase down. All without getting his own butt whipped in the process.
“Hurts like hell, don’t it?” Connor threw the words out there with as much menace in his voice as he could risk, given the situation he was in, and the anger that flowed through his Alpha, which was as potent as his Lycan blood in his veins.
“Connor, move, or I will move you.” Chase growled out, nothing was sinking in at the moment. His body still hummed, and not in a good way, from the jolt she had sent through it. His mind was locked onto full speed ahead. And hang the consequences.
“Yeah, you’re right. I probably should have ripped out her throat when she did it to me his morning. But she’s just such a little Fae, be kind of un-sportsman like. Don’t you think?” Connor noted the way his Alpha’s eyes drew from the space over his shoulder to lock with his own. The instant recognition in those eyes of what his Beta was trying to tell him, as his wolf growled within him.
Although Chase was geared up for the hunt of the fleeing female, his wolf was growling at him with a purpose that he didn’t understand until now. His own damn wolf didn’t want her hurt. What was that all about?
Connor’s words echoed through his mind, pinging around in his subconscious and drawing a low, slow growl from his lips, at the thought of Cassidy being any wolf’s prey.
“If you ever touch her…” He snarled, and Connor held up his hands in front of him, palms out, and a mock look of surprise and innocence on his face, as he defended his position.
“Hey, not me man. You’re the one all snarly and up for the chase, so to speak. I never laid a paw on her. But if you feel the need to go all native on her, well, who am I to stand in your way?�
�� He watched his words pass over his brother’s mind. The ease in tension in the hard muscles of his body, the way his eyes narrowed as he considered his position, the way his brows drew down over eyes that were become lighter, and his general posture all eased.
“Get the hell out of my way Connor. Before you’re the one stuck in the snow bank, head damn first.” Chase growled with a lot less menace, and Connor looked at him, knowing full well that his Alpha was back in control of his emotions and posed no harm to the little witch, unless the little witch attacked again, and he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think she would be that stupid.
“Well hell brother, you only had to ask. I was just giving the little lady a head start is all.” Connor stepped to the side, and Chase stalked through the back door and straight across the kitchen with a purpose, and that purpose was to sniff out where that Fae was hiding, and to teach her a lesson she would never forget.
Damn- Damn- Damn- Damn and damn it! She had really done it this time, Cassidy told herself, as she huddled down in the dark closet, and surrounded herself with Chase’s clothes, in the hope that her scent would be masked by his own.
She wasn’t sure how good a Lycan’s sense of smell was, but she guessed that she wouldn’t have long before he found her.
What else could she do but hide, and hope to heck he calmed down enough not to kill her when he found her. She could zap him again, because that worked so well the first time, and if needs came to it she would. She’d zap him and keep zapping him until he finished her off. But she knew that, if there was a moment in her life where she could go back and get a do-over, this would probably be it.
The voices of the males downstairs weren’t hard to miss. It was a like a low rumble in the background, akin to thunder, and when it ceased, she felt her heart skip a beat within her chest, knowing that Chase would undoubtedly be on his way for her.