by M. L. Briers
“Not old as in age, old as in there was a new one,” I hissed back.
“Why was there a new one?” she hissed up to me, and I had to at least try to count to ten- yeah, it didn’t work.
“Because the new alpha retired him-”
“That’s very…savage.” My mother snorted her contempt for the natural progression of pack life.
“It was his son-” I thought I’d offer that little titbit like a warning flag to her.
“Nice to see that it’s not just my children that hate their parents,” she snorted again and I groaned inwardly.
“At least his son left him alive-”
“Is that a threat dear?”
“Tempt me, why don’t ya?” I offered back to her and she snubbed her nose at me.
“So, if he’s retired then why is he here?” Mother asked the stupidest of questions sometimes.
“I guess now that King’s gone, he’s stepping in to take the lead until they agree a new alpha-” my logic sounded reasonable.
“How very civic minded.” My mother grinned and I wanted to crawl away under a damn rock. The woman was incorrigible, truly, only she could make that sound like a come on line, and Syrus noticed- how could he not when she was practically standing there with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth and her boobs heaving?
“Give me a break…” I muttered and felt Hawk’s arms come about me. His hot breath against my ear soothed my irritable brow, or was that bowel, mother had both kinds of effects on me.
“Let’s get you home,” Hawk offered and I liked that idea.
“Leaving before things get interesting?” My mother whispered again.
“Last I looked it didn’t say ghostbuster on my resume,” I snapped back.
“You’re a witch dear, we commune with the dead as a matter of course.”
Her snide remark brought Syrus’s attention our way again, and he started a slow, maybe overly-manly walk towards us. Was he preening for my mother’s benefit?
Leave aside the fact that there was a dead body on the floor and not really the time to flex his muscles in, dare I say it without wanting to throw up, wooing- she was my m-o-t-h-e-r! Cringe.
“This was done by a ghost’s touch?” Syrus was addressing my mother with his words and practically undressing her with his eyes. The cheek of that man!
“You know your supernatural,” my mother purred and I vomited in my throat.
“I make it my business to get to know everything- magic related.”
I know Syrus had a deep, velvety voice, but I’m sure he now sounded like Barry White on steroids. I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and tried not to throw up on his shoes for real.
“I have lots of magic related things that I’m sure you’ve never seen before,” mother purred back, and it was like watching a swamp monster flirting with a troll…
I cringed- I shivered- I truly wanted to be sick…
“I just might like to explore-”
“Don’t say it!” I growled out and Syrus snapped his eyes towards me. “It’s just so wrong on so many levels that I don’t think you want vomit on your boots,” I hissed at him and heard Lucifer snigger behind me.
“Excuse me?” Syrus twisted his head on his neck and looked surprisingly vague.
“She’s my m-o-t-h-e-r….” I hissed before biting down on another shiver.
“Really?” Syrus did well to look surprised, “I would have said your sister…” he beamed her the smile of a hungry predator and I groaned…
“Someone’s been in the cooking sherry,” Lucifer bit out with perfect timing and I choked on a laugh as my mother’s head snapped around on her neck like a bird of prey, and she glared at my sibling.
“Don’t you have a small child to devour, dear?” my mother snapped.
“Have you left any?” Lucifer tossed back and mother’s top lip quivered in annoyance.
“Perhaps you and I can discuss matters further?” Syrus’s words were like mother spotting a juicy worm and her head snapped back again- she snatched it up.
“That sounds like a good idea,” she purred, he preened, and I wanted to run away screaming from the spectacle. I lifted my hand to object and Hawk snatched it up inside his much bigger one.
“If your mother’s distracted…” he breathed against my ear. My brain kicked my backside into gear.
“Good idea, have at it,” I offered and Syrus’s neck snapped as he twisted his head and regarded me with surprise. “Yeah, that didn’t sound right to me either.” I admitted. Hawk’s deep chuckle didn’t help matters.
“Mercenary,” Lucifer crowed from behind me and I shot her a questioning look over my shoulder. “I didn’t say I didn’t agree.” She beamed me a smile and I felt as if my moral compass was on the fritz. If my sibling liked the idea- then it probably wasn’t a good one.
“Can we just get back to the dead guy on the floor?” I deflected. Not-really-but kind of.
“I heard we have a deadly ghoul,” Scott announced as he stalked into the bar looking decidedly giddy at the prospect.
“Now that you’re here we do,” Doug growled out.
“Oh good,” Scott announced. “The carebear’s here.”
“Look, you fecking bloodsucking leech…” Doug growled out, pointing a thick finger at the vampire and taking a step towards him… men!
“Can we show some respect for the dead?” I hissed.
“Thank you,” Scott beamed me a smirk.
“Not you dead- him dead,” I stabbed my own finger through the air towards the body on the floor.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Scott waved an absent hand and Syrus growled. “Oh look, it’s the deposed alpha. I thought you’d retired to a care home somewhere.” Now Scott really was pushing his luck and I didn’t think world war three breaking out would be a good environment to bring a pup into.
I zapped him before the alpha could take his first menacing step… when I say zapped- it was a little more than that- his knees crumpled and he ended up on them on the floor… it was… stress relief of the best kind.
“You have a dead member of your pack to take care of,” I snapped at Syrus before turning my attention towards Scott- pain etched into his face, “and you’re annoying me.”
“I’m also your brother in law,” he bit out, reminding me of something I’d rather not consider again. “Family over strangers, no?”
“Not when it’s you,” I shot back.
“I guess that makes him your son in law,” Syrus offered towards my mother and she looked a little put out by that.
“We can’t choose for our children, unfortunately,” she offered back to grunts of amusement from Syrus and Doug. I snapped my eyes towards Doug and he noticed, snapping his whole body to attention, and swallowing hard.
“I did nothing,” he raised his hands at his chest and I snorted my contempt for him.
“Apart from start the whole ball rolling,” I shot back.
“Geez, I get the damn blame for everything,” he grumbled, shaking his head on his neck like his big old bear did.
“Hello?” Scott bit out, “pain here.”
“Yes, you are,” I snapped off my magic and he bounded back to his feet.
“Before you ask, this is not the book,” Scott offered, pointing at the dead shifter.
“Good,” I snapped back.
“Book?” Syrus asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
“It’s something that you read, don’t concern yourself,” Scott offered back and I counted as far as three. I think I was getting better at the whole patience thing.
“Can you not?” I demanded and Scott snapped a big old smirk onto his lips.
“Come on, Joss. I never pass up a free shot.” He crowed. It was true, not many of us did.
“How about you take a shot at me?” Syrus growled out, taking a step towards Scott.
“Can we behave like grownups and not school yard bully boys?” I bit out. “And by we, I mean the one’s brimming with testo
sterone.”
“Unlikely,” Scott shrugged.
“Probably not,” Syrus growled.
“Then there’s gonna be some zapping going on here tonight,” I hissed at the pair of them.
“I’m not involved in their petty squabbles,” Cane put in from the other side of the bar with a smirk.
“That’s because you’re irrelevant,” Scott announced and I groaned again.
“One alpha surplus to requirements.” Syrus grinned and Cane growled.
“Oh look, you two can play together nicely when you have someone else to pick on,” I felt as if I already had pups…
“Pick on?” Cane growled out, as thought I’d dented his pride.
“So help me Goddess, Cane, if you start too I will fry your wolf butt,” I snapped back and he growled again. Hawk, of course, growled back- which in turn set Syrus off, and then Doug, until they were practically harmonising like the frog chorus.
“Grrrr,” Scott offered with his own particular air of stupidity and much to my dismay, although it was kind of funny.
“Enough!” My mother yelled- silencing the lot of them.
“Way to go, mum!” Lucifer became her cheer section, but I still groaned.
“Scott, go home to my daughter,” my mother scowled at him. “Cane, you’re not needed here, go protect your pack,” she had become Miss Bossy-Boots- I had to say- I kind of liked it.
“Hawk, take Joss home,” she turned her attention on Doug and wagged a loaded finger at him, “and you, behave yourself on your way out the door.” She warned him.
“What’d I do?” Doug scowled back at her.
“Annoyed me soooo,” she hissed back at him.
Doug’s top lip curled and he went to say something, but I lifted my hand and pointed my own finger at him. He shook his head on a growl and muttered curses as he stalked towards the door.
One down- more to follow- this was my mother in action, and boy did she know how to clear a room.
~
~
~
“I thought we were leaving?” Hawk whispered to me and I had to snort my contempt for that.
“Animal attraction is a very powerful thing- I should stay and defend the weak-”
“Your mother will-”
“I was talking about Syrus,” I hissed back. “You have never seen my mother in action.” I assured him and he grinned down at me. “That woman can devour her prey more ferociously than any hungry lion.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing, dear,” mother offered in my other ear and I had to pity Syrus for being on her radar.
“Well I’m off,” Lucifer announced from behind me.
“Wondered what the smell was- you know they have creams for that now, right?” I shot her a look as she sauntered on by, swaying those hips like they were designed as men magnets- and she’d gotten that particular gift from my mother.
“Let me walk you to your car,” Cane offered; already on route to the door.
“She’s old enough to look out for herself,” I scowled at him and managed to miss the pointy finger that prodded me in the arm as she strolled by.
“Watch the age jokes,” Lucifer hissed. “But she’s right, Cane. I have no need of an armed escort- even when those arms are packed full of muscles like yours.”
I groaned. Only my sister could be so dismissive and yet deliver a come-on line in the same breath. I was definitely adopted.
“If you like those then you’ll love-” he started and I groaned.
“What is it with the men in this town?” I hissed in his direction.
“Lack of choices,” Sydney announced as she strolled into the bar and smirked at our sibling.
“You can talk,” Lucifer squared up to her.” But then, you did end up with a vampire…” she raised her hands and shrugged her shoulders, a she-demon smirk on her lips, and of course, mock sympathy in her eyes.
“Oh, here we go,” I groaned once more.
“Oh, go forth and multiply,” Sydney hissed back, and that was the one thing I was kind of hoping to avoid. I didn’t need another sister living in what felt like a town that was getting more and more claustrophobic by the second.
“Now that sounds like a good idea,” Lucy taunted her. “Perhaps I’ll just let my shields drop and waft my scent about to see what I can snare.”
“Be my guest. I hear Warren is always on the lookout for a mate,” Sydney shot back- pointing towards the weasel behind the bar who pepped up at those words.
“Down boy,” I informed him and watched the light go out in his eyes. Then I turned my attention back towards Lucifer and wagged a finger of rebuke in her direction.
“Do not drop your masking-” I started…
“Ok then…” Lucy tossed back towards Sydney who was baying her on with her eyes, taunting her to give it a shot, and the second that Lucy dropped her shields and pulled back on the scent that masked her own; there was a long, deep, hungry growl that went up in the silence of the room…
Crap!
CHAPTER FOUR
~
LUCY
I didn’t move, didn’t breathe as the sound of that hungry growl reached my ears and washed over my unprotected body like a bad news wave sent to taunt me more than my sisters ever could. I guessed I’d done it now- but I could still hope against hope that I hadn’t.
I’d spent years perfecting my shields and masking spell. I’d spent years keeping it about me like a cloak of protection… and thanks to my damn sister all that hard work might just have been squashed like a bug on the windscreen…
I shot a look over my shoulder and there he was- Mr Growly- muscles tensed, hands fisted at his sides, and those black eyes locked and loaded on mine.
I took an involuntary step backwards and swivelled on legs that felt like lead to face him- not in some show of strength or a challenge, but to gawp.
I was almost certain that my lower jaw was resting on my breasts, but I didn’t have the mind to check it. I felt a strange sense of calm- I think it’s called a brain fart, before the rush to panic set in, but when it did- it was a doozy.
Never in the history of my life to date did the bottom fall out of my world with such cataclysmic enormity that I’m sure every last drop of blood went rushing to my feet and my brain wanted to bail out of my head and kiss my ass goodbye.
Lights, fanfare, music- eyes meeting eyes with the one true love of your life- the soulmate of your destiny… and just knowing that everything was going to be right with the world… yeah, none of that happened.
What did happen was I shot around behind Joss’s back like a coward…
Me, the best of the best- the witch of witches- the dragon slayer- the badass vampire better...er- the woman who could handle anything… was now hiding behind the pregnant lady. Ooooo, woe is me.
When I’d made my move- he’d twitched, readying himself for a runner- me, the running away type- who’d have funk it? But jokes aside- what the hell?!
I’m not saying the guy was bad looking- he wasn’t. I’m not saying he didn’t have a body to die for- he did. All I’m saying is….Help!
Give me a do-over.
Give me the sense not to drop my shields because my stupid sister dared me too… Oh, how I hated her!
Take me back in time- not a thousand years, not a hundred, not even a week to buy a lottery ticket knowing full well the damn numbers- although… no!
Just take me back ten minutes so that I can punch my sister in the face and shut her taunts before they tempted me to do something really… really… really stupid.
But alas and alack- I lived in the real world. It might be supernatural by design, but I still couldn’t perfect a spell to let me erase the last minutes of my life and get my damn do-over- Poop!
A mate. Not a vampire- woo-hoo, but a shifter- gulp!
Not just any shifter, oh no, perish the thought- I had to find myself an alpha, an alpha, a damned alpha shifter as a mate.
Who’d have funk it? Not me
that’s for sure.
Alpha’s had no real sense of humour- they were rigid- well, as my eyes dropped down to his… package, he was definitely rigid, but I digress. They were under the assumption that everyone should play by their rules… pah! Not on your nelly, mate- eww, mate? Pal!
Cane- a wolf shifter… what damn stupid kind of a name was Cane anyway? Even his name said rigid.
“Stop using me as a human shield, who are you, Saddam Hussein?” Joss hissed back over her shoulder at me.
“He’s dead, I’m very much alive and I want to stay that way,” I hissed back- how could she not see the situation that being here had put me in? If it wasn’t for her living in this stupid backwater town I would never have met my mate.
“He’s not going-” Joss started, but Cane’s growl cut her off.
“How could you think I’d harm my mate?” He growled, eyes flaring with disbelief and anger at the slur.
“Oh here we go,” Joss got there before my brain could offer a rational thought. “Now you’ve gone and hurt his feelings.”
“His feelings?” I spat out in disbelief. Was she insane? Was it baby hormones that stopped her from seeing the big picture here?
“Oh Goody,” My mother pronounced with acid clarity. “Another one.”
I was wholeheartedly with her on this. Even if she was a damn hypocrite- one minute flapping her eyelashes at the old alpha and now looking down her nose at shifters in general.
“But this one can give you more grand…shifty- baby-pup things,” Scott overplayed his hand and got an elbow in his ribs from Sydney for the fun of it. Good!
“Could you not?” Scott mocked her.
“Yeah, but no.” Syd offered back.
My life was turning to poop on a plate faster than I could think and there they were teasing each other. So much for family.
“Answer me,” Cane growled and had me snapping my eyes back to his face. He looked… expectant, or constipated, but either way…
“I can’t remember the question,” I lied.