by M. L. Briers
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
RESCUE ME!
BY
M. L. BRIERS
Copyright © 2018, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2018, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap.
Table of Contents
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
RESCUE ME!
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
CHAPTER ONE
~
“I’m here,” Karen whispered into the mobile phone in her hand as she walked along the track that had been cut into the earth by the wear of feet over time as it snaked through the woods. In the other hand, she held a torch that she gingerly shone directly down at the ground so as not to trip over and give the game away.
“Where, outside the house?” Lulu’s voice sounded loud against her ear, and Karen pressed the phone closer in the silence of the woods. “And why are you whispering?”
“Not the house — the farm.”
“What farm?”
Lulu was lost. She didn’t have a clue what her friend was talking about, but that wasn’t unusual for Karen. She had to wonder if she’d missed or forgotten a part of the conversation that they’d had over drinks the night before.
They had gotten pretty wasted. Were they supposed to meet at a farm? Why?
“The wolf farm,” Karen whispered.
She stopped in her tracks when the sound of a crack from a dried out branch echoed from a short distance away from her. Karen tried to calm her racing heart, but it was just too wild a ride, creeping around in the semi-darkness of the night, and with the danger of getting caught felt pretty nerve-racking in her book.
“What are you…?” Lulu could feel the blood drain from her head as she rushed to remember the whole conversation between them.
It hadn’t been her that had dropped the stupid remark; it had been Piper, but that didn’t matter now, all that mattered was getting Karen out of there before some bad karma went down and the fur flew. Literally.
“I must be close, I hear something,” Karen whispered in a harsh hiss that sent Lulu’s blood running cold in her veins.
“No — no — no – you need to get out of there now!” Lulu yelled into the handset as she started toward the kitchen doorway.
When Piper looked up from her comfy spot on the chair beside the open fireplace, book in hand, she questioned Lulu with a tip of her head to one side and a frown on her face. Lulu responded by manically pointing at the phone like a mime.
“Charades? What?” Piper shrugged.
“We gotta go!” Lulu hissed as she covered the mouthpiece.
“We do? Go where?” Piper asked, but she was already pushing up to her feet and tossing the book down onto the seat of the chair that she’d just vacated.
Lulu looked a little pale, a lot startled, and a smidge manic. None of that was ever a good sign, but all three things mixed together had Piper feeling like a knot was tightening in her stomach.
“Wolves!” Lulu hissed out as she covered the phone with her hand once more. Piper choked back a curse word or two.
“I know beautiful usually equates to a stereotypical version of dumb, but…” Piper’s hands were in front of her breasts as she started to protest what she saw as a really stupid idea.
“Karen’s at the wolf farm,” Lulu bit back, she even did the air quotes with one hand just to annoy Piper into paying attention.
“She’s what?” The high pitched screech of Piper’s voice made Lulu grimace, and she jabbed her index finger through the air at her.
“That’s all you…” she bit out. She turned her attention back to the phone as she scooted around the place, grabbing her car keys, “Karen, you gotta get out of there now,” she hissed, wrenching on her boots, “those folk do not like strangers poking…”
“I’m going to set them free…” Karen hissed down the line.
“Free, girl, you are gonna get yourself eaten, is what you’re going to do. Now take the day off from stupidville, liberation island, or whatever planet you’re on this week and…” Lulu wrenched the front door open and turned back to see Piper hopping down the hallway on one foot as she yanked a boot on the other.
“I’ve got this. I’m a one woman wolf liberation army,” Karen said, feeling the buzz of excitement for her plan.
“That’s not … you don’t mess with…” Lulu was talking at cross purposes with Karen as the woman continued to babble on.
She pressed the unlock button on the key fob and yanked open the car door, just as Piper slammed the front door closed and ran down the path toward her. Her friends were going to be the death of her, of that she was sure.
“I’ve got this. Trust me; I’m going to show these guys what for,” Karen’s emphatic words were ringing the alarm bells in Lulu’s mind.
“Are you…?” The deep graveled voice was unmistakable in its origins, and Lulu froze as her backside hovered over the seat. Piper cocked an eyebrow at her precarious position.
“Wait…” Lulu called into the handset a moment before it went dead. Her heart was pounding at her ribs to be released, and she shook the phone in her hand and listened aga
in.
“Yeah, shaking it doesn’t work, it’s not a snow globe,” Piper stated the obvious as she skirted around the car to the passenger side and yanked open the door.
“I heard one…” Lulu hissed.
“A wolf?”
“A shifter,” Lulu bit out, and her face twisted in anger at the thought of one of those guys being anywhere near her unsuspecting friend. “If they so much as scratch…”
“Their butts?” Piper tossed back, turning and dropping into the seat as Lulu did the same. “She’s not a witch – they’re going to pat her on the head, tell her some rubbish bedtime story, and not Little Red Riding Hood before you pipe up, and send her on her way,” Piper reasoned.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Lulu bit out as she pushed the key into the ignition and started the car.
“Look, we’re the ones in trouble if they find us on their land. You know how much shifters mistrust witches, and then there’s the other thing,” she gave a small snort of disgust, and Lulu shot her a curious look as she backed the car down the driveway.
“Keep me in suspense, why don’t you,” Lulu snapped.
“The whole possible mate scenario thing…”
“Oh, please. We’re us. That’s never going to happen. Buckle up, warp speed,” Lulu said, changing gears before she stomped down on the accelerator.
“Warp speed does not mean wheel spin. Especially as we don’t have inertial dampeners,” Piper bit out, peeved that she’d been forced back in her seat and adding a curse or two.
“We’re boldly going to rescue a human from a strange alien civilization, and that means whatever it takes.”
“Well, fine, but can we get there in one piece?” Piper hissed back in a dry tone.
“Let’s hope so.”
~
~
“Who are you?” Nick demanded.
She was human; he knew that much. Or, she was as human as she wanted to project.
He guessed that she could have been a witch with mad skills in the spell department, but there was no way in hell that he was going to scent her to find out for sure. Nope, he’d much rather trust his instinct than end up with a witch mate.
Nick wasn’t getting that witch vibe from her, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t on guard for something untoward. Witches were mischievous, devious, and just plain sneaky, and he hated sneaky.
“I’m … lost,” Karen lied.
She’s wanted to tell him that she was there to free the wolves, show solidarity with her furry friends, but the guy was big – like outhouse big. He had shoulders that could fill a doorway, and chest muscles that looked as if you could bounce a coin off them.
He might have been good-looking, in a rugged mountain man sort of way, but he had a mean look in his eyes that she suspected was there just for her. Lulu had said these guys didn’t like strangers.
“You have phone signal, check your maps…”
“Rude!” Karen snorted her contempt for him. she’d had a feeling about him and she’d been right.
“I don’t like people who trespass…” he shot back, folding his muscled arms across his broad chest, and making his biceps look like bowling balls that were trapped beneath his skin.
If he was trying to intimidate her, it was sort of working, but only because she was out in the middle of nowhere with a jackass. Maybe she hadn’t thought her whole plan through, but who needed a plan when you had enthusiasm and belief in what you were doing?
Wolves were beautiful creatures, and she hated to think of them being mistreated by idiots. The man standing before her definitely did fit that bill, an idiot of the worst kind because he had the winning personality of a slug to go with it.
“I don’t like rude people, so I guess we’re even, Popeye,” she grumbled back with a small sneer and a desire to kick the man where it would hurt him the most.
CHAPTER TWO
~
It wasn’t like Karen had any real intention of kicking him in the balls, well, not unless he came at her with murder or other things in mind, but it was always an option, and in that respect; she was glad to be female. Even the biggest meanest man crumpled like a house of cards when you caught them just right.
She had no qualms about defending herself, and she was no Bruce Lee, but she knew a little self-defense. If push came to shove then this big sucker was getting dropped – she hoped.
Karen reached up and yanked her woolly hat down over her ears like she meant business, and then she huffed at the man as she offered him a sideways glare. Nick tilted his head slightly to one side and questioned her sanity with just a look.
“And another thing,” Karen said, lifting her hand and jabbing her index finger in the air toward him, “you people are just wrong — it’s wrong.” She bit out before turning on her heels and pushing off with her back foot.
She didn’t get very far. His large hand wrapped around her forearm and she let out a yelp of surprise when he spun her back towards him.
“What do you mean by that?” His voice was already deep, but she was sure that it just got a whole lot deeper. It certainly sounded more menacing than before.
“Not right — wrong — d-er,” she tossed back.
Nick pulled his head back on his neck slightly and regarded her with disbelief. Nobody could be that stupid, could they? She was either nuts or … well, nuts.
“I know what wrong means — but I don’t know in what context you meant it?”
Nick felt a growl coming on. He needed to shut that cage door fast on his beast or risk exposing what he truly was to a blabbermouth human, and that wouldn’t bode well for either of them.
“Just that it’s wrong to do what you’re doing.”
Karen tipped her chin up in defiance. He might have been big and imposing, but all she could think about was those poor little wolves.
“And what am I doing?” He wondered if he was going to have to draw her a picture just to get a straight answer from her.
“Caged up animals — there, I said it. I’m not lost, I’m here to free the wolves!” she announced with glee and a lot of conviction in her beliefs, and he could suck on it for all she cared.
Karen punched the air with her free hand. She felt elated that she was finally able to stand up for those poor, defenseless little animals, especially when they didn’t have a voice of their own.
“You’re…” Nick tried, but he was speechless.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She was one of those animal activists that he’d read about — bless her poor little-deluded heart — she’d come all that way up the mountain for nothing.
If she only knew the truth of it, he had to wonder if she would still be so keen on being around those wolves. He was sure that his brothers, and especially the alpha, weren’t going to appreciate being thought of as so damn helpless that they needed rescuing by a human female that looked like she couldn’t wrestle her way out of a paper bag.
He also had to wonder if she knew any damn thing about wolves. A little scrawny thing like her, well, she wouldn’t be a feast, but she was better than bunny sized.
He had the urge to shift, right there and then in front of her, and see how she reacted to the sight of his poor little caged wolf. Up close and personal, he was sure that her feet wouldn’t touch the damn ground as she ran screaming from him.
That certainly would be one for the books. What the hell did she think she was doing?
Free the wolves, get herself killed more like. He guessed that she should be grateful that she’d come to shifter land rather than face-to-face with something a lot wilder.
Not that she’d ever know, and that was a crying shame because it might just save her life and make her think twice the next time she decided to go off half-cocked.
“What damn Wolves?”
Nick put on his game face. He questioned her sanity with just a look, and even gave a small shake of his head in disbelief as he dismissed her words with an absent wave of his hand.
Karen craned her head toward him and hissed out her words. He had to give her credit where it was due; she might not have been a witch, but she did a damn fine impression of one.
“Well, lady, I don’t know who you heard from that there were wolves here, but somebody is pulling your chain,” Nick lied, and he did it well. He’d been doing it every day of his life since he could speak.
“Witches don’t lie…”
Nick tossed his head back on his neck and howled with laughter, not literally, because that would have given the game away even to her. But he did laugh hard, heartily, and yet, somewhere deep inside; he knew that he needed to track those witches down and silence them.
“Witches, you say?” He kept it to a mere chuckle.
Nick let go of her arm and folded his over his chest. He even lifted his hand and stroked the day-old stubble on his chin as he feigned thinking that over.
“Witches…”
“Did they have pointy hats, moles on their noses, and were flying around on broomsticks when you ran into them?” he teased her, but inside, he wanted to know what she knew.
“Oh, it’s all funny to you — but, it won’t be so funny when they get here,” Karen hissed back.
“Coming here, you say?” Nick chuckled, but the look in his eyes said something else. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she didn’t like it.
“Nooo — I didn’t.” Karen could have kicked herself as she started to backtrack on her words.
Her eyes were darting around the area like she was looking for an escape route, and she’d gotten mighty fidgety. He couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t let her leave, not until he knew what she knew.
Especially about those damn meddlesome witches.
“Yep — I think you did.”
“Me?” She might have tried for innocent, but it didn’t come off. “I didn’t say a thing.”
“Can’t take it back now…” There was amusement in his eyes, but she didn’t find it funny. Piper and Lulu were going to kill her for giving away their secret.