by M. L. Briers
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~
“Mate,” Darlene snorted in disgust as she dragged herself up to her feet and felt as if she needed to inflate her body after it had been crushed by the weight of the beta.
“Turns out you and your friends are all mates,” Nick informed her.
“That’s impossible, fate wouldn’t be that cruel,” Darlene bit out.
She was more speaking about her own situation than that of her friends. A mate to a shifter — Pah! — He was dreaming.
“Riddle me this,” Slade asked, “the wedding dress…?” He left that thought hanging in the air for the beta to pick up on, and pick up on it Nick did with a hearty rumble of a growl that hung in the air like the vampire’s question.
“I was…” Darlene was about to make fun of the fact that she would never be stupid enough to get married when something struck, an idea, one that might keep the alleged mate at arm’s length for long enough for her to make her escape. “Going to the church when I got a call that my friends were in danger and needed my help. I should get back.”
“No, you really shouldn’t,” Nick growled in annoyance.
His mate had appeared as if by magic, but she was promised to another — how bad could his day get?
“Yes, I really should,” Darlene offered in all sincerity.
“He’s not your mate.”
“What’s a word when you’re in love?” Darlene laid it on thick, but the vampire wasn’t buying it.
“A mate isn’t just a word — it’s fate…” Nick grumbled.
“Fate – mate – hate, would you look at that I’m late,” Darlene said as she offered him a small, apologetic shrug and turned on her heels to start away from him.
“Seems to me you’re just in time to save yourself from marrying the wrong man,” Nick growled.
He got that she was human and therefore wasn’t waiting for, or expecting a mate of her own. But now that she’d found one she needed to realize that he was the man for her — the one she would spend the rest of her life with — he might not have been thrilled about it either, but anything else was pure stupidity.
“The wrong man?” She grimaced at the thought of marrying anyone.
She was a free spirit; it was how she was made, how could fate give her a man to settle down with for the rest of her life in one place? And that man being him just stung all the more.
“Yes.” Nick wasn’t big on words and he thought he’d explained himself with just one.
“I don’t think so.” Her singsong tone annoyed him. He couldn’t believe that he needed to make her see that she was making the biggest mistake of her life.
“I do.” He growled in annoyance.
While he needed his mate to see sense, he also had the need to hunt down the man that she was about to marry and kill him.
His beast wholeheartedly agreed with that assessment. A dead boyfriend meant no wedding.
“That would make you wrong,” Darlene said.
She was still trying to think three steps ahead and figure a way to get the hell out of there before the mating pull did its job and she would be saddled with a mate — him — and that couldn’t happen.
“I’m never wrong…” Nick grumbled.
“Actually…” Slade started to challenge that statement, but the hearty warning growl that came from the beta made him reconsider.
“Don’t you have a mate of your own to woo?” Nick growled.
“Actually, yes,” Slade said, and then as if by magic; he’d disappeared into thin air.
“Well, that proves one thing — you know how to run people off — speaking of which, I need to leave,” Darlene said.
“Not so fast.”
“Look…” She turned back toward the man and was struck by the look of uncertainty on his face.
That look sparked something she didn’t need raising its ugly head inside of her – guilt. She really needed to slam the door closed on that one.
“Don’t leave,” Nick said, scowling hard and trying to think of the words that could possibly make his mate stay.
He came up empty.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
“Why are you looking at me like I just stole your teddy bear?” Lulu grumbled as Carson eyed her across the kitchen counter.
Karen was snuggled on the sofa in front of an open fire; Piper was upstairs showering and changing into Goddess-only-knew-what the alpha would come up with because anything of his was sure to drown her - again. Darlene was still missing in action, and she’d stupidly volunteered to put the coffee on in the hopes that she could get away from the beta to think – he’d followed her – shocker.
“About this thing, you have for vampires,” Carson said, placing the palms of his large hands down on the kitchen counter and leaning in just a little as his eyes narrowed on hers.
“Thing?” Lulu tried to look as bored as humanly possible. This was all Piper’s doing, and she wasn’t impressed.
“Is that all vampires or certain vampires?”
“You mean like do I go for the old ones or the really ancient ones?” Lulu offered back, and she pressed her lips together and turned away when he took a long moment to think about that.
“I never thought about it like that,” he said, and she flicked a quick look back at him – poor guy looked so confused that she had to feel for him, even if it did amuse the hell out if her.
“Perhaps giving you choices wasn’t a good idea when there’s no cheat box that you could just tick.” She tried not to chuckle.
“I’m not dumb; I just think a lot…”
“You like to consider your answers…”
“Exactly,” he said, grabbing the lifeline that she’d tossed out to him.
“Carefully.”
“Sure.”
“Can I expect something within the next hour or should we put a pin in it?”
Carson grumbled under his breath. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“It’s been a while, remind me again,” she offered as innocently as possible.
“About the vampires that Piper said…”
“Ah, Piper.” She took a moment to nod her head, “think of the source and ask yourself; why she would say that.”
“Because she knows you…”
“Or because she’s a meddling little witch…”
“Well, sure, but – so are you.”
“Excuse me?” She made a slow turn and watched his face drop.
“A witch, and her friend, and female, and…”
“Spit it out,” Lulu said, placing her hands on her hips and scowling back at him.
“My mate,” he bit out, trying to hold onto the rumble of a growl that was bubbling in his chest.
Mine…
His wolf wasn’t backward in speaking its mind, but it was damn thankful that he’d finally managed to state his claim on her.
Lulu couldn’t say it came as a complete shock to her, she’d guessed that much, but still, hearing him say it did send goosebumps over her skin and a rush of excitement inside of her.
He fidgeted from one foot to the other, looked as if he was undecided about crossing his arms, so he thrust his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, and gave her an expectant look.
“Oh.” She turned back away from him and continued making the coffee. Carson frowned.
“That’s … it?”
“Were you expecting something more?”
“Well…”
“Screaming?”
“No…”
“Running for the door?”
“Not exact…”
“Crying – wailing – dropping to the floor and pounding my fists against the tiles while screaming; why me, why me, please Goddess, tell me why me?” She shot him a questioning glance.
“Not exactly, no…”
“Perhaps I was supposed to run into your arms and say; take me now, for the love of humanity, do it to me, big guy?” She offered in a dry tone and this time when she flicked a look at him he had
a stupid grin on his face.
“That would have been…”
“Over my dead body?” She offered in a dry tone that sobered him up and made him frown again.
“About those vampires…”
“Speaking of dead bodies,” she muttered loud enough for him to catch every word.
“Stop changing the subject…” he grumbled.
“I suppose it is a dead subject,” she offered with a shrug.
“I …” He paused for thought.
“There you go, thinking things through again,” she said tossing her hand up and letting it drop back to her side.
“This is a joke, right? You’re pulling my chain…”
“There’s a thought, and one I’m betting you wish I was pulling on right about now.” She raised her eyebrows and got that stupid grin again. She needed to be careful, playing with fire could only get her burnt.
His wolf was more than unsettled, she’d tossed two very X-rated thoughts into his mind, and the beast would have been only too damn happy to act on them. He would as well, but she was messing with him – he got it, but he didn’t like it.
“Vampires?” he demanded, slapping his palms down on the counter again.
“Witches,” she said, matching his stance. Carson pulled his head back on his neck and looked confused.
“You like witches?” Then a light snapped on above his head. “You like women?”
“Wh … yes,” she nodded solemnly. “I’m a lesbian, since birth.”
“Birth?” He looked confused once more.
“Born this way,” she lied.
“Oh, that’s…”
“Not what you are?” she offered back. Carson opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. “Take your time – you may need a moment to think on that one.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
Piper yanked open the bathroom door and stalked into the bedroom in search of the clothes that the alpha had promised to leave for her. With just a towel wrapped around her body and a smaller towel wrapped around her head, she pulled up sharply and screeched in surprise to find the alpha standing by the window on the other side of the room.
“What the…?”
“My hands are in my pockets,” he said, directing her gaze downwards as he wriggled his fingers. It wasn’t his fingers that her eyes locked into, but the large bulge of his hardness that was threatening to burst free from the fabric of the jeans.
“They aren’t the bloody only things that appear to be pleased to see me,” she bit out, trying to drag her gaze away from his more than ample offering, but found it … difficult to achieve her aim of looking him in the eye and offering him a death glare.
“Trust me when I say that is entirely out of my control,” he grumbled a growl that sounded as if it was mixed with a small groan. It was probably the only small thing about him.
“That’s what they all say,” she grumbled back, matching his mood and bettering it when she finally managed to drag her fiery gaze up and over the hard muscles of his chest and glared at him, eye to eye.
Den grunted as her words hit home. He didn’t want to think about her and other men, even in a makeshift scenario, and his beast wasn’t exactly happy about it either.
Mine…
“I’m not like other men…”
“You think – furball?” She cocked her head to one side and offered him a look of disbelief.
“I mean…”
“Look, you tried to kill me…”
“If I’d tried then you’d be dead,” he offered an angry growl to go along with his words. The fact that she thought he would ever hurt her stabbed him like a knife in the gut.
“Here to finish the job? Perhaps you want to stoke those flames again and cut down a tree trunk to tie me against – I can wait,” she offered with a big dose of sarcasm in her tone.
Then she folded her arms if only to make sure that her towel didn’t slip. Her body was almost dry, and she didn’t trust the towel to hold in place. She certainly had no intention of letting him ogle her goodies.
“You know why I’m here,” he said in a tone that sounded decidedly accusing to her.
“Do I?”
“We have unfinished business…”
“Oh, do we?” She sneered back, and then it clicked, and she eyed him for a long moment as if he was about to throw up on her feet.
When he took one long step towards her, she scowled at him.
“I don’t think you should try anything; I will defend…”
“It’s just a sniff, and I’ll keep my hands in my pockets the whole time,” he said, taking another step.
“What your nose is defective and you can’t bloody sniff from there?” she demanded.
“Something like this needs to be done up close and personal.”
His words didn’t fill her with a sense of hope that he was mistaken, that she was just being overly cautious. No, he knew – he knew, and he wanted to do things properly.
He was an alpha and alpha’s liked to stick to the rules, and his wolf would be demanding that he took her scent at the source and proclaimed her his mate. Piper wasn’t fond of that idea, especially as she felt particularly vulnerable standing there in a damn towel.
“Back it up, alpha,” she bit out.
“Can’t do that,” Den said, taking another step.
Piper took a deep breath in and started to raise her hands out in front of her, she was more than ready to give the man a zap of her magic if she needed to make her point – and that was when the towel around her body pinged loose and started to drop.
Piper shrieked, reaching for the towel, but she was distracted when he rushed at her. She shrieked again and zapped him, causing his muscles to lock up just as the towel dropped into a fluffy puddle around her ankles.
The alpha dropped to his knees right in front of her. His eyes took everything that she had to offer in, and his ears might have hurt like hell when she screeched again, but the pain of her magic wasn’t exactly pleasurable either, but none of that bothered him in the slightest as he stared at her shapely body.
“Stop looking!”
Piper gasped in annoyance as she bent over and fisted the towel. She snapped up again, fighting with the fluffy material in her panic to cover her embarrassment.
“That was not my fault,” Den growled, but it wasn’t an angry growl that time, it was as hungry as hell. “But, thank you.”
“You…!” she bit down on her annoyance, turned on her heels, and she fled back into the bathroom, perfectly aware that her backside was uncovered for his viewing pleasure before she slammed the door shut with her magic behind her, and shrieked in annoyance and embarrassment.
“Really – thank you,” Den chuckled.
His muscles were more than able to hold his weight, but he just couldn’t seem to find the will to push to his feet.
Mine…
“Oh yeah,” Den agreed with his beast. She was theirs; now he just needed to woo her and keep her forever.
~
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Karen could barely keep her eyes open. Curled up in the corner of the sofa; she’d been watching the flames of the open fire dancing in the hearth, and she didn’t know if it was the after-effects of the sugar rush kicking in, or all the excitement from the day, but she didn’t much care either.
She was warm and cozy, and as she drifted back and forth, half-heartedly protesting allowing sleep to claim her, thoughts of the day played in her mind. There was one thing that she couldn’t seem to shift, the time that she’d spent with Slade.
The man was as sexy as hell, without a doubt the most charming person that she’d ever met in her life to date, and – a vampire. That was the downside — that was the side that she couldn’t wrap her head around no matter how she tried.
What had Lulu and Piper said? That vampires had a mate, and she chuckled to herself at the thought of being Slade’s.
The man certainly had a lot to offer, and she wouldn’t have min
ded going a few rounds with him in the bedroom before she’d known about his secret. Her chuckles sounded decidedly dirty to her ears and pulled her back from the sleep that wanted to claim her.
Vampire — she needed to remember that Slade was a vampire and not boyfriend material — not unless she had a wish to donate blood on a regular basis.
“Well, don’t you look good enough to eat…?” Slade’s melodic tone dragged her all the way back to reality, and she wrenched her body forward, sitting bolt upright, and unleashed a piercing scream that rattled the windows.
“Note to self — probably not the best line to lead with.” Slade grimaced.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
~
At the sound of a hearty scream, Piper snapped to attention, and without thinking she wrapped a hand around the handle of the bathroom door and yanked it open.
Racing out blindly into the bedroom probably wasn’t the best of options, considering she was still only wearing a towel, and the fact that the alpha was racing around the bed to investigate that scream, but hindsight was a wonderfully annoying thing and didn’t help her at the time.
Piper hit him hard, breast to hard, muscled chest, and shrieked in surprise as she was propelled backward, but Den’s super speedy reaction time made her an easy catch for him.
He yanked her body back to the safety of his embrace, and as she reached up to brace herself against another impact, she only managed to get her hands as far as his thick, hard biceps as her breasts were squished against the hard ridges of his chest.
Piper huffed at the impact — her brain farted as pure unadulterated excitement tore through her body with a big dollop of adrenaline — and in her brain addled state; she allowed her fingers to curl around the strength of his tempting muscles, and she squeezed.
There was a part of her mind that curled up and purred like a satisfied cat after a fish supper, and another part that had a little mini-me jumping up and down waving and screaming at the top of her lungs as the alarm bells sounded within her mind, and yet, it was the satisfied cat that won the day.
“Oooo,” she practically purred.