by M. L. Briers
“Sure, go ahead, zap the vampire here, throw a shifter over there … I’m here to tell you that from the looks of things, they are both on your side.” Isobel offered her a reasoned perspective.
“Yeah, sure!” Eden snapped back. It certainly didn’t feel that way from where she was sitting.
Brody was pulling his body up to a sitting position, he hadn’t really been paying attention to what had been broken that day so far, and he didn’t really care. He just needed his body to heal enough to drag his sorry butt up so that he could get to her, protect her, but who the hell was going to protect her from him?
Wasn’t that why he’d driven to the vampire’s place? Connor was supposed to be helping, and like an idiot he’d attacked him.
His beast was quieting down inside of him. His mate had the vampire exactly where she wanted him, Isobel was no threat to her, and that left only him.
He’d gone out of his way to reject her. Then he gone out of his way to protect her. What he needed to do was make up his damn mind.
Brody knew that he couldn’t play both sides of the coin forever. Walking away from her would send his beast rogue, and being around her would put her in danger.
He just needed to get his head on straight.
Easier said than done.
“Your mate was trying to protect you from the vampire, and the vampire was trying to protect you from your mate … what part of that don’t you understand?” Isobel asked as she placed her hands on her hips and stared back at the woman; urging her to see the logic in the situation.
“I don’t know if that man …” she nodded her head towards the growling shifter…
“Brody,” Isobel offered back.
“Yeah, him … even is my mate. The guy is as nutty as a squirrel, and your vampire isn’t helping,” Eden bit out.
“I’m … Very … Helpful,” Connor bit out between clenched teeth.
He had the hope that Isobel would make the witch see sense sooner rather than later, because Isobel was right, the woman’s magic was powerful.
“You’re hypering him up,” Eden bit out.
“He … Didn’t … Eat … You … Yet … Did … He?” Connor bit down hard on the pain and each word, but that pain felt like it might have been easing some as Eden slowly let her magic recede, not fully, just a little at a time. As if she was testing the waters.
“I’m not going to eat my mate!” Brody growled out, wishing his damn legs could work so that he could cover the distance between them.
“That’s not … what you said … before,” Connor offered, glad that he could string more words together in a sentence as the pain was dolled down a little more.
“Whose damn side are you on?” Brody growled.
“Hers!” Connor bit back.
“Isn’t that why you brought your mate to Connor?” Isobel reasoned, and Eden was closely paying attention to what was happening around her.
In the midst of madness they were bickering. It felt surreal.
She’d been quietly going about her business, and now this…
A mate! He’s my mate.
The man is big, packed full of muscles, growly, moody, brooding, good-looking in a ‘needs a shower and a shave’ kind of way … But he is still my mate…
She didn’t have much of an objection in reason to finding or having a mate. Just not now.
She had troubles of her own, and the last that she knew those troubles were hard on her heels.
She’d never relied on anybody but herself. She was independent to say the least, and the thought of bringing trouble to anybody’s door rubbed her up the wrong way.
What if they found me?
What if trouble came knocking on the door?
A mate would want to get involved…
There were some things that you just didn’t do. Bringing trouble to somebody’s door was one of them.
A shifter going up against a vampire …? Well that wasn’t working out for him so far, was it?
A mate is fair enough in reason, but the practicalities of that now just don’t work.
Maybe in the future?
Maybe I don’t have a future?
Maybe Brody doesn’t have time to wait.
The man seems as close to being rogue as any shifter would want to get…
If I leave right now … Would that just be like pushing him over the edge?
“That’s not the point!” Brody growled. He tested his legs and found them still wanting.
“Well would you like to make a point … Because this whole pain filled eternal damnation thing that your mate has going on here is getting a little old.” Connor grumbled.
Eden had pulled her magic back a lot, but the pain was still there, not totally gone yet, and he really would like to lose the feel of a thousand knives entering his body, over and over again.
“I don’t want to hurt her,” Brody growled out, shaking his head in his shame.
What kind of a man was he if he was a danger to his own mate?
“Isn’t just recognising the fact that you could do it, proof to you that you won’t?” Isobel reasoned.
“This is all well and good, and I’m all for the amateur psycho analysis hour, but here’s the thing … And it’s a big thing, I don’t want a mate,” Eden bit out.
“It’s not about what you want …” Connor looked at her as if she’d gone insane.
“Excuse me?” She gave him the exact same look back.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“You’re a mate, you don’t get to choose, well, okay you might get to choose, but here’s the thing, and it’s a big thing, Fate says you’re a mate, ergo, you don’t get to choose.” Connor, offered back.
“Well, I’ll tell you the same thing that I’d tell fate if fate were here…” She said, but Connor was already talking over the top of her.
“Now-now, be nice,” he grinned, which was more of a grimace due to the fact that she still hadn’t pulled all of her magic back yet.
“I don’t want to be nice,” Eden bit out.
“She doesn’t have to,” Isobel offered.
“No, she doesn’t have to. Nobody has to do anything. Although, and this is just for me, but I would appreciate it if a certain witch took her magic back.” Connor offered to Eden’s steely glare.
“So why are you the go to guy? You are kind of a butthole.” Eden finally snapped her magic completely off, and folded her arms as she stared back at the vampire, eyeing him and giving no ground.
“Because let’s face it … Who else wants the job?” Connor snapped back.
On a hearty warning growl, Brody finally managed to push up to his feet. He wasn’t in the best of moods to start off with, but having his mate go head-to-head with the vampire didn’t help matters either.
“Glad to see you’re not sitting down on the job anymore,” Connor said. “Go ahead and woo her.”
“What?” Brody growled.
“Excuse me?” Eden voice became a little more shrew and she regarded the vampire with disdain, and a whole heap of disbelief.
“I hardly think …” Isobel started…
“Good, let’s not start with thinking …” Connor offered back.
“See, total butthead,” Eden grumbled, dropping to her feet on the hard ground.
“Yeah, well the guy was supposed to be like some big protector of witches or something,” Brody growled.
“Well on occasion…” Isobel started, but Eden and Brody were now talking between themselves.
“Well you brought me here,” she said it like an accusation. As if he’d brought her to the bloodhound to be dinner.
“When I thought you’d be safer with him than with me,” Brody growled back. “If I’d have known he was next to useless…”
“Well, excuse me!” Connor put in. “Can we not besmirch my name?”
“I hardly think …” Isobel started, but again Eden and Brody were talking over the top of her.
“Well, der, he’s a
vampire, what were you expecting?” Eden’s hands went to a hips, she tipped her head to the left, and regarded her mate with disbelief.
“God!” Connor yelled, as he tossed up his hands in frustration, and shook his head in disbelief.
“Of course I wasn’t expecting God!” Brody growled, before he realised what Connor was talking about.
“This is a mate?” Eden said turning to Isobel with a pleading look.
“Well, yeah, I can see how …” Isobel had started again but didn’t get a chance to finish.
“Well at least I’m not witch,” Brody grumbled.
“And with that … There’s no more to say.” Eden bit out, and then she turned on the heels and started to walk away.
She had no idea where she was going, and she didn’t much care as long as it was away from him.
~
~
~
Connor shot an exasperated look at Isobel before turning his eyes to watch Eden stalking away. If she kept going in the direction that she was heading then eventually she would reach the top of the mountain. It should only take her two hours or so on foot.
Brody grumbled out a growl, shook his head, and started off after her. He was muttering something unintelligible that only Connor could hear, and the vampire wasn’t sharing.
“Don’t follow me!” Eden bit out.
“I’m not following you,” Brody growled back. “You just happen to be going in the direction where I live.”
Eden unexpectedly ground to a halt. She placed her hands on hips, looked about her, before turning to the left and starting to stalk off towards the trees.
Brody pulled up short. He reached up his hand and scratched his head. Now he had no excuse to change direction, but putting one foot in front of the other, he did it anyway.
“Don’t tell me … You live this way too.” Eden shot back over her shoulder, and heard him spit out something on a grumbled growl.
“Not exactly,” he admitted.
Brody felt as if his beast was mocking him. The wolf was no longer clawing and scratching to be set free … But it was constantly repeating its claim on her, over and over within his mind.…
Mine…
“Glad to hear it! Now do one.”
“Where is it you think you’re going?” Brody growled.
“Wherever you aren’t”
“If you think you can walk back to town from here, think again.”
Brody didn’t exactly know the lay of the land. He’d only been around a few days, but one thing that he did know was that even if she walked and walked in that direction, then she’d be hard pressed to find civilisation for at least a few days.
“I need my car!” She stopped abruptly again, and turned back towards him. Her hands were back on her hips and she had fire in her eyes as she glared at him expectantly.
“Well, town is the other way. From here, if you can find your way across the land, it’s about a four hour walk.” Brody informed her.
Eden’s lips parted but she didn’t make a sound. She lifted a hand and motioned around her in frustration. Brody watched, feeling a large pang of guilt go through him for her circumstances, but he couldn’t say that he wasn’t glad that she was stuck on the mountain without a car, because she had a mind to leave, and he had a mind to make her stay.
“Well, what am I supposed…?” Eden gave a somewhat frustrated and helpless shrug off her shoulders. A little of the fight had gone out of her now that it seemed she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Night is closing in. You can stay on the mountain tonight. I’ll ask one of the others to get your car from town tomorrow.”
Brody’s wolf liked the idea.
Eden didn’t like the rock or the hard place. The lack of choices that had been presented to her were overwhelming by their absence.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
Walk to town – across country, in winter, and with no damn idea of where I’m going – for four hours, and if I have luck on my side, and let’s face it … what are the odds? I might just find town. Or stay on the mountain … with … him.
Oh, choices – choices – whatever is a girl to damn well do?
“No deal!” She tossed back at him. If the man was going to send someone to get her car in the morning then he could damn well do it now!
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“I don’t think you get it. I’m not letting you walk back to town,” Brody growled long and hard at the thought of it.
“No, I don’t think you get it, mate or not, you don’t get to say what I do and don’t do,” Eden wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind to deal with a misogynistic shifter.
He may say different, others may say different, but Eden knew the lay of the land … These men were all about control. It was in their DNA.
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good say,” Brody bit down on the urge that he had inside of him to end this debate by tossing her over his shoulder and walking all the way back to his cabin if he had to.
A couple of hours stalking over hard terrain might do the both of them a world of good. She was obstinate, stubborn, and as hard headed as he’d seen any woman before. Even shifter females knew that you didn’t go against the hierarchy in a pack, and as her mate, he was her pack.
It was his job to protect her, from herself, and from others. Right then, she needed protection from herself and from the damn stupid idea that she had of being able to walk back to town.
Isobel folded her arms, rested her backside against Brody’s truck, and watched the head-to-head as it unfolded. Connor was right there beside her.
The vampire felt it was his duty to; not only keep the peace on the mountain, but to safeguard any human, including a witch that happened onto his territorial.
This would be no different.
“What odds would you give me that he’s going to pick her up, shove her in the truck and drive off with her?” Isobel grinned, remembering her own mating with Dexter and just how smoothly that had gone…
“Well, as I think that he’s going to throw her over his shoulder, and stomp all the way to his cabin … I’d say pretty good.”
Brody reached out and wrapped a hand around her wrist, locking his fingers, and turning in the direction of his truck. He yanked Eden with him as he put one foot in front of the other, determined not to let her do anything stupid.
“Oh, he’s going for the Semi-caveman approach,” Connor offered to Isobel.
“I’m only going to ask once…” Eden bit out.
He was yanking on her arm, making her practically jog to keep up with his insanely long stride, and when she almost tripped over a large clump of grass …she didn’t wait a moment longer for his reply…
She pushed her magic down through her arm and into his hand. The feeling of a hard jolt of electricity surged through his body and his muscles locked up. That caused his fingers to tighten around her wrist, until she bit out hard curse from the pain.
Connor only needed to see the look on her face before her cry went out to know that the shifter was causing her pain. By the time that she had actually let out that cry the vampire was already en route, and as the mates ground to a halt, he reached out for her arm, and wrenched Brody’s fingers away from her flesh.
The sound of broken bones was enough to sober her to reason. She snatched her magic back from Brody, and watched the man drop to his knees on the grass, and a roar of pain left his lips.
Brody added another few broken bones to the list that he wasn’t really keeping a running total on for the day. If there was one thing that this woman seemed to be able to do well; it was cause him harm.
This one, these broken bones, he considered he’d brought on himself.
He knew he’d hurt her… He hadn’t meant to.
Part of his brain; the ‘didn’t give a damn part’, said that she’d brought it on herself. That wasn’t true – he never should have touched her.
He had to ask himself; wh
at the hell he thought he was doing dragging his mate across the countryside in the first place?
She was female. Female … damn it.
That wasn’t how a mate behaved with his woman.
He was no good. He had no business being around his mate.
He’d done the right thing by bringing her to Connor… Now he needed to do the right thing in letting her go.
Brody felt the strength returning to his body. He craned his head back on his neck and saw what no mate should witness.
The vampire had put Eden behind him, using his body to protect her from her own mate. His shame felt unending.
“Let me see,” Isobel offered to Eden as she motioned to her wrist.
“Take the witch back to the truck,” Connor bit out over his shoulder.
Something inside Brody snapped.
That was his mate.
His mate to protect.
His mate to love, and no damn vampire was going to have her.
The shifter moved fast, pushing up from his knees, and heading straight for Connor. The vampire moved faster, pitching left, and causing Brody to tackle thin air.
That only inflamed Brody’s wolf more. The beast rose up within him, pushing forward until it was just under the skin.
His fangs elongate it, his claws came out, and he wanted nothing more than to rip the vampire apart.
“Oh here we go!” Connor grumbled. This wasn’t the way that he’d envisioned his day going, but needs must, and he had a wolf to put down.
Brody spun around; lifting his left arm and slicing his claws through the air on the off chance that they could catch the vampire unawares as he turned to face him. Connor pulled back his upper body and the shifters razor sharp claws missed him by only an inch. He was more than aware that the man’s right hand was now coming directly for him.
“I’d say you have to really want it …” Connor’s flippant words only inflamed Brody’s anger, turning it to rage, as the shifter roared.
“Egging him on isn’t really going to help the situation,” Isobel berated the vampire.