by M. L. Briers
Connor ducked from another sweeping blow as those razor sharp claws ripped through the air, and he moved fast to get out from under the man’s reach.
“Well, it might serve to tire him out,” Connor offered back.
Connor lunged in and swung a fist. The heavy blow landed against Brody’s jaw and sent the man stumbling backwards.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Eden bit out. She raised her hands once more, palms towards the men, and let go of her magic in a blast of anger.
CHAPTER NINE
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Neither man escaped Eden’s wrath. The blast from her magic sent both men flying backwards away from each other. Their feet left the earth, arms and legs flailing in mid-air until they hit the ground once more with two bone jarring thuds.
“Boys will be boys,” Isobel said as she folded her arms and raised just one eyebrow in annoyance at the way a member of her pack, and the vampire were acting.
“I’m out of here,” Eden hissed, as she turned back towards the castle… then she grunted at the sight of it, turned to her right, and stalked away.
“Now see what you’ve done,” Isobel berated them.
“He went all fangs and claws. Don’t be looking at me with that withering stare,” Connor offered as he dragged himself to his feet once more, and brushed the dirt from his hands.
“You were protecting my mate,” Brody growled out as he dragged his body up to his full height and eyed the vampire with contempt.
“That’s what you wanted me to do,” Connor looked to the greying sky for a moment and truly considered killing the shifter.
Brody set his stance, considered killing the vampire, but decided going after his mate was his only real choice.
“Not the damn point!” Brody growled back over his shoulder.
“Oh, silly me… Excuse me while I go and throw myself on a nice wooden stake,” Connor called after him.
“I’m not going to rush to stop you,” Brody growled back.
“Wow … Just … Wow,” Isobel said as she gave a slow shake of her head and tossed up her hands in dismay. “Men!”
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“Eden…” Brody growled as he followed her across the uneven ground.
“Oh please, don’t tell me that we’re back to this again,” Eden grumbled. She was damn well going to walk to town, no ifs, no buts, and no damn shifter was going to stop. Mate or not!
“It kind of looks that way, now doesn’t it?” Brody tried his damndest not to growl, but his beast was still sitting just under his skin.
“Jog on!”
“Love too. Just come up with one of your spells that will take back the last few hours, and make it so that we never met, and I can do just that,” Brody grumbled on another growl.
“You toddle off then and find me a Book of Shadows with the spell in it, and I’ll be right here waiting for you when you get back.”
“Seriously?” He growled in annoyance.
“Sure, I swear it on your life,” Eden bit back.
“You have no idea how tempting that is…”
“Oh trust me, I do…” She stopped then and turned back towards him. Her eyes sought his, and she looked for the truth there. “You really do have a death wish, don’t you?”
Brody didn’t say a word. He wasn’t sure what to say.
Sure, he’d thought about it a lot before meeting her. He’d considered it was only a matter of time before someone needed to end him, before he went rogue, and before he hurt anyone.
Then there was her … He was sure that the only way to protect her was for the vampire to kill him … but fighting the vampire just now … hell, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
What would it take to be a good man?
What would it take to be her man?
What did it take to be a mate?
“You didn’t answer that and that’s a sure fire sign that your fruit loopy,” she said it like she believed it. She said it like it was an accusation.
“I was thinking …” He grumbled on another growl.
“Takes a while, right?”
“Okay, the truth is … I don’t know what the hell to say,” he bit out.
Brody’s eyebrows almost came together above his nose as he scowled back at her. His eyes were jet black, a sure sign that his wolf was still clinging on just under his skin, and his nostrils flared in frustration as he drew in ragged breaths.
“I find honesty is normally the best policy, but you’re a man … you’ll go your own way.” There was a challenge in her eyes as she stared back at him.
He didn’t know if he wanted to accept that challenge.
This woman was trouble.
This woman was fire and ice.
His mate was formidable.
Maybe formidable was what he needed.
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“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Eden bit out as she sat in the front passenger seat of the pickup truck that Isobel was driving. Her eyes flicked to the side mirror and the sight of Brody’s truck that was close behind them, captured in the glass.
“I can’t believe you let me talk you into this,” Isobel chuckled back.
The look of pure disbelief on Eden’s face as she turned her head to look at the witch mate next to her only made Isobel chuckle harder.
“I don’t know whether to zap you or slap you…” Eden grumbled in disbelief.
“I’m guessing time will tell which one you should go with …” Isobel continued to chuckle.
“Maybe both would be good.”
Eden turned her attention back to the side mirror and Brody’s truck, minus the door that he’d ripped off, bouncing along the track behind them. She gave a small shake of her head, cursing to herself, about being a sap and letting herself get talked into going to pack land by the cackling witch.
Still, anything probably had to be better than being on vampire land.
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Dexter tossed a look back over his shoulder at the sound of the trucks coming up the track. His eyes took in his mate first and then flicked to Brody’s truck as it followed on behind.
He did a double take at the lack of a door on Brody’s truck, and knew for a fact that it had been there earlier when the man had gone to town for supplies. Then his eyes flicked back to Isobel, and he concentrated his attention on the woman sitting in the front passenger seat next to her…
It wasn’t a woman that he knew …
“Please tell me that’s not trouble …” he grumbled to himself. “What am I saying … it’s a female, it’s gonna be trouble. Please tell me that’s not witch trouble …” he tried a second time, hoping that he was wrong, but fearing that he was right.
By the time that Isobel had pulled up in front of the cabin and cut the engine; he knew it was trouble. His mate was grinning way too hard for it to be anything else…
“Not a mate … not a mate … anything, but a witch mate …” he grumbled under his breath, waiting while Isobel popped the driver’s door, and slammed it with her magic after her as she walked towards him with a little spring in her step…
“Ah, damn it, it’s a witch mate …” he growled to himself, as he stalked over to meet them.
“Dex, meet Eden. She’s Brody’s mate!” Isobel couldn’t help the wide eyed teasing smile on her lips.
She’d seen Dexter talking to himself, and she knew right there and then exactly what that man of hers was thinking.
Now she saw it in his eyes as he stared back at her for a long moment. Then his gaze snapped towards Eden and he grumbled a low growl…
“Welcome …” he started and Eden scowled at him.
“Not necessary to welcome me to anything.” Eden bit out. “I won’t be staying long …” she added.
She wanted it made clear, and as plain as day that this wasn’t her final destination on her journey.
Dexter’s eyes filled
with amusement as he locked eyes with Isobel and her grin widened. They didn’t need words to communicate what they were both thinking.
Dexter groaned inwardly as he flicked his gaze towards Brody and the man rolled his eyes to the darkening sky and grumbled a growl.
“Got it,” Dexter bit out, not wanting to comment on the man’s woes, or the wooing that he was going to need to do to settle the little witch down a tad…
“Good,” Eden nodded. “Then could you tell the bozo behind me, because he doesn’t seem to get the message.”
She tossed a look back over her shoulder at Brody and she could have sworn that the man was using his fingertips to count to ten … His mouth was moving but nothing came out, and his hands were twitching at his sides. Yep, she’d guess he was counting alright…
“That’s not my job,” Dexter offered back and looked to Isobel once more when Eden did the same.
“Don’t look at me,” the witch said as she held up her hands at her chest in innocent surrender. “I’m not getting involved in mate wooing.”
“Wooing?” Eden grimaced. “I thought you were on my side?”
“Not in matters of the heart,” Isobel assured her, and Eden flicked her eyes back to Dexter. He practically jumped in place…
“Only if he’s trying to kill you, and only then if I can’t think where to bury the bodies.” Dexter offered back, and Eden snorted.
“One body … his.” She sounded adamant about that.
“Hungry?” Isobel offered, just as Brody started to growl.
“I could eat,” Eden shrugged a shoulder. “I could also use my car …” she grumbled as Isobel motioned for her to go into the cabin.
“Food I can do …” Isobel said and left the rest to her imagination.
CHAPTER TEN
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Eden couldn’t say that dinner was all that bad. The food was good … Isobel’s company was a pleasant surprise, and Dexter wasn’t as gruff as he’d appeared to be during their first meeting.
If she hadn’t of been facing her mate across the table the whole time, things would have been a lot better.
Now she was alone in his cabin, and she wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the wolf wasn’t prowling around outside the door.
But she decided that Brody, in whatever form he was in, being outside was a lot better than him being inside as she curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fire that he’d made before turning on his heels and leaving her alone without another word.
The stupid thing was that she’d been thinking about ways to tell him to get lost the whole time that they’d been walking over from Isobel’s cabin. Turned out that she didn’t need to, he’d done it all of his own accord.
Didn’t she feel stupid?
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Brody had left her without another word. His beast had been clawing and demanding to be let out of its cage as he’d knelt down in front of the fire bringing it to life to keep her warm through the night.
He’d had to leave. The beast was getting to be too much trouble to hold back, and now he was running in wild circles around the cabins, taking in a wider and wider perimeter, but always keeping the place in sight.
He trusted Dexter and Isobel, they were mated, and not a threat to his mate. It was George that he didn’t trust.
He didn’t know that man or his wolf, and he was an unmated male on the land. There was nothing there to raise confidence within him that he was safe to be near his mate.
As luck would have it George’s cabin was empty and the wolf’s scent wasn’t in the air. According to Dexter; the man didn’t just run their land, but ventured wider into the other pack’s land, even the bear’s, and had even been known to run the vampire’s estate…
Just so long as the wolf stayed away from her cabin door then the man wouldn’t have anything to worry about…
Brody was torn. He wanted to be outside running the land, and yet his mind was centred on his mate, inside his cabin, touching his things … inside his bed … damn, but he wanted to be in that bed with her…
Brody cut the thought off right there and then. Being her mate meant being responsible for her, for her welfare, for her protection … he wasn’t sure that he wasn’t the single most danger that she faced.
He could leave and end that worry.
He knew that he’d go rogue, and yet, it seemed a small price to pay to know that she’d be safer without him. Hell, he was halfway to rogue already, what did it matter if he took that final leap?
The feeling of being unworthy of her gnawed within him. He’d had it since the first moment that he’d realised that she was his mate, and it was eating him up inside.
He wished that he could change, for her, for them together, and yet he didn’t think that would ever be possible.
He was a crazy wolf… and crazy wolves didn’t have mates.
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One minute the mountain was in pure silence, and the next all hell was breaking lose when George’s wolf let out the kind of warning howl that could wake up the dead.
Brody’s wolf’s head snapped around on his neck at the sound that came off from the right.
It was close … too close to his mate for his liking.
He had the split second urge to run on fast paws towards his cabin – to protect his mate inside, and the next moment he took off in the direction of that howl, knowing that the best way that he could protect her was to kill any threat to her.
He heard the sound of a cabin door and pulled up short. He shot a look back over his shoulder to make certain that it hadn’t come from his cabin. That his mate wasn’t stupid enough to venture out when there was danger…
The light was shining out from Dexter’s porch and he could see the alpha, shifting in midair as his wolf’s paws hit the ground running. Brody started running again, before he even turned to look where he was going.
His beast was fevered with the need to annihilate the threat to their mate, and for once, he actually agreed with his damn wolf.
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Starting running again from a standing stop had slowed Brody down, and it didn’t take much for Dexter’s grey to catch up with him. By the time the alpha was alongside him they were running shoulder to shoulder towards George, towards the sound of a ferocious wolf tangling with something they weren’t sure of. As they skirted the tree line, and came around the ridge … there was George’s beast, taking on two vampires.
Brody roared his arrival at the same time that Dexter did. The wolves were joint by more than their pack link.
Almost equally matched in size and strength; they pushed forward through the snow, and as Dexter’s beast went left, so Brody’s went right to catch the vampires in a pincher movement…
The scent of George’s blood was thick in the air along with the scent of the bloodsuckers. His beast had already taken damage, and there wasn’t much that either wolf could do for the man besides kill the threat to him.
A familiar scent caught Dexter’s nose, and it was a vampire that he wasn’t unhappy to know was there as Connor rushed into the fray, hitting one of the vampires head on, locking his body with the man, and propelling him backwards into the nearest tree trunk.
Brody and Dexter came at the second vampire from both sides as the man started towards George for what might have been the final blow …
Both men were determined that the bloodsucker never got to take it.
George’s wolf lifted its head and stared death in the eye as the vampire took one long step towards him. He’d done his duty to his new pack and raised the alarm – at least he would die with honour.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Connor felt the hard fire of pain tear across his ribcage from the claws that the vampire had embedded into his side. The scent of his own blood greeted his nose, and he felt the need for revenge rise within him.
He head-butted the
man, catching on the bridge of the nose, before he turned and spun him away… releasing him from his claws only for another tree trunk to take the brunt of the impact with the bloodsucker’s back…
Connor took one long stride towards the intruder as his body crashed down to the snow covered ground, but his attention was snatched by the two large wolves attacking the second vampire…
George’s wolf was down injured, and the beasts were attacking from both sides, but the vampire was wise to them. Connor saw the flash of a blade in the moonlight … and he hated it to hell when vampires didn’t play fair…
A heartbeat later and he’d dropped kicked the vamp in the back, propelling the man into Dexter’s path. The wolf reared up and slashed with his claws … the scent of blood filled the air as the vampire spun in place trying to escape one beast and ending up facing Brody’s … the man’s wolf wasn’t shy about taking his turn to open the vampire clean across his throat…
Connor took one step forward, and the vampire’s body went rigid as he punched his hand through his back, closed his fist around his heart, and wrenched it back out of his body…
The slain vampire dropped to his knees in front of Connor before falling forwards onto the ground…
Connor turned towards the second vampire that he’d left by the tree ... the only thing that remained of the man was the lingering scent in the air and the compacted snow of where he had been.
“Those who live to run away …” Connor called out into the night, “had better not come back to fight another day.”
He carelessly chucked the heart of the vampire over his shoulder as he stalked towards George’s beast. The wolf growled in warning at the sight of the vampire coming towards him…
“You show me yours …” Connor teased, but he knew better than to get any closer to the wounded wolf than how far he could lung with his fangs to sink them into a vampire just for the fun of it.