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 EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
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 THIRTY THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
SPRING FEVER
BY
M. L. BRIERS
Copyright © 2017, 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 © 2017, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap.
Table of Contents
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
SPRING FEVER
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 EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
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 THIRTY THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
~
“Mum, I just don’t see this as a way to go,” Meredith eyed her mother.
The woman might have been a witch, and granted, she still had all of her faculties about her, except for being a little forgetful sometimes; which had led to a nasty mix up with a spell that Meredith didn’t even want to think about, because the family cat was still a little frosty towards them – the fact remained that the woman was in her late sixties, and striking out all on her own didn’t seem right somehow.
In Meredith’s mind; her mother should be somewhere where she could keep an eye on her. Not just for the odd moments when the kettle went in the fridge and the milk went in the dishwasher – who didn’t have those odd moments? But even with it being only for a few short days’ holiday, it still didn’t sit well inside of her.
“Well, I’ll just not go then…” Caroline sighed in the same way that she always did when things didn’t go her way – like the whole world was against her, and these were, of course, the final days of her life on earth and she’d never get her heart’s true desire.
“Great!” Meredith announced. She wasn’t backing down.
From the corner of her eye she caught the sideways glance that her mother gave her from across the breakfast table, and boy did she feel the evil eye upon her. Witch extraordinaire – the woman could deliver a death blow if she’d wanted too, but then who would do the shopping?
There was another long, dramatic sigh … oh, how Meredith hated those – just because they were designed to ping that guilt button on in her brain, and then her brain just wouldn’t shut down, thinking, worrying, wondering … What if this time it was the last few days of her mother’s life…?
Ahh! She should have been a Catholic instead of a witch, or Jewish … they did guilt too!
“I mean…” Caroline started, and Meredith felt the itch start beneath her skin. The same itch that she got every time that she knew that her mother was about to pile on that guilt … “It’s not like I still don’t have a good portion of my life laid out ahead of me …” Caroline gave that old person shrug – the one she used when she wanted to appear older – the; ouch it even hurts to be me shrug – shrug…
“Sure,” Mere offered back as she reached for a slice of lukewarm toast and lifted her knife towards the butter dish. “People live into their nineties and beyond nowadays…”
“It’s not like … I could keel over and die of nothing at all really – tomorrow morning – just getting out of bed.” Caroline sighed again. “Like my heart could just explode within my chest or stop beating for absolutely no reason – right here at the breakfast table – this very second…” She lifted her hand and placed it against her chest…
It was a nice touch. Meredith felt the ping – ping – ping of guilt inside of her brain; more like that tapping of a stupid woodpecker upon a bell … She gritted her teeth and sliced her knife through the butter…
“Thanks for that image. Tea, toast, and you face down in your bran flakes…” Mere bit out.
“Or there are bus accidents …”
“You don’t take the bus.”
“And just crossing the road is becoming something of an Olympic sport out there now with so much traffic on the road, and me, getting slower, and slower, and s-l-o-w-e-r every day…” Caroline shrugged…
“Mum, we live in a two horse town…”
“I could get run over by a horse…” Caroline offered back.
“A two horse town with no horses in it.” Mere corrected.
“Frozen plane poop could fall from the sky and kill me dead … I read about it in the paper,” she offered, and Meredith smeared the butter onto her toast with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Isn’t that blue? My there would be a sight … you’d look like a smurf, we couldn’t have an open coffin, and I wouldn’t be rushing to kiss your cheek…” Meredith offered back and got another death glare for her trouble.
“Can you just be serious for a moment, Meredith?”
“I don’t know mum … frozen plane poop aside, maybe moving from your chair is like a death sentence for you …” Meredith offered back, with one eyebrow arched high and the glint of amusement in her eyes. But there in the back of her mind that insistent little woodpecker was going tap – tap – tap, and that bell
was going ping – ping – ping! “It might be best to stay indoors; we wouldn’t want to tempt fate.”
“That’s not what I’m saying and you know it! And fate be damned … it can kiss my backside.” Caroline offered back with a scowl that wrinkled her wrinkles.
“Fate be damned? And you a witch as well! Don’t tempt fate to prove …”
“Prove what? According to you; I’d be dead…” She shrugged a shoulder and turned her nose up in contempt. “I’m sure that would make life considerable easier for you.”
Oh, here we go … Meredith sighed inwardly.
She was getting a slight case of indigestion … lucky it wasn’t her mother with indigestion, it probably would have been held up as congenital heart failure!
“I’m not going to rally to that one.”
“But I digress, because that isn’t what I meant, anyway.”
Her mother offered back. She was only going to be off because she knew that Meredith wasn’t going to rise to the bait.
“Isn’t it?” Meredith scowled back at her. She might have had a lot less wrinkles than her mother, but she was sure that living with the woman had caused more than her fair share of the ones that she did have. The woman was a beast – a dragon lady, and she loved it. “Enlighten me.”
“I just thought that I would visit the mountains up north before I got too old … or too dead … to go!” Caroline reached for her tea cup and shot her a glare over the top of the cup.
“And you think going alone is the answer?” Meredith asked, smearing the apricot jam that her mother had made all over her toast … she was the best jam maker in three counties, four according to her, and Meredith had to give her credit for that one.
“Well, most of my friends are dead,” Caroline offered back.
“Mrs Jennings, our old neighbour is not dead, she moved in with her son, Ralph, and daughter-in-law.” Meredith informed her, even though she knew it well enough, because she’d tried to talk the woman out of moving with scare stories about relatives who killed their old folk off for profit.
“Well, I didn’t like the look of them. If she isn’t already dead she will be soon!” Her mother shot back.
“Mum, you used to babysit Ralph. He grew up practically at this very table!” Meredith shot back.
“Then I should know his temperament, don’t you think?” She offered her a withering stare.
“Lucy moved into an old people’s home…”
“Senior living facility,” Caroline shot back with her nose raised loftily in the air.
“Better than a senior dead facility …” Meredith muttered. “And yes, Angela died, but that was because she was having a senior moment and decided that putting a screwdriver into a plug socket was a good idea!”
“You see!” Her mother shrieked. “Dead or getting there.”
Meredith dropped her head on her neck and groaned. She really couldn’t win with her mother.
The toast was whipped out of her hand in a heartbeat, and as she brought her head up on a scowl, so she heard the crunch of teeth taking a nice bite…
“Not too slow when you want something, right?” Meredith shot back with a teasing grin and Caroline snorted her contempt. She chewed fast and swallowed hard…
“I’m going and that’s an end to it,” Caroline shrugged.
“Thought you said you weren’t going?”
“Well, you reminded me with those tales of woe from my friends, just how much time I don’t have left to try to enjoy it while it’s here.”
Meredith opened her mouth and narrowed her eyes; she was sure those words made sense within her mother’s mind, but she’d caught the gist of it.
Her mother was playing her – she knew it – her mother knew it – and yet… Tap – Tap – Tap … Ping – ping – ping! Woodpecker be damned!
“Fine. I’ll clear my schedule and go with you,” Meredith grumbled.
She knew she was on the losing side, and digging her heels in now would only drag out the guilt process until she eventually capitulated and gave in at a later date anyway. Why waste valuable energy fighting the inevitable?
“You will? Oh, Meredith…” her mother gave her a pleasantly surprised look and she didn’t buy it for one second. Then that smile changed, and Meredith felt the dread within her very bones. Her mother beamed her one heck of a wicked smile and Mere felt the need to bend over and kiss her backside goodbye. “So, I booked us a rental car, because your car just isn’t big enough to be comfortable on such a long journey …”
And there it was. Her mother’s pre-planning coming to fruition, and all that the cunning woman had needed to do to enact her evil plan was sigh and use the guilt card.
There was only one word for a woman like that…
Witch!
CHAPTER TWO
~
“What are you doing here?” Meredith shot a look over her shoulder as she tried to wedge the cool box in between the space behind the front passenger seat and the back seats, as Jasmine, her daughter came strolling up the path with a curious look on her face.
“Gran said there was an emergency and to haul my backside over here pronto…” Jazz frowned back at her mother, “no emergency?”
“No emergency, not unless the old broad has got stuck down the toilet or…”
“Jasmine, how lovely to see my favourite granddaughter.” Caroline announced – like the Queen on a formal occasion – from where she stood high up on her noble porch, and Jasmine frowned.
“I’m your only granddaughter,” Jazz said, and her mother groaned.
“Well, that’s only because your mother didn’t bother to do her duty to an old lady and keep up the good work that she started with you.” The Matriarch announced, same old same old, and Meredith bit down on a muttered curse or three.
“Bad, mother!” Jazz whispered; berating her mother for not spitting out more kin for the woman. Not that she would have minded having a sister or two…
“Yes, a daughter’s duty is never done, remember that, child. You spit out offspring until the day your eggs dry up,” Meredith offered back to her daughter and she watched as she grimaced at the thought.
“Can we not talk about my eggs, or offspring, I’ve just had breakfast,” Jazz shot back. “So, Gran, what’s this big emergency?”
“Well, your mother and I are going up north to see the mountains…” Caroline announced as if it was a state visit by royalty, namely her.
“A little sudden.” Jazz shot out of the corner of her mouth and Meredith groaned. “Great, road trip for the girls, enjoy,” Jazz shot back with a grin and a twinkle in her eyes for her mother…
“Well, I’m glad you feel that way, Jasmine, because I held a space in the car for you…”
“Me?” Jasmine swallowed hard and mentally kicked herself in the backside.
“Yes.” The woman sounded like the snake from Jungle book – the one that still gave her nightmares…
“Oh, shame then that … I’m working, can’t get away, busy time, busy-busy time,” Jasmine laid it on thick, maybe a little too thick because her grandmother obviously smelt a rat.
She just really hoped she wasn’t going to be led into a trap.
“Oh, I am sorry to hear that,” Caroline said, with a woeful shake of her head. “Maybe if you’d answered you phone the last two days…”
Meredith turned on her heels and walked up the garden path. She stopped behind the older woman and peered back at Jasmine over her shoulder, eyeing her daughter, pointing, and silently mocking her…
“Can’t be helped,” Jasmine gave a shrug… “Maybe next time.” She offered, hoping that she sounded sincere, and her eyes flicked to her mother as the woman mimed wrapping a nose around her neck and hanging herself…
“So, you like the idea then?” Caroline asked, brightening some.
Meredith mimed pulling the noose tighter, and her tongue shot out the side of her mouth as she rolled her eyes back into her head. Jasmine bit down on the chuckle inside of
her…
“What? Sure, yes, great idea…” Jasmine offered back.
“Good, because I called that nice Mr Lancing…”
“My … boss?” Jasmine was paying sole attention to her grandmother now as her eyes widened in disbelief.
“Yes. His mother and I know each other, you know?”
“No … no, I didn’t…”
“And he was more than happy to let you take time off for the trip …” Caroline announced.
Jasmine’s mouth parted but no words came out, just a small wheeze from somewhere inside of her where hope had gone to die, and it did – right there and then – DOA…
“That’s …”
“Well, considering it could be my last…” Caroline shook her head slowly, and sombrely.
“You’re…? Gran, are you sick?” Jasmine gasped in disbelief, but behind her Gran; her mother was drawing an imaginary knife across her throat.
“Well, you never know what can happen tomorrow…” Caroline offered back, somewhat melancholy.
“O-k-a-y…”
Jasmine’s eyes flew to her mother in the hopes that she was about to step in and rescue her from a fate worse than death, but now her mother was double in two, miming the fact that she was cracking up at Jasmine’s sheer stupidity.
Throwing herself forwards, clutching her chest as she tossed herself backwards, and generally having a ball at her own daughter’s expense … you had to love the love…
“Gran…” Jasmine bit out and considered her next step.
She should tell her no.
She should tell her of all of the reasons a road trip with her grandmother and her mother would be a bad idea, a fate worse than death … although, she wondered if skipping over the death part might have been a good idea.
“Yes, Jasmine,” Caroline crowed as if she’d won not only the battle but the whole war…
“Mum’s pulling faces behind your back!” Jasmine rushed out, knowing that Caroline would spin fast on her heels and catch her mother in mid mime … which she did, because, for someone who was always claiming to be taking their dying breath, the old woman was as fast as a cat when she wanted to be…