by M. L. Briers
“Does my pride count?”
“No,” Clive went to reach for her, but she yanked her body away from him and overbalanced, ending up on her backside in the dirt. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Lay one hand on me, and I swear I will zap you a new butthole,” Vanessa was in no mood to go on another magical mystery tour with a speed freak.
“I’m here to rescue you,” Clive said as if she was a child.
“Great, another vampire with a superhero complex,” Vanessa bit out, slapping at his hands as he tried to reach for her. “I’m warning you.”
“Oh, you’re warning me,” Clive snorted in amusement. “And what could you possibly do…”
One minute the vampire’s smug face was right there in front of her, his hands still reaching out towards her, and the next he was wrenched away, leaving only confusion in his wake.
“What now?” Vanessa grumbled as she eyed the area, but it was the sound of a loud thud off to her left that made her turn her attention in that direction.
There he was, his back slammed against a tree trunk, with Clara all claws and fangs pinning him in place.
“Oh, I’d like to say you’re not my type, but, I cannot lie,” Clive grinned.
A heartbeat later and they’d disappeared again, another thud signaled the direction of travel and when Vanessa looked, the tables had turned on Clara, and she was the one who was pinned against a tree trunk. Vanessa groaned.
“Get over yourself,” Clara hissed, swinging a fist that caught Clive on the chin and the vampire’s head snapped around on his neck, but nothing was broken – yet.
“Clara…” Vanessa started, but she stopped on a grimace when Clara headbutted the vampire, and Clive grunted in annoyance.
“Strange mating ritual, but I can live with it,” Clive said.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Clara pushed off from the tree and slammed him down on his back in the dirt.
“Go ahead, tease me, I love it,” Clive said, quick to duck out of the way of the fist that was aimed at his face.
Another loud thud signaled that Clara had hit the earth beside his head. Then she was flat on her back on the ground a moment later with Clive looming above her.
Vanessa lifted her hand and went to speak, but she never got the chance as Clara booted Clive clean across the clearing and he landed on his backside with a grunt from his pride.
“Could you stop, now?” Vanessa bit out, and Clara pushed up to her feet, eyeing the downed vampire with a smirk, as she tossed up just one shoulder.
“Not really, no,” Clara said, not taking her eyes from Clive for one second.
“Clara meet Clive, Clive meet Faith’s insane friend, Clara,” Vanessa bit out.
“Friend?” Clive said, rebounding to his feet and eyeing his adversary for a long moment.
“She’s not here to eat me, to kill me, to drain my tasty witchy blood…”
“I could use a snack,” Clara said with a smirk.
“Couldn’t we all,” Clive grinned, showing his fangs to full effect.
“Get in line.” Clara turned her nose up at him.
“Yeah, you can both…” Vanessa started, but she never got to finish as wolves tore into the clearing on fast paws and from all directions. “Oh good, more rescuers.”
“Time to go,” Clara bit out before she pushed upwards from the ground and into the cover of the foliage of the trees above them. Then she took off on quiet feet.
“Be right back.” Clive followed to the sound of a hearty snarl from the biggest of the wolves.
“Don’t say a damn word,” Vanessa bit out.
She figured that the biggest, meanest of the pack would be the alpha, her mate, Ryan, and she had an urge to zap something or someone. It might as well have been him.
The large gray and white wolf twisted its head on its neck, curiously staring back at her, and a moment later – that wolf was replaced by the man. A very muscled bound, sexy as hell, alpha in his human form.
Naked, very, very, oh boy, very, naked. Vanessa sighed inwardly at the sight of him.
“Are you injured?” Ryan demanded as he stalked across the clearing towards his mate.
The other wolves had all turned tail and were heading back into the woods. She didn’t care, not after getting sight of everything her mate had to offer. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t still peeved at him, she was.
“Get a life,” Vanessa groaned out before she dropped her back down to the earth and sighed. “Stupid damn day. I really want it to end now.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
“Faith!” Vanessa belted out her name the moment that she was back inside the house. The woman was a damn menace at times, and right then was one of those times.
“Bathroom,” Jeannie called back from her perch at the kitchen table, from where she was partaking in anything chocolatey or particularly gooey that Leslie could find.
She had a need to comfort eat, and anyone who got their hands in the way was going to get reprimanded. Big time.
Vanessa looked over her shoulder at the alpha, still big, still muscle-bound and still very naked, and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she did a double take at his abs.
“Bathroom?”
When she managed to drag her eyes up to his face, she questioned him with just a look. Ryan lifted his hand and pointed down the hallway, and that was enough to start her stomping off once more.
“Faith!” She shouted again.
Vanessa wanted her friend to know, just be the sound of her voice, just how miffed off she was. It was like firing a warning shot across her bow.
Vanessa shot a look back over her shoulder and pointed to the closed door. Ryan nodded, just once.
There was a little amusement in his eyes, but his jaw was rock solid. She had to guess that he wasn’t too pleased with Faith either.
“Faith, get your backside out here so that I can kick it down the bloody road and back…” she grumbled, but there was no reply. “Faith.” She snapped.
Ryan twisted his head on his neck and listened hard. Then he groaned.
“I think we’ve got a runner,” he bit out.
“What!” Vanessa screeched.
Her bad mood immediately turned into disbelief, and she had to sidestep the alpha when he reached for the door handle and forced the lock. His arm brushed hers and she felt a wave of tingles, but she couldn’t think about that, not when Faith had pulled a stupid.
Vanessa lifted an elbow and nudged him aside as he tossed the door open. She wasn’t about to let Ryan rush in there first, just in case her friend was panties down on the toilet.
The window was partially open, and the room was empty.
“God damn it, Faith!” She bit out.
“How did you ever think you could pass for a nun?” Ryan growled, but not at her, at the witch that had taken off from his brother.
‘Mick, your mate is running.’ He offered through the pack’s link. He got the distinct impression that today wasn’t a good day to woo.
~
~
~
“A runner!” Leslie bit out, torn between spitting out the mouthful of caramel cake that she’d been enjoying, and swallowing it whole without bothering to chew another bite.
“A runner?” Jeannie said, somewhat absently as she forked another mouth sized portion of gooey loveliness and went to scoop in upwards.
“Faith!” Leslie snapped back, and Jeannie snorted a chuckle of disbelief.
“Faith wouldn’t…” she started, and then stopped as the smile dropped from her face and she eyed her new friend. “Ooh.” She dropped her fork down against the plate with a clang and shot upwards from the chair. “Vanessa!”
“I know!” Vanessa called back as she stomped towards the kitchen.
“She said she was going to the bathroom.” Jeannie tossed up a hand and rounded on her friend.
“Yeah, well, it’s Faith. Expect the unexpected,” Vanessa shot back. Then sh
e turned on her heels and almost slammed into her mate. “Get some damn clothes on or something, will you?” She grumbled.
“Naked is natural…” Ryan started, but Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“And distracting!” She snapped back but regretted it the moment that one side of his mouth lifted in a wicked smile.
“My naked body distracts you?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You could be eighty, podgy, slipping with gravity, and it would still be bloody distracting,” Vanessa hissed back.
“That’s your story, and you’re sticking to it?” He grinned, not just any grin, but a sexy-as-hell grin that made her womb do a jig and her stomach flop.
“And this is my fist and I’ll be sticking it in your face if you don’t get over yourself and soon,” she bit out, waving the little fist at him and hoping to dampen his rather obvious abundance of self-confidence.
“We have a witch to hunt,” Ryan growled at the thought.
The alpha knew that his pack was already onto it, and Mick was out there searching for his mate. He also knew that he should get onto it, safeguard the woman, and yet, he really didn’t want to leave his mate’s side. He didn’t want to think what could go wrong again if he wasn’t there to stop it from happening.
“Don’t say hunt,” Vanessa snapped back.
“She’s running; you can bet your life that her mate’s wolf is on the h…”
“Didn’t I say not to say hunt?” Vanessa hissed back.
“I have to go and make sure that Mick doesn’t…” he left that sentence open.
“I’m coming with you,” Vanessa said.
“And me,” Jeannie said.
“Neither of you are to leave the house,” Ryan bit out. He hated to think what more mischief they could get up too.
“Try and stop me,” Vanessa went to nudge past him, but he didn’t move an inch.
“Vanessa, don’t make me carry you upstairs and tie you to the damn bed,” Ryan growled.
Vanessa wasn’t sure if the rush of heat that went through her body was on account of the image that slammed into her mind – her naked and tied to the bed, him naked and… Or the fact that he was miffing her off in ways that were too numerous to count.
“Don’t make me, make you, cluck like a chicken,” Vanessa offered back to a somewhat confused looking alpha.
“Huh?”
“Magic…” Vanessa offered back. She’d draw the man a picture if she needed to.
“She’d do it,” Jeannie offered on a snort of a chuckle, but it was the look in his mate’s eye that told him that the woman wasn’t bluffing.
“I can find Faith. I can tap into her magic and follow it wherever she leads me,” Vanessa said, folding her arms, and noting that the man’s eyes dipped to her breasts for just an instant. He was considering something in that big, alpha brain of his; she just wouldn’t stake her life on what it was.
‘Have you found the witch yet?’ Ryan put the call out to his pack.
‘Are you kidding me?’ Jason chuckled back. ‘One minute we’ve got her scent and the next we’re inside a pizza bubble.’
‘I don’t know what that means…’
‘It means, the devious little witch, and I use the term witch as interchangeable with the B word…’
‘Watch your mouth,’ Mick growled.
‘Is throwing up fast food bubbles in her wake and confusing the wolves, and making me damn hungry to boot.’ Jason said.
“Fine,” Ryan grumbled, stepping to one side in the doorway and motioning for the witches to go ahead of him.
“Faith miffing off your pack?” Vanessa asked with just a sparkle of humor in her eyes.
“Whatever gave you that impression?” Ryan grumbled.
“Trust me; it’s Faith.” Vanessa lifted her hand and patted him on the bicep, regretting it immediately when her body perked right up and she had the urge to test those muscles.
She snatched her hand back.
“Still like me naked I see,” Ryan whispered in her ear as she forced her feet to move forward away from him, and she bit down on a gazillion curse words that shot through her mind.
~
~
~
“Clare, if you don’t show yourself,” Faith bit out, getting more and more annoyed by the second.
Firstly; she hated to walk, and the woods wouldn’t have been the place of choice if she were planning on doing anything remotely strenuous. That would be all those fancy boutiques that she couldn’t afford but liked to snoop inside as if she could.
Secondly; and more ashamedly for a witch, she hated nature. Nature was pretty, but it was also full of bugs and crawlies that she would much rather not have to deal with.
“You’ll what?” Clara’s voice came from the treetops above her and Faith rolled her eyes upwards, but still, she couldn’t see the vampire.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“What are you doing here?” Faith hissed at the trees, feeling just a little bit stupid to be talking to the vegetation.
“You called – I came.”
“I called to tell you where I was, not to come mount some kind of dumbass rescue mission,” Faith bit off her words the moment that Clara dropped down right in front of her. “Don’t do that vampire stuff with me!” she hissed.
“Vampire stuff?” Clara snorted a chuckle. “Drinking blood is vampire stuff, dropping down from the trees is just a common courtesy so we can talk eye to eye, or as close to it as your short-ass will allow.”
“Funny!” Faith hissed back, craning her head on her neck and sneering.
“Oh, Faith. What have you gotten yourself into?” Clara tossed her hands on her hips and tipped her head to one side as she offered her friend a sympathetic look.
“I’m a mate,” Faith muttered into her generous breasts as her head went down and she wallowed in self-pity.
“Yes you are,” Clara said with another chuckle. “I tried to rescue Vanessa…”
“She’s ethical. She thinks about the poor mate going rogue without his one true love,” Faith huffed.
“And you?” Clara demanded.
“Yeah, I’m thinking.” Faith sighed.
“Don’t think too hard because that mating pull is going to make you do stupid things,” Clara shot back.
“And that would be bad, because…?” Clive’s deeper melodic tones rang out from above. Both Faith and Clara groaned.
“Damn stealthy vampires,” Faith bit out and watched Clara’s eyebrows reach for her hairline. “Not you.”
“Hmm, what are the odds?” She bit back, and Faith offered her an apologetic wince. “I’ve already bettered you once vampire.”
“Not true. I just don’t like to hurt a woman,” Clive offered from his place up high.
“I’m older, faster, stronger, and oh, so much wiser. Go away,” Clara offered back with a roll of her eyes for her friend as she flicked out her claws.
“Clara…” Faith started, but when Clive dropped down beside her, and Clara’s head tilted to listen for what was coming her way. She stopped talking and started hoping that Clara wouldn’t take things too far.
“Strength in numbers, Vampire?” Clara offered him the kind of glare that Faith only wished she had in her arsenal.
“I didn’t invite them,” Clive offered back on a low whisper.
“Scared to face me one on one?” Clara’s good mood had gone.
“I am facing you one on one,” Clive offered back.
Faith didn’t notice immediately when Clara’s hand came up, it was only when she felt her fingers wrap around her arm that she turned her head to look down, but Clive was doing the same thing on the other side of her, and she found herself locked between them.
“Ok, do not…” Faith started to protest, but it was already too late, both vampires started to yank her in their own direction. “No breaking the witch!” she bit out, and felt that tension ease, but it didn’t stop Clara from wrenching her towards her, only for Clive to
wrench her back the other way.
“I’m not bloody stretchy!” Faith bit out, trying to yank both of her arms from their vice like grips.
“She’s staying with the pack,” Clive bit out.
“She’s coming with me,” Clara hissed over the top of her head, and Faith grumbled and muttered to herself as the vampires bickered and the wolves closed in.
“Let me go, damn it!” Faith bit out.
Just at that moment a wolf broke through the foliage and headed towards her on fast paws. Faith’s eyes went wide at the sight of him heading right at her and not looking as if it was going to stop.
“Let go! Let go!” She squealed out, but by the time that they realized what was happening and did let her go – Faith was on her back on the ground with one big wolf standing over the top of her – one large paw on her chest holding her in place as he glared down into her face, panting.
“Geez, go chew on a peppermint plant and get that stinky breath out of my damn face,” Faith hissed.
The wolf growled long and hard, and Faith glared into its eyes.
“See what you did?” Clara bit out at Clive.
“That’s her mate,” Clive shot back.
“Well, my mate has damn stinky breath, and if he doesn’t get his paws off me, I’m going to magically neuter him,” Faith hissed out, right back in the beast’s face, and she wasn’t messing with him.
She’d had a shitty night and neutering the damn wolf might just make her feel better.
There was a long moment of glaring. A long moment when both witch and wolf were deciding what would be the best course of action. And then there was one long moment when Mick’s beast pulled back its lips and showed his impressive fangs.
“Really?” Faith bit out, unimpressed by the wolf’s show of dominance. “How about I shoot your furry little butt up into the trees where you can cool off hanging around a branch for a while?”
“She’s really… mean,” Clive said with a small shake of his head.
“That’s why she’s my witch,” Clara said with pride as she lifted her chin and gave the vampire a wicked smirk.