by M. L. Briers
“Not yet,” Vanessa shook her head.
“From the moment I found you, you’ve been pack.” He didn’t know whether to be relieved or not by her words, at least she’d said yet. That gave him hope.
Vanessa watched his eyebrows dancing to a tune as emotion flowed through him, and she found herself somewhat mesmerized. But, sexy eyebrows or not, she wasn’t going to back down when she’d done nothing wrong.
“I found you,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I walked into that bar,” Vanessa gave a small shrug and a victory grin.
“Do you have to twist every situation to your own ends?” Ryan leaned in towards her just a little, and Vanessa held her ground.
“Yes.”
“Well stop.”
“Sorry, it’s a witch thing,” She grinned harder.
“And I have an alpha thing going on,” he informed her, taking a small step and closing the distance between them. “And alphas always get what they want.”
Vanessa’s heart skipped a beat or two, maybe three, she had no time or inclination to count them. All she knew was that he was closer, closer still, and her feet probably wouldn’t have taken a step back even if she had issued the command to move.
“And witches always zap first and ask questions…” she never got to finish as his lips came down on hers.
One moment she was just standing there minding her own business with him miffed off at her, and the next the world was a wonderful place full of amazing sensations that sent her mind and body on a joint expedition into uncharted territory. She felt everything.
Ryan’s lips were soft but demanding, and her body was soft and yielding. She didn’t have a mind to tell him no, because her mind was too preoccupied with the touch of his lips on hers, the feel of his large hands against her body, the press of his hard muscles when he brought her in close, and the hardness that pressed against her stomach and twitched hello.
Everything. The heat from his body seemed to envelop her like a warm, comfort blanket. There were tingles that ran over her skin and excited her even more.
When he pressed of his tongue against the seam of her lips; she yielded further. The taste of him, the scent of him made her womb dance a jig and her stomach flip-flop like a Politian on the hook.
Hook. Yes, she got caught on that hook, and no amount of mental wriggling was going to get her free.
Free. Vanessa didn’t want to be free of him, at least, not right then. Her body was having way too much fun without her mind being able to form a rational thought.
Thought. She needed to think, didn’t she? She needed to decide before she jumped in with both feet. She needed to consider where she was going with them.
Them. They were a them, an us, we.
She was his mate, and she felt it, felt that connection, even if she wanted to deny it. Not right then though – she was enjoying his hot kisses way too much. She was enjoying the way that her body felt when she was in his arms. Like it or not, and right then she was liking it just fine, they were mates, and that connection couldn’t be denied.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
~
Clive didn’t bother to knock. He strolled in through the back door to the kitchen and Faith turned away from the coffee pot in surprise, jumping in place when she saw him stalking towards her, and zapping him hard with her magic before she’d even given it a thought.
The vampire ground to a halt and twisted his head on his neck against the pain that clawed through his body. His eyes practically rolled back in his head, and his top lip twitched with annoyance as he groaned.
“Not the time,” Clive bit out, but Faith was already letting her magic pull back from him.
The fact that Mick was out of his chair at the kitchen table and stalking towards them might have had a little to do with the fact that she felt a whole hell of a lot safer.
“Never sneak up on a witch,” Faith’s nose twitched with annoyance.
While she didn’t mind zapping a vampire, she hated to taste her heart in her throat.
“Get away from my mate,” Mick growled. His inner beast already had its fangs and claws out, but Mick fought the urge to let them free.
“No harm, no foul,” Clive took two steps back.
“Better,” Faith lifted just the one shoulder and sneered at him.
“Your friend is…” Clive started, but the sound of a chuckle that caught in Faith’s throat caused him to stop.
“She giving you the runaround?” Faith teased, her eyes flashed with amusement.
“That’s a nice way to put it,” Clive offered back.
“She’s your mate, aren’t you supposed to show her what for?” Faith balled her fist and punched the air.
Mick’s left eyebrow shot up on his forehead, and Clive scowled at the thought.
“She’s older, faster, and way more devious than a witch,” Clive bit back.
“Watch it,” Faith warned him, and he rolled his eyes.
“I need her address,” Clive shot back.
“Address?” Faith questioned his sanity.
“Where she hangs upside down like a bat to sleep,” Clive bit out.
“Ooh, someone’s miffed,” Faith grinned.
“Someone has been tossed from a tree, had a lot of bones broken, ran ragged over the hillsides, and been pushed off a cliff,” Clive bit out, and Faith pressed her lips together so as not to laugh. “Someone is beyond miffed and heading towards nuclear.”
“And you thought you had problems,” Faith offered to her mate, and the man couldn’t help but grin.
“Now she’s taken off, and I’ve decided that having her… bat-cave address is easier than tracking the… little minx,” Clive ground out.
“Well, I don’t know where she lives.”
“You’re lying,” Clive bit back, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Am not,” Faith’s nose twitched as she folded her arms and stared the man right back in the eye.
“She’s your friend, and you’ve known her for how long?”
“A while.”
“And in all that time you’ve never found out where she lives, the place she calls home, the…” Clive stopped on a slow to boil grin. “Thank you, that’s all I needed to know.” He turned and strolled away.
“What?” Faith dropped her arms and scowled after him. “Ooh, you read my mind.” She bit out, annoyed.
“Too right I did,” Clive tossed back. “And, if you believe your mate to be sex-on-a-stick, and you wonder about bedding him, then you really should do something about it.” He offered as his parting shot before he yanked the door closed behind him.
Faith’s eyes flicked towards her mate the instant that the hungry growl started to roll through his chest.
“That’s not…” Faith started, but when Mick took one long step towards her, closing the distance between them, she let out a low squeak of annoyance at the mess the vampire had put her in.
“She’s your mate, aren’t you supposed to show her what for…” Mick let the words die right there, and for a moment Faith questioned him with just a look.
Then he saw the recognition for the words that she had offered to the vampire as they hit her right in the middle eye, and her mouth fell open just a little.
“That was him, and I’m me,” Faith said in a rush of excitement that shot through her body.
The thought of kissing and being kissed by him had been bugging her all night, but she hadn’t wanted to start that particular boulder rolling down the cliff, because who knew where it would stop or what it would take out in its path.
Mick reached out with one solid arm and wrapped it around her body. Faith felt the flush of heat go through her, and that first flop of her stomach as her womb did a happy dance.
“Now hold on…” Faith started, but when he yanked her body up against his, and her soft bits were crushed against his hard muscles, she had to drag in a breath.
It was too late to say another word as Mick’s lips
came down on hers.
~
~
~
Ryan’s sense of smell coming back so suddenly hit him hard. Vanessa’s scent swirled around him like a heady haze to his brain, and what his mate was doing to his body, pressed against his hard length, wrapped around him like a vine, was enough to make his beast rush to push forwards and try to stake its claim on her.
Ryan had a mind to slam that cage door closed on his wolf just in time.
Mine… His wolf growled, not happy to be shut down.
Ryan was the one who pulled back first. He didn’t want to do it, and he regretted it the moment that his lips left hers, but he dipped his head and brushed his cheek against hers as he took her scent at the source.
“Something I said?” Vanessa grinned to herself. “Or something that I did?”
Ryan’s low, deep, hungry growl rumbled within his chest and made her want to purr, and she was no kitty-cat, she was a headstrong witch. But she kind of wished that she had been a cat because it would have felt so right to curl up on his chest and let him love her some more.
“I smell you, my witch,” Ryan was about as happy as he could ever remember being.
He might have been standing in the damn hallway and not lying in his bed with her, naked and wrapped around each other after claiming his mate, but he was in a good place, a happy place, a dancing-a-damn-jig-place, and that was all that mattered for right then.
“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Vanessa teased him.
“Oh,” he lifted his head on a deeper growl and met her gaze. “It is.”
“Because that’s not at all creepy,” Vanessa was still teasing, but he didn’t get that impression from her, and he yanked his head back on his neck, gave her a slight sideways glance, and narrowed his eyes at her.
“It’s creepy?”
“Just a little,” she pouted, and his eyes pitched down before flicking back up.
“How little?” he asked, and she made a point of moving her hips and grinding her sex against his hard left.
“Oh, no, wait…” she rolled her eyes to the ceiling, ignoring his hard growl of pleasure, and made a point of considering it. “Maybe not so little.”
“You keep doing that and I might just take you to the bedroom and make you mine,” he growled, and it was a good one. It was the kind of growl that held in his chest and made her taut, needy nipples vibrate.
“You keep kissing me like that and I might let you,” she tossed back, without even thinking about what her words implied.
“You…?” Ryan eyed her for one hell of a long moment in time.
Time enough for her mind to spin with her words, and her body to decide that it wanted to run with that plan.
“Might,” she gave a small squeak.
“You really don’t want to tease me,” Ryan growled.
“You know, I think that’s the problem,” Vanessa looked a little pained. “I think I just might.”
“Vanessa,” Ryan warned, but he never got any further.
“What say we take this to the bedroom and seeeeee….” She squealed as he snatched her body away from the wall, whirled her around in place, and started off down the corridor like he was escaping a fire.
“Did I tell you I had a very bad episode lately with a fast moving vampire?” Vanessa hissed out, but all she got back for her trouble was a Mutley like snigger.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
~
“I said; I’m sorry,” Devlin was following on his mate’s heels like a lost puppy. The woman was a fast walker, and he’d hate to try to keep up with her if she started to jog, let alone run.
Leslie snorted her contempt for him back over her shoulder. She could take a hint. The Warlock didn’t want a she-wolf mate. Well, she didn’t want a male witch either.
“It’s not the words, but the way you said them,” Leslie shot back.
“How did I say them?” He demanded, frustration clawing within him like he had a wild beast of his own.
When Leslie ground to a halt, he almost took her down. But as she stopped and pivoted towards him, Devlin managed not to collide with her.
“Like my brothers told you they were going to flay your skin from your body while you were still alive if you didn’t,” Leslie bit out with annoyance, and she saw the guilty look on his face and growled. “See…”
“Not in so many words, but yeah,” Devlin admitted.
“There you go then,” Leslie folded her arms under her breasts and pushed them upwards for his viewing pleasure.
Devlin looked down, boy, did he ever? He was male, he couldn’t get away from that fact, even if he had tried to tell a lie about not liking women.
He’d been a jerk, and he knew it.
“It’s not…” he started, and the palm of her hand came shooting up in front of his face to silence him.
“If you say it’s not you, it’s me,” Leslie warned with a low growl that caught in her throat. “I will hurt you.”
“No, you won’t,” Devlin grinned.
“Huh?” she twisted her head to one side and glared at him as if he was nuts.
“You won’t hurt me because…” he got no further.
One moment he was offering her his best, sexiest smile, and the next he was flat on his back, with his she-wolf mate straddling his chest. One of her hands was pressed against the hard muscles of his chest, holding him in place, and the other was a fist that was headed right for his face.
“Whoa!” he rushed out, his eyes going wide and then squinting shut, waiting for that punch to hit him on the nose and the pain to start.
When nothing happened, he opened just one eye and looked up at her. That fist was an inch from his face.
“Make it fast,” Leslie bit out. Her black eyes were narrowed on him, and her top lip twitched just a little in anger.
“I wasn’t going to say not-you-me,” he rushed out.
“Sure?” She eyed him with a death glare, and if she’d been a witch, then he might have been kissing his balls goodbye.
“Positive,” Devlin rushed out. It wasn’t a lie; she couldn’t sense any deceit in him.
“Oh,” she said, dropping her hand, letting go of his shirt, and climbing off of his chest to sit on the grass beside him.
Devlin let out the breath that he’d been holding, and pushed up onto his elbows.
“You’ve got a wicked fast temper, you and Faith could have been separated at birth,” Devlin sighed.
“So, what were you going to say?”
“I was going to say that your brothers aside, I would have apologized to you anyway,” Devlin offered her the truth.
“You mean once you’d taken your head out of your backside and realized what a jerk you were?” Leslie offered him a mock innocent look.
“Something like that,” Devlin said with a small chuckle.
“Like that?”
“That.”
“Ok, fine,” she pushed up in one go to her feet and started on her journey again. Devlin scrambled to get up and follow her.
“Do you accept my apology?” he asked, rushing to catch up to her.
“Do you accept that I’m your mate?” she tossed back over her shoulder and felt the rush of tingles shoot up her arm when he snagged her wrist and yanked her back towards him.
“I get that you’re my mate, and I was taken by surprise, ok?” Devlin’s eyebrows were high on his forehead as he stared down at her, but there was a small smile was playing at the corners of his lips.
“Ok,” she shrugged back.
“I need to let that sit for…” he didn’t get to say the rest, because a heartbeat later and his mate had him on his back on the grass again, and this time when she straddled him, it was over his hips and not his chest, and there wasn’t a fist coming for his face, just her lips coming down on his.
Devlin felt the rush of desire shoot through every inch of his body. His length was hard in an instant, and his hands were doing their own thing on her body with
out him even having to think it through.
Leslie kissed him like a woman possessed. Like he was everything and more, and he kissed her right back.
Then, without rhyme or reason, she yanked her body up and stared down at him with a victory smile on her lips.
“Just thought I’d give you something to think about,” she said as if being ravished by a beautiful woman was an everyday occurrence for him.
Devlin opened his mouth to speak, but she just turned on her heels and strolled away. He dropped his head back on the grass and tried to will away the ache in his cock.
“Holy, hell. She-wolf or she-demon sex Goddess…?” he muttered to himself with a grin.
~
~
~
“Will you stop looking at me like that?” Jeannie bit out as she eyed Jason from across the living room.
“I’m waiting,” Jason said like she should know what he was thinking or something.
“For?”
“An apology,” Jason said, looking every inch the wronged person in that scenario, but she had no idea what he was talking about.
He’d been sitting there eyeing her for the better part of an hour. He’d grumbled and growled, huffed and groaned, and pulled some faces that she’d never seen a male pull before.
“For what?” Jeannie tossed up a hand in frustration.
“For running off like that.”
“I was witch-napped,” Jeannie bit out in disbelief. “I’m not going to apologize for Faith’s oaf of a brother tossing me over his shoulder and running off with me.”
“You crept by me while I was sleeping,” Jason bit out.
“Not my fault you snore louder than a jackhammer and have really little ears for a wolf,” she tossed back.
“Ears? Really? You crept downstairs like a thief in the night,” he let out a bit of a chuckle of disbelief.
“Thief?” Jeannie’s eyes went wide as she regarded him like the muppet that he was showing himself to be.
“Oh yeah.” He nodded, just once, and ignored the small grunt of annoyance from his mate. “Then you walk off outside, alone…”