by M. L. Briers
“Oh, but I can still cross the threshold. I may pay you a visit later…” He teased, before slamming the door…
“Ouch!” Her voice bit through the closed door. Followed by another round of all you can remember curse words.
“Guess she tried her magic.” Connor grinned at his mate.
“Been there done that.” Vicky raised just one eyebrow at him and he swallowed hard.
“I’ve apologised for that a million times…” He said, then she raised two eyebrows at him. “I’m sorry, so sorry. I love you. I’m sorry…” He loved the sound of her chuckle…
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~
“I cooked – you get to wash up.” Gemma informed him.
She still felt uneasy. It didn’t matter that her mother was out of action for the time being, it just mattered that she was on clan land and therefore destined to be a thorn in her side, a pain in her backside, and everything else in between.
Landon eyed her as she paced around the cabin like a caged beast. He knew how that felt; he’d been doing it for years but for different reasons. Now he watched his mate struggling with something, and he didn’t like it.
They’d kissed. That had been a damn good sign… and then her mother had walked into the damn picture and screwed everything up.
Now they were back to opposite sides of the room, and he wasn’t sure how to make that wall between them go away again. He guessed he could kiss her again – she certainly didn’t object the first time, and yet, she didn’t look like she wanted to be kissed…
He couldn’t just walk up to her and pounce… well, he could, but that might be a little… awkward.
“What do you want to do about your mother?” Landon asked, bringing her out of her thoughts and getting those beautiful green eyes turned back on him…
“Don’t tempt me to answer that question.” Gemma sighed.
“It’s that bad?”
“You’ve met my mother.” Gemma shot back.
The woman was a nightmare. She was queen bee to her coven…
She didn’t so much enlighten and lift the other witches as dominated through sheer strength of presence. It was her way or the highway, and when she’d practically started an all out war with a neighbouring coven, well, Gemma had tried to protest, but that had fallen on death ears, so she’d taken a time out… this was it – a time to reflect on what came next in her life…
She guessed she’d found it in the most unlikely of places and ways. Him.
“Yep.” Landon didn’t commit any further than that. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing and end up with another foot in his mouth.
“Are you worried about… leaving her?” Landon hoped not. He’d hate to have to have that old witch living nearby…
“Are you kidding me?” Gemma snorted a chuckle. “Rainbows, faerie dust, and a damn parade…” She sighed again.
“So what’s the problem?”
“She is. Once she gets the bit between her teeth she goes all out to put a really big spoon in and stirs.” Gemma informed him and he took that on board.
“You’re worried about her using her magic against the clan?” Landon asked…
“I’m worried about one of the clan eating her.” She tossed up a hand and waved that way. “Unintentionally of course, it’s just that I want to kill her sometimes, you know?”
“Yep.” Landon nodded.
He’d had the urge and he’d only just met the woman. He couldn’t say that one of his clan wouldn’t lose it… they weren’t exactly the most stable bunch of shifters and misfits around.
“Not that I’d blame them… I mean… she’s…” Gemma grimaced. The words sounded so damn cold to her own ears – she was, after all, still her mother.
“It’d still be awkward.” Landon gave her one of those smiles. It was wicked in nature, and very alluring.
“That’s an understatement.” She chuckled, but as she dropped down to the cushion on the sofa another roar went up, and she pushed right back up to her feet again.
“Damn it to hell.” Landon bit out.
Gemma was already on route to the front door, and he wrapped an arm around her waist and turned her behind his back before she got there.
“Stay behind me.” He growled.
He didn’t know what he would find on the other side of that door and he didn’t want his mate in the firing line.
He yanked open the door and Connor was already moving off towards the sound of one of his bears… possibly Ethan, tangling with a wolf…
“I’ve got it.” Connor shot a look over his shoulder as he went…
For one long moment Landon thought about letting the vampire deal with it. He had a mate to woo, and life was just tossing up every possible reason it could to get in the way of that, but he was alpha, and his bear was antsy to get into the fray.
“Stay here.” Landon growled at her, hesitating for one long moment when he got the chance to stare into those green eyes of hers.
“But…?” She started to raise a hand in the general direction of where Connor had disappeared too.
“I’ll be back.” He said it like a promise of things to come, and she believed him. With a quick nod of her head; he was taking off on fast feet, and leaving her alone on the doorstep of his cabin, with nobody else in sight.
Did he trust her not to leave or did he just forget that there was nobody looking out for her?
Gemma snatched up her jacket and closed the door behind her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
By the time that he got to where he was going Landon was in no mind to be nice to anybody. He could scent blood in the air, and he felt the need within his bear to get in that fight and bleed someone too.
Members of his clan were in varying forms of shifting into their beasts. He could scent the anger in the air, scent the testosterone, and the wolf’s scent was new to him…
“It’s one of the newbies from Dexter’s pack. George.” Connor offered as he felt the alpha’s presence coming up behind him.
“George?” Landon growled. “What the hell fire kind of a name is George for a wolf?”
Connor couldn’t help but chuckle, but there wasn’t a lot funny with the way that Ethan and the outsider wolf were going at it. Landon’s beast rose within him at the sight of the bear and wolf taking chunks out of each other…
He tossed his head back on his neck and roared a warning…
Nothing.
Ethan’s bear was too far into the need to rip and tear the wolf apart to be able to stop himself, and the wolf seemed intent on fighting…
“Damn it to hell.” Landon growled out. His hands made fast work of his jeans and he tossed them onto the ground a heartbeat before his bear burst from within him…
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“I thought you’d come sniffing around.” Molly sneered, raising her chin and huffing at Gemma as she stood within the doorway of the cabin that Connor and the witches had turned into her jail.
“Sniffing around, Molly?” Gemma folded her arms and tipped her head to one side, unimpressed.
“When in Rome, I guess.” Molly tossed up a shoulder.
“Go home.” Gemma bit out. “I don’t want you here…”
“You’ve got choices to make, my girl, and I intend to put my case as to why you don’t belong here with them.” Molly nodded towards the window.
“It’s not up to you to decide my future, it hasn’t been up to you for a very long time.”
“I’m your mother-”
“Then act like it for once.” Gemma shot back and watched as her mother chewed that thought over.
“We have a coven to protect, and when I’m gone-”
“Someone will take your place, but that was never going to be me.” Gemma shook her head.
“Because you have a mate now?” Her mother’s tone was acidic and it put her back up even more than the rest of her attitude combined could have achieved.
“Because
I don’t want it and never have.” Gemma said and her mother snorted her contempt for her answer. “You like the power, but that’s not me-”
“You’re weak, you’ll learn to develop the skills necessary…”
“If those skills mean I become you, no thanks.” Gemma shot back.
Molly didn’t say a word. She eyed her daughter for a long moment, and then she turned away.
“Go mate your alpha.” She finally bit out.
“Go home, mother. Either way I’m done with the coven.” Gemma offered as she turned to walk away.
“Don’t have children – they only disappoint.” It was a cheap shot but it hurt like hell.
“Well, I guess not all of us are cut out to be parents either.”
“None of the coven will ever waste time on you again.” Molly warned.
“That’s fine by me.” Gemma said, and with a flick of her wrist; the cabin door slammed shut before her mother could say another word.
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~
Landon’s bear didn’t hold back. He’d torn into the fray between bear and wolf, using the sheer strength of his beast; he’d crashed into Ethan’s bear and knocked him away, turning and taking a swipe at the wolf in the same breath.
He wasn’t playing and his beast was as mad as hell. Both man and beast wanted to be wooing, not fighting, but obviously his clan was set on keeping him from his mate as best they could.
‘Ethan, stand down, or so help me I will put you down for good.’ Landon used the link with the man to try to get his beast to calm the hell down before things got out of hand.
Dexter’s pack was just starting to form, and he’d attracted a few misfit wolves of his own. What they didn’t need was for one of those wolves to end up dead – that could start a war between both packs and the clan, and in Landon’s mind that would really suck right about then.
‘He was on our territory looking for trouble.’ Ethan spat out the anger inside of him as his bear roamed, not willing to go against the alpha, but not yet ready to back down either.
‘Get your shit together, Ethan. I don’t have time for this now.’ Landon couldn’t have made it any clearer, and Ethan was a screw up and as big of a misfit as they came, but he’d also learned to settle a little better since mates started arriving on the mountain.
Ethan’s bear took off in one direction and the wolf in another. Landon groaned.
“I’ll follow Ethan.” Marshall growled out. His bear was almost under control since his mate had arrived.
“I guess I’ll follow the wolf. You want me to give Dexter a message?” Ben asked as the alpha shifted back into his human form.
“Yeah, tell him to keep his wolves to himself.” Landon growled out as he ran both of his hands through his loose hair, raking it back on his head and shaking off the last of his bear… Not that the beast was ever far from the surface, but he liked to hold onto that illusion within him.
“And you.” Landon growled to Connor as he turned towards him.
“Me?” Connor had a song in his voice and innocence within his eyes, but Landon only felt the need to put his fist into the man’s face.
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the witch-in-law?” Landon yanked up his jeans from the ground and thrust them on.
“Not… necessary.” Connor offered back smugly, and Landon grunted. He had to take him at his word because he didn’t have any more time to waste. He wanted to get back to wooing his mate. “I also know where your mate is.”
“Me too, at my cabin.” Landon growled back; more than miffed at the vampire’s smug attitude.
“Not… exactly.” Connor offered.
Landon felt his bear rise up within him. He tipped his head to the left and regarded Connor with apprehension.
“Tell me she hasn’t run…” Landon’s growl was long, deep, and hungry.
“Not… exactly.” Connor offered, but Landon’s beast wasn’t in the kind of mood to wait out the cryptic clues either.
Landon grunted in annoyance and started off on fast feet…
“Now, now… be nice… she just had a run-in with her mother.” Connor called after him, but Landon didn’t want to be nice, didn’t want to stand around and have a conversation. He wanted his mate in his arms, and now…
Before his bear decided to burst out from within him and hunt the female down… and that would be bad.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
Landon didn’t need the vampire’s help to find his mate. He’d followed the scent in the air that had led him right to her.
Gemma sat on the large rock where the dirt road travelled into clan land from the main road. She looked pensive as the alpha slowed to a mild jog – the closer he got towards her; the more his bear calmed within him, and he needed that now. He certainly didn’t need his bear all up in her face, dominant and miffed at her for leaving the cabin.
He had to remember that she was a female. One look at her body told him that, but there was so much more to it than just that…
He needed to remember that she had to be treated differently from the males in his clan. Not only female, but human… well, Fae, but still with different sensibilities to the male shifters, even the female shifters…
Damn, he hated being so damn dominant of will sometimes, like now, when he needed to connect with her. It was like dipping your toe into an alien world that could come back to bite you on the ass if you did something wrong…
She was his. His to love, to protect, and to hold until they were grey and old, and they died in each others arms.
He wouldn’t lose her over a damn misunderstanding.
“Going somewhere?” Landon called out.
He wanted to get that question out of the way while he was still far enough from her that she didn’t hear the growl within him.
“Thought about it.” Gemma admitted.
She could hardly see him in the dead of night. It was only luck that the moon was out and illuminated the area around them that she saw as much as she did.
She had heard his growl though.
“Decided against it?” Landon bit down on his growl this time. He was getting too close to allow that to happen.
“Decided I have a conscience, and I’m not my mother.” Gemma tossed back. He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but he had a notion.
“I appreciate that.” Landon said, eyeing her in the pale moonlight.
He could see her a lot better than she could see him, but that would only heighten the sensitivity of her hearing. He needed to keep his bear at bay.
“I didn’t do it for you…” Gemma shot back, and then caught her breath and shook her head.
“That’s a lie if ever I heard one.” He liked to say exactly what was on his mind unless he was teasing, and he wasn’t in a mood to tease her just then.
Landon stopped just short of the rock that she was sitting on. He watched her eyes take him in.
It was starting to feel a lot like midwinter up on the mountain and even a bear shifter felt the cold at that time of year, but there he stood, clad in a pair of jeans and nothing else, as if it was a mild spring day. His blood was on fire with the fever of fear, a fever that had gripped his insides when he’d thought that she had run on him again, and now, as he watched her sitting there, still on clan land; that fever started to dissipate.
“O-k-a-y.” Gemma brushed her hand down over the thigh of her jeans for want of something better to do and somewhere better to look than directly at him.
Him. The alpha. Standing there looking all God’s gift to woman; with those bulging muscles on display and his hair all messed up around his head – like he’d just dragged his backside out of bed or something.
Damn, but he was fine.
Fine for a shifter and fine for a man.
She felt the absurd urge to run her fingers through that greying hair at his temples… Then she felt the need to laugh at that urge.
“You gonna sit on that rock all night?�
� Landon asked.
“You got a problem with that?” Gemma kept flicking a look up at him from beneath her lashes.
He kind of liked the peek-a-boo effect of seeing her green eyes. He’d like it a whole lot more if she was lying beneath him and he was buried deep within her, and those eyes of hers were playing peek-a-boo because she was fighting to keep them open but enjoying herself too much not too.
Damn, but that thought made him harder than hell. He almost growled with need, but managed to catch it in time.
“Sure.” He nodded thoughtfully. Reached up and stroked his hand over the stubble on his chin. “Cos, see then I’d have to go get you a blanket, maybe two, three, possibly four. I’d need a shirt while I stayed out here to keep you company – unless I shifted into my bear, but he grunts a lot…”
“Ok.” She held up her hands and a small chuckle met the air around him. He liked that sound. “I get the picture. You weren’t being an asshole, you were being thoughtful.”
“Was I now?” He teased back and this time he got the full force of her gaze that almost knocked him onto his backside.
She was… he didn’t have words in his heart to describe it… like walking up to the top of the mountain and just as you get to the summit – there it was – the Aurora, right over the other side… breathtakingly beautiful.
“You were.” She offered back, with the cutest damn smile on her lips.
“I might have to work on that. Wouldn’t want people thinking I’d gone soft.” Landon grinned, but there in his eyes she could see everything. See the man himself. His gentler side. Right through the teasing.
“Just bite them in the ass.” She offered back and got a wider grin for her troubles.
“That include you?” He was teasing now. His playful side was exposed like a soft underbelly on a vulnerable beast.
“You wanna bite me on the ass?” Gemma chuckled. Then she arched her eyebrows towards him. “What kind of a woman do you take me for, alpha?”
“A fun one.” He offered back and got a decidedly dirtier chuckle back in return.