by M. L. Briers
“Don’t need a swimming pool when we have the lake that runs along the back of the property…”
“We?”
Alana caught that one and he grimaced. He’d heard it the moment that the word came out of his mouth and he was kind of hoping that she didn’t pick up on it.
“Figure of speech,” he lied.
He’d never said we in his life. Not that kind of a we because he’d never had a reason to. Now he did – he hoped.
Watch what you say – don’t want to scare the woman before you’ve managed to woo her…
Damn, I’m usually the one who’s making sure that a woman understands that there can be no strings attached to a one or two night thing … now here I am using the royal we…
That’s pretty pathetic.
Just cook and keep your mouth shut – women like the strong silent type – or do they?
Does she?
Damn, this wooing thing is a minefield.
“What don’t you eat?” He called.
“I pretty much eat everything – apart from strawberries – nuts – citrus – not fond of garlic – beetroot is just evil – posh food doesn’t really appeal – sushi, yuck!”
“That’s a pretty big list of don’t eats to go with the claim; I eat everything…” he chuckled. “You eat meat, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank the spirits.” He muttered.
He didn’t think that he could live with the guilt of having a vegetarian mate. He could just imagine the kind of looks he’d get after his bear had been out hunting…
He heard the door close and looked up to find her looking over the boxes of movie’s on his shelves. She snatched a look at him.
“Guess you’ve got to do something out here all alone,” she shrugged.
“What makes you think I spend my time alone?”
“You’re in the middle of no man’s land…”
“People have cars and trucks … and those things hanging down you’re your body are called legs, out here we use them a lot.” He offered back, before he lowered a steak into the frying pan and that hot sizzle hissed back at him, boy did he like that sound.
“Shifter barbecues?” She grinned.
“Not everyone on the mountain is a shifter…”
“You got anything besides water to drink?”
Alana started a slow walk towards him and he liked it – liked to watch her coming to him like that, an expectant look on her face…
“Refrigerator.” He nodded with his head to the side, and she sped up a little.
His hard length twitched inside of his jeans as she gained ground, and he was glad that there was a counter in the way so that she couldn’t see just how hard he was for her. He didn’t want to put any pressure on her to think that he was expecting anything from her yet – he needed to woo her first, and woo her well.
And he would…
“That’s a big ass refrigerator,” she marvelled at the size of it as she strolled by him and he had the urge to turn around, reach out, and pull her body against his…
“I’m a big guy,” he teased again, hoping to gage her reaction this time, but her head was turned away. “But it helps in winter when the snows are down and it’s hard to get out.
“I like the snow,” she gave an easy shrug off her shoulders.
“Tell me that again when it’s five foot, or more, deep for weeks at a time.” He grinned.
Jethro felt her behind him, and his length twitched, ached with a need to be released from the confines of his jeans. She reached around him and placed a chilled bottle of beer down on the counter top and every one of his senses was reacting to her proximity.
Then he felt her body brush against his, soft breasts against the hard muscle of his arm and every inch of him wanted, needed to have her. She went up on tiptoe and her hot breath against the side of his neck made him shiver deep within.
“Isn’t that what a mate is for? Something to do in the winter?” She teased and he growled.
It was impossible for him to keep that sound in. That growl sounded hungry to his ears, and he only hoped that it didn’t sound the same to hers, he didn’t need her running off on him, because that would be damn bad.
“Shame it’s spring.” She offered.
“Barely spring…” he growled back.
Thoughts of being hold up in the cabin through the winter months with her went through his mind. He couldn’t stop those images if he wanted to.
Snow piling up outside, a roaring fire inside, and them, naked under a blanket in front of it … damn, was he as horny as a teenager now…
Control yourself – no drooling.
Hold onto that thought – don’t make a damn move.
You’re cooking – feeding your hungry mate…
I’m damn hungry too, but not for food…
This is harder than hell …
I’d rather take on a pack of bloodthirsty wolves … at least I’d know what the hell I was doing.
Wooing … that’s it … I’m wooing my mate.
Building a connection … a bridge between us … something that lasts longer than a night.
You can do this … she’s yours and you’re hers … just … woo.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“Doesn’t feel like snow in the air to me,” Alana teased back, as she dropped back down to her heels and walked back around the counter to the other side.
Jethro was elated at the fact that the temptation had been taken away from him. The urge to turn, bring her into his arms, and kiss her until she melted like the recent snows had done. But he was also left feeling frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t have what he wanted.
Not yet, but he would. He promised himself.
When she snatched a look at him; his eyes had turned jet black and he looked so hungry that she felt that jolt of excitement shoot straight to her womb. The man was sex on a stick and she wouldn’t mind licking him up and down in all the right places.
“Spring is for mating,” he said, and that gravelly deep tone was combined with a low, deep growl in his chest, and she was sure that she could feel it roll over her skin like a touch.
“Well, I’ll keep that in mind as it’s barely spring.” She tossed his words back at him and gave him her best wicked as hell smile, and it must have been a good one because he was practically drooling down his chin.
Ha! Sucker … she patted herself on the back for that one.
You can’t have it both ways. It’s either spring or it’s not … talk about backing yourself into a corner.
Alana turned away from him and took a slow stroll across the room back towards the patio doors. She could no more help the smile of satisfaction on her lips than he could help the growl that followed hard on her heels.
~
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“I – I don’t want to go home with you…” Andy frowned at the thought.
Her mind had been like a washing machine on fast spin after the accident, but now that she was starting to think clearly again, she wanted to be back at Nathan’s – crawl into bed, pull the duvet up over her head, and stay like that for at least a day or two.
“We’re not going home,” Elijah tossed back across the front seats. “Are you sure you’re not injured?”
“I’m fine…” She said somewhat absently as she stared out of the windscreen at the scenery that was just whizzing by in something of a blur. “Where are we going?”
“To Jethro’s cabin…” he grumbled another growl.
He could practically taste his brother’s blood on his tongue, and it was satisfying. Not as satisfying as it would be when he actually had the real thing – when he sunk his fangs into the man’s flesh and tore at it …
He was going to have his vengeance.
“I – Why? I thought you and your brother hated each other…” Andy bit out.
It had certainly seemed that way in the back of her Uncle’s store … the two of them going at i
t like they wanted to rip each other’s head off.
“He tried to kill you!” Elijah growled…
“Me?” She fidgeted in her seat. She was already a ball of nervous energy, but that just made her worse. “Why?”
“To win the land for himself…”
“I don’t understand…”
Andy shook her head, trying to think a little more clearly against the backdrop of confusion and the rush of adrenalin inside of her. She didn’t know what she’d done … didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
All she knew was that she was inside his damn truck with him and that wasn’t where she needed to be.
“Whichever one of us mates first gets all the land. Mine and his. If I don’t have a mate…”
“That’s not…” Andy shook her head again. “You people are brutal.”
“Not yet, but I will show him no mercy,” Elijah made her that promise.
“But how do you know?”
“How do I know what?”
“That it wasn’t an accident…”
“The vampire said the truck steered at you…” Elijah informed her and snatched a look at her to see her considering that information long and hard…
“But …” she didn’t get it.
“It was wolves…” Elijah offered her another piece of the puzzle.
“Wolves were driving a car?” She shot a look at him and he sighed.
“Wolf shifters were driving the car…”
“And he knows the wolves?” Andy asked and Elijah nodded.
“They live on his land, on his side of the mountain, and I won’t have them on my side because they are mutts of the worst kind.”
Elijah growled at the thought of those brothers. He’d have his vengeance there too…
“Let me out!” Andy turned and reached for the door handle and her sudden and irrational movement made Elijah panic.
His foot hit the brake and the truck ground to a halt, but Elijah was already reaching over her body to where her hand was wrapped around the handle…
“Do you have a death wish?” He growled out. Who the hell tries to exit a moving vehicle?
Andy snapped her head around and found his face right there in front of hers. Eye to eye, and she drew in a deep breath at the proximity.
“What?”
She was more than confused and had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Was he threatening her? It felt like it…
“Trying to open the door while I’m driving?” He berated her.
“Don’t growl at me!” She snapped back.
“What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t … I mean I was … thinking about getting away from you, from this, from whatever family drama the two of you have going on in your lives…” she spat out. “This isn’t my fight and I want nothing to do with it…”
“You’re my mate and he tried to kill you!” Elijah growled in disbelief. “That goes beyond drama…”
“All the more reason for me to go then.”
She wasn’t sure but that felt like the logical choice. Not that she felt logical … more like every emotion that she had inside of her was heightened to the point where she wanted to scream until she couldn’t scream a moment longer.
“I’m your mate…” He bit out in disbelief. Forgetting that she was human. Forgetting that she didn’t understand any of what was happening between them.
“You keep saying that…”
“I have to protect you,” he growled.
“And who is going to protect me from you?” She snapped back.
“That would be me…” Nash said from the other side of the window, and Andy’s head snapped around as her eyes took in the vampire and she pulled back just a little.
Elijah growled long and hard at the sight of the man…
“What are you doing here?” Elijah demanded.
“Protecting her…” He pointed towards Andy and Elijah’s beast clawed within him as it tried to push forward.
The bear wanted nothing more than to end the man. The beast within him roared at the insult.
“She’s mine…” Elijah growled.
“I’m not!” Andy shouted at him, pulling back the other way and pushing back into her seat. “Can everyone stop trying to damn well protect me!”
“That would be … awkward,” Nash offered back to the sound of another warning growl from her mate.
“I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to go to Jethro’s land. I don’t want to watch you kill him…”
“And you don’t want to die?” Elijah demanded.
“Not right now, no…” she hissed back at him as if the man had just grown another head or two.
“Then I need to kill Jethro,” Elijah said.
“What makes you so sure that he did what you said he did?” She demanded.
“What she said,” Nash offered from the other side of the glass.
“Why would the wolves attack you otherwise?” Elijah couldn’t understand how neither of them couldn’t see what was so damned obvious to him…
“I know your brother, probably better than you know him these days, and I don’t think he was behind this.” Nash shook his head, adamant. In fact, he’d bet his life on it.
“Then who?” Elijah growled.
“Just the wolves kicking off…” Nash offered back.
He didn’t have the answers that the man was searching for – it made no sense to him why someone would try to kill Andy, but he wanted to find out every bit as much as her mate did, because he’d sworn to Nathan that he would protect her. It might not have been the threat that either of them was expecting, but it was still a threat nonetheless.
“Unlikely,” Elijah bit out. “To coincidental, don’t you think?” He aimed that question right at the vampire.
“Maybe you pissed them off…” Andy shot a look at the man and watched as he scowled.
“Not recently…” He grumbled another growl.
“But at some point?” She asked.
“Many,” Elijah admitted.
“Then maybe this is the first time that they’ve had a way to get back at you,” she offered back and watched the man consider her words.
“No!” Elijah turned in his seat, gripped the steering in his tight fists, and shook his head. He had to go with his gut instincts and they led him right to his brother’s door – or they were about to. “I can feel this has something to do with my brother.”
“Female intuition?” She sneered.
“That’s…” Elijah growled in earnest. “Vampire, do not get in my way.” Elijah warned; a heartbeat before he stomped down on the accelerator and the truck sped away again, leaving the vampire standing there watching them go.
“Damn it to hell!” Nash ground out, reaching in his back pocket for his mobile and praying that between where he was and Jethro’s cabin, he could pick up just a little signal.
He had to at least to give the man a heads up or try to before Elijah got there all gung-ho for the fight of his life.
The man thought he was defending his mate, and the spirits help Jethro if Elijah unleashed his true beast.
CHAPTER TWELEVE
~
Alana ate heartily. In fact, Jethro had never seen a woman eat like a female should before. She practically devoured the food on her plate with gusto.
He liked that.
One thing that he couldn’t stand were the salad bunnies that munched on lettuce when they were ravenously hungry, and if they were left alone to their own devices would probably have attacked a cheeseburger with just as much gusto as she’d eaten her meal. He hated listening to the hungry sound that their stomachs made for the rest of the evening…
His mate wasn’t like that. She wasn’t putting on a show for his benefit.
“Okay,” she said; pushing her plate back away from her on the counter top and putting her elbow down to rest her chin in her upturned hand as she turned to look at him sitting beside her. “So, you can cook – but
what else can you do that well?”
Alana had a sinfully wicked look in her eyes and her tone was teasing, but Jethro knew exactly what else he’d like to do for her, to her, and with her, and he definitely did that well … at least, he’d never had any complaints in the bedroom department.
“I clean too,” he teased back. His voice was playful and his eyes were sparkling with good humour as he stared back into hers.
“A man for our time,” she nodded.
“I like to think that I’m … progressive.” He offered back.
“Or too tight fisted to pay a maid?” She grinned back.
“Little hard to get a maid out here even if I wanted one,” he grinned back. “But, now that you’re here – maybe you should do the dishes.”
“I thought I was a guest…” she offered back, enjoying their banter.
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
Jethro’s ears picked up the sound of his mobile phone vibrating. It bugged him, but he ignored it.
The sound of a fast truck coming up the track towards his cabin was something that he couldn’t ignore … and he listened hard to see if it sounded like a truck that he knew. It didn’t.
Damn, whoever that was had lousy timing, and he hoped that it wasn’t a lost tourist…
“Something wrong?” Alana asked – she’d noticed that his attention had wavered from her.
“Someone’s coming…” Jethro offered back.
“You have friends?” She teased again.
“Not one’s that I’m expecting,” he said, and curbed the need that he had to growl with the annoyance that rose up inside of him.
His phone started to buzz again, and again he chose to ignore it. He stood and turned towards the front door.
“I’ll be right back, feel free to start those dishes,” he offered back over his shoulder and heard her chuckle…
Yeah, he was winning the charm offensive with her.
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Elijah saw the door to Jethro’s overstated cabin open and he grumbled a growl. He’d like to burn the place down around the man’s ears and it would be a fitting burial for the man who wanted everything and had attacked his own kin’s mate to achieve it, and then ended up with nothing but a pile of ash around his dead body.