by M. L. Briers
“Elijah, we should go back…” Andy said, and the woman sounded nervous, but he had tunnel vision from the moment that he saw his brother step out onto the porch.
Elijah ground the brakes and pulled up short of his brother’s shiny truck. If his mate hadn’t of been sitting there beside him then he might just have rear ended the damn thing.
His brother liked the good life. Liked fancy looking cabins and shiny new trucks, and he thought it little wonder that the man would want both of their lands to be able to pay for his expensive tastes.
The moment that the truck stopped; he was booting open the door and climbing out to face his brother.
“Why the hell are you on my land?” Jethro growled out.
If the truth of it was that his brother had already mated then he didn’t want to hear about it. Not now – he had some wooing to do.
He could rightly lose his home, his land, and his birthright, but the one thing that he wouldn’t lose was his mate.
He made a damn good living with his furniture business, and it making that furniture kept him and his bear sane to boot. He could afford to start up somewhere else, but without his mate by his side – he’d go crazy bear, and that wasn’t going to happen.
“Fight me…” Elijah roared out, flicking down his claws and allowing his beast to push just under his skin.
“Have you gone crazy bear already?” Jethro growled out, and for one long moment, the sight of the vampire’s car tearing up the track behind Elijah’s snatched his attention, and that was when his brother attacked.
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The roar of rage that came from within Elijah focused Jethro’s attention right back on the man that rushed towards him. Jethro flicked down his claws as he started towards his brother.
His mate was inside the cabin and if Elijah had gone crazy then he would kill him before he got a chance to get anywhere near her…
Andy pushed open the door to the truck as her wide eyes took in the sight. The two behemoths were headed straight for each other, claws out, with roars that scared the hell out of the birds and did little to still her heart from hammering within her ears…
“Stay right there and don’t move,” Nash ordered her – and from the look that he gave her as he rushed by towards the men who were now taking swipes at each other – she could see that he was deadly serious.
Andy’s attention snapped towards the woman that ran out of the front door of the cabin. She looked as lost and just as worried as she felt…
“Enough…!” Nash yelled at the two of them, but neither man was listening.
Punches flew, claws swiped, and Andy could see the bloodied cuts that appeared on Jethro’s shirt. She didn’t doubt that Elijah had the same kind of wounds on him.
It wasn’t as if either of them were ducking the blows…
Nash rushed into the midst of the fighting and tore the men apart. He tossed Elijah across the way – the shifter hit the floor with a bone jarring thud that caused Andy to take a step forwards out of instinct.
With his other hand the vampire hit Jethro in the centre of his chest – knocking him backwards through the air to where he landed with the same kind of impact that his brother had.
Andy gasped in the first breath that she’d taken since the fight had started. On the porch – Alana did the same…
“Don’t make me get my fangs and claws out,” Nash spat out – looking from one man to the other. “Stay down or I’ll put you down.”
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Jethro growled and then spat out a mouthful of his own blood.
“His mate was attacked and he thinks you did it.” Nash ground out, keeping an eye on both men for any sudden movements. “And if you’d answered your phone you would have known that already.”
“Is he insane?” Jethro growled.
“And how would you be if it was your mate?” Nash tossed out, and his words gave Jethro pause for thought. He grunted.
“I will kill you…” Elijah growled, pushing back up to his feet, battered and bloodied, but more than ready to go at it again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
Nash was in front of the man in one blink of Andy’s eyes. Elijah growled long and hard … his bear was up for the fight and right then he was ready to take on the vampire and go through him to get to Jethro.
“Read my lips … hold your damn ground,” Nash wasn’t playing around. Right then and there; he was more than ready to put either man down to stop the insanity of what was happening if that was the only choice that he had open to him.
“I didn’t attack your mate. I’ve been here…” Jethro growled out…
“No, you had the wolves do it…” Elijah roared as the image of his mate – in that one moment when he’d heard the sickening thud of the car hitting a body had sounded out, and she’d been flying through the air – lodged within his mind.
Those heart stopping moments of helplessness. He never wanted to feel that way again and the one way to be sure that he never had to; was to kill those that had sought to harm her.
No matter what the cost.
“You are damn insane…” Jethro growled back, incredulous at the accusation, and insulted that his brother would think him capable of something so dishonourable. “If I was going to kill someone it would be you – not a human female!” He roared.
“Think about it…” Nash demanded of Elijah. “Your damn protective gene is overriding your brain…”
“Back off, vampire…” Elijah growled with a snarl.
“You might hate your brother … but do you really believe him capable of this?” Nash ground out.
Elijah’s top lip quivered with the rage that fired through his blood like a fever.
“Yes!” Elijah roared.
“No!” Jethro roared back. He took one step and lifted his hand, pointed a clawed finger at his brother. “I’d come for you!”
Elijah roared once more, turning in place and swiping at the air with his claws as frustration rushed through him…
His bear wanted to fight – wanted justice…
“I believe him…” Andy said, tossing up just one shoulder, and all eyes turned towards her.
Elijah took just one step in her direction and twisted his head on his neck. His eyes narrowed to jet black slits within his face as he stared back at her.
“What? I do…” She frowned. “Why would he…?” She asked her mate before she turned her attention towards the vampire. “He’s the charmer brother, right?”
“In … a … way,” Nash offered back. He was mindful of Jethro’s mate standing on the porch listening in.
“There you go then,” Andy shrugged again. “He didn’t need to kill me off, he just needed to get her panties off.” She tossed up a hand towards the porch and heard a chuckle of disbelief come from Alana…
“That’s a …” Alana rolled her eyes towards the sky and frowned. “Nice way to put it.”
“Why waste time scheming against you?” Andy offered to her mate and the man bit down on his anger as he twisted his head in the other direction.
Nobody said a word.
“I’m sorry – is my volume turned down? Can you not hear me?” She tossed up her hands.
“I’m with her…” Alana said. “He was pretty charming … not to the point of my panties dropping anytime soon though – just for the record.”
Andy grinned back at Alana. Then she tossed up a hand in the woman’s direction again.
“See,” she shrugged once more as she turned her eyes back to her mate. “I know logical reasoning escapes the male brain, but still…”
“That’s…” Elijah bit down on his need to kill someone. “If not him then who, because those two miscreants couldn’t find a brain cell between them?” He demanded.
“I’m new in town,” Andy shrugged. “But I’d say seek the why to find out who.”
“Huh?” Elijah tossed back.
“Motive,” Nash bit
out, slapping the man on the back and nodding in agreement.
“Maybe getting us to try to kill each other?” Jethro offered with a sneer to his brother.
“What would that do?” Elijah demanded as he glared at his brother.
“I’d say why on the day when you both found your mates…?” Nash offered. “There has to be a connection.”
“And suddenly everyone turned into Miss Marple,” Alana muttered, before she turned on her heels and went back into the house.
“I’d say we go straight to the source,” Nash said and Elijah nodded.
“Wait,” Jethro said. “What if it’s not just your mate that they want to kill?”
“Then perhaps you two should put your differences aside and work together…” Nash said.
Elijah and Jethro glared at each other across the open space of the field.
That sounded like a damn bad idea. They couldn’t even be in the same room without wanting to kill each other…
“I’ll go with you, Nash should stay here and look after our mates,” Jethro said, but Elijah grunted at the thought of trusting the vampire…
“Now you don’t trust me?” Nash said. He didn’t need to read the man’s mind to know exactly what he was thinking.
“He saved my life…” Andy reminded her mate.
“You want to stay with … him?”
“Not so much…” Andy admitted. “But I’d rather not be dead either.”
“I’ll protect you,” Elijah growled.
His bear didn’t like where this was going. He would rather cut off his own paw than fight with his brother at his side, especially after the last time.
“You still blame me after all of these years.” Jethro growled. “You left…”
“I will not have this conversation with you again.” Elijah roared at the memory. It still made him sick to his stomach to remember that night.
“Somebody wanna clue me in?” Andy looked to the vampire and the man opened his mouth, but Elijah’s head whipped around and his black, rage filled eyes warned the man off.
“It’s not my story to tell.” Nash offered – unusually diplomatic in this case.
“We’re leaving.” Elijah stalked towards his mate, and it was only then that Andy’s eyes took in the extent of the damage that his brother had inflicted on him.
“Oh my…” She started towards him, her hand outreached, but Elijah’s large hand snagged her wrist and caught it mid reach.
“It’s healing…” Elijah’s growl was a little gentler for her.
He used the hold on her wrist to spin her towards the truck. Took her with him as he stalked towards it, and wrenched the open door wide to stash her safely inside.
Andy didn’t protest any of it, but as she sat back in the seat; her eyes took in the bloody slash marks of his shirt, and up his neck to the four long red welts that run down his skin.
He noted her concern, and in a way he welcomed it. It meant that she didn’t hate him – that she didn’t think him worthy of his wounds the way that he did.
“Elijah…” Jethro bit out.
“If you truly had no hand in this then just protect your own mate and I’ll protect mine.” He growled as he slammed the passenger door and stalked around to climb in the driver’s side.
“There is no talking to that man when he gets like this…” Jethro growled out, watching his brother pull the truck into a U-turn and head back off his land.
“A stubborn bear – heaven forbid.” Nash muttered with a smirk for his friend.
“You’re sure it was the wolves that attacked his mate?” Jethro’s beast was still embedded in his voice as Nash nodded.
“So damn sure I can taste them on my fangs already,” Nash offered back.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“What happened between you and your brother for the two of you to hate each other so much?” Andy asked as she watched the countryside fly by them with her mate driving like the storm winds back across the land.
“It’s a long list.” Jethro didn’t want to rehash the old wounds that still festered within him.
His beast was still just beneath his skin – so much so that he could practically feel the fur. He needed to calm the beast, put it back in its cage now that he had no one to fight with only his mate beside him.
“Start with the fact that you left…” Andy said and saw the grimace that took his features, twisted them, and she was certain that she saw pain etched in there somewhere.
“Let’s get home…”
“That’s deflecting,” Andy shot back.
“Yes,” Jethro agreed. He hadn’t spoken of that night in many, many years, and he didn’t much want to either.
Andy nodded. It seemed that the man wasn’t about to share, and there wasn’t much that she could do with that. He had a stubborn set to his jaw and it annoyed her.
“Fine. Take me home to Nathan’s, but I will find out…”
“Nathan’s?” The deep scowl that dropped his eyebrows down over his eyes got a hell of a lot deeper.
“You said you were taking me home.”
“That’s not home,” Elijah growled.
“Oh no!” She shook her head. “I am not going home with you.”
“That’s exactly where we are going. I need to protect you and I can’t do it at Nathan’s.”
“You’re serious?” She tossed up at hand in frustration when he shot her a sideways glance and she could see just how serious the man was. Too damn serious. “Of course you are.”
She sighed as she pushed back into her seat feeling like everything was just totally out of her control.
She couldn’t stop someone wanting to kill her.
She certainly couldn’t stop Elijah from wanting to protect her.
If she went home then she’d be putting Nathan in danger…
She resigned herself to the fact that she was caught up in the middle of something that only the man claiming to be her mate could deal with.
Neither spoke again as they headed back towards his cabin on the other side of the mountain.
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“Are you going to help him?” Alana asked as Jethro stalked into the cabin, peeling the remnants of his torn shift off over his head and exposing the red welts of the healing wounds to the air.
Jethro grunted at the thought.
“Help him how?” He chucked the remains of his ruined shirt at the nearest bin and continued on through the house towards the bedroom.
His bear was still clinging on just under the surface. The beast didn’t want to go back into his cage quietly, not when their mate was close…
“Help him to protect his mate – what if they come for her again?” Alana balked at the idea.
“What if they come for you?” Jethro turned back towards her at the sound of her feet suddenly stopping behind him.
He probably shouldn’t have said that. One look at her face told him that his first instinct was right – he should have kept that thought to himself.
“Why would they come for me?”
“Why would they go after Andy? She’s been in town long enough now that if someone had a grudge against her then they could have done something about it before Jethro found her as his mate.”
That’s what he didn’t get. News sure did travel quickly around a small community, and faster on the mountain. But that seemed as if it was damned fast – and who knew about the mates in that short space of time?
Unless the wolves had overheard something – but why hadn’t anyone picked up their scent?
Nothing made sense, and he guessed in a roundabout way he could see why his brother had thought that he had something to do with it. Even if that was the worst – most screwed up thing that his brother had ever accused him of…
“What happened between the two of you?” Alana asked and saw his expression change.
“I’m gonna take a quick shower.” Jethro offered back. “Alana, don’t leave
the cabin.” He warned and she took a moment to consider it, but she nodded back her agreement.
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Andy didn’t wait for Elijah to get the door to the truck and open it for her as he’d told her to, and by the time that he stalked around to her side; she was slamming it shut, and none too gently.
Then without a word or even a look in his direction; she was stalking off over the uneven ground towards the cabin. Elijah ground his teeth together and took in a deep breath as he followed on behind her, right on her heels, scenting the air for anything that shouldn’t be there and eyeing the terrain for any sight of the wolves.
Night was closing in fast, and he wanted to say something to her, but he wanted her inside those four walls before he did.
Being out in the open left them vulnerable to an easy attack, and from the angry look on her face – talking to her wasn’t going to be a picnic.
Elijah caught her wrist just as she reached for the door handle, and he yanked her behind his back and kicked open the door – scenting the air and listening hard for the sound of a heartbeat from inside…
All he heard was the hard sigh that she blew down her nose.
He flicked on the lights and brought her inside with him, keeping her at his back just in case he’d missed something along the way.
He was trying hard to focus on everything around him, and yet, her very presence was a big distraction that he could ill afford if there was to be another attempt on her life.
“Satisfied, or do you want to put on tinfoil hats and check for aliens in the closet?” Andy bit out.
She didn’t like that he was keeping secrets. Maybe not secrets exactly but he’d done the two step around answering her questions as they travelled back in the truck.
Family was family and if there was a reason that he didn’t trust his brother then she wanted to know about it.