by M. L. Briers
Her heart was already pounding against her ribs, and the look on his face gave her body that fight or flight reaction — it was leaning towards flight. She was determined to stand her ground.
She heard one thud of the footstep outside that door, panicked, lifted her hands, and snapped on the lock.
“You know that little lock is not going to keep him out, right?” Clark chuckled.
The beta had watched it all, and he’d tried hard not to howl with laughter at his brother’s plight. But he also knew that Alf had a breaking point, and the witch might just have tipped him over the edge.
“Do you want putting outside like a bad kitty as well?” She snapped at him like a crocodile going in for the kill.
“Hey, it’s a warning, but if you two don’t like your back door as much as you obviously didn’t like your broom closet door…”
“He wouldn’t!?” Harper exclaimed as her eyes widened and she slowly turned her gaze back toward the door.
Harper gritted her teeth at the sudden screeching that sounded like nails down a chalkboard. Her mind flashed through images, trying to conjure up a match to that sound, and when the realization hit home — claws against the woodwork — her heart pounded against her ribs with both little fists in the hopes of getting free and saving itself.
“Oh, he would,” Clark offered back with relish.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Harper rushed out all on one breath; she lifted her hand snapped off the lock, and flung open the door before he could rip it off its hinges.
There he stood, the alpha, his jet black eyes glared at her, his chin was low and almost touching his chest, his shoulders were tense and as wide as the door, his hands were clenched into large fists hanging at his sides, and his broad chest was puffing out, rising up, with each deep breath that he drew in through his flared nostrils.
He looked like a man on the edge, and if it was the edge of a cliff then she might have pushed him over, but Harper had to question if she really wanted the man to go berserk in her kitchen.
“I shall call you happy,” Harper said and watched as he blinked twice at her words. “I think it suits you.” She folded her arms, tipped her head to the left, and eyed him from head to toe and back again.
“What?” Alf growled.
He’d been all set to go at the back door with his claws and rip it off its hinges. In fact, he’d been quite looking forward to it. Then she’d opened the door once more, and he was deciding whether to kill her or not.
Now, she was talking gibberish, and his brain couldn’t quite compute it. He had to wonder if his mate was all there in the brains department or if she really was bat-shit crazy. The jury was still out on that one, but he thought it was leaning towards a guilty as charged verdict.
“Don’t you think that’s fitting, Joy?” Harper asked.
“Very,” Joy shot back.
The alpha’s eyes flicked from one to the other and back again; it appeared that both witches were… Cuckoo.
“Tell me this makes sense to you,” Alf asked his brother.
“Oh, it makes sense to me,” Clark chuckled back.
“Really?” Alf tossed him a look of total disbelief.
“No,” Clark chuckled harder, “but I’m enjoying the spectacle.”
“Butthead,” Alf muttered as he dismissed his brother and turned his attention back to his mate. He still needed to decide if he was going to kill her or not. It would certainly make life easier for the both of them.
His beast rose up within him. The wolf was not happy even considering the thought of hurting their mate.
The damn beast was going to try to push out, but Alf wasn’t about to let that happen, and he slammed that particular cage door shut.
Mine…
“I’m not happy…” Alf growled.
“Oh, the irony of that statement,” Harper said, and Joy sniggered beside her.
“I’ve decided not to kill you. Instead, you’re coming home with me,” Alf growled.
“Oh no, please kill me. I mean, you said you would — you can’t go back on your word now, right? Isn’t an alpha’s word like a platinum guarantee, or something?”
Harper was trying to keep a straight face even with Joy making stupid spluttering sounds of laughter beside her. As for Clark, well, he wasn’t much better.
Alf rolled his eyes and grunted in annoyance. He got the distinct feeling that he really wasn’t going to like having a witch for a mate – especially not a sarcastic one.
~
~
~
Darby was free from her mate’s clutches. Not that it did her any good. At that moment, she was walking through a barely-there town, trying to find a way to scam a lift out of town and away from her mate.
She’d already brushed off Brogan thanks to the beta, and now she needed to brush off the beta, but there was never a taxi, car, bus, train, caravan, or horse — when you needed one.
It was looking as if she was going to have to walk out of town on her own two feet. That wasn’t a good plan, she got tired even thinking about it, and if she actually had to do it, then she didn’t think she would get very far under her own steam. Nope, she needed another plan.
And there it was. It was pretty, in a monster–beast kind of way. It looked like the fastest way out of town, and also out of place in its surroundings. She guessed it belonged to a tourist because the road that she’d come in on wasn’t exactly sports car friendly.
Darby didn’t know much about cars, but she did know about pretty, shiny things that were valuable — and that was a pretty, shiny, valuable thing. It was also as fast as hell, and there was no way that the beta’s pickup truck would ever have been able to keep up with it, should he give chase, which she doubted he would because what he didn’t know about he couldn’t chase.
That old chestnut, you’ll have to catch me first, sounded good to her. And unlike running around the department store, she was sure to lose him in a super fast monstrosity.
She had two choices — the owner of that had to be male, and if she was lucky then there was no female with him — so, she could sweet talk him into a ride. But, that took time, patience, skill — which she had — but, it would be much faster, and easier just to enact choice number two and steal it.
The moment that Darby took a step towards it so something supernatural pinged against her magic shields, warning her of danger that was closer than she’d like it to be, and she froze in place and searched for what supernatural being had come onto her radar. In a shifter town, it wasn’t as if…
Darby groaned inwardly. It didn’t take much of a search to find him — standing there with a smug grin on his face as he eyed her back like he knew what she was thinking — which he probably did because he was a damn vampire and they had that annoying mind reading trick.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire, she hoped not, but what were the odds?
“Nice car,” Darby started the conversation. He might have been a vampire, but perhaps he could be persuaded to give her a ride out of town for the right incentive.
“Yes, it is. No, you can’t. Don’t even breathe on it,” he confirmed what she had already been thinking — he’d read her mind. She hated it when vampires did that; it made the art of surprise that much harder.
“What would it take?” Darby offered him her best wicked smile, and he snorted like a pig.
“Three guesses.”
“Blood — blood — blood…”
“Wrong!”
Darby needed to think that one through. What kind of a vampire didn’t want witch blood?
“You prefer to drink from men?” She asked.
In truth, he needed to think on that for a moment, but when it hit home what she was asking, he rolled his eyes to the sky.
“I never used to care much either way — tasty is tasty – but, I found my mate…”
“Congratulations,” she might have said it, but they both knew that her heart wasn’t really in it.
“Back at you,” he offered, and that smug smile was getting smugger by the moment as she groaned inwardly, not that it did her much good, if he was reading her mind then she couldn’t hide anything from him.
“And your mate would be…?” She had a horrible feeling.
“Pack,” he smiled.
“So, you’re here to…?”
“Keep an eye on you.”
“So, you’re what they call a dogsbody.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
Alf hated the idea of the witches sitting together in the back of the car, putting their heads together and coming up with schemes and cunning, dastardly plans. So, now they were sitting boy girl, boy girl in his pickup as he drove back towards pack land.
It had taken some persuasion to get them in the car in the first place, part blackmail, part temptation, and some out-and-out lying on his part that he was going to camp out at the foot of his mate’s bed until she agreed to visit pack land with him and see those boxes being made for herself.
Of course, divide and conquer was always a great tactic to employ with females, and getting Joy onside had sealed the deal. Then there was the fact that he had no damn intention of driving her back home, at least, not anytime soon, and probably only to pick up her things.
He might not have wanted a witch mate, and she might not have wanted a shifter in her life, but fate had deemed them mates for a reason, and she might not see it yet, and for him it was a case of the blind leading the blind, but he figured that he had to try and woo her.
He was a big enough man to admit, to himself, that he was no saint, and he didn’t have all the answers to life’s mysteries, well, this was one of those times when he was prepared to trust in fate. There was more to him than being an alpha, and he had to assume that she was more than just a poisonous keyboard, devious, mischievous witch…hopefully.
“Oh look, shop,” Harper said, lifting a hand and motioning, Alf started to slow the car in case she requested that they stopped for something she needed. “I bet they sell mouthwash and deodorant.”
Alf grumbled as he pressed down on the accelerator. Perhaps it wasn’t just on the keyboard she had a toxic personality. He had to wonder if fate had a brain fart, and then he thought of something else, and one side of his mouth turned up in a sly smile.
“What the…?” Harper said with a scowl, she sniffed and turned her nose up at the smell. “What the hell is that?” She spat out, reaching for the button to lower the windows, just as Alf flicked on the child locks.
There were noises from the back of the cab; his mate was jabbing at the button like her life depended on it as she covered her nose and mouth with her other hand.
“Oh…” Joy coughed. “That’s disgusting.”
“Who did that?” Harper hissed, still jabbing the button. She shot a look at the alpha, and there he was, smug smile, chest puffed out with pride, and laughter in his eyes.
“Open the damn windows!” Joy demanded as she jabbed the button beside her and her mate did the same on his side. A splutter of laughter escaped Alf’s lips.
“You farted!” Harper’s face showed utter revulsion.
“Chewy, right?” Alf teased, shooting her a look of pure enjoyment at her predicament.
“Open the bloody windows,” she hissed.
“Please,” Joy bit out from behind her hand.
“It’s a little potent, brother,” Clark chuckled.
“I just wanted to take my mate’s mind off mouthwash…” Alf chuckled.
“I’ll shove a damn air freshener up your backside if you don’t open these bloody windows,” she hissed back.
“I feel another fart coming on,” he grinned at her as she pulled back with horror.
“Don’t you dare,” she snapped.
“Please, Goddess, don’t,” Joy begged.
“Have a heart, Alf,” Clark chuckled.
“I had beans for breakfast,” Alf lied, but he did it well. He even wiggled his eyebrows at his mate.
“Windows,” Harper snapped.
“Say something nice,” Alf teased her.
“What?” she bit out.
“Don’t question it, just bloody compliment him on something,” Joy hissed.
“No,” Harper snapped back.
“You’re looking a little green there – you should see if they are remaking the Wizard of Oz, you’d be great.” Alf couldn’t hold onto his laughter.
“Harper…” Joy hissed.
“Nice… fart,” Harper bit out, and the alpha’s chuckles annoyed her so much that she really would love to slam his head against the steering wheel, if only they weren’t driving.
“Open the damn windows,” Joy begged, and the rushed of fresh air when all four windows rolled down made both women shove their heads outside the car and gulp in the freshness, or as fresh as it could be while driving through farmland.
“I never thought I’d appreciate the smell of cow poop,” Joy grumbled.
~
~
~
“Well, what do we have here?” Virginia said as she strolled up beside the vampire, eyeing Darby from head to toe like she was a rack of lamb, and put a hand on the man’s shoulder to claim him as hers.
“Your…mate?” Darby already knew the answer to that one.
If the she-wolf got any closer to her man, then she’d be wrapped around him like a vine. The she-wolf lifted just one eyebrow.
“And your new sister-in-law,” Karl said.
“A witch,” Virginia sighed.
“Darby.” She didn’t mind the witch tag, but for some reason, she was feeling a little twitchy as if she’d forgotten to turn the oven off or something.
“I’m Karl, and this is Virginia…”
“Virginia?” It was Darby’s turn to cock an eyebrow. “Virginia…wolf…”
“That’s a touchy subject,” he pretended to whisper, but the flash of anger in the she-wolf’s eyes already told Darby that.
So, there was the first chink that she’d found in the woman’s armor – it was good to know that she had at least one to be working with, it could come in useful at a later date.
“Well, what sort of a name is Darby?” Virginia snorted.
“The alpha’s name is Alf…”
“You’re kidding, right?” Darby didn’t know if the vampire was pulling her leg or not. “Alf the alpha, Virginia wolf…did your parents blame you for something and wanted to get their own back?”
“It gets better,” Karl assured her.
“Can’t get any worse.”
“Her other brothers are Clark and…”
“Kent!” Darby spat out a chuckle. “Wow, I thought my parents were screwy.”
“Do you want me to play tic-tac-toe on you?” Virginia growled.
“Only if you don’t mind me playing pin the tail on the wolf with a chimney,” Darby offered back.
“Catfight!” Karl grinned. “We need a paddling pool and mud!”
“While that sounds like fun, I have something to do, but next time,” Darby said.
The last thing that she needed to be doing was wasting time with her mate’s sister. She was looking for an out of town ride, and time was of the essence before that beta was done fixing his tire.
“Let’s go girlie shopping,” Virginia said, and her eyes flashed with determination and the slightest hint of amusement.
“I’m not really into that whole, getting to know you thing, so you go right ahead,” Darby shot back.
“Tough, Kent said to…”
“Keep an eye on me?” Darby knew what was coming.
“I think his words were, don’t let her skulk out of town like a devious witch…” Virginia lied.
“Harsh,” Karl frowned. “He wasn’t that mean, close, but not quite that mean.”
“Well, this devious witch can do as she damn well pleases, but you look like you could use a day at the salon, so go right ahead.” Darby heard the rumble of the growl that came her way, and she di
dn’t much care.
The woman wasn’t about to go all fangs, claws, and fur in the middle of town, and if she tried anything, Darby’s magic was at hand, in more ways than one, to put her down and keep her there.
Admittedly, she didn’t really want to take on the Hound of the Baskervilles and the vampire at the same time, but, if needs must then, she would.
“Easy, Ginnie, we don’t want to scare the humans,” Karl reminded her, and the she-wolf chewed that one over for a long moment before she snorted in annoyance.
“Somebody needs a lesson in manners,” Virginia growled.
“Yes, you do. Just don’t forget those beauty treatments.” Darby offered back, turning on her heels to make a quick getaway from the duo, and walking into the hard, broad muscled chest of the man-wall that had been standing right behind her.
Damn!
Busted.
“I didn’t think the words; play nice, would need to be said,” Kent offered down to his mate as she rebounded back away from him.
“Well, you might have told Chewbacca and Count Duckula that,” Darby shrugged, and felt a modicum of satisfaction when his sister growled again. “She has no impulse control,” Darby said, leaning in and whispering, knowing full well that all three could hear her just fine, but she liked the fact that she could get on the she-wolf’s last nerve.
That information could come in useful.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“I’m gonna…” Virginia made a move towards the witch, but her mate threw an arm around her waist and hoisted her back against him. Locking her in place, Karl had to resist the urge that clawed within him to have a quick snack on her exposed neck.
“Let’s get you home before you start world war three in the middle of town,” Kent grumbled.
“Home is where the heart is. Sadly, that’s not the destination where you’re headed,” Darby said with a sympathetic look up at her mate.
“Huh?” Kent was confused.
“I already have a boyfriend,” Darby lied, but she did it well, even remembering to plant that seed in her head as if it was the truth for the vampire’s benefit, just in case he decided to read her thoughts.