by M. L. Briers
The moment that Darby pulled her magic back from the vampire he dropped face first against the ground. There was Karl, still clutching the man’s bleeding heart in his fist.
“Yuck — you’re disgusting.” Darby turned her nose up at Karl, and the vampire looked down at his hand.
“I thought you might like something to remember him by.” Karl grinned from ear to ear as he held the offering out to the witch.
“As I said — yuck — you’re disgusting.” Darby snorted in contempt for him. She turned on her heels and ran straight into the unyielding chest of her mate. “Geez, seriously?” She bit out, as she bounced backward, and felt Kent’s hands lock around her upper arms before he yanked her back toward him.
“Don’t put yourself in harm’s way again,” Kent growled.
“Don’t ever save your sister from a madman again, got it,” Darby said, as she shot a look back over her shoulder at Virginia, and the she-wolf chuckled as her mate growled.
“That’s not what I said,” he growled.
It was taking everything that Kent had not to shift into his beast. The vampire might be dead on the ground, but his wolf was still on full alert and clawing within him to be set free.
“That’s exactly what you said,” Darby argued.
“I swear…” Kent growled.
“And now you’re going to swear at me for saving your sister’s life,” Darby said as the light of mischief played in her eyes.
Kent caught that look that his mate was offering him. Anger flared within him for her good humor in the face of the danger she’d put herself in. He growled long and hard, bit down on a curse, and then he yanked her body against his and brought his lips down to hers.
The adrenaline was already pumping through Darby’s blood, but that kiss dumped our whole lot more into her system, and excitement flashed through every inch of her. It was a heady feeling, and she couldn’t say that she wasn’t enjoying it.
The next moment Kent had snatched his lips back from hers and put just an inch of air between their bodies. That she didn’t enjoy.
“It was the only way I could think of to shut you up,” Kent growled.
He hadn’t meant to kiss her like that in front of everybody. He’d wanted her to understand that he was trying to rein in his beast as much as anything else.
“You…” Darby felt the flash of anger as it fought against the rush of embarrassment, and she brought her knee up into his groin by way of pure instinct alone.
Her brain wasn’t thinking about the pain that she was about to cause him, it was centred on his damn words. If he wanted to silence her, then there were better ways.
As the agony registered on Kent’s face, guilt mixed with a strange sense of satisfaction inside of her. She didn’t know whether to cheer, or dig a hole for herself and climb in.
She was not only angry at him but angry at herself for liking that damn kiss so much.
“Well, that told him,” Clark chuckled as he watched his brother fall to his knees on the grass.
Kent’s hands cupped his balls, and a long whine of breath came out of his open mouth before he fell face first down to the ground.
“Harsh,” Karl chuckled.
“Deserved,” Virginia said. She could have high-fived the witch. In her opinion; her brother had got what he deserved.
“What is it with witches and knees?” Alf grumbled.
“That’s right,” Clark chuckled again. When he turned his amusement on the alpha, he got a warning growl back in return. Clark cleared his throat and bit down on his amusement.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Darby bit out before she grunted at her mate and stalked away toward the house.
“I think I’m really going to like having sisters,” Virginia chuckled.
“You,” Karl reached out, wrapped an arm around his mate, and pulled her close, “are never leaving my sight again.” He whispered against her ear.
“Sounds good to me,” Virginia chuckled.
“Well, I have a mate to woo, I’m not dealing with the dead guy,” Clark said, turning on his heels and stalking away.
“Don’t look at me,” Alf growled following his brother back toward the house.
“Looks like it’s down to you, Kent, when you’re not busy holding your balls anymore,” Virginia chuckle before her mate swept her up into his arms and carried her away.
Kent grumbled curses into the grass that were mixed with intermittent groans of pain. When he got his hands on his mate, he just might wring her damn neck.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
~
“We were watching from the window — nice job,” Joy exclaimed with excitement the moment that Darby walked back through the front door.
“Thanks for the lend of the magic,” Darby offered back.
“We also saw you kick Kent in the balls — nice job!” Harper bit out with just as much enthusiasm as Joy had shown about the vampire’s demise.
“Well, he shouldn’t have said that he only kissed me to shut me up,” Darby grumbled.
It was true that her guilty gene had kicked in on the long walk back to the house, but that didn’t mean that she was going to go back out there and rub his damn balls better. The nerve of the man, shaming her like that, and in front of everyone.
“Hey, don’t look at me — I can’t pass judgment, I’ve done the same myself.” Harper shrugged.
“I haven’t — I can pass judgment,” Joy said. “But if Clark had said the same thing then he probably would have felt my knee as well.”
“I’m going to remember that,” Clark said, walking through the open doorway into the hall behind Darby before he sidestepped her and eyed his mate with amusement.
“Good,” Joy tossed back.
“Was I wrong?” Darby turned her attention toward Clark.
The beta took a moment to think that one over, his eyes flicked toward his mate, and he gave a slow shake of his head. Even though it was funny watching his brothers get kicked in the balls by their mates, and even though he would not want it to happen to him, he wasn’t about to upset his mate by saying that it was a little harsh.
“Nope, you two girls go right ahead and kick my brothers in the balls anytime you see fit,” Clark said with a small shrug. “But you…” He turned toward his mate.
“I wouldn’t!” Joy bit out with disbelief.
“Good.” He folded his arms and offered Alf a smug smile as the alpha walk through the doorway.
“What are you looking so cheery about?” Alf growled at his brother.
“The vampire’s dead, Kent got kicked in the balls, what’s not to be happy about?” Clark tossed back.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Alf said. He turned his attention towards Harper. “I want to talk to you about earlier.”
Harper’s cheeks flushed bright red as she remembered the kisses that they were sharing just before all hell broke loose and he had dashed out of the house. Her body remembered it too, and the traitorous thing fired back to life with excitement.
~
~
~
“Look,” Harper said as Alf closed the bedroom door and turned toward her.
“You were right,” Alf spoke at the same time that she did.
“I was?” Harper said, confused. “Of course I was.” She added, even though she had no idea what he was talking about, but any point for the win was gratefully accepted.
“When we spoke earlier about equals…” Alf started, but she cut him off.
“Thor,” she couldn’t help but smirk, especially as the alpha took on a sour look.
“Let’s not rehash the whole Thor thing again,” Alf grumbled.
“It really is a sore spot for you, isn’t it?” She chuckled.
“No,” Alf said as he drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his chest.
“Good,” she shrugged, “in that case, I will bring it up as often as humanly possible.”
“That’s — annoying,” Alf growle
d.
“Oh, someone’s testosterone level just dropped through the floor,” she chuckled as the look of disbelief swept over his face.
Alf took one long step toward her, and she didn’t move an inch. She did, however, raise her eyebrows at him expectantly.
“My testosterone levels are just fine, thank you,” Alf growled.
“I’d say prove it — but that would mean cutting off my nose to spite my face,” Harper tossed back.
A moment later and there he was, right in front of her. Alf waited as her heartbeat thundered in his ears. When she didn’t make a move away from him or raise her voice in protest, he reached out one arm and wrapped it around her waist, pulling her to him before giving in to temptation and bringing his lips down to hers.
Harper felt that flash of excitement and it mixed with desire within her. As he deepened the kiss, her body went from standing still to running the race of her life in a heartbeat.
~
~
~
Darby’s rule of thumb was to approach men with caution, especially men that she’d just kicked in the balls. Not that she made a habit of it, but she couldn’t put her hand on her heart and say that it hadn’t happened once or twice before.
While Kent was highly unlikely to try to kill her anytime soon, she wasn’t sure that her presence would be appreciated either. The fact that he was a fast healer might have taken away the pain, but had probably had done little to take away the sting of the attack on his macho pride.
Kent was still licking over his wounds and tending to that pride. He’d enlisted the help of another pack member to dispose of the vampire’s remains because he didn’t trust his mate not to take off into the night while his back was turned.
“I shouldn’t have done what I did, but you shouldn’t have said what you said either,” Darby said as she tried to pacify that damn guilty gene that was jumping up and down inside of her.
“I was only trying to explain myself,” Kent tossed back over his broad shoulder.
He was standing by the wall that sectioned off the patio from the main garden, staring out into the darkness of the night, and he had yet to turn and look at her.
Mine…
His beast clawed within him. The beast had already forgiven her, of course, it had; it wasn’t the wolf’s balls that had taken her knee and felt as if its testes were lodged in its damn throat.
“You kissed me…” Darby tossed back.
“And that deserved a need to the balls? I didn’t realize it was a crime to kiss my mate,” Kent growled.
“No,” she snapped out.
Kent was confused. He turned to look at her and found her scowling back at him.
“You just thought you’d do it for the fun of it?” He growled.
“No!” She snapped again. “You said you only kissed me to shut me the hell up…”
“You never let me get any further than that,” Kent growled.
“So?”
“What?”
“Say it now — go further,” she demanded.
“I only kissed you two shut you up because my beast was going borderline insane over your antics with the damn vampire and you weren’t helping matters,” Kent growled.
“That doesn’t make any sense…”
“If you’d kept talking then my beast was in danger of bursting out from within me. I wanted to be flesh and blood and have you in my arms, not steering up at you from my wolf,” Kent growled.
“Oh.” Darby grimaced as she thought that one through. “Then perhaps next time you should lead with that.”
“Next time?”
“Next time.” She shrugged.
“You’re staying?”
“Does it look like I’ve stolen the keys from where your brother hid them, and am taking off down the drive in one of your trucks?” Darby shrugged again.
“Wait, you know where my brother hid the keys?” Kent grumbled.
“Is that really the point?” She chuckled.
“Yes — no, not really.” Kent allowed a small smile to take his lips. He had missed the point, but now he got it.
Darby was telling him that she wasn’t going anywhere. That was damn good to hear. Kent closed the distance between them.
“If I kiss you again will you kicked me in the balls?” Kent asked, but the light of amusement was in his eyes. Something that Darby was more than grateful for.
“Where’s the fun in me answering that question?”
“A challenge,” Kent growled, as his lips spread wide in a drop dead gorgeous grin that made the butterflies danced in her stomach.
“The question is; are you man enough to take that challenge?” She teased.
“I think I might be,” Kent chuckled.
When he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him — she gave him a small zap of her magic.
“Sure?” The look on her face was pure mischief mixed with one hell of a wicked smile.
“I think I’ll take my chances.”
Then he brought his lips down on hers.
There was no zap of her magic, no knee to his balls, and as he deepened the kiss, she wrapped her body around his like a vine.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
Joy stepped into the bedroom and Clark winced at the clutter all around them. His discarded dirty clothes were tossed over the back of a chair, there were a few empty beer bottles scattered around the sides, and his sheets were still twisted from last night’s sleep. He cursed at the mess.
“We’ll put on some fresh sheets, and this is where you’ll be sleeping,” Clark said, as he started to move around the room, busying himself with tidying up.
He couldn’t expect his mate to sleep in a dump of his making. He could sleep anywhere, but she was female.
“And where will you be sleeping?” Joy asked.
“Outside.”
“Outside in another room, or outside the house?”
“Right outside that door,” Clark absently pointed to the doorway.
“You don’t trust me?”
“You might need me.”
“To do what — kill a spider?” Joy shot back.
She didn’t like the fact that her mate didn’t trust her. She’d apologized for taking off with Harper earlier, and she thought he’d accepted that.
“If you need me to,” Clark offered back as he snapped up his dirty clothes and headed into the bathroom, tossing them in the wash bin.
“I need you to trust me,” Joy called after him, but he was back at the doorway in a heartbeat.
“I do trust you,” Clark said as he shrugged his broad shoulders, shoulders that spanned the doorway they were so wide.
“Obviously not,” Joy shot back.
“Because I’m sleeping outside your room?” Clark asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re my mate — and unmated mate — where do you expect me to sleep?”
Clark couldn’t understand her reasoning. He didn’t see a problem with that setup.
She would take his bed, and he would sleep on the floor outside. In his mind, it was a logical solution, and there shouldn’t have been a problem with that.
“Well, why don’t you just sleep at the end of my bed like a guard dog?” she tossed back.
“Okay.” Clark shrugged again. He noted the way that she’d pulled her head back on her neck in surprise, and it made him smile.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a problem around here with homicidal mice or something?”
“If we do then they’ve never bothered me,” Clark chuckled.
“I don’t think I like the idea of you sleeping outside the door.”
“I thought I was sleeping at the end of the bed.”
“Your…” She lifted a hand and motioned toward him; she couldn’t find the words, so she dropped her hand once more and didn’t try.
“Sexy?”
Clark was teasing her now. She could te
ll by the tone of his voice, the way his eyebrows had pinched together and turned upward, and the fact that his eyes were sparkling with laughter. She didn’t much appreciate the gesture, but he did look sexy like that.
“That’s definitely not what I was going to say,” Joy said as she folded her arms and tipped her chin up in defiance.
“But now that you’re thinking about it — you agree.”
“I agree that your male ego butthead is writing checks that your body can’t cash.”
“Ouch.” Clark chuckled. That sound was deep, gravelly, and it seemed to vibrate over her body — causing tingles everywhere that it went.
She had to admit, she liked the feel of those tingles, she’d like the sound of his chuckle, and she liked the way that he was smiling at her. She liked everything about him — almost — his ego left a lot to be desired.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“You can sleep outside the door.”
“Actually, I prefer the idea that you had of me sleeping in here at the foot of your bed.”
Clark was pushing his luck, he knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. His mate was so damn cute when she was teased.
“What?” She looked a little panicked at that suggestion.
“Okay, you’re right. The floor is a little harsh, what with me being your mate and all, I should sleep in the bed.”
“Oh, should you?” Joy snorted in contempt for the man and his damn ideas.
“You know, your mouth is saying something, but your body is saying something completely different?”
Clark took a slow walk toward her, and he noted that her eyes flicked down his body and snapped back up again to his face — hesitating only for the briefest of moments at the aching bulge in his jeans.
“I think you might be insane,” Joy rushed out.
She was panicking. He’d busted her good and proper, and she wasn’t sure how to dig herself out of that hole, or if she even wanted to.
Her traitorous body was more than prepared to throw her to the wolves — one wolf in particular — him. Joy knew that it was part of the mating pull’s design that she would be attracted to him — but the way her body was melting down on full overload was unexpected.