by M. L. Briers
“That’ll keep them chasing their tails for a little while,” Natalie said as she tossed Saffy a look to make a follow her lead.
“If they want to act like dogs then they can behave like dogs,” Saffy offered back.
“What did I miss?” Rex grinned from ear to ear. He couldn’t help but wonder what the witches had done to his brothers.
Natalie waited until they were off the stairs before she spoke again.
“Maybe, you should go and see for yourself,” she offered that tempting morsel to the beta.
“I’d recommend taking pictures,” Saffy said. “For future generations to enjoy, of course.” She added, teasing the man even more.
Rex jumped to his feet. He checked his back pocket for his mobile phone and then took off up the stairs like a rocket.
“I need some air,” Natalie said as she fanned herself with her hand.
“Not a chance in hell — obviously, I wasn’t born yesterday,” the elder grumbled.
“Looks like grandpa could use a nap,” Saffy mouthed the words.
Natalie offered up the same spell that she’d cast over the alpha and beta upstairs. One moment the elder was glaring at them with suspicion, and the next his head nodded forward, and he was snoring.
“Let’s get the hell out of here before they bloody well wake up!” Natalie said.
“Right behind you,” Saffy agreed.
~
~
~
“Whoops!” Saffy hissed out as she grabbed a handful of Natalie’s jacket and wrenched her sideways towards the trees.
Every which way they had decided to go, so they encountered a member of the pack coming in their direction. It was getting tedious.
“We can’t spell them all,” Natalie grumbled in a low whisper that was eaten up by the sound of the wind blowing through the valley.
“Well, we could…” Saffy shrugged.
“We just need to catch a break,” Natalie grumbled.
“Preferably before our so-called mates wake up,” Saffy added.
Natalie felt a tap on her shoulder and yanked her head around in shock and something closely resembling panic. Busted.
There was nothing there, only snow, trees, and darkness.
“That’s not funny,” Natalie hissed in Saffy’s direction.
“Well the spell won’t last forever,” Saffy shrugged again.
“I don’t mean that — I mean tapping me on the shoulder,” Natalie grumbled.
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“I think I’d know where I’m putting my fingers, and trust me; I’m not putting them anywhere near you,” Saffy grumbled back. “You’re just being paranoid,” Saffy said as she looked around behind her at the vast empty space of nothingness.
“I’m not being paranoid,” Natalie scowled at Saffy.
It was all well and good playing games at other times — just not then.
Saffy felt the tap on her shoulder and whirled around in place. She turned to look at Natalie and narrowed her eyes at her.
“Nice setup — nice try — but we have bigger problems,” Saffy hissed.
“It’s not me!” Natalie protested.
Something buzzed by her ear, and she froze in place. Her eyes widened on Saffy.
“What?” Saffy asked, but then something buzzed by her ear as well and her eyes feasted on the area around her.
“It can’t be!” Natalie groaned.
“I think it might be!” Saffy grumbled.
They both felt the sharp sting of magic against their backsides and jumped in place. Saffy narrowed her eyes on nothing at all, and her top lip twitched in annoyance.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“I will hurt you!” Saffy grumbled.
“Don’t antagonize them!” Natalie warned.
“They started it!” Saffy ground out between clenched teeth.
Now was not the time to play silly buggers. It was one of the downsides of Christmas, and probably why most witches refused to celebrate in the human fashion.
“Then we should be big enough to walk away — and by big enough, I mean taller than a thumb,” Natalie said with an air of superiority.
“Now who’s agonizing them?” Saffy shot back.
“Well, they deserve it.”
‘You picked the wrong place and the wrong time — witches. Now we can have some fun.’ The sickly sweet voice sounded as if it came from all around them.
“Oh, you little thimble dwellers need to fly the heck out of here,” Natalie warned.
“Go back to your toadstools and let the grown-ups, and by grown-ups, I also mean tall people, perform mischief,” Saffy said.
“We do it so much better,” Natalie added.
‘Looks like someone needs to be taught a lesson in manners.’
A moment later and both witches were covered in the rush of snow that came off of the cabin roof and the tree that stood just behind them. Saffy shrieked in shock and annoyance.
“That’s it!” Saffy bit out.
“Let me at them!” Natalie grumbled as both witches shook themselves down as best they could, but the snow still clung to their clothes.
“I hate fairies!” Saffy would gladly wring their little necks.
“This is exactly the reason why you don’t do Christmas!” Natalie grumbled.
“This isn’t my Christmas — it’s the shifters Christmas. Why don’t they just take their annoying little selves off and ruin someone else’s day?”
“I see you’ve met our uninvited guests,” Rex growled.
The witches turned in unison to see the beta standing there with his arms folded across his chest and a very menacing look on his face. The time to escape had been and gone.
Unless they spelled the beta too.
“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” Rex growled.
He’d fallen for their tracks once already; it wasn’t going to happen again. Witches and fairies — what else could go wrong?
“I very much doubt that,” Natalie offered him a small smug smile.
“Oh, we’ve had years of dealing with your type…” Rex grumbled back.
“Our type?” Saffy asked.
“We’ve had to put up with the damn fairies!” Rex grumbled. Then he felt the sting to his backside and offered a long hard growl of annoyance.
“Well, doh. What do you expect?” Natalie tossed up her hands and rolled her eyes to the snow filled sky.
“What does that mean?” Rex asked.
“Your houses are lit up like the North Pole. All that’s missing is Father Christmas, some reindeer, and a sleigh.” Saffy expanded her hands and shrugged her shoulders.
“Your point?” Rex asked.
“Oh dear,” Natalie slapped her hand against her forehead in dismay.
“He really can’t be that stupid,” Saffy offered her friend.
‘He really is.’ Came the sickly sweet voice with an even more sickly sweet chuckle just to be extra-specially annoying.
“I heard that!” Rex growled.
‘Told you. Point made.’
Neither witch could help but chuckle as Rex growled.
“Damn fairies!” He grumbled.
“She has a point,” Natalie grinned from ear to ear.
“Well, would somebody make it?” Rex was fast running out of patience. In fact, he might have left his patience back at the cabin.
“You invited them in,” Natalie said.
“They’re not vampires — they’re fairies,” Rex growled back.
“Well — I have no words,” Saffy tossed up her hands in dismay at the beta lack of understanding the magical, mystical world of the fairies.
“Okay, follow me here, can you?” Natalie asked, but it was a rhetorical question, so she kept going before the beta said anything. “Twinkling lights — pretty — sparkly — why do you think they call them f-a-i-r-y lights?”
She raised her eyebrows and waited.
And waited.
“Oh.” The penny finally dropped in Rex’s brain. “Oh!” Really dropped. His eyes widened as realization took hold.
“Ker-ching!” Saffy said with a small shake of her head.
“Damn!” Rex grumbled and then grimaced. And they’d be putting up with the fairies and their mischievous antics for years.
“You brought it on yourself,” Natalie showed him no sympathy.
“You two are coming home with me!” Rex growled.
“Dream on,” Saffy snorted a chuckle.
Natalie raised her hand, but before she could recite a spell, she noted two shifters coming out of the snow toward them.
“Oh poop!” Natalie grumbled.
“Don’t let her get the better of you, brother,” the alpha growled a warning.
“I’m smarter than that,” Rex tossed back over his shoulder with something of a little chuckle at his brothers earlier predicament.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Natalie snorted her contempt for the man.
“Seconded,” Saffy added.
“Home. Now!” The alpha growled.
“You scratch our back, and we’ll scratch yours,” Natalie whispered into the snow. “We’ll leave a window open, so you can get indoors.” She informed the fairies.
~
~
~
“No more trickery — no more spells — and no more rhyming!” The alpha growled.
“You have no appreciation for good spell work,” Natalie huffed.
“She’s very good at her job,” Saffy offered, mocking the man.
“We noticed,” Jonathan grumbled and then sneezed. “Damn it, make this stop!” He sneezed again.
Natalie folded her arms and lifted her chin in defiance. Then Saffy mimicked her friend and did the same. Not that she could undo another witch’s spell, she couldn’t, but she could show unity, solidarity with Natalie’s stance.
“Don’t waste your breath, brother. It’ll wear off sooner or later,” the alpha informed him.
“I’d rather it was sooner than later,” Jonathan said and sneezed once more. He grumbled a growl at the elder and Rex when they both sniggered at his expense.
“Just stop talking — and you’ll stop sneezing,” Natalie said.
“Hey, Jonathan,” one of the she-wolves said in passing.
“Hey, Tia,” Jonathan offered back and then sneezed once more. “Kind of hard not to talk at a party,” Jonathan growled and sneezed again. He tossed his hands up in annoyance and let them fall to his sides in frustration and hopelessness.
The witches sniggered.
Jonathan knew one thing — if you killed the spell giver, then the spell was broken. That was tempting. The only problem with that was, he’d rather not kill his mate.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
“So, to get rid of the fairies, we need to get rid of the fairy lights,” Rex informed his brothers.
“Sounds good,” Doug agreed.
He was half paying attention to his brother, and half watching the witches to make sure that they weren’t getting up to any more mischief or formulating another escape plan.
“We’re not getting rid of the twinkling lights,” Tia’s harsh tone snatched Doug’s attention away from the witches and toward the small gathering of she-wolves that he hadn’t noticed had gathered.
“It’s the only way,” Rex offered back.
“We had a deal,” Macey said as she pinned him with her steely gaze and narrowed her eyes at him.
“We’ve been up to our elbows in cooking all day…” Stella grumbled, adding her voice to the unimpressed chorus line.
“I get that — smells good,” Rex nodded, trying to sooth their feathers, “but the fact remains…”
“The fact remains we had a deal,” Macey pushed her point home with a small, angry growl.
“Did you just growl at me?” Rex asked.
“I growled — if you want to take it personally…” She waved her hand absently in the air, dismissing his rank within the pack as a protest for what he was planning to do.
“You can’t make a deal, and then when you get your end of the bargain, snatch ours away,” Stella rushed out as she deflected Rex’s attention from her friend and the she-wolf’s lack of respect for his rank.
“That’s not what we’re doing,” Rex’s eyebrows drew down and almost together over the bridge of his nose, as he scowled at the she-wolves. “A little help here with the angry mob wouldn’t go amiss, Doug.”
Rex turned to look at his brothers, but neither one was paying him any attention. Instead, they were both staring off into the distance.
He followed the gaze, and there were the witches. He should have guessed that until both brothers were mated, they wouldn’t be much use for anything other than an attack on the pack.
“You said you wanted to take down the twinkling lights,” Stella folded her arms and nailed him with her angry gaze.
“I said they attract the faeries,” Rex grumbled back the explanation as any logical person would see it.
He was dealing with females – he needed to remember that logic went out of the window with the fairer sex.
“So, you want to take down the twinkling lights,” Macey shot back and expanded her hands on a shrug of her shoulders.
“It’s a solution to the problem,” Rex argued.
“It’s going back on our deal is what it bloody well is!” Tia grumbled and muttered under her breath.
“Okay, kind of — maybe,” Rex considered it for a long moment. “But don’t you want to get rid of the faeries?”
“What we want is to keep the twinkling lights,” Stella announced and the others nodded in agreement.
All of them looked angry, and all of them were directing their anger right at him. Of course they were, he was the bad guy, while his brothers were all dreamy eyed and silent mouthed as they gawked over at the witch mates. He sighed inwardly.
“Well, you can’t.” Rex decided that he needed to put his foot down with a firm stomp.
“Alpha!” The females whined as one.
Doug snapped out of it. He dragged his gaze away from the witches and raised his eyebrows towards the females.
“Huh?”
He’d lost the conversation that they’d been having with Rex somewhere along the way. But the females were whining and Rex was grumbling to himself, so he guessed that nobody was getting what they wanted.
“We had a deal. We get Christmas — you get a feast, right?” Stella asked, leading him down the garden path to where she wanted him.
The alpha immediately started to nod his head in agreement.
“Right…”
“We’ve been cooking all day, and the food looks good, right? Yummy tasty alpha sized treats, right?” Tia asked, leading him onward.
“Right…”
“Good food and lots of drink. We lived up to our end, right?” Macey asked.
“Right…”
“So twinkling lights stay, right?” Stella asked.
“Right…”
“Wrong!” Rex growled.
How like females to go behind his back to the top man. Especially, when the top man wasn’t even listening, but continually eyeing up his prospective mate.
Rex had seen their devious plot, and he wasn’t going to put up with it just because Doug’s little brain had taken over from his big one.
“Too late!” Stella grinned. “The alpha said they stay – so, they stay.” She offered a smug smile as a parting shot to the beta, as the group turned as one and strolled away.
He had to wonder how females always managed to do that in a timely fashion – that, and why they went to the damn toilet together. But the main problem here was the spaced-out alpha.
“Seriously?” Rex growled at his brother.
Doug tore his gaze away from the witches once more and growled back at his brother. He wasn’t sure why he was growling, only that the beta had growled to him first.
“Right…” D
oug offered, but when Rex punched him in the bicep, he snapped out of it and growled hard. “What the hell?”
“That’s exactly what I was going to ask you,” Rex grumbled out in annoyance.
“You want to share? Or shall I just rip off your arm and beat you to death with it?” Doug growled back.
“You didn’t happen to notice a group of females leading you around by the nose by any chance, did you?” Rex demanded.
Rex folded his arms across his chest and scowled at his brother. The beta berated him with a look, it was a look that Doug knew well, but it was usually saved for Jonathon.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Doug grumbled.
“You just agreed to keep the twinkling lights…”
“No, no I didn’t.” Doug gave a small shake of his head in denial. That would have been stupid, and Doug wasn’t stupid.
“Yes, yes you did,” Rex offered back.
He was trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice because the alpha wasn’t exactly himself. He was also trying his best to be supportive of his brother, as a good beta should, but he had his limits.
“I think I would remember doing something stupid as that,” Doug growled back.
“Then you’d better think back real hard, because you just did it,” Rex growled.
“I…” Doug paused as his eyes flicked back towards the witches. One was missing. “Wait…” Doug growled. His eyes flicked around the room, searching the crowd, but he couldn’t locate her. “Gotta go…”
“But — the damn twinkle lights?” Rex growled out after the man as he dashed off.
“Yes-yes, you’re a beta, deal with it,” Doug tossed back over his shoulder as he started for the one remaining witch that he could see.
“Unbelievable!” Rex growled.
“Where’s he…?” Jonathan eyed the alpha, and then he took off after him on fast feet.
“Damn — they better mate with their damn witches soon,” Rex grumbled.
“Oh, don’t you worry so much about those fairies,” Tom chuckled as he sided up to the beta. “I’d be more worried about those witches.”
~