by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
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“You really are a girly – girl, aren’t you?” Doug grinned as he stood with his shoulder propping up the wall and his arms folded as he watched the way that Saffy took in the Christmas tree.
Her eyes were wide, and there was a childlike awe about her. He liked that a lot.
“Because I like pretty things?” Saffy asked as she shot him a look. She regretted it immediately — the man looked like sex on a stick.
He was leaning there, looking all Mr casual sexiness and easy charm with that smile — the smile that was on his lips and reflected in his eyes – the smile that made her pulse race.
Yep, she regretted looking.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like it,” Doug said.
“I didn’t know I needed your approval.” Saffy dropped her chin and berated him with a look.
“That’s not what I meant,” Doug offered back. He certainly hadn’t meant to put her on the defense again.
“And you don’t like girly things like Christmas,” Saffy offered back.
“I like watching you like it,” he shrugged. “I like the way the lights reflect in your eyes, and the way your eyes reflect how much you like looking at those lights.”
Doug didn’t know if he’d made himself understandable or not. He wasn’t good with words, not words like that — explaining himself in that way to a female wasn’t something he’d bothered honing.
“Oh,” Saffy said, almost speechless, as she quickly turned her attention back toward the tree.
She wasn’t quite sure what to say to that herself. It was kind of nice — kind of sweet — and not at all what she’d expected to hear from an alpha wolf shifter. Maybe grunting and growling, but his words had hit a nerve.
“I guess I don’t explain myself very well,” Doug grumbled.
“No, I like the explanation,” Saffy offered back, but she still didn’t look at the alpha. She couldn’t – sweet words were one thing, but add to that the whole Mr. Sex on a stick thing and…
“You did?”
“I did.” Saffy hated the fact that she wanted to – almost felt compelled to look at him, and yet, she knew that he was going to look even more Mr casual sexiness on a stick good to her eyes, and her brain.
She didn’t need her brain getting involved. Right then, she felt like it was just her body that got excited every time that she looked at him — and that was wrong — but in a good way.
She was confused. It was the mating pull. It had to be.
“And you like the tree.”
“I do.” Saffy felt the need to put a little teasing between them. “Maybe we could keep it up all year-round?” She sniggered to herself.
“Maybe — we…” Doug grimaced. He hated Christmas. But his mate liked Christmas, and she liked the tree. “Could, maybe, compromise?”
Then his brain kicked his backside into gear as his beast growled within him. His mate had said we could keep it up all year round. It was the we that had got him thinking.
Mine…
Doug tried to settle his beast. The wolf wanted to claim their mate, and he could understand that, but he also knew that he needed to woo her first. Woo a witch…how?
“Maybe fairy lights strung up around the rooms would be a good idea?” Saffy teased him some more.
“Maybe.”
Doug was fully focused on the fact that she was planning ahead, and those plans were centered around the cabin. Well, she could go right ahead and put those images in her mind.
At that moment in time, he didn’t really care what she asked for — if she wanted to paint the walls with damn stupid glitter that would have been okay with him too – just so long as she kept training her brain to think of them as mates.
“Maybe, something with feathers and tinsel?”
The need to chuckle was bubbling just under the surface, but she kept it to herself. She wished she could sneak a look at the alpha’s face; she’d lay good money on him looking constipated.
“If you like,” Doug offered back.
Saffy narrowed eyes on the tree and considered his words. Why would the alpha, who doesn’t like Christmas, be so readily agreeable to every silly demand that she was asking for?
Then a low, deep, hungry growl met her ears, and she shot him a sideways look. It wasn’t just his growl that was hungry — his eyes were hungry too.
It suddenly dawned on her exactly what was going on. She might have been teasing him, but she didn’t think that he’d taken it that way.
He’d said compromise — she’d been basically giving him a list of everything that she wanted in order to stay…
Oh boy! A sudden uneasiness gripped her.
What the hell did I just do?
Fairy lights — tinsel — did I just barter with my mate?
Oh boy — oh boy — oh boy!
The man is practically frothing at the mouth, well, not exactly frothing at the mouth, but I think he thinks that we just made a bloomin’ deal of some kind.
That’s bad.
Boy, does he look sexy when he’s on what he thinks is a winning streak? Stop with the damn sexy!
How do I backtrack?
Do I backtrack?
If I backtrack, then I’m admitting what I did.
Maybe, I should just ignore the whole thing, and hopefully, it will go away — who am I kidding? It’s never gonna go away!
I talk too much.
I don’t think enough before I speak.
Why is he giving me an expectant look?
Did I miss something?
I kind of want the ground to open up and swallow me whole.
Saffy jumped in surprise when a bauble fell from the tree and smacked her on the head. Doug reached out and caught it before it hit the ground. The alpha’s impressive reflexes aside; it was a wake-up call to her brain.
“I must, have knocked it — nice catch,” Saffy rushed out.
“Do you want to put it back on the tree?” He knew the females like to decorate the tree.
Saffy eyed his outstretched hand for a long moment. It wasn’t the thought of putting the bauble back on the tree that had her worried; it was the thought of her hand brushing his, and that whole needy rush of excitement that would tear through her body once more.
Dangerous.
“I need a drink!” Saffy sighed as she turned away from the alpha and the tree, and stalked across the room toward the kitchen.
Doug opened his mouth to speak — he had to wonder what he’d done wrong that time. He started off after her, tossing the bauble behind him at the tree, and not even grimacing as he heard it skirt down the branches and hit the floor.
Deep within the branches of the Christmas tree, one faerie elbowed the other in the ribs, and both offered each other scathing looks. Hiding in plain sight with their aura’s glowing like the fairy lights had been a brilliant stroke of genius on their part. They didn’t need to be detected so soon, but mischievousness was part of their DNA.
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~
“Oh thank God — wine!” Natalie exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen and practically tore the glass out of Saffy’s fingers before the rim touched her lips.
“Hey!” Saffy grumbled.
“Trust me, my need is greater than yours,” Natalie offered back.
“Not just wine — mulled wine,” Doug said as if they should be impressed by that.
“I don’t know what that is, but as long as it’s got a lot of alcohol in it, then it’s all good with me,” Natalie shrugged. Then she placed the rim to her lips and practically hoovered the alcohol down.
“Me either,” Doug shrugged. “But I’m told we have to have it at Christmas.”
“Well, whatever it was, it hit the spot!” Natalie said.
“I wouldn’t know,” Saffy offered back in a dry tone.
“Don’t get salty — I’m sure there’s more to go round,” Natalie turned her attention to the abundance of bottles tha
t sat on the opposite counter. “See, right there, and while you’re pouring yourself one…” She offered her glass to Saffy.
“Why don’t I just get that for you?” Saffy offered her back a sickly sweet smile.
“So kind,” Natalie chuckled.
“I suppose you think that’s funny?” Jonathan asked as he strolled into the room and questioned his mate with a just one raised eyebrow.
“Yes.” Natalie shrugged.
“I’m actually surprised you didn’t lock me in,” Jonathan grumbled.
“Damn, I knew I missed something.” Natalie rolled her eyes to the ceiling until Saffy elbowed her and she brought her gaze down to another glass of wine. “Perfect timing. That man is enough to drive anyone to drink.”
“Right back at you,” Jonathan grumbled.
Natalie sunk the second glass of wine in record time. Then just as Saffy was placing the glass to her lips, Natalie snatched it away and started on that one too.
“Wow, is there something I should know?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes.” Saffy nodded. “She’s worse with food.”
“Am not!” Natalie ground out.
“I still have the fork marks,” Saffy shot back.
“You stabbed your friend?” Jonathan asked in disbelief.
“It was with a fork,” Natalie offered back, all wide-eyed innocence, and she couldn’t understand why they were looking at her like she’d kicked a puppy. “And who puts their hand in the way?” She shrugged.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
~
“Maybe we should find a stocking for you and hang it…” Rex motioned toward the fireplace and the other stockings that the females had hung on that.
“Around your neck — really tightly?” Christie offered back with something of a sickly sweet smile, but her tone was dripping with acidity, and Rex more than got the message.
“I take it you’re not a Christmas, loving witch?” Rex looked as if he’d been sucking on a very bitter lemon.
“I’m a witch,” Christie offered back. “We don’t do Christmas.”
“Some of you do…”
“Look, if you have some Christmas hangup of your own, please don’t reflect that on me.” Christie offered a small shrug of her shoulders and a smug smile to her mate.
“I don’t like Christmas.” Rex frowned.
“See that great big sparkly, glittery, twinkly, gaudy, thing over there by the wall — that says differently,” she tossed a look towards the tree.
“That’s a female thing,” Rex offered back.
“And how many females live here?” She challenged him with a hard stare.
“She got you there,” Tom chuckled.
“This is where we have the Christmas party,” Rex explained.
“So, no females? You live here with your brothers?”
“Jonathan and I both have our own cabins — but we were planning to spend the night here in our old rooms.”
“Oh, you have your own rooms,” she chuckled. “For a moment there I was picturing you all in one bed, snug, with three pairs of feet sticking out the covers at the bottom, you know – having one last sleep before Christmas.” She babied him.
It didn’t help matters when the vampire and the elder were spluttering chuckles at her words. Rex sighed.
“My, that is a pretty picture to imagine,” Jake chuckled.
“Maybe little Christmas hats with bells on the end on their heads,” Christie offered the image that her mate didn’t appreciate.
“Pointy elf slippers on their feet?” Jake snorted laughter.
“Why are you still here?” Rex growled at the vampire.
“Oh,” Christie looked shocked. “Did he touch a nerve?” She grinned.
“I do not have pointy elf slippers,” Rex growled.
“But you want some,” she offered him a look of sympathy and babied him once more.
“I do not want pointy elf slippers,” Rex growled. His beast was unimpressed by the teasing as well.
“Maybe some reindeer antlers with bells attached?” She couldn’t help herself.
“I’m good — thanks,” Rex bit out on a dry tone.
“Beta’s — no sense of flare or adventure,” Jake chuckled.
“Go home, vampire,” Rex growled.
“Why are you picking on the vampire?” His mate asked, and he shot her a curious look.
“He’s a vampire,” Rex said as if that answered the question in full.
“So you’re racist against vampires?” Christie offered back.
“Vampires aren’t a…” Rex had to think about that for a moment. “Okay, they are a race — kind of loosely meeting the criteria — but I’m not racist about vampires.”
“Just a little prejudiced?” She asked narrowing her eyes at him, and he suddenly felt under the spotlight of her gaze.
“What? No!” Rex bit out.
“Well you seem to have a problem with — him,” she teased.
“I feel — oppressed,” Jake milked it for all that he was worth.
“That’s because he’s — him,” Rex couldn’t understand what she was getting at.
“And you don’t like him — do you?”
The tone of her voice made Rex feel as if he was doing something wrong. The vampire seemed to manage to get in enough shots against him over the years, it was just how it was between them, and it was just how it had always been.
Why did he suddenly feel so guilty under his mate’s scrutiny?
“He’s a vampire — what’s to like?” Rex growled back.
“Do you see what I have to live with?” Jake slapped his hand against his chest and bowed his head slightly. At the sound of Rex’s angry growl, he shot a look at the man from under his brow and grinned from ear to ear.
“I will kill you,” Rex growled.
“And now death threats,” Christie tossed up her hands, shook her head in dismay, and walked away from her mate.
Rex couldn’t see the big beaming smile that spread across her face, but Jake could. The vampire offered her a smirk in return.
“Boy, did you just get done like a kipper,” Tom chuckled.
“He’s a vampire,” Rex said in disbelief.
“Yes, I am! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings too,” Jake chuckled.
~
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~
When Doug followed his nose to his mate what he found wasn’t a good sign. Saffy was in his bedroom staring out from the window at the winter wonderland that any child would be thrilled to see when waking on Christmas morning.
While it was true that she wasn’t a child, nor was it Christmas morning, it was the fact that she didn’t look happy that was his biggest worry. That needed to change.
“They say; let it snow, right?” Doug offered and noted the way that her shoulders tensed slightly at the sound of his voice.
“They sing it too. Looks pretty — it would look a lot prettier from my bedroom window,” Saffy lied.
Her bedroom window looked out onto the back of an old cobbled shed, hardly the same view that she had right then of the valley with its rolling countryside, pine trees, and the cabins with their pretty Christmas lights lighting the snow.
“Even if I had a mind to drive you home, you couldn’t go home tonight in this,” Doug said.
He wouldn’t risk it. If it was just him making the journey that would be different, but to drive through a snowstorm with his mate in the car would be neglectful of everything that he stood for. Keeping his mate safe was his top priority.
“I know, and I’m not asking.” There was a time and a place to be stubborn, and she didn’t believe that this was one of them.
Saffy didn’t like driving in snow, and she wouldn’t ask anybody else to do it either. Being a passenger was just as bad in her book, so yes, for better or worse she was stuck where she was — they all were.
“You know, I’m not the big bad alpha that you expect me to be,” Doug tried to explain, but that wasn�
��t exactly true.
He was the big bad alpha when it called for it, but sometimes it wasn’t necessary, and he welcomed those times when he could just be a normal man. Well, aside from the whole shifting into a wolf thing.
“I know that too,” Saffy said, and his words sparked a small fire within her.
She’d heard what he was telling her loud and clear, and what he’d said as they were standing by the Christmas tree. Those words kept coming back into her mind — pinging around and tapping against subconscious for attention.
He’d been sweet, and she didn’t know if he knew it at the time or not, but those words had left a mark too.
“So, you don’t think I’m a — wolf — with a sore head?”
Saffy shot a look back over her shoulder at him — probably not the best thing to do when he was standing there looking hot, sexy, and the fantasy man from any woman’s really good dream.
Another little spark of excitement ignited within her, and she tried to bash it over the head with a really large stick, but it wasn’t going anywhere, and she knew that.
She also knew that she needed to get used to it. He was her mate — sure, in the grand scheme of things that probably meant way more to him than it did to her right then — but she did know that it meant to be mates.
Fated mates.
One true mate.
One true love.
Forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
~
This is crazy — what am I going to do, turn my back on happiness?
Fate says; here’s your mate, Saffy. What am I going to say? Thanks, but no thanks.
Fate’s wonderful Catch-22 — you can have your mate now and a lifetime of love — or turn your back and never find love again.
Gee, choices — choices.
Look at those damn eyes — sexy as hell — every time I look into them I get lost, and that’s not just because I have a bad sense of direction.
Sure, he’s an alpha. Enough said. But I’m a witch and not the easiest person to get along with, apparently — according to Natalie.
It would have been nice to have some warning, a little heads up, you hear me, fate?