by M. L. Briers
And that was his first mistake…
Hank’s beast rallied within him at the sweet scent of summer flowers, and the sweeter scent of a very spicy mate in the air.
His mate.
CHAPTER FOUR
~
Hank felt his wolf rise to the challenge before them. A mate, and at his age!
He knew that Lark had jumped in with both feet, and that was good for him, but could he really do the same?
Hank knew his limitations in life, and one of them was sole ownership of the remote control. He liked that.
Sharing was caring, and he’d have no choice but to care for his mate … and … share…
Watching female movies…
Watching my cursing in my own cabin…
Not farting at the dinner table!
Not farting anywhere where she was, and she’d be everywhere, because she’s my mate…
Hell, it would be hell!
His wolf didn’t see it that way. The beast tried to push forwards, make its own claim on their mate because the man was being slow about it, but he slammed that cage well and truly shut.
Mine … The beast growled…
Not necessarily … Hank offered back.
You’d have to be nice too wolf.
No more flopping out on the sofa when you felt like it – not unless you wanted her to treat you like the family pet…
Rub behind your ears…
His wolf grumbled and growled, and he knew how much his beast would hate that. That was the whole point – taint the beast’s way of thinking and let himself off the hook.
Mine…
His wolf growled a warning within him … and he cursed the beast’s tunnel vision.
Yes, we’ve waited a long time for a mate, but, come on … a witch … a feisty, slightly grumpy one to boot?
Mine… The beast was adamant…
“Oh, damn it to hell!” Hank growled out.
Both Angela and Lark gave him a double take, and then stared at him as if he had a nut loose…
“You feeling alright there, sparkie?” Lark chuckled…
“Not … exactly…” Hank growled back as he dropped his chin towards his broad chest and looked anywhere but at Lark for fear that the man would clock on to what ailed him.
He certainly didn’t need to hear it from anyone else’s lips when he couldn’t bring himself to say it…
Mine…
“Had a little peeing accident?” Angela teased, and the man rolled his jaw and then his shoulders.
“That would be just peachy … but no.” Hank grumbled as he eyed the woman still walking away from them…
“Oh my Goddess!” Angela exclaimed; practically jumping on the spot as her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open… “Noooo?”
Hank’s eyes snapped towards Angela, and he grumbled a growl of annoyance. Lark growled a warning back at him…
“Watch who you’re growling at, old timer,” Lark sneered.
“I’m not growling at her…” Hank bit out, tossing up a hand in frustration at the situation that he’d found himself in.
Hell, I can’t pretend that I didn’t take the woman’s scent and found my soul mate on the end of it.
Can I?
Noooo.
That would be bad…
That would be like rogue wolf crazy…
Maybe, maybe not at my age.
I’ve lived a long, good life … maybe death isn’t so bad…
I can’t believe I’m contemplating death over a mate …
What the heck is wrong with me?
I’ve waited all these years for my mate to come along…
Now she has … now, when I’m set in my darn ways – there she is…
A feisty elder witch with an attitude problem and some real bad manners on her.
Wouldn’t you know it!
His wolf grumbled, growled, and clawed within him to be set free so that he could chase after their mate and make her theirs…
Mine… His beast growled once more…
I’m not deaf, nor am I senile …
I’m … thinking!
“What are you waiting for?” Angela said to the man and he shot her a dark glare on a sideways look…
“Hell to freeze over…” Hank growled back.
“What’s going on?” Lark grumbled, but when Angela turned to look at him, and she gave him one of her curious smiles.
“Think about it,” she teased, and it took him a moment, but finally he cottoned…
“O … ooo-ooo!” He spluttered a chuckle at the man’s expense.
“I find nothing funny in it,” Hank offered back deadpan, and with a dark glare that only made Lark chuckle harder.
“If I had a mirror then you could see funny!” Lark chuckled.
“This is my friend we’re talking about,” Angela reminded them, and Lark cleared his throat and pressed his lips together to stop the laughter…
It didn’t work.
He couldn’t contain it, not when he was still looking at Hank chewing on an imaginary wasp and sucking the bitterest of lemons.
“It’s just so poetic…” Lark grinned.
“Poetic my ass.” Hank growled as he, somewhat reluctantly, set off after the retreating witch.
He didn’t much see that he had a choice in the matter. He knew his wolf, and that beast wasn’t about to settle within him until he’d at least stated his claim on their mate.
Mine… The beast growled…
Ah, shut up! Hank grumbled back.
~
~
~
Fallon wanted to kick something, maybe even punch it – definitely zap it until whatever it was squealed, or squeaked, or made some damn noise that would make her feel better…
Instead she tried, and tried again to shift the long metal thingy that moved the tyre nut thingy on the wheel of her car, so that she could change the stupid tyre that the stupid witch had zapped, but, it was definitely all to no avail.
It just wouldn’t be moved.
To make matters worse, Fallon was the one who squealed as she put all of her weight behind pressing down on that metal rod, and she almost head-butted the side of the car when the rod slipped from the nut, and made a clanging sound as it hit the ground…
Fallon almost roared like a bear as she snatched it up, turned, and lobbed it through the air towards the woods … and right at the head of Mr Tall, Dark, and too damn sexy for his own good. Who, wouldn’t you know it, had great reflexes as he ducked and swooped to one side; letting the thingy go flying by…
“Oops.” She muttered, trying to sooth her last battered nerve as the man stopped in place and eyed her for a long moment with a mixture of annoyance and amusement as his steel blue eyes took her in…
“A flying tyre wrench, a woman who looks fit to kill, and a witch to boot … tell me, is it safe to continue, or should I just turn around and leave right now?” Jamie asked with a mixture of teasing good humour and a slightly berating tone to his gravelly voice.
“What can I say?” Fallon gave just a small shrug off her shoulders that he caught, but it was the slightly apologetic look on her face that let him know that his backside was safe … for now.
“That you won’t be picking up some other heavy inanimate object and throwing it at my head would be a good start – do you have any more tools on that side of the car, a crowbar maybe?”
Jamie watched her roll her eyes away from him, take a deep breath, and allow some of the tension within her shoulders to blow back out on that breath…
“Nope, it’s just me…”
“And your magic…” He offered back, testing the waters to see just how icy they were.
“And no unlock the wheel thingy, because I just threw it away…” She berated herself as she started around the back end of the car and headed in his direction.
The woman was a good height, five-five maybe. He liked that – it meant that he didn’t have to get too much of a crick in his neck loo
king down.
She had curves in all the right places, curves that would fit inside his hands rather nicely – he liked that too. A man could never get enough curves, and she a walk that would be very out of place on one of those model runways, because it was as sexy as hell, and she didn’t look as if she was going to fall over her own feet … but she still swung her curvy hips…
Yeah – he liked the look of this little witch a lot … and he could see himself spending a night in her company, doing things that consenting adults tended to do…
She also had that fiery temperament that witches had. Which meant that they weren’t into the not so cute, overly-cuddly, one date and she was writing your name in a heart with hers and wondering what to call the kids department … that was all good too.
But she also looked like she wanted to kill someone – so he knew to step easy with the woman and her magic, just in case that someone happened to be him.
“It landed just short of that tree over there. You’ve got a good arm.”
Jamie lifted his hand and pointed the way, and she veered away from him to retrieve the offending item that she’d need if she was ever going to make her escape from the Inn, and her grandmother.
“I might have put a little magic behind it – I can’t remember.” She admitted, and she couldn’t.
Her mind was anywhere but on the things that it should have been on – like getting the heck out of there before anything really bad, or annoying, or deadly, or just plain awkward happened.
Hell, I’ve just almost taken out a beta wolf shifter with a tyre thingy – how much worse could it be?
O, I really shouldn’t have said that, should I?
Let’s just tempt fate, because … you’re a witch and that’s what we do … not, well, maybe a little, but not the damn point.
I need to leave, and I need to do it without killing anyone.
Fallon bent at the waist and wrapped her fingers around the cold metal. The sound of a deep, somewhat hungry growl reached her ears, and she shot a sideways look of disbelief at the shifter.
Now she really did want to zap someone, and that someone was probably him.
CHAPTER FIVE
~
“That really wasn’t my fault…” Jamie said as he gave her something of a helpless grin, a small shrug of very broad shoulders, and a sexy wink with his right eye…
She didn’t look impressed.
“Don’t flirt with me – trust me when I say – I’m not your type,” Fallon offered back with a little bit of a death glare, and a whole lot of attitude as she snatched her body, and the metal rod, upright, and started back towards the car.
“How do I know that unless I try?” He offered with a teasing boyish smile, but that was no boy – that was definitely all man – a sexy, hot, shifter man that was the equivalent of playing with fire, and she didn’t want to get burned.
Jamie folded his thick muscles arms across his broad chest and regarded her with his best smile. She might not have looked impressed before, but he had charm, and he could always win over the ladies…
“Why would you try when you’ll lose?”
“It’s not the winning, although, that’s good too, but the taking part in a challenge and other things that can be fulfilling,” he lied.
He was a beta, a man, and a shifter, and a challenge meant winning at all costs. He’d spent his entire life living by that code, so why would he stop now?
She groaned inwardly at the thought that she’d just waved a red rag in front of a bullish man, and she hoped that it didn’t mean what she thought it might – game on.
Challenge accepted.
Wolf on the damn prowl…
“Knowing when to cut your losses and get out of my face is good too, don’t you think?” Fallon tossed back at him.
The man had puppy dog eyes, but that didn’t mean that he was cute and cuddly. She knew the wolf inside the man was deadly, but she had a way of handling deadly things, because those things had been there her whole life, and she was still around – that had to mean that she was doing something right.
But puppy dog eyes or not - she wasn’t planning on adopting any strays. Especially one’s that looked like him…
“Yeah,” he mulled that one over. “But…”
“No buts.” Fallon cut him off right there at the knees. She didn’t want to play anymore.
He would definitely be one heck of a complication that her life could not afford – Even if that one night might have been a damn good time had by the both of them…
Jamie grinned, and he offered her his best side while he did it. Then he gave her the drop dead sexy smile that he wielded with the ladies to stunning effect.
Panties dropped and women swooned, but again she didn’t look overly impressed.
“Don’t sile at me like that.” She tossed back. “I have a heart that’s encased in ice, and trust me when I say that you can’t bring enough heat to melt it, even a little.”
“Another challenge…” Jamie’s grin widened to full effect, and she had to admit, even if only to herself, that it was damned hard to pull her eyes from that sexy beaming smile of his…
She groaned inwardly. If everything that she said was going to be taken as a challenge by the man then she just needed to stop talking and start fixing her car.
“I have a car to kill – you might want to step back…”
She wielded the metal bar over her shoulder as she stalked back towards the vehicle.
Jamie was at her side in a heartbeat. He reached for the wrench, and the brush of his fingers against hers made Fallon pull back and shoot him a look that said she was fit to kill …
But that wasn’t his biggest problem …
Oh no – from the electric tingles that emanated from the skin to skin contact that ran over his hand, up his arm, and spread fast over the rest of his body – making every muscle clench, every inch of him hard, including his length that became instantly strangled within his jeans … he knew that he had way bigger problems than a witch trying to kill him…
Mine…
Jamie tried his damnedest to swallow down his heart when it got lodged within his throat.
His beast clawed its way towards the surface and he managed to hold onto it just below his skin, but he was almost certain that he could feel the prickle of his wolf’s fur along with those damn tingles…
Mine…
His beast asserted itself again. The wolf wasn’t best pleased that the man hadn’t stated their claim on her…
Jamie’s world spun around inside of his mind. There was so much to consider and yet nothing that was tangible, nothing that he could actually put his finger on – only the fact that now that he knew her, his life would never be the same again.
He mourned that thought…
Mine…!
Oh, boy did his wolf want out, and yet, the man himself considered turning tail and running in the opposite direction from where she was – running and never stopping … and he’d never ran away from anything in his life – except his alpha brother, Nathan, when the man got good a moody, but only because he liked his butt without the deep claw and fang wounds gouged into it…
Mine ….
Mine …
Mine!
Yeah! Jamie growled back at the wolf within…
I get it!
Ours.
Mine!
Bite the hell out of me and hold your damn horses while I think…!
“I’ve got this…” Fallon said, eyeing him as he stood there immobile with his hand on the metal, and his eyes narrowing on her by the second.
She wasn’t sure what his problem was – what she’d done, but he had a stupid look on his face – like he was constipated, but expecting touchdown at some time soon. That look was mixed with disbelief, and a big dollop of suspicion and surprise…
She could understand all of those feelings if the man had eaten a big old bowl of bran that morning, but otherwise, she wasn’t entirely sure what hi
s problem was…
“I…ve…mmm … your….” He sounded like his battery was low and someone needed to wind up his manual key … it was both annoying and frustrating…
“Just spit it out…” Fallon hissed back.
She didn’t have time for stupid – if she wanted stupid then she could get that anywhere, anywhere but not there, because she wanted to get right away from there…
Mine …
Mine …
Mine …
Mine …
Mine…
“Mine!” He growled out. “Damn it to hell! Mine! Mine! Mine! – There – I said it – Mine, are you happy?” Jamie growled as he took a small step back and waved his hands around in the air like he was trying to swat a hive full of bees…
“Nope… not really…” Fallon bit out as she watched the idiot at work doing more stupid stuff than she either cared or needed to witness…
Jamie dropped his hands to his sides and took a long step towards her, and Fallon wrenched her head back on her neck, and leaned her upper body back away from him …
Whatever he had, she didn’t want to catch it…
“Mine…” he growled; leaning his head in and practically touching her nose with his…
“You want the damn tyre thingy that much – take it…”
She tossed the metal bar at him, but his reaction time failed him, and he tried to snatch it up and missed…
It hit his toes a second or two later, and she saw that pain register on his face, as his eyes widened, then narrowed to little slits, and then widened again…
Jamie yelped at the same time as he growled, and she was kind of impressed that the man could multitask …
Then he lifted his foot, grabbed at it with one large hand, and tried to squeeze and rub through the toecap of his trainer, all the while; bouncing up and down like some sexy hot version of Tigger…
“Are you kidding me…?” He growled and grumbled, and yet he still bounced on one foot. “Why would you throw that at me?” He berated her on a constant growl…