by M. L. Briers
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Fallon gave Jamie the kind of look that said; no matter what he did or said, she was going to respond in a negative way to everything. That was ok with him – he knew he had a job ahead of him to woo her around to his way of thinking … and what he was thinking was damn right dirty … but, he had no choice.
She was his mate.
His true love.
The one person who was truly meant just for him … he tried to think of that description as a good thing, but it seemed to be coming up a little bit lacking on that front.
A witch by any other name – including mate – is still a witch…
Snarky – zap happy – not someone to mess with at the wrong time of the month, because it wasn’t just the case of lock up all the sharp implements – oh no – she had her own internal power source of pain…
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Fallon’s eyebrows really did try to meet over her nose as she scowled back at her mate.
“Like what?” Jamie asked, titling his head to one side and narrowing his eyes as he considered it.
“That…!” She tossed up a hand towards him and he may have flinched a little bit, expecting something more – and his wolf berated him for even twitching…
“Saying that a million times isn’t going to help when I can’t see what that is … wanna give me a clue?”
“Like you’re not sure if I smell bad or something…” Fallon grumbled, offering him a partial death glare…
Mine… His beast liked the sound of taking her scent.
Jamie didn’t think it would be that easy. It wasn’t as if his mate was a shifter and would accept his advances … but still…
At his wolf’s insistence; he took a step closer to her, and she pulled her upper torso back away from him a little, and eyed him with a whole lot of suspicion…
“What are you doing?” She hissed.
Jamie eyed her right back for one long moment, sizing her up, waiting to see if she’d back up, give ground, and then, when she did nothing at all, a slow to boil smile started on his lips and caught her attention.
Even though Fallon didn’t want to look, told herself to look anywhere but at him – she looked, because there was no getting away from the fact that the man was damned attractive, and that smile was as sexy as all hell.
“I think you had a really great idea…” Jamie said, taking another step towards her; so that the toe of his trainer was practically kissing the toe of her shoe…
“Oh no, if you’re going to do something stupid – don’t you lay the blame at my door.”
“Define stupid,” he teased back, leaning his upper body in just a little, just enough to make her heart race as she tried to bend backwards away from him a little more – the trouble was she wasn’t that bendy.
The more that he leaned in; the more that she realised that she’d need to be double jointed in quite a few places to keep any real distance between them using that method of evasion…
But she’d be damned if she was going to give ground to him. It felt like she’d be selling her soul to the devil and taking her witchy pride by the scruff of the neck and kicking it out of the back door like a flea infested cat…
“Something that you are sure going to regret when I zap you up and down the damn mountain…” She hissed up at him – wanting him to know that she’d just given him his first and his only warning…
“Yeah…” he looked skywards for a moment and considered her words. “Sounds about right.”
“Right is wrong…” she warned.
“Not always.”
“But in this case…”
“I’d say taking a chance is worth its weight in gold.”
“Would you?”
“I would…”
“Then you are even more stupid than I gave you credit for, and trust me when I say that I gave you a lot of credit.”
“Noted.”
Jamie’s grin widened as he returned his eyes to hers, and she found herself mesmerised by the fact that they were darkening to black…
CHAPTER EIGHT
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Oh poop! That’s not a good sign…
I need tooo…
It was way too late for her to think of anything as a rush of excitement mixed with surprise shot through her body and made her head spin – he’d reached out, wrapped one, big, solid arm around her waist, and had yanked her towards him…
At first she thought that he was going to kiss her, but when he dipped his head to her neck, brushed his cheek against hers on the way to nuzzling between her neck and shoulder, and she’d felt that rush of air as he took her scent at source … it was so much more potent to her body than a mere kiss would have been…
Sniffing!
The mutt is sniffing me like I’m a prime side of beef or something!
I should zap him.
I should kneecap him…
I did threaten to do … something … anything?
He’s just sniffing … it’s not like he threw me down on the grass and tried to have his wicked way with me…
I bet that he’s really wicked in the bedroom…
If we even made it to the damn bedroom…
Wait… what am I doing?
Surrendering?
He’s taking liberties … he’s … sniffing!
Sniffing isn’t bad … at least, it doesn’t feel bad…
Feels pretty nice actually, making me tingle all over with his warm breath, his cheek against my…
Damn it!
Stop swooning!
I’m not swooning…
I am swooning…
I just met the … mate…
Get a grip.
You’re a powerful witch with magic that can toss a vampire at a tree and bring a damn wolf to his knees … but the question is; do I want to bring the wolf to his knees…?
“Ok!” Fallon squirmed just a little, but the squirming only made him tighten his hold on her and brought his hard length right up against her stomach.
Then there was the growl that rolled through his chest and got stuck within his throat was … it was as sexy as all hell.
“Time out!” Fallon bit out.
She felt his breath move upwards against her ear and her eyelids came down involuntarily as she savoured that jolt of excitement when it hit her womb…
“I haven’t had a time in yet … I think I’d have noticed. You’d definitely have noticed.” Jamie growled against her ear, creating more problems for the trapped witch as she tried to focus her mind less on all of the fuzzy goodness of having him that close and more on the fact that he was out of line.
She was bobbing in a sea of uncertainty, swooning where she had no business to swoon, and letting him take liberties when she wasn’t sure that she wanted them taken. Or put another way; he was wooing and she was letting him.
“Listen Mr,” she grumbled. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be wooed or not, but she certainly wanted the choice.
Fallon was finally able to get her brain to tell her body to lift her arms and palm his broad, hard, muscled chest. She tried to push, but once again she found herself distracted, and this time it was by the feel of those packed muscles beneath his shirt…
That’s not fair … why’d he have to be so damn irresistible?
No!
Nope!
I’m not having that…
Not irresistible. Nobody is irresistible. I just need willpower. Willpower and a backbone.
“Back off before I…” She found her backbone and a little willpower and managed to bite out the words.
Then she pushed just a little against that rock hard chest of his, but it was all to no avail as he lifted his head and mesmerised her with those black eyes of his again…
“Be nice,” Jamie teased.
“Nice is not in my damn nature,” Fallon hissed, determined to make it work, to keep up with the willpower and having a backbone to deny him, deny herself that fuzzy goodness that
he was creating.
Then, just as his eyes lowered to her lips and she saw that thought register in a lightbulb above his head; the one that said he was close to kissing her – she let him have it – zapped him a good one…
That good one was backed up with sheer determination on part and she felt that she might have overplayed her hand, just a smidge, just a noodle too far, as Jamie’s body locked up tightly around hers, drawing her ever closer to him, and giving her no way out.
Jamie felt the muscles in his body start to work without command – they locked in place, trapping his mate against him, and he knew that was a damn bad thing. If he squeezed her too tightly then she’d break, and a broken human, a broken mate, would rip his soul right out.
His leg muscles took to quivering under the weight of him that they didn’t seem to want to hold up anymore, and then he was falling downwards, but worst of all; he was taking his mate with him…
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Dorothy stomped through the downstairs of the Inn. She didn’t give a damn that stomping might hurt her hip, or put it out – she wanted to stomp and stomp she did.
It was how she was feeling inside and she needed to let it out before she popped an aneurism or something.
A mate … of all things … and at all the wrong times in my life when I could have been faced with a stupid man, doing stupid things, and wooing me – fate sucked…
I like that word – sucked – it’s good to know a generation came up with a word so apt to how I feel.
It sucks – he sucks – life sucks – being old really sucks – being … me … sucks!
Sucks – sucks – sucks – sucks – sucks!
Today certainly sucked…
Fallon turning up like that … accusing me of …
If only she knew the truth…
I should have made her listen. Explained it to her…
Instead I let her go.
That sucks!
Dorothy almost ran head first into Sarah as the woman appeared unexpectedly on fast legs from around the corner and made Dorothy pull up so that one or both of them didn’t get flattened on their backside.
That sucks too!
“Dot? Are you ok?” Sarah asked, pulling up short and sidestepping the elder just a little so that she didn’t risk knocking her down.
“Do I seem ok to you?” Dorothy grumbled.
“Nope,” Sarah offered back, giving her a teasing look, like a mother trying to coax a child into telling her what was wrong…
Dorothy huffed just a little and pulled her upper body as straight as she could manage to get it. Her back wasn’t what it once was, it had curved just a little with age, and she couldn’t quite make it to ramrod straight, but boy did she try…
“It’s everything, Sarah…” Dorothy finally let out. She lifted her arm and gave a small, absent wave of her hand, as she deflated a little…
“Well, a cup of tea and a good chat usually works for…”
“Wonderful! Tea and sympathy…” Dorothy bit back on the need to scream within her own mind.
Scream until every little bit of pent up frustration was out of her system…
Scream until people didn’t want to force feed her tea.
“Scotch and a patient ear to tell your troubles too?” Sarah offered back, going at it from a different angle entirely.
“Scotch sounds good…” Dorothy mumbled but she was cut short by the sound of a low growl of annoyance that rolled down the hallway from behind her.
“Not so damn slow for an old broad,” Hank bit out, and Dorothy groaned and then sighed.
“Hey, Hank … What…?” Sarah looked from Hank to Dorothy and the elder witch physically deflated a little under her gaze. She winced and gave her a sheepish look, and Sarah’s right eyebrow shot up on her forehead as realisation hit her… “Oh…” she said, letting her eyes wander of their own accord as she took the situation in and considered it.
“Indeed,” Dorothy grumbled.
“Oh … yeah…” Hank sighed.
“Well, that’s a turn up for the books,” Sarah wasn’t exactly sure what to say.
Dorothy had loved the idea of Angela finding her mate, and at her advancing years too, and Sarah loved that an elder could find love in the twilight of her years. But it seemed that faced with her own suitor, well, the woman didn’t seem overly impressed with the idea.
“A tragic love story written in the darkest recesses of hell…” Dorothy muttered, and Sarah had to press her lips together so that a snigger didn’t escape.
CHAPTER NINE
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The last thing that Sarah wanted to do was to offend Hank by finding amusement in the elder witch’s words. She quite liked the man, and offending him was definitely in the domain of his mate as he tried to woo her, and woo her he would. She was sure of that.
Hank was quite a good catch, and on a good day, which sadly wasn’t that day, Dorothy had a bright, sparkling personality that any mate should be proud of. She also cared deeply about people, and was as loyal as they came.
Sarah thought that the pair made a good match.
“Is it wrong that I second that rather vivid picture of events?” Hank offered dryly to Sarah, and a quick burst of laughter escaped her lips before she could contain it…
“Don’t drag me into this.” Sarah shook her head and teasingly berated the man…
“Oh, but where’s the fun of us all not suffering together?” Dorothy shot back.
That woman was just too on the ball, too sharp for her own good sometimes, and Sarah pressed her lips together once more.
“Should I feel offended?” Hank bit out dryly.
“You’d need a brain for that, dear,” Dorothy tossed out, refusing to look at the man.
“Ok, now that was an insult,” Hank grumbled.
“No, that was a statement of fact.”
Dorothy wasn’t feeling very generous and she saw absolutely no benefit in finding her mate or being nice to him for that matter – not when it seemed that the world was moving so fast that she felt as if she couldn’t keep up…
A Granddaughter.
A mate.
What next? She dreaded to think…
“You’re such a sweetheart,” Hank growled.
“And you’re a bumbling old fart … there, now that’s an insult.” Dorothy shot back.
“Thanks for pointing that out,” Hank growled.
“You’re welcome.”
Dorothy still hadn’t looked back at the man. She didn’t want too. She knew what the mating pull could do, she’d seen it happen to Angela, and she had no intention of letting that happen to her.
The man did have nice eyes and a genuine smile that had made her insides flutter. His voice was deep and soothing, and his growl, well, that did things to her that she hadn’t felt in a long time, and maybe any other day of the week she might have been as happy as Larry to feel that way again – just not right then.
“Isn’t finding your mate just…?” Sarah stopped talking, stopped grinning, and stopped drawing in a long, deep breath when both elders eyed her like she was about to shift into a she-demon and devour then whole. “Ok, well… forget I said anything.”
“Not hard for him – he’s senile with the attention span of a goldfish.” Dorothy hissed.
“Gee Gods, I wonder how much a full lobotomy would cost…” Hank grumbled.
“What did he say?” Dorothy barked at Sarah, as she cupped her ear and feigned a sudden attack of deafness. But from the look in the elder witch’s eyes, Sarah had the feeling that the woman had heard every word.
There was no way in hell that Sarah was stepping into that particular minefield.
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“I’m kind of guessing that you’re regretting your actions right about now,” Jamie said.
He’d managed to take his weigh off of his mate – just a little – the moment that she’d released her magic from him an
d his muscles had started to unlock. They weren’t yet back to normal, but he did what he could so as not to keep on squishing her.
Jamie’s beast growled and clawed inside of him, more than eager to get out. Miffed that it couldn’t…
Mine…
The wolf had tried to take advantage of the lack of ability that Jamie had to do much of anything, and it pushed forwards, trying to get to their mate, but he’d managed to cage the beast the instant that she’d let her magic snap back away from him out of a sheer sense of self-preservation.
“Say something stupid, why don’t ya.” Fallon bit out.
Yes, she regretted zapping him the instant that he’d started to collapse down on top of her. She’d warned him not to do something stupid, and yet, she’d been the one to put herself in the position of being trapped beneath his body, beneath his weight, and didn’t she feel like the village idiot when it had all gone so badly wrong?
She’d debated, for all of about ten seconds, the rights and wrongs of using her magic to toss the man away from her, and then she’s felt his arm still locked around her body, and she had to wonder if she’d just be cutting her nose off to spite her face … again, because where he went; she was sure to follow.
“In for a penny…” he said on a shrug and something of a wicked grin, “mine.”
Fallon groaned as she dragged her eyes away from him and grimaced at the thought. There was little doubt in her mind that her body was well and truly responding to him.
Her brain was kind of on board as well – but oh, how she hated to give up the ghost of the chance of killing him before she had to mate with the smug mug of a man…
That thought rattled around in her mind. It was just such a tempting option to her right then, and one she needed to keep simmering on the backburner.
Fallon felt that she had so much trouble on her plate that she really didn’t need to add to it with some big, sexy wolf shifter that fate had decided to throw in her direction like she should be grateful or something. She definitely wasn’t.
First there was her father dying and leaving her owing a debt to the damn vampire that wanted his pound of flesh, blood, and spells to pay it off.