by M. L. Briers
“Given any more thought to who we should consider a suspect next?” I would have tossed up a hand but I didn’t think I could get my nails out of the padding of the seat.
“Go see the elders, they might know.” I mumbled. The witch cottages were the closest place to where we were and I knew I’d be glad of the reprieve from his driving. I might even kiss the damn ground when we landed safely.
~
I found the need to flex my hand after my white knuckle ride in the truck with my mate. My fingers had cramp as the tendons tried to relax, but were still sort of stuck in that claw like shape from gripping the seat. I shook it off and reached up to knock on the door. Just as my knuckles went to hit the wood; so the door swung open to reveal… no one there.
“Margo?” I called out into the cottage and heard the happy chatter coming from one of the back rooms.
“In here dear, the broom told us you were coming.” Margo’s kindly voice sung out with amusement and Hawk frowned.
“A talking broom?” He looked a little perplexed and I wanted to roll my eyes at his lack of knowing.
“Brooms fall over when company is coming.” I offered back to him to see if it rang any bells. His blank look told me it didn’t.
“Oh.” When Hawk’s frown deepened I knew he’d lost the plot. Still, I guess this was my domain now and I knew he’d better watch his step with the three wicked witches of Ley Cove, because these old broads could be snappy.
“Just… don’t say… anything.” I pushed inside and could feel him behind me. My body hummed just to piss me off further and the heat from his body felt good, but annoyingly so…
“Well hello, and what do we have here?” Margo eyed my mate from her perch at the end of the table. Her eyes glistened with the mischief that all three of these women possessed in spades, and she looked as pleased as punch to see him, in an I-could-eat-you-right-up kind of way that put my back up from the get-go. Damn, the green eyed mating monster had arisen within me…
“He’s a big one.” Judith announced with glee as her eyes took him in from head to toe and back up to his… package… Her smile widened and I sighed inwardly. For three old ladies; they certainly didn’t act their age.
“You brought us a present, dear, how thoughtful.” Felicity announced with even more glee than the other two put together and I had the urge to claw her eyes out… Hawk moved fast. One moment he was at my side and the next he was doing the rounds and flashing that sexy smile at each witch in turn.
“You heard about Marmaduke?” I asked trying to keep my irrational temper in check. I didn’t even like the guy… yet, well, not totally; he was a good kisser and he had a great body, handsome and sexy to boot, but he still pissed me off in ways that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
“Yes.” Margo answered and drew my attention back to the three of them. She had a faraway look in her eye, maybe even a slight expression of regret as she shook herself out of it. “Marmi and I didn’t really see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, including magic, and yet it was a terrible thing that happened.”
“It could have been one of us.” Felicity offered, always the most dramatic. In a different life her and Marmaduke would have made the perfect couple, of that I had no doubt.
“No…” Margo shook her head. “We don’t really mix in those circles.” She added on a frown.
“And what circles would those be?” Hawk asked and Margo shrugged her shoulders.
“Vampires, shifters, Goblins…” She started to reel off half of the damn town. That really narrowed it down, not. “His magic could be somewhat… darker than ours.”
“Yes, quite.” Judith agreed and leaned in as if it was a big scandal and she started to hiss out a whisper. “I’ve heard that some of those… artefacts that he keeps in his house are very dark.” She really did hiss out the last part as if Satan himself might pop up at any minute and challenge her.
“So he practiced dark magic for these vampires and shifters?” Hawk caught her attention again as if she’d forgotten he was there and she grinned up at him like a schoolgirl with a crash.
“We couldn’t say.” Felicity offered quickly and Margo frowned.
“We couldn’t?” Judith’s eyes snapped to her friend.
“Don’t speak ill of the dead.” Felicity reminded her, more berated really, and Judith nodded in agreement.
“Perish the thought.” Margo added with a roll of her eyes. Margo had never really been one to follow traditions and the rules of witchydom…
“That he was doing dark magic?” Hawk asked and all three women frowned this time.
“That we would speak ill of the dead.” Margo offered back. Then she patted the seat beside her and rested her elbow on the table and her chin on her upturned hand. “Why don’t you sit down next to me?” Margo’s eyes flashed with something that I didn’t much care for.
“He doesn’t do the toy-boy-wolf thing.” I offered back a little snapped in tone, maybe, but that damn monkey of jealousy was really gripping onto my back and I couldn’t seem to shake the little fella.
“Oh, bitchy-miss-witchy…” Judith grinned knowingly.
“Someone has a mate.” Felicity added and I wanted to just curl up and die.
CHAPTER SIX
Not just the Goblins, but now the witches knew. Wonderful. I should just get a sticky note and slap it to my damn forehead. Hawk’s chuckle made me want to throw something at his head. I gave him the evil eye; admittedly it was the non-lethal version of it, but still; I think he got the message and his ball-sack shrunk a little.
“Not funny.” I was in no mood for this.
“You should see your face.” Margo offered with a small grin.
“I’d rather see his arse as he walks off into the sunset, alone.” I snapped out.
It was true that I’d much rather see his backside than my face, and who wouldn’t? I was certain it was going to be a spectacle worth beholding. Not like a spectacular sunset over snowcapped mountains or anything, but still worth a look and maybe something worth sinking your fingernails into… Oh boy was I depraved… deprived, I know I meant deprived…
“Ah, still in denial.” Judith’s sigh sounded somewhat disappointed.
“It won’t take long for her to snap right out of denial and into mating mode.” Margo offered with a certain amount of jolly-hockey-sticks in that tone of hers and I wanted to face-plant my hands or maybe just slam my forehead off the nearest wall…
“Perhaps we could help that along.” Felicity grinned and I balked at the idea.
“Don’t even…” I wagged my index finger at them and each witch held up their own with glee.
“Just a little push.” Judith grinned as she wiggled that damn finger, and I know that she was older than me by fifty years or so, but I really felt like punching her out in that moment in time... I of course, did no such thing.
“Barely notice it, really.” Felicity teased and I seethed inside.
“Just to ease things along.” Margo looked decidedly evil to me in that moment in time, but then she had the kind of spark in her eyes that told me that she’d actually consider doing it.
I’d break a damn chair over her head before she got the chance… I mean… damn, what was wrong with me? Was I picking up on the aggressive shifter emotions inside my wolfman? Scratch that, he’s not my anything, I had to keep reminding myself of that fact.
“Thanks, but no thanks, we’ll just let fate take its course.” I felt guilty and I didn’t like it, aggression wasn’t my thing. “We should be going.” I rushed out as I turned on my heels and made a beeline for the door just as Hawk was about to take a seat. I shot a look over my shoulder and saw him hesitate in mid-air, kind of amusing really; then he snapped back up to attention and followed after me.
~
Half way through town at a much more sedate speed I saw Doug and tried to duck down in the front seat so that he didn’t see me, but the damn stupid seatbelt that my… not my wolfman, made me wear kept me fr
om achieving my aim before Doug jumped out and flagged us down. I groaned inwardly. For a long moment I debated rolling down my window or just ignoring the big bear, but that decision was taken out of my hands when my… Not my… Idiot wolfman did it for me.
Doug growled and funnily enough the wolfman growled back a warning that made Doug pull his head back on his neck and snap his eyes in his direction. I groaned again, and cursed, and did all of those things that a lady couldn’t do in public, allegedly. I was glad I was no lady.
“What’s your damn problem?” Doug growled at Hawk again and Hawk turned in his seat, threw an arm around the back of my chair possessively, and eyed the bear with intent.
“Don’t growl at my mate.” Hawk gave another, longer, more menacing growl. Doug’s face was a picture as his mouth fell open and his eyes snapped from Hawk to me and back again. Those same eyes sparkled with amusement and when he turned them back on me I wanted to sucker punch the man…
“Finally been snagged, eh?” Doug chuckled. I didn’t.
“What do you want now, Doug?” I had neither the time nor the patience for anybody today.
“Those little shithead bastards have been at it again, Joss…” Doug became himself again. If there was a hell then I was in it.
“I thought they ate all of your raisins and nuts already?” I had the urge to order a bloody big shipment, hold them down and do my own version of waterboarding with fruit and nuts…
“Popcorn.” He looked indignant and I wanted to chuckle. I had visions of the squirrels having some kind of outdoor movie night with bowls of popcorn and nuts… “Can you believe it, bloody, goddamn popcorn. Hungry little fuckers when they wanna be, eh?” He demanded an answer and I had nothing to give him.
“That wasn’t us.” Quincy, one of the squirrel shifters piped up. Doug spun around on his heels and growled for all he was worth.
“I know it was you, you little toilet brush tailed shit…” Doug growled out.
“Doug, you wanna let me handle this?” I offered. Not that I wanted too. In fact I would happily have sat back with a bowl of popcorn and watched the whole damn lot of them get fisticuffs mental.
“Then handle it, Joss.” He spun away from the truck and Hawk growled again. I hooked my finger at Quincy and called him over. The man looked nervous and his nose was twitching like someone had made him sniff pepper of something…
“The convergence of so many leys always brings in the crazy’s, eh, Joss?” Quincy threw the insult towards the bear and Doug growled again. His huge hands were balled into fists at his side and I didn’t like Quincy’s chances if the bear went loopy… He was playing with fire…
“You can say that again.” I bit out.
“The convergence of…” Quincy thought he was being clever. I thought to add him to my postal to-do list.
“Shut up Quincy, don’t make me go witch on your arse.” I could see that Doug was getting redder in the face, and a red-faced shifter bear was never a good sign. I like the think of it as a volcano spouting lava and ready to go pyroclastic.
“Like you would, or could, and you know you definitely shouldn’t because you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Quincy was all mouth and no trousers as the saying goes, but he liked to talk a good game and I like to knock him down a peg or two.
“What are you going to do, chew through my phone line?” Maybe I shouldn’t have when I heard Doug roar with laughter, but I’d had enough today. “And FYI, I don’t like you anyway.”
“Harsh, but I accept your feelings with grace and…” Quincy was backpedalling and trying to talk like his hero, Scott the vampire.
“Shut up, Quincy.” I wouldn’t tell him again. I would go postal on his arse and protocol be damned.
“Got it.” Quincy offered with a twitch and a shrug off his slim shoulders.
“You need to sort this shit out before I shift and eat a damn tourist…” Doug growled and I kind of thought that he meant it too, right up until the point he added. “And that won’t be good for my indigestion.”
“Don’t think the tourist would appreciate much either…” Quincy chuckled.
“Shut up, Quincy. Now Doug, you know if you eat a tourist the town will revoke your licence to run a shop…” I warned him. Doug liked the money more than he liked eating squirrel… or tourists.
“Small price to pay right now.” He grumbled. Then he tossed up one large hand and dismissed the squirrel. “You and your toilet brush tailed little bastard friends are banned.” Doug bit out and Quincy’s face fell.
“What, wait…?” Quincy’s head spun from Doug to me and back again. He pointed an accusing finger at Doug’s back. “He can’t do that, can he, Joss?” He looked devastated and so he should. Doug’s shop was pretty much the only place to get munchies this side of the cove.
“Yep. Gotta go.” I shot Hawk a look and the man tooled the car down the road at breakneck speed. For this I was grateful. I’d had enough of Doug for one day, and don’t even get me started on the squirrels.
~
The moment that I stepped through my front door I felt Hawk’s large hands come down on my shoulders and he spun me around, backed me up against the nearest wall, and kissed me like I’d never been kissed before. I know that seems like a cliché, and I guess that it was, but it was a cliché that I was only too damn happy to be experiencing.
His lips were warm, soft, and demanding. His kisses were hot and heavy, and I had the damn urge to climb up that mountain of a man and wrap myself around him like a vine. Then he growled like a beast possessed and every inch of my body was eager for more…
He kept his lower body away from mine and I thought that particularly unfair and uncharitable of him, but when I pressed my hips to his and felt that hard length sandwiched between us, well, that rumble of a growl changed into something of a groan-meets-growl-meets-groan, and I liked it. Having a little bit of power in the otherwise seemingly hand of fate and destiny felt good. Shifter wolves were dominant by nature and right now I had this one under my thumb… Or I thought I did…
Hawk pulled back from my body and my lips, and I wanted to growl out something of my own, but somehow I held it back. But then his lips started to burn a path across my cheek, against my neck, and I found my toes curling inside my boots, especially when his tongue licked against the run of the vein in my neck and his breath caress my ear…
“I’ve been dying to do that again…” Hawk growled out his obvious needs and my womb answered with a line dance that had my stomach and brain involved in there somewhere. What damn brain? I wasn’t working to full capacity, more autopilot for ninety per cent of my bodily functions…
“I think…” That was a lie, in truth my brain was incapable of really thinking about anything other than the feel of him caging me in like that and the after effects of his kisses where my lips were still buzzing. Not to mention what my womb was doing inside of me… and don’t even get me started on that wet heat that was in a clenching, needy part of my body…
The sound of quick knuckles rapping against my front door made me regret having a damn door, or a house for that matter. Nobody could disturb what they couldn’t find and right then the only person I wanted to be found by was Hawk. He gave a little growl of annoyance at the disruption and I counted all the ways that I could kill whomever it was on the porch.
When I wrenched open the front door and found Amos standing there immediately staring at my breasts, I didn’t just groan inwardly, I contemplated zapping him into the nearest tree. I felt Hawk come up behind me and my mind was caught between wanting the feeling of his hard body pressed back against mine and wanting to know what the hell Amos was doing at my door. That curious cat was running out of lives as far as my nosey gene was concerned…
“Joss, we need to talk.” Amos announced to my breasts.
“Yeah, up here, Amos.” I’d just about had enough of this for one day… My mate was growling like he’d just seen a tasty snack, and I wanted to get back to that mating th
ing that had my toes curling.
“Just a moment, the view is spectacular.” Amos chuckled and I saw red.
I resisted the urge to zap him. I even the resisted the urge to toss him up into the nearest tree… what I didn’t resist was bringing my fingers up and forking them straight into his eyes… He yelped and jumped backwards as he covered his eyes with his hands and swore in so many different tongues that I couldn’t keep track.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“There, now the view isn’t distracting you.” I offered and Hawk chuckled behind me. Amos didn’t appear too amused as he danced around in front of me like he was doing a jig. I felt no guilt whatsoever.
“Damn, Joss, that stings like a bitch from hell.” Amos had tears streaking down his cheeks as he tried to focus on my face for a change, and still I felt not a smidge of guilt within me.
“So, what do we need to talk about?”
“Now, Joss, I’m all for rough mating, but give a guy some warning…” Amos offered with another round of curses.
My mate growled again. It seemed to be his go-to with everything that annoyed him. How he kept from doing it around humans I will never know…
“The next time I will zap you so damn hard you’ll hit every tree from here to the next county.” I offered back by way of placating my mate. I’d forgotten that it wasn’t just that horny time of the year when the bears and shifters were looking for a warm body to curl up with, goblins too. I had to shiver at the thought…
“Playing hard to get is one thing, sweetie, but I like a bit of sugar with my sour, you know.” Amos didn’t seem to be getting the message…
“I will rip your damn head off if you make one more attempt to steal my mate.” Hawk’s words seemed to do the trick. Amos could magically see again and what he was staring at was a shifter with fangs and claws and the kind of attitude that meant you wouldn’t want to take him to meet your mother right now. Once Amos had finished swallowing a good portion of his tongue, his attention came back to me…