by M. L. Briers
“Would that be my end or your end?” Casey said, and Steph groaned as she rolled her eyes, took in a long, deep breath, and sighed it back out again.
She couldn’t help herself — as one of the shifters went flying by — she zapped him. It felt good.
~
~
~
“Are we done here?” Kit growled at the Wizard as the alpha stood, bloody and bruised in front of him. His blood was already hard at work healing his body.
“Well now, that all depends on you,” Vale offered back as he flicked his gaze towards his daughters and then back again.
“You’re here for the witches,” Kit gave a slow nod of his head in understanding.
“I’m here for my daughters,” Vale bit down on his anger.
It wasn’t just anger for the alpha and the shifters, he was also miffed with his daughters, but that anger would have to wait.
“Wonderful,” Kit tossed up his hands and let them drop to his sides. “Whenever witches arrive – trouble follows.” He growled.
“And how is this our fault?” Steph demanded as she took in his disheveled look and started towards him with her hands on her hips and a hard glare of annoyance slapped firmly on her face.
“Meddling where it doesn’t concern you.” Kit growled as he craned his head forward and met her glare for glare.
“We weren’t meddling — we were invited,” Steph reminded him.
“Not by us,” Kit tossed a hand up towards his brothers.
“Well, maybe if you weren’t so slow off the mark in finding mates then your elders wouldn’t have had to take action,” Steph berated him.
“Maybe — if we’d wanted mates — we would have looked for them,” Kit bit back.
“He has a point,” Vale shrugged.
“Thank you,” Kit said and then he realized who he was agreeing with.
He gave a dismissive shake of his head and turned his attention back to the annoying witch in front of him. Steph was already glaring at her father.
“Oh, you’re agreeing with them now?” She scowled.
“He does have a point,” Vale offered back. “The best kind of witches do not to meddle in someone’s love life.”
“Careful what you witch for?” Steph said.
“Yes.”
“I don’t agree with that,” Steph lied.
There were times when she did and times when she didn’t. When she was going up against her father, it would have to be one of those times when she didn’t.
“And that’s how you got in trouble here today,” Vale said. He looked smug — at least, to Steph he did.
“You don’t think we could handle a couple of shifters?” Steph asked.
Her hands went back to her hips again, her head tilted to the left as she questioned him, and her eyes threw a few daggers his way for good measure.
“It didn’t look that way to me,” her father said.
“So, instead, you thought you’d kill us all by throwing your car in the middle-of-the-road?” Steph berated him.
“That’s…” Vale stopped and considered that for a long moment.
“Dangerous? Reckless? Un–fatherly to put your children in harm’s way? Rash, to say the least. Unthinking?” Steph thought she’d made her point and covered it well. She folded her arms and waited for the words to register in her father’s mind.
“Boy, are you mean,” Turner grumbled as he limped towards the alpha’s side.
“The man’s just trying to protect you,” Finley berated her.
“I’d have done the same,” the alpha gave a slow nod of his head.
“Well…” Steph swallowed hard. She flicked a look at her sister’s, and both of them were questioning her with raised eyebrows, wide eyes, and open mouths.
“I’ve only ever done what I thought was best for you girls, sweetheart,” Vale said, and Steph felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach by a mule.
She melted. If she’d melted anymore, then she would have been a big squishy puddle on the ground.
CHAPTER NINE
~
“I know, daddy,” Steph grimaced.
“Now, you boys,” Vale turned his attention back to the shifters.
Kit met the man’s challenge head-on as he planted his feet and waited for the next bolt of magic to hit him. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to state his position.
“We were only going to take them back to pack land so they could explain to the elder why they weren’t going to do the spell,” Kit growled.
“Sounds like a plan,” Vale said, and the three sisters snapped their heads back in surprise. “Mind if I tag along?” He wasn’t about to let them out of his sight.
“As long as you keep your magic to yourself around my pack,” Kit growled.
“As long as no one tries to harm my girls,” Vale warned.
“Seriously?” Jodie asked as she looked from the alpha to her father and then at Steph. Steph shrugged her shoulders.
“A wizard’s got to do what a wizard’s got to do.”
~
~
~
Kit yanked open the door to his truck and took a hard breath in as he did it. He regretted it the moment that the scent that had been trapped inside rushed out and hit him hard.
The alpha had known never to breathe in through his nose around strangers, and yet, that thought had escaped him for just a moment in time. The wrong damn moment.
Every muscle in his body clenched hard. His beast rose up within him, and he could have headbutted the truck for his own stupidity.
“Oh, no!” He growled.
Mine…
“You have got to be kidding me,” he muttered and growled as he took a step back from the truck and slammed the door closed once again.
Then he set off on determined feet, stalking around the truck towards the passenger side. Steph’s head turned towards him, and she hesitated just as she was about to climb inside.
“Now what?” Steph demanded on a huff that made her shoulders rise and fall.
“Mine…” The alpha muttered.
“Excuse me?” Steph sighed again.
“Mine…” He was louder that time, and he knew that she’d heard him the moment that her eyes flared before narrowing to slits.
Kit stopped right in front of her as she turned slowly towards him. She eyed him for a long moment.
“I don’t think so,” her sing-song voice rang out in denial.
“Mine…” Kit growled again.
“Is he stuck on repeat?” Casey asked as she tipped her head to the side, and amusement wedged onto her face.
“Like you just figured it out?” Steph snorted in disbelief.
The man was trying to wind her up, mess with as payback or something, and she wasn’t falling for it. But one thing was for sure; it wasn’t funny.
“Mine!” Kit’s brain had frozen on that one word. It was all he could think about.
A witch mate. She was right; it wasn’t funny.
“Wow,” Turner offered a slow shake of his head. “Who saw that coming?”
“Not him that’s for sure,” Finley offered back as he bit off a chuckle.
“You are serious?” Steph offered a chuckle of her own, but it was disbelief. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop — the punchline.
“Mine.” Kit grimaced.
“Oh – my – Aunt Sally!” Steph jumped back in place. Her back hit the truck, as her lower jaw fell downwards, and her eyes widened in shock.
“We don’t have an Aunt Sally,” Cassie chuckled.
“Hey, she’s a mate to an alpha — if she wants to invent an Aunt Sally, she can,” Jodie chuckled at her sister’s predicament.
Kit snapped out of it. He took a long step towards her, and she plastered herself back against the truck.
“I just want to smell you,” Kit growled.
“What are you — freaking nuts?” Steph hissed at him like a rattlesnake.
There was no way on
earth that she was going to allow him to take her scent. Not that he hadn’t already, he had. But that wasn’t the point. Up close and personal was the point, and she wasn’t about to get any more personal with an alpha.
“I just need…” he started and stopped abruptly when she started to sputter out the laughter of disbelief like an insane woman.
“No way — hell no – don’t you even… Daddy!” Steph screeched the last word.
“There are always times when a girl needs her daddy,” Jodie chuckled.
“This is definitely one of those times,” Casey sniggered.
“I’m thinking someone made their bed…” Vale offered to his eldest daughter.
“Daddy?” Steph’s eyes went wide in shock.
“This is what comes with meddling in things that don’t concern you,” Val gave a slow shake of his head.
“You’re going to throw me to the wolves – literally – to prove a point?” Steph demanded. Her father considered that for a long moment.
“Yep.” He nodded, just once.
“Harsh,” Casey said as she leaned toward Jodie and chuckled.
“Very harsh,” Jodie agreed.
“Actions have consequences, sweetheart,” Vale shrugged.
“That’s… I…” Steph gave up on a small squeak followed by a low groan. “Oh, what’s the damn use?”
“You keep thinking that way, sugar, and we’re gonna get on just fine.” Kit grinned.
~
~
~
“What in the name of hell’s bells and little fishes do you think you’re doing?” Suzie asked.
She’d seen the procession of cars coming down the road, towards the house, with the alpha’s truck leading the way, and she’d been curious. But the scent of witches in the air, Fae magic, as she stomped towards her son’s truck had her questioning his sanity.
Kit wrapped his long fingers around Steph’s upper arm and started forward with her towards his mother. The She-wolf’s eyes devoured her and a deep frown settled on her forehead.
“Mother, I want you to meet…” Kit started, but he didn’t get to finish. His mother’s interest was elsewhere as she peered around her son at the wizard.
“Who’s the guy dressed like an undertaker?” She growled.
“Smells like a wizard to me,” Zoe grumbled as she stood out on the porch and eyed the group.
“Yes, yes he is.” Kit eyed the elder. “He’s your wizard.”
“My wizard?” Zoe snorted a chuckle. “I didn’t order a wizard.”
“It’s amazing what the courier service delivers these days,” Turner chuckled, but he wasn’t laughing when the elder offered him the stink eye. The woman still made him feel as if he was a pup.
“No, but you did order three witches,” Kit said, his tone was accusing.
“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, alpha or not,” Zoe scowled at him. “You’re not too big that I can’t put you over my knee.”
Steph and her sisters chuckled. The alpha straightened his back, puffed out his chest, and grumbled a growl.
“Did someone’s pride just take a tumble?” Steph chuckled.
“I still haven’t scented you – yet,” Kit growled back.
“Why would you want to do that?” Suzie gave a small shake of her head in disbelief.
“Maybe he just likes to live dangerously,” Turner chuckled.
“Maybe the witches sent him insane,” Zoe snorted in contempt.
“Boy, I raised you right. You don’t scent witches,” Suzie warned and berated him at the same time.
“Oh, too late,” Vale offered from behind the group.
“Come again?” Suzie asked.
“Now there’s an offer you don’t hear every day,” Nicholas, the resident vampire, offered as he breezed out of the house and onto the porch to stand beside the elder. Zoe pitched her elbow back into his ribs and made him groan in pain.
“Disrespectful,” Zoe grumbled.
“Yes, but funny, no?” Nicholas offered her a fangy grin.
“No — okay, I’ll give you that one,” Zoe snorted.
“You live with a vampire?” Casey gasped. “What’s wrong with you people?”
“It’s not like I’m the family pet,” Nicholas scowled at her.
“The only place a vampire should be is back in his grave,” Casey sneered at him.
“Oh, goody. One of those,” Nicholas groaned and rolled his eyes.
“Don’t you accuse me of being one of those,” Casey bit back. Then she narrowed her eyes. “One of who?”
“I take it back — she’s just lacking in something between her ears.” Nicholas shrugged.
“Apologise,” Vale demanded.
“For telling the truth? Never.” Nicholas shrugged.
“I’m with the wizard,” Turner said.
“Congratulations. I hope you will both be very happy together,” Nicholas said.
Turner growled long and hard. Both he and his beast had taken the man’s comment about the witch to heart.
His beast rose up within him — determined to defend the honor of the witch, and he didn’t know why.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Apologise to the damn woman,” Turner growled.
“Damn woman?” Jodie shot him a questioning look. “Well, this damn woman can take care of her own problems, thanks, Sparky.”
Jodie lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, and without even looking at the vampire – she shot a flowerpot his way. Nicolas sidestepped the pot, and it bounced off the wooden post right next to the elder.
“Hey,” Zoe growled. “Watch it.”
“Whoops!” Jodie grimaced.
“I don’t see how killing an elder is proving your point,” Turner offered on a whisper as he leaned down toward her and had the sudden need to sniff in a big whiff of her scent.
He’d been fighting that urge in the car the whole way home.
“Bite me,” she grumbled, and he growled.
Oh, how she wished that she’d thought before she spoke because a moment later; she was yanked up against his hard body, bent backward over his arm, and starring up into the darkening, sexy eyes of a he-man with an attitude problem.
At least, he was growling like he had a big problem.
“Tempting…” Turner growled.
“Alpha, tell your mutt to put my daughter down,” Vale warned.
“Yes, you don’t know where she’s been,” Zoe chimed in and got the stink eye back from the other two witches.
“Poisonous old dwarf, isn’t she?” Steph bit out.
“Meet the woman who hired you,” Kit whispered, practically, into her very soul. She shivered against the feel of his hot breath caressing her cheek.
“Back off, or lose your fangs,” Jodie ground out at Turner, but there was little that she could actually do while she was bent backward over his arm.
To hurt him would be akin to cutting her nose off to spite her face. Unfortunately, Casey didn’t follow the same thought process – and she zapped him – Jodie was falling to the ground, and what made it worse was that there was a brick-outhouse sized beta falling on top of her.
“Whoops,” Casey grimaced as her sister shrieked.
“Ouch!” Jodie bit out, trying, and failing, to climb out from beneath him. “Little witch getting big-time bloody squished here!”
“Let go of me,” Turner growled out from between clenched teeth.
“Are you kidding me? I don’t have a hold of you,” Jodie hissed back.
She slapped her palm against his face and tried pushing him away. The beta growled as she flattened his nose and tried pushing his cheek up into his eye.
“Stop doing that,” he growled.
“Then get off me,” she hissed back.
“I can’t move while you have me with your magic,” he growled again.
“Whoops!” Casey grimaced as she snapped off the magic that she hadn’t realized she was still aiming at him. “My ba
d.”
“You…” Turner growled as he pushed up with every bit of strength he could muster and rolled off the witch.
“That’s not a bloody whoops,” Jodie hissed out as she rolled across the grass away from the beta, pushed up to her hands and knees, and glared up at her sister.
“Neither was you tossing the plant pot at granny-wolf,” Casey snapped back.
“Watch who you’re calling granny,” Zoe growled.
“Did I miss much?” Nicholas asked of nobody in particular. “Because I feel like I missed something.”
“Keep it up, sunshine, and you’ll be missing your head,” Zoe grumbled.
“Is it me? I don’t think it is, but there seems to be an angry vibe in the air, am I wrong?” Nicholas turned mocking eyes on the elder, and she grumbled a growl back at him.
“Nicholas, Stow it,” Suzie berated him before she turned her attention back to the alpha. “Well, this is a fine mess you’ve got yourself into.”
“I’m sorry – I got myself into?” Kit turned his gaze on the elder.
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell you to sniff a witch,” Zoe folded her arms and lifted her chin in defiance.
“Oh!” Nicholas chuckled as realization dawned upon him.
“Not one word,” the alpha growled.
“But, you know how hard it is for me to bite my tongue,” Nicholas looked as if he was about to burst.
“I swear — I’ll rip your tongue out and strangle you with it,” the alpha warned.
Nicolas nodded his understanding as he bit down on the chuckles of laughter that rolled through him.
“There’s a happy thought,” Steph offered both men the stink eye.
“And what about you?” Suzie turned her attention to Turner. The man was pushing up from the ground to his full height.
“What about me?” Turner grumbled and shot a death glare at Casey.
“Is this one your mate?” Suzie demanded as she lifted an accusing finger and pointed it at Jodie. The witch bit out a few choice words, but nobody could make them out.
“You know — I don’t know,” Turner lifted his hand and scratched his head. He was having a bad day.
“Did you sniff her?” Suzie demanded.