by M. L. Briers
She pulled on the oven mitts and grabbed the large tray with the three black top loaves from inside and placed them on the countertop. She backheeled the door closed and waved her gloved hands in the air to try to chase away the acrid smoke.
“I could have helped with that — if only I’d been allowed inside my own inn,” Chloe said and drew Sarah’s attention towards the open window. The vampire was perched with her feet up and her back against the frame.
“Not now, Chloe,” Sarah huffed.
Her newbie vampire aunt was at it again, pressing to come inside the house, and yet, Sarah was still unsure if the woman was ready. After all, she had a house full of tasty witches that she didn’t want to serve up for breakfast, dinner, and tea to a hungry, uncontrollable vampire.
“Yes, now, Chloe,” the vampire scowled back at her relative. “If I’d known you had been this unfeeling, uncaring, mean little witch then I never would have left the inn to you.”
“You know the rules. Get a handle on your bloodlust for witches, and then we’ll talk.”
“I have.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“Prove it!”
“I don’t need to prove it. I can see it when your eyes fall on the nearest jugular vein,” Sarah placed her gloved hands on her hips, tipped her head to the left, and challenged the woman with just a look.
“I pity your children!” Chloe hissed.
That comment took Sarah completely by surprise. She lifted up an oven-gloved hand and pulled on her magic. She swiped one of the burning hot bread tins from the side through the air towards Chloe’s head.
On pure instinct; Chloe caught the tin in her hands, and the burning hot metal made her shriek in pain. It took a moment for her brain to catch up, and then she tossed the tin away from her.
“Nice catch,” Sarah said as she placed her hand back on her hip. She might have felt guilty had her aunt not being able to heal so quickly.
“You did that on purpose!” Chloe’s jet black eyes were locked and loaded on her niece.
“No, that was just a bonus,” Sarah offered back.
“If you were on this side of the threshold I would rip your head off and hand it back to you before your dead body hit the floor,” Chloe bit out with all the vengeance inside of her.
“Proved it!” Sarah said with a triumphant smile.
Chloe eyed her for a long moment. At first, she had no idea what her niece was talking about, and then it slowly sank in.
“That’s not fair!” Chloe bit out. “And you did it on purpose!”
“Nope, double bonus,” Sarah said with a small shrug of her shoulders.
“You’re a scheming little witch if ever I…”
“Looked in the mirror and saw one?” Sarah challenged her with just a look, and Chloe chewed on an imaginary wasp.
“It’s getting to the point where I really don’t like you,” Chloe said in a huff as she folded her arms and looked anywhere but at Sarah.
“It’s way beyond the point where I really don’t care.”
“So, family means nothing to you?” Chloe offered her a piercing look.
“If that makes you feel better.”
“You deliberately burned the skin off my hands,” Chloe said. Now the vampire was playing for the sympathy vote.
“Did not.”
“Did to.”
“I don’t feel guilty,” Sarah shrugged again.
“Shocker!” Chloe bit back. “Heartless woman.”
“It’s a family trait,” Sarah offered back with a small smirk on her lips.
“Witch!”
“I’d say it takes one to know one, but…” Sarah lifted her gloved hands and thrust them towards Chloe and with a little magical shove to back it up, the vampire shrieked as she was knocked from the windowsill and disappeared from view with a hearty thud against the wooden planks of the wraparound porch.
“I hate you!” Chloe grumbled.
“Then my work here is done.” Sarah grinned.
She turned and started for the door, suddenly remembering that she still had the oven mitts on her hands, she shucked them off and tossed them back over her shoulder onto the countertop.
Knocking her vampire aunt onto her backside had more than made up for the burnt bread.
~
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~
Quinn’s chin went down towards his chest as a growl vibrated against the door to his mate’s room. His eyes were jet black, and he hadn’t felt such a rush of anger in years, but then getting electrocuted by a damn door handle could do that to a man.
Two urges clashed within him; firstly, he wanted to kill his mate. Secondly, he wanted to woo his mate. What a contradiction in terms.
It was little wonder that his beast didn’t know if it was coming or going. Hell, he wasn’t sure if he was having a senior moment or not.
Two worlds, two needs, two desires clashed within him. It would come down to which was greater.
Quinn might have been getting on in years, and sometimes it felt like it. But that didn’t stop him from lifting one booted foot and kicking the door open as the locks gave way under the force of the blow.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Valerie said quietly from where she sat in the chair at the window.
Quinn had expected the woman at least show signs of surprise at his entrance. But there she was, sitting like the Ice Queen on her throne, receiving an expected guest.
Quinn’s wolf grumbled a warning growl within him.
Mine…
Quinn thought the beast was welcome to her. It was just a shame that man and wolf came as a package deal. Right then and there, he would gladly walk away — but he couldn’t.
He’d waited too long for a mate. His mate. Wickedly wicked witch or not that was what she was.
“I’m not worried about hurting me,” Quinn growled.
“Is that a threat?” Valerie asked as she raised her left eyebrow at him.
Quinn grumbled and growled, but he didn’t immediately answer her question. He needed a moment to think it over.
A long moment.
And still, a moment more.
Valerie waited patiently for him to reply. It was amusing to watch the emotions play across the man’s face as he tossed and turned thoughts within his mind.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Why did you do that?” Quinn growled.
“Do what?”
“You know what — electrify the damn door handle!” Quinn growled back.
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.” Quinn sneered.
“Self-preservation,” Valerie said, and she didn’t try to hide the small, smug smile that touched her lips. Quinn growled harder.
“You’re a…” The man bit down and hummed for a moment. “Witch!” He grumbled.
“Are you having a senior moment? Didn’t we cover that?” Valerie asked with an innocent look. Quinn didn’t think there was any innocence left in his mate.
“I’m not having a senior moment. I’m debating whether or not to kill you,” Quinn grumbled.
“Well, I’m not getting any younger here.” She shrugged.
“Maybe you should be grateful for these seconds that you do have.”
“Maybe you should be grateful that I haven’t neutered you — yet,” Valerie offered him a death glare.
Quinn swallowed down a large portion of his tongue at the thought. If he were a betting man, he’d lay a large wager that she wasn’t bluffing, but he had to stand his ground – didn’t he?
~
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~
“If you put so much as a little toe in this hot tub…”
“Haven’t you noticed that there’s nothing little about me? You’ve certainly looked hard enough,” Rick teased her – just because he liked the rosy red hue of her cheeks, and he didn’t think it had much to do with the temperature of the water.
“I have not!” That got her brain focused and her blood boiling.
&nbs
p; The man was so full of himself that she thought he needed to be taken down a peg or two – maybe three – she’d decide which one the more that he continued to annoy her.
“Seriously?” Rick shot her a curious look and caught the guilty flash of a look that disappeared from her face as quickly as it had appeared. “I think plausible deniability went out the window the moment you started to drool down your chin.”
“Oh, my Goddess!” She stared at him in total disbelief.
“Being busted must suck…”
“You are just…”
“You want to say sexy, but you just can’t get that word past your pride, can you?” Rick’s eyes were so full of teasing humor that she wanted to zap the man, but how could she zap someone who had damn puppy eyes?
“There are no words!” she hissed back at him.
“Really? But – you’re female…”
It was a step too far. He knew it the moment that her lower jaw almost hit the water and she got a look in her eye that said he should bend over and kiss his backside goodbye.
There was no time for that. Elizabeth lifted just one hand and snapped her fingers on an emphatic nod of her head. A wave of water rushed at him from the tub and covered his body with a hard sting that felt like he’d licked an electrical outlet, and his whole body seized up with pain.
He guessed that he should have been grateful that she didn’t lift both hands and really let him have it, and yet, as his muscles unclenched, and he lifted one large hand and rubbed the water from his face – while gasping in a breath through his nose – he knew his problems were only just beginning.
Mine…
“Sweetheart…” he wanted to deliver the news in the best way possible because he had a feeling that there was going to be a whole lot more zapping to come when he did. “If you wanted to see my naked body dripping wet then you just had to ask.”
“I think you’re insane!”
“Oh, I think I probably will be soon enough.” He offered back. Especially with a witch for a mate.
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~
“Neutering me would be cutting off your nose to spite your face,” Quinn reasoned, but the woman looked very unimpressed.
“That’s a big assumption on your part. But let’s run with that for a moment — I see two parts to your problem — firstly, what you don’t have you don’t miss, and secondly, I’m too old to be dealing with all that faffing around.”
“Nobody is too old be faffing around.”
“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” She challenged him.
“I might not be a spring chicken, but I still like what I see…”
“You’re the only one.”
“I’ll ignore that.”
“How convenient. You go right ahead, but we both know it’s true.” Valerie’s left eyebrow reached for her hairline once again.
“Says you. The woman’s who’s been eyeing me like I’m a prime piece of beef.”
“You’re more of a pork chop, but don’t let the facts get in the way of a good argument.”
“And I’m betting you like to argue.”
“Why?” Valerie narrowed her eyes at the man. “Because — I’m female?”
“No, because you’re a cantankerous old boot who likes to get her own way.”
Quinn wasn’t about to sugarcoat his words. She certainly wasn’t sugarcoating hers. They might as well start as they meant to go on, and a little good-natured ribbing wasn’t going to do anyone any harm.
Quinn was wrong. With a snap of her fingers; he felt the flick of her magic against his backside like she’d flicked his naked skin with a wet towel. His initial reaction was to jump in place, but he held himself rigid.
“Fleas biting?” Valerie gave him a fake sympathetic look, but there was nothing fake about the low, deep growl that rumbled in Quinn’s chest.
He thought of a few home truths that definitely weren’t sugarcoated to offer back to her, but he was too much of a gentleman to go there.
“I’ll say this only once…”
“Oh, wait!” Valerie looked around her as if she’d lost something. “Where did I put my tape recorder? I should get this recorded for prosperity.”
Quinn just stood there and stared at her. Then he folded his arms across the broadness of his chest and gave a small shake of his head in disbelief.
“You really are something else…”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” He scowled at her.
“I know.” Valerie offered him the smallest of smug smiles, and yet there it was — smugness — like a badge of honor on her face.
“And I wasn’t finished.”
“Yes, you were. Now close the door on your way out, and if you’ve forgotten the way, just walk backward.” That smug smile grew.
“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Quinn offered her a sly grin.
“This?”
“Us.”
“There you go with the assumptions again. But then I guess we both already know that you are an ass.”
“I really am going to enjoy wooing you. Bending you to my will — making you mine…”
“Newsflash. I’m not bendy, and I’ll never be your anything.”
“Not true. You’re already a thorn in my damn side — a stubbed little toe on the side of the bed in the dark at night — the type of woman who makes a man want to run head first into the nearest wall…”
“Oh, please — don’t let me stop you from doing what you have to do. Pick a wall — I’ll wait.”
“You’re so wrong for me that it has to be right…”
“You’re really not getting the hint, are you?”
“That you’re deflecting? Sure.” Quinn offered her a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, and she offered him back the stink eye.
“Door — you — use it.” She scowled at him. “Before I get my witch on.”
“Does that come with the snakes in your hair? Because I think that would be a good look for you.”
Quinn didn’t regret saying it. Even when the sting of her magic hit his body hard enough to make him grind his teeth against the pain.
If his mate wanted to play – he’d play – but he’d woo her too, or die trying.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“Tell me why I don’t just kill her,” Chloe muttered from her lofty lookout on one of the upper branches of her favorite oak tree with Monty sitting beside her.
“Who, Dorothy?”
“Sarah.”
“Because she’s family.” Monty offered back, and there was a small smile on his lips that wasn’t lost on her. It might have made her want to punch him repeatedly in the face, but it still held an attraction for her.
“Family doesn’t treat family the way Sarah’s treats me...”
“Family doesn’t want to feast from a major artery like it’s an all you can eat buffet, but ho-hum, life goes on, and on, and on, and on…”
Chloe elbowed her mate so hard in the chest that he flipped backward from the branch and thumped against a few others on the way down to the ground. It was somehow satisfying, but not as satisfying as getting Sarah to let her into the inn would be.
“Thank you.” He called from below.
“You’re more than welcome.” She muttered as she strummed her fingers against the wood.
She needed a plan. A devious plan that would get her inside her old home. Either that or killing Sarah would be the next best thing.
~
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~
Rick had two thoughts in his head. Wooing and getting in that hot tub. He’d prefer it if both thoughts merged into one outcome. Wooing in a hot tub sounded like fun — although, there was a possibility of drowning.
His wolf didn’t like that idea. Protect their mate above all else. The beast growled in protest.
Yeah, he’d much prefer her to be spread out on a bed where he could love her right. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t ha
ve a little fun – play a little. He just needed to get her to see things his way.
Somehow, he didn’t think that was going to be easy.
Elizabeth didn’t feel threatened by him. At least, not in the conventional sense. The man might have been built like a brick outhouse with muscles upon muscles, and yet, there was a look in his eyes that was bordering on playful.
She wasn’t a witch to be toyed with. He could get that thought right out of his mind.
Somewhere in the back of her mind that dormant desire to be needed by a man, truly needed, definitely desired, had awoken and was jumping up and down, screaming and waving its arms to try to get her attention, but he wasn’t the man for her.
He was a wolf shifter, and she’d been around the block enough times to know that if you weren’t a mate as her mother was then you would be second best. She didn’t want to be the person that a man settled for.
Elizabeth was in her fourth decade of life, and that was young enough to realize that love, real love, could still come knocking at the door. But old enough to tell herself that it was unlikely to happen.
But then, she had to think of her mother. She’d found a mate. A soulmate, and at her age. Maybe there was still hope.
Just not with him. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have thoughts about rolling in the hay with him — maybe, not hay, because of her allergies — she did. Who wouldn’t?
She was entirely sure that the experience would be satisfying on both sides.
But that wasn’t the point. What if her mother was claimed as a mate? She’d live on pack land, and that meant that Elizabeth would have to regularly visit to see her — run into him — and that would be — awkward.
The man had already seen more of her body then she was comfortable with. She knew that it was trendy to not give a damn about the slippage of age. That you were supposed to be happy to parade your faults out in the open, and maybe on a Caribbean beach packed with an assortment of body types then she might have got used to that idea — eventually – but not one on one with a sexy, perfectly formed, despite being the same age as her, sex god.