by M. L. Briers
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“There…” Jake lifted his hand and pointed the way to where the spectre hung in the air like a misty cloud was trying to swallow it whole. Elizabeth took a step forward and Jake matched it, but the cloud evaporated before either of them could do or say anything more.
“Damn it.” Elizabeth ground out.
“Why does it do that?” Jake asked, annoyed that they’d missed their chance to do anything again before the thing had vanished into thin air.
“The way your mate is scowling, I’d probably do that too.” Mitchell chuckled at his own funny.
“Let’s test that theory.” Elizabeth said, turning on her heels and giving what could only be described as a death glare to the vampire, and even if she had been a little tempted to put some magic behind it, she knew better than to waste her energy on the likes of him.
“Oh, I quake, I quiver, I tremble at… your face.” Mitchell placed his hand over his heart and gave a mock shiver, and she snorted in contempt for him.
“What was that?” Belle asked, panting a little after rushing to pull on her clothes and meet up with her sister – Ed was by her side.
“The cold light of day, are things looking different to you now?” Elizabeth turned her sour mood on Belle and the younger witch snorted her contempt for her attitude.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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“Ha-ha, funny, Lizzy. Maybe if you acted on impulse once in a while you wouldn’t have that stick shoved so firmly up your butt.” Belle shot back.
“Maybe if you acted responsibly once in a while it wouldn’t be there. But feel free to pull it out and I can stake the vampire with it.” Elizabeth tossed back over her shoulder as she turned back to the last place that they had seen the ghost before it had disappeared.
“Do you think it will come back?” Jake growled. Not sure if he wanted it to or not. He wanted this over, but he didn’t really want to put his mate in any kind of close proximity to it.
“It will become more powerful the closer we get to All Hallows. Right now it’s trying to hold onto its form in this realm but it just can’t seem to manage to do it. Tomorrow is All Hallows Eve – the energy will be at its strongest then – the veil between realms will be at its lowest, and it should be able to keep its form for longer.” Elizabeth explained.
“So, we have to wait it out?” Jake scowled at the thought – he wanted that thing gone, it was unsettling his pack, and annoying the hell out of him, but he’d much prefer to spend his time wooing his mate, especially now that he was getting a better understanding of her.
“Unless someone acts as a vessel for it, then yes.” Elizabeth said and he scowled a lot harder at that thought.
“I know we talked about it, but maybe we should just wait the extra day.” Jake shook his head at the thought of his mate putting herself in that kind of danger. He would be powerless to protect her, and that just didn’t sit well within him.
“He’s right, Lizzy.” Belle offered from behind her. “There’s no sense in getting in deep when you just have to wait a while – and it’s not like we’re going anywhere, is it?”
“Speak for yourself.” Elizabeth tossed back over her shoulder without even thinking about her words, but the sound of the low growl that came from Jake alerted her to what she had said and how that had come across.
“Let’s get back to the house.” Jake ushered them away from the site, and Elizabeth hovered in place, something obviously on her mind.
“Jake…” she started, but he shook his head.
“Not now, let’s just get inside.”
Elizabeth didn’t move an inch from the spot that she was standing in, even as the others turned tail and retraced their steps.
“I didn’t mean me. I meant Melody.” She offered, but Jake felt the unease that came from her.
“So, you’re staying?” He asked, knowing from the look on her face that might not be the case.
“I haven’t decided yet. I haven’t really thought that far ahead.” She watched him as he considered her words, looking pensive as he nodded in understanding.
“Well, when you can spare the time to consider it, let me know the outcome.” He wished that he could turn and walk away, but he couldn’t leave her out there alone when the spectre could appear at any moment.
The air hung thick between them, and Jake didn’t like it.
“Jake…” She started again, but he didn’t want to hear it.
“Just start walking before I do something that we may both regret.” Jake bit out, frustration rising up inside of him… but instead of heeding his words, Elizabeth placed her hands on her hips in defiance and scowled back at him – challenging every fibre of his being.
“Like what?” She scoffed… a heartbeat later and the alpha had covered the few steps between them – with a heartfelt growl of annoyance, he dipped at the waist and had her over one broad shoulder, dangling down his back with a great view of his backside…
“Ask and you shall receive.” He growled out, a small smile tugging one side of his mouth upwards as she huffed and twisted against his hold.
“Put me down before I show you what a crispy critter feels like.” She hissed out – that only made him grin harder.
“Hush your flapping jaw woman,” he tossed down his back at her and heard her draw a breath at his words.
“My flapping jaw!” she bit out, twisting harder against the hold that he had around the backs of her legs…
One zap, one missed step, and he was smirking like an idiot… but he kept going.
“I think you have too much to say for yourself at times.” He teased and heard her hiss and mutter to herself…
“Do I?” She bit out, zapping him again and getting jolted as he jumped in step once more.
“Yes. Maybe Belle’s right when she says that you should act on impulse…” he teased once more and heard her give what sounded like a long growl of annoyance. He’d found her buttons and he wasn’t opposed to pushing them.
She zapped him again, and he closed his eyes as the pain shot through his body…
“How’s being impulsive feel?” She ground out… wanting to really let him have it, but definitely not wanting to cut her nose off to spite her face when it resulted in her hitting the ground…
“A lot better than I thought it would.” He chuckled then. A deep gravelly sound that echoed through him and into her as she prickled at the sound of his joviality.
The moment that he put her back on her feet she was determined that she was going to let him have her full wrath with both barrels, and then she would see just how he liked that.
Inside the house and through the kitchen – he carried her on when she’d expected him to stop and put her down, and she had gathered her magic accordingly. She heard a few sniggers as they went and kept her head down, grumbling to herself in her shame that she was allowing this to continue as long as she had.
Up the staircase -- where she felt each and every jolt of every stair that he took go through her body – and she was somewhat grateful that he’d missed out two of every three stairs on his way too… only he knew where, but she was certain that she had a damn good idea.
The sound of a heavy thud made her try to lift her upper body upwards, away from his back to be able to get a look at her surroundings – instead of the rather spectacular way that his taut butt moved under the fabric that clung to his cheeks – and the sight of those long legs eating up the distance to wherever they were going, but the blood had rushed to her head making her feel somewhat lightheaded, and his speed wasn’t helping matters so she flopped back down again…
She just needed to get her bearings…
There was no hope of that as she felt her body launched into freefall through the air…
She tried to reach out to grasp something solid. Maybe even him, but hands found nothing.
She tried to calm her anxiety, knowing deep down that he’d never harm her, never let her fa
ll too far or put her in danger of any kind if he could help it… and yet, that pure rush of adrenaline that shot through her veins and made her shriek at the whole not knowing what was happening thing, made her mind spin with a million fears and unanswered questions, and threw her completely off balance, said otherwise.
Those doubts went unanswered for what felt like an eternity as life slowed down around her – until her back finally hit the softness of the mattress, and she bounced from the surface.
With her hair in her face obscuring her view, and her arms and legs flaying wildly as understanding hit her hard… The curse that left her lips was more than unladylike, it was downright obscene, and she heard the heady sound of his deep chuckle as she came to rest starring up at the darkness of a ceiling illuminated only by the moonlight coming through the window…
She’d been reluctant to move until the moment that she felt the mattress move around her. Felt his heat as he crawled up and over her body… and she heard the hard growl that rumbled deep within the very depths of his broad chest as she lay there, breathing in and out, and trying to still her heart from running a marathon without the rest of her body, and then she felt like an idiot for not moving sooner.
Caged. Caged in by him and every inch of her knew it, felt it… liked it.
She felt the heated touch of his fingertips against her cheeks as he brushed the wayward strands of her hair from her face and she continued to just lay there… It was too late to do much else and her mind was running riot as her body welcomed the feel of his above her.
“I’m liking this impulse thing that your sister speaks of more and more…” he growled with every word, and she felt that growl roll over her skin and it was just as potent to her senses as the feel of his fingertips.
“I’m liking the thought of zapping you to the back of beyond…” she hissed in a barely there voice that he heard loud and clear.
His beast was clawing and growling to be unleashed within him. He’d carried his mate off to the bedroom and now the beast expected more – a claim…
“I’m fighting the urge to do more than just show you who’s the boss around here.” Jake growled the warning on the teasing words that rang more than just a warning bell within her, but it wasn’t for the threat or his fancy in his meaning to claim her, more the word… boss…
“Oh, you can boss this!” She hit him with a zap so hard that his jaws snapped together and locked tight, teeth grating against each other, and every muscle within his body contracted so hard that they burned and threatened to snap.
Elizabeth glared up at him as he glared back. Unable to move even an inch from where he was perched about her – and she knew that she was lucky that his muscles had locked him into place or he would have come down on her like a ton of bricks.
But she wasn’t done just yet. She needed to get out from beneath the cage that he presented himself to be to her, and she hit him hard in the chest with a blast of her magic that tore him from the bed and sent him hurtling backwards through the air.
His back hit the wall with a loud thud, and then he slid downwards to the carpet below, every inch of him was still stinging from her original assault, and that blast had taken its toll too, but by then he’d barely acknowledged the impact with the wall.
Elizabeth wasted no time in scampering to the edge of the mattress in search of her freedom. She’d attacked an alpha and she knew better than to just stand around and hope that he wasn’t going to take it to heart.
As her feet hit the floor, so he growled long and hard in pure, unadulterated anger… Half on and half off the bed – her head snapped up and her eyes took him in… and boy did he not look happy.
“Now…” It was meant to be a warning, but that was as far as she managed to get before he was on his feet.
He looked kind of stiff, and some of his muscles were still a little locked up, and when he moved it looked as if he was dragging his body behind his determination to get to her. But moving he was, and in her direction.
Her eyes widened in horror as he suddenly seemed to rush back to normally and came at her, hard and fast, sweeping her up off of her feet and taking her back down onto the mattress beneath his hard body with the kind of impact that jarred every inch of her from her head to her toes…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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Jake had a mind to squish her real good into the mattress just for the hell of it, but at the last instant his beast growled a warning and he put an arm out to save her from the bulk of his weight. He still squished her – just a little – just because he could, and because he was madder than hell, but he made sure not to break her in any way shape or form…
“Get off of me you oaf!” She tried to squirm, but that only made him growl louder, harder, hungrier, and with the realisation that his manhood was pressed right against her thigh – well, she stopped trying to squirm and instead, zapped him again.
Jake’s head came up and his muscles tensed hard, but not as badly as they had the first time around. He groaned out a long growl of annoyance as a fresh wave of pain shot through his body, and this time; he voluntarily bit down on the feeling of being zapped by a livewire…
In his mind the witch was never going to learn her lesson unless it was the hard way, and Jake had a mind to teach her.
“Stop zapping me.” He growled out – just as she finally released his body from her magic and his face came down to be just a breath from hers.
Nose to nose they eyed each other…
“Not until you learn how to treat a woman, you Neanderthal.” She hissed back.
“Treat a woman? Are you insane?” He growled. He was the injured party here, not her. He was the one who had been zapped, blaster, and tossed against a wall…
“Tossing me over your damn shoulder like a caveman. Tossing me onto the bed and climbing up over me like I’m some kind of a prize you caught. And don’t even get me started on your who’s the boss – me Tarzan you Jane- BS.” She glared back at him.
“I’m the alpha.” He growled longer and harder in disbelief.
“Congratulations. Me too.” She snapped back.
“You’re not an alpha.” He tossed back as if he’d discovered a scent that he didn’t much care for and it was coming from her.
“Show me another witch with my power around here.” She tossed back. “Now get the hell off of me before I show you that power again.” She hissed and he snatched his head back and eyed her for a long moment…
“I wouldn’t threaten me if I were you, it won’t end well.”
“Don’t you threaten me!” She lifted her hand and jabbed a finger into the hard muscles of his chest – solid – and her finger didn’t much appreciate meeting a brick wall, but that didn’t put her off.
She’d zapped him twice and tossed him across the room once, because he’d become all rowdy, and she was unrepentant. She’d do it again in a heartbeat if she had to.
“I did not threaten you.” He growled back at her as his beast growled within him.
“You did so threaten me. One big damn bully – that’s what you are and it’s what you do, and Mr it’s not going to work with me.” She would have folded her arms across her chest in defiance if she could have, but his big old manly self was in the way and she had to content herself with continuing to jab him in the chest, even when her finger protested…
A heartbeat later and he’d locked his thick fingers around her wrist and hoisted her hand up above her head… She scowled up at him – raising her other hand to poke him with that finger instead, but he reached for it, tried to snag it as she flayed it around, trying to keep it free… and inadvertently backhanded him across the bridge of his nose with her knuckles…
He grunted in pain. He growled in annoyance, and finally – he got her free hand and shoved it above her head to join the other one, holding both wrists with just one big hand…
“I am not playing games with you – you need to behave yourself…” Jake growled out and her mouth came ope
n as her eyes widened and she choked on her own disbelief…
“Seriously?” She demanded on a scowl that could have burned him alive. “Behave myself? Are you for real?”
“Very.” He growled.
“Well, you’re about this…” she tried to wrench her hands from his… then when she realised they weren’t going anywhere – she almost pressed her thumb and index finger together… “This close, from getting your backside zapped so badly that you’ll be smelling burnt fur for a week.” She growled out and his beast growled back…
Jake groaned inwardly.
“Witches!” He bit down on his annoyance…
“Pesky little things, aren’t we?” She snapped back. “Better run, save yourself…” His lips came down on hers and silenced her words into nothing more than squeaks…
Then her body fired to life with the feel of those warm, soft lips against hers. A rush of heat and tingles went over her skin from head to toe and back up again.
Her heart was pounding so loudly within her chest that the whole pack could probably have heard it, and every feminine part of her sprung to life and put the rest of her body on notice of what it wanted…
Him.
It wanted him.
She wanted him – not consciously, consciously she still wanted to fry his backside and launch him to the moon with her magic… but subconsciously, every damn cell in her body was realigning itself with one purpose – to have him.
Jake’s beast rallied within him. He’d carried her off like she was a prize, like this was the old days, and a mate was for the taking – for the mating… He would never do that to her, to any woman.
He’d kissed her because he couldn’t think how else to shut her up before she pressed every button inside of him… and because he really wanted to. He’d never wanted to kiss a woman more, and the longer he’d spent in her company the more urgent it had become – like an itch that needed scratching that you couldn’t quite reach…