by M. L. Briers
The beast was already prowling within him. He could practically feel the fur beneath his skin…
“I’m fine…”
“Fine. Oh! The kiss of death word.” Bailey offered back. “The obvious angst of; will she – won’t she, is playing on your mind already … the thrill of the chase mixed with the fear of knowing that this could be your only shot, of not just lifelong happiness, but of not going crazy bear…”
“Well, I was fine,” Karl ground out bad tempered even more that the vampire had pointed out the damn obvious to him once more.
“Those little tiny butterflies with their big old wings flapping around inside your stomach…” Bailey did the arm motions for effect and Karl growled at him… “Don’t shoot the messenger…”
“How about I snap his arm off and beat him to death with it?” Karl said, turning towards him and drawing up to his full height.
“You could…” Bailey considered it… “Or, you could let me help you.”
“Help me…?”
“Ok!”
“No! I said it as a question…” Karl growled.
The thought of the vampire being mixed up in his love life was like sandpaper rubbing against his eyeballs, and he didn’t like that idea one little bit.
“I didn’t hear it that way.” Bailey offered him a teasing smile – almost devilish in nature, and Karl growled long and hard back at him.
“Stay away from my mate…”
“Ha! So, she is your mate!” Bailey said with glee.
“What the hell have we been talking about for the last ten minutes?” Karl’s deep scowl brought his eyebrows down and they almost completely covered his eyes…
“You tell me…” Bailey offered back with an air of suspicion that confused the bear shifter.
“I have no damn idea…” Karl shook his head slowly on his neck as he turned back towards the cabin and the females inside.
Bailey slapped the man on the back hard enough to make him shuffle his feet forwards on the grass; save pitching headfirst downwards, and he growled in annoyance once more.
“I really don’t like you…” Karl muttered.
“I really don’t care.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“That guy seemed nice,” Jenny announced as if she’d been thinking about it long and hard during their mutual lovefest of all things cake.
“What guy…?” Bonnie had been more than distracted. When she turned towards Jenny and got a knowing look and a pointed finger towards the ceiling, she snapped back into the present. “Oh, the roof guy. He seemed nice to you?”
“Well, he’s a lot better than your last psycho neighbour, let’s put it that way…”
“Don’t remind me,” Bonnie said on a quick shake of her head.
She didn’t want to think about the past, she just wanted to leave it behind her in the city, where it belonged.
She had a new life now. This was a new start, and she was damn certain that she was going to embrace it … she just wasn’t so keen on embracing any of her neighbours.
“He’s a shifter, you know?” Jenny said and Bonnie frowned.
“I know…” she didn’t get the point.
“They’re like … hot stuff, and woman are drawn to them like magnets.”
“Well, not me…” Bonnie assured her.
“Live a little…” Jenny urged.
“I’ve … lived enough lately. I just want me some peace, and some quiet, and a little down time…”
“You want to feel safe,” Jenny shot back. “Well, how safe will you feel with that guy in your bed?”
“That’s not an image I want inside my mind…” Bonnie looked at her as if Jenny had just stolen the last cake from the box and wolfed it down.
“Sure?” Jenny’s eyebrows reached up for her hairline and her lips bowed upwards in a wicked smile, “because that image is smokin’ hot, and so is he…”
“I don’t need to stand that close to the flame. Besides, if he’s that hot then he’d probably burn down my house or something, because that’s the way my life’s been going.”
“Cabin, not house, and what’s wrong with a little fire between the sheets…?”
“Can we talk about something else?” Bonnie groaned inwardly.
“No,” Jenny gave a playful shrug off her shoulders, and Bonnie gave her a sigh in return.
“You need to let this drop.”
“Really? Why? It sounds like the perfect way for you to face up to life again and come out of hiding beneath the bed…”
“I’m not hiding beneath the bed…”
“Ok, but you are hiding out here…” Jenny motioned around them at the scattered boxes and ragtag furniture.
“There’s nothing wrong with here. I told you – I always wanted to live in the…”
“Middle of nowhere…”
“Countryside.” Bonnie scowled at her friend’s negativity.
She’d had that exact same attitude since the moment that they’d rolled out of the city, only the further away from urban life that they got, the more she put a downer on it.
“But, I’m going to miss you…” Jenny whined…
“So that’s it,” Bonnie gave her a knowing smile. “It’s not about my living all the way out here…”
“Nope, it’s about that too…” Jenny shrugged again. “Unless you’re going to take up with that big shifter guy…”
“Yeah, I don’t see that in my future.” Bonnie assured her. “He growled at me…”
“In what context?”
“Excuse me?”
“Was it a growl like he wanted to eat you, or a growl like he wanted to … devour you like you just devoured those cakes?” Jenny wiggled her eyebrows and offered her the best kind of wicked smile that backlit her eyes with mischief.
“I think the first one, he was berating me at the time…” Bonnie said.
“He’s got a really sexy friend, did I tell you that?” Jenny’s grin was all wicked and no teasing then as Bonnie reached for her mug of coffee. “I met them in town.”
“Another shifter?” Bonnie asked before she sipped at her drink…
“Vampire.”
Bonnie almost choked. She swallowed hard and screwed up her face as she tried not to spout the coffee down her nose, but with enough willpower and determination; she managed to get it down.
“Vampire?” Bonnie said; tipping her head as if she hadn’t hear her friend right, and Jenny gave a slow nod of her head. “That’s … different…” Bonnie didn’t know what to say. “I don’t think I’ll be going out to stargaze anytime soon.”
Jenny giggled, and the giggle turned into a chuckle, and as Bonnie joined in, that chuckle turned into a full blown laugh; as the pair of them cackled together.
~
~
~
Karl grunted in amusement. He’d heard the conversation that had been going on inside the cabin, and if he’d heard it then he knew that the vampire had heard it loud and clear…
“What?” Bailey frowned as he gave the shifter a sideways glance.
“She likes you even less than she likes me…” Karl grinned at the thought.
“Ah, yes, but she’s not my mate,” Bailey offered back with a smirk, and that smile dropped from the shifter’s lips like a stone.
“Not the damn point,” Karl growled, just enough to let the vampire know not to keep going, but Bailey never seemed to manage to take the hint.
“So is the point…” the vampire laughed with the kind of smirk that made Karl want to land his fist right in the middle of the man’s face…
“I’m warning you, Vampire…” Karl growled.
Karl’s large hands clenched into fists at his sides as his bear rallied at the scenario that the vampire had painted so vividly for them. He felt the first rush to real anger inside of him, and he tried to hold back the beast that rallied just beneath his skin – he was sure that he could feel the prickle of the animal’s fur trying to break free. A
nd that would be bad…
“Oh, now it’s Vampire,” Bailey said with a snort of a chuckle at the man’s expense. “Don’t shoot the messenger for your mate’s lack of interest in being wooed by you.”
A heartbeat later and Karl’s fist came out sideways from his body and it crashed into Bailey’s jaw, blindsiding him, and knocking him sideways over the top of a bush…
“Ouch…” Bailey ground out from the other side of the foliage.
“I didn’t shoot you…” Karl growled, keeping his eyes on the cabin, and allowing a smile of sheer satisfaction to grace his face…
Then the door to the cabin was wrenched open and the big shifter threw himself down into the dirt…
“Who’s out there?” Jenny’s voice was demanding, and Karl bit down on the whisper of a string of curses…
“We are!” Bailey jumped up to his feet on the other side of the bush and dusted himself down…
“Get down…” Karl growled.
“Get up!” Bailey shot back.
“Who’s we?” Jenny demanded.
“I’m not here…” Karl whispered…
“It’s me, your friendly neighbourhood vampire, and the one rolling on the ground is the cowardly bear shifter…” He heard the deep, angry growl, and grinned at it.
“I’m going to kill you…” Karl growled out.
“For that you need to be on your feet…” Bailey offered back.
“What do you want?” Jenny called back.
Her eyes were looking in the direction that his voice was coming from, but all that she could see were the shadowy bushes as the moonlight refused to illuminate that part of the garden.
“Came to say hello…” He lied.
“Hi,” Jenny shot back, and he could hear the confusion and uncertainty in her voice.
He just hoped that she didn’t think he’d stopped by for a quick snack…
“And I found the bear already here…” he almost said lurking, but then he remembered what Jenny had said about the other female that lived there, and he changed his tune so as not to frighten her.
“What does he want?”
“I think he came to say hi too,” Bailey offered back. “Get the hell up, you moron…” he whispered down to the bear that was still lying face down on his belly…
“No!” He growled back.
“Then they are going to think you are weird, weird and lurky is not a good combination. Weird, lurky, and hiding like a nun at a vampire gathering is just wrong on so many levels…”
“A nun at a vampire gathering?” Karl growled.
“Don’t ask…” Bailey shot back. “Just get up.”
“It’s late. I’m not going to invite you in,” Jenny offered back and the bear snorted in amusement.
“That’s sounds familiar…” Bailey grinned. “I seem to have heard that line somewhere before, could it be because I have fangs and a taste for blood, I wonder?”
“That too,” Jenny offered back with a little song in her voice.
“Now that is species profiling,” he offered back.
“I never said I was perfect,” Jenny tossed back at him.
“And yet, you are,” he turned on the charm.
“Ooooh, you like her…” Karl said it like an accusation and Bailey grunted in annoyance.
“She looks … tasty.” He offered down to the shifter, just loud enough for the man to hear and not spook the female.
“No – no, it’s more than that,” Karl was like a dog with a bone.
“Very tasty, and she smells good,” Bailey shot back, wanting his friend to shut the hell up.
“She’s … your mate!” Karl roared, and the vampire’s eyes snapped towards the woman at the door just at the moment that she heard the bear shifter’s words.
Her head snapped forward on her neck as her wide eyes stared into the darkness of the night, and her lower jaw snapped downwards…
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“Now, don’t freak out…” Bailey moved fast.
If she’d been able to blink then she would have missed it, but he was in front of her in a heartbeat, and Jenny yelped in surprise as she threw her body backwards away from him…
“What does that even mean…?” She bit out.
“Oh, I think you know…” Bailey’s smile was teasing, but she didn’t want to be teased … she wanted some answers.
She’d read the stuff on the internet about vampires – all of it that was on the news as bit by bit the world learned about them – and she’d read the stuff on true mates… but she didn’t believe it – not if it applied to her…
Jenny opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of Bonnie racing outside with an oomph in her breathing as she carried the baseball bat high against her shoulder as if she was about to take a running hit, dragged her attention away from the man and towards her friend…
“Night baseball,” Bailey offered with a smirk. “Good for us, not so much for you two.”
Bailey could hear the sound of the shifter as he stalked towards them. He knew that once Bonnie had made an appearance it was only natural that the protective bear within the man would not want the vampire that close to her without having his body in between them…
“What’d he do?” Bonnie demanded, eyeing the vampire as if he was about to take a bite of her best friend.
“N-nothing…” Jenny said, and then her lower jaw flapped around on its own for a moment, but no words came out.
“You shrieked…” Bonnie said it like an accusation.
“It was … him…” Jenny tossed a hand towards the shifter as he stalked towards them.
Karl hesitated in step…
“It wasn’t me…” he growled.
“What’d you do?” Bonnie demanded of the man…
“I have no idea…” Karl grumbled.
“Stop right there…” Bonnie said, tightening her double handed grip on the baseball bat and planting her feet, ready and willing to take a swipe…
“He said he was my mate…” Jenny lifted her hand and pointed an accusing finger at Bailey…
“Wh-a?” Bonnie started, but Bailey took a small step towards Jenny…
“Tell me, would that be such a bad thing?” he tilted his head and regarded her with a smirk.
“You’re doing it again, aren’t you?” Jenny hissed at him…
“What?”
“That – look into my eyes thing that you do…”
“No.” Bailey tried for innocent, and in truth, he was only using the tone of his voice to try to calm her.
“Liar.”
“Technically not.”
Jenny huffed and Bonnie eyed all three of them.
“Why can’t you people leave us alone?” Bonnie demanded.
“Because – he’s your mate…” Bailey lifted his hand and pointed to the shifter.
Both Karl and Bonnie’s head snapped back on their necks at the same time, but for very different reasons.
“That’s not funny,” Bonnie bit out.
“Am I laughing?” Bailey shot back…
“Now, hold on a…” Karl started on a low rumble of a growl that made Bonnie start backwards towards the front door. Then she turned on her heels, rushed inside, and started snapping on locks and bolts – there was even a jingle of the chain.
“I don’t think she likes you…” Bailey offered to Karl and the bear grumbled and growled, and said every dark word that was pinging around inside his mind as he started towards the cabin…
“Yeah, hello?” Jenny called. “What about me?”
Karl felt a buzz of amusement as his mate went through the list of dark words that she knew on the other side of the door, and she appeared to know a lot of them. Then those same bolts started to snap back off again.
When Bonnie wrenched open the door – there he was – as big as the opening and staring back at her with so much intensity that she swallowed hard.
“We should talk…” Karl growled.
�
�You’re not coming in!” Bonnie snapped out.
Her eyes were wide and her heart was pounding out a tune all its own as she looked up at the man in disbelief.
“Just for the record – I don’t need an invite,” Karl said, and kicked himself in the backside when her lower jaw started to slide downwards…
Then she gave a fast shake of her head to clear the haze, and she scowled up at him through narrowed eyes…
“Is that a threat?” She bit out.
“What?” Karl looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “No!”
Bonnie stretched her neck to try to see around him…
“Get in here!” She snapped out to Jenny, and she caught Karl’s movement out of the corner of her eye. “Not you!” She hissed up to him as her eyes glared and her eyebrows were pulled down low in a scowl…
“I’m not going to hurt you…” Karl bit out – surprised that she didn’t seem to have a clue about his kind and what a mate truly meant.
“Yeah? Well, I can’t say the same if you don’t back off,” Bonnie bit out as they glared at each other for a long moment.
Karl was debating what to do next. He wanted to take a step, wrap an arm around her waist, draw her near, and boy did he want to take her scent at source.
What he didn’t want was for her to panic and try to use his head for batting practice…
“She means it…” Jenny warned from just over his left shoulder, and the man grumbled something under his breath as he hesitated for a moment longer, before he caved and stepped back.
“Good choice,” Bonnie bit out.
She was done being afraid. She was done with not sticking up for herself…
This wasn’t just her anymore – she’d inadvertently dragged Jenny into this one, and she needed to step up and protect her as best she could.
“I’ll see you later,” Bailey offered in his melodic smooth tones as Jenny sidestepped the shifter and squeezed around Bonnie who still stood clutching her bat at the doorway.
“I really don’t know what to tell you…” Jenny said over her shoulder as the reality and enormity of what being a mate meant…