by M. L. Briers
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
BY
M. L. BRIERS
Copyright © 2016, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2016, Cover Design; R L Sather.
Table of Contents
HIS MATE
BROTHERS
CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWHO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
~
It was a day like any other in his book. He wasn’t going to be swayed by his sister’s pleading puppy dog eyes. That wasn’t how this was going to go down.
So, she had human friends. Well, good for her.
It was bad enough that the pack had to behave as humans did when those friends came to visit… But, ho-hum, did he not want the hassle and trappings of Christmas around the house.
That would just about send him over the squirrely edge into nutty-dom. Cutting down a perfectly good tree just so you could put it in the corner of the room and string lights on it… Come on, who does that…?
Apart from humans…
But then humans were squirrely nutjobs. They brought things, wrapped them up in fancy paper and stuck them under said tree… and for what? A mad scramble to rip off the paper at stupid o’clock in the morning.
Insanity.
And they repeated the process every damn year!
How many perfectly good trees got cut off in their prime?
Hell no!
No way, no how, not happening on his watch.
If she wanted to pretend to be human…
Shaun stopped in his tracks and frowned hard at the thought.
Was that it?
Did his sister secretly long to be like her friends?
Was she feeling out of place in her fur skin?
Damn, if she was having a crisis of species – what the heck was he supposed to do about that?
Teenage girls were a minefield that he never expected to have to walk through again after puberty, but he’d been a teenage boy then himself… and his parents had been alive to slap him into shape…
Maybe she just needed a firmer hand?
Maybe he just needed a feminine touch…?
Hell, no!
What did he know about females? Except for the obvious things a teenage boy works out along the way – like they have breasts and smell good, and they feel damn good when you…
He shivered at the thought.
That wasn’t applicable to his sister. He crossed that thought off right there and then. Any teen pups sniffing around his sister would find themselves at the sharp end of his fangs and claws…
He groaned. Then he growled. Then he dropped his backside down onto the nearest felled log, and he rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his upturned hands.
“What’s got into you?” Ned, his brother and beta, tossed him a frown of his own. “You’ve been sullen and moody since last night at dinner.”
Little wonder after the tantrum fuelled howl fest of a show that their sister had put on. That had included the stomping, the door slamming, and the wailing that only a female could perform.
“Do you think Dani needs a-”
“Mate? Good idea, we could pass her tantrums on-”
“A mate!” Shaun shot up to his full height and growled long and hard at the thought of anyone sniffing around her. “Are you insane? She’s eighteen!” He muttered curses and stomped over to the tree that he’d just felled for winter wood.
Now, there was a good reason to kill a tree!
“Stop being so damn prissy. We could put some feelers out into the community and see…” Ned ducked low at the waist when a log came shooting at his head… “Guess that’s a no then.” He growled, straightening up and tossing his alpha a fierce look.
“End of conversation about mating until she’s at least twenty one.” Shaun wrapped his large hand around the handle of the axe and hoisted it over his left shoulder, before putting all of his aggression in just one swing that embedded the blade deep into the wood.
That made him feel a whole lot better.
“You’re not going to keep her from boys, you know?” Ned dared to tread back into the explosive arena of their sister’s love life – or lack of it for a very long time should the alpha have his way.
“She’s our sister.” Shaun growled out in disbelief. “It’s our job to protect her from men like us.”
“That’s true.” Ned acknowledged the wisdom of those words. He wouldn’t let a guy like him near his sister either – not unless they were her one true mate, and yet, he also knew that a teenage girl would do teenage girl… stuff. “But a mate isn’t a guy like us.”
“Chop wood and shut up.” Shaun growled.
He wanted and end to the conversation about Dani and men. He knew very well what a teenage boy had on his mind ninety nine point nine percent of the time… He rumbled another growl.
“So, what about this Christmas idea…?”
“Did I not say to shut up?” Shaun swung the axe again, and again, and again… like he was a robot in a man’s skin. Perfect swings, even through his annoyance.
“Hey, she offered to cook the whole holiday. Turkey and meats, puddings and sweets…” Ned tossed up a shoulder as his brother frowned…
Shaun felt his stomach rumble at the thought of food…
“Well… that’s not the downside.” Shaun grumbled.
“No, that’s the bonus to stringing up lights and baubles and tinsel…”
“Tinsel!” Shaun growled louder… “There is no upside to tinsel!”
“She’ll buy you a pair of fluffy socks that you don’t need with Santa on them – you can buy her some girlie makeup goop…”
“You’re still talking.” Shaun growled, swinging the axe again.
“It’ll make her happy…” Ned like to turn the knife once he’d planted it in his brother’s gut…
“No – no! Damn it to hell and back, no!” Shaun growled out, swinging that axe again and imagining the log was his br
other’s head.
There would be no damn Christmas in his house and that was the end of it!
~
~
~
“And some of these…” Dani tossed another pack of glittery baubles into the cart and Shaun growled in annoyance.
Everywhere that he looked was shining and bright. They were in the Christmas section of the store and he felt his manhood shrinking by the second.
“Oh! Tinsel!” She exclaimed and he bristled at the thought of it.
His eyes rolled back into his head and he groaned inwardly like a man who’d been made to go into the store and buy feminine hygiene products from old Mrs Collins – that grey haired stalwart that always made him feel as if he was a pubescent pup buying condoms…
He shivered at the thought – of the tinsel and Mrs Collins – and her steely washed out blue eyed knowing gaze of accusation and rebuke.
“Do we really need to…?” He started, and was met with his sister’s no-nonsense glare. “Maybe one or two strands.” He growled at his weakness.
He was the alpha of the pack. The strongest of them. One growl from him and they should be cowering in their boots…
Most did. But there were a few females who knew exactly how to wrap him around their little, damn mischievous fingers, and she was one of them…
She’d played that card. The card that made him wither and die inside every single time she pulled it from her deck…
The; If our parents were still alive… card that saw him folding his hand every damn time.
Now, here he was, surrounded by… Christmas. He shuddered again.
He really needed to build up his defences against that damn guilt ridden sentence. It pulled on his heart strings and made him all gooey inside.
He didn’t want to be a big old pile of goo. He was an alpha, damn it!
He knew she’d gotten the short end of the straw. Hell, he missed his mother too, and it was worse for her because she’d only been ten when they had died…
He’d been mother and father to her ever since. They all had, the whole pack, and that was probably the problem.
Chinese whispers of the worst kind. She had females telling her how to wind him around her little finger on one side and authority on the other… of course she was going to rebel… be a royal pain in the butt when she wanted something…
Princess!
He guessed he’d over compensated and look where it had gotten him… Tinsel land… Grrrr!
“I just need a few things…” That sing-song feminine voice caught his attention and made his ears prick up. The door to the shop swung shut and he craned his neck to see through or over the glitzy displays if yuckiness…
There she was, through the framework of Christmas. All blonde curls and a big puffball of fake fur and padding in her winter jacket. Human! Pah!
CHAPTER TWO
~
“No to Christmas!” Her friend warned the blonde in what Shaun thought might have been an attempt at dominance, but sounded even more pathetic than if his sister had tried it… Human! Pah!
Did he not like them right now, and these two were worse – they were outlanders. Outsiders to the close knit community of villages along the coast. He snorted his contempt for them, as he half kept an eye on what his sister was drooling over this time.
God help him, but whatever it was, was covered in pink glitter and purple feathers! Like someone had tarred a poor unsuspecting turkey in a pot of eyesore colour paint and then rolled it in glitter…
Who came up with this stuff…?
“Just…” There was a sigh, it was soft and irritating to his nerves as it pulled on his heart strings and flicked his guilt button…
Dear God, but now he was getting gooey inside over a damn stranger’s wants and needs… What was it with females?
“What about Mistletoe?” The curly blonde one asked, and it sounded like his sister doing the asking to his ears. Somehow this woman was having the same damn effect on him as his sibling…
Was he going soft?
Was he going soft in the head?
Did he ingest something that had lowered his testosterone levels and made him… more human, less alpha?
He felt a rush to panic inside of him…
Next he’d be developing moobs and looking at window fabrics and napkins!
“Don’t you just love these?” Dani asked, turning around with those damn feathery – glittery things and hanging them by each ear.
His wolf roared at the sight of them. He felt the sweat on his brow start to pop out in little beads. He swallowed hard.
“Do I?” He asked, a little wide eyed, and unsure.
“Uh-huh.” Dani nodded and he nodded back, swallowing hard again.
“O-k-a-y.” He cleared his throat and wiped the back of his hand over his brow…
He was leaking sweat like a vampire in church!
“What about mistletoe?” The other woman said, and his head snapped back around as he tried to follow the conversation, even if he couldn’t see them now because there was a pretend tree was in the damn way…
Why would anyone want a pretend tree? It was even worse than killing a real tree…
He didn’t feel like himself. This was all off. Something was wrong…
Maybe he was having a mid-life alpha crisis of the worst kind…
He had to wonder if alpha’s had those…
“Just a little. And you have to have mistletoe at Christmas in case a tall dark handsome stranger stops by…” The blonde’s voice was enticing.
The thought of kissing under the mistletoe was the only good thing about Christmas in his book. That and the food. It was the only thing that humans got right about the whole holiday season…
He thought about kissing the mystery blonde under the mistletoe and his length hardened…
Dear God! Now he was having a crisis of… well, he didn’t know, but it was bad. He could feel it was bad.
His heart raced and he was sure that rushing in his ears was a very bad sign…
“We can pick it wild. This is the countryside.” The friend said, and his ears pricked up. The only mistletoe for miles was on pack land…
“More tinsel and some of this…” Dani held up a sprig of pretend mistletoe and his guts dropped to his knees… It glittered!
“Here…” He reached into his back pocket and ripped out his wallet. Thrusting the basket and the wallet at his sister; he took off on fast feet for the nearest exit… sweat dripped down his back, and his throat was dry.
His wolf protested leaving the shop… leaving their sister… but he needed fresh air, and the icy blast that hit him full pelt in the face felt damn good…
The rumble of a truck caught his ears and held his attention for a few seconds before he dismissed it. Taking one step forward that truck sped by with a blast of the horn…
The first set of tyres hit the swimming pool of a pothole puddle and sprayed water in his direction… he blinked at the icy wet splash that covered his front… then the next set of wheels… and then the next… and then the last…
His top lip quivered as water dripped from his hair – water ran down his face – water, water, everywhere, and not the damn drinking kind. Grrr!
He reached up and wiped his large hands over his face… On the plus side he was feeling much cooler now.
Oh, how he hated Christmas!
~
~
~
“Two days to go!” Nessie jumped up and down with joy at the thought of Christmas.
Yes, she might have been a witch and Christmas was different for witches, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy the season and all of its glittery majesty and twinkling fairy lights…
A sprinkling of pretend faerie dust everywhere and pretty lights made her happy, and she was determined that her friends sour moods towards the jolly season wouldn’t dampen her enthusiasm, even if that enthusiasm had to be limited to her bedroom and only her bedroom… she’d eve
n smuggled in a fake four foot Christmas tree in her luggage…
“Until we eat like Queens.” Rachel smiled at the thought of all of that good eating… she liked pudding.
“That too.” Nessie said, a little flatter now at the thought of the season downgraded to an all you can stuff in your fat-face, bloated belly, fart like a trooper, twenty four hour buffet…
It just wasn’t right.
“You promised.” Mary berated her when she hadn’t even done anything wrong, at least nothing that they could see. Her annoyance prickled within her – mixed with a little guilt.
“I know – I know. And I will cook and cook and slave my hands to withered stumps to provide a meal fit for a Queen…”
“Two Queens and one Ciderella.” Mary shot back with a grin.
“Well, maybe I will get to go to the ball, and maybe I will get a fairy godmother.” She snorted her fleeting contempt for her friend’s lack of Christmas spirit.
“And maybe the Earth will stop spinning and we’ll all fall off.” Rachel’s grin widened to match Mary’s.
“I’m going for a walk.” Nessie turned on the balls of her feet and headed towards the door.
“Are you insane? It’s minus frozen to death out there, and they say there maybe snow coming.” Mary protested.
“City slicker.” Nessie shot back. “For witches, you two don’t exactly embrace the great outdoors and Mother Nature’s true majesty.”
“I think she’s been at the cooking sherry again.” Rachel snorted a chuckle.
“That reminds me…” Mary turned on her heels and headed back to the kitchen… “I’m on holiday. I need wine.”
Nessie bundled up. One big, thick padded jacket. Check. One big, thick furry hood. Check. A pair of super warm furry gloves. Check. And she was ready for whatever the weather could throw at her.
She was off in search of mistletoe!
“Back later.” She called out as she yanked open the door and felt the frosty air against her uncovered cheeks… A balaclava would be overkill, but maybe welcomed.