by M. L. Briers
She took a long breath in and sighed it back out, and if she’d been a dragon then he was sure that there would have been fire along with it – her eyes said fire. Fire and brimstone. Fire, brimstone, and a sure and sudden death to him should she choose to put a little magic behind them.
“Can we just…” She stopped talking when he turned her back to the wall of the cottage and pressed her there with one hip against hers…
That was when she felt it. The hard press of his erection against her stomach and her eyes snapped up to his, narrowed, and sparks of anger flashed in those eyes of hers.
His mate was certainly feisty. He liked that.
“Mine.” He liked the way that her eyes flashed and her nostrils flared every single time that he said that word.
He wondered if she’d have the same kind of reaction as he took her to the hilt of his hard cock… that would truly be something to see, to feel…
He growled again. She blinked with the jolt of anger that shot through her.
“Enough already. You have more than made your damn stupid point!” She hissed.
Caleb tipped his head to one side and narrowed his eyes on hers. There was that grin again, as sexy as hell and aimed right at her panty-dropping button…
The hell they would! Her panties were going nowhere fast even if she had to superglue them to her body.
“M-i-n-e.” He drew the word out slowly for her benefit.
He’d kind of thought that she would understand it the first time. Maybe the second, but come on! How many times was he going to have to say the same damn thing before she understood?
“Look!” She bit down on another roll of anger that rushed through her. Any moment now she was going to lose it with this guy and go postal, and a postal witch wasn’t someone you ever wanted to stand near.
“What part of that word do you not understand?” Caleb offered with amused disbelief.
Rachel blinked. Then she blinked again… then faster, and faster, like it was somehow connected to her brain computing what he was trying to get through to her…
“You’re – not – pulling my leg, are you?” She’d started off slowly and finished in a rush of pure, and total understanding.
Buried somewhere deep in the darkest recesses of her mind a little tiny glimmer of hope that he was going to toss his head back on his neck and laugh like a madman at his funny, at her believing him… and yet, those chocolate brown eyes said that hope should be extinguished now – drop a load of bricks on that puppy because it was done for.
“Mine.” He said it simply and with all of the honesty that he could summon, even his eyebrows looked honest as they rose up on his forehead towards his hairline.
Rachel gasped in a breath. Her eyes widened…
“Oooooooooooooooo…” Her voice was low in her chest as she stared at him.
“Oooooooooooooooo…” she kept going, even when he frowned and questioned her with his eyes.
“Oooooooooooooooo…” He didn’t think she had much breath left in her lungs, but he was wrong.
“Oooooooooooooooo…” She slowly shook her head, but her eyes never left his, nor did she blink even once.
“Oooooooooooooooo…”
“Is this a witch chant?” He asked and she gasped in a breath and kept gasping until her chest rose higher and higher.
“Oooooooooooooooo…” Still she didn’t blink…
“Are you…?” Caleb scowled. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t normal, not that witches were normal…
“Oooooooooooooooo…”
“Shock!” He rushed out. “Shock?” He considered it.
Then he had a brain fart… and brought his lips down on hers to silence her, and to try to sooth her troubles away the only way that he could think of.
It’s what mates did, right?
Wrong!
That didn’t go so well.
A heartbeat later and he was flying backwards through the frosty night air, with her still clamped against him. Her body locked tightly to his, and a hard shriek of surprise coming from her lips and almost deafening him for his troubles.
CHAPTER EIGHT
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Caleb’s back hit the ground with a hard, dull thud, and her body seemed to compound the pain that shot through him from both sides… He heard her gasp in another breath and he swore that if she started chanting ooooo again, he was going to kill her himself.
“You absolute bloody muppet.” Rachel hissed out at him.
“Well, at least that’s better than Oooooo, I suppose.” He growled.
“You suppose?” She bit out. “Don’t suppose. You could have thought to let me go.”
“Let…?” He growled again. “You were all like… ooooo… and I was trying to-”
“Cop a feel.” She hissed back.
“Cop a… I did not try to cop a feel!” He scowled.
“You kissed me.” It sounded like an accusation and he grunted in annoyance.
“That is not copping a feel.” He shook his head.
“But you would have… admit it.” She snapped.
Her nose wrinkled and her top lip curled when she got angry, he noted that. Hell, he noted everything that might just get him some insight into this woman, this witch – his mate.
She tried to twist and wiggle away from the grip that he had on her, but just as before, he wouldn’t let go.
“I admit to nothing.”
“There you go, so there was something.” She snapped back, stilling for only a moment to offer him a death glare.
“How is that something when there was nothing?” He growled louder, harder.
She was once again struggling to be free of him, and in truth, he could have let her go, but the feel of her body rubbing against his gave him more than just a happy feeling.
“But you just said you weren’t admitting to anything, and yet you already said you kissed me.” She stopped struggling again just long enough to ground out her words.
“I know I kissed you. I was there!” He growled back.
“You were so going to cop a feel.” She bit out indignantly.
Caleb bit down on his need to kill someone. The woman was like a damn dog with a bone, and just as frustrating as his sister could be.
Yep – he’d love nothing more than to kill someone. It could have been anybody. A brother, another pack member… anybody at all – just not her – unfortunately!
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Nessie shot out of the trees and into the clearing. The sound of the truck was a welcome one. She could catch a lift to… anywhere sounded good, she didn’t need to know where the truck was going as long as it was away from that man, because boy did she not want to be around him after what she’d done.
Did she feel guilty? Just a smidge – but she was certain that the further away to safety that she actually got, the more she would stew on it, and the worse she would feel.
She just needed to be alive to feel badly.
She saw Ned at the same time as he saw her. His eyes took her in and he initially went to smile, but just one step towards her, one sniff of the air, and he saw her manner change – saw her eyes widen and he held his ground…
“Another bloody wolf…” Nessie muttered, but she knew that he’d heard her by the way that his head tilted to the side slightly, as if those wolf ears of his were listening hard.
Damn it!
What was she supposed to do now?
Her eyes flicked to the truck – the keys must still have been inside the ignition, because the engine was running… either that or it was spelled in some way and she wouldn’t have wagered good money on that being the case… but a running engine meant…
She took off on fast legs for the open door. From the corner of her eye she saw him move – he was getting bigger in her peripheral vision and that meant that he was getting closer.
Oh, how she did not like that!
“That’s my damn truck…!” He growled out and she choked
out a chuckle of disbelief.
“You people like claiming things… now it’s my turn.” She bit out, practically launching herself into the driver’s seat, using her magic to slam the door shut and flick on the locks – which meant her hands were free for the most important thing… getting the hell out of there.
Nessie slammed the gearstick into drive and took off like a bat outta hell.
“That’s my truck!” She heard him call after her again. The man was giving chase.
Wolfman verses truck?
She should have had this, right?
She flicked her eyes to the side mirror. There he was pumping his arms against the winds, head tilted slightly back as he raced after her, and she couldn’t help but snort a small chuckle for his grief.
She wasn’t going to damage the damn thing – only borrow it. Although borrow was just a technical term. That didn’t mean that she was going to return it to him, nope, she’d leave it in town where he could find it, because there was no damn way that she was stepping foot back onto pack land.
“Sucker…” She bit out, almost on a whisper. She didn’t want his ears picking up her words and rubbing salt into the wounds of not only losing his truck, but also losing the battle of speed to get it back again.
She was practically flying along now…
Nessie had that warm glow of a happy feeling about her.
She’d certainly dodged a bullet there – twice!
Her eyes flicked from the road ahead to the side mirror once more and she ducked down in her seat a little at the sight that she thought she seen. Squinting a little in disbelief…
There he was – truck guy – running fast, as fast as his long muscled legs could carry him, and there it was… a damn wolf – coming up fast behind truck guy…
What the hell?
Truck guy must have had the exact same thought. She saw him turn his head at the sound of fast paws, and as the alpha wolf overtook the man, he did a double take.
Ned almost shook his head in disbelief. Not only had a witch stolen his pride and joy – the same pride and joy that he was working hard to make payments on every damn month, but now his brother, the alpha, was chasing the damn truck in his wolf’s skin…
“Shaun?” Ned growled out as the wolf drew level. “What the hell, man?” Ned eyed him and the wolf growled back as it pushed on by and left Ned fighting to try to keep up…
‘Stay out of this, Ned.’ The alpha used the psychic link between the pack to warn his brother off.
“She stole my damn truck!” Ned growled out. “Don’t hurt my damn truck!” He added, knowing exactly what the alpha’s temperament could be like and not wanting his truck to suffer in any way, shape or form…
He groaned inwardly as the alpha pushed off on his back paws… He had a bad feeling that this was going to go horribly wrong… for his truck, and he was right.
Shaun’s beast locked its paws over the metal of the tailgate and Ned groaned inwardly, but when the alpha’s back paws hit the nice shining red paint of the back flap, and its claws hooked against the metal…
“No, no, no, no, not the paintwork!” Ned pleaded and yet…
The sound of razor sharp claws scratching against the paint job not only set his teeth on edge – including the fangs that were still sheathed in his gums – but he groaned so loudly that when the wolf managed to wrench himself into the flatbed at the back, he turned his black eyes on his brother…
“Oh, you are so paying for that to be re-sprayed!” Ned growled out.
Shaun’s beast turned its attention back to what he could see of the driver. The woolly hat on the witches head made his beast snort its contempt for her… The bobble that was bouncing around on top of the hat… well, that intrigued the beast a little more than Shaun would have liked…
Focus on the witch, damn it! Shaun bit out to his beast and the wolf’s attention snapped back to their mate.
She’d run from them.
She’d hit him where it hurt, in more ways than one, and had taken off into the woods making him give chase… that was not good!
Then she’d stolen a truck.
Not just any truck, but s shifter truck. A crime against his people.
His mate was a violent offender, and a witch to boot – he was so damn happy with her right then that he could have eaten his way through the back of the cab just to tell her that much.
He never got the chance.
Having lost sight of the wolf and wondering where the hell it was, Nessie’s eyes flicked from the side mirror to the rear view mirror, and there it was – as bold as brass and larger than hell – right in the back of the truck.
Nessie didn’t consider what would happen next as she panicked and stomped on the brake…
One giant thud as the wolfman chasing her slammed into the back of the truck and bounced back off again… and one wolf that needed to learn how to fly really quickly as it sailed over the top of the cab.
The beast’s back paws scuffed the cold metal surface of the roof, and she heard a screeching sound as he tried, and failed, to find purchase for those razor blade claws as they dragged straight over the top of the paintwork… Splat!
She didn’t even have time to ease his landing with her magic. Panic and fear gripped her deep inside, twisting her gut, and causing her to grimace a moment before he landed against a guard rail at the side of the road…
CHAPTER NINE
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“Whoops.” Nessie ground out…
She kind of had a feeling that this was bad – like – bad, bad – like, a hell of a lot worse than the magical kick to the balls that she’d delivered to him.
She groaned as her eyes flicked down and around the cab as she tried to get her brain to work.
It wasn’t as if she could make this right… She’d kicked him in the balls and now she’d propelled him into flight, although, she would assume that it was more the landing that he objected too…
So now what? She had to ask herself…
The roar of an angry growl that went up from behind the truck slapped her backside into gear. Two thuds echoed through the truck, and she craned up in the seat and eyed the rear view mirror just in time to see two large hands gripping the tailgate, and like a wolfman version of the movie Jaws – truck guy’s head started to rise above the tailgate…
Boy, did he not look happy!
“Big whoops!” She snapped out. “Outta here!” She took both feet from the brake and applied them to the accelerator.
Ned didn’t even have time to let go of the tailgate as she shot the truck forward, taking off without warning, and as his feet left the ground, he could swear that his body must have looked like one of those wind socks blowing in the damn breeze, sailing along behind her…
“Alllppphhaaa! A little damn help!” Ned yelled as he sailed on by his brother’s wolf as it dragged itself up on all four paws, and shook himself off from the impact.
‘Let the hell go you moron!’ Shaun spat out in disbelief at the sight of his brother trailing behind the truck.
His siblings weren’t exactly blessed with brains – this latest turn of events just proved that point. He groaned inwardly.
“B-ut it’s my truck!” Ned’s feet hit the ground, and he could swear to it that she managed to find every rock on the damn dirt road to bounce his feet off of.
He grunted and growled in pain – refusing to say the word ouch even in his mind.
‘It’s still gonna be your truck if you let go, you dumbass!’
“I want my truck!” Ned growled out – vaguely aware that his brother was following on behind them by the sound of fast paws against the ground.
‘And I want my mate.’ Shaun growled out in annoyance. She’d damn well taken off on him… again!
“Your mate? Who’s your mate…?” The moment it came out of his mouth so he realised exactly who it was that the alpha was talking about… “The witch!”
‘Shut up before I take a detour into biting your ass.’
Shaun warned, causing Ned to spin his head around in search of the alpha’s wolf, and there he was, coming up fast behind him – he certainly could make good on that threat…
“Whoa! A witch mate… lucky you!” Ned chuckled, feeling slightly better about the situation, especially now that he knew his brother was going to suffer wooing the woman, and what a nutjob she appeared to be.
‘Don’t move a muscle!’ Shaun growled out, and Ned eyed the beast as it lined its body up with his…
“Oh no! No, no, no n-”
That was as far as he got before the wolf launched itself from the ground once more. Front paws thudded against his broad shoulders, hooking over the muscled tops, and back paws kicked him on either side of his spine against his lower back…
Ned’s breath left his lungs from the impact. Squished against the tailgate one moment, and then, when the wolf used his body as a launching board, he pulled back away. His fingers started to slip from the tailgate and Ned’s eyes widened as he tried to hold on…
Ned saw the wolf land on all four paws in the back of the truck a moment before his fingers finally slipped from the edge of the metal and he fell with a heavy thud, rolling over, and over, and over, until he wasn’t sure which way was up or if he even wanted to know.
“I’m so damn well going to kill you in your sleep…” Ned growled out as he lay face down in the dirt.
He raised his head and caught sight of his truck flying down the road with one really miffed wolf riding in the back.
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“I was not going to cop a feel. You were going fruit loop. I kissed you. End of story.” Caleb growled out.
The feel of her body rubbing his was creating something of a problem for him now. There was the start of a fever within him that was fuelled by the need to put her on her back and kiss her with everything that he had in his arsenal as he thrust inside of her.
His beast applauded that idea. The trouble was he didn’t think that she would be agreeable, and if a woman isn’t agreeable…
“Fine!” She ground out. Both of her hands slapped down against the hard muscles of his chest and she pushed up, really hard…