by M. L. Briers
“All I’m saying is, this door is not our door.”
“Good.” Shaun took a step towards the front door.
“But, it’s not their door either. It’s a rental…” Caleb offered, stopping the alpha in his tracks once more.
“Your point, if you have a point?” Shaun growled.
“Even with repairs, someone is going to know something happened here…” Caleb reasoned. “So, no claws.”
Shaun took a long moment to consider his beta’s words. The man was always well reasoned and had stopped him from doing too many things over the years that he might have lived to regret – like drowning their brother Ned when they were pups – not that he would have regretted that right then and there…
“Fine. No claws.” Shaun grunted as he retracted his claws. Then he lifted his foot and booted the door as hard as he could…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
There was a loud crack as the door shot open on its hinges. The frame protested as the deadbolts ripped through the wooden frame where they were anchored, and the frame splintered and groaned in protest…
“You’re right. Much better.” Shaun offered to Caleb as the beta groaned.
“You are just so…” He growled in annoyance.
“Go hunt your mate down, brother.” Shaun stepped into the hallway.
His naked feet stepped on the long rug that ran down the hall from the front door like a Launchpad from which to launch the hunt, and then his eyes flicked to the left…
Three witches stood like gargoyles, their angry eyes shooting dark glares right at him. He swallowed down hard at the sight of them and had the immediate urge to bend over and kiss his backside goodbye.
“That’s no way to make an entrance.” Mary scowled. She eyed the naked alpha from head to toe and snorted her contempt for him.
He might have had the kind of body that a male model would have paid good money for, but that didn’t rightly appeal to her…
“But here’s an exit that you might enjoy.” Rachel lifted her hands, palms towards him, and her so-called mate, as she drew on her magic.
Then she flicked her hands down towards their feet and magically pulled the rug right out from beneath them – literally.
Both brothers looked as if they were out on an icy lake, slipping and sliding and trying desperately to stay on their feet as they rallied backwards towards the outside world with the rug going in the opposite direction…
Splat!
Caleb couldn’t manage to keep his balance and ended up on the hard wood of the porch on his backside, but the alpha would be damned if he was going down again.
The sound of Ned’s roar of laughter echoed through the night and riled both man and beast within the alpha. His head snapped to the right, and his jet black eyes glared at the youngest sibling with a growl that sounded decidedly deadly…
Ned cleared his throat and snapped off the laughter that still bubbled within him. He expanded his arms out to the side and gave a small shrug off his broad shoulders, just as the first snowflake hit his nose. He blew out a breath upwards but didn’t manage to dislodge the ice crystal before it turned to water against the heat of his skin.
Damn, it hadn’t snowed on this side of Christmas in a long time. He felt that rush of excitement that only snow could bring.
He couldn’t wait for his brothers to get on with this mating so that he could rush home to the pack’s pups and they could revel in the frosty white stuff together.
“Could you get a move on, it’s starting to snow?” Ned offered, but when the alpha growled out in annoyance again, he held his hands up to the solidity of his chest in mock surrender. “Just saying.” He offered to the sound of a grunt.
He guessed a grunt was better than a growl. But when Caleb pulled himself up to his feet and set his chin down towards his chest – his black eyes firing with annoyance – he thought it best not to question either of them. He settled back in for the show that he’d snagged a front row seat to.
~
~
~
“Trapped. Now what?” Rachel groaned as she turned to take in both of her friends staring at her open mouthed. “What?” She bit out, frustrated.
“Seriously? The rug trick?” Mary chuckled. Her eyes were sparkling with amusement as Rachel tossed up a hand…
“Well she just shot the poor guy out of the back of the truck – it felt tame by comparison.” Rachel bit out.
“That was not my fault.” Nessie snapped with a roll of her eyes that was short lived when the sound of the alpha’s growl rumbled through the downstairs again. “Why do they not get the message?” She sighed.
“Because he’s freaking miffed with the whole launch pad truck thingy, and the other one wants his mate!” Mary snapped back, giving her a look of disbelief.
“Again, launching that guy was not my fault.” Nessie bit out.
“I’ve tried to be nice…” Shaun started on the kind of a growl that could grate cheese…
“Nice?” Nessie snorted a chuckle of disbelief at him. “Chasing me with your wolf – claws and fangs – growling-”
She would have counted his misdemeanours off on her fingers but she needed her hands for her magic should he take one more step. Unlike Rachel, she had no qualms about blasting him to the back of beyond… again.
“Are you forgetting the fact that you started all of this by hitting me with your magic?”
“It’s an especially fond memory of mine and one I don’t mind repeating.” Her eyes flicked down the hard contours of his naked body…
She hadn’t meant to linger nor stare at any part of him, and yet, faced with muscle upon muscle packed into a very attractive package, she couldn’t quite help herself… Then, when she reached the hard length of him, she felt a rush of embarrassment that met another, more potent jolt of excitement.
She snapped her eyes back to his… her cheeks could have toasted bread.
“Then you tried to kill me – twice.” His growl deepened considerably on that last word.
Nessie scowled back at him – there was something in that growl that made her ears prick up and her body take notice, and she really didn’t like it, not one little bit… although, her body seemed not to care what her mind thought.
“Would everyone stop blaming me for that?” Nessie snapped out. “It was not my fault!”
“Which time?” Rachel bit out the side of her mouth.
“Either. Both.” Nessie snapped back.
“Bit of a coincidence for it to happen twice, no?” Mary questioned her with a frown and Nessie’s mouth dropped open as she stared back at her in disbelief.
“You’re both supposed to be on my side. What is this, the witch trials?” She protested, her voice becoming even shriller as she went on – high pitched enough to make the alpha wince as it rang in his ears – his sensitive hearing was not appreciating just how shrew she sounded.
“Well I like to give credit where it’s due.” Rachel offered with something of a teasingly smug grin.
“Bite me.” Nessie hissed out.
Mine…
The alpha’s wolf growled within him at his mate’s request and the beast tried its damnedest to push forwards. Shaun pushed back, trying to keep his fangs in check and his wolf sheathed within his human skin.
Now was not the time for his beast to burst forth. He couldn’t even imagine the delights that his mate would bestow upon him with her magic should that happen.
He did growl though… boy, did he.
Nessie turned her hard glare on the alpha at the sound of his elongated growl. It seemed to rumble on for an eternity, and for each second that it hung in the air around her – she found herself being pulled into that sound, as if it was a soft blanket that was being wrapped around her shoulders…
“Be careful…” Shaun warned her.
“If your fangs come out to play one more time, so help me I will knock them down the back of your throat and you’ll be checking you poop
for them every day.” Nessie bit out with the kind of acidity in her tone that made him take notice.
“My, doesn’t she paint a colourful picture?” Rachel offered and Caleb chuckled, right up to the point when his brother shot him a death glare.
“So, you want your pound of flesh, do you?” Nessie couldn’t help herself, she tossed her hands onto her curvy hips and assumed the position she liked to think of as don’t mess with me, sucker.
“He wants his mate.” Ned chuckled from the front door. Three sets of pretty eyes flicked towards him. “Snowing!” He motioned back over his broad shoulders to where the snow was blanketing the countryside outside. Not that they could see anything below his head and shoulders as his large frame blocked out the view.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“Who’s his mate?” Mary looked confused – she flicked at look towards Nessie and Rachel, and Rachel was staring at Nessie – Nessie was standing there as if she’d been frozen in place by an icy blast…
“Whoops.” Rachel bit out.
“Two mates?!” Mary’s tone raised a few decibels.
“That’s what I said.” Ned offered back the witch and she shot a confused, and panicked glare towards him…
“What are the odds?” She offered on a breathless voice. Ned’s grin widened.
“That’s what I said…” He chuckled.
“Great minds think alike.” Rachel bit out with enough acidity to be part of the citrus family. “Maybe you two are mates.”
“What?” Mary’s voice rose again, this time to a virtual screech and all three men winced at the sound, but she was only looking at one, and that look was usually reserved for something her cat threw up on the rug.
“That’s not…” Ned shook his head. A definite denial.
His beast’s interest piqued. The animal demanded that he take her scent – just to check – just to be sure…
Ned backed up a few steps until he was standing outside in the snow. He shook his head and swallowed down hard…
“What’s wrong, brother?” Caleb chuckled this time. Grateful now that the shoe was firmly on the other foot and he had the chance to get his own back. “Scared to take a big old whiff?”
“No whiffing…!” Mary screech out. “I mean sniffing… smelling… damn it to hell and back, scenting. No scenting me!” She was more than flustered.
The thought of being his mate half terrified her, and half excited her, but it was the half terrified side of her that won the day…
She turned and took off down the hall on fast feet. Then she yanked open Nessie’s bedroom door and tossed her body inside, slamming the door shut behind her with her magic…
She turned in multi-coloured light of the room. Christmas greeted her everywhere that she looked – and then she groaned…
It was a tossup which was worse. Glitz or wolf mate…
Her back hit the door and she closed her eyes as she panted out breath, after breath, after breath, without hardly dragging one back in again. She felt lightheaded to say the least…
“Something I said?” Ned’s voice called out through the house and she whimpered with frustration.
“I am not a damn mate. Not a chance.” She tried to reassure herself, but with that man’s sparkling eyes a memory that was right there, front and centre in her mind – she didn’t feel so reassured.
“Guess karma came early for Christmas.” Rachel chuckled as she remembered how Mary had shown glee at her being at mate.
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~
Nessie hadn’t said one word since the beta had announced that she was the other mate in his scenario. She’d been steamrollered.
She just stared out blankly, straight ahead of her – every single thought and feeling floated around and around in her mind – those thoughts could have been those sparkly little pretend snow pieces in the snow globes that she liked so much, swirling in the winds of a future that looked both stormy and gloomy, to say the least.
If she could have just one Christmas wish – she’d make this all go away like a bad nightmare.
“Ho – Ho – Ho! Merry Christmas.” Ned chuckled.
His shoulders were rising and falling with the laughter that bubbled inside of him, but not one of the four people remaining in the large hallway seemed to find it even remotely amusing.
“Me-er-er-er-” Always one to answer a Merry Christmas chant with one back, Nessie tried on autopilot to return the greeting, she really did, but she just couldn’t seem to push the words out from her lips.
Her tongue was dry. Her brain was mush, and she really had a need to sit down as her legs shook beneath her.
Talk about getting blindsided.
“I feel your pain.” Rachel offered, but it sounded slightly glib to her ears and she had to wonder if her friend was rather enjoying the fact that she no longer found herself the only mate to a damn wolf…
“Pa-in.” Nessie offered back… it was all she could say.
Shaun eyed his mate. The woman had gone from rosy cheeked to pale. From full of life and vibrant with fire to… completely and totally dumbstruck.
He had to admit, right then – he kind of liked it. It certainly gave him a moment to be able to think…
“Get your things.” Caleb’s voice cut through all of the silence and Rachel’s eyes widened at his words as her eyes snapped back towards him.
“Excuse me?” She rushed out, not sure if she’d actually heard him right.
“You’re coming home with me.” Caleb informed her.
The beta’s posture changed then. He’d said his piece and then he puffed up his chest, held his arms out at his sides a little, making his body look bigger – not that he needed to look any wider than he already was, but it was definite posturing on an epic scale.
“Are you talking to me?” Rachel bit out with a small snort of a chuckle that sounded a lot like disbelief. Her eyes fired with annoyance, right before they turned into little slits in her face.
“You are my mate.” Caleb offered back and her eyes flicked towards Nessie and then back to him.
“Why’d I get the mate with poop for brains, or does it run in your pack?” It was her turn to toss her fists up onto her hips as she cocked just one eyebrow and glared back at him.
Three deep growls rumbled through the hallway at the slight.
“Too much interbreeding?” Rachel sniped and Caleb took one long step towards her.
Rachel’s hand shot up and her index finger pointed upwards. He held in place, eyeing her with suspicion. Then she slowly wagged that finger from side to side…
“Do not test me, wolf.” She warned him.
“Don’t poke the… wolf!” Mary’s voice sounded muffled through the door.
“Poke him. Ha! I’m going to toss him back out the damn door on his backside if he starts throwing his weight around here.” Rachel ground out, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Ned take a step to the side, disappearing out of sight for a moment, before his head popped back into view as he peered back around the doorframe.
“I’d say go for it and see what happens.” Ned offered, now that he was safely out of the way, he didn’t much mind watching his brother shoot on by him through the air.
“Says the beta who was too damn scared to sniff the air.” Caleb growled over his shoulder. He didn’t turn to look at his brother, but kept his eyes firmly on his mate… just in case.
“Scared?” Ned growled out. His beast rallied within him at the slur. It was the second time that his brother had thrown out a challenge like that. “The hell you say.”
He stomped back into the house and took one almighty sniff of the air. His chest expanded and his head tipped back as he filled his lungs to bursting point with the scent of wolves, spices, and Fae…
His beast growled long and hard within him. Picking the scents apart took a long moment, but he was more than certain that his mate’s wasn’t among them… He’d know, and nothing had happened.
“Brother?” Shaun shot a look at the man over his shoulder, and there he was, looking as if he’d just caught the scent of a fart in an elevator… A nerve twitched under his left eye…
“Problem, brother?” Caleb chuckled…
That nerve under Ned’s eye twitched harder. His top lip joined it…
He felt his muscles tensing throughout his body… Then he felt a stirring at his groin…
It couldn’t be…
Mine…
“That’s…” Ned’s eyes snapped towards Nessie’s bedroom door and he frowned long and hard…
A slow to boil chuckle started in the alpha’s chest and rumbled in fits and starts as he eyed his brother…
“Looks like we’ve got a winner.” Caleb said.
“What’s he say?” Mary called out.
Nessie might not have been saying much but she’d certainly taken it all in. Now she rolled her eyes towards Rachel, and she grimaced. Rachel just smirked.
“He said its fine, come on out.” Rachel offered and Nessie gasped, but she was still too shell shocked from finding out that she was a mate for her brain to tell her mouth to warn Mary of what was coming…
Ned took off towards the bedroom on fast feet. The moment that Mary yanked open the door, a smile of relief on her lips, and her eyes met the expanse of his chest, she whimpered a little as she tipped her head back on her neck and stared up at him…
“Mine.” Ned growled out and Mary’s eyes went wide…
Then he started to take a step towards her causing her to shriek out a curse word, before she slammed the door closed again with her magic...
Ned’s forehead bounced off the wood and he yanked his body back in shock and pain…
From behind him, Caleb roared with laughter… as did Rachel…
He wasn’t amused, not even close.