by M. L. Briers
“Rookie move…” The alpha grumbled.
CHAPTER SEVEN
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“The younger generation,” Neal said with a sigh, as he stalked the small distance towards his brother, lifted his leg, and booted the man free of the hold that he had on the door.
Lucas lay on the floor panting like he’d just run a marathon and had licked an electrical outlet for good measure.
In his hand was the door handle that he’d managed to rip off, and there, as he looked up, was Neal standing over him; with his big arms folded across his broad chest, and smirking down at him like the cat that got the cream.
Lucas grumbled and growled as his muscles finally started to relax.
“Smooth move, junior.”
“Why didn’t you just run head first into the door – at least it might have woken your two brain cells up?” The alpha offered on a small chuckle at his brother’s expense.
Lucas shook off the last of the magic, yanked his upper body upwards, and tossed the door handle over his shoulder.
“You’re repairing that,” Neal grumbled.
The beta pushed up to his full height once more and faced off against his brother.
“Out of my way…” the man growled.
Lucas was done playing nice. He was determined to get that damn door open and his mate out of there if it was the last thing that he did.
Neal dropped his arms and stepped aside. Then he motioned for his brother to give it his best shot.
Lucas drew in a deep breath and dropped his chin towards his chest. His eyes snapped towards the door of the pod, and his body followed – rushing at it like a bull in a china shop, and hitting it as hard as he could with the full weight of his body; all centered in his left shoulder.
He hit the door, and it felt like the door hit him back. He bounced back off, and unable to keep his footing on the slippery earth; he ended up flat on his back in the mud once more.
Neal roared with laughter as the alpha groaned again. Griffin lifted his hands and started a slow, taunting clap.
“Not exactly your damn head, but still amusing,” Griffin offered.
Lucas lifted his head and eyed the door. There wasn’t even a splinter out of place. He groaned and dropped his head back against the mud.
“I guess we wait them out,” Neal said, sniggering at his brother’s misfortune and turning back towards the pods. “Unless you wanna get the truck in here and lift the pods onto the back of it?”
“With them inside?” Griffin growled. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“Tomorrow morning that field over there is going to be crawling with people setting up for the summer festival,” Neal reminded the alpha and watched as realization crept in, and he grimaced at the thought of it.
Not only was he mate-less and standing in a field of mud with the prospect of spending the night in the rain, but tourists and townies alike would be trampling all over pack land come sunrise.
He had to wonder what else could go wrong.
“You could burn them out, after all, they are witches,” Percival announced, and all three brothers turned on their heels, growling warnings, and eyeing the vampire like he was their next tasty meal. “Or not.”
“They’re our mates,” Lucas growled.
“My commiserations,” Percival offered back, and then he frowned. “Wait … I guess that means our deal for my help in return for a tasty snack is off the table?”
Griffin took one long step towards him. His wolf was pushing forward, ready, and more than willing to take a bite of the vampire should the man set one more foot closer to the pods and the witches inside.
“Understood.” Percival shrugged his broad shoulders. “That means you still owe me payment, as I dragged my backside out into the rain and mud for you – and I do so hate the rain.”
Percival’s smug expression annoyed Griffin even more than the man’s words had.
Sure, he’d promised that the man could feed and make the tourists forget what they’d seen, and he’d have to come up with another solution for the vampire’s troubles, but right there and then – he had the urge to kill him and make all of their troubles disappear.
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~
It had been a long night that saw all three brothers prowling and stalking around the pods as the rain drizzled down around them. Each man did his fair share of circling around the pod containing his mate. When the sunlight broke over the mountain beyond, and the sound of engines in the distance signalled that humans were up and about for another day – all three of them knew that their mates would either have to come out eventually, or they’d have to get inside … one way or the other.
“Griffin…” Neal bit out in annoyance at the sound of those engines getting closer and closer to pack land.
The alpha groaned inwardly at that sound. He remembered what his brother had told him about the town turning out for the summer fair, and he hated fairs, the townies, humans in general, and the damn stupid church for putting the thing on every year – all in one fail swoop.
“Call it off…” Griffin growled at Neal, and the man’s head pulled back on his neck as he gave his Alpha something of a shocked look.
“Have you met Father Ted?” Neal demanded, knowing full well that his brother had indeed met the man of the cloth.
“Call it off…” Griffin said again – his growl getting deeper.
“Again … have you met Father Ted…?” Neal tossed back.
“Fine,” Griffin growled longer and harder. “I’ll do it.”
Griffin knew that if he wanted something done right then, he was better off doing it himself. He turned on his heels and stalked away from the pods and towards the next field.
His eyes took in the sight of the cars that were pulling into the small parking bays just off the road. Blocking in their truck and the witches’ car that was already parked there, and he snapped his eyes towards the large carnival trucks bringing all sorts of mini stalls and rides that were following up the roadway.
He knew that in ten or so hours; the roads around the back fields would be blocked with metal barriers.
At least, for now, the witches couldn’t make a run for their car under cover of the humans, because even if they did – they had nowhere to go.
He spotted Father Ted sitting up front in the passenger seat of one of his parishioner’s cars, and the man gave a hearty wave and grinned like a madman. He felt his heart drop into his stomach, and he hated to guess where his stomach had dropped too.
All of those happy smiling faces taunted him. Pressed his stupid, damn guilt button and made him feel like the biggest heel in the world for what he was about to do.
“Good morning, Griffin.” Father Ted announced with glee and cheeks so rosy that they looked as if they’d been warmed by the fireplace on a cold winter’s night – in truth, the good Father like a sip or two of the hard stuff, but only to ward off the cold. “Bad weather yesterday, but I think it’s cleared up nicely.”
“The field is like swampland, Father,” Griffin said by way of an apology and using it as an excuse for what he was about to tell him.
“Oh, it’ll be fine,” the Father answered with a spring in his step, and he rubbed his hands together against the early morning chill. “People pay a fortune to go to those music festivals and get covered in mud – we’re doing it for free.”
“I think health and safety might have…” Griffin started again.
“Ah, if you don’t tell them, I surely won’t,” The Father said with a twinkle in his eyes and a mischievous way about him, and Griffin knocked the need that he felt within him to growl at the older man on the head with a big Acme hammer.
“But what if people get hurt?”
“I have faith that won’t happen, Griffin.”
“But, Father…”
“Ah, come now, son. Let’s get this party under way.”
“But…” Griffin really did want to growl, just not a man of the cloth.<
br />
“It was nice of you and your brothers to show up and help us, so it was…” The priest said the Irish lilt in his voice was unmistakable, and it seemed to get stronger the more than man wanted to run rings around him.
Griffin shot a sideways glance at his brothers. Both men were standing there with their arms folded. They had big old, smug grins on their faces, and Griffin wanted to plant the both of them head down in the mud with their legs in the air.
“That’s…” Griffin scowled at his brothers. If one of them so much as chuckled…
“Yes?” Father Ted raised his bushy eyebrows and waited. The man didn’t need to say anymore, because he knew that he’d already won the battle of the blarney.
“That’s what good neighbors do for one another, Father.” Griffin bit out, sighing inwardly, and knowing that he was never going to hear the end of it from his kin.
“So it is, Griffin. If only more people would be as neighborly as your family.” Father Ted slapped him on the arm and frowned at the iron muscle that stung his fingers. “You’ve been working out, good-good, that’ll do the trick when it comes to the heavy lifting.” The father said as he stalked off towards the other cars and vans that were arriving.
“Shoot me now,” Griffin growled long and hard on whispered tones towards his brothers.
Each man smirked, but neither made a sound.
“This way, Griffin. You can start offloading the framework for the stalls – if you wouldn’t mind. I don’t think we can ask the Widow Patterson to do all the hard lifting today.” Father Ted beamed a smile at the widow, and the old woman beamed back.
Griffin wondered if vomiting on the priest’s feet then and there would be classed as a sin.
“You told him, Griffin.” Lucas bit out, as he gave his Alpha a wide berth and started towards the truck.
“You and me – later…” Griffin growled back.
“And where’s your Christian spirit to turn the other cheek, alpha?” Lucas tossed back over his shoulder.
“Right beside my sense of humor and my halo that I’m going to shove up your…” Griffin grumbled back.
It was only the crack of dawn, and he already wished that the day was over.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
Keri was practically counting down the minutes. She knew what was coming and she’d booked the pods just for that reason – the Summer festival was in the next field to their pods, and she’d wanted it to be a surprise.
Surprise! She thought to herself.
We came for the festivities, and you found mates – that’s going to go down about as well as when Penny threw up in Isla favorite shoes after the Halloween party from hell.
Welcome back to hell – we hope you enjoy your time with us because it’s permanent.
Well, she guessed that the surprise was on her in the form of shifters and a damn vampire hunting them. She kicked herself for not checking out the place before she had booked and brought her friends to shifter land.
But on the bright side, someone was going to have to build a summer festival onto that barren field beside the pods, and then there would be humans – lots of humans.
If they played it right then, they could use the festival as a diversion to get in their car and get the heck out of there before they became wolf fodder.
She’d heard them talking overnight. She’d heard them discussing mates.
That thought sent a shiver down and back up her spine. She wasn’t a bad person, and she believed in live and let live, just not living with them because being a mate was taking that a little too far in her book.
Instead of sleeping; she’d sat up listening to them outside the pod, and had been berating herself the whole night for not checking out the local area with the witches’ directory. It would have been so simple.
One call. One stupid call to find out if there were any supernatural goings on in the local area and she could have booked elsewhere just to be on the safe side of not getting in a faceoff with anything decidedly nasty. Oh, how hindsight was a wonderful thing.
It had been her mistake to own. She’d dropped them right in it – and it certainly wasn’t mud that they were standing in up to their necks.
So much for; getting to commune with Mother Nature, and her friends getting the all you can eat – pig out with chocolate and sweets fest. And just to top off her night; she’d sat up munching on damn chocolate bars as she listened to the wolves at the door and worried about Penny and Isla in the other pods.
I’m certainly never going to live this one down … nor should I.
How are they ever going to forgive me?
I wouldn’t forgive me.
In fact, I don’t. I’m unforgiven and unforgivable.
I suppose if I looked on the bright side then I could say that at least now they’ll know what they are – mates. So that’s a – thing.
They are mates, and they have mates.
We – we have mates.
Which means that we’ll never find that one true love anywhere but here.
That’s not a blessing; it’s a curse.
It’s a split decision – in your face – take it or leave it – with a timeframe, yep, a definite curse.
That big muscle bound alpha – chasing me like I was a damn rabbit to be caught.
Muppet!
Moron!
What’d he think – I was just going to lie back and think of Britain!
Just roll over and play dead?
Ha! Punched him right on the nose and got him a good one – big, muscle clad – bully!
And a vampire too.
What kind of a vampire works with wolves?
Or maybe the wolves are working for the vampire.
Think – Summer Fair. Think people everywhere, and how to escape the wolves at the door.
Think… Zombie apocalypse – but with shifters.
Evade and escape. And if I can’t evade – then attack … but, ultimately… escape.
That’ll work… right?
I’d say what could go wrong, but saying what could go wrong normally leads to things going even worse, so not going to say that.
Evade. Escape.
What could go wrong?
Oh.
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“And how are we doing?” Father Ted asked as he clapped his big hands together and rubbed them as if he was feeling the chill in the air, but it was warming up rather nicely.
“Oh, we’re doing just fine,” Griffin said, eyeing the man as if he was about to drop the other shoe.
Griffin hefted up one of the wooden frames for the side of a booth and wedged it against one broad shoulder. It wasn’t that heavy, at least, not for him, but he needed to make it look as if he was breaking a sweat for the human’s sake.
“Oh, that’s just grand, Griffin.” The man offered back, and Griffin shot him a sideways look as he started through the field towards his brothers and some very impressed looking elderly ladies from the church.
The women were giggling like schoolgirls as they whispered amongst themselves and eyed him like he was the perfect sponge cake at the competition that they held every year at their Summer Fair.
Enid elbowed Ida, who elbowed Jane, and the woman shot them both a scowl, but she did her duty and took one small step in his direction – that caught his brother's attention, and the alpha groaned inside.
Griffin didn’t mind so much being objectified, he was used to it, but by little old ladies? He’d much rather his mate looked at him that way then he’d really have something to be grateful for.
“Well done, Griffin,” Jane announced, and was shoved in the back by Enid to the point where she almost toppled over, face first onto the hardening ground. “Perhaps you should take off that nice shirt of yours so that it doesn’t get all messy.”
The woman looked decidedly guilty and embarrassed all in one go – she couldn’t even meet his eyes.
Griffin heard the sound of both his broth
ers deep chuckles, and he ignored them. He was sure that now he had heard everything – nice little church ladies asking him to strip – maybe they wanted him to dance as well?
It certainly wasn’t how he pictured his morning going.
“It’s not a favorite of mine, Jane,” He assured her to the sound of his brothers chuckling even harder.
“Oh,” she looked a little downcast, as if she’d let her team down.
“But, Neal’s shirt, now that’s his absolute favorite…” Griffin offered back, and didn’t need to look at his brother head on as the man snapped to attention, he could see him just fine out of the corner of his eye.
All three elders slowly turned their heads to stare at the beta. The man swallowed hard at the leeching, hope filled looks that he was getting.
“I’m a little cold,” Neal lied. “I think I’ll keep it on.”
The sheer look of disappointment on their faces could be equated to a faithful puppy being kicked by its owner.
Griffin eased the wooden frame from his shoulder and laid it in place on the ground as he stretched back up to his full height.
‘Don’t be a spoil sport – give the ladies what they want…’ Griffin chuckled as his brother’s eyes rounded on him.
‘You first,’ Neal grumbled back. ‘Those three might look like innocent little old ladies, but I tell you – there have been some hands in some odd places when they walk by.’
Griffin chuckled inwardly. But, Lucas had to lift his hand to cover his mouth as he bit down on his amusement.
“You know what, Ladies?” Griffin brought all three sets of ravenous eyes back towards him. “You’re right.”
He snagged his shirt and yanked it up and over his head. Three sets of adoring, gleeful, and grateful eyes ate up the broad shoulders, the muscles that were stacked on top of each other up his abdomen, and the smooth, tanned skin that completed the package.
Then, like any good stripper did, he tossed his shirt towards Jane.
“Maybe you could put that somewhere for me, Jane,” he asked with a little wiggle of his dark eyebrows, a glint in his eyes at making their morning, and a heavy bass in his tone that had all three elders swooning.