by M. L. Briers
“Oh…” Jane nodded, but her eyes were back on his chest. “Of course, dear.” She breathed out, but only barely.
Then he turned and gave them a great view of his taut backside as he strolled away. Playing to the crowd of three – he fisted his hands and rolled his shoulders, flexing the muscles in his arms and back.
“He’s such a nice man,” Enid sighed.
“Such a very, very nice man,” Jane agreed with a small nod and a heavenly smile on her lips.
“I could lick him like a lollipop,” Ida said, and the other two elders giggled as Neal and Lucas turned to shoot looks of disbelief at each other.
They didn’t stand around there longer than they had too. Hightailing it after their brother just in case the ladies of the church got any ideas.
“A little hot there, Griffin?” Father Ted asked with the kind of knowing twinkle in his eyes that told the alpha that he knew exactly what those little old ladies were all about.
“It’s going to be a hot one today, Father,” Griffin grinned back.
“Positively melting,” the Father agreed on a small chuckle as he walked on by, his hands full with two big black sacks full of toys for one of the game booths that the brothers were building. “I think my parishioners might need a little sit-down and a cool drink.”
“Couldn’t hurt, Father,” Griffin acknowledged as he kept on stalking towards the truck to the sound of the man’s gentle chuckles.
“Ah, no. It never hurts to give the ladies what they want, now does it?” He grinned. “Your brothers might do well to note that.”
‘Is he telling us to strip?’ Lucas asked.
‘To be a bit more charitable, I think.’ Griffin offered back.
‘Any more charitable and we’ll be building his new church roof for him.’ Lucas grumbled.
‘I already put your name down.’ Griffin lied.
‘Ah, damn it, alpha!’ Lucas grumbled as kicked out at a tuft of grass as they headed back towards the truck.
Enid, Ida, and Jane all scattered to make themselves look busy at the Father walked towards them.
CHAPTER NINE
~
Penny woke up with a start. She found herself face down on the pillow and gasping for a pure breath.
She pushed her upper body off the bed and flipped over onto her back like a beached whale – although, she hoped that all those chocolates and cake that she consumed in her lifetime hadn’t given her that much girth just yet. She liked to think of herself as curvy in all the right places.
She stared up at the wood paneling of the ceiling and groaned inwardly. She was still in hell and with the added benefit of having a wolf on her tail.
She’d heard those shifter’s talking the night before. Mates. They were mates, and she was done for.
It had taken her forever to get to sleep after that. But, as usual, once she was finally asleep then she’d slept the sleep of the dead.
Even if she had some weird dreams of shifters, vampires, and a rather sexy encounter with the shifter from the woods that she’d managed to kick in the crown jewels a few times.
She guessed that man was her mate.
Big, muscle bound shifter with the impossibly broad shoulders and those dark eyes that had reached out into her dreams.
As sexy as hell and just like Satan himself – that man was a tempting sight.
I could certainly go a few rounds with him, and I don’t think I’d be kicking him in the balls.
But a mate – like – for life?
That’s a different prospect altogether.
I know we’re supposed to be soul mates, and ergo, compatible, but, what the hell do I have in common with a shifter that lives in the middle of nowhere?
Keri certainly has a lot to answer for.
I’m in my early twenties – couldn’t fate have at least waited until I was done exploring life and ready to settle down?
I mean, come on – shifters – pups – and bonding?
Next fate will be throwing me a sign that I need to join a new fangled religion or something.
The sound of a loud, dull thud echoed through the pod, and she shot up in bed too deep shouts that went back and forth outside the sanctuary of her glorified shed.
What the hell are they doing out there?
Oh, maybe they’re getting ready to hook up the plods and cart them away?
That would be bad.
So very, very bad that I don’t even want to think about swinging in the air from a crane or something.
What if it snaps?
What if the plod falls?
What if Isla of Keri get hurt?
Men are so dumb that it’s not even worth thinking about.
Shifters … they’re the worst!
I need to put a stop to this.
But how?
She tossed her legs over the edge of the bed and pushed up to her full height. She’d had the mind and the wherefore to take the fastest shower in history the night before to wash all of the mud from her bruised body, and she’d tossed on some more clothes like it was a speed round in a drinking game. Just in case those mutts found their way inside, and as she steeled her resolve to end the shifters bad idea before it had even begun.
She forced herself to move, one step, then another towards the door, as she wrapped her wards around her body and drew her magic to her fingertips.
She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she was sure going to enjoy zapping their backsides if they wouldn’t listen to reason.
Penny drew the wards from the door and reached for the handle – another round of shouting made her press forwards, and she opened the door and stuck her head outside to the sight of people everywhere.
“What in hell’s name is happening here…?” She muttered to herself, as her eyes fell on Father Ted, and she swallowed down hard.
Fate – you might think that’s funny, but I can tell you – it’s not!
“Good morning!” Father Ted called to her, on a wave, and a smile.
Penny snapped her head back on her neck and scowled at the man, then guilt kicked her up the backside, and she stretched a grimaced smile across her face.
“Morning…”
I am not joining his religion – no way – no how – no sir!
I’m a witch; you hear me fate?
A witch!
It’s so not happening.
You can take your sign from God right back and shove it up your.
“Nice day for the summer fair,” he called, and she scowled.
“Yep,” she answered, confused.
What bloody summer fair?
She caught sight of someone big, broad, and fast that was coming in her direction, and her eyes snapped sideways to offer him a death glare.
She swallowed hard at the sight of the man from the previous night’s debacle in the woods and snatched her head back from the gap in the doorway – meaning to yank the door closed – when the Father piped up again.
“Oh, Neal, could you give Frank a hand?”
Neal ground to a halt just feet from his mate and grumbled a growl as he fisted his hands and narrowed his eyes on the witch. He looked as if he couldn’t make up his mind if he needed the toilet or not.
“Yes, Neal … give the man a hand,” Penny muttered, offering him a small, sly grin of enjoyment at his predicament.
The shifter looked trapped. Caught between a rock and a hard place.
He knew that he couldn’t exactly woo her right then and there with everyone around him, and certainly not with the Father watching his every move, but, he was eager to try.
He took a slow step to the side, as if his whole body was torn between doing the man’s bidding, and racing over to grab his mate before she locked herself away again.
With a grunt of annoyance, he turned his whole, large body, and started away from the pod, and Penny let out a long sigh of breath.
Saved by the church, there’s a turn up for the books if ever there was one.
; Now, to get the others out of their plods and away from here before the mating pull kicks us all in the backside.
~
~
~
‘Brothers, our mates are emerging from their little wooden cocoons.’ Neal informed his siblings as he dutifully did the priest’s bidding and went off to help Frank out.
He’d much rather be on the other side of the field wooing his mate, but how much attention could he draw to himself by telling the priest that he had other plans?
Neal noted the way that both of his brothers heads snapped around to watch the witches emerge from their pods, one by one to the sound of the rapid knocking of their friend on the doors.
Both men found themselves in much the same predicament that he was in.
‘Too many humans to play kiss chase…’ Lucas warned, and Neal chuckled at his brother’s words.
‘Kiss chase? Are you five?’
‘I’m trying not to use words that will hyper my wolf here – but, feel free to get your beast into a good frenzy so that you have to turn tail and go home, Brother.’ Lucas offered back.
He’d painted a vivid picture of their problems. Each man had a wolf, and each wolf had a need, and with so many humans around; those needs had to be knocked on the head.
A moment later and Lucas felt the hard bite of pain tear through his hand – he let out a yelp as his thumb got caught between the pole and the metal brace that the human was tightening around the structure, and he wrenched his hand back and rapidly shook it out.
“Mother…” he bit out but caught the second part of that curse as his eyes met Enid’s.
The old woman was barely containing the twinkle of amusement in her eyes and the chuckle on her tongue as she stared back at him.
Lucas shoved his thumb in his mouth and tried to suck away the throbbing pain. It also stopped him cursing out loud.
“Suits you,” he heard the muttered tones of his mate loud and clear, even from that distance.
The deep growl of annoyance that was trying its best to roll through his chest escaped to his throat, just a little, just enough that the man that had inflicted his pain shot him a startled look.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Sorry…” The human muttered.
Lucas yanked his thumb from his mouth and gave a dismissive shrug of his broad shoulders; when all that he really wanted to do was to punch the idiot in the face until he felt better…
“It’s fine. I should have been paying attention,” he grumbled, but oh, how he wanted to release that growl.
‘Easy, Brother,’ The alpha warned him, and Neal was trying to drag his eyes towards his sibling, but he couldn’t seem to pull them away from his mate.
‘It’s fine. I’m fine.’
‘That’s a lot of fine’s…’ Neal teased.
‘What do you want me to say? I wanna rip the man’s arm off and beat him over the head with it, before dishing out the same lame sorry that he just offered me?’ Lucas growled.
‘Someone woke up on the wrong side of his wolf this morning.’
‘Someone, meaning me, would rather be wooing his mate than helping Father Ted with his moronic summer fair…’ Lucas shot back on a grumbled growl, as he went back to bracing the structure with both hands, albeit, one throbbing like a beacon of annoyance.
‘That’s Neal’s fault…’ Griffin grumbled.
‘How is this my fault?’ Neal protested.
‘You agreed to have this stupid summer fair in our field,’ Griffin grumbled.
‘I didn’t see you turning down the money from the baking stall,’ Neal shot back, and Griffin groaned.
‘Oh … the baking stall…’
‘Oh, no. The pack females are going to be coming soon,’ Lucas grumbled.
‘Front row seats to us wooing our mates,’ Griffin tossed back.
All three brothers contemplated that in deafening silence.
‘We need to get our woo on,’ Lucas was the first to break that silence.
‘Our woo on?’ Neal chuckled back.
‘Don’t be an …’ Lucas yelped again as the hammer that the incompetent human was now wielding hit him right on the tender thumb… “Son of a…” He bit out, snatching his thumb back into his mouth and growling like a wildling for anyone to hear.
‘Stop with the damn growling,’ Griffin growled at his sibling.
‘Yeah, sure … you come over here and let Thumper here loose on your digits, and we’ll see how well you do in the freaking growling stakes…’ Lucas growled back.
‘Temper – temper, brother.’ Neal chuckled.
Lucas took one long step towards the human and that man managed to swallow down a good portion of his tongue just from the look in the shifter’s eyes.
‘I’m going to chow down on this…’
“S-sorry,” the man spat out past the lump in his throat and the dark look in the beta’s eyes.
‘Lucas, back away from the human and behave yourself accordingly,’ Griffin warned him.
‘I’m a wolf; I’ll behave very damn accordingly,’ Lucas growled back.
Then he lifted the hand that wasn’t screaming in pain and pointed a thick, long finger at the human’s chest.
“Yooouu…” he bit down on every curse word that came to mind – only just mindful enough to remember the little old ladies of the church were around and about him.
“S-s-sorry,” the man spat out again, physically shrinking in size under the beta’s dark glare.
“Give me that damn hammer…” Lucas bit out.
A moment later and he was snatching the offending item from the guy’s hand. He didn’t want to hit the man with a hammer; he wanted to plant his fist square on the man’s jaw and watch him drop.
‘Be nice…’ Griffin warned.
‘I’m not going to kill him – just chew a little…’ Lucas grumbled back.
“Oh look, bullying the poor human.” His mate’s voice rang a bell or two within his mind.
“What do you expect from a shifter?” Keri chimed in.
Lucas snatched his eyes away from the man who looked as if every last drop of blood had drained from his head, and towards the three witches that stood side by side in front of the pods. Their arms were folded across their chests, accusing eyes blazing hell fire at him, and his beast growled a long, hard warning at him.
Lucas bit down on his need to kill someone.
He saw himself in the eyes of his mate, and he groaned inwardly.
Then he snapped his head back towards the hammer swinger, and the man swallowed again.
“Go and get a w-r-e-n-c-h…” he bit out slowly.
That human didn’t need to be told twice. He shot off like the hounds of hell was on his heels, and Lucas shot a look back over towards his mate.
The witch lifted her nose in the air and snapped her gaze away from his. There was no pleasing some people.
‘Good boy,’ Neal teased, and Lucas growled through the link.
‘You can kiss my furry backside.’
All three witches moved as one. As if they had a mental link of their own that started their feet moving across the grass at the same time.
And all three of them were moving towards the parking bays.
~
~
~
“Get to the car, get out of here, and then we can talk,” Keri bit out.
She knew that she needed to tell them what she’d overheard the night before about them all being mates, but she was kind of hoping to put it off as long as humanly possible.
“Oh, there’s no way in hell fire that I’m a mate to a damn shifter,” Penny bit out, and Isla ground to a halt.
“Say what?” She almost bit her tongue off trying to get the words out.
“You know?” Keri demanded, stopping in her tracks and eyeing Penny.
“Oh, yeah. I know,” Penny hissed back, looping her arm around Isla’s and dragging the woman along with her.
“A mate?” Isla sai
d again, chewing over that thought aloud.
“Me too,” Keri sighed.
Isla ground to a halt again and yanked Penny backward as the woman carried on walking, lost in the moment.
“What the freaking hell?” Isla bit out.
Penny and Keri eyed each other over Isla’s head, but all three woman jumped in place the moment that Father Ted appeared in front of them.
“Now, what do we have here?” Father Ted said with a deep frown that brought his busy eyebrows down over his eyes.
“I could tell you, but you wouldn’t like it,” Keri bit out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
At any other time, it might have been a bit of fun to announce that they were witches, followers of the dark arts, sinners, and all of those things that their kin and kind had been accused of over the years, but, right then and there with their fates hanging over their heads like a black cloud, not one of the witches felt the need to challenge the man.
“More helpful hands!” Father Ted announced, as he lifted his arms up towards his God and held out two black sacks full of toys for the charity stall.
“I know what I’d like to do with my hands,” Penny bit out of the side of her mouth.
“We were just leaving,” Keri offered with a smile that got caught on her teeth and became more of a grimace.
“Before the Fair?” Father Ted tried to look gloomy and yet he still had humor within his washed out eyes.
“Fair…?” Isla’s interest was piqued. Penny elbowed her in the ribs.
“Sorry, Father … when you’ve gotta go, and all that…” Keri said, grabbing a handful of Isla’s shirt and yanking her sideways so that the man could pass.
“T’is a sad day. What with the cake stall, the chocolate stall,” He tried to entice, and it worked.
“Chocolate?” Penny’s interest was piqued.
“With a chocolate fountain and everything,” Father Ted offered back, and Keri grumbled inside.
That man of God knew exactly what he was doing – both of her friends were practically drooling at the thought of it.