by M. L. Briers
The vampire’s eyes snapped towards the witch. He slowly narrowed them into nothing more than small slits as he eyed her for a long moment.
“Your point?” He finally asked.
“Stupid name,” Neal growled out.
“Oh, you speak for the witch now?” Percival asked.
“What?” Neal growled.
“No, he doesn’t,” Penny said, shaking her head slowly on her neck and giving the man an old fashioned look.
“I didn’t say I did,” Neal said, more than a little defensively as he turned to look at her.
“You didn’t have to say it; you just presumed to speak for your mate,” Percival offered, stirring the pot. “Like her opinion doesn’t count. Tell me, is it because she’s a woman?”
“What? No!” Neal snapped back.
The beta stomped down hard on the urge to lift his hand and swing for the damn vampire.
“Then is it because she’s a witch?” Percival tossed back.
“No!” Neal growled.
“Then for absolutely no reason at all, you decided that she doesn’t need to have a voice. An o-p-i-n-i-o-n.”
“I’m going to….”
Neal took one long step towards the man and balled his hands into large fists at his sides. Anger flashed in his eyes as thoughts of what he’d like to do to the vampire flashed into his mind.
“Resorting to violence… of course you are!” Penny offered.
Her words stopped the shifter in his tracks. His eyes moved around in their sockets as he considered her words, but the rest of him stood perfectly still like a statue.
“Hmm,” Percival took a long moment to consider the beta. “Now what are you going to do, He-Man?”
The vampire’s lips spread wide in a devilish smile and Neal’s wolf clawed within him to be set free. The beast was in no doubt what he’d do to the man if he had a set of fangs of his own, but Neal slammed that cage door shut.
Not only were they in the middle of a field full of humans, and worse, a man of God, but, his mate had already rushed to judgment on him being violent.
She might have been right because at that very moment in time he would love to beat the vampire senseless, but, he didn’t need to prove her point for her.
“Wait until I get you alone later,” Neal mouthed the words to the vampire, making sure that his back was firmly to his mate.
“Does your mate know that you have a thing for me?” Percival offered back on a whisper of his own, and Neal snapped his body to attention on a scowl and his head back on his neck in surprise and something that bordered on disgust.
“I…” he started to deny it.
“Oh, look, she’s getting away!” Percival announced the lie, lifting his hand and pointing over the beta’s shoulder.
“What…?” Neal wrenched his whole body around to face his mate; the woman hadn’t moved a step from where he’d left her.
The shifter scowled harder, growled to himself, and turned back towards the vampire; he was more than ready to knock the man’s fangs right out of his mouth, but the man was gone.
“Oh no, did your friend run off and leave you?” Penny teased, babying him, and she watched as his chin slowly lowered down towards his chest, and when he brought his head back around; his eyes narrowed on hers.
“Do not…” he lifted his hand and pointed one thick stocky index finger at her.
Penny decided that it was time to assert her authority as a woman, and – a witch.
She lifted her hand, pointed her index finger at him, and then she let him have it – Zap!
Neal bit down on the annoying jolt that hit his body. It was a short, sharp shock, but it still made his muscles clench and his length rock hard.
Not that his length wasn’t already hard for her. He could scent her all around him in the air, and that seemed to be enough to start his cock twitching within his jeans.
“Don’t point at a witch.” She crossed her arms and gave him a smug look right back.
“Don’t point, young man, it's rude!” Ida said, slapping him hard on the backside as she walked by, and making him jump in place at the unexpected liberty that the old woman had taken.
“That’s right, Ida, you tell him.” Penny grinned from ear to ear. “Wolves, no manners.” She whispered for her mate’s benefit.
“Witches…” he bit down on his words and didn’t dare finish that sentence as she snapped her head back on her neck and waited.
Neal grumbled a growl.
Wooing his mate was going to be… painful.
~
~
~
Isla had followed her nose to the stalls that were being manned by the ladies of the church. She might not have been a shifter with an unnaturally good sense of smell, but if there was chocolate in the air in any form, be it a bar, cake, or even a drink, she could sniff it out.
“So many cakes, so little me to fit them in.” Isla knew that one old saying was going to prove so very true. Her eyes were going to be way too big for her belly.
I haven’t had breakfast, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
No saying that I can’t have chocolate cake for breakfast, oh, and brunch, because I missed that too, and then there’s lunch.
“Death by chocolate,” she muttered, mentally licking her lips.
“What a way to go,” Percival said as he leaned in and whispered aside her ear.
Isla’s shields had already kicked into gear, warning her of the supernatural that was around her, but she didn’t expect a vampire, especially as her mate had been stalking her all around the fair.
“Walk away while you still can,” Isla warned him, drawing her magic close within her, and readying herself to take action should she need it. Not that she should, considering the company that they were keeping.
He was never going to be bold enough to attack with all of the humans that were around them.
“Is that a threat?” Percival looked amused. “And from one so… constrained to be able to back it up with actions.”
Isla more than understood his meaning. There were way too many humans around them for him or her to get their groove on.
It wasn’t as if she could pick him up and throw him into the nearest tree while she made her escape – someone would definitely notice that one. Plus, everybody had a damn camera phone nowadays.
“They’re not always going to be around to help you out, sucky boy,” Isla warned him.
“Why are you here?” There was a deep growl that rumbled within an equally deep voice, and it made Isla turn towards the sound.
The witch looked up into jet black anger filled eyes, but it wasn’t who she’d been expecting – shifter, yes – her mate, no.
“And here comes the close-to-rogue element of the witch cheerleading squad,” Percival muttered under his breath, loud enough for the shifter to hear, but just a mumble to Isla’s ears.
Those jet black eyes dropped down to Isla and held her gaze. Anger and suspicion filled them as the man narrowed his eyes on hers.
Isla felt a hard shiver run through her body just from the look that resided in his eyes.
Funny, who’d ever have thought that I’d feel safer in the company of a vampire?
“Witch…” The shifter growled again. His voice held as much disgust for her as it had for the vampire.
“Wolf,” Isla sneered back.
She knew shifters and their mentality, to show weakness in the face of aggression was wrong. She was determined to stand her ground.
“Vampire,” Percival announced, loud enough for the witch to overhear that time. “We have a set.”
“Get off pack land.” The shifter growl at Isla, “your kind is not welcome here.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
“Ha!” Isla wished that she could take that to the bank and cash it. “If only that were true.”
“It’s true,” Angus growled.
“She’s a mate.” Percival pointed out, and
the shifter’s top lip twitched in disgust as he stared down at her.
“A witch?”
“Three witches, three mates.” Percival was enjoining enlightening the man.
It was no secret around the pack that the vampire had never cared for Angus. The man might have had an alpha in his lineage, but he was no alpha himself, but that didn’t seem to stop his superior attitude of late and his meddling ways.
“I won’t allow this pack to be sullied.” He growled, and Percival went to take a step towards him to shut the man up before a human overheard either his words or his growls, but the witch turned her whole body towards him and cocked an eyebrow up at the man.
“Who died and made you alpha?” Isla snorted her contempt for him and his attitude.
She might have been skirting a fine line and risking the man’s on board challenge gene to be triggered, but it was certainly better than looking weak in the shifter’s eyes and letting him walk all over her.
“I’d like an answer to that question myself,” Lucas growled.
The beta snatched Angus’ attention away from his mate, and when those angry, black eyes rounded on him, Lucas felt his wolf push forwards at the challenge that they held.
“The mate I presume,” Angus sneered, and the man seemed reluctant to back down from the authority that Lucas’ position afforded him.
Lucas could feel his beast clawing within him. The wolf most definitely wanted out.
The beast had a need to put the Omega in his rightful place and that desire burned inside of him like a fever within his blood. At any other time – Lucas might have let his beast have its way.
“You are walking on thin ice, Angus.”
Lucas growled loud enough for Percival to catch the attention of the alpha and nod him in the direction of the standoff between the men for fear that it was going to escalate quickly, especially with the both of them growling at each other. Something had to give.
Percival noted the witch’s subtle movement. Isla’s hand was drawing upwards, and the vampire leaned in a whispered against any such rash decisions.
“Not a good idea, little witch. Too many humans and an unstable wolf, if you get my meaning.”
Isla twisted her head on her neck at the feel of the vampire so close beside her, but she didn’t take her eyes from the conflict that was playing out in front of her. She considered his words.
If push came to shove – she’d use her magic – and humans be damned.
The vampire would just have to spend the rest of the day wiping memories.
“Problem?” Griffin’s tone said that there had better not be, but he could see it with his own eyes, and so could some of the humans that were looking their way, anticipating a fight breaking out.
“There will be if you allow the crossing of the bloodlines between the pack and the Fae.” Angus challenged the alpha with his words.
Griffin’s beast was more than aware of the situation that they found themselves in. Humans everywhere.
“If you would like to offer up a challenge, Angus. I will be more than happy to accept,” Griffin’s whole body was ready and willing to take on the Omega.
The alpha could feel the prickle of his beast’s fur just beneath his skin, and it would feel damn good to let the change happen, let his beast tear free, and to quash the Omega with an iron fist.
‘How like you, Griffin, backed by your brother and the vampire, and with humans around us,’ Angus growled.
‘One on one. A challenge to the death – I’ll gladly accommodate you, Angus, if you feel you can take my place as Alpha.’
Isla knew what she was witnessing. Toe to toe. Alpha and Omega facing off against each other.
She might not have been able to hear their words as they used the pack's link, but their body language said it all.
Percival wrapped his hand around the witch’s arm, and in a heartbeat, she was behind him wondering what the heck had happened.
She heard the low, deep growl that came from one of the shifter’s, but she couldn’t presume to think that it was her mate. Any one of those men could have issued that sound.
“Soon, Griffin,” Angus growled out. Using his shoulder to barge into the alpha and move swiftly away from the mess that he’d gotten himself in, he growled one final time.
Griffin turned to watch the man go. He was more than eager to put the man in his place – his beast was more than eager to get his claws and fangs out and fight the man to the death.
Angus just had to say the word and issue the damn challenge, and the alpha was all in.
“Touch my mate again…” Lucas said as he stalked towards the vampire, and Percival cocked an eyebrow at the beta.
“Seriously? I get your woman out of harm’s way.” Percival had known that it would be coming. The warning from the unmated beta.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Isla said, using her elbow to get around the vampire and front up to her mate. “Don’t start with him.”
Lucas stopped dead in his tracks and eyed her with confusion.
“Excuse me?” Lucas scowled.
“He might be a misplaced soul, and has a strange sense of who can and who can’t take care of themselves,” Isla shot back.
“Oh, do tell,” Percival muttered, rolling his eyes in his head.
“But, it’s not like he got all Grrr,” Isla lifted her hands and clawed the air with her fingers. “And it’s not like he got all blood hungry and took a bite either, now is it?”
“I’m sorry, are you defending me or trying to make me look like I do the monster mash…?” Percival asked.
“Stay out of this,” Isla snapped back at him over her right shoulder.
“Of course,” Percival tossed up a hand. “How could I possibly defend myself?”
“Can you not?” Isla shot a look back at him.
“Not – what?”
“Get involved.”
“I am by definition, involved,” Percival reasoned.
“We’re not talking to you, we’re talking about you,” Isla snapped back at him.
“Y…e…s… the irony of this situation is lost on you, isn’t it?”
“Be like a tree and leave.” Isla shooed the vampire away, but Percival just folded his arms and smirked back at the witch.
“Be like a witch and just zap him to get your point across.”
“I do not zap willy-nilly.”
“I’m sure Mr. Willy-Nilly is glad of that fact,” Percival offered back, and Isla turned towards him and placed her hands on her hips.
“Hello?” Lucas tried to get her attention.
“Hush, I’m busy,” Isla berated him as she turned her full attention to the vampire. “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”
“But, you have to admit, it’s also to die for,” Percival offered a devilish grin, and she snorted her contempt for him.
“You might think so.” Isla sat on top of her moral high ground.
“Oh, the irony… but we’ll overlook your two faced approach to humor, and…”
“I’m two faced?” Isla snorted.
“And we’ll go with the other side of your hypocrisy.”
“I…” Isla scowled, but he wasn’t done with her yet.
“Firstly, you were going to use magic against Angus to defend, who? The alpha? Your mate? And then you get all morally high ground when your mate defends you against me.”
“That’s my point!” Isla snapped back.
“You have a point?” Percival asked.
“Yes.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“You just made it.”
“Made what?”
“The point.”
“What point?”
“Do you get the feeling of being on the Ferris Wheel and going round and round?” Griffin asked his brother.
“Boy, do I,” Lucas groaned back.
“He has nothing to defend me from,” Isla pointed out.
“Well, I know that, and you know that, but he’s an irrational butt
-headed beta.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
“Hey!” Lucas growled, and Griffin elbowed his brother in the ribs.
“Stop growling.” The alpha growled.
“Pot – kettle,” Lucas muttered back.
“So, you weren’t threatened by him?” Isla tossed up her hands.
“Hmm, define threatened,” Percival said, narrowing his eyes on the witch.
“Threatening behavior, not that you feel physically threatened by the man…”
“Because I really don’t,” Percival said.
“Of course not…” Isla shrugged.
“Hello… I’m standing right here,” Lucas growled and received another blow of the alpha’s elbow against his ribs. “Could you not?”
“If you could cease and desist from growling,” Griffin offered back giving his brother a hard glare.
“That’s getting harder by the second,” Lucas ground out between clenched teeth.
“I mean just look at him.” Percival had decided to milk it for all that it was worth, as he held out a hand towards the beta and rolled his eyes back in his head.“Seriously?”
“That’s not…” Lucas rumbled a growl within his chest and sidestepped the alpha’s elbow, not wanting to feel that hard reminder for the third time.
“I get it. I do,” Isla tossed up her hands again. “I have eyes.”
“Oh, geez, really?” Lucas grumbled.
“I mean the man is impressive for what he is,” Percival threw the beta a bone. “But, he’s no… me.”
“I agree.” Isla nodded.
Lucas had the desperate need to head butt something close, something hard, and something unyielding until he was seeing stars. A good place to start with would have been the damn vampire himself.
“So, your point?” Percival asked.
“The point is; you were only concerned for my well-being and you were trying to protect me, and instead of being grateful for your help – that wasn’t needed by the way because I’m more than perfectly capable of taking care of myself…”
“Noted,” Percival said with a curt nod of his head.
“Thank you,” Isla said, shooting a glare at her mate. “He decided to attack and threaten you for your obvious concern and chivalrous actions.”