by M. L. Briers
“Chivalrous action,” Lucas grumbled.
“Suck it up,” Percival smirked at the beta. “Yes, now that you mention it I do feel unjustly persecuted for my actions by Mr. Growly-McGrowl-Face. Thank you.”
“I’m gonna…” Lucas went to take a step towards the vampire, but Griffin got in the way.
“Really, Percival?” Griffin challenged the man and his meddling ways. “Aren’t you a little old to be playing the idiot?”
“I don’t see what age has to do with it,” Percival said, still trying to milk that innocent look for all he was worth.
“More attacks?” Isla shrugged.
“I know, right?” Percival agreed, and both shifters rolled their eyes in unison.
It didn’t feel like they were going to win that one.
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~
Penny eyed Isla, and the goings on that seemed to involve the alpha, vampire, and Isla’s mate, as the sound of tin cans crashing down behind her echoed within her ears and rang the bells within her brain with a slight annoyance.
She wasn’t even sure how she got roped into running the can stall, well, apart from the blarney that had come out of the man of God’s mouth at three hundred miles an hour, but that seemed to be her lot in life until the good priest found someone to take over her spot.
She just wished that the man would hurry up so she could find out what was going on across the field with Isla.
“Nosey much, witch?” Neal’s deep voice sounded close to her ear, and she mentally jumped and physically held her body rigid so that he wouldn’t notice, at least, that was the hope.
The man had been lurking near the stall, pacing up and down like a caged beast for the better part of half an hour, and she had tried her best to ignore him. It wasn’t easy. The man was a walking brick wall that blotted out most of the landscape around him when he wanted too, and he was easy on the eyes, and very excitable to her pulse, not that she was going to bloody well tell him that.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Penny asked.
She figured that she might as well use what she had, and Mr. Wolf had very big ears.
“Probably my knuckle dragging brother, Lucas, and how best to neuter him.”
Penny tossed him a curious look, and the beta immediately plastered a grin on his face.
“I wonder if the same can be applied to you?”
“Harsh.”
“Really? I was thinking tame.”
“Not because you don’t know me…”
“Don’t want to know you,” Penny leaned towards him and whispered, making him work a little bit harder to hear her, and he concentrated on only her, only the sound of her voice.
That action brought so much more than a realization to him of just how much he wanted to get closer, very much closer.
“But you will,” He said it like a promise, and she felt her heart skip a beat. “And so you can’t judge – little Miss Judgy Pants.”
“Leave my pants, judgy or not, out of this.” Penny folded her arms, and that had the unfortunate effect of pushing up her breasts for his general perusal – he was male, and that meant that if he wanted to or not, he couldn’t help but look.
“Watch those eyes,” Penny warned him.
“They loomed up towards me. I thought I might be under attack,” Neal shot back with another grin that was definitely wolfish.
“You wish,” Penny snorted.
“Now you come to mention it. I do.” Neal played along.
“Death by boobs.”
“Don’t tease me.” Neal chuckled.
The sound of his chuckle was deep, and it rumbled towards her just as his growl would have done. It sounded good to her ears, like satin on gravel, and she had to bet that the vibrations would feel damn good against parts of her body.
Move away from the shifter.
You can not be thinking about what it would feel like to be held against his body.
Naked or otherwise. Oooh, naked.
Nope… don’t go there.
But, I’m going to go there eventually anyway, so where’s the harm in imagining it now?
According to the Bible; I’m going to hell because I’m a witch, but I don’t need to go around imagining what hell is like, do I?
Stop arguing with myself… yourself… anyone’s self!
Stop imagining the shifter naked… oh, wait, now I’m imagining him naked again.
This isn’t fair.
The mating pull certainly isn’t fair.
Wait, now I’m taking the name of God in vain at a God party.
Not… really a… oh, never mind!
Nobody is naked!
Certainly not the priest and God… because that would be so wrong that I can’t even .
Bleach my mind!
“Go away!” She hissed at Neal, annoyed with where her mind was taking her and blaming it all on him, and the shifter frowned.
“What’d I do?” Neal asked, somewhat confused.
“Isn’t just being you enough?” Penny bit out before she pushed away from the stall and moved to pick up the discarded tin cans that the revelers had knocked down.
It was enough for her. If the man didn’t look like sex on a stick then she was hardly likely to try to picture him naked – or even want to imagine him without clothes.
Yep, definitely all his fault.
Damn sexy shifter guy!
“I guess,” Neal grumbled.
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
“Tell me you’re not a vegetarian,” Lucas said.
Isla turned at the sound of his voice, and her eyes automatically scanned down his body. She liked the view.
In his cupped hands, he held two hot dogs – loaded – Isla didn’t just feel her stomach growl, she heard it. She hated to say it, but that view was even better.
“You bought me a phallic symbol?” Isla said with a frown.
Part of her was amused at his choice, and the other part was just plain ravenous. She’d been smelling the food in the air all day, but it had only been in the last half hour that her eyes kept drifting over towards the food stalls where her stomach wanted to be.
In truth, she could have set up camp right next to them.
“I didn’t even think of…” Lucas rushed out.
“I guess your little brain was doing the thinking for you,” Isla took a slow walk towards him… towards the food.
She marveled at her self-control, because if it had been anyone else bringing her a hot dog; she would have set off out of the gate like someone had shot a starter’s pistol.
“I can get you a burger instead…” Lucas grimaced at his own stupidity.
He should have asked her what she wanted. Asking might have gotten him some brownie points.
“Nope,” Don’t you dare move a damn muscle. I want food, and I want it now. Don’t rip off his arm to get it. She told herself. “A hot dog is a good choice.”
Isla watched his dark brows lift, his eyes lighten, and his shoulders ease just a little.
Lucas held out a hand, and she took his offering. Her fingers brushed his, and she felt the tingle from skin to skin contact that chased up her arm and over her body. That felt as good as the hot dog smelled.
“I got something right,” Lucas mumbled to himself and her eyes locked with his.
“Maybe next time you could ask what I want?” She said, but she didn’t berate him.
Lucas felt a rush of heat through his body. He’d already figured out for himself what she was telling him – ask, don’t assume – he could do that. But, she’d also said the next time, and that to him was worth more than his weight in gold.
It implied, whether she’d meant it or not, that she thought there would be a next time. If Lucas had his way then there would not only be a next time, but a time after that, and a time after that.
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~
Keri had finally escaped the sponge booth. Ida had taken o
ver, and she was free and clear to meet up with her friends and plan their impending escape.
She noted Father Ted and a rush of panic surged through her. The last thing she needed was to be hoodwinked into doing more of his bidding.
The witch turned on speedy feet and headed towards the closest thing where she could hide. The Hall of Mirrors beckoned her on to sanctuary, and she was pretty uncaring of what she was walking into. She was just happy to be out of Father Ted’s evil plan for world domination and free labor.
Keri didn’t begrudge what she’d done so far, and on the plus side her body had gotten a workout as she humped bags and boxes around, but it wasn’t exactly the weekend away that she’d planned.
Keri’s mind was elsewhere when she caught sight of her reflection in one of the mirrors – short and dumpy with her arms and legs the same size that her waist usually spanned – she tipped her head on her neck and frowned at the sight.
“Wow. That chocolate from last night worked fast,” She muttered to herself.
“You’re shorter than I remember,” Griffin’s deep, amused tone echoed off the mirrors and came at her from everywhere. His sudden presence made her jump in place, turning towards him; she frowned again, as she found it was another reflection.
“Mention my thighs or backside, and you’re getting zapped!” Keri offered back, and his grin spread wide, lighting his eyes, and making him look too damn sexy for his own good. Too damn sexy for her good.
She looked from mirror to mirror until she found the real thing. He was definitely so much better in the flesh.
“I like a woman with curves…” he chuckled, and her eyes shot to another mirror that curved and twisted her body.
“I look like a pretzel.” She nodded her head at the mirror and Griffin took a quick look.
“I like bendy.”
“You like female,” she snorted her contempt for him and his male ways.
Griffin started towards her. The toned, well-worked muscles of his body moved beneath his skin, and he might have put his shirt back on, but she still had the memory of his hard chest imprinted on her mind.
“Correction. I like you.”
“Oh, only because fate said so.” She took a long step back from him, but his long legs were eating up the distance between them.
“Fate, attraction, lust, circumstances … does it matter what brings two people together?” Griffin stopped right in front of her, and she took just one, small step backward on her heels, just to put a little more distance between them.
“I… don’t know.”
It was the absolute truth. Her brain was mush.
Her body was already reacting to his presence, and her shields were sounding the alarm bells at his proximity – but, they only matched what her mind was telling her – danger – not a physical danger, but a lust fuelled, attraction that shot bolts of excitement into her womb every time she caught sight of him…
“I do…”
“Do what?” Keri had lost her chain of thought somewhere between imagining him naked, and wondering just how good it would feel to be pressed – skin to skin – against his body.
“I don’t know,” Griffin admitted.
He couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her.
Taking her scent at the source.
Feeling her body against his.
“Me either,” she said lamely, staring up into his eyes as they darkened to jet black. It was bewitching to watch.
Griffin did what came naturally, what he’d told himself not to do since the moment that the humans had arrived, and he growled like a man possessed.
He couldn’t hold back that need a moment longer.
“That’s not a good idea.” Keri registered the danger of the alpha letting his wild side show.
“I know what is.” He reached out, wrapped a strong arm around her waist and hauled her body up against his.
Keri’s soft curves collided with his hard ones, and she palmed one hand against his chest and the other against his bicep. She wasn’t pushing him away – her brain was preoccupied with just how good it felt to be in his arms – not worrying about getting away from him.
A heartbeat later and Griffin was bringing his warm lips down on hers.
~
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~
“Why are you following me?” Penny huffed as she turned on her heels and faced her mate.
Neal stopped in his tracks and pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, like a stroppy teenager that had been busted doing something that he shouldn’t.
“Wolf problem.”
“Yes, I have. It’s you,” she offered back, and giving him an expectant look.
“No, one of the pack has taken exception to the fact that you three are witches,” Neal offered back.
He wasn’t in the mood to answer her sarcasm, not when Angus could have been on the warpath. It made his wolf testy.
“So, why is he following us?” She raised her hand and pointed to the not-so-stealthy vampire that was hiding in plain sight.
Neal turned his head to catch sight of Percival scanning the area and trying not to look suspicious, which only served to make him look even more suspicious.
“I don’t know.” Neal frowned at the vampire, and the shrugged his shoulders.
“Just… watching you woo,” Percival muttered, trying for complete innocence, even though he failed miserably.
“Go … watch Griffin,” Neal tossed back.
He really didn’t need an audience. He had enough of his own pack milling around and sniggering behind his back. Especially the females.
“Oh, he’s in the hall of mirrors place, little hard to be stealthy in there with your reflection everywhere you turn,” Percival offered back.
“Little hard for you to be stealthy anywhere,” Neal grumbled.
“Well, while you are worrying what I’m doing, your mate is getting away from you,” Percival offered with a smug smile.
Neal snapped his head around on his neck and growled inwardly at the sight of his mate’s back as she strolled across the grass towards the food stands. He set off after her on wide strides that had him closing the gap between them in no time.
“Not cool,” Neal called out to her.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tossed back over her shoulder. She did know, but she didn’t care.
“You know that running from me is a bad idea.”
“I’m walking.”
“Semantics.”
“To you, oh growly one.”
Penny shot a look back at him over her shoulder. He looked like sex on a stick, all tall, dark, and muscly handsome as he strolled towards her with purpose, and then she walked slap bang into a solid wall of muscle that just didn’t give even an inch.
“You’re not welcome here,” Angus growled down at her, nudging her backward on her heels, and she collided with another wall of muscle behind her.
Neal’s arm came around her waist, and he wasted no time in spinning her behind his back. She’d gone from pillar to post in under a minute, and she was staring at the broad shoulders and wide back of the shifter that blotted out all sight of the angry shifter that she’d run into.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
~
Penny heard the low, deep rumble of a growl that went through her mate’s chest, and most of the fine hairs on her body stood to attention. She quickly eyed the area around them for signs of humans, but the ones that were milling around seemed oblivious to that sound over the loudness of the rides and the squeals of the children.
“You need to back off, and you need to do it now,” Neal growled the warning, but as she poked her head around his upper shoulder and eyed Angus, she didn’t think that the shifter was in the kind of mood where he was going to listen.
The man’s face was a mask of anger and contempt for her, and when his jet black eyes locked on hers, she felt the need to pull her magic even closer to defend herself.
“Let’s put al
l that aggression to good use,” Percival announced, rounding the beta and his mate, and locking his hand around Angus’ upper arm. His fingers were biting down into the man’s muscles. “There’s a strongman booth – and you have muscles.” The vampire yanked Angus with him as he started off away from Neal and Penny.
Angus knew that he had two choices – fight the vampire – or bide his time and get the real prize. He knew that there were too many humans around to let his wolf burst free, unless he took them down as well.
“Don’t test my patience, vampire,” Angus growled, but his feet kept time with Percival’s out of a lack of options.
“Don’t test my ability to vanish you from this spot without anyone noticing and taking your throat out a heartbeat later. Thus ending my wolf problem,” Percival offered back, and all the time that he was offering his death threat, he had a smile on his lips for the humans around him.
“You’ve not gotta like the fact that they are witches,” Angus growled back.
“Your grammar is as bad as your attitude,” Percival tossed back.
“What? You’re the grammar police now?”
“The way people have killed the English language over time – I’d be a very busy man,” Percival sighed, but it was lost on Angus.
The man only saw in shades of red, and that was a problem that his alpha needed to deal with. Percival would only step in and take care of it himself if human life was in danger, or the actions of the man put the pack in danger of being discovered.
He considered himself the watchdog of the villagers, not the warden. But, if the trash needed to be taken out then he was more than willing to do it himself.
~
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“What was that?” Penny said, lifting her hand and poking a finger into the hard muscles of the pent up Wolfman's back.
Neal turned towards his mate. His eyes were jet black, and his jaw was locked and loaded with anger for Angus, but he softened a little at the sight of her.
“Not your problem,” Neal assured her.