by M. L. Briers
Saving His Mate
By
M L BRIERS
Copyright © 2013 by M.L Briers
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
Saving His Mate
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
“Look, I don’t want to be here anymore than you apparently want me here…”
Summer put her hands on her curvy hips and regarded him with as much attitude as he was shoving her way. But really who could blame him? Nobody would react well to a Fae showing up on their doorstep and practically accusing you of bumping off missing Witches.
But when you were the big bad wolf- Alpha of your domain, and the Fae council decided to invade your personal space, well…
“You have absolutely no idea how much I do not want you here.”Flynn growled across the space between them, and even though they were outside in the open air, and even though there was a good twenty feet between them, that low, deep growl still managed to rumble through her entire body and set her nerves on edge.
“Wow, you really are a charmer.” Summer bit back and watched the Lycan in front of her change his stance from annoyed to incredulous in one easy movement- from eyebrows down and scowling, to eyebrows up- like she’d just mooned his mother.
“I don’t need to charm you, I want you gone, Witch.” Flynn didn’t know how to make it any clearer to the damn woman. Obviously the words, -get the hell off my land-, weren’t clear enough for this Fae, and it wasn’t as if he was talking too fast for her to keep up, he was making damn sure he spoke slowly, and with small words so as not to confuse her.
“Well, we can’t always get what we want, and when I say we, I mean you, Alpha.”Summer had just about had enough of this. She didn’t even want to be here. This was Tina’s gig, but she’d been held up…Lucky Tina.
The alpha spun on his heels towards his Beta, who looked like a far nicer person to Summer, but what did she know, he could be a total jerk like his Alpha too.
“Tell me again why I can’t just eat her?”He growled out low and hard, but loud enough for Summer to hear. She narrowed her eyes and bit down on her jaw in annoyance. She wasn’t about to let this jerk get to her. She had a job to do, and if she went back to the Fae council and told them that she’d roasted his furry behind, well she was going to be in more trouble than this guy was worth.
Summer saw the light of amusement in the Beta’s eyes as he raised his hand and covered the smile on his lips. Sure, laughing at the Fae’s expense, two jerks.
“Is that the same courtesy that you show to all the Fae that happen on near you’re hunting ground?”She walked her fingers through the air before smacking them into her other palm, and then signalling an explosion with a suitable sound effects, she thought it a nice touch to give him Jazz fingers at the end of her little display.
Flynn turned back to his Beta for one long moment as he appeared to rein his temper in, and his Beta shook his head in warning at him, but to no avail. When Flynn turned back towards her his eyes were dark with anger and he started coming at her, his finger pointing in a warning as he ground his words out of his clenched jaw.
“I have never attacked a woman, but for you I would consider making an exception.”
“Well, make my case against you for me, why don’t you?”Summer lifted her own finger and wagged it back at him, as he stopped halfway between her and the Beta. “And just to be clear…”Her pointy finger went straight up in the air and she narrowed her gaze on him. “If those claws come out, so do mine.”And Summer meant every word of it. She’d zapped people for less. A year ago she would have fried his butt without a thought, but her anger management classes that the council had insisted she attend were working wonders…
“How many ways can I say it, Witch? Get-off-my-damn-land.” Flynn growled out every word as slowly and precisely as he could manage through the rage that was building within him.
“Has anyone made you aware that you have anger issues?”Summer liked sarcasm, and sarcasm liked Summer, but obviously this alpha did not like sarcasm or Summer, as he took another long stride towards her and glared at her with a look that was akin to being thrust into the depths of hell and coming face to face with a demon.
“Are you insane woman, or do you not have two brain cells to rub together?”He looked at her as if she had grown another head, but she wasn’t fazed. She’d taken down bigger dogs than this one.
“If I feel the need to be insulted and belittled I have a perfectly good mother I can call…” Summer retorted and heard the low chuckle from the Beta drift towards her, and managed to put a smile on her lips that said everything she was feeling, a big ‘up yours’ to the man trying his best to intimidate her.
“Why call when you can visit? My beta will escort you out of town.”Flynn dismissed her, turning his back on her and walking back towards his beta, who was shaking his head in amusement. Flynn saw nothing funny in this scenario. He couldn’t believe he was even standing there giving the Witch the time of day.
“Oh, you can be sure that I’m not going anywhere until I find out why my Fae sisters are disappearing after visiting your town, Alpha.” She put a little disdain in his title and he whirled on his heels back towards her, covering the distance between them as quick as a flash of lightning, taking her by surprise. But even though her heart jumped inside her chest, Summer held her ground as he towered above her, glaring down with dark eyes and murderous intent on his face.
“You’d do well to heed my words and leave.”He growled down at her. His nostrils flared with anger and he took in a long breath. Her scent drifted towards him and his nose twitched with the sweet flowery scent of the Fae, and then his eyes widened as he leaned in closer and scented her again.
‘Mine.’ His wolf growled possessively within him.
Flynn practically threw himself backwards away from her, whirling towards his Beta with the sudden panic that gripped his guts and kicked him in the groin in one fail swoop. He looked so good that it caused Abe to take a step towards him, not knowing if the Fae had done something to his Alpha or not.
“What did you do?”Abe growled out. His eyes darkened with the anger that tore through him and he saw her balk at his words.
“Do? What the hell…?”Summer put her hands back on her hips and stared at the ramrod straight back of the alpha.
Abe was in front of her in an instant. His hand wrapped around her wrist and he yanked her towards him faster than she could call her magic to defend herself.
Summer shrieked with the shock of being attacked and the tight grip on her arm, even through her jacket. It bit down hard into her flesh and she let out a burst of energy that hit him hard in the chest and sent him backwards. The trouble was he hadn’t let go of her damn wrist and as he fell, so did she, right on top of him. Her knee landing in his groin and her elbow in his ribs, and that did make him let go of her, as he growl and snarled in pain.
“Get off of her!” The feral growl erupted from somewhere above her and she felt herself being lifted up in the air, like she was in freefall, still looking down at the Beta who was holding his groin and grimacing in pain, before she was spun around and was facing the alpha’s back.
“Nuts!” Abe ground out as he roll
ed from side to side on the floor as his Alpha growled down at him.
Summer wasn’t sure if the world had gone mad around her. One minute she was being glared at and threatened by the damn alpha and the next she was being attacked by the Beta and rescued by the alpha… What the hell?
“Touch her again and I will kill you!”Flynn snarled down at his brother. If the man hadn’t of been in pain he would have torn him a new one himself.
Summer looked around the broad shoulders of the alpha and down at the beta on the floor, even through his pain he looked as confused as she felt, but then Flynn turned towards her and she jumped back away from him slightly, as she saw his hand come up towards her face.
“Don’t you touch me!”She snapped out, about to take another step back from him when she felt his other hand at her back and he eased her closer to him with an arm of steel that she couldn’t fight back against, even though she did try. Was he insane?
“I won’t hurt you, Summer.”His gentle growl rumbled through his chest and greeted her ears with slightly alarming consequences to the pit of her stomach, but more so to her womanhood, and when he brushed the backs of his fingers gently down her cold cheek, and she felt the heat of his skin against hers, she managed to swallow down the lump within her throat as the realisation of her situation basically slapped her in the face like a wet sponge.
“There is absolutely no way in hell this is happening.”She hissed out between clenched teeth, as she slapped his hand away from her face and put the palms of her hands against his insanely large chest and pushed with all of her might.
It was like pushing against a damn redwood. He stood immoveable against her body, if anything he pulled her in closer to him and she could feel the large, hard, thick, branch of that redwood pressed against her stomach, and it was her turn to feel the need to growl.
“Mine.” He growled down at her, and she rolled her eyes in her head and prayed that she was having the worst nightmare of her life, and that she was going to wake up to find that this was not real and her life as she knew it, didn’t just take a flush down the proverbial toilet.
“No-damn-way!” Abe growled out from below them. An ironic chuckle drifted up from between the grimaces of pain still etched into his face.
“I second that emotion.”Summer bit out between clenched teeth. “Back off, Alpha…”She held that one finger up again when his hand went to stroke back down her cheek. “And take that…”She pulled her upper body away from his and pointed down towards his groin…
“Penis. It’s called a penis…”Flynn offered, a quirk of a grin on his lips.
“Well for the purposes of this conversation we’ll call it woody…”She just couldn’t say the word Penis when it was jabbing against her stomach like that. Like it was tapping to get in. “You and woody need to back the hell off.”
Flynn released his arm from around her and took a slight step backwards. It felt as if she was the magnetic poll that he was attracted too. As if his whole reason for being was just to circle her orbit, and he wanted to shake his head and slam his hand against the side of his head to wake himself from the veil of need that had taken hold of him, but he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. She was his mate and there was no getting away from that fact, or her.
“Where are you staying?”Flynn looked down at her as if she was a tub of rocky road ice cream and he wanted to lick her from head to toe. It was more than disconcerting; especially as not five minutes ago he was threatening to kill her and glaring like he meant every word.
“I’m not going to tell you that…”Summer screwed her face up and stared at him as if he was an alien with three heads, and right now, to her, he was.
“I just think it would be better if you stayed with me.”He drawled and practically drooled down at her and she balked.
“Better for whom?” she snapped back, eyeing him for any sign that he was going to pounce on her right there and then. It certainly felt as if his whole body was gearing up for something. Just his sheer size alone was overwhelming her. The man was built like a brick outhouse. And the thought of all that power and masculinity in bed with her made her shiver long and hard. It wasn’t as if she didn’t like sex, she did, she just knew how much Lycan men liked sex and alpha’s… well…
“Both of us, especially if it is, as you say, that Fae are going missing. You are a Fae and I will protect you with my life…”He took that little step back towards her and she reached up that one finger again to still him.
“Down boy.”She didn’t need protection from the big bad wolf, because he was the big bad wolf, whether he was the big bad wolf that was making the Fae disappear was a different question entirely. But right now he was the only big bad wolf she had in her sights, and apparently, he had her very much in his sights, but for an entirely different reason. Damn, but she was confused.
The low growl that rumbled through his chest let her know that he didn’t appreciate the way she had equated him with a dog, but she didn’t care, if anything it heartened her. She was his mate and the last thing he wanted to do was harm her. She could be as damn caustic as she wanted to be, and boy did she want to be.
“This wasn’t how I saw my day going…” She flicked her eyes down to Abe on the floor as he managed to pull himself up to a sitting position, and she quirked a brow in his direction. “How about you? You having a good time?”She put her hands back on her curvy hips and considered the mess she had landed herself in, and all because Tina was held up.
“Physically I’ve had better days, but this thing…”He motioned between her and the alpha. “This just makes up for my nuts being on fire right now.”He couldn’t help the grin of satisfied lunacy he shot up at her. His eyes crinkled at the corners with his amusement and she really wanted to knee him in his nuts again.
“Glad I could bring some cheer into your mundane life of butt sniffing and bunny mauling.”Summer turned away from the alpha so she didn’t have to look up into those sexy chocolate eyes of his for one second longer, before she started to literally scratch the itch that had formed under her skin.
“Now listen here…”Abe growled. Flynn might have been brought to heel, what with her being his mate and all, but he didn’t have to listen to her vitriol.
Abe started to drag himself up from the cold ground when the alpha turned and growled down at him with menace, and the deep lines of a frown took hold in his forehead and he dropped back down. “Yeah, I’m just gonna sit right here for a bit.”Abe bit out on a shake of his head.
His alpha had lost his reason to the mating. That was fine and dandy for the amusement aspect of the situation, and boy was he going to enjoy watching his brother chase his tail as he wooed his mate, but it also meant that there was more than likely going to be some fists flying and frayed tempers going around, and he wasn’t volunteering to be on the end of that right now.
“We should go and collect your things…”Flynn went to take a step towards Summer, but she raised her finger again to stop him. The audible sigh that left his lips showed more than his frustration, it showed her that for whatever reason the urge to bond with her had taken him fast and hard, and that meant he was going to be pushy.
A pushy alpha with the hots for her might have seemed like fun to her twenty minutes ago, but a pushy alpha who was her mate was a complication she didn’t need right now.
“Hold on there a minute fluffy, I’m not about to move in with you and play the happy mating game. I have a job to do…”
“And where better to do it than on pack land? You might even discover where the bodies are buried.”Flynn’s eyes glinted with mischief as he stared down at her, and she couldn’t help the rush to suspicion that went through her.
They’d assumed it was the local pack that was doing away with the Fae, but then the Fae council were wrong about most things these days, and pointing fingers at the local pack was probably easier than having to think up another scenario.
Could this alpha be dispatching Fae to the other side? How m
uch danger was she putting herself in just by the unhappy coincidence that she was his mate? Would that make her more of a target for his pack or less? And how the hell was she supposed to answer any of those questions until she got to know him better? But there was better and then there was better…
Summer took a long hard look at the man she was destined to spend the rest of her days with, leaving aside the question of exactly how many days that would be if his pack was bumping off Fae, this was her mate.
Tall, check, dark, check, handsome, check, sexy, check-check-check… damn, what was she doing? Sizing him up for her bed wasn’t going to get her further than flat on her back with him lying on top of her… and her padded jacket felt a little bit too claustrophobic all of a sudden…
Flynn stood and waited patiently for her reply. Her finger was still held up in the air between them, and it felt like Hadrian’s wall; built by the Roman’s to keep the heathen Scots hemmed in when they realised that they had finally met their match with the Scottish warriors, and spent their days pouting behind their fortifications. He wanted to breech that wall and take her into his arms, but that one damn finger was his undoing.
“So you’re admitting you have a hand in this?”Summer saw his mood turn from playful to downright annoyed in a heartbeat. If she had a cat, she might just have scooped it up so it didn’t get a kick it up the butt from him in that moment in time.
“Damn it woman, what’s wrong with you?”Flynn growled down at her, but this time it was a lot gentler than the growls he had been dispensing like candy before.
“I’m sure my mother could give you a list…”She shot back with all of the sarcasm she could muster, whilst holding onto her imaginary cat, and her need to climb up his mountainous chest and curl around him like a tamed wild thing. “Starting with my fear of commitment.” She knew those words were bad and evil when they left her lips, but his head snapping up, and his eyes boring into her very soul just confirmed her worst fears.