by M. L. Briers
“Perhaps a thank you wouldn’t go amiss, or is that not in your vocabulary?” Leo grumbled from the kitchen doorway.
The elder had another chicken leg in his hand — his third — and she had to wonder how many damn legs that chicken had in the first place.
“And… Searching…” Angelique rolled her eyes at the ceiling and considered his words. “Nope. Words unrecognized.” She sneered back at the elder.
“Smartass.” The elder grunted before he turned on his heels and walked back into the kitchen again.
“Apparently, that box has decorations of some kind,” the alpha nodded to the ominously large cardboard box that sat to her left.
Angelique eyed it with contempt. What did she know about decorating the tree? That was what snow was for. Mother Nature at her very best.
“Have at it then.” Angelique folded her arms to show him that she wasn’t about to delve in.
The look on his face was priceless — if she didn’t know better, then she might have thought that she’d asked him to wade through a pile of soiled baby nappies.
“Do I look female to you?” Luke growled.
“Do I look like I know how to…” She waved her hand at the Christmas tree. “Dress — make pretty — a damn dead tree at Christmas.”
“Then it’s lucky that we’re here.”
“Oh no!” Leo ground out from the other room. “Satan’s minions have arrived. Did someone call for more meddlesome creatures?”
“Did someone open their mouth and tell the pack that I’d found my mate?” The alpha growled.
Angelique was busy eyeing the two elders that stood side by side at the door. They came bearing gifts, covered plates within their hands, and she was more than interested in that prospect.
“We heard you had a guest…” Mirabelle rushed out with a beaming smile for the alpha.
“We baked Christmas cookies,” Isobel offered with an equally beaming smile this time for Angelique. She’d seen the witch’s interest pique at the sight of the plates.
“We heard that someone likes Christmas,” Mirabelle offered.
“Not so that you’d notice much,” the alpha grumbled with a flick of a glare toward his mate.
He had a feeling that somebody had been playing fast and loose with the truth — how like a witch.
“Well, everybody likes Christmas cookies,” Angelique offered him a teasing smile of victory.
The more, the merrier. Anything that stopped her from being alone with the alpha was worth embracing.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” George said as he rested his shoulder against the frame of the front door and eyed the witch
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Angelique offered back along with the kind of glare that she itched to put some real magic behind.
“Don’t you?” His question sounded accusing to her. And when he narrowed his eyes at her with suspicion, she did feel a small flash of guilt — but when she flicked her eyes towards Luke that feeling disappeared rather quickly. So that was all good.
“Nope,” Angelique muttered as she looked anywhere but at anybody in the room. “Yum. Cookies. Can I have one?”
“We can eat them while we decorate the tree,” Mirabelle said, and Angelique’s hopes sunk within her.
Still, if they tasted as good as they smelled, then it was worth the trade-off. She guessed.
They were elders, and they’d had a lifetime to perfect the art of cooking. She just hoped that they hadn’t squandered that time.
“Sounds like…” Angelique shot another look at Luke, for some reason the man looked hungry, and she didn’t think it was food. “Fun!” She announced to the elder’s delight.
“If you’re a glutton for punishment and like spending time with demonic elements,” Leo grumbled from the kitchen doorway.
“Well, we put up with you for all these years,” Isobel offered back with a small sneer.
“Ah, a Christmas family gathering around the tree,” George announced, and every head turned in his direction.
“First order of business,” Mirabelle said as she eyed the Christmas fairy from head to toe. “Jump on the top of the tree.”
‘Now why does that sound like a very good idea?’
“I’m sure the Christmas fairy is not supposed to get this much hassle,” George grumbled.
“Suck it up, Champ,” Jett’s large hand slammed down on George’s shoulder making him groan as the pain shot through him.
“I’m sure my spine isn’t supposed to collapse like a tin can in a drunk’s hands,” George grumbled.
“Well, you brought this on yourself by messing in other people’s lives,” Angelique said. She had no sympathy for the man.
“It wasn’t me,” George grumbled. “It was the fairy godmother and let’s not forget fate.”
“That kidnapped me, bundled me in the back of my own car, and dragged me here like a Christmas present for the alpha?” Angelique demanded to the sound of an increasingly deep growl that rolled into the air from the direction of the alpha.
“You did?” Mirabelle gave him a look of disgust.
“And the alpha didn’t eat you?” Isobel looked from the fairy to the alpha, questioning his sanity, before looking back at the fairy again.
George looked aghast. He was glad that he was standing in the exit to the cabin. He took a very long step backward when the alpha took one very big step forward.
“I’m just going to check on — Christmas,” George lied, before disappearing in an electric blue haze.
Luke grumbled another growl. He didn’t know if it was bad, to eat the Christmas fairy, or not, but he’d kind of like to give it a go.
Luke turned to look at his mate. Angelique snapped her gaze toward the elders at the door just so that she wouldn’t be snared by those dark, hungry eyes.
The women grinned from ear to ear.
“Let’s decorate that tree,” Angelique smiled.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
Angelique had to admit that decorating the tree with the two elders was fun. Scoffing the Christmas cookies and drinking wine was fun as well, but not as much fun as the way that the females picked on Leo.
The cantankerous elder just couldn’t seem to win a victory over either of them, especially when they ganged up on him, and Angelique had joined in too. It had resulted in Leo grumbling a growl and muttering obscenities as he headed for the back door.
Perhaps the alpha was out of chicken legs.
“You know that these are Mirabelle’s Christmas decorations?” Isobel said.
“I have a Christmas tree up every year. My mother was human,” Mirabelle added.
“I took Christmas decorations from you?” Now Angelique felt guilty than she had before.
“Only some, I kept the ones with sentimental value, and we still have time before Christmas to buy new ones — I look at it as a shopping opportunity,” Mirabelle informed her with a sly grin.
“And boy, can she shop,” Isobel chuckled.
“That red bauble, three branches from the top to the right, should be a branch over,” George offered as he stroked his chin thoughtfully and considered the tree as a whole.
“Who made you the Christmas fairy?” Isobel sneered.
“Apparently the fairy godmother did,” Angelique sighed.
“He really is the Christmas fairy?” Mirabelle snorted a chuckle.
“Why does everyone find that so hard to believe?” George shook his head in dismay. He thought he was doing rather a good job as the Christmas fairy.
‘Because you’re an idiot.’
“Because you’re male,” Mirabelle shrugged.
“Because you don’t exactly look like a Christmas fairy, now do you?” Isobel offered.
“Why is he still here?” Luke growled out toward Jett, and the beta shrugged.
“Because I…” George got no further as he felt the hard slap of Jett’s hand against his shoulder.
A moment la
ter and he was lifted up in the air, his feet moving like flippers, searching for the floor before he was tossed out of the open doorway where he landed face first into a fresh bank of snow.
George spluttered as he pushed upward. He shook off the snow from his head and grumbled out a few obscenities.
“I really don’t like this job.” He muttered to himself.
~
~
~
“She looks happier than she did when you first met her,” Jett offered his alpha his opinion as he sidled up to him, folded his arms, and considered the witch mate.
“She looks drunk,” Luke grumbled.
“You plied her with alcohol?” Jett offered him a scathing look.
“I didn’t need to ply her with it. Apparently, to a witch it’s like baby milk,” Luke grumbled back.
“Well that’s not good,” Jett muttered to himself.
“You don’t have to tell me — I’m going to need to sober her up…”
“Coffee — gallons of it.”
“I don’t think a human can drink gallons of anything,” Luke offered back.
“Except — maybe alcohol?” Jett chuckled.
“Go put the coffee on,” Luke grumbled back.
“Just not gallons of it,” Jett tossed back over his shoulder with a hearty chuckle for the alpha when the man groaned.
“My pack — so damn helpful,” the alpha shook his head in dismay.
This certainly wasn’t how he imagined wooing a mate.
~
~
~
“I’m stuffed!” Angelique blew a breath upwards, and the hair from her eyes hovered.
“Like a Christmas turkey?” The alpha asked and brought his mate’s gaze toward him.
She had a hungry look in her eyes, and his hard length twitched within his jeans. Maybe she was coming around to the idea of him being her mate; it was about time.
“Oh, turkey and trimmings,” Angelique grinned like a hungry wolf that had cornered its prey.
Maybe she wasn’t coming around to the idea of him being her mate after all.
“Well, we’re leaving now,” Isobel announced.
Angelique went from a hungry look to one of panic. Luke grumbled to himself. The thought of being alone with him had alarmed her once more.
“So soon?” Angelique rushed out.
“Well, for some of us, it’s bedtime,” Mirabelle offered her a knowing grin that stretched from ear to ear.
Angelique felt the rush of panic as it slammed straight into the fire of excitement within her. It was a strange and heady experience. Kind of like being two people at once.
She didn’t want to look at the alpha, but, the sound of a low, deep, hungry growl that rolled through the air toward her made her curiosity piqued, and she snatched a look at him and wished that she’d gone with her first instinct.
Luke eyed her in exactly the same way that she had eyed that plate of Christmas cookies. She couldn’t say that the wave of excitement that went through her body that time wasn’t pleasurable — it was — but it wasn’t something that she wanted to believe possible.
She hated fate.
She hated the Christmas fairy.
She hated the mating pull.
But most of all, she hated that she was attracted to her mate.
Who would have thought it?
Attracted to your soul mate?
Unthinkable.
Except, of course, that it wasn’t. That was fate’s plan. And she was back in a full circle of hating fate again.
Ridiculous.
The man might have looked like a whole heap of sinfully good, sex on a stick, or all you can eat hunk of lovin’ — but that wasn’t the point.
How could she be a mate?
Angelique guessed the alternative was to walk away from the alpha — her mate — and never look back again. Not that she’d be able to look back.
In all likelihood, the man would become a rogue wolf, and his pack would have to kill him. That didn’t sit well with her.
Then there was the fact that she would never find true love ever again. That didn’t sit well with her either.
Fate was evil — bad and evil — and it was a shame that she couldn’t tell fate as much.
True mates — the mating pull — didn’t fate understand the meaning of free choice?
Every time she’d accidentally brushed against him she’d felt that stomach-flopping jolt of excitement go through her. The same thing happened when she’d snatched a look at him and been busted for it.
Was that fair?
Even those little growls of his made her damn toes curl in her socks. There was no escaping the sexual chemistry in the air, and she didn’t think it was catching from the elders.
Everyone wanted to find their one true love. Their sure thing. Didn’t they?
But now that she’d found him, she wasn’t sure what to do with him, well, she had mental flashes of what she’d like to do…but, once she’d dipped her toe in that pond there was no going back.
Did she want to dip?
Did she care about going back?
Was the meaning of life really 42 – wait, maybe she’d had a little too much to drink.
Could you ever have too much wine – or chocolate?
Angelique was distracted by the thought of chocolate. Maybe cake – maybe chocolate cake.
Did she have the munchies? She had to wonder because she’d done a pretty good job polishing off the cookies.
“Coffee!” Jett announced as he walked in carrying a mug that was as big as his large fist and he snapped her right out of her daydreaming.
“Wine!” Angelique groaned.
It felt like life just had too many choices for her that weren’t really choices at all.
“Wine?” Jett offered a look of disbelief to his alpha, and Luke shrugged. “She sure can drink a lot — gallons?” He chuckled.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
‘What are you doing?’ Jessica bellowed into George’s ear as he stood by the window and gazed inside. He jumped in place and ground his teeth together in annoyance at her presence.
“Wondering when I get to go home,” he grumbled back.
‘Are you missing your mother, George?’ Jessica babied him again.
“I’m missing a game of sink it…”
‘A drinking game — really?’ Jessica blew out a hard breath in dismay. George really wasn’t taking being the Christmas fairy seriously, and it was high time that he started.
“Stop hating, just because you don’t have a life,” George shot back with a frown for her negativity.
‘Look at them, George. They are just setting out on life, a real life together. There’s chemistry happening there – love blossoming…’
“I know. It sends a shiver down your spine with disgust, doesn’t it? Therefore the grace of…”
‘Why did the fairy godmother ever think that you could handle something like this?’ Jessica huffed.
“What does that mean? I got the mates together…”
‘But you don’t understand — either the meaning of Christmas — or the meaning of mates.’ She huffed.
“I’m a fairy, of course, I understand the meaning of Christmas,” George grumbled.
‘Really?’
“I just want to have a little fun of my own. Where’s the harm in that?” George demanded.
But instead of answering him, Jessica turned on her wings and flew away. George sighed.
Good riddance. He was better off without her.
Now, maybe he could get some action going between the mates and be home before the last call.
~
~
~
“Oh my Goddess, what are you doing?” Angelique hissed out at the sight of the Christmas fairy appearing in the open bathroom window as he stared in at her. “Pervert!”
Before George could utter a word in his defense, Angelique lifted her hands and zapped him a hard one. His feet s
lipped upon the fresh snow and the blast of her magic hitting his chest sent him skidding backward to land on his backside on the, slightly cushioned, but still hard ground.
George grumbled at his own misery. This is what his life had become. He wasn’t best pleased.
Angelique’s head and upper body came into view at the open window, and she glared down at him from her lofty perch. She had the urge to zap him again, and again, and maybe until the cows came home.
She didn’t see anything wrong with making it up as she went along — he had.
“Now, you hold on a minute,” George berated the woman as he glared back at her.
“So this is how the Christmas fairy gets his kicks, is it?” Angelique berated him right back.
“In case you didn’t notice the window is wide open for your escape and there are no shifters around — including the alpha,” George berated her again.
“And what makes you think that I want to escape…” Angelique rolled her eyes at the snow filled sky and considered her words for a moment. “Okay, backpedal…”
“Forget about backpedaling and take your chance to escape,” George grumbled.
“Why would I trust you?” Angelique demanded. She wasn’t that drunk to trust the man that had dragged her there in the first place.
“Let’s just say I had a change of heart,” George offered back as he dragged himself to his feet and brushed the snow from his backside.
“Liar – liar, gonna set your fairy wings on fire,” Angelique sneered at the man.
“That sounds like fun,” he rolled his eyes in his head. “But if you want to escape, then that’s going to have to wait, isn’t it?”
“I can multitask,” she lied.
Perhaps she’d had too much to drink — she couldn’t really tell — because she was the one that was intoxicated in the first place. She knew enough to know that.
“Well, while you’re setting me on fire — get your backside out here, and now. That’s all I’m saying,” George tossed up his hands and strolled away.
It was her choice.