by M. L. Briers
“What the hell is Max doing?” Lisa, his mate, demanded, coming to stand beside him at the truck.
“About twenty miles an hour!” Doug wiped his eyes. Lisa punched him hard in the bicep and he jumped back from her. “What was that for?”
“He’s your alpha, go help him do… whatever he’s doing…” Lisa twisted her head on her neck and frowned. “What is with that?” She chuckled and Doug shook his head, as he giggled like a school girl.
“That, my love, is his mate.” Lisa gave a silent ooh in understanding, and then balked.
“When he catches her…!” Her eyes went wide and she snatched the truck keys from Doug’s hand, pushing him out of the way. “Get in!” She snapped and that cold understanding was enough to propel Doug around the truck.
“Don’t run from me!” Max growled out, as loudly as he could possibly make his voice in the constraints of still being in the town where he could be overheard. Truth be known at the speed she was driving at, he could easily have caught her, but how the hell did he explain to his friends and neighbours how he could outrun her damn car. But they were coming up to the edge of town and then all bets were off.
“I’m not running, I’m driving.” She shouted back out of the window. Her hand wiping the tears of laughter from her cheeks as she checked just where he was in her wing mirror. The town disappeared behind them and he started to gain ground on her.
“Don’t run!” He growled out again, his wolf snarling within his chest to be unleashed so that they could hunt their mate down and capture her, claim her before she had a chance of getting away again.
“Just giving the dog a run.” She chuckled. Her eyes flicking to the wing mirror again, balking slightly when he gained too much ground on her and she applied her foot down on the accelerator.
The sight of the truck she had seen his Beta leaning against came up fast behind them. “What the fu…?” She watched the truck overtake the Alpha. Saw it pull out on her and speed up alongside. The Beta in the passenger seat was waving her over. She shook her head, what was he nuts? He motioned for her to roll down her window and she hit the button.
“He’s gonna be pissed when he catches you…” The Beta shouted as the woman beside him gave her a smile and a wave. That caught the Beta’s attention and he turned frowning. “What are you doing?”
“Saying hello…” Lisa shot back and he turned back to Darby with a roll of his eyes and a groan.
“Guess I’d better not let him catch me then.” Darby hit the accelerator and speed off. The honking horn in the background did little to quell her enthusiasm to get to the next county, country, continent, and maybe even the international space station if there was a seat going spare on the next rocket out of there.
She’d been an idiot, and she berated herself. She’d considered it payback for his attitude towards her, but at what cost if he did manage to catch up to her? But there was little too nothing she could do about it now, and when she looked in the rear view mirror, the rise of the road behind her meant she couldn’t see them in the distance.
“Pull over and pick him up.” Doug snapped at Lisa and she balked at the idea.
“Are you nuts, he needs to run off his aggression first?” She hissed back at him in the cab and he growled out at her.
“How aggressive do you think he’s going to be if we let him chase after us?” Doug shot back and she bit down on her lower lip.
“Fair enough, but on your head be it.” She snapped back, hitting the brake hard and hearing the thud as something ploughed into the back of the truck.
“Are you frigging kidding me, Lisa?” The deep growl of her Alpha’s menacing tones sent her into a panic. Her eyes went wide as she screwed her face up at her mate. The driver’s door was practically taken off its hinges as Max glared inside the cab. “Move over!” He growled out and she had no qualms about getting the hell out of the way. Hoping straight into her mates lap as the truck kept rolling and the Alpha climbed in. “Hold on.” He growled out, his wolf so close to the surface that Lisa shot a look at Doug.
“You need to calm down man…” Doug spat out, shifting his mate on his lap until she was against the door.
“That’s my mate getting away.” Max growled deeper and longer and Doug swallowed hard.
“And if you shift right now, I don’t think your wolf knows how to drive man.” Doug ground out between clenched teeth.
“I’m gonna kill her!” Max heard his wolf snarl within him. The damn beast couldn’t figure out if it was coming or going, what the hell was he supposed to do with that?
“She’s your mate!” Lisa snapped out as they crested the hill and Max got his first look at the tail end of her car in the distance. His heart was pounding within his chest and not just because she’d made him run a damn mini marathon, but because he could almost taste her Fae blood on his tongue.
“Well maybe I’ll just chew her a little!” He shot a growl and a dark stare at Lisa, who rolled her eyes.
“You’re going to love her, and take care of her, and have lots of little Alpha pups…” Lisa cooed, and he rolled his eyes.
“If I don’t kill her, possibly.” He ground out again. Liking the fact that he was gaining ground on her.
“She’s your one fated love…” Lisa cooed again and saw the alpha’s shoulders ease slightly, even though his knuckles were still white against the black leather of the steering wheel.
“She’s Fae…” He said in a low slow rumble of annoyance.
“And my mate farts when I’m eating. We all make allowances.” Lisa growled back, knowing she shouldn’t start challenging him again when she was getting his wolf to pull back, but it just snarked out of her.
“But a Fae…” He was talking to himself now, his eyes fixed on her car as they gained more and more ground.
“At least she’s not a vampire…” Lisa offered and watched his top lip curl in a snarl.
“Hmm, vampire…” He tossed that thought around in his mind. He had to give Lisa that, the thought of a vampire mate could send chills through him. Still a mate was a mate and fate knew what it was doing when it chose for you, so…
“Honk your horn…” Lisa offered as they neared her car.
“Why so she can be forewarned? Hold on!” He pumped the accelerator and shot passed her car. The look of surprise meets horror on her face was priceless to him. “Payback!” He growled, nudging the car in front of her and drifting the front end towards her headlights.
“Err, what if she’s a bad driver?” Doug shot out. What Max was doing was fine if she didn’t panic, but if she panicked she might just pull on the wheel and flip the car.
Darby saw him pull up alongside her and she balked. She thought she’d left him back there in the dirt somewhere. Damn it, now she was in trouble. The realisation of what she had done didn’t make her feel quite so smug anymore. Still, he was still human, which was always a good sign. Especially as he was driving, if you could call it that, she mused, as he pulled slightly ahead and veered the nose of his truck towards hers.
What the hell was he playing at? She dropped back a little, and watched him start to ease in front of her, sideways across the damn road as if he was trying to block her path. She tapped the brake and dropped in behind him. Hitting the accelerator she veered to the other side of the road and started pulling around him, but he was already onto her, blocking her progress.
Damn it, now what? This could go on until one of them ran out of petrol, or one of them flipped over.
Darby hit the brake and came to a screeching stop, madder than hell when she lifted her head and glared at the truck that had stopped just as quickly as she had. Now it was right in front of her. She saw him climb out of the cab. Saw those black eyes focused solely on her, and wanted to kick him right in the…
Max reached for the door handle of her car and gave it a tug. The locks were still in place and the door handle came off in his hand. He looked down on it as if to question if that had really happened, as his e
yes came up to Darby’s wide eyes.
“Hey, jerk that’s my handle!” Her fingers were already on the buttons to completely wind up the windows as he glared at her. She still caught the menacing growl that rolled through his chest as he stalked around to the other side of the car. “Do not pull that damn handle off...!” She ground out between clenched teeth.
Max took a hold of the handle and applied a different kind of tactic. When he flicked out the claws on his other hand she balked, and when he embedded them into the rubber at the window, she seethed, but when he yanked this time the whole damn door came off, she just gasped. She didn’t know whether to be pissed, or really pissed.
“That’s my damn door!” She spat out in disbelief, gripping the steering wheel in front of her and trying to keep her head from exploding under the weight of the anger that was now rippling through her.
Lisa looked to her mate as he stood there, arms folded across his chest, enjoying the show, one stupid male watching another stupid male, doing equally stupid stuff, and wallowing in it.
“Shouldn’t we help her?” Lisa whispered and Doug chuckled.
“Nah, he’s taking his aggression out on the car, she’ll be fine.” Doug assured her.
With a low growl Max’s hulking frame climbed into the car. With his knee pressed into the passenger seat, he reached for her seatbelt with both hands and tore it in two. The sound of his mates low shrill gave him more of a sense of satisfaction than tearing bits off her car, the same damn car he’d been chasing for too many miles.
“My seat belt, are you freaking kidding me!” She groaned. And then he reached for her. Two giant hands came right at her and she balked, more than balked, she panicked like a lunatic. Right then and there it came down to one thing, trust, and she didn’t trust her mate as far as she could throw him after leading him on a chase.
“You’re coming with me…” He growled down at her, those hands getting closer.
“Not like that I’m not.” She took a breath and increased the power to her shields, if he so much as touched her…
Max reached for her. He was going to have this out with her, but not here on the side of the damn road where anyone could see. His fingertips buzzed with the hum of what felt like electricity that came off her skin, and that should have given him pause for thought, but he wasn’t exactly rational at that very moment in time. Just two fingers made contact with her shields and she felt the wave lash out from within her.
Darby’s eyes locked with his a split second before he touched her shields. The sight of his eyes flaring wide as the jolt hit him made her catch her breath. The force propelled him backwards from his dubious position in the passenger seat.
The power of her energy forced him out of the car backwards, almost like an invisible force was sucking him out, and she found some satisfaction in that. The sound of his head smacking against the metal framework made her wince, as he crumpled in on himself, but the sight of him landing butt first in the dirt however, had the damn opposite effect on her, making her snigger from the sheer satisfaction of his sudden come down in the world.
“Do they not teach you Lycans never to touch a Fae’s shields…?” She chuckled. Taking him in as he shook himself off, the residual energy from the clout he had received leaving his body, and he turned those black eyes back to her.
“Now should we help her?” Lisa shot out, but Doug was already putting one foot in front of the other. He was at her side of the car in an instant.
“Open the door!” He banged his fist against the glass, realising that there was no damn handle by which to get into her.
Max pulled himself up to his full height, which meant only his lower torso and legs were visible from inside the car, but Darby could see the muscle on his body shimmering as he tried to hold his wolf back, and she spat out a dark curse as she turned and popped open the lock on her side.
Getting the door open just a tad as the sound of ripping cloth gripped her attention and sent her head snapping back to see the front paws of his wolf land on in the dirt and even blacker eyes connected with hers.
“Oh-oh.” She breathed, in what seemed like an awfully confined space inside of her car all of a sudden, and when his damn wolf snarled, she swallowed down what she thought was probably her tongue. And then he launched himself at the car.
CHAPTER TWO
The wolf launched himself at the car as she felt a hard grip wrap around her wrist, and the world spun as she was yanked out of her seat. Her hands hit the hard muscles of a chest as the door was slammed closed in front of her and Max’s paws, with those razor sharp claws, hit the window with force.
“Death wish witch?” Doug bit out as he spun her around his back to his other side, hoping that out of sight to Max’s wolf meant out of mind, but doubting it was going to be that easy to placate his beast. He snatched her off her feet and in a heartbeat he had her stashed in the back seat of their truck, with Max’s wolf already on route to them.
“You’re mate is in the cab, which is ultimately what you wanted, Max, so calm down man.” Doug tried logic.
“Max, you can’t eat your mate until you decide if you like her or not.” Lisa offered and heard the low growl emanate from her alpha as he eyed her.
‘Not. Decision made, step aside.’
“But she smells good right…?” Doug rolled his eyes at his mate, ready and willing to shift into his beast to protect his mate if Max got snap happy, or Lisa did something… Lisa-ry.
‘Bet her blood tastes even better…’ Max growled, but he was already feeling his wolf’s anger dissipating and cursed his beasts lack of commitment here. He was more than happy to end her right now…
“I don’t think your beast wants to find out just yet, man.” Doug was a damn good Beta. He could sense Max’s beasts moods sometimes better than Max could, mainly because Max was usually centred on something else.
‘Do I look like I give a damn? That Fae is more trouble than she’s worth.’
“That Fae is your mate, and she was defending herself.” Lisa berated him, uncaring if he was her Alpha or not, he was acting like an idiot. She’d take his wrath if that was what he wanted to spit out now, better that she got it in the neck than the Fae, literally.
‘Defending…?’ His deep growl seemed to bounce around the confines of the truck’s cab, as Darby peered out through the tinted glass at what was happening. He was a very impressive wolf, she had to admit, and then mentally shook herself out of that line of thinking.
“I was doing what you told me to do.” She called out and saw his head snap towards her. The not so subtle curl of his top lip, and that dark look within his eyes didn’t make him quite so friendly a wolf as she’d like.
“You did tell her to leave town, Max.” Doug offered, knowing that wasn’t exactly an excuse of what his mate had done, but anything that threw Max’s urge to kill the woman was fair game.
‘That was before I recognised…’
“Yep, you did, and the shield thing, well that was all you too. Everybody knows not to touch a Fae’s shields.” Darby offered with as much sincerity as she could muster. The wolf seemed to be calming, and she knew she should never have taken off like that with him trailing her down the damn street, but it was just so amusing.
Doug wanted to roll his eyes at the sheer bare faced cheek of the woman, but he could feel Max climbing down from near nuclear and he wanted to keep it that way.
“She’s kind of right there too, brother. Touching a Fae’s shields…” He gave his head a little shake, “never a good idea.”
‘Thanks, Doug, I kind of figured that one out for myself.’ Max shot back. If he could have, he would have rolled his damn eyes. Talk about having your pack at your back, these two were both on the damn Fae’s side.
Max turned on his paws and edged away from the truck. He knew why they were acting this way; they were just protecting his damn mate… Just that word stuck in his craw, mate, he shivered internally, a Fae for a mate, which of the Fate’s
hated him so damn much, and who did he have to eat to make it better? He wondered morosely.
“And look what you did to my car…” Darby shouted through the closed window. Now that she felt safer, that was now that his wolf wasn’t snarling and growling, she felt the anger nudge up a notch within her at the sight of her car, its door ten feet away from its body. She supposed she should have been grateful it wasn’t her arm, or her head, but she just couldn’t be.
Max turned his eyes towards her car and groaned internally. He guessed he would be paying for that, one way or the other. He felt his humanity shimmering under the surface of his beast and allowed the beast to slip back. Shifting into his human form, he stood next to the window of the truck where his mate sat, anger rippling just beneath the surface of her too feisty attitude as he gave her a sideways look of indifference.
Out of the corner of her eye, Darby saw him shift and knew he would be naked, so she tried to keep her gaze on her car and away from him, but it was just so damn tempting to have a sneak peek at what he had to offer, and her eyes flicked to his, still black from his transformation, and then down to his half mast manhood that kind of waved at her.
“What, you’re going to stand there flashing your man bits?” Darby rolled her eyes away from him, even thought the pull to just stare at the impressive size of him was close to overwhelming.
“Nobody asked you to look, Witch, and I’d say you’d better get used to them. If I decide to claim you…”
“Oh, if you decide? What if I decide to not let you?” She turned her eyes back to his and saw more hostility towards her.
Damn, he hadn’t thought of that. His mate could reject him, and it would be so much easier for her to do that than it would for him. Being a Lycan meant it was engrained in his psyche to search and find his mate, to claim her and bond. What if she did reject him?
“Then I could say I’d had a lucky escape.” He growled back at her. Not bothering to wait for her reply, he strolled to the back of the truck and popped the boot. Spare clothes were a necessity for any Lycan, just in case your beast couldn’t wait for you to undress, as in when you found your mate and she turned out to be the most infuriating… Max growled to himself. Yanking on a pair of denim’s, he felt his Beta closing in on him.