by M. L. Briers
“I’d say at least one of those two won’t survive the mating process…” Doug commented dryly and Lisa’s head snapped around to glare at him.
“Well as the Alpha’s Beta, you had better make sure that both of them do. He, being your Alpha, and she, being the reason he’ll go off the deep end if he kills her.” Lisa warned him and watched those deep lines of dismay curve into his forehead.
“I don’t think that would be I my job description, love.” Doug offered, trying to innocently back away, but his mate knew all his tricks and she reached out and grabbed at his t-shirt, pinching his skin when he tried to get away. He snapped out growl of pain, but didn’t make another move to get away.
“Well, love, it is now.” She gave him that look. It was a look he had come to know well, it said don’t even think about messing with me, and he groaned inwardly.
“World peace, you could have asked me to deliver world peace, but no, you want those two to bond without killing each other…” He muttered to himself as she folded her arms over her chest and grinned smugly.
“When I get down from here, so help me…” Darby hissed out between clenched teeth, but stopped when he bounded up the internal staircase. Each thud of his big feet sent her annoyance level higher, until they reached the landing and he turned abruptly, swinging her around with his shoulder, as he stomped down the hallway.
“You’ll do what? You don’t even have your shields up!” He growled and the realisation hit her like a snowball in the face. When had she let her shields drop? Why had she let her shields drop? Damn, she didn’t like this mating thing much, it made her forgetful, or careless, or maybe some part of her had decided to not hurt him again?
She saw a doorway flash by, and then he was hauling her up and back down the hard contours of his body, and for one long moment she felt that hum that passed between them. Her whole body came alive with a sense of recognition, purpose, reason, and then she brought her knee up and made hard contact with his groin.
The sound that left his throat was akin to someone being strangled and gasping for air, and his hands had only barely left her waist when he made a grab for his family jewels between his legs, with his knees buckling beneath him.
She mentally dismissed the question of whether she had dropped her shields because she didn’t want to hurt him again, quite obviously from the sight of him, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she could cause him pain.
“You wanted to know what I’d do. That’s what!” She informed him with a curt nod of her head, as he writhed on the floor in agony, an agony of his own making as far as she was concerned.
“… Kill… you…”He gasped in and out like a man starving of oxygen, and she took a long step back and regarded him like a woman who didn’t give a damn.
“My but you do have a rosy glow to those cheeks now, don’t you?” She smirked down at him, planting her hands on her hips and taking one small step backwards in case he tried anything.
“You…” The word sounded like an accusation and she managed to get in another small step.
“Me? Oh don’t worry about me, you just lie there and hold your nuts, I can wait.” She chimed up, amusement at his predicament didn’t entirely mask the fact that she realised what she had done. Her wolf man was going to be absolutely ravenous for some payback when he managed to be able to think and breathe at the same time, and she took another step back towards the chest of drawers behind her.
Max growled intermittently between dragging in a breath and groaning in pain, and she took the opportunity to reach behind her and palm the first thing she could find.
“Kill…” He growled, sounding more able to get the whole word out now.
“Yes, yes, you said that already.” She felt around the object in her hand to try to get a sense of what it was, but he was slowly dragging himself up to his knees. His head was tipped down with his chin practically on his chest, his eyes were as black as ebony, and he looked like he just might keep his word this time and kill her.
“Fae, are just so…” He growled out and she raised her brows and stared back at him, trying to size him up, see what he intended to do.
“Aren’t we though…” She watched him slowly gain height on her, bit, by bit, until he was towering over her. “I’d hold it right there if I were you.” She warned him and watched the slow spread of a smirk cross his face.
“Oh don’t worry, I won’t fall for the knee trick again…” He advanced on her slowly and she had just a matter of seconds to decide if she really wanted to cause him any more pain. Her head said go for it, her heart said stop… her head won.
CHAPTER THREE
When Max went to reach for her she held up the can of whatever she had palmed, nozzle in his direction and let him have it. Right between the eyes, or rather right in the eyes. The sound of the howl of pain that left his lips made her heart hurt, not to mention her head, and he palmed his hands against his eyes and stumbled backwards.
“I did warn you…” She winced, and then grimaced as he fell backwards onto his backside on the floor.
“Motherfu…” He bit off the curse, twisting in place as he growled his pain.
Darby wanted to kick herself. She could tell herself that she was defending her personal space all she wanted, but the sight of him in pain again gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Damn! Don’t move!” She snapped out, her eyes flicking to the bathroom door, and she started off for it. His hand came out to snag her ankle as she passed and she kicked out at him. The sound of his knuckles cracking as her shoe caught his hand made her wince again. “Get off me!” She ground out between clenched teeth.
She had a good mind to just leave him in pain after that, but somewhere inside her she just couldn’t do it. Finding a face cloth and running it under the cold water tap, she quickly wrung it out and hurried back into him.
Dropping to her knees on the floor beside him, she smacked his hands from his eyes and grimaced at the sight of his red, puffy, watery eyes, and quickly applied the soothing cloth. His hands found her wrists and held her hands in place against his face as she debated with herself the rights and wrongs of what she’d done to her mate.
“You were going to kill me…”
“I still am…” He growled back at her from under both sets of hands that shielded his face from her gaze, as he slowly turned his head from one side to the other, pressing her hands against his eyes gently to feel the soothing cold of the water.
“That’s gratitude…” She mumbled and heard him groan slightly.
“For blinding me, yes it is…”
“For helping you.”
“After you blinded me…” He growled back, and she sighed.
“I did, I’m… it was wrong. I shouldn’t have…” She reluctantly gave vent to her guilt, and Max wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or kill her.
“You shouldn’t have run from me earlier…” He informed her on a low growl, his eyes were already healing. He could probably have done away with the cloth and her presence, and yet he wanted to keep her there for a moment longer.
“Yeah, well, we all live and learn, right? Or have you never made a mistake?” She grumbled and he wanted to smile.
“I’m getting the feeling that chasing you down was probably the biggest mistake of my life to date.” He offered with that little rumble of a growl that rolled through his chest, so deep she felt as though it rolled over her skin.
“Well I’m glad we are on the same page there. I need to get out of here, because I can already feel myself drawn to you…” He slowly drew her hands from his face and she noted that the puffiness had gone down, the redness in his eyes had lessened a lot, and he focused on her within a couple of blinks.
“And that wouldn’t be good for either of us…” He offered gently. On that, at least, they seemed to be in agreement.
Darby let a small smile curl the corners of her lips as she sat back on her legs and he lowered her hands, but didn’t let
go of her wrists.
“No, I don’t think it would.” She told him truthfully. “I know we’re supposed to be mates and all, but I get the feeling you don’t like Fae…”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” He couldn’t help the small grin that curved his lips and reached his eyes, making him look more handsome and more desirable to her than he had been so far, and she found the feeling of butterflies within her stomach disconcerting.
“And while I don’t mind Lycans, you wouldn’t be my first choice.” She admitted, dropping her eyes to their hands and trying to push away the buzz from his touch that was spreading over her skin.
“Is there someone else?” He seemed a little gruff again. The low rumble was deeper and it made her bring her eyes up to his, the look of pure jealously took her back for a long moment and she managed to shake her head. Pulling on her arms, so that he would let her go, she noted he held on longer than he needed too.
“I can safely say I haven’t found the one…” She started to make light of it, but he snagged her wrists again.
“You have now.”For a long moment she couldn’t drag her eyes from his. She couldn’t tell if his eyes were dark now due to anger or desire, but she would have lent more towards the later, and that wasn’t going to do either of them any good.
“I thought we were agreed that we were going our separate ways, the faster the better?” Darby rushed out on a breath that escaped her. She saw the softness of his face harden instantly, somewhere inside him he must have flicked that magic switch that made him turn off his emotions, and how she wished she possessed one of those.
“I will fix your car and you will leave.” He informed her. Suddenly he was on his feet, and she was startled by his sudden departure from in front of her, and Goddess help her, but she felt that distance like a wide chasm had opened up between them.
“Good.” She shot out, deciding that she should remain on her knees right now, because she wasn’t sure if her legs would hold her up.
“Good.” He echoed, turning on bare feet and departing the room.
Why the hell did she feel like crawling on her hands and knees after him, climbing up his muscled body, and wrapping herself around him like a woman possessed? Darby snapped her jaw shut and cursed inside her own mind, she knew the answer to that, it was the mating call, but why did it have to make her feel as if she was losing her mind?
Max pulled up short when he saw Doug standing at the top of the stairs, his backside rested against the railing, and his arms were casually folded across his chest.
“I was just…”
“Eavesdropping? Leaving? Protecting my mate?” Max didn’t seem particularly surprised to see him, and yet he also seemed somewhat subdued.
“How about all of the above.” Doug offered, dropping his arms down beside his sides and shrugging his shoulders on a Doug-kind-of apology.
“Let me guess, Lisa sent you?” Max lifted one knowing brow and watched his Beta shift his weight from one foot to the other.
“Good guess.” Doug shot back with all the sarcasm he could manage.
“Lisa thinks I’m going to be mating with the Fae?” Max asked, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why the thought of mating with the infuriating, and violent, little woman seemed to thrill him so much, and then he recalled the mating call, and felt the need to slam his forehead into something very hard to wake his ailing brain up.
“She thinks you should…” Doug offered. That set the Alpha back off in his stride, taking the stairs down at speed, as Doug followed, less enthusiastically in his stride.
“”Well I think your mate should stop meddling.” Max shot back over his shoulder as he dropped down the last step and caught sight of Lisa backing into the kitchen from where she was coming out. A small smile of satisfaction played on Max’s lips as he headed back outside.
“Well, you and me both, but Darby is your mate…” Doug stopped abruptly when his Alpha did. Turning to face him, Max stared down at his friend with a sort of sardonic smile lodged onto his face.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” The sarcasm in his voice matched his look, and Doug rolled his eyes.
“Does it matter that she is a Fae?” Doug asked the question that Max had actually asked himself more than once, as he was pounding the hinges back into shape on her car with a hammer. He still didn’t have an answer for that one.
“Do you remember us running the Fae out of town…?” Max asked with a raise of his brows and Doug shook his head, raising his index finger on a point of contention.
“That was different, those Fae were meddling in the lives of…”
“And how long do you think it would take that Fae to start meddling?” Max asked, pointing his own finger of contention at the upstairs window of his cabin.
“Maybe she’s not…” Doug started and Max snorted.
“That…” He bit off a dark curse and let his eyes roll closed for a brief moment, “woman, made me chase her car like a dog after a paperboy…”
“Well there is that, but…” Doug started but Max wasn’t done.
“She shocked me with… whatever that was…”
“Yeah, but…” Doug interrupted again, but Max held up his hand.
“She threw a hammer at my foot…”
“Dropped, unlucky bounce…” Doug offered again, and heard his alpha growl.
“She just kicked me in the nuts…” Doug and Max both winced at the thought of it. “And then sprayed me in the eyes with deodorant, blinding me…” Doug went to open his mouth, but shock his head instead. He couldn’t come up with a defence for either of those things. “If I weren’t Lycan, I’d have a broken foot, sore nuts, and would be blind. Tell me again how she is going to improve my life? I’d probably be dead before the boding night was over.” Max spat out turning on his heels and stalking towards the car jigsaw.
“What a way to go though right?” Doug offered on a smirk.
Max didn’t turn back to look at his Beta, he couldn’t, the smile that lodged on his face was just wishful thinking. The very thought of taking his mate to bed, of sinking his body deep within her own made him so damn hard, it pained him, although, he wondered if that pain had something to do with where her knee had been earlier.
“Let’s get this car ready for the parts when they arrive tomorrow.” Max put everything he had into the growl that rolled through him, in the hope that his Beta didn’t see behind the charade.
Max could feel her gaze on him and he knew exactly where she was, the upstairs bedroom window. He was actually quite surprised that she had stayed where he put her, he’d expected her to put up a protest, or just forgo that endeavour in case it didn’t go in her favour and just appear, but she had done neither, and he wasn’t entirely sure why.
He knew she’d felt the mating pull as he had, she’d even admitted it, and he knew that she didn’t want it, or she said she didn’t want it, so like him she had no interest in mating. So why then, was she standing there staring down at him? It was disconcerting to have her watch him like that, to feel even her eyes on him.
For one thing having her there kept his mind on her, and he didn’t want his mind to be on her, that wouldn’t help to keep the process of their attraction at bay. Not that anything would, even when they were separated they would still feel it. Could he really go through the rest of his life longing for his mate and not being able to have her? Could his beast?
His wolf was already uneasy within him, and that was never a good thing. An unhappy wolf was an unpredictable wolf, and he didn’t need unpredictability, not now, and not with her still here.
“I’d give you a penny for them, but I think I can imagine what you’re thinking already…” Lisa’s merry tones drifted towards him and he found himself tensing under such scrutiny. Lisa, Darby, and even his Beta were watching him when they thought he wasn’t paying attention.
“Is the second word off?” Max shot her a sideways glance, she was grinning like an idiot. God help him, but he d
idn’t know if he was going to go insane before or after he got rid of his mate.
“Touchy, very touchy, Max.” Lisa saw her mate roll his eyes, but she was used to ignoring him.
“If you annoy me, I’m going to hit him.” He used the hammer he was holding to point at Doug, and saw his friend balk.
“What did I do?” Doug spat out, frowning hard, as his eyes flicked to his mate in the hopes she would shut the hell up, but it was Lisa, it wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
“Well I can’t very well hit Lisa can I?” Max exclaimed with a shake of his head as if his friend had suddenly gone daft.
“Doesn’t mean you need to hit me either…” Doug protested, dropping down on one knee in the dirt and yanking the inner moulding off the car door, a little too enthusiastically.
“Come on, Max. Think about how happy you would be if you were mated to Darby.” Lisa offered and heard the hearty chuckle that left her alpha’s lips, and she took heart in his good humour.
“Oh bloody ecstatic I’m sure, zapped and beaten to a pulp by a mad Fae. It’s just such a tempting prospect, Lisa. So let’s just drop it shall we, because it’s not going to happen, and your mate doesn’t want to go three rounds with me in my present mood.” Max saw Lisa’s face drop as low as her spirits, she was hoping for a happily ever after, she was going to be sorely disappointed in her quest.
“But, Max…” Lisa started, and Max dropped the hammer on the floor on a long sigh.
“That’s it.” He launched himself towards his beta. Doug’s surprised, wide eyed expression would have made him laugh out loud if he wasn’t so damn mad inside. Finding his mate and then finding that she was a Fae, had left him feeling cheated. It was definitely time to expend some of that tension that was inside him.