by M L Briers
“I had a favour to ask but it seems somewhat redundant now.” Caleb went to turn away.
“Ask it anyway.” Jethro watched Caleb turn it over in his mind.
“I was going to ask you to keep a watchful eye on me and if I lose control before I…” Caleb saw Jethro shake his head in annoyance.
“I know the witch has baggage, Caleb, but just damn well woo her into mating with you.” The alpha growl out in annoyance. “Only a damn Vampire could be so damn slow off the mark.” He bit down on his anger.
“The woman was attacked as a child and left for dead, Jethro…” Caleb was pleading his case in his mind as much as to the alpha.
“And she knows you to the point where she’s allowed you to feed from her for God sake, Caleb.” Jethro didn’t want to think of his friend as a monster with the kind of bloodlust that would turn him into the pack’s next enemy. “From what I hear, she practically invited you into her bed on the last feeding…” Caleb rolled his eyes and his body away from the alpha.
“Ok, good chat…” He was too old and too wise to go gabbing about his love life to anyone. Obviously Wendy had spoken to one of the pack witches but if he’d discussed it with one of the men and she found out, he’d be in the proverbial dog house, and he wasn’t fond of the idea of becoming a mutt.
“Mate with her, Caleb, for everyone’s sake.” Jethro growled out after him. He watched the Vampire until he was out of sight. He felt the beast coming up behind him.
‘Just me, Alpha.’ Luke offered him a warning in case his alpha hadn’t picked up his scent on the wind.
‘I need you to keep an eye on Caleb until he mates…’ Jethro didn’t like to do it but he didn’t have much choice, especially as the Vampire had his own concerns.
‘On the witches land too?’ Luke asked. The pack and the witch had an understanding where her land was concerned. She had no problem with the wolves running freely as long as it didn’t coincide with a festival or moon phase.
‘All times, all places, until he mates.’ Jethro reiterated and shrugged into his wolf for the long run home.
Jethro added the Vampire’s problems to the list of his own. One soon to be blood lusting vampire, if he didn’t up his game and mate his woman. One disconcerted pack that was worried about the witches and their powers. One coven that was gaining in numbers and powers at a rapid rate. It almost felt as if the other shoe hadn’t yet dropped. It could not be coincidence that this Coven was forming now. Jethro knew that he needed to let the hand that he’d been dealt play out until the very end, and cherish every day that he spent with his mate in the meantime, just in case these were the last of them…
The End.
THE COVEN
RETREAT
BOOK FIVE
BY
M L Briers
And
A B Lee
Copyright © 2015 by M L Briers. A B Lee.
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.
CHAPTER ONE
One more witch before the time comes.
“Time for what?” Wendy knew that the spirits of the ancestors had been a long time quiet, but today during her meditation they had finally reached out to her once more.
The challenge is nearly upon you.
“Tell me more so I can prepare.” Wendy needed answers. It was one thing to allow herself to be guided by the ancestors but another thing entirely to take the Coven blindly along with her. She felt a duty to those women, to those witches, and she wouldn’t needlessly put them in harm’s way.
You’ll know what you need to do when the time is right.
“And when will that be?” Wendy could deflect with the best of them, but there were times when the spirits were just so damn annoying that she could have screamed. She waited, and then she waited some more, but it appeared that they had decided to offer her just a taste of her future, of the Covens future and nothing more.
She held in place for as long as she could. There was an itch within her, a need, and she wasn’t entirely certain it had anything to do with the ancestors and gaining a glimpse into her future. Caleb was her mate and she was finding it harder to concentrate knowing that he was around, constantly around, and yet he was keeping his distance as much as possible. She didn’t know which one of them would break first.
She jumped up and shook off the burst of excess energy that had been stored up inside her while she’d been inactive. Meditation was supposed to calm the nerves, body and the mind, and yet she felt uneasy. As she walked into the kitchen she jumped at the clatter that came from the back door, her mind knowing what it was before her eyes even took in the sight of the broom on the floor.
“Company’s coming.” She muttered to herself.
Tilly thought she had lost them this time. When she’d ditched her car and taken the train to nowhere she really thought they wouldn’t have been able to track her scent. Now she was on the bus going towards the next ‘nowhere’ in a long line of them and she could see the goons out of the back window as they followed her in the black truck.
She really didn’t know what more she could do. Her shields were wrapped as tightly around her as she could get them, and she’d even left a few crumbs of magic in her wake that should have sent them off in the wrong direction or at least had them chasing their tails for a while. Yet there they were, as bold as brass, just following and waiting for her to step off the sanctuary of the bus.
She needed an actual plan. Something concrete that she could hold onto. It wasn’t enough just to play it by ear any longer, she’d tried that and obviously it hadn’t worked.
She yanked her backpack from the floor and onto her lap and her hand dug deeply inside. There was one thing that she could do for now that would buy her a little time. The hard, crusty mini doughnuts that she’d purchased after her train journey would do the trick, a girl had to use her initiative in times of crisis, and she opened her purse and retrieved a hatpin from inside the soft leather.
Eyeing the few other passengers on the bus to see if anyone was showing signs of interest in what she was doing; she cupped one small doughnut in the palm of her hand, she closed her eyes, and used her magic to enable the object of her desire to be projected onto that doughnut. She imaged the item was a tyre, not just any tyre but one belonging to the truck behind her. With incantations on her tongue she waited for the exact moment before stabbing the hatpin into the doughnut.
There was a small popping sound from outside the bus followed by the screech of breaks. Her eyes flicked to the sight of the truck as it swerved left, right, and then back again until it finally stopped. As the bus pulled away from the stationary vehicle and put some well needed space between her and her pursuers, she saw the remnants of the shredded tyre on the ground and the occupants spilling out to take a look.
“That’s a point to me.” She grinned as she turned in her seat and bit down against the knowledge that it wouldn’t take them too long to change a damn tyre, but she couldn’t had risked flipping the damn truck and having the bus driver pull over to help. Nope, the way that she saw it, she didn’t have much time at all.
Tilly had felt a pull on her magic the moment that the bus rolled through the outskirts of the town. She had signalled the bus driver that she wanted to get off and had hoped for something more than the backwater town that she found herself in. But there was magic in that place, strong magic, and she could feel it in her very bones.
She figured that she had a choice. Keep running until they finally caught up with her or make a stand, get a plan, and see if she could end this on her own terms. The magic in the air had told her that this was as good a place to make that stand as she would find.
Now she wasn’t so sure. As night fell she’d been picking her way through the back routes towards the source of t
hat magic on foot when they’d caught up to her. She could feel the supernatural on her heels and the sound of fast paws and heavy breathing seemed to scream within her ears and her mind as she ran as fast as she could.
I can’t outrun them. I need to stop… I need to breathe… I need the burning in my legs and lungs to go away, I can’t think…I need a plan… damn it, I’m screwed…
She didn’t see the felled branch sticking up from the earth before she took a tumble right over the top of it. She hit the ground or the ground hit her, either way the pain tore through her body. Her forehead bounced off the hard earth and she dragged in a breath as she tried to shake it off. Pushing up with her hands, she knew she needed to keep going, her very life depended on it, but the weight that came down over the top of her pushed her back down into the dirt and she lost the will to fight…
Warm hands turned her in the earth as the weight was released, but then it was back again. His hard body keeping hers locked against the ground. She could hear her heart hammering in her ears as a wave of nausea washed through her, and the hard growl that came from him was like the ringing of the bells of doom for the end of her life.
They have me. Finally, it’s over. No more running… No more chances, no more… anything…
Luke’s hands kept hers at bay. He could scent her Fae essence from a mile away, but what had sent his beast to chase her wasn’t that a witch was trespassing on pack land, but that she was his mate. She’d run from him, and the man could understand the reasoning behind it; she didn’t know who the hell he was, and yet the beast had taken up the chase. He needed to make sure that she didn’t make matters worse and attack him with magic before he’d put his beast back inside the box.
“I’m not going to hurt you…” He could scent her fear along with her blood. The woman was injured and his beast whimpered and pulled back, allowing Luke to try to help her.
Tilly’s eyes were blurring, but she had caught sight of the most handsome man that she’d ever seen in her life and her body tingled a moment before the darkness started to close in around her. He wasn’t one of them. Instinctively she knew that this man was Lycan…
“Werewolves…” The whispered warning slipped from her lips a moment before the lights went out.
Luke heard her warning and pulled back from her. He lifted his head and scented the wind. The only scent that he could find apart from his own was her Fae essence and that of his pack.
‘Jethro, I have an unconscious witch who warned me of werewolves.’ He put the only bit of information that he knew out there in the link for his pack to hear. Forewarned was forearmed, and he wanted everyone to be prepared should the worst happen.
‘Where are you?’ Jethro’s deep tones growled back.
Luke was busy checking on his mate’s injuries before he scooped her up into his arms and started off for the safety of the community. He would die to protect his mate and yet he knew that he couldn’t protect her well like this. Not when she was unconscious and in need of being carried, and certainly not out in the open if they attacked en masse.
‘I’m by the boundary line between us and Wendy’s place. Carrying her back home.’ He liked to run the line between the pack and the witch. There was talk, rumblings of discord going through the pack about the witches and their powers and it worried him some.
He might not have liked the way that trouble followed on the heels of all the new arrivals and yet he hadn’t been about to join those voices. Now he had a witch mate of his own to look out for and the thought of his own pack turning against her was abhorrent to him. Before he had been watching out for the pack mates and now he had even more of a vested interest.
Tilly stirred in his arms. It was just a slow movement that curled her body closer to his. Even in sleep her mind and body recognised its mate.
“I have you, you’re safe.” His deep growl underlined the words and he hoped it gave her some comfort, although, if she had werewolves on her trail then it might not have, but he couldn’t contain it. His beast was on alert for signs of her werewolves and the wolf within couldn’t have been dissuaded from such actions.
“Werewolves…” She muttered again.
“Werewolves.” He repeated so that she knew he’d understood her. “You are safe.” He assured her and felt her body melt against his as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Let us heal her.” Annabeth stood at the bedroom doorway with her hands on her hips and an attitude that said she wasn’t about to do anything other than what she wanted to do, what she had hauled her cookies across the community for. Luke groaned and then growled.
“I have sent for the vampire.” He informed her for what had to be the tenth time and he was fast losing patience with the witches that had gathered inside his cabin.
“Well, we’re here now.” Annabeth argued and Eloise chuckled.
“Luke, you’re not going to get rid of us, so just let us do what we do best…” Deborah offered.
“Cause mayhem and mischief.” He muttered, but each witch had heard it and all eyes were now focused on him, and not one of them was happy.
“What may seem like mayhem and mischief to you is perfectly normal to us when we have to deal with boneheaded Lycan male mates.” Annabeth had started out reasonably calm and yet by the end of it her annoyance had gotten the best of her and she was snappy. Her eyebrows had taken flight up towards her hairline and those hands on her hips were now fisted.
“Annabeth, this isn’t up for discussion…” Luke was fast losing his patience. His mate didn’t seem to be in any real mortal danger from her wounds, but he’d still prefer Caleb to heal her thoroughly with a taste of his blood, rather than the mere power of the witches. What annoyed him the most was that they were stopping him from caring for his mate properly.
“You’re right. It’s not.” Annabeth had been nice. She’d promised Eloise that she would be on her best behaviour and a promise made was a promise kept, and yet now her patience had worn thin.
She rubbed her hands together in front of her and Luke growled, sensing that this wasn’t going to be fun for him. When she turned her palms towards him and he heard Eloise groan, he knew he was in trouble. His arms shot up and his hands shot out to hold her at bay.
The last damn thing that he needed was to be zapped or worse…
CHAPTER TWO
“Ok, fine. You can tend to her, but when the vampire gets here…” Luke growled out. He’d rather keep his faculties about him so he could care for his mate and meet any threat that her werewolves could bring. He had no idea what Annabeth was planning, and he sure as hell wasn’t in a hurry to find that out either.
“Thank you.” Annabeth gave him a smile that would dazzle the sun, but he growled and grunted his response in a bad tempered fashion as he moved aside and allowed the witches to enter.
He noted that the only witch to show any signs of contrition was the newest one, Samantha. He guessed that she hadn’t quite found her feet within the group yet as Annabeth had and the time would come when she was as ballsy as the rest of them. Although she had given her mate a run for his money. He turned and folded his arms across his naked chest, having only pulled on a pair of jeans when he came back through the door, and he eyeballed them begrudgingly.
His beast wasn’t exactly overjoyed that he had handed responsibility for their mate over to her kind, and yet he knew that they were a better bet for his beast to be kept at bay than having the vampire feed her his blood. Perhaps he would need to enlist the witches help with that, and that was something else that he wasn’t looking forward too. He’d need them to put him down and keep him down as Caleb did his job. Any unmated male around his mate was a potential threat, but a vampire…
“You know it’s kind of disconcerting when you don’t speak to me, Caleb. You’re usually so articulate when it comes to… well anything really.” Wendy shot a look at him from the corner of her eye as he kept time with her across the uneven ground.
Wendy knew that her m
ate was having a hard time in dealing with the fact that they hadn’t mated yet, hadn’t bonded their lives together. She couldn’t fault him for having to keep his distance from her. This was as much her fault at being unable to reconcile the man that he was, that she knew him to be, with his vampire linage, as it was his fault for not taking the opportunity to mate with her when he had the chance during his feeding.
She had practically forced the issue out of her hands and into his in that moment when he’d fed in the hope that she wouldn’t have to make the decision herself. He’d turned the tables on her and fed from her until she slept, knowing that he couldn’t take her even if he wanted too. It should have reinforced her trust in him, and yet she was still unable to take that very first step.
“I’m a little preoccupied at the moment.” He offered back, distracted by her closeness and her scent.
Caleb could hear her heart beating inside her chest and all he could think about was the taste of her blood upon his tongue the last time that he had fed from her. His hands fisted at his sides as he tried to control the lust for her that screamed through his veins like a torrent of burning lava. It wasn’t the only lust that he felt, his length was hard like steel and it ached to be buried deep inside her body until he could think of little else.
“Caleb…” Wendy wanted to make it right and ease his suffering, and she also wanted to let him know that she was grateful for everything that he was doing for her. But words wouldn’t do that and she knew it.
“So werewolves.” He offered her a change of subject and she winced at it. If they couldn’t even speak of what ailed him then she knew that it must have be bad for him.