~

 

“I’m male. I have those,” Liam offered back.

He could sense the change in her. There was a look of sheepishness, guilt for something that she’d been thinking, and he guessed it might have been the mating pull egging her on, but he couldn’t be sure.

“You’ll not hear me rush to deny that,” Agatha muttered, again with a small flash of a grimace about her.

“I think this is called; deflecting,” Liam offered her a teasing smile.

“I think this is called; flogging a dead horse.”

Liam’s eyebrows raised towards his hairline, and she found that look just as effective as the frowny, looking under her eyebrows thing, that he did. Especially when those same eyebrows decided to dance a little…

“Fine. No. Not thinking about running, ok?” She tossed back with a rush of frustration within her at just how potent the man really was…

Geez, he frowns and my womb dances a jig…

He berates me and there goes my womb again…

Damn his expressive eyebrows and those stupid … sexy … puppy dog eyes…

Damn fate.

Damn the mating pull.

Damn that I haven’t had sex in so damn long that my body thinks I’m going for sainthood…

Damn, damn, damn it all!

I want ice cream, covered in chocolate shavings, strawberry sauce, and a whole chocolate fudge cake on the side … with cream, sugared, not whipped… oh whipped that sounds dirty…

Not that I’d let a man near my backside with a whip – I’d shove it right up his…

Deflecting. Diverting.

Damn sex again!

He’s potent.

He’s … bewitching, and there’s me thinking I was the damn witch around here.

“What are you thinking?” Liam asked.

He’d watched a million and one emotions travel over her face and he wanted to know her – know her to the point where he could tell exactly what it was that she was thinking with just one look…

The moment that he’d asked that question, she flashed up guilt, then embarrassment as her cheeks coloured a darker red, and then she looked as if she was chewing a wasp…

“Night!” Agatha bit out.

She flicked the door closed in his face with just a little magic, and Liam had to whip his head back on his neck to avoid the hard wood hitting his forehead, and yet, there was still a small thud when he didn’t make it in time…

Agatha heard the thud on the door and grimaced.

“Whoops,” she said, but that didn’t stop her from clicking on the lock and reinforcing it with her magic.

Done talking … she told herself.

Done considering. Thinking. Imagining…

Who am I kidding? This is going to be one, long, lonely night of tossing and turning in bed.

Damn it. I’m doomed.

 

~

~

~

 

Connor had been over the castle twice already. He’d made certain that every window was sealed, every door was bolted, and that if they came for Agatha, then they’d make one hell of a noise doing it via a window.

It was all that he could do.

It was too late at night to gather the pack and clan witches and get them to put wards up around the castle specifically aimed at bear shifters, but in the morning; he might just throw that idea out to the witches and see what they come back with.

He knew that he could have dragged his mate and Agatha around to every damn window and door to place wards there, but that would take all night. No, the more witches the better – they could just use their collective powers to seal the whole damn place in one go…

Until then – he prowled through the halls, moving towards the staircase that led to the roof – that alone was a weak spot if the bears were smart enough to see that the long lying branches hung above the damn castle. He’d toyed with the idea of removing them, but then he would have lost his own element of surprise should he need it.

He turned the corner into the adjoining wing, and stopped in his tracks as Liam spun towards him, snarling a warning, and fighting the urge to get his claws down and his fangs out…

“Heel, bad puppy,” Connor bit out, enjoying the look of sheer disbelief that the shifter offered him…

“Lurking…” Liam bit out. Anger flashed in his eyes as he forced his wolf to stand down.

The beast considered anyone and anything a threat to his mate now. Even Connor.

“I can’t lurk in my own castle,” Connor offered back.

“I thought it was Vicky’s castle,” Liam tossed back and Connor rolled his eyes in his head and grumbled to himself.

“Technically…” Connor grumbled. “And does it really matter?”

“To your mate? Yeah,” Liam’s eyes flashed with amusement.

“Funny, ha-ha.” Connor’s tone was acidic.

“Stop lurking,” Liam warned him.

He’d barely been able to keep his damn wolf in its cage when it had scented the vampire out of nowhere like that. The beast was on full protection alert and Connor’s actions weren’t helping matters.

“I’m not lurking, I’m moving from one place to the next. I believe they call it walking – or at least, they used to,” Connor’s sarcastic reply did little to sooth the man or his beast’s nerves.

“Where are you going?” Liam asked with a whole heap of suspicion in his tone.

“Roof,” Connor shot back without feeling the need to explain his reasons. The fewer people that knew about the roof access the better.

“Spot of stargazing?” Liam shot back with as much sarcasm as Connor had shown him.

“Yes. I do love those comets,” Connor offered dryly.

“You think there’s a problem?” Liam growled at the thought of his mate being vulnerable.

“I always assume that there is and cover my options,” Connor shoved back at the man’s questioning of his motives.

“Good plan,” Liam nodded thoughtfully.

“Glad you like it. I did so long for your approval,” Connor smirked and the shifter growled. “Don’t wake your mate.”

“Why don’t you kiss my…?”

“You’re not my type.” Connor shot back before the man finished that question.

He had no more time to shoot the breeze and placate the worried wolf. The roof was the last place that he needed to secure, and he wanted to get it done so that he could spend five minutes soothing his own mate’s ruffled feathers. Although, Vicky wasn’t truly mad at him – she still liked it when they both pretended that she was.

 That thought of makeup sex spurred him on. They’d do the dance around each other, back and forth a little, and then beg each others forgiveness. He loved that thought.

One moment; he was facing the shifter, and the next he had sidestepped the man and was at the bottom of the staircase, with vampire speed and stealth, that the shifter had either missed, or not bothered to try to counter on his way by him. It saved both time and any more confrontation that way.

Connor pushed up the staircase and out into the night air. He scented the breeze and found little but nature on it.

That was the way that he wanted to keep it.

It wasn’t just Agatha that was at risk if the bear’s decided to attack – Vicky was also on the property. His mate had a way of sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong, her magic where it shouldn’t be, and her backside on the line.

None of those thing filled him with joy, and he’d protect his mate at all costs.

Even against her own kind of stupid.

Not that he was going to tell her that.

He valued his balls.