~

 

Angelique had decided on a plan of action, and she was determined to stick to it. She couldn’t see another way out of her predicament. She couldn’t see another option.

Angelique was going to have to kill the Christmas fairy.

Of course, the fairy godmother wouldn’t be overly joyful about it. The fairy nation probably wouldn’t be overly joyful about it — although, having met the Christmas fairy — they just might.

But what other plan was there to get what she wanted? What she wanted was not to be mated to a shifter.

George was going down. One way or the other, when she got free of the magical findings; Angelique was going to kill him.

It wasn’t as if there were any witnesses. If she was lucky, then nobody knew he was there at all.

It couldn’t be that hard to get away with murder — could it?

It was, after all, a supernatural murder. And his body would return to its fairy form after death – so she wouldn’t have too much trouble burying it — him.

Angelique felt a little pang of guilt and then dismissed it. It was him, or her, and she’d much rather that it was him.

Smug him. The destroyer of spells – him.

Yep, that was the plan.

 

~

~

~

 

“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I scent magic and this way it comes,” Jett chuckled at his own funny.

“What are you supposed to be, the green giant?” Luke grumbled at his beta.

It had been a long day, full of things that the alpha didn’t want to deal with, and he was looking forward to putting his feet up and watching the sports on TV. Bliss.

“Only after eating your chili pot surprise the other night,” Jett said as he raised just his left eyebrow and offered the alpha a knowing look.

“That chili pot surprise was damn tasty. I can’t help it if you’re not man enough to handle it.”

The alpha chuckled at the memory of his friend drinking a gallon of water to wash down the meal. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a man sweat as much as Jett had that night.

“I’m sorry my tongue and throat aren’t fire retardant,” Jett tossed back. “But that magic in the air is still coming this way…”

“I’ve got it,” the alpha assured him. “Circle back around the grove and come from behind.”

“Watch out — I smell a witch,” Jett whispered.

“What are you, crazy?” The alpha growled. “Scenting the air like that can only lead to trouble.”

“Not for a mated male, it can’t,” Jett chuckled. “I wouldn’t advise it for a bachelor like you.”

“Damn straight!” The alpha growled back. “I don’t need a ball and chain, just yet.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Jett chuckled.

The beta turned away from his alpha and heard the man mutter something into the darkness. Even his ears couldn’t pick it up, and he had supernatural hearing.

 

~

~

~

 

“Is this really because I reported you to the fairy godmother?” Angelique was looking for any way out that she could find.

Begging — pleading — killing — it was all the same to her.

“You’d think that would miff me right off, wouldn’t you?” George shot back with a look that said he wasn’t best pleased by her actions. “But — no. This is about you having a fated mate and not doing what fate wants you to do…”

“And you think if you put my alleged mate and me together that I’m going to do what you and fate want me to do?” She snorted a chuckle of contempt at that idea.

“I think if I put you on the alpha’s radar…”

“Alpha!” Angelique tried once more to ground to a halt, but her feet just kept moving. It annoyed her so.

“Did I forget to mention that part?” He offered her something approaching a cheeky grin.

“Now that you come to mention it.” She offered him a death glare in return.

“Whoops! My bad,” he chuckled.

Angelique swore to herself that it would be his bad as soon as she broke free. She’d been having guilty thoughts about killing him — not so much anymore.

“Look.” She’d forgotten one important part in her plan. There was pleading — killing — and then there was the old faithful chestnut. “What will it take for you to let me go?”

“Well, if you’d asked me that question two days ago…” He stopped them in their tracks, put his finger to his lips, and tapped it thoughtfully.

“Yes?”

“I could have had a list for you. But unfortunately…”

“Let’s not be rash — I always say don’t rush to judgment on these things,” Angelique cautioned him.

“True,” George offered back a ray of hope. “But…”

“Never start a sentence with but…”

“Now that I’m the Christmas fairy — I can’t be bought off.” Then he snatched that ray of hope away and stomped up and down all over it.

“Fine,” Angelique huffed.

She was just going to have to go back to her other plan — kill him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” George smiled as if he had a secret to share.

“Oh, I don’t think you do,” she offered back with an acidic song in her voice.

“Oh, I think I do,” George offered back with his own singsong voice that was much sweeter than hers.

“Trust me, you don’t,” Angelique snapped back.

“I’ll bet you I do,” George sang back to her.

“Done! Bet on…” Angelique snapped at the chance.

“What?” George was taken aback by her words.

“You bet me, and I accepted — game on,” Angelique offered back. “Unless you want to squelch-a-welch on the bet, and then, of course, I get anything I want as a prize.”

“That’s not how this works,” George offered back.

“Sure it is,” Angelique tossed back at him.

‘You seem to have backed yourself into a corner — silly, Christmas fairy.’

“Huh?” George was confused. He hadn’t agreed to anything – he was almost certain of it.

‘I guess you didn’t read the manual…’

“There was a manual?” George asked, and Angelique snapped a quick look around the area to see who he was talking to.

There, upon the branch of a tree was an aura — she should have known that they would never have sent a male Christmas fairy out alone into the world alone.

She berated herself for missing that.

‘No — but, you didn’t try to find one either — bad, Christmas fairy.’

“Could you stop? You’re giving me a headache,” George grumbled. The woman was more than annoying; she was impossible to deal with. He wished that she’d stayed at home.

Then he turned his attention back to Angelique, her eyes were full of suspicion, and they narrowed at him like a hawk on its prey. He was just grateful that she couldn’t strike out.

“So who am I talking to? The monkey, or the organ grinder?” Angelique asked.

“I’m the Christmas fairy,” George assured her.

“And I’m the alpha, and you’re on my land,” Luke growled like he had every intention of eating the magical pair for dinner.