~

 

“Don’t sniff!” Angelique rushed her demand toward the alpha as she snapped a look in his direction.

She had to say — if he was her mate as the Christmas fairy had said — then fate had her back on that one. The man was way out of her league.

Tall, over six feet, with the kind of broad shoulders that blocked out a good portion of the landscape, and even under the heavyweight leather material of his jacket, she could still see that he was packed with a heck of a lot of muscles.

The unruly mop of dark hair on his head reached out in all different directions like he’d just got out of bed. Sexy hair – sexy guy.

She couldn’t tell if his eyes were naturally dark or if his emotions had darkened them, but the dark lashes and eyebrows gave him the appearance of having puppy dog eyes. She suddenly hated the fact that she had a fondness for puppies.

Add to that the couple of days-old stubble that clung to his chin and reached up for his hairline in front of his ears made him look entirely too sexy for his own good. For her own good.

“What do you take me for?” Luke growled.

Of course, he wasn’t going to sniff the air — he wasn’t a damn pup that didn’t know any better. But, her words did make him curious as to why she didn’t want him to.

He hated curiosity — curiosity might have killed the cat — but, when somebody told you not to do something, especially when you were an alpha, it always made you want to do it more. He might not have been a cat, but he certainly was curious.

Luke’s beast growled within him. The wolf had become unsettled the moment that they’d felt the magic in the air.

Now, the beast was just plain agitated, and Luke had to push back on the cage door in case the wolf decided it wanted to be free and have a taste of their unwelcome intruders.

“You’re a shifter — you people sniff — things.” Angelique slowly spelt it out for him.

“Like their own butts,” George offered with a chuckle that neither the witch nor the alpha shared. He did hear Jessica splutter a little chuckle though, even over the sound of the alpha giving him a warning growl. “Hey, deny it all you want — we all know a wolf is going to be a wolf.”

“And that’s a perfectly natural thing, right?” The alpha asked.

“Of course, if you want to go around sniffing your backside — be my guest,” George offered back.

“So, it follows — that a perfectly natural thing would be for me to get my fangs and claws out, no?” Luke growled.

“Her…” George immediately rushed to panic and pointed towards the witch.

“Her?” Luke growled some more.

“Don’t you dare!” Angelique hissed at the fairy.

“A gift — from me to you,” George said.

“Why would I want a witch?” Luke growled.

“Not just any witch…” George started, but Angelique started to sing at the top of her lungs, and George shot her a curious look.

“An insane witch?” Luke growled over the top of the woman’s voice.

Sweet, it wasn’t, and it was hurting his sensitive ears.

“Better yet,” George called back to the alpha. “She’s your mate!”

The song that Angelique was singing immediately died on her lips. Her gaze snapped toward the alpha and his to her. She grimaced.

Luke swallowed a good portion of his tongue. His dark eyes narrowed on the witch. He shuffled his feet as the fairy’s words ping-ponged around within his mind, and his lips moved as he tried to form words but couldn’t quite manage it.

“You see what I have to deal with!” Angelique rushed out.” Kidnapped by a fairy — thrown into the back of my own car — dragged through the woods, and all because he wants something from you,” Angelique lied.

Luke snapped his gaze back to the fairy. A slow, angry rumble started in his chest and got lodged in his throat.

George wanted to bend over and kiss his backside goodbye. The damn devious little witch had set him up.

Why kiss him herself when she could get the alpha to do it?

He hadn’t seen that one coming.

“You know?” Luke growled long and hard at George. “I’ve always wondered what roast fairy tastes like.”

“But I brought you your mate,” George looked confused.

The alpha should have been thanking him — not threatening him. If it hadn’t of been for the witch…

“You can’t trust a fairy,” Angelique warned.

“Even if that were true,” Luke said as he flicked out his claws, and watched George rush to panic. “Kidnapped — car — dragged — do you see where I’m going with this?”

“Now that you mention it,” George nodded.

“And still I’m bound by his magic,” Angelique said as she tried to lift her arms, but all she managed was a large shrug of the shoulders.

“Set her free,” Luke growled.

“I have a little problem with that,” George admitted. “If I set her free she’s planning to kill me.”

“If you don’t set her free — I will kill you,” Luke offered back.

He had no idea if the witch was his mate or not — but she was female, and you didn’t treat a woman that way.

“Ouch!” Angelique said as she turned towards the Christmas fairy and offered him a smug smile.

George groaned. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he had no other choice.

Although, as he had already announced that the witch was the alpha’s mate, perhaps, she wouldn’t need to kill him after all.

“Fine,” George released her from her bonds with a click of his fingers, and the first thing that she did was zap him.

The second thing that she did was turn on her heels and take off in the opposite direction from where they had been going.

“Bet you didn’t see that one coming,” George ground out the words through clenched teeth.

“Wrong!” Luke growled.

He’d seen that one coming a mile away — and the witch was running straight towards Jett.

 

~

~

~

 

The alpha still didn’t want to do it — curiosity, and all that — but, he figured that the damn curious cat was already dead, so he breathed in hard, taking in as much air as possible, and captured her scent within it.

“Damn,” he growled.

The fairy was telling the truth.

Luke set off hard and fast after his mate. He had little choice; his beast had already risen within him and was demanding a chase.

That was not a good sign. At least, not for the witch.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Jett asked as he stepped out in front of Angelique, and the witch ground to a halt.

“My cookies are burning,” Angelique lied as she lifted her hands and blasted the beta backward.

Jett’s feet were torn away from the ground as he sailed backward through the air. His arms and legs were stretched out in front of him as if he’d caught a cannonball to the stomach, and he landed with one heck of a hard thump against the ground.

“Don’t run from me!” Luke growled out the warning as he closed the distance between them.

“Oh, poop!” Angelique turned a look over her shoulder to see the alpha coming full steam ahead and heading right towards her.

Angelique knew that she had only a few options open to her. One of them was to kill him.

She’d never been a violent person before. But there was something about being kidnapped by the Christmas fairy and foisted onto your mate that had made her rush in that direction – twice.

She still wanted to kill the Christmas fairy — but, that was because the man was damned annoying. He’d done this, brought her to this moment in time and place, and someone had to pay the piper, didn’t they?

By the time that Angelique had decided on a course of action, the alpha was almost upon her. She lifted her hands, pulled on her magic, and was then rugby tackled to the ground by a sexy hunk of a shifter that knocked the breath, and the magic, right out of her.