~

“Are you going to claim I blindsided you that time too?” Breanna bit out, and her eyes flashed with annoyance.

“Yes.” River rolled his eyes as he rebounded to his feet.

“Why haven’t I heard of this Goddess?” Cary asked.

“Maybe if you’d learned shifter history instead of slacking off…” Rock grumbled.

“I guess it’s not something they print in porn magazines,” Ray chuckled.

“Like you’re not half blind from your teen years,” Cary growled.

“Hey, you’ve both got hairy palms, get over it,” Ava chuckled.

“So, why don’t shifters summon this Morrigan?” Ray asked, changing the subject.

“Mess with magic?” Rock snorted his contempt for that question.

“It’s one of the reasons witches and shifters split ways back in the day. Before, every pack had their own witch,” Breanna informed them.

“Now we have three,” Cary said.

“Oh, I’m so not commenting on that one,” Ray muttered.

“So, you can teach an old dog new tricks,” Ava shot back, and Ray’s mouth opened to speak, but he snapped it shut again. “Good boy.”

“So, whose side is the Morrigan on?” Cary asked.

“The Fae,” Frankie said.

“Legend has it that the Morrigan’s wrath grew by being summoned and petitioned by warring shifter packs and clans to do their bidding for them. She refused to help, and became the sole domain of the witches,” Breanna said.

“So, a shifter hating shifter Goddess?” Cary said.

“She didn’t hate shifters, they are her people, which is why she refused to get involved with male pettiness,” Lana berated him.

“She certainly won’t work with vampires,” Frankie said, and Rock grunted in agreement.

“So, why don’t you just summon her and set her on Lance?” Ray asked, and all three witches were silent.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Ava said.

“Audrey is a she-wolf, and the Morrigan would want to protect her own,” Lana said.

“Do we have a plan?” Frankie asked her brethren.

“As long as she doesn’t clean her damn armor off in the river,” Ray grumbled.

“Close your eyes,” Ava tossed back.

“Does that work?” he asked.

“I’m not going to comment because I don’t want you to feel bad,” Ava chuckled.

“It’s nice to know you care,” he tossed back with a teasing smile that ruffled her feathers, and she grunted in annoyance.

 

~

~

 

‘Rock.’ Audrey knew where she was and she knew how close she was to pack land.

‘Are you close, sister?’ He was ready and waiting for the vampire, and his beast was as eager to get this done as he was.

‘Bad news. He’s brought me to the back of the chapel at the nunnery. He wants Frankie and whatever she took from him, and if he sniffs a wolf…’

‘I get the picture,’ Rock growled. Every inch of his body was on fire with the need to shift and run like the wind to his sister’s side. ‘Tell him that she’s on her way.’

‘Rock…’

‘It’s fine, Audrey. Just don’t do anything stupid.’

“Now what?” Ray growled. His anger was pumping through his veins like wildfire.

“What’s going on?” Breanna demanded.

“You need to stay out of this, Breanna…” Rock warned the vampire.

It had been bad enough when Audrey had said that she was at the nunnery, but the last thing that they needed was for Breanna to go off half-cocked on sacred ground with the possibility that there would be nuns around. Having their secret discovered by the nuns wouldn’t exactly keep them under the radar.

“Where is she?” Breanna demanded answers.

She stalked towards the alpha as if she meant to reach out and rip his heart from his chest, and maybe she did because where her friend’s safety was involved, she would do anything to protect her.

“Where you’re not welcome,” Rock informed her.

“He took her to sacred ground,” Breanna bit out to nobody in particular.

“The nuns?” Lana asked. “Well, that’s not helpful.”

“Someone want to show me the way?” Frankie demanded.

“I will,” Breanna said.

“No, you won’t,” Rock informed her.

He didn’t need a loose cannon tonight. There was too much at stake. He trusted Breanna with the life of anyone in his pack, but this was just too close for comfort.

“Yeah, I don’t think she’s going to listen,” River said. “Call me a pessimist, but I think you want her to be where you can keep an eye on her.”

“He’s not wrong,” Breanna offered back. “Stupid — male — but not wrong in this instance.”

“Gee, thanks,” River chuckled. “I think.”

Rock considered his options. He knew deep down what the vampire was telling him was the truth of it.

Breanna was too close to Audrey to expect her to just stay put and keep out of it. That was never going to happen.

“Fine,” Rock grumbled.

First, the witches had mutinied, and now Breanna, that was just how his day was going. It was a female thing.

He’d like to think that his decision to put his foot down with the females in the pack was a good thing — but, the reality was something different.

He’d wanted to be a progressive alpha — it seemed that he’d got his wish.

 

~

~

 

“Nuns,” Ava offered a small shiver to back up her feelings on the subject.

“I know, it’s like inviting the devil to dinner,” River said, and by the light of the full moon, when he grinned, all that Ava could see was his damn teeth. At least there were no fangs.

Rock turned back toward the group, three witches, one alpha, two betas, and two vampires stood on the periphery of sacred land. It wasn’t as if they had a choice in the matter, but he doubted that there wasn’t one among them that wanted to be there.

“The devil to dinner?” Ava questioned his sanity with just a look.

“It doesn’t feel like that to you?” River asked, trying for innocence, but he did not hit the mark. “I would have thought that a witch, with all the history that entails, would be skittish around the God squad.”

“Some of my favorite people are nuns,” Ava shot back.

“Seriously?” Ray looked more than confused by that. “Witches and nuns?”

“Did your twin get all the brains?” River asked the beta. He got a warning growl back in return, it wasn’t anything that he wasn’t expecting, and it filled him with a warm fuzziness to know that he could pull the man’s chain.

“Do you have to?” Ava bit out, unwittingly defending her mate, and only realizing that fact when he rumbled a growl in the back of his throat. “On second thoughts; you go right ahead,” she grumbled.

“Can we concentrate on why we’re here?” Rock growled in annoyance.

“I could if your baby brother wasn’t so distracting,” River said. “Who can resist an open target?”

“A dead vampire,” Breanna warned him.

She was in no mood for games. The need to get to Audrey and secure her safety was clawing within her like a manic itch that couldn’t be scratched away.