~

 

At any other time, it might have been a bit of fun to announce that they were witches, followers of the dark arts, sinners, and all of those things that their kin and kind had been accused of over the years, but, right then and there with their fates hanging over their heads like a black cloud, not one of the witches felt the need to challenge the man.

“More helpful hands!” Father Ted announced, as he lifted his arms up towards his God and held out two black sacks full of toys for the charity stall.

“I know what I’d like to do with my hands,” Penny bit out of the side of her mouth.

“We were just leaving,” Keri offered with a smile that got caught on her teeth and became more of a grimace.

“Before the Fair?” Father Ted tried to look gloomy and yet he still had humor within his washed out eyes.

“Fair…?” Isla’s interest was piqued. Penny elbowed her in the ribs.

“Sorry, Father … when you’ve gotta go, and all that…” Keri said, grabbing a handful of Isla’s shirt and yanking her sideways so that the man could pass.

“T’is a sad day. What with the cake stall, the chocolate stall,” He tried to entice, and it worked.

“Chocolate?” Penny’s interest was piqued.

“With a chocolate fountain and everything,” Father Ted offered back, and Keri grumbled inside.

That man of God knew exactly what he was doing – both of her friends were practically drooling at the thought of it.

“Sorry, maybe later.” Keri nudged Isla into Penny, and Penny tripped over her own feet.

Neal swooped in and steadied his mate with one large hand on each curvy hip. A low, deep growl rumbled within his chest as her eyes snapped upwards to meet his.

She gave a low, barely audible squeal when she realized who it was that had saved her, and slapped his hands away from her hips as she jumped backward into Isla. When the heel of her sandal came down on the naked toes of Isla’s foot, the woman squealed like a banshee.

Isla reached up with both hands against Penny’s back and launched the woman forwards to get her off of her foot. Penny shot back towards Neal, and the shifter was only too welcoming.

Neal’s caught his mate within his arms and pulled her towards the relative safety of his broad chest. Penny’s cheek was flattened against one hard muscle, and her eyes went wide as she took a moment to consider what had just happened.

“Pass the parcel,” Father Ted announced. “Nice catch.”

“Let me go!” Penny hissed out; as she squeezed her arms up through the lock of his and pressed her palms against his chest to try to push him away from her, or her away from him – either way, she wanted that rush of tingles that was racing over her body to be gone.

“It’s for your own good,” Neal’s deep tones were taunting. “Who knows what damage you could actually do to yourself, or others, if I were to release you.”

Penny heard that deep rumble of chuckles within his chest and stomped down hard on his foot. The beta grunted in pain, and she got what she wanted – he dropped his arms; she spun away from him, and then she collided with Isla once more, and all while the shifter hopped on one foot, cursing, and nursing his dented toes with his other hand.

“Whoops!” Father Ted announced. “That’s taking it like a gentleman,” the priest grinned.

Neal wasn’t grinning. His chin was down near his chest, and his dark eyes were locked and loaded on the witch.

His witch.

His mate.

“That was deliberate,” Neal grumbled.

“Ya think?” Penny shot back as Isla pushed her once more, but this time the savvy witch dug her feet in and didn’t take a solitary step towards her mate.

“We really should be…” Keri wasn’t subtle about nodding towards their car, but as her eyes followed where her head was telling them to go. She suddenly felt the desire to spew out a list of curse words of her own.

“Oh, God, nooo!” Isla bit out, as she too noted that their car was well and truly blocked in.

Father Ted cleared his throat and Keri was the first to respond, she nudged Isla in the back, and the woman’s head shot around, and her eyes glared back at her.

“Stop doing that!” She bit out. “Pushed, pulled, nudged and stomped on – what am I here? A human version of Bop it?”

Now Keri was nodding her head towards the priest, and it took Isla a long moment to realize why.

“Sorry, Father,” Isla said on a grimace that twisted her face.

“God is forgiving,” Father Ted assured her.

“Tell that the witch trials,” Keri whispered towards Isla, and the woman spat out a chuckle, and then looked very contrite once more under the priest’s stare.

“Where did you want those?” Isla asked, reaching out and snatching the black sacks from his hands.

“How very kind of you,” Father Ted grinned.

“Shoot me now…” Isla whispered to Keri as she turned away from the priest and tossed a sack over each shoulder, like a repenting Christmas elf.

 

~

~

~

 

Keri couldn’t take her eyes off of Griffin. It wasn’t her fault, or so she told herself – the man was stripped naked to the waist and he was flaunting those damn hard muscles like a living, breathing Greek God.

It wasn’t as if she was the only one. Everybody was staring at him. Everybody that was female and had a pulse – and that included the old church ladies, so, she felt it wasn’t really a bad thing that her eyes were drawn in his direction, it wasn’t just a mate thing.

The man’s like a magnet.

Stop looking! She berated herself and snapped her eyes back to the fluffy toys that were grinning up at her as if they were mocking her lack of willpower to ignore him.

Don’t you judge me… She berated the cutest stuffed puppy dog with the folded over long ears.

It’s not your mate that looks good enough to eat.

Look who I am talking too… He’s probably a long lost relative of yours or something.

“Yeeeooowwwlll!”

Keri’s body snapped to attention at the sound that was a cross between a yelp and a howl. Her head whipped around on her neck, and her eyes took in the sight of Lucas doing what looked like a rain dance, bending forwards, snapping upright, hands up in the air, hands down towards his feet.

Then the man started hopping on one leg and grasping at his toes, and she couldn’t stifle the grin on her lips at the sight of him.

“What is it with you and hammers?” Lucas almost growled on each and every word towards the human that was perched up a ladder, looking somewhat in fear for his life, and with the discarded hammer that lay on the grass beside the beta shifter doing the hop dance, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

“Sorry…” The young guy bit out.

“That’s what you said the last time…” Lucas grumbled, dropping his injured foot to the grass and trying to stomp away the pain. “Perhaps not throwing hammers at me would serve you better.”

Bad mood wolf … picking on someone he knows that he can beat to a pulp.

Maybe you should try picking on someone with a little more sting in the tail.

Keri reached for her magic, snapped her hand on her wrist, and the top plank from the structure whipped loose and thudded on the shifter’s head – not hard, just like a wakeup call to be nicer.

Lucas ducked against the sudden impact and growled inwardly – then his eyes snapped up towards the human male, and he caught the start of a grin on the man’s face.

“Really?” Lucas grumbled.

“Not my fault,” the guy held up his hands in surrender, as Lucas snapped his eyes around the area and found Keri grinning at him.

He dropped his head to his chest and narrowed his eyes at her, and in return Keri just gave him a little shrug off her shoulders.

“Oops,” she muttered, shaking the fluffy dog in her hand and taunting him as she gave a little growl.

‘Griffin, your mate is out of line,’ Lucas growled through the link.

‘I’d say heads up, but I’ve got this,’ Griffin informed him as he skirted behind his mate, and leaned his upper body in towards her as he whispered in her ear.

“Play nice with others.”