~

 

“So, to get rid of the fairies, we need to get rid of the fairy lights,” Rex informed his brothers.

“Sounds good,” Doug agreed.

He was half paying attention to his brother, and half watching the witches to make sure that they weren’t getting up to any more mischief or formulating another escape plan.

“We’re not getting rid of the twinkling lights,” Tia’s harsh tone snatched Doug’s attention away from the witches and toward the small gathering of she-wolves that he hadn’t noticed had gathered.

“It’s the only way,” Rex offered back.

“We had a deal,” Macey said as she pinned him with her steely gaze and narrowed her eyes at him.

“We’ve been up to our elbows in cooking all day…” Stella grumbled, adding her voice to the unimpressed chorus line.

“I get that — smells good,” Rex nodded, trying to sooth their feathers, “but the fact remains…”

“The fact remains we had a deal,” Macey pushed her point home with a small, angry growl.

“Did you just growl at me?” Rex asked.

“I growled — if you want to take it personally…” She waved her hand absently in the air, dismissing his rank within the pack as a protest for what he was planning to do.

“You can’t make a deal, and then when you get your end of the bargain, snatch ours away,” Stella rushed out as she deflected Rex’s attention from her friend and the she-wolf’s lack of respect for his rank.

“That’s not what we’re doing,” Rex’s eyebrows drew down and almost together over the bridge of his nose, as he scowled at the she-wolves. “A little help here with the angry mob wouldn’t go amiss, Doug.”

Rex turned to look at his brothers, but neither one was paying him any attention. Instead, they were both staring off into the distance.

He followed the gaze, and there were the witches. He should have guessed that until both brothers were mated, they wouldn’t be much use for anything other than an attack on the pack.

“You said you wanted to take down the twinkling lights,” Stella folded her arms and nailed him with her angry gaze.

“I said they attract the faeries,” Rex grumbled back the explanation as any logical person would see it.

He was dealing with females – he needed to remember that logic went out of the window with the fairer sex.

“So, you want to take down the twinkling lights,” Macey shot back and expanded her hands on a shrug of her shoulders.

“It’s a solution to the problem,” Rex argued.

“It’s going back on our deal is what it bloody well is!” Tia grumbled and muttered under her breath.

“Okay, kind of — maybe,” Rex considered it for a long moment. “But don’t you want to get rid of the faeries?”

“What we want is to keep the twinkling lights,” Stella announced and the others nodded in agreement.

All of them looked angry, and all of them were directing their anger right at him. Of course they were, he was the bad guy, while his brothers were all dreamy eyed and silent mouthed as they gawked over at the witch mates. He sighed inwardly.

“Well, you can’t.” Rex decided that he needed to put his foot down with a firm stomp.

“Alpha!” The females whined as one.

Doug snapped out of it. He dragged his gaze away from the witches and raised his eyebrows towards the females.

“Huh?”

He’d lost the conversation that they’d been having with Rex somewhere along the way. But the females were whining and Rex was grumbling to himself, so he guessed that nobody was getting what they wanted.

“We had a deal. We get Christmas — you get a feast, right?” Stella asked, leading him down the garden path to where she wanted him.

The alpha immediately started to nod his head in agreement.

“Right…”

“We’ve been cooking all day, and the food looks good, right? Yummy tasty alpha sized treats, right?” Tia asked, leading him onward.

“Right…”

“Good food and lots of drink. We lived up to our end, right?” Macey asked.

“Right…”

“So twinkling lights stay, right?” Stella asked.

“Right…”

“Wrong!” Rex growled.

How like females to go behind his back to the top man. Especially, when the top man wasn’t even listening, but continually eyeing up his prospective mate.

Rex had seen their devious plot, and he wasn’t going to put up with it just because Doug’s little brain had taken over from his big one.

“Too late!” Stella grinned. “The alpha said they stay – so, they stay.” She offered a smug smile as a parting shot to the beta, as the group turned as one and strolled away.

He had to wonder how females always managed to do that in a timely fashion – that, and why they went to the damn toilet together. But the main problem here was the spaced-out alpha.

“Seriously?” Rex growled at his brother.

Doug tore his gaze away from the witches once more and growled back at his brother. He wasn’t sure why he was growling, only that the beta had growled to him first.

“Right…” Doug offered, but when Rex punched him in the bicep, he snapped out of it and growled hard. “What the hell?”

“That’s exactly what I was going to ask you,” Rex grumbled out in annoyance.

“You want to share? Or shall I just rip off your arm and beat you to death with it?” Doug growled back.

“You didn’t happen to notice a group of females leading you around by the nose by any chance, did you?” Rex demanded.

Rex folded his arms across his chest and scowled at his brother. The beta berated him with a look, it was a look that Doug knew well, but it was usually saved for Jonathon.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Doug grumbled.

“You just agreed to keep the twinkling lights…”

“No, no I didn’t.” Doug gave a small shake of his head in denial. That would have been stupid, and Doug wasn’t stupid.

“Yes, yes you did,” Rex offered back.

He was trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice because the alpha wasn’t exactly himself. He was also trying his best to be supportive of his brother, as a good beta should, but he had his limits.

“I think I would remember doing something stupid as that,” Doug growled back.

“Then you’d better think back real hard, because you just did it,” Rex growled.

“I…” Doug paused as his eyes flicked back towards the witches. One was missing. “Wait…” Doug growled. His eyes flicked around the room, searching the crowd, but he couldn’t locate her. “Gotta go…”

“But — the damn twinkle lights?” Rex growled out after the man as he dashed off.

“Yes-yes, you’re a beta, deal with it,” Doug tossed back over his shoulder as he started for the one remaining witch that he could see.

“Unbelievable!” Rex growled.

“Where’s he…?” Jonathan eyed the alpha, and then he took off after him on fast feet.

“Damn — they better mate with their damn witches soon,” Rex grumbled.

“Oh, don’t you worry so much about those fairies,” Tom chuckled as he sided up to the beta. “I’d be more worried about those witches.”

 

~

~

~

 

Natalie was as good as her word. The moment that the alpha and beta were otherwise occupied with a whole bunch of angry she-wolves, she’d slipped off into the downstairs bathroom and cracked the window open just a little.

She hadn’t expected there to be a small army of invaders waiting outside. But as one faerie after another shot in through the small opening like darts aimed at a board, she lost count of just how many there were.

Natalie felt a small flash of guilt go through her, and then one of the pesky little wee people decided to zap her and all she could think about was hitting someone where it hurt.

Right then, she needed the faeries as a distraction, but the pack was a different matter. Throwing them in at the deep end with the faeries would be just what the witch-doctor ordered.

“Hey! Behave. I’m on your side, remember?” Natalie hissed in annoyance.

She had a good mind to use her magic to sweep the lot of them back outside, but needs must, and she needed to curb her temper.

‘Side? No side – just fun.’

“Well, in that case. I might just have a little fun myself,” She felt the brush of something against her hair and swatted it away. “I might just leave you all in here. No lights – no baubles – no glitter, just four boring beige walls.”

There was a low buzz of chatter among them, like Chinese whispers that Natalie couldn’t make out, but, if they were discussing it, they must have been worried. That was good for her.

‘Sides are good.’

“Thought you’d see it my way. Now, here’s what I need you to do.”