CHAPTER TEN

 

 

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Sandy flicked a look into the rearview mirror and scowled at the sight of the car coming up fast once more. She knew who was in the passenger seat, it wasn’t as if she could miss his big head and shoulders, but she didn’t know who the woman was behind the wheel. A she-wolf, no doubt, out to ruin her day.

Well, no she-wolf was going to catch up to her and subject her to a fate worse than lifelong torture and relationship enslavement. That wasn’t happening.

Sandy wasn’t a feminist, and she thought two people in love was a wonderful thing – just not when one of them was her. Relationship hell and sharing both the remote control and the duvet cover certainly wasn’t her idea of happily ever after.

There were many things that she wanted to achieve in life – not huge things like changing the world – although that might be good, but little things that wouldn’t mean much of anything to anyone else. Her bakery for one – she wasn’t planning to settle down and have babies until she’d at least tried for her dream.

If she failed, then she failed, but at least she could look back and say that she’d given it everything she had, and that was good enough for her.

“Oh, you need to back off,” she bit out as she flicked her eyes back to the mirror and realised that she only had a matter of moments before they were playing bumper tag once more. “Fine, magic it is then.”

But before she could conjure up a plan, let alone a spell – her car started to slow down all on its own. “Oh no – oh no – oh no!”

Sandy gripped the wheel tighter in her white-knuckled fists. She willed the car to move as she pushed down on the pedal, and she even rocked back and forth in her seat as she urged it to help with her escape.

Nothing – crickets – not a sausage – meat or otherwise.

“Magic…” she grumbled as she bit down on her annoyance and flicked a look back to the mirror, and there she was – the driver herself – with a smile and a wave for her.

“Oh no, you didn’t!” Sandy scowled as she gave up the ghost of trying to will her car just one more inch, and cut her losses as she put the car into park and tossed open the door – holding it wide with her booted foot before she climbed out and squared up to the other car’s occupants.

“Well, two can play at that game, sister, and you’ll be a sorry witch because you messed with me!”

Now, Sandy didn’t consider herself a vengeful person, but for one witch to attack another witch without cause or provocation – and on the side of a shifter to boot – well! Pah!

Some things you just couldn’t let slide.

 

 

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“She looks nice,” Bree said, and Joel snorted back at her. “Oh, not nice? Okay, so you don’t need to thank me then.” Bree shrugged.

“Witches be crazy…” Joel grumbled as his hand found the door lock and he was just about to pull it open when he noted his mate lift her hands, and scowl at Bree. “Now … hold on!”

Bree turned her attention back towards Sandy, and there she was – the devilish little fiend, threatening to use her magic against her. “Ha!” Bree snorted as she drew on her magic once more and prepared to defend herself.

“Wait!” Joel bit out. He popped open the car door and climbed out, with one outstretched hand toward his mate; he urged her to hold off, as he rested the palm of his other hand on the car roof.

That was when she let out the kind of zap that was aimed at Bree, but it somehow hit the car and sent, what felt to Joel, like a blast of volts through his body that made his toes curl and his body lift from the ground like he’d gone an licked an electricity pylon.

He sailed back through the air like a giant unseen hand had just wrenched him up and tore him away.

Splat! He hit the ground on his back and groaned at the double-edged whammy of the electrical current and the contact with the hard ground.

Sandy’s eyes widened in surprise as the shifter went flying, and her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Then the sound of the loud thud hit her ears when he hit the ground made her jump in place a little, and her neck sort of disappeared as she grimaced a lot before she screwed up her face and reached up to scratch her head.

“Well, I have no idea where I went wrong that time!” she bit out.

That seemed to be the trouble with her magic. She was great at adding a little something-something to her recipes, be it love, laughter, or happiness thereafter, but a simple revenge zap – nope, it just didn’t seem to sit right with her.

“Boy, were you off,” Bree said as she climbed out of the car and turned to look at where Joel had landed.

“By a country mile,” Sandy said with a small, disappointed shake of her head and a sigh.

“I can help with that,” Bree offered, and that snapped Sandy back into action.

“I don’t want your help, yooouu…!” She couldn’t find the words, well, she could, but they were the kind better muttered than spoken out loud.

“Now, now, be nice…” Bree warned.

“Oh, and how nice were you when you sided with the shifter and used magic to kill my car?” Sandy tossed back.

“Nicer than you for running out on your mate and possibly sending the poor sap rogue,” Bree snapped back.

“Vested interest, pack witch?” Sandy tossed her hands onto her hips and glared at Bree, and Bree was in no way backing down from a challenge like that – so she mirrored her stance.

“I am not a pack witch, you, space cadet…”

“Space cadet? Is that the best you’ve got?”

“Noooo.”

“Well, I’m waiting,” Sandy tossed back and noted the small, smirk of a smile that pulled on Bree’s lips.

“Funny, me too.”

“And what are you waiting for?”

“For your mate to heal,” Bree said with a certain amount of satisfaction at the look of realisation on the other witch’s face.

Sandy gasped when she realised her own stupidity. “You … witch!”

“And then some,” Bree offered back with a sweet tone and an even sweeter smile.

“Selling out one of your own,” Sandy bit out, as she flicked a look at the shifter on the ground as he stirred and groaned.

“Paying back a debt,” Bree shrugged.

“And selling out one of your own.”

“Oh, please, don’t make it sound like witches of the world unite, it’s not, this is real life, and I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Sandy bit out in disbelief.

“Doesn’t make it wrong either.”

“I have a good mind to…” Sandy stopped talking, mainly because she was speechless.

It was one thing to witness a man turn into a wolf right in front of your eyes – it was another thing entirely when that beautiful and majestic beast had fur that was all the colours of a rainbow.

“Oh – my – Goddess!” she bit out.