CHAPTER SIX

 

 

~

 

“Relax, he has a witch mate,” Bree said.

“So, he’s a good guy?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. He’s a shifter and ego-driven – thinks he’s god or something – banishes people for no good reason…”

“And by people you mean…?”

“Me.” Bree snorted her contempt for him, and then she spotted Joel as he climbed out of the truck. “Oh look who got the use of his limbs back after you…”

“I remember,” Emily said and grimaced again.

“Nice shot,” Bree grinned.

“He tried to sniff me…”

“They do that,” Bree said, and then remembered her own encounter with the pack sniffing at her. “Wait until they all do it at once. It’s – wrong.”

“Don’t make me come in there,” Jai called.

“Oh, shut your yaps,” Bree called back. “You know you can’t.”

“Fine, then bring me the witch,” Jai called.

“Not in this life – how about you wait for the next?” Bree said, and then she caught sight of Martha, and her eyebrows shot up towards her hairline. “Oh, interesting development.”

“Who’s she?”

“Witch friend,” Bree said, putting her glass down and she started for the front door.

“Don’t!” Emily bit out.

“Relax, open or closed – there’s still the threshold,” Bree reminded her.

When Bree pulled open the front – there was the vampire. She sighed. “Go plaster yourself back against the window like a bat on a windscreen,” Bree said on a frown.

“I want that witch,” Jai informed her.

“Does this look like a takeaway? Go find lunch elsewhere. Look, there’s a nice juicy alpha Scooby snack behind you,” Bree berated him.

“That’s not…”

“Jai?” Mason’s deep tone drifted toward Bree, and she felt her annoyance level rise, but she couldn’t see anything because the vampire had replaced her front door with his body. Oh, but she hated being short.

“Take Mr. Blood-lust home, would you? He’s overstayed his welcome since the moment he drove up,” Bree grumbled. If it was a choice between the shifter and the vampire, well, Mason probably didn’t have his fangs down.

Jai bit down on his annoyance. It was true, there was something of a lust running through his veins like a fever, but he was getting a handle on it. “Just hand her over, and I’ll go.”

“How about no?” Bree shot back.

“What did she do?” Mason asked, and Jai grimaced. Now wasn’t the time to share – he just wanted the witch.

“Don’t make me start breaking things…” Jai warned her and Bree scowled.

“Throwing your toys out the crib won’t work with me. You break something, and I’ll break you,” Bree warned him.

“What’s going on here, vampire?” Martha demanded, and Jai rolled his eyes.

“Now you want to play nice?” he tossed back over his shoulder at the elder.

“Who said anything about playing nice?” Martha grumbled back.  “I hauled my cookies out here to help the witches in a pickup truck full of shifters,” Martha informed him. “I don’t know what these guys eat, but they fart like they’re shucking peas.”

Mason opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. What could he say? The elder witch was a law unto herself.

Bree pressed up onto her tiptoes and peered over Jai shoulder. She sniggered at the look on the alpha’s face; she wasn’t sure if he wanted to deny Martha’s words, or if he was holding another fart in.

“Probably Maxi’s cooking,” Bree chuckled.

“Give me the witch, and I’ll be out of your hair,” Jai said as he leaned in and kept his voice low.

“Go away,” Bree whispered back.

“That’s not helpful,” Jai bit out with annoyance.

“Tough, I’m a witch, I’m supposed to be meddlesome and annoying,” Bree tossed back.

“Congratulations, achievement accomplished,” Jai bit back.

“Jai,” Mason growled. “I was informed you had a bloodlust.”

“I do now,” Jai narrowed his eyes on Bree with a look that said he could do her harm.

“Sure, that fills me with the warm and fuzzy feeling and makes me want to hand a brethren over to you,” Bree bit back.

“You’re being irrational,” Jai tossed back.

“I’m a witch; we do that, so sue me…”

“How about I kill you?”

“Try it, psycho, and I’ll be handing you back your manhood before I turn you into a beacon.”

Jai rumbled a groan around in the back of his throat. “Witches.”

Mason grunted in agreement, but when Martha offered him a death glare; he scowled back at her. “Oh, say it ain’t so,” he dared her.

“Fart master,” Martha grumbled. Then she started toward the vampire and Mason snapped a hand around her upper arm and yanked her back. “Paws off, alpha, before you find out what an elder is capable of doing to you.”

“I can imagine…”

“Trust me, you have no idea,” Martha warned him, and from the look in her eye, the alpha would probably agree with that.

He grunted again and nodded towards the vampire. “We don’t know if Jai is dangerous…”

“Of course he’s bloody well dangerous, he’s a vampire,” Martha bit back, yanking at her arm until the alpha released his hold on her.

“Then a careful approach is…”

“Too slow. I don’t have much of a life left to live, but I’d like to get back to it,” Martha grumbled, and the alpha took a moment to consider slamming his forehead into the nearest brick wall – it might have been preferable to the special torture that he had to endure around some witches in his life.

He really was regretting picking the elder up on his way to Bree’s house, and Bree hadn’t even started on him yet. That he couldn’t wait for – a double whammy.

“What do you want us to do, alpha?” Jon asked, and Mason sighed.

“Dig a really big hole,” he growled.

“A – hole?” Joel asked.

“So I can bury my damn self in it,” Mason growled.

“Why don’t you just shake your wolf free?” Martha said. “You’d get it dug in no time.”

“I’m not even going to answer that,” Mason growled.

“Yeah, no come back line or just the fear of being zapped?” Martha chuckled.