CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

 

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“A steamroller,” Kelly said, just before she erupted with laughter at the thought of it.

The deep, gravelly chuckle that rolled from the alpha made her ears prick up to listen to that sexy sound once again. She might have been two glasses of Scotch better off, and Scotch made her giggly, but that sound still enticed her to listen hard.

Kelly had a feeling that nature designed it that way. His growl was just as sexy as his laughter. In fact, the more time that she spent in his company, the more the man was growing on her.

That was the mating pull. That was fate’s underhanded design to bring mates together. Stupid fate.

“I have the image of the vampire in my mind looking like Wiley Coyote with you sitting on top of a steamroller with a big smile on your lips,” Mason chuckled.

“Well, I could just peel him off the ground, as flat as a pancake, slap him up against the barn, and play pin the wooden tail on the vampire.” She liked that idea.

“Why not just shoot wooden arrows at him?” The alpha offered back. She lifted her glass and clinked it against his.

“I like the way you think,” she chuckled.

Mason liked the way the sun came out when she smiled. He liked the way her eyes crinkled at the corners a little when she chuckled harder. He loved her scent.

His beast rose up within him at that thought; it urged him to lean in, take her scent, and state his claim once more. Mason almost acted on impulse — but, she was finally letting her guard down, and that would be one sure fire way to have it slam back up again.

He knew it was the Scotch and not his newfound charm that was winning her over. He could live with that, for now.

What he couldn’t live with was the constant flow of certain members of his pack, and friends, that continued to walk by the window — with sneaky looks in — and distracting him. Every time his eyes flicked toward the window then so did her gaze.

“Would you like me to do something about that?” Kelly asked. She lifted her glass and motioned to the enforcer that was casually — not casually — strolling by.

“I was considering going outside and killing somebody, but I’m enjoying your company too much,” Mason said, and for a long moment he wondered if he’d said the wrong thing as her lips moved but not a sound came out.

Kelly wondered if she’d had one too many glasses of Scotch because his words sounded kind of sweet — for an alpha. Maybe it was the Scotch, or maybe he was telling her what he thought she wanted to hear, or maybe — just maybe — he wasn’t such a big bad wolf after all.

And maybe Hell would freeze over, and real faeries would dance live on TV while aliens landed looking for directions to another planet. Of course, that would mean that the alien spacecraft was being driven by females — because men never asked for directions.

“Feel free, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” Kelly said, thinking about the vampire that was at the window and blocking her escape route.

It was a conspiracy — everyone was conspiring to bring them together in one way or another — even fate.

“No, you’re not,” Mason said.

He sounded so damn sure of himself that she didn’t believe it for one moment that she would ever escape.

Escape. It wasn’t like she was a prisoner or anything. She guessed that if she really wanted to up and leave, then he wasn’t going to stop her.

If he tried, then she could always use her magic against him if she wanted to leave that badly. But she’d come back to the house of her own free will the last time — what did that say about her?

Yes, the alpha would let her leave, but that wouldn’t stop him from following her to the ends of the earth — of that she was sure.

Then there was the whole fate thing. She was a witch, and she believed that there were more things guiding her hand in every endeavor than just brain power. Life was mapped out, and it could be bent, but not broken.

Then there were the signs – oh, how she loved the signs that pointed the way and were strategically put in a person’s path to lead them on. Magic, luck, fate, and destiny – how could she deny any of it?

It would be as if she denied magic itself.

But, wasn’t he just a little too sure of himself? A girl had her pride.

 “Tell it to the hand,” she said and thrust her palm out towards him.

When the alpha snagged her hand in his, she felt the surge of tingles run over her skin, up her arms, and across her body, and she couldn’t help but shiver.

That felt good – too good – and he was still holding her hand … and then he was rumbling a growl that felt as if it reached deep inside of her and met with the shiver. Her body was inundated with sexy goodness – and they say chocolate was good for an endorphin rush.

Mason didn’t know what to do next. Well, he knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to pull her closer and kiss her to oblivion, but, he’d just got her into a good place where she wasn’t zapping, or running, and he didn’t want to take two steps forward and one back.

Hell, he wanted to go full steam ahead.

His wolf tested the waters, tested to see if his little brain was overriding his big brain yet, and the alpha rewarded him by slamming that steel cage door shut.

Mason had just started to lean towards her when he caught sight of a movement out of the corner of his eye, and she must have seen it as well because they both turned to find the vampire standing at the window with his nose practically pressed against the glass and a smirk on his face.

“That’s it!” Kelly bit out as she rushed to annoyance at being spied on by the loathsome bloodsucker, and she wrenched her hand from the alpha’s and pushed up to her feet. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“Now?” Mason sounded surprised, and she shot him a quick look that questioned his sanity.

“Why wait?” She put the glass down on the side and shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a ritual sacrifice for vampires or anything. It’s just generally a free for all. See one, bag him, move on.”

Mason’s mouth formed an O as he went to speak, but didn’t, and his eyebrows went up like two caterpillars were about to indulge in fisticuffs, and pinched together.

“Killed a lot of vampires … have you?” he asked and watched her slowly roll that question around in her mind.

“Well, no,” she frowned. “But, it’s never too late to bag your first, right?” She suddenly looked gleeful, and that worried him.

“Sure.” He shrugged one of those broad shoulders, and she noticed the way his muscles worked. She liked that a lot. 

“No time like the present.”

“That’s…” Mason tossed a look at the vampire and knew that Jai had heard every word because the man was standing there with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, his eyes were closed, and he had a hand around his own throat.

Oh, how Mason would love to wring the man’s neck – he’d been getting on so damn well with his mate, and now …

“Fine,” Mason growled. “Let’s kill the damn vampire!”

Jai’s eyes snapped open, and his tongue disappeared back in his mouth as he frowned at the alpha. For one long moment he looked for answers in the man’s eyes, and when he found them – he snapped his head back on his neck in surprise and went to take his first step away from the window.

Not fast enough to escape the hard clench of the witch’s magic that gripped his body and held him in place with one side of his face pressed against the glass.

“I’ll hold him, and you kill him!” Kelly urged her mate to action.