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Hank felt his wolf rise to the challenge before them. A mate, and at his age!
He knew that Lark had jumped in with both feet, and that was good for him, but could he really do the same?
Hank knew his limitations in life, and one of them was sole ownership of the remote control. He liked that.
Sharing was caring, and he’d have no choice but to care for his mate … and … share…
Watching female movies…
Watching my cursing in my own cabin…
Not farting at the dinner table!
Not farting anywhere where she was, and she’d be everywhere, because she’s my mate…
Hell, it would be hell!
His wolf didn’t see it that way. The beast tried to push forwards, make its own claim on their mate because the man was being slow about it, but he slammed that cage well and truly shut.
Mine … The beast growled…
Not necessarily … Hank offered back.
You’d have to be nice too wolf.
No more flopping out on the sofa when you felt like it – not unless you wanted her to treat you like the family pet…
Rub behind your ears…
His wolf grumbled and growled, and he knew how much his beast would hate that. That was the whole point – taint the beast’s way of thinking and let himself off the hook.
Mine…
His wolf growled a warning within him … and he cursed the beast’s tunnel vision.
Yes, we’ve waited a long time for a mate, but, come on … a witch … a feisty, slightly grumpy one to boot?
Mine… The beast was adamant…
“Oh, damn it to hell!” Hank growled out.
Both Angela and Lark gave him a double take, and then stared at him as if he had a nut loose…
“You feeling alright there, sparkie?” Lark chuckled…
“Not … exactly…” Hank growled back as he dropped his chin towards his broad chest and looked anywhere but at Lark for fear that the man would clock on to what ailed him.
He certainly didn’t need to hear it from anyone else’s lips when he couldn’t bring himself to say it…
Mine…
“Had a little peeing accident?” Angela teased, and the man rolled his jaw and then his shoulders.
“That would be just peachy … but no.” Hank grumbled as he eyed the woman still walking away from them…
“Oh my Goddess!” Angela exclaimed; practically jumping on the spot as her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open… “Noooo?”
Hank’s eyes snapped towards Angela, and he grumbled a growl of annoyance. Lark growled a warning back at him…
“Watch who you’re growling at, old timer,” Lark sneered.
“I’m not growling at her…” Hank bit out, tossing up a hand in frustration at the situation that he’d found himself in.
Hell, I can’t pretend that I didn’t take the woman’s scent and found my soul mate on the end of it.
Can I?
Noooo.
That would be bad…
That would be like rogue wolf crazy…
Maybe, maybe not at my age.
I’ve lived a long, good life … maybe death isn’t so bad…
I can’t believe I’m contemplating death over a mate …
What the heck is wrong with me?
I’ve waited all these years for my mate to come along…
Now she has … now, when I’m set in my darn ways – there she is…
A feisty elder witch with an attitude problem and some real bad manners on her.
Wouldn’t you know it!
His wolf grumbled, growled, and clawed within him to be set free so that he could chase after their mate and make her theirs…
Mine… His beast growled once more…
I’m not deaf, nor am I senile …
I’m … thinking!
“What are you waiting for?” Angela said to the man and he shot her a dark glare on a sideways look…
“Hell to freeze over…” Hank growled back.
“What’s going on?” Lark grumbled, but when Angela turned to look at him, and she gave him one of her curious smiles.
“Think about it,” she teased, and it took him a moment, but finally he cottoned…
“O … ooo-ooo!” He spluttered a chuckle at the man’s expense.
“I find nothing funny in it,” Hank offered back deadpan, and with a dark glare that only made Lark chuckle harder.
“If I had a mirror then you could see funny!” Lark chuckled.
“This is my friend we’re talking about,” Angela reminded them, and Lark cleared his throat and pressed his lips together to stop the laughter…
It didn’t work.
He couldn’t contain it, not when he was still looking at Hank chewing on an imaginary wasp and sucking the bitterest of lemons.
“It’s just so poetic…” Lark grinned.
“Poetic my ass.” Hank growled as he, somewhat reluctantly, set off after the retreating witch.
He didn’t much see that he had a choice in the matter. He knew his wolf, and that beast wasn’t about to settle within him until he’d at least stated his claim on their mate.
Mine… The beast growled…
Ah, shut up! Hank grumbled back.
~
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Fallon wanted to kick something, maybe even punch it – definitely zap it until whatever it was squealed, or squeaked, or made some damn noise that would make her feel better…
Instead she tried, and tried again to shift the long metal thingy that moved the tyre nut thingy on the wheel of her car, so that she could change the stupid tyre that the stupid witch had zapped, but, it was definitely all to no avail.
It just wouldn’t be moved.
To make matters worse, Fallon was the one who squealed as she put all of her weight behind pressing down on that metal rod, and she almost head-butted the side of the car when the rod slipped from the nut, and made a clanging sound as it hit the ground…
Fallon almost roared like a bear as she snatched it up, turned, and lobbed it through the air towards the woods … and right at the head of Mr Tall, Dark, and too damn sexy for his own good. Who, wouldn’t you know it, had great reflexes as he ducked and swooped to one side; letting the thingy go flying by…
“Oops.” She muttered, trying to sooth her last battered nerve as the man stopped in place and eyed her for a long moment with a mixture of annoyance and amusement as his steel blue eyes took her in…
“A flying tyre wrench, a woman who looks fit to kill, and a witch to boot … tell me, is it safe to continue, or should I just turn around and leave right now?” Jamie asked with a mixture of teasing good humour and a slightly berating tone to his gravelly voice.
“What can I say?” Fallon gave just a small shrug off her shoulders that he caught, but it was the slightly apologetic look on her face that let him know that his backside was safe … for now.
“That you won’t be picking up some other heavy inanimate object and throwing it at my head would be a good start – do you have any more tools on that side of the car, a crowbar maybe?”
Jamie watched her roll her eyes away from him, take a deep breath, and allow some of the tension within her shoulders to blow back out on that breath…
“Nope, it’s just me…”
“And your magic…” He offered back, testing the waters to see just how icy they were.
“And no unlock the wheel thingy, because I just threw it away…” She berated herself as she started around the back end of the car and headed in his direction.
The woman was a good height, five-five maybe. He liked that – it meant that he didn’t have to get too much of a crick in his neck looking down.
She had curves in all the right places, curves that would fit inside his hands rather nicely – he liked that too. A man could never get enough curves, and she a walk that would be very out of place on one of those model runways, because it was as sexy as hell, and she didn’t look as if she was going to fall over her own feet … but she still swung her curvy hips…
Yeah – he liked the look of this little witch a lot … and he could see himself spending a night in her company, doing things that consenting adults tended to do…
She also had that fiery temperament that witches had. Which meant that they weren’t into the not so cute, overly-cuddly, one date and she was writing your name in a heart with hers and wondering what to call the kids department … that was all good too.
But she also looked like she wanted to kill someone – so he knew to step easy with the woman and her magic, just in case that someone happened to be him.
“It landed just short of that tree over there. You’ve got a good arm.”
Jamie lifted his hand and pointed the way, and she veered away from him to retrieve the offending item that she’d need if she was ever going to make her escape from the Inn, and her grandmother.
“I might have put a little magic behind it – I can’t remember.” She admitted, and she couldn’t.
Her mind was anywhere but on the things that it should have been on – like getting the heck out of there before anything really bad, or annoying, or deadly, or just plain awkward happened.
Hell, I’ve just almost taken out a beta wolf shifter with a tyre thingy – how much worse could it be?
O, I really shouldn’t have said that, should I?
Let’s just tempt fate, because … you’re a witch and that’s what we do … not, well, maybe a little, but not the damn point.
I need to leave, and I need to do it without killing anyone.
Fallon bent at the waist and wrapped her fingers around the cold metal. The sound of a deep, somewhat hungry growl reached her ears, and she shot a sideways look of disbelief at the shifter.
Now she really did want to zap someone, and that someone was probably him.