~

 

“Are you going to help me put up the Christmas tree?” The alpha asked as he walked into the living room and found his mate standing by the window staring out.

“Oh, sure, call me when hell freezes over, and I’ll be right on it.”

Ashley didn’t turn to look at him, and he thought that was probably a bad sign.

“Look outside the window, I think it just did,” Arthur offered from a comfortable chair by the fireplace.

“Why do you keep sniffing around my mate?” Kiel asked as he turned toward the vampire and offered him a dark glare.

“Oh, let me see — I guess, I’m just a glutton for punishment,” Arthur tossed back.

“If you like punishment that much then go and grab me something wooden and pointy,” Ashley tossed back over her shoulder.

“Did you realize that your mate was psychotic when you brought her here?” Arthur asked the alpha and got a growl of warning in reply.

“You can leave,” the alpha growled at his friend.

“Love too,” Ashley announced, turning back toward them, and she started off across the room.

“Not you,” the alpha growled.

“You can’t take it back now,” Ashley said with a small shrug, but her feet were still heading to the door no matter what he said.

The alpha closed his eyes briefly. Then he took a moment to roll his head on his neck, and he was still fast enough to block the doorway before she got there.

Ashley pulled up short; she had no choice; it was either that or run into the man mountain that was doing a really good job of impersonating a brick wall.

“Don’t tell me, I have to get by you first,” Ashley said, but it was the look in her eye that worried the alpha the most. She looked like she was relishing that thought.

“Help me put the tree up,” Kiel demanded.

“And then I can leave?” She said with glee.

“I’m not even going to grace that with an answer,” he growled.

“Spoilsport,” Ashley tossed back.

She turned on her heels and headed back over to the window.

“That’s the trouble with snow,” the vampire offered. “You have to keep your eye on it every moment, so that doesn’t do something stupid.”

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” The alpha demanded.

“Me?” Arthur shot back.

“You.”

“Why — no,” he said with a devilish grin that spread from ear to ear.

“Out,” Kiel growled.

“Putting the vampire out in the snow like an alleycat,” Ashley considered that image for a moment. “I can get behind that one.”

“He’s not putting me out of the cabin, just the room. He wants a little alone time with his mate,” Arthur said as he pushed up from the chair and started toward the door. The alpha sidestepped to let him pass.

Ashley muttered something under her breath that neither man could hear no matter how sensitive their hearing might be. Both men could imagine what it was.

“Good luck with that.” Arthur chuckled as he headed down the hallway.

“Tree, please,” Kiel asked nicely, and Ashley would have kicked out at something if she could.

The man had the absolute nerve to ask nicely. What damn alpha did that?

What was she going to say? I don’t want to.

Damn, but he’d got her there alright – Mr. Shifty shifting up a gear to Mr. Nice.

“Fine,” she grumbled, thinking that it was okay to help him as long as she did it begrudgingly.

But she wasn’t falling for his sexy charm and nice eyes – or his smoking hot body – no sir, no way. She was still biding her time until she could escape his evil clutches.

Christmas tree in a shifter house with witches – Pah!

 

~

~

~

 

Jeff hated to think that he might just have got carried away, but he might have just got carried away. That thought dawned on him the moment that the pain shot through his foot and up his leg.

One moment; he was kissing his mate with abandon, and she was kissing him back — and the next moment, he was hopping on the spot, gripping his toes in his closed fist, and trying to make the pain go away.

His mate — the she-demon — took one step back, crossed her arms, and challenged him with just a look. Normally, he liked a challenge, and if it was his brother that had done something like that — not that he would have been kissing his brother — then his fist would already have been flying toward its intended target.

But it wasn’t his brother, it was his mate, and there wasn’t a damn thing that he could do about it.

“She-Demon,” he growled.

“No, just a regular witch, and I’m telling you to keep your grubby little paws to yourself,” she hissed back.

“This is telling me?” He growled.

“Well, considering you act like a five-year-old, I thought I might just draw you a picture.”

“I think I got the message,” Jeff growled.

“Good. Then the lesson does not have to be repeated,” Nancy said before she turned on her heels and stalked to the door.

“I’m a catch!” Jeff snapped.

“If I was fishing — which I wasn’t — I’d throw you back over the side,” Nancy said just before she disappeared out the room and down the hallway.

Jeff grumbled a growl. He’d had the upper hand with her for all of a few minutes.

The woman was insane. But, boy could she kiss?

“You’ll be mine this Christmas. Just you wait and see,” he grumbled. It was his mission in life, and nothing else mattered.

Woo his stubborn, devious, mischievous, evil, she-demon of a mate.

 

~

~

~

 

“Oh, look, the Christmas tree is up,” Eliza said as she ground to a sudden halt just outside the living room door to get a better look, and Drake had to hit the brakes rather than steamroller over the top of her.

“Oh — good,” Drake wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that. He followed his mate’s gaze and looked at the large pine with the haphazard, still dark fairy lights that his brother and mate had thrown at it.

“Shouldn’t those lights go around in circles?” Eliza asked and drew hard stares from the mates at the Christmas tree.

“You think you can do better?” Ashley demanded.

She’d tried to place those lights nicely, but the tree had grasped them, tried to play a game of pull and tug with her, and she’d given up the ghost and just thrown them at the branches after that. It was safer for her sanity that way.

“Well, I don’t think I can do much worse,” Eliza chuckled.

“Have at it then,” Ashley motioned to the tree as if it was a prime exhibit.

“I’ll give it a shot,” Eliza said as she clapped her hands together with glee.

She did like a challenge, and that big tree looked like a challenge to her.

“We’re decorating the tree now?” Drake asked as his mate shot off into the room and left him standing alone in the hallway.

“And I need a drink,” Ashley sighed.

“Oh, can I get one of those?” Eliza beamed the alpha a cheeky grin.

“Sure,” Kiel shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’m not sure why your mate didn’t get you one already?”

“Don’t ask,” Drake grumbled, but as the alpha drew alongside him, Drake leaned in and whispered. “Did you know that witches can turn water into wine?”

Kiel turned to look at his brother, but only because he couldn’t believe what the man was asking him. He needed to make sure that Drake wasn’t just pulling his chain.

“Have you been drinking?” The alpha asked.

“No, and that’s a sore point,” Drake grumbled.

“Well, I think you might need to start,” Kiel said as he shook his head in dismay.

“I think you’re right,” Drake said as he eyed his mate at the Christmas tree. She was bubbling with excitement as she yanked the fairy lights from the branches, and started to rearrange them.

Witches were — strange.