~

 

 

“I truly have no damn clue,” Eliza said and topped it off with a small sigh and a little shake of her head.

“You really want me as a mate?” Drake asked, his voice was dripping with disbelief.

“Not right now, I don’t,” she said, her voice cracking slightly as disbelief hit her just as hard.

“My mate?”

“Deeeerrrr,” she offered back.

“It’s just…” Drake didn’t know what it was. Unbelievable wasn’t a strong enough word.

“Did I run?” she asked.

“Yeeesss,” he offered back slowly, and she tossed up a hand and shook her head.

“No, like… really run?” Eliza said.

“You were too drunk and wearing high heels in the snow…”

“Okay, that’s all true.” She dismissed that with another wave of her hand in front of his face that almost caught his nose. “But … oh! Didn’t I say I didn’t know why I was running?”

“Yes, you did…”

“See…”

“But you were drunk…”

“Boy, do you have a problem with alcohol?”

“I wouldn’t say that it was me that had the problem,” Drake snorted a chuckle.

“Well, if my alcohol intake is such a problem to you, then you wouldn’t want me as your mate, would you?” Eliza went to pull away, but Drake was about to let her go.

“Now, let’s not be rash,” Drake offered back.

“Oh, rash, is it?” Eliza snorted her contempt for him.

“You said you voted to stay…”

“I changed my mind.” She looked anywhere but at him.

“You can’t change your mind,” he offered back with a frown.

“Oh, can’t I?” She lifted her chin in defiance. “A girl can always change her mind.”

“You’re not a girl.”

“Seriously? Were you born with your bloody paw in your mouth?” Eliza hissed up at him.

“I’d say two paws,” Arthur said as he strolled by the doorway and snorted a chuckle at the beta.

“Two paws in his big mouth and a stick up his butt; if his irrational dislike of alcohol is anything to go by.”

Drake brought his lips down on hers. He was digging himself into a hole that he didn’t think he’d be able to get out of. He needed a little time; a moment’s thought to find some clarity.

Kissing her seemed the only option to get that moment of clarity. Of course, it didn’t work.

Not only did his beast rise up within him at the prospect of claiming their mate — but, his little brain took over from his big brain, and there was little chance of clarity after that.

 

~

~

~

 

“Oh, for the love of the Goddess, will you just put me down?” Nancy demanded. She’d given up trying to push upward from his back; it was too much like exercise for her liking. He seemed to be taking his own sweet time in getting wherever they were going. “Or are you still trying to work out what it is?”

“I don’t appreciate your tone of voice,” Jeff tossed back over his shoulder.

He still didn’t know what it was — so he was biding his time and deflecting her question as best he could.

“I don’t appreciate being carried like a shoulder bag,” she snapped back in annoyance.

“Pretty damn heavy to be a shoulder bag,” he muttered as he strolled through the doorway into his bedroom.

Jeff heard the hard breath that she pulled in, he felt her weight shift on his shoulder, and then his whole body was being yanked backward. He lost his footing on the floor and scrambled to stay upright.

Nancy had something if a death grip going on with the door frame, and was holding on with everything that she had. She could feel the hard pull on her body as he’d carried on walking, but above all else, she was determined to hold on.

The loud squeal that came from his mate’s lips almost deafened him as he fell backward to the floor. He landed flat on his back, and his mate slammed down on top of him a heartbeat later.

Jeff grumbled a growl of annoyance, only made worse by the fact that her pointy little elbow slammed down between his ribs as she tried to scamper up. He wasn’t having any of that — she’d bought this on herself — and he locked on around her body and kept her in place.

Nancy flicked her head back on her neck and glared at her mate. There were a few choice words that she grumbled in the back of her throat as she braced her hands, one against the floor and one against his chest, and tried to push up.

The trouble was that it wasn’t working for her.

“So, as good ideas go — that really wasn’t one of them, was it?” Jeff growled.

“It put you on your backside, didn’t it?” Nancy grumbled back.

He was right, it had been a bad idea because now her body was pressed against his, and she could feel those damn tingles again. Not to mention other things, like his hard muscles, his hard…

There was a small element of satisfaction in knocking him on his butt, but that wouldn’t last long if she couldn’t make her escape. But, on the plus side, now that they were alone, she had him right where she wanted him, and she could unleash her dastardly plan to kill him if she needed to.

 

~

~

~

 

Ashley had come to the sudden realization that she’d been put in his bedroom as if she was a naughty child. Up to that point she’d been enjoying the solitude, and nosing around his possessions, as you did when left unattended, but when realization had hit her; it hit her like a slap around the back of her head.

“Un-bloody-believable!” she muttered as she headed to the door and yanked it open, seething inside.

There he stood; leaning one shoulder against the door frame. His arms were folded over his broad muscled chest, his chin was tipped down, and he looked at her from beneath his dark brows.

Damn, but he looked as sexy as hell, even with, or maybe because, he had a teasing smile on his lips and laughter in his eyes.

“It took you longer than I thought…”

“To realize you are a jerk?” She snapped back.

“But, I guess nosing around my stuff was distracting for you,” his voice was just as teasing as his smile.

Ashley felt the ping of guilt shoot through her. Her cheeks might have glowed bright red at being busted by him, but she set her stance, narrowed her eyes, and rallied her cause.

“I was not nosing — I was looking for something to hit you with,” she offered back, lying through her damn teeth, and hoping that he didn’t pick up on it.

“Your magic isn’t enough?” He teased once more.

Ashley knew that she had been busted and should just give up, but it was that smile, the laughter in his eyes, and the fact that he’d put her in that room in the first place that made her not want to give an inch.

Let alone admit that she was as nosy as all hell.

“You mean … this magic?”

“Don’t…” By the time that he got the first word out; she’d snapped her fingers, and he was feeling the sting.

He grumbled a groan against the fleeting pain, pushed away from the door frame, and dropped his arms to his sides. His sexy dark eyes narrowed on her.

“I think we need to set some boundaries…”

“Oh, do you?” Now she had laughter in her eyes, and it felt pretty good to turn the tables on him.

“Some rules…”

“Witches don’t play by the rules.”

“About your magic…”

“Isn’t it a wonderful thing?” She knew she sounded like she was in the cast of the sound of music, but she didn’t care.

She wasn’t about to let go of the upper hand now.

“And how, and when you can use it.” He finally got to the end of the sentence, even with all of her interruptions, but now his eyebrows were pinched into a frown, his eyes were jet black, and he was staring back into her smiling eyes.

“Thank you,” Ashley said as she motioned for him to move out of the way. He sidestepped to let her pass and then followed her down the hallway like a stray. “But, I think I know how to use my magic, and I definitely know when to use my magic.”

“That’s not…”

“Oh look,” Ashley noted his sisters at the bottom of the staircase. “Wait up ladies!”

“We haven’t finished our discussion…” The alpha stepped out in front of her.

“I have.” She shrugged happily.

Kiel opened his mouth to speak, but surprise registered on his face instead, and a moment later — without warning — the alpha was somersaulting down the stairs, head over toes.

He landed flat on his face on the floor with the sound of his sisters giggling ringing in his ears. It would have been an understatement to say that he was miffed.

“She got you there!” Jackie chuckled.

“One out of ten for both form and grace,” Amy chuckled.

“There was just no style…” Jackie shrugged.

“No structure…” Amy added.

“Just…” Jackie paused for thought.

“Like he’d just thrown himself into it?” Amy offered.

“Exactly.”

“Should have practiced more to impress.”

The alpha slapped his palms down on the wooden flooring and pushed up, stretching to his full height, he twisted his head on his neck and stared up at his mate with a hard glare.

“Believe it or not, that — wasn’t — me,” Ashley said as she eyed the area for signs of trouble.