~
Dexter’s wolf came racing out of the darkness towards them. He’d spotted the inaction immediately and shifted back to his human form the moment that he stopped…
“Nothing?” He growled.
“We have an advantage. We know about his witch.” Connor offered back…
“You’re going after the witch?” Tyler asked as he shook off his bear…
“Take out the witch and he can’t hide.” Connor said, turning on his heels and starting back towards the cabin…
“My … door!” Dexter growled at the sight of the battered and splintered opening.
“Kind of lucky there’s no snow on the ground…” Tyler offered and Dexter gave the man a curious look.
“I have no damn door and that’s your tea and sympathy pitch?”
“No, just saying…” he shrugged.
“It’s not his fault…” Connor offered back over his shoulder. “He is … a bear.”
“Are you saying I’m dumb or something…?” Tyler growled back.
“I didn’t say that…” Connor shrugged back and Tyler kept walking away from him. “I insinuated it though.”
Tyler pulled up short and growled as he shot a look back over his shoulder at the man.
There really were times when he wanted to shake his bear loose and let it have at the vampire just for the poops and giggles of it.
That moment was one of those times.
~
~
~
“If you don’t get your damn hands off me, so help me I will…”
Lily wasn’t best placed too actually do much of anything other than to but zap her mate. Hanging head first down his back, over one large shoulder, she had a great view of the man’s backside, and she knew that if she zapped him then she could have a great view of the flooring … right up close and personal as she face planted the carpet…
The only thing that she had managed to do was to throw out a ward and make all of the doors that still remained on their hinges inside the cabin sticky like glue.
The man was having a hard time trying to get into the bathroom that had been the nearest door to him when Chelsea had tossed out her good idea about getting Lily to a safe place…
Nobody would ever know just how much personal strength it had taken for him not to allow the shift and let his wolf burst from inside of his body when that crazy bear had knocked down the front door to the cabin and appeared inside.
He’d used his human body to protect his mate, turning her in place, and putting her behind his back, but until he’d heard Connor’s voice at the front of the house – he hadn’t stopped trying to get his mate to a safe room…
Even once his mind was certain that the bear wasn’t around anymore – his irrational need to get as many barriers between his mate and danger as he could was still foremost in his mind…
“Put me the hell down, Jacob…” Lily bit out.
She leveraged her hands against his back and pushed her upper body up so that she could, at least, see something more of what was happening than just the man’s backside…
“Let her down, Jacob,” Chelsea said, giving the man a curious look as she stalked back in through the opening with Connor following on close behind her.
Jacob knew that he should put the woman down, she was kicking up a fuss, and yet, he really didn’t want to let her go.
“She needs to be safe…” he bit out.
“Yes, she could be attacked by invisible munchkins,” Connor rolled his eyes at the man, and Jacob felt a rush of embarrassment at his irrational behaviour.
He wasn’t sorry though. He would do whatever it took to protect Lily and keep her safely out of harm’s way.
But with everyone looking at him like he was the village idiot. He had to admit to himself that maybe now wasn’t that time.
“Fine…” he bit out, slowly lowering her down his body.
That might not have been the best idea. As she slide down his body, pressed as closely to him as two people could get without mating, her hands found his shoulders for stability, and he met her angry eyes…
“I should zap you,” Lily bit out, anger flashing in her eyes, but he liked her all fired up like that…
“He’s just overly protective, cut him a…” Chelsea offered, but she was zapped into silence by her friend as Lily dragged her eyes away from her mate and turned them on her friend…
“You…!” Lily said, exasperated at her friend’s actions.
“What’d I do?” Chelsea looked more than confused at getting zapped and a little miffed to boot.
“It was your damn idea…” Lily said, her tone was berating and full of disbelief. “You sent the man caveman style on my backside, hanging upside down like an idiot…”
“Well, excuse me, but that crazy bear was here to rip you limb from limb, no?” she demanded as she placed her hands on her hips and refrained from getting into a zapping contest with the witch.
Jacob growled long and hard at the image that Chelsea had drawn within his mind of Lily’s fate…
“Mate … safe…” Connor said slowly towards the shifter and Jacob turned that growl on him.
“Connor…” Vicky’s tone was berating.
“What? I did nothing…” Connor said, holding up his hands at his chest in innocent surrender to the facts.
“Don’t bait the wolf…” Vicky tossed back.
“Can we do that voodoo that you do – so well…?” Connor teased, and Vicky sighed.
“I might just join in with the zapping and bitching if you keep on annoying me,” she berated him.
“Fine. Not another word…” Connor sighed. Then he lifted his hand and inspected his fingernails, but it was too much for him. “I could sing it…”
“Please don’t. A wild animal in a mangle sounds more melodic than you when you sing…” Vicky sighed.
“Which is ironic – considering I’m a vampire…” he offered with something approaching glee.
“Oh … the irony.” Vicky bit out, dryly.
“Fine.” Connor grumbled. Turning to face the opening of the doorway. “But can we at least get the cauldron on and bubbling away…?” he tossed back over his shoulder, and flinched when Vicky zapped him…
“Are you ever going to even try to be … normal?” Dexter growled at the vampire. His voice was still full of his beast…
“Could everyone not wearing clothes, get dressed?” Lily bit out.
“You’d better get used to a little naked…” Tyler chuckled.
“Stop flashing my mate.” Jacob growled back.
“Why, worried you won’t live up to this…?” Tyler grinned, and Chelsea zapped him. “Tell me why?” He growled … turning his head to stare at his mate…
“Just … because,” Chelsea smiled.
“Because Lily zapped you and you wanted to zap someone…” Tyler nodded in knowing.
“Yes.”
“Job done,” Connor offered. “Let’s move on to finding that witch and ending her.”
“Wait…” Vicky frowned hard. “Why ending her?”
“Because…” Connor looked a little sheepish under his mate’s scrutiny.
“Because she’s a witch that’s annoying you?” Vicky offered back.
“Right!” Connor pointed his finger at her, nodding in agreement.
“Wrong…” Vicky snapped back.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Connor sighed inwardly. “Bad vampire.” He mockingly berated himself.
“We don’t kill witches unless…?” Vicky said…
“We really want to?” Connor offered back and she zapped him again. “Unless they’re mates?” he tried again and got another zap for his trouble. “Fine – unless I have to.” He scowled. “You’re turning into a grouch.”
Vicky zapped him once more, but that one he definitely knew was coming because she gave him her very best death glare to go with it.
~
~
~
“They’ll come for me…” Agatha breathed out.
She’d been the witch to Zane’s clan since she was sixteen. The alpha was a friend – or he had been before that night when he’d lost his mate to that other witch’s magic.
Now she didn’t recognise the man or his bear. The beast was crazy – the man too, but he was still her alpha.
He’d taken her in, given her a home, and she owed him her loyalty.
Even if she didn’t believe what he was doing was right.
Even if she didn’t believe that the witch’s sister should pay for her crimes…
Zane didn’t turn to look at the woman. She was a means to an end and that end would be finding and killing the one who had killed his mate.
No matter who died in the pursuit of that justice.
Death was an ends to a means that he would utilise where necessary, and he found it very necessary.
“You’d better make sure that they don’t find you. I need you now.” Zane bit out – the bile and hatred for everyone and everything sat easily on his tongue.
He’d kill the whole pack of them to get that witch if he had to, and by the looks of things – he’d have to do just that.
He liked the hunt.
He liked the kill, and the only reason that he’d left that wolf barely alive was to distract the pack from his true purpose.
It hadn’t worked that time, but he still had more cards up his sleeve and he had a need to taste that witch’s blood on his tongue and not just on his claws…
It couldn’t come soon enough.