~

 

“I can’t…” Agatha started to protest on the shake of her head.

“Now, see. I know that word has been added to the dictionary – which is somewhat annoying to say the least, and a plague on their houses for doing it, but I’m old school…” Connor said with a shrug off his broad shoulders.

“Positively ancient…” Vicky said with a lot of relish in her tone…

“Yes, and as such. There is no such word as can’t.” Connor shot his mate a glare…

“Stop pouting and sulking about the stupid dictionary – if it was up to you then we’d probably all still be saying words like thy and ye and fiddly sticks,” Vicky berated him.

“Not quite, but close, and for the record, although I can’t swear to it, I’ve never said fiddly sticks.” Connor grinned.

“I should leave…” Agatha started to turn away, but Connor’s fingers circled around her wrist before she’d even got half way.

“You need to heal…” He bit out.

“I will heal…” Agatha tried to pull her arm free but the vampire had no intention of letting her go.

“No, see. I have a problem that you need to help me with,” Connor said and watched the witch scowl hard.

“I don’t …”

“My mate is not going to take kindly to me letting you go, especially all bloodied and bruised…” Connor offered down to her.

“That’s not…”

“So, here’s the plan. You take my blood. You come back to the castle…”

“Castle?”

“Castle, with us, and once you’ve thought about where you want to be then you can leave…” she opened her mouth to protest once more. “Or I can do what vampires do and compel you to do all of the above … and maybe make you cluck like a chicken or bark like a dog…”

“Connor…” Vicky warned.

“Or maybe not…” he offered with a grin.

“What about her?” Agatha nodded towards Lily and the witch frowned in return.

“What about me?”

“You don’t want me around here…” Agatha shook her head.

“You don’t know me, so don’t speak for me…”

“I led Zane here to you…” Agatha said.

She wanted there to be no misunderstanding about her role in Zane’s hunt for the witch.

“I know,” Lily said with a shrug off her shoulders. “Then you did the right thing.”

“I might ...” Jacob growled his annoyance. He wasn’t sure that he liked the idea of the witch staying around.

“Not if you are to stand any chance at wooing your mate, you don’t…” Vicky warned him, and the man’s head snapped around on his neck as he scowled at the four witches at the door – each one scowling back at him.

“Witches stick together…” Isobel offered.

Jacob bit down on his annoyance, and rolled his broad shoulders as he prepared to eat crow.

“Fine…” he grumbled.

“There,” Connor said as he lifted his arm and his fangs elongated. “Settled, now drink up like a good little witch and don’t make me get all – look into my eyes – at you.”

 

~

~

~

 

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” Lily muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Vicky as the women stood side by side watching the men trying to do a makeshift job of fixing the alpha’s front door.

“What’d I do?” Vicky asked, pulling her head back on her neck and scowling back at the woman.

“If you stand any chance of wooing your mate?” Lily shot back, and Vicky’s lips stretched outwards until there was a big beaming smile on the woman’s face.

“Oh that…”

“Yes, that,” Lily shot back.

“Well, we both know that it was a foregone conclusion…” Vicky said with a small shrug off her shoulders.

“Do we now?” Lily said, folding her arms, and shooting her a curious look…

“Say it ain’t so…” Vicky offered back, and Lily opened her mouth to speak, but she didn’t get far. “And I will call BS to your face.”

Vicky mimicked the witch and folded her arms. She gave her the kind of knowing look that couldn’t be denied, and even if Lily really wanted to give it her best shot, as she stood there looking like she’d just sucked a lemon … she knew that there was little use in protesting.

“Fine…” Lily bit out, turning her eyes back to the men as they went about banging and hammering…

Jacob’s eyes locked onto hers and held her gaze. She felt the rush of excitement and adrenaline go through her …

“Dang it!” she grumbled to the sound of Vicky’s not-so-subtle chuckle that greeted her ears…

“Busted,” Vicky’s sing-song voice annoyed her. “Gotta watch those big wolf ears…” she leaned in and whispered…

“Thanks for the set up. Did I mention that I don’t like you much?” Lily bit out.

“She grows on you,” Chelsea said as she walked over to stand on the other side of her friend, with a quick look over at Vicky, and a smile on amusement on her lips at the woman’s predicament to boot.

“I very much doubt that,” Lily bit out, pouting.

The grin that stretched Jacob’s lips was mesmerising. No matter how hard Lily tried to wrench her gaze away – give him a scornful glare or a warning in the form of the evil eye – all of which she could normally perform without even having to think about it – she just couldn’t seem to manage to do much of anything … but stare.

That didn’t bode well for her stated denial that she had little intention of mating with the man.

She had a feeling that if she couldn’t even take her eyes off of him – then what hope was there that she was going to keep her damn panties in place?

The man was certainly eye candy, and that newfound smile of his seemed to have come from nowhere, and yet it was so drop dead gorgeous that she didn’t seem to be able to drag her eyes away.

Then there was the fact that she liked a man who was good with his hands, and he wielded a hammer like a pro. All of those muscles were working beneath his skin and she felt like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Now that she had no reason to keep running.

Now that she wasn’t in fear for her life or of anyone else getting hurt … what barriers, what walls of denial could she put up between her and her fated mate?