~

Ava was ready for him. She’d drawn her magic up front and center and she wasn’t afraid to use it. It wasn’t like there was anyone around that she needed to hide it from — and if a shifter falls in the woods and there is no one around to hear him go splat — she could just hide the body and keep going on her merry way.

Although, she did need to warn her friends that they were in shifter territory. They’d need to find another place to meet up.

“Don’t do anything that you will regret later,” Ray warned her as he stalked toward the witch.

He could see it in her eyes, she was getting ready to unleash her magic on him once more, and that wouldn’t do.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m going to regret this,” Ava offered back with a small, smug smile for him that spoke volumes.

“Now, this probably isn’t the best way to tell you this, and it might not be the right damn time, but I sniffed…”

“You did what?” Ava blinked twice.

“Well, when you hit me with that blast of magic…”

“Oh no, you don’t. Don’t you try to lay this at my door…” Ava drew her eyebrows down and glared at him from beneath them. “You did this — you own this — tell me that it doesn’t mean what I think you’re implying it means and that you’re just flapping your lips for the fun of it.” She demanded.

“Sweetheart, I’m a man of little words…”

“Good. Shut up then!” She hissed at him like a rattlesnake ready to strike out with her venom. He was used to that sound from the females in the pack, and it didn’t faze him one little bit.

Ray still hadn’t considered the consequences of his actions. His brothers weren’t going to be happy, a witch in the pack, but he didn’t care.

He’d found his mate, not that he’d been looking, and she was a witch. Rock and Cary would just have to live with it — he had too.

Mine…

“Can’t do that…” Ray informed her and watched as she shuffled her weight on her feet, narrowed her eyes at him, and considered her options. She didn’t have that many.

“Give it your best shot,” she bit out with annoyance.

A mate. He was about to say that one thing that she really didn’t want to hear.

Ava hated him. Why couldn’t he just want to kill her? Things would be so much easier. Kill the shifter — bury the body — hey ho, and on her way she’d go.

But, oh no, fate had to throw a spanner in the works. Stupid fate. Stupid shifter.

“Mine…” He growled, and his beast growled harder within him.

That statement of fact, that claim said out loud, and man and wolf were in perfect agreement. They had a mate to woo.

“Say what? Don’t say that!” Ava bit out as she tossed her hands up in frustration and annoyance that he’d gone and done it now.

Stupid man.

“Too late,” Ray said, and a slow to boil, wolfish grin spread across his face and lit his dark eyes with amusement.

“Too late for you, that’s who,” she snapped back. Ava knew that she still had the option to kill him and bury his body — who would know?

She would. Damn it.

 

 

~

~

 

“Well, you think you’d at least check out the area before making it the meeting place,” Lana’s tone was accusing as she eyeballed her friend with annoyance, and Frankie rallied in return.

“I was kind of in a rush, but don’t let a little death threat muddy the waters of your accusation,” Frankie grumbled back.

“But, shifter land?” Lana said, tossing up her hands in frustration and letting them drop back to her sides as if all hope was lost.

“Do you think we should say something?” Cary asked his brother as the alpha stood in silence watching the witches bicker.

“That would depend on how you liked your backside, chargrilled or nuked?” Rock folded his arms across his broad chest and shrugged. “I’m not getting involved until I have to do.”

“What does that look like to you?” Lana demanded as she hooked a thumb over her left shoulder and motion toward her mate.

Cary snapped to attention when Frankie bent sideways to look around her friend at him. The alpha’s mate offered him a death glare, and he scowled back.

“An idiot!” Frankie bit out as she straightened up and met her friend eye to eye.

“Exactly!” Lana snapped back.

“Well, they’ve got your number,” the alpha chuckled, and his brother groaned in annoyance.

“And, worse than that, he’s my idiot,” Lana said, tossing up her hands once more and letting them drop back to her sides with a slap.

“I feel your misery — I have an idiot as well,” Frankie grumbled.

“Who’s the idiot now?” Cary chuckled.

“You’re still an idiot — idiot,” the alpha grumbled.

“Just you put me down — if you don’t put me down…” Ava’s shrew-like tones greeted the witches ears and made them pause for thought.

“Oh no,” Lana said, as they both turned to look out over the field in search of their friend, and there she was — slung over the man mountain’s shoulder like a sack of coal.

“Oh poop,” Frankie muttered on a grimace.

“Look what you did,” Lana said, motioning with both hands toward Ava and the shifter that were coming in their direction.

“Fine — my bad — I’m sorry…”

“Ha! Tell that to Ava when she’s kicking your butt,” Lana snorted, folding her arms, lifting her eyebrows toward her hairline, and adding a small grunt for good measure.

“Just kill me now, it will be kinder,” Frankie said in misery.

“Oh no, we are all going to have to live with your actions — you’re not getting out of it that easy. That idiot is yours, enjoy.”

“Please tell me that’s not another witch,” Rock grumbled to his brother.

“I have to say — the odds don’t look good in your favor,” Cary chuckled.

“I will zap you to hell and back, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it,” Ava hissed out.

“Yep, it’s a witch,” Cary chuckled.

“Hey! Ava, I’m sure you have something to say to Frankie,” Lana called, and she chuckled as she watched Ava braced her hands against the shifter’s back and pushed up. Her head snapped around in their direction, and her eyes were blazing with anger.

“You…!” Ava’s lips continued to move, but she was grounding out the words so low that neither witch could pick them up. It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines and know that the air was blue around her.

“She’s going to kill me,” Frankie bit out in misery.

“Ava is your friend, she isn’t going to kill you, just make you suffer for the rest of your life,” Lana chuckled as Frankie groaned.

“What part of the witches code don’t you understand?” Ava yelled at her, and her mate groaned as his ears rang with the shrew-like quality of his mate’s voice that was threatening to deafen him.

“Please, a little louder, I’m not totally deaf yet,” Ray growled.

“Nobody asked you to toss me over your damn shoulder like a total caveman, did they?” Ava snapped back at him.

“Looks like this one has a winning personality as well,” Cary chuckled.

“I heard that,” Lana tossed back over her shoulder and the beta muttered something under his breath.

“Brother,” Ray called, “I have something to tell you.”

“I don’t need three guesses,” Rock sneered back. “We have troubles of our own.”

The alpha motioned toward the mates, and both witches turned to glare at him in unison. Rock shrugged.

“Somebody wants to eat their meat with false teeth,” Frankie muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

The alpha grumbled and groaned, and Cary couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, right up until Rock turned that bad mood growl on him, then he snapped it off.