~

“If you were that badass you would be holding my heart in your hand right now,” River offered back.

“I just had my nails done,” Breanna offered back with a small shrug.

“Well, the next time I insult you I’ll be sure to check to see if you had your beauty treatments,” River said as he pulled himself up from the ground and dusted himself down.

“River, why are you here?” Frankie demanded.

While the vampire was putting on a good show that distracted the shifters from any attempt at wooing, which wasn’t a bad thing, she still wasn’t sure why the man had shown up.

“Call me sentimental, but I felt responsible for your latest predicament,” River shrugged. “Who knew that you’d run into a big, new family to help you out with your problems?”

“Well, if you felt responsible for the first thing, then surely you’re responsible for this as well — otherwise, I’d still be in the city,” Frankie snorted her contempt for him.

“Not everything in this world is my fault, Frankie,” River offered back. “Talk about needy.”

“You offered me up on a platter…” Frankie snapped back.

“I did not — I owed him a favor and he wanted the best witch that I knew…”

“Oh?” Lana offered him a glare as she folded her arms and tapped her foot against the ground in annoyance.

“Hello?” Ava chimed in. She didn’t look too pleased with him either.

“I’m old enough to know that this is a lose-lose scenario for me, so I’ll say no more,” River shrugged.

He wasn’t falling into that old trap, not when he gained nothing from pitting witch against witch, but had a lot to lose – like his balls, and he was fond of them.

“Not totally stupid then,” Breanna said, as she turned on her heels and stalked away from him.

“You know what, alpha, I wouldn’t give her an apology either,” River said, dropping the alpha back in the boiling hot water of the cauldron and deflecting from his own troubles. Everybody turned to look at Rock.

“Fine, I’m sorry, Breanna,” Rock grumbled with a look of disgust for the vampire. The man obviously had no honor.

“Accepted,” Breanna shrugged.

“Really?”River shot her a curious look. “Hmm, easily pleased.”

“Keep walking that fine line between life as you know it and the perpetual nothingness of a sure and sudden death that awaits you,” Breanna warned.

“Now, let’s talk sports cars,” Audrey said with a gleam in her eyes and dragged River’s attention towards her.

“Down, girl,” Breanna chuckled.

 

~

~

 

“Let me help you with that,” Rock’s deep tone practically vibrated through every muscle in Frankie’s body, and she turned away from the kitchen cupboard to find him standing right in front of her.

The alpha had the kind of sexy grin on his face that Frankie couldn’t ignore. She wanted to, boy did she, but the man was just sex on a stick.

When he reached out with two large muscled arms, a big dollop of adrenaline and a huge rush of excitement went through her body. For one long moment she thought he was going to hug her, and then he reached up towards the plates in the cupboard.

Frankie swallowed hard, and she took the opportunity to duck out from under his right arm and scoot away from him.

“Too close for comfort,” Frankie muttered to herself, forgetting that the wolfman had big ears.

“I’m kind of hard to resist, right?” he teased, and if it hadn’t of been for that sexy as hell smile on his lips, Frankie very well might have zapped him.

“I think I can manage,” Frankie rushed out her words just a little too fast, she knew it, and he knew it, and that made it just plain wrong.

“Don’t try too hard.” Rock grinned.

“Why? Are you worried that you can’t win with me?” She grinned back, right up until the point when he rumbled a low, deep growl within his chest. Then it hit her — she’d just challenged the damn alpha.

“To echo your words, I think I can manage,” Rock said, sure of himself, at least, he looked sure. “But I’ll make sure to try harder.”

Frankie could have slapped herself on the forehead. What an idiot. If they were handing out awards for stupidity, then she would just have won across-the-board.

 

~

~

 

“Don’t look at me like I just kicked your puppy,” Ava sneered at the big shifter.

Her mate had been eyeballing her since the others had disappeared into the house. Ava was digging her heels in.

He might have carried her off like a lumberjack to the house, but that didn’t mean that he could get her to go inside. Oh no, she wasn’t playing his game, and she wanted her damn motorbike. She still hadn’t assessed the damage that he’d done to that.

The man was just a nightmare of epic proportions, and wasn’t it just a kick in the panties that he was her damn nightmare? She certainly thought so.

“Is that a slur?” Ray grumbled. Werewolves were mutts — Lycans were not.

“You can take it any way you want it,” Ava said, folding her arms and pushing out a hip toward him as she tapped her toes against the ground in defiance. She didn’t react well to being bullied.

“Wouldn’t it just be easier if you got on board like the others and walked through that door?” Ray motioned toward the house.

He couldn’t understand why his mate had to be different, the others had gone inside, and yet there she was — looking at him as if he were Satan personified. He was just a man, admittedly, a man with some special abilities, but still a man nonetheless.

Now he just wanted to get to the wooing part, but how did you woo your mate when she looked as if she was chewing on a vicious wasp, and looking at you as if you were a swamp thing? That was what he needed to find out, and pretty damn fast because his wolf was eager to start the rest of their lives together.

Mine…

Ray was out of his depth. Putting aside the fact that she was a witch, big issue, he’d never really had to deal with one of those before; he had never had to deal with a mate before either. If he messed this up, well, he didn’t get a second shot at it.

“Easier for you, you mean.”

“Exactly,” Ray shrugged his large shoulders, and Ava wasn’t blind to the fact that a lot of those muscles that were packed under his shirt flexed. It might not have been PC to think it, but the man did fill out his shirt rather nicely.

“Well, I’m not here to make your life easier, am I?” Ava said, and his chest inflated with what looked like even more muscles as he took in a deep breath, but she cut him off as she tried to keep from ogling the man. “In fact, I shouldn’t be here at all, should I?”

“Well, if you’re going to drag that one up again…”

“Are you serious?” Ava’s jaws slackened a little as she stared at him, but she didn’t let him answer that one either. “Because if you are serious, then I think you may need psychiatric help, and that’s not something that I can offer you.”

“That would be the blind leading the blind,” River put in from across the driveway and Ava had to bite down on the urge to let loose her magic on the vampire.

“Look…” Ray lifted his hand and pointed a thick finger right at her to make his point. Bad move.

“I’m all for men asserting themselves — especially in the bedroom,” she watched as he blinked twice, his jaw dropped a little, and she could see a lightbulb come on over his head as her words ht home and sparked an idea within him, but he couldn’t push a word out — which was good for her, because she hadn’t finished. “But, seriously, if you point that finger at me again I will point my finger back at you, and I can guarantee that my finger is more productive — do you remember bouncing on your male pride in the woods?”

Ray still had his arm outstretched, but he snapped that finger back into a fist. As he folded his arms across his broad chest, she could see that he was thinking that one over as well.

Ava wondered if he was overtaxing that brain of his.