~

Audrey reveled in the sound of the engine as she let the big beast loose on the open road. The rumble of a growl echoed in her chest as her beast responded to the growl of the sports car.

While her wolf would much rather be running free, Audrey was more than impressed by the vampire’s choice of transport. It wasn’t just pretty; it was one hell of a ride. It wasn’t like Breanna ever let her play with her sports car.

Audrey almost missed the gear as she slowed the car to take the bend. She could see what River was talking about as the back end shifted, but she recovered it without breaking a sweat.

That was when she felt the impact from behind. She hadn’t been paying attention to her mirrors, and getting shunted took her completely by surprise.

It jarred her in the bucket seat, but she was more concerned with keeping the car on the road. She’d already been going into the bend a little too fast, and as much as she tried; she couldn’t stop the back end slipping away from her.

Audrey knew the moment that the car had left the road, the uneven terrain tore at the underside of the car, and one of the wheels hit something immovable. A heartbeat later and the car was somersaulting through the air, the only option left open to her was to bend over and kiss her rear end goodbye.

The framework twisted around her, the windows gave way, and she felt every impact as a different part of the vehicle hit the earth. When the car finally came to a halt, it still felt like it was spinning.

Dazed and confused, Audrey tried to focus. Feet walking towards her gave her something to concentrate on, but things were still blurry.

Hanging upside down in the overturned car wasn’t exactly an advantage for her. Her head was fuzzy, her body was battered, and she could taste her own blood, and when a face appeared at the broken window — she still couldn’t see clearly.

“Well, you weren’t the one I was expecting to find.”

 

~

~

 

“Think happy thoughts,” Ray offered his mate a teasing smile, and she snorted her contempt for him.

“Oh, I am,” she offered back with one arched eyebrow.

The look that she gave him said it all. He didn’t need to ask what she was thinking about — he did wonder how she was contemplating murdering him though.

Ray imagined that it wouldn’t be a pain-free and humane kind of death, not from a look in her eyes. His mate was a mean one, but that was okay, he could tame her wild side, and if he couldn’t — well, it would be one hell of a ride.

“There’s little point in telling you to be nice, is there?” Ray teased, but the death glare that he got back from her told him that she wasn’t in the mood for teasing.

“Not unless you want to swallow your teeth,” Ava offered back.

“And on that note — here comes your bike,” he motioned toward the sound of a pickup truck that was still out sight for her, but it didn’t take more than a few seconds for it to come into view. There on the back was her motorbike.

Ray watched the way that she straightened her stance, turning her attention towards that bike, and her interest piqued. So, the way to the woman’s heart was through her motorbike. Good to know.

“Still in one piece, and now that it’s here you can go inside,” Ray said. He didn’t expect her to immediately comply, but he did expect the death glare that she offered to him.

“You’d better hope that you didn’t kill it completely,” Ava bit out.

“I did apologize…”

“Did you throw yourself on the floor and beg my forgiveness?” Ava snorted. “Did you apologize to my bike…”

“Apologise to your bike?” Ray chuckled at the thought. “I don’t tend to have conversations with inanimate objects…”

“Me either, but here you are, and I’m talking to you,” she sneered back.

“Ouch,” Ray grumbled. “Aren’t you taking this a little too far?”

“Oh really? And what do you drive?”

Ray sucked in a breath and stuck out his chest with pride. He lifted his hand and motioned toward the pickup truck on the far side of the drive.

“There’s a shocker,” she sneered.

But she wasn’t done, she lifted her hand, flicked her wrist, and the crack of the large branch positioned over the top of these truck made him snap to attention. It was already too late for him to do anything, that branch was coming down.

Ray did make a girly yelp a split second before the branch crashed down onto the roof of the truck, putting a nice deep dent along the frame, and he opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish as small squeaks got stuck in the back of his throat.

“So, what do you say now?” Ava asked, folding her arms and waiting patiently until he was able to drag his gaze away from the vehicle.

“My truck,” he managed to push out in total disbelief at her actions. His maiming of her bike had been by accident; hers was purely vindictive.

“Whoops!” She gave a small shrug of her shoulders and a satisfied smile in return.

“Whoops!” River said, but the gleeful look on his face jumped up and down Ray’s last nerve. “Perhaps parking under a tree wasn’t the best of ideas.”

“The tree!” Ray growled out. “The damn witch!”

“Excuse me?” Both of Ava’s eyebrows were now trying to reach for her hairline.

“Oh boy,” Breanna rolled her eyes. “Males be stupid.”

“Present company excluded, of course,” River said.

“Not really, no,” Breanna shot back.

“Let’s just roll that back to the whole — damn witch — thing, shall we?” Ava said, turning a hard glare on her mate.

“Well, was it really necessary to drop a tree on my truck?” Ray growled, and he could answer that question in a heartbeat, but his mate decided to think about it for a moment.

“Yes.” She shrugged.

“Damn witch,” he muttered, but she caught it, and zapped him with her magic a second later.

“See,” Breanna said to the vampire beside her. “Males be stupid.”

“While I can see your point, not all of us are that stupid,” River offered back.

 

~

~

 

“So, are you going to admit it yet?” Cary asked as he eyeballed his mate and she stared right back at him.

He liked that, that she met him eye to eye, and was more than capable of taking care of herself. Not that she’d ever have to, not with him around now.

She wasn’t just his mate. From the moment that he’d met her she was the reason that he breathed.

He lived for her — it was that simple — it was that honest — it was that truthful. In the grand scheme of things nothing else mattered, at least, nothing mattered as much as her.

If the spirits were willing, they’d have pups, a family, and he’d die to protect each and every one of them. But she was the love of his life, and he’d do whatever it took to make sure that she knew that each and every day that they had together.

When their life on Earth was over then he’d be waiting for her in the afterlife — forever meant forever — true mates — soul mates.

“Go on, I’ll bite,” Lana said with teasing chuckle that also sounded decidedly wicked to his ears. He liked that as well.

“I wish you would.” Cary offered her a wolfish grin and got another chuckle in return. It was definitely worth it.

“As I don’t have fangs, I think I’d pale in comparison to what you’re used to.”

“Go ahead, give it a shot. What have you got to lose?” His wolfish grin set her heart racing once more.

Temptation. The man was more tempting than a glass of wine at the end of a long day, or a slice of chocolate cake when nobody was looking, and you could tell yourself that calories didn’t count.

Sexy. He was as sexy as hell, and there was more than just butterflies fluttering inside her, every inch of her femininity had sprung to life like it was springtime and the birds and the bees wanted to get busy.

What did she have to lose? Her sanity for one and her damn panties were in danger of disappearing without a trace like she’d walked into some kind of sexy Bermuda triangle.

“Now if I bite you that gives you a damn good excuse to bite me right back,” she teased him once more. Bad move.

Cary wasn’t far enough away from her that he couldn’t reach out, wrap an arm around her waist, and scoop her toward him. He did just that.

Lana never saw it coming. One moment she was standing there teasing the man, and the next her hands were pressed against the hard ridges of the muscles of his chest, and boy were there muscles.

She may have blinked; she couldn’t tell, she was too interested in trying not to let her fingers wander, squeeze, test, and do all those things that seemed so natural within the confines of his arms.

“Sweetheart, I don’t need to find a reason to bite. You’re my mate — that’s reason enough.”

Cary’s words hit home. Cupid, fate, destiny, lust, and good old-fashioned need hit her right in the womb.

Excitement played ping-pong within her, her adrenaline soared, those palms pressed against his chest grew sweaty, and she had the urge — and what an urge it was — to find out what kissing her mate would be like.

Lana didn’t need to wait long to find out. Maybe he was just trying his luck, maybe he had the same urge that she did, or maybe she was just giving of that signal and his radar picked up on it, but when his warm, soft, demanding lips came down on hers, well, she melted like ice cream in the summer sun.