~

Rock stood on the street with his back against the pickup truck, his arms folded across his broad chest, a dark scowl on his brow, and was muttering dark curses under his breath when his brother, Cary, strolled out of the hardware store balancing two large sacks over one of his broad shoulders and headed for the back of the truck.

“You know, if you stood on your head once in a while, you might actually break a smile.” Cary grinned at his own funny.

The alpha had no such intention of breaking a smile for him or anyone else. His day had gone from bad to worse, and he couldn’t see it getting any better.

He still had the guy from the city to deal with, and that would probably put the cherry on top of the damn cake. At least he could take comfort in the fact that it wouldn’t be another woman screwing up his damn life and making him insane.

He knew that he really needed to take charge of the females in his pack. He’d tried to be a little more liberal in his approach to their lives, drag being an alpha into this century, but they’d tried to walk all over him. Oh yeah, things were about to change.

“Don’t start with me.” Rock just wasn’t in the mood for anyone pulling his damn chain.

The sound of a loud thud echoed in his ears as the truck jumped in place when his idiot brother tossed the sacks into the back. Rock held on to his need to growl with annoyance, but only barely.

His beast was still agitated from the confrontation with the witch. He couldn’t help that — what was he supposed to do — let the wolf burst free in front of the humans? How the hell would that go down around town?

“Maybe you should consider going up to one of the hunting cabin and getting away for a few days. It might improve your mood,” the beta offered back.

It was more than obvious to everyone that the alpha had been bad-tempered lately, a lot more bad-tempered than usual, and Cary couldn’t figure out why. But then, since Rock had become the alpha, he never really seemed to have time to kick back with a beer and shoot the breeze anymore.

Maybe that was the problem. It certainly couldn’t hurt for him to spend a few days away from whatever was troubling him.

“I’m busy.” Rock closed down the conversation.

“Then maybe you should go into Redbridge to one of the bars there — all work and no play makes…”

“Are you female?” Rock turned a dark gaze on his brother.

“Huh?”

“Because you seem to like to hear yourself talk.”

“Touchy,” Cary chuckled.

“Let’s just get out of here,” the alpha grumbled.

“Did you get our sister what she asked for?” Cary asked as he walked around the back of the truck to the passenger door.

“Damn it.”

Rock growled inwardly. He had the urge to tell their sister to get off her backside and get her own damn stuff, but – he was in town, and he wasn’t a petty man.

“I’ll take that as a no.” His brother chuckled again.

Rock knew that he could have gone back home without what she’d asked for, but that would only lead to Audrey pouting and grumbling for the rest of the day. Nothing new there, but he had to ask himself if he really needed that kind of hassle on top of everything else.

The answer was no — he’d get what she damn wanted, but it would be the last time.

“I’ll be right back,” Rock growled.

Rock noted the car coming down the road and stepped from the kerb in front of his truck to wait for it to pass. He was considering all of the changes that he was going to implement when he got back, and he was starting the damn moment that he got back. No warnings, he’d had enough of females with bad attitudes.

Without warning, without even signaling, the car swerved into the gap in front of his truck, and with a grate of the gearbox, it was headed back toward him before his mind could kick his backside into gear and flash up any potential danger that it posed.

Instead of paying heed to his instincts; he dismissed the car and went to take another step into the road when the bumper caught his kneecap side on and caused his leg to crumple. The impact threw him off balance, and he face-planted the hood of his truck with a thud and growled hard as he palmed the metal.

“Whoops!!” The feminine voice grated against each and every nerve in his body.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Rock lifted his hands and slammed his palms back down on the truck. He pushed up and turned in one swift motion toward her.

He leaned forward to peer into the back of the car and met the woman’s eyes in the rearview mirror as she stared back at him.

“You okay, brother?” Cary asked as he walked to the front of the truck with a snigger in his voice, and a spring in his damn step at seeing his brother’s misfortune.

“Oh, I’m just as happy as a pig in sh…”

“Did you not see the car reversing?” Cary asked, and got a death glare back in return.

“Did I not see…? Are you mental?” Rock growled.

“I thought you’d get out of the way, but…” Cary shrugged his broad shoulders and grimaced, but Rock could still see the amusement on his brother’s face.

“Me? That’s the second damn time someone hit me with a damn car today,” Rock bit out, barely holding on to the hearty growl that was boiling within his chest and baying to be set free.

“Well, that’s careless of you,” Lana said, as she popped open the driver’s door and climbed out.

“Careless?” The alpha bit down on his need to roar with anger.

He was barely able to contain spitting out a long line of curse words that would have sent the local nuns running for cover. But, he thought that if he kept them in much longer, then his head might just explode.

“Well, you got hit twice — I only hit someone once — that makes you more careless than me, and you really should look where you’re going, don’t you think?” Lana said, cocking an eyebrow at the man, and sizing him up for what he was. A shifter — probably an alpha – definitely with no sense of humor.

Rock could sense the magic in the air. This witch certainly wasn’t hiding what she was — and he should have known, witches – like a plague of locusts they had descended on his town.

Boy did he not like witches.

“Do you have a reason to be in my town?” The alpha demanded.

“Now, brother, don’t be rash,” Cary said.

Rock snapped his gaze back toward his brother and offered him a look that said the man was bordering on insanity and risking a pummelling if he didn’t back off.

“See,” Lana said, lifting a finger and pointing at the beta. “At least he’s nice about it.”

“He didn’t get hit with a damn car,” Rock growled back. He had no need to hide his growl from her — the witch – the woman – the bad driver.

“Twice,” Cary sniggered.

“Then I’m guessing he has more brains than you do.” Lana folded her arms across her chest, tipped her head to one side, and offered him a somewhat smug look as amusement filled her eyes.

Rock wanted to howl at the insanity of it all. Women – witches – cars – and his life to date – it was all conspiring to send him mad.

“I’m going to the shop,” he growled and turned to glare at his brother. “She had better not be here when I get back.” He offered the warning as much for the witch as for his beta.

“Temper – temper,” Lana offered with a grin.

Rock hesitated for a long moment and considered giving her a piece of his mind. He’d tried that with the other female already, and where had that gotten him? Hit by another damn car.

With a rumble of a growl; he turned and nudged past his brother. He’d get what his sister wanted, and then he was going home.

Home — pack land — away from really annoying witch females, and with only the pack females to contend with.

At least at home, nobody would be hitting him with cars.

“That hurt?” Cary called after him.

“My brother, the genius,” he snapped back over his shoulder.

“Cos you’re limping.”

“Ya think?” Rock growled.

He had a mind to make the damn beta walk back to pack land, and if the man didn’t get rid of the witch by the time that he got back, then he just might.

Rock took a step out onto the road, and the deafening sound of a car horn screamed at him and made him jump back. The elderly woman behind the wheel scowled at him like he was the Devil himself, but then she was a Nun, and for that fact alone he bit down on a curse.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed, Rock?” She called out the window as she slowed to give him a look that berated him as much as any tongue lashing could.

“You’d think, Sister Mary Kate,” he grumbled back.

“Watch where you’re going young man,” she scolded him, and Rock had to curb the need to roll his eyes.

“Sorry, Sister Mary Kate,” he bit out like a naughty schoolboy caught doing ills.

“Young men these days,” she sighed as she drove by, shaking her head just a little in dismay. Rock grumbled a growl and muttered under his breath. “And don’t think I didn’t hear that, Rock.” She called out the window as she carried on going.

“Sorry, Sister Mary Kate,” he called after her, wincing at his bad mood, and cursing every female on the planet – except the nuns because that was just plain wrong.

 

~

~

 

Cary eyed the witch. The woman was watching his brother walk away, and something niggled at him about that.

Sure, she looked as if she was trying to hold in a hearty laugh at his brother’s expense, but still, he’d rather have her eyes on him.

Unlike the alpha, Cary didn’t have a problem with witches as long as they weren’t up to anything bad where his pack was concerned. This witch didn’t look as if she was there to cause trouble. That didn’t mean that trouble didn’t follow witches around, it usually did.

Still, sometimes a man had to live dangerously, and that witch was dangerously cute. She looked to be about five foot four of red-hot trouble, and with the kind of curves that a man could die happy exploring.

“So, why are you in our town?” Cary asked and drew her attention back to him.

That was when she narrowed her eyes and offered him a death glare. He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but it sure looked as if she was winding up to tell him.

“Your town?”

“I only meant…”

“Oh, I know what you meant.” Lana bit back. “You think I’m going to leave just because you and the alpha say so?”

“Probably not,” Cary admitted.

He knew women — sort of — as much as any man could know the opposite sex. She was a witch, and that meant double jeopardy. But that only made her a little more unpredictable and a whole lot more dangerously intriguing in his book.

And he did like to live dangerously.