~

Rock cut off the call on his mobile phone and slid the thing back into his pocket. The guy from the city had turned up a day early and was booked into the hotel.

While he applauded the early arrival, it still annoyed him that he was going to have to drive all the way back out from pack land the very next day to take the meeting. The smart thing to do would be to kill two birds with one stone and meet the guy now, or maybe he should just hand the whole thing over to one of his brothers to deal with.

Grasping the lipstick and eyeshadow that he’d managed to pick up for his sister in his hand, he stalked back across the road toward his truck, his brother, and the damn witch.

Ask the beta to do a job, and it doesn’t get done. The woman should already have been heading out of town. So, maybe entrusting the meeting to his brother wasn’t the best idea that he’d ever had.

“What’s she still doing here?” Rock growled.

“We’re — talking,” Cary offered back.

He wasn’t about to offer up any more information than that to his brother at that moment in time. The man might have been his alpha, but his beast was antsy about the thought of sending the witch on her way, and he didn’t know if he really wanted to explore why, but he did know that he had to do it.

What he didn’t need was an audience.

Rock walked around to the driver’s door and yanked it open. “Fine, you can make your own way back home,” he grumbled at his brother.

“Hey,” Lana distracted the alpha from the glare that he was offering his brother. “That lipstick color, I’m sure it’s going to suit you.” She said as she folded her arms and tipped her head to the side, daring him to grumble another growl at her.

“Get rid of the witch — one way or the other,” Rock offered to the beta and got a grumbled growl back in return.

That didn’t bother him in the slightest, he dropped his backside into the driver’s seat, slammed the door, and started the engine. Let his brother bitch and whine that he had a job to do; he was fed up with doing everything himself.

He’d go meet the guy, and then he was going home. No more witches. No more cars, and no more talking.

 

~

~

 

Rock lifted his hand and knocked on the door to the hotel room. He was kind of hoping that he didn’t rub the guy up the wrong way, just showing up, but what the hell.

When the door was yanked open, Rock tipped his head to one side and narrowed his eyes at the occupant. Either he was at the wrong room, or there was one hell of a misunderstanding.

“I expected you to be taller and a man,” Rock blurted out, unsure what the hell was going on, and knowing that he sounded like a damn fool, but he didn’t care. Frankie’s lips pulled back in a sneer.

“Funny, I was thinking the same about you,” she shot back, raising her eyebrows in a challenge that made his top lip tweak as he stifled a growl of annoyance.

“This isn’t your room,” Rock sneered back, and then he frowned and checked the number of the room on the wall. “Is this your room?”

“No, you caught me warning it up for the real guest,” she offered back in a bored, dry tone, and watched as one of his eyebrows shot up as he sucked in a deep breath, and his impossible large chest expanded some more. 

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“Only if you have an IQ above fifty.”

“Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“Nope, that one was shockingly true,” she said, offering him a small grimace and a look of pity.

“You should get out of town while the going is good,” he warned her, and she pulled her head back and raised her eyebrows.

“Why? Is there a storm coming?”

“Your way, there is.”

“Threats, nice, and what do you do for an encore? Wait, don’t tell me – you fall on your face on the floor and claim someone ran you over. Well, be careful what you wish for.” She offered him a wicked smile.

“What? You wanna run me down again?” Rock wasn’t about to be threatened by a witch.

“I would, but they would let me bring the car up to the first floor, go figure.” She shrugged once more.

Then she offered him the kind of look that she’d reserved for the day an alien landed in front of her. The man was certainly orbiting a distant planet in her book and not one she wanted to visit.

“Why are you here?” he demanded, craning his head forward and eyeing her with suspicion.

“Why are you here?” she shot back like it was a challenge.

“I’m meeting someone.”

“Oh yeah, and you often meet strange men in hotel rooms?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and his mouth dropped open before he screwed up his face as if she smelled like his brother’s socks at the end of a long day.

She doubted that the man had been stupid enough to scent her, and if he had, well, he would have been Mr. Growly-pants-beats-his-chest by now if she’d been his one true mate. Not that she wasn’t waiting for him to beat his stupidly large and well-muscled chest anyway, she was.

“I’m secure enough in my masculinity not to rise to that particular bait,” he growled back.

“Yeah, that’s why you look like someone kicked your puppy and you’re growling out here in the open,” she berated him some more. “But, the fact remains – go – away.”

Frankie went to close the door, but he wedged one large boot in the doorway and stopped that from happening.

“You didn’t answer my question…” he growled. He wanted the witch out of town, both witches, and he didn’t care why she was there, because she wasn’t staying.

“Sure I did.” She said, offering him another bored look.

“No, you didn’t.”

“Maybe you got distracted looking at my breasts again,” that sent his gaze traveling down to her sisters, and she hissed in annoyance and brought his eyes back up again. “Or maybe you have short-term amnesia, did you hit your face on the ground recently?”

Rock bit down on a string of curse words that he’d like to offer her. His beast was antsy at being back around the witch, and he wanted to be home, but he wasn’t about to let any female get the better of him again – especially, as she’d already done it once today when she’d offered him the finger before driving off.

“I swear…”

“Now see, if you’re gonna swear, I’m gonna retaliate, and this thing between us is going to get out of hand. They’ll be zapping and yelping like a pup,” she motioned between them as he growled again. “One thing is going to lead to another as things escalate, and then I’m going to have to neuter you – do you feel the need to be neutered?” She asked, and waited for a long moment as her words bounced around in his brain.

“Wouldn’t be my first choice, but…”

“There you go then, dead man walking, bye-bye.”

“If you keep threatening me…”

“Me?” Frankie went with an innocent look. “You’re the one trying to run me out of town. You even sniffed me down to my hotel room just to threaten me some more.”

“That’s not true…” he scowled.

“Which part?” She folded her arms and feigned interest in what he had to say when, in truth, she’d much rather just end the conversation and watch him walk away with his tail between his legs.

Frankie imagined that the man walking away had just a good a view as his forward facing self.

“All of it!” He growled.

“You’re not trying to run me out of town?” Her tone was dry, and she gave him a look of pure skepticism.

“Yes!”

“Ah-ha!”

“That’s not the point,” he growled, screwing up his face once more and looking like that bad smell was under his nose again.

“Is so the point. Big point. Big point for me,” she said with a victory smile and a shrug. “I win, you lose – bye-bye.”

The fact that his boot was lodged in the door didn’t worry her in the slightest. She zapped him right in the gut with her magic, and he doubled over on himself.

When he yanked his foot back to stabilize the pitch of his body, that was her opportunity to slam the door closed in his face with her magic, and she took it.

Rock felt the blow to his forehead from the hardwood and saw stars. That blow sent him back on his heels, and that time he couldn’t get his balance back.

He hit the hard concrete with another blow to his pride and groaned at the nerve of the damn witch.

There was a moment of pure clarity when he knew exactly how he’d like to end her days – there was only one problem with that.

Mine…