~

 

“Ha!” Isla wished that she could take that to the bank and cash it. “If only that were true.”

“It’s true,” Angus growled.

“She’s a mate.” Percival pointed out, and the shifter’s top lip twitched in disgust as he stared down at her.

“A witch?”

“Three witches, three mates.” Percival was enjoining enlightening the man.

It was no secret around the pack that the vampire had never cared for Angus. The man might have had an alpha in his lineage, but he was no alpha himself, but that didn’t seem to stop his superior attitude of late and his meddling ways.

“I won’t allow this pack to be sullied.” He growled, and Percival went to take a step towards him to shut the man up before a human overheard either his words or his growls, but the witch turned her whole body towards him and cocked an eyebrow up at the man.

“Who died and made you alpha?” Isla snorted her contempt for him and his attitude.

She might have been skirting a fine line and risking the man’s on board challenge gene to be triggered, but it was certainly better than looking weak in the shifter’s eyes and letting him walk all over her.

“I’d like an answer to that question myself,” Lucas growled.

The beta snatched Angus’ attention away from his mate, and when those angry, black eyes rounded on him, Lucas felt his wolf push forwards at the challenge that they held.

“The mate I presume,” Angus sneered, and the man seemed reluctant to back down from the authority that Lucas’ position afforded him.

Lucas could feel his beast clawing within him. The wolf most definitely wanted out.

The beast had a need to put the Omega in his rightful place and that desire burned inside of him like a fever within his blood. At any other time – Lucas might have let his beast have its way.

“You are walking on thin ice, Angus.”

Lucas growled loud enough for Percival to catch the attention of the alpha and nod him in the direction of the standoff between the men for fear that it was going to escalate quickly, especially with the both of them growling at each other. Something had to give.

Percival noted the witch’s subtle movement. Isla’s hand was drawing upwards, and the vampire leaned in a whispered against any such rash decisions.

“Not a good idea, little witch. Too many humans and an unstable wolf, if you get my meaning.”

Isla twisted her head on her neck at the feel of the vampire so close beside her, but she didn’t take her eyes from the conflict that was playing out in front of her. She considered his words.

If push came to shove – she’d use her magic – and humans be damned.

The vampire would just have to spend the rest of the day wiping memories.

“Problem?” Griffin’s tone said that there had better not be, but he could see it with his own eyes, and so could some of the humans that were looking their way, anticipating a fight breaking out.

“There will be if you allow the crossing of the bloodlines between the pack and the Fae.” Angus challenged the alpha with his words.

Griffin’s beast was more than aware of the situation that they found themselves in. Humans everywhere.

“If you would like to offer up a challenge, Angus. I will be more than happy to accept,” Griffin’s whole body was ready and willing to take on the Omega.

The alpha could feel the prickle of his beast’s fur just beneath his skin, and it would feel damn good to let the change happen, let his beast tear free, and to quash the Omega with an iron fist.

‘How like you, Griffin, backed by your brother and the vampire, and with humans around us,’ Angus growled.

‘One on one. A challenge to the death – I’ll gladly accommodate you, Angus, if you feel you can take my place as Alpha.’

Isla knew what she was witnessing. Toe to toe. Alpha and Omega facing off against each other.

She might not have been able to hear their words as they used the pack's link, but their body language said it all.

Percival wrapped his hand around the witch’s arm, and in a heartbeat, she was behind him wondering what the heck had happened.

She heard the low, deep growl that came from one of the shifter’s, but she couldn’t presume to think that it was her mate. Any one of those men could have issued that sound.

“Soon, Griffin,” Angus growled out. Using his shoulder to barge into the alpha and move swiftly away from the mess that he’d gotten himself in, he growled one final time.

Griffin turned to watch the man go. He was more than eager to put the man in his place – his beast was more than eager to get his claws and fangs out and fight the man to the death.

Angus just had to say the word and issue the damn challenge, and the alpha was all in.

“Touch my mate again…” Lucas said as he stalked towards the vampire, and Percival cocked an eyebrow at the beta.

“Seriously? I get your woman out of harm’s way.” Percival had known that it would be coming. The warning from the unmated beta.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Isla said, using her elbow to get around the vampire and front up to her mate. “Don’t start with him.”

Lucas stopped dead in his tracks and eyed her with confusion.

“Excuse me?” Lucas scowled.

“He might be a misplaced soul, and has a strange sense of who can and who can’t take care of themselves,” Isla shot back.

“Oh, do tell,” Percival muttered, rolling his eyes in his head.

“But, it’s not like he got all Grrr,” Isla lifted her hands and clawed the air with her fingers. “And it’s not like he got all blood hungry and took a bite either, now is it?”

“I’m sorry, are you defending me or trying to make me look like I do the monster mash…?” Percival asked.

“Stay out of this,” Isla snapped back at him over her right shoulder.

“Of course,” Percival tossed up a hand. “How could I possibly defend myself?”

“Can you not?” Isla shot a look back at him.

“Not – what?”

“Get involved.”

“I am by definition, involved,” Percival reasoned.

“We’re not talking to you, we’re talking about you,” Isla snapped back at him.

“Y…e…s… the irony of this situation is lost on you, isn’t it?”

“Be like a tree and leave.” Isla shooed the vampire away, but Percival just folded his arms and smirked back at the witch.

“Be like a witch and just zap him to get your point across.”

“I do not zap willy-nilly.”

“I’m sure Mr. Willy-Nilly is glad of that fact,” Percival offered back, and Isla turned towards him and placed her hands on her hips.

“Hello?” Lucas tried to get her attention.

“Hush, I’m busy,” Isla berated him as she turned her full attention to the vampire. “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”

“But, you have to admit, it’s also to die for,” Percival offered a devilish grin, and she snorted her contempt for him.

“You might think so.” Isla sat on top of her moral high ground.

“Oh, the irony… but we’ll overlook your two faced approach to humor, and…”

“I’m two faced?” Isla snorted.

“And we’ll go with the other side of your hypocrisy.”

“I…” Isla scowled, but he wasn’t done with her yet.

“Firstly, you were going to use magic against Angus to defend, who? The alpha? Your mate? And then you get all morally high ground when your mate defends you against me.”

“That’s my point!” Isla snapped back.

“You have a point?” Percival asked.

“Yes.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“You just made it.”

“Made what?”

“The point.”

“What point?”

“Do you get the feeling of being on the Ferris Wheel and going round and round?” Griffin asked his brother.

“Boy, do I,” Lucas groaned back.

“He has nothing to defend me from,” Isla pointed out.

“Well, I know that, and you know that, but he’s an irrational butt-headed beta.”