~

 

“Hey!” Lucas growled, and Griffin elbowed his brother in the ribs.

“Stop growling.” The alpha growled.

“Pot – kettle,” Lucas muttered back.

“So, you weren’t threatened by him?” Isla tossed up her hands.

“Hmm, define threatened,” Percival said, narrowing his eyes on the witch.

“Threatening behavior, not that you feel physically threatened by the man…”

“Because I really don’t,” Percival said.

“Of course not…” Isla shrugged.

“Hello… I’m standing right here,” Lucas growled and received another blow of the alpha’s elbow against his ribs. “Could you not?”

“If you could cease and desist from growling,” Griffin offered back giving his brother a hard glare.

“That’s getting harder by the second,” Lucas ground out between clenched teeth.

“I mean just look at him.” Percival had decided to milk it for all that it was worth, as he held out a hand towards the beta and rolled his eyes back in his head.“Seriously?”

“That’s not…” Lucas rumbled a growl within his chest and sidestepped the alpha’s elbow, not wanting to feel that hard reminder for the third time.

“I get it. I do,” Isla tossed up her hands again. “I have eyes.”

“Oh, geez, really?” Lucas grumbled.

“I mean the man is impressive for what he is,” Percival threw the beta a bone. “But, he’s no… me.”

“I agree.” Isla nodded.

Lucas had the desperate need to head butt something close, something hard, and something unyielding until he was seeing stars. A good place to start with would have been the damn vampire himself.

“So, your point?” Percival asked.

“The point is; you were only concerned for my well-being and you were trying to protect me, and instead of being grateful for your help – that wasn’t needed by the way because I’m more than perfectly capable of taking care of myself…”

“Noted,” Percival said with a curt nod of his head.

“Thank you,” Isla said, shooting a glare at her mate. “He decided to attack and threaten you for your obvious concern and chivalrous actions.”

“Chivalrous action,” Lucas grumbled.

“Suck it up,” Percival smirked at the beta. “Yes, now that you mention it I do feel unjustly persecuted for my actions by Mr. Growly-McGrowl-Face. Thank you.”

“I’m gonna…” Lucas went to take a step towards the vampire, but Griffin got in the way.

“Really, Percival?” Griffin challenged the man and his meddling ways. “Aren’t you a little old to be playing the idiot?”

“I don’t see what age has to do with it,” Percival said, still trying to milk that innocent look for all he was worth.

“More attacks?” Isla shrugged.

“I know, right?” Percival agreed, and both shifters rolled their eyes in unison.

It didn’t feel like they were going to win that one.

 

~

~

~

 

Penny eyed Isla, and the goings on that seemed to involve the alpha, vampire, and Isla’s mate, as the sound of tin cans crashing down behind her echoed within her ears and rang the bells within her brain with a slight annoyance.

She wasn’t even sure how she got roped into running the can stall, well, apart from the blarney that had come out of the man of God’s mouth at three hundred miles an hour, but that seemed to be her lot in life until the good priest found someone to take over her spot.

She just wished that the man would hurry up so she could find out what was going on across the field with Isla.

“Nosey much, witch?” Neal’s deep voice sounded close to her ear, and she mentally jumped and physically held her body rigid so that he wouldn’t notice, at least, that was the hope.

The man had been lurking near the stall, pacing up and down like a caged beast for the better part of half an hour, and she had tried her best to ignore him. It wasn’t easy. The man was a walking brick wall that blotted out most of the landscape around him when he wanted too, and he was easy on the eyes, and very excitable to her pulse, not that she was going to bloody well tell him that.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Penny asked.

She figured that she might as well use what she had, and Mr. Wolf had very big ears.

“Probably my knuckle dragging brother, Lucas, and how best to neuter him.”

Penny tossed him a curious look, and the beta immediately plastered a grin on his face.

“I wonder if the same can be applied to you?”

“Harsh.”

“Really? I was thinking tame.”

“Not because you don’t know me…”

“Don’t want to know you,” Penny leaned towards him and whispered, making him work a little bit harder to hear her, and he concentrated on only her, only the sound of her voice.

That action brought so much more than a realization to him of just how much he wanted to get closer, very much closer.

“But you will,” He said it like a promise, and she felt her heart skip a beat. “And so you can’t judge – little Miss Judgy Pants.”

“Leave my pants, judgy or not, out of this.” Penny folded her arms, and that had the unfortunate effect of pushing up her breasts for his general perusal – he was male, and that meant that if he wanted to or not, he couldn’t help but look.

“Watch those eyes,” Penny warned him.

“They loomed up towards me. I thought I might be under attack,” Neal shot back with another grin that was definitely wolfish.

“You wish,” Penny snorted.

“Now you come to mention it. I do.” Neal played along.

“Death by boobs.”

“Don’t tease me.” Neal chuckled.

The sound of his chuckle was deep, and it rumbled towards her just as his growl would have done. It sounded good to her ears, like satin on gravel, and she had to bet that the vibrations would feel damn good against parts of her body.

Move away from the shifter.

You can not be thinking about what it would feel like to be held against his body.

Naked or otherwise. Oooh, naked.

Nope… don’t go there.

But, I’m going to go there eventually anyway, so where’s the harm in imagining it now?

According to the Bible; I’m going to hell because I’m a witch, but I don’t need to go around imagining what hell is like, do I?

Stop arguing with myself… yourself… anyone’s self!

Stop imagining the shifter naked… oh, wait, now I’m imagining him naked again.

This isn’t fair.

The mating pull certainly isn’t fair.

Wait, now I’m taking the name of God in vain at a God party.

Not… really a… oh, never mind!

Nobody is naked!

Certainly not the priest and God… because that would be so wrong that I can’t even .

Bleach my mind!

“Go away!” She hissed at Neal, annoyed with where her mind was taking her and blaming it all on him, and the shifter frowned.

“What’d I do?” Neal asked, somewhat confused.

“Isn’t just being you enough?” Penny bit out before she pushed away from the stall and moved to pick up the discarded tin cans that the revelers had knocked down.

It was enough for her. If the man didn’t look like sex on a stick then she was hardly likely to try to picture him naked – or even want to imagine him without clothes.

Yep, definitely all his fault.

Damn sexy shifter guy!

“I guess,” Neal grumbled.