~

 

“This should be good,” Natalie giggled as she rubbed her hands together with glee.

Rex was gaining ground on the new witch, and Christie was getting ready to zap him.

“Watch her!” Doug growled at Jonathan as he lifted a hand and pointed towards Natalie.

Rex took his brother’s words to mean the witch that he was approaching and he made a valiant effort to get to her before she zapped him to his knees. Saffy squealed in surprise when Jonathan grabbed hold of her from behind, wrapping his arms around her body and lifting her feet from the floor, and he kept her there in his bear hug embrace, dangling in mid-air.

“Got her!” Jonathan growled out.

“What the…?” Natalie turned to find Saffy looking like something of a child’s ragdoll in the shifter’s arms.

She lifted her hand and pulled on her magic, but before she could go any further and zap the shifter, the alpha wrapped an arm around her and yanked her back against his chest where she suffered the same fate.

“Let me go!” Natalie demanded.

“Put me down!” Saffy bit out as she tried to backheel Jonathan in the shin.

“No,” the alpha growled. “Not until you remove the spell from our noses,” he growled against Natalie’s ear and felt the witch shiver.

“Down!” Saffy demanded.

“Get off me!” Natalie tried to shuck him off.

“No.” Doug growled.

“Yes!” Natalie bit out.

“Spell – now!” The alpha growled.

“Kiss my…” Natalie bit out.

“I’m warning you, witch!” Doug growled long and hard.

Christie watched in amazement at the goings-on. She thought she’d walked into an insane asylum before — now — she was certain of it.

Rex took advantage of the fact that Christie’s attention was elsewhere. Her magic had waned, and he moved fast and made a grasp for Christie’s arm, locking his fingers around it, and yanking her toward him.

“Remove the damn spell,” Doug growled again.

“Fine!” Natalie ground out between clenched teeth as she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers.

Doug took great pleasure in sucking up in the scent in the air — his eyes widened — he grumbled a growl — then he dropped the witch that he was holding to her feet, snapped his head around to look at Jonathan with a death glare, and growled long and hard in a warning to his brother.

“Drop my mate before I drop you,” Doug growled.

It had only just registered on Jonathan’s brain that the witch that he was holding was not his mate. He opened his arms and dropped Saffy like a ton of bricks.

She squealed as she lost her footing and ended up on her backside on the floor. Doug growled harder.

“My bad!” Jonathan said as he took a few steps back away from the witch and held up his hands in surrender.

His brother looked fit to kill.

“Muppet!” Saffy grumbled.

Doug stalked towards his mate. A heartbeat later and he’d reached down and scooped her up from the floor.

Her loud shrew-like squeal hurt his ears, but it was worth it because he finally knew which mate was his and he had her within his arms.

“Yes he is — and oh, lucky me,” Natalie rolled her eyes at her mate.

“Mine…” Rex growled into the almost silent room and drew everyone’s attention towards him and Christie.

“If you’re not freaking kidding then I hope you set up your last will and testament because trust me, I am nobody’s damn mate,” Christie ground out as her eyes flashed with mistrust.

“Oh, this is fun!” Jake chuckled.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the vampire. He tossed his hands up at his chest and grinned from ear to ear.

“Just saying.” He grinned harder, a sparkle of mischief resided in his eyes. “Oh … and a Merry Christmas!”

 

~

~

~

 

“I’m not going in there,” Natalie said with a slow shake of her head as she chewed the inside of her mouth, folded her arms, and took the position of a stubborn mule.

“Yes you are,” the alpha informed her. “After all, this is your mess to clean up.”

“I can’t believe you let the fairies in,” Saffy said, causing Natalie to shoot her a death glare, but Saffy just mocked her silently right back.

“Can’t you?” The acidity in Natalie’s voice made Saffy bite her lip rather than grin from ear to ear.

They’d been conspirators on the faerie ploy, and Natalie had a mind to tell the alpha all about his mate. Especially, if the little witch kept stirring the pot the way that she was doing while acting all sweet and innocent.

“Sweetheart,” Doug turned his attention towards his mate. “I may be an alpha. I may be a shifter — but don’t take it for granted that I’m pig stupid — you’re going in there too.”

“Why me?” Saffy rushed to defend herself. She did not want to go in there with faeries.

“Gee, let me think — who kept us busy while Natalie was letting them in?” The alpha growled.

Saffy didn’t have a comeback line for that. Busted.

“Fine. Throw your mate into the lion’s den and be done with it,” Saffy lifted her chin in defiance and looked anywhere but at the alpha.

Doug felt like a heel. He grimaced at the thought of sending his mate in alone with the faeries.

“Maybe we should go in there with them?” Jonathan said.

“That sounds like a damn fine idea, you go in there with them,” Doug tossed back.

He had absolutely no intention of letting Jonathan be the hero in his mate’s eyes. He;d planned to go in all along.

“I said we,” Jonathan offered back.

“Exactly. You and the witches,” Doug folded his arms across his chest and gave his brother a satisfied grin. If the man thought that he could act all high and mighty and put the alpha to shame — he was wrong.

“Well, look at you — running scared of a few faeries,” Saffy tossed the accusation in his direction, and he felt his beast rise within him.

Doug dropped his hands to his sides, and his eyebrows almost met in the middle over his nose. He grumbled a growl as Jonathan chuckle with delight at his expense.

“Maybe, he has some sort of an aversion to fairy dust and glitter?” Natalie chuckled.

“I do not have…” He started, but his mate cut him short.

“I think you might look good in glitter,” Saffy challenged him and stroked his ego at the same time.

“Glitter…” The alpha scowled so hard that his eyebrows practically covered up his eyes.

“But, whether your man enough to face the fairies is something that I just can’t answer — yet,” Saffy added, and then offered him a small, innocent smile.

Doug growled. There was nothing innocent about that smile, and they all knew it. All except his beast — who rose up within him and demanded that they protect their mate and defend their honor.

“Devious little…” The rest of the alpha’s words vanished in a grumble and a growl.

“Settled then!” Natalie beamed the alpha a wicked smile. “We all go inside.”

“I was going anyway,” Doug growled.

“Of course you were,” Saffy’s teasing voice taunted his honor once more.

“If I said I was — I was,” Doug growled.

“I’ll take your word for it – this time.” Saffy folded her arms, lifted her chin, and looked away from him.

“A trusting little…” The alpha grumbled once more.

“Well, prove it. You can go in first,” Natalie said. “Lead the troops, as it were.” She grinned.

“Mischievous little…” Doug grumbled.

“Does anyone else get the feeling that the alpha doesn’t like witches?” Jake asked from the back of the group.

“Nobody invited you here,” the alpha growled.

“No. But your mates ruined my quite Christmas — think of this as payback,” Jake offered.

“Mixing — stirring — devious — pesky — mischievous little…” Doug grumbled into his chest as he dropped his chin down, eyed the front door, and reached for the handle.

He wasn’t looking forward to going in with the faeries, but it was his duty to lead his pack.

All of his pack — including the witches.

Even if he did have the sudden urge to toss open the door and shove them inside so that they could clear up their own damn mess that they’d created.