~

 

“Make it right, make it bright, light up their aura’s here tonight,” Natalie said from just over the alpha’s shoulder as they stepped into the large, silent room.

At the same time, Saffy clicked her fingers and turned on the overhead lights.

“Does it have to rhyme?” Jonathan asked with a frown.

His eyes took in the room before him. The Christmas tree at the far end was still strung with lights that were still twinkling brightly, and all around the room what looked like little fireflies with bright blue and luminous pink aura’s ground to a halt in mid-flight.

“It just sounds better, don’t you think?” Natalie offered within the silence of the room.

“I can’t tell if they’re staring at us,” Rex growled.

“Not us, brother. You,” Jonathan offered as he flicked the back of the beta’s his neck, and chuckled when his brother jumped and swatted his own skin.

“Not funny,” Rex growled.

He was fast losing patience with his brother’s antics. He didn’t like faeries at the best of times, but being trapped inside a house with them didn’t seem like the way he wanted to go.

“Pretty funny,” Jonathan chuckled.

“So, what’s the plan?” Natalie leaned in towards the alpha a little and asked.

From behind her Jonathan offered a warning growl to the alpha for being that close to his mate.

“Don’t have one,” the alpha admitted. Then he shot a dark glare back over his shoulder at Jonathan. “She leaned in towards me.” He growled at the man.

“I know — don’t shoot the messenger, it was just a gut reaction,” Jonathan admitted.

“Then tell your damn gut to get over itself and shut the hell up,” Doug growled.

“How can you not have a plan?” Natalie sighed. “Fine. As always — leave it to the witches.”

“You did let them in,” the alpha reminded her.

Natalie screwed up her face and grimaced at his accusation. She felt the twinge of guilt and tried to dismiss it, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

There was something about having his dark, beady eyes glaring at her that seemed to ramp up that guilty feeling inside of her.

It wasn’t right — she’d enjoyed a practically guilt-free life so far, and the thought of not having that again annoyed her. And all because of a beady-eyed alpha.

“I was acting in self-defense,” she offered back with an air of knowing that she’d been busted.

“Well, you shouldn’t mind acting in self-defense now,” the alpha offered back.

“What does that mean?” Natalie didn’t like the sound of that.

“You did it – you undo it,” the alpha offered her a smug smile.

“I said I would,” Natalie hissed out as she lifted her chin in defiance and snorted her contempt for the man.

“Great, have at it,” Doug motioned towards the faeries.

Natalie attention turned towards the little pink and blue aura’s, and her mate was right; those pesky little faeries were staring at them. She wasn’t feeling particularly emboldened by her magic because faeries had magic too and there were more of them.

Life would have been so much easier if she was dealing with vampires or shifters, but she’d made a rod for her own back, and she was going to have to live with that. She took a moment to consider what spell she might use to vanquish the faeries from the cabin.

Natalie didn’t want to hurt them. After all, they’d been her ally when she’d made her devious plan to get away from shifters, and it had worked — if only temporarily.

She didn’t much fancy the idea of sharing the cabin with faeries — but the thought of sharing it with shifters didn’t thrill her much either. But it was the lesser of the two evils — and compared to the faeries Jonathan didn’t feel so evil anymore.

Oh no, please don’t tell me that the man is growing on me.

It’s like I stood still for too long and the fungus got me.

Not that he’s fungus — more… I don’t know.

Is fungus sexy? No. But he is.

I know his growly in his misogynistic way – there’s a downside — one point to me.

But his voice is like velvet over gravel and boy is that a point to him.

Don’t even get me started on that body — oops I’m objectifying him — oh well, I guess I can because he’s my mate.

And then there’s those eyes — puppy dog with a hint of sex on a stick — damn, another point to him.

Wasn’t I supposed to be doing something that didn’t involve thinking about my mate?

Oops — too late!

Natalie recoiled at the sight of the faeries in flight. They were heading straight towards the group, and for the life of her, she couldn’t think of one little itsy spell to stop them.

 

~

~

~

 

It reminded Doug of a bumblebee hitting a window in mid-flight and dropping to the ground. Little splats of bright aura’s signaled that the faeries had somehow hit an invisible wall and were falling to the floor, dazed and confused, and very much off their game.

“That’s kind of pretty — although, I’m sure the faeries aren’t enjoying it,” Saffy said.

“Christmas come early, it’s a win-win,” Natalie agreed.

“You were a little off your game there,” Christie said as she stood her ground and projected her magic out in front of the group to protect them from the faeries. “You didn’t mind me stepping in?”

“Any witch will do,” the alpha said, pleased with the initial outcome of the witch’s spell.

“Excuse me?” Saffy tossed her hands onto her hips and gave her mate the equivalent of a death glare.

“I said any witch will do,” the alpha offered, but as he tossed a look at his mate, he felt a stone slab drop inside his stomach.

He quickly revisited his words as he offered her a double take, just to make sure that her head wasn’t about to spin completely around on her neck and fire shoot out from her eyes.

“I heard you,” Saffy grumbled as she snatched her hands away from hips and folded her arms. That death glare had turned into the evil eye.

Doug had a feeling that if his mate put any kind of magic behind that look, then he would be dropping like a stone. Just like those damn faeries.

“I was talking about the spell.” A hard frown settled on Doug’s forehead as he quickly tried to backpedal and explain himself.

“I’m sure you were,” Saffy didn’t sound too sure. At least, not to his ears.

“What do we do with the faeries now?” Doug turned his attention towards Christie. It felt somehow safer than looking at Saffy just then.

“The ones on the ground you can sweep up and put out the door. But those other ones…” Christie nodded her head in the direction of the group of faeries that hadn’t made it as far as the invisible wall.

“Grab a broom,” Saffy said as she offered the alpha another death glare. “You do have a broom, don’t you?”

“That’s not really my area of expertise,” the alpha offered back.

Saffy twisted her head on her neck and looked at him as if he was a Martian.

“You’re just so…”

“Male,” Natalie finished for her.

“And that’s a good thing, right?” Doug offered back with a small flare of amusement that touched his eyes and his lips.

“We can discuss your lack of…everything, later,” Saffy offered back. She looked unimpressed by her mate’s attempt at humor.

“Oh good — looking forward to it.” Doug lied.

“Someone’s in trouble,” the vampire announced from the back of the group.

“Still not invited in,” the alpha growled back.

“Me either.” The elder announced as he walked into the room from the kitchen, and snorted his contempt at the sight of the faeries that were laying on the floor.

“Yes, and with good reason,” Jake offered back. “I, on the other hand, have a purpose in life.”

“You’re a mosquito,” the elder growled. “An annoying bloodsucking leech.”

“Make yourself useful, elder, and grab a couple of brooms,” Jake said with the kind of smug grin that the elder would have loved to have wiped right from his face.

“Are the witches leaving already?” The elder offered back.

All three witches turned to glare at the elder. He felt a sense of achievement. Miffing off so many witches in one easy strike was a gift that he would treasure.

Then he turned on his heels and strolled back into the kitchen to get the brooms. A small, deep, satisfied chuckle rumbled back towards the group, taunting the witches.

“He’s so funny — I just want to adopt him,” Natalie hissed, shooting a glare of annoyance towards her mate.

“Not my fault,” Jonathan said as he held up his hands in surrender once more.

“Don’t blame me when I zap the guy,” Natalie grumbled.

“Oh, can I watch?” Jake grinned at the prospect.

“Your transportation awaits,” the elder announced as he stalked back out of the kitchen carrying two brooms.

“I can feel it coming on — it’s going to happen sooner rather than later,” Natalie warned them.

“I say make it sooner,” Jake shrugged.

“How like a vampire to stir the pot,” Natalie turned up her nose at the man.

“How like a witch to procrastinate,” Jake offered back.

“Someone wanna take these brooms – housework is not my thing,” the elder grumbled.

“Gee, there’s a shocker,” Natalie sniped. “A man that doesn’t do housework – how unrefreshing.”

“Stop your bellyaching, and starts weeping,” the elder grumbled.

“He’s right — can we keep our mind on the task at hand?” Christie said as she pushed back the magic boundary to allow access to the faeries that were on the floor.

The elder held out a broom in each hand, and Natalie and Saffy both offered him the evil eye as they snatched the brooms and started to sweep.

“Well would you look at that — a woman’s work is never done,” the elder chuckled.

“What about the others?” Doug growled at the group of faeries that were huddled together like conspirators in a plot.

“They can leave of their own accord, unharmed, or we can get them out,” Christie warned the faeries.