~

 

‘Fine. We are leaving — but we’ll be back.’

As the witches swept fast and furious the front door, so the faeries whizzed around the group, heading towards the door, but with a few short, sharp stings of magic aimed at any victim that was handy.

“And good riddance to bad rubbish,” the elder growled as Saffy tossed the front door closed behind the last of the faeries.

“Leaving so soon?” Jake grinned at the elder and got a long, deep growl of warning in return.

“What happened to the party?” The alpha asked the elder.

“After trying with minimal amounts of success to toss out however many faeries they could, it was decided that with you three out on the hunt — the party was over. But they said to give them a hollow if you needed them.”

The elder stalked towards his comfortable chair beside the open fire and eased himself down into it with a small huff that was full to the brim with satisfaction.

“Talk about when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Jake sniggered.

“They just had the brains to figure out that the witches would be better placed to get rid of the faeries them they were. We just had to wait and see if the alpha could find them and bring them back,” the elder offered back.

His salt and pepper eyebrows were drawn down virtually covering his eyes as he glared back at the vampire with equal amounts of annoyance and disdain.

“Do you have a bone to pick with me old man?” Jake asked.

“I doubt he’d waste a good bone on you,” Natalie tossed back at the vampire over her shoulder.

“Oh, look who it is that’s sticking up for the elder, and after he insulted you and all,” Jake chuckled. “I guess that it’s true that the pack does stick together.”

“Saffy, control your vampire before I do him harm,” Natalie threw the warning towards Jake, and the man drew back in mock horror.

“Why is he my vampire?” Saffy tossed back.

The sound of the alpha’s hungry growl rumbled through the air, and Jake turned his attention towards Doug. It took a moment for the penny to drop with the vampire.

“When she says my – she doesn’t mean it in a literal sense,” the vampire offered, but when the alpha turned his whole body and one hell of a dark glare toward Jake – the vampire held up his hands and took one long step back from the group. “Happy?”

“No,” Doug growled.

“Happier?” Jake teased.

“I’d sink my fangs into his leech backside,” Tom offered with a shrug. “But that’s just me.” He offered the vampire a smug smile.

“I’d say go for it,” Natalie offered the alpha and innocent smile, but when she turned it towards the vampire, it turned into a smirk.

“I’ll remember you said that,” Jake offered back.

“Just like I’ll remember how you helped us back at your house,” Natalie offered back. “Oh, wait…”

“That’s because I don’t get involved between mates,” Jake offered those words of wisdom directly to the alpha.

“Well, our work here is done. I guess it’s time to head off,” Christie turned on her heels and started for the door.

She found Rex standing right in front of it, his big muscled arms were folded across his broad chest, making both look bigger, and he had a slow to boil smile upon his face that distracted her brain until it was complete.

“You could give it your best shot,” Rex grinned.

Christie took a moment to think about it. It was tempting — very, very tempting. Then she hit him with a jolt of her magic that made his body fold in on itself as he collapsed to his knees on the floor.

“Okay,” Christie declared on a snort of laughter as she sidestepped her mate and reached for the handle of the door.

“Nice try. That’s as far as you go,” the alpha informed her.

“Yes, we tried the direct approach — we found that it’s much better to go down the devilishly devious route,” Natalie chuckled at the witch’s attempt to leave.

“It worked out so well,” Saffy muttered.

“Ouch!” Rex bit out between clenched teeth. “Boy, does that have a sting in the tail,” he grumbled.

“I was gentle — and here I was thinking you were a big, bad beta wolf shifter,” Christie offered down to him like a challenge to his manhood that neither he nor his beast could deny.

Rex pushed up to his feet. It might have taken quite an effort to battle against the remnants of the magic that still twanged throughout his body, but he damn well did it.

She’d offered him a challenge.

He liked challenges.

“I’d be very careful what you wish for,” Rex growled.

He wasn’t the only one that liked challenges — his beast loved them, and a witch mate was certainly a challenge.

“Yes, Rex might throw a tantrum and toss his toys out of the cradle,” Jonathan chuckled.

Rex growled a warning to his brother. He was already trying to hold on to his beast from the challenge that his mate had offered him. He really didn’t need his brother trying to wind up his wolf because things could get ugly and he had a mate to woo.

“Can you two behave like grown-ups, at least until you’ve actually wooed your mates?” The alpha growled, echoing his brother’s thoughts on the situation at hand.

“Probably not,” Rex grumbled as he shot a glare at Jonathan.

“Yeah, I really don’t see that happening,” Jonathon sneered back at his brother.

“Blood from a stone comes to mind,” Tom offered from his comfy chair by the fire.

“We’ve got rid of the faeries, the pack has gone home, and now we have some alone time with our mates…” The alpha explained.

“Well, I’m not seeing an upside to this,” Natalie grumbled. “Are you seeing an upside to this, Saffy?”

When Natalie shot a look at her friend; she noted that Saffy was eyeing the alpha as if he was chocolate cake. She nudged her with her elbow to try to get her to snap out of it.

“Huh?” Saffy shot a guilty look towards Natalie.

“No upside?” Natalie glared at her.

“Err, no, no upside,” Saffy rushed out, unsure what she agreed with because she’d been lost in thought at the time, and oh, what thoughts they were.

Then she turned her attention back toward her mate and found him staring right back at her. Busted.

“Look, I just need a car or lift out of here,” Christie started to explain, but when she caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see her mate starting toward her. “Stay!” She lifted her hand and pointed a finger right at him.

Rex stopped in place — only because he didn’t want to be zapped again. Not because it hurt, which it did, but because it was time lost when he could have been wooing – imprinting on her. He tilted his head to one side and looked totally unimpressed by her actions.

“That’s funny, almost as funny as the thought of you leaving,” Rex said on a grumbled growl of annoyance that was mixed with a big dollop of sarcasm, and he could see from the glare that she aimed at him that she didn’t appreciate it.

Tough. If she wanted to treat him like a dog, then she was going to have to take the rough with the smooth, and he could deliver both in equal measure.

“Look, it’s kind of sweet that you think you can kidnap me or keep me as a prisoner, but here’s a heads up — I’m a witch — I’m always going to be able to escape you.” Christie folded her arms, tipped her head to one side, and regarded Rex as if he was a petulant child.

“I don’t need to kidnap you-you came to me. As for being a prisoner — I don’t see any bars. I’m going to woo you…” Rex’s speech was cut off when his mate tossed her head back and roared with laughter.

“Somebody took their happy juice this morning,” Natalie whispered to Saffy.

“Woo me. That’s so cute,” Christie managed to get out once she’d stopped laughing and was only spluttering chuckles at the man’s expense.

All the while she could see the anger simmering inside of Rex, and that was a good thing, because she wanted to throw him off balance, put him on full tilt so that he made mistakes – hopefully, big ones.

“That’s our Rex, cute,” Jonathan chuckled as he offered his brother a gleeful look.

Rex dropped his chin toward his chest and offered his brother a death glare. He wasn’t impressed with his mate’s words, but he found himself even more unimpressed by his brother’s attitude. Even the damn alpha was chuckling at his expense.

“Don’t you have some wooing of your own to be getting to?” Rex growled at Jonathan.

“I’m just naturally lovable,” Jonathan chuckled back.

“Ha!” Natalie spat out.

“Well, you’re not going to be on my Christmas card list,” Jonathan offered back.

“Shows you how much attention you’ve paid — I don’t even like Christmas,” Natalie folded her arms and offered him a curious look, part challenge, and part disdain.

“I knew that,” Jonathan said quickly, but the scowl on his face said differently.

“Sure you did,” Natalie rolled her eyes away from him.

“Nice — wooing there, brother,” Rex chuckled.

“I need coffee!” Saffy gave a small shake of her head in disbelief. “No – alcohol!” She announced with a definite nod of conviction.

“I hear that,” Doug grumbled.

One mating in the pack would have been enough to upend everything — but three…

“I always need alcohol,” Tom chuckled.

It was something of a happy day for him when he could watch the upper echelon of the pack could make complete idiots out of themselves with their mates. He was going to enjoy it to its fullest.

“And something sweet,” Natalie’s mind turned towards pudding, any pudding would do, just as long as it had a gazillion calories — because in her mind if you were going to eat pudding then you might as well take the nuclear option.

“Apparently, Rex is sweet,” Saffy chuckled and managed to get a growl from all three shifters as each one resented her words for very different reasons.

Rex didn’t want to be thought of as sweet – he was a beta and beta’s certainly weren’t sweet.

The alpha didn’t like his mate calling his brother sweet. The only man that she should have been thinking about was him.

And Jonathan didn’t like his mate thinking about Rex at all, let alone the thought that Saffy might think that Natalie might prefer his brother over him. That was just wrong on so many levels that he couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

“Hark, a chorus of growls,” Jake chuckled.

“Cake — kitchen,” Jonathan growled out to his mate and even offered her direction by way of a pointing finger.

“That’s what I like — a man of few words that speaks my language,” Natalie chuckled.

Jonathan puffed out his chest with pride and grinned from ear to ear as he stole a look at Rex, and the beta sneered back at him. Natalie rolled her eyes once more and groaned inwardly — she certainly hadn’t meant to encourage her mate.

“It’s just a shame that it comes in the package of a muscle man. I much prefer strong of mind,” Natalie offered her words to no one in particular. She did notice that Jonathan’s chest deflated a little and considered it a job well done.

“Well, nobody is going to accuse Jonathan of being a rocket scientist,” Rex chuckled. He was glad to get his own back on his brother.

“Let’s go,” Jonathan directed his mate toward the kitchen with an outstretched hand.

“There’d better be cake in there,” Natalie warned him.

“I’m a man of my word,” Jonathan assured her. When Natalie drew level with him, he leaned in and whispered against her ear. “That’s why when I tell you I’m going to woo you — I’m going to woo you.”

Natalie tripped over her own feet and almost pitched headfirst to the floor. Luckily, Jonathan’s reflexes were lightning fast, and his arm came around her waist, yanking her back towards his chest, and causing a rush of shocked excitement to flare through her body.