~

 

“I’m trying to tell you — it wasn’t…” Natalie protested, but this time she was cut off by the kitchen door being slammed open and Christie stomping across the room toward the front door.

“Why don’t you go and shove your head up your backside — then you can truly smell what’s coming out of your mouth,” Christie tossed back behind her as Rex stormed across the room hard on her heels.

“All I said was…” He started to protest, but she cut him off. She didn’t want to hear it.

“Trust me, if you repeat it, you’ll regret it!” Christie hissed out the warning over her shoulder as she reached up for her jacket and yanked it from the hook.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Rex demanded.

“Gee, I thought I’d go to the toilet — it’s kind of cold in there.” Christie rolled her eyes at the beta as she shrugged into her jacket, and yanked the zip right up to her neck.

“This side of your personality is an eye-opener,” Rex shot back.

“Run then — be gone — I wouldn’t want to inflict my personality on you a moment longer.”

Rex growled long and hard. Christie wasn’t going to wait around for his reply, she turned on her heels, and yanked open the front door to a blast of freezing cold wind that took her breath away.

If she was thinking rationally, then she may have thought that outside wasn’t the best option for her. But she wasn’t thinking rationally — she just wanted to get some air and escape her mate before she did something to him that they might both have regretted.

Christie forced herself to take that step outside into the winter wonderland, where the wind was whistling, the snow was falling, and Jack Frost was certainly out and about. She groaned inwardly, and then she used her magic to slam the door behind her in her mate’s face.

“Damn witches,” Rex growled. Then the man jumped in place as a zap of magic hit him right in the backside.

A rumble of an angry growl rolled through his chest as he turned his eyes toward Natalie. The witch pulled her head back on her neck and stared in surprise at the beta.

She was about to say something when Jonathan growled a warning in return. He’d defend his mate to the hilt — even if she was wrong to use her magic on his brother.

“That…” Natalie started again, but Rex cut her off.

“Somebody needs to teach somebody a lesson about something around here!” Rex growled out before he reached for the handle and yanked open the front door and got blasted by the wind. He slammed the door shut behind him.

Jonathan slowly twisted his head back around toward his mate. His dark eyes stared back into hers.

“Okay, now that wasn’t…” She started to protest again, but when Jonathan’s face twisted in pain, and he groaned out another growl, she stopped and drew on her magic.

“I really am warning you-you are jumping up and down on my very last nerve,” Jonathan growled.

“Shut up!” Natalie hissed.

“Excuse me?” Jonathan growled back.

“I’m trying to concentrate,” Natalie hissed at her mate. She pushed her magic out in search of another’s, and what she found surprised her.

“What so you can zap me again?” Jonathan grumbled.

“Faeries!” Natalie announced on a Eureka moment. “Damn faeries! I should have known it!” She said in triumph.

Jonathan pushed away from her. His head swiveled from one direction to the other as his eyes took in the room.

“Where?” He demanded as he looked this way and that trying to locate the devious little beasties.

“That — I don’t know yet, but I will find them,” Natalie assured him.

“Sniff them out!” Jonathan growled at the thought of faeries still being inside with them.

“Not a wolf!” Natalie offered back.

“Okay, Fae them out,” Jonathan grumbled back.

“What does that even mean?” Natalie demanded.

“I have no idea,” Jonathan grumbled with a small shake of his head.

“I think he means do your witchy stuff and find the bad, evil, small people,” Jake chuckled.

“Hey, you didn’t just get zapped,” Jonathan said as he turned to look at his mate. “That was them right?”

“A lot more than it was me,” Natalie felt kind of relieved to finally get that off her chest. “And if you’d listen to me instead of being a big growly bully then you would have found that out a lot sooner, wouldn’t you?” She berated him.

“Can we just find the faeries?” Jonathan grumbled.

Of course, she was right, and he was an idiot — he’d make that up to her, but later.

“Well, we would have found them sooner too if you hadn’t of been a big growly bully, wouldn’t we?”

Natalie’s question was rhetorical. She was already forcing out her magic, trying to locate the faeries and boy, did she have a bone to pick with them.

“Bitch slapped by the witch,” Jake chuckled and raised another growl from Jonathan.

“It’s not just witches that can pull that one off — trust me,” Tom grumbled.

“Oh, I know. But they’re just so good at it,” Jake chuckled again as he offered a smug look towards the beta. “I think they have it programmed into their DNA.”

“Can we please just find the faeries!” Jonathan growled.

“Well, if you’d all just shut up and let me concentrate…” Natalie sighed.

She knew that they were men, but did they have to be so male about it?

“There!” Jake exclaimed.

Jonathan’s head snapped around on his neck in all directions because the vampire hadn’t told him exactly where to look.

“Where?” Jonathan growled in expectation.

“I don’t know; I just wanted to see your head swivel around on your neck,” Jake chuckled.

“It’s not funny — they are damn faeries!” Jonathan growled at the vampire.

“Yes, not a plague of locusts,” Jake offered back in a dry tone that mocked the shifter. “Annoying — but relatively harmless.”

The vampire knew that he’d spoken too soon the moment that their magic hit him hard. His whole body felt as if someone had thrown him through a wood chipper, and he didn’t appreciate it. Especially, as he was sticking up for the faeries at the time.

“Bet someone just changed their tune,” Jonathan offered with a smug grin toward the vampire.

Natalie felt the pull of their magic and sidestepped her mate so that she could follow it. She was heading towards the Christmas tree — that damned Christmas tree again!

How she hated Christmas.

“That’s a Christmas tree, dear,” Tom chuckled.

“Do you see them?” Jonathan was right beside her, and she twisted her head to look at him, and then pulled it back on her neck as she curled her top lip in dismay.

“Not so close, wolfie,” she sneered.

“I’m trying to protect you,” Jonathan offered back.

“Ha! You’re going to protect me from fairy magic?” She chuckled.

“Do you see them?” Jonathan growled. His beast didn’t appreciate her sense of humor either.

“Yes, there’s one sitting on your shoulder,” she offered back, the sarcasm was dripping from her voice. That didn’t stop Jonathan reaching up and brushing both shoulders off just in case.

“He’s not really worried about faeries — he has dandruff issues,” Jake chuckled.

“I’m warning you vampire,” Jonathan growled.

“So, you’re picking a fight with the faeries, with me, and with the vampire?” Natalie rolled her eyes. “How like a beta.”

“How am I picking a fight with anyone?” Jonathan growled back.

“I don’t know. From what I can tell any one of us can knock you on your ass,” she grinned. He didn’t appreciate the grin or her words. His beast was challenged enough; it didn’t need another one.

“Bitch slapped again,” Tom chuckled.

“I have not been bitch slapped,” Jonathan growled.

Natalie couldn’t resist — she lifted her hand and slapped him around the back of the head. Jonathan yanked his head back on his neck and looked at her with complete shock on his face.

“Now you’ve been bitch slapped.” Natalie shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t believe you did that!” Jonathan growled.

The sound of the vampire and the elder roaring with laughter made him grumble out a string of curse words. The slap hadn’t hurt, well, not anything but his pride.

“I could see that one coming from a mile off,” Tom chuckled with tears in his eyes.

“He certainly walked right into it,” Jake chuckled back.

“Can we just find the damn faeries?” Jonathan growled.

“They’re right there,” Natalie lifted both hands and motioned towards the Christmas tree.

Jonathan’s head snapped around on his neck, and his eyes glared at the tree. He couldn’t see the faeries — but he still wanted to rip someone’s head off.

“What the hell is going on down here?” Doug growled from the top of the stairs. Saffy walked up behind him and peered down into the room.

“Faeries!” Jonathan growled.

“Not again!” Doug grumbled.

He would much rather have been back in the bedroom with his mate wooing her than worrying about stupid, damn faeries.

“An alpha’s work is never done,” Saffy chuckled from over his shoulder, but Doug could find no amusement in the situation.

He started down the stairs, grumbling and growling, and cursing with every loud thud that came from his feet against the wood. He had no time for faeries, and certainly no love for them.

“Where?” he demanded.

“The Christmas tree!” His brother offered back, pointing, and Doug guessed that was just in case he’s had some kind of brain fart and didn’t know what that was.

Doug stalked across the room, bent at the waist, reached in for the base of the tree, and yanked the whole thing — pot and all — up in the air.

“Don’t you dare!” Saffy’s voice rang out from the top of the staircase.

Doug’s head snapped around, and his eyes took her in as he froze in place. She looked kind of like a she-demon as she slapped her hands on her hips and glared down at him.

“Huh?”

“If you want to stand any chance in hell of mating with me then you had better unhand that damn Christmas tree!” Saffy’s words echoed from the rafters and slammed into his brain – where they ping-ponged around for a long moment.