~

 

The pack was on the hunt. Wolves covered the land.

Lewis was leading the charge, but the pack came from every direction, scenting the air, and looking for the unfamiliar vampire and the witch. Nestor’s witch.

‘Anyone else picking up on that scent of magic?’ Lewis growled at the unfamiliar.

‘Where are you? Did you find Aggie?’ Nestor’s worried tone echoed inside the Alpha's mind.

‘Warlock,’ Lewis growled in recognition. ‘I thought you said it was a vampire.’

‘It is a damn vampire,’ Nestor growled back.

‘Although, I scent a damn warlock!’

‘Kill him!’

‘Kill him?’ Lewis growled out in surprise.

‘If you don’t I will.’

‘Nobody is killing the warlock,’ Lewis could barely believe what he was hearing from the elder. Warlock or not — the pack didn’t kill humans for no reason.

‘Geez,’ Daniel growled. ‘Nestor’s a bit fang-ho today.’

‘Am not. But what if he’s her boyfriend?’ Nestor reasoned. Not that there was any real reasoning behind it, just the green eyed monster that was called jealousy.

‘Ah, Nestor’s jealous — that’s kind of sweet — in a girly kind of a way,’ Daniel chuckled.

‘It’s not jealousy. Annihilate competition. It’s good practice,’ Nestor growled back at the young beta.

‘If you say so,’ Daniel chuckled harder.

‘Still, nobody is killing the warlock until we find out if he’s working for the vampire or not.’ Lewis gave the order, and the pack would be guided by it. Otherwise, they would have to deal with the alpha’s wrath, and anyone stupid enough to go up against the alpha had better have a damn good reason to do it.

‘Well fine — if you want to be all alpha about it.’ Nestor grumbled, and if Lewis could have rolled his eyes in his wolf’s head, then he surely would have done it.

 

~

~

~

 

“You feel that?” Debbie asked.

They were sitting on the floor of the living room in a circle around the candles and other conduits that they had managed to scavenge from around the house. Mia eyed Jules.

“I felt it. You feel it?” She asked.

“I felt something, could have been gas…”

“Jules, be serious.” Debbie berated her.

“I felt it, Man magic. But, aren’t we supposed to be concentrating on finding Aggie’s magic? I figured the guy could wait his turn.” Jules shrugged her shoulders.

“Does he know that?” Debbie asked. “Because I definitely felt him reaching out to us – me – us?” She looked for confirmation from the others.

“Yep, he’s a nosey one,” Mia said, making a mental note to ask Lewis about him when the man returned.

“I call it rude. Intruding on a spell like that,” Jules added with a small huff of annoyance.

“So, what do we do about him?” Debbie frowned.

She agreed with Jules. The man shouldn’t have been fishing with his magic like that.

“Ignore him. Aggie’s what’s important right now.” Mia didn’t want to be distracted into a peeing contest with a guy that they didn’t know. A warlock to boot.

“What if he’s with the vampire?” Debbie asked.

“Then we can deal with him when Aggie’s safe,” Mia said.

She was determined to help Aggie and nothing much else mattered. At least, not until after the elder was back with them.

“Got it, ignore the intruder until the time when we need to put him in his place,” Debbie nodded.

“Yep, if he meddles we’ll hit him hard.”

 

~

~

~

 

“You know, you could have asked for my help,” Aggie said and got a hard glare back from the vampire for her trouble.

“What happened to you getting the last word and shutting up?” His tone was as hard as steel.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Aggie played for innocence.

“You did.”

“I think you got the wrong end of the stick.” Aggie rolled her eyes up to the sky and considered that for a long moment. “And by stick, I don’t mean whittled and pointy. Although, if you feel the need to throw yourself on one, don’t let me stop you. I’m not squeamish…”

“Witch, I’m warning you…”

“I know – I know – you have no qualms about killing me, yadda, yadda, yadda…”

Aggie felt the magic brush against her Shields. It heartened her because the magic was familiar, she’d felt it before, and she had no reason to deny it getting through.

Unlike the push of the magic from the warlock that she’d felt earlier. Not that she was going to tell the vampire about either encounter

“What just happened?” Cassius asked.

He’d seen a flicker of recognition on her face. There was a hint of relief in her eyes as if someone was throwing her lifeline.

Cassius didn’t like it. Now that he knew that she was a mate there were too many things that could go wrong.

“Say what?” Aggie played dumb.

“You know that I can just reach into your mind and steal your thoughts if I need to.” He challenged her.

“I’m a firm believer in privacy.” Aggie used the witches magic to bolster the wards and shields that she’d placed around her body to deter the vampire from such an attack.

“I’m not,” Cassius said. It didn’t take much for him to close the distance between them.

“Let’s not be hasty. Act in haste — repent at leisure,” Aggie warned.

It was a warning that she hoped he would heed. But when he knelt down in front of her, she had to guess that the man was going to do his own thing regardless of what she said.

That might not work out so well for her. She’d allowed the other witches access to her mind, to her magic, and if he could get into her mind, then he would be able to see that. All in all that would make her a much bigger threat to him.

Right then, she had an advantage, the upper hand that the vampire didn’t know about and she wanted to keep it that way.