~

 

Mia felt the heat of his body the moment that the alpha came up behind her. She braced for the impact that closeness would have on her senses.

Lewis didn’t touch his mate, even if every inch of his body, mind, and soul screamed out to do. That didn’t mean that he didn’t take in her scent and get as close as humanly possible.

“So where were we?” Lewis’ deep, gravelly tone raked over her skin and made the fine hairs stand up all over her body.

“We were arguing about me going outside to help Aggie,” she said, deflecting his question.

“Before that?”

“Before that, you were watching my backside while I was walking away from you,” she grinned at the thought.

“Okay, before that?”

“You mean the kissing?” Mia tried to dampen the rush of excitement within her, but it was no use. He was standing too close, rekindling those feelings again.

“That would be the one,” Lewis growled.

He couldn’t hold back the need to touch her a moment longer. His arm went around her waist, and he growled harder when she pressed back against his hard length.

Lewis couldn’t resist dipping his head toward her neck and taking her scent at the source. It was divine.

He brushed his lips against the soft skin of her neck, and she pushed back harder against him as if she just couldn’t get close enough. He could help her with that if she let him.

Mia’s mind focused on nothing more than what her body was feeling. It wanted more. She wanted more.

She wasn’t about to hold back a moment longer. She turned within the cage of his arms towards him, not letting a breath of air in between them.

The hard press of his desire for her against her stomach only made her need greater. The image of him naked in the woods flashed in her mind as her womb danced happily.

“Mia…”

Lewis got no further than her name on his lips before she’d pushed up onto tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. She’d never been so forward in her life before.

It was a moment of madness that caused a hungry growl to roll through his chest as one large hand got lost in the silken strands of her hair and he deepened the kiss.

 

~

~

~

 

“Could you be less witch and more mate?” Daniel growled out between clenched teeth as Jules magic receded from his body.

She’d zapped him a good one, and he couldn’t say that he was best pleased about it — he was trying to woo her, but with two left feet shoved firmly in his mouth — to say that things didn’t look good would be an understatement on his part.

“No!” Jules tossed up her hands in frustration. The man was a bullheaded numpty if ever she’d met one.

“No?” Daniel scowled hard as he pressed his lips together in frustration.

“Did I stutter?” She had the kind of victorious, smug smile on her lips that made him groan.

“When I said that you zapped me!” Daniel grumbled.

“That’s because when you said that you deserved it!”

Jules placed her hands on her hips, craned her head forward on her neck, and challenged him with raised eyebrows. Daniel‘s beast grumbled, growled, and clawed within him to be set free.

The wolf wanted its mate. Hell, he wanted her as well — he just didn’t know how to break through to the stubborn, feminine, illogical, down right mean, tough shell of an exterior to get to her soft center. That was assuming that she had one.

“I was just telling the truth. Geez, you really don’t have to tell anybody you’re a witch, do you?” Daniel growled back.

“You are seriously in danger of getting your furry backside kicked across your own land!” Jules warned.

“Oh, am I?” The sarcasm in Daniel’s voice annoyed her even more.

“Would you like me to demonstrate?” Jules challenged him once more.

“If you think you’re witch enough!” He wasn’t backing down.

“Oh, I’m witch enough!”

“Go ahead! Give it your best shot!”

Daniel sought of regretted the words the moment that they’d left his lips. He now had four paws stuck firmly within his mouth as a gleam of mischief flashed in her eyes. Her hand came up, the index finger came out and pointed at him, she circled her hand on her wrist — and he ended up flat on his backside on the floor.

Daniel was certain that his wolf chuckled at him. He’d never heard that from his beast before, and his pride took a nosedive into the pit of no damn return.

Daniel scrambled to get back up on his feet as he grumbled a growl of pure annoyance. Now, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to mate her or kill her.

She was exasperating, frustrating, and so damn cute with that look of mischief in her eyes that he couldn’t hold on to that level of annoyance a moment longer.

“Should I continue with my demonstration of backside kicking or are we done?” Jules asked.

“Oh – we are done!” He growled as he dropped his chin towards his chest and eyed her from beneath his dark eyebrows. “Or should I say — you’re done? But more importantly — I’m done.”

Jules narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She had no idea what he meant by that, and she was too proud to ask.

Asking meant it bothered her, and she wasn’t about to let him know that anything he did, or said, did that. She was sure that all would reveal itself in time — it was just a shame that she didn’t know how to speed up time.

“Good.”

“Fine.” He growled.

“Whatever.” She shrugged her shoulders. The fact that she was no better off in understanding what he was talking about gnawed at her.

A low, deep, growl rumbled within the man’s broad chest. Her eyes narrowed to tiny little slits as she waited to see what he would do next.

She kind of didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. Maybe less. Maybe more. After all, he was her mate.

Daniel’s lips pressed together as he fisted his hands at his sides and debated what he was going to do next. After delivering his speech, he should walk away, but his wolf didn’t like that idea, and his feet just wouldn’t move an inch.

Both of them jumped in place at the sound of a deep, vibrating howl that echoed through the house. Jules jaw sank downwards as she tried to comprehend what that sound meant.

“Jake!” Daniel growled at the thought of his brother, wooing, winning, claiming, and bonding with his mate.

“Debbie!” Jules gasped out in surprise and slapped her hand over her mouth as her eyes widened and she stared back at her mate. “You…!”

“What did I do?” Daniel looked flabbergasted.

He didn’t mind taking responsibility for his own screw ups, and he was getting used to the taste of his own feet in his mouth every time that he said something to her. Anything to her.

But there was no way in hell that he was going to take the blame for anything that his brothers did. He had enough damn troubles of his own to deal with.

Besides, Jake bonding with his mate wasn’t exactly a screw-up. In that moment, he hated his brother and envied the man at the same time.

Jake had his mate. He had his future all set out in front of him. A mate and family.

Daniel had to wonder if he would ever have the same thing.