~

 

Mia had tossed up every ward that she could possibly think of and reinforced her shields around her body to keep the alpha’s attention at bay. The man looked as if he was fighting a war within himself and she didn’t want to be on the losing side of that battle.

A sniff was just a sniff — unless that sniff led to a mate. Mia only needed to look at Debbie to realize that it was a possibility that she didn’t want to risk.

A mate was bad enough, but an alpha? She could write a list of all the ways that would be bad.

“Please stop looking at me with your beady eyes,” Mia muttered out as she flicked Lewis a sideways glance and shuddered at the thought of being a mate.

“Well, first of all, I don’t have beady eyes, and secondly, it’s not my eyes you have to worry about.” Lewis didn’t like the fact that she was worried about anything to do with him.

“That’s right,” Aggie piped up. “It’s his hands — these guys have more hands than an octopus — if an octopus had hands.” She offered the Alpha steely gaze.

“And you know this because…?” Jules asked, on the muted sound of a chuckle that she was trying to keep in.

“I haven’t always been old,” Aggie admonished.

“But have you always been annoying and superior?” Koren snorted his contempt for her.

“Where you’re concerned, definitely.” Aggie offered him the kind of glare that he was glad didn’t come with magic attached.

“We need some alone time,” Jake said, startling his mate with his deep tones and sudden words.

“Alone time?” Debbie looked at him as if he just gone and thrown up on her shoes.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Jules said, and when Debbie’s eyes snapped sideways towards her, she offered her an over exaggerated beaming smile of amusement and glee.

“You spend time with him then,” Debbie bit out. She couldn’t believe that her friend was trying to throw her under the mating bus.

“Or you could just spend time with me,” Daniel leaned in towards Jules and offered, and the smile dropped from her face faster than a Brussel sprout could cause gas.

“If you’re feeling left out then go buy a puppy,” Jules snapped at him.

The sudden realization that she was in the same boat as Mia dawned on her, and she didn’t much like it. She reinforced the magic to her shields and tried to think of a timely ward that might help.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Daniel shot back.

The beta folded his muscled arms across his broad chest and made his biceps twice as big. She noticed.

The other thing she couldn’t help to notice was the slow to boil grin that spread across his face. It had kept her bewitched there for a moment.

“Well, your Wolf could have hours of fun frolicking across pack land with a little puppy sidekick.” She sneered back.

“If it didn’t eat it first,” Aggie grumbled.

“Well, aren’t you just the barrel of fun and laughter?” Koren eyed the elder witch as if he expected the woman to attack at any moment.

“Don’t you have a blood bag to suck on?” Aggie sneered at the bloodsucker.

The man was jumping up and down on the elder’s very last nerve. If he wasn’t careful that nerve was going to snap.

“I prefer the real thing. I’d ask if you’d like to open a vein, but then we both know that most of your blood is venom with the rest being acid.” Koren said.

“It can be. Why don’t you give me a small while to make that happen and then we’ll do lunch,” Aggie sneered back at the man.

“Tempting — not. I wouldn’t feed from you if you were the last vessel on earth.”

“Sure you would, that little self-preservation gene of yours would switch right on.”

“Would you two like some privacy?” Lewis growled.

At any other time the banter between the witch and the vampire would be annoying, but right then, the alpha was desperately fighting a war of willpower between himself and himself — it was just a question of which one would win.

“I think that’s the diplomatic way of saying — get a room,” Jules chuckled.

“Well, look at you,” Aggie turned her steely gaze towards the younger witch. “Little Miss Chuckles. Has anyone sniffed you yet?”

“Don’t even go there, Aggie,” Jules said, folding her arms and scowling back at the elder.

When Daniel shuffled on his feet beside her, Jules weighed the measure of the man from head to toe with one hard stare.

“What?” Daniel frowned at her.

“Just one more step and you’ll be picking up your balls from the floor,” Jules warned.

“I was shifting my weight,” Daniel protested.

“Just so long as that’s all you’re shifting, shifty,” Jules grumbled.

“Shouldn’t we be preparing this spell so that we can do it and get out of here?” Mia asked.

“Hello,” Debbie raised her hand and waved it over Jake’s shoulder again. “Aren’t you forgetting something really important — like me?”

“Lost and cause comes to mind,” Aggie reasoned with a small shrug of her shoulders, and a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“I don’t have to be a mate,” Debbie rushed out without even thinking about her words.

“And the moon could take a night off,” Aggie shot back.

The sound of the loan, deep growl that rumbled in Jake’s chest snatched Debbie’s gaze right back to the man. As the vibrations from that continuous growl traveled over her body, she had to swallow down hard against the wave of guilt that rushed up on her.

“No offense.” Debbie winced slightly when Jake narrowed his eyes on her.

“It happens all the time,” Jake offered back as the sound of his beast rumbled under his words.

“Really,” Debbie asked, tipping her head to one side like a curious beast.

“No!” Jake bit out in disbelief. “How many mates do you think a man gets?”

Debbie opened her mouth as if to speak. She paused and rolled her eyes up towards the ceiling, and her brain kicked her backside into gear.

She decided that her best defense was to say nothing, and yet, when she looked at him again, he was still questioning her sanity with just a look. She huffed inside.

“I see your point,” she muttered so quietly that he had to strain his Wolf’s hearing just to pick up her words.

“About that spell,” Mia tried again.

She wanted to be out from under the Alpha's gaze. As far away as she could get from the man — Barbados would have been her number one destination, but closer to home, her home, would have been fine too.

After all, she didn’t want him sniffing. Sniffing was the enemy. The enemy that threatened her future freedom from all things mates related.

“I can take care of the preparations,” Aggie said waving a dismissive hand in the air, and Mia’s heart sank into her stomach.

“No, no you can’t,” Mia offered back quickly, pleading with the witch with her whole being and especially her eyes.

“Sure I can.” Aggie brightened considerably. The big beaming smile lodged on her face, and her eyes were alive with mischief.

“But… You don’t want to,” Mia’s stare turned from pleading to desperation.

“Sure I do. I like me some alone time.”

The wickedly evil chuckle that escaped Aggie’s lips practically slapped Mia right between the eyeballs. She groaned inwardly.

“And that will give the alpha some you time,” Koren offered the younger witch with a toothy grin and a need not to be outdone in wickedness and the stirring of the proverbial pot by the elder witch.

“Look, if I were going to have a mate, it wouldn’t be a Wolf, it would be a unicorn,” Mia bit back.

“There aren’t any unicorn shifters anymore,” Daniel chuckled at the thought of it.

“Don’t tell that to the unicorn shifters,” Jules snorted at the man’s ignorance.

“What is this, My Little Pony?” Daniel wasn’t about to be tricked into looking stupid again.

“How the hell do you know about My Little Pony?” Jules looked the man up and down as if he just peed on her shoe.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Daniel grumbled back. He’d made a rod for his own back, and he wasn’t happy about it.

“He’s a closet Brony,” Jake offered back over his shoulder with a grin that Daniel felt the urge to plant his fist on.

“Am not!” Daniel growled with annoyance.

“What’s a damn Brony?” Aggie demanded. She didn’t like to come up short in a conversation.

“It’s a male fan of the ponies show,” Jake snorted a chuckle at his brother’s expense.

“I am so going to…” The hard growl rumbled in Daniel’s chest.

“Sing the My Little Pony song?” A snort of laughter escaped Jules' lips. “You do know it, right?”

Daniel dragged his hard gaze away from the back of Jake’s head and turned it towards Jules. His eyes narrowed, he looked as if he was chewing a wasp, and he drew in a long, deep breath into his lungs and puffed out his impressive chest.

“Yes,” Daniel bit out the word as if it was a sour taste on his tongue. “Would you like to sing it with me?” He offered back with a dry tone and a no nonsense look.

“Sorry, I’m not into cartoons. I prefer to live in the real world.” Jules offered him a wicked grin of victory. But when the man took one long step towards her that victory felt very hollow. “Back off.”

“Why? Did the real world just get scary?” Daniel snatched her victory from her and grasped it with his hands. “What say I give you just a little sniff?”

Jules didn’t wait for the man’s next move as haste seemed to be her best friend right about then. Her magic was already at her fingertips, and she didn’t think twice as she balled a fist and launched it at his nose, backing up the blow with just a dollop of magic.

Daniel’s head snapped back on his neck from the strength of her magical punch, but his feet didn’t move an inch against the ground. He slapped his hands over his nose as the pain shot through him, a hearty growl rumbled within his chest, and his eyes narrowed in disbelief and shock as they welled up with tears.