CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

 

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 Mason knew there was another witch in his pack. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that, but as he stalked from the fishing hole where he hadn’t been fishing but had been contemplating life, his pack, and all that entailed — he just happened to be passing Joel’s cabin on his way back home.

A great sense of timing saw his journey coincide with the arrival of an unfamiliar car, the new witch in the driving seat, and, what look like Joel naked in the passenger seat.

Mason grinned to himself and wondered how entertaining this encounter might be. He could have walked on by, but the temptation to watch even a fleeting moment of the new mates together was just too much to ignore.

Mason wasn’t disappointed. The moment that Joel stepped out of the car the alpha had to bite down on a howl of laughter that threatened to escape his lips. He didn’t catch all of that laughter, and Joel’s head whipped around on his neck as he spotted his alpha standing in the bushes like a peeping Tom.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Mason’s face twisted and pulled as the man tried not to laugh too hard.

Joel took a long moment to close his eyes and kiss his backside goodbye. It would take a miracle if he ever lived this down. “It’s not that funny…”

“Oh, it’s funny,” Mason said as he finished his mobile out of his back pocket, swiped for the camera, and took a snap.

“Could people stop doing that?” Joel growled.

“I didn’t know you secretly wanted to be a cat,” Mason chuckled.

“It’s zebra…”

“No, it’s a cat,” Sandy assured him. “It even has a hood with little cat ears.”

Joel grumbled another growl and his mate’s intervention did nothing to lift his sour mood. “I thought it was a zebra,” he said, looking sheepish.

“And that’s why you’re wearing it?” Mason chuckled. “Because a zebra is so much better than a cat?”

“Because my mate objected to me being naked,” Joel growled.

“Then you have a bigger problem than an identity crisis, my friend,” Mason chuckle, spluttering laughter that he couldn’t quite keep in.

Joel fisted his hands at his sides, bit down on his annoyance, and fidgeted on his feet. “Still not funny.”

“Now, don’t go getting all sour-puss,” Mason giggled like a schoolgirl. His eyes had filled with happy tears, and the fact that Joel’s mate was sniggering into her hand didn’t help him hold onto his amusement.

Joel lifted his hand and pointed his finger at his alpha. There was so much he wanted to say that his mouth was chewing it over without words.

Mason lifted his hand in mock surrender as he spluttered more laughter at the man’s misfortune. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to capitalise on that misfortune — he had the picture on his phone, and he was prepared to use it. “Well, I’ll be going now — and I’ll leave you to woo your mate in a fluffy — manly way,” he chuckled harder, but he was as good as his word as he started off on fast feet away from the unhappy couple, and disappeared back into the bushes.

Joel turned toward Sandy and offered her a look of pure disbelief. “That’s exactly why I didn’t want to…” The booming sound of Mason howling with laughter made Joel bite down on his words, press his lips together in annoyance, and he groaned loudly.

“Too cute,” Sandy said as she snapped his picture once more.

Joel had the urge to headbutt a tree, just to make it stop. He was never going to live it down.

The only plus side was that he’d managed to persuade his mate to come home with him, and she’d been pretty reasonable about it. It had only taken an hour of arguing to get that far. Now that he had her at his cabin, well, he intended to woo her for his own.

Sandy looked at the sour expression on her mate’s face and spluttered more laughter. She’d all but given up arguing the fact that she didn’t want to go home with the man because they’d been going round in circles. She’d lost count of how many times he’d pointed out that he was going to follow her to ends of the earth and she believed him.

She could have zapped him, and Goddess knows there were times during that debate that she’d wanted to, but, darn it, she was just too nice a witch. Things really did have to change, or she was going to end up as a mate, and fate couldn’t be that cruel, could it?

Well, she guessed so because there she was looking at a big sexy shifter wrapped up in a purple fleece cat onesie with his broad, muscled chest just crying out for her fingertips to go walkabout.

Oh no, I’m toast! She groaned inwardly.

I should never have come home with him – but, that wasn’t my first mistake. I should never have stopped at the town – still, not my first mistake. I should never have come to the mountains. I should never have taken a holiday. I should never have gotten out of bed – like never ever. I should have lived like a hermit.

Boy, fate is one tough cookie to escape.

 

 

~

 

 

Sandy pulled open the door of the bathroom and there he was. His back was to her, but he was naked again, and she couldn’t help but take in the view. Damn stupid brain, one thought led to another thought — and they were all X-rated.

“Oh geez, I’m supposed to be seeing the mountains, not your Barenaked backside,” she grumbled and tried to look anywhere else, but it just wasn’t happening for her.

Joel finished pulling on his sweatpants and turned toward his mate with a big, wolfish grin on his face. Oh, how she’d like to zap that grin away.

He snatched up the purple onesie and held it up in front of him like a fresh kill — a trophy — and watched as his mate sneered at it. “Congratulations you killed a fake cat. I don’t want that now.” She said and folded her arms as she offered him a look of disgust.

“I don’t have a disease or anything,” Joel grumbled as he frowned at his mate’s attitude.

“Maybe not, but you have been rubbing your …”The look of disgust on her face changed to a little bit of embarrassment as she waved her hand absently toward him. “Bits — against it.”

“My – bits?” That wolfish grin turned into a teasing smile.

“We both know which bits I’m talking about,” Sandy said as she dropped her arms to her sides and started off across the room toward the kitchen area. She needed something to busy her from eyeballing his man chest, or even looking him in the eye.

Neither of those things was working for her. Bits indeed, what was she ten? She could have said the words, but saying those words would only make that X-rated floorshow in her head flash images she’d rather not think about, and she was having enough trouble keeping them at bay as it was.

Yep, she needed a plan — she needed an out — because she should never have gone with him in the first place.

Now she was on the back foot, and he was in the catbird seat. That wasn’t a good place to be.

“Those bits that you couldn’t stop looking at?”

Sandy’s jaw slid downward, and she wanted to zap him. Well, at least she knew that he wasn’t a gentleman – like she needed a reminder. “Someone’s ego is writing checks his body just can’t cash. I told you – a five on the hot scale,” she lied, and she had a feeling that he knew she was lying, but what else could she do?

It wasn’t like she was going to admit that he was hotter than hell on a day when Satan had turned off the furnace. She reached up to the kitchen cupboard and started to wrench open the doors in search of – well, she hadn’t thought that far ahead.

She spotted the mugs, and her heart raced as she thanked her lucky stars for the timely intervention of a coffee mug, and patted herself on the back for recognising one through the foggy, addled mess that was her brain. Sometimes fate was kind, but looking at her mate, it was also cruel, so very, very cruel.

 “You know, you might not be like the other witches around here zap first and ask questions — actually they don’t even bother asking questions, but you are like them in other respects…”

“Sorry to disappoint, and please do enlighten me,” she tossed back over her shoulder as she grabbed two mugs from the shelf.

“Deviousness,” he said, and she slowly turned toward him.

“Come again?”

“Love to — over and over again.” There was a smug, cocky, smirky look about that smile on his lips that she couldn’t pull her gaze away from. It annoyed her so.

“That’s it!” She tossed one mug at his head, mainly to free up a hand, and as he reached out and snatched it from the air — she flicked that hand on her wrist and dropped him onto his backside on the floor.

Things had changed — there was no more Miss nice witch. From that moment on — she was getting her mean witch on.