CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

 

 

~

 

“See this?” Thorn asked as he pointed to the size of the rack of ribs that he’d just placed on the barbecue as they sizzled and spat from the drips of the special sauce that he’d marinated them in overnight fell onto the open flames.

“No, I’m blind you old fool, of course, I can see that,” Martha snapped back.

“Well good.”

“Good that I’m blind?” Martha offered him a scathing glare.

“Take it any way you want it, little Mrs Cantakerous,” he grumbled back in the good-natured way that they’d fallen into since day one.

It was how they liked it.

Bree turned on her heels and walked back the way she’d come. She couldn’t have crept any more silently if she’d tried and her shoulders were practically up around her ears as she sneaked off like a burglar in the night.

“Where are you going?” Martha called after her and Bree stopped in her tracks – busted!

“Just thought I’d come back once the body was buried to see who survived,” Bree said as she turned back and shrugged her shoulders at being caught red-handed trying to escape with her sanity.

“Didn’t we say a barbecue?” Martha tossed back.

“We said a barbecue, but I’m kind of wondering if we’re going to be cooking him.” She offered Thorn a sheepish look that was tinged with sympathy.

“That’d be tasty,” Martha grinned. “Good idea.”

“Now wait a minute there,” Bree said. “I’m not getting the blame for this one.”

“Sure you are,” Thorn offered back with a sly little smirk.

“You know, I should just go set fire to the alpha’s tail if I’m going to get the blame for everything anyway,” Bree grumbled.

“Picking on wolves again?” Thorn teased her, and she tossed up a hand in his direction.

“See!” Bree huffed as she collapsed down on one of the hardwood deckchairs and followed it up with a sigh. “I’m never going to be given a second chance by that mean old alpha…”

“Mason’s firm, but he’s fair,” Thorn assured her, and she snorted another huff in disbelief. “Besides, this is your second chance.”

“How’s that?”

“He didn’t run you out of town, did he?”

“Not yet, but there’s always tomorrow, and besides – I don’t live in town,” Bree tossed back.

“Stop pouting you’re getting those little wrinkle lines,” Martha lied, and Bree’s hand went up to cover her mouth.

“Am not,” Bree said from behind her hand.

“And frown lines,” Martha berated her and Bree tried to stretch out her face as best she could. “Well, now you just look shocked and stupid.”

“Like Nathaniel when he was a pup and stayed too long inside a sealed room when he decided to paint his bike,” Thorn offered with a small chuckle at the memory.

“It’s not like everything didn’t turn out well, look how many wolves found their mates,” Bree said with a small shrug.

“Oh, happy day,” Thorn tossed back with a dry tone.

“Shut up and cook, you old buzzard,” Martha snapped at him.

“Okay, well, the others seem happy,” Bree said with a roll of her eyes. “Fate obviously planned for this eventuality – don’t you think?”

“Fate made me do it?” Martha snorted a chuckle. “There’s one I haven’t heard before.”

“Take some responsibility, Bree,” Thorn tossed back.

“I have – I did – I am,” she whimpered.

“Well then things tend to work out how they’re supposed to in the end,” Martha said.

“Even if we don’t always like the outcome,” Thorn lied.

“Like it’s fate,” Bree said with another small shrug. “See, fate did make me do it, but I’ve learned my lesson…” sort of – kind of – maybe-ish.

“We shall see,” Thorn said, eyeballing the witch until she crumpled a little.

“Stop berating the girl and cook the damn ribs before we waste away,” Martha snapped at him, and Thorn raised just one eyebrow back at her.

“No chance of that for you for a while,” he said, and got zapped for his trouble. “Gotta love witches,” he grumbled, “Noooo sense of humour.”

 

 

 

~

 

 

Fate was almost done with Bree’s spell. It had carried far and wide on the winds and had brought many a witch to the sleepy little town and to their pack mates, but there was one special surprise that fate still had in store for Bree, and that was heading her way on a Harley at breakneck speed. And as she sat there wishing that things would be different and that something would happen to make the alpha change his mind about her, so fate smiled upon her.

Bree was about to get her wish.

 

So very nearly the end.