~
“Yes, yes I did, honey,” Dusty relished getting his own back on her in some small way.
“Well, good for you, you numpty,” she hissed out, as she raised her chin from her chest, and eyed him with a death glare.
“Oh, honey, you say the sweetest things,” he growled as he folded his arms across his broad, muscled chest, and inflated his bulging biceps in the process.
“Don’t call me honey, you’re not a damn bear, you’re a bloody mutt,” she hissed back.
“So, by your thinking, you’re asking me to call you a bitch…?” Dusty teased, but the sound of a hard gasp from her lips gave him a second or two to re-evaluate what he’d said before she zapped him.
Paige might have zapped him only once, but she made damn sure it was as if he’d been Tasered. Dusty’s whole body quivered as she held him upright with her magic, and the moment that she let him go; he fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
“That’s witch to you, Muppet,” Paige hissed before she turned on her heels and stalked back into the house, slamming the door behind her with her magic, and letting out a shriek of annoyance.
Dusty lay on the ground; his eyes were open, and he’d watched his mate walk away. His wolf might have been clawing within him to follow her, but there was little that he could do about it.
He noted whose boots that it was that appeared in front of his face and he groaned inwardly. Raff leaned into view.
“Smooth move. Did you learn your wooing skills from your brothers by any chance?” A devilish grin spread across the vampire’s face, and Dusty only wished that he could move — he’d like nothing better than to plant his fist in the vampire’s face and knock that smile down the back of his damn throat.
Mine…
~
~
“Ooohhh, that man – that beta – that damn wolf in human skin,” Paige bit out. “I’d like to take a broomstick and shove it right up his damn…”
“Geez, Paige, over-reaction, or what?” Mel chuckled.
“You did this – you!” Paige pointed an accusing finger at her sister, and Mel’s eyebrows pinched together, she opened her mouth to speak but didn’t get anything out in time.
“Told ya it was your fault,” Kat sneered.
“One little potion for a vampire – who knew?” Mel rallied back in hot denial of her sisters accusing tones and glares.
“We did!” Her siblings snapped back in perfect harmony.
“Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?” Mel scoffed.
“You did it, undo it,” Paige snapped.
“You can’t undo fate,” Mel offered back.
“Well, you’d better find a way — or Dopey, Sneezy, and Growly are going to have their big furry feet well and truly under our bloody table — for life.” Paige snapped.
“Oh, the burning injustice of it all,” Kat grumbled.
“Who are you kidding? I saw the way you were looking at the alpha…” Mel snorted a chuckled.
“How was I looking at the alpha when I was looking at the alpha?” Kat folded her arms, raised her eyebrows, and demanded with a scathing look that her sister back up that accusation with facts.
“Like he was chocolate cake,” Mel tossed back.
“Liar — liar, if your nose gets any bloody longer somebody is going to get poked in the eye,” Kat grumbled.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Paige sighed. Dusty was eyeing her from across the way, and she felt a flash of something, but she wasn’t sure if that was excitement, nerves, or too much chocolate cake. “They’re conspiring.”
“They are men — it’s what they do,” Mel shrugged.
“Yes, it takes three of them to come up with a rational thought…” Kat said.
“That’s pushing the boundaries of probability,” Mel chuckled. “I can’t see the three of them ever coming up with a rational thought.”
“Harsh,” Kat chuckled.
“Really? I thought I was being overly generous.”
“But what are we going to do? It was different when it was just you two, but now I’m involved,” Paige grumbled. “Woe is me — fate sucks, and all that implies.”
“You never know,” Raff said, and all three witches turned in his direction at his unwanted intrusion. There he was, leaning his backside against the pickup truck, arms folded, ankles crossed, looking as relaxed and carefree as the only man who didn’t have a mate to woo, and with a smirk on his lips. “You could try it — you might like it.”
“That doesn’t apply to mates — that’s a new chocolate bar on the market — a new scented candle…” Paige grumbled.
“It’s not exactly sale or return,” Kat said as she narrowed her eyes on the vampire and wondered why the man felt he had skin in this game.
“No, but it will save me the job hunting the rogues down and killing them,” Raff offered in a matter of fact tone that caused all three of the females to turn their noses up at him.
“Just typical of a vampire — only ever thinking of yourself,” Kat snapped back.
“I’m just tossing the idea out there; heaven forbid that a witch did anything rational. Go ahead — plot — scheme — do your wickedly, witchy worst, but do you really think that fate is going to let you wiggle off the hook that easily?”
That gave the siblings food for thought. He watched as all three females grimaced when his words finally hit home.
~
~
“Look at them,” Grayson groaned. “Scheming — conspiring — typical witches,” he grumbled a growl. He hadn’t expected to meet his mate that day — he certainly hadn’t expected her to be a witch.
Who knew that wooing your mate could be so painful? Well, he did – now.
“They’re female, what you expect?” Parker grumbled.
“Why are we entrusting the vampire to keep an eye on them?” Dusty asked.
“Because we have to come up with a plan,” Parker said.
“A plan to do what?” Dusty was confused.
Wooing wasn’t a group affair, it was one on one thing, and it wasn’t going well for any of them. Dusty didn’t see how wasting time away from their mates was going to help that process.
“Well, if I have to spell it out for you then you’re not going to last five minutes with your little devious, she-demon of a witch mate,” Parker tossed back.
“My devious, she-demon of a witch mate? Nice description, by the way.” Dusty snorted a chuckle. “What about yours? She’s not exactly sweetness and light, you know?”
“Exactly,” Parker grumbled.
“Huh?” Dusty was even more confused.
“Geez, Dusty, keep up,” Grayson grumbled. “Witches are devious – those witches are plotting some evil doings right now, yours included, and we need a damn plan to stop them from…”
“Conspiring to do us harm?” Dusty asked.
“Exactly,” Parker growled.
“Then why are we standing here with our thumbs up our backsides letting them plot?” Dusty grumbled, and Parker grunted.
“He has a point,” Grayson said with a shrug.
“I know he has a damn point, but that’s not the point,” Parker growled in annoyance.
“Wait, the point is not to let them conspire, or to let them conspire while we come up with a plan to stop them from conspiring?” Dusty reached up and scratched his head in confusion.
“I – don’t – know,” Parker said, equally confused by his brother’s dumb question, and his whole damn reason for being at that point.
“So, let’s go stop them conspiring, and get them back to pack land,” Grayson grumbled in annoyance. There was too much plotting going on from both sides for his liking, and he’d much rather get to the damn wooing part.
“That’s problematic,” Parker said.
“Which damn part?” Grayson growled, he was getting frustrated by the inaction of their not-a-plan-plan.
“Pack land,” Parker offered, but he was still trying to sort through Dusty’s original question in his mind.
“Why the hell is that problematic?” Grayson growled.
“They’re mates; they should be on pack land,” Dusty offered with a shrug. He couldn’t see the objection to that plan.
“I know that,” the alpha growled, eyeing his brother as if the man had just thrown up down the front of him. “But, how the hell are we going to get them there? Can you see your damn mate agreeing to go off on a magical mystery tour to home?”
“We need a plan,” Grayson offered thoughtfully.
“That’s what I said,” Parker growled in annoyance.
“No, you said we need a plan to stop the witches conspiring,” Dusty offered back, and wished he’d kept his mouth shut when the alpha’s large fist slammed against his chin and sent him reeling backwards.
“Okay, let’s start again,” Parker growled with satisfaction. “We need a plan.”
Grayson groaned.