~

“You look like Betty,” Peter, the old alpha of the pack, and the brothers father said, as the elder stared up at Mel with a curious expression from the wingback chair next to the open fireplace that flickered with low flames. “But why am I seeing two of you?” He looked a little confused.

“I think you might have hit your head,” Mel offered back, unsure what to tell him. She didn’t want to burst his bubble; he looked so happy when she’d walked in the door.

“I did?” Now, he looked even more confused at her offhand explanation, and Mel felt a pang of guilt.

“Help me out here,” Mel whispered to her sister, but Kat was preoccupied with something else. Mel elbowed her in the ribs, and she grumbled at the pain.

“Do you sense that?” Kat offered back, ignoring the way her sister had tried to get her attention.

“I…” Mel shrugged.

“Reach for it — it’s faint — but it’s here,” Kat offered back.

“What’s here?” Parker asked, looking around the log cabin for signs of an intruder. His beast thrust forward within him, ready to protect the mates from whatever the witch had sensed. He scented the air but came up with only those present.

“Magic,” Kat said.

Mel did as her sister asked and reached out with her magic to find the source of what Kat could feel.

“Bedroom,” the sisters said as one, and they started across the room together for the open doorway.

“Hold on!” Parker was in front of them in a heartbeat. He put his body between the mates and danger and his wolf protested their rash actions in the midst of danger.

“There’s nobody in there,” Kat said, trying to sidestep her mate, but he countered that movement.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t counter Mel’s at the same time, and she ducked by him and entered the room to the sound of an annoyed growl that rumbled behind her.

“You snooze, you lose,” Mel tossed back over her shoulder.

“We all need to have a conversation about following orders,” Parker grumbled another growl in annoyance.

“It’s fine,” Kat said. “We understand that you’re not good at taking orders, but we know you’ll get the hang of it after awhile.”

“You really are — different,” Parker grumbled as he eyed her from beneath his furrowed brow, trying his damndest not go alpha-crazy on her backside and put his foot down too hard and too fast at their disrespect for his authority.

“You better believe your butt I am,” Kat chuckled back. Her eyes were alive with amusement, but she couldn’t say the same for her mate. “Relax, Alfie, it’s better to just to go with the flow than fight it.”

“Witches!” Peter announced with a growl. “Parker, there’s witches!” He lifted his hand and pointed an accusing finger at Kat.

“There’s a shocker,” Kat said, lifting her hand and patting the alpha on the shoulder. “I have work to do; maybe you should explain it,” Kat said, sidestepping the alpha and following her sister into the bedroom.

“Why are there witches in my bedroom?” Peter demanded, even more, confused than he had been before as he strained to look around his son into the other room.

“We’re looking for something,” Parker tried to reassure him as he kept a watchful eye on the sisters from the doorway.

“In my bedroom?” Peter scowled.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Mel shot a sideways glance at Kat.

“Chocolate cake with cream?” Kat smile back.

“Oh, that sounds good,” Mel grinned, but that didn’t stop her from strolling across the room towards the large wooden sleigh bed.

“It would have to be somewhere he spends a lot of time,” Mel nodded as she stood on the other side of the bed and swept her gaze around the area. The rafters showed no signs of anything untoward.

“That would be perfect,” Kat agreed.

“And if not over the bed,” Mel said, and both witches got down on their hands and knees to look under the bed.

“Oh — no,” Kat bit out, and Parker snapped his attention around toward the witches.

“What is it?” Parker demanded as he stalked into the room.

“Here be magic,” Mel offered.

“In English,” Parker growled.

“It’s a poppet,” Kat said over her left shoulder as she offered Mel a look of disbelief under the bed.

“What’s a poppet?” Parker rumbled a growl in his throat. Whatever it was, the witches didn’t seem to like it, and if they were nervous then so was he.

“Well, that one is a doll woven in straw,” Kat said.

“How’d that get there?” Parker asked.

“I’m not a bloody psychic — I have no idea,” Kat tossed back.

“Pass it here,” Parker demanded.

“I’m not touching it,” Kat bit out in disbelief.

“Me either,” Mel snorted her contempt for that idea.

“Out of the way and I’ll grab it,” Parker said.

“No!” The witches said as one.

“No?” Parker grumbled back.

“Poppets are powerful things, and you don’t go messing with a powerful thing until you know what you’re dealing with and how to handle it,” Mel warned him.

“And that’s what’s made the elders go a little…” Parker didn’t want to say the words, not with his father in the next room.

“Loopy Lulu,” Mel whispered back.

“Something like that,” Parker growled.

“Unless there’s another reason it’s here, which would be a really big coincidence, I’d say yes,” Kat said.

“So if we can’t touch it — then how the hell do we get it out of here?” Parker asked.

“First, we have to bind it with magic — then we can remove it,” Mel offered back.

“And then he’ll be alright?” Parker demanded.

“His natural healing abilities should take over and wash the magic from his body, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. How many elders exactly?” Kat asked.

“Six,” Parker growled.

Whoever had done that — he was going to make them pay. Witch mates or not, there was one witch that was going to real damn sorry that she messed with his pack.

“Then we have five more poppets to find and neutralise,” Kat said to her sister, determined to end the elders misery, and glad that it was only poppets that they were dealing with and not some kind of potion that was harder, if not impossible to remove.

“Izzy whizzy, let’s get busy,” Mel shrugged.

“What can I do?” Parker asked.

“Are you a witch?” Kat demanded.

“I’m all shifter, baby,” Parker growled back. But it was the newfound look of relief on his face that warmed her. He looked as if a giant weight had been lifted from his broad shoulders.

“Then you can get your big man-self out of the way and let the females handle this,” Mel grinned.

“I know when I’m not wanted,” Parker chuckled, and he turned back towards his kin – satisfied that the elders plight was soon to be over.

Now, he only needed to find the witch responsible, and he had an idea of where to look.

“Hardly,” Kat tossed back over her shoulder and heard him grunt.

She caught sight of Mel grinning at her from the other side of the bed, and that grin was knowing – too knowing, and she resented the fact that at times, Mel seemed to know her better than she knew herself.

Kat just hoped that wasn’t one of those times – if it was then she was toast where the alpha’s charms were concerned.