~

“Okay, you,” Mel said as she stood on one side of Paige, folding her arms, lifting her eyebrows, and staring down at her sister with an expectant look.

“Me?” Paige frowned.

She didn’t know what she was supposed to have done to earn Mel’s raised eyebrows this time, but she was sure that she was going to hear about it, and probably at great length.

“You,” Kat said as she stood on the other side of Paige and mirrored her twin’s stance.

“Medusa meet Medusa — and unless you have something productive to actually say to me…”

“What was that?” Mel demanded, and Paige lifted a hand and dropped it to her side again as she sighed.

“Do I look like a mind reader to you?” Paige grumbled.

“You know what you were doing,” Kat said as she curled her top lip in a little sneer.

“Trying to act all innocent,” Mel added.

“Okay, you caught me — I’m guilty — you get the wooden stake,” she said pointing at Mel before she turned her attention to Kat, “and you get the rope and matches, and we’ll burn the witch.”

“Don’t try to deflect,” Mel grumbled.

“Yes, Mel is the deflection Queen…”

“Thank you, I am rather good at it,” Mel offered to Kat as she peered around Paige.

“Welcome,” Kat shrugged before turning her attention back to Paige who sighed again. “What’s with batting your eyelids at Dusty?”

“I’m sorry, I was doing what now?” Paige said. It was her turn to raise her eyebrows up toward her hairline. Her sisters could be challenging to deal with at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of times.

“They were fluttering so hard that I thought you had to butterflies slapped to your eyelids,” Mel said.

“I was not…” Paige started in hot denial, but as usual, her sisters weren’t listening.

“Little Miss flirty,” Kat said in an accusing tone that rubbed Paige up the wrong way.

“I was not flirting…” Paige snapped.

“Flirty pants,” Mel snorted.

“Leave my panties out of this…” Paige bit out.

“Are they in fear of dropping around your ankles?” Kat demanded.

“What?” Paige shrieked.

“I think she’s ready to cave to that shifter…” Mel said.

“That shifter is my mate,” Paige snapped out.

“Oh, so you admit it!” Mel said with a victory sneer. “She admits it!” she said to Kat.

“I admit nothing!” Paige ground out as she turned a look of disbelief at Mel. She’d just about had enough of being interrogated by her damn sisters. Batting her eyelashes, indeed!

“Too late — you can’t take it back now,” Kat informed her.

“I’m not taking anything back because I didn’t admit to anything,” Paige grumbled as she turned a frosty stare on Mel and then Kat. “What’s with you two?”

“We’re just looking out for you, sister,” Mel shrugged.

“Yes, looking out for you,” Kat echoed.

“Funny, and not in a ha-ha way, but I feel less looked out for and more guilty until proven innocent,” Paige grumbled.

“So, you like that shifter?” Mel demanded as she leaned in slightly toward her sister.

“What?” Paige tossed out, looking around her as if she couldn’t quite find what she wanted. “Am I being filmed or something? Is this the damn twilight zone?”

“You’d like it to be, wouldn’t you?” Kat tossed back, and she noted the way Mel looked at her as if she had a bad smell under her nose while she questioned her with just a look. Kat shrugged — she was grasping at straws, and this had been Mel’s idea to start with.

“I see you didn’t deny it,” Mel said, getting back on track after Kat had almost derailed the whole plan.

“Deny what?” Paige demanded in frustration as she stomped her foot on the floor and eyed Mel as if she were the enemy.

“That you like him — say it — say it — go on,” Mel harassed her until she heard her sister give a little squeak in the back of her throat. That was when Kat took over.

“Go ahead — what are you waiting for? Say it — say you like him…”

“Or are you ashamed of him?” Mel demanded.

“Yes!” Paige shrieked in frustrated annoyance. “Yes! I like him. Where’s the harm? He is my bloody mate after all!”

“I win — you lose — she cracked,” Mel said with the widest grin that stretched from ear to ear that Paige had ever seen, and the witch even did little victory dance.

“You…!” Paige bit out in annoyance.

“Geez, Paige, could you not have held out for like … ever?” Kat grumbled. She hated losing to Mel.

“Sometimes — ohhh!” Paige bit out as she deflated in front of them.

“Don’t take it to heart, sister. There are two of us and only one of you, and we’re so much better at it,” Kat chuckled.

“Better at being bitches?” Paige pretended to think on that for a moment. “Yep.”

“But,” Mel grinned as she lifted her hand and poked her in the shoulder with her index finger. “You like him.” She chuckled.

“Oh, shut up!” Paige bit out in disgust as she stomped away from the pair of them.

“Paige and Dusty sitting in a tree…” Mel sang as Kat sniggered.

“Here’s one for you, sisters,” Paige called back over her shoulder. “Diana, hear my call, a swift hunt for their hearts, and capture all.” She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers.

Mel and Kat stared after her. The smiles on their faces slowly dropped as Paige’s spell registered in their minds and set the alarm bells ringing.

“What?” Mel shrieked as they started off after her.

“You take that back,” Kat called.

“Bite your damn tongue!” Mel added.

“Or we’ll make you!” Kat agreed.

Paige stopped abruptly and spun back towards them. She held up her hands, palms towards them, then she cocked just one eyebrow.

“So much as one little zap and I’ll seal that plea in stone,” she warned in a sickly sweet voice, a slow smirk growing on her lips.

“Let’s not be rash,” Mel rushed out.

“Harsh, Paige. I didn’t know you had it in you. I thought it was just Mel that had an evil streak.”

“Hey!” Mel snapped, and Kat shrugged.

“Say it ain’t so,” she challenged her twin.

“Meh,” Mel shrugged.

 

~

~

 

“Kat,” Parker was hard on his mate’s heels as she rushed down the hallway.

“Have you seen Paige? I have a bone to pick with her?” Kat tossed back over her shoulder. She was going to find her sister and make sure that she took that stupid mating spell back and fast.

“We need to talk…”

“Not right now we don’t. You’re the last person I need to be around,” Kat bit out, but when he wrapped his hand around her upper arm and yanked her to a halt, she found herself looking up into his sexy eyes. “Definitely a bad idea,” she sighed.

“Finding the witch that did this is a bad idea?” She couldn’t take her eyes off his expressive eyebrows as they crinkled and rose up at each other like two battling caterpillars.

That just looked cute, and she hated cute.

“What?” she snapped out of it. “No, that’s a good idea.”

“Then what were you talking about?”

“Not a damn thing,” she lied. She could feel the heat rise and her cheeks grew hot, and she knew they’d gone a deep shade of guilty-as-hell red.

“Oh,” there was a slow to boil, sexy as hell smile that started on his lips, drew her in, and kept her spellbound until it was a huge, knowing grin.

“Oh, shut up,” she bit out in annoyance. Busted.