~

“Kat,” Parker followed hard on his mate’s heels as she stalked away.

The witch was bound by magic, and Raff had volunteered to make sure she was back on the East coast by the morning light. But the alpha could sense that it still felt like unfinished business to his mate.

She was still unsettled, still as angry as hell, and stalking back through the woods as if each step was designed to put a hole in the ground was a sure sign that she needed soothing.

When Kat didn’t answer him, he reached out, wrapped his large hand around her wrist, and pulled her back toward him. When her eyes met his, he could still see the anger burning there.

“Paige could have died, and she gets away with it,” Kat bit out, in two minds about whether to go back and finish the job that she’d started.

“Do you blame me for this?” Parker asked.

“What? No,” she said with a small shake of her head.

“Then talk to me — don’t shut me out. It’s what a mate is for.”

“Enacting vengeance on a bitch-witch?”

“If need be.”

“Oh, I have a need,” Kat said, tossing up her other hand in frustration and letting it drop back down to her side with a slap.

“Do you really want to kill the witch?” Parker wasn’t going to allow it to happen, not now that witch was bound by magic — but if she ever came back, then that was a different story.

“Yes!” Kat snapped back, looking at him as if he’d just grown another head.

“Right this minute?” Parker asked. “You want to turn on your heels and go and kill a defenceless witch?”

Kat opened her mouth to speak, but she rolled her eyes toward the night sky and tossed that thought over in her mind. It was true — the woman had lost her power, and it would be like killing an innocent — even though she was anything but.

“No,” Kat begrudgingly bit out, bringing her eyes back down to his, and offering a small sneer of annoyance back at him.

“Do you want to know what I think?”

“No,” she grumbled. Wasn’t it enough that he was talking sense when she didn’t want to bloody hear it?

“Okay.” Parker just gave a small shrug of his shoulders, and his mate sighed.

“Fine,” she bit out in annoyance.

“I think — you saved the elders — you saved your sister — you bound the witch’s magic — Kat for the win,” Parker said as he offered her a slow to boil, sexy as hell grin that she couldn’t take her eyes from.

“I’ve had a busy day,” Kat said, trying to drag her eyes from that smile, and failing.

“Yes, you have, and it’s not over yet…”

“Don’t even start with me about mating,” Kat grumbled back.

“There you go again — jumping the gun — trying to force me into doing something that I’m not yet ready to do…”

“You are just most…” Kat rolled her eyes, trying to yank her wrist from his gentle grip, and groaning hard when she couldn’t.

“Sexy, irresistible man alive?” He puffed out his chest and offered her a wolfish grin.

“Let’s talk about your delusions. Now, does this run through the family, or is it just you?” Kat tossed back.

Parker was glad to see that she’d risen to the bait — she was more intent on beating him down with sarcasm than chasing after the witch-not-a-witch, and enacting her vengeance.

“Admit it, I’m a catch,” Parker chuckled, that sound was deep, it was gravelly, and it was enticing.

“To a starving person — maybe,” Kat tossed back.

“Are you hungry, baby?” Parker chuckled.

Bloody famished, Kat thought — and that had nothing at all to do with food.

“Dream on, Scrappy Doo.”

“Come on, let’s get you home,” Parker turned and gave a small tug on her wrist, starting her walking beside him as they headed back toward the truck.

“Ah, my own bed — that’s just what I need,” Kat said, with a small smirk of triumph on her lips as the alpha muttered something that she just couldn’t hear no matter how hard she listened.

“Not a damn chance in hell,” Parker said, but he wasn’t opening his big mouth and putting his foot in it again — this time, he made damn sure that she couldn’t hear him.

 

~

~

 

“I could have lost you tonight,” Dusty growled at the thought of it. His mate in his arms, fighting for every breath, it had almost killed him that he couldn’t help her.

“Yeah, you should be more careful,” Paige offered him a cocky grin. With two steps Dusty had backed her up against the wall.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again…”

“Dusty, you were sitting right beside me when it happened,” Paige chuckled.

“That’s not the point,” Dusty grumbled as he furrowed his brow.

“In your mind — maybe,” Paige teased him.

She couldn’t resist reaching up and gently soothing the ridges between his eyebrows until he unclenched, and at the sound of a hungry growl, she realised what she’d done, but she didn’t much care.

“I wanted to kill that witch…”

“You would have had to get in line behind Kat…”

“Is your sister a little…?” Dusty left it there. He didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Paige by accusing Kat of being — nuts.

“She’s the sane one out of the two of them,” Paige chuckled.

“That’s — comforting,” Dusty grumbled.

“Kat only gets her claws out when someone goes after family — whereas Mel…” She left that one hanging in the air.

“Poor Grayson,” Dusty chuckled, but there was anything but sympathy in his tone for his brother. “And what about you?”

“Oh, I’m the nice one,” Paige offered him a wicked grin. “Unless you mess with family.”

“I remember,” Dusty said, referring to when they’d first met, and she’d zapped him.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” she promised with a wicked little chuckle that grabbed his attention like a vice.

“And how do I not get on your wrong side?” Dusty asked, closing the gap between their bodies until a breath of air couldn’t get between them.

“I’m sure you can think of something,” Paige gave a small shrug and offered him a wickedly tempting smile.

“I think I just did,” Dusty said. Then he brought his lips down on hers and she didn’t protest.