~

 

“Get off my land,” Dane growled.

He’d been showing Rayner the spare cabin that he hoped she’d never decided to use when he’d spotted the vampire’s arrival through the dirty living room window. With a word of warning for her to stay inside tossed back over his shoulder; he’d headed out to confront Giles.

“That’s decidedly unfriendly if you,” Giles tossed back. “Especially, as you came to me for help the other night.”

“My mistake,” Dane growled as he planted his feet and readied his bear to burst free the moment that the vampire made his move.

“In asking for my help then, or being rude now?”

“Then.” Dane fisted his hands at his sides as he held onto the beast that was clawing to be unleashed.

“The bitten female…”

“You know her name,” Dane growled back.

“Rayner…”

“There you go…”

“Has she tried killing anyone yet?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“Do I?”

“You’ve been watching,” Dane tossed back, his top lip curled in annoyance.

“Not as stealthy as I thought – I’ll have to work on that.” Giles looked amused, but Dane was anything but.

He knew why the vampire was there – to cover his own backside where the authorities were concerned. It was that simple, and it wasn’t happening. Dane would die to protect her.

“Leave…”

“Still not a very good host…”

“You weren’t invited, and you’re not welcome here.” Dane’s deep warning growl was matched by Roland as the man stalked towards his brother and took up a place beside him.

“Two big bad bears, and where’s the other one?” Giles asked, knowing the answer already.

“Right here,” Bowie growled as he stalked towards his clan, and Dane shot him a glare.

Bowie had followed on Roland’s heels down the mountain. He figured that he owed it to Dane to front up to whatever justice the man wanted to dish out.

Now he was glad he had. He’d willingly give his life in return for Dane’s or the female’s. This was all his doing, and the damn vampire wouldn’t have been sniffing around if it wasn’t for his actions.

“Ah, the screw-up,” Giles grinned at Bowie, and boy, did that make his bear want to burst out from within him.

Bowie held his beast back. He was more than determined that the bear wouldn’t get away from him.

He needed to be there for Dane and the man’s mate, and he was damn well going to do it even if it killed him – which he kind of hoped it did.

“The way I see it; you’ve got twenty-four hours to woo your mate and calm her bear…” Giles noted Rayner who was coming on a slow walk towards the group.

“Or what?” She demanded, momentarily distracting Dane from the task at hand.

She was headed towards the vampire, and the alpha sidestepped to put his body between them.

“Or I become as unfriendly as your mate,” Giles offered back.

“The hell you threaten my mate,” Dane growled, and it took everything that he had within him to resist the demands of his beast to be unleashed and go bat-shit crazy on the vampire.

“The easy way or the hard way,” Giles offered back with a shrug of his shoulders. He took a few backward steps away from the group before he disappeared.

Dane turned toward Rayner. He reached out a hand and drew her in close. He dipped his head and subtly took in her scent to calm his beast. Otherwise, he might just have taken off after the vampire to try to put an end to it there and then.

“Well, look who showed up for the party,” Roland said as he eyed Bowie with amusement.

“I came to…” Bowie started, but Dane growled long and hard, silencing his brother.

“Don’t give a damn – get out of my sight.” Dane wanted to rip the man’s head off and hand it back to him. He was trying to soothe his damn beast not rile it up some more.

Bowie didn’t need telling twice. He turned on his heels and started for his cabin.

“Wait!” Rayner growled.

She pulled away from Dane’s loose hold, and the man reluctantly let her go. If she had something to say to his brother, then she deserved to get it off her chest.

Bowie ground to a halt and turned back towards her. He couldn’t look her in the eye, not then, not yet, maybe never for the rest of his days. His shame was too great.

Bowie fisted his hands at his sides and mentally growled a warning to his bear. If that beast so much as twitched to be release, Bowie wasn’t going to let it slide.

Rayner stalked up to Bowie, and she could feel Dane following on her heels. The man was protective, annoyingly so, but she felt that rush of anger within her for Bowie, and she knew she needed to get it out or she’d shift again, and she didn’t want to ruin another set of Dane’s clothes.

Rayner didn’t so much as hesitate as she brought up a swift knee into Bowie’s balls and watched with great satisfaction as he froze up on the spot, looking as if his head was about to explode, and then dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground.

“Ouch…” Roland winced as the sheer white-hot pain registered on Bowie’s face, but still, he chuckled.

“Rayner…” Dane growled, and she turned, flushed red with anger, before blowing her hair from her face, and cocking her head to one side. “Don’t you dare ever do that to me…”

“Again?” Rayner reminded him.

“I know you’re never going to be a shrinking violet…”

“You bet your big furry butt I’m not.” She folded her arms defensively.

Was that what Dane wanted? Because she sure as hell had never been one of those, and she certainly wasn’t going to change for a man – even if he was her mate.

“And that’s a good thing, sweetheart,” Dane assured her with a big old grin that stretched wide and lit up his sexy dark eyes.

Rayner let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“But, I’m still the alpha around here…”

“I don’t want your job,” she snorted a chuckle.

“Glad to hear it,” Dane said as Roland chuckled into his hand and he flashed him a glare.

“Can’t speak for my bear though, mainly because I don’t know what the hell it’s saying, but…” she shrugged, and Roland chuckled harder.

“Okay,” Dane couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.

“It’s not funny – you guys need to make a growly dictionary, or … something,” Rayner grumbled, and Dane and Roland chuckled harder.

Bowie grunted, but nobody knew if that was in amusement, or just because his balls had just dropped back down.

“We should get you some food,” Dane said, and she tossed up her shoulders again.

“I could eat.”

“Shocker.” Dane chuckled harder.

“Are you saying I eat too much?” She tossed him a sideways glare, and Dane was smart enough to hold his hands up to his chest in surrender.

“Hell no!” he growled. “I like my balls hanging right where they are,” he muttered.

“Bowie.” Roland looked down at his brother. “We’re trying to clean up the place. Get the hell up, man, you’re making it look untidy.”