~

 

“Faith!” Vanessa belted out her name the moment that she was back inside the house. The woman was a damn menace at times, and right then was one of those times.

“Bathroom,” Jeannie called back from her perch at the kitchen table, from where she was partaking in anything chocolatey or particularly gooey that Leslie could find.

She had a need to comfort eat, and anyone who got their hands in the way was going to get reprimanded. Big time.

Vanessa looked over her shoulder at the alpha, still big, still muscle-bound and still very naked, and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she did a double take at his abs.

“Bathroom?”

When she managed to drag her eyes up to his face, she questioned him with just a look. Ryan lifted his hand and pointed down the hallway, and that was enough to start her stomping off once more.

“Faith!” She shouted again.

Vanessa wanted her friend to know, just be the sound of her voice, just how miffed off she was. It was like firing a warning shot across her bow.

Vanessa shot a look back over her shoulder and pointed to the closed door. Ryan nodded, just once.

There was a little amusement in his eyes, but his jaw was rock solid. She had to guess that he wasn’t too pleased with Faith either.

“Faith, get your backside out here so that I can kick it down the bloody road and back…” she grumbled, but there was no reply. “Faith.” She snapped.

Ryan twisted his head on his neck and listened hard. Then he groaned.

“I think we’ve got a runner,” he bit out.

“What!” Vanessa screeched.

Her bad mood immediately turned into disbelief, and she had to sidestep the alpha when he reached for the door handle and forced the lock. His arm brushed hers and she felt a wave of tingles, but she couldn’t think about that, not when Faith had pulled a stupid.

Vanessa lifted an elbow and nudged him aside as he tossed the door open. She wasn’t about to let Ryan rush in there first, just in case her friend was panties down on the toilet.

The window was partially open, and the room was empty.

“God damn it, Faith!” She bit out.

“How did you ever think you could pass for a nun?” Ryan growled, but not at her, at the witch that had taken off from his brother.

‘Mick, your mate is running.’ He offered through the pack’s link. He got the distinct impression that today wasn’t a good day to woo.

 

~

~

~

 

“A runner!” Leslie bit out, torn between spitting out the mouthful of caramel cake that she’d been enjoying, and swallowing it whole without bothering to chew another bite.

“A runner?” Jeannie said, somewhat absently as she forked another mouth sized portion of gooey loveliness and went to scoop in upwards.

“Faith!” Leslie snapped back, and Jeannie snorted a chuckle of disbelief.

“Faith wouldn’t…” she started, and then stopped as the smile dropped from her face and she eyed her new friend. “Ooh.” She dropped her fork down against the plate with a clang and shot upwards from the chair. “Vanessa!”

“I know!” Vanessa called back as she stomped towards the kitchen.

“She said she was going to the bathroom.” Jeannie tossed up a hand and rounded on her friend.

“Yeah, well, it’s Faith. Expect the unexpected,” Vanessa shot back. Then she turned on her heels and almost slammed into her mate. “Get some damn clothes on or something, will you?” She grumbled.

“Naked is natural…” Ryan started, but Vanessa rolled her eyes.

“And distracting!” She snapped back but regretted it the moment that one side of his mouth lifted in a wicked smile.

“My naked body distracts you?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You could be eighty, podgy, slipping with gravity, and it would still be bloody distracting,” Vanessa hissed back.

“That’s your story, and you’re sticking to it?” He grinned, not just any grin, but a sexy-as-hell grin that made her womb do a jig and her stomach flop.

“And this is my fist and I’ll be sticking it in your face if you don’t get over yourself and soon,” she bit out, waving the little fist at him and hoping to dampen his rather obvious abundance of self-confidence.

“We have a witch to hunt,” Ryan growled at the thought.

The alpha knew that his pack was already onto it, and Mick was out there searching for his mate. He also knew that he should get onto it, safeguard the woman, and yet, he really didn’t want to leave his mate’s side. He didn’t want to think what could go wrong again if he wasn’t there to stop it from happening.

“Don’t say hunt,” Vanessa snapped back.

“She’s running; you can bet your life that her mate’s wolf is on the h…”

“Didn’t I say not to say hunt?” Vanessa hissed back.

“I have to go and make sure that Mick doesn’t…” he left that sentence open.

“I’m coming with you,” Vanessa said.

“And me,” Jeannie said.

“Neither of you are to leave the house,” Ryan bit out. He hated to think what more mischief they could get up too.

“Try and stop me,” Vanessa went to nudge past him, but he didn’t move an inch.

“Vanessa, don’t make me carry you upstairs and tie you to the damn bed,” Ryan growled.

Vanessa wasn’t sure if the rush of heat that went through her body was on account of the image that slammed into her mind – her naked and tied to the bed, him naked and… Or the fact that he was miffing her off in ways that were too numerous to count.

“Don’t make me, make you, cluck like a chicken,” Vanessa offered back to a somewhat confused looking alpha.

“Huh?”

“Magic…” Vanessa offered back. She’d draw the man a picture if she needed to.

“She’d do it,” Jeannie offered on a snort of a chuckle, but it was the look in his mate’s eye that told him that the woman wasn’t bluffing.

“I can find Faith. I can tap into her magic and follow it wherever she leads me,” Vanessa said, folding her arms, and noting that the man’s eyes dipped to her breasts for just an instant. He was considering something in that big, alpha brain of his; she just wouldn’t stake her life on what it was.

‘Have you found the witch yet?’ Ryan put the call out to his pack.

‘Are you kidding me?’ Jason chuckled back. ‘One minute we’ve got her scent and the next we’re inside a pizza bubble.’

‘I don’t know what that means…’

‘It means, the devious little witch, and I use the term witch as interchangeable with the B word…’

‘Watch your mouth,’ Mick growled.

‘Is throwing up fast food bubbles in her wake and confusing the wolves, and making me damn hungry to boot.’ Jason said.

“Fine,” Ryan grumbled, stepping to one side in the doorway and motioning for the witches to go ahead of him.

“Faith miffing off your pack?” Vanessa asked with just a sparkle of humor in her eyes.

“Whatever gave you that impression?” Ryan grumbled.

“Trust me; it’s Faith.” Vanessa lifted her hand and patted him on the bicep, regretting it immediately when her body perked right up and she had the urge to test those muscles.

She snatched her hand back.

“Still like me naked I see,” Ryan whispered in her ear as she forced her feet to move forward away from him, and she bit down on a gazillion curse words that shot through her mind.

 

~

~

~

 

“Clare, if you don’t show yourself,” Faith bit out, getting more and more annoyed by the second.

Firstly; she hated to walk, and the woods wouldn’t have been the place of choice if she were planning on doing anything remotely strenuous. That would be all those fancy boutiques that she couldn’t afford but liked to snoop inside as if she could.

Secondly; and more ashamedly for a witch, she hated nature. Nature was pretty, but it was also full of bugs and crawlies that she would much rather not have to deal with.

“You’ll what?” Clara’s voice came from the treetops above her and Faith rolled her eyes upwards, but still, she couldn’t see the vampire.