~

 

Faith leaned over the table and rested her chin in her upturned hand as she eyed the cup of coffee that was fisted in the other hand.

“Anyone notice how crazy shit happens around shifters?” She winced at the thought.

“That crazy shit started happening when you got on the phone to crazy Clara,” Jeannie sighed.

“This weekend has been…” Vanessa didn’t bother to finish that sentence; there was no point, what’s done was done and they couldn’t turn back the clock or change the present, and there was no use harping on about it.

Althought, she still wanted to kill Faith that much hadn’t changed.

“Five mates,” Jeannie offered, as she too, leaned in and cupped her chin in her hand with a long sigh.

“Thanks a lot, Faith,” Devlin bit out, eyeing his sister from across the table top, and when her gaze flicked to his, a small grin turned the corners of her lips upwards.

“My brother, the hero, rushing in to rescue me,” she snorted a chuckle. “You got more than you bargained for.” She grinned.

“I’m a warlock…”

“You’re a wizard,” Faith tossed back.

“What’s the difference?” Leslie asked as she sat in one of the straight back chairs at the furthest end of the table away from her mate. She wasn’t sure she wanted a male witch as a mate.

“Power,” Faith’s grin widened.

“I’m powerful enough to toss half of this pack…” Devlin grumbled, but the deep, warning growl from the alpha silenced him.

“We could always go round two, you and me,” Mick offered. “Brother.”

Devlin opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it just as fast.

“Wolf got your tongue?” Faith grinned.

“I can’t be a mate to a she-wolf,” Devlin’s eyes snapped towards Leslie when a hearty growl rumbled within her chest. “No offense.”

“Taken,” she bit back.

“It’s not you, it’s…” He rushed to his defense.

“He’s a butthead, ignore him,” Faith lifted her head, waved her dismissive hand towards her brother and then slapped it against her face once more.

“Wish I could,” Leslie bit back.

“Be nice to my sister, or I’ll reach into your mouth, yank out your tongue and strangle you with it,” Mick growled, and Devlin shot him a look back over his shoulder. “Brother.” Mick grinned, but his eyes said he wasn’t playing.

“I’m gay,” Devlin shrugged.

“No you’re not,” Faith tossed back.

“It just happened,” Devlin offered.

“What, like you woke up this morning and discovered you were gay?” Faith snorted a chuckle.

“A couple of days ago, actually,” he lied, lifting his chin in defiance.

“You're born gay, you don’t adopt the lifestyle because you like pastel colors,” Jason growled.

“I know,” Devlin shrugged; offering the beta a scowl.

“So, the women you’ve dated were…?” Faith raised her eyebrows at him.

“A mistake,” Devlin nodded slowly. “I was… testing a theory.”

“Oh, God…” Vanessa groaned.

“When you hit the coffin, just stop digging,” Jeannie chuckled back.

“Fine, I’m not gay,” he tossed up his hands.

“But you’d rather be than be my mate,” Leslie said, pushing up, giving him the stink eye and stalking out of the room.

Devlin grimaced as he watched her go. He winced and bit down on the pain when every witch at that table zapped him.

“Hey, back off,” he grumbled.

“Better us than them,” Faith said, motioning to the four pack wolves that stood behind his chair.

Leslie’s brothers stood side by side with Rodney on the end. Their arms were folded across their broad chests, biceps on display, and all of them had death glares aimed solely at Devlin.

“I’ll go apologize,” Devlin bit out fast, swallowing hard as he pushed up from the chair, and he had to sidestep the pack brothers on his way out the door.

“Ha!” Faith snorted a chuckle. “Warlock my grandmother.”

 

~

~

~

 

“I want a word with you,” Ryan caught Vanessa by surprise as she turned the corner of the hallway and almost ran into his chest. She yanked her head back in surprise and offered him a scowl.

“Go ahead, give me a heart attack, at least then I won’t have to be here anymore,” she hissed back and watched the alpha lift just his left eyebrow back at her.

“You left the house,” Ryan growled, just a little, just enough to let her know exactly how he felt about that.

“You never said don’t leave,” she rushed back.

“You knew what I meant,” Ryan tossed back.

“But, that’s not what you said,” she offered.

“I said you weren’t going with us,” Ryan grumbled out another growl.

“And we didn’t, we went with Leslie,” she offered back with a small victory grin.

“That’s not how this works,” Ryan offered back, motioning the small distance between them with one hand.

“This?” she did the same.

“Yes.”

“This isn’t a this, it’s a maybe, and I don’t take orders from the alpha because, and here’s the thing, and it’s a big thing, I’m not pack,” Vanessa informed him.

“Yes, you are,” he growled.

He’d been annoyed with her before about disobeying his orders, but now it was a different kind of annoyance as his beast raised its ugly head and growled hard within him. She denied them, and that didn’t go unnoticed by man or wolf.

“Not yet,” Vanessa shook her head.

“From the moment I found you, you’ve been pack.” He didn’t know whether to be relieved or not by her words, at least she’d said yet. That gave him hope.

Vanessa watched his eyebrows dancing to a tune as emotion flowed through him, and she found herself somewhat mesmerized. But, sexy eyebrows or not, she wasn’t going to back down when she’d done nothing wrong.

“I found you,” she said.

“Huh?”

“I walked into that bar,” Vanessa gave a small shrug and a victory grin.

“Do you have to twist every situation to your own ends?” Ryan leaned in towards her just a little, and Vanessa held her ground.

“Yes.”

“Well stop.”

“Sorry, it’s a witch thing,” She grinned harder.

“And I have an alpha thing going on,” he informed her, taking a small step and closing the distance between them. “And alphas always get what they want.”

Vanessa’s heart skipped a beat or two, maybe three, she had no time or inclination to count them. All she knew was that he was closer, closer still, and her feet probably wouldn’t have taken a step back even if she had issued the command to move.

“And witches always zap first and ask questions…” she never got to finish as his lips came down on hers.

One moment she was just standing there minding her own business with him miffed off at her, and the next the world was a wonderful place full of amazing sensations that sent her mind and body on a joint expedition into uncharted territory. She felt everything.

Ryan’s lips were soft but demanding, and her body was soft and yielding. She didn’t have a mind to tell him no, because her mind was too preoccupied with the touch of his lips on hers, the feel of his large hands against her body, the press of his hard muscles when he brought her in close, and the hardness that pressed against her stomach and twitched hello.

Everything. The heat from his body seemed to envelop her like a warm, comfort blanket. There were tingles that ran over her skin and excited her even more.

When he pressed of his tongue against the seam of her lips; she yielded further. The taste of him, the scent of him made her womb dance a jig and her stomach flip-flop like a Politian on the hook.

Hook. Yes, she got caught on that hook, and no amount of mental wriggling was going to get her free.

Free. Vanessa didn’t want to be free of him, at least, not right then. Her body was having way too much fun without her mind being able to form a rational thought.

Thought. She needed to think, didn’t she? She needed to decide before she jumped in with both feet. She needed to consider where she was going with them.

Them. They were a them, an us, we.

She was his mate, and she felt it, felt that connection, even if she wanted to deny it. Not right then though – she was enjoying his hot kisses way too much. She was enjoying the way that her body felt when she was in his arms. Like it or not, and right then she was liking it just fine, they were mates, and that connection couldn’t be denied.