~

 

“Is this becoming a nun bar? Because, I don’t know how you feel about it, but that just seems wrong to me,” Jason said, and Mick turned his head on his neck and gave his brother a look of pure disbelief.

“Could you try and not be the village idiot for just a few minutes a day?” Mick growled, screwing up his face, and shaking his head in disbelief at his sibling.

“I’ll pencil it in,” Jason scowled back. But he couldn’t take his eyes off the little nun helper that was standing at the door with the new arrival. “That one’s hot!” He said, nudging his brother in the ribs.

“The Penguin?” Mick shot back with a grumbled growl of disbelief.

He’d thought the same thing the moment that the woman had walked in through the door. Then he’d immediately admonished himself for even thinking it.

They were nuns, and you just couldn’t – shouldn’t – look at a nun with anything other than the smile you’d give your Grandmother.

Normally, he liked his woman to be wearing, well, clothes, and not a black full-length penguin suit, but, she was a looker, and there was just something about her that turned him on inside.

Damn, does that make me an evil person – a sinner?

What the hell do I care? I don’t believe in her God.

But. She believes – so…?

Damn, religion is hard.

“Not the Nun. You wouldn’t get none from a Nun.” Jason chuckled and elbowed his brother in the ribs again.

“Step outside,” Mick growled, and when he turned his whole body towards Jason; he dropped his chin towards his chest as he tried to resist the urge to punch him in the face right there and then, even in front of the innocent nuns, and all that implied.

He didn’t care if he was going to hell. His damn brother was overstepping the line.

Clive might have had a hard and fast rule that nobody, but him, broke heads inside the bar, but he didn’t care. He sure did want to break his brother’s head – he just wasn’t sure why.

It wasn’t as if he needed a reason. Jason always annoyed the hell out of him, but right then and there, his wolf wanted out, and it wanted to teach his brother a lesson in respect and manners.

Mick knew that he needed to keep a handle on that beast, to rein in his wild side, and not give into the temptation to make himself feel better by flattening his brother.

He started to turn back away from the beta.

“Have you got the hots for a nun?” Jason whispered with the kind of chuckle that taunted him down to his very soul.

Mick’s fist shot out sideways from his body and connected with Jason’s square jaw. The beta was blindsided, and he hadn’t had a chance to plant his feet and ready himself for the force of the punch.

Jason ended up sprawled on his backside on the floor with a loud thud that drew everyone’s attention.

“Disrespectful,” Mick bit out when every eye in the place turned towards him.

There were some things in life just had to be done, and when something had to be done, it felt good when you finally did it.

And boy, did that feel good.

Mick shrugged his broad shoulders and eyed the alpha. He was waiting for Ryan to either berate him or unleash a shit storm in his direction that he might have deserved but didn’t feel like he did.

But then the alpha just gave a slow nod in agreement, and Mick felt more than justified in his actions. Then he flicked a look towards the vampire.

“Heaven forbid,” Clive said with a slow roll of his eyes that took his knowing stare right back to Vanessa.

“Pride before the fall,” She said, grimacing just a little.

But he’d caught that look, and he made a grunting sound as he tried not to laugh. She was certainly playing her role for everything it was worth, even if she didn’t have a clue how a nun would behave.

“Why don’t you tell us all about it,” Clive said.

“About what?” Vanessa hoped against hope.

“Being a nun,” Clive said, and Vanessa’s lower jaw twitched up and down a little as she floundered. Hope died a painful death within her mind, and she had the distinct urge to kill the vampire.

“The nuns are under my protection,” Ryan announced and drew Clive’s attention back towards the alpha. It seemed the stakes were racking up, and Clive was intrigued.

The sound of a small snigger from the two females at the doorway drew the vampire’s attention in that direction.

“How… generous of you,” Faith offered, shooting Vanessa a questioning look concerning the man’s sanity, even as Jeannie sniggered at her side.

“And unnecessary,” Vanessa said, sidestepping the vampire, and giving the alpha a wide berth as she started towards her friends. “Sister… Chastity…” She started and then cursed Jeannie when the woman all but collapsed in on herself with spluttered laughter for the only name that had come into mind.

What was she supposed to call her? Faith?

That would have been a dumb name for a nun, or very apt, she couldn’t quite decide which.

“Chastity?” Jason chuckled as he pulled himself to his feet.

Mick’s head shot around towards his brother, and he offered him a death glare.

“Don’t,” Mick growled, warning his brother off with a thick finger pointed in his direction.

“Don’t what?” Jason shrugged his shoulders and expanded his hands out to his sides, trying to look as innocent as possible, but his eyes gave the game away.

“You know what,” Mick shot back.

“Nice name,” Jason said with a wide, teasing grin.

“I’m warning you,” Mick grumbled.

“Very… apt.” Jason chuckled, mimicking Vanessa’s thoughts, but the next instant Mick had launched his body at the man, intent on taking him down.

Jason was ready for him. He knew his brother’s temper and how far he could take him before something snapped. He sidestepped the behemoth shifter, leaving the man to fall to his hands and knees on the floor under his own momentum.

“Whoops, misstep!” Jason announced with glee.

“I’m going to…” Mick growled, slapping his palms down on the floor in anger, and his head back on his neck, eyeing his brother like he was a tasty treat to be had at the end of his fangs.

“Is this any way to behave in front of the Lord’s brides?” Clive announced with an air of glee and a whole lot of theatrics.

“Bride…” Ryan twisted his body around towards Vanessa, and she stopped dead in her tracks under the questioning glare of the alpha’s dark eyes.

He didn’t know why that word had his beast clawing to get out and his blood pressure soaring to the point where he could feel his pulse thumping in his temple, but it had.

“You married… God?” Jason looked decidedly confused. “How’d that happen?”

“Muppet!” Mick grumbled.

“Oh no… This is just too much,” Jeannie chuckled.

Tears had welled in her eyes from laughing so hard, and she found that no matter how hard she tried to stop chuckling, she just couldn’t seem to manage to do it.

Her friends – Nuns. The saintly due in the guise of witches. It was just too sweet a thought. Shifters couldn’t be that stupid, could they?

“It was very… spiritual, marrying God,” Faith offered dryly towards the shifter as she rolled her eyes back towards Vanessa, also questioning that man’s sanity, and she gave a slow shake of her head in disbelief. “We must be going, Sister…”

“Sledge?” Clive offered quietly from behind her.

The vampire folded his arms across his chest and enjoyed the unexpected entertainment of the evening. He thought that there might be fireworks in the bar – throwing a shifter party always ended in breakages – but he could never have foreseen such a turn of events.

Vanessa was practically willing Faith to come up with something – anything – as a name for her, but all she got was a look that resembled constipation as Faith pressed her lips together and made a small gargling sound in her throat.

Vanessa had a sneaky suspicion that the vampire might already have cottoned on to their little ploy, but she didn’t think that the shifters had, and she wanted to keep it that way while they made their escape.

“Sister…” Faith bit out again, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think of a damn name that would be as insulting to Vanessa as Chastity had been to her. She knew that she was trying too hard, but it annoyed her so.

It wasn’t as if she had time for a bubble bath, a glass of wine, and a long think on it. She’d never been good when put on the spot like that.

“Sister – sister?” Clive asked, narrowing his eyes in consideration. “Wasn’t that a sitcom?”

“Don’t know – we don’t have a television in the nursery,” Faith bit out in annoyance. She was more than a little distracted in trying to think up the stupid moniker.

“Nursery?” Clive shot back.

“Nunnery?” Vanessa offered fast, giving Faith a look of pure disbelief.

Faith swallowed hard, mentally kicked herself, and offered a helpless shrug. The tented habit that she was wore rose and fell like one big, black sack around her, and Clive gave a thoughtful nod of his own.

“There you go, nunnery,” he grinned. “But, that seems a little harsh. I mean, even prisoners get to watch TV.”

“That’s just…” Faith bit down on her annoyance, and a long list of choice words that she’d like to fling back at the blood sucker. “Peachy.” She settled for that one word, but her tone was acidic.

“But, I suppose you gals have all that bible study and praying to do,” Clive offered back. “Must be hard on the knees.”

“You have no idea, and we’re late for midnight mass,” Vanessa offered, raising her hand and dropping it at her side once more as she continued to play along while the vampire wasn’t completely dropping them in the poop pile.

The witch was now almost certain that the man knew what they were. Obviously, the wards that they’d wrapped around themselves hadn’t worked so well on him. They would need to work on that.

Not that they hadn’t been picture perfect nuns. She had to wonder how the hell she had thought that she could get away with it in the first place – not to mention how the shifters hadn’t picked up on the deception.

Vanessa guessed that shifters didn’t spend that much time around Nuns – thank God.

“Oh, I think you’re about twenty-two hours late, or two hours early, depending on how nuns measure time these days,” Clive offered back with a smirk that she would love to have wiped off his face with a timely zap.

“Better go then. Mother will be worried,” Vanessa said with a biting tone to get her friends feet moving, and edging towards them at the door.

“You have a mother?” Jason asked with a deep frown.

“No, nuns are created in a test tube.” Mick snapped back.

“We are a special breed,” Faith said dryly.

Then she shot a look at Vanessa, urging her to hurry up, and questioning the sanity of the people around her.

That was the moment that the alpha stepped in Vanessa’s path and caused the Witch to ground to a halt.

“Can I help you with something… spiritual?” Vanessa offered, tipping her head to one side and trying to look all Nun like and saintly as she shot a look around his broad body to where her friends stood.

At that moment, she wished that she could somehow magically transport herself to the safety in numbers thing at the doorway and out of his path, but even her magic couldn’t perform miracles.

“I don’t think it’s spiritual,” Ryan scowled.

The alpha wasn’t sure what was eating up his wolf, or him for that matter, but he had the distinct feeling that something bad would happen if he let her walk out of that door.

“Come again?” Vanessa asked, frowning up at the man and searching for clarity, even though she had a sinking feeling within her that having clarity would be a very bad thing.

“There’s an offer you don’t hear from a nun every day,” Jason chuckled, and Mick shot him a death glare. “Just saying.” He grumbled.

“Don’t.” Mick snapped back.

“Got it. Beta’s, sense of humor – nun at all.” Jason chuckled again.

Then he took a large step back when Mick turned his body towards him. The man’s chin was down near his chest, his eyes were dark with anger and annoyance, and his fists were twitchy at his sides.

Jason knew that look well.

His brother was fit to explode.

‘Can you two just damn well behave for once in your lives?’ Ryan bit out through the mental link that joined every member of his pack.

Both betas heard the growled warning in the alpha’s tone, and they eased back on the confrontation that they’d been headed towards.

‘He annoys the hell out of me.’ Mick growled.

‘Right back at Ya, brother,’ Jason was giving no quarter, even if his brother was fit to explode.

‘There are nuns here, for God…ness sake. Do you understand how badly that could go if the church were to discover that shifters are still around and thriving?’ Ryan demanded.

‘Pitch fork time!” Mick growled back.

‘Right, and I for one want to protect our pack,’ Ryan berated them both for their stupidity.

‘And yet, you stopped the penguin lady from leaving,’ Jason said. ‘Go figure.’

‘The one that’s sneaking out on you now,’ Mick informed his brother when he shot a look towards the door and found the nun creeping towards her friends with gentle steps.

Ryan’s head snapped back around expecting to see Vanessa still standing right in front of him, only to find that his brother wasn’t pulling his leg, and she actually was trying to creep off towards her friends.

Ryan’s wolf growled within him. He didn’t have a damn clue why the beast was acting up, but it tried to push forward to get to her, and he had to slam the door closed on the beast’s cage.

But that didn’t mean that the man didn’t stalk after her.

“Leaving so soon?” Clive announced from his new place right behind the witches. None of them had seen him move.

The vampire stood in the doorway, blocking the exit, and both women took a long step forward out of instinct and to put some space between them and the blood-sucking leech before they spun back towards him.

“Problem?” Faith hissed at the vampire.

Her self-preservation button had been well and truly pushed, and she didn’t like it one little bit. Her magic had been ready and waiting for trouble the moment that she’d walked through the door.

“That depends on how you define a problem, Chastity.” Clive grinned back. “I’d say one, or some of you have a little problem.” He motioned towards the shifters, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Meaning?”

“Oh, please, I’d hate to spoil the surprise,” Clive teased back.