by M. L. Briers
The heady sound of a desperate growl and a lot of cursing followed her down, and she knew she had little choice but to go forward. She pushed off from the embankment with her hands, and slipped and skidded her way across the ice…
“Stop where the hell you are…” he growled out with a voice so deep that when it reached her, her teeth chattered and her bones felt the vibrations…
“Yeah!” She spat out in something close to hysterical disbelief. “Sure, that’s going to happen…” she muttered.
Trying to stay upright on the frozen waters beneath her feet wasn’t an easy task, especially as the sound of cracking and popping overrode the sound of her heart beating in her ears, and adrenaline rushing in her veins. She couldn’t go back even if she wanted too…
“Stop.” He growled out again, and she heard him grunt when he dropped down onto the ice with her – another grunt of surprise as his boots slipped underneath him.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you,” she shot over her shoulder, finally finding her equilibrium on the ice and rushing to get to the other side before he got to her…
“If you don’t damn well stop, I’m sure as hell going to kill you.” Dexter growled out.
His wolf was pissed, more than pissed – he’d taken her scent at the door in one burst that had swept through his injury and allowed him the very essence of her being… He’d followed that scent through the woods and onto the pond, and now he wanted only one thing… her.
“That’s incentive enough to keep going, don’t you bloody think?” She shot back over her shoulder, skidding once more as her feet tried to go East and West at the same time, and she squealed, slowing to stabilise her body…
Isobel shot another quick look at him. He was coming fast, but he was slipping and sliding just like she was… That gave her some hope at least.
“I’m not going to hurt you-” He bit out, trying to keep his feet beneath his body and not end up on his backside once more.
“Sure you’re not,” she shot back.
“Unless you make me chase you down-”
“See, I knew there had to be a caveat.” She shot back… pushing off faster, feeling her legs go this way and that as the ice creaked and popped some more beneath her…
Isobel heard his growl, the spat out curse from his lips, and turned her head to see him coming her way, sliding towards her, faster than she could step away from… Then they collided, an unholy mess of arms and legs as he took her down with him under his weight.
She felt the hard grip of his arms around her body as they fell, couldn’t break free of him even though her hands palmed the hard muscled chest, and she tried to push away…
Dexter turned them at the last moment, with her body coming down on top of his, grunting in pain as her knee caught him between the legs, right in his prize jewels, growling as that pain washed over him…
“You stupid damn wolf…” she hissed.
Isobel palmed his chest and tried to push up, to get free of him as the sound of the ice popping, cracking, and creaking around them alerted him to what she already knew…
Then the ice sheet gave way and the cold water reached up to drag them downwards. Isobel managed to gasp a breath into her lungs before she hit the water, but the sudden emersion in the icy waters forced that breath right back out of her lungs again.
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CHAPTER FOUR
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Isobel fought to gain her freedom from the strong arms wrapped around her body. The heat of him pressed against her was the only saving grace that gave her pause for thought, but it didn’t much matter as he refused to let her go…
She tried to fight against him, pounding her fists as best should could against his chest as the water stole any power in her shots that she might have had away. Then they broke the surface and she gasped in a breath…
“Don’t fight me,” he growled out practically against her ear, and she stilled, her hands gripping the sodden fabric of his jacket as she felt them move through the water.
Dexter used his fist to punch a route to the embankment. With one arm gripped around her waist, holding her to him, he could feel the way that she shook and shivered against his body, heard her teeth chattering in her head, and his wolf was fit to burst out to protect her, even from herself.
“I-d-i-o-t,” she chattered, still gasping and spluttering, but determined to have her say. “I-d-i-o-t…”
“You said that already,” He growled, not feeling decidedly charitable in that moment in time when he knew that he could have killed the both of them.
“I-d-i-o-t,” she bit out again and he growled and grumbled.
“You made your damn point.” He hoisted her upwards, turning her, and practically tossing her at the banked up earth along the edge of the pools.
“I-d-i-o-t,” she bit out again, even as her hands clawed at the ground for leverage as she dragged herself up and away from him…
“Is your damn record stuck?” He growled, pulling himself up after her, as she turned, fell backwards against the earth, and glared at him as best she could.
“I-d-i-”
“Idiot, yeah. I heard ya the first ten times.” Dexter growled out, crawling up and over her body. His black eyes locked and loaded on hers as he growled and grunted…
Then she brought her knee right up between his inner thighs again and he grunted a breath in, as those eyes went wide, and he was frozen in place as the pain shot through his balls, into his stomach, and up his spine…
“F-u-c…” He felt her knee come up into his stomach and her hands grip his jacket as she tossed him sideways, and he hit the ground with a thud and a grunt…
“I-d-i-o-t.” She growled out, shaking like a leaf in an autumn storm, and trying to push her body up from the ground, but not finding the strength to get very far; she collapsed back down.
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“What the hell are you doing?” Isobel hissed out at the sight of him dragging his body towards her, grunting and growling with each inch.
His balls were on still on fire. His eyes were filled with unshed tears of pain, but he could still see her shivering like a nervous wreck.
“I swear to every damn God, if you lay on damn hand on me I will fry your-”
“S-h-u-t – u-p.” He growled out, a little at a time while biting down on the pain in his balls and the urge to throw up all over her.
“Shut up?” Isobel demanded. “Shut bloody up?” She tried to push her upper body upwards into a sitting position, but he was already pushing up from the ground, and her eyes widened as his black eyes narrowed on hers…
Then he half tossed – half collapsed down on top of her and every bit of air that she’d fought so hard to regain in her lungs after the ice water bath was forced out… There was something of a squeak towards the end of the oxygen supply leaving her body, and he grunted once more as he wedged his elbows into the earth around her body and eased his weight off of her.
Isobel gasped in a long, much needed breath…
“I-d-i-o-t,” She hissed at him, and he turned his head to look at her, those black eyes taking her in, and then he grunted again.
“You say that a lot.” He offered.
“Only – to – you,” she hissed back, teeth still chattering.
Dexter snorted his contempt for that answer. He needed to gather the strength to get her back to the cabin and warm her up. Her teeth were still chattering, and her body was still shaking, but at least with a little heat that his body could provide as it fought off its own chills, she wouldn’t get hypothermia just yet…
Once his balls had dropped back down from the inside of his ribcage where she’d kneed them, he’d be just fine.
“I should have killed you back at the roadway,” he growled, it was mainly his beast protesting his words and denying them as its own, but her eyes narrowed at the sound anyway.
“I should have finished you off when you rode that stupid bike at my car,” she hissed
back.
“Oh, I rode?” He nodded and shook his head at the same time in disbelief. “Lady, and I use that terms loosely after what you did to my balls – you are dangerous-”
“I’m dangerous?” she scoffed. Her eyebrows rose up on her forehead and she snorted her contempt for him.
“Dangerous, and reckless…” he growled.
“Says the wolf,” she narrowed her eyes again, giving him something of a death glare.
“You tried to kill me with your car-” He started, turning his head slightly and regarding her with something of a sideways glance. She snorted again.
“I did not try-”
“Then you take yourself out on the damn ice and tried to get us both killed-” He growled, on an angst and anger filled rant.
“It was your big fat ass that broke the damn ice!” She exclaimed, her eyes going wide in disbelief as her instincts told her to knee him again, just for the hells and bells of it.
“Then you kicked me in the balls…” There was an even hungrier growl that rumbled through his body…
“Yes I did.” She gave a half smile then, and he gave her a double take and a growl. “Hardly a hanging offence, and it was my knee, but if I get the chance to kick you-”
“Don’t even think about it.” He growled, his nose practically touching hers.
“Get – off – of – me – you – i-d-i-o-t.” She offered back, not even blinking as she stared back into those black eyes of his and stood her ground.
“I’m the only thing keeping you warm,” he offered back.
“I’d rather of die of hypothermia,” she sneered back.
Dexter grunted in an amused breath. His lips slowly lifted at the corners and she had to wonder what the hell he found so damn amusing about any of this.
“Too damn bad,” he offered and she frowned, her eyebrows trying to knit together over her nose.
“Oh really?” She offered him her best sneer and her best droll tones.
“Yeah, really.” Dexter sounded so self-assured that she had the urge to knee him all over again… She also toyed with the idea of zapping him so hard that his teeth would grind together and snap off…
“And who died and made you-?”
“Your mate.” He growled back.
For one long moment all she did was to stare right into his eyes. Her lips parted as her jaw went slack. There was a kind of deflated hiss that came from her throat, followed by a small squeak, as his words pinged, and pinged, and then ponged around in her brain like a ricocheting bullet…
“I…” She squeaked again.
Dexter’s grin took his lips back so slowly that she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, centimetre by centimetre, they drew back to show perfect white teeth and a predator smile that even held a little fang…
“Ain’t that a kick in the pants?” His glee was all that she saw. All that she heard as she let her elbows slip backwards against the earth and gave up that little bit of ground that she’d been holding against him.
“Crap.” She muttered, closing her eyes to everything around, especially the sight of him, and wishing that she were anywhere else in the world, with anyone else in the world – even Jack the bloody Ripper.
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“I am perfectly capable of walking on my own two feet.” Isobel hissed at the indignity of being carried like a spoilt child back across the land towards that dingy cabin once more.
“Glad to hear it.” Dexter growled out, and yet he had no reason to even contemplate putting her down.
The woman was drenched in ice water. The night was frosty, and he was pissed off – his body would give her some semblance of warmth, and the faster that he went, the warmer he got, and he wasn’t about to let her out of his arms again until he had her, warm, dry, and damn well hog tied to the bed so that she couldn’t get away from him again and try to kill herself once more.
He grunted and growled at the thought of her naked and tied to a bed… then he shook off that thought.
This wasn’t about sex. This wasn’t about mating. This was about getting her back to the cabin and warming her down to the bone before she got sick… she was a witch not a she-wolf, her blood wouldn’t heal her as his was taking care of him.
“You’re an idiot.” She sniped, wishing she could fold her arms and show him just how unimpressed she was with his behaviour, but his big muscled chest was right there in her way, and she’d already had to loop her arm around his neck…
“Says the woman who can’t even drive a car on the right side of the damn road.” He offered back.
“This from the man who thinks he can tap dance on ice and not fall through.” She snapped back.
“This from the woman who runs across ice in the first place.” Dexter snapped.
“This from the man who-”
“Enough!” He snapped out, growling on an afterthought, and received a death glare for his troubles. “Doesn’t your damn batteries ever run down?”
“Oh, you want me to stop defending myself, how novel, how manly…” she huffed and he sighed.
“How about you give it a rest before I take you back to the pools and dump your backside back in the damned water so that your teeth don’t stop chattering, but your damn lips stop from flapping?”
Isobel eyed him them. He looked like he meant it, he sounded like he meant it, but he was her mate and he wouldn’t do that…
“You wouldn’t dare,” she hissed. His eyes flashed with glee.
“Sounds like a damn challenge to me,” he ground out, doing a quick about face and stomping back the way that he’d come…
“Alright, ok!” She snapped out. “Fine. I’ll shut up.” She pressed her lips together and muttered something unintelligible, and he snorted, grunted, and turned back the other way.
He heard her sigh… just a little one, and yet it was enough to make him feel like a first rate asshole.
The door to the cabin was wide open and he stalked inside with her still in his arms. Back heeling the door close behind him, he stomped over the floorboards towards the bed and had a mind to toss her down, right there and then, let her land on her backside and squeal a little more in surprise, he was about to do it as well, when she looked at him with those big brown eyes and he melted a little…
Dexter lowered her down his body to her feet. Then he reached for her with his hands and started to peel her sodden clothes off…
“What the hell?” She slapped out at his hands and he grunted and grumbled again.
“You’re wet, they need to come off…” he growled and she scowled.
“I’m perfectly capable-”
“Yada – yada – yada – blah – blah – blah,” he growled, reaching for her clothing once more and getting another stinging slap against his hand for his troubles.
Dexter growled, bit down on the urge to curse, and then quickly reached out, grabbed two fistfuls of cloth and ripped clean down the middle… The sound of a squeaky gasp filled his ears, and her chest rose in one large, long, deep breath… and then she zapped him like he’d never been zapped before…
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CHAPTER FIVE
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“Mother… fecking… son… of… a… witch!” Dexter growled out between clenched teeth as his knees went weak from the wrath of her magic.
His muscles locked up with pure, unadulterated pain, and he dropped down to the floorboards. His head twisted to one side and there was something of a look of murderous intent in those eyes as he stared up at her…
“Do we understand each other now?” She ground out, with the look of a mad rabbit in her eyes…
“I’m… really… going to… kill…” he pushed out and panted breaths back in, and she waved one hand absently in the air between them.
“Yada – yada – yada – blah – blah – blah,” she offered back with a look of pure mischief and glee in her eyes.
Isobel snapped off her magic and crossed her arms over the ripped fabric that
hung away from her body, almost exposing her breasts had it not been for the sports bra that still clung to her body.
Dexter pushed up to his feet with a roar that made her want to cover her ears and clobber him around the head with something hard just to get it to stop… He towered over her then, glaring down at her – like he could just reach out and end her right there and then… and looked as if he had a mind to do it.
“Give it your best shot,” she offered each word with the conviction that ran through her veins. She’d have him flying through the air in a heartbeat if he so much as…
His lips came down on hers… His hand locked around the back of her neck, while the other palmed her backside and he yanked her against the length of him…
Shock tore through her, but not as fast as the jolt of excitement that brought every inch of her body back to life with a rush of heat that fought against the chill within her… Her palms slammed against the hard muscles of his biceps and she had a moment’s inclination to push him away… when his tongue pressed into her mouth and met hers, and all thought and notions of such stupidity slipped away…
Dexter had only meant to get her damned attention, but one taste of her lips made him want more. He’d had to know how she’d taste, it was like a fever within his blood, and he’d pushed inside, finding her tongue and swirling his own around it as pleasure shot through him, making his length harder than steel…
Now, something snapped him back to his senses as his beast tried to push forward to claim her… He broke the kiss as quickly as it had started, but it wasn’t enough not to want to kiss her all over again with her body pressed against his like that. He set her away from him slightly.
“I had to do something to warm you,” he offered with a look of glee that clashed with the look of a hungry predator.
Isobel gasped in a breath, pressed her lips together, pulled back her hand and she slapped him hard around the face, putting a little magic behind it, and making his cheek burn as the blood rushed there and the nerves came alive. He blinked once.
