His Mate_Howl's that?_Paranormal Romantic Comedy

by M. L. Briers

  Kelly tested her magic and found it still easily accessible as she tossed the inner door closed and heard a thud and a deep groan of annoyance from the other side. She grimaced and thought about hightailing it out of the room before she had to face whoever was on the other side of that door, but hesitation was her worst enemy, and the door was tossed back open before she could move.

  There he stood, six foot odd of angry alpha filled the doorway, and she winced. “Whoops?” Kelly offered and got a grunt back in reply. “Perhaps you should be more careful…”

  “I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer,” Mason grumbled.

  “Closed subject then,” Kelly shrugged. “Much like the door.”

  “Why are you still here?”

  “Such a gracious host…”

  “To an unwelcome witch – yes,” he grumbled back.

  Mason’s beast rumbled a growl of warning to the alpha. Ever since he’d met the witch, his beast had been unsettled. It was little wonder – witches weren’t his favorite thing right then, and he wanted her gone.

  Now the beast was just being plain annoying. It was urging the alpha to take her scent from the air, probably due to the fact that the beta had a new mate and the beast was reminded of his duty to search for theirs.

  He wasn’t willing to do that. Witches were nothing but trouble, and he didn’t want one as a mate.

  No. He’d see hell freeze over before that happened. He’d prefer to go rogue.

  “Alpha, I’ve got a bone to pick with you,” the vampire announced with glee as he shot into the room, laid eyes on the witch that turned a dark, menacing glare on him, and shot his hand out in front of him to ward the witch off doing anything they might both regret. “It can wait.”

  “Oooooh!” Kelly lifted her hand, palm, outward toward the vampire, and a heartbeat later he’d steamrollered the alpha out of the doorway and was gone. “Damn it!” She stomped a pointy-toed boot on the floor in annoyance.

  In the vampire’s rush to exit the room and be free of the witch’s wrath, Jai had inadvertently elbowed the alpha in the ribs. Mason felt that blow like a sledgehammer, heard a small pop of bone, and doubled over with pain as all the air was sucked out of his lungs.

  A fresh wave of pain went through him, and he drew in a deep breath through his mouth and his nose — definitely without thinking of the consequences. His beast rallied within him and caught him off guard.

  Every muscle, every sinew, every part of his body tensed with knowing that scent. He may have been doubled over, but his head snapped back on his neck, his darkening eyes locked onto the witch in front of him, and a low, deep growl rumble through his chest, got caught in his throat and finally found its way toward her.

  “Don’t look at me with those accusing puppy eyes — I didn’t do it!” Kelly snapped back as she tossed her balled up fists onto her curvy hips, tipped her head to one side, and dared him to say that she was at fault for his little mishap.

  “Mine…” he growled back.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ~

  “Oh, noooo, no, no, no, bloody no with brass bells clanging the chimes of doom on,” Kelly hissed back at the alpha as she craned her head forward on her neck, narrowed her eyes on him as if she was trying to stare deep into his soul, and grunted in annoyance like a dragon getting ready to unleash hellfire on the alpha.

  There was a little rumble of something in the back of her throat that was more than appealing to the alpha – even if he did want to run clean through the nearest wall and head for the hills never to return again.

  Life sucked – hell, it didn’t just suck – it was a travesty in the making. Right then — right there was hell on earth, and he wasn’t going to go quietly.

  No way in hell was he taking a witch mate! His beast said otherwise.

  His wolf didn’t care if their mate was Attila the Hun — Jabba the Hutt — or Little Red Riding Hood. A mate, was a mate, was a mate.

  Noooooot the way he looked at it. Witch! Plain and simple.

  His wolf needed to back the heck down.

  Miiiiinnnnneeee! The beast growled.

  Wiiiiiittttccchhh! He growled back.

  Mine!

  Witch!

  His wolf tried to push forward, and the alpha pushed back.

  Kelly had suffered a moment or three of complete and total shock. His ha! My Tootsie Roll – and he knows where he can shove that!

  But, it was the look on the alpha’s face that captured her attention and held her spellbound for the longest moment. Constipated – indecisive – like he wanted to say so much, and yet, couldn’t spit it out.

  Good. She didn’t want him to say anything — he’d said enough, more than enough, too much. Way too much for her liking.

  His indecision, his brain’s constipation, gave her an out – and she took off for the door that wasn’t filled by him.

  Big sexy him — her mate — allegedly.

  In her mind, nothing had really be proven until he’d sniffed — and he wasn’t about to sniff her because she wasn’t about to wait around. Hellfire no way!

  She heard a rumble of a growl behind her and some big stomping feet that sounded like they were hard on her heels. Good luck with that.

  She turned at the dead end, down the corridor, and out into the hallway. Her heart was thumping against her ribs, her palms were sweaty, and there was that annoying rush of the blood in her ears.

  She started for the front door — skidded on the wooden flooring — crashed shoulder first into the door frame, and that was when some idiot tossed open the door as if his very life depended on it.

  The edge of the door hit her side on, spun her in place, and sent her skidding sideways. Thump – Thump – Thump! She could hear the alpha’s feet on the wooden flooring as if it was a pendulum leading to her doom.

  She spun back towards the front door, and there he was — the vampire! Oh, how she’d love to kill him.

  Unfortunately, she had nothing wooden and pointy in her hands, and setting fire to him inside the house would just be cutting her nose off to spite her face. Tempting!

  Kelly lifted her hands and aimed her magic directly at him. The force of the blast hit his chest and swept him back off his feet, leaving a wide-open doorway, and freedom.

  Kelly took one step toward it, and there was the beta that she’d met at the car —. He was frowning, confused, but still gleeful at the vampire’s swift exit. “Score!”

  Kelly’s top lip curled in annoyance, and she shrieked as her exit was cut off. She spun on her heels, almost skidded sideways again, shrieked in annoyance as she regained her stability, caught sight of the alpha coming toward her — and used her magic to aim a well-placed box of belongings right at his feet.

  To say that she would love to have stuck around to watch him trip over the top of the box when it hit him in the shins was an understatement, but she did hear the growling, grunting, the cursing, and the heavy thud of the alpha hitting something as she took off into the nearest room to search for another way out.

  Fate be damned — she was getting out of there.

  “What’s going on?” She heard the deep, amused tone of the beta behind her and muttered a curse of her own.

  Calamity — the end of the world as she knew it — tragedy. That was what was bloody well going on.

  “Mind your own business,” Mason growled as he stomped on by the beta, and headed after his mate.

  “Are we killing the witch?” Jon wouldn’t let it drop.

  “No! Mason growled. “If you don’t drop it the only one that’s going to be dead around here is you…”

  “And the vampire — but his long since dead,” Jon tossed back without missing a heartbeat, and kind of wishing that he hadn’t when he got a hard glare from the alpha for his trouble.

  “What’s going on?” The vampire asked, and when Jon tossed a look back over his shoulder at the man, he was shaking his whole body as if trying to shake off her magic.

  “That�
��s what I said. Nice landing by the way,” Jon chuckled.

  “I prefer the truck and role — but, I didn’t have a choice in the matter,” the vampire tossed back with a dry tone that told the beta that he wasn’t best pleased with the way things had gone.

  Mason stormed into the room after the witch and immediately felt the breeze from the open window. His gaze snapped in that direction, and there was his witch — half in — half out — with a look like a startled rabbit on her face. “Oh no, you don’t.”

  “I beg to differ,” Kelly said, and she flicked her hand and used her magic to shoot one of the side tables right at him.

  Mason reached down for the table, he’d planned to grab it and toss it away, but the force of the magic that she put behind it made that impossible. It hit his shins just below his kneecap, and he went sailing clean over the top of it.

  He landed with a thud on the floor and heard her scampering out of the window while he was busy picking himself up.

  Mason growled — his beast rose up within him as it threatened to burst free — he slammed the steel cage door on the wolf, and as his mate disappeared out of the window with a shriek and a small thud as she hit the ground outside, the alpha stopped across the room and thrust the top half of his body through the open gap.

  There she was, face down on the ground, cursing and muttering to herself as she palmed the grass and attempted her first push up. The sound of the alpha’s growl, so close, too close behind her, made her complete that push up, dig her pointy-toed boots into the ground, and take off like a sprinter out of the traps.

  “Do you really think you can run faster than me?” The alpha growled after her, not that he expected her to answer, but she did.

  “I have something that you don’t have — magic,” Kelly tossed back over her shoulder, and even though she didn’t want to, she snatched a look back at the window, and there was the big alpha climbing through the small gap.

  At any other time in her life that probably would have really looked funny — but there was nothing funny about a wolf shifter mate. She really needed to get out of Dodge — and fast.

  Yes, everything she owned might have been behind her, but she could live with that if it meant that she wasn't mated to a howl-at-the-moon alpha shifter.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ~

  Jon cocked his head to one side and eyed the view through the open doorway where his alpha had gone in one way, and exited out the window. That was not normal behavior for the alpha.

  “You don’t think…?” The vampire said and left that unspoken question hanging in the air between them.

  Jon shifted his gaze to the vampire, narrowed his eyes, and considered it for a long moment. “I do think – but, I want to hear you say it.”

  “You really don’t know, do you?” The vampire tossed back.

  Jon pulled his head back on his neck and considered that for a moment. “I do know — I just want to see if you know.”

  “I knew you didn’t know,” the vampire sneered.

  “I knew you didn’t know,” Jon tossed back.

  “What’s going on?” Bree asked as she started down the stairs with Maxi by her side. “Can anyone join in with your playground squabbles, or do you need your sexual organs on the outside of your body to act that stupid?”

  “Ask him,” Jon said, pointing a finger at the vampire.

  “She asked you,” Jai tossed back.

  “Well, at this point I don’t care who tells me as long as somebody does.” Bree sighed. Boys would be boys, but these boys took it to a whole new level of mine is bigger than yours.

  “Mates,” the vampire said with a small shake of his head at the beta’s entrenched stance.

  “Mates!” Jon exclaimed as his eyes widened while his jaw sank toward his chest.

  “Now, you know,” the vampire said, and he looked even more smug than usual as he savored his victory.

  Jon opened his mouth to speak, but his brain kicked his backside into gear. “The witch is running!” He didn’t wait for a reply from anyone. He used his shoulder to shoot the vampire back out of the doorway and took off after the alpha.

  “Hello?” Bree asked the vampire just as he turned to follow the beta.

  If the witch was running — that wasn’t good. Who knew what Mason’s wolf would do when he caught up to her?

  “The alpha just found his mate — it’s your witchy friend from the side of the road,” Jai tossed back over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

  Bree was speechless — sure, she might have done a little spell — but, she never expected that!

  Maxi turned a slow glare upon her friend. “Tell me you had nothing to do with this,” Maxi demanded, folding her arms, and she pinned her friend to the spot with a hard glare.

  “Me?” Bree tried for innocent; it didn’t work.

  “Bree!” Maxi tossed up a hand and then sighed.

  “She was obviously fate’s choice to start off with — they were always going to meet — this wasn’t my fault,” Bree tossed back.

  “Seriously?” Maxi sighed again.

  “It’s the alpha’s mate,” Bree shrugged. “He’ll thank me for it later.”

  “Well, he certainly isn’t going to thank you for it now — considering that he’s hunting is mate.” Maxi bit out and noted the wince on her friend’s face.

  “It was just a little spell.”

  “It always is.” Maxi berated her.

  ~

  It wasn’t as if the alpha could do anything about it now. The chase was on.

  His beast had scented their mate. If he didn’t catch her than the wolf would — and that might be bad.

  A witch. A mate. A witch mate.

  What could be worse than that? The alpha supposed that a vampire could be worse — but, not by much.

  He’d never expected to have a witch as a mate, and he’d pitied Jon and envied him at the same time for finding his mate — and it being a witch. Now he had a witch mate of his own — how could fate be that cruel?

  It was all Bree’s fault. If that little witch had just let the woman go and not brought her back to pack land — he might have been home and clear. He would never have known that he had a witch mate — he would never have known — his mate.

  His beast grumbled a growl within him. Strange, the thought of never knowing his mate caused him the same reaction.

  Wasn’t it better to have a witch mate then never to have found one? That was something that he was going to have to wrestle with at another time.

  His witch was speedy, but there was no way that she was going to outrun him.

  She’d headed for the trees — silly witch — the woods were his domain. There couldn’t have been a friendlier place for the witch to try to outrun him.

  He entered the tree line, just as a branch swung down, ripped off from one of the trees, and hit him with magical force in the chest. Perhaps the trees weren’t exactly that friendly.

  Witches were a friend of nature, after all.

  Witches were also crafty, underhanded, devious, mischievous, and a whole lot of trouble. He was going to have to be all of those things too.

  If his mate was going to cheat and use magic — then he was going to have to be just as crafty as she was.

  Mason had absolutely no idea how to be crafty, underhanded, and devious. He was an alpha, a shifter, a man — men weren’t as naturally devious as women. At least, not in everything.

  If she wanted to play games — he could play games. Not that this was a game — if his wolf decided to let loose then her life could be on the line.

  But, if she was going to throw tree branches at him — then he wasn’t about to let her do it again. Yep, he was going to be devious.

  Mason peeled right. He picked his way through the scattered trees at high speed and was determined to circle around in front of her and meet her head on.

  Let’s see how she likes devious! He thought. But the trouble was; he hadn’t thought the whole thing thr
ough.

  ~

  Whoever said exercise was good for you was lying, had an agenda, or was just plain daft. Kelly was panting like one of the wolves that she’d left behind. Her legs felt like lead, her lungs were burning with the need to be able to take a proper breath — and she’d much rather be sitting in her car eating chocolate than running through the woods with Satan’s wolf chasing her.

  Not that he was a wolf — she hoped. If that man had shifted, then it was game over.

  How could she throw a tree trunk at a wolf?

  She dared to toss a look back over her shoulder and was surprised to find that he wasn’t breathing down the back of her neck. When she turned her gaze back in front of her in an attempt not to face plant a tree trunk — there he was!

  Her legs might have felt like lead — but they didn’t want to stop – it was like the forward momentum was the only thing that kept her upright, and she hated to think what would happen if she stopped.

  She had no choice; it was that, or keep running right into the solid wall of his muscled chest, and those big strong arms, arms that could hold her up nicely as her body threatened to turn into a pile of mush on the ground. Choices – choices.

  When Kelly ground to a halt — her legs didn’t feel like lead anymore, no, they felt like mush. They were shaking so badly that they were barely able to hold her body up.

  She wanted to collapse — she wanted to die — exercise was truly to the domain of evil.

  She tossed a look around her, flinging her arms in the direction that she wanted her upper body to move, and found — trees.

  While she wasn’t opposed to flinging a branch at all at the alpha’s head — she kind of thought he’d see that one coming a mile off.