by M. L. Briers
“I like the way you think,” she chuckled.
Mason liked the way the sun came out when she smiled. He liked the way her eyes crinkled at the corners a little when she chuckled harder. He loved her scent.
His beast rose up within him at that thought; it urged him to lean in, take her scent, and state his claim once more. Mason almost acted on impulse — but, she was finally letting her guard down, and that would be one sure fire way to have it slam back up again.
He knew it was the Scotch and not his newfound charm that was winning her over. He could live with that, for now.
What he couldn’t live with was the constant flow of certain members of his pack, and friends, that continued to walk by the window — with sneaky looks in — and distracting him. Every time his eyes flicked toward the window then so did her gaze.
“Would you like me to do something about that?” Kelly asked. She lifted her glass and motioned to the enforcer that was casually — not casually — strolling by.
“I was considering going outside and killing somebody, but I’m enjoying your company too much,” Mason said, and for a long moment he wondered if he’d said the wrong thing as her lips moved but not a sound came out.
Kelly wondered if she’d had one too many glasses of Scotch because his words sounded kind of sweet — for an alpha. Maybe it was the Scotch, or maybe he was telling her what he thought she wanted to hear, or maybe — just maybe — he wasn’t such a big bad wolf after all.
And maybe Hell would freeze over, and real faeries would dance live on TV while aliens landed looking for directions to another planet. Of course, that would mean that the alien spacecraft was being driven by females — because men never asked for directions.
“Feel free, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” Kelly said, thinking about the vampire that was at the window and blocking her escape route.
It was a conspiracy — everyone was conspiring to bring them together in one way or another — even fate.
“No, you’re not,” Mason said.
He sounded so damn sure of himself that she didn’t believe it for one moment that she would ever escape.
Escape. It wasn’t like she was a prisoner or anything. She guessed that if she really wanted to up and leave, then he wasn’t going to stop her.
If he tried, then she could always use her magic against him if she wanted to leave that badly. But she’d come back to the house of her own free will the last time — what did that say about her?
Yes, the alpha would let her leave, but that wouldn’t stop him from following her to the ends of the earth — of that she was sure.
Then there was the whole fate thing. She was a witch, and she believed that there were more things guiding her hand in every endeavor than just brain power. Life was mapped out, and it could be bent, but not broken.
Then there were the signs – oh, how she loved the signs that pointed the way and were strategically put in a person’s path to lead them on. Magic, luck, fate, and destiny – how could she deny any of it?
It would be as if she denied magic itself.
But, wasn’t he just a little too sure of himself? A girl had her pride.
“Tell it to the hand,” she said and thrust her palm out towards him.
When the alpha snagged her hand in his, she felt the surge of tingles run over her skin, up her arms, and across her body, and she couldn’t help but shiver.
That felt good – too good – and he was still holding her hand … and then he was rumbling a growl that felt as if it reached deep inside of her and met with the shiver. Her body was inundated with sexy goodness – and they say chocolate was good for an endorphin rush.
Mason didn’t know what to do next. Well, he knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to pull her closer and kiss her to oblivion, but, he’d just got her into a good place where she wasn’t zapping, or running, and he didn’t want to take two steps forward and one back.
Hell, he wanted to go full steam ahead.
His wolf tested the waters, tested to see if his little brain was overriding his big brain yet, and the alpha rewarded him by slamming that steel cage door shut.
Mason had just started to lean towards her when he caught sight of a movement out of the corner of his eye, and she must have seen it as well because they both turned to find the vampire standing at the window with his nose practically pressed against the glass and a smirk on his face.
“That’s it!” Kelly bit out as she rushed to annoyance at being spied on by the loathsome bloodsucker, and she wrenched her hand from the alpha’s and pushed up to her feet. “I’m gonna kill him.”
“Now?” Mason sounded surprised, and she shot him a quick look that questioned his sanity.
“Why wait?” She put the glass down on the side and shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a ritual sacrifice for vampires or anything. It’s just generally a free for all. See one, bag him, move on.”
Mason’s mouth formed an O as he went to speak, but didn’t, and his eyebrows went up like two caterpillars were about to indulge in fisticuffs, and pinched together.
“Killed a lot of vampires … have you?” he asked and watched her slowly roll that question around in her mind.
“Well, no,” she frowned. “But, it’s never too late to bag your first, right?” She suddenly looked gleeful, and that worried him.
“Sure.” He shrugged one of those broad shoulders, and she noticed the way his muscles worked. She liked that a lot.
“No time like the present.”
“That’s…” Mason tossed a look at the vampire and knew that Jai had heard every word because the man was standing there with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, his eyes were closed, and he had a hand around his own throat.
Oh, how Mason would love to wring the man’s neck – he’d been getting on so damn well with his mate, and now …
“Fine,” Mason growled. “Let’s kill the damn vampire!”
Jai’s eyes snapped open, and his tongue disappeared back in his mouth as he frowned at the alpha. For one long moment he looked for answers in the man’s eyes, and when he found them – he snapped his head back on his neck in surprise and went to take his first step away from the window.
Not fast enough to escape the hard clench of the witch’s magic that gripped his body and held him in place with one side of his face pressed against the glass.
“I’ll hold him, and you kill him!” Kelly urged her mate to action.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
Bree walked up to the vampire and had to stop her lips from curling up into a smug smile as he gave her the side-eye, and there seemed little else he could do with his face pressed against the window the way that it was.
She folded her arms and tried to offer him a quizzical look as she fought the demons within her not to rub his predicament in his face – too much.
“Watcha doin’?” she asked, fighting that need to cackle like a bad B-movie version of herself.
“Window shopping,” Jai offered back with a dry tone as he tried not to imagine all the ways he could kill the alpha’s mate.
“Okay, enjoy,” she offered as bright and breezily as she could before she turned on her heels to walk away.
“You’re just going to leave me hanging?” Jai sighed inwardly because he didn’t want to give Bree the satisfaction of hearing him.
“Pretty much…”
“A little help, Attila…”
“Attila?” Bree made a slow turn back towards him.
“Something the alpha said once. Broom-Hilda more to your liking?” He couldn’t help the smug smile. “Morticia?”
“I know, why don’t you get yourself out of that little mess you’ve got yourself into? I mean, you did kill her car.”
“Unintentional, how was I to know she was a bad driver?”
“She’s female,” Nathaniel said, as he stalked around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted the vampire stuck against the glass. “Wha
t were the odds that she didn’t drive like it was a demolition derby?” he asked, his lips stretched into a wide grin.
“I can drive,” Bree announced in a lofty tone that made Nathaniel lift just one eyebrow at her, questioning her sanity.
“Sure,” he shrugged then spat out a chuckle.
“Can we discuss this after we remove the glass from my face?” Jai grumbled. “Little help. Little sympathy for my misery?”
“Misery loves company,” Bree said with a glint of mischief in her eyes as she stared daggers at the enforcer.
“I wouldn’t,” Nathaniel warned her. “You’re not a mate, and I’m in no mood to play.”
“Play?” Bree thought about that for a long moment.
“Just unstick Garfield here from the glass and let's go,” Nathaniel said, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the alpha stalking towards the window. Jai saw Mason too.
“A little help, alpha?” the vampire asked.
“Sure,” Mason said, and then he reached up at the side of the window and dropped the blind. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
“Not exactly helpful, Snoopy,” Jai grumbled, and when the slats on the blind were snapped open, Mason eyeballed the man. “But, I’m good. Maybe I’ll just lick the window clean while I’m…” The blind snapped closed again. “Alpha’s…”
“No sense of humor,” Bree said.
“I’m feeling unappreciated,” the vampire grumbled.
“Unloved?” Bree asked, her tone oozed with sympathy.
“Very,” he bit back.
“Undead?”
“Always,” Nathaniel chuckled as the vampire groaned.
“Fine, I see how it is. Pick on the minority species…”
“The poor, helpless vampie,” Bree snorted a chuckle.
“You’re not being helpful…”
“You must be rubbing off on me,” Bree tossed back. “You know I can’t break the witch’s spell…”
“Well, could you break the damn window?” Jai sighed.
“And risk the wrath of the alpha?” Bree looked shocked. “I would never do anything…”
“That wasn’t in your best interest,” Nathaniel chuckled.
“Now you’re getting it,” Bree grinned.
“While I’m getting a bad neck.” He felt the magic release him and stumbled back away from the glass. “Hmm, wonder what happened there?” He looked around, just to make sure that there were no vengeful witches apart from Bree around.
The coast was clear.
“Maybe the alpha gave her something else to think about,” Bree shrugged.
~
“What are you doing?” Kelly’s eyebrows arched and pinched as she stared up into Mason’s dark eyes.
He’d stalked right up to her and wrapped one big, strong arm around her waist and yanked her body up close and personal. If that wasn’t enough, he looked as dark and sinfully sexy as hell which made her brain take flight, and she dropped her guard and her magic and enjoyed the view.
“I need to scent you,” Mason growled as his beast wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment.
Kelly opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t wait to hear any possible protest. He’d taken her in his arms, taken her mind and hopefully her magic off the vampire, and now he was going to take her scent – or die trying!
From the stink-eye that she was giving him, he thought he might have to just bend over and kiss his backside goodbye.
He would take his chances – and he did – he buried his face in her hair where her neck met her shoulder and closed his eyes as the silken strands tickled his face and nose, and he took one big whiff…
His nose twitched, and he couldn’t help it – he sneezed!
“No, please – use my hair as a tissue,” Kelly grumbled, but she couldn’t be too mad at him – she’d panicked and spelled his nose – not for a sneeze exactly, but sometimes the best-laid spells didn’t always go as planned.
Mason didn’t breathe; he didn’t move, except for the wince. His beast berated him with an internal growl, and he couldn’t believe that he’d sneezed in his mate’s hair.
He had to wonder why didn’t he just go the whole hog and wipe his nose on her hand?
Idiot!
He felt her start to pull away, start to wiggle, and as she brushed her body against his, she started to turn him on like he’d never been turned on in his life before.
“That had better be a gun, and you had better shoot me now, or so help me…” she grumbled, and Mason winced again.
He was an alpha – damn it!
How could he keep his pack in line – make all the big decisions – take any challenge that came his way – fight werebears and vampires – scale tall buildings with a single bound, well, not really, but … and yet, he couldn’t manage to be Mr. Smooth with his own mate and woo her socks off?
Again – life sucked.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“Would you believe that it’s a…?”
“No,” Kelly snapped back, not even waiting for him to finish.
She twisted her body to break the hold that he had on her but knew there was fat chance of that. But, being in his arms just felt so right that it had to be wrong.
“A consequence of being in the same county as you?” Mason said. He finally had the forethought to remove his face from her hair and offered her a wolfish grin.
He was in this for the long haul so he’d better get his wooing boots on. Okay, things hadn’t started well, but then they’d made progress, and then he’d sneezed in her hair, but now – he was in full wooing mode!
Kelly lifted her hand and touched her nose with a look of disgust. “You’ve got a little…” she lied, but that didn’t stop Mason from rushing to cover his nose and inadvertently clipping her chin with his hand as he let her go and went to step back.
Just then she stumbled back away from him, and he had to reach for her again. With one hand over his nose, he wrapped an arm around her waist and yanked her back towards his chest, and she planted her face into the big, hard, manly ridges of his muscles.
Whoops!
“Smooth move,” Kelly grumbled. She palmed his chest and pushed her upper body as far from his as she could get. “What do you do for an encore, jab me in the eye?”
Mason groaned. Maybe being Mr. Smooth just didn’t suit. Maybe he was too damn growly and alpha-ish to be anything but him.
“I need a mirror,” he grumbled behind his hand.
“I’m all out.” She eyed him for a long moment.
“Be right back,” Mason growled at his own stupidity. He gently released her so that she didn’t have any more mishaps, and then he turned and stomped across the room to the mirror that hung on the wall over the unit.
Nothing there! No boogers! His mate had lied – he groaned inwardly – shocker!
Mason turned to see her standing with her hands on her hips, a sweet look of victory on her kissable lips, and equal measures of fire and amusement in her eyes.
“You made me sneeze,” Mason said, finally figuring it out.
“Perish the thought,” she said, with a smirk that told him he’d been done up like a kipper many times over. So close, and yet, so far.
Mason had to wonder what he was waiting for. She was his mate. She was the mate to an alpha — she was supposed to be spirited — she was supposed to be all fire and determined. Nobody could say that she wasn’t determined — she was damn well determined not to let him woo her.
He needed to up his game.
Would he? Could he? He’d better had.
“Mine.” There was a rumble of a growl that underlined that one word, and he knew that she’d heard it because her eyes widened, her body tensed as if she was about to take a step back, and her gaze flicked around the room as if she was looking for the exit.
Not a chance.
Mine… His beast wholeheartedly embraced that sentiment.
He figured that if his wolf could talk, then it would
probably say — finally!
Kelly heard the claim in his voice; it was in the rumble of a growl that rolled along with it. But, that wasn’t the bad news; the bad news was the determination that he’d said it with — and the fact that he was taking a step toward her.
He looked more than serious — he looked — hungry.
Red rag to a bull! She needed to get out of there, and fast.
The question was; which method did she use? Did she zap him? Did she use her magic to splat him? How much more furniture did she need to throw at him?
“Umm,” she paused for thought — that was a big mistake!
Mason covered the small distance between them with his long strides, and all the time her brain was … well, farting. It raced from one idea to another and never settled on anything definitive.
The closer that he got; the bigger and bigger, hungrier and hungrier, and damn it to hell — sexier and sexier, he looked.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. She hated fate!
She wanted to come up with a plan — but, when his big, strong arms wrapped around her body and he yanked her back up against his hard, muscled torso again — Meh? Who needed a plan?
Her body said; yes — her mind said … blank — blank? Maybe blank wasn’t exactly what was going through her mind, more — sexy alpha — he’s all mine — look at those muscles — puppy dog eyes — sexy-sexy — hubba-bubba – hula-hula – holy hells bells – want!
Her heart raced, excitement kicked her in the backside, and she would have wiped her sweaty palms against her thighs if she could have if he wasn’t squishing her against him in the most delightful way.
“Mine…” he growled again, and she had to wonder why that sounded so good, and then self-preservation raised its ugly head – but it was too late.
Mason was going to prove to his mate just what a damn catch an alpha was. He brought his lips down on hers and silenced any protest that she might have rallied.
He felt the power of the connection a heartbeat later. His heart kicked his ribs, missed a beat or two, and then kicked him again.
