by M. L. Briers
“Then why are you running?” Drake growled again.
“I have no idea!” Eliza ground to a halt and tossed up her hands in dismay. Every inch of her body sighed in relief and blew her a kiss that she’d stopped running.
“Damn, but you’re weird,” Drake growled.
Eliza’s lower jaw dropped down, and for the first time in what felt like forever, her teeth weren’t chattering anymore. Her body didn’t feel as cold either, as heat rushed through her along with a big dollop of annoyance.
Her eyebrows drew down and almost pitched together as she scowled back at her mate.
“Do you always walk around with your foot firmly in your mouth, or is it a new development since meeting me?”
Drake went to speak, replayed his words in his mind, and groaned. He’d done it again.
He’d insulted her.
First impression — bad.
Second impression — worse.
How was he supposed to woo his mate when he couldn’t seem to stop insulting her?
~
~
~
Jackie clapped her hands together and rubbed them as if she was staving off the cold. She shot a look of glee at her sister.
“Three witch mate’s!” She chuckled in delight at the prospect of all that entailed.
“This is gonna be good!” Amy chuckled back.
“Three witch sisters,” Jackie nodded her head with glee.
“We need to start a wish list,” Amy offered back.
“Oh, good one!” Jackie chuckled.
“But, what does someone ask a witch for?” Amy frowned at that thought.
It was great having their own witches, but now that they had them — what were they going to do with them?
“The best thing about this,” Jackie said. “Our brother was wrong. We do get to keep the witches.”
“All three.” Amy nodded.
“And who said Christmas miracles didn’t happen?” Jackie sniggered.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“Did you throw up?” Jeff growled.
“Can you smell chunks?” Nancy grumbled as she braced her hands against the small of his back and pushed up. She was done with the whole hanging over his shoulder thing.
“I’m not sniffing,” Jeff growled back.
“Oh, now you’re not sniffing,” Nancy hissed out in annoyance.
“Hey, don’t blame me. I never sniffed you in the first place!” Jeff grumbled as he stomped through the snow back toward the cabin.
“Oh no? Then how did you get my scent,” Nancy demanded, as her hands slipped against his back, and she flopped down again with a groan.
“It was all over my sister’s clothes when they got in my truck,” Jeff growled in annoyance.
If only he hadn’t sniffed.
“So, you did sniff,” Nancy tossed back as she braced her hands and tried to push up again.
“Not you!”
“Not the point!”
“Damn, but your argumentative,” Jeff grumbled.
“Oh! If you think this is argumentative, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Nancy hissed back at him like a really miffed off snake. She even wiggled and slithered against his shoulder, which was damn annoying.
“I can imagine!” He grumbled.
“Trust me; you can’t.”
“Oh yes, I can. I have sisters.”
“Those two — novices,” she warned him.
Jeff grumbled a growl. He cursed under his breath and mentally kissed his backside goodbye.
If what his mate was saying was true, then he was in for one hell of a ride for the rest of his life. From what he could tell; this witch — his mate — was a mean one.
She was also as feisty as hell, but that part, he liked.
“Put me down! Do I look like a sack of coal to you?”
“All I can see right now is your backside, do you really want me to answer that question?” He heard her suck in a hard breath, and he grinned to himself.
He’d won that point.
The sting of her magic against his backside said he’d also lost that point.
~
~
~
Kiel was in no mood to deal with his mate. A witch — not just any witch, but a witch that thought it was acceptable to hit him where it hurt.
He’d like to wring her scrawny little neck, but his beast had other ideas. The wolf wanted to hunt her down and keep her for himself.
Kiel could live with the keeping her for himself part — it was the hunting her down part that worried him. The witch was running, which meant that she didn’t have the sense that she was born with.
When the alpha was able to draw enough breath into his lungs; he growled with annoyance. Who runs from their mate?
Surely, at some point in her life, the woman had been told never to run from your mate. Especially, when the mate in question was an alpha wolf shifter.
Mine…
His beast was urging him to get up from his knees. If only he could.
He might have been fast to heal, but there were injuries, and then there were injuries.
His balls were throbbing, and his head was pounding. He didn’t know if he wanted to eat her, or just lick her from head to toe.
She certainly smelled good.
Good enough to eat.
Mine…
Kiel slammed one hand down against the snow and pushed up with a hell of a lot of willpower and a hell of a lot of pain.
Mate or not — the witch was running toward the woods, and it might not have been snowing a blizzard right then — but he could still scent the next load of snow in the air.
It wasn’t a matter of if it would snow again, but when, and when the snow did pick up again – Even his wolf wouldn’t be able to track her by smell alone.
‘Brothers — I’m going after my mate,’ Kiel growled out into the pack's link.
‘Hello?’ Drake chuckled.
‘Your… what now?’ Jeff asked.
‘Don’t start — I just might kill her and not have to worry about my damn mate anyway.’
‘Someone’s got their panties in a knot.’ Drake was happier now that he knew that both of his brothers were in the same leaky boat as him.
‘Just see to your own damn panties and your own damn mates,’ the alpha growled back. ‘This one’s mine.’
‘In more ways than one,’ Jeff chuckled.
~
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~
Three trucks in convoy made the journey back over the pack’s land towards the main community. Three sets of mates drove in complete silence with snatched looks from the males, and death glares from the witches, and in the back of Jeff’s truck; his sisters were giggling like schoolgirls.
Kiel sat naked beside Ashley as he drove the bumpy track back home. His wolf had broken free and chased her down, and even though he had a spare set of clothes in the back of the cab, he flatly refused to put them on.
If his mate felt uncomfortable with his nakedness, then good – she could consider it penance for running off.
Kiel snatched a sideways glance at her, and she locked up her body and slowly turned a death glare towards him. He let another long, grumbled growl roll in his chest and heard her huff as he turned his attention back to the road.
“Stop bloody well growling at me.” Ashley fidgeted in her seat, folded her arms, and huffed again.
Kiel tossed her another hard glare.
“I mean, how was I supposed to know that you were my mate?” She grumbled as she undid her arms and became animated.
“You knew…” he grumbled another growl.
“Suspecting is not knowing…” she snapped back, keeping her eyes dead ahead so that he couldn’t see hers.
“You knew…”
“I was drunk…” she hissed, tossing up her hands and slapping them down on her thighs.
“You knew…”
“Drunk!” she snapped out as she turned in her seat towards h
im, and she couldn’t help but take in his naked body, the muscles, the hard length of his that twitched a hello to her.
“Still knew…” he growled.
“Do you have to sit there like…” she pressed her lips together when his manhood waved at her on a particularly bumpy section of the road. “Ah, geez, man – cover it up.”
“Does my naked body offend you?” He growled once more.
“Yes!” She snapped back, yanking her body back around in the seat, folding her arms once more, and huffing loudly.
“Well, tough…”
“Oh, tough, is it?” She snorted her contempt for him. “So much for mates.”
“Yes, so much for mates. You offended my wolf when you ran off. You offended me when you ran off…”
“Your wolf rugby tackled me into a snow drift. You tossed me over your shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes — with the bounce-bounce-bounce — and the view of your naked backside of the way back to the cabin!” She grunted in annoyance.
“Well, consider yourself damn lucky that my wolf didn’t take matters into its own paws and mark you there and then — if you come up with a stupidity button attached then could you turn it off?” Kiel growled.
“Stop bloody growling!” She yelled loud enough to make his sensitive ears ring.
“No!” He snapped back.
“Fine!” She yelled back, and then she turned and tried to open the door.
The alpha stamped on the brake. The car jolted to a skidding halt; its tires spinning over the snow.
The two trucks behind did the same. Unfortunately, it was like a game of bumper cars as each truck nudged into the other one.
“Are you insane?” He growled deeper, louder, and with so much anger in his tone that she whirled back towards him.
Her hand inadvertently slapped against his face as he leaned over, and that made him growl even more.
“Yes! Yes, I’m insane, and I want out of this truck, and you can’t stop me!”
The look in her eyes said she was deadly serious, the scowl on her face said he’d better beware, and the tone of her voice was like acid over his senses.
“Oh, can’t I?”
The alpha moved fast; his hand snatched at the seatbelt, and he yanked it tightly across her body so that the mechanism locked in place, and she was trapped in the seat.
With a rumble of a growl, a fist holding that seatbelt in place; he started off toward home once more.
“I can zap you,” Ashley warned.
“Go ahead, cut your nose off to spite your face, and end up upside down in a ditch right along with me,” he growled back.
Ashley considered her options for a long moment. She didn’t much like the idea of spending one more moment in the truck with him.
Ditch or not, upside down or not, it was just so damn tempting not to let him have his way.
While she had the overwhelming desire to zap the man within an inch of his life, self-preservation reared its ugly head within her, and she folded her arms tightly across her chest, grunted, huffed, and muttered so many curses under her breath that she ran out of a very long list and had to start over again.
“Glad you see things my way,” the alpha growled.
“Oh, don’t tempt me,” she warned. “How would you like a mate without her nose?”
Upside down in a ditch was looking pretty good to her at that moment in time, and he was Mr. Smug. It wasn’t like she needed her nose anyway, it was purely cosmetic.
“Well, it appears I have a mate without a brain, so a damn nose is neither here nor there,” he growled back.
Ashley let go of a shriek of annoyance, at exactly the same time as she let go of her magic, and both were aimed right at him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
When the alpha tossed open the back door to the kitchen and stormed in naked, and with a face like thunder, Arthur knew that all was not right with the world.
“Get your damn feet off my seat,” Kiel growled at the vampire.
“I was just…” Arthur stopped talking the moment that Ashley stomped into the room with a face that matched the alpha’s, and she tossed Kiel a death glare.
Arthur snapped to attention. He sat bolt upright in the chair as his feet hit the floor.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no witches in here…come on, that’s like inviting a vampire slayer to a steak dinner and not expecting them to be carrying the wooden kind. It’s like walking up to the Pope and unleashing your beast…it’s like…” Arthur rushed out, and the alpha growled in return.
“Happening, get over it,” Kiel growled again.
“Where witches go trouble follows…I’m just saying.” Arthur held his hands up to his chest.
Far be it from him to tell the alpha what to do in his own house. He was only there because of the storm. But still.
“They’re mates,” the alpha grumbled as everyone piled inside and Jeff closed the door behind them.
“Oh! The pack is doooomed, doooomed, I say. Do I need to say it louder?” Arthur offered with a melodramatic flare.
“I think I got it, but thanks.”
“You keep a vampire as a pet?” Nancy said as she offered the bloodsucker a sneer.
“They were all out of puppies,” Jeff offered back to her, and she couldn’t help but snigger.
“Oh, you jest now, but wait until the witches have their feet under the table and their pointy little hats on the hat rack,” Arthur tossed back. “Mayhem and magic, magic and trouble, and it all follows witches.” He warned.
“And a trail of dead bodies usually follows a vampire, so maybe we should kill you now and save humanity,” Nancy rallied back.
“See!” Arthur tossed up a hand in her direction. “She’s already threatening to kill your favorite neighborhood vampire…”
“How many damn vampires are there?” Nancy demanded.
“Just me,” Arthur tossed back.
“I’m still not seeing how you’re the favorite.” Nancy offered him the kind of sickly sweet smile that would bring a lesser man to fear. He knew what was behind that smile; she was a witch after all.
“I’m warning you, alpha, no good can come from this,” Arthur motioned toward the witches.
“Tell me about it,” the alpha grumbled under his breath.
“So, they’re causing trouble already, are they?” Arthur demanded.
“That’s one way to put it,” the alpha tossed back. He received the kind of death glare from his mate that; if she’d put a little magic behind it, then he would have been ashes on the floor.
“And yet, you bring the strays home,” Arthur offered a small shake of his head in dismay.
“They’re mates,” the alpha growled.
“Not the point,” Arthur rushed out.
“I hate to say it, but this…” Ashley motioned towards the man and tried to find a fitting word for him. “Leach is right. No good can come of it – we should leave now.” She gave an innocent shrug of her shoulders.
“Sounds good,” the alpha offered back as he narrowed his eyes at her.
“In that case,” she took one step toward the back door, and the three shifters blocked her way.
“Unfortunately…” The alpha started, but Nancy cut him off.
“Don’t you just hate that word. Unfortunately, I do. So, let’s not use it.”
“Fine,” the alpha tossed back. “Let’s use the word – but. But you’re not leaving…”
“You’re never leaving,” the vampire tossed up his hands in a melodramatic fashion and sighed. “You’re prisoners. You’re going to be chained to the kitchen sink, the bed, barefoot and pregnant, under orders — no magic…”
“Can you not?” The alpha growled.
“In their dreams!” Eliza tossed back with a snort of contempt for the shifters.
“That’s not…” Jeff started, but she cut him off.
“Happening. You’re right.” She folded her arms and nodded her head in agreement with herself.
/>
“Now, hold on. I never said…” Jeff growled.
“He never said, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not happening,” Arthur offered back with a small dramatic sigh.
“Arthur, if you keep stirring the damn witch’s pot, I’m going to kill you,” the alpha promised.
“I’m just saying.” Arthur tossed up his hands. His eyebrows reached for his hairline, and then he collapsed in on himself — zapped by Ashley’s magic.
“What the…?” The alpha growled as he looked at the vampire flopped in the chair. The look of the man reminded him of a marionette that had had its strings cut.
“He was annoying me so,” Ashley shrugged as she regarded her fingernails, and kept her gaze away from the alpha.
“Well,” Kiel considered the vampire for a long moment. “It’s nice to know that your magic is good for something.”
Ashley snapped off her magic and Arthur shot up in his seat again. He eyed the witch with contempt.
“I know where I’m not wanted,” the vampire grumbled as he pushed up to his feet.
“I doubt it,” Nancy snorted a chuckle.
“Don’t come crying to me when the witches bring mayhem and trouble, trouble and mayhem,” Arthur said as he pointed a finger to the ceiling and turned on his heels to walk from the room. “Mayhem and trouble, trouble and mayhem,” he tossed back over his shoulder as he disappeared.
“Well, isn’t he just a bundle of fun,” Nancy snorted her contempt once more.
“As for you and your magic,” the alpha grumbled as he lifted a finger and wagged it at his mate.
“Mayhem and trouble, trouble and mayhem,” Ashley offered back in a sickly sweet tone and with a smile that matched.
The alpha grumbled a growl. The three witches were certainly going to be a challenge, but, there was nothing more that the alpha liked than a good challenge.
~
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~
“So, to recap, we’ve miffed off a vampire — miffed off the alpha — miffed off our mates — been abducted from our cabin — missed our plane — and here we are.” Nancy expanded her hands and motioned around the bedroom.
