Witching Your Step - Book Two: Paranormal Romantic Comedy

by M. L. Briers

  WITCHING YOUR STEP

  BY

  M L BRIERS

  Copyright © 2018, M L Briers

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.

  Note from the Author;

  All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.

  Copyright © 2018, Cover Design by; Sans@Coverkicks.com.

  Table of Contents

  WITCHING YOUR STEP

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ~

  Nancy knew that cat was more trouble than it was worth – well, not really, she loved the grubby old moggy and wouldn’t see it come to any harm – until she wrung its neck. She had places she needed to be – well, that wasn’t entirely true either, she did need to get the heck out of Dodge, or Knowing as it actually called, but she had no idea which way she was headed – just … away.

  Away from the madness that had infected her community like a hard grip around the heart that threatened anyone unlucky enough to fall under its spell – mates! Ugh!

  Nancy shivered at the thought of it. One of her friends had already been infected and had fallen foul of the mating pull, and now she had a wolf shifter for a mate – she shivered again – a wolf shifter! Ugh!

  Witches and wolf shifters should never mix.

  Well, she wasn’t about to stick around to get stuck with a shifty shifter, no sir! She just needed to find her cat, and she was out of the town like poop off a shovel. But little Miss Obnoxious kitty had scrambled through the hedgerow and was off in the woods as quick as a flash, and for such an old cat that wasn’t a bad thing.

  The bad thing was following her over the hedgerow, through the back garden of another witch’s cottage, and into the woods. The woods. The only time Nancy visited those woods was when she and the other witches in town were either doing one of their nature spells, heaven forbid, or she was dragged there by Vivelle on a scavenger hunt for something the witch needed for a spell.

  The woods were not her friend. Nancy had been blessed with two left feet, and climbing over downed branches, picking her way through bracken, and steering clear of the poison Ivy patch was like running a live fire obstacle course, blindfolded and carrying a horse on her back.

  Oh, how she hated and loved that silly old cat. The stupid animal must have thought they were going to the vets. It’s the only reason that cat travelled at a pace that wasn’t snail slow and underfoot.

  When she got hold of that cat, she was really, truly going to … Nancy felt the ground beneath her feet slip away, and she tried not to go with it, but wooo-hooo-piii-dooo, down she went.

  Her feet were the first thing to slip away, and she landed with a hard thump on her pride, and down the slope, she went – bump-bump-bump!

  Nancy didn’t know how many times her backside hit a branch or something protruding from under the ground, but it hurt – a lot. There was one thing she knew for sure – that cat was going to be toast.

  When she saw something sticking up from beneath a pile of leaves, she grabbed at it like it was her last hope. Her fingers circled something soft, yet hard, and she yanked on it as she sailed by.

  The hard jolt to her body flipped her around onto her stomach, and for a moment she thought she was okay, but when the something she’d grabbed yipped, growled and sprang up from beneath the leaves, she let go with a shriek and started the downward slide again.

  This time she was facing uphill and travelling on her stomach, but that wasn’t what she gave a flying hoot about – it was the sight of the large grey wolf that had sprung up and turned on its paws, and was offering her a snarl and a hungry death glare as she kept on going.

  “Sorry!” Nancy squealed out, deciding it was probably best to get her apologies in before she was eaten by the majestic and very angry looking beast.

  Nancy knew that she might be travelling away from that wolf, but with a hop and a spring, the beast was coming at her at speed. Dang, it! That didn’t fill her heart with the warm fuzzy feeling she’d been hoping for.

  Chased by a wolf and powerless to run the heck away – what was a witch to do?

  “Ah, poop it!” she bit out, pulling on her magic and having it ready at her fingertips for the moment that beast decided it was going to take a tasty bite.

  That was when her world started to spin around her. She must have hit a particularly dense and loose pile of leaves, and suddenly she was spinning around and around, down and down, like a kid rolling sideways down a hill for the fun of it.

  There was absolutely no fun to it in Nancy’s mind. In fact, she was disorientated, and if she could tell which way was up, then she’d be as shocked as Hades and might just throw up in that direction.

  Oh the indignity of it, and witnessed by a wolf, no less.

  “Not fun! Not fun! Make it stop!” she bit out, and finally it did.

  Face down, buried alive in what smelled like a rotting pile of leaves, and goodness knows what else if the wolves were using the woods for a pooping range, she had a few choice words for life in general.

  “That sucks!” she bit out. “Pah!” She blew, splattered, and huffed out the dead leaves in her mouth. Slapped the palms of her hands against the ground, and lifted her head to the sight of a wolf, practically nose-to-nose with her.

  “Oh go the heck ahead and bloomin’ eat me!” she bit out. “See if I care.” Nancy dropped her forehead to the ground and grumbled a few more choice words.

  ~

  “What the hell?” Jorge said.

  He’d shifted out of his wolf form and into his human one as he stared down at the witch in disbelief. The woman had to be insane, there was no other way to explain her behaviour, but still, she was lying face down on the ground, and he had to see if she was alright. Or, he could just have padded on, but that wasn’t his style.

  “Go away!” Nancy said.

  It was probably true to say that her backside hurt almost as much as her pride, and she knew that the stupid shifter had shifted into his human form because the mutt was talking. Did she really need to add insult to injury by coming face to face with him?

  “Are you hurt?”

  “Are you deaf?”

  “Are you hurt?” he didn’t sound so nice about having to repeat it.

  “What’d you care?” she hissed at the ground.

  “I don’t, but…”

  “There you go then, buzz off,” Nancy bit back.

  Jorge sighed. “Rude,” he said and grumbled and growled at the same time.

  “And how rude is it to hide under leaves and jump out
on poor unsuspecting witches?” she hissed, more miffed at herself for her stupid mismatched feet and grabbing his beast’s tail, although she might just laugh about that one later, than at him.

  “I did not jump…”

  “But, I bet you were gonna, weren’t ya?” she said, lifting her head and catching sight of the naked feet, up his muscled legs, and she almost squeaked at the sight of his long, length that sort of twitched a little as if it was waving a greeting. “Put that away!” Nancy snapped, pushing up on her hands and knees and fighting with her poor aching body to climb to her full height.

  “Got any clothes?” Jorge tossed back with a lot of sarcasm dripping from his tone, sarcasm she didn’t appreciate considering the circumstances and her pride. “Wanna magic me up something a little snazzy?”

  “No, I do not want to magic you up something a little snazzy, you big loaf-of-an-oaf!” she snapped out, eyeing him like the predator that she knew him to be. “And what were you doing lying in wait…?”

  “I was not lying in wait. I heard some idiot coming…”

  “Idiot?”

  “Hey, if the pointy witchy hat fits,” he said, shrugging. “You’re the one who went surfing down a hillside without a surfboard. I’m not seeing any snow…”

  “You’re the one with his tail sticking up in the air like you wanted it to get pulled or something,” she bit out, brushing dead leaves and other stuff from her clothes to try to distract herself from the fact that nature boy was very naked.

  “Sure, of course, my wolf loves to have his tail yanked by a howling mad witch,” he snapped back, lifting his chin, folding his big muscled arms over his broad muscled chest, and readjusting his stance.

  That made her rush to panic. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Nancy said, wagging her finger at him and backing away. “You – you stay away from me with your hard muscled bits, and your naked dangly bits, and your-your-your puppy dog eyes…”

  “Puppy dog eyes?” he said, groaning inwardly and tossing up a hand in disbelief. “Calm down, witchy-woo the crazy lady, I’m not…”

  “Says you!” she snapped out, not even giving him a chance to finish what he was saying.

  “Huh?” He looked at Nancy as though she’d just been dropped off by a low flying spaceship.

  “Huh?” she mimicked him. “You know…” she said, wagging her witching finger at him.

  “If only I did,” he said, shrugging those broad, naked shoulders and the rest of the muscles that lined his chest and abdomen flexed too.

  Nancy narrowed her eyes and curled her top lip. “Oh, don’t give me that innocent act – I know what you want!”

  “A shower, clothes, and to be out of the crazy whirlwind lady’s flight path?”

  “You’re naked!”

  “You yanked my beast’s tail!” he snapped back. What’s good for the goose…

  “Don’t you sniff – don’t you do it,” she said, wagging her witching finger at him even faster.

  “Crazy witch women, I wouldn’t sniff you if you were the last female on earth…”

  “Sure, what are the odds?” she snapped back.

  “Oh, pretty damn good!”

  “Get on your way with your tail between your legs…”

  “You mean the tail you yanked on?”

  “I was flying down a big hill!” she said, wildly motioning back the way she came, not that she was entirely sure where her path had actually originated. There were just too many twists, turns and rolls on the way down for that.

  “You were poodling along…”

  “And a mutt like you would know all about poodles!” she snapped, leaning her upper body in just a little towards him and offering the look of a woman close to the edge.

  “You need to walk away!” he said, getting angry with her because she was starting to rile up his beast, and that was bad.

  “You walk away, this is witch land, and you’re not supposed to be here,” she said with righteous indignation.

  “That’s…” He bit down on his annoyance. “True, but not the point!”

  “Oh, the inconvenient truth. Run along puppy-poop,” she hissed.

  “I’m…” He lifted his hand and pointed his index finger at her, and she raised her eyebrows at him, almost daring him on. He grunted in annoyance. “You’re crazy…”

  “And you smell bad, but am I complaining?”

  Jorge started to lift his arm with the intention of sniffing to see if she was telling the truth, but he heard a low snake-like hiss from the crazy witch and decided against anything that foolish.

  She was right; he certainly didn’t want to inadvertently take her scent. If he found himself unlucky enough to have a cuckoo mate like her, he’d gladly throw himself off the nearest mountain. He’d heard about Drew finding a witch mate, and he wasn’t going out like that with a sucker punch delivered by fate.

  “You just did,” he said, full of snark as he grumbled a word or two under his breath.

  Nancy pulled a face and mimicked him. “You just did,” she said with a little wiggle of her head.

  Talk about snark. Whatever he could dish out, he’d better be prepared to get it back threefold. She was a witch and that was how it worked.

  “Childish,” he bit out, berating her and turning his nose up at her attitude.

  “Oh, listen to Mr Fancy-No-Pants,” she shot back, lifting her chin in defiance of his words and his lofty attitude.

  Right back at him threefold – the sucker.

  “I wouldn’t be standing here naked if you hadn’t of…”

  “Pulled your tail,” she said, mimicking him once more. “Blah-blah-blah-blah!”

  Jorge bit down on a long list of curse words that were queuing up to get out. He grumbled a growl, eyeing her like he’d eye a coiled up snake, and dismissed her with a wave of his hand as he turned away. “Stay off pack land, crazy witch.”

  “This is witch land, you numpty-doo-dah!” she snapped back, and just because she couldn’t hold it in a moment longer, she zapped him.

  Boy, did that feel good – freeing – like all her Christmases had come at once and it was only Autumn! And then she heard the low, deep, angry growl that rolled through him, and thought – whoops!

  CHAPTER TWO

  ~

  “Ooo, hubba-hubba,” Vivelle said as she walked back into the cottage to the sight of her mate padding down the stairs, jeans on, button open, shirt still off with those hard muscles on display, and his hair all tousled from sleep. “There’s a view in the morning that I’m not going to grow tired of.”

  Drew’s long legs ate up the short distance between them, and he wrapped his arms around, pulling her against him, and kissing her with so much passion that it made her toes curl in the process. Viv practically climbed up his body to wrap her legs around his waist to the sexy sound of a hearty, hungry growl that rumbled within him.

  “I’d much prefer the view of waking to find you in the bed beside me,” he said, turning and stalking back towards the staircase.

  “And where are we going?” she asked, giggling like she didn’t already know.

  “I think I might have missed a bit,” Drew said.

  “A bit of…?” she asked as he took the stairs three at a time in what she could only assume was a race to get to the top.

  “You,” Drew said, growling once more at the thought of having her naked beneath him again.

  “Me?”

  “I said I was going to lick you from head to toe and I have this nagging feeling I missed a bit,” Drew said, trying to look pained instead of hungry.

  “I hate that nagging feeling,” Viv said, feeling the fire of desire flash through her body. “Best to put it to bed,” she said, and mischief danced in her eyes as he took her back down to the bed and rested on his elbows above her.

  “Great minds think alike,” he said, leaning in to kiss her once more, but she slapped a hand against the naked skin of his hard muscled chest, and he held in place.

  “Problem?” />
  “Well,” she said, looking slightly pained. “I did say I’d have coffee with Olivia…”

  “Ooo, tough one,” he said, playfully. “Debauchery or coffee?”

  “Well, when you put it like that,” she said, a wicked little grin starting on her lips, transfixing him. “I guess I do have an hour or two…”

  “That’s fast, but I think I can fit it all in,” Drew said, offering her a wolfish grin. “Then coffee, then we can start moving your stuff to pack land,” he said, leaning in to kiss her, but she slapped both hands against his chest, and frowned up at him.

  “Pack land?” she asked, twisting her head and eyeing him like he’d just grown another head on those broad shoulders. They did say two heads were better than one, but she liked the one he had just fine.

  “Where we live.”

  “Hmm, and I thought I lived here,” she said, raising her head and making a show of looking around the room. “Yep, here’s my stuff.”

  “But we’re mated now…”

  “I seem to remember it…”

  “That means we live together…”

  “Here…”

  “On pack land,” he said at the same time.

  Viv frowned harder at the prospect of leaving her home. She liked her little cottage just fine, and while she’d never seen where the shifter’s lived, because of the whole stay in your own lane thing, she didn’t really want to live in a shed. “What’s wrong with here?”

  “It’s not pack land and wolves aren’t allowed on witch land.”

  “Yeah, because that stopped you, right?” she said, chuckling.

  That wolfish grin was back on his lips. “Some things are worth breaking the rules for…”

  “Things?”

  “Some beautiful, sexy, curvy, witches are worth breaking the rules for…”

  “Some?” she said, and he could see the mischief dancing in her eyes.

  “You were worth breaking the rules for…”

  “Three tries and he finally got it,” she said, fist-pumping the air.