Ain't Misbehavin'

by M. L. Briers

  It was quite reasonable to assume that the stalker she was speaking about was also the vampire from her lie. That didn’t bode well for the pack.

  “I didn’t want you, or anyone here, involved in my problems…”

  “Your problems are my problems. You’re my mate.”

  “That’s exactly the attitude I didn’t want to hear.” Darby flicked another look at him, and the man still looked miffed. She’d been sort of hoping for fleeting anger.

  How wrong could a girl be?

  “Well, what the hell kind of attitude did you expect from me…?”

  “That attitude! And that’s the problem,” Darby tossed back. “You’re a testosterone-fuelled shifter, you’re bound to go off half-cocked and gung-ho, and that can get you killed…”

  “You’re worried about me?” Kent couldn’t quite wrap his head around that one.

  “Why do you think I’ve been trying so hard to leave?” Darby tossed back, feeling the irrational need to zap the man just for being him and not seeing the big picture.

  “Because you’re a witch?”

  “Funny.” She shot him a dark glare. “While it’s true that our meeting outside the store was good timing for me, and I used it as an escape route out of there, I had no intention of leading the vampire to the pack’s doorstep.”

  “So, that’s why you were trying so hard to leave?”

  “Oh, please do not equate what I told you with thinking that I’m somehow head over heels in love with you or anything…” She tossed back.

  Yes, she might have been starting to see Kent in is true light, and under other circumstances, she may have succumbed to his many charms, but that did not mean that she was chafing at the bit to become a mate.

  “Perish the thought that you could be attracted to me,” Kent growled back.

  “That’s not what I’m saying either, you Muppet,” she tossed back.

  Darby was in no mood to deal with her mate’s fragile ego.

  “You need to come clean about the vampire that’s stalking you,” Kent’s tone was demanding.

  “Fine. But I also need to leave sooner rather than later,” she snapped back.

  “Oh, boy is that never going to happen,” Kent growled.

  There was no way in hell that he was ever going to let her out of his sight now.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Virginia walked the path back from the main house toward her home. From what she could tell, her brothers finally had a handle on their mates. They all seemed to be consigned to one area, and if she knew her brothers, then they would be following them around like stray puppies in the desperate attempt not to let them take off again.

  That was good for her. She had a life to get back to, and a mate of her own.

  The thought of having witches in the pack had, at first, seemed like the apocalypse had descended upon them. After meeting those witches, she thought that they would be good for her brothers.

  Three kickass witches in a house full of testosterone would be challenging enough to keep her brothers entertained for a while. She also thought that it had been long overdue that Alf found his mate and settled down, bonus for her, the other two thorns in her side were also smitten.

  Perhaps now they wouldn’t be so eager to pass judgment and tease her about her vampire mate. She had all the ammunition that she needed with the fact that their mates were witches — enough said.

  Virginia wasn’t really paying much attention to her surroundings, but the sound of a rustling close by did stop her in her tracks. She scented the air looking for the familiarity of one of her pack — but came up empty.

  She was just about to dismiss that sound as harmless, when it happened again, this time with a rush of the air about her, like a silent gust of wind had swept up, tossing her hair into her face, and momentarily blinding her to her surroundings.

  By the time that her hair fell away from her face and she could see, she felt every fine hair stand to attention over her body, warning her to the danger that was close by — but it was already too late.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  ~

  Alf knew that he should get a grip, pull back, stop kissing the Goddess that had tempted him beyond all reason, but he also knew that he was in the grip of desire for her that was so damn strong that even his beast was holding back, biding its time, and was happy that a claim was on the cards. Alf didn’t want that.

  For one thing, they weren’t even in his bedroom, they were in the living room where anyone could walk in at any moment, and his mate certainly deserved better.

  He wasn’t sure what came next, but he wasn’t about to claim his mate on the damn floor, or the sofa for that matter – although, the thought of bending her over the back of it and taking her from behind did send his adrenaline soaring and an X-rated movie playing in his mind.

  He knew that he needed to get a damn grip on himself, possibly in more ways than one. Harper was his mate, and she deserved reverence.

  The only problem that he had now was how to find the willpower to let her go. Perhaps if one of his brothers came in and used a sledgehammer upside his head, then it might have been helpful.

  ‘Alf, we have a vampire problem,’ Kent’s words were the sledgehammer that he needed to be able to stop devouring his mate with hungry kisses.

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  Alf looked down at the face of his mate. She seemed almost as disorientated as he felt.

  In truth, he would have loved to have ignored his brother and continued where he’d left off — it felt like a mistake to let her go.

  ‘My mate is being stalked by a vampire…’

  ‘She tells you this now?’

  ‘She was busy trying to escape and deal with it herself before.’ Kent growled back.

  Sure, he’d wished that his mate had led with the truth of it when they’d first met, but he could understand her motives for keeping it to herself. Not that he approved of that either.

  ‘Fair enough, but we need to make sure the whole pack are aware of what could potentially land on our doorstep…’

  ‘Alpha, we’ve got trouble…’

  “Damn it,” Alf bit out and took Harper completely by surprise.

  “That’s what you lead with after kissing me?” She teased him.

  “Yes – no,” he said with a small shake of his head. “There’s trouble in the pack, and Kent’s mate may have led a vampire here as well…”

  “Darby? She didn’t mention anything to us.”

  ‘Alpha?’

  “I’m coming…” he growled out, instead of into the pack collective, and when she offered him a smirk, and her eyes lit with amusement, he groaned. “I should have said that…” he tapped his temple.

  “I was going to say if you have problems in that department…”

  “Nooo!” he rushed out, holding up his hands as he started to back away from her.

  “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she chuckled.

  “Trust me, that’s not…” he shook his head faster, “we’re all good.” He turned on his heels and fled the room, leaving her chuckling behind him.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “What do we have?” Alf growled out as he approached his brothers in the driveway outside the house. Kent was pacing, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, and Clark had a dark look about him.

  “Trouble,” Kent growled.

  “Well, der,” Alf shot back. “What do we have that I don’t already know about?” He directed the question at Clark.

  “I know as much as you do at this point. Max put in that second shout out to the pack to say there was trouble, but that was all there was, he’s gone silent.”

  “Ray’s headed over that way now to see what’s going on. I was going to shift and head over, but I was waiting to see what you wanted to do,” Clark said.

  “That’s a good idea, you should…” Alf caught sight of a fast movemen
t out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned his attention towards it, there was nothing there. “Stay right where you are.”

  His brothers snapped to attention. It wasn’t just the fact that Alf had changed his mind, but the tone of his voice said something was wrong.

  “I go right, Kent go left,” Clark muttered.

  “Hold that thought,” Alf growled as he scanned the landscape for signs of trouble coming.

  The moment that Karl appeared right in front of the alpha, all three brothers growled at his unexpected appearance, and the alpha almost swung for the vampire. His claws were already unsheathed.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Karl said.

  “You nearly didn’t have a damn head,” Alf growled.

  “Virginia’s missing and I smell a vampire…”

  “Ginnie!” Kent growled.

  “Damn vampires,” Clark growled. “No offense.”

  “This time, I agree with you,” Karl said, as he started to back away from them.

  “Where are you going?” Kent asked.

  “To hunt him down…” Karl said.

  “I don’t think you’ll need to,” Alf growled, catching sight of the movement again. “I think he’s coming to us.”

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Darby felt as if her skin was being crawled over by a billion insects and her stomach didn’t feel much better. There was a problem, and she had a mind to know what that problem was.

  Her mate had up and left, and now there were four of them, the three brothers and one miffed off looking vampire, down on the driveway acting as if they were expecting that trouble to come walking up the path.

  Darby didn’t much care for coincidences, and this felt a little too off with its timing to be one of those. If trouble was coming, then she needed to be prepared.

  “A vampire – really?”

  Darby turned at the hard, accusing tone of Harper’s voice, and when she looked at the witch, that tone was reflected in the look that she got back. She guessed she deserved it.

  “I could have mentioned it…” Darby said, shrugging just one shoulder up as she started to turn back to the window.

  “Ya think?” Harper shot back, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

  “I thought it better that I just led him away.”

  Darby knew that she didn’t have to defend herself, but she felt as if she did owe them an explanation, after all, she had thrown them to the wolves while enacting her escape plan.

  “Three witches are better than one,” Joy said with a small shrug of her own.

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Harper said.

  “Fine. Next time I’ll…”

  “Next time?” Harper said. “How many skeletons do you have in your closet?”

  “Just the one,” Darby let out a small chuckle as she turned back to the window.

  Her gaze faltered on the way back to the brothers, and her heart jumped into her throat as she took in the sight of Brogan standing in the middle of the field with a death grip around Virginia’s upper body.

  “Oh, crap!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  ~

  “Somebody got lost on the way to the disco,” Karl bit out. His initial reaction to seeing his mate in the grip of a blood-sucking leech was to unleash his own monster from within him, but that might not bode so well for his mate right then. He needed to make sure that she wasn’t caught in the crossfire of his actions. “Ginnie, did that dead man walking hurt you?”

  “Easy, brother,” Alf warned him against doing anything rash or stupid. He knew only too well that when you were caught up in blind anger, those things could be easily overlooked.

  While Virginia was Karl’s mate, and the man had every right to take out the trash, she was still their sister, and the alpha wanted nothing more than to keep her from harm.

  “I didn’t hurt her, but only as a courtesy to you, I saw your marks on her neck,” Brogan offered back.

  “I can speak for myself butthead,” Virginia growled.

  “In my opinion, you speak too much,” Brogan sneered.

  “Then you have one chance to walk out of here with your head still attached to your body. I suggest you take it,” Karl said.

  “I have one of yours, and you have one of mine,” Brogan offered back, ignoring the man’s threat.

  “You’re proposing a trade.”

  “You’re fast on the uptake.”

  “I don’t trade. I take back what is mine,” Karl warned him.

  “Then we have a problem.” Brogan drew back his hand. His razor sharp claws were a silhouette against the moon. “Sure?”

  “Stop!” Darby called from the doorway of the house.

  When Brogan dropped his hand back down to his side, she stepped from the threshold of the house. She was already en route down the drive, and heading in the vampire’s direction when Kent stepped between her and where she needed to be.

  “Not a chance in hell,” Kent growled.

  “You say potato,” she shrugged.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Kent growled back.

  “I say trust me,” Darby said, narrowing eyes on her mate, and offering him the briefest of looks that said she had a plan.

  “Keep walking this way,” Brogan called.

  She hadn’t had any intention of doing anything other than that. Kent shifted his weight as if he couldn’t make up his mind, or he was fighting the urge to stop her in her tracks. His hands fisted at his sides, but she offered him just a small shake of her head and warned him off.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Kent growled in a low whisper that even the vampire couldn’t hear.

  Darby didn’t reply, but she did offer him a reassuring smile as she gained ground on where the beta was standing in front of, still blocking the straight path that led to Brogan.

  “Move,” Darby bit out.

  “I can’t,” Kent growled back.

  “Making your mate walk around you,” Darby offered back lightly, but she did shift position and kept going.

  Kent didn’t like it one little bit. He was torn between protecting his mate and trusting that she knew what she was doing. When she drew level with him; he almost reached out to snatch her arm and draw her close.

  His beast was clawing within him to protect her. To put her behind the safety of his back and fight the vampire to the end for her.

  His every instinct screamed at him not to let her go. The last thing he wanted to do was watch her walk away from him toward the danger that bloodsucker posed.

  Darby had asked him to trust her, and it took every bit of willpower that he had inside of him not to go after her and pull her back. Trusting her was one thing, but watching her walk towards danger when he was powerless to do anything about it was something entirely different.

  Darby shot a quick look at Karl as she strolled by him. The man looked as caged as any wild beast.

  ‘I’ve got this,’ she projected the words and hoped that Karl was trying to reach inside her mind to hear her.

  With a spell wrapped tightly around her body and bolstered by the other witches magic, there was no way that Brogan would be able to see into her mind unless she allowed it.

  At least, that was the plan.

  Three witches certainly were better than one. She could feel their magic running through her veins, mixing with her own, and making her feel as if she was invincible.

  That wasn’t always a good place to be; it could be a dangerous path to walk down when you believed that you had the upper hand, and it was a dangerous path that she was on now – walking into the lion’s den. But she had the advantage of Harper and Joy’s magic to draw on, and she had to trust that would be enough to blindside Brogan.

  “Let the she-wolf go, Brogan,” Darby said.

  “Let’s wait until you get a little closer,” Brogan offered back.

  He didn’t trust the witch not to be devious. She might not have expected him to show up in such a p
osition of strength with a bargaining chip, or the hostage, but she still could have worked out a plan ahead of time with the pack.

  She’d led him on a merry dance, but that dance was now over. When he had her in his clutches, he was never going to let her out of his sight again.

  “Oh, look at me rescuing you.” Darby smiled at the she-wolf and watched as the woman prickled at her taunt.

  “I’m not going to say thank you if that’s what you’re asking,” Virginia shot back.

  “That’s not what I’m asking.”

  While Brogan was otherwise occupied, keeping an eye on all of the players on the field with a quick look over her shoulder. She concentrated on Virginia. When she flicked her eyes to the right, she had to hope that the woman got the message.

  Darby knew the moment that Virginia understood what she was telling her, it was written on the woman’s face. The witch knew that her thoughts were protected by the spell, but she also knew that they might only have had seconds to act if Brogan was reading Virginia’s thoughts.

  Darby’s hands came up, and she forced her magic out towards the vampire. The she-wolf acted a moment later.

  Virginia’s claws ripped through the flesh of Brogan’s forearm to the bone, cutting down into his hand and rendering it next to useless. The instant that Virginia felt his vice-like hold around her body release, she spun away to the right, and Darby caught him in the cage of her magic.

  “Let me go, and I won’t kill you,” Brogan sneered.

  “How about I don’t let you go, and I kill you?” Darby hissed out.

  “How about I do the task for you,” Karl said as he appeared behind the vampire as if by magic.

  One punch of Karl’s fist through the man’s back and he held the vampire’s heart within his hand. He wrenched his arm back, and Brogan held in place for a long moment, until Darby finally realized that she could release him from her spell.