by E A Price
“My house, on my dining room table to be exact,” replied Madeline.
The gorilla inside snarled and Holt struggled against his bonds.
“Don’t bother,” she sighed. “They’re magically bound, and I’d rather you didn’t damage my table – it’s an antique.”
Something finally clicked for him, and his beast huffed.
“Ah, so you were just pretending to be nice to me. You actually hate me. No wonder Zara warned me to stay away.”
“Clever, isn’t he?”
Another face appeared over him - older than Zara’s mother, but bearing a strong resemblance. She looked even less friendly as she sneered at him.
“I told you we should have tied him to the patio table.”
“I have nosy neighbors, mother,” admonished Madeline. “If they saw us tying up a man they’d probably think we were sacrificing him or something.”
Holt snorted. “You mean, you aren’t?”
Another face appeared. Zara’s aunt, maybe? Seemed like he had unwittingly irritated all of her female relations and he wasn’t sure why. Yeah, it had taken him a while to visit Zara – too long hissed his beast - but did it really warrant this?
“Not too late to do so,” sniffed the grandmother. “Course, we should probably put some newspaper down or something.”
“No, the hex will be plenty,” said Madeline. “We’ll stick to our plan.”
“Any chance I can get clued in on the plan?” asked Holt. He was still pretty calm at this point, still assessing how worried he should be, though his beast was working up some pretty mean murderous aggression.
“Quiet,” hissed the aunt. “We’re just doing what is necessary.”
Madeline nodded. “You’re not good enough for my daughter.”
Holt smiled slightly. “Couldn’t agree more, but that’s kind of her decision.”
“The younger generation doesn't know what’s good for them,” said the grandmother with a certain degree of loathing.
“We don’t want a repeat of Leah,” added the aunt
“So…” he prompted.
Madeline gave him a keen look. “We’re just going to hex you into not being able to look upon my daughter with lust.”
His gorilla grunted. “Sure.”
“I just don’t want you anywhere near my daughter.”
Holt shifted slightly to make himself more comfortable. “I get it.”
“We just want to make sure she understands that all men are bastards and that she’s better off alone.”
There were a series of agreements. Holt added his own.
“Aha, sounds reasonable.”
Madeline narrowed her eyes. “It will work.”
“Yep.” His gorilla settled down for a nap.
Her cheeks turned pink as she became increasing irked. “You won’t be able to break this hex.”
“If you say so.”
“Oh, just gag him already!”
The three heads disappeared; he heard them shuffling around the room.
“Zara’s my mate,” he said more than a little confidently. He was hardly an expert on magic, but he was certain that no matter what, he would know his mate – no matter what some crazy witches said or did.
There was a chorus of harrumphs.
“We will be together,” he continued.
This was met with snorts.
“We will be happy.”
Chuckles followed.
“Although family Thanksgivings may be a bit tricky…” Nah, they could go to Florida to see his mother. Problem solved. Zara’s family definitely would not be invited.
The heads appeared again, less amused than before.
“Open wide,” hissed Madeline.
Holt pursed his lips. While he wasn’t too worried about this hex they were planning, he drew the line at drinking something strange. A rule put in place after his partying days, when someone poured a whole bottle of cold medicine down his throat when the booze ran out. He almost choked, though his nasal passages were clear for weeks.
“C’mon, c’mon, we don’t have all day!”
Grandma gripped his chin. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Holt’s nostrils flared. The three women rolled up their sleeves.
*
“Mom!”
Zara found her mother in her dining room, along with her aunt and grandmother. They looked like they’d run a marathon. No wonder - considering the agitated gorilla currently writhing on her mother’s antique dining room table. Or what used to be her mother’s antique dining room table. It was now mostly crushed by the gorilla and on pieces on the floor.
“Holt!”
She rushed to the big black mass of fur. His eyes flared when he saw her and let out a rough noise. To think she was worried he didn’t want to see her again - now she had a host of other concerns about his reaction to her. She ran her hand over his head, and he let out a few primal noises before slowly shrinking back to human.
“Holt?”
His eyes shuttered. “You were right about your mother.”
“No one ever believes me,” she muttered.
He shook at his wrists, still tied to the table legs. She tried loosening them and sighed, clambering to her feet and glaring at her relations.
“You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
“It’s for your own good,” said her grandmother remorselessly.
She folded her arms. “Let me guess, a hex to stop all lustful thoughts about me?”
“Lucky guess?” asked Holt behind her in a murderous tone.
“Just experience. It’s how I lost my high school boyfriend… and the three boyfriends after that.”
He didn’t seem to mind too much as he muttered the words ‘good riddance.’
“You’re better off without him,” sniffed her aunt.
“That’s not up to you!” she cried in exasperation.
“Darling,” cooed her mother in a wheedling tone, “he’ll just break your heart.”
“Let him go.”
“But…”
“Let. Him. Go.”
Her aunt grumbled but started undoing the bonds. “First Leah, now you.”
“What about Leah?”
Her aunt sniffed in a martyred way. “She ran off with her car salesman to Vegas and got married!”
Her female relatives looked like it was the end of the world and Zara had to bite her lip to stop the laugh from erupting.
“Congratulations to them both.”
“Did you know about this?” demanded her grandmother suspiciously.
“No,” she replied truthfully. Though, she might have helped make up Leah’s mind.
“She went all strange after you had a little chat with her.”
Zara raised her eyebrows innocently. “Really? News to me.”
“Zara…”
Holt stood up and shook out his arms.
“I’ll umm, take you home.”
Zara’s eyes rolled to the ceiling, trying to avoid north of the equator. The last thing she wanted was to start giggling girlishly and lustfully in front of her family – showing weakness around them was always a bad idea.
He grunted and started stomping to the door. Great, another reason for him to hate her.
*
“New car?” Holt asked as he slipped into the passenger seat.
Zara gaped at him.
Holt frowned and reached out to tweak her ear. “What’s wrong, cactus flower?”
“After everything that happened over the last few days and given that my family just kidnapped you and tried to hex you, do you really want to talk about my car?”
He shrugged and smiled. “Sure.”
Hey, he had his health, he was hex free, and he had his mate – both man and gorilla were feeling pretty pleased with themselves at that moment.
Her brow furrowed. “It’s not mine. I borrowed it from a friend from work.”
“A male friend?” He couldn’t hide the i
cy edge from his tone as his gorilla went on alert.
“Actually no,” she replied slowly, a little surprised by his vehemence. “A bunny called Mia – she’s on maternity leave. Just gave birth to a baby with the biggest head you have ever seen. I can check in the trunk if she has a blanket for you, cover up your little…”
“Little?!” His beast pounced on that word.
Zara shook her head and smiled.
They locked eyes for a few moments before both blurting, “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” he asked snagging one of her hands.
He brought it to his lips and kissed the knuckles, one by one.
“I’m sorry about ditching you to see Sebastian. I put your nephew at risk.”
“No, you saved him. I was wrong. It’s because of you that Sebastian agreed to be handed over. I shouldn’t have been angry with you.”
Her lips curled up slightly. “You don’t have to say sorry about that.”
“I’m not, well, I am, but more like I’m just sorry for everything I’ve done and said. I’m sorry I dragged you into my uncle’s plot to kill his grandson. Sorry, your car was totaled. Sorry, you were nearly totaled.” He clutched her hand a little more tightly. “Sorry, my family’s been a complete nightmare.”
Zara gave him a deadpan look. “My mom, aunt and grandmother just kidnapped you and attempted to hex you.”
He laughed. “Yeah, why is that?”
“See, the thing is they’re crazy.” He laughed even harder, and she joined in. “My great-grandfather was a total douche and ran out on my great-grandmother, and she became convinced all men were a-holes, and it’s kind of been getting worse with every generation. When witches hate, they really hate.
“My family members seem to think that no men can be trusted, but they don’t appear to realize that it’s them driving the men away. My dad’s a pretty decent guy, just not strong enough to withstand them. It was kind of hard for him to stand by my mother when she was screaming at him that she hated him.”
“Clearly our family members are all lunatics, and we are the only sane ones,” he said solemnly.
“You have to be made of stern stuff to stick around a Benoit woman. I hope Leah’s new husband knows what he’s letting himself in for.”
“I am.”
“You are what?”
“Made of stern stuff, and I am sticking around.”
About damn time put in his gorilla.
Zara’s lovely face blossomed with happiness. “Yeah? That’d be… nice.”
She let out a small moan as her family congregated on the porch, watching Holt with absolutely no attempt at concealing their loathing. He waved at them with his free hand and smiled.
“Let’s run away.”
“Together?”
“Definitely.”
“Hmmm, okay.”
Holt dragged her over his lap and kissed her. “There’s my cactus flower.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Ooof!”
Holt fumbled for the light as something heavy landed on his chest. Bleary fury quickly turned to delight as Zara cried, “Surprise!”
His gorilla hooted in happiness. “Hey, cactus flower.”
His hands found her thighs.
“Hey!”
Zara settled herself, straddling his waist and leaned down to kiss him. There were perhaps better ways to be awoken rather than having your mate jump on your stomach and cause temporary internal damage, but not many. Unlike the last time she did this, it was certainly going to lead somewhere – so big plus.
“Couldn’t wait to see me, huh?” he cooed.
“Just finished working,” she murmured as she planted kisses over his chest.
He directed a look of irritation at the top of her head that she couldn’t see and would probably ignore even if she could.
“You shouldn’t be working this late,” he grouched as his beast huffed.
Her job was a source of much frustration for him. It was dangerous allowing his mate to run after criminals. Like your brother she had quipped the first time he brought it up. He didn’t dignify that with an answer.
They had been together for two weeks, with only three further kidnap attempts by her family. He was starting at get good at evading them – the trick was not to eat or drink anything offered to him by any person she happened to be related to. That, and checking under his bed before going to sleep.
Rachel and Erik were enjoying a long overdue honeymoon – along with baby Harry of course. Neither would be letting that little guy out of their sight for a long time.
Things were better with Sean. He and Cora were mating and moving in together. Cora was no longer dancing at the club. Nope, she was now the manager. Uncle Aleck’s assets had been left to Rachel, Sean and Holt equally, so now with more than one club to take care of, Cora was stepping in and helping. Plus, Sean didn’t really want her dancing anymore – especially given that she was due to give birth to another Holt in a little over eight months. No wonder she had been so weepy when he and Zara spoke to her. She thought Sean had ditched her while she was carrying his baby. But no, Sean was thrilled.
As for Holt’s relationship with his own cactus flower, she was still acting a little stubborn on the finer details like living together – wanting to retain a little independence or some other such nonsense that he chose to ignore, but it was only a matter of time before she gave in and they looked for a larger apartment. Not too large though. She was talking about getting a few cats to fill the hole she claimed Sebastian left. He was desperately trying to discourage any of that talk.
“When did you get in from work?” she cooed as her fingers traced his muscles.
“I don’t know, an hour ago. But I wasn’t chasing bad guys.”
“No, just watching gorgeous women strip out of their clothes,” she pouted.
“Hey, I’ve made it very clear that there’s only one gorgeous woman I want to see out of her clothes and she’s wiggling on top of me right now.”
“You know, if my job really is an issue, I’ll give it up.”
“You will?” he asked suspiciously, sensing a trap.
“Um hmm. I’ll come and work with you at the club. I may need to practice a little on the pole, but I am quite a good dancer.” She shook her rear as if for emphasis.
“Bounty hunting will be fine,” he grumbled as his gorilla bellowed in alarm.
“You’re cool with owning strip clubs but not with me stripping?”
“Exactly.”
“Umm hmm.”
“This body is for me and me alone.” His hands traveled up her waist until he cupped her breasts, kneading the pillowy flesh.
“Territorial beast,” she murmured.
“Sexy witch.”
They would mate and perform the ceremony soon, and officially she would be his. The mating ceremony was different for non-predatory shifters. Predators have it so easy, grumbled his gorilla. All they had to do was take a chunk out of their mate’s neck and that was it. But for them, there was a big ceremony requiring a full moon. But soon, it would happen. Soon, though, was still not soon enough.
He was considering all the lascivious things he wished to do to her when she slipped away from him, slithering out his grasp.
His gorilla pouted as he made a sound of disappointment. “Where are you going? I was… ah…”
Zara smiled and started peeling items of clothing away, deliberately dropping them to the ground.
“I’ve been running around all day; I’m just going to take a shower.”
“I… ah…”
Words failed him as she completely bared herself to him. Mine rumbled his beast. His eyes wandered all over her, reveling in the sight of her. This gorgeous woman was all his – he could see her naked like this anytime he wanted. Well, anytime she let him – but that was still a lot.
“It’s such a big, shower, too,” she cooed. “I hope I don’t get lonely.”
She batted her eyelashes a few ti
mes just in case he hadn’t quite got the message. Before she even had time to turn on her heel he was out of the bed and hauling her into the bathroom.
As Zara giggled and curled herself around him, he reflected that he was one damn lucky gorilla. King Kong eat your heart out.
The end
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