by M. L. Briers
How am I supposed to fend him off when my whole being is welcoming him in?
Fate’s bad. Evil and bad, and so damn devious.
I hate fate.
I hate shifters and the supernatural.
Oh, wait… I am the supernatural.
I hate his kind of supernatural.
I hate men.
Men suck.
He sucks.
“Tell me this doesn’t feel good to you.” He took great pleasure in whispering his words against her ear.
Isla squirmed inside at just how damn sexy his voice sounded. How damn sexy his body felt against hers.
Oh, how she hated that feeling, and yet, she loved it at the same time.
“Let go of me before I take your manhood and pin it to one of those dart boards for people to aim at and win a cuddly bloody toy.” She hissed back.
“That didn’t sound like a denial to me,” he teased.
The sound of his deep chuckles sent her mind into a tailspin.
She liked that too – much to her sheer annoyance.
Now she was really out for blood because it was the only way that she could see to defend herself from his lecherous ways.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
One moment; Lucas had his mate within his arms, enjoying the feel of her there, drinking in her scent, and the next; she’d stomped backward on his toes, elbowed him in the ribs, and brought the back of her fist up into his nose with a hefty thud.
All with a little-added magic in every blow.
He’d let go of her – of course, he had.
One damn fine reason was that he feared that she’d make good on her offer to cut off his balls.
The moment that he let her go he knew it had been a damn mistake to release her from his arms. He berated himself as he flew backward through the air, out of the opening of the truck, and landed with a heavy thud on his backside on the ground.
Isla stomped towards the opening in the long paneled side of the truck and tossed a large sack down at him. For the second time in under fifteen minutes – he caught it with his face.
His already tender nose didn’t thank him for missing that one, and he groaned inwardly.
When he snatched the sack downwards and his eyes locked with hers – she placed her hands on her hips and regarded him with both mischief and amusement.
“You were warned,” she offered to the sound of a deep growl that rumbled through the air.
“Oh no!” Edna exclaimed, and Lucas twisted his head on his neck towards the old woman, berating himself for allowing his growl to be heard by a human, but Edna was looking towards the sky.
“Hear that thunder? I hope the rain holds off…” the woman said; frowning at the sky as if berating it for even thinking about sending rain clouds their way when they had a summer fair to put on. “But storm clouds are gathering somewhere.”
“They most certainly are,” Isla agreed, but they weren’t the kind that Edna was thinking about.
She intended to rain all over the beta’s parade.
Mate with him indeed!
I’d rather face the Witchfinder General.
I’d rather boil my own foot in a bubbling caldron.
I’d rather kill him than mate with him!
Big eejit!
~
~
~
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Griffin grumbled as he offered his mate a look that oozed with sex appeal.
“Water’s wet, and you should use soap,” Keri tossed back and noted out of the corner of her eye; the subtle movement of the man’s head on his neck as he sniffed at his body.
“It’s called the scent of hard work.” Griffin admitted that a shower might not go amiss, but it certainly wasn’t that bad.
“Don’t change a thing on my account. You already repulse me.” She offered a sweet smile of victory in return.
“Lies come so easily to your lips,” Griffin offered back, part berating her and part teasing her, and with a smile that annoyed her so because it said the same as his words.
“And BS comes so easily to yours,” Keri said back over her shoulder as she finished setting up the last of the stall, and in good time too. Cars were already arriving early for the start of the fair – eager children obviously harassing their parents into leaving before they’d wanted to.
Griffin was about to answer her when a child ran towards the stall and slapped her hands down on the counter top, snatching their attention towards the girl as her excited eyes took in the rows of toys, and her fidgety nature said that she was eager for a win.
“Mummy! Mummy! This one! This one!” She screeched out, and Griffin’s face twisted with the sounds of her voice.
“Sorry… she’s eager to get started,” the already exasperated woman sighed as she stalked up behind her offspring with the intention of coaxing her away.
“Hi, Griffin!” The child craned her head back on her neck and looked up the expanse of the man’s body.
He’d recognized her from the village. He’d made it his job to know every local; it gave him an immediate heads up on a stranger and a possible threat to his pack from outside.
“Well, hi there yourself, short stack,” he said, bending at the waist and lifting the child, that was no more than five or six years old, up and placing her feet on the counter top, her body facing the toys.
The child’s giggling annoyed Keri on a level that she’d never experienced before. She knew what it was alright, her stupid head and her stupid heart were more than impressed with the alpha’s softer side that showed towards the child.
Damn him and damn fate – that’s not fair!
Using a child to worm his way in – despicable.
Why not just have an armful of kittens and puppies?
Turn the knife – why don’t ya?
“Are you going to play?” The child’s eyes lit up.
“He’s going to be part of the game…” Keri announced, and the alpha flicked his eyes in her direction, questioning her sanity.
Then Griffin flicked his eyes towards the cut out that stood there taunting him for all he was worth. A large painted wooden board with the cutout section for someone’s face to push through, just like one of those seaside photo opportunities, only not as benign.
“That’s…”
Griffin knew what was coming. He knew exactly what she meant, and as her eyes flashed with mischief and so much enjoyment over his situation, so Father Ted popped up beside him.
“You’re our first volunteer in the window…” he slapped a hand on Griffin’s back, and the alpha had the urge to growl.
“Am I now?” His eyes were locked and loaded on his mate.
“He said he couldn’t wait,” Keri offered the priest the lie, and crossed her fingers behind her back in the hope that it wasn’t too much of a sin.
She preferred to hedge her bets, considering she was facing her forever mate, and what could go wrong for her, probably would if she miffed off someone’s God.
“Did he?” Father Ted looked impressed – and amused.
The man wasn’t blind or stupid – and, even if he did feel somewhat sorry for Griffin for being put on the spot like that – he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially as it was all in a good cause.
“Did I?” Griffin raised just the one eyebrow at his mate.
“Do I get to throw wet stuff at you?” The little girl asked, all wide eyed and excitable.
“Looks like it,” Griffin offered back. “Be gentle with me.”
Griffin started around the back of the boarding and eyed the cut out where he needed to put his face. He heard the little girl giggling, and he heard his mate whisper.
“Don’t be gentle. Throw it as hard as you can so you win. He’s a big guy, right?”
“Right!” She agreed.
“So, he can take it. Get him right in the kisser as hard as you can,” Keri grinned and the little girl giggled with glee.
The moment that Griff
in shoved his head in the hole, so a whole lot of sponges came his way. One after the other; they slapped him in the face like a wet kipper. The only sponge that missed was the one that was thrown by the child.
“Hey … what gives?” Griffin grumbled.
The alpha snatched his head back from the opening and wiped his large hands down his face, clearing the water. He poked his face back through the hole just a little, and there they were; both of his brothers, all three witches, and two of the church ladies all standing there looking back at him with amusement and a lot of glee.
He stowed the growl that wanted to rumble through his chest.
“I didn’t hit him.” The child said almost mournfully, breaking the tension of the moment.
“How could you tell with all of those hits?” Neal asked, giving her a little nudge. “I think my sponge hit your sponge and they got mixed up in the air. I think you got him good, but here…” The beta reached over for another dripping wet sponge with one hand and slapped another coin down on the counter with the other. “Give it another go.”
Griffin offered his brother a glare that said the beta had better run, but the man wasn’t going anywhere until he helped the child hit her target right in the face.
Griffin stuck his head back through the hole once more.
‘There’s going to be chewing later, you get that, right?’ Griffin growled through the link.
‘Take one for the church!’ Neal shot back.
‘Yeah, at least you’re impressing your mate,’ Lucas offered, and Griffin snapped his eyes towards Keri; a heartbeat before the sponge smacked him in the face once more.
“Shot!” Neal chuckled, high fiving the giggling child as Keri turned towards the toys.
“Winner!” She called, and the child squealed…
“What can I have?” She almost begged.
“You can have my win,” Neal nudged her again.
“And mine,” Lucas said.
“Mine too,” both witches said together.
“Add ours to that,” the church ladies agreed.
“Me too,” Father Ted said.
“Father?” Griffin grumbled on a frown. “You threw a sponge at me?”
“All in the name of…” Father Ted frowned.
“The church roof fund,” Edna offered.
“That too,” Father Ted nodded.
Griffin grunted.
“I want a puppy,” the child announced, pointing a finger at the biggest toy on the whole stall…
“That might take a few more wins…” Neal announced with glee.
“Maybe you should have the big rabbit to go with it. They look like they’re friends. We’ll have to help you win that too.” Lucas announced.
‘Oh, there’s gonna be chewing.’ The alpha growled.
“I’m a good shot ,” Percival announced as he arrived at the scene of the crime and gave the alpha a toothy grin, but he had the good graces to keep his fangs hidden.
‘Lots of chewing.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
“Well, you took it like a champ, I’ll give you that.” Keri chuckled as she tossed a towel at the alpha and tried to keep her eyes from roaming over his wet, solid shoulders, and his broad muscled chest.
It was harder to do than she wanted to admit to herself.
Griffin snatched the towel from the air, and for a long moment, his eyes followed the little girl that had started the whole hullabaloo. She had a stuffed toy that was almost as big as she was under each arm, and her mother, looking somewhat less harassed, was cuddling another.
“I got railroaded into it,” Griffin reminded her.
“But, under such pressure, you performed with grace…” her eyes were sparkling with laughter in the sunlight.
“Grace?” Percival snorted his contempt for that on his way by them. “The man has about as much grace as an elephant doing the tango.”
“My,” Keri sneered at the vampire. “There’s a thought.”
She was in no doubt that she wanted the vampire to keep walking, and he did. She didn’t much care for vampires or their ways – and obviously that included their feeding habits.
She was sure she wasn’t going to strike up a damn friendship with that man either.
“You’ve never seen me dance.” Griffin growled low enough for the vampire to hear, but not for the humans.
“There’s that thunder again,” Edna said to herself, shaking her head, and walking towards the cake stall with her offering that she was keeping under wraps until the great reveal. “Better not rain on my creation,” she muttered, and Griffin frowned as he watched her go.
“Nothing wrong with her hearing,” Percival tossed back over his shoulder.
“Hmm?” Edna asked in the vampire’s general direction.
“I stand corrected,” he bit out. “Nothing, dear. Talking to myself,” he said loudly.
“That’s the first sign of madness,” she informed him.
“Oh, I’m way past the first sign,” he offered back, giving her a devilish grin.
“Or is that hairy palms?” She asked, trying to remember.
“That’s a conversation I really don’t want to have,” Percival said. “Someone else want to take this one?” He queried, and Griffin chuckled as his mate buried her face in her hands snorting small gasps of laughter.
“Oh, no … wait. I know what hairy palms is!” Edna announced. Then she eyed the vampire from head to toe and scowled.“Shame on you!”
“Me?” Percival shot her a look of pure disbelief. “What’d I do?”
“You know what you did!” Enda nodded emphatically as she started to quicken her step to get away from the man as fast as possible.
“I’m guessing I can’t put her out of her misery?” He muttered towards the alpha and got a long, hard growl in return. “Fine. Let the poor dear suffer – see if I care!” He threw up a hand and stalked away.
“Welcome to my world,” Griffin said turning his attention back towards his mate as she peeked out from between her fingers. She snapped her hands down and scowled back at him.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“Excuse me?” Griffin looked confused, and it reflected perfectly exactly how he felt.
“Don’t think taking a few sponges in the face means we're going steady or anything,” she told him, placing her hands on her hips and eyeing him with contempt.
“Ok, first of all… going steady?” He gave her a long look of disbelief, and she snorted. “Secondly, that’s not what I meant.”
“Sure it wasn’t,” she shot back with another sneer.
“Oh, go fish,” Griffin growled, and she shot him a surprised look as her perfect eyebrows reached for her hairline.
“What?”
“You heard me,” Griffin grumbled.
“I heard.”
“Well then.”
“Well, then what?”
“What?” he looked confused again. She guessed it didn’t take much – the poor dear.
“Go fish!” She reminded him of his words to her.
“Fine…” he grumbled, stretching his body to its full height and thrusting out his chest with good effect. Her eyes dropped downwards. “I will!” he growled. “Females.”
He tossed the towel back at her and stalked in the opposite direction. He didn’t notice that the towel landed perfectly over her head. Or the way that she reached up and snatched it away.
Neither did he notice the death glare that she aimed at that solid, muscled back of his, even as her brain was picturing the rest of him naked as his backside swayed and stretched the material of his tight jeans.
Keri heard a rumble in the back of her own throat, and it slapped her around the back of her head. She snapped rigid in place, and her eyes shot around the area to see if anyone was looking.
Of course, it would have to be Penny!
~
~
~
Penny had been watching the alpha
trying to woo her friend. From what she could tell, things weren’t progressing smoothly.
She’d also been caught once more being nosy, and the fact that she had a giant grin on her face probably hadn’t gone down to well with Keri.
“Whoops,” she muttered, busying herself with the tin cans that she was stacking up on the high plank of wood that ran the length of the stall.
Then she felt the presence of the supernatural hit her shields, and she eyed the area looking for signs of her own mate appearing like a bad smell. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she wasn’t entirely sure which, she found that the vampire was standing at the edge of the stall instead.
“It’s not a blood bank. It’s a kid’s game.” She gave him a long look up and down his; black on black ensemble that he wore from head to toe. “Nice outfit – nobody could tell you were a vampire.”
“I could be an undertaker,” he offered back as if butter wouldn’t melt on his fangs.
“Same thing.”
“Slander,” he offered, waving a hand in the air, and she snorted.
“Take me to court and sue me,” she gave him a smug grin.
“I’ll … pass.” He rolled his eyes upwards in his head and considered it for a long moment. “It’s the screaming and running bit that annoys me so.”
“What’s that? When they get a look at your face?”
“My, aren’t you the bitchy one?”
“Better than being the dead one, no?”
“The day is young,” he offered back, and a deep, warning growl rumbled through the air and made her ears prick up as the vampire gave a dramatic roll of his eyes. “Oh, good – the family pet’s here.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“There’s a line, Percival, and you are crossing it,” Neal bit out.
His beast wasn’t best pleased that the vampire was anywhere near his mate. He hated to think that the lure of her Fae blood was the reason, but his wolf didn’t much care – he wanted the vampire gone, and the danger the man represented with it.
“Your name’s Percival?” Penny sniggered.
