by M. L. Briers
“They won’t leave,” Griffin assured his siblings.
“You know this how?” Lucas asked.
“They’re mates. They’re witches. And they more than know what that means and what comes next on both sides of this.” Griffin was sure, well, almost.
He’d been with his mate all day, off and on, and she seemed to be coming around to the idea of them being mates. But, now that she was inside the stupid pod with the equally stupid door firmly closed – he wasn’t sure what to think.
“And here we are, a day later, and we’re back to pacing outside the damn pods again,” Neal growled, and boy was he enjoying the freedom to let his wild side out.
“It’s fine,” Griffin said, but self-doubt was still managing to creep into his own mind.
What if Keri did decide to leave?
I can’t exactly stop her….
None of us can stop our mates from going.
We are all in the same position – waiting – wondering – hoping – I’d even take a prayer from Father Ted right about now.
God, I don’t believe I thought that – or that I said God.
Are things that bad that I would turn to the church?
I need a beer.
I need a lot of beer.
No, secure the mates first, and then drink copious amounts of beer.
But, if we secure the mates then we don’t need beer.
Who am I kidding, we always need beer.
“Can you not say the word fine?” Lucas grumbled.
“Yeah, fine is like tempting fate to crap on your head,” Neal agreed with another growl because he finally could growl, he would.
“Fine…” Griffin bit off the word on a long growl. “I won’t say the word … that I’m not supposed to damn well say… beer. I need a beer.”
“Amen to that,” Lucas grumbled.
“From your mouth to God’s ear,” Neal grinned.
“Can we not talk about God?” Griffin mumbled.
“I guess we should be thankful that the God squad showed up today. It kept our mates here and busy.” Lucas shrugged his shoulders at that thought.
“Maybe that was fate’s plan.”
“Do you think fate and God know each other?” Lucas said, and the other two turned looks of disbelief on their sibling.
“Seriously?” Griffin growled.
“What?” Lucas grumbled.
“Well they're here now, but they're not busy anymore.” Neal sighed.
“So then, being female, it follows that they’re probably… thinking,” Lucas tossed back, and he pulled a face like he’d just caught a whiff of his brother’s feet as the smell wafted under his nose.
“Oh, God, don’t say that!” Griffin bit out.
“Thought we weren’t supposed to mention the big fella,” Lucas chuckled as his alpha pulled a face.
“I’m back,” Percival announced.
“Hadn’t noticed you were gone,” Neal tossed back at the vampire and got a sour look in return.
“It has been kind of quiet and peaceful,” Lucas offered the beta and Neal nodded.
“Shame it couldn’t last,” Neal shrugged.
“We could kill him,” Lucas grinned at the thought of chasing that damn meddlesome vampire across the countryside and letting his wolf get out some of the tension within him as it took a bite.
“And here’s me, doing you a favor,” Percival announced.
“Which would be?” Griffin sighed again.
“I bought beer.”
“Damn glad to see you, Percy!” Keri announced as she yanked open the door to the pod, and Griffin suddenly lost his desire for beer.
One look at his freshly showered mate; dressed in a long flowing skirt, wrap around sheer top, and not a lot else – he suddenly had a thirst for something.
“Don’t call me Percy,” The vampire whined.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
~
“Well look what entices a witch from her pod… beer,” Lucas announced as loudly as he could in front of the door to his mate’s pod.
The door was snatched open, and there was his mate. Boy did she smell good after her shower, like a summer meadow sprinkled with spices? She was definitely good enough to eat.
“Someone said beer?” Isla grinned.
“And while you girls have been waiting for the witches to come out of those… half whiskey barrels,” Percival twisted his head on his neck and frowned at the pods. “Your pack have been cooking up a storm.”
“Food and beer?” Isla said, her inner glutton twitched with interest.
“Lots of food. Barbecue with a nice thick Scotch, mustard and honey sauce.”
“That’s like four food groups right there,” Isla chuckled.
“Scotch is not a food group, Isla,” Keri berated her.
“Well, it should be. It’s made with… food,” Isla shot back.
“The elders have been falling over themselves to make big, chocolate cakes and gooey…”
“Chocolate… cakes.” Isla was practically foaming at the mouth. She sidestepped her mate, who had the same look about him, only it wasn’t the thought of a cake that he was lusting after, walked the few steps to Penny’s pod, lifted her fist, and started to hammer on the door. “Alcohol, meat, and chocolate!”
There was a loud thud from inside Penny’s pod, followed by a very unladylike curse before the door was practically ripped back off of its hinges. Penny blew her fringe out of her eyes.
“You had me at alcohol, but the others are gravy,” Penny shrugged.
“Settled,” Percival announced, motioning to the witches to go towards the woods. Then he whispered just loudly enough so that only the shifters could hear. “Do I know females, or do I know females?”
“Well, I’m impressed,” Griffin muttered back.
~
~
~
“What the hell happened to the back garden?”
Lucas bit out at the sight of fairy lights strung high above the grass, and solar lights on spikes that had obviously been ripped up from the pack's individual gardens and dotted about the area to give the whole place a summer party feel.
“It’s beautiful,” Isla said, taking it all in, and noticing some familiar faces from the summer fair that were now in the crowd that had gathered.
“Yes – yes, it is,” Lucas said, shooting a look at the alpha, who in turn shrugged his shoulders.
He wasn’t any the wiser than his siblings, but he guessed that the elder females had taken it into their heads to put on the festive display for the mates.
“Looks like a fairy threw up,” Neal grumbled, and Penny shot a magic sting right at his backside that made him jump in place. “In a good way!” He barked out.
“It’s pretty,” Penny berated him.
“I know,” Neal protested, not wanting to be hit by her magic again. “I said that.”
“After prompting by your mate,” One of the elders, Maria, scowled at the beta. “Butthead.” She muttered and then changed her demeanor to bright and breezy as she welcomed the witches. “Come, eat, we have cake.”
“Oh, do I like the sound of that…” Isla grinned, and she was the first to move forward towards the gathering as people turned back towards what they were doing and let the newcomers find their feet.
“I call my cake, death by chocolate – now, I know there’s a death by chocolate already, but my cake can really send your sugar levels spiking to the point where you could literally have a stroke…” Maria wiggled her eyebrows at the witches.
“What? That’s not…” Lucas started, but his mate shot a glare back at him over her shoulder.
“I’ll take the risk,” Isla berated him.
“Fine, go ahead,” Lucas said. “Can’t we at least mate first before you try to kill yourself?” he muttered and felt the hard slap of Neal’s hand against his shoulder.
“That moment when; you find out that your mate would rather die than mate with you,” Neal chuckled.
/> “I wanna try it!” Penny announced, and Lucas grinned.
“Yeah, it sucks, right?” The beta returned fire with relish, and Neal grumbled and growled.
“I could go some of that right now,” Keri said, following on behind her friends. “And alcohol. Someone promised alcohol.”
“That moment when your mate would rather be face down in a barrel of scotch than mate you…” Lucas offered to the alpha and Griffin growled back. Lucas took a big step away from the man.
“Me too… beer,” Isla said. “No, wine… oh hell, Scotch, lots and lots of Scotch. Just put a teat in a bottle… unless there’s a barrel somewhere, in which case I can just lie beneath it with my mouth open.”
Griffin turned his eyes towards Lucas, and the beta visibly shrank in on himself. Then the alpha folded his arms across his chest and grinned.
“You were saying?” Griffin asked.
“Me, not a damn thing, just chewing on my foot,” Lucas grumbled.
~
~
~
“I need the little girl’s room,” Penny whispered to Keri as she turned away from the group and hit Neal’s chest face on – literally. “Seriously? Do you have to do the brick wall thing every time I turn around?” She hissed up at him in annoyance as she slapped her palms against his chest and pushed backward away from him, but only because the man was as solid as a mountain and flatly refused to go anywhere.
“No, and yes,” Neal chuckled. “But, hey, I can’t help it if you walk into people.”
“Not people, you,” Penny berated him.
“Me too, but people,” Neal teased back.
“Good solid men in this pack,” Maria said with a nod of her head as she looked impressed. Then she grinned from ear to ear. “Makes for good healthy pups.”
“Oh geez, pups?” Penny exclaimed as Keri put her hand in front of her mouth and giggled.
“You don’t like babies?” Maria asked, and Penny rolled her eyes at the thought of it.
“I need to get used to the thought of having a big baby around first, without thinking about the little ankle biters.” Penny offered back, eyeing her mate with a small sneer.
“Yes, men are children,” Maria nodded. “Let’s face it, they’re only good for one thing, and when they invent a good robot that can take care of a woman’s every need, well, then men will truly become obsolete.” She shrugged.
“I’m with you on that one,” Isla said, raising the glass in her hand to the elder.
“I think you’re probably four of five ahead of me on drinks though,” Maria shot back, rolling her eyes.
“Let me show you the toilet,” Neal said, and Penny snatched her head back around to eye her mate with disbelief.
“Why? Is it so much different from ours?” She frowned up at him. “I don’t have to pee outdoors, right?”
“No, we have inside plumbing, and electric, and everything,” Neal shot back as thought the woman was a few squirrels short of nuts.
“Good, because it might be fine for bears and wolves to pee in the woods, but I draw the line at peeing on my own foot,” Penny muttered as she started off for the house with her mate in tow.
“Well, the idea is not to pee on your foot…” Neal muttered.
Keri was still chuckling as she watched her friend go off with Neal. She was in no doubt that the witch could take care of herself, and what was her mate going to do? Love her to death.
“You don’t drink a lot…,” Griffin said, bringing her attention back around to him.
“I didn’t know it was a requirement,” Keri offered back.
“You’re friends…” Griffin started.
“Oh, they’re lushes,” she said, batting that one away with her hand.
The sound of his soft chuckles rolled towards her. She kind of wanted to hear him growl a little more, now that he was free to do it whenever he wanted to let loose, but she wasn’t going to ask him to do it.
That would probably be considered rude, or weird, or weirdly rude, and she might have been a mate, but she still felt as if she was on the outside looking in.
There didn’t feel like so much pressure on her shoulders anymore. Maybe, because she’d accepted him. Maybe, because she’d accepted that she really didn’t want to walk away.
No, she was going to become mate to the alpha of the pack. It was just a case of how much she made him work for it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
~
“You know them better than I do…” Griffin said with another chuckle. “I pass no judgments.”
“Diplomacy? From an alpha?” She frowned.
“I think I can surprise you,” Griffin assured her.
“Only if you’ve got a tutu on under those jeans,” Keri grinned.
“I have nothing on under these jeans,” Griffin offered back.
Wow. Who needs Maria’s death by chocolate cake? My damn pulse just spiked!
I might be done with chocolate, but I have to admit that I wouldn’t mind seeing under those damn jeans.
Geez, my friends might be lush’s, but I’m turning into a sex-mad hussy of the very best kind… worst! I mean worst kind.
Damn, put a fork in me, I’m done.
My brain is mush, and all I can think about is what’s under his jeans.
Not that I’m not well aware of what he’s keeping in there, most of the day there’s been a bulge.
Ooh, I wonder if it’s…
Don’t… look… down
Damn, I did it. I looked down.
Maybe he didn’t notice.
The sound of Griffin’s deep, hungry growl rolled towards her, wrapped around her senses, and lulled her womb into a tap dance.
He noticed.
I’m toast!
Idiot.
Who am I kidding? I was damn toast anyway.
I was toast from the moment that he kissed me, maybe before, definitely after.
Griffin felt the hard press of his rigid length against the tight fabric of his jeans and he yearned to be able to release it from the confines that it had been forced to endure for the last twenty-four hours, ever since he’d first met his mate.
She’d let her eyes drop down to his lap, and he’d felt the hard twitching of his cock as it strained against the fabric, and he’d growled for all that he was worth.
She’d liked that sound – he could see it in the way that her breathing had changed, the way that her eyes had snapped up to meet his, and even the way that she just swooned towards him a little more.
Damn, but he appreciated all that his pack had done to welcome the mates onto their land, but he wished to hell that they would all go away so that he could have some real alone time with his mate.
Griffin’s mind flicked back to the alone time that they’d shared with her inside the hall of mirrors, and he wanted more than anything to replicate that. Not the place, but the closeness, the connection that came about from having her within his arms. Kissing her.
But, it wouldn’t stop there. It almost hadn’t the last time.
She could feel the mating pull just as much as he could, maybe even more, and he’d like to see just how hungry she was for him too.
He ached with that need.
He definitely couldn’t fault his pack, but right then – he kind of wished that he was a lone wolf.
~
~
~
“Ok, so… does your toilet work any differently than a billion toilets in this country?” Penny asked, slightly exasperated that her mate seemed to want to walk into the bathroom with her.
“Err, no,” Neal offered back on a frown.
“Then back off and let me pee, or I will pee on my damn foot,” Penny grumbled, shooing him back from the doorway with her hands like a mother hen.
Neal stood there for a long moment, seemingly lost for words or thought as he stared back at her.
“I’m not going to try to escape. I’m sure there aren’t any renegade vampires in here after my blood, an
d I don’t think I’m in any danger of falling down the pan and being magically flushed away.” Penny rushed out. “Can I please pee?”
“O-k.”
Neal took a long step back away from her, and the door immediately thudded shut in front of his face. He had a déjà vu moment as he remembered the night before and the pod door.
Neal grumbled a growl and listened hard at the door.
“You had better be walking away and not trying to listen to me peeing!” Penny grumbled from inside, and he bit down on a curse as he quietly backed away from the entrance.
“I’m nowhere near the damn door, woman. What do you take me for?” Neal said, making sure that he was faced the other way so that his voice sounded further away and carried less.
“I don’t know,” he heard her mutter. “Nut job… pervert… someone who listens to other people peeing.”
“I am not listening to…”
“See. I knew you were listening!” She huffed, and the sound of a tap coming on made him smile.
~
~
~
“You might want to pace yourself,” Lucas said as Isla reached for another bottle of beer.
She’d had Scotch and moved on to the easy to reach stuff, and she was getting slightly unsteady on her feet.
“Are we running out?” She whispered back, already on her way to being drunk.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Is there a limit?”
“Nope.”
“Well, ok then,” she grinned as she snatched up another ice cold beer from one of the buckets that had been dotted around the garden, and almost pitched face first down onto the grass as alcohol and gravity found that they didn’t mix well together.
Lucas caught her before she could hit the ground with her face, and she made a whooping sound as he righted her back onto her feet.
“Didn’t spill a drop,” Isla said, holding up her beer.
“It still has the cap on,” Lucas offered back.
“Where’s the fun in that?” She leaned in and whispered.
The feel of her warm breath against his ear made his length harder than steel and he groaned and growled in unison. Her body fitted against his like it was supposed to always be there, and her soft curves made his hard ones even harder.
