The Coven- Complete Series- Books one to Six.

by M L Briers

  “Tea ok?” Wendy asked and Eloise nodded. She had questions but she feared they wouldn’t be answered. “You can pick any bedroom on the first floor.” Wendy offered and Eloise nodded at her offer. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to stay for tonight, after all she had come this far and she was tired.

  “What are the pies?” Eloise asked a safe question that she thought she might get a straight answer to.

  “Beef and onion in a thick gravy, and an apple one.” Wendy offered as she raised her cup and blew the steam away before taking a sip. Eloise frowned.

  “My favourites.” She offered back to the woman’s smiling eyes. Curiosity bit deep within her. “You said sometimes there is a haven where we least expect it…” Wendy nodded. “Is this it?” Eloise held her breath and hoped that she was going to hear the answer that she needed.

  “I think so.” Wendy replied and Eloise felt that sinking feeling inside her. “Perhaps if you open yourself up to believing in the possibility that this might be home…” Wendy shrugged just one shoulder.

  “Is it?” Eloise demanded.

  “Only you can decide that, Eloise. It’s not my place to tell you what to do.” Wendy knew the young witch was looking for answers, but sometimes the only answers that we could ever find that were worth anything were the ones that we discovered for ourselves.

  “That’s not…” Eloise sighed. “Helpful.” She added and Wendy’s hand reached out and covered hers. The feel of their magic mingling warmed her right through to her bones. There was a comfort in that touch like a mother’s arms around you when you needed it the most.

  “Trust that you have the spirits on your side.” Wendy offered and Eloise took a long breath and nodded. She wished that she could tell her more, but unfortunately the young woman was going to have to discover things for herself.

  Alex sighed as he circled the mansion once more. So much for his meal with Rebecca and then the whole easing his body inside hers thing. Jethro had ordered him to keep an eye on the witches and try to find out what they were up to. It wasn’t his idea of a good time, stood outside the damn house waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was a time and a place for everything and right then his place was in bed with the She-wolf, not waiting for the witch to make her move.

  Perhaps if I’m lucky I’ll get to eat her. She did look tasty, especially those breasts. A man could lose himself in that valley for days… He grinned at the thought, but it was short lived with the sound of the back door being opened and quickly, but quietly pulled two again.

  Come to the big bad wolf… He skirted down beside the hedge row and made for the sound of her footsteps. He raised his head and took in the scent in the air. Honeysuckle, Lavender, sage and witch and what a spicy little witch she is. His nose tingled from the scent. Then his muscles started to tense, and one in particular rose up with a rush of blood that might have been unprecedented… He growled at the sudden hardness in his jeans.

  Eloise stopped in her tracks and her eyes darted around in the darkness under the sheathed moonlight. Clouds hung low and blocked out natures nightlight, but she had heard a growl, she was certain of that. She drew her shield around her body and her magic into a tight ball within her; waiting to see if anything happened before she moved off again.

  Then he was there in front of her. Coming out of the darkness of the shadows and looming large. Big broad shoulders and over six foot tall, it was all that she could make out, but she knew it was a Lycan and not a vampire, and she knew that she was his prey…

  CHAPTER THREE

  Eloise was the kind of witch to act first and think on the consequences later. She summoned the mist to cover her escape. Thick and musky to throw off the Lycan’s senses; it rose up from the ground fast and swirled all around them.

  She moved as fast as her feet would carry her; while she pushed her scent out all around her as far as she could take it on the stagnant air. The sound of his growl of annoyance rumbled through the mist all around her and she found that she’d made herself as lost as she hoped he was. She stopped in her tracks and listened for a sound that would tell her where he was… nothing. All she could hear was the sound of her heart beating hard within her ears and there was nothing she could do to mask that sound.

  She needed to keep moving. She took a step but the sound of bushes rustling to her right brought that step to a halt. Another rumble reached her ears and washed over her skin like fingers sweeping out of the mist.

  Fear gripped her heart and she wished it would still its beating, not permanently, just long enough for him not to be able to track her. Another rumbled growl off to her left this time, and she crouched down low to the ground, waiting, wondering… Her magic fizzed inside her, ready to strike out at him.

  Her breath caught in her throat at the actual touch of fingertips against her cheek. She pushed up; deciding to run, but a rumble from in front of her meant her path was blocked. The sweat tricked down her back and made her shiver as it felt like the brush of fingertips against her skin. Perhaps summoning the mist was a mistake…

  She took a long step back and to the side. The bushes pushed at her backside as if Mother Nature itself was throwing her to the wolf. She gasped out in fear… Hot fingertips brushed her neck and she spun around at the feel of his breath against her cheek…

  He was playing with her. Taunting her before he struck. She sent her magic out in front of her as she backed away… Her back hit the hardness of his body and she yelped in fear, jumping forwards and spinning on her heels, but he was already gone. The growl from her right sent her spinning away and she ran blindly…

  Perhaps he shouldn’t have done it. Played with the little witch like that, especially after he’d caught her scent up close and personal, but now they both had to live with the consequences of their actions. She was off and running and his beast was more than up for the chase…

  Clawing at him from the inside, trying to push its way out. His beast was angry beyond belief. She’d run from him… His mate was denying the connection between them and now he would hunt her down and take her before she could escape…

  Alex growled out long and hard at the sound of her feet on the ground moving away from him. His beast wanted out, but his humanity wouldn’t allow it. Forced to inaction by the realisation of who she was; a momentary thing. Now he was off on fast feet after her, using all of his senses to guide him towards her.

  The need to mark her. To claim her, to bite down into her flesh and taste her blood burned inside him like lava in his veins. He would have the taste of her on his tongue this day…

  Eloise felt the thick mist in her lungs as she gulped in deep breaths. Running on fast feet and praying that she would reach an end to the mist that she had stupidly created around her. Her foot caught on something hard and her ankle wrenched with a shooting pain that made her cry out as she felt her body start to fall…

  Then something hit her hard in the back and took her spinning through the air, downwards to the ground… Strong arms locked around her and she cried out once more as fear struck her heart and twisted her stomach. Half crushed between the weight of him and the ground as they spun together, her breath was forced from her lungs, and then they stopped spinning and her mind was so confused that she couldn’t get her bearings as a weight pinned her down…

  Eloise couldn’t have screamed if she’d tried, the breath that she needed was stuck inside her. The long hard rumble of a growl that sounded like thunder filled her ears and vibrated through her body as the hard grasp of his fingers locked around her wrists and forced them back against the earth. Without thinking; her magic shot from her body and sliced through him like a thousand blades and he tossed his head back and roared into the soundless night around them…

  For one long moment there was silence. For one eternal second she gasped in the breath her body so dearly needed, and then the feel of his breath against her cheek stilled her heart once more.

  “Mine.” More beast than man he staked his claim. Eloise mind
spun as she whimpered beneath him. Fear gripped her very soul as her instincts told her one thing… She had run from her mate…

  “No…” She blurted out without even thinking of the denial that he would hear from her lips. The beast was at the forefront of his personality and she had just stoked the fire that would be raging inside him…

  A heartbeat later and he was wrenched away from her. Her mind couldn’t comprehend the feel of freedom that her body embraced. The sound of a heavy thud in the near distance seemed to echo inside her body as she lay there motionless in her fear, panting for breath like his beast.

  “Gotta go…” The satin smooth tones of the vampire didn’t rush her mind or body into relief. It only stoked her fears even more and swept her back to the moment that her mother had been so cruelly taken from her when she was a child… That emotion rose up inside her and overwhelmed her understanding of what the man was offering her, salvation from the beast.

  Fear tore through her mind and her body fought back. Her magic was useless to her as the crushing weight of the trauma that she had sustained as a child swept through her. Strong hands wrenched her up from the ground and equally strong arms wrapped around her body as she lashed out as best she could. But without her magic it wasn’t enough…

  The roar of the Lycan sounded as if from somewhere below her. Her body was caged against the hardness of the vampire and he wasn’t letting go. Her arms were locked down against her sides and her feet slipped against the precarious perch that she seemed to be standing on… Slowly the mist seeped away and she got her first sight of the treetops.

  “Easy, Little witch. I don’t want to eat you…” His satin smooth tones against her ear made her skin tighten from head to toe. Repulsion for what he was, revulsion at his touch, and the need to be set free fought back against his attempt to calm her. “It’s called a rescue and you’re welcome.”

  “Get your hands off me…” Eloise had been calmed by Caleb’s vampire talents and yet not enough for her to think clearly.

  “Love too, but only once your mate has his senses back so that he doesn’t do something dastardly that you’ll both regret…”

  “Mate…” It slammed back into her mind. How had she forgotten so quickly that she’d run from him, that he was her mate? Vampire or beast intent on claiming her, she wasn’t certain which one was the worst case scenario right then.

  “I will kill you, Caleb…” The hard, snarled promise from below stilled her attempts to get away from the vampire.

  “Blah, blah, blah…” Caleb offered down to the pissed off wolf. “Cool your heels. You’ll have her back when you’re in control.” He half teased and half warned his friend.

  “I’m going to rip your damn arms off for touching her…” Alex paced below them. Her eyes took in the figure in the clearing mist. “Then I’m going to rip out your throat…”

  “Sounds painful, could be fun.” Caleb offered and Eloise shot him a look over her right shoulder. The vampire was grinning and there wasn’t even a hint of his fangs in sight. “This is your mate…” He teased her. The little witch wasn’t exactly calm, and he realised that she seemed to have a big problem with vampires, but she wasn’t fighting him anymore, and she hadn’t used her magic against him so far so he considered that a bonus.

  “Stop riling him up…” Eloise tried to shuck his arms from around her but he had no intention of letting her go at forty odd feet above the ground.

  “But life can be so boring around here at times. Would you rather that I went on a rampage to liven things up?” He teased her to test the waters and felt her tense against him.

  “I’d rather you took your Goddamn hands off me.” She hissed out.

  “And let you fall to your death after I went to the trouble of rescuing you? Pass, next stupid demand?” He saw the death glare from her eyes and was grateful that she hadn’t put any magic behind it.

  “Get your hands off my mate…” Alex growled out. The sound of his mate’s obvious distress riled the protective nature of his beast and filled him with the need to rip and tear the vampire limb from limb.

  “Sure you can catch her if I do?” Caleb offered down to the prowling Lycan below… The snarl he got in return didn’t fill him with certainty that the man was back in command of his senses. “Perhaps I should take a drink for my troubles…” He felt the witch jolt in his arms and held her tighter.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “That would be the last bite you take…” Eloise assured him. From below her mate roared… Caleb breathed against her ear. His voice was the quietest of whispers.

  “Just making his beast protective and baying for my blood and not yours. Calm yourself, witch.”

  “Bring my mate down, Vampire, before I climb up there and end you.” Alex snarled. It was no secret that Lycans didn’t like heights, but he would flex his claws and climb the damn tree if he scented her blood on the wind…

  The sound of his mate’s squeal of surprise and fear sent his beast wild inside him. The need to protect her raced through his blood and his very soul. He moved towards the tree, intent on reaching her no matter what, when the sound of the branches groaning and the leaves rustling made him hold in place, listening…

  Caleb moved quickly. Taking the path less travelled; he followed the thick bough towards its end and dropped down with Eloise into the clearing just behind where the Lycan stood. In a heartbeat he’d released her from his arms and took off on fast feet away from the mates and up into the treetops once more. Moving slowly, quietly back around so he could see Eloise from his perch in case things went wrong.

  It took Eloise a moment to realise what had happened. The damn vampire had moved so fast that her eyes couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing and her brain couldn’t keep up with the sights around her. Just as her instincts told her to move; the Lycan tore through the underbrush and his black eyes locked on her.

  She took an involuntary step backwards away from him, but he stalked towards her with a purpose. He looked even more the predator as he reached for her and wrapped his arms around her, yanking her against his chest and growling with the sheer satisfaction of having her against him. Eloise felt the rush of connection between them, so strong now that her shields were down, and she tried to push him away but he held her in a vice grip.

  “What the hell is wrong with you people and squishing me?” She bit out. Alex drew back slightly from her and cupped her cheek with one large hand. She had to admit that his heat was invigorating, and she didn’t even want to acknowledge what the feel of his skin against hers did to her body, needless to say she felt more than a stirring inside her.

  “Are you hurt?” Alex demanded and she looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “Did I hurt you?” He demanded when she didn’t answer him. “Did he hurt you?” He growled for longer at her silence.

  “No, no, and no. Let me go…” She placed her hands against the hard muscles of his chest and the tingling that flowed over her skin and travelled the length of her body threw her for a long moment.

  “Are you sure?” He demanded again. Shame rode hard inside him for chasing his mate down and taking her to the ground beneath his body so forcibly. That shame was nothing compared to the constant pounding awareness of what could have happened next if the vampire had not intervened.

  Alex had always had good control over his beast. As an enforcer for the pack it was a necessary part of his job to be able to control the wild nature of the wolf within him. But his mate running from him had caused his beast to become uncontrollable. He was both pissed at the vampire and more than grateful for his intervention.

  “I’m not sure which damn way is up at the moment…” She admitted. A mate to a wolf and rescued by a damn Vampire, she couldn’t help but wonder if she would be visited by the Tooth Fairy next, perhaps accompanied by the Easter Bunny and Thor for good measure.

  The sound of the leaves rustling above made Alex’s head snap upwards and he couldn’t help the growl of anger that rolled th
rough his chest. His mate’s hands pressed against his chest as she squirmed against his body. The brush of her hip over his hard length sent his mind elsewhere and the vampire was forgotten.

  “Don’t you damn well growl at me…” Eloise hissed out in annoyance.

  “I wasn’t…” Alex denied with a shake of his head. Eloise stilled against him. She knew she had no hope of getting away from him without her magic and she was loathed to use it again considering his beast’s reaction to her the last time she’d done something stupid.

  “Oh…” She pouted. The feeling of being so helpless was something she knew well and she had truly thought that had ended with the offered opportunity of sanctuary that the spirits had dangled before her so temptingly. Now she knew better, this was fate’s path for her, to meet her mate, and she wasn’t best pleased about it.

  “I can’t scent your blood, but I should check you over…” His hands moved and she slapped them…

  “No checking, no touching, no sniffing, no wolfing around of any kind.” She scowled up at him. He looked pretty berated, maybe even a little dejected as a slow growl started to rumble through his chest before she tipped her head to one side and skewered him with her eyes. The sound snapped off.

  “You’re castrating my wolf…” He informed her on a grunt of annoyance.

  “Don’t bloody tempt me.” She offered back and saw the moments shock hit his face and then it was gone. She felt the urge to laugh and she didn’t know why. None of this was funny, at least not to her.

  “I’ll take you home.” It sounded more like a command to her ears.