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  HIS MATE

  BROTHERS

  I’LL BE THERE

  BY

  M L BRIERS

  Copyright © 2019, M L Briers

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.

  Note from the Author;

  All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.

  Copyright © 2019, Cover Design by; [email protected].

  Table of Contents

  HIS MATE

  BROTHERS

  I’LL BE THERE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ~

  “Does a witch-witch?” Santino asked, from the comfort of the wingback chair in the witch’s living room as he thumbed through one of their glossy magazines. He wasn’t interested in the words, just the pictures.

  “Does a vampire suck?” Lorna shot back, offering him a smug smile that made him narrow his eyes on her and consider who he was up against.

  “Define suck,” he asked, full of suspicion and knowing her as he did, he was sure he knew what she meant.

  “Take it as you find it,” Lorna said with a shrug that made her long dark hair bounced with curls, the pink and purple highlights caught by the last of the day’s sun that came through the window and gave them a life of their own.

  Santino gave a slow nod as he sighed, closed the magazine, and tossed it down onto the coffee table. “Next,” he demanded, holding out his hand for the magazine that Coleen was reading while she munched on a carrot stick, and the witch frowned at his request.

  “I’m still reading this one,” she replied, not taking her attention off the article she was invested in.

  “Well, can I have it when you’re done?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Coleen said, absently waving the carrot stick around in the air like a mini wand.

  “Are you done yet?” he asked, sounding only slightly less annoying than a chainsaw.

  “No,” she bit out and then crunch down on the carrot stick.

  Santino wiggled his fingers before he laced them and cracked the joints. Coleen looked up, disgusted by the sound, and she wrinkled her nose, and there was a definite downward turn to her mouth. “Are you done now?” he asked with a smug grin.

  “With the carrot stick, I am,” she said and threw it at his head. It bounced off his forehead, and he caught it on the rebound. “Ha! Snack,” he said and took a bite.

  “That’s my carrot,” Coleen grumbled, still frowning at him.

  “And that’s my magazine,” he tossed back with a cocky grin.

  “I bought it, go buy your own if you’re in that much of a rush,” she hissed back, snatching up another stick from the bowl and biting down on it as if it had done her a great wrong.

  Lorna chuckled. It was just another day when her two favourite people in the world were ragging on each other and squabbling. It didn’t really seem to matter what they squabbled over, just that they squabbled. “It’s not like you read them,” she berated him.

  “No, but they have beautiful woman in them, nice necks. It’s like porn for vampires,” he replied, tapping one of his canine teeth, and wiggling his eyebrows at her.

  “You have a serious problem,” Lorna tossed back.

  “Because I like to eyeball famous people and wonder how good they taste?” he asked and poo-pooed the idea. “Would you prefer I got my vamp on with the local witches?” He wiggled his eyebrows again and grinned like the devil himself.

  “We are the local witches,” Coleen bit out, not impressed with him for interrupting her alone time with her magazine, let alone his incessant chattering.

  “I know that,” he said, leaning in slightly and whispering across the way. “Care to share?”

  Lorna grunted. “I’ve never defanged a vampire, but there’s always a first time, so sure, give it your best shot, and I’ll give it mine.”

  “Ouch! Mean,” Santino said, and then rolled his head on his neck and eyed Coleen over the top of the magazine. “Are you done now?”

  Coleen let out a little roar of annoyance and tossed the magazine at his head. That time she wasn’t successful because he snatched it out of the air and started to thumb through it.

  “Works every time,” Lorna said with a little chuckle of disbelief for her friend.

  Coleen gave a little whimpered cry. “I’m bored!”

  “How bored can you be?” Santino asked. “You were just reading. Which was annoyingly boring for the rest of us.”

  “And now you’re reading, which is annoyingly boring for me,” Coleen shot back.

  “Don’t mistake what I’m doing for reading – I would never be so … boring,” he said, teasing her with a smirk.

  “Let’s go to the beach and work on our tan,” Lorna said with a glint of mischief in her eyes for the vampire.

  “Yes, very funny,” he replied in a bored tone.

  “It all depends on whether you’re the one allergic to strong sunshine or not,” she shot back.

  “Or maybe we can go to the Vatican, and you can get your witch on in front of the Pope,” he offered, smirking. He’d actually pay good money to see that, but he doubted that the Pope would be too happy.

  “I vote we do both,” Coleen said with a wicked smile as they turned to look at her. “Hey, I get to watch and enjoy, and the upside is; I won’t be bored anymore.”

  “Okay, fine,” Santino said, sitting forward in the chair and tossing the magazine down on the table. “If you’re going to be whiney…”

  “Says the man who whined until he got the magazine,” Lorna tossed back.

  “Did not,” he said.

  “Did too,” Lorna hit back.

  “Vampires don’t whine,” he offered in his defence.

  “No, they suck,” Coleen said, thumbing her nose at him.

  “And they make a slurping sound while doing it,” Lorna added.

  “I do not whine, and I certainly do not slurp,” he said, pushing up to his feet and stretching out his muscles. He’d spent far too long with the witches, and far too long in that chair.

  Still, he had forever to kill, and they only had the blink of an eye in comparison, and they were the first real friends he’d had in a decade. At least, they were the first witches that didn’t view him as a monster to be destroyed or at the very least, kept at fangs length away from them.

  That’s not to say they all
owed him to use his fangs either – that was a step too far and too much to hope for.

  “And you aren’t good with the word no either,” Lorna said.

  “Or wait,” Coleen added.

  “Or heal,” Lorna offered him a wicked grin.

  “Not a mutt,” he said, rolling his eyes. But her words had reminded him of something he’d been meaning to take care of. “So where do we want to go?”

  “Rome,” Coleen said.

  “New Orleans,” Lorna offered.

  “Oooo, good one,” Coleen’s eyes sparkled with the thought of visiting the witches quarter again.

  “How about dinner, and you’ll like it?” he offered back.

  “If you’re paying,” Lorna replied, and offered him a sweet smile.

  “I am the man,” he said, and both witches winced. “Oh, that’s right – feminism,” he said and sighed.

  “Nothing wrong with a little feminism,” Coleen said, pushing up to her feet from the sofa.

  “Nothing right with it either,” he muttered, and got a zinger of a zap from one of them, but which one? They stuck together like glue, and unless they announced whose magic was whose, then he never could tell. “Thank you,” he bit out.

  “Welcome,” they said as one, grinning.

  “It’s like your evil twins with different faces,” he muttered.

  “Nothing wrong with a little evil in your life,” Lorna said, getting to her feet. “That’s why you’re here.”

  ~

  “You expect us to go in there?” Coleen asked, eyeing the outside as if something was about to jump out and bite her.

  “Yes,” he said with a smirk. “Big portions, good food.”

  “The – Grab It and Growl,” Lorna said, folding her arms and thrusting out a hip as she eyed the sign. “It might as well read the Slaughtered Lamb…”

  “I see what you did there,” Santino said with a teasing grin. “An American Werewolf in London reference – very good…”

  “Not good would be going into a shifter bar – and doing it on purpose,” Coleen replied.

  “Live a little.” He leaned in and whispered, “it’s fun, or at the very least … interesting.”

  Lorna snorted her contempt for him. “Live, or die trying?”

  Santino shrugged his shoulders and expanded his arms. “Where’s the harm?”

  “Right there,” Coleen said, motioning with both hands to the building in front of them.

  “I’m sorry; I thought I was in the presence of two badass witches, not scaredy-cats afraid of their own shadow.” His tone was dismissive as he threw out the challenge, and noted that both witches pressed their lips together in annoyance. “But fine, we can go somewhere ‘safe’ like Bruno’s.” He pulled a face and rolled his eyes.

  Lorna was the first to cave. “Challenge accepted,” she said, but that didn’t stop the butterflies from dancing inside of her.

  Coleen shot her a look of disbelief, but Lorna just shrugged. “Fine,” she sighed out the word. “I’m in.”

  “That’s the fun-loving witchy attitude I know and respect,” he said. “Park your broomsticks, pull on your shields because we’re going in.”

  “He says it like it’s a good thing,” Coleen grumbled.

  “What could go wrong?” he said in a low, teasing voice.

  Lorna gave him a little side-eye. “Well, now that you’ve said that – every-bloody-thing,” she grumbled.

  “That’s no reason not to embrace life,” he berated her over his shoulder as he started for the door.

  Coleen leaned in towards her friend and whispered. “The Slaughtered Lamb.”

  Lorna pulled a face and wrinkled her nose at the prospect of going inside the shifter bar. “Well, at least we can say that we went out with a bang and not a whimper.” She started after the vampire.

  “No, we can’t, because we’ll be dead,” Coleen grumbled, hesitating a moment before she followed the others. “I feel like this is a really, really bad idea.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  ~

  Flint slapped Dalton with the back of his hand against the hard muscle of his bicep, Dalton slapped Guy, and Guy slapped the alpha, Nash, who looked up from his dinner plate long enough to see the vampire flanked by two females walking into the bar as bold as brass, and he did a double-take.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dalton bit out.

  Nash immediately pushed up from his chair, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, and sidestepped the table. With the scrap of chairs across the floor, Flint, Guy and Dalton got to their feet, but Nash shot them a look, and none of them took another step.

  “You’re a little out of your comfort zone,” Nash said, stalking towards Santino and his companions, flicking a look at both women before concentrating on the vampire.

  “I don’t know, it has a certain ambience about it,” Santino said, scanning the area to see how many shifters were in attendance. “It must be the scent of eyeballs on the floor after closing that lingers in the air.”

  Nash stopped a few feet away and folded his muscled arms over an impressively broad chest and eyed the vampire for a long moment. “You know where the door is,” he said with a rumble of a growl from his beast that he tried to curb.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to challenge the vampire; it was the women with him. Nash had no idea who they were or why the vampire would bring them to the bar, but he didn’t like it. If they were under the vampire’s spell, then a little growling wasn’t going to hurt, if not, then he could be in real trouble.

  Trouble was something that he didn’t need. The pack had not long been through the death of the old alpha and the challenge for a new one. Nash was due the title, but he’d still insisted on taking on all-comers, even if he hadn’t fought to the death to do it, and had twisted a few arms to get them to try to better him.

  It was the done thing. Now those men were his betas and an enforcer. It was how it had to be.

  Lorna eyed the alpha with interest. She’d never been up close and personal with a shifter before, and the man was impressive.

  It wasn’t just that he was tall, dark and handsome, he was, and she liked that. It wasn’t that he was built like a brick outhouse with more muscles than Popeye; he had that going on too.

  It was that he oozed testosterone and manly goodness that seemed to reach a part of her that had been dormant for a while. When you were a witch and your best friends were a witch and a vampire; dating could be … awkward. Not least, when the vampire took it upon himself to interrogate anyone that walked through the door like he was trying to protect your virginity that had been in the lost department since hitting her mid-teens.

  Coleen eyed the alpha and felt the familiar bells and whistles of the witchy early warning system that went off inside of her whenever supernatural trouble was at hand – and boy, was it at hand now. It might have been a little late, seeing as they were already in the wolves den, but it wasn’t as if she could shut it off.

  She knew walking into a shifter bar was a step too far, but she’d done it anyway, and now it was too late to back out. Although, with Lorna’s help they probably could have used their magic to knock out everyone in the room to make their escape, but she didn’t think Santino was going to be up for that, at least, not yet.

  When the alpha turned a hard glare onto her, Coleen decided to play it like a pro and not show any weakness – so she eyed him right back. Life was too short to play it safe all the time, and she guessed that she’d have a story to tell her grandchildren – should she live long enough to even have children of her own.

  “Why are you here?” Nash asked, turning his attention from Coleen back to the vampire.

  “Was that aimed at me?” Coleen asked.

  “No,” Nash said, flicking another look at her.

  “Well, you were looking at me when you asked it…”

  “But it was meant for him,” Nash said, dismissing her once more to stare at the vampire.

  “Yo
u’re sure?” Coleen asked, and she was sure that she heard Lorna roll her eyes, or maybe she just knew that was what her friend would be doing right about now.

  “Here we go,” Lorna mumbled under her breath. Yep, she’d rolled her eyes.

  Nash turned his attention solely onto Coleen. “I’m certain,” he said.

  “Just checking, I like to be thorough,” she added with a bright grin that made the alpha suspicious of her.

  “Where better to get good food than in a place where people really appreciated eating?” The vampire said.

  He’d noted the start of a twitch just under the alpha’s right eye, and he had to admit, if only to himself, that Coleen could do that to a man. He decided to throw the alpha a bone and help him out.

  “And booze,” Lorna added, and right then, she could use a drink or two. It wasn’t every day you came face to … chest with an alpha or a wolf pack in their natural habitat.

  “And booze,” Santino said as if he’d forgotten that part.

  Nash tilted his head just a little and narrowed his eyes. “You think I’m going to allow you a seat at one of my tables?”

  “Why not?” Santino asked, raising his arms out to the side, and you could have heard a pin drop in the silence of the room.

  Lorna was sure she could hear the sound of her heart beating, or maybe she was just mentally checking that it was still in her chest. If things went south, which they looked as if they might, then she was going to take down the alpha first before working her way through the rest of them.

  Her magic was already a nice tight ball of white-hot fire within her, and she knew she didn’t need to match the shifters strength, speed or claws for what she had in mind. She could put him down long enough to get them out of there.

  Then she’d kick Santino’s backside all the way home for getting them in this mess in the first place.

  What could go wrong? Yeah!

  Nash turned an eye on the three shifters at his back. “Can you believe this guy?”

  “I think he’s lost,” Flint said.