Christmas Mate Read online

  She knew that the only thing that would be hovering around would be either a lost spirit or a fairy. She doubted that a fairy would be stupid enough to pay her a visit after the last time. And she’d lodged a complaint with the fairy godmother to boot.

  “Leave, be gone,” Angelique commanded as she whipped her index finger to the right and pointed at — an aura.

  Not just any aura, she was sure that she knew that aura, and this time she would deliver that kind of payback that meant it would never darken her door again.

  “Now…” George materialized in his human form in front of her. Right at the moment that she aimed a magical thunderbolt at him, and zapped him with a jolt of electricity that made his teeth chatter.

  “You!” Angelique growled like a she-wolf.

  George groaned inwardly. He seemed to have done that a lot in the last couple of days, and he didn’t like it much.

  His life up to that point had been about fun — getting zapped by a witch was not fun. Especially, if he had done nothing mischievous to warrant it in the first place.

  “Ouch!” George shook off the magic and glared at the witch. “If you will let me apologize…”

  “You’re here to apologize?” Angelique snorted her contempt at him.

  Faeries didn’t apologize.

  Faeries were diabolical.

  Faeries were mischievous.

  Faeries couldn’t be trusted as far as you could throw them, and she’d like to throw that one right out on his backside.

  “Yes.” He snapped on a bright smile, and she didn’t buy it.

  “Not accepted. Go away,” Angelique offered him a death glare as she leaned over her cauldron and eyed him with suspicion.

  “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” George tried a different smile, one that always seemed to work on the females that he knew.

  “Not harsh enough.” She offered another snort of contempt.

  Obviously, the witch was too hardhearted to recognize a smile when she saw it. That might just make his job harder.

  “I’m here to make amends,” George tried another smile. She definitely didn’t like that one; she sneered back at him.

  “You can make amends by leaving,” Angelique pointed her index finger toward the door, just in case he didn’t know where it was.

  “But…” He had one more smile in his arsenal; he unleashed it, — it was normally a smile that made women’s knees go weak.

  Angelique pulled her head back on her neck, curled her top lip in disgust, and looked at him as if he just grown another head. Damn, witches were hard to please.

  “What part of go away and don’t darken my door again don’t you understand?” Angelique demanded.

  “I have a little problem with all of that.”

  “As far as I’m aware — I don’t care. As for you-you are a problem,” Angelique slapped her hands onto her hips, cocked her head to one side, and glared at the fairy.

  “Okay, let me rephrase and say we have a problem,” George offered back.

  “There is no we,” Angelique was adamant.

  “Trust me when I say — there is a we,” George offered back with all sincerity.

  “Says who?” Angelique demanded.

  “Says the fairy godmother,” George informed her and watched as the information sank into her brain, scrambled it a little, and she eyed him with a lot of suspicion.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Apparently you have somewhere to be,” George informed her.

  He felt as if he had the upper hand now — but somehow, he didn’t think it worked like that.

  “Yes, right here — doing this. Leave,” Angelique hissed.

  “The fairy godmother wants me to help you.”

  “To do what — exactly?” Angelique was more than suspicious — she was wary of the fairy that had caused her spell to go so horribly wrong before. Now the man had appeared just before she was about to create a new spell — she didn’t believe in coincidences.

  “I can’t tell you, but you need to come with me,” George offered back as simply as he could.

  “I wouldn’t go with you if my life depended on it — and if you can’t tell me where, then I definitely wouldn’t go anywhere with you,” Angelique rallied back.

  “I’m sensing that you have a problem with trust.” George knew that his smiles didn’t work with her, but he smiled anyway.

  “You’re a fairy,” she offered.

  “I see your point.” He lifted his hand and tapped his index finger against his lips as he considered it. “I’m sensing you also have a problem with me.” He stated the obvious.

  “Gee, I wonder why?” Angelique bit out; her tone was dripping with acid for the past wrongs than he’s done her.

  “My bad,” George admitted he’d been wrong to mess with her spell, well, he didn’t actually admit it. “But, this is different…”

  “It always is when a fairy wants something.” Angelique folded her arms and snorted her contempt for the man. She wasn’t about to help him.

  “It’s not like that,” George offered back with a singsong tone.

  “I’m sure it is,” she mirrored his tone.

  “Could you please just put your suspicious witchy nature to one side for a moment and consider that I’m on the up and up?”

  George folded his arms across his muscled chest and questioned her with a raised eyebrow. It worked for the fairy godmother; he kind of hoped it was going to work for him.

  “No,” she snapped back.

  “Well, that’s not helpful,” George snapped back.

  “I’m sorry — I didn’t know that I was supposed to be helping you.” She lifted her arm and pointed to the door once more. “Let me help you out the door.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you agree to help me,” George offered back.

  “So you do want help!”

  “No.”

  “You know I can hurt you, right?” Angelique warned him.

  “You know I can counteract your magic, right?” George offered back.

  He didn’t want to get in an all-out war with the witch. He just wanted to do his fairy godmother’s bidding, find her fated mate, put the two of them together, watch magic ensue, and be done with Christmas.

  Then he could go back to being drunk, debauched, and all the things that the fairy godmother didn’t like about him.

  “You know I can swat you like a fly, right?” Angelique tossed back.

  “Not in this form, you can’t,” George smirked as he motioned down his human body.

  Angelique called on her magic, whipped up the broom from the corner of the room, and shot it toward his head. George didn’t see it coming — and groaned as the hard, prickly twigs smacked him upside the head.

  Then the broom cluttered to the floor as Angelique folded her arms, and offered him a big beaming victorious smile.

  “Gotcha!” Angelique said.

  “Oh, I’m really going to enjoy Christmas fairy-ing your backside,” George muttered.

  “Huh?” Angelique cocked one eyebrow, questioning him with just a look. The man had muttered, but if she thought she’d heard him right — he’d said that he was the Christmas fairy.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~

  “Not a damn thing,” George lied as he shrugged and offered her a cocky grin in return.

  “You said something…”

  “You’re hearing things,” he shrugged again. “Maybe it was an echo.”

  “Something about a Christmas fairy…” She eyed him with suspicion.

  “Ah, the Christmas fairy — I think that’s Jessica this year,” George offered back.

  “Who is Jessica?” Angelique didn’t want to let it drop. The damn fairy was up to something — she could practically smell it in the air.

  What he was up to is what she needed to figure out.

  “Jessica is just another fairy that thinks she’s special — even though she’s not — in fact, her ego is so big that
she wouldn’t get through the door,” George offered.

  When he felt the harsh sting of Jessica’s magic against his backside, he pressed his lips together and didn’t make a sound; he wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction. But his eyes did flick up toward the shelf that the little Demon was sitting on.

  Even in his human form, he could still see the gleeful smile on Jessica’s face. When he got back to his fairy form, he was going to make her pay for that one.

  “I’m sure you’d make a lovely couple, and be so well suited,” Angelique offered back.

  She’d heard him say something, caught him in a misspoken moment, and she didn’t believe the line that he was giving her. She could smell BS as much as the next witch.

  No, she didn’t trust this fairy as far as she could throw him.

  “That’s a horrible thought,” George grumbled, and he heard Jessica make a noise like she was being sick. He returned that sentiment — he’d rather be the Christmas fairy every year then be a couple with Jessica.

  “The fact remains — go away,” Angelique said.

  “The fact remains — I can’t,” George offered back.

  “Then we’re at an impasse because you can’t stay here, and I don’t want you anywhere near my latest spell,” Angelique informed him. “And so — you’re leaving.”

  “I’d love to leave you to your…” He motioned towards the cauldron and heard the witch grasp.

  “Keep your grubby little fingers away from my spell!” Angelique pushed out a spell to cover the cauldron with protective magic. “It’s not happening again.”

  “I wasn’t…”

  “Good! Don’t even think about it,” Angelique cut him off before he got where he wanted to go.

  “I wouldn’t…”

  “You did last time!” Angelique hissed back at him with a death glare that made him reconsider messing with her again in any shape or form. Too bad he had a job to do.

  “Can I finish a sentence?” George folded his large arms across his broad chest and eyed her with contempt.

  “I don’t know — can you?” Angelique shot back.

  ‘I for one like this witch!’

  George groaned inwardly at the sound of Jessica’s voice. With him being in his human form, her voice sounded so much more shrill-like to his ears, and it matched her personality.

  “Please tell me what I can do to alleviate your fears about me,” George offered graciously to the witch.

  “Drop dead!” Angelique tossed back.

  ‘She got you there!’ Jessica chuckled, and George had the need to wring someone’s neck. He’d prefer that it was Jessica’s, but anyone would do.

  “Unfortunately, I’m very much alive — and I’m here to take you on a Christmas journey…”

  “Oh — my — goddess!” Angelique took one large step back away from the kitchen counter, and her cauldron, and eyed the man with horror.

  “What?” George looked about him to see what had the witch so rattled. “Did a vampire just walk in?”

  ‘Such a brave and fearless warrior!’ Jessica chuckled from up high.

  “Christmas journey?” Angelique didn’t like the sound of that. She’d read a Christmas Carol — she’d watched Scrooged — was this man really that Christmas fairy?

  Angelique didn’t want to visit Christmases past. She certainly didn’t want to visit Christmases future. She never flicked a page or two on a good book to see what happened next — why would she want to do the same thing to her life?

  “I have a little surprise for you.” George grinned with a glint of glee in his eye… and Angelique lifted her hands and zapped him hard with her magic. So hard that his feet left the floor.

  He flew backward through the air, hitting the hard wall behind him, and dropped to the floor like a sack of coal.

  ‘She got you there — too.’ Jessica chuckled hard. ‘Splat.’

  ~

  ~

  ~

  ‘ I don’t think this was what the fairy godmother had in mind when she made you the Christmas fairy.’ Jessica cautioned him as George bundled Angelique into the back seat of her own car.

  The witch was magically bound and gagged, and George had to admit that he felt a small pang of guilt. He didn’t feel enough guilt not to do it — or to set her free — because he had a job to do and a life to get back to.

  “I did not receive instruction on how to do my job — ergo — I can make it up as I go along,” George said.

  The look in Angelique’s eyes was more than chilling. He had the distinct impression that when he let her free — she was going to try to kill him.

  All the more reason to find her mate and give her something else to think about. At least, that was the plan.

  ‘But a Christmas fairy does not just kidnap the person that they are trying to help.’

  “Look…” George slammed the back door of the car and turned toward where Jessica was sitting on the roof.

  ‘What would the fairy godmother say?’

  “I don’t know — use your initiative?” George shot back.

  Jessica was becoming a very big pain in his backside. He just wanted to find the witches mate and get rid of her, and in turn, get rid of Jessica, and then he could return to his life.

  ‘I don’t think she’s going to be pleased,’ Jessica informed him in clipped tones that made her sound both shrill-like, fairy godmother-like, and smug – very, very smug.

  “I don’t think she’ll find out unless someone tells her,” George leaned his face in toward the little fairy and offered her a death glare. “And you know what happens to faeries that go and tell tales, don’t you?” He warned.

  Jessica folded her arms, tipped her head to one side, and snorted her contempt for the man.

  ‘Whatever next?’

  “I’m glad to see were on the same wavelength. I’d hate for anyone to have their wings glued together,” he warned again, just in case she didn’t get the idea the first time.

  ‘I really don’t like you.’

  “I really don’t care,” George offered back as he set off for the driver’s door.

  Driving couldn’t be that hard, could it?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~

  “What are you doing?” Angelique could feel it all around her. That essence. That diabolical, supernatural juju that could only belong to a wolf shifter.

  “This is your Christmas journey,” George offered and tried to make it sound as nice as possible, even if it really was a fate worse than death, at least, he thought so.

  Mated — he shivered at the thought. He’d almost bit off his own tongue when the fairy godmother had mentioned engagement.

  “I can’t be here!” Angelique tossed back.

  George was reconsidering the fact that he had released her from the gag. Although, he wasn’t silly enough to release her from her bindings.

  Her arms were still firmly down by her sides — and her hands were fisted so that she couldn’t raise a single finger in magic toward him.

  “Here is exactly where you need to be,” George offered back.

  “Are you insane?” Angelique was walking, but not of her own volition. The fairy had spelled her legs to move and follow him over shifter ground.

  Where they were going, only he knew!

  “Yes.” He offered back. It was easier to agree with her than argue. That rule applied to most females that he’d come across, except Jessica, because that woman really did rub him up the wrong way.

  “Is this because I reported you to the fairy godmother?” Angelique demanded.

  “Yes,” George said.

  ‘You know it goes so much better if you tell them the truth,’ Jessica said from up high.

  “Really?” George scowled over his shoulder at the fairy that was following along behind them.

  “Really what?” Angelique demanded.

  ‘Sometimes.’

  “Well, I’m not going to take the chance,” George grumbled back.

&nbs
p; He caught sight of the way that Angelique was looking at him and did a double take. You would have thought he’d grown a second head or kicked a puppy.

  “I knew it!” Angelique bit out.

  “Knew what?” George asked, confused.

  “I knew you were insane the moment I saw you.” Angelique huffed. “A male Christmas fairy — Ha!”

  ‘She’s only saying what the rest of us are thinking.’

  “I’m not insane — I am the Christmas fairy — and this is your Christmas journey,” George offered the witch the only explanation that he had.

  “Ha!”

  “No — really,” George offered back.

  Why couldn’t he be the Christmas fairy? What was so wrong with that? Apart from the obvious.

  “Oh boy, are you nuttier than a squirrel’s harvest time,” Angelique bit back.

  When she got out of her magical bindings — she was going to see just how far she could throw a human form fairy — and boy was she going to enjoy it.

  ‘She’s right about that too.’

  “What is it with women who have magic?” George huffed.

  “We’re smart enough to see you coming a mile off,” Angelique grumbled back.

  “I’ll have you know that women find me adorable,” George offered back.

  “I doubt that very much,” Angelique hissed.

  ‘About as adorable as the slime trail from a snail,’ Jessica said.

  “Look, I’m the Christmas fairy — can we show me some respect?” George had had enough.

  “No.”

  ‘Ditto.’

  “Oh boy, am I going to enjoy handing you over to your mate…”

  “My what!” Angelique tried her best to stop her legs from moving and her feet from taking another step.

  A mate? Not this side of forever.

  “You heard me!” George tossed back.

  “Please tell me you really are insane!” Angelique all but begged.

  “Sorry,” George’s singsong voice annoyed her even more than the smug little smile on his smug little face.