Parker’s POV
I can’t believe Caren still wants to protect the humans, even after everything they put Lottie through. There was no need for what that girl and her friends had done to Lottie. I am very surprised she stayed so calm. Especially after seeing her in action the other night.
Caren, being a wolf/witch hybrid, is different. I have never met a witch before. I was always told to avoid them, as they are an angry, selfish species who only think of their coven. Historically, there has always been disagreement and fighting between the species, so the two avoid each other at all costs.
But Caren isn’t like the witches I have heard about. She protected Lottie. She defended her not with magic but with her fists. As a wolf, she is weak. She is probably on a par with a human. I like the pair of them and not just because I think Lottie is Maddox’s mate. They are different.
The afternoon was quite amusing in this high school, though. The girls were flirting like crazy with me. But compared to the boys in the school, I am a lot nicer to look at. Wolves are usually taller and more muscular than humans. I played along, listening to their small talk, accepting their small token gifts and their phone numbers, but there was only one girl I had my eyes on. Lottie just sat at the back of the classroom with her head in her books for all the classes.
I can’t imagine what Caren would do if I let anything happen to Lottie. Then again, I can’t imagine what Maddox is going to do when he finds out what happened to Lottie.
Finally, at the end of the day, I asked Lottie if she needed a ride home. “No thanks, I need the walk. I need to let off some steam, especially after what happened today.” She replies.
“Your sister will kick my ass if I don’t get you home safe.” I was hoping to put her on a guilt trip, and it worked as she turned and got into my SUV. She gave me directions. We ended up at a house in the middle of nowhere, a few miles from the school. The house was smaller than our garage back home, but you could easily live a quiet life here.
I got out of the SUV to walk her to her house. As we walked down the path, an electrical shock hit me. “Mom, let the barrier down. We have a guest.” Lottie shouted. “Sorry about that, I forget it’s even there.” she says laughing at me. The bitch.
She encouraged me to carry on walking with her. I was nervous as I passed through the ‘barrier’ again. I didn’t want another shock. On the porch, I noticed a woman with her arms crossed standing beside Caren. She didn’t look happy. “Hi.” I said to her.
Millie’s POV
“I am not happy about you being suspended, Caren. But I understand why you did it.” It’s true, I really understood. That girl has had it coming for a long time. But what that stupid girl probably didn’t realize was that the physically weaker sister hit her. If Lottie lost control, I don’t think she would have had much of a face left.
“Mom, let the barrier down.” I heard Lottie’s voice shout. Why would she need me to do that? Me and Caren made our way to the porch. A boy, with my daughter, I had to look twice. Where has he appeared from? She knows better than to trust strangers and to ask for them to be let through our protective barrier. As if she read my mind, Caren commented, “That’s Parker, the boy I was telling you about. He had better have looked after her today or I will kick his ass.”
I say a chant, which allows him to enter my protective barrier, trusting both my daughter’s judgement. They both walked up to me, laughing. “Mom, this is Parker, he’s like me.” Lottie said with a smile.
“Anything else happen today?” Caren said, walking down to Parker.
“Yeah, I got 9 girls phone numbers,” she punched his chest, “I mean with Lottie. As if I care about anyone else.”
My girls are talking to him like they have known him for years, not hours. “What the hell is going on? Can someone explain things slowly to me, please?”
The girls explained everything to me. “Parker, may I have a quiet word in the house, please?” I asked him nicely, making him feel comfortable. I walked ahead of him into my house. He was a lot taller than me, and it took a lot of my magic to pin him to the wall out of the girl’s sight.
“Why are you being nice to them, if you are going to kill them?” I said to him angrily. I would have yelled, but I didn’t want the girls to hear me. He looks petrified as he is straining against the wall. “My brother sent me. He thinks Lottie is his mate.”
That’s a revelation. Who is his brother? I wonder. I couldn’t let Lottie miss out on the chance of a fated mate. “If you or your brother are trying to trick us, I will kill you both. Do you understand?” He nodded his head once. So, I released him. He fell to the floor, coughing and spluttering. I stood over him. “My babies are my world to me and I will not see them harmed. I will kill for them and I would die for them.” He is just staring at me. “You had better get your brother here then and he had better be right. Your life depends on it.”
Parker’s POV
Now I know why we don’t interact with witches and I have just met a mean one. Maddox had better be right, or I will kill him. In fact, I would let her kill him. Hopefully, she will be satisfied with his blood and not mine.
I mind link my brother, but I am not sure if it will work as we are so far apart. But I will try. “Hey Maddox, fancy meeting the monster-in-law?” I asked, hoping he could hear me.
Maddox’s POV “Hey Maddox, fancy meeting the monster-in-law?” Is what I hear Parker ask through our mind link. Not really, I want to say. But I want to see Lottie again. Xavier also tells me he would like an ear scratch again, maybe even a belly rub. I reminded him she doesn’t have a wolf, so he needed to calm down. She may not even be our mate. But if she needs guidance. I am more than willing to be there for her, maybe even when the clock strikes midnight on that day. Just to find out! Borrowing a vehicle from Alpha Hudson, I drove to Lottie’s house. I was possibly getting to know my future mother-in-law. I parked next to Parker’s SUV and walked toward the house. Lottie came bounding down the path and punched me in the face. It was quite feeble, really. “You have some explaining to do, mister.” I rubbed my jaw, pretending it hurt. “You sent Parker to spy on me?” She was not happy. “It’s a good job he’s funny, otherwise Caren may have killed him. She was in a foul mood af
Maddox’s POV I walked out of the house after my informal chat with Millie. When I mean informal, I mean she threatened my life. But I understand her motives. I do not approve of her actions, though. Then again, she is a witch and I am not familiar with their customs. What I am familiar with is wolf customs, and that right now is what my beautiful future mate is waiting for me. Me and Xavier concluded while we were in there that Lottie had to be our mate, as we wouldn’t have tolerated being treated that way. “What was all that about?” Lottie asked with her hand on her hips. The clothes she was wearing, showing off every part of her body in a good way. I mean, I don’t want anyone looking at her. But I admire the view. “Your mom just wanted to check I would not hurt you, that’s all.” She didn’t need to know about the rest. “She has invited me to come spend the weekend with her to help you understand your wolf side and what to expect.” I noticed Parker and Caren sparr
Xavier’s POV I more or less trotted beside her. She was going at a reasonable pace for a human, even if she would have a wolf in a few days. It had just started getting dark when she stopped running. We were miles from everything. She sat down, patting the space for me to come and join her. Which I happily did. Right now, I had her attention, not Maddox, and I was going to relish the experience. She ran her hand through my fur. If she had a wolf right now, I would have mated with her at that minute. Every place she touched sent a tingle to my core. “Keep control,” Maddox screamed in my head. I did the only thing I could do. I laid down on the ground. But as she was already sitting next to me, her stroking became more vigorous. She must have thought I liked it and I really, really did. “Maddox, I need help.” “This is what you wanted, now deal with it.” he tells me. Which is no use at all right now. “How do I do this, Xavier?” Lottie asked me, stroking my head. Never mi
Caren’s POV I can’t believe mom let Lottie go off with him. What is she thinking? He is a stranger. She must have her reasons, though. I am sure she will tell me soon enough. She doesn’t keep secrets from us. In the meantime, I have Parker to entertain me. We are sparring in the garden. It makes a change from fighting with Lottie. He is a good fighter, so much better than me and Lottie combined. But what he wasn’t expecting was my barrier. He can’t lay a finger on me, seen as I know when he is about to attack. His face is funny when he gets frustrated. He is sweating as he is trying really hard to hit me, but can’t even come close. Lottie is gone for a while, it’s dark when she returns. She sits outside by her mom’s rosebush, talking to Maddox. At least I know he brought her home safely. Mom sat me down and told me about her conversation with Maddox, and how he thinks he is Lottie’s mate and that she may choose to go with him. My heart drops. She could leave me. But I
Lottie’s POV There was a knock at the door. Mom must have altered the protective barrier to allow Maddox through because there he stood chatting with her in the doorway. She took something that looked like a black rock off him, only it wasn’t a rock. It kind of glistened in her hand, a crystal. It was a crystal. But where would he have gotten that from? How did he know to give it to my mom? “Hey Maddox, do you want some pancakes?” I shouted over to him, while Caren set the table. “Yes, please.” Mom lets him into the house and he takes a seat at the table opposite Caren. Who obviously has something to say to him. We start with pleasantries about our night. I woke up during the night and found Caren in my bed. Her face was red and puffy, which made me upset. I just stared at her for hours, worrying about her. But I fibbed and said I had a great sleep. I think the bags under my eyes probably told him something else. He doesn’t look much better either, even though he appar
Lottie’s POV I am still worried about Caren when I climb into Maddox’s SUV. But I know mom will look after her. “Where to?” Maddox asked. “The human town, please.” I told him, still distracted. “I need to pick up a few things.” He grabs my hand. “She will be okay,” he tells me, trying to reassure me. I know she will be. She has to be. What would I do without my big sister? Trying to change the subject, “We need to go to the bakery and the florist.” I told Maddox. We travel in silence and are there in no time when he pulls the vehicle over. We climb out we are heading to the florists, passing a diner along the way. “Would you like a milkshake, Lottie?” He asks. Really, I want to rush home, but what will I do when I get there? Sit and stress about Caren? At least I am out of the house and have a sexy-looking man to distract me. “You know what, okay?” We ordered milkshakes and fries and we sat and talked. He told me about where he was from, about g
Maddox’s POV I could have intervened in the diner, but Lottie needed the confidence to fight her own battles. As Luna, this is a skill she needs to hone. If that was the girl from school that Parker was telling me about, she was lucky I was there. If I wasn’t, I was not sure Lottie would have held back. Then again, if I wasn’t there, Lottie may not have been in the diner. I wondered why Lottie was organizing flowers for her mom. But I guess it’s just something they do in their family, so we picked up the flowers from the florist. I found the interaction between Lottie and the florist exceptionally bizarre, especially when he winked at her. I think if he were a young man, I would have thought he was trying to flirt with my mate. But he was extremely old, like in his 70s. Xavier was not worried about him running off with her either. Lottie explained to me that she and the florist, Mr. Johnson, had had the same interaction every year, with the same words spoken and gestur
Xavier’s Pov It’s a shame this isn’t a real hunt. I would enjoy taking down an Alpha Wolf. But Maddox keeps reminding me I am only about to trap him. He doesn’t need the stress of the Wolf Council breathing down his neck for attacking another Alpha for no reason. Every time I think I see a wolf in the woods, I think it’s him, but it’s not. It’s just another wolf, searching, or maybe it is one of the patrol wolves. Regardless, they are making this difficult. I also have no way of communicating with pack members to stay out of my way. It was getting dark when I heard howling. I guess someone spotted him. I ran to the sound of the howling wolves and I saw him. He is big, he is definitely black, but he is old and looks tired. “Found him. Follow the howling wolves.” I mind linked Saxon. I keep my eye on Alpha’s wolf until Saxon arrives. We need strength in numbers to trap him safely. Saxon always appears on my right side, just like Parker is always on Maddox’s right side.