Page 37 of Mate

He looked horrified by this. “We can’t do errands. We just sit and wait!” he told me, like he was reciting what he assumed his orders were.

I cocked my head to the side and looked at him. “What? Likeforever?”

He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, but I tired of his uncertainty in less than a second.

“Get your fucking car keys. If we’re saddled with each other today, then we’re gonna help fix this shit.”

“No,” he said, straightening. He was trying to be authoritative, and it was cute but not cutting it.

I looked at him wearily.“Beau! Don’t stick it in my ass!”I suddenly screamed, dramatics flaring.

He pulled himself immediately away from the wall he’d been leaning up against, pissed but digging around in his jeans’ pockets for his keys. “This sucks. I hope theydotake your ass. It’ll fucking hurt and it serves you right.”

“Well, you might be getting an award for this. We get the spell book from my sister, and then we might be at the end of this sooner and all will go back to normal,” I told him brightly, like I wasn’t blackmailing him. “They’ll be all, ‘Yay, Beau! Great initiative!’”

He sighed wearily. “Don’t patronize me. Let’s just get this over with.”

CHAPTER 15

Ryker

We were here. Now I’d finally get to do what I’d wanted to do all night since my pack brothers caught me up on what was going on.

Now I’d get to fuck up a witch and her magical fuckery.

“Alright, so I want you to remember before we leave the car: do not kill her,” Caelum was telling me pedantically as my hand was on the door, ready to open it. “If for no other reason than you will upset two demons.Two.” He put up two fingers for me to see, as if he was worried I’d forgotten to count. “And a goblin,” he added, putting up another finger.

I hadn’t forgotten how to count; I just didn’t give a shit. I felt like I could take on an army right now.

“Not to mention, she’s not just a friend to our pack. She has many allies, and many of them don’t forgive easily,” he added after reading my expression. Apparently, there was somethingabout the look on my face that gave away how little I cared for the witch’s safety.

“And she’s just a kid,” he reminded me. I think he was just talking to himself now. Surely he was just as pissed as I was.

“Kid my ass,” I argued. Sure, shehad beena kid. Everyone was a fucking kid once. If he was referring to the fact that we used to babysit this particular renegade, so what? What was that to me? She was still fucking up my life with magic and magic books she was selling to women. “She’s twenty now, plenty old enough to get her throat ripped out!” I snarled.

Caelum, apparently trying to reach some sort of deep calm that was unattainable, said smoothly, “See, I don’t think you’re ready for this. Maybe I should go in alone.”

I left the car and slammed the door behind me. Sure, he was my alpha, but since sharing a mate, it felt like he was only a hair more in-charge than I was.

He was quickly on my heels, pulling me back. “Ry—remember, we have no idea if she’s even responsible yet. We’re going to be calm.”

I highly doubted it wasn’t her fault. If there was smoke, there was fire, and Little Mama was a pyro with a set of matches.

Still, I settled my pace and took a calm breath. I tried to open the door to Little Mama’s, but it was locked. The sign on the door said that it would open in three hours, but I wasn’t going to wait for that shit. I thumped my fist hard against the door to warn that I was going to break it the fuck down in a second.

The door did open pretty promptly, but not by Wendy West, the hooligan that ran this fucking show.

No, it was opened by someone else. Or something, rather.

“Why the fuck are you here?” asked a deep, disembodied voice that I’d come to know. It was the demon I would have most trouble killing. It’s hard when the guy I’m fighting doesn’t have an actual body…

I pushed my way inside the store, looking around for a shadow, and I found it. The shadow was near the door, darkening the stoop, almost in the shape of a very long, thin person. The daylight outside was making him look far, far less creepy than he usually seemed. I wasn’t scared of the fucker even when he was at his most unsettling. “Why the hell do you think? Where the fuck is she?”

The shadow’s long, creepy arms settled on the darkened mass, like he was putting his hands on his hips. “I don’t like your tone, Fleabag.”

Caelum put one hand on my shoulder and the other out in a peaceful gesture I’m sure he didn’t mean. “We’re here on urgent business. We need to see your witch.”

“Samael’s out. Visitors aren’t allowed ‘til he gets back. You can wait outside,” the shadow said, the form elongating up the wall to loom over us properly.