The 2015 R.L. Mathewson Chronicles Collection Read online

  “They might take you down in the crossfire,” he explained as she gave up on trying to push him out the way and settled for glaring at him in the dark.

  “I don’t care if I get banned,” she reminded him.

  “I’m going to pretend that you didn’t say that.”

  “Well, can you pretend while you move out of the way so that I can go get something to drink and curl back up in the booth for a nap?”

  “No, not really,” came the reply that had her lips twitching and wondering why she put up with this man.

  “Move,” she said, sighing heavily as she reached up and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

  “What will you give me if I do?”

  “I’ll let you live,” she said with another sigh.

  “And I, ummm, appreciate that,” he said, chuckling, “but I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask for something more substantial.”

  She narrowed her eyes on him, wondering if she was about to get stuck spending the weekend baking every cookie recipe in her arsenal, again.

  “And what would that be?” she asked, already deciding that if he tried it, that she was going to have to break out her fists or fury and beat him into submission.

  “A kiss.”

  Part X

  “A kiss?” came the somewhat hesitant response.

  “Mmmhmm, just a little kiss and I’ll let you go,” he told her as he reached up and cupped her face in his hands.

  “There was never a pan of fried chicken, was there?” she whispered softly as she stepped closer.

  “There might have been.”

  “Might have been?”

  “There’s a good possibility that there was,” he said as he pressed a kiss just below her lips.

  “Then why aren’t you out there?” she asked, placing her hands on his chest seconds before she fisted his shirt and used her hold to pull herself closer.

  “Because I’d much rather be in here with you.”

  He felt her lips grow into a pleased smile as he kissed the corner of her mouth. “Your parents are planning on picking up the kids and taking them out for dinner,” she said, brushing her lips against his.

  “What are you suggesting?” he asked, pulling her closer so that he could run his hands down her back until he was cupping her bottom and pulling her closer to make sure that she knew just how much he wanted her.

  He’d made love to her all night, taking her in every way imaginable, barely getting an hour of sleep before he’d been forced to get up and get the kids off to school. After all these years he shouldn’t feel this desperate to be inside her again, but he was.

  “Why don’t we go home?” she suggested in a seductive whisper as she kissed his chin.

  He chuckled weakly as he used his hold on her bottom to lift her off the floor. As he turned around to press her up against the door, she wrapped her legs around his waist. “What if I can’t wait that long?”

  “What if you can’t?”

  Part XI

  “Oh….God…..please, no!” Zoe muttered in horror as her plate slipped from her fingers and crashed on the floor with a loud clank as the thick plastic plate hit the floor, sending food everywhere, but she barely noticed.

  All of her attention was on the two large men, wearing worn “New England Patriot’s” t-shirts, who’d made the mistake of coming between several Bradfords and a fresh pan of fried chicken. This was not going to end well, her panicked mind quickly realized as she automatically glanced around to make sure that her children were a safe distance away, only remembering that they were still in school with a relieved sigh. Before she could release that sigh of relief, she suddenly found two large hands gripping her by the arms, picking her up and setting her aside as Darrin, Reese and Trevor smoothly stepped in front of her, blocking her view and giving her the only chance that she was probably going to get to leave before things went bad.

  She tried to step back. She really did, but somehow word that a fresh pan of fried chicken had been brought out had spread and every man, woman and child who’d been eying the empty spot in the buffet table for the last hour rushed to form a haphazard line, blocking her one and only escape.

  “Excuse me,” she said, trying to step past a little old woman hugging a dull red plate to her chest.

  “Of course, dear,” the woman said, stepped aside and allowed Zoe to step past her and-

  “The line starts back there,” Trevor said, getting into the large man’s face.

  “Then I suggest you go there,” the man said, barely sparing Trevor a glance before he returned his attention to the server trying to switch out the empty pan and get out of the way of the crowd becoming more demanding with every passing second.

  “You can either take yourself to the back of the line,” Reese began, getting right back in the man’s face.

  “Or we can put you there,” Darrin said, finishing for his twin with a lazy smile that really said it all.

  Normally the twins had that scary ability to intimidate anyone foolish enough to cross them, but when they were in uniform, it was absolutely terrifying. Apparently the two large men that had cut them felt the same way, because with a nod and a nervous expression, the men got out of line, leaving the line wide open for the three men.

  Waiting for the interlopers to step aside, the three Bradfords stepped up in line and-

  “Hey! No cuts!” a little boy, who had somehow managed to cut in front of three of them when no one was looking, said with a glare.

  “No cuts? We were here first,” Trevor said firmly, shooting a mocking glare back at the little boy that had all three men’s lips twitching with amusement.

  “We were!” a cute little girl that Zoe hadn’t realized was there, suddenly piped in, looking every bit as determined as her brother.

  Reese chuckled as he gestured for the children to precede them. “Then by all means,” he said, gesturing for the children to move to the head of the line.

  With a glare, both children moved up in line, but not before the boy threw Trevor a glare that had the men chuckling as they waited for the children to select a piece of chicken and move on.

  “Oh, no…” Zoe mumbled, already knowing that this was not going to end well and why.

  A large family, a plump woman, several men and around eight children moved up in the front of the line with the children, who had been apparently working as spot holders. By the time Trevor and the twins realized that they’d been had, it was too late.

  All of the chicken and most of the sides were gone.

  “What-”

  “-the-”

  “-hell?” Trevor finished, looking astonished as they stood there, staring in disbelief at the carnage that was left behind.

  Even Zoe found herself stuck on the spot, horrified beyond words at the carnage that the large family had left behind in a matter of seconds. They’d taken the full pans of food, strewn unwanted food all over the floor, somehow managed to break a few plastic serving spoons, knocked over several bowls of sauces onto the floor and even managed to break off the wooden sign marking the area as the “Hot Section,” onto the floor where one of the large men had stepped on it, breaking the sign in half.

  “Who did this?” the manager demanded as he walked in, looking outraged as he took in all the damage done to his most popular serving station.

  The men started to point at the large family that had left a trail of food behind when the mischievous part of her had her doing something that was going to guarantee that she’d paying for this later, she thought, biting back a smile of anticipation as she raised her hand and pointed it at her husband and his cousins.

  “It was them.”

  “God, you feel so fucking good,” Jason groaned wrapped his arms around Haley and held her close as he kissed her neck, loving the way that her skin felt against his lips.

  “I thought you said that all you wanted was a kiss,” Haley groaned even as she reached between them and cupped him through his pants.

&
nbsp; “It is,” he reassured her. “You’re the one trying to take advantage of me in a broom closet,” he said, licking his lips when she ran her hand down his length and-

  “Damn it!” she nearly whimpered, releasing her hold on his cock to answer her cell right around the time when his own cell phone went off, playing the frighteningly familiar tune that they’d programed for the kids’ school.

  “Hello,” he said, managing to answer his phone faster than Haley.

  “Mr. Bradford?”

  “Yes,” he said, trying not to cringe and failed.

  There was just something about getting a call from your children’s school that had the power to scare the hell out of you, terrifying you into thinking the worst even as you had to wonder if you were going to need a lawyer to get them out of whatever bullshit they found themselves in this time.

  “I’m afraid that there’s been an…incident and that we’re going to need you to come down to the school,” the familiar stern voice of the school’s vice principal said, letting him know with only a few words that his son had seriously fucked up, again.

  Sighing heavily, he reached back and rubbed the back of his neck as he allowed his head to drop back and hit the closet door with a loud thud. He really wished that he hadn’t taken a day off today, he decided as he said, “Yeah, I’ll be right down,” wondering just how bad this was going to do turn out.

  “I’ll expect you in my office in twenty minutes,” came the response, letting him know just how fucked up this day was day was about to get.

  Without a word, Haley released his quickly deflating erection, grabbed his hand, gave it a squeeze as he stepped aside, opened the door and stepped into a familiar scene, one that they didn’t need today.

  “You’re banned!”

  Camping Trip

  Part I

  “Shut. The. Fuck. Up,” Kale bit out, but the little bastard wasn’t listening.

  “Aw, is little Kale tired?” Chris asked mockingly with a chuckle as he tossed a backpack to Kale, who simply stood there, glaring at the little bastard and regretting his decision not to kill the little shit as the bag hit him and fell to the ground.

  Glaring at the little prick that his little Izzy had made him promise a dozen times today alone not to kill, maim, or harm in any way, Kale leaned over, grabbed the bag and threw it over his shoulder as he struggled against temptation and forced himself to turn around and walk away. He didn’t need to look back to know that this little group of misfits and assholes was following him into the woods. Barely twenty feet in, he stepped aside and allowed Ephraim, the group’s unofficial leader, to walk past him along with Chris, who smartly just yawned as he walked past him, followed by Caine, but when Dani tried to step past him, he simply placed his hand on her arm and shook his head.

  “No,” he said, in no fucking mood to play this game today.

  With a confused frown, she stopped, most likely because he’d never bothered to talk to her before. “What?” she asked, shooting her mate, who looked just as confused, a questioning look.

  “You’re not going,” he simply said, wondering why he cared, but he did.

  She simply blinked up at him seconds before she stepped back and tried to walk past him again, but he didn’t have the patience for this fucking bullshit, not tonight. This time when he reached out and grabbed her arm, he kept his grip firm.

  “You’re not going,” he said more firmly.

  “Unless you want to lose that hand, you’ll take it off my mate immediately,” Caine said, his eyes flashing red in warning as he took a threatening step towards him, which if Kale wasn’t so fucking exhausted he would have pointed out was unnecessary given the fact that the woman glaring at him through bright red eyes of her own no longer needed help thanks to the supercharged blood that she’d taken from Christofer, the main reason he was fucking exhausted.

  He ignored the woman, who looked seconds away from tearing his throat out and focused on her mate, “She’s not going,” he said more firmly, allowing is eyes to flash silver and letting them all know that he wasn’t playing around, not tonight, not now and definitely not with what was waiting for them.

  “Oh, and why’s that?” Dani demanded, looking kind of pissed, which he guessed was to be expected.

  He ignored the woman pulling her arm free and focused on her mate, who was now flanked by Ephraim and Chris, who were simply watching them with curiosity. “She’s not going.”

  “Because she can now kick your ass?” Chris asked with an innocent expression that was going to get his ass kicked, promise or no promise.

  “No, asshole,” he bit out, feeling his fangs slide down as he forced himself to ignore the tantalizing scent that Dani was giving off, “because bringing her into the woods during a full moon when she’s going into heat is a fucking stupid idea.”

  His announcement was met with startled expressions from the men while Dani stood there, struggling between being startled and mortified. Finally Caine spoke, breaking the awkward silence, “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Having absolutely no fucking patience for this or any of them, he released his hold on Dani and walked past them, needing to get this night over with so that he could get back to his fucking job, do what he needed to get done so that he could spend the next century or two pretending that the rest of the world didn’t exist.

  “Because her reproductive organs have grown back thanks to that asshole’s blood and she’s starting to release pheromones like crazy. So, unless you want to attract every fucking Pack within a hundred miles, I suggest you leave her at home and we get this fucking job done,” he announced, not bothering to look back as he continued into the woods, heading for the spot that was guaranteed to leave him even more exhausted and pissed come morning.

  Then again, if the information that he received this morning was correct, and it usually was, then he’d be leaving these woods in the morning with information that could take him one step closer to his goal and he could be done with this group and this bullshit for good.

  Part II

  “Well, this is just fucking terrific,” Chris said, looking across the fire at the two men that he was spending Father’s Day with instead of his mate and children.

  “We didn’t have a choice,” his father said, picking up a small twig and tossed it in the roaring fire that they’d started an hour ago when they’d realized that this wasn’t going to be a simple mission, not when they were now short two people thanks to the asshole glaring at him.

  “He could have come back after dropping her off,” he bit out, knowing that he was pouting and not really giving a flying fuck.

  This was Father’s Day and he was supposed to be home with his family, holding his babies and showing the woman that had given him everything just how much she meant to him, but instead he was here, in the middle of nowhere on the off-chance that a rogue Pack was going to try and make it’s way through their territory. If the asshole had kept his mouth shut, he could be home right now enjoying time with his family.

  “She had to go,” his father said, looking just as unhappy about being here as he was.

  Neither one of them wanted to be here, but they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, not since the Council had made the fucked up decision to put the prick glaring at him in charge of hunting down Pytes. Not only couldn’t they ignore the possibility of a rogue Pack coming so close to their home, but they couldn’t overlook the fact that the Pack’s alpha might have information that could lead them to the capture of another Pyte, not when there was so much riding on them stopping the Masters from getting their hands on them first.

  “She would have had the Pack salivating,” Kale, the asshole that he wanted to throttle, added as though he hadn’t already figured it out.

  They’d all known that Danni could now become fertile thanks to Christofer’s blood, he just hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly. Even though his sense of smell was slightly stronger than a human’s, it was still nowhere s
trong enough to detect the simple hormonal changes in a woman. Caine had detected it and so had his father, but until Kale said something they hadn’t been sure that shifters could smell it as well. She was apparently in the beginning stages of a cycle, but apparently it was enough to draw the attention of every shifter within fifty miles.

  Since they would rather avoid having to deal with putting down a Pack tonight, they decided that it was for the best if she left and of course, Caine had refused to leave her side, which meant that Chris was stuck here, because he couldn’t leave his father without backup no matter how badly he wanted to be with his family.

  “Are you going to pout all night?” Kale asked, not really sounding like he cared one way or the other.