Holiday Mates: Supernatural Enforcers Agency Short Stories (6 page)

He tried to hug her, but Lucie felt almost stifled by the embrace.  Carefully, she pushed him away.  He frowned at her but didn’t say anything.

She looked down to see Wayne retrieving the cookies she’d dropped.  “Are you okay, Wayne?  You didn’t get hurt, did you?”  The thought that he might have been injured made her heart clench.

Wayne’s brow knitted.  “Nah, I’m fine.”

“Good,” she murmured, rubbing her forehead.

Gerry steered Norma to the elevator.  “We should get the doctor to take a look at them, just in case.”

Cutter sneered – he wasn’t a fan of the handsome lion shifter doctor, but he didn’t object.  “Come on,” he said, putting an arm around Lucie.

As they walked past a man in a diaper, currently caught in a headlock by Mason, Lucie turned back and waved at Wayne.  “Bye, Wayne, see you later.”

Wayne gave her an uncertain wave in return, and Lucie allowed herself to be escorted into the elevator.

*

Cutter paced the director’s office.  “We should arrest that Cupid lunatic for attacking SEA employees.”

“Agreed,” said Gerry, mildly.

He watched as Jessie, his little squirrel shifter mate tapped at his keyboard.  It was strange, but there was something sexy about seeing her sitting at his desk.  His inner python concurred.  Course, seeing her
over
it might be just as fun.

“He ought to be banned from doing magic again,” continued the wolf shifter.

“Agreed.”

Cutter stopped abruptly and looked at the python shifter.  “You agree with me?”  His eyes almost bugged out of his head in surprise.

Gerry shrugged.  “Of course, we can’t have people waltzing into the building and throwing magical substances all over our employees.  We should charge him.”  He turned to his mate.  “Do we know what the substance was?”

Jessie skimmed the report.  “According to the techs, just sand and glitter.  They detect magic, but they can’t identify the spell used using machines.  I’ve asked Naomi to take a look.  She and a couple of other witches have already cast a spell to bind Cupid’s… Howard’s magic.  So any spell he put on the sand won’t work now.  She said she would be really surprised if the sand had any effect anyway.  Apparently, Howard’s magic was really weak.”

There was a knock on the door and Norma entered.  She looked…
odd
.  At first Gerry couldn’t work out what it was.  Certainly she was dressed the same as usual in a brown suit, green shirt buttoned right up to the collar and with rigid hair that wouldn’t even be affected by a hurricane.  But, there was something off.  His python slithered uneasily, sensing something was wrong.

She was smiling
.

He almost slapped his head.  He’d never seen her smile in that way.  Of course, she had smiled before, but she’d never looked quite so…
dazed
.

“Norma, are you okay?” asked Jessie.

“I'm okay,” she said softly, looking directly at Gerry.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take the rest of the day off?” said Gerry.

“Oh no, Gerry, I couldn’t let you down.  I’ll be at my desk.”

She left, and if Gerry didn’t know better, he’d swear she was acting coquettishly.  But no, that wasn’t possible.  Coquettish wasn’t a word in her vocabulary. 
Antagonistic – now there was a word she knew
.  But there was something not quite right about her, and it certainly worried his snake.

“I’m going to check on Lucie,” muttered the wolf shifter as he stomped out of the room.

Gerry nodded and then shook himself.  He was probably concerned over nothing.

*

Wayne pushed his way into the medical bay.  “Lucie, you in here?”

He frowned and his inner gator grumbled.  On the phone she’d made it sound like it was life or death that he come see her immediately.  He assumed it was something to do with the substance she inhaled.  Perhaps she was still worried that he had inhaled some, too.  She was sweet to care, but he was fine.  He liked Lucie a lot, but he wasn’t envious of Cutter.  Taking on a mate who was as bubbly and enthusiastic as her was hard work.  Not that he envied Lucie either.  He imagined putting up with Cutter’s dark moods was hard work.  When he – Wayne - mated, it would be to someone more like himself – laidback and easygoing.

“In here,” she called.

He shrugged and made his way into the massage room.  It was where Helga, the other agency nurse, massaged – or rather, pummelled – stressed out shifters.  Well, if they weren’t stressed out before she got her hands on them, they certainly were after.

His alligator snapped his jaws in alarm.  “Holy shit!” he exclaimed as he found Lucie sprawled over one of the massage tables in nothing but a set of white underwear.

“Wayne!  What took you so long, lover?”  Her eyes sparkled.

“Ah… what?”  He was frozen between running away which seemed like the cowardly option, and just laughing this off as a joke. 
Although, it wasn’t very funny
.  Pretending to seduce her mate’s friend hardly seemed like the kind of stunt Lucie would usually pull.

Lucie scooted up the table, so she was kneeling on in.  “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”  Her hands ghosted over her curves.

Wayne cleared his throat and tried to focus on everything north of her neck.  Even if she wasn’t mated, he wouldn’t be interested in Lucie, but that didn’t mean the sight of her enormous, creamy breasts spilling out of a barely there bra wasn’t doing things to him. 
Bad, sinful things.

“Lucie, I don’t know what you’re doing, but…”

“I want you!” she declared and then launched herself at him.

Wayne let out a yelp of alarm and staggered back with Lucie attached to his chest.  He held his hands up high in the air, fearful of touching her…
well, touching her anywhere
.  He could grab her shoulders - that would be pretty innocuous.  But somehow, given that she wasn’t wearing any clothes, it still seemed wrong.  Unfortunately, Lucie clutched at him harder than a limpet and despite his struggles, she managed to plant a flurry of kisses on his cheek.

His boot caught on something, and he crashed to the ground with the hedgehog shifter on top of him.  Naturally, that was the moment when it had to get much, much worse.

“What the fuck are you doing?” roared Cutter.  Without waiting for an answer, he stormed towards them.  “I’m going to fucking murder you, gator!”

*

“I made you some tea, Gerry,” murmured Norma as she placed a cup at his elbow.

He nodded his thanks.  But when Norma made no move to leave he glanced up at her and saw the drunken smile still on her face.

“That’s kind of you?”  He wasn’t sure what she was waiting for.

“I’d do anything for you, Gerry.  Haven’t I always been loyal to you?”

His snake rumbled a warning.  “Well, yes, we work well together.”

Norma’s gaze flickered over his desk until it landed on the photo of Jessie.  It was taken on their wedding day at the Chapel of Love in Vegas.  She wore a simple white mini dress and carried red roses.

“How are you and your mate getting along?” asked Norma, tersely.

Gerry couldn’t help the grin.  He and his mate couldn’t be more different, and yet they fit together so perfectly.  “Couldn’t be better.”

“She’s awfully young for you,” huffed Norma.

His python snapped his powerful jaws as Gerry glared at his secretary.  Norma was a lot of things, but she’d never been so foolish as to voice an opinion on his mate.

“You forget yourself,” he warned in an icy tone.

Apparently, she wasn’t to be deterred.  “You need someone with more experience than her - a mature woman who can cater to your needs.  She’s just a young floozy!”

“Norma!” bellowed Gerry, his eyes blackening with the fury of his beast as he leaped to his feet, towering over her.  “Enough!”

“No, it isn’t,” wailed Norma in a burst of fury.  “How can you be so foolish as to chase after her when I’m right here for you?”

“Wha… what?”

“I love you, Gerry!  I need you – take me now!”

With that, the middle-aged warthog shifter threw herself at Gerry.  He staggered slightly, trying to keep her at arms length as her grasping hands and lips eagerly sought him.

“Honey, I…”

He looked up to find Jessie blinking at him, her mouth an O of shock.

“Help me!” he ground out as his snake hissed furiously.

Norma snarled as she looked up and caught sight of Jessie.  “You!  You’re trying to steal him away from me.  He belongs to me – he’s mine, and I’ll teach you to steal what’s mine.”

She pushed away from Gerry and lunged at Jessie, who in turn let out an eep.

*

Wayne rubbed his jaw and tried not to focus on the wolf shifter who was trying to make his head blow up with just a glare.  He’d thought that the fact they were friends and worked on the same team might have tempered Cutter a little, but no.  Cutter saw his mate, in her underwear, kissing another male –
so that male had to die.

“Are you okay, Wayne?” called Lucie, pouting slightly.  “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

The wolf shifter’s eye twitched, and Mason gripped Cutter’s shoulder even more tightly.

Cutter managed to get a few punches in before Lucie threw herself in front of Wayne and would not budge.  She declared that she didn’t want anything to happen to the male she loved.  That statement was pretty much the only thing that had stopped the wolf from bodily moving Lucie out the way and trying to rip Wayne’s head clean off.  The look of devastation in Cutter’s eyes had been brief – it quickly turned back to anger, but it was the reason why Wayne wasn’t pissed at his friend.

“Obviously, she’s not in her right mind,” said Mason.

“Obviously,” sneered Cutter at Wayne.

“How dare you?” whined Lucie.  They glanced back to where Isis and Avery, a lion shifter, were hopelessly trying to get Lucie back into her clothes.  She apparently wished to remain in her underwear.  Cutter closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath at the sight of her.  Lucie pushed the other two females away.  “Wayne and I are meant to be together – it’s fate.”

Cutter shook himself out of Mason’s grip and walked over to his mate.  “And me?” he growled.

Lucie blinked at him.  “I…”  She bit her lip and then shook her head.  “I’m sorry, I’m in love with Wayne.”

“Seriously?” snapped Isis in disbelief.  “I know Cutter’s no prize, but you’re so sappily in love with him you make Disney princesses look like heartless bitches.”

“Can you not sense her feelings?” asked Avery.

“They’re too jumbled,” muttered Cutter, giving Wayne an accusing look.

He held out his hands.  “I didn’t do anything to her.  She just asked me to come down here, and then she tried to maul me.”

“Silly Wayne.  We’re in love,” chirruped Lucie, giggling.

Cutter clenched his fists; a perpetual snarl seemed to be rumbling in his throat.

Mason sighed.  “This is my fault.  I underestimated that idiot who thought he was Cupid.  Clearly, this has something to do with his damn love dust.  We need to talk to him about reversing the effects.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?  Lucie wasn’t the only one hit,” said Wayne, while keeping a wary eye on Lucie, who was blowing him kisses, and Cutter who was mouthing threats.

“Yeah, we better check on Norma.  Woman’s scary enough under normal circumstances.”

*

“Gerry, how could you?” snapped Norma.  She desperately rattled the handcuffs, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

He closed the bathroom door and hugged his mate.  Luckily, he still kept a pair in the office – the pair he used when he was an agent.  He told people he kept them for sentimental reasons.  In reality, he was ever hopeful about the fun he could have with them and his mate.

He’d managed to snag Norma before she lunged at Jessie, and now the warthog was tethered in his private bathroom.

“For a second there I thought she was going to kill me,” said Jessie with a nervous laugh.

Gerry smiled grimly.  “I think it’s safe to say, she’s not feeling herself today.”

He froze as agents piled through his door, yelling all at once.  He held up his hand for silence.  “What on earth…”

“It’s Norma,” panted Mason, “we need to check that she… that she’s…”

“That she’s not going to try and mount you,” finished Isis.

“Too late,” muttered Jessie, sourly.

Gerry quickly explained what happened and nodded to the bathroom door.  “She’s in there.  Now, what the hell is going on?” 

He frowned as he noticed Lucie was trying to slip her hand into Wayne’s.  The gator shifter’s eyes bulged, and he shook himself out of her grip and edged away.  Cutter then growled at him, and Wayne moved towards Isis and maneuvered her in front of him to use as a tiger shifter-shaped shield.  Lucie still batted her eyelashes at him, and he scowled.

Gerry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.  “I take it this has to do with our Cupid’s dust.  The dust hit Jessie and Norma, and they are now enamoured with the first person they saw after being hit.”