by Anna Lowe
“Ho, ho, don’t be so slow,” George grumbled, pulling Axel back to the present. The blacksmith used the softer version of his grumble, though, and that made a smile even harder to resist. “We’ve only got ten hours to finish up these jobs in time.”
Ten hours until the big night: Christmas Eve, when the wolf pack celebrated as a group. Christmas morning was reserved for family time, and Beth had promised him a picnic and a surprise. The way her eyes lit up guaranteed a Christmas to remember.
Ten hours to do all the work George had lined up, plus putting the finishing touches on his gift to Beth. A special something he’d picked out of the book she’d leafed through with him, and that George had grudgingly shown him how to make.
Tap, tap, tap! His hammer rang clear and true, and the sound carried over the ranch. Nice, soft taps, because his special project called for a light touch.
Tap, tap, ping! Just like George told him: “It’s not all about power, you know.”
Axel had looked up through the curtain of sweat dripping down his brow when George had first uttered that.
“Passion is the best tool,” George murmured so quietly, Axel almost missed the words. “Finesse. Love.” It came out huskily, like a memory from the past.
So Axel tried light touches. Finesse, whatever that meant.
“You think Beth will like it?” he asked Aunt Jean when she stopped by.
The older woman’s eyes glimmered and she patted his hand. “I know she will.”
His heart sang the way his hammer did, all through the workday and eventually, all the way home.
Home. He smiled as he walked. Beth’s tidy bungalow wasn’t big, but it didn’t need to be to feel like home.
He did make a detour on the way, but even that was nice because it was to help Tina and Rick string Christmas lights around the ranch gateway.
“A surprise for the kids,” Tina said, handing him long coils of lights.
The bulbs clinked quietly against each other as he unwound the wires and handed them up to Rick, which was a little scary. It must have showed, because Tina chuckled.
“Don’t worry. Rick’s already broken three.”
Axel kept his mouth shut. Rick was owner and alpha of neighboring Seymour Ranch. He could break all the light bulbs he wanted. A javelina, on the other hand, had to watch his step, even if the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch seemed to have accepted him.
“Handling metal is, um…easier,” he mumbled.
In the end, he managed not to break a single one, and when Tina stood back in satisfaction and nodded, he did too. The gateway framed a view of the desert as if it were a painting. A grandiose landscape painting in which the sun was slowly setting and Venus slowly rising, lending the world a feeling of peace. The Christmas lights blinked around it in festive little flashes of red, green, and blue.
“The kids will love it,” Tina sighed. “Thanks, Axel.”
She’d said that word about a million times over the past weeks, but it came from the heart every time.
“You’re welcome,” he said, grinning all the way home.
Home. Home, home, home.
The door to Beth’s bungalow was never locked, and he could simply let himself in. Just like the shifters on the ranch, the house didn’t seem to mind. Come on in, the squeaky door would say. After all, you belong.
For the first time in his life, he belonged.
He hummed tunelessly in the shower, scraping the sweat and grime of the smithy away. Beth had headed to the dining hall after wrapping up work at the library, giving him strict orders to stay away until the decorating was done, so he took his time. Maybe a little too much time, because the bathroom was so steamed up when he was done, he could barely see. He wrapped a towel around his waist, swiped at the mirror, and reached for his razor. His very own razor, lying in its very own place in Beth’s bathroom.
“Make sure you don’t shave too much,” her soft angel’s voice came from behind him. “I like the beard.”
He turned, already grinning. Just hearing her did that to him. “Hey.” He smiled, reeling her in.
“Hey,” she murmured, slipping into a hug.
“Hi,” he mumbled, soaking in her scent.
“Hi,” she echoed.
Something told him they could spend decades together and still get tongue-tied every time they touched.
She didn’t seem to mind his scruffy beard, or the scars crisscrossing his body, or his inability to find words to name the joy he felt. She just accepted him the way he was. Loved him, even.
Her finger squeaked across the mirror, and he turned to see her drawing a heart in the steam. Her hand hovered over it, not quite sure whether to add more, so he did it for her. Guiding her finger like a paintbrush, he wrote Beth + Axel inside the heart.
The girls back home had done that when they were kids, and it had seemed so silly at the time. But not any more. Now he knew what that heart and that plus sign meant.
Home. Beth. The best Christmas ever.
Beth squeezed him closer, sniffing his neck. “You smell so nice,” she whispered.
He sniffed back and found the unmistakable scent of arousal in the air. How much time did they have before the party started?
“Plenty of time,” she whispered, reading his mind. She nibbled his ear and pressed her body even closer. “Plenty of time.”
He leaned in to her warm touch and let his hands wander. Around her back, down her rear. God, she was something. She swung her hips closer, and his body responded immediately by pumping all the blood in his midsection down south.
“Nice,” she mumbled as the scent of arousal spiked.
He cracked his eyes open just in time to see her cup his face and haul him in for a deep, hungry kiss. Her thumbs massaged his cheeks while her tongue slid over his. Someday, he’d get her to write a book about kissing, and they could shelve it in the poetry section of the library, because that was what her kisses were like.
Poetry that got more urgent and needy by the minute, just like the pulse quickening in his veins.
The towel he’d slung around his waist drooped, held up mostly by the hard-on tenting the middle. All it took was a quick slide of Beth’s finger and the towel dropped.
An eager rumble built in his chest, and he could have sworn his mild-mannered librarian growled at the very same time.
“Nice,” she murmured dreamily, taking him in her hand.
Nice was not the word, but he wasn’t about to correct her now.
He steered her backward out of the bathroom, out of the cloud of steam, and over to the bed. Stripped her of layers of clothing, laid her down, and worshiped every inch of her flesh. Her full, ivory breasts, her dusky nipples. The sinews of her neck, the curve of her waist.
“So beautiful,” he murmured again and again.
She guided his hand lower, right to her core, and moaned under him as he explored her folds.
“Inside, Axel,” she breathed. “Touch me inside.”
He turned his ear to her belly button, watching his hand duck out of view. She gasped and canted her hips upward as he slid a finger inside. Two fingers. Feeling her slick heat close around him, he swirled and curled and stroked her inside.
“Oh, Axel…”
That was poetry, too, because no one had ever sighed his name like that. No one had ever looked at him with such needy, dreamy eyes.
He gulped, but the slow pace quickly got out of control, until he was gripping, groping, kneading her in ways he’d never thought could result in pleasure. Beth writhed and clutched at his bare back.
“More…more…”
Her nails scraped over his skin, and he couldn’t hold back any more. He repositioned himself, and with one swift stroke, plunged in.
“Yes!” Her heels dug into his thighs like spurs.
He pulled out until the head of his cock burned at her entrance, then slid back in.
Her fingers wove around his, bringing their hands over her head, making her body arch against his
. Trusting him with every inch of her smooth, human flesh.
He remembered thinking javelina sex was pretty good, but nothing could beat sex in human form. There ought to be another word for it, in fact.
Beth struggled to control her breath, then licked her lips and caught him with one of those I’ve-been-reading-your-mind comments. “You know what the difference between sex and making love is?” she asked breathlessly.
That was the term. Making love.
“Um…” He stammered, because thinking it and saying it were two very different things.
“This,” she answered immediately, clamping her legs tighter around his waist. “This.”
He didn’t have time to agree, only to follow, because she bucked against him eagerly, and all he could do was respond. To thrust deeper and harder and lose his own breath. And even amidst the sweat and heat and overpowering need, there was joy, too. Wonder. Pride in giving her pleasure.
Her cries grew higher, the tight grip around his cock hotter, and his rocking hips lost all sense of rhythm. For a few crazy breaths, he and Beth both slid closer to their animal sides, growling and pumping and nearly howling with need.
“Axel!”
His whole body went rigid as he emptied deep, deep inside her, and he hung on as she shuddered around him in wave after wave of ecstasy.
“God, Axel,” she panted a second later.
He just managed to draw a thumb gently across her cheek before dropping to her chest. Her heart hammered against his, and he wove his fingers through hers.
God, Beth, didn’t begin to capture the rainbow of emotions inside, so he didn’t say anything. Just held her close and buried his nose in her neck and soaked in her scent, the soft tickle of a tear dropping to his skin.
Wait a minute. Tears?
His gut lurched as he pulled back to look at her. Crap, what had he done wrong?
“Why are you crying?”
Beth sniffled and smiled and choked the words out. “Because I’m happy. So happy…” She laughed at herself and buried her face in his chest. Tears tapped his skin like warm raindrops from a rare desert shower.
Crying for joy? Wolves were capable of the most amazing things.
He slid around carefully and spooned her close to his side. Blinked a few times, checking himself. His heart felt a little too big for his chest and unfamiliar words played on the tip of his tongue.
I love you.
They teetered on the edge but refused to spill out, so he said it a different way. Extended a finger like a brush and finger-painted a shape around her left breast. A heart with two names and a plus sign. Which should have felt childish, but it felt all grown-up.
Chapter Thirteen
Beth stood at the dining hall door, holding her hands over Axel’s eyes.
“Are you ready?” she asked, grinning from cheek to cheek.
“Ready.” He nodded.
She pulled her hands away, wrapped them around his waist, and watched for his reaction. “What do you think?”
She held her breath, because she’d done her best to make this year’s Christmas decorations the best ever. Tried to make it perfect, just for him.
Axel stood blinking in the doorway of the dining hall so long, he was starting to hold up the other guests.
“Wow,” he murmured, so low she could barely hear. Supersonic low, making her tingle all over.
He liked it, all right.
“It’s beautiful,” he breathed, taking it all in.
Long chains of evergreen snaked around overhead beams, and a huge fire crackled in the hearth. Tables set with red cloths flickered with soft light cast by candles in the green and red centerpieces. Colored lights blinked from a huge tree that scraped the cathedral ceiling at the end of the hall, while dozens of gifts sat smugly below, guarding their secrets from the dozen children circling like Comanche warriors, ready to strike and haul away a prize.
“Wow,” he said, and Beth laughed out loud. Laughed with joy, because he liked what she’d done.
“Uh, Axel, can we get by?” Rick asked.
Axel scurried out of the way then stopped when he was three steps into the vast room.
“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, taking in every light, every bough, every wreath.
“Mister Axel!” Little Timmy came running up. “Merry Christmas!”
“Ho, ho, ho,” Axel replied. His voice was a little shaky, but Timmy didn’t seem to notice.
“Can we get right to the presents? Please? Please?”
“Um…” Axel’s eyes darted to her for help.
“Not until after dinner,” she chided in the schoolteacher-voice she’d been working on over the last couple of weeks.
She grinned just thinking about it. Axel had been practicing his ho, ho, ho while she’d been practicing teacher-voice. Both of them were slowly growing into their new roles.
“Over here.” She led him to a table to the left of the fireplace. A place of honor near the alpha’s table, right up at the front. Axel & Beth, the name card reserving their seats read. She sighed just looking at it, the way she might sigh at the happy end of an especially touching book. Axel & Beth.
She slid into the chair next to him and lost herself in his eyes.
“Um, Beth…”
She heard someone at her elbow but couldn’t quite drag herself away from the depths of his eyes.
“Never mind.” Whoever it was laughed, piled food onto her plate, and passed the platter onward.
“Quite the feast,” another voice murmured, and Beth heartily agreed. The dreamy look in Axel’s eyes could nourish her for days.
Everyone was there, and everyone was happy. She’d never been happier herself. She had Axel at her side, so tuned in to her, it seemed that they drew breaths in tandem. Her beautiful home, Twin Moon Ranch, was at its best tonight, and her pack felt closer and more loyal than it had ever been.
Audrey was too busy making moves on the new hands from Seymour Ranch to bother Axel, and that suited Beth just fine. Let the other girls pester the likes of Trey, Lana’s handsome cousin from back East, who’d come out for a six-month stint on the ranch. Beth had her man. A bubble of peace settled in over her little corner of the universe, all toasty and cozy thanks as much to Axel’s warm gaze as to the fire crackling nearby.
At some point, Tina clinked a spoon against a glass, and Ty stood. “All right, everybody,” he called.
The room went quiet at the alpha’s voice. Kids quivered in anticipation, gripping their chairs to resist the magnetic pull of the gifts under the tree.
Axel fiddled with the red hat Tina had given him and bit his lip.
“First of all, Merry Christmas,” Ty went on. He didn’t have to raise his voice for it to carry across the hall.
“Merry Christmas!” everyone murmured in reply.
Axel twisted a napkin around and around.
“You’ll be fine,” Beth whispered, patting his hand.
“What if I mess up?” Axel whispered back.
Her heart swelled. The man who’d faced off with a hellhound was nervous about delivering gifts.
“You won’t. You’ll be great.”
“Lots to look back on,” Ty said, continuing his speech.
Beth stroked Axel’s beard, reliving the past weeks. Reading to him in the infirmary, dragging herself away from the ranch for her literacy training course, then rushing home. Their first shy meeting in the library, their sizzling encounter the night of the false alarm, and all the little moments in between. Letting his hand slip out of hers each morning when they parted ways for work, then rushing back to see him at the end of the day. Waking up with him…
“And lots to look forward to,” Ty said.
Axel blinked slowly, and she wondered if he saw it, too: a long, happy future for the two of them. Together, on Twin Moon Ranch.
“Lots to be thankful for…” Ty’s eyes swept over his mate and kids.
Beth took Axel’s hand. He gripped hers back and raised it to hi
s lips.
“And yeah.” Ty cleared his throat. “Lots of gifts.”
A dozen shrill voices cheered.
“Wait, I hear something!” Cody chimed in. He cupped a hand over his ear and leaned toward the front door. “What is that?”
The door swung open, bells jingled, and a cheery voice filled the room. “Ho, ho, ho!”
Even Beth clapped in delight at the sight of old Frank in a red-and-white suit with his fluffy white beard combed out.
“Santa! Santa!” the kids cheered.
“That’s your cue.” She leaned in to kiss Axel’s ear. “You’ll be great.”
Axel cleared his throat and slowly, nervously lumbered over to the Christmas tree.
Two hundred fifty-plus pounds of muscle wearing jeans, a collared shirt, and a red hat. He shouldn’t have looked anything like a Santa’s elf, but somehow, he fit the part just right.
“Mister Axel! Hooray!” the kids cheered.
Axel stood a little straighter, a little prouder with every step. “Ho, ho, ho!” he called, more firmly each time.
Beth clasped her hands together and grinned so wide, it hurt. She’d never realized that joy could hurt, but it did, in the best possible way. Watching everyone smile and clap and cheer. Watching one child after another prance forward then back, clutching their gifts, and seeing their parents light up, too.
Beth delighted in all of it, though mostly in the goofy grin on Axel’s face as he chatted up each child before handing over a gift.
Perfect. The most perfect Christmas ever, with simple gifts that cost more in time and good wishes than hard cash. It had been a good year for the ranch, but the gifts were still modest. Old fashioned. Heart-warming, in a way. Tana got a wooden train set; Holly, a set of glittery paints with a unicorn print. Timmy’s eyes went wide as he drew a new Bowie knife out of its scabbard and solemnly voiced a thousand promises about its proper use. Collectively, the kids received a promise from Ty and Cody to install a slide at the hand-dug ranch pool come spring, and Tina and Rick threw in a wagon ride over on Seymour Ranch.
It was perfect. Beth mouthed the word at Axel from across the room, and he smiled back.
Perfect.
Tana clapped and made locomotive sounds for her train. Her little brother, Tyler, had nodded off on Ty’s shoulder, and the alpha patted him on the rear with a wide grin, watching his daughter and Holly compare gifts. Cody and Heather were wrapped tight as a package, as were the other mated couples in the crowd.