by T. S. Joyce
Grim was growling louder now. “Is this almost done?”
“I want one good picture, and you idiots have been talking in every one,” Juno said, striking another fashionable pose with her leg extended and her hand on her hip. She was wearing elf shoes with bells hanging off the curved toes and the reindeer antlers they’d gotten for the baby donkey. Her shoes looked very uncomfortable and cold.
Kamp was holding mistletoe over Remi’s head while she pretended to kiss Waffles. Suddenly, Remi flinched back. “Owwww, you bit me, you bald little fu—”
Click.
“You forgot your hat,” Rhett said unhelpfully as he handed Grim the Santa hat they’d fought over yesterday. “Kamp would have never remembered your costume. My Christmas wish is that you make him be Sixth and make me Fifth.”
Click.
“Your eyes are really yellow,” Ash whispered. “Like the Grinch’s.”
“Kamp, get off your phone,” Juno demanded.
“I’m taking a selfie,” he muttered, aiming the phone at him, Remi, Remi’s bleeding lip, and Waffles, who looked a little bit like a penis dressed in a Santa costume. A penis with teeth.
Juno shoved Kamp hard in the shoulder.
Click.
“Hey! You made the picture all blurry!” he griped, glaring at his camera screen.
“Yeah?” Juno said in a dangerously low voice. She jammed a finger toward the camera. “What about the actual picture we are supposed to be taking for the Christmas card?”
“It’s two days before Christmas, Juno,” Grim gritted out, staring with dead yellow eyes at the camera. “How can we even send these out in time?”
“I’ve compiled an email list!”
“Oh, my God, I just found a candy bar in my pocket,” Kamp announced. “Here, Rhett, feed it to your mate quick. She’s on her period.”
“Don’t be a dick!” Rhett shoved Kamp hard who knocked into Remi who gave a scary-sounding bear growl.
Click.
A long, feral shriek came from Juno. “I’ve asked for zero things from this Crew. Zero! All I wanted was a good picture to send to the Crews of Damon’s Mountains because I’m proud of us! I’m proud we ended up here!”
While Juno was yelling at the Crew, Grim pulled on his Santa hat, scooped Ash in his arms and gave the biggest, most empty, cheesy grin she’d ever seen. Okay. So Ash made the same face at the camera and did a thumbs up. On Grim’s other side, Rhett went down hard on account of Kamp tackling him, and Juno was throwing candy canes at them like little mint-scented javelins. Remi was frowning at the camera and holding a squirming Waffles as far away from her body as possible.
Click.
“And that’s a wrap,” Grim snarled, setting Ash on her feet. He strode right over to the camera and turned it off.
“What do you mean that’s a wrap?” Juno asked, a pair of candy cane grenades clenched in each fist. “Those were all terrible!”
Rhett Changed into his lion and then so did Kamp, and now they were roaring and growling and brawling like they wanted to end each other’s lives.
Grim blinked tiredly at them and said, “Our Crew is terrible. Those pictures are accurate.” He strode off toward his trailer on the other side of the park, his warm, strong hand wrapped around Ash’s.
Juno scoffed and called out behind them, “I’ll have you know I believe we are a mighty Crew!”
“Weeell,” Ash drawled, smiling at Juno sympathetically over her shoulder to try to be supportive. “We are an acceptable Crew. That’s pretty good!”
With her bottom lip poked out, Juno sat down hard on a case of Pen15 Juice and pulled one of the beers out. She popped the top just before Ash turned back around to watch where she was going. A beer would make Juno feel right as rain. Kamp brewed the best beer. Rhett and Kamp probably wouldn’t kill each other, and Remi was back to trying to cuddle the rat, so everything was fine.
“Meet at the truck in fifteen!” Grim demanded, and a wave of something unfamiliar blasted through his words and straight into her. All she could think about was she needed to be at that truck in fifteen. Needed to be.
When she looked back again, the lions had stopped fighting, and both of them were looking at Grim with wide eyes and their mouth’s hanging open. Rhett was on his back and Kamp had his paw jammed against his throat, but they’d just stopped mid-brawl to pay attention.
“Babe,” she whispered.
“I need your panties around your ankles.”
“Ohhhh, okay! But Grim,” she tried again.
“Yeah?”
“You just did an Alpha order.”
“What? No, I didn’t. Those morons will ignore it and be at the truck in an hour if I’m lucky.”
“My bear is chanting ‘fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes’… Oh, wait. Now ‘fourteen minutes, fourteen minutes.’ She’s very good at counting.”
He spun and picked her up, wrapped her legs around his hips and growled, “God, I love you, my little nerdy girl,” as he climbed the porch stairs of his trailer with her.
“Me? A nerdy girl? I’m dumb as a post, mister.”
“False and not true. You are the smartest girl I’ve ever met in my life.”
“I barely passed high school.”
“A pass is a pass.”
“I got mostly Ds.”
He set her down inside his cabin and pulled at the deep V in her bright red sweater. “I only care about these Ds.”
“Double Ds, technically.”
“Mmmm, double better,” he murmured in a gritty voice, easing her backward into the dark living room.
He shoved her red bubble jacket off her shoulders and dropped it to the floor. You’re supposed to be dressing for the truck like your Alpha ordered you, her bear enlightened her. Not undressing.
Grim’s fingertips brushed just underneath the hem of her sweater at both hips. ‘Take that off,’ she’d meant to say, but her words came out, “Thirteen minutes.”
“Plenty of time,” he rumbled. “I’ll have you coming on my dick in five.”
Her heart was pounding against her sternum, and her body was catching fire from the inside out. Oh, when that man touched her. His lips pressed onto hers in the exact moment the backs of her knees hit the edge of his bed, and she sat down with a gasp. Kisses for her lips and then underneath her jaw, her neck, right behind her ear. He pulled her sweater off smoothly and threw it against the wall. Grim didn’t even bother unhooking her bra. He just pushed the cups down until her full breasts spilled out of the top. And there were his hands, massaging her until she tingled. With his knee, he spread her legs and then cupped his big strong hand between her thighs. Ash couldn’t help it—she moaned his name because she knew what was coming. She flattened the palm of her hand onto the seam of his jeans. If bears could purr, she would be doing that right now. His thick, swollen cock was pushing against the material there. Breath shaking with her need, she unsnapped the button and pulled the zipper down, then shoved his clothes down his thighs.
Grim’s kisses got rough, and his tongue plunged into her mouth, stroking hers. The growl in his throat was wild and uncontained. Hello, Reaper. He always came out when Grim was riled up.
Hand on her throat, he gently pushed her backward until her shoulder blades rested on the bed. He left his hand there, but when he squeezed, it was so tender, she barely felt it. Just enough to let her know he wanted to be boss today. She loved when he went dominant like this. The submissive part of her reveled in the fact that her mate was an unapologetic titan in life and in the bedroom. With his free hand, he yanked her leggings and panties down to her ankles. And then that hand was right back on her sex, kneading and rubbing until she was writhing under his touch. Oh, God, she could finish just like this. His finger slid smoothly into her, and then a second finger. She dug her nails into his back and rocked her hips against his hand.
“You always get so wet for me,” he murmured against her ear. “Good girl.”
Mmmmmm, she loved when he called he
r that. It was the nickname he’d given her the first time they’d met. But now, in the bedroom, she liked when he told her she was doing something right.
As he moved into position right between her inner thighs, she spread her knees out wider so she could take him. He was so big and powerful, and her body still needed to get used to his size.
He pushed the head of his cock into her and eased out, then in a little farther and eased back out. When she gasped with pleasure, he gripped her hips and pushed into her deep. “Ooooooh,” she moaned as he filled her just right.
He pulled back slow and then slammed into her again. Ash closed her eyes as he kissed her, flying high on sensation alone. She wanted only to feel what he was doing to her body right now. He pushed into her again and again, faster each thrust.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
He stayed deep and bucking shallow, hitting her clit fast, over and over. He was loud with her now, groaning against her sensitive ears as if he was close, too, and as soon as the tingling pressure between her legs became too much, he shoved into her hard and froze, his dick throbbing as she came with him. Over and over, he pulsed with her, their bodies keeping pace, shattering together. Being with him felt like nothing else in the world. This right here, this connection with the man she loved, was everything.
Grim began to move inside of her slowly, drawing out every remaining vibration of her orgasm until she was sated and could only hold onto him and rub his back.
Eight minutes, her inner animal enlightened her.
Ash giggled. “You did it. Five minutes and you made me come.”
“Woman, I made us both come. I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever gone.”
She laid little kisses all over his beard. “Good dick,” she murmured. “Good boy.”
“Oh, God,” he muttered, laughing. He pulled out of her gently, kissed her once more, thoroughly, and then made his way into the bathroom.
He liked to get moving right after sex, but Ash always laid there like a happy little blob to recover.
Seven minutes.
“Okay, okay,” she muttered under her breath, pushing up on the bed. She got a glimpse of herself in the dresser mirror and nearly toppled over laughing. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was like a rat’s nest piled up on top of her head, and her boobs were still hanging out of the top of her bra. She was definitely going to need the entire seven remaining minutes to make herself presentable again.
She grinned at her reflection.
She had zero regrets.
Chapter Seven
Driving in a blizzard wasn’t Ash’s favorite. And working at the lumberyard to help the boys unload the logs wasn’t the best either. She and Juno and Remi stayed bundled up in the front bench seat of the truck with a blanket over their legs while Grim worked a crane with a claw to put each log they’d cut into the right-sized piles in the yard. Kamp and Rhett were out there, too. Kamp was talking to the owner of the yard, negotiating pay, which went straight back to Vyr’s account, and Rhett was standing beside the crane talking into a walkie-talkie to Grim to guide his work.
It was the day before Christmas eve and almost closing time, so the other workers had already gone home. Ash would never get over how sexy it was that her mate could operate any machine he wanted. He was one of those mechanically-minded men who picked up hard labor quickly. He was really good at his job. God, she hoped she could find one soon, too.
Grim parked the crane on the edge of the loading area and hopped out of the rig. He disappeared for a minute in the blustering snow, but he and the boys came back, waving at the foreman and calling out, “You have a Merry Christmas, too.”
Grim had just wished someone a Merry Christmas. Huh.
Ash waved out the window at him, but he probably couldn’t see her. The snow storm was getting bad. Good thing Meaties was right up the road, not even a mile from here.
Grim and the boys climbed in. There wasn’t much room, so Ash had to stay squished up against Grim’s ribs (she didn’t hate that part at all) and Remi and Juno sat on their mates’ laps. They were all bundled up in winter coats and mittens and beanies and snow boots. The girls had all worn bright colors. Ash thought they looked cute for Crew date night, and apparently so did Juno because she opened her window to get a good angle with her phone and told everyone to smile. And then she took a selfie and showed it to Ash. They were all piled in the cab of the logging truck, grinning ear to ear, except for Grim, who had yellow eyes and was only smiling a little. But it was a smile, and for the Reaper, all smiles counted. And good men deserved to know when they looked handsome, so she told him.
“Reaper,” she whispered as he pulled onto the narrow two-lane mountain road.
“Mmm?” he rumbled.
“I think you are so cute.”
He took his eyes off the road for just a moment, but she saw a flash of something in his expression. Her tiny compliment had touched him. There was softness in the Reaper’s eyes.
Happy as a little clam, she slid her arms around his bicep as he maneuvered the big truck along the winding road in the snowfall. Happy as a little clam. What did that saying even mean? Were clams happier than other animals? She imagined clams had bad days, too. Maybe she should say, “Happy as a little Ash Bear” in her head from now on so it would make more sense. Because she was very, very happy.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket as Grim was parking the truck in a row of empty parking spots right in front of Meaties. When she opened the text from her dad, Bash, she couldn’t help the smile on her face.
Hey Nugget. Juno just sent me this picture.
The selfie of all of them in the truck showed up in the message.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so happy. I’m proud of you.
For what? she typed out. Send.
For going and getting the man and the life you deserve. I love you. Call us on Christmas. I’m showing this to your mom. She will probably cry. But the happy kind. She does that a lot. It’s a little terrifying, but I’m tough about it.
And lately, Ash understood Mom better because she did the same—cried about happy things. Tears weren’t always for sadness, she’d learned. Sometimes they were just little eyeball dewdrops of joy.
I love you too, Dad. Merry the-day-before-Christmas-Eve. Send.
Juno and Remi were leaned all the way over, blatantly ogling her phone, both looking super-mushy when she put it back in her pocket. They didn’t even pretend they hadn’t been reading her texts. Shameless.
“And I love you little snoopers, too,” she whispered, bumping Remi’s shoulder before ducking her gaze so they didn’t see how fiery her cheeks were getting.
When Grim shoved open his door, a gust of snowy wind blew right in. Geez, it was cold! He got out and offered his hand to help her down. And, oh, she’d meant it when she’d told the Reaper he was cute. Tonight, Grim was wearing his nicest work boots, wrangler jeans with no holes at the knees, and a navy-blue sweater that hugged his broad shoulders and tapered at his trim waist. He’d gelled his hair all messy and sexy. At his thick throat, he wore a simple, thin, black leather necklace he told her his grandma had gotten him the last Christmas before the Reaper was born.
She slipped her hand into his and stepped down onto the slick railing before hopping out into the snow drift by the truck like an excited bunny rabbit. He straightened her bright red beanie with the pink pom-pom, swatted her butt to get her going, and then shut the door. Three steps later, his fingertips were resting lightly on her back, like he didn’t like going too long without touching her.
She love loved him.
Everyone was chattering and happy as they made their way to the bar in the back. Up front were nice tables with real lit candles and holly bouquets. This place was small, but clean and homey, and it was all dark wood and lots of windows. Beyond the far wall, she could see the riverbank, but not much more thanks to the snowfall. This was probably a tourist bar during the warm months, but not tonight. There were a only a few ta
bles full, but she didn’t pay attention to them. Juno was telling the Crew about the Christmas the three of them snuck out of their trailers and met up at midnight to try to catch Santa. Except they all fell asleep in the old treehouse Beaston had made and hadn’t woken up until the next morning. They were eight years old at the time, and their parents had thrown a friggin’ fit when they’d discovered their beds empty at dawn. Ash had been grounded for a whole week for scaring her parents.
She was cracking up as she took a seat between Grim and Remi. Kamp was on Remi’s other side, and beside Grim was Rhett then Juno.
“What can I do you for?” asked a bartender with the name Ralph on his nametag.
“Hey, Layla says that sometimes,” Ash pointed out.
“Whose Layla?” Ralph asked.
“She’s my favorite bartender back in Saratoga. Sorry. Y-you… Oooh.” Ash ducked her head and wrung her hands.
“Go on, girl. You’re doing fine,” Grim murmured, squeezing her thigh.
Ash inhaled deep and told the bartender, “You probably didn’t need to know all that.”
“I don’t mind,” Ralph said with a friendly grin. “It’s a slow night. Y’all are the liveliest bunch I’ve had in here.”
“W-what specials do you have?” Ash asked, sitting up straighter. She could see Grim’s cheeks swell with a grin beside her, but if she looked at him, she would get distracted and lose her nerve. Talking to people was good. “We’re sure hungry, and we’ve never been here before.” She swallowed hard and formed the words in her head carefully. “What’s good to eat?”
Ralph was an older gentleman with a receding hairline and glasses and the kindest blue eyes she’d ever seen. He kinda looked like a short-haired, non-bearded Santa. He was even wearing a bright red sweater with little reindeer on it. “Are you those shifters that live up the mountain? The Rogue Pride Crew?”
Ash looked at Grim, but he only nodded in encouragement.
“Yes, sir.”
“Call me Ralph. Please.” He leaned forward, his eyes twinkling. “I’m pro-shifter. I was sure happy to hear you all moved to these parts. You are the talk of the town.”