Table of Contents
A POLAR BEAR CHRISTMAS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Thank you!
A POLAR BEAR CHRISTMAS
Emilia Hartley
© Copyright 2018 by Blues Publishing. - All rights reserved.
The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Chapter One
The town lights glowed in the night, illuminating a cheery orb even from miles away. Cartersburg took Christmas very seriously. Holly was surprised, when the trees on either side of the road opened, and she couldn’t see the gleaming star atop the massive tree that stood in the center of town. It was well past the time it should have been put up.
By now, people would be whispering about the reindeer seen around town and the magic that surrounded the mysterious animals that only appeared this time of year. It was, in part, why Cartersburg loved Christmas so much. To them, it was as if a drop of Christmas magic had fallen from Santa’s sleigh and into their laps.
Holly Carter knew better.
Her knuckles tightened on the steering wheel with each passing mile. This was the only time of year she dared go anywhere near Cartersburg. Any other time, she would have put a thousand-mile berth between her and the small New England town.
Holly was a Carter by name, and supposedly by blood. She didn’t feel like one, though. The Carters were shifters. Unlike the other, predatorial shifters of the world, her family could change shape into elegant reindeer. It was the Carter family that people saw around town this time of year, a tactic her family had used to manipulate the Christmas cheer and hide their identities for years.
Holly never felt the Christmas cheer. She sighed and propped her elbow on the door beside her, resting her head in her hand. The darkness pressed in around her headlights. She let up on the gas and coasted around three bends. Ahead, a single floodlight stood over a small bar and parking lot.
In the lot, there were motorcycles and trucks that were more rust than metal. Holly made a snap decision, unable to get any closer to Cartersburg, and pulled into the lot. Parked between a sleek black muscle car and a two-door sedan with an axle issue that had it leaning to the left, she lurched out of her car and toward the neon signs in the window.
It was a dive bar, there was no arguing that, but it was the last bastion between here and home. Inside, the air smelled of smoke and stale beer, though not so strong as to turn her away. Christmas décor had been thrown up, albeit haphazardly. Multi-colored lights hung over the bar and foil garland wreathed the windows. She scanned the crowd, finding bikers gathering around the billiards, a lonesome man at the dartboard, and a few dead-eyed women at separate tables.
She let out a sigh of relief. Everyone in the bar was unmistakably human. The tension in her shoulders began to melt. Here, no one would be able to push her around. They wouldn’t be able to bully her into a corner just because they could.
Holly leaned against the bar to order a drink, thinking about flirting with the man at the dartboard, when another man turned the words in her mouth to ash. Her heart fluttered, and cold panic flushed through her body.
She spun in the opposite direction and let her ash-brown curls obscure her face while she wrangled her panic. Still, she found herself turning to peek at him. He was massive, broad frame taking up the stool beneath him and tree-trunk arms folded on the bar top while he scowled at something.
There was no doubt in her mind. He was a shifter. Though, which kind, she couldn’t tell. While most shifters had a superior sense of smell that would have been able to pinpoint exactly which beast lurked inside the tank of a man at the end of the bar, Holly didn’t have anything like that. In fact, she didn’t even have a beast. For centuries, the Carter family had been full of Reindeer. Then, Holly happened. Even though both her parents were full-blooded reindeer shifters, Holly had been born without a beast.
It wasn’t like her family hadn’t tried to pull one out of her. They’d scratched and bitten her, determined to make her beast appear, but it never took effect. She was very plainly human despite her family’s attempts. If it weren’t for the trademark ash-brown hair and pale blue eyes, she would have assumed she wasn’t even a Carter at all.
“Hey, bartender,” the man at the end of the bar grumbled, hooking a thick finger at the man serving drinks. “What can you tell me about the Carters?”
Holly’s ears perked. She watched the bartender, a rail of a man with a man-bun on the crown of his head, perk his head. He sauntered toward the shifter at the end of the bar. Holly had to turn her head to keep up with the conversation, risking showing her face while she eavesdropped on them speaking about her family.
“What do you want to know about the Carters? Their kind don’t come around places like this, or men like you.”
The shifter grunted, which Holly took as his version of a laugh. The strange thing was how it made her feel. A warmth started in her chest and slowly sank deeper inside her. She felt pulled toward him. Holly had spent her life avoiding people like him. She didn’t belong in the shifter world.
“I’m looking for someone that took something from a person I know. Thought I’d pay them a visit and get it back.”
“And this person, the one who took something, they’re a Carter?” The bartender tested the waters.
“That’s right.”
“Well, then,” the bartender said. “Looks like you’re never getting it back. The Carters are a tight-knit bunch. They keep to themselves and protect their family. Whatever you’re looking to get back, they aren’t going to let go.”
The bartender knew a whole lot about her family’s ways, and he didn’t make them sound like the perfect family they tried to show the world. Holly wondered how the bartender could see through the Carter façade. He’d probably slept with one of her cousins before they mated, Holly decided. His frank way of speaking about the real Carters brought a smile to her lips.
“You,” the shifter barked. “What are you smiling about?”
Her heart skipped a beat. She thought about running away, only for a brief moment. She managed to suck in a breath and steady herself before turning toward the massive man. There was a spray of dark hair along his temples before the rest of it turned white. His brows were dark over pale eyes, icy compared to her cornflower blue. His jaw was square, as if chiseled from marble.
When she looked at him, truly seeing him for the first time, he took her breath away. She’d meant to say something witty, perhaps even try to lie her way out of the situation. Instead, she stared at him l
ike a fool. It gave him time to study her. His eyes flitted over her face, quickly taking her in.
A rock sank in her stomach. It slammed into the floor when she saw the recognition flicker in his eyes.
He’d pegged her as a Carter.
There was no running now. If she did, he’d give chase. As a shifter, he’d catch her in no time, before she even reached the door. The thought made her heart pound wildly. It should have reminded her how weak she was, but instead it conjured the sensation of his hands on her, of being pushed into a dark alcove while his mouth found hers.
She could feel her cheeks begin to redden.
“I thought your kind didn’t frequent places like this.” The shifter’s voice was low as he tossed a glare in the bartender’s direction for the false information.
“He’s not wrong.” Feeling brave, Holly took a stool beside him. “Any proud Carter wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this. They have a reputation to uphold.”
He lifted a brow, a look flashing across his eyes that was almost offended. Holly didn’t know how she’d offended him when she’d been talking about her own family. Maybe he was mixed up with one of her cousins, a hump-and-dump gone bad once her cousin retreated back into the arms of their very insular family.
“Are you saying you aren’t a proud Carter?”
Holly straightened. “I have my reasons.”
The shifter’s brows knitted. He leaned forward, subtly scenting the air before Holly could lean away. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. He would be able to smell her from across the room.
She offered a tight-lipped smile. “So, now you know why I’m not so proud.”
He said nothing about it, instead choosing to take a swig from his beer bottle. When he put it down, he raised two fingers in the air. The bartender saw and nodded. Moments later, there was the hissing sound of two caps popping, and he returned with two beers, placing one in front of Holly.
“Home for the holidays, black sheep?”
Holly wanted to turn down the beer. She didn’t want to owe him anything, but the mention of her familial duties hit her in the gut. As it was, she should have been home by now. When she reached for her phone, the screen lit with unread messages from her mother. The sight of them made her reach for the beer. She downed half of it before setting it back onto the bar.
He chuckled. The sound made her feel warm and fuzzy, pulling her attention back to him. Any other day, he would have been the kind of guy she ran away from. Hell, she should have run back to her car the moment she saw him. He was larger than any of her relatives, by far, and his canines were sharp. It gave away the predator inside him.
Holly had to remind herself that he could hurt her, but her brain wasn’t able to process the thought. If anything, she felt a strange sense of safety in his presence, like he was a disgraced knight looking for redemption.
She groaned internally at her own thought. She’d been reading too many romance novels.
“I’ll be out of your hair as soon as the wrapping paper has been cleaned up. Then you won’t have to worry about me interfering with whatever you’re doing.” Part of Holly hoped she was wrong, that he wasn’t searching for one of her cousins after an affair.
She kicked herself. This was not a man she could get involved with.
***
He liked her, though he couldn’t say why. It could have been the sly look in her eyes and the wry twist of her lips. It could have been the need to protect her when the hurt flashed across her face as she spoke of her family.
Claus wasn’t the kind of guy to protect people.
His life had been spent hunting and hurting. Those were the things he was good at, the reason he’d been sent to find Robert Carter. The girl beside him would have gotten a kick out of the story behind his mission, but he pressed his lips tight.
The desire to make her laugh came second to work. No woman was allowed to come between him and his job. He’d taken the vow to his Alpha, his boss.
Then, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and cocked her head. The smile that slipped over her cupid’s bow lips was vicious, stopping his heart.
“I have a proposition for you…”
“Claus,” he managed to say. He gripped the bottle in front of him, struggling to keep from shattering it.
She was weak, just a human among shifters, and yet the look in her face was filled with vengeance. It made Claus wonder what her family had done to her. He couldn’t see her skin, not through the knit sweater that swallowed everything from her waist to neck, but he imagined scars beneath it.
“I can bring a date along with me. If you agree to pretend to be my boyfriend and scare the shit out of my family, I’ll help you get close to whatever it is you’re looking for.”
It was a dangerous game. Claus already wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her out the door. He wasn’t sure they’d both fit in the backseat of his Challenger, but he’d make it work just for a chance to hear her moan his name. He bought himself a moment, taking another drink of his beer, grateful that the alcohol wouldn’t addle his mind for more than a moment.
He needed to be smart about this.
“And if I ruin your family Christmas? What then?”
“I’ll count it as a present from you to me.”
“You’re a ruthless one.”
Her confidence flickered, the insecurity from earlier reappearing. The hurt on her face made his beast growl. Claus was no stranger to pain, but he could see hers cut deep. It made him angry on her behalf.
She licked her lips, her eyes dancing along the bar and touching everything but him while she waited for an answer. “So, what do you say?”
He shouldn’t. It was a bad idea.
“It’s a deal,” he found himself saying.
The Carter woman perked up, surprised. “Oh, well then. Are you sure? Because I have to meet them soon.”
“Not tonight, though.” He couldn’t. He had a meeting with someone else in town or else he would have let her parade him around the Carter manor as much as she wanted.
This wasn’t the kind of meeting he could turn his back on.
Her disappointment was a knife in the gut. He opened his mouth to explain, but she was already sliding off her seat. She rummaged through her purse. He held up a hand to say that he’d pay for the drinks, but she held out a small card instead.
“That’s my number. Let me know if you can make it.” She ran her hand through her hair. He wondered if it felt like velvet. “I’ll tell them I have someone coming, but I’ll look like a fool if you never show up.”
He snatched the card from her. “Don’t you worry a bit. I have a feeling you’ll see me sooner rather than later.”
She mumbled something under her breath as she turned toward the door. He watched her steel herself, spine going rigid as she attempted to roll her shoulders back. It was painful to watch her, but Claus had loose ends to tie up. If he missed the meeting that night, he didn’t know if he’d get another chance.
Chapter Two
The driveway wound around the copses of trees in an effort to not only seem elegant but hide the manor from street-view. Holly just found it annoying. A man waited out front, despite the late hour of the night. She felt a pang of guilt.
Her parents made the valet stay late because of her. The clock on her dashboard read close to midnight. The man probably had a family waiting for him. She stopped in front of him and rolled down her window.
“I can park the car if you want to run home,” she offered. His face was familiar, but older.
Vince had hit a growth spurt in the year that she’d been gone, growing another foot and sharpening in the way boys did as they became men. His family had been tied with the Carters for generations, always finding ways to serve and keep the Carter secret. Last she’d known, Vince was only a pimply pre-teen. Now he was a full-blown teenager.
“Better yet,” she offered as she got out of the car. “Go do a few donuts on the lawn with it before you park.
Blame me in the morning.”
Vince laughed as he took her spot. “I don’t want to mess up the lawn, but would you mind if I drove up and down the street? Mom said this job would help me learn to drive, but I don’t think driving between the driveway and the garage is enough.”
Holly but her lip. Vince didn’t have a license and if he was caught, he’d most likely get charged with grand theft auto until she could take the blame. The kid was energetic, but young and dumb. She didn’t want to help him screw up his life.
“Compromise,” she offered. “Up and down the driveway. Just don’t hit any trees and make sure I have enough gas to get to the station.”
Vince grinned and slammed the door between them. Her car groaned when he put it into drive, making her flinch and question her decision. Yet, watching him punch the gas gave her a small amount of satisfaction. It allowed her to ignore the footsteps behind her.
Had she been like her family, she would have been able to scent the person standing just out of sight. Instead, Holly had learned to listen for the cues. Her mother’s footsteps were sharp, her heeled shoes announcing her presence in a crowded room when her voice could not.
“It’s good of you to finally join us.” There was a sniffing sound. “You reek of beer and sadness.”
I wonder why, Holly thought.
She turned to face her mother. The woman was wrapped in a thick faux-fur coat, the velvet of her dress sweeping out from beneath it. Holly guessed there had been a soiree tonight, perhaps a holiday celebration with local politicians and business owners.
“And you have champagne on the hem of your dress and confetti in your hair.” It wasn’t the sharpest retort, but it was all Holly could muster.
She didn’t want to step through the massive doors at the top of the steps. Her mother was one person, a voice she could push against. She’d never tried to hurt Holly in an effort to change her, but she hadn’t stopped others from trying, either. The relationship between them was tenuous, but not as dangerous as the others.
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