Shifters in the Snow: Bundle of Joy: Seventeen Paranormal Romances of Winter Wolves, Merry Bears, and Holiday Spirits

by J. K Harper

  More worrisome was the fact that he couldn’t really feel his body anymore, but that took second place to Jordan and their child.

  Was this guy her husband? Sebastian didn’t see a ring, but shifters didn’t usually wear rings. They got lost in the shift or broken. Was Mr. Slick Suit going to raise the baby as his own? The thought filled Sebastian with a burning anger and for a moment he could feel his toes again.

  Jordan was speaking but Sebastian’s ears didn’t seem to be working right. She gestured at him, where he lie on the bed, pointing specifically at the bullet hole. Mr. Suit shook his head and stroked his chin thoughtfully. She begged and pleaded. He shook his head harder. The world grew dimmer. Jordan shouted something and stomped her foot, waving her arms around in a very dramatic motion.

  Sebastian thought maybe he should go to sleep.

  Stay awake, a little voice said. Don’t sleep yet.

  Mr. Suit shrugged and pointed again at Sebastian. “I’ll try, but no promises,” he said.

  Jordan nodded again, tears in her eyes, and she left the room.

  The little voice called out, Hold on, Daddy. Hold on. And then it was gone.

  Was that...? Could it have been...? No, that was impossible. It was his mind playing tricks on him.

  Mr. Suit locked the door behind Jordan and turned to Sebastian, only now there was something wrong with the guy’s face. It was like all the color drained out of it, leaving behind a ghoulish gray pallor. Something happened to the guy’s jaw, too, it seemed to grow larger and bigger and when he opened his mouth, Sebastian saw fangs. Thick, white fangs.

  Mr. Suit was a monster. Did Jordan know? It didn’t seem like it. How had he kept it secret?

  Sebastian wanted to shift. He wanted to run. He wanted to reach into that monster’s mouth and rip his jaws apart.

  It was impossible. Everyone knew there was no such thing as vampires. They’d all been exterminated generations ago. And yet, here in front of him was a vampire. He was ugly and smelly and horrible.

  The vampire walked over to the side of the bed. “This will make quite a mess,” he said in a dull voice. “But for Jordan, I would do anything. She is quite extraordinary.”

  And then the vampire’s fingers were in his wound, fishing around for the bullet.

  And then the vampire’s face was biting into the flesh of his belly, sucking out the poison.

  And then Sebastian passed out, as a little voice sang him songs in his head.

  Chapter 7

  “Did he say what it is?” Alexandra asked. She was sitting in the van, holding the obsidian vessel. She looked grayer than usual and her blonde hair looked almost silver when she held the vase.

  “I told him he could have it after he saved Sebastian,” Jordan said.

  It was after midnight on Christmas Day and there was no one else in the parking lot of the coastal motel. One lone lamp buzzed overhead and Jordan positioned herself in the middle of the circle of light. Across from the hotel was the Pacific Ocean, black and deep and cold. Snow fell but didn’t have the heart to stick to anything. A cold wind stirred the falling flakes into eddies and sent a chill down her spine.

  “What is it with you two?” Alexandra asked. “I can see how you look at him.”

  “They’re bound,” Mazzy said from inside the van. She was sitting next to Little Katie, who had curled up into a ball and fallen asleep. “Bound by blood and bound by fate.”

  “He’s the baby daddy?” Duchess asked.

  Jordan nodded.

  Alexandra growled. “He’s the son of the Alpha of Bearfield, who is basically the de facto king of all west coast bears, and you knew this and robbed that house anyway? Girl, you aren’t usually this stupid.”

  Jordan could have fought. She could have clawed and cursed and spit, but Alexandra was right. “Maybe on some level I wanted to see him again? I don’t know. I’ve been searching for a way to tell you all that I have this baby coming, but I didn’t know how. I don’t want to fight anymore, Alex, I don’t know how we became enemies, but I miss being friends. We used to talk. We used to share. But something got between us and I don’t want to live like that anymore.”

  “You’re soft,” Alexandra sneered.

  Jordan almost denied it. “You’re right. I am. It’s this baby. It’s barely begun growing inside me and already I can feel my edges growing softer. My mind is turning inward. I feel like a caterpillar starting the first strands of a cocoon, knowing that when the process is done I’ll be a different person. Should I mourn who I was? Should I shout to the heavens with joy for who I’ll be? What if I hate it? What if I’m a terrible mother?”

  Duchess laughed, which was a rare occurrence. “What is an Alpha if not a mother to her pack? You care for us. You instruct us. You provide for us. You bring warmth and strength in equal measure.” The big woman smiled widely, “You will be an excellent mother.”

  Alexandra opened her mouth to speak, but then the door of the hotel opened, revealing darkness within. Blaine stepped out, looking much worse for wear. He was covered in blood from his nose to his knees.

  “What the hell happened?” Jordan yelled, resisting the urge to rush past him into the darkened room.

  “He will live,” Blaine said. “The poison was strong but the young man was stronger. I do not know what he was holding onto, but it served him well. I could sense his soul nearly leaving his body but it remained. He will survive. He may be marked by darkness after this, but he shall live.”

  Relief crashed into Jordan and she fell to her knees in the parking lot, burning tears springing from her eyes. “Oh thank you, thank you, Blaine. Thank you.”

  “Anything for you, my love,” Blaine said.

  Alexandra and Duchess startled. Jordan could feel more of her secrets falling away and she felt naked before her pack. They were regarding her with undecipherable looks. They felt betrayed by the secret. She should have told them. Why hadn’t she? Because Blaine had said it was a bad idea? Was that why?

  “Could I have the ewer please?” Blaine asked, reaching his hand out to Alexandra.

  “The what now?” she replied.

  Blaine closed his eyes and snapped, “The water jug! The drinking pot! The artifact you hold in your hands. Give it to me!” There was something savage in his voice that shook Jordan to her core.

  “Money,” Duchess said. “We did the job. We get paid. Then you get your big ass cup.”

  “Fine. Yes,” Blaine said through clenched teeth. “Come inside. I shall give it to you.”

  Duchess and Alexandra looked at each other, both silently begging the other to go inside.

  “Are you okay, baby?” Jordan asked. “You seem agitated.”

  Blaine blinked and then smiled and it was as if he’d pulled a mask on over his face. “I am truly sorry. The effort to heal your friend took a lot out of me. It was a very potent poison in his system and I fear I may have exposed myself to it. Now, if you could just come inside we can complete this business deal and then celebrate. It is, after all, Christmas.” He smiled his most charming smile, but there was blood in his teeth and a scent rolled off of him that was pure grave dirt. Jordan’s stomach curdled.

  How had she ever thought she could be with this man? He was repulsive. Had he always been and she’d only just seen it? Or had the poison stripped something away from Blaine, revealing his true self?

  “What is it?” Mazzy asked from inside the van. Her eyes glowed blue in the darkness. “The ewer, what does it do? The spirits will not tell me and the moon will not tell me and the ewer itself only hungers. Tell me,” she said with a growl, “what does it do?”

  Blaine smiled and shrugged. “It is a priceless artifact that has been lost for generations. How did that big dumb bear get it? I do not know. My people have been searching for it this whole time and it wasn’t until that Alpha left that we could locate it.”

  “But what’s it do?” Duchess growled with a voice that nearly cracked the pavement.

  “It’s from
old Carthage, one of the few remaining artifacts of that civilization, with a language inscribed on it unknown to mortal scholars. It’s priceless, really, but I hope five million dollars will cover your hardship and labor.” Blaine nodded, as if a deal had been struck. “Now, if you’ll just excuse me, I’ll go inside and get the money. I have it all nice and tidy in a suitcase for you.”

  “But what’s it do?” Alexandra said, standing up and drawing back the hammer of one of the cowboy’s guns.

  “It provides eternal youth,” Blaine said.

  “Lying,” Mazzy hissed.

  Blaine flinched. “If you pour liquid into it, and then drink from it, you may take the form of a wolf or a bat or even mist.”

  “Lying,” Mazzy hissed, louder this time.

  Blaine backed toward the door of his hotel while Jordan and Alexandra and Duchess and Mazzy advanced on him. The pack could smell weakness. They could smell evil. The hunt was beginning.

  Jordan seized the ewer from Alexandra and held it high above her head. “I’ll shatter it. Right now. Tell us what it does.”

  “No, no!” Blaine winced. “No shattering, please. Remember, lovely Jordan, all of those nights we spent together. I made you tea. I cooked you dinner. I ate your pussy for hours. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  “It occurs to me,” Jordan said, “that always being on the giving end in bed is a kind of selfishness, too. You never let me go down on you, did you? Was it because you didn’t want to show any vulnerability? Was it because you have a small cock? Or was it because you couldn’t get it up?”

  Blaine sneered and the mask he wore fell away, revealing something cold and cruel underneath. “You think I enjoyed that? Enjoyed seducing you? Manipulating you? Feeding you potions and playing with your feeble mind? It was a chore, nothing more.” He chewed his words like they were gristle caught in his teeth. “You want to know what the ewer does? I shall tell you, and then I will kill you. It is really such a relief to drop the act. You have no idea how boring it is to feign an interest in your conversation, in your problems, in your sex.”

  “You have the worst taste in men,” Alexandra whispered.

  “Oh, this isn’t her fault,” Blaine laughed. “I am very difficult to resist when I have my wits about me. And when I want something as badly as that vessel. Oh, I can see by your eyes you’re starting to realize what I am but can you guess what that is?” A madness danced in his eyes that Jordan had never seen before.

  “You’re a vampire,” Jordan said. “I thought you were extinct?”

  “Almost, almost,” Blaine laughed. “Oh my, it does feel good to get this out in the open. I feel like I’ve thrown off a terrible weight and now I can just be me. Yes, I am a vampire. And I am terribly lonely. There is no one in this world that can understand who I am, what I feel, what I go through. It is a terrible, midnight torment. And so I need that ewer. Please.”

  Mazzy stepped forward. “You’re going to make more. With the vessel, you will spread your dark taint across the land.”

  Blaine laughed. “Spread a dark taint? Who talks like that?”

  “My sister does,” Jordan said, and then leapt at him.

  For a moment, everything was chaos. Jordan and Duchess jumped at Blaine, Mazzy snatched the ewer and jumped into the van, slamming the door shut, while Alexandra fired the cowboy’s guns and missed entirely. Katie slept through the whole thing.

  Jordan and Duchess bounced off Blaine. He may as well have been a mountain. It was like leaping headfirst into a steel wall. In one blindingly quick motion, he seized Duchess and hurled her high into the air, away from the hotel, and she soared out over the ocean, hitting the distant water with a splash.

  “Alex, get Duchess!” Jordan barked.

  And for once Alex didn’t argue. Duchess couldn’t swim. Alexandra could. There was nothing to argue about.

  “I’ve been considering how best to take you all out,” Blaine said. “You made it easy, my dear. The way you babble after lovemaking is just repulsive. You told me Katie likes hot cocoa, and so I drugged it. You told me that Duchess cannot swim, and so I hurl her into the sea. You told me that Alexandra is closest to Duchess, and so off she goes to save her. It is perfect.”

  “What about me? What are you going to do about me, you sonofabitch?” Jordan growled.

  “The darkness will handle you,” Blaine said as he lifted her with impossible strength and tossed her into the hotel room.

  The door shut behind her with a heavy sound.

  Inside the room all was blackness.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  She couldn’t think.

  Where was the door?

  There was no door.

  There was no light.

  There was no up or down.

  On the farm, in Mercy Springs, when she was bad her father locked her inside the old cement mixer.

  Sometimes he’d leave her there all night.

  Sometimes he’d do it when she wasn’t bad at all.

  Sometimes he’d just forget about her in there.

  She was nine again, trapped in the cement mixer, wondering how long until her papa returned, wondering if it was possible to breathe up all the oxygen before she was found.

  When she was nine, it was Danny Morrissey that had rescued her.

  That was why she’d loved him.

  He brought light and warmth to her darkness. He saw good, where others saw bad.

  But Danny was gone. He was with his true love, Sarah, and there was no one left to save her. She’d be trapped in the darkness forever.

  Or until Blaine came back.

  If he came back.

  When he returned, would she be so grateful that she’d overlook his evil?

  She hoped she was strong enough to stay herself.

  But how many times had she overlooked her father’s evil and wished only to be loved again, to be allowed in the light again?

  Time doesn’t pass in the darkness. It lasts forever.

  A shifter can’t die of starvation. She can’t die of thirst. She can only survive and descend into madness.

  But then she heard a voice.

  “What’s wrong?” It was Sebastian.

  Jordan choked back a sob. She wasn’t alone.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “In the darkness,” Jordan said. “We’ve been bad. We’re being punished.”

  “It’s just darkness,” Sebastian said with a softness to his voice. “Even the moon takes a break once a month.”

  “But there are stars,” Jordan said. “There’s fire. But in here, there’s nothing. Only darkness.”

  “You’re strong,” Sebastian said. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You could punch a hole in the wall. You could tear the roof off. You could blow the door out like the big bad wolf.”

  “No,” Jordan cried. “Not in the dark. In the dark I’m nothing. Not Jordan. Not shifter. Not bear. I’m nothing.”

  “You’re Lady Nothing and you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” Sebastian’s voice cracked as he said it. “I know we barely know each other, but I have this feeling like I’ve known you forever. Like you’re this dream I had as a child that I’ve only just remembered. I don’t have a bear inside me to tell me that we’re meant to be together forever and always, but I know it anyway.” He took a deep breath. “I love you.”

  Jordan cried. She searched for her bear but the beast was quiet. How long had it been quiet? Since the pregnancy? Since Blaine?

  “The darkness. I can’t breathe in the darkness,” Jordan said.

  “Open your eyes,” Sebastian said. “And watch closely. I’m going to do a thing, but I’m still really weak from the whole getting shot thing, so I don’t know how long I can hold it. Be ready to move.”

  Jordan nodded.

  “If you’re nodding, I can’t see you. Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready.”

  Chapter 8

  Sebastian took a breath and focused. He
felt down all the pathways of change available to him and saw them broken. His body was healing, but not fast enough. He needed to help Jordan before she went into shock. He needed to stop the vampire before something truly horrible happened.

  He needed to be the Alpha he pretended to be.

  It hurt. Changing his skin hurt. Usually it felt like a shrug or like jumping off a roof, but not this time.

  Sebastian reached out through the web that tied all life together and found what he was looking for.

  A firefly.

  But would one firefly be enough to lead Jordan out of her darkness?

  No, it wouldn’t.

  So Sebastian held on. He heard that little voice, the voice of their unborn cub, and he changed and pushed himself farther than he ever had before, grabbing at that skinchanger magic, splitting himself again and again and again until he was everywhere at once and his bodies sang with love for Jordan and for their son.

  Sebastian became a vast cloud of fireflies.

  He filled the hotel room with golden light.

  Jordan looked up from where she lie curled on the floor, and she smiled.

  She was up on her feet in a second and then she was a bear, a beautiful bear with fur the color of dawn. Jordan crashed right through the door and out into the parking lot. Sebastian’s mind was scattered across a thousand fireflies and wondered, for a moment, what would happen to him if he chose to fly off in a thousand different directions. Could each of those fireflies become a new Sebastian? Or would his mind fade away into the animal and be gone forever.

  Hold on, the little voice said again. And he did.

  Sebastian pulled all of his firefly selves back together, each little body absorbing the one next to it and with each absorption his mind grew stronger until there was just one of him again. He took his human form and saw that his wounds had vanished entirely. There wasn’t even a scar from the bullet, or from where the vampire had bit him and sucked out the poison.