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

by J. K Harper

  So deeply, in fact, that it had about shattered her when they parted ways without exchanging any sort of contact information. Even though now she tried telling herself she'd only fallen in love with a fantasy, because of three days of totally amazeballs sex, because of the lifelong loneliness that she simply wanted to be filled, she understood the truth after the wild flare of emotion burst out of her chest after seeing him the other day.

  She was still totally in love with him. Which was very likely the stupidest, most heartbreakingly pathetic schoolgirl daydream she could think of.

  Pasting cheer back onto her face, she shoved her thoughts of Shane Walker to the back of her mind for the moment. She had work to do, and a little boy to take care of. For right now, it had to be enough.

  At the end of her shift in the late afternoon, Jessie collected Grant and walked back next door to her little apartment. Though the place had felt like the perfect little home yesterday, now it felt strangely lacking. As if something very important were missing. Fluttering out a little sigh, she glanced down at Grant's face in his carrier and smiled at him with deliberate cheer. “It's still our place, little man. Just you and me, and that's just fine.”

  Grant yawned up at her, his face scrunching up in the most adorable manner. Her smile melted into a more real one as she headed around the corner of the bakery and up the walkway to her front door.

  And right smack into one hella sexy mountain of a bear shifter man who stood there waiting for her and his son.

  Chapter 5

  “Hi, Jessie.” Shane's deep rumble set things aflame inside Jessie and zipped shocked little shivers down her back. Standing there in her little yard, he looked like some wild creature of the woods, all burly and big and just outrageously—manly. He smelled like the snowy forest mixed with spicy, sexy man. Jessie felt suddenly almost dizzy from his scent.

  He also seemed slightly out of breath, like he'd been running. Her mind was so boggled she couldn't get out any words. She just gaped at him like a dumb fish or something. His next words about knocked her flat as well.

  “I'm sorry. I was a total ass the other day.” The words suddenly fell over themselves, like he'd been thinking them over and over and just needed to get them out. “Can I come in? I want a do-over on meeting my son. And on saying hi to you again. In a much better way than I did before.” His voice dropped on that last sentence, seeming to wrap around Jessie with a sensuality she remembered.

  From head to toe, she flushed as she abruptly recalled hours of sweat-slicked eroticism with him. The most amazing, mind blowing, exciting, adventuresome, wild, sweet, fantastic eroticism of her life. Swallowing hard, she managed to nod and finally find her voice.

  "Yeah. Of course." Jessie had no idea how she kept her voice casual. She juggled Grant over to one hip and reached forward with her free hand to unlatch the little gate in the fence that encircled her approximately two square yards of snow-covered front lawn. But Shane beat her to it, taking an easy stride forward to reach out his own dark brown denim-clad arm to open the gate for them. Murmuring a thank you, Jessie slipped past him toward her door.

  Despite herself, she felt another flash of warmth as her body slipped past him at a distance of only about four inches. Wow. She'd forgotten how big he was. How masculine. How incredibly—dammit. Fine. Incredibly arousing. Forcing herself to remember that she held a bouncing little baby in her arms and that this was no time to be letting her thoughts go to some pretty debauched memories, she took the few steps toward the apartment and opened the door.

  "So you're already embracing the Deep Hollow way of life and don't bother locking your door, huh?" Shane kicked the snow off his boots just outside her door, then entered the house behind her.

  Trying not to focus too much on how much incredibly sexy space he took up in her tiny little apartment, Jessie went into the middle of the main room that basically tripled as the living room, office, and dining room. She gently set Grant on the floor so she could begin getting him out of his warm layers.

  "Livy told me I didn't have to worry about that here. This place literally didn't even come with the key to the door lock. Everyone's assured me that nothing ever happens here, anyway. That all the shifters in town are better than any state-of-the-art security anyone can buy, anyway."

  Shane made a low sound of agreement behind her. She could hear him taking off his jacket, but other than carefully draping it over the back of the chair pushed in behind the two-square-foot table that she jokingly referred to as her impressive dining table, he didn't say anything else. She sensed him watching as she tugged the wiggling Grant out of his snowsuit.

  She somehow felt extremely heated at the moment. Which could perhaps be because she was hyperaware of Shane's proximity to her. Of his amazing scent, the one that made her think of the wildest depths of mountain forests, dark mossy caves, and snowstorms whipping with gale force winds of strength.

  To cover it up, she said, "Would you like a drink? I've got tea and coffee."

  Jessie turned around. Shane's wild hair and dark beard made her want to rake her fingers through it. She wanted to feel it rasp against her skin as he kissed her.

  Oh, for Pete's sake. Dumb whacked-out hormones. She made herself smile at him. Yet even as she did, something shifted in his expression. Something hungry and possessive crept over his face as he looked back at her. The whiskey-colored depths of his eyes darkened into a bronze sheen as his tongue dipped out against his upper lip for just a second, like he tasted something good there.

  As if something divine lingered on his mouth and he wanted more of it.

  Jessie realized, as she stood rooted to the carpet, her son's babbling little voice muted beneath the weird roaring in her ears, that the divine something Shane wanted more of was her.

  * * *

  Shane felt rocked to his core as he stood in Jessie's little apartment. The place was tiny but decorated with such care and attention, filled with such holiday festivity, that he could feel how settled here she already felt. As he stood big and hulking in it, he felt something swelling and bursting with a combination of deep pride, exultation, still some lingering shock, yet most of all an unmistakable desire. Inside him, his bear roared and paced in the strong need to protect. The heavy footfalls of his enormous paws echoed in Shane's mind.

  Something wild and hot in him just wanted to claim Jessie for his own, right then and there.

  Shane took a deep breath, then released it on a long exhalation. He took another deep breath, followed by another exhalation. After doing that several times, he felt like he might have a handle on the totally crazed emotions running around inside him. He'd spent his whole life attracted to the spiky precipice of danger that beckoned for him to throw himself off the cliff into a free fall, consequences be damned. Most of his life, he willingly answered that call. It led to a lot of hard-core intensity, not to mention sheer stupidity. After the final major blow up just over year ago, the one that brought him up short and informed him in no uncertain terms that life was finite, even for shifters, he found his way back to Deep Hollow and the bear clans of his origins. He'd spent the past year slowly learning how to not go off half-cocked, but instead take his time, assess the situation, and settle into something better and deeper.

  Right now, he used every single thing he had learned to keep himself in check. To not completely scare the shit out of Jessie before he could tell her that they were—mates.

  It sure as hell didn't help that he easily scented her own sharp arousal, wafting through the air to him like a beckoning harbor that promised a wild mix of both safety and crazy excitement. A deep comfort for which he longed, even as he still wrestled with the reality of the situation.

  It was enough to make a bear shake his head and roar, trying to figure it all out.

  After another long moment, during which he tried to be as sure as possible that when he spoke he wouldn't have the growl of his bear beneath it, he responded, "No, thanks. I'm fine. I really just want to spend this
time talking to you and," he tore his gaze from Jessie's clear blue-gray eyes and looked down with an almost equal fascination at the blond little boy playing with his own toes at her feet, "Grant."

  Jessie's voice went soft with the gooey sort of adoration he'd heard all the women in town and most of the shifters, whether male or female, adopt every time they talked about a shifter baby. "Sure. He is pretty amazing." She gracefully sank to the floor, sitting cross-legged beside Grant. Shane followed suit, allowing himself to be entranced with the chubby little bundle cooing between them.

  Then the kid let out the loudest fart, giggling uncontrollably as he did it.

  Jessie rolled her eyes, and even Shane couldn't help his own snort of laughter. At the sound, Grant's little head turned up toward him, his tiny mouth circling into an “oh” of interest as the bright amber-brown eyes stared at him.

  “That's your daddy, Grant.” Jessie's voice was soft. Tentative. “He's your daddy.”

  Shane felt something bizarre clutching his chest, spreading a different kind of warmth over his body than he felt each time he looked at Jessie. This warmth was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. He instinctively knew that it was the protective pride of being a—father. The same sort of pride a guy had to feel when he reached the top of Mount Everest or something. The tiny prickle of happiness was something he recognized as well. It had taken him a few years to identify that particular emotion. It wasn't something he'd ever known in his life until he got to Deep Hollow. But he could recognize it for what it was.

  Happiness and pride in his family. And his sexy as hell mate.

  Glancing up at Jessie again, he was able to furtively study her because she now was engrossed in tickling Grant's tiny feet and listening to more of the kid's wild giggles. The curve of her breasts under her shirt as she bent toward their son, the creamy smoothness of her neck, the dark blonde hair that tumbled down her back, the soft, inviting swell of her hips all tugged at him.

  Jessie glanced up too quickly for Shane to pull his eyes away and caught him staring at her. Her giggles died in her throat as she saw what had to be an intense expression on his face.

  "Sorry." He kept looking at her, though. "I'm just still amazed that I'm seeing you again."

  "Me, too," she said, her tone soft. "It's like a dream. I often wondered what you were doing, what it would be like to see you again. I even imagined—"

  She cut herself off so suddenly, eyes widening, that Grant stopped giggling to stare at his mother with a concerned little frown on his face. Shane glanced at the kid. "He really watches you. He's attuned to every single thing you do."

  Tucking her hair behind her ear, Jessie nodded. "It's a survival mechanism. Babies depend on their mothers for safety. He definitely watches me all the time," she added with a small laugh. "I never had any idea how all-consuming taking care of another human being could be until I had him."

  "Fuck, I wish I'd been there to help you do it. Dammit!” Shane winced. “Gonna teach him bad words before he's even old enough to talk." He looked down at Grant. "Some role model I'll be."

  This time, Jessie snorted out an actual laugh. Shane glanced back up at her, surprised and happy to hear the sound. He remembered her laughter so well. It'd rippled through his mind time and again for months.

  "Believe me,” Jessie said, still laughing, "this child has heard it all. His delicate little ears are well-accustomed to bad language by now. Don't worry, you won't make it worse."

  Gently, Shane reached out his huge hand to touch Grant's cheek. He was ridiculously soft. Grant looked back at him, occasionally blinking his big eyes. Softly, Jessie said, "Smile at him. He'll smile back at you."

  "Seriously?" Even as he said that, Shane smiled at the chubby little bundle of roly-polyness.

  After a second, Grant smiled back, dimples appearing on his face and his chin doubling as he grinned in delight at Shane.

  "Wow," Shane breathed, staring at the child he'd somehow managed to make with the woman he'd only known for three days. "That's pretty cool."

  Jessie laughed. The gentle tones of it rippled through the room, mingling with the Christmasy scent that suffused the whole place. The piney smells came from the tiny decorated tree she had sitting on the table shoved under the window. She seemed to really like the holiday.

  "So.” Shane gently stroked Grant's cheek again before taking his hand away, leaning back on his arm so he could just observe the little boy as he reached down and began playing with the cuff of Shane's jeans. "His bear's been starting to come through, hasn't it?"

  Jessie nodded. "Yeah. I knew it would start to happen, Livy told me all about it, but it still totally freaked me out. He had claws a couple of weeks ago. That's why I'm here now. I finally understood what she was trying to tell me.” She gave a resigned shrug with one shoulder. “I can't raise him on my own. Away from—his kind."

  Silence held them before he decided to just out with it. "The thing is," he said, struggling to express the words without sounding like a complete jerk, "that's exactly what I'm afraid of. That I'll make things worse for Grant, and for you. Oh, don't worry," he added quickly as Jessie flicked a serious gaze at him. "I'm going to be in this kid's life. He needs a dad. I get that. He needs a hell of a good one, too."

  "Because," Jessie said, watching him very carefully, "of what kind of a father yours was to you? Or rather, wasn't?"

  Another very long silence, interrupted only by the sound of Grant blowing little spit bubbles with his mouth, already having distracted himself, held the two of them. Well, shit. He'd forgotten that he told Jessie about that. He'd opened up to her so much during those three days.

  Because he trusted her. Which was what one did with a mate.

  Feeling his brows lower, he answered, “Yeah. That bastard was no kind of father. Beating the hell out of me on a regular basis till I was big enough to fight back. Then leave home.” His voice came out shorter than he intended. Jessie caught it and looked away. Ah, hell. This was harder than he'd thought it would be. But his bear nudged and snarled at and prodded him to take action. He needed to man up.

  "Anyway," he said, forcing himself to soften his voice. "So you've been learning a lot about bear shifter life since you got here."

  She nodded uncertainly, clearly not getting where he was going with this.

  "How much do you know about—bear shifter mates?"

  He let the word just drop into her tiny little apartment. Let it hang in between them and the oblivious, cheerful little boy sitting between them still practicing blowing spit bubbles.

  A rapid succession of emotions raced across Jessie's face. Confusion, then a flicker of understanding. For a long, breathless moment, he saw something else that whipped over to his own heart like a shimmering cord between them.

  Pure, unadulterated hope and excitement, mingled with a rush of joy. Quickly covered by a carefully blank face.

  Like she needed to hide her hope.

  "You mean, like Elodie and Oberon Walker? The Calhouns, or," and she rattled off a couple other names of mated shifters who lived here.

  He nodded. "Yes. Like that. You understand what it means?"

  "I think so?" She spoke slowly. "It's two shifters who are meant to be together. Like a soulmate thing, like humans have. Uh, human people. I mean, just people.” She flushed deep red, which oddly made her even cuter. “Something like that?"

  Shane nodded, feeling abruptly weary as a long-ago image of his own mother and father fighting bitterly and angrily flashed through his head. "Yes. Like that."

  Her gaze softened. “Not everyone gets to have that, I take it.”

  Shane took a deep breath. Now or never. “No,” he said, keeping his gaze firmly on hers. “But some do. Some are lucky. Like us.”

  Jessie looked at him, her expression still cautious. Shane huffed out a breath, frustrated with his inability to properly explain. He tried again.

  "Jessie, what I mean is that you and I are mates. You're my mate. We're bound togeth
er." Something flickered in her eyes. "I never thought it could happen to me. That I was broken. Thought I was too much of an asshole—aw, shit. Dammit," he muttered savagely, looking down at Grant.

  Jessie shook her head, ignoring his language. "Bound to each other? Like, you mean, forever?"

  "Yes. That's exactly what I mean."

  A long silence spun between them, broken only by Grant's occasional noise as he rediscovered the interest of playing with his toes. Jessie's face was once again that proverbial open book, but emotions zipped across it so fast Shane wasn't sure what exactly she thought.

  Finally, though, she simply said very softly, “Forever? Are you sure? Because that doesn't happen.”

  Her voice was so small, so filled with pain, that Shane saw red. He wanted to kill whoever had made her feel this way. Even as the rage fell over him, though he knew where her sadness came from. Their hours of soulful conversation back in that hotel room had stayed etched on his brain. Every single secret they'd shared with one another.

  “Your family, right?” He just barely kept the growl out of his words. “I remember, Jessie. They left you to raise yourself.”

  Her voice was low when she answered. “Yeah. When I was barely into my teens. Do you think we can do better by this little boy?” She stroked the back of Grant's head with such fierce tenderness that it wrenched at Shane's heart again. Before he could respond, she added, “And you don't have to include me in it. We're mates, or whatever. But I just want you to be there for him. Me—that's not important.”

  The red haze dropped over his mind again. She really, truly didn't believe that he could want her. That she was his mate.

  Shane's bear roared through him. Possessiveness and confusion whirled around. Battling himself and his bear, he closed his eyes for a long moment, knowing they'd likely be a simmering gold with the proximity of his incensed animal. He wasn't handling this well. He didn't want to scare her again.