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

by J. K Harper

  “From just the other side of the rise that I’d bluffed about when I’d told George that help would be coming, I heard a growl like none I’d ever heard before. Following just behind that growl came a fur ball that had Mac and George’s fighting forms in his sights.

  “Now I’ve heard the expression ‘when fur flies,’ and I’d always assumed it referred to tufts of fur that got pulled out during a fight, but in this case it was in the form of wolves, flying low and deadly as bullets as they came running full speed over that rise to help, in response to Mac’s roars and my screams.

  “The first one over that rise and into the fight was Bane, and he was pissed that someone was hurting his best friend. Hot on Bane’s young heels, also in wolf form of course, was his daddy the Alpha and then Bryce tore by him, jumping into the fight ahead of the Alpha and right behind Bane.

  “George didn’t stand a chance anymore, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

  “What I’m imagining is George being separated limb from limb, and then those pieces being torn up and those torn up pieces being eaten, because George was an asshole,” Ivy stated matter-of-factly with a shrug.

  The door handle jiggled, but no one appeared since Enid had locked it.

  “Are you guys ready? It’s time,” a muffled voice called out from the other side.

  “We need a few more minutes,” Enid answered.

  She turned back to the group and said, “Fuck ‘em, they can wait. As you were saying?”

  “That about covered it, to be honest,” Leesa replied. “Once George was—disposed of—the wolves shifted human. Bane and his dad looked after Mac, who was shaken of course, but he was already healing. And Bryce turned on me.”

  “Wait. Turned to you? Or turned on you?”

  “Eh, both really. He was pissed. And scared. And hurt and confused, and all of those emotions coursing through a wolf who’d just been in battle made for one scary looking but oddly sexy man.”

  “’Why did you leave me? You’re my mate, you promised to stay forever. Why would you take Mac and run? Was it to meet him? Did you leave me for him?’

  “He jerked his chin toward the few pieces there were still left of George, his eyes burning with doubt and pain.

  “’No! Of course not.’

  “’Then why? Why would you desert me?’

  “’You told me Mac was welcomed in your pack, but you lied. You don’t want him. You don’t want us!’

  “’You’re everything I want. You’re all that I want. You scared the shit out of me when I scented your pain and your tears. That’s the scent we’ve been following, that’s how we found you.

  “’Do you know what it’s like to hunt your mate, by the smell of her pain?

  “’I thought something had happened to you. Then I heard gunshots. I felt your scream in my very bones, we’re connected you and I. I heard Mac roar in pain and I knew he’d been shot, and I couldn’t get here fast enough.

  “’Why are you here?’

  “’I heard him,’ I pointed to the Alpha. ‘I heard him talking about Mac, and how unseemly it is for his precious son to be seen hanging out with a bear cub. He said that if their situations were reversed he’d rather Bane die than be taken in and raised by bears.

  “’He said I had probably brought all kinds of trouble down on you and your pack, messing with the ways of changelings and fairies, and the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt any of you.

  “’So I took him and we left. I won’t raise him in a den of wolves who are only putting up with him cause you told them they have to, ‘cause of some bite mark. He’s already lost his real parents; he’s been through enough. I’ll not have him grow up unloved and unwanted.

  “’I know how that feels, Bryce. I know what it is to be hated and abused for something totally beyond your control. I walked away from that same situation. That’s exactly what I was running from when I found him, and you.

  “’I’ll be damned if I’m just going to trade one shitty life for another! One kind of prison for another. I won’t do it, no matter how much I’ve fallen for you.’

  “We stared at each other in sudden silence, both of us breathing heavy and both still primed for a fight.

  “’There are many things I need to address in what you just said,’ Bryce answered. ‘But the first thing that needs to be cleared up is with my Alpha. Excuse me a minute, please.’

  “I was taken aback. I watched, confused, as Bryce turned away from me and walked over to where the Alpha, Bane and Mac were. I was even more shocked when instead of speaking to the Alpha, Bryce reared back and punched him in the jaw.

  “’You’d better have a damn good reason for that, or you’ll look just like this human in about ten seconds,’ the Alpha growled at him, rubbing his jaw with one hand and making a preparatory fist with the other.

  “’You made my mate feel unwelcomed. You’re the reason she left.’

  “’What are you talking about? I’ve barely spoken to her.’

  “’Exactly. And when you’ve spoken about her, it was badly. Accusing her of bringing the ill wishes of fairies down on our pack? Saying that Bane is above cavorting with certain pack mates?’ He flicked his eyes toward Mac, trying to get his point across without upsetting the bear.

  “’What the hell? If my chosen mate isn’t welcomed in this pack, I take that as a personal offense. My mate should have come to me with this before leaving, but I understand her motivations now. If she isn’t welcome here, if he isn’t either, then all three of us will leave. Together.’

  “’Is that what all of this was about?” the Alpha asked with a sigh, his fist relaxing at his side. “’Then I must take the blame. I was hasty in my words. My mate has already—corrected my thinking—on the matter. As mates will.’

  “He turned and approached me as well, adding, ‘I am sorry. I have not handled things the way I should have from the very beginning. Wolves don’t scent our fated mates wrongly, and if you and Bryce are meant to be, there’s no way I would stand between that.

  “’My mate has reminded me that things are often out of our realm of understanding, but only when we fight the instinct of our mate bonds do things end up turning out badly overall. I honor and respect my mate, or I’d never even admit as an Alpha that it was she who steered me right when I was headed wrongly.

  “’Our mates are hugely important to our personal well-being, and to the chemistry of the pack as a whole. If I made you feel unwelcomed, no, scratch that. I obviously made you feel unwelcomed.

  “’I am sorry for that. Mac is welcomed as well. It is highly irregular to adopt a bear into a wolf pack, but even I report to a higher power of the wolves who have gone before me, and if they sent you, and Mac, to us, then with us is exactly where you belong.’”

  “I just nodded, of course,” Leesa said. “What else could I do? The rest was between me and Bryce, and first we needed to make sure Mac was okay, and get him back to the den so he could continue to heal in peace.”

  “I’m assuming you and Bryce did make up? I mean I know you did, obviously, since Mac claims Bane’s pack as his own, and they’re still best friends,” Bella said.

  “Oh yes, we made up well, and often. We still do. He was unable to join me here, pack business and all, but everything ended happily there as well,” Leesa assured them all.

  “Wow, so that was the story of how Mac came to join a wolf-pack. I know that he never for a second seemed to even waver on taking Bella to be his mate. He said that if she was to be his, then the baby she carried already inside her when they met was obviously also meant to be his as well,” Ivy commented. “It’s kind of nice knowing that the bear who was taken in by wolves in turn took in a babe not his own, as well. It just seems like it all comes full circle, doesn’t it?”

  Bella rubbed the baby in question and said, “Mac is a hell of a guy all the way around, I guess. From being rescued as a babe from a snow bank, to rescuing me all these years later.

  “Thank you, Leesa, for te
lling Mac’s story. Even if it had to be in pieces over four weddings. It was definitely a story worth waiting to hear.”

  The knock on the door came again, more insistent this time, causing Enid to yell back that they were coming. She hugged everyone in turn, taking her time in the last few minutes before the final wedding, and holding everyone close before straightening her dress.

  “Okay, now I’m ready to get married,” she said, unlocking the door and ushering everyone out ahead of her with a motherly push.

  Chapter 8

  She’d ended her story by saying, “The rest was between me and Bryce,” but those few words glossed over quite a lot.

  As the ceremony in front of her played out, as she sat watching Enid marry Drake, surrounded by her daughters, she couldn’t help but think back to that night. The night she let Bryce bring her and a wounded Mac back to the den.

  Once Mac was settled and sleeping, Bryce turned his full attentions to Leesa.

  “I told you there were a few things in what you said back there that I wanted to address, but those I preferred to address in private.

  “You said you were running from a situation in which you were abused for something you had no control over. I know we’ve talked about that before. You were very honest with me about why he was chasing you that day.”

  “Yes.”

  “Today you said you wouldn’t trade that life, that prison, for this one. Were you only referring to Mac then? That you wouldn’t keep him in a pack that you felt wasn’t good for him? Or was there more to that? Have you felt that I’ve been mistreating you or Mac? Have you felt trapped and abused here, because of me or anything I’ve done?”

  “No! No, not at all. The problems I had were with the rest of the pack, but if your Alpha is addressing those, then…no.

  “I’ve no issues with you, Bryce. Not at all. In fact, I’m surprised at how much I’ve settled in here, with you. How much I’ve come to care about you. I chose to accept your bite that day because that was a choice that saved our lives, and bought us time.

  “I’ve stayed because you are good to me. To us. Because I…”

  When she faltered, he said, “You said, earlier, at the end of your explanation about why you left that you weren’t willing to stay under those conditions no matter how much you’d fallen for me. Did you mean that? Have you fallen for me, as I’ve fallen for you?”

  “As you’ve fallen? I don’t understand. You said your wolf scented me as yours way back that first night…”

  “Yes. There is something chemical that happens to our wolf. Something instinctual, and instantaneous. But that doesn’t change the fact that we were strangers to each other.

  “My wolf telling me that you are meant for me doesn’t mean we don’t need to get to know each other. You are human, I can’t expect you to love me on sight. I was hoping that you would come to love me, as we got to know each other, but I’m aware that takes time.

  “I thought we were making progress toward that. Toward building a relationship that used our mate bond as a structure to build a deeper love around. I know the sex alone has been amazing, but lust is also just another framework to keep us turning toward each other as our lives start to entwine.

  “Are you happy with that aspect of our relationship? Do you enjoy it when we..?”

  “Yes!”

  “You are satisfied by me?”

  “Oh, yes!”

  “When I came here and found you gone, when I realized you’d taken Mac and run from me, it broke my heart. Every possible reason ran through my mind, that you hate me, that the sex was only good for me, that you regretted ever coming here in the first place.

  “Every reason I could think of tore me apart, because I have grown to love you. Man to woman. Stranger to mate. If you are not growing to love me as well…”

  “I am. I really am. Hearing those words directed at Mac made me crazy with panic. I thought that everyone felt that way about us. I thought you had to be nice to us because of this bite, but if you felt deep down like it sounded your Alpha did, and you’d been lying to me about how welcome we really were here…

  “I wasn’t going to stay somewhere we weren’t wanted, Bryce. Even if, until that moment, it was something that I’d wanted. I couldn’t stay here, knowing the man I was falling in love with was only pretending and really couldn’t stand to have me or Mac here at all.”

  He didn’t answer her in words, but instead his hands came up, cupping her face. He kissed her, the pained doubt from the minute before replaced with a calm, purposeful pursuit.

  Her mouth opened under his, like he hoped it would.

  His hands buried in her hair, holding her head still as his tongue plundered, seeking and finding all the answers he was hoping he would find in her response.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him tight.

  He pressed himself hard against her, her body loving the hardness of his need between them.

  She tugged on his hair, pulling him—his mouth and his heat, closer. She kissed him with all of the pent up emotion of everything that had happened.

  Her uncertainty came out in that kiss, the need to show him how much she had grown to love him came out in that kiss. That kiss stoked a fire deep in her soul.

  Bryce pulled his mouth from hers, searing a path to her ear. He bit down, a shock of pleasure and pain shooting through her body. He nipped and kissed a trail down her neck, his hands left her hair, finding the buttons on her shirt. He ignored them, pulling the gaps apart instead, sending buttons flying, ripping her shirt open.

  He found her breasts, filling his hands with their weight. His tongue found them, too, sucking and pulling each nipple into his warm mouth. He sucked on them, drawing a need from deep in her core.

  She pressed his head harder into her chest, offering first one breast, then the other to his needy, seeking mouth.

  He dropped to his knees in front of her, his mouth kissing warm trails over her stomach. He stopped for a minute, wrapping both arms around her waist, hugging her tight. His bristled cheek was rough on her stomach, and he just held her there for a long moment, his breath fanning ragged warmth over her belly.

  She buried her hands in his hair, holding him tight. Neither one of them moved for a long time.

  She was about to pull him away from her, questioningly, by his hair, needing to see his face, when she felt him turn his head. His lips found her stomach again, slower this time. Exploring instead of devouring.

  Between kisses he whispered into her skin, “Please don’t ever leave me again. I couldn’t bear it, pun intended. You’d take my very soul if you did.”

  He started kissing a trail farther south, as she answered into the space above his head.

  “I’ll never leave. Never again.”

  She wanted his mouth on her so bad she ached with it. She wanted to feel his tongue slide between the lips of her pussy, she wanted to grind herself against him until she came, screaming his name.

  When he yanked the last bits of clothes from her and his tongue found her, darting out, sliding between her wet lips, she moaned.

  He was always a generous lover, but this time he sucked on her with a hunger that she’d never felt in him before. His mouth danced over her pussy, his tongue exploring and tasting the skin he already knew well.

  She closed her eyes and reveled in the feelings. She felt his fingers slide in beside his tongue. His fingertips slid back and forth in her aching slit as his tongue licked and plunged.

  "You like that? You like having my fingers deep inside you? ‘Cause I do. I like it a lot." His voice sounded husky with arousal.

  She moaned a response but he wanted more.

  "Say it. Tell me how it feels, Leesa."

  “I…”

  She watched through almost closed eyes as he undid his pants, taking out his very erect cock.

  “There you are, love. This place is packed, it took me a minute to spot you,” the very same voice she had just been reliving in her m
ind as she paid no attention at all to the wedding before her suddenly confused her and aroused her even more as it whispered in her ear.

  “Bryce! You came! I didn’t think you’d be able to make it at all.”

  She hissed the words back at him, her brain fuzzy with need and caught between the past and the present.

  “We finished earlier than expected, as soon as I was free I came here. I hated even the thought of having to spend Christmas without you.

  “Leesa, love, you smell divine. Why do you scent of things that make me want to pull you over here, lift your dress, slide you down on my lap and let you ride me through the finishing of the king’s vows?”

  “I’ve been telling the story of how we met, and how Mac came to join the pack.”

  “And that got you all excited?”

  “Sitting here remembering how that story ended did. How we made up, how we finally gave into each other in more than just words and body that night. How you loved me until I vowed to never leave you again.’

  “Mmm, oh yes. I remember that night well. It was the first of many nights of its kind. Come, surely no one will notice if we sneak out of here and have an ‘I’ve missed you, my mate,’ reception of our own.”

  He started to stand, and she had every intention of following him, then and forever more, when a muffled but still loud cry came from somewhere in front of them.

  “What was that? That sounded like someone else has already snuck off to do what we’re about to do, only not as quiet as we were going to try to be,” Bryce said, with a naughty grin and a wiggle of his eye brows.

  The sound came again, only this time it didn’t sound like the muffled beginnings of someone’s stifled orgasm, but instead sounded like…

  “Oh, no! That came from Bella. I think Mac’s baby has decided that Enid’s Christmas Eve wedding is a great time to join the festivities.”

  “What a perfect distraction! That baby is already my favorite grandchild.”

  “It’s your only grandchild,” she laughed.

  “Let’s use this chaos to reunite ourselves silly. With her screaming no one will even notice when you call out as well. Once I quench the scent of desire rolling off of you, you can introduce me around and we can welcome Mac’s baby into this world. But since I doubt they need you right now, and I very much do, let’s go have a Merry Christmas Eve of our own.”