by Evelyn Vox
Fangsgiving
A Holiday Shifter Romance
Evelyn Vox
Cover Design by Rocking Book Covers
Copyright © 2017 by Evelyn Vox
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
1. Zander
2. Adelaide
3. Zander
4. Adelaide
5. Zander
6. Adelaide
7. Zander
8. Adelaide
9. Zander
10. Adelaide
11. Zander
12. Adelaide
13. Zander
14. Adelaide
Sneak Peek
Santa Claws
Also by Evelyn Vox
About the Author
1
Zander
The day after Halloween meant a lot of clean up for the Harvest Moon, my adoptive family’s horror-themed bar. The bar was a local staple, a Portland legend, on Halloween. The party last night was damn epic, if I did say so myself. The place was packed with monsters, ghouls, and pop culture costumes. I stood on a ladder, wiping down the smear of fake blood Sadie, our matriarch who loved all things gothic and horror, had splashed on the ceiling.
I tried not to watch Addie out of the corner of my eye. She was behind the bar, cleaning the counter. She kept stretching long over the counter top, and was wearing a thermal that she had not buttoned all the way to the top. From my vantage point, I could see a perfect view of her ample breasts, and it was an effort not to stare, like I was doing just now.
I groaned and pulled my attention to the ceiling. I heard Addie giggle, and saw a flash of her black curls bouncing as she waltzed into the back room. I knew she’d done it on purpose. Ever since she’d gotten old enough to be into boys, she’d been teasing me, taunting me.
When I was eleven, my pack went out in the woods to camp during the Full Moon. I’d run off after a rabbit on my own, and when I came back hours later, everyone was dead. Murdered in cold blood. It had to have been hunters. They were the only people who knew about our kind and did everything they could to annihilate us.
I wandered the woods for days, afraid to shift into my wolf. I was on the brink of starvation when I came upon the outskirts of Portland and smelled Vincent and Sadie Barkley. I’d followed the scent of shifters to the Harvest Moon, and they’d welcomed me into their family with open arms. The moment I stepped into this bar, Adelaide Barkley, a toddler, walked up to me, hugged me, and I knew I was home.
I couldn’t explain it, but I was fascinated, drawn to Addie from the moment I met her. As a child, I spent as much time as I could with her. We played, I helped take care of her, and I always kept an eye out for her. As time went on and I grew into a man and her a woman, that fascination became more than sweet. It had turned into a downright, deadly, carnal obsession. There was no woman I desired more than her, but every season the Full Moon came and went, and the mating heat passed us by.
Surely, it would have struck if we were mates by now.
It’d been four years since she turned eighteen, and when it didn’t happen that year, I started going off into the woods in search of answers about my past. It was too painful being around her and not being able to claim her. I wasn’t going to wait around to watch her find her mate in another male, so I tried to distance myself and became obsessed with finding my pack’s killers.
Still, she teased and taunted, and it drove me wild. Mother Nature was a cruel mistress to deny me my Addie. I sighed, willing my twitching cock into submission, and climbed down the ladder. I tossed the bloody wipes into the trash, and wondered if it was too early to have a beer.
“Hey, Zander,” Addie said, walking back into the front room. “Want to help me move tomorrow?”
She asked like I had a choice, like I could deny her anything. She paused and leaned against the bar suggestively.
“You know I will, Addie.”
Addie’s smile left me breathless, and I couldn’t help the way my body moved towards her. Our flirtations had been getting harder to resist, and it seemed I just couldn’t stay away from her. Her hands reached for my hips, tugging me towards her. She looked at me from below her lashes, her dark blue eyes bright, and bit her lower lip.
“Addie,” I warned.
“What?” She played innocent, even as an impish gleam lit up her face.
“You know what.” I protested, though I did nothing to stop her.
We’d kissed more than our fair share of times, and would have done more if Addie had anything to say about it, but I always put a stop to things before they got out of control. Before I got a taste of something I couldn’t have. Her rosebud lips drew close to mine. Right before we were about to make contact, the door to the bar opened and the smell of shifter hit us like a smack in the face.
Instinctively, I growled and shielded Addie with my body.
“Zander,” she protested, “what are you doing?”
To be honest, I didn’t know. We were friendly to other shifters, but the overwhelming drive to protect had taken over my senses. I took a deep breath and looked at the stranger walking up to the bar. A plump, curvy woman with a shock of white-blonde hair, rosy cheeks, and full lips smiled at us.
“Hi, I’m Holly.”
I sniffed the air and noticed something different about her scent.
“You’re not a wolf.”
“Zander!” Addie exclaimed, pulling herself from behind me. “Where are your manners?”
Addie walked out from the bar and offered her hand to the stranger.
“Sorry about him. My name’s Addie.”
Holly shook her hand and smiled.
“No, he’s right. I’m a bear.”
“My family will be so excited to meet you. We’ve only met a handful of other shifters, and never a bear!”
“What brings you to this neck of the woods, Holly?” I asked, trying to calm my nerves.
The woman was obviously not a threat, and I felt a twinge of embarrassment for the way I just acted.
“I’m tracking hunters.”
I felt Addie stiffen beside me.
“I’m searching for hunters too,” I told her. “A group killed my pack twenty years ago. I’ve been trying to find them.”
“I don’t understand the point,” Addie cut in. “What will you do when you find these hunters? Kill them and give their kind more cause to hunt us?”
Holly rested her deep, pine-green eyes on Addie.
“You’ve clearly never suffered a loss like we have.”
The words weren’t mean to be unkind, but Addie flinched.
“I didn’t mean to minimize what you’ve been through,” she said.
“So? You think these people should go unpunished?” Holly pushed, surprising me. She was quite the pistol. I’d hardly known her five minutes and I already liked her immensely.
“No, it’s not that,” Addie said, looking away.
“What, then?” Holly was relentless.
“It’s difficult,” I interjected, trying to avoid heckles rising. “We have no legal recourse against these people. We’re hidden from the world. How else are they supposed to come to justice?”
Addie looked stung.
“I don’t have the answers for you. I just know violence begets violence.”
“I didn’t mean to barge in here and start an argument,” Holly deflected, smiling. “I just wanted to see if you’d heard anything.”
; “So far, I’ve been able to hone in on a few leads, following stories and scents. It’s just a matter of putting the pieces together.”
“Do you want some help? We can track together.”
“Sure,” I said, smiling. “When do you want to go?”
I didn’t stop to question the wisdom of tracking hunters in the woods with a strange she-bear. It would be a welcome change to have another set of eyes and ears on their trail. Besides, my gut told me she could be trusted, and I never ignored my gut.
“I’m ready when you are,” Holly said, eyes gleaming.
“Zander,” Addie said, “can we talk in the back?”
I let her pull my hand towards the back room, the door swinging shut on Holly’s amused face.
“Do you think it’s wise to go into the woods, alone, with a strange shifter?” Her blue eyes shone bright with concern.
“She’s obviously not a threat, Addie.” How could I make her understand this need to find justice? This need to not get too attached to her, even though I already was hopelessly, fatally attached to her. When she found a mate, it would crush me. I was just trying to prepare myself for that day.
“You’ve been leaving so much, lately,” she said, eyes full of hurt. “Are you trying to avoid me?”
“Look, it’s…” I struggled to find the right words. “I just don’t want to be around when you find your mate.”
“Right because it’s so great for me to watch you run off into the woods with another female.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me.
“What?” Her words shocked me. She couldn’t possibly think I was attracted to Holly?
“Are you blind, Zander?” Addie spread her arms wide in exasperation. “She’s gorgeous.”
I supposed Holly was, with her fair coloring and ample curves, but I’d only always had eyes for Addie. That was the problem.
“Addie—” I began, but she cut me off with a sigh.
“Will you come back for Thanksgiving?”
“I don’t know,” I said, and hated myself for the look of pain that flashed on her face.
“The day before is the Full Moon…,” she began, trailing off as she walked two fingers up my chest, “who knows what could happen?”
She reached up and cupped my chin. The look of hope on her face broke my heart. I wanted to turn my face away from her, but I couldn’t do it.
“And when it doesn’t, Addie? What then?”
She picked a piece of lint off my shirt, getting closer. I tried to hide the way I trembled at her touch. God, I wanted this female so badly. It wasn’t fair.
“Then there’s always the next one.”
She smiled, like she just knew it would happen one of these days. I wished I shared her faith. But I’d already lost too much, was too jaded, to see the world the way she did.
“Don’t you think it would have happened by now?” I voiced the fear that had agonized me since she came of age.
“No one knows when it happens or why it kicks in—you know that, Zander. It could be years before the mating heat takes us.”
I didn’t add that it already had been years. More years than I was able to bear.
“Or it might never happen,” I said, taking her shoulders in my arms. “No matter how much I want it. One of these days we’ll need to face the facts that we aren’t mates.”
Tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill on her cheeks. I reached a knuckle up to catch them before they could fall.
“I’m just trying to get ready for that day. That day when another male walks into this bar and takes your breath away.”
“But that already happened, Zander,” she said, leaning up, “the day you stumbled in here all those years ago.”
She pressed her lips to mine and, god help me, I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her. I crushed her body in close and claimed her mouth in a bruising kiss. I felt my cock go from limp to hard in an instant and Addie moaned when she felt the rigid length between us. She broke our kiss and captured me in that gorgeous, sapphire gaze.
“I know it’s you, Zander,” she whispered.
My heart shuttered against the pain. I’d already lost too much. If I allowed myself to believe she was my mate, only to have her taken from me, it would destroy me. No. It was too much; a heartbreak I couldn’t withstand.
“I’ll try to be back for Thanksgiving,” I said, pulling away from her even as my body screamed to keep her close.
I didn’t look back as I walked through the door. I opened it to find the triplets had arrived and were very entranced by our new visitor. Jace, Dex, and Bo had been born shortly after the Barkely’s took me in—they were my little brothers, even if we weren’t blood. They may have been fraternal, but they shared identical penchants for mischief.
“Where are you from,” Jace asked, elbow on the bar, chin resting in his hand, completely transfixed by Holly.
“Up north,” she said, grinning from ear to ear, equally as captured by Jace. “Way up north, doubt you’d have heard of it.”
“I see you’ve met the boys,” I laughed.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Dex chimed in, sipping a beer.
“We get a bad reputation around here,” Bo said, opening some leftover Halloween candy.
“And is it deserved?” Holly asked, smirking at Jace.
“Maybe,” he grinned, waggling his eyebrows at her.
“I’m going to tell Vincent and Sadie we’re headed off,” I said. “Their parents, my pack leaders,” I added after seeing Holly’s look of confusion.
“What? Leaving already?” Jace protested.
“Don’t worry,” Holly purred. “We’ll be back soon.”
Hopefully, before the Full Moon. Because, despite myself and my protests, I couldn’t risk not being with Addie during the Full Moon. As much as I hated the hope that filled me each month, the thought of missing my chance with her during a heated moon was worse.
The heat came once a season during one of its three Full Moons. The first heat a couple went into was called the mating heat, and it snapped into place when two wolves scented their mate, their soul-bonded partner. After that, the heated moon would send already mated couples into heat, but not with nearly the same frenzy as the first mating heat.
Sadie and Vincent were mates. There were some mornings after the Full Moon that they practically glowed, and I always was suspicious that it had been the heated moon. I envied them their love. All a wolf longed for in this life was to find their mate. If Addie was my mate, and the Full Moon rose when I wasn’t with her, we’d never know if it we missed our mating heat.
And I couldn’t be sure, because they were often secretive about it, but I had a feeling that Sadie and Vincent hadn’t gone into heat yet this Fall. As the last Full Moon of the Fall, that meant the November moon had to be the Fall season’s heated moon. So I had to be back by then, I promised myself.
Even if it was a fool’s hope.
2
Adelaide
“You’re sure you want to have Thanksgiving at your house this year, Addie?” my mom asked.
At the age of twenty-two, I’d decided it was time to move out of my parent’s house. I didn’t go far, only a few houses down the road, but for my family it was a big deal. Us shifters liked to stick together. I’d offered to host Thanksgiving, less than a month after I’d moved. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me, offering to host my parents, three little brothers, and baby sister for the holiday. Plus, Zander, or so I hoped, with a lurch of my heart.
“Thanks for the out, Mom,” I laughed as we walked down the aisle of the grocery store, “but I’m excited to have everyone in my home.”
“It’s a lot of work, but it can be fun.”
“It’ll be a lot easier if I can find the ingredients for this stuffing,” I nearly growled as I walked down yet another aisle that was sold out of what I needed.
“Watch yourself, sweetie,” Mom warned.
&nb
sp; I realized my eyes had flashed for just a second. You’d think I’d have gotten this shifter thing under control by now. But the Full Moon was tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving, and it tended to make us shifters a bit more primal.
“Oh crap, sorry.”
My mom was a half-shifter, so she didn’t feel the pull quite as strongly as the rest of us. That didn’t mean she wasn’t on edge herself. When I picked her up this morning, she’d been watching squirrels in the yard with a predator’s focus.
“You put a turkey on hold here, right?”
“Come on, Mom,” I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I did.”
“Just checking, sweetie. Remember the year your father and I both thought the other had done it?”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “That wild-caught turkey was delicious, though.”
“Delicious for you, but stressful for me.” Mom blanched at the memory before laughing, her dark lips stretching in a wide smile.
Mom was a horror junkie, and once upon a time, she was a hardcore goth. Growing up, I loved hearing the story of how my dad smelled her as his mate and saved her from the small, conservative town that treated her like a freak. She’d taught me to always stay true to myself, no matter what, and I’d been proud to have such a bad ass mom growing up. While the other kids moms wore sweater sets, mine wore leather jackets and black eyeliner.
Now that she was older, Mom had toned down the goth look, but still preferred dark make up and clothes. With her black hair and deep, doe eyes, it suited her. She didn’t notice it, but she still got appreciative looks from men. I raised an eyebrow at an ogler who had the decency to look away before Mom could notice.
“I wonder how much food I should make,” I broached the subject I’d been dying to talk about all morning. “Have you heard from Zander?”