by E A Price
Heather chewed on her lip as she looked over at Temp in her silly robin costume. Temp who had been the greatest friend she ever had, and who was finally happy and starting a life with her new husband. She was standing with Maris – looking outstanding in her Jessica Rabbit getup. The young woman was pregnant and radiant, as was Mira, not to mention Marion. Then there were all Marion’s kids… They were her friends and people she cared about – she couldn’t risk their futures for her’s.
“Jax, I… I really enjoyed the time we spent together.”
Jax snapped his head to look at her. “Heather?”
Tears prickled her eyes. “But I…”
“No.”
Her bottom lip wobbled in a way it hadn’t since she was six years old. “I have to…”
“No.”
Jax carefully grasped her arm and strode toward the cougars, half carrying her. “I claim Heather Tam as my mate, and I will fight anyone who stands in my way!” he declared.
“Jax, what are you doing?” hissed Heather, desperately grasping at his shirt.
“Claiming you,” he replied quietly and with an annoying amount of calm.
If there was anything worse than being parted from him, it was him being injured or worse because of her – likely worse! “No Jax, please don’t, I can’t bear you getting hurt for me.” The only benefit from going with Carson would be in knowing that Jax and all her friends were safe.
He looked down at her and smiled. “I won’t.”
Heather shook her head at him in disbelief, wondering why none of his herd were shouting at him to stop acting so foolishly! She looked around at all the herd members; weren’t any of them going to call him out on this madness?!
“Isn’t anyone going to try and stop him?!”
“Does this boy seriously want to fight us all?” sneered one of the cougars, eliciting barks of laughter from a few of the others. The male flexed his claws. “Does he really think we won’t tear him apart?”
“Yes, thank you!” cried Heather, “someone’s finally making sense!” Even if it was one of the douchebag cougars.
“Actually, it’s not that bad,” said Clay, apparently unconcerned by the turn of events. “One of the clauses of the law is that if the claimer, in this case, can no longer fight, then any male of his family may take his place.”
Jax’s four brothers, his father, and his cousin, Tank stepped forward pretty eagerly, and all laughter from the cougars ceased. The cougars suddenly didn’t seem quite so cocksure, especially with Tank looming over them.
“But… but,” spluttered Heather, “Jax, you still have to fight them. Please don’t get hurt for me; I’m not worth it, I couldn’t bear it.”
Jax cupped her cheek, and he gave her that adorable, sweet look that always made her insides melt.
“You are worth it,” he crooned, “you’re worth so much to me.”
She smiled, and happy tears tracked down her face. Yep, she got through The Lion King and Up without breaking into tears, and yet, having this sweet man look at her like she was the most wonderful woman in the world was her undoing.
“Jax, I…”
“I hardly think a fight will be necessary,” piped up someone she didn’t know.
“Really?” snapped the alpha, “and who the hell are you?” Though the intensity left him as he obviously recognized the male, and he paled.
Heather later learned that the male was Clay’s friend on the shifter council. The cougar alpha obviously knew who he was too.
“It’s obvious that she has an attachment to the reindeer heard. The cougar’s claim can’t be enforced.”
“She wasn’t with him before I made the claim!” howled Carson, stomping his feet and roaring into the sky.
The council member rolled a shoulder unconcerned by the outburst. “True, that can’t be proved, but it is clear to me that they are mates, and I say that his claim supersedes yours.”
“But… but they lied about when the relationship started!”
The council member continued as if Carson hadn’t said anything. “Also, you hadn’t made it clear to the council that you were using the claim to try and extort money from the herd – I hardly think you want to dwell on minor details, do you?”
The cougars huffed and growled and exchanged some angry words with one another, but the upshot was that they left with their tails between their legs – literally as two of them had shifted, preparing to fight and hadn’t shifted back yet.
The reindeers erupted into cheers, and Jax swung her into his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“So we are going to mate or what?”
Jax immediately blushed, not quite believing that he had been the one to say those words. Well, he had claimed her in front of his herd, promised to fight all the cougars for her – it wasn’t his fault that the interfering council member intervened and stopped him before he could punch Carson right in his smug, feline face.
Heather had naturally been relieved and delighted that Carson could no longer claim her, and also that he was out of harm’s way. But she hadn’t said anything about their mating since the cougars ran away. She had devoured some cotton candy, two hot dogs and two caramel apples. She had also indulged on two rides on the haunted train, took him through the haunted house four times – each time scaring some unsuspecting herd mate who happened to be in there by jumping out and screaming at them – and now they were on the ferris wheel – right at the top of the ferris wheel, so there was no escape. Unless she displayed some hitherto unknown gymnastic skills and jumped out and climbed down, he was sure he had a captive audience.
Heather looked at him calmly, her dark brown eyes searching his face. “I wasn’t sure if you claimed me merely to save me from Carson,” she said slowly.
“Well, I did,” he admitted, and his reindeer kicked him as she flinched. “But that’s not the only reason!” he added quickly. “Words aren’t my strong point.”
“I don’t know about that. I think you’re doing just fine.”
The ferris wheel clanked as it started and moved a few feet to allow some more herd mates to come on. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Dex in the next basket, rocking back and forth much to the delight of the female herd mate he had lured onto the wheel with him.
Jax took a deep breath. Maybe he had claimed her sooner than he wanted to – things were moving a bit fast by human standards, but he knew he wanted her. He knew he had to do something to keep her. She had made the first moves with them throughout their limited-time relationship, but now it was his turn to show her how much he wanted her, how much she meant to him.
“Heather, I love you,” he admitted quietly.
To that she… did nothing. She seemed to freeze, and his reindeer pawed the ground. Awkward. He expected something, even if it was just an ‘eew.’
He felt his face heating, and he worried he had misjudged her, misjudged what they had shared. “I’m sorry about claiming you, I should have asked you first,” he muttered while peering over the edge, wondering if he could perhaps develop some fantastic gymnastic skills in the next twenty seconds.
Heather placed her small hand on his jaw and drew him back to look at her. “A few days ago I might have agreed with that – considering what Carson did,” she murmured.
“I…”
“No, Jax, for the first time in my life, I want a guy to stay – I want you to stay, but I just worry that you’ll get sick of me. It’s not easy living with me. I should know, I’ve lived with me for thirty years and it’s hell.”
Jax grasped her hand and pulled it to his lips for a kiss. “I’ll never get sick of you,” he said ardently. He was sure he wouldn’t. Honestly, he would say it over and over, after living with his somewhat slovenly family – well, his brothers and his dad, she was a dream to be with.
Heather shook her head. “You say that now, but you’ll have to cook and clean and listen to my endless chatter, and I’m completely inconsiderate, I sleep-punch, and I ho
g the bed and the hot water…”
“And I love cooking, and I don’t care about cleaning, and I love it that you spread out over the bed,” loved it because she spread out on top of him, “and I can take a punch,” he’d had plenty of practice with his brothers, “plus I like sharing showers with you, and I love you!”
“You haven’t met my mother yet.”
“No, but you’ve met mine and all my brothers, and you’re still here.”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and he was worried he’d done something wrong before she finally croaked, “I love you, too.”
“You don’t have to say it if you don’t mean it yet,” he blurted, in spite of some wild objections from his beast.
“Yes I do!” she cried.
“You don’t; I know you’re used to guys who are successful and…”
“I’m used to men who are over-confident douches. I love you because you’re nothing like them, and if you’re willing, I want you to stay, but the moment you find me too annoying, you have to say, because, if it means the difference between losing you and keeping you, then I will change so I can keep you.”
“I don’t want you to change; you’re my mate, my heart mate – I want you the way you are.”
She beamed. “I want you the way you are too. Don’t ever lose that adorable blush, but promise me if I’m ever too annoying…”
“You’ll be the first to know,” he chuckled, and then added, “but it will never happen.”
Heather cried with joyful, teary laughter and he claimed those lips, his lips, his mate’s lips, and he felt like crying with happiness himself. Not even Dex’s whoops and shouts at them to get a room could ruin the moment – everything was perfect.
Epilogue
One year later
Heather leafed through the Halloween costumes.
“What about this one?” asked her honey, Jax holding up a Sherlock Holmes costume.
She pouted. “Nah, he never did anything for me.”
Jax shrugged and put it back. They had been looking for the perfect costumes for hours, and she couldn’t find anything she liked. Naturally, Jax had been patient and lovely, but she was certainly starting to lose her temper.
It wasn’t just Halloween; it was their first anniversary – everything had to be perfect. It had been a fantastic year. Jax wasn’t kidding when he said he would never get bored or irritated by her – the man had the patience of a saint, which she supposed he kind of had to given his brothers. She often lost her temper with them, but Jax merely smiled when she harangued them. His mom encouraged her – it was usually her who had to shout some manners into them.
Apart from the irritating brothers, Heather got on really well with Jax’s family. She was particularly fond of her mother-in-law – unsurprising given the woman’s no-nonsense attitude and penchant for baking pies.
Her own mom had surprisingly welcomed Jax with open arms. Heather had thought she would be dismissive of him because he was younger than her, and because he didn’t go to college – both things she usually considered important, but she hadn’t. Perhaps her mom had just been grateful that Heather managed to bring anyone home. She probably would have accepted the eighty-year-old guy who lived two floors down from them and took out his teeth to scare the kids in the building. But, her mom loved Jax. However, that didn’t stop her making noises about the two of them having kids – noises which had been getting louder over the past year.
Maybe they would have kids one day, but neither was ready yet. They just wanted to enjoy their time together.
Heather let out an unsatisfied growl. “What happened to your pirate costume? I loved that. You looked incredibly hot as a pirate.”
Jax blushed, and his eyes sparkled. “You got excited last year and tore it off me.”
“Oh yeah,” she purred thinking of the happy memory. She started flipping through the rack of costumes with renewed enthusiasm.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a costume that’s as easy to tear off you – because I have a feeling the same thing may happen again this year.”
Jax grinned. “Love you.”
Heather blew him a kiss. “Love you, too.”
The end
Hello!
Thank you for reading!
If you have enjoyed this and would be interested in reading more, please check out my list of other stories available below. You can also sign up for my newsletter from my website to find out when new stories are being released: http://elizabethannprice.wix.com/eapricenovellas
Best wishes
Elizabeth
Stories currently available to purchase (as of December 24th 2018) and more stories are coming soon!
Grey Wolf Pack Romance
The series is set in the fictional town of Rose and follows the members of the Grey pack of wolf shifters as they find their mates. Expect lots of growling and overuse of the word 'mine'!
A Mate for the Beta
The Alpha’s Mate
The Librarian and the Wolf
Into the Arms of the Wolf
Wolves for the Bears
The Witch, the Wolf and the Snowstorm
Patient Mates
The Omega’s Mate
The Wolf and the Bobcat
- Short Stories Collection One
Mating the Red Wolf
Valentine’s Wolf
- Short Stories Collection Two
The Tiger’s Mate
The Reluctant Mate
One Night with the Wolf
Supernatural Bounty Hunters
Set in the fictional city by the beach Playa Lunar, the series follows bounty hunters and their sometimes hapless attempts to catch their wily (or irritating) supernatural skips while inevitably meeting their mates.
Foxy on the Run
Dead Man Running
To Catch a Snake
Bears in Flight
Flamingo Fugitive
Gorilla in the Wind
Supernatural Enforcers Agency
Stories about the shifters, psychics, vampires (and zombies!) who work for the SEA - Supernatural Enforcers Agency, set in the fictional city of Los Lobos. Read about how they solve crime and meet their mates!
Polar Bears are Forever
For Your Paws Only
You Only Live Nine Times
Sealed With a Hiss
4.5 Holiday Mates (short stories)
The Bear and the Unicorn
5.5 Scared to Death (novella)
A Bite Before Dying
Wolfman: The Lioness and the Wolf
7.5 Valentine’s Mates (short stories)
Gargoyles
The race of gargoyles were created to stop the armies of Morgan le Fay taking over world. But after being betrayed and cursed, they sleep for nearly a thousand years until they are finally woken and discover how to live in the modern world - while finding their mates, naturally!
When a Gargoyle Awakens
When a Gargoyle Lives
When a Gargoyle Flies
When a Gargoyle Pretends to be Santa Claus
When a Gargoyle Dreams
When a Gargoyle Kidnaps
When a Gargoyle Falls
When a Gargoyle Investigates
Bridenapping Jaguars
Living on Honey Blossom Mountain, the Chavez Jaguar Leap keep to themselves except for when it comes to finding brides...
Due to a lack of female jaguars, the tradition is for males to visit the nearby city of Los Lobos and bring their chosen brides back on Valentine's Day. However, things don't always run quite so smoothly.
Be Still my Cheetah Heart
Jaguar on my Mind
Beauty and the Jaguar
Reindeer Holidays
The Connors Reindeer Herd successfully own and run dozens of hotels and resorts all over the world, however their love lives aren't quite so straight forward, and they always seem to have exciting holidays!
The Reindeer’s Secret Santa Gift
&nbs
p; The Reindeer’s St. Patrick’s Surprise
The Reindeer’s Easter Family
The Reindeer’s Mother’s Day Mistake
The Reindeer’s Halloween Claim
One Shot Shifter Romances
Below is a list of one-off romance stories currently available. They are spin-offs from my main series of stories (Grey Wolf Pack/Supernatural Enforcers), featuring supporting characters that appear in those stories.
- Loving the Tiger
- Keeping the Wolf
Monsters
Currently I only have a set of short stories in the monster category, but watch this space for future stories!
- Monster Love (short stories)