Sugar, Spice, and Shifters: A Touch of Holiday Magic

by Élianne Adams

  “You and Christina,” Graciella said, “you’re not like other moon shifters.”

  He shrugged and settled into the seat to her right. Just being near her made him feel less restless. “Typical enough.”

  “But, you’re not typical, and neither is Christina. She hasn’t gotten her bite, but she can half-shift.”

  “Just claws and fangs.”

  “Yeah, but that’s all she needs if she has to protect her babies. Adam said she was a throwback.”

  “He looked into it, Finn said. “There are a few others like her who didn’t get their bites until later. They didn’t really think it was a big deal, so they never talked about it. I guess it runs down family lines, and some folks don’t even realize they can do it.”

  “I’ve never heard of that happening in any other pack, and yours was especially isolated in the mountains.”

  “If you’re callin’ me an inbreed, you’ll have to try a little harder to insult me. I know what I am.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “I wouldn’t dare. Most packs are a little fucked up that way. Gods, what is that word Lisa uses?” Graciella clucked her tongue and stared at the ceiling.

  He hoped she wasn’t truly awaiting feedback from him, because she’d be shit out of luck. Male wolves weren’t known for their extensive vocabularies.

  She snapped her fingers. “Ah! They’re endogamous. People in the pack marry within the pack, so the gene pool doesn’t get very large.”

  “Definitely true. Did your pack keep good records?” he asked.

  She scrunched her nose. “Not officially, but intermarrying was less of a problem with my family because they didn’t join the pack until a couple of generations ago. My mom’s family and my father’s family both came from groups of migrants that got absorbed into the pack.”

  “Ah. There was usually a lady in my old pack who kept track of who married who so nobody had a mate who was a close cousin.”

  “Even with that carefulness, certain traits are probably going to occur more frequently within the group.”

  “What are you gettin’ at?”

  “It just follows that if there’s something weird in the gene pool that makes women like Christina, there has to be something equally weird going on with some of the men.”

  “Huh.” He leaned back and stared at her, letting the implication settle in. “You sayin’ that the same thing that makes me twitchy is also what makes Christina half-shift?”

  “Makes sense to me, but hey—I’ve only taken a semester of college biology. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.”

  “I believe you. Not like anyone’s studyin’ this stuff. Maybe you should.”

  “It’s just a theory, Finn. I have no way of testing it, but if is the two of you have the same condition that’s merely presenting itself in two ways, maybe we can figure out the triggers.”

  She got onto her knees and crawled over, straddling his lap. With her arms laced around his neck, she crushed her chest against his and put her soft lips against his ear. “You want me to help you figure it out?” Her tongue lashed teasingly along his lobe, and she ground her crotch enticingly over his.

  “What would that involve? More of this?” He cupped her ass and gave it an appreciative squeeze. If that was what research entailed, he’d like to do some more of it.

  “Well, for starters, I might have to spend a lot more time with you. You know, so I could see the pattern. Gather the correct data.”

  She ground back and forth against his lap, putting a sinful friction on his hard cock that had him leaking again like some hormonal teenager.

  Gripping her ass, he helped her along, a ragged breath escaping his chest as his balls tightened. He wanted to be in there—inside her. Wanted to feel her hot channel and find a home in her body. He was so desperate for it, but he wasn’t supposed to touch her.

  “You gonna get me in trouble, Graciella.”

  She grabbed him by the wrists and backed off his lap, then pulled him toward the bed. “No one has to know.”

  “How could they not? I can hardly stay away from you as it is. We go there—if we do it—it’s gonna be that much harder for me to stay away from you. I’m gonna be followin’ you around like a lost puppy, and everybody gon’ know why.”

  “And by the time they figure it out, are we going to care?”

  “We should care.”

  She peeled off her shirt and deftly unfastened her bra.

  I don’t care.

  Hissing, he cupped her full, heavy breasts and brought his mouth down to one dark bud.

  Mine. He pulled it firmly into his mouth and suckled as if it’d give him life and not just quell his oral fixation for the moment, and plucked at her other nipple to feed his fidgeting compulsion, too.

  She threaded her fingers through the back of his hair and whispered sweet, encouraging things, but he was feeling anything but sweet at the moment. He felt crazed. If she had any idea how much, she probably wouldn’t have wanted to be in that apartment with him.

  As the scent of her arousal filled his nose, his fangs descended.

  Unhanding her, he took a large step back and pulled at his hair. “Fuck.”

  “It’s all right, Finn.” She moved slowly toward him with her hands out in a soothing gesture. “That’s what happens. You want to bite your mate, don’t you?”

  “Not bitin’ you.”

  “I know you’re not. You know I don’t want it, so you’re going to do everything you can to respect that. And I’m going to help you calm down.”

  “How?”

  “Come here.” She extended a hand, and he stared at it, and then at her beautiful face. Her expression was neutral, as was her scent. She wasn’t afraid of him. There was no hormone spike—beyond the one of arousal—and no drive for her to run from him.

  “You should run. You should…you shouldn’t be here.”

  “Then who should?”

  “No one. Just me.”

  “Bullshit.” She kept her hand extended, and voice low. “Come here, Finn Stilton.”

  At the note of quiet dominance in her voice, he took a tentative step forward, and then another.

  “Come on, baby.” She held out her hand a little farther, as if trying to make closing the distance that much easier for him.

  “Don’t wan’ bite you.”

  “You’re not going to. I promise you won’t.”

  He put his hand in hers and let himself be pulled back to the bed. Being away from her hadn’t made him feel any better. It’d made him more anxious, so obviously that wasn’t the fix. What does that mean?

  She laid him down and worked his pants off his legs, then stood at the foot of the bed, eying him.

  He wondered if she liked what he saw. In the scheme of things, he was a pretty average wolf. His kind didn’t have the towering, six-foot plus heights of the Eurasian wolves, like Alpha, Anton, Darius, Colt, and Vic. He didn’t have their bulk, and wasn’t imposing like them, either. But he was fast, and his eyes were good. He didn’t let anyone beat him in a fight, and it didn’t matter how big they were. He fought back when he really cared about something, and he never lost.

  She unfastened her jeans and wriggled them down, her gaze locked on his crotch as she disrobed. “Damn, Finn.”

  “What?”

  “I think I’m a very lucky girl. That is, assuming you move as well as you’re built.”

  “You like the way I’m built?”

  “What do you think?” She climbed onto the bed between his legs and, holding his sac, she licked teasingly up the inside of his thigh.

  “That feels good. Tickles, though.”

  “I’m not out to tickle you. I want to ride you.”

  “Get me in trouble, you mean.”

  “You saying no?”

  “Sit on me. Let me see how wet you are. Go slow, though, so I don’t bite.”

  “You’re not gonna bite me, I promise.”

  “I should be the one promising.”
>
  “But you can’t help it.” She straddled his legs and he gripped his cock as she sank slowly onto him.

  “Gods.” She felt like sin—like trouble.

  At the moment, he was having the damnedest time caring.

  SEVEN

  Graciella threw back her head and let out a long, ragged exhalation as she let her body adjust to Finn’s girth. He couldn’t be still—she really couldn’t expect him to be—and she fought against that as well. She wouldn’t let his shudders undo her before she was ready, no matter how good it felt.

  She wanted to make him feel good, too, but orgasm wasn’t her only mission.

  She leaned forward, putting her chest to his and found his lips. She dragged her tongue along the edges, then whispered, “You’re not gonna bite. You tell that wolf inside you that I said so.”

  “You reckon he’ll listen?”

  “You tell him to take it up with me if he has a problem with it.” She rocked her hips and rode him slowly, keeping him in deep and just enjoying the fullness he offered her. Combined with the delicious friction against her taut nipples and his nervous hands gripping her ass tightly, she was awash with sensation. He certainly wasn’t her first, or even her first wolf, but no one had ever felt as good as him.

  As right as him.

  She pressed her hands to his cheeks as she rode him and skimmed her thumbs across his parted lips.

  She forgave him for his desperate little thrusts, his urgency to be completely inside her, even though it wasn’t possible.

  “Feels so good when you squeeze me like that,” he said.

  “Mm-hmm. Slow and steady. Maybe faster when you’re calm.”

  “Ain’t never gonna be calm.”

  “Yes you will. I’m going to get you there.”

  “You sound like you mean it.”

  “I don’t make promises I don’t intend to keep.” And certainly not with her mate. Too many wolves went into mateships having no respect for each other, much less any affection. Graciella knew she was in a unique position of being able to choose her own mate—not that she was under any illusion the Fates didn’t play some small role in that—and she was going to make sure they started off on the right foot, even if it was only in private for the time being.

  “Come ’ere.” He lifted his head slightly and she gave him the kiss he was so obviously demanding. It was more sensual than sexual, not much more than a meeting of lips and the occasional nibble. But it was one more point of contact—one more sensation to add to the already heady mix.

  She moved against him, rubbing her clit against his coarse pubic hair and working her G-spot over his cock head again and again. She didn’t care if she seemed brazen, because with him, she felt comfortable taking what she needed. He wouldn’t throw it back in her face and taunt her for being sexual, or for knowing how to get herself off. That didn’t seem to be her wolf’s style.

  “You’re so good to me,” he said hoarsely. “Nice to me.”

  “I could say the same for you. It’s not expected of males.”

  “You should be nice to the people you like.”

  “Do you like me, Finn?” She pushed up onto her palms and back onto his cock so he hit the very end of her.

  “Mmm, I like you a whole lot.”

  “’Cause I’m riding you?” She swiveled her hips and bit her lip as that first, threatening tightness pulled in her lower belly.

  He pressed his hands up her belly and palmed her breasts. “I like that, but I like you in general. And these. Wolf in me wants to bite ’em.”

  “You tell him suck, not bite.” She bent over a little to let him do just that, and again, he pulled her hard between his teeth. The slight rasp of the edge of his teeth added a nice edge to the pleasure that made her pussy clench. “You tell him to save the bites for fights.”

  “Mmm.” He massaged her ass as she rode him, parting her cheeks and digging his fingertips into the tender flesh. Then he helped her rock, up and down, faster and faster, until she gripped his hair for purchase and struggled to draw breath.

  “Fuck, Finn.”

  Too many sensations all at once. The zings shooting down from her nipples and settling in low. The rasp against her nub. The fullness in her pussy, and his fingers—his strong, possessive fingers—digging into her ass. His inner wolf’s energy lapped against her, trying to figure her out.

  “Want you,” he said with a plaintive note to his voice. “Want you so bad.”

  “You’ve got me.”

  And though the wolf inside of her may not have been awake, Graciella was still a born werewolf, and she could tap into the power the wolf had. It was there below the surface, and she dug it out, because he needed it.

  Her energy was for him—to soothe his frantic beast and keep him from being rash and reckless. To help him persevere so he could protect her when she needed it.

  His breath came out in a rasp. “Oh, what are ya doin’ to me? Feel so—fuck, Graciella. Fuck.”

  His cock twitched inside her against her sensitive G-spot and set off that rapid chain reaction within her that started with the stealing of her breath and the cramping of her toes.

  She writhed on top of him, letting the orgasm claim every muscle, every inch of her skin, while she claimed him.

  “You’re—you’re mine, Finn.”

  “I am?” His tone was curious—incredulous, even.

  “Can’t believe it? Well, you are.” Spent, she flopped on top of him and pushed a swallow down her tight throat. “You’re mine. I can’t bite you. Can’t mark you, but you belong to me. You understand?”

  She didn’t know why the words needed to be said, but she just had to say them. Claiming usually worked the other way around. Female wolves weren’t the ones who did the possessing. They usually had no personal agency in which to do so, but she and Finn were in a different kind of pack, where wolves could choose their own connections. No one could possibly know what would happen if wolves were left to do what was natural instead of what was customary. Maybe there was nothing abnormal about what Graciella was doing at all.

  It sure felt good.

  It felt right.

  “I understand.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pressed his chin against the top of her head, perfectly still for a change. “You don’t have to go so soon, do you?”

  “I’ve got maybe an hour. After the moon in the square drops, folks’ll probably celebrate for a while before heading home. No one would expect me back before then.”

  “Okay. Can I just hold you until then?”

  She laughed and then kissed him so he didn’t think it was at his expense. “Am I mistaken, or did I stumble onto the rare cuddling wolf?”

  He shrugged and nestled her against his front as he rolled to his side. “Don’t tease me. I just—”

  “Need it?”

  “Desperate for it. Is that bad?”

  “Only if you’re getting it from someone else. I meant what I said.”

  “I hope you did.” He rubbed a hand down her spine, a gentle massage that made her want to cuddle even closer so she could touch more of him—as much as possible.

  She didn’t know if he could feel the energy cycling between the two of them. The energy that belonged to him hit her feeling ragged, but familiar. She’d recognize it anywhere as her mate’s. She would probably always turn to him in a crowd to see if he needed attention, and she finally understood why her mother behaved the way she did during pack gatherings. She’d always waited for Graciella’s father to catch up as if she didn’t think a grown man could find his way to the gathering spot he’d visited monthly for more than fifty years. Graciella and Leticia had always teased her for it, but their mother hadn’t bothered explaining herself.

  Graciella had always assumed her mother was a weak wolf, like most females were, but now she questioned that. Just because her strength hadn’t been the showy, aggressive kind typical of the males didn’t mean she didn’t have any. It was just private.

 
Exactly like Graciella’s was going to be for as long as she could manage it.

  What was between her and Finn was just theirs for the moment, and she liked it that way. She didn’t want anyone telling her it wasn’t right.

  EIGHT

  “You smell funny.”

  Finn rolled his eyes at his sister’s proclamation and eyed the length of wood he needed to cut for the little table he was building for Cecily’s nursery. “That all you got to say to me lately?”

  “I’m serious, Finn. It’s not just pheromones this time.”

  “What is it, then? Is it a sweet smell? I might have stolen your soap. Sorry. Meant to go shopping and haven’t yet.”

  “Quit playing. This is serious.”

  He sighed and set down the wood. “What is it?”

  “Let me first say that we female wolves don’t talk about it to men, usually, because we have to keep some secrets so we’ll have at least a few advantages. Everyone knows that when a male bites his mate, she takes on his scent. No other wolf would want her after that.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, that also works the other way around. We don’t bite, but we’ve got other ways of marking you. It doesn’t happen unless a woman really wants to claim a man, though.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you bite Graciella?”

  “No!”

  “Well, you did something, because you smell taken.”

  “What?”

  “She claimed you, doofus.”

  “Oh.” He grinned and picked up his wood. “Well, that’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay! When Lisa finds out, she’s gonna flip her lid.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “You’re gonna have to stay away from her.”

  “I am not staying away from Graciella.”

  Christina let out a strained scoff and gave her long braid a yank. “I imagine you can’t. But you know who you can stay away from?”