The pride’s Christmas is in danger, and only one man can save it.
Nysys wants a happy Christmas, and the only obstacles to that are Bradley and his hunters. Nysys could let Dominic take care of them, of course, but he’s not a council member for nothing. It’s time Bradley gets what he deserves, and Nysys is just the man to do that. With his faithful sidekick Keenan, Nysys will save Christmas, buy embarrassing presents, and make everyone in the pride happy—or he’ll die trying.
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A Whitedell Christmas
Copyright © 2016 Catherine Lievens
ISBN: 978-1-4874-0927-2
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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A Whitedell Christmas
Whitedell Pride Book Twenty-five point five
By
Catherine Lievens
Dedication
To everyone who wanted more of Keenan, and most of all Nysys. Here you go!
Chapter One
“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Keenan asked.
He looked worried, which was never a good thing. The last thing Nysys wanted was for Jonah to kick his ass for upsetting his mate. “Of course I am. Have any of my ideas ever gone wrong?”
Keenan stared. “Uh, yes. There was that time with the pink paint in Dominic’s office—”
“That didn’t end badly.”
“Depends on what you intend by badly, I guess. I didn’t particularly enjoy having to clean up after meals for an entire week.”
Nysys waved Keenan’s words away. “That was nothing.”
“Yeah, because somehow you always had something to do when it was clean-up time. You still owe me for that, by the way.”
“Fine. I’ll buy you a second Christmas present.”
Keenan still looked worried, and Nysys didn’t like it. Everyone in the house looked worried. He understood it—it wasn’t every day that a group of human hunters led by a crazy wolf shifter was about to attack the pride at any moment. Nysys hoped Dominic would take care of Bradley’s cray-cray ass before Christmas, though, because he couldn’t take everyone looking like they were at a funeral on Christmas. He’d go kill Bradley himself if he needed to. No one ruined Nysys’s Christmas, not even wolves with not enough crayons in their box.
“We probably shouldn’t,” Keenan said. “Everyone’s focused on the hunters. They don’t need us distracting them with decorations and stuff.”
“They can’t only live for the hunters.”
“Isn’t it the opposite? Like, they can’t live if they don’t take care of the hunters?”
“Whatever. So, are you in? I want it to be a surprise.”
Keenan looked around the living room. “They probably won’t notice anything.”
Nysys sighed. He’d thought it would be easier to convince Keenan. He was usually in when Nysys had an idea. “Look, I get it. Everyone is scared about what’s going to happen. We all know we could lose people, and we have no idea when Bradley is going to attack. I’m scared, too. But we can’t let Bradley run our lives. That’s just letting him win, and I don’t know about you, but that’s the last thing I want.”
Keenan cocked his head. “You’ve been watching too many cheesy movies.”
Nysys threw his hands in the air. “That’s because you never play with me anymore! The pride needs to have more fun, and that’s not going to happen if everyone stays in the doom and gloom mood. What better way to cheer people up than decorating the house and buying gifts?”
“Okay, I’m in for the decorations, but not for the gifts.”
Nysys pouted. “Why not?”
“Because you buy the worst gifts known to man.”
“That’s not true!”
“It so is! Remember last year, when you bought butt plugs for everyone?”
“At least I didn’t crochet ugly hats.”
Keenan gasped. “You said you loved my hats.”
“Yeah, in your dreams.”
“I’m a lot better now.”
Nysys grinned. “Good. You can help me with my gifts, then.”
Keenan narrowed his eyes. “What did you have in mind? I don’t trust that face.”
“It’s my everyday face. I can’t change it, no matter how much I try.”
“You try to change your face?”
“Sometimes. How do you think I’d look with bigger lips?” Nysys made a duck face and posed. “Huh? How do I look?”
“Like an idiot. Are you taking a selfie?”
“Or maybe I could get a smaller nose.”
“Your nose is perfect, Nys. Don’t even think about changing anything. I’ll help Morin kick your ass if you do.”
“But then I’d have to redo my ass.”
Keenan frowned. “What?”
“If you kick it too hard.”
Keenan shook his head. “Okay, let’s stop talking about ass kicking and plastic surgery. You’ll never have it, so there’s no use talking about it. Tell me why you need my help for your Christmas gifts.”
Nysys threw his hands in the air. “Because I can’t crochet, okay?”
Keenan blinked, and Nysys hoped he wouldn’t ask any more questions. He should have known better. “Why do you want to crochet your gifts? I thought you’d buy everything at the sex shop like always.”
Nysys huffed. “I can’t help it that a few of the people in this house are party poopers and don’t like it when I buy them sex toys. I just want them to have a fulfilling sex life! Am I so bad for wanting that?”
“Not bad, but not everyone likes the same thing, Nys. You can’t bulk-buy sex toys, no matter how much fun it is.”
“That’s why I need your help. I looked for other things, but they’re not as nice or fun as sex toys.”
Keenan sighed. “Fine. I know I’m going to regret this, but what did you have in mind?”
* * * *
Keenan shouldn’t have asked, but how could he resist Nysys’s pouty face? No one had that power, not even Dominic. Maybe Quinn, but that was mainly because Nysys had kicked him in the balls and Quinn still wasn’t over that.
“You want me to crochet underwear?”
Nysys nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes. I found some pictures on the internet.”
Keenan was afraid to ask. “What kind of underwear? And you do know they won’t be comfortable to wear, right? I mean, I can use the softest yarn I can find, but they’ll still be crocheted. Nothing crocheted is comfortable, at least not if it’s been crocheted by me.”
Keenan hadn’t lied—he had become better at crocheting, but he hadn’t done it as much as he should have over the past
year, and he’d mainly crocheted hats. That meant everyone would get a new hat from him this Christmas, and not much else. At least they were prettier than last year’s.
Nysys took his phone out of his pocket, and Keenan resisted the urge to groan. That couldn’t be good, especially if Nysys looked so excited. Keenan couldn’t help but wonder what kind of underwear he was going to have to wear for New Year’s Eve. He knew Nysys would check everyone had them on if he did gift them that.
There was no way Keenan could crochet more than fifty pairs of underwear in the time they still had before Christmas, though. Maybe he’d escape that terrible, terrible future.
Nysys thrust his phone into Keenan’s hand, and Keenan took a deep breath before looking at the screen. It had the image of a guy’s groin, and while the guy looked fit enough for Keenan to want to ogle his bits, he just couldn’t bring himself to find them sexy, not with the elephant underwear the guy was wearing.
They were gray boxers, clearly handmade. They stayed up thanks to a black thread at the waist, but that wasn’t the worst part. The gray and pink ears that poked out on both sides of the thing weren’t the worst part either, nor were the lopsided eyes. No, that honor belonged to the elephant’s trunk in the middle of the boxers, where no elephant trunk belonged.
Keenan pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry, to be honest, so he just handed Nysys his phone back. “That’s, uh, interesting, but there’s no way I’ll be able to crochet that for everyone, not in time. Maybe next year, yeah?”
Damn, he almost hated himself for the sad expression on Nysys’s face. It didn’t last long, unfortunately. Nysys thumbed his phone screen again and handed the phone back to Keenan. “What about something like this? There’s less material. It can’t be as hard or as long to do.” He giggled. “As hard and long. Eheheh.”
Keenan rolled his eyes and looked at the phone. At least this time the underwear, if it could even be called that, wasn’t modeled by a guy but by a mannequin. And Nysys was right, there wasn’t much material involved. It was just two strings that knotted on the mannequin’s sides. They were attached to a dick-shaped crocheted green Christmas tree that was pressed where a guy’s cock was supposed to be. It wouldn’t cover much of anything, and Keenan couldn’t convince himself it would actually be comfortable to wear.
“So?” Nysys asked.
Keenan scrolled down, his head cocked. “Oh, there’s a reindeer one. And a rabbit eating a carrot one. I’m not too sure about the zombie one.”
Nysys waved. “You don’t have to do that one. It’s for Christmas, not Halloween.”
Keenan had to do something. There was no way he wanted to spend the week and a half before Christmas crocheting those things. “Look, it’s a great idea, but really, I don’t have the time to do it. How about we look for the ugliest underwear we can find and buy those instead? They won’t be handmade, but they’ll still be a nice gift.” From Nysys’s point of view anyway. At least everyone knew to expect these kind of things from him.
Nysys huffed, but he nodded and wiggled his fingers to get his phone back. “Fine, okay. We’ll buy ugly underwear. But I’m still buying sex toys for the new couples. Not everyone got one last year.”
Keenan sighed. At least they only had one Nysys living with them.
* * * *
Nysys was satisfied with his finds. It had taken him and Keenan a few hours to find so many pairs of ugly underwear, and he couldn’t wait for Christmas to come to see the faces of everyone as they opened their presents. Especially Dominic. The gold shiny spandex pair Nysys had selected would look so hot on him. Not that Nysys would actually get to see it, of course, but he had a fertile imagination. And he could always try to convince Ani to tell him about it.
“You look satisfied. Should I be afraid?”
Nysys looked up from his magazine and grinned at Morin. “Always. You never know what I can come up with, right?”
Morin smiled. “Of course.”
He looked tired and worried, but so did everyone in the house, and Nysys was sick of it. He needed to find a way to distract them, but he hadn’t found anything so far, and decorating could only do so much. He was pretty sure most of the people living in the mansion hadn’t even notice the decorations.
Nysys sat up and opened his arms. Morin looked relieved, and he did quick work of taking off his suit jacket and his shoes before climbing onto the bed. He crawled to where Nysys was waiting for him and pushed Nysys until he was on his back. Morin climbed on top of him and settled down, almost too heavy but not quite.
Nysys wrapped his arms around Morin and kissed the top of his head. “Did something happen?” he asked in a soft voice.
“Mmm, no. I’m just tired.”
“You’ll have time to rest soon.”
“Will I?”
“It’s almost Christmas.”
Morin sighed. “It’s not like the hunters care. For all we know, they’ll attack on Christmas Day.”
Nysys gasped. They wouldn’t. Right? No one could be that—that assholish. He thought of Bradley and changed his mind. Yeah, he could be that assholish. Damn it. Nysys couldn’t let Bradley ruin their Christmas. That asshole had already done enough damage. He was still doing it, in fact.
Nysys had to find a way to stop him. He wouldn’t let anyone ruin Christmas. He was a council member, albeit not a very good one. He was a pride member, and he wanted his family to be happy.
He just had to find a way to make that happen.
It would have to wait for a bit, though. Right now, Nysys needed to take care of Morin. No matter how much he loved the other pride members, Morin always came first. Sometimes Nysys wished he could shimmer Morin away, make it so that no one would be able to find them. They both had responsibilities, though, even with the Glass Research Company now gone from their lives. Morin was a council member too, and he took that job just as seriously as he’d taken his job as the head of his father’s company.
Nysys rubbed a hand up and down Morin’s back until he felt Morin relax. He swallowed, because damn, his mate was heavy. Why don’t you go to the bathroom? I’ll run you a bath and give you a massage later, Nysys said through their mental bond. He wasn’t sure he could talk, not with Morin slumped on top of him like he was.
Morin looked up. “A massage? What have I done to earn that?”
Nysys kissed him, just because he could. Nothing. You don’t have to do anything to earn yourself a massage. You’re my mate, and I love you.
Morin’s smile widened. He didn’t smile often, and it was something Nysys never realized he missed until Morin beamed at him like that. Morin had always been a lot more serious than Nysys was—not that that was hard—and all the problems the pride and the company had had since they met hadn’t helped. Nysys hoped this thing with the hunters would be the last big problem the pride would have for a while. They all deserved a break.
Nysys gently nudged Morin. “Come on. Maybe I’ll even get into the tub with you.”
Morin blushed just a bit, and Nysys knew why. For some reason, Morin had a hard time asking to be taken care of. Nysys wasn’t sure if it was because he had that stupid notion that men should be the ones doing the caring, or if it was just the kind of man Morin was, but he’d dedicate his life to showing Morin there was nothing bad about it if he had to.
Morin finally clambered off the bed. He stretched, and Nysys couldn’t resist reaching out and pulling Morin’s shirt out of his dress pants. He stroked a hand up Morin’s stomach, smiling at the way Morin groaned. “Sometimes I wonder if you have cat shifter in your DNA. I swear you’d purr if you could.”
Morin settled down and looked at Nysys. “I’m sure I could ask Adrian for some cat DNA if you want to pet me.”
Nysys stroked his hand down, pressing his palm against Morin’s pants-covered dick. “I don’t need you to be a cat to pet you.”
“I can see that.”
Nysys ran his hand up and down, smiling at the way Mor
in’s cock started to harden under his hand. They hadn’t been mated that long, just a bit longer than a year, and there wasn’t a moment Nysys didn’t want Morin. In bed, on the couch, in the kitchen—even though Darin had threatened to stick one of his wooden spoons up Nysys’s ass if he ever caught them going at it on the counter again. Nysys lived for danger anyway. He wasn’t scared of a wooden spoon, and he liked things up his ass.
“I thought we were taking a bath,” Morin said, and Nysys realized he’d been giving his mate a hand job over his pants.
He grinned. “Yeah, okay. You can’t blame me for being distracted.” He squeezed, and Morin’s hips snapped forward. “Not with this kind of distraction.”
“We better go now if you really want to take that bath, because if we don’t, you’ll find yourself flat on your back with your legs up in the air in a few seconds.”
Nysys hummed. “I’ll admit it sounds good, but I’d like that bath.” Actually, he didn’t really care for it, but he wanted Morin to relax and feel cared for. “I can take care of your distraction once we’re clean.”
Chapter Two
“You want to do what?” Keenan screeched. He couldn’t have heard that right.
Nysys’s expression was stubborn, though, so maybe he had. “We need to find Bradley and kick his ass before Christmas.”
Keenan shook his head and resisted the urge to bang his forehead on his desk. “What are you talking about?”
Nysys leaned forward, a strand of pink hair falling in front of his eyes. He pushed it back behind his ear with a huff. “What’s the only thing that prevents us from having a perfect Christmas?”
“Uh, the fact that world peace isn’t a thing?”
Nysys’s eyes narrowed, and Keenan knew he’d be in trouble if he didn’t become serious and fast.
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