A Whitedell Christmas

by Catherine Lievens

  Nysys finished drying his hair. “I just want to get this over with as soon as I can so we can cuddle in bed. Is a movie all right with you for tonight? We can watch it here, maybe with popcorn.”

  Morin wrinkled his nose. “No popcorn. The room will smell like it forever.”

  “Fine.”

  “And no chips either. The last time you ate them in bed I had to change the sheets because of the crumbs.”

  “Oh my God, Morin, stop talking like a seventy-year-old party pooper. Fine, I won’t eat anything in bed.” Nysys smirked. “Except for you.”

  “Now that I can get behind.”

  Nysys resisted the urge to give Morin more than a goodbye kiss or he’d have ended up in bed again. He left the room once he was dressed, waving at Morin—who didn’t even look up from his book—and walked to Keenan’s room.

  When Keenan opened the door, his smile fell. “Oh, no. You’re here for the second address.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “You’re dressed in black again.”

  “So? Are you busy or can we go?”

  Keenan sighed. “We might as well go. That way you’ll stop bugging me about this.”

  Nysys frowned as Keenan stepped to the side and let him in. “I don’t get why you’re so against this. I mean, don’t you want the pride to be safe?”

  “Of course I do, but I don’t think we should be the ones taking care of this, Nys. The last time we saw a dead body I threw up, and you looked so pale I thought you might faint.”

  “We’re not going to kill Bradley.”

  “Honestly, I think I’d rather do that than shimmer into the hunters’ headquarters.” Keenan sat onto the bed and put his boots on. He got up and wiggled his fingers. “Well? Are we going?”

  Nysys nodded and grabbed Keenan’s hand. “I already checked earlier, and I found a backroom that should be empty.”

  Keenan’s eyes widened. “Should be? Wait, Nys—”

  Nysys shimmered away. He knew Keenan would try to stop him if he didn’t just do it, and he’d really checked that backroom earlier, while Morin had been on the phone and too busy to notice Nysys was missing for a few minutes. It had been empty. The entire building had seemed empty from what Nysys had been able to hear from the backroom.

  This time, he didn’t think the building was empty.

  The first thing he noticed when they arrived was the music. It made the walls and the floor vibrate, and Nysys frowned. “Are they having a party?”

  Keenan slapped Nysys’s arm. “Of course not. They’re hunters. And if you do that again, I’ll kick your ass, no matter where we are.”

  “Do what?”

  “Shimmer before I’m ready.”

  “Yeah, okay, whatever. So why the music if they’re not having a party?”

  Keenan frowned. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  “That Bradley decided to stop being an asshole for Christmas and we’re going to have world peace?”

  Keenan snorted. “Yeah, sure. No, really. Why do you think there’s music?”

  Nysys did have an explanation for that, but he didn’t like it. “Maybe this isn’t Bradley’s headquarters,” he muttered.

  “Well, the music certainly would be out of place if it was, and the place we went to yesterday was a retirement home. Do you think this is another one?”

  Nysys listened to the music. “It doesn’t sound like anything I think old people like to listen to.” It was rock, and it was great, but it didn’t match the cat T-shirt and the pink cardigan on the ladies they’d met the day before.

  “Should we check?”

  “We’re here, so yeah, I guess we should. You never know, Bradley might really have become Santa.”

  Nysys held his hand out again, and once Keenan was holding it, he slowly opened the door. It opened on a dark, empty hallway, and Nysys scurried toward the music, Keenan on his heels. The music became louder with every step they took, and when Nysys peeked into the room it came from, his eyes went wide.

  He leaned backward and looked at Keenan, blinking. Keenan looked back. “What? What is it? Hunters? Old people? Oh my God, did we stumble onto a cove of serial killers? Are there bodies? Because I’m not taking another step if there are bodies!”

  Nysys shook his head. “No bodies. Well, there are bodies, but they’re very much alive.”

  He looked around the corner again, and once he was sure he’d really seen what he’d seen, he pulled Keenan along.

  “Hey. Stop that, Nys. We need to make sure we’re safe before we—oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh.”

  The people in the room weren’t hunters, at least not the shifter hunters type, and they weren’t old people, or not old people Nysys wouldn’t have fucked if he hadn’t been with Morin. He’d noticed a few silver foxes he’d have gladly spent some alone time with if he could.

  The room was full, and it definitely wasn’t Bradley’s headquarters.

  It was a bear club.

  There were men everywhere—tall ones, smaller ones, skinny ones, but mostly built ones. Most wore leather, and all of them were hairy. It was a gay man’s heaven, and Nysys didn’t know where to start looking.

  “Oh. My. God,” Keenan breathed out. “Where the fuck are we? And why didn’t you check the address after what happened yesterday? You do know how to use the internet after all.”

  Nysys looked away. “I might have skipped that step.”

  Keenan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes again, and he looked ready to kill Nysys. “You’re telling me you shimmered into what could have been Bradley’s headquarters without even knowing it? That you could have appeared on his kitchen table while he was having dinner?”

  “No. I’d never have done that.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Look, I know you’re angry, but—”

  “What are you two doing back here?” a low voice grumbled.

  Nysys shrieked and threw himself against Keenan. Keenan tried to climb him, but they were the same height, and they were both skinny. The only thing he managed to do was to make Nysys start falling backward.

  Luckily for them, the guy who’d found them put a large hand onto Nysys’s back and kept them upright. He arched a brow at them, and Nysys swallowed.

  This was a bar, so no one would hurt them, right? “We were looking for... the bathroom?”

  The guy’s lips twitched. “Is that a question?”

  “Uh, no, no. We were looking for the bathroom. But we didn’t find it. Obviously.”

  Nysys wasn’t sure the man believed him, but he nodded toward a door not too far away from them. “Bathroom’s there. It’s weird you didn’t notice it since you had to pass in front of it to get here, in the club’s private area.”

  Nysys squeaked and dragged Keenan away. They almost ran to the bathroom, never checking behind themselves, and as soon as they were locked into one of the stalls, Nysys shimmered them back home.

  Luckily for them, Keenan’s room was still empty, and Nysys flopped onto the bed. “Damn, that was close.” Keenan sat next to him. He sucked on his lower lip, and Nysys knew he was thinking about something. “What?”

  “Why were these addresses in Bradley’s file?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It wouldn’t have taken much for Dominic to check what was in those buildings, right? He had to know they were a retirement home and a bar. Why did he have the addresses, then?”

  Nysys and Keenan stared at each other. Nysys slowly nodded. “He set us up.”

  * * * *

  They burst into Dominic’s office without knocking, but Keenan figured they were allowed to at least this time.

  Dominic was sitting behind his desk, and he didn’t look surprised to see them, even though it was late in the evening. Actually, it was too late for Dominic to be working. Ani usually pried him from his desk before dinner and didn’t allow him to go back to it until the following morning.

  Nysys stopped in
front of the desk and pointed at Dominic. “You!”

  Dominic grinned. “Yes, me. What can I do for you?”

  “You set us up!”

  “You’ll have to be more specific, Nysys.”

  “You knew we were going to go look for Bradley and you gave us fake addresses to check.”

  Dominic’s grin widened. “I did.”

  “But... how did you know? Why did you do that?”

  Dominic sighed and leaned back into his chair. “It wasn’t hard to understand you were up to something, Nysys. You’re always up to something.”

  “Doesn’t tell me how you knew we were going to do that.”

  “I always know what you’re up to.”

  Nysys blinked. “How?”

  “I have my ways. So I knew what you wanted to do, and I knew I didn’t want you to get hurt. Telling you to stay out of it wouldn’t have helped. It never does.”

  “And you decided to send us on a wild goose chase?”

  “What else was I supposed to do to keep you safe? You know as well as I do that you’d have gone, whatever I told you to do or not do.”

  Keenan shook his head. That much was true, and everyone in the house knew it. There was no way to get Nysys to stop when he got a stupid idea, and most of his ideas were stupid. He wasn’t that surprised to find out Dominic had known about what they were doing. It had been a bit too easy to get that file—it had been lying on the desk unattended. Dominic didn’t usually do things like that. He knew better.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Nysys finally said, and Keenan pressed his lips together not to smile.

  “I do,” he said, looking at Dominic again. “What’s happening with Bradley?”

  “We’re working on it. I know you want to help, but trust me, there’s nothing anyone can do right now.”

  “What about Christmas?” Nysys asked, his lower lip sliding out into a pout. “I know you’re doing what you can, but Christmas is the one time where the entire pride is reunited. I don’t want to have to skip it.”

  “You won’t. I promise you I’ll do whatever I have to do to end this thing with Bradley before then. I don’t want it to last that long.”

  Keenan saw the moment when Nysys gave up, and he was relieved. He’d feared Nysys would want to continue looking for Bradley, and he knew things would have ended badly if they had. No matter how much they wanted to help, they just weren’t cut out to be warriors and to fight. They needed to leave that part of the pride’s life to someone who knew what they were doing before someone got seriously hurt.

  Keenan took Nysys’s hand and squeezed it. “Come on. We have a perfect Christmas to prepare. It’ll be a double celebration after all.”

  Nysys blinked. “Double?”

  “Christmas and finally being free from the hunters.”

  Epilogue

  It was perfect.

  Nysys looked around the living room, his smile widening at the sight in front of him. Everyone was there, waiting for the last few people who hadn’t gotten out of bed yet to arrive. Nysys had made sure Aeron and Jericho came downstairs too, because he knew Jericho would have tried to get out of it. The man didn’t feel comfortable with the pride just yet, but it would change in time. In the meantime, Nysys wasn’t going to let Jericho and Aeron spend Christmas on their own in their room. Christmas sex was awesome, as Nysys had found out earlier that morning, but it wasn’t really a celebration, and that was exactly what they were doing.

  The hunters were gone, Bradley would never be a problem again, and even though a few pride members were still in the infirmary, they’d be fine. It could have been so much worse, and the only thing Nysys wanted to do was get his fill of happiness.

  Jericho appeared by Nysys’s side and Nysys beamed at him. Jericho looked like he wanted to run, but instead, he nodded at the couch. “Aeron is going to shimmer Nate and Sebastian in here. Mind helping me free one of the couches?”

  Nysys’s eyes widened. “I should have thought of that. Yeah, come on.”

  Once they explained why they wanted everyone off the couch, it took only a few seconds to have them empty. Aeron shimmered into the living room seconds after that, Nate and Sebastian appearing on the couch.

  Nysys grabbed Jericho’s hand and pulled him along, sitting in one of the chairs. “So, how was your night?”

  Jericho looked everywhere but at Nysys, but his cheeks flushed. Nysys grinned. “Yeah, I happened to pass in front of your door last night. I have to say you guys gave me an idea or two to try with Morin. I really should share my own knowledge, I guess. Mmm, let me think.” Nysys knew Jericho wanted to be as far away from him as he could, which was exactly why he was babbling sex tips. He loved to embarrass the new guys. “Oh, how about you try to tie each other up? I guess I should have bought you ties for Christmas, but now it’s too late, damn it.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Oh, why not? You won’t find out if you don’t try it.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I know it seems scary, but really, you should try it. I’m not sure Aeron will like it, but you can always be the one who’s tied up, right?”

  Aeron appeared by Jericho’s side. “Everything okay?” he asked looking from Nysys to Jericho. He sat on Jericho’s lap as if shielding him, and Nysys rolled his eyes. As if that would be enough for him to stay away.

  “I was just telling him that you two should try to tie each other up during sex.”

  Aeron rolled his eyes. “So I was in the entrance, and I think I heard Nicky say he’d exchanged all your gifts with ugly ones.”

  Nysys gaped. That just couldn’t be true. “Really? That asshole!” He was going to kill Nicky. “Nicky! Did you mess with my gifts?”

  Nicky hadn’t, and as Nysys sat on the couch, a new pair of elephant underwear and one-half of a pretty Batman friendship necklace in his hands, watching as everyone unwrapped the ugliest underwear he’d been able to find, he vowed to get revenge. It could wait, though.

  He had all the time in the world to get back at Aeron now that the pride was safe. This was a perfect Christmas, and it would be the first one of many to come.

  About the Author

  Catherine lives in Italy, country of good food and hot men. She used to write fantasy as a child, but it was reading her first gay erotic romance novel that made her realize that that was what she really wanted to write.

  After graduating from college in English language and translation, she divides her day between writing, reading, taking care of her son and reading some more.

  You can find her on Facebook and Twitter or on her website: authorcatherinelievens.wordpress.com

  Email: lievens.catherine@gmail.com