by Anya Nowlan
BUCK ME… FOR CHRISTMAS
SHIFTER GROVE BRIDES
BOOK 7
BY
ANYA NOWLAN
A LITTLE TASTE…
“No, that’s fine. It’s the only bed that’s made up. You’ve had a tough night, Riley. You need your rest,” he said, taking a deep breath and stepping across the hallway toward the door right opposite hers. “I’ll be right here if you need me,” he said, pushing down the door handle.
I hope you do.
He was about to step into the bedroom, cursing himself the entire way, when Riley’s voice stopped him.
“Blitz?”
“Yes?” he said, turning around.
His heart beat so hard in his chest he thought it would burst out and every single nerve in his body was buzzing with need for her as he watched her standing there, rosy lips slightly parted and a blush on her cheeks. She looked like the most beautiful, delicate angel, but the spark in her eyes alluded that there might be a minx behind that good-girl façade.
“Thank you again for everyth –“
But she never got to finish her sentence. Blitz rushed to her, scooping her up in his arms and crushing his lips against hers with a hunger unlike any he’d ever felt. He needed her and he wasn’t going to let that chance slip through his fingers, consequences be damned.
Copyright © 2015 Anya Nowlan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Buck Me… for Christmas
Shifter Grove Brides
Book 7
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Anya Nowlan. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.
Cover © Jack of Covers
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A LITTLE TASTE…
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
EPILOGUE
BEAR THE BURN EXCERPT
WANT MORE?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER ONE
Riley
The roads were completely snowed in and, honestly, that shouldn’t have surprised Riley Seston as she drove through the treacherous mountain paths of eastern Idaho. Honestly, what else could she have expected?
She’d seen the weather report. She’d even heard the radio announcement about how everyone should stay indoors because of the blizzard. There were barely enough trucks to keep the highways open, let alone the outback dirt roads that led almost nowhere. Well, almost being the key word here. They did lead somewhere for Riley.
And getting there was turning out to be the biggest damn headache she’d ever had.
Gritting her teeth, she clung to the steering wheel of the rickety little jeep she’d managed to rent. The guy manning the rental stand at Idaho Falls Regional Airport had been very convincing when he handed the keys over to Riley, promising her that the car was a four wheel drive. Several hours into her laborious travels, Riley wasn’t that convinced anymore.
It hadn’t been so bad on the highways. It was slow going, but she made headway and Shifter Grove seemed like a destination she could eventually reach, given enough moxie and go-get-‘em attitude. And maybe some snow chains on the wheels, which she of course did not have.
Maybe I’ll get there by Christmas, she mused darkly, taking another turn that was so badly lit that it might have hid a chasm behind it and Riley wouldn’t have known. Claire’s so going to pay for this. Last time I offer to come over. Nope, next time she better get her ass over to Georgia. At least we know how to keep the roads clean.
The fact that Georgia fell into a state of chaos every time there was an inch of snow on the ground was completely unimportant at that moment.
Her knuckles were turning white as she drove on, cursing herself for ever having decided to take the trip to begin with. The small local airport was shut down, the weather conditions too treacherous to fly to Shifter Grove, and it wasn’t like any busses ran there. It was a tiny little town nestled away amongst thick forests and rolling mountains – the difficulty with which it could be reached inviting in its own way. And therein lay the problem as well.
It was impossible to get to in this weather.
Groaning, Riley swerved as a large cloud of snow blocked her path for a moment, blown up by the winds that howled so loudly that Riley was waiting for the car to be picked up and thrown off the rickety mountain road any second. As far as she could tell, no one had been on that particular road in days and it had been snowing the entire time. The only way she could tell that there was any kind of path there at all was the gap in the forest and the constant outcroppings that opened into sloping valleys, waiting to gobble up her jeep should she make a wrong turn. Not exactly inspiring considering the mood she was in.
Riley changed the radio station, rolling her eyes a little as one of those rock country songs that was all about painted on jeans and trucks came on. It was hard to get inspired by their happy crooning when her mood was well below zero and any slip on her part could leave her stranded in the middle of an unknown forest.
Maybe if it was Trace Adkins, I could actually smile, she mused darkly, slowing down again in anticipation of another curve.
Truth be told, things had not been going great for Riley. She wasn’t supposed to be holed up in Idaho, trying to run from her… well, her entire life. Yet there she was, squinting in the darkness and hoping against hope that Shifter Grove would magically crop up after the next turn and she could fall into Claire’s arms and a deep, deep bottle of tequila.
Losing one of her closest friends to two sexy wolves had been the least of her problems. She’d had a lovely life, in her own opinion. A stable boyfriend who treated her well, though perhaps didn’t pay as much attention to her as she would have liked, and a job she adored. Working in charity had been her ultimate dream. With a rough childhood in her past, dedicating her life to making sure that no kid went without a present during Christmas seemed like a cause she could really give her heart and soul to.
But things were never that easy, were they? So maybe the boyfriend had a slightly wandering eye. He definitely didn’t want to settle down – That two-faced jerk – and maybe he didn’t quite understand the boundaries between what was his and what wasn’t. Josh ran the charity Riley worked for in Georgia – Georgia’s Gift Coalition for Underprivileged Children – and that was where they’d met as well.
Worst decision I ever made, dating that rat, she snorted, her shoulders tense and bunched up.
The jeep was coming down a hill almost sideways and Riley had to fight the urge to scream the entire way down. But now that her mind got going down that dark path, even that didn’t do much to distract her from the year she’d had.
One after another, the hits had kept on coming. Riley had never bee
n the kind of woman to break down and sob over spilt milk, but discovering her boyfriend was a cheater, having him make off with all the money they’d collected over the year to buy presents for hundreds of children who had no one to look out for them during Christmas, and subsequently putting a firm end to any thoughts Riley might have been harboring about a safe, happy, big-family future all in one fell swoop had been a bit… much. She thought she deserved a stiff drink and maybe a cry. Then she could get back up on her feet again.
The headlights on the jeep were barely keeping up with the constantly worsening weather. The thick woods that she was sure looked gorgeous in daytime, with the shimmering snow and glorious sweeping mountains and valleys, looked absolutely terrifying in the dark with barely a signpost to follow. The roads leading to Shifter Grove must not have been much to begin with, but they were a whole lot worse in a snowstorm in the dead of night.
The jeep coughed and sputtered as it climbed another hill on its way to conquering what seemed like the hundredth mountain that day, and Riley poked at the radio again. There had to be something that would make a treacherous drive in horrific weather seem like a happy way to spend her time, right? She found some Christmas carols and, with a loud sigh, kept them on.
Surprisingly enough, the sound of another forgotten pop star belting out a Christmas classic did little to lift Riley’s mood. The drive was bad, yes, and the boyfriend was a giant asshole who deserved no more of her time, also yes, but what really got to Riley was the guilt. The knowing that countless rosy-cheeked faces were going to be soured with sadness come Christmas Day, when they would get no presents.
It hadn’t been a sure thing or anything – the charity could never promise that – but it had been the best year they’d had and all signs pointed to being able to get a lot of great gifts for a lot of kids in need. Despite being always braced for the worst, Riley had been hopeful, happy even.
Naïve, she corrected herself.
She’d found texts on Josh’s phone to a woman called Maria and when she’d confronted him about it a week ago, he’d said it was nothing. Dumbly, she’d believed him. Two days later, he’d wiped the company’s bank account, cancelled all their orders for gifts and disappeared on a plane to Costa Rica with said Maria, leaving Riley to pick up the pieces. She’d had better holiday seasons, that was for sure.
So, after having talked to all the other employees at the charity, wrapping up loose ends and essentially letting everyone know that the goal they’d been working towards for the entire year had been dashed by her boyfriend who couldn’t keep his cock in his pants and wanted to fuck a pretty lingerie model, she’d done the one thing that seemed reasonable. Riley couldn’t roll her eyes hard enough at the cliché that it all was.
Another hill conquered, she stabbed at the radio, half-hopeful, half-frustrated. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping to find, but as she started coming down another hill, that moment of distraction cost her dearly.
“What the hell!” she yelped as the car lurched to the side and then skidded left, tearing the steering wheel so hard that she had a difficult time holding out. “Oh shit!” she muttered as the jeep plunged through a snowbank and rolled down the side of an outcropping that she’d thought was just a plain field because of how white everything was.
For a moment, she was weightless, screaming her head off as the jeep tumbled down into the darkness. It bobbed and rolled, crashing over the roof and tumbling down freely with everything in the car jostling about. She held on for dear life, her hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were pasty white – not that it did her any good.
Miraculously, the jeep didn’t get too badly crumpled up on the way down the hill, but the damn thing kept going as it hit solid ground. The underbrush and trees disappeared, leaving nothing but clear whiteness as the jeep slowly came to a halt. Breathing hard, Riley glanced to either side of her, adrenaline kicking through her veins with full force now. For a second, everything was completely peaceful and serene.
The scene around her was like something out of a winter painting. Lush forests and high mountains with lower dips designating valleys surrounded her. Thick snowfall was covering the ground in perfect whiteness, the wind sometimes curling the tendrils of snowflakes into gorgeous shapes, making the eye follow them as they drifted into nothingness, one single light shining somewhere in the distance, like a beacon calling to her.
And then the ground went out from under her.
First, she heard a loud crack, followed by a cacophony of smaller ones that seemed to spread out all around her. When the realization of what was going on hit her, it was already too late. The jeep had been thrown onto a lake and the force of the impact had been so great that even the cold temperatures and the thick coating of ice on the water wasn’t enough to carry the weight of the vehicle.
Icy cold water started flooding the jeep immediately and Riley pawed at the buckle of her seatbelt.
“No, no, no…” she muttered, relief flooding her for one hot second as she got the seatbelt off.
In a daze, she tried to grab for her phone before she abandoned that idea – what good would that do her? She tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. The water was up to her hips now and filling the jeep faster with every moment. She could already feel her legs going numb from how cold it was and the car was dipping forward. The door was too crumpled to open, even if Riley threw her whole weight into it.
Tears in her eyes, she kept trying, even when the water sloshed at her neck and the air was quickly getting gobbled up and pressed out of the jeep.
Right when she thought it was all over, something crashed into the jeep hard enough to make it shudder in place and Riley came face to face with the most gorgeous chestnut eyes she’d ever seen.
CHAPTER TWO
Blitz
To say he was frustrated was probably the understatement of the century.
Blitz huffed deeply, taking a long drag of air and letting it flow through him, catching the scents. Idaho air always felt right, but not this time. No, this time, it felt like a prison, instead of the relaxing vacation it usually was.
Snorting, he stepped on, his hoofed feet digging into the deep snow and making a narrow path for him. The snowfall was thick and the temperatures were cold as hell, but he could barely feel it through his thick, downy coat. Every now and then, his impressive antlers would make piles of snow tumble down from the treetops, coating his back and making him shake it off.
He’d been out on a run for hours now, but even that hadn’t managed to put his mind at ease. He’d hoped that giving control to the buck would let his human side calm the fuck down, but it seemed to be having the opposite effect. Now it wasn’t just the man that was annoyed, but the animal as well. Shaking his head, making snow splutter off of him, he broke into a trot down the languid slopes of the hills surrounding Wolf’s Eye Lake.
His coat was dark brown with almost silvery whiteness on his back. His antlers had countless points, reaching high and wide, and his muscles were strong, shaped by years of hard work. A buck his size would be afraid of very few things in the forest, even one teeming with predators like the one surrounding Shifter Grove. Well, theoretically, he was especially safe there because the local shifter community wasn’t exactly backwards, but there was always a level of distrust between predators and those perceived to be lower on the food scale.
Blitz would have loved for someone to come and try his nerves right then, though. Nothing like kicking some haughty bear ass to make his night, especially when he had this much frustration to work off.
Grumbling to himself, he ran to the edge of the lake before stopping. The moon was high and full in the sky. Wide, rolling clouds covered the stars and the storm that raged was no small one. He could bet that it reached far wider than just Idaho – a bad night for flying. Yet he knew that every single one of his brothers was in the sky that night, making deliveries and preparing for the grand finale.
Except for him. He was stuc
k in fucking Idaho. Great.
Agitation rose in his chest again as he let himself focus on that. He was about to turn around and head back towards the cabin when a sudden noise caught his attention. Frowning, Blitz squinted, catching motion on the other side of the lake. Something was coming down the hill there at a fast speed, creating a snowball around itself as it crashed and thumped along, finally sliding across the lake and ending up almost in the middle of it.
He frowned, or as much as a fully-grown reindeer could frown, as he made out the shape of a blue jeep. The next moment, the ice gave way and the car crashed into the water. Before he could really register what had happened, his long legs were carrying him across the ice and snow at full blast, making his way to the accident site.
He could see from a distance that there was someone in the car. A palm print on the windshield was clue enough, but when he heard screaming, that sealed the deal. The jeep was sinking fast. Blitz went as far as he could on the ice before he had to stop and shift into his human form to avoid falling in as the buck and being nearly as helpless as whomever he was trying to save.
Shit, he thought, the shift taking him and making the animal pack itself down into his subconscious again. Guess I got my distraction.
He kicked off his shoes and jacket and dove into the ice-cold water. His heart skipped a beat as it washed over him. Determined to ignore it, he kicked his legs once, twice and made his way to the jeep.
“Help!” a voice called.
“Keep away from the window,” he hissed, a thin sliver of the car’s roof still above the water.
The entire car was going to go underwater any second and sink to the bottom of the lake with its passenger still inside. He didn’t have time to check if his warning had been heeded before he slammed his elbow into the window. The satisfying crackle as it gave way made his blood rush, giving him warmth in the deathly cold. Blitz could feel the shards falling away as he reached in and took hold of the person inside, yanking her out by her arm and shoulder just as the jeep started going down like a rock.