A Christmas Home

by April Zyon

  “The watchers updated me a little while ago. There’s no movement right now. Looks like everyone is bunked down for the night, catching a few z’s. They did a scouting mission out into the town for a while but headed back after they checked out where the festival is to continue tonight. Apparently they were happy to see everything was in place for the events planned.”

  “I’m glad your people understood how important it was to keep up appearances but still see to it that the little ones are safe.” She snuggled against him again. Jagger smiled. Ophelia was a natural with the cubs and they loved her. He was looking forward to her being swollen with their child one day.

  “Everyone will be keeping up appearances for the day,” he said. Stroking a hand down her back, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We’re going to have a lazy day today. Breakfast and then presents before we go to the community hall on pack lands for the kids’ gift opening from the pack. After that we’ll come back here, have a nap, and then gear up for the night. We need to go into town to keep everything looking normal. We’re all sure that the sabertooths will send out scouts to check things are still happening as they should. We’ll start slipping people away to secure the young and the elderly in the bunkers, and when they come we will be prepared to hold them off outside the town. If we can keep them from getting past us, the townsfolk will all be safe.”

  “I know that we will be able to. I’m positive of it,” she told him with that smile of hers, the one that made him feel like he could do anything. “All of the gifts are ready for the kids, right?” He had to hug her closer. She had gone out and purchased gifts for all of the cubs after meeting them. She had told him she had to do it since they were now part of her family.

  “They are all ready, wrapped, and under the tree. Don’t worry, sweetheart. I made sure personally that they were all there.” He gave her another kiss on the cheek before throwing the covers off. “Up you get. We have things to do before we can come home for our nap and prepare.” If only he could keep her away from the battle he knew was coming.

  “I’m going to be at your side. You know that, right?” She seemed to know when he was thinking of protecting her. “I know how to use a gun and I have no problem doing it at all because I’m telling you, I will shoot the hell out of someone that comes toward my family and you are all my family.”

  Pretty much what he’d figured she would say. “Yes, dear,” he told her. He expected, and accepted, the smack to his arm. “Get your gorgeous ass moving. I need coffee, and we both need to eat.” There was a lot to do and little time to see it all done. No one in the pack was going to ruin Christmas for the cubs, but he knew it wouldn’t be quite like it had been in the past. Not with what was coming for them.

  “Coffee is very necessary.” She did get moving then, and he appreciated her naked ass walking away until she closed the bathroom door behind her. “Get the coffee ready and I’m going to shower. Go,” she called through the door, which had him laughing.

  Stopping in the half bath to rid himself of the morning cottonmouth, he did his business, then headed to the kitchen. First thing to do was start the coffee, but the second was to throw a pan of cinnamon rolls into the oven. They’d done a lot of prep both for the events and for the meals the day prior.

  When she came down she had her hair in a braid. He noticed she was doing that more often because of the way the cubs would tug at her hair. “I’m ready for coffee. Did you put the cinnamon rolls into the oven?” They had prepared those the night before, ensuring they would be ready for the morning.

  “Of course I did.” Walking over to her, he grabbed the braid, gave it a little tug, and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Have a cup of coffee while I shower and dress. Do not eat the cinnamon buns until I’m out here. I know how many are on that pan, woman. Don’t think I didn’t count.” He knew her. If she could sneak one or two before he came back down she would.

  “I won’t eat them until you’re back. I like eating with you,” she told him and he watched her lick her lips. “I think you should kiss me again and then go shower. After that I’m going to read the paper while I wait for you.”

  “Good plan. Excellent plan, actually.” He gave her another kiss, this one longer, and only when she melted into him did he break the kiss. Feeling rather pleased with himself, he gave her one more peck to her lips before releasing her hair. “Get some coffee,” he repeated on his way out the door.

  ****

  Ophelia was sitting at Jagger’s side, her hand in his. She was nervous, terrified actually, because she was sure that there was going to be some serious issues with life very soon. She could hope she was wrong, but she didn’t think she was.

  She had her weapon hidden at her side and the cubs and elders were all hidden away in the bunker. “They will be here soon.”

  “I still feel them coming.” She was practically panting but she stopped herself from doing so. “We will be ready for them. I just hope that everyone else is ready, too. They are all ready, right?” Repeating herself. Fabulous. She was such a hot damn mess.

  His large hand wrapped around the back of her neck, and he used the light hold to pull her into his chest. “We are ready,” he said quietly. Jagger gently massaged her neck and shoulders until she could feel the tension she’d been carrying all day slipping away. It wouldn’t last, she knew that, but in the moment it felt good. “Garth will text me the instant there’s movement from the rogue pack. When that happens we will all begin to move into position so we are ready to meet them head-on. They won’t expect it. They see us as lambs they’re about to slaughter. What they will get will knock them sideways and give us the time we need to end this.”

  “Exactly.” She let out a breath, then looked up at him with a smile. “We have this. We won’t let anyone hurt our family, not now and not ever. We might be a jumbled mix of bears, wolves, humans, and so on but we are fierce and we will not let anyone ever hurt those that are ours to protect, right?”

  “Right,” he said. Lifting her hand in his, he pressed a kiss to her palm. “Try and relax, sweetheart. You need to be fully centered and have a clear mind when this begins. The only thing you should have at the forefront is keeping yourself and the innocents safe. If you think on anything else during what is to come then you will be distracted, and in battle distraction will get you killed. For the record, if you have even a hair out of place when this is over I’ll be extremely displeased.”

  “Don’t worry, when it happens I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to stay safe.” She had noticed that her mate had put her in the very back of the packs, tucked safely away in the hidden rooms where the innocents and elders were being kept and protected. “I have this. I have my weapon with the silver. I also have three additional clips so I’m totally covered, just in case. I won’t let anyone be harmed who’s part of my family, I promise.”

  “I know you won’t,” he said. Releasing her hand, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her tight. For a long time they sat like that, neither speaking, enjoying the last minutes of pure peace before the night went to hell. When his phone went off, Ophelia jumped. Taking a look at it, he answered, then nodded to her. “The sabertooths are moving. It’s time for us to get outfitted and out there.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay,” she said with a smile that only wobbled a little bit. “We will do this.” She looked back at him again. “You go and do what you need to do.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his body. Cupping her face between his hands, he ran his thumbs over her cheeks slowly. Then he lowered his head and kissed her gently, like they had all the time in the world. “Be safe,” he whispered against her mouth.

  “I will.” She leaned into him once more and took another deep breath. “Be good. Stay safe and kick those fuckers back to the ice age where they belong, please.”

  “Yes, ma’am. See you soon,” he promised. One last kiss and he let her loose with a smack to her ass before he headed for the opposite side of the house.
It would be a long night, but in the end all that mattered was keeping everyone safe.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When the battle had begun Ophelia had expected it to be horrible. She had anticipated the sabertooths to use their size and massive paws and teeth against the shifter packs but she never thought that they really would come for her and for the children in stealth. She hadn’t assumed that animals so large could use stealth as those had but they did and it had shocked her.

  The first moment she realized that they were close was when she felt almost a rumbling vibration on the air. It hadn’t been a sound so much as a feeling which had her turning quickly. The sabertooth was standing over a small baby of perhaps two weeks, his gaping maw open to devour the little wolf where she lay sleeping. Without even a conscious thought she raised the gun and shot the beast between the eyes. Thanks to the silver bullets the beast fell to the side of the babe and shifted back into her human form when her death rattle finished.

  That had shocked Phi, that a woman, even if she was a saber, was willing to kill a baby. She moved closer to the still-sleeping babe and began to pick off the sabertooths as they tried to come at both her, the children, and other women that were all supposed to be behind safe lines. Obviously that was incorrect and they had somehow been sliding into place to get after those that they saw as the weakest links in the shifter families. She had no idea how they had gotten into the bunkers that they were holed up in, but however they got in they were soon out because Jagger had sent some of his bears and several wolves to check on them when they realized that there weren’t enough of the beasts in the action.

  The battle had been horrible. She had watched one of the wolves be torn apart by two of the sabertooths and it had made her ill to the extreme. There had been so many screams, so much blood, but in the end the Shifter Falls packs had won. They had been able to fight back the sabertooths and had decimated that pack so that no other packs would be harmed by them again.

  Once she was back with Jagger, she studied him carefully. He was still feeling the aftereffects of the battle and she knew it. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked softly.

  Flexing his left arm, the one that had taken one hell of a bite from a sabertooth, he nodded. She could tell he was healing fast. Already the wounds looked like they were days old. He’d told her that by morning there would barely be even a mark left. “I’ll be fine,” he said. He still had more growl than not to his voice, but his gaze was clearer and more focused than before. Jagger reached out to brush his fingers to her cheek. “Did you allow the healers to look you over?”

  “Yes and I’m perfectly fine, Jagger.”

  Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her in close to his body and held her tight. She felt him rub his nose to her hair and knew he was breathing in her scent. Slowly his body relaxed against her until his arms loosened slightly. “You should get something to drink and to eat. I need to go see the healers and check on those under their care.”

  She nodded, then smiled up at him. “Have them look at your arm again. And the back of your thigh. I know you’re trying to hide it from me, darling, but I saw it. Just make sure you have them look at it. I’m going to eat a bit and then you can come back and find me in the tub.” Dropping his chin, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “I love you, Ophelia. I will see you soon,” he promised. A gentle squeeze, then he released her. Someone called his name and after one more look down at her, Jagger headed off.

  “I love you, too, Jagger,” she told him as she watched him heading off. Once he was gone she headed up to the bathroom so that she could get her bath ready and start to relax.

  ****

  Making his way slowly to the healers, Jagger stopped along the way to check in with those who had gone home to nurse bruises, aches and pains, and minor wounds they hadn’t wanted to burden their healers with. Only when he was assured they were all doing well did he make his way to the healers. He’d allowed them to field dress the wounds on his arm and leg but hadn’t let them pull his shirt off. For one thing his little mate would have flipped her lid had she seen his back and what he was guessing would be a lot of black and blue bruises along his rib cage, and for another he actually wasn’t sure he could have gotten it off at the time.

  Most of the packs had decided to bunk down on his land until morning. Partly because of the wounded, and partly because there were at least two stray sabertooths still at large. The main reason Jagger had sentries walking the perimeter, not only his own but those from the other packs who had volunteered. For tonight they had a full truce amongst themselves. Whether it would carry on after the light of the coming day he couldn’t begin to guess at. He wouldn’t be holding his breath even if he could manage to pull a full lungful in.

  Stepping into the healers’ tent they’d set up, he moved to check on his bears. He’d lost three good men that night, but the rest of the pack had survived. The only saving grace, if there could be such a thing in a war, was they had been single. While he and the pack would grieve for the men and miss them dearly, there would not be any mates or children waiting up anxiously for them to return.

  He allowed their head healer to bully him into sitting down to have his leg looked at, and his back. He even let them cut the shirt off that had become stuck to his back from the dried blood his mate had not noticed, thank the gods. But she wouldn’t be able to miss the mess that was currently his back when he returned to their cabin. Jagger was prepared to hear an earful and then some.

  One of the teens came over to offer him some water. Thanking the young boy, Jagger ran a quick, assessing look over him to make sure he was steady, then watched him move among the cots of the wounded to give them all fluids.

  “He’s showing great promise.”

  Glancing at the healer, Jagger nodded. “I think he’s found his calling finally. I only wish it was under better circumstances than this that he’d discovered it.”

  “Don’t we all,” she said. “He will be all right, as will everyone here. There are a couple that are touch and go but we’ll sit up with them all night and get them through this.”

  “Call me if anything changes. I don’t want to find out in the morning you’ve kept anything from me.”

  She smacked his arm and glared at him. “Like I would do anything less. Now sit still while I clean out these gouges. You do know, Alpha, that you’re supposed to avoid the pointy objects, right? This whole throwing yourself in front of said pointy objects, whether they are claws or knives, is not good for your health.”

  Jagger had to resist rolling his eyes. She was a little too close for comfort, and he wasn’t in any shape to avoid more slaps from the older woman. “I do recall something to that effect from my father’s instructions when he was teaching me to fight. But it was either I got banged up or I lost another bear. It wasn’t even an option for me.” Three was three too many for Jagger. Which brought up another concern. “How many from the other packs did we lose?” he asked softly.

  “Six wolves, two cats, and a few are hanging on by sheer will. All the healers are on deck for this, Jagger. If they can hang on through the night then they have a damn good chance of survival.”

  It would have to do for the moment. Closing his eyes, he sat there and took the additional abuse the healer doled out to clean his wounds. When she finished he reiterated his need for her to call him with any changes, then went home to his mate. He really wanted to have her in his arms but he was not looking forward to her discovering his extra boo-boo’s.

  ****

  She heard the door opening and smiled. But she frowned when she heard Jagger calling up to her. His voice sounded … off. She got out of the tub and dried off. Wrapping his robe around her body, she entered the bedroom, then felt her eyebrow cock when she saw him sitting on the edge of the bed. “Talk to me, J, what’s happening? You’re hurt more than just your arm and leg, aren’t you?” She noticed that he didn’t have on the same shirt and if she wasn’t mistaken there were bandages around his middle.<
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  “I’m fine,” he muttered. Reaching out, he caught her hand and pulled her between his legs. With a deep breath he rested his forehead between her breasts, his hair tickling her upper chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist loosely even while he pulled her in a little closer.

  “You might be okay, but why didn’t you tell me that you were hurt this bad?” she wanted to know. “If I had known you were hurt as much as you were then there is no way in hell I would have allowed you to carry me home, you big lug.” He’d scooped her up and carried her home once they were certain the fight was over.

  “That’s why I didn’t mention it. Plus I still had adrenaline running through me. Now I’m tired and doubt I could lift even a sheet of paper.” Tipping his head back, he gave her a crooked smile. “I’m fine, sweetheart. My back is a bit of a mess, but I’ll survive. No permanent damage, and I’ll be mostly healed come morning. What hasn’t healed by then will heal through the day.”

  “Do you have the energy to shower or did you do that when you were with the healers?” She stroked her fingers over his cheek and leaned into him. She smiled. “We did it, Jagger. We fought back the sabers and we’re safe. Our family here in Shifter Falls is safe.”

  Chuckling, he pulled her down for a kiss with a light touch to her cheek. “I’ll shower in the morning. They put some cream on the wounds to speed healing and I’d really hate to tell them I washed it off. Tonight we should sleep.” He drew back slightly and looked around. Right when she was going to ask he pointed over to the dresser. “Top left-hand drawer, if you would.”

  She frowned and looked back at the dresser. “Okay. Do you need a shirt?” She assumed it was for shirts or maybe shorts so that she would keep her hands to herself. When she opened the drawer, however, she saw a small box with a huge bow sitting there all alone. She pulled it out and turned to face Jagger. She saw him there on his one knee before her. “Jagger?” she whispered in confusion, and she had to admit, hope.