by Anthology
“Say something,” he murmured.
She couldn’t expose her weakness to a man so strong. She couldn’t tell him about her fear of being a shifter, so she told him the most honest thing she’d been feeling since he’d come into her life. “I don’t want you to leave.”
Silence stretched on and on between them, and that was answer enough. He was as good as gone. She’d known that and gave her heart to him, anyway. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Soft chimes trilled out from Graylan’s cell phone on the coffee table.
“Do you need to get that?” she asked in a defeated voice.
“No, it’s an alarm.” He sounded completely distracted, and he was still stroking her hair as if he didn’t realize he was doing it. “I’m supposed to be on shift tonight. Another storm is coming through, and we’re supposed to be putting down sand and salt to keep the ice from getting too bad.”
Suddenly feeling vulnerable and exposed, she stood, wrapping her comforter tightly around her. “You should go take care of that.”
His dark eyebrows drew down, and he propped up on his elbows. “You smell angry.”
“I’m going back to my room.” Dipping down, she grabbed her jeans and searched frantically for her panties. Where had she lost those at? Her limbs felt like noodles, and her mind was all muddy, and aw, forget it. He could keep the damned things. A souvenir to remind him of his conquest.
Hands shaking, she yanked the door open and stomped into the hallway.
“Hey, Emry, wait!” Graylan demanded. “What did I do wrong?”
What had he done wrong? Stolen her heart, knowing he was only here for a minute in the span of her life. How was she supposed to find another man after this? That wasn’t just some mind-blowing sexual experience she’d shared with some random one-night stand. Graylan had changed her heart completely, bound it to him, wrapped her soul around him, and made himself the one she’d always compare the men in her life to. And dammit, she’d allowed it! God, that was a terrible idea. She’d known going into this what it was. A fling. Friends with benefits, because really, how could they be anything more knowing he was fated to be a nomad for always? There was no cure for his need to find new dens. The bear and all the instincts that came with his inner animal were part of him.
“Talk to me! What did I do?” Graylan asked from the open doorway of his room. His hands were out, palms up, his eyes pleading and panicked.
“You didn’t do anything. You’re leaving in a couple of days, Graylan.” Emry bit back tears and dropped her gaze to hide how badly those words hurt her. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” she rasped out, throat clogging with emotion. “I made a mistake. This hurts too much.”
Graylan jerked as if she’d slapped him, but she couldn’t go back to him and smooth this over. She couldn’t pretend that his leaving wasn’t going to rip her guts out.
Unable to witness the hurt in his eyes for another moment, she turned and bolted for her room.
And bless her tears for staying put until she’d closed the door behind her.
7
Emry dragged her attention away from the couples dancing in the middle of the sprawling room and smiled politely at a trio of giggling older ladies.
“We heard you made an adult punch this year, dear,” Leona Andrews whispered. “We want the fun stuff.” Her hair was dyed blue like her two friends. The trio had made quite the name for themselves in the community as the Blue-Haired Ladies.
Grinning, Emry poured generous paper cups of punch from the giant bowl on her left. The other was for the kids. Her own little screw-you to Braden for the irritating text message he’d sent her this morning.
She finished filling the Blue-Haired Ladies’ glasses, then waved them off and told them to, “Have a good time.” There was no doubt in her mind they would. Those ladies were a hoot.
The song had changed to a slow one, and Emry sighed as the puny feeling she’d been fighting all day drifted over her. Graylan was out in the snowy weather, still working his snow-plowing shift, and Helena had told her at breakfast he was going to leave this evening. She’d tried to keep busy at the T-shirt shop she worked at on Main Street, and even though it had been hectic because of tourist season, she hadn’t been able to keep her mind off Graylan. And then she’d gotten the text.
What are you doing right now?
Her stomach had dropped when she’d read who had sent the message. Not the man she’d wanted. Braden was trouble, just like he always had been. When they’d been together, that was how he’d always texted her when he’d wanted to come over for a quick naked party. He hadn’t messaged her since the cheating scandal with Emelia, so there was only one reason he was starting now. He was growing bored with his relationship and thought Emry had little enough self-respect to play his stupid games.
Emry looked toward the corner where Braden was talking to a group of prominent figures in the town. As if he’d been watching her, he gave her the slow smile that used to make her stomach do flip flops. Now, it made her feel cheap and queasy. His poor wife. Her relationship with her husband wasn’t in any danger from Emry, though. She’d turned off her phone completely after that stupid text came through.
Heaving a frustrated sigh, she filled a punch cup for herself and gulped it down. This was her favorite time of year and her favorite community event of the year, and yet she felt hollow. Helena was at home alone, and Graylan would be gone by tonight. And Emry, the coward that she was, didn’t even have it in her to tell him have a nice life.
She hated goodbyes, always had, and avoided them like the plague.
When she saw the Keller brothers dancing to the slow song with their mates, an involuntary smile took her face. Now that was the feeling she wanted. Utter devotion. If only Graylan had been a grizzly shifter instead of a polar bear, she would have had a mate, too, like those lucky women. It wouldn’t have been hard for her and Graylan to live a beautiful life here. The Kellers had paved the way for shifter-human relationships from the day they came out to the public. People around here were mostly used to bear shifters. Like now, no one even stared at the Kellers or made rude gestures as they had in the beginning. These days, the townies said hi and spoke with them as if nothing had changed.
She and Graylan could’ve had a good thing here if his animal would only let him stay in one place.
The tragedy of it all was too much. Emry pursed her lips and blinked rapidly against the burning tears that blurred her vision. She waved to Janie, one of the other volunteers. “Would you mind pouring the punch for a few minutes? I need a little break.”
“Sure,” Janie said. Rubbing Emry’s arms, she asked, “Is everything okay?”
“It’s fantastic,” she lied. Turning, she ran smack-dab into a wall of solid muscle.
Gasping, she arched her neck up. Graylan was wearing a black sweater that clung to his shoulders like a second skin and dark jeans. And, as always, his eyes were that impossible blue that ensnared her. Heart thumping erratically, she whispered, “You’re here.”
Graylan looked up and smiled at Janie. “Do you mind if I steal her away for a dance?”
“N-not at all,” Janie said, stumbling over her words.
Emry looked down in shock at his hand wrapped warmly around hers as he led her to the dance floor. Graylan turned suddenly and slipped his hand behind her back. The other held up her hand as he leaned down and rested his cheek against her hair. “You didn’t answer your phone all day,” he rumbled.
“I’ve had it turned off.” Nope, she wasn’t going to mention Idiot Braden’s text message right now.
“You’re killing me, woman.”
“I’m killing you?”
Easing away, he leveled her with a hard look. “You said your piece yesterday but didn’t give me a chance to respond. And I’ve been working all day, stuck plowing these old back roads, unable to get you out of my head and feeling like complete shit about last night, so let me get
my apology out.”
Apology? “Okay.” Her eyes were probably the size of the moon right now.
“First off, you look fuckin’ beautiful tonight. And not just tonight. From the first time I saw you all strapped in the car, face smeared with chocolate, I couldn’t stop staring at you. I don’t know what you thought last night was for me, but from the way you tore off, I didn’t say something right. Woman, I’m sorry if I messed that moment up, but I’m no poet, nor am I going to pretend I have a way with words. I’ll try my best to be faster with my reactions, but you’ll have to be more patient with me when we have arguments in the future.”
“In the future? I thought you were leaving tonight.”
Graylan stopped swaying side to side and cupped her face. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he murmured, “Leaving you would be like telling my heart to stop beating. I can’t do it. I can’t even think about it anymore without feeling sick.”
A soft gasp left her lips as she slid her hands up his arms until she pressed her palm against the back of his hand, just to keep his touch warm on her cheeks. “Graylan, what are you saying?”
“Last night you left before I could get my head on straight. I bonded to you, Emry Mason. I chose you from the moment I saw you in that car, all wide-eyed and startled, but my bear chose you last night.”
Emry shook her head in disbelief and leaned her forehead against his chest to hide her ridiculous, teary smile. She threw her arms around his waist.
He dipped his lips near her ear and shifted his weight to the side, then back, picking up the slow dance again. “I want to stay here with you. I want to make Christmas dinner with you and Helena, and I want to be the one who takes the decorations down from the house and then puts them up again next year. I want to be the one to take you to this dance next year and the next, and I want to be the one you lean on for always. No more running from den to den anymore. You are my den now.” He kissed her hairline and eased back. “If you’ll have me.”
Tears streamed down her face, and emotion filled her throat, making it impossible to speak. Instead, she nodded her answer.
Graylan huffed a shaky laugh and drew her hand up against his chest. His heart drummed fast against her palm. “I have to tell you something else.” He pulled her knuckles to his lips and let them linger there before he said, “I didn’t come here alone.”
Emry frowned. “What?”
Graylan jerked his chin toward where the Blue-Haired Ladies were standing, laughing, and throwing back punch. In the center of them, beaming and talking, was Helena. Joy in her eyes, Helena waved, then pressed her hand against her chest, as if she was trying to contain her happiness.
“Oh my gosh,” Emry said, trying to contain her emotions, but failing. “Helena came out of her house for you?”
Graylan hugged her against his side. “She didn’t just come out for me, Emry. She came out for you, because you have this unique ability to make people around you want to live better, to be better.”
“Funny,” she murmured, smiling up at him and squeezing his hand with hers. “I feel the same about you.”
She looked around at the festive holiday decorations and the smiling couples dancing around them. At the children who weaved through the crowd, chasing each other and laughing. Her heart swelled when Helena blew her a tiny kiss. And when she finally swung her gaze back to Graylan—her strong, steadfast Graylan—he was watching her with such adoration in his bright eyes.
Heart overflowing with joy, she whispered, “I love you, Graylan Young.”
“Mate,” he said, resting his forehead against hers. “I love you back.”
The End
About T.S. Joyce
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. The wilder the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. Experienced at handling an alpha male of her own, she lives in a tiny town, outside of a tiny city, and devotes her life to writing big stories. tsjoycewrites.wordpress.com
Blitzen’s Fated Mate by R. E. Butler
Arctic Shifters One
On Christmas Eve, Arctic shifter Arian finds his fated mate in Charli, a human woman.
On Christmas Eve, romance writer Charli watches as something plummets into the woods behind her home. When she investigates, she discovers an injured reindeer who quickly transforms into a man. When arctic shifter Arian’s sleigh harness breaks during the Christmas Eve run, he knows he’s lucky to be alive after the fall. But he’s even luckier to have found his fated mate in the alluring human, Charli. When Arian contacts his people to tell them the news, he’s surprised to discover they don’t believe that Charli is his mate and are coming to see him before dawn on Christmas Day. Arian refuses to consider a life without Charli and will do whatever is necessary to ensure they’ll be together forever.
1
Arian rubbed the polishing cloth on the buckle of his harness until it shone brightly. Excitement filled him as he thought about what the night would bring. Christmas Eve in North Pole City was always a busy night, and as one of the chosen eight to pull the sleigh, Arian’s day had been especially busy. After he’d turned eighteen and first been able to shift into an arctic animal, he’d known that someday he’d be chosen for a sleigh run. He’d never expected it to take twelve years for a spot to open, but thanks to a mating arranged by Mrs. C, the Blitzen position had opened up.
It was about damn time.
Rhys, head of the North Pole City security team and also the Dasher position on the sleigh, slapped Arian on the shoulder. “You ready, rook?”
Arian arched a brow. “I’ve been shifting as long as you have, Rhys.”
“But you’ve never pulled the sleigh before. This is a trial run. If everything goes well tonight, you’ll be looking at a permanent position, and you know what that means.”
Arian felt the beasts within him stir. There weren’t many females in North Pole City. The males outnumbered them seven to one. In order to be allowed to pursue a female to mate, a male had to prove his worth in a noble profession – for shifters like himself, Arian needed to find a permanent position, such as sleigh-work. For the last twelve years, he’d been standing on the sidelines, working his ass off but never actually being given a permanent position. It had been hell. His beasts wanted to be mated and start a family. Waiting because of an ancient Santa law had started to make Arian want to forget his shifting abilities and take a permanent position somewhere else, like with the toy builders.
His beasts hadn’t much cared for that notion. Shifters weren’t supposed to be toy builders; they were part of security or part of the sleigh team, and sometimes they were both.
“I’ll do my best, Rhys,” Arian said.
Rhys smiled. “I know you will. If you’re nervous, go for a run in your shift before we have to harness up. It helps to take the edge off.”
“I will, thanks.”
Arian finished polishing the buckle on his harness and hung it on the rack in the stall. In a few hours, he would be shifting into his reindeer form – one of his four shifted forms – and an elf would attach the harness and hook him up in the line. He didn’t relish spending the evening staring at Roi’s ass as they flew from house to house, but he’d gladly take it to have a chance to find a mate and start a family.
Deciding to take Rhys’s advice to heart, Arian jogged out of the barn to the trees and stripped, closing his eyes and talking to the beasts inside him. He could transform into four arctic creatures at will – polar bear, snowy owl, arctic fox, and reindeer. His favorite shift was the arctic fox. He liked blending into the snow and being able to race through the trees. The polar bear, while powerful, was just not as fast as the fox.
He shook himself out as he took on the mantle of his shift and stretched, curling his claws into the snow and snapping his tail. Without any thought to the point of his run, he took off, the trees a blur as he raced by. As he ran, he thought about how powerfully unfair the mating situation was for those born in North Pole City. He’
d never been to a human city before, but he’d heard rumors from some of the elves who regularly visited to pick up supplies for NPC, that humans mated at will. No one made them wait until they had a certain job, or matched them up through a special ceremony. It would be nice if he were human, but he wasn’t, so he was bound by the rules and laws of his world, which although on the same planet as the humans’, were about as different as night and day.
After lazily chasing some snowshoe rabbits and then chuckling to himself as they cursed him out in their strange bunny language from the safety of their dens, he headed back to the barn. He could feel the time drawing close for when he would need to shift and take his place. Excitement coursed through his veins, the idea of having the opportunity to mate with a female shoved to the back of his mind as more important tasks awaited him.
* * *
Declan shoved Sullivan, and the big male tilted slightly and took a swing at the bigger male, narrowly missing his face. “Ha, too slow, old man,” Declan taunted.
“I’m only three months older than you,” Sullivan said, grimacing.
“Stop messing around,” Lan, the elf in charge of the sleigh team, bellowed. “SC is on his way.”
Declan fell into step behind Rhys as the male walked in front of the stalls, stopping to wish each male a good run. After Rhys and Declan passed by, the males stripped and shifted into their reindeer forms. Arian was nervous, but he did his best to calm his racing heart.