The Snow Leopard's Christmas Surprise

by Emilia Hartley

  Savannah’s first immediate reaction was to tense up, but she forced her body to relax. She willed herself to remove all doubt and fear from her mind. This moment wasn’t Lucas’s or the Northern Wind’s. It was only hers and Toms, so he was all she’d think about right now. His tongue darted between her parted lips, tangling with hers and coaxing a soft moan from her throat.

  He broke the kiss only to spin her around to face him. She barely had enough time to catch her breath before his lips were back on hers, kissing her harder and with more hunger than before.

  She pressed her hands against his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath his shirt before snaking them up over his shoulders and snagging two rough handfuls of his hair. She pressed him as close to her as she could, tugging crudely on his hair and drawing an exhilarating growl from deep within him.

  A fire ignited deep in Savannah’s belly, and she gave herself up to the sensations that Tom was bringing out in her. She could barely think as the warmth spread through her body, setting her ablaze. Flame followed his fingertips as they ran up and down her back, before tentatively wrapping around her body and over the soft mound of her breasts.

  In a surprising twist, Lucas’s face appeared in the forefront of Savannah’s mind. A violent bout of nausea suddenly overcame her, and she shoved herself backward with panicked alarms sounding bells and whistles in her head. It was like she’d been doused with ice water, all at once, the fire within her had simply vanished, and she was left shivering in the cold.

  “Savannah,” Tom asked, his voice still husky with desire, but also lilted with a hint of concern. “What happened? Did I—”

  Savannah swallowed hard shaking her head. “No, you didn’t… Tom, I can’t… I mean… I—” There were no words that could explain what just happened in a way he’d understand. “I have to go,” she whispered weakly, slipping past him before he could properly comprehend her rejection. “I’m so sorry.”

  She heard him call out her name from somewhere behind her, but it only made her move faster. She couldn’t face him. Not tonight. Everything with Lucas was still too fresh, too real. The first dreadful tear slid down her cheek as she tore off into the night, whispers of what could have been still flickering false fantasies through her anxious and defeated mind.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Savannah woke the next morning with a thundering headache pounding behind her eyes, courtesy of all the crying she’d done the night before. Everything was going wrong. Lucas had reminded her that he still existed. After she ran out on Tom last night, things with him were more complicated than ever. The guilt of her secrecy was beginning to eat her alive. Just when she thought that she might get a bit of good in her life, she was made painfully aware of everything that could go awry.

  Would she have been waking up in his arms right about now if she hadn’t let Lucas get to her last night? Would she have found the courage and safety she needed to break free from the Northern Wind’s chains in the warmth of Tom’s embrace? She’d never know now, and she had no one to blame but herself.

  She was starting to think that happiness just wasn’t on the cards for her.

  Knowing she had to get up soon or risk being late at the office, she rose out of bed with an exhausted sigh. She dressed quickly in casual clothes, opting to skip over breakfast and have a small cup of coffee once she got to the mechanics. Her stomach still hadn’t fully recovered from all the roiling it had done the night before, grumbling discontentedly at the thought of possibly eating an egg or two before setting out. She only hoped that her lack of food and sleep wouldn’t affect her performance too much. What had happened last night was strictly between her and Tom. Jo and Nick didn’t deserve to suffer at the hands of her incompetence because she’d decided to take a foolish risk and failed.

  She groaned inwardly, knowing that she’d see him at the office at some point. What would she say? What would she do? How was she supposed to react to the man who’d confessed his attraction to her, only for her to run away without so much as a glance backward? She didn’t know. She had no answers at all, not a single one. Surprisingly, it made her more frustrated than frantic.

  “You could just stick to your orders and get it over with,” Savannah muttered to herself, pulling a light jacket on as she exited the house. Her bear protested immediately, and she agreed without dwelling on the ridiculous self-served advice.

  Throughout her time with the alpha pack, she’d made running her original impression of them through the mental wringer something of an art form. She could recite a mantra that Dan was dead, that Jo had hit him, that the Northern Wind would be forever splintered by their act of cold-blooded murder. While that might have worked way back when she knew nothing of the alphas and their capacity to care for those around them, she was now much too knowledgeable about their compassion and main goal to simply live a peaceful life in Woodhaven.

  She could remind herself that Dan was dead, she could remind herself that Tom’s pack had killed him, but then she could only recall how Lucas led with fear and rage, how the Northern Wind as a whole thrived off chaos and pain. The two packs were so different from one another. After having lived among both of them, she’d noticed early on that only one pack lacked the blatant moral compass and compassion that would allow them to kill in cold blood.

  It wasn’t the alphas.

  If they had in fact killed Dan, she knew, without a shadow of a doubt in her mind, that there was a reason for it. There had to be. And rather than exhaust her mind guilting herself over the secrets she’d decided to keep, she made her mind up that her time here would be best spent getting to the bottom of what exactly happened on the night Dan died. Once she got all the information out in the open, she promised herself that she’d make a decision on whether or not to incur Lucas’s wrath. She asked herself, was it really worth forsaking the Northern Wind?

  She was still utterly terrified of Lucas yes, but now that she’d learned that other packs like Tom’s existed, she couldn’t help but think that maybe some things are worth fighting for.

  ***

  “You’re in a foul mood this morning,” Nick commented lightly.

  Tom’s chest rattled in warning, but he didn’t speak. It wasn’t like he could disagree with his brother’s assessment. His body hadn’t fully recovered from the burn of Savannah’s rejection the night before. The passion they’d shared then was still fresh in his mind, tingling along his skin in an exhilarating production. He could almost feel the buildup of what had been about to come before she bolted without warning or hesitation. She was just… gone.

  “Just what the hell’s her angle?” Tom muttered furiously to himself, his bear grunting crossly in agreement. For once, their emotions lined up perfectly, anger meeting anger as Tom stomped indignantly around the shop, busying his hands with anything to keep his mind moving. If he stopped to think about the two of them together for even a moment longer, he wasn’t sure his bear would stay contained.

  Nick sighed. “Look, if she’d upsetting you that much, why don’t you go and talk to her?”

  Tom’s back rippled. “If I wanted your advice, I’d ask for it.”

  “And normally I wouldn’t care enough to offer it, but unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of tiptoeing around our issues like we usually do right now,” Nick replied, throwing down the oily cloth he held. Tom bristled in defense, but was unable to say or do more before Nick held up his hand in interruption.

  “Look, Tom. It’s been over a month and we’ve had nothing but radio silence from Lucas and his pack of thugs. The last time he was this quiet in-between attacks, he destroyed our cabin in an attempt to get to Jo,” Tom saw Nick’s eyes flash in anger as he recalled the danger his mate had endured.

  “We know he’s a second down, but we also know it was by choice. Which means we don’t really know anything at all.

  “I know at first, I was okay with watching from the sidelines as you worked on your little side-problem with Savannah, but as the days cree
p by with zero hints towards what Lucas might be planning, I can’t help but get a really bad feeling.” Nick suppressed a shudder. “The kind of bad feeling that I’ll never take too lightly again. Not after what happened with Jo.” Tom remembered how terrified Jo had been as the Northern Wind pack tore at the door of the cabin, human and defenseless against their wrath. Thinking back, realizing just how close she’d been to imminent death was a harrowing thought indeed.

  Nick steeled his gaze, spearing Tom with it. “So whatever new developments or setbacks you’ve experienced with Savannah, I don’t want to know nor do I care. That’s your business to worry about, and I’m more than willing to let you walk that journey at a later date, but right now, we cannot afford for you to be distracted.”

  “I’m not—” Tom began.

  “Oh, save it!” Nick interrupted with a snarl. “I know you know I spoke to Dan yesterday. About joining us. He didn’t say yes outright, but he seemed… receptive. I think if we expedite the process a bit, maybe show him we are open to trusting him a bit more, we might just be able to sway him to our side.” |

  He stared intently at Tom. “Lucas is lying in wait and Dan is nearly healed. Whatever the Northern Wind is planning, even you can’t deny that Dan offers a unique insight into their thought process, and could possibly supply us with a bit of extra muscle to boot. But we can’t guarantee that he’ll be of any help to us unless he agrees to join our pack.”

  Nick sighed. “So, yeah. This is what we’re dealing with right now. Anything else is unfortunately secondary and you are going to have to start treating it as such.” He turned back to the car they were working on. “And Tom? That’s not a suggestion.”

  Tom’s nostrils flared, but he held his tongue. Letting his bear run wild in response to Nick’s harsh words wasn’t going to negate the truth in them. The safety of the pack was always their first priority, Tom admitted. It was a rare occurrence for him to be too busy to keep the pack in order, but lately everything had decided to start spinning out of control. Nick wasn’t to blame for that — hell, Savannah wasn’t even to blame. It was all him, so he had to do whatever he could to keep things from getting worse.

  Fortunately, dealing with Dan offered a solution to their lack of pack muscle as well as providing Tom with an appreciated distraction from dealing with one particular mercurial, honey-eyed complication he knew would be walking into the shop at any moment.

  “Well, then” he finally sighed. “I’ll head to the back and get that ball rolling,” he said. Despite the friendly rapport he had established with Dan these past few weeks, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of his old, familiar distrust bubbling up just beneath the surface. “You sure about this, Nick?”

  Nick shrugged. “I can’t afford not to be.”

  Tom knew that was the best response he’d be getting from his brother. Without further dispute, he departed the garage to get started on the day’s biggest to-do item.

  He slipped into the office just as the front entrance swung open. He smelled the distinct scent of jasmine and honey, knowing immediately who it was before Savannah stepped inside with a slight shiver.

  “Morning!” Jo chirped.

  “Hey,” Savannah mumbled, fighting for something loosely resembling a smile as her gaze passed over his. Tom felt a pang of guilt as he took in the bags under her eyes. Maybe she’d been more affected by last night’s events than he’d originally thought.

  Shaking the thought from his mind, he kept moving. Nick was right, intense though it might feel at times, his attraction to Savannah and all the complications that came with it were not the pack’s number one priority. It was long past due that Tom got back to having the pack’s best interest at heart. He’d always been particularly good at it.

  Without another glance Savannah’s way, he slipped into the back room, closing the door tightly behind him.

  Tom entered the room to find Dan pacing back and forth —or at least attempting to. His gait was jerky and broken, still unable to put too much weight on his injured leg, but he was up and walking, and that was all that mattered. Progress was progress.

  “Hey, how ya feeling?” Tom asked, watching him with mild caution.

  Dan looked over to him with a strained smile, obviously feeling the pain of walking on a busted leg. “Better, and that’s good enough for me.”

  Tom nodded his approval. “Sounds good enough for me.” Dan gave him a look of mild confusion, making him crack a half-grin. “I mean, how would you like to finally get out of this stuffy old den, Limpy?” He turned the knob of the room door, pushing outward and letting it swing open.

  “It seems Nick thinks you’re good to come through now.” Tom was careful to omit his own instinctive wariness. “Though I’d advise against any running or shifting until that leg has had a bit more time to shape up.”

  A grin flitted across Dan’s lips, though his attention was almost completely on the door left tantalizingly thrown wide. “Yeah, well, I don’t think I could do any of that if I tried.”

  Doubt crossed Dan’s face, and Tom watched as he painfully tore his hungry gaze from the open doorway, licking his lips. “What about you? You sure about this?”

  Tom only shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I think. Nick trusts you with your freedom. Whether or not his judgment of your character is justified lies solely with you.” He turned towards the door. “Either way, you’re free to do as you please. Run back to Lucas if you want, or maybe you want to go off and do your own thing; start over.” He gave another, smaller shrug. “Or maybe something else entirely,” he murmured, artfully avoiding any mention of joining the pack. “But that doesn’t have anything to do with me. There’s only one reason I’m here…” He beckoned Dan forward, assuring the injured bear that this wasn’t a hoax or a test.

  “Starting today, you finally have your life back, Dan. No catch.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Savannah was elbow-deep in paperwork as the door to the locked back room swung open. Her bear immediately raised its head and she followed its motion, sampling the air. That familiar scent wafted to her; it was full-bodied and musky. She was sure she’d encountered it sometime long before her time in Woodhaven, perhaps with the Northern Wind, but she couldn’t be entirely sure. The soft sound of two male voices met her ears, discussing something she couldn’t make out in quiet tones.

  “Good morning Savannah.” She jumped at the sound of Nick’s voice s it sounded behind her. Nick wasn’t the second voice in the back? Then who…

  “M-morning,” Savannah stammered, shaking off the shock and replacing it with precaution. She didn’t want to make assumptions about what was going on, but she had to admit that a secret third voice coming from a room that stayed locked was odd to say the least. But even though the alpha pack wasn’t without their secrets, they were always open with her when they needed to be. She was an outsider, after all, so it seemed justified enough.

  Jo slipped into the office a moment later, going to Nick and whispering something in his ear that made him smile. They both seemed really relaxed, not how Savannah expected two people to react if they were about to reveal bad news. That’s all she needed to convince herself to calm down. She decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and let the situation unfolding before her speak for itself.

  Nick made a grumpy noise in the back of his throat, and Jo grinned at him. “It’ll be fine.”

  Savannah opened her mouth to ask what would be fine before a shuffling noise in the back room commanded her attention. She stared intently at the door, her mind running manically through her memories to pinpoint the pungent aroma, but nothing would take hold. She would unfortunately have to go into this revelation blind.

  “Who’s tha—” Savannah began to ask in a panic, her jaw nearly hitting the floor as Dan came hobbling and bandaged through the unlocked doorway.

  “Now, I know we’ve been really tight-lipped about things lately,” Nick began, his eyes becoming slightly wary as he trained them on her.
“But we decided it wasn’t fair to either one of you to keep you in the dark. So this is Dan.” He looked to Dan. “Dan, this is Savannah. We hired her a while back.”

  Savannah’s heart began to pound; the sound of her blood rushing in her ears like white water rapids as her eyes met Dan’s was overwhelming. The two sides of the story, the familiar smell, the way this alpha pack acted despite Lucas’s attack… it all fell into place at once. She looked over the bit of gauze on his body. Dan was never dead; he was just healing.

  “Uh, nice to meet you!” Dan stammered frantically, eyes a bit wide. She could tell he was silently pleading for her to act normal. If either of them gave away that they knew each other, they were both likely to be in big trouble.

  “Hello!” she replied, trying to play off some of her initial shock as confusion. “I, um…” she turned to Nick. “He’s a…” she shut her mouth immediately, not sure what all to say in front of Jo.

  Tom grinned, though it seemed a bit tight-lipped. “Yep.”

  “Yeah, I know all this might come as a bit of a shock to the two of you,” Nick explained. “You both came into our territory at a time when we couldn’t afford to be very liberal with our trust. As a result, we ended up keeping a few things from you. I hope you can forgive that.”

  Savannah shook her head, opting for complete honesty. “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know something was back there. I’d just never gotten around to asking.” She met Dan’s gaze again, mind still reeling about this surprise turn of events. “I’d have never guessed a whole man was back there, though.” A whole bear shifter, at that.

  Dan shrugged, feigning nonchalance though she could see his gaze flit to Tom’s scrutinizing stare for a split second before speaking. “I got hit by a car, banged up pretty badly. They opted to help me out until I was well enough to hack it on my own.”