Her sisters had agreed to come to Sunday dinner at Miriam and Mikhail’s. She’d missed them. She’d promised them before she left for Africa that she and Ky would make it a point to come home every month for a few days.
Ky knocked on the door, and it opened immediately. Laken wondered if Miriam hadn’t been standing right behind it, anxiously awaiting their arrival.
Miriam hugged her as she and Ky stepped inside. “How are you two doing?” She let go of Laken and wrapped her arms around Ky’s waist. “How was Africa?”
“Great!” Ky’s smile was bright in his sun-darkened face. “You wouldn’t believe how incredible it is to be there, to be a part of it all, and at the same time, it’s so sad.”
“I’ve never seen you so happy. Come in. Almost everyone’s here.” She took Laken’s hand. “Including Carina and Cadence. And they’ve missed you.”
“Almost everyone?” Ky asked. “Let me guess, Jonah’s not here.”
“Oh, no. He’s here. This time it’s Isaac. He said he’d be a few minutes late. Something to do with a case.”
“Did Mae and the others make it safely back to Bear Canyon Valley?”
“No incident, thankfully,” Miriam said. “And we’ve seen Bain twice. He had lunch with your uncle once, and dinner with both of us last week.”
Cari and Cade popped out of the other room and grabbed Laken in a hug.
“I’m glad you’re home!” Cari squealed. “Tell me you’re staying through the holidays.”
“Yes, say you are,” Cade insisted.
Mikhail handed Laken, Cade, and Carina each a glass of wine. “Merlot? You’ll love this one, if you’re a fan. It’s a special edition.”
“We’re staying through.” Laken laughed. “What have you two been up to?”
“Just work,” Cari said.
“You?” Laken looked at Cade.
Cade shrugged. “Work, mostly.” She took a sip of the wine.
Behind them, the door opened.
“Isaac!” Miriam ran to the door and hugged the big polar bear shifter. “You made it.”
Laken studied Ky’s brother. If possible, he looked even more worn out than the last time they’d seen him.
“How’s the case?” Ky asked his brother after giving him a shoulder hug.
“Goddamned cat burglar. Things escalated shortly after you left. But I think we may be getting close.”
“What?” Carina said to Isaac. “I’m Laken’s sister. Carina. Cari, preferably.”
“Isaac.” He shook her hand.
“What’s this about a cat burglar?” Cari asked.
“Isaac’s with NYPD. He’s a detective.” Miriam beamed with pride. “Let’s go into the living room. We’ve got appetizers galore.”
“Special Task Force,” Ky added.
“Quit that, you two.” Isaac shook his head, then said to Cari, “I’ve been working on the cat burglar case.”
“You said you were getting close?” Cari probed.
“Do you still think it’s a shifter?” Ky asked.
A crash, the sound of glass shattering, made Laken flinch. Cade’s wine glass had broken into tiny bits and had sent red wine splatters out in a wide circle.
Cade’s obsidian eyes were wide, her olive skin pale. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what happened.”
Miriam patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t concern yourself. It’s an easy fix. I’ll be right back.”
“Let me help.” Cade trailed her toward the kitchen.
“Is she okay?” Isaac’s asked, following her with his eyes.
Laken noticed the amber of his bear in the depths of his eyes. Was it possible? Could he and Cade be…
Ky was watching her, a smile on his face. “I saw it, too,” he whispered, taking her hand.
“Is that something we want to discourage?”
“Good luck with that,” he smiled. “Isaac’s as headstrong as I am.”
Laken rose up on her toes and kissed him on the lips. “I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
The End
About Elle Thorne
Elle spends her time writing stories about hot men, sexy women, and the stuff that happens between them. On occasion, those men and women are aliens, shifters, demons. This makes them so much hotter!
www.ElleThorne.com
Seduced by Santa by Mina Carter
About Seduced by Santa
A woman determined to spread the Christmas spirit…
Former socialite turned community centre worker Candice Kane loves Christmas. In the run down area she works in, economics and rising unemployment mean that there isn't a lot of Christmas spirit to go around. Determined to do something about it, for the last couple of years she's arranged a Christmas Party, complete with a visit from Santa for the neighbourhood kids. This year though, a break-in and damage from vandals means the party could be cancelled.
A Santa who hates Christmas…
Rhod is…was…a Santa. For years he joined the other men in his family delivering presents, until the attitude and ungratefulness of the rich children he delivered to made him hang up his red suit. Working for the Paranormal Protection Agency, he's convinced himself that he's happier without being the big guy anymore.
When he and his partner rescue Candy from an attack in a secluded alley, all Rhod's decisions are put to the test. Can he hold out against a woman with Christmas spirit in her heart, or will he lose his own in the process?
Chapter 1
Once, just once, it would be nice for things to go right. Candy sighed and dropped her head into her hands, closing her eyes to shut out the crap that littered her desk. She was screwed, six ways to Sunday and back again. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars… All that jazz.
“Fuck.”
Leaning back in her chair, she shoved her hands into her hair and looked at the papers on her desk. Bills filled it, almost covering the crime report in its neat little folder. Her heart hit rock bottom. After months of planning for the Christmas party, months of anticipation for the kids who came to the Chapel Centre, some fucking jerk had ruined it all. One break in, one act of vandalism and all that planning had been for nothing.
The Chapel was the only community centre of its kind, deep in the heart of the most deprived area of the city. Kids around here were lucky to eat one good meal a day, and Christmas…well, the bright sparkly Christmas peddled in department stores and on TV was beyond the reach of most of the parents. Parents ground down with job cuts and rent increases, their eyes shadowed and tired as they tried to explain to their children why Santa had run out of the big presents they wanted. She knew they tried their best, but there was only so much money, and she knew in most households there was more going out than coming in.
That didn’t matter with kids though. Kids didn’t care about finances; all they saw was the tree and presents. Which is why she’d organized the big Christmas party at the Chapel for the last three years. Held on Christmas Eve, there were party games and a Christmas sing-along before each child and the parents got a hot meal.
The kids knew the drill: after dinner, sleigh bells would ring outside and their special guest would arrive. Candy loved seeing their faces at the first sound of a booted foot…the anticipation and delight as that red suit and the big white beard came into view. By the time the first ‘ho-ho-ho’ rang out in the hall, at least four kids had squealed and one started to cry. Then they all lined up and by the end of the night, each child had spoken to Santa and gone away with a brightly wrapped gift.
Every Christmas Eve for the last three years. Not this year though. Because of some little jerk, the party was going to have to be cancelled. She fought back tears at the thought of disappointing all those kids, pinching the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes again. Somehow she had to make this right.
Candice, when are you going to stop messing about with your little pet project and come home? Her father’s voice rang in her mind, his derisive tone setting her teeth o
n edge. Your mother and I would like you to meet Robert, he’s new with the company. Up and coming, very nice young man. Just your type.
Shaking her head, she opened her eyes. Just her type. Yeah, right. Her father had no clue what her type was. All Sebastian Kane saw was what he wanted, and in the Kane family that was all that mattered. Everyone deferred to her father without question. Except her.
Fed up with his overbearing manner, Candy had moved out as soon as she’d come into her inheritance from her grandmother and gotten her own place. Then she’d started putting what money she had to good use: renovating the dilapidated old chapel and turning it into a community centre. In three years, they’d gone from a few curious youngsters to being at the centre of the local community. Mom and toddler groups, homework clubs, fundraisers…if you could think of it, they did it. And every year they built towards the Christmas Eve party, the bank account swelling and plans in place to make the money go as far as possible.
She pulled the repair schedule toward her. All that effort had been shattered with one random selfish act. Once the repairs they needed had been paid for, the money would be gone. Wiped out. She couldn’t feed people on fresh air or promises. They’d have to cancel the party.
With a sigh she picked up the phone, steeling herself to ring around and tell the suppliers that she couldn’t pay the bills, then arrange for workmen to arrive in the morning to start putting the place right.
An hour later she put the phone down with a little of her faith in humanity restored. Once they’d heard what had happened, most of the suppliers had either offered their products free or alternatives at a vastly reduced cost. A row of sums crawled down the pad near the phone as she added everything up. She could just about cover it out of her own pocket until the insurance money came through in the new year.
There was just the problem of getting a new Santa, since the guy at the agency—‘Genuine Claus elves to put that extra magic in your Christmas’—had flat out told her, no money, no Santa. He’d even refused to refund her deposit. Bastard. Pushing to her feet, she grabbed her coat and bag to head for the door. That was a problem for tomorrow. Tonight, she’d had enough.
“You are one fucking lucky bastard, Stone. You know that?” Rhod Claus demanded as the woman in red, his best friend’s new mate, walked off with a sexy little sashay in her hips and headed back inside.
“Oh, don’t I just know it.” Stone, leaning on the wall next to him as the pair stood outside the brand spanking new PPA offices, grinned and twirled the liquid in the bottle between his fingers.
It was the company’s Christmas cum office-warming party, and all the agency’s operatives had been ordered to attend. Even them, although Stone hated parties and Rhod flat out hated Christmas.
Despite the fact his surname was Claus.
Because of the fact his surname was Claus.
Born and bred in the North Pole into the famous Claus clan, he wasn’t just one of Santa’s little helpers. Oh no. He was a main bloodline Claus, which meant when Dec 24th hit, he gained a couple of hundred pounds, five decades and a beard like a frost-covered bush to deliver presents to undeserving, snot-nosed, spoilt little brats.
And don’t even get him started on the fucking reindeer. Temperamental pains in the ass, they thought it was funny to pull an emergency stop and pitch him off the freaking roof. Last time they’d done it, just before he’d turned his back on the red suit for good, he’d threatened to turn them into rugs. It had taken months for the hoof-shaped bruise on his ass to fade.
“Life is gooooood.” Stone leaned back against the wall and took a swig from the bottle, then shivered in his thick coat and eyed Rhod with disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re out here in just a shirt. Your blood must be anti-freeze or something.”
Rhod shrugged noncommittally. Their boss, Iliona, knew what he was. Knew that among the thousands of elves who’d left the North Pole calling themselves “Claus,” he was the real deal. But no one else did, not even Stone. They all thought he was just a winter elf. “Yeah, something like tha—”
A scream shattered the silence, slicing through the darkness and rattling around the alley they stood in. It was female, nearby and terrified. Both men reacted without a thought, sprinting toward the noise. The alley let them down further away from the main road and into the heart of the neighborhood.
“Which way?” Rhod demanded as the scream cut off. His heart pounded, adrenalin surging through his veins at the thought of a woman in danger. Sure, he’d made a shit Santa. But at plus six foot and built like a linebacker, he made a fucking good bodyguard.
Stone lifted his head, his nostrils flaring as he swung this way and that. Without a word, he streaked off down one of the narrower allies between buildings. Rhod didn’t question him. A werewolf, Stone’s nasal credentials were beyond compare. His natural mean-streak combined with Rhod’s bad temper and ninja-like abilities ensured that they made a damn good team.
He barreled into the alleyway a split second after his partner to find the wolf squaring off against three bully-boys. A woman cowered in a corner behind them. His temper flared from simmering to inferno within a heartbeat. There was nothing he hated more than a bully, unless it was three of the bastards.
“Nothing to see here, suggest you guys walk away. Before you get hurt,” One of the bullies snarled.
“Before we get hurt?” Rhod cocked an eyebrow. Realizing he still held his bottle in his hand, he lifted it and drained what was left. No need to let good alcohol go to waste. Wasn’t like he could get drunk anyway. Unless it came from the North Pole, alcohol had no effect on him whatsoever.
“Yeah, you and your pretty boyfriend there. Heh…boyfriend, see that?” The guy in the middle, obviously the ringleader, laughed at his own joke as he pointed out Stone to his friends. Rhod’s eyebrow winged up into his hairline. He’d bet that was the first time Stone had been referred to as pretty. Ever.
The guy stepped forward and a quick movement of his arm dropped a blade into his hand. It was a wicked looking little thing that glinted in the flickering light from a doorway behind Stone.
“I suggest you get lost before we fuck you up.”
“Fuck us up?” Rhod asked, feeling his face setting as, next to him, Stone took a deep breath, then shook his head.
“Just human. Nothing special.”
“What are you, fucking deaf? Yeah, we gonna fuck you up. Big time.”
Rhod and Stone were moving before the trio could draw another breath. Stone leapt, all pretense at being human gone as he rebounded off the wall opposite, while Rhod flipped his bottle and smashed the bottom off on a handy dumpster before coming in on the other side. Used to dealing with the scum of the paranormal world, both men fought fast and dirty.
The alleyway exploded into a chaotic storm of fists, feet and claws as the pair took the three humans apart. Within thirty seconds the fight was over, their opponents in a groaning heap at their feet as the mouthy leader got an up close and personal look at the jagged edge of the bottle in Rhod’s hand. The human paled, a pain-filled moan escaping his lips as his gaze riveted on the sharp glass.
In a semi-human form, Stone crouched on the other side of the bleeding, moaning pile of bodies. He growled, the animalistic sound a clear warning.
“What was that about ‘fucking us up’ again?” Rhod snarled, shoving the edge of the bottle closer, even though he had no intention of actually cutting the dumb-shit human. The leader whimpered, and the sharp stink of urine filled the already fetid air of the alleyway.
“Oh, for fucks sake…” Rhod jumped back quickly. The last thing he needed was to get piss all over his new pants. Urine and vomit never came out properly. No matter how many times he cleaned them, he could always smell the damned stuff.
Before he could say anything else, another sound caught Rhod’s attention. Snapping his head up, he focused on the form of the woman in the corner. She wasn’t cowering anymore, just leaning against the wall and watching them with wide eyes.
Time stopped, the world around ceasing to exist as he took in the utter perfection of her face. Heart-shaped with exotically slanted grey eyes, a button nose and lips made for sin, she was absolutely gorgeous. His heart stuttered in his chest as his body flared instantly to life, his cock hard and heavy in his pants. Then he clocked the blood at her temple, the unfocused look in her eyes and felt like a complete and utter shit. He was lusting after an injured woman. How low could he get?
“Deal with them,” he ordered Stone, who’d mostly reverted to human form and already had his phone in his hand, dialing for backup.
“On it.” Stone replied in a brisk voice. His heavy boot landed in the middle of the bully-leader’s chest with a thump, shoving him back down when he tried to get up. “Oh no, you lay there and relax. I insist… Oh, is that Mandy? Mandy, can you tell Iliona we have a situation in the alley behind Dmitri’s building…get her to send Cal and Gran down here? Yeah, couple of locals decided it was a good idea to jump a woman. Yeah…we’re just checking her now but we might need a car brought around to take her to the emergency room.”
Rhod stepped around his burly partner and approached the woman in the corner like he would a frightened animal, his hands outstretched to show he meant no harm.
“Hey there.” He pitched his voice low as he crouched in front of her, using his body to cut off her view of the rest of the alley and Stone, who hadn’t quite retained his human form yet. No sense in scaring her more than she already was.
Anger ripped through him again as she tried to look around him and keep an eye on her assailants. It was easy to see what they’d been about. Beautiful in that delicate way male predators preferred, she was fine-boned and almost as small as a child. That impression was reinforced by the big coat she huddled into, her arms around her middle.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m Rhod. What’s your name, sweetheart? And where does it hurt?”
Alphas for the Holidays Page 19