She’d have to walk around the garage to the front door, but at least she could get out. Opening her trunk, she took out her tire iron. She’d been on her own too long not to be prepared for any emergency. She hated to think about breaking one of the windows in the house. They looked damn expensive, but she’d worry about that later. Her situation could turn dangerous very quickly if she didn’t find adequate shelter. She’d just eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch the next month—okay, two months, maybe three—to pay for any damage she did.
She propped open the door as an added precaution in case she did need to get back into the garage. She walked around to the front, cursing as her feet sank into the snow covering the ground. She sighed. As always, she started to celebrate her good luck too early. The snow had started to drift, and she had to wade through at least two feet of snow on her way to the front of the house.
She really hoped that guardian angel was enjoying herself wherever she was because Katie certainly wasn’t.
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Logan McCall knew he had his choice of women in the greater Chicago area. Hell, he had his choice of women from all over the world. Why? He was rich, handsome, and a member of the McCall wolf pack, the most influential shifters in the city— not the greater United States.
Right now, he was on his way out of the city with what could be the storm of the century racing along beside him. This morning he had received a call from his caretaker, Morgan, worry evident in the man’s voice. His wife was eight and a half months pregnant with their first child, and he didn’t want to get snowed in on the mountain with her due date so close. Logan understood completely—family came first.
But the man was worried about the amount of snow and the below freezing temperatures being predicted. He didn’t want to leave the house unattended in case the electricity went out. An unheated house, plus plummeting temperatures equaled some serious problems, the worst of which would be frozen pipes. The house could be kept warm with the fireplaces and the generator Logan had installed when he built the cabin. But the fires had to be tended, and the generator kept fed with gasoline.
That was the reason he was driving to a remote mountain cabin.
The reason there wasn’t a beautiful woman by his side to help pass the time was because Logan McCall was a man—a wolf—ready to find his mate and settle down.
He’d built his house in the mountains outside of Chicago so he would have somewhere to go and let his wolf out once in a while. When he stayed in the city too long, his wolf got antsy. Unlike his older brother, Jarod, who could truly be called the wolf of Wall Street because he loved the city life so much.
As he drove up the road leading to his house, he noticed there were more and more driveway connections on the two-lane road. He didn’t like the fact that the area was becoming more populated. What he really didn’t like were the investors buying up homes, or building them, to rent to vacationers.
He’d built his home long before that had become the trend and resented the intrusion. It brought too many strangers into the area. Too many who might not appreciate the fact that they had a wolf shifter living next door. Prejudice against shifters still existed, even in the modern world.
Oh, there were many that would appreciate the fact that they were staying next to a millionaire shifter. Last year he’d had some trouble with a few college coeds who had wanted to cash in on his playboy reputation and had turned up at his cabin uninvited, hoping he’d take one look at their puffed up hair and packed on makeup and ask them to stay. They would have stood a better chance if their bodies hadn’t been stick thin. Wolves, especially his, wanted a curvy woman to call their own.
As the snow started falling faster, he debated just saying to hell with it and letting the chips—or snowflakes—fall where they may. A couple of busted water pipes would probably be the extent of the problem. He was rich enough; he could afford any repairs that needed to be done.
But something kept nagging at the back of his mind, and now he found himself halfway there, his sturdy four-wheel drive eating up the miles despite the wind and snow and plunging temperatures. He wasn’t worried about getting snowed in. Even if the electricity did go out, he knew there would be gas for the generator, and he had both an electric and gas stove, so fixing food wouldn’t be a problem. The cabin was always stocked with staples and the food in the freezer would stay frozen for at least a couple of days. Plus, he could always shift and hunt if he started running low on food.
He checked in one last time with his assistant to make sure everyone in his department had left for the day. He and his brother took great pride in taking care of their employees, even the ones who were not pack members. He had no doubt the building housing McCall Holdings was already empty. He and the other department heads had decided to dismiss their workers early in order to give everyone who wasn’t already prepared plenty of time to get home and stocked up on supplies.
All of them, except his brother. Luckily, Jarod really only directly supervised one employee—Sara, his personal assistant. And Logan knew his brother wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Sara was Jarod’s mate. A mate the man had been avoiding—denying—for the last several months.
He shook his head at the other man’s stupidity. If Logan was ever lucky enough to find his mate, he’d launch an all-out attack until she was withering beneath him in bed, too tired and satisfied to say anything but yes when he proposed to her.
But then Jarod had always been the stubborn McCall brother.
Logan made it to his house in good time, even though the storm had settled in for the long haul by the time he got there. Pulling into the driveway, his headlights swept across the large expanse of lawn in front of his house.
He loved this cabin in the woods. His family laughed when he called the six bedroom, four bath log home a cabin. He couldn’t help it if his wolf needed room to run—both inside and out. The rambling house perched on the side of the mountain had more than enough accompanying land to accommodate Logan’s need to run wild and free. Hell, half the McCall pack could take up residence in the forest surrounding his house in wolf form and they would be hard pressed to run into each other.
It was exactly what Logan wanted. The front, with its plate glass windows and a wide wooden deck, looked out over the mountains. Forest surrounded the house on three sides. He’d had it built over five years ago when the stress of his duties at McCall Holdings had started to get to him. Now he came here any time he needed to unwind.
He’d realized about that same time that his brother Hunter was the smartest of the three male siblings, second only to their sister who had given up the corporate world to raise her family. Hunter had never entered the corporate world. A man married to the military best described his younger brother.
Logan made the slight incline with no problem. He frowned when his headlights revealed indentations left by a set of tires. The snow had already partially covered them. They were too new to be his caretaker’s tracks. The man had left early this morning. Who had been by his house? His wolf, who had been happy and content the entire trip, sat up suddenly.
“Shit.” Logan cursed as he hit the garage door button on his rearview mirror and nothing happened. The weather must be blocking the satellite signal, and he didn’t have a remote. He cut the engine and stepped outside.
He cursed again as the cold stabbed through him. Even though his wolf kept his body a perfect temperature, which ran hotter than the average human’s did, he still hated the first burst of cold on his exposed skin. He loved the snow, but not the cold that went with it. A damn good thing he wasn’t a polar bear shifter, he thought, flipping up his collar.
He’d just put his key in the front door lock when a noise caught his attention. His wolf rumbled deep inside him, and he stilled, listening for it again. It sounded like something was scratching against the side of the house. Most animals stayed away from his cabin, knowing there was a much larger, deadly predator around. Every now and then, a bear would wander down from
the mountain. The sound wasn’t quite loud enough to be made by a bear. Unless it was injured and weak.
Just what he bloody needed to deal with tonight. Leaving his key in the lock, he walked along the front deck to the side porch. The roof had protected most of it, although there were snow drifts along the outside of the railings. He couldn’t wait to make his coffee in the morning and sit outside watching it snow.
He hadn’t come up here for that purpose, but he realized he’d been needing a weekend away from everything. He was growing tired of the city. The constant need to be on the move. He wanted to sit back, relax and forget cell phones and the Internet had ever been invented.
He sounded like a damn country song, but it was true. And like those songs, he wanted to find the woman who would steal his heart so she could sit there right beside him.
As he walked around the porch, he realized referring to his house as a cabin in the woods was a misnomer. He knew it was larger than most houses in the city, but he loved it. He’d had it designed to his own specifications, hoping one day he’d be able to use it on a regular basis as a vacation get-away with all of his family. Maybe this year he could convince his mother to have Christmas here. He knew his nieces and nephew would love it. Especially if it snowed like this.
Maybe then, everyone would realize how serious he was about finding a mate.
Coming to the end of the porch, he frowned, realizing he hadn’t found anything that could have been making the noise. No loose shutters, railings, renegade tree branches. When he reached the back deck, he stood for a moment, enjoying the view there as well. This large deck overlooked a small clearing. Right on the edge was the start of the forest which now sported snow covered trees.
This was why he’d wanted to build a house here. The peace. The quiet. The beauty of the wild.
Just then, his wolf went wild, setting up a howl inside him. Logan started, never having heard quite that sound from his animal.
What was wrong? He looked around then moved toward the steps leading down the back of the house, his wolf guiding him. He cut through the snow as fast as he could as he made his way around the other side of the house, urgency eating away at him. He strode around the back of the house onto the additional parking pad. Nothing there. Turning the corner, he was surprised to see the back garage door open and light spilling out of the doorway.
What the hell?
He knew Morgan would never have left the door open. He remembered the tracks in the snow and realized he had an intruder. Cautiously, he went inside the garage and cursed again. The garage held a late model compact car. He knew immediately the car didn’t belong to anyone in his family. It was too old of a model. It might have belonged to someone in the pack, but he doubted anyone would open his door and come on in. Besides, how did they get the garage door open? Putting his hand on the hood, he realized his intruder had arrived not long ago since the engine was still warm.
He went back through the outside door, determined to find out what the hell was going on. Four steps from the garage door, his foot hit a solid lump on the ground.
“Damn it.” He was glad his sister wasn’t here tonight. She was always telling Hunter he needed to clean up his language around the children.
The contact with the unknown object hadn’t hurt, but what the hell was it? Bending down on one knee, he brushed the snow away from what appeared to be a bundle of clothing. As he did, he realized it wasn’t something his caretaker had accidently left out in the snow. It was a body. Please don’t let it be a dead body, he thought as he hurried to remove the rest of the snow. Flipping the person over onto their back, he was stunned to discover it was a woman. He pressed his hand on her chest to assure himself she was breathing. She was.
But what the fuck was a woman doing out in this storm? And more importantly, what was she doing at his house?
The depth of the layer of snow on top of her indicated that she’d been lying here for at least twenty minutes, maybe more. He didn’t have time to sort out exactly what had happened. He needed to get her inside and warmed up.
Plus, his wolf was going bat-shit crazy.
He picked her up out of the snow and lifted her into his arms. The large, puffy coat she wore prevented him from guessing her true shape. She probably weighed more than the average female, but that didn’t bother him. He liked women of all shapes and sizes. And he absolutely loved a woman with real curves.
He grinned at himself. At least he wouldn’t be lonely this weekend. The storm had apparently left him a gift on its way through.
If she wasn’t badly hurt. His wolf snapped at the thought of the woman being hurt.
What’s got your tail in a knot? he asked his animal. That earned him a snarl and a deep, feral growl. Powering through the snow that had built up on the side of the house, he made his way back to the open garage door. At least the woman had had enough sense to keep it propped open. He hurried in out of the snow that had started falling harder since he’d gotten out of his car.
Once in the garage, he kicked away the stick she’d used to prop the door open, and the metal door slammed closed behind them. He hurried to the door leading to the house, cursing again when he remembered he’d left his keys in the front door.
“Fuck it,” he murmured. He turned the knob until it gave way under his strength and opened.
He managed to keep the woman in his arms as he slapped his hand against the switch in the kitchen, flooding the room with light. Sitting her down on one of the bar stools that surrounded the large island, he kept her steady between his legs. His hands were cold, so it took him two tries to undo the zipper of her coat. When he did, he got the shock of his fucking life as her scent perfumed the air.
Mate!
Now he knew why his wolf was acting wild and untamed.
The woman he’d found in the snow was his mate.
Chapter 14
Well, hell’s bells. He stood there for a moment cradling her between his legs, stunned. With gentle hands, he supported her neck and pushed the hair back from her face. He needed to see what she looked like. As he did, he realized she was unconscious because of the knot on the side of her head near her temple. It wasn’t bloody, for which he was grateful. If his wolf smelled her blood, he wasn’t sure what would happen. Logan was more than upset that she’d hit her head hard enough to knock herself out.
My God, he thought, what would have happened to her if he hadn’t come up to the cabin this weekend? And gotten here exactly when he did. It didn’t bear thinking.
Keeping her upright, he bent at the waist to remove her shoes and socks. He smiled at the thin black socks with hearts on them. They were cute, but he’d have to see that she wore something more substantial in this kind of weather. Next, he managed to get her out of her coat without jostling her too much. He was a little worried that she hadn’t started to stir yet, except for a few sounds and sighs. How hard had she hit her head? Or maybe she’d been out in the snow longer than he’d thought.
Taking just enough time to toe his boots off, he picked her up and carried her to the master bedroom. He laid her on the end of the bed so he could call his mother, who was a retired nurse. As he laid her down, she mumbled something, but he couldn’t catch it. He took it as a good sign that she turned over on her side by herself. She curled her legs up toward her torso, no doubt trying to keep warm. He flipped the blanket lying on the bench seat at the end of the bed on top of her before grabbing the phone.
Just as he would have if one of his nieces or his nephew had been lying there, he stood by the side of the bed, watching just in case she moved and started to roll off the edge. His mother answered on the second ring.
“Hello.”
He was man enough to admit that the sound of his mother’s voice calmed him. She’d been the center, the rock of their family for so long, that his wolf took solace in her presence.
“Hi, Mom. I’ve got a little situation here I need your advice on.”
There was silence on the en
d of the line for a moment. No doubt she was motioning for his father to come on the line as well. Just because he was asking for his mother’s help now, didn’t mean he made a habit of it, so he supposed this call would come as somewhat of a shock to both his parents.
“What’s wrong, dear?” Her words held the same reassurance it had when he was a teenaged wolf who’d ended up in jail for fighting or drinking while underage. Or both. No repercussions. At least not until he’d sobered up.
“I’m at my cabin and I’ve stumbled upon—”
His father snorted. “Only you and Hunter would call that house a cabin.”
Even though Logan’s father, and his grandfather for that matter, had done much to see to the success of the McCall pack, it had been Logan and Jarod that had taken the pack to the next level of wealth and prosperity.
He didn’t get angry at his father’s sarcasm. He heard the hint of pride in his voice. He also heard the hint of sadness in his father’s voice when he spoke of Hunter. They’d had a major falling out years ago when Hunter had refused to become part of McCall Holdings and follow in the old man’s footsteps. What his father didn’t know was that Hunter was on his way through Chicago this weekend to see his parents. Logan hoped the snow didn’t interfere with those plans. It was time his father and brother got over their hot headedness and pride, if for no one else’s sake than for Alice McCall.
“Hush, now, let the boy speak. What's wrong, Logan? Are you hurt?”
“No, Mom. But someone else is.” Before she could get too worried, he hurried to fill her in on the details. “I found a woman in the snow outside the cabin. It appears she hit her head, but she hasn’t woken up yet. Not even when I brought her inside.”
“How long ago was that?”
Logan didn’t need to look at a clock. He’d been in the presence of his mate for almost fifteen minutes.
“And you say she hasn’t said anything yet?”
“She mumbled a little when I took her clothes off.”
Alphas for the Holidays Page 113