Celebration

by Anna Lowe

  My bear, she marveled. My mate.

  “Do you miss it?” She sure would, if she came from a place as nice as his home.

  He tilted his head this way and that. “Yes and no. I loved it, but it was time to move on. To follow my destiny.” When he looked up, his voice whispered in her mind. To you. I followed my destiny to you.

  His eyes sparkled, ensuring he didn’t regret it for a moment, and he never would.

  She pursed her lips, and her heart swelled in her chest.

  Mate, she whispered. My perfect mate.

  Mate, he replied. My perfect— Oops!

  “Oops?”

  He laughed, showing her where he’d smudged the nail polish. “Oops that, not oops about you. You will never be an oops, Summer. Never.”

  She couldn’t help cracking up at that. Her bear might not be a poet, but he sure was damn good at loving her.

  “Well, Christmases in Maine sure sound nice,” she said a little wistfully.

  “They are. But, hey.” He tickled her middle toe. “This is great, too. We have each other. We have our own place. We have a great clan. Not bad, huh?”

  His eyes shone, full of love and faith in the future — a future spent with people she loved and trusted — people who respected and loved her, too.

  “Yeah, this is great,” she agreed. “Especially a quiet day off. I’m really looking forward to tonight.”

  She’d saved her tips all month to buy presents for everyone, and they were already wrapped. She’d even been organized enough to send gifts to Ben and Fay in Montana — two adorable baby hoodies with bear ears on top. She couldn’t wait to see Teddy in the panda version she’d gotten him.

  “Who knows?” Drew added. “Maybe we’ll start our own traditions here, too.” Drew lifted an eyebrow, looking much naughtier than his usual clean-cut, well-mannered self. “I vote for breakfast in bed every Christmas from now on.” He ran his thumb along her thigh. His eyes flashed, and his hand inched higher.

  Her blood heated. Her face flushed. Her inner wolf growled for more.

  “Breakfast in bed, followed by painting nails,” she murmured, casually dropping her knee to one side.

  “Followed by kisses,” he whispered, putting the nail polish aside to sneak over to her end of the couch.

  “Lots of kisses,” she agreed a little breathlessly.

  He kissed his way up her leg, then paused at her belly, looking up at her.

  Damn, was her man hot. And whoa, did she want him all over again. Her mind already fast-forwarded through a dozen positions. On the couch. Beside the couch. On all fours. On her back. Her on top. Maybe even sixty-nine…

  “Sounds good to me,” Drew murmured in a husky voice.

  Oops. Her thoughts had slipped out again. She wondered which version he liked best.

  “All of them,” he growled.

  The scent of his arousal filled the room, driving her wild. She nudged his head lower, because the man had a truly talented tongue, and her body yearned to feel it again.

  “Is that okay?” she whispered.

  “More than okay,” he replied, ducking again.

  He kissed her belly button, then dipped lower, toward the top of her mound. Lower still, until his breath tickled her sex. He glanced up once, eyes smoldering, then bent down and—

  “Summer!” a voice called up the stairs.

  Drew’s head popped up, and Summer froze.

  “Yes?” she called a second later, trying to sound perfectly casual, like she’d been reading a book and not making out with the world’s best lover.

  “Are you busy?” Jessica called.

  Drew laid his head on Summer’s thigh and shot her a wry look.

  She was tempted to tell the truth and go on undisturbed, but she owed Jessica and the others too much.

  “Just, um, doing my nails.”

  Drew grinned, and she patted his head. Soon, my lover, she promised. Soon, we’ll pick up where we left off.

  Very soon, he agreed.

  “Can you give me a hand with some of the last-minute preparations?” Jessica asked.

  “Of course. Just a second and I’ll be right there.”

  “Thanks!”

  Sorry, she told Drew.

  He shook his head, kissed her belly one more time, and slowly stood, offering her his hand. Then he pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair. “Time to make our own traditions, right?”

  She smiled and kissed him, looking to the future again. “I can’t wait.”

  Chapter Six

  6:22 p.m. Christmas Day

  Soren backed into the saloon, pulling the stroller so it wouldn’t get whacked by the swinging doors. “Here we go, buddy. You ready for Christmas dinner?”

  Teddy raised a plump hand and grabbed for some tinsel. He missed, but, man — it was amazing how quickly the little guy learned new things. A month ago, Teddy would have just wiggled in place. Now, he was reaching out and grabbing things. Like Soren’s beard the second he got within reach.

  “You like that, little man?” Soren asked as he scooped up his son.

  Yeah, Teddy liked tugging on his beard, all right. Soren grinned. He liked it, too. He loved that face-to-face time with Teddy, who looked up as if his dad was the most amazing thing ever. Which was funny as hell, because Soren thought Teddy was the most amazing thing ever. He nuzzled his son, zipped him out of his jacket, and called into the back room of the saloon.

  “Are we allowed in yet?”

  “Not yet,” Sarah yelled back. “Just two minutes. We’re almost done.”

  He looked at Teddy. “They’ve been decorating all afternoon. What do you think of that?”

  Teddy babbled and wiggled his limbs. “A-ga-ga!”

  “Yeah, I agree,” Soren murmured.

  The saloon had been decorated for weeks with lights, boughs, and wreaths, but Sarah, Jess, and Janna had made a last-minute decision that the back room had to be fully decorated for their private Christmas dinner. Apparently, they were still at it.

  “Two minutes, huh?” He looked around. “Want to look at the lights?”

  Of course, Teddy wanted to look at the Christmas lights decorating the front room of the saloon. At almost seven months old, he was fascinated with the world around him — especially things that blinked, sparkled, or made noise.

  Soren walked Teddy around in a slow circle. The place felt so different with no customers around. So quiet and empty. Not that he minded a few days off. Not in the least.

  “Blue light. Yellow light. Green light…” he murmured, pointing to each one.

  Sarah had started him on that, telling him it would be good for the baby’s development.

  “Red light. See the red light?”

  Teddy cooed, and Soren walked just close enough to the wreath hanging above the jukebox to let it tickle Teddy’s arm.

  They walked a slow lap together, and then another, with Teddy gazing around the way a kid might in a museum. Soren did, too, thinking back to the first time he’d stepped foot in the Blue Moon Saloon earlier that year.

  It will need a lot of work, Tina Hawthorne-Rivera had said as she broke a trail through the cobwebs crisscrossing the place.

  He remembered the skeptical look Simon had shot him and his own response. We’ll do what we have to do. We have no choice.

  The saloon and the work had seemed so dreary back then, and he’d dragged himself through each listless day. Then Jessica and Janna came along and breathed life back into the place. They’d breathed life back into him and Simon, too, with their stubborn she-wolf insistence on looking forward, not back at the past.

  He hugged Teddy tighter. They’d all lost so much when the Blue Bloods annihilated their bear clan and wolf pack in Montana. But since then, they’d gained so much, too. Simon and Jess got back together, and Janna found Cole. Business at the saloon grew and grew, and the café next door had been a success from day one.

  Even that much seemed like a small miracle, and Soren had told himself a th
ousand times to be content. But he had never been able to convince himself entirely. Sure, he had been happy for the others, but damn, had it been hard, being around all those blissfully happy couples as the odd man out. A widower, in a way, because he believed his destined mate was dead.

  Teddy made a squeaking sound, and Soren tucked his head over his son’s. He’d never forget the day Sarah walked into the Quarter Moon Café and back into his life. That was the biggest miracle of all. Well, that and the fact that he’d managed to win her back after being such an ass in the beginning. He’d gone from lost and lonely to happy mate and father of the world’s most amazing child.

  He fingered a bullet hole in the paneling behind the pool table and took a deep breath. He’d come so close to losing everything again when the rogues attacked the saloon a second time. But Sarah — his brave Sarah — fought for her life and for the life of her child. Soren had managed to get back to the saloon just in time to help repel the Blue Bloods, but damn, had it been close.

  “A. A. A-ba-ba,” Teddy babbled, waving his hands.

  “A-ba-ba,” Soren murmured, closing his eyes. He held Teddy to his cheek, taking care not to scratch him with his beard. Such soft skin. Such a miracle that he had a son.

  His mind jumped to Todd, his cousin, and a pang hit his heart as it always did. He owed Todd so much. More than he could ever pay back.

  “Hey,” Sarah said softly, appearing at his side to slip an arm around him. “You good?”

  She had a knack for finding him just when he needed it most, and he hung on to her for a second.

  “Yeah,” he managed eventually. “Good. Great.”

  He did feel great, because Todd was okay, too. More than okay, from the sound of it. His cousin was loving every second of his new life in Montana with his mate and kids. Still, Soren kept his eyes shut a minute longer, wishing destiny didn’t make it quite so hard for everyone to earn their happy endings.

  Wouldn’t be as happy if you didn’t earn it, he reminded himself.

  And damn, had Todd earned it.

  You’ve earned it, too, Sarah’s touch said, settling his soul as only she could.

  “We’re ready,” she said. “Come and see.”

  He looked around the saloon a second longer, lingering on the mountain scene carved over the bar. A bear waded in a stream, a wolf howled at the moon, and an eagle soared in the sky above them.

  “What?” Sarah asked.

  He shrugged. “Just wondering if fate whispered in the ear of the shifter who carved it a hundred years ago. Did he know there’d be bear and wolf shifters running this place someday?”

  Sarah chuckled. “All we need is an eagle shifter now.”

  Soren faked a groan. “Don’t tempt fate.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “You’re right. I kind of like things the way they are now.”

  Soren did, too. Everyone was pitching in, and Summer, the newest member of the clan, had provided exactly the extra manpower — er, womanpower — needed to run the bar and café without anyone being overworked. Clint and Emma, the shifter siblings who lived in Cole’s old place above the Lazy Q stables, helped at peak times too, making everyone’s workload more manageable. So life was good. Great. Hell, they might even work out a schedule where everyone got a few days off on a regular basis.

  Sarah hooked her elbow through his. “Come on out back. You’re going to love the decorations. Teddy, too.”

  Of course, he was going to love whatever Sarah had done to the back room. He loved everything she did. Like tipping her head and looking at him with those amazing green eyes. Like threading her fingers through his, pretending it was she who needed the comfort of her mate and not the other way around.

  As they walked down the narrow corridor to the back, he swiveled his head for an extra sniff of the heavenly scent coming from the kitchen. They’d had a turkey roasting in there for hours, and he could practically taste it, together with Sarah’s orange-cranberry sauce and Jessica’s three-grain bread. He closed his eyes, picturing the butter melting the second it touched the steaming bread.

  “God, that smells good,” he murmured.

  Simon came from the opposite direction and grinned. “I’m picturing a nice Sidewinder IPA to go with that turkey. What do you think?”

  Soren shook his head. “Granite Mountain Brown Ale for me.”

  Sarah made a face. “We said we were taking a break from work, right?”

  Soren squeezed her hand. “Not work. Just one of the perks of running a saloon.”

  He had to smile at the idea. When he and Simon had first started out, they barely knew one end of the bar from the other. Now they knew all the microbreweries in a three-hundred-mile radius.

  He looked at Simon. Man, have we come a long way.

  “Simon! Are you coming?” Jessica called from the kitchen.

  Simon winked back. We sure have, bro. We sure have.

  Soren’s grin grew so wide, his cheeks hurt. His brother wasn’t kidding. Less than a year ago, they were both lonely bachelors who thought they’d lost the women they loved. Now, they had it all. Mates. Work. A home. A life.

  “What do you think?” Sarah asked when they reached the back room of the saloon.

  He pulled up short, just managing a polite nod to old Harry, the wolf shifter who cooked for the saloon, and to Summer, the newest member of his clan. Then he took in the rest of the room and murmured, “Wow.”

  Was that the same place he trudged through a dozen times an hour on work days? The windows were strung with colored lights that made Teddy kick and coo in delight. Festive runners and garlands covered the bar that Todd had worked so hard to restore, making it look nicer than ever. Someone had brought down a couple of the rugs they kept in the apartment upstairs to cover the threadbare carpet, along with two comfy couches the previous manager had left stored in the garage. A long row of tables had been pushed together Thanksgiving-style in the center of the room, covered with a red tablecloth. A Christmas tune played softly on the speakers Janna had brought over from the café, and a row of stockings hung along the banister to the stairs leading to the apartment above.

  Soren struggled to find the right words. How exactly could he fit that feeling of warmth, love, and family into a sentence or two? How could he describe the lump it brought to his throat?

  “It’s great,” he said finally, squeezing Sarah’s hand to telegraph the rest.

  She kissed his cheek, and the lump got even bigger. How did he get so lucky?

  “It is great,” Summer murmured, looking a little misty-eyed.

  “Come on, guys,” Janna called. “Decorate the tree. Everyone has to do some.”

  It was one of those times he didn’t mind being bossed around by a sassy she-wolf ten years his junior. One of those times he didn’t have to step up and remind everyone who was alpha of this clan, because they were one big family, and everyone pulled their weight.

  Janna handed him a string of lights, and the bulbs clinked against each other as he and Sarah worked together to unravel it.

  “You go that way. I’ll go this way,” Sarah said, tiptoeing around the pile of presents under the tree.

  The task would have been a lot easier to handle without a child on his arm, but Soren wouldn’t want it any other way. So what if Teddy slowed things down by grabbing at the lights? That was all part of the fun.

  “Hey,” he murmured, catching Sarah brush a tear from her cheek when they were halfway done. He rubbed her hand. You okay?

  She nodded quickly and bit her lip in one of those yes-means-no moments he could relate to all too well. Bittersweet memories of his family blinked on and off in his mind just like the colored lights on the tree. His parents, like Sarah’s, had died in the Blue Blood attack in Montana. Most of his cousins, uncles, and aunts had too, and he’d have given anything to have them back in his life. For them to meet Teddy and see what a great mom Sarah was — and that he wasn’t half bad as a dad, either.

  “A-ba-ba,�
� Teddy babbled, making them both smile.

  “A-ba-ba,” Soren murmured as he pulled Sarah in for a three-way hug. It was a day for celebrating, not mourning.

  The bell over the back door jingled, and a chorus of Christmas greetings echoed through the place as Tina and Rick came in, followed by Ty and Lana, the alpha pair of Twin Moon Pack. Soren and the other shifters of the Blue Moon Saloon had been invited to the traditional Christmas Eve celebration at Twin Moon Ranch, but they’d decided to get together for a big New Year’s party instead. Somehow, Soren and the others had all felt the need for a smaller gathering in their first year as a new clan. Thank goodness their neighbors had understood.

  “Awesome. Now we can start,” Janna said, then raised her voice to call to her sister. “Everyone is here, Jess. Are you ready?”

  “Coming.” Jess appeared in the hallway, bread in one hand, cranberry sauce in the other. Simon followed with a roast turkey big enough to feed a pack of wolves. Good thing, too.

  Once the Christmas feast was spread out and everyone seated around the table, Jessica tapped a glass with her fork. “Okay, everyone. Speech time.”

  Soren raised his glass and waited. Then he blinked. Whoa. Wait. Everyone was looking at him.

  Shit, what did he know about speeches? He could barely get a sentence out at times. He looked to his brother, who just grinned right back. You got this, bro.

  Soren scratched his cheek. Leading the clan came naturally, as did protecting and providing for his family. But talking?

  Anyone in the room could have given a better speech than him. Even Cole. Better yet, Jess or Janna — hell, those two loved talking. Or Sarah, who was way smarter than him.

  He looked at his mate, and her eyes said, Just let your heart do the talking.

  His heart? If it hadn’t been his mate making the suggestion, he would have scoffed. His heart didn’t do much talking. It just thumped — especially when Sarah was around.

  Another awkward moment ticked by. Crap. His grandfather always gave the speeches back home. There was no way he could do it as well.

  “A-ba-ba,” Teddy said, helping him out.