Winter Tails: A Limited Edition Winter Shifters Collection

by Fox, Piper

  “I don’t have anyone. My parents died a few years ago, I don’t have family. I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here, and it’s because of that. This baby needs a family, and I can’t provide that without you. I admit, it was a little insane to come here, but this baby is worth the chance that you’d accept us.”

  Dot picked up more cheese and pat her hand against my knee. “And we absolutely have, dear. As my husband said, you’re welcome here for as long as you want. We have plenty of guest rooms, and if you need to have any of your things moved here, we’ll help you get settled.”

  They were so quick to accept me without question. I’d never had people like that in my life.

  “I just want my cat,” I told her, and when I leaned over for another cracker, Elliot was still glaring at me.

  * * *

  Before nightfall, Dot had given me one of the spare bedrooms to sleep in, and Shane put my car in their garage. With my suitcase on the bed, I stood by the large window in my room, marveling at the darkening sky that held the promise of snow.

  Bane had told me I could stay as long as I wanted, which made me wonder how long I could stay in this cozy cabin. Now that I was here, there was something about it that called to me, drew me in, like the sultry perfume hand on old cartoons. It could’ve been the fact that I’d never met a single person who didn’t fantasize about living in a cabin in the woods where the snow falls regularly and there’s massive pine trees as far as the eye can see.

  Or.

  It could’ve been that I’d already started fantasizing about running my fingers through Shane’s long hair. Elliot was more complicated, since he seemed determined to not like me. I was equal parts wanting to avoid him and wanting to try my best to change his mind. If I had to coexist with him, it’d probably be better for me to just ignore him.

  Which, if I had the gift of foresight, I’d have realized that was easier said than done.

  Chapter 4

  Waking up the next morning, I was bundled in a soft comforter and the air around me was that toasty warmth one could only get from running a heater while it was freezing cold outside. I stretched under the blankets, and stared up at the vaulted ceiling with my hands rubbing my slightly round stomach.

  It was time to get up. Damn it.

  I rolled over and propped myself up with my arm until I was sitting upright on the mattress, a feat I knew would get more difficult as my pregnancy progressed. As I got dressed, I wondered if the kitchen had any waffles, and I became completely consumed with the idea of thick fluffy waffles with syrup and whipped cream, topped with cubed strawberries.

  If I didn’t eat that exact meal within the next five minutes, I was going to die.

  By the time I was fully clothed, I practically ran from my room, feeling the warmth of the floor soaking into my bare feet. I entered the living room through the double glass doors, and as I rounded the corner to the kitchen area, I ran into Elliot.

  Literally.

  His chin bumped against my head as our bodies collided, and his arms automatically wrapped around me to keep me from falling.

  “Oww,” I commented, reaching up to rub my head where his chin had hit it. Then I realized I was in Elliot’s arms, and his skin was heated like he had a fever. Despite my momentary worry that he might be sick, his warmth comforted my skin, and chased away any thought of the cold outside.

  Then, as quickly as our crash encounter had happened, he withdrew from me, taking several steps back until we were so far apart, you could’ve fit a cue stick between us.

  “I don’t have cooties,” I told him, and he sighed as he looked down at me. He was so much taller than me, I was surprised his chin went low enough to hit my head.

  “I’m aware,” was his clipped answer.

  Where are my waffles, my stomach interjected, and drool gathered under my tongue as that image came back to me of fluffy waffles, syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries.

  I moaned out loud, long and low, like I was close to orgasm instead of thinking about food.

  Fuck.

  Elliot appeared to hate my sex face as much as he hated my regular face, because he balled his hands into fists and attempted to sidestep me so he could leave. So I sidestepped him right back, holding off the towering man with my tiny self.

  “I don’t live here,” I told him as I tilted my head back to stare up at his -annoyingly- cute face.

  “I’m aware.”

  Sighing, I pushed the waffle image from my mind, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to focus enough for this conversation. “Is Dot up? I’d like to cook myself some breakfast, but I wanted to ask first.”

  Elliot sidestepped again with me matching his steps, almost like we were dancing. “Dot’s not here, they all left early this morning. She said she needed to check on a friend, and that Shane and I were to take care of you.”

  He made it sound like she’d asked him to take care of a poisonous spider.

  “You can do whatever you want in the kitchen,” he added, rubbing his neck and staring at a spot on the wall. “Shane and I will be in the garage if you need anything.” This time when he tried to walk away, I let him, watching his retreating form go through the front door.

  Boy had a nice ass, what can I say?

  With the kitchen all to myself, I quickly looked through the drawers and tried to remember where everything was. Dot’s organization system was similar to my own, making it easy to whip up some waffles, using a very expensive waffle maker I found in one of the cabinets. There was a can of spray whipped cream, and some fruit that I added on top of it.

  I made three plates of waffles, and my plate looked so good, I had to stop myself from drooling. Eating it was like having top notch sex, with every bite making me wish I was having an orgasm at the same time.

  Once I was finished, I picked up the second and third plates I’d put in the microwave to keep warm. I took them through the house, and stepped out on to the front porch.

  It had snowed heavily during the night, erasing all traces of my arrival yesterday. There were tire tracks in the snow from a car leaving the driveway, and two sets of boot prints going from the porch to the garage. I had enough sense to slip on my boots before I carefully walked down the porch steps and went through the snow, trying my best to step only in the boot prints, but they were all so far apart, I almost had to hop just to get to them.

  The big garage door was partially open, making me have to bend to get inside it. The garage was nice and warm, however, with several cars lined up in the space, including mine. Shane and Elliot were bent over one that had the hood open, and Shane straightened when he saw me, his face brightening with a smile. My cheeks flushed with him grinning at me like that.

  “Hey, Kate! Did you sleep well?” He wiped his greasy hands with a rag and walked around the car as I came closer. Elliot remained bent over the car, ignoring me completely, his attention focused on screwing something in with a wrench.

  “I did. I made you guys some breakfast. I wasn’t sure if you’d eaten or not, but it’s the least I could do with you letting me stay here.”

  Shane’s smile widened so much, I felt dizzy from how dazzling he was. “This is for us??” He came closer and started taking one of the plates from me, and before I could react, he leaned in to kiss my cheek. The feeling of his lips on my skin was electric, a sensation I’d never felt before. He slowly straightened away from me, and with our faces so close together, I felt a magnetic pull to him. Every part of me wanted him to kiss my lips, but he was soon an arm’s length away, and the moment passed. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m so used to kissing Dot’s cheek when she gives us food. It drives our brothers crazy.”

  Shane walked over to their worktable and sat on a stool to eat. Was he intentionally putting distance between us?

  Elliot slammed the hood on the car they’d been working on, and he looked me over while he cleaned his hands off, so I held out the second plate to him. He approached me, towering over my body, and put his han
d on the other side of the plate. “Thank you.”

  He might as well have said he wanted to eat the food off my naked body, because those two kind words made my skin tingle all over. I smiled back at him, happy that he’d finally been nice to me. I assumed it wouldn’t last, but it was a nice triumph anyway.

  While Elliot sat next to Shane and they both ate their breakfast, I sat on the hood of my car to watch.

  “Can we ask you something?” I nodded, and Shane swirled his stool towards me as he chewed his bite of waffle. “Did you love Jonas?”

  My mouth opened slightly, and I glanced at Elliot who met my eyes, then looked away. “No. We were just friends. Us sleeping together was a one-time thing.”

  “Sounds like him,” Elliot noted with a small smile. “He was a bit different from all of us, but with this many siblings, there’s bound to be the black sheep.”

  “So Dot’s husbands are your brothers?”

  Shane licked his fork, and I gulped. “Xadrian is our actual brother, but Ben and Bane have always been in our lives. They’ve been in a relationship with Xa for a long time, sometimes with a temporary fourth partner, but that was before those three met Dot. She just slipped right in like she belonged there, and they’re never letting her go.”

  I raised my eyebrows at him. Three men in a poly relationship, and then they’d added a woman into the mix. The way that Shane talked about it made it seem like this was a normal thing in their house, even though in the regular world, poly relationships were still very taboo. They were almost always painted as purely sexual, and temporary. A sexy threesome that lasts for one night only.

  I pictured being in the middle of Shane and Elliot, and I definitely didn’t want that to be a one-time thing. I was equally drawn to both of them, having to choose wasn’t going to happen. But also, I doubted either of them would want me.

  Chapter 5

  After breakfast, I went back inside the house with their dishes and started cleaning up. I ran a sink of soapy water and picked up a sponge when Elliot came in. He slipped his boots off and put his jacket on the couch, revealing a grey tank top underneath, and god damn, his arms were chiseled perfection. I dropped the sponge into the sink when I noticed the veins popping out on his biceps.

  Holy fuck me…

  Elliot paused only briefly, probably noticing me gaping at him, and he came to stand beside me at the sink. “You cooked, you don’t clean. Move over.”

  I did, leaning against the counter and watching him use the sponge on a plate. “Is it okay if I ask you a question?”

  He turned on the faucet for a few seconds to rinse the plate off and briefly met my eyes when he put it on the dish rack. “Yes.” The muscles on his arms flexed when he dunked his hand in the water to retrieve a glass. My arousal deepened, and his nostrils flared. He paused, took a deep breath, and went back to cleaning.

  “Did I do something to upset you? Am I bringing back bad memories or something? I know you lost your brother, and I’m sorry if it’s painful for me to be here.”

  He snorted under his breath. “That’s not it. I do miss him, but you brought a piece of him back. Why would I be mad about that?”

  “Then is it because I slept with Jonas and didn’t love him?”

  Elliot sighed, dropped the sponge in the water, and without drying his hands, suddenly wrapped them around me, pulling me to him. He dipped his head close to mine, his wet hands fisting in my dress, as if he was trying to hold himself back. “I’m not mad about you being with my brother. I’m mad that he found you first.” He brought one of his hands up and ran his thumb down my bottom lip, leaving a bead of moisture there. “I’m mad because of how much I want you.”

  Oh.

  Despite how much I wanted him to kiss me, to throw me against the counters, to pull my pants off, I had to be levelheaded about this. I gulped and tried to clear my body from the raging hormones. “I thought you hated me. You’ve been glaring at me and ignoring me.”

  “That’s because…” He paused, like he was choosing his words wisely. “It’s because of Shane. He likes you, and while I’m fine sharing you with him, I wanted to keep you to myself at first. I told him he’d have to wait.” Elliot brought those sinful lips of his closer, almost touching mine, but I stopped him by placing my hand on his face.

  “Excuse me?” He sighed and straightened so I’d drop my hand. “I’m not your girl, and you can’t dictate my life at all. What if I like Shane?”

  And as I said the words, I knew that I did. I liked Shane a lot. I liked Elliot too, despite his horrible attitude.

  Elliot clenched his jaw, clearly annoyed with me, and then he looked away with another sigh. “You don’t understand. Let me explain.”

  But I didn’t care to hear the explanation for his crappy behavior. I left the kitchen, put my shoes back on, and went outside in the cold snow. The garage door was still partially open, and I ducked inside. Shane had the radio on, playing some vintage Christmas music, and he was behind the hood of his car, working on something in the engine while he did a little dance.

  He was cute, and I was hormonal, and this was insane. We’d just met, I didn’t know his favorite color or his middle name, but I needed to confirm what I felt.

  I walked right up to him, grabbed him by his black t-shirt to bring him down to my face, and I kissed him.

  As first kisses went, it was electrifying. We’d only kissed for about five seconds before I felt as primed and wet as I did after five minutes of foreplay.

  Shane put his arms around me and lightly shoved me until I was against the side of his car, a movement that dislodged his side view mirror. I pressed into his body, running my hand down his chest and feeling the hard bumps of his muscles. He was warm to the touch, almost feverish, exactly like Elliot had felt earlier, warming me right to the bone until I wanted to take all of my clothes off.

  His tongue slipped into my mouth, dancing with mine, driving me to a fever pitch. I’d never wanted someone this much before, this was something I’d only dreamed of. And if I was being honest, I knew a kiss from Elliot would feel the same.

  Shane’s hair was in a bun, and I reach blindly on the back of his head to remove the rubber band until it was falling all around me. I sank my fingers into the silky strands, eliciting a deep moan from Shane’s lips that I devoured like a cupcake.

  We broke apart to catch our breath, and I stared hungrily as Shane slowly pulled his shirt off for me, his long hair covering his skin almost down to his belly button. Although not as tall as his brother, he was just as cut, if not more so. His muscles looked good enough to lick, and I fully intended to do just that.

  He bent back over me, sucking my lips between his, nibbling at them like they were candies, a slow sweet kiss that I didn’t want to end. Far too soon, he took a step back and stared down at me, his chest slightly heaving in excitement.

  “Elliot will be mad.”

  My mood changed like he’d flipped a light switch. “You too? I don’t belong to him. If I want to kiss you, I will.”

  He flipped some of his hair back, revealing his sculpted pec for me to gape at, but I was still too pissed to enjoy it. “You don’t understand,” he said, echoing Elliot’s words.

  “Then maybe I don’t want to,” I informed him, and I stomped out of the warm garage into the cold snow.

  * * *

  With my mood ruined from both of them pissing me off, I spent the rest of the day by myself, reading on my kindle. Despite their attitudes, I was still curious about poly relationships. I discovered several reverse harem novels, and they made it seem like a woman with many men was completely normal.

  Of course, reading all the hot sex in those books had me super horny, so with my skin on fire, I put on a coat and boots, and went out onto the front porch. The sky was dark, and a light snow had started to fall. The garage door was closed now, and the light was off in the windows. Where had the boys gone? If they were done in there, they could’ve at least come to check on me, even if I was
mad at them.

  The woods were very close to the house, so I decided on a small walk to clear my head. The chill started to make my nose cold as I walked amongst the trees. It was nice, being alone in the wilderness like that, but it gave me time to think, and in my current situation, that was never a good idea.

  I was just starting to worry about being too cold for the baby when I heard a wolf howl that echoed around the forest. It was followed by another, and they howled together in a haunting chorus.

  Shit, I didn’t know there were wolves in this forest. I should’ve never come out here by myself. I turned to run back to the house, but low and behold, there were two wolves standing there, blocking my path back to safety. One was black, the other grey. They were massive, I didn’t even know wolves got that big. Maybe they were like moose, actually huge in real life?

  Regardless, they were close enough to attack me, and I had nowhere to run to, not that running would’ve been very smart. I felt for my pocket and realized that I’d left my phone in the house. I couldn’t call anyone for help. I was literally going to die taking a walk in the woods.

  Oddly, the wolves just stood there staring at me. They made no moves towards me, the grey one even sat down after a few seconds. Were they tame? Pets maybe? Would wild wolves even come this close to a house?

  My legs were starting to cramp after a few terrifying minutes, so I chanced one step towards the house. Then another. The wolves stayed still, apart from the black one lowering his head and sniffing for my scent as I got slightly closer to him.

  Fuck it.

  I did the dumbest thing one can possibly do in that scenario: I hauled ass back to the house as fast as I could go. I tried to listen as I ran, my fear mounting with every step, knowing the wolves were probably right on my heels. My chest was heaving, the cold air causing sharp pains with each inhale, but I made it to the house, stumbling up the front steps in my haste to get inside. I thrust the front glass door open and quickly slammed it behind me, trying to catch my breath and staring out at the lawn for the wolves to appear.