A Grey Wolves Howliday
Page 22
“I heard about that one in your thoughts, Luna,” Fane whispered to her. “Sounds like the conversation during Bethany’s delivery was quite … titillating.”
“It was straight up weird. No lie.”
Fane pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. “Then it was a typical situation.”
“Good point.” Jacque leaned into him.
Fane listened and laughed as they played. He’d pulled Slate’s blanket closer to them and checked frequently on their son. Thankfully, the boy was a great sleeper. And if he stayed asleep, What’s Yours Like would become an entirely new game later that night.
“I heard that.” Jacque’s voice was sultry in his mind.
“I wanted you to. Now, focus on losing so we can sneak out while Jen gloats about winning.” His next words were as hot as the desire growing inside of him. “I have need of you, Jacquelyn.” With only six days left until the period of mourning ended, Fane felt as though he needed to make every second count. Each one had to be more precious than the last.
His mate’s body shivered against his, and he pressed closer to her. She smells divine. His mouth watered for another taste and more. Fane didn’t even attempt to censor the thoughts running through his mind. After several minutes, Jacque dropped her card on the table and stood up.
“Slate’s hungry, and I’ve got to see a guy about a thing,” she rambled. Jacque stepped over Fane and picked up their son, who was still sound asleep and definitely not showing any signs of hunger. Fane laughed as his mate continued incoherently while she walked away. He’d gotten the wolf riled up just as much as the human.
“Dude, unless you’re the guy she’s got to see about a thing, you have to finish the game,” Jen told him.
Fane raised a brow at her. “The only guy my mate will ever be seeing about any sort of a thing is me.”
“Then you should probably get up and follow her or risk her falling asleep before you can show her that thing.” She winked at him.
He stood and walked over to where Drake and Bethany sat on the couch. Drake was propped up in the corner of the sofa with his mate leaning back onto his chest, sound asleep while she held baby Alina Hope in her arms. “Congratulations again.” Fane leaned forward and ran a finger gently down the babe’s cheek. “I am grateful to have all three of you as members of this pack.”
Drake looked at his two sleeping females and then up at Fane. He shifted slightly on the couch and bared his neck. “This pack is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Your parents started a good thing here, and I’ve no doubt you will continue it, Alpha.”
Fane bowed his head to the other male, silently letting him know he acknowledged the submission. “Good night,” he said and turned to the rest of the room. “Six days left of rest.” He paused as his eyes met each of the males. “And then we remind the supernatural world why they never want to stand against the Great Luna.”
Jacque tucked a blanket around Slate’s sleeping form, then she heard their room door open. Fane’s desire and impatience were coming through the bond like a tornado siren. She rolled her eyes, walking quietly from the nursery straight to the bedroom. “Now who’s impatient?” she asked. Fane stood in the center of the room, his shirt already off, and his sculpted torso on display. The dark, tattoo-like markings that ran up his stomach, arm, chest, and neck brought an air of danger to him that made her salivate. Apparently, her inner bad girl was feeling feisty.
“Come here, Luna,” Fane said, his tone deep as his eyes began to glow with his wolf.
Jacque’s feet moved of their own accord. Her inner wolf practically purred under the intense gaze of their mate. When she was within his reach, Fane snatched her hand and pulled her to him, wrapping both arms around her. She gasped, but it was quickly cut off by his mouth covering hers. His hands ran up and down her back, fisting her hair and kneading her form with his hands. Within seconds, Jacque was reduced from a woman who could speak full sentences to a moaning, one-word hussy, tearing at the last of her mate’s clothes like they only existed to offend her.
Fane chuckled. He picked her up and tossed her onto their bed. Jacque didn’t have time to attempt to get to her knees before her mate’s body was over her, pressing her down into the mattress. “Impatient isn’t the word I would use.”
She panted as his hand slid up her calf to the underside of her knee. “What word would you use?” she asked and then gasped as he hiked her leg up over his hip.
Fane leaned down and nipped the mark on her neck. “Ravenous,” he growled and then sank his teeth into her.
Later, naked, satiated, and sprawled across her mate’s warm body, Jacque sighed. Fane reached out and grabbed the comforter and dragged it up over them.
“Still ravenous?” she asked him, her lips turning up in a small smile as his chest rumbled with a purr-like sound.
“I’m always ravenous for you, Jacquelyn. Always.” He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her snuggly against him.
“The feeling is mutual.” She propped her chin on his chest and stared up at him. He was beautiful. Since the moment she’d laid eyes on him from the window of her house, he’d taken her breath away, and she’d yet to catch it. Their gazes held as a torrent of emotions ran back and forth between their bond. Love, adoration, contentment, and … peace—something that had been missing for the past few months—flowed from her mate.
“It’s these moments that make all the hard stuff worth it,” he said. His left hand caressed her cheek. “When I think of what lies before us, I don’t tremble in fear because I will fight any enemy with everything I am to keep this life with you, our son, and our pack.”
“And I will be at your side because we’re in this together. I’m yours, Fane, but you are also mine.”
“It is an honor to have you as my Luna, my wife, my mate, and the mother of my son. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank the Great Luna for making you mine.”
Their gazes held as they laid there, his thumb brushing gently against her cheek. “Are you worried at all?” she asked. “About the wolves who will come?”
Power rushed through their bond, and Jacque nearly gasped at the intensity of it as it filled her body. “I am the alpha of the Romania pack, chosen by the Great Luna. If she is for us, who can stand against us?”
Jacque turned her head and pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand. “They can try.”
“Yes, but they will fall one by one.” The confidence radiating from him helped ease her worry, though she knew it would never completely abate. The danger before them was real and would not be easily defeated. But that was not something she wanted to worry about tonight. Tonight, she wanted to be held in the arms of her mate, basking in the glow of his love, and filled with the joy of what the past month had been. Precious memories had been made, and new life had been given. The love that had begun with Vasile and Alina, who’d led the pack for over two centuries, grew stronger as it filled the hearts of every pack member. It was a celebration that would never be forgotten, and no doubt Jen would attempt to outdo it every year because that would be the new tradition. Jen was nothing if not predictable.
“Merry Christmas, Luna.” Fane rolled to his side and tucked her against his body.
She snuggled deeper into him and pressed a kiss to his chest, just over his heart. “Merry Christmas, my alpha. I love you.”
He buried his face in her neck, took a deep breath, and whispered, “I love you, from my first breath to my last, and even after then.”
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The End.
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Thank you so much for reading A Grey Wolves Howliday! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review! I would so greatly appreciate it.
Afterword
I hope that this book was a nice break from the heavy that has landed on our shoulders from the last couple of books. I hope you laughed as much as I did while writing it. I hope that your heart swooned a bit, and that there were tears of joy instead of sadness. Merry Christmas in July w
olf pack. I am so very thankful to get to share this journey with you all.
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Sincerely,
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Quinn
Acknowledgments
As always there are so many people to thank when it comes to finishing a novel. I play a part in making sure it comes together, but I in no way do it all. Thank you to God, always first because he created me. Thank you to my husband, whose patience with me seems to know no end. For that I am incredibly grateful. Also thank you to him for all of the hard work he puts in on every single book we publish. I make the book good, but Bo makes it great.
Thank you to our editor Leslie, you do a great job and we truly appreciate you.
Thank you to my beta readers Jessica and Amy. I truly appreciate all the labor and love you put into my books. You are essential to making this series consistent.
Thank you to Jessica not as my beta reader but as one of my best friends. You have been a huge blessing in my life and I thank God that he put us in each others path. My life is richer because you are in it.
Thank you to all of my readers who make this job possible. An author is nothing without the people who will read the books they write. So thank you so very much.
I would like to say a special thank you to Carolynn Parker, a dear pack member who is no longer with us. She has gone home to be with our Creator. She has been on this journey with me for many years and she was an incredibly special person. I wish she could have gotten to read this one with us so she could have laughed and joined us in the celebration. Thank you to her family who supported her love of books and listened to her talk about my books. I am so very honored that I got to be a small part of her life.
About the Author
Quinn Loftis is a multi-award-winning author of over thirty novels, including the USA Today Bestseller, Fate and Fury. When she isn’t creating exciting worlds filled with romantic werewolves, she exercises, reads, and crafts like there’s no tomorrow. She is blessed to be married to her best friend for over twenty years and they have three sons, a crazy French bulldog, and a cat that wants to take over the world.
Quinn’s Bookshelf
The Grey Wolves Series
The Gypsy Healer Series
The Elfin Series
The Dream Maker Series
The Clan Hakon Series
Nature Hunters Academy
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You can also find Quinn writing contemporary romances as her alter ego, Alyson Drake.
https://www.quinnloftisbooks.com/alysondrake