A Shifter Under the Christmas Tree Read online

  “Body…”

  “I got it,” she snapped. “I was swallowing,” she lied.

  “I could say something really funny about girls and swallowing,” he said with a deep gravelly chuckle that made her ears prick up, but she did manage to offer him a death glare for the image his words put in her mind. “But I won’t.” He’d seen that look on his mother, and it never ended well.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~

  Max looked sheepish, and Kaylee was grateful. She didn’t need any help in the thought department – apart from actually having a rational one that was going to help her out and not hinder her in her pursuit of kicking the mountain man to the kerb and getting on with her life.

  “I need to leave now,” she ground out.

  Kaylee turned on her heels, and she started across the street for her car. She’d stupidly left it in the turning between his store and the post office, not knowing at the time that she might need to make a fast getaway, and it felt like a million miles away.

  Max kept step with her. He wasn’t prepared to let her go just yet. “About dinner?”

  “No,” she said, cutting him off.

  “But…”

  “I’m not hungry,” she lied. “And I’m certainly not good company…”

  “I noticed,” he mumbled, and she almost tripped over her own feet as she snapped a look at him. “It’s not…”

  “You might want to rethink anything you have to say before you say it,” she warned him. If anyone wasn’t good company, it was him.

  “I don’t…”

  “Usually think at all?”

  “That’s not…”

  “I get it – you’re male,” she said, walking faster – not in the hope of out-walking him, because that was never going to happen, but just to get to the car faster so she could be on her way and put an end to the special torture that had sprung up between them.

  Kaylee had to admit, she liked it better when he wasn’t talking – be careful what you wish for, or ye will surely get an obnoxious guy.

  Max knew he was male, but he didn’t get what that had to do with anything, but he guessed he should have been grateful that she’d noticed. She seemed to be dismissing everything else about him, including the fact they were mates.

  Not that he’d been all sunshine, roses, and Mr Words – he hadn’t, and it had been awkward, but damn it – there she was – his mate – his life partner and she was a witch.

  He hadn’t seen that coming, and if he had, then he might have ducked and run.

  Max didn’t have anything against witches, well, not much – but his family was going to rip her apart and him – and not in a physical sense – he hoped, but more of a constant stream of sarcasm, jokes, and innuendo.

  He could put up with it when it was just him, and he’d been a part of that banter, but the little witch…? She was going to be crushed.

  It wasn’t fair on Kaylee to introduce her to his family, expect her to be a part of that – even if everything inside of him wanted that more than he’d ever wanted anything – including his truck that he’d saved for a few years to buy outright.

  Barrett men didn’t owe anyone anything – debt was a no-no. They worked for what they needed, what they wanted, and for their family – damn, now he had a family of his own, sort of – her.

  Max loved his family, but they could be a handful. He was always butting heads with his younger brother who seemed to need the challenge it gave him for his own personal ends. His sister could be a spoilt brat, and he didn’t even want to think about his father.

  The only person he’d be happy for his mate to be around was his mother, and that was on her non-judgemental days. She wasn’t a total softie, she was a mama-bear and could be fierce, but she was also fair.

  Max felt the fresh wave of confusion hit him over how well his mate might fit into his crazy clan, and he grumbled a growl.

  “That better not be aimed at me,” Kaylee said, putting a little more distance between them as she veered to the left but kept her course for her car.

  “When I’m growling at you I’ll let you know about it,” he said.

  “Better still,” she said, reaching into the backpack that she had draped over her left shoulder. “You stay on your side of town, and I’ll stay on mine, and if I need anything from your store, I’ll order it online from somewhere else.”

  Max opened his mouth to speak, but she’d already turned away from him and was standing in front of the driver’s door of her car. He panicked – the idea of her walking out of his life right then didn’t fill him with a warm and fuzzy feeling – it filled him with a sense of dread the likes of which he’d never felt before.

  In one swift move, he’d clamped one large hand around her wrist, spun her towards him, and dipped at the waist to toss her over his shoulder.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kaylee asked with a big dose of disbelief and a lot of embarrassment for her situation.

  Sure, she had a great view as she stared at the nice taut jean-covered backside that looked as if two watermelons were moving beneath the fabric when he walked – apparently, even his backside had muscles – how did that happen? But it wasn’t the point. The point was she didn’t need rescuing from a blazing building, and she wasn’t five.

  Why would he think slinging her over his shoulder would be some kind of a turn on for her?

  And why was she even thinking about his backside when she was being witch-napped?

  “I’m taking you home for dinner,” he growled as he stalked towards his truck.

  “Am I on the menu?” she ground out.

  Being joggled around on his shoulder wasn’t the highlight of her day, and she had plans, going off with him to try three bowls of porridge wasn’t on her to-do list, and if he didn’t stop behaving like a caveman soon, she might just have to get her nasty witch side on.

  “Huh?”

  Max wasn’t really listening to her; he was thinking about what he was doing. He’d acted in haste, and he just hope he wasn’t going to repent at leisure. What with her being a witch and all there was a high possibility that he might.

  Was kidnapping his mate and taking her home to his mother’s cabin really the way to go about wooing a mate who didn’t want to be wooed?

  Probably not. But what other choice did he have?

  What if he let her drive away and she just kept going?

  Sure, he could follow her in his truck, which he’d have to do to find out where she lived – but he couldn’t exactly run her off the road if she kept going out of town, and he didn’t have a full tank of gas and if she did then she could just give him the slip.

  “Look, put me down, and we’ll call it quits, if not…” Kaylee left the warning swinging in the air just like she was. She really didn’t need to explain herself, especially when she didn’t have a clue what she would do next if he didn’t put her down.

  “Not,” he said, back over his shoulder as he reached his truck, fought to get the keys out of his pocket and keep her balanced on his shoulder at the same time, and try to decide how he was going to get a women stuffed into the front seat of his truck who really didn’t want to be there without breaking her, and breaking a female was a definite no-no.

  “You could at least let me threaten you before you turn me down,” she grumbled.

  “Were you swallowing again?” he asked, and smirked to himself as he took a deep breath and lowered her to her feet from his shoulder, and just in case she had any ideas about running off, he kept her trapped between the hard metal of the truck and the hard muscle of his body.

  “No, I was not swallowing again,” she tossed back and rolled her eyes as she yanked her backpack into place.

  Max yanked open the passenger door. “In you go,” he said and nodded to the truck.

  “Umm, no,” she replied like she thought he had a screw loose in his brain, and when she tried to fold her arms, his broad muscled chest was too close to be able to pull that of
f, so she shrugged instead and offered him one of those female looks that said – give it your best shot at making me change my mind, sucker.

  “You agreed to dinner.”

  “No, your father said, and I quote; dinner, our place, seven-thirty,” she mimicked the deep tones of his dad’s voice, but she knew she didn’t even come close.

  “And you said, yeah, sure,” he offered back.

  “Not in that tone of voice I didn’t, it was more of a sarcastic – yeah, sure!” she tossed back, and held onto the grimace of a lie that threatened to give the game away as he frowned back at her.

  The truth was, she couldn’t remember what she’d said or how she’d said it – she’d still been kind of shellshocked at the time.

  “Either way, you agreed, and they’ll be expecting you…”

  “Claws and fangs out ready?” She mocked him.

  “Huh?”

  “I’m sure they’ll be relieved that a witch didn’t show up at their doorstep, a little like you’ll be relieved when I don’t show up at yours…”

  “I don’t think…”

  “Exactly, I’ve noticed that about you…”

  “I can be very deep when…”

  “Like a puddle?”

  “No, not like a…”

  “Paddling pool?”

  “No…”

  “Bath?”

  “Would you stop?” Max grumbled another growl and shot a quick look around him to make sure there were no humans about that could overhear his beast asserting itself.

  “See, aren’t you grateful already?” she asked, urging him on with a sneer and a cocky grin.

  “For what?”

  “Me not wanting to know you,” Kaylee said as if it was a given.

  “There are two people in this mate-ship…”

  “Mate-ship?” She screwed up her nose. “What the heck is a mate-ship?” Max opened his mouth to speak, but she held up her hand to keep him quiet – she really, really preferred him that way. “You know what – I don’t need to know. I just need to leave.”

  Kaylee tried to sidestep him, but he moved with her, and she’d stupidly also moved to where the door was open and blocking her way. Now she was pinned in on three sides with nowhere to go. “In you go,” Max said, and gently pushed her backwards.

  The back of her calves hit the step, Kaylee’s backside hit the seat, and she felt the pull of gravity on her body as she tried a mid-air breaststroke to try and save herself from falling backwards.

  Apparently, she did have somewhere else to go, but that was the last place she wanted to be. There was no way in hell that she was going to reach out for him to save her from falling as that would involve touching, and touching was bad – especially where the mating pull was concerned.

  It didn’t matter a whole lot when his strong arm wrapped around her body, his large hand pressed against the small of her back, and she found herself on a slant looking up into his chocolate brown eyes, her breasts pressed against his hard muscled chest.

  Maybe she was wrong – again – maybe this was the last place she actually wanted to be.

  “I’ve got you,” he growled, feeling the connection between them and having it kick him right up the backside, bringing his brain back online and his beast raising its ugly head again.

  Lost in thought and bewitched by his mate – that was the moment that he felt something akin to what he imagined licking a power line would feel like, and he hollered with surprise mixed with pain.

  Kaylee didn’t think she’d done that right, because instead of letting go, he only clutched her even tighter to him.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~

  That was Max’s second mistake. His natural instinct had been to keep her close and protect her from the pain he was feeling, without thinking about the fact that it was his witch that was delivering that pain.

  That wasn’t all she delivered. When Kaylee felt every inch of his hard body against her soft one, there was one thing that her brain centred on, one hard thing that was sandwiched between them and made her mind go to places that it shouldn’t.

  Then her brain kicked into gear without the benefit of thinking it through, and she used her magic to push him back away from her while bringing up her knee into his balls.

  There was one long moment when his eyes were so focused on hers it was as if he was trying to read her mind, and she saw the look of complete and total shock register in his eyes before they clouded over like he was dazed and confused, and then she felt a little pang of guilt from the angel on her shoulder.

  It was strange, she’d only ever kicked one other guy in the balls before, and he’d had that exact same look on his face – right down to the mouth open and the goofy stare.

  Max gave a sort of gargled choked sound before his hands automatically clutched his balls and his knees gave way beneath him. Then he was falling to the ground, and she was running, and Max didn’t stand a hope in hell’s chance of following her.

  ~

  “You lost her?” Mark growled at his eldest son in disbelief. “How could you lose a witch?”

  “Mark,” Tanya warned him to ease off. She could see that Max wasn’t in the right frame of mind to answer stupid questions, and her mate normally had a wealth of those when he was trying to make a point.

  “She’s got red hair,” Mark said in disbelief. “And she’s a witch, and his mate, and he has her scent.” He shrugged. “Just how? It’s a perfectly valid question.”

  Max felt like an idiot as it was, he didn’t need to fill them in on how his mate had gotten the better of him. He’d never hear the end of it, and Lucas was already sniggering.

  “It’s Max, do you need to ask?” Shauna said and gave her brother a big old cocky grin as she revelled in his misery for all the misery that he’d caused her growing up.

  It was payback time, and she was going to enjoy it.

  Max could feel his beast clawing within him. “I’m going out on the hunt,” he growled, glaring at his younger brother and somehow resisting the urge to punch him in the face.

  “Remember what I always say,” Tanya warned as she looked at her grown-up cubs. “Misery loves company – who wants to be miserable?”

  “Wait,” Shauna said and then sighed. “I’ve got a better idea.”

  “You?” Max’s eyebrows reached for his hairline.

  “See, this is what happens when you try to be nice,” she said, motioning to Max as she glared at her mother.

  “Second time’s a charm,” Tanya said, urging her on. “Family.” She reminded them.

  “You want my help or not?” Shauna asked, eyeing Max like he was the devil.

  “Want,” Max reluctantly admitted, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and hating to ask for his sister’s help, but his beast was getting rowdier by the minute, and he didn’t want to lose control.

  Shauna eyed her big brother with mock glee. “What’s it worth?”

  “Shauna,” Tanya’s tone warned her not to continue trying to wind her brother up, no matter how much fun it was.

  “I was joking,” Shauna protested, holding up one hand in surrender while fishing the phone out of her back pocket with the other.

  “Who you gonna call – witchbusters?” Lucas said and snorted a chuckle.

  “In a way,” she sneered back as her thumbs moved in record time over the keys on the screen. “There,” she said shrugging. “All done.”

  “Shauna,” Mark said, shaking his head at his daughter’s antics. “Either you can help or…”

  “I am helping. I posted to the town’s notice board page asking if anyone had rented a place to a woman with red hair because she left something behind in the store and I wanted to return it,” she explained.

  “What the hell is a notice board page?” Mark asked, looking confused.

  “It’s technology; you wouldn’t understand,” she offered back with a mock look of sympathy. Her father opened his mouth to speak when the phone dinged, and she gleefu
lly read the information. “Mrs Newman’s grandson says they rented the cabin on their land to Kaylee Summers…”

  Max didn’t need any more information than that. With a grunt, he turned on his heels and headed for the backdoor. Lucas practically fell off his chair as he rushed to follow. “Hold up; I’m coming with you…”

  “No, you’re not,” Max growled back over his shoulder.

  “Sure, I am. How often do I get to watch my big brother woo his witch mate?” Lucas asked, chuckling to himself.

  “Lucas,” Mark growled and stopped the man in his tracks. “Your turn will come soon enough – if fate hates some poor unsuspecting female that much to make her your mate. Do you really want your whole family watching like it’s a spectators sport?”

  Lucas bit down on the thought of that. The hell he did, but the thought of watching Max make a total jackass of himself was just too tempting. “Sure, why not?” he lied, but with the sound of Max’s truck starting and then the meaty roar of the engine as it pulled off the drive, he knew his father’s delay tactics had worked.

  “Leave your brother alone,” Tanya warned him. “Nobody gets in the way of Max wooing his mate.”

  “I wasn’t getting in the way, just taking the opportunity to watch the car crash up close and personal,” Lucas argued. “Think of it like a cautionary real-life documentary on what not to do to win your mate.”

  “There’s no saying Max is going to screw this…” Mark stopped talking and looked at his mate. Tanya just shrugged. “Yeah.”

  Tanya reached out and placed her hand over Mark’s on the tabletop. “It’ll be fine,” she said with a slightly pained look.

  “And if he kills his mate with kindness?” Lucas asked, and the three of them turned to stare at him. He held his hands up and shrugged. “Just putting it out there.”