In My Christmas Stocking Read online

  She felt his other hand on her hip as he tried to stabilise her, but Chloe had already done the job, and she didn’t need his help. “Are you kidding me,” she bit out and slapped his hand away. “I know how to walk.”

  “Well, you don’t seem to be that good at it,” he growled back.

  Chloe snatched her wrist from his gentle grip and scowled up at him. “First you crash my car, and now you try to pull me over! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “With me?” Lucas growled.

  “I don’t tend to go around talking to myself,” she hissed.

  “Maybe you should. Maybe you should tell yourself that you’re borderline nuts and seek some help.” Lucas folded his arms, set his stance, and lifted his chin as he glared down his nose at her.

  “And that’s what … shifter humour?”

  Chloe started off again, and Lucas rolled his eyes and groaned as he set off after her.

  “A home truth. I guess nobody thought to offer you any before,” Lucas growled. He still had the urge to tell her what for when she’d accused him of attacking her.

  His bear defiantly had a sore head on that little gem, and he wasn’t far behind it. He might not have known that she was his mate at the time, but still, he’d been trying to help her, not hurt her when he’d pulled open the car door.

  Lucas wouldn’t attack a woman, and neither would his beast. He had a code, and she’d miffed him off six ways from Sunday with that throwaway comment.

  “Oh, you think you know me?” Chloe stopped and turned back toward him, bringing him to a halt once more.

  “I know of you,” Lucas informed her. “You’re the party witch.”

  Yeah, she bet she knew what he thought, what her sister thought, what everyone thought of her decision not to be a part of Jackson’s life. Well, too bad. Let them think what they liked; she knew the truth. “My sister tell you that?”

  “She didn’t have to. I can think for myself…”

  “Maybe you should try that sometime, and maybe you should do it without prejudgement.”

  “Big word…”

  “For your little brain – Mr Judgy,” she said and spun away from him again.

  “Well, let’s see if you can practice what you preach,” he called after her. “You’re my mate.”

  Those were three little words that she hadn’t expected to hear.

  Chloe stopped stone-cold dead on the spot as her ears lost the ability to hear anything but the rushing of wind, and it was a still day. Her eyes sort of glazed over and her mind went into turbocharged freefall.

  She could see herself like she was dead and looking on at her ghost, and her ghost had just tipped her head back and was screaming at the sky. Nooooooo!

  But she had a giant rock in her stomach that said the answer to that was probably a big fat yes.

  Fate had surely screwed up this time.

  ~

  Mark stalked in through the front door of his home, down the hallway, across the living room and headed for the study when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye and stopped. He took a few steps back and turned to look at the sofa and the kid sitting in front of the TV watching cartoons and chomping on an array of the sweet stuff.

  Jackson turned a slow look at him, and the recognition sparked on his face. Jackson swallowed down hard in a rush to get his words out. “I saw your bear,” his said with glee.

  Mark pursed his lips and considered that for a long moment. “Did you tell the woman who gave you all those cookies and cakes?” he asked, a little sheepishly.

  “No,” Jackson said, and as kids could do, he spotted an opportunity. “Do you want me to?”

  “No, no,” Mark said, taking a few steps forward and holding his palms up towards the boy. “We can keep that between you and me.”

  A small, wicked smile played on Jackson’s lips. “And what do I get?”

  Mark twisted his head on his neck and considered the kid for a long moment. “You’re eating my cookies…”

  “I’d be eating them anyway,” Jackson reasoned. “Tanya likes me.”

  “How about this,” Mark said, lowering his voice and leaning in a little. “You don’t tell, and my bear won’t accidentally eat you one day?”

  Jackson opened his mouth, frowned, and snapped it shut again with a little grunt.

  Mark pointed a finger at him. “That’s right, quiet, just like that.” He grinned a big wide grin, but unlike Jackson’s encounter with the vampire, there wasn’t a fang in sight.

  “Nod if you agree,” Mark said, and Jackson nodded. “Great!” Mark stepped back with a smile. “Now you go back to your unhealthy human sugar rush, and we’ll forget we ever had this conversation – but my bear won’t.”

  Mark left the room on fast feet before he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar of blackmail by his mate. He kind of hoped he hadn’t just given the kid nightmares, but Tanya finding out about his little scuffle with the vampire would put him in the doghouse, and he didn’t want that.

  ~

  “I’d ask you to say that again, but I really don’t want to hear those words twice,” Chloe said, eyeing the man like he’d just revealed that he was a serial killer.

  In truth, it was probably worse. She had magic and could hand a serial killer his backside, maybe doing the world a favour and putting him six feet under the ground – but a mate?

  Oh boy!

  Chloe guessed that was what happened when you laughed at your sister for being in the same predicament – or not, as fate must have had this wicked plan for her for a long time.

  But, damn it, if Kaylee hadn’t stopped off at this town then none of this would be happening – not that Kaylee had a choice – that tricky fate again, leading them to just where it wanted them.

  But, she didn’t want to be there, she had plans, needs, and a real urgency to get to where she’d been going.

  Now what? Kill the shifter and continue her day like nothing had happened?

  Fate would probably have something to say about that.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ~

  Lucas folded his arms and waited while a whole bunch of emotions played over his mate’s face. It probably wasn’t every day that you got to witness the full spectrum of human emotions in one person, minus the good ones like joy and happiness, although, just for a moment there was a wicked amount of glee, and he could only speculate the ways in which she’d like to do him harm or even kill him.

  He should probably think himself lucky that he wasn’t already down on his pride looking up at the dark snow clouds rolling in, but she seemed a little too preoccupied with her dastardly planning to give him much thought.

  “Well, you heard those words the first time, and I guess that’s what counts,” he said, trying to get her attention as gently as possible for fear of becoming a human cannonball again.

  It wasn’t that it wasn’t a whole new experience for him, it was, and good or bad, he’d done it now, and he didn’t need to repeat it. It was more to do with the fact that he’d been so dizzy he couldn’t even walk straight, so if she took off again then he’d have one hell of a job chasing after her.

  Lucas’ beast growled within him at the thought of the chase, the hunt, the capture, the bonding bite – damn, he needed to squash those thoughts, getting ahead of himself wasn’t helpful.

  “Mate or not – I have somewhere I need to be,” Chloe said, and that was her primary concern. She hadn’t gone through seven years of hell just to fail at the last hurdle.

  Lucas unfolded his arms and motioned around him. “Then let me be your guide,” he offered.

  That sounded like a good idea in practice, but in the real world, the more time she spent with her mate, the more they would feel fate’s little insurance policy of the mating pull tugging on their lust genes. She only had to look at him to know that she could be very lust-driven given the right circumstances – he was as sexy as hell.

  But more supernatural in her life wasn’t on her to-do l
ist. She really did have enough with the ones that were already in it.

  “I need to get back to my sister’s cabin,” she said, wishing he’d just point the way and she could be done with him. But she knew that for now, she had a new shadow, and that shadow was six-foot odd of ‘hell yes!’ and a whole lot of ‘oh no’ mixed into one.

  “I know a shortcut,” Lucas said and motioned for her to follow him.

  “Shortcut, less time spent with you, sounds good,” Chloe said and started off on happy feet but with a cold knot of doom tightening inside of her.

  ~

  Mark turned at the sound of the small feet, hitting the wooden flooring that came towards the study. He was in the process of arming himself for the hunt, and sure, he could have used his bear, but it was daytime and a big old grizzly walking around might have drawn a little attention. Besides, the gun was only for protection from a wild animal, and not the shifter kind.

  “Don’t you have cookies to eat?” Mark called back over his shoulder as the footsteps stopped at the door.

  He already knew where his mate was; he could hear her humming to herself in the garage as she finished off the laundry. After that she’d be in the kitchen all day cooking, and he could already smell the preparations for tonight dinner in the air. He was looking forward to it, and what better way to work up a big appetite than to go hunting?

  “I got one with me,” Jackson said, rocking from side to side to try to see what Mark was doing. Then he spotted the shotgun, and his eyes widened. “Cool, a gun, can I…?”

  “Not even close to old enough,” Mark tossed back over his shoulder and heard the energy deflate from the boy. “But when you are, I’ll teach you how to shoot.”

  “Really?” There was that energy back in his voice again.

  “Sure, but for now…” Mark turned to look at him.

  “Our little secret?” Jackson asked, screwing up his nose.

  “You learn fast,” Mark said, grinning.

  “I live with my Aunt Kaylee; there’s a lot of secrets I’m not supposed to tell at school.”

  “Like magic,” the alpha said, and Jackson nodded. “Well, I don’t know if Tanya would like me going off hunting today so…” He left it there, and Jackson snapped to attention.

  “Our little secret,” he agreed.

  Mark snatched up some extra shells and chuckled to himself. “I think we’re going to get on just fine.”

  “Is that for the vampire?” Jackson asked as the alpha turned back to him.

  “Vampire? No, why?”

  “Because your bear was chasing him, and now you have a gun,” Jackson said shrugging at his own logic.

  “Oh, no,” Mark leaned in to whisper. “I caught the vampire and bit him right on the backside. It was epic, sorry you missed it.”

  “Because he showed me his fangs?”

  “Something like that, yeah,” Mark nodded.

  “Cool. Well, I should go back to the TV or Aunty Tanya will miss me and come looking.”

  “Smart kid,” Mark said, grinning. “Oh, Jackson,” he said as the boy turned, and the kid did a three-sixty. “Why don’t you call her Granny Tanya, she’d like that.” He chuckled to himself.

  “Sure,” he shrugged. “I don’t have a granny.”

  “Well, now you do, and let’s keep this as our…”

  “Little secret,” Jackson said with a shrug and a sigh. “Sure got a lot of those,” he muttered, turning on his heels and walking away.

  “Don’t we all,” Mark said, chuckling. He just wished he could see his mate’s face when the boy called her Granny for the first time.

  Then he frowned at the thought of it. He just hoped the boy could keep a secret; otherwise it might be alpha butt that his mate chewed out.

  ~

  “Whoa!” Chloe said, slipping on the snow and losing her balance, but she quickly recovered it even though Lucas was already reaching for her to help keep her upright. “I got it!” she snapped, and he immediately snapped to attention and withdrew a little from her.

  “I thought it was just wild animals that bit people, who knew witches were the same?” he teased and got a glare for his trouble as they continued over the rough terrain. “No sense of humour – got it.”

  “I have a sense of humour, but that doesn’t mean I want you pawing me,” Chloe said, losing a foot right down a hole and grumbling at it.

  “Well, excuse me for being a gentleman and trying to make it, so you don’t end up on your backside.”

  “Firstly, don’t even mention my backside,” she warned him to the sight of a roguish grin. “And secondly, in what universe would anyone ever call you a gentleman?”

  “I try to do the right thing, and I’m the bad guy, I do the wrong thing, and I’m the bad guy, I’m finding a pattern here.”

  “Don’t put this on me,” Chloe said, waving her hand in the air and shaking her head as she shot him a look of disbelief as she finally reached the top of the hill and let out a hard breath.

  Then she put one foot in front of the other to start the long trip back down the other side. “You wanna blame someone then blame fate; I’m not…” She shrieked as the snow gave way beneath her foot and she waved her arms to try to save herself from falling, but when her other foot slipped and joined the first, she wasn’t just falling, she was going downhill.

  Lucas was too slow to catch her, and for a long moment when her pride hit the snowy ground, he thought that was probably Karma coming back to bite her in that backside of hers that he wasn’t allowed to mention.

  But when she started the downward slide on the hill, he grimaced – maybe he should have ignored her warning and tried harder to reach her.

  Now she was picking up speed, sledging downhill on her backside, and yelling like a banshee all the way. “You want me to help with that?” he called, but he was already on his way after her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ~

  Max just followed his nose and found his mate rocking out in the living room. He folded his arms across his muscled chest and stood at the door just watching her. His mate, happy and contented, it was a sight to behold.

  When Kaylee spotted him, she just grinned. “I can’t resist this chair,” she informed him.

  “That’s a compliment,” he said grinning.

  It took her a moment to catch up. “Right, you made this.”

  “With my own two paws,” he said, holding up those big hands in front of him.

  “I’m impressed,” she said, running her hands over the smooth, silky wood of the arms. “Do you sell them in town?”

  Max pulled a face. “Nah, that’s a little tricky…”

  “Why?”

  “I’m learning the business from my dad, bottom-up, all stores,” he said, walking over to the sofa opposite her and sitting on the edge of the seat like he was ready to spring up and be gone.

  “But, this is a business, right?”

  “Not in so many words.” He said it as if he was walking a tightrope.

  “Says your dad?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Has he ever sat in one?”

  “Nope,” Max said.

  He’d brought up the idea one time of going into business making furniture, and his father had batted it away. The alpha thought that they had enough businesses for Max to concentrate on without clouding things with a little side business.

  Kaylee stayed silent for a long moment as she considered it. Then she had a wicked thought. “You got any more of these?”

  Max nodded. “I got a whole workshop of stuff out back…”

  “Then I know what we’re giving your dad for Christmas,” she said, grinning.

  “I don’t think…”

  “Of course you don’t,” she said with a big dollop of sympathy. “But I’m here now and don’t you worry your pretty head about it,” she teased him once more.

  “You think I’m pretty?” Max teased her right back.

  “Sure, and with those looks a
nd my brains, we’re gonna make a great team,” she said, chuckling when he dipped his chin and eyed her from beneath his dark eyebrows.

  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen that look before, and when he pushed up to his feet, she chuckled harder. “Let’s celebrate that unholy union,” he growled, reaching down to lift her from the chair and into his arms.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Kaylee grinned.

  ~

  “Whoa!” Chloe screech as she took off over a large snowbank and landed on her backside on the other side.

  Yes, she was eating her words about not wanting his help with every bump and thump to her backside as she travelled down the hill, but she still had her pride, bruised and battered as it was going to be later, and she knew she’d stop eventually – she just wished eventually would arrive a whole lot sooner than later.

  When that moment did arrive, she huffed at the sight of two big boot-clad feet that stopped beside her, and she somehow bit down on the urge to growl up at him. When in Rome…

  “Well, that went well,” Lucas said with a chuckle in his tone that annoyed the hell out of her. “Wanna go again or are we good to go?”

  Chloe snapped a look up at him, and the sight of a smirk on his lips hit the revenge button on her psyche, and she used her magic to whip his feet out from beneath him and put him on his backside in the snow.

  Well, she felt better.

  Then the sound of Lucas deep, gravelly laughter reached her ears, and she had to smile. “Oh, shut up,” she bit out, grabbing a handful of snow and tossing it at his face.

  “I think they call that karma,” Lucas said, grinning.

  “I think I hate snow,” she said, flopping down onto her back and looking up at the darkening sky.

  “Too bad, that’s more on its way,” Lucas said, pushing up to his feet and holding out one large hand for her to take. “And we’d better get you inside before we’re caught in it.”