In My Christmas Stocking Page 5

  Chloe rolled her eyes and grumbled a couple of curses under her breath. There didn’t appear to be a lot she could do right there and then, and she wedged her hands against his back and held on for dear life as they sped over the rough terrain.

  She was certainly going to have something to say to him when her feet hit solid ground again, but until then, she just had to take her lumps and hope that wherever they were going, they got there fast.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ~

  Max’s head came up fast, and a low, deep rumble of a growl rolled through his chest. If that wasn’t a dead giveaway, nothing would ever be, Kaylee thought as she watched him.

  It was as if he was receiving information from the mothership, which in some way, he was. That news didn’t look good, and she immediately thought of Jackson – the boy could get in oodles of trouble and she wondered if this was one of those times.

  “We need to go,” Lucas said, heading for the front door and snatching her jacket from the rack on the way.

  Kaylee moved with him, she didn’t question the urgency, but she did need to know if it was her nephew. “Jackson?”

  “No,” Max said, thrusting his feet into his boots at the same time as he helped her into her jacket. “Vampire alert.”

  “Vampire!” Kaylee didn’t like the sound of that. The only place she wanted to be right then was with her nephew. “Jackson’s still at the cabin with your mother?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine, and Cameron has gone after the other vampire, but…”

  “I get it, let’s go,” she said, stepping to the front door when she suddenly found herself staring at her mate’s back. “Seriously?”

  “It’s a male thing,” Max said, tossing a grin back over his shoulder.

  “Heaven forbid a female can actually take care of herself, right?” she chuckled, but the amusement rang hollow when all she could think about was getting to Jackson.

  “Better me than you,” Max said and pulled open the door.

  “Oh, well, when you put it like that,” she said with another chuckle and left the words hanging in the air between them.

  ~

  The alpha was oblivious to what was happening with his family. The mental link between the clan only went so far and once out of distance; there was little chance of being able to connect – it was like being out of the range of the signal.

  He walked beside Shauna; gun still draped over one arm as he scented the air and followed the trail. He already knew what he was dealing with and he wasn’t best pleased that his daughter had allowed herself to be in that kind of danger without telling anyone.

  He’d deal with her later. Right now he needed to see for himself what was going on, deal with it, one way or the other, and get back home before his mate threw a hissy fit that he wasn’t around on Christmas Eve when she was working her fingers to the bone, as she put it, to provide the family with a feast. Even if she wouldn’t accept his help, he’d still get the blame.

  He liked the idea of a feast – he was getting hungry.

  Mark had a million questions for his daughter about the unwelcome visitor, but that would have to wait as well, right now he was listening to the sounds of nature and trying to figure out where the hell that threat lay and if it was going to jump out on them.

  He was more than happy to shoot first and ask questions later – he had his daughter to protect.

  The low, deep rumble of a growl greeted his ears, and with a flick of his wrist, the shotgun became one, and he was aiming it at the teenage wolf shifter in front of them.

  “Daddy!” Shauna screeched, and he resisted the urge to cover his ears or shake his head as the sound reverberated inside his skull. Her mother could be shrill when she wanted to be, but Shauna took the prize.

  The scruffy teenager was tall, lean, but looked like he was growing into his muscles, with hair that was parted along the top of his head and hung down either side of his face like curtains ready to be pulled over his eyes.

  Those eyes were dark, wary, and glaring at him. “You’ve got thirty seconds to tell me your life story,” Mark growled and got a blank stare in return from the teen.

  “He’s homeless, der!” Shauna said, and Mark really wanted to roll his eyes at his daughter, but he needed to keep them fixed on the danger in front of them.

  “I got that part,” Mark shot back. “The rest is why he’s in our town…”

  “I was passing through,” Jacob said, and the defensive tone did little to warm the alpha’s heart.

  “Picking up snacks along the way?” Mark growled.

  “He was hungry,” Shauna berated her father.

  Mark would have liked to know when he became the bad guy, but he hated to ask. “Stealing folks livelihoods is…”

  “Wrong,” Jacob agreed and shot a look at Shauna when she was about to protest. “Wrong,” he said again, but this time to her.

  “Glad we agree,” Mark said. “The town is getting a hunting party together. I suggest you leave before…”

  “I was going to leave…”

  “You have nowhere to go,” Shauna said, turning a pleading look on her father. Mark caught that look out of the corner of his eye.

  “If you say can we keep him…” Mark growled and left the words hanging in the air.

  “We have a barn,” she protested.

  “And I have a shotgun, which one do you think I feel like…?”

  “Daddy!” Shauna screeched.

  Jacob took a step forward. A brazen move considering Mark was in full protection mode for his daughter, but the alpha didn’t move, his kept his bear firmly in its cage, and he waited to see what the teenager would do next.

  “As I said, I was going to leave,” Jacob said.

  “Daddy it’s snowing,” Shauna protested.

  “Thank you for the public service announcement, but I’ve got this, and he’s got a fur coat,” Mark growled.

  “But he can’t stay in his wolf forever, and he can’t carry his clothes…”

  “Shauna,” Mark growled.

  “Was leaving,” Jacob repeated. “But not anymore.”

  Mark did not like the sound of that. He’d rather not shoot the kid, and he’d rather not get all fangs and claws if he didn’t need to on Christmas Eve and in front of his daughter. That would make dinner time – awkward around the family table.

  “I don’t think you understand the predicament you’re facing,” Mark said and dropped his gaze to the shotgun. When he snapped a look back at the teenager, he noted that he’d raised his chin in defiance.

  That wasn’t good. Either the teen was too dumb or too proud to take the easy way out, and that meant that Mark would have to show him.

  “Daddy!” Shauna snapped. “He’s my mate!”

  Mark felt the walls of his perfect world start to come tumbling down around him.

  It didn’t feel like a ‘ho-ho-ho’ moment, but still, somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard those words.

  Merry damn Christmas.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ~

  Max tossed open the door to the main house and pushed Kaylee in ahead of him. She didn’t complain, she was only too happy to get to Jackson, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  “We’re in here,” Tanya called, and Kaylee followed the voice to find them in the kitchen up to their elbows in food.

  Kaylee felt her body grind to a halt as if every inch of her had been in pure fight mode with a side dollop of irate mother-dom thrown in for good measure. But when she saw Jackson with the cookie-cutter in hand making shapes in the large sheet of rolled dough in front of him as he perched on the edge of a stool, she felt as if she was melting on the spot.

  “He’s fine,” Tanya assured her, knowing that look only too well, she’d been there, done that, and had so many T-shirts to prove it that her mental closet was full to bursting. “We’re making cookies!” she said, all bright and breezy to take the edge off the moment for the boy.

  Kaylee snapped out of i
t. Jackson was fine, the world was still turning, and he looked oblivious to the turmoil that she’d felt. “Well, now you have the secret recipe you can make them for me all the time,” Kaylee said, stepping up behind him and wrapping her arms around him as she planted a small kiss on the top of his head.

  “Aunt Kaylee,” Jackson griped. “I’m too big for that!”

  Max stalked into the room from where he’d been watching at the doorway and over to his mother. “You’re never too big to get a hug,” he said and wrapped a solid arm around his mother.

  “That’s right,” Tanya said, turning her flour dipped hands up to Max’s face and planting one on either side of his face to the sound of chuckles from the boy. “Hugs make the world go around.”

  “Thanks, mom,” Max said, resisting the urge to growl a little. “Let’s talk,” he said and stepped back.

  Max wanted to know what had happened, and he didn’t want to hear it in front of the boy. As his mother snatched a towel from the side and started for the doorway, he nodded to Kaylee, and she smiled back.

  All was right in her world again now that she was at Jackson’s side and in full protection mode. But as he followed on his mother’s heels, he heard the front door open, and the sound startled his bear into full protection mode once more.

  A heartbeat later and he’d spun his mother behind his back. “This is getting old fast today,” Tanya growled, but she wasn’t about to elbow her son out of the way because she knew that man couldn’t be moved.

  “What the hell?” Max growled at the sight of his brother racing into the house with a female over his shoulder. “Boy, you’ve got some explaining to do,” he added.

  Lucas back-heeled the door closed and turned just enough for Max to see who was draped down the man’s back. “So does mom,” Lucas growled as he lowered his mate to her feet.

  “Chloe!” Max exclaimed.

  “Chloe?” Kaylee spat out.

  “Mum!” Jackson’s voice made Chloe snap to attention, and the boy was off his stool before Kaylee had a chance to move.

  “You’ve got a whole lot of explaining to do,” Max said as Jackson ran by him straight for his mother.

  “Hey, kiddo!” Chloe said, knowing that the impending collision was going to hurt as he ran into her body and wrapped his arms around her. “Ok, cookie fingers,” she chuckled, but when she looked up, Kaylee was glaring at her.

  “What the hey-ho?” Kaylee asked, and Chloe’s face was a screwed-up picture of sheepish contrition. “Oh, you’d better spill it, sister.”

  “Seconded,” Tanya said eyeing Lucas like only a mother could.

  “She hit a tree with her car after trying to kill me,” Lucas said and noted the way that his mate slowly turned to glare at him.

  “That was not my fault,” she bit out.

  “Right,” Kaylee snorted with disbelief. “So, why are you still here?”

  “Because it’s Christmas,” Jackson said, like that made perfect sense. “Wishes come true.”

  Kaylee frowned at his words, and she wanted to pick him up on it, but now was not the time.

  “I need to know what the vampire looked like,” Chloe said, ignoring her sister and turning her attention to Tanya. There was no doubt in her mind that the woman was the family matriarch, and she needed to get the truth straight from the horse’s mouth.

  The fact that everyone but Jackson was now staring at her didn’t go unnoticed, but that never fazed her before.

  “Oh boy,” Kaylee said, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes on her sister. “Do you have some explaining to do, or what?”

  “Like I haven’t heard that before,” Chloe said, but her sister was right. It was probably time to come clean.

  ~

  Cameron pushed up from the ground, kicked his leg out and caught the tree trunk, flipped in mid-air and came down in front of the fleeing vampire. He hadn’t lost his touch, and with a fist to the concrete jaw, he took the man off his feet and down to the ground.

  “You were fast, but I was better,” Cameron said, starting towards him when someone sprang from a branch above him and landed between the two men.

  She was tall, as curvy as hell, and with a gleam in her eyes that screamed victory. Cameron had to admit, he hadn’t been paying attention for a second vampire, and he was sorry he’d missed this one or he might have given up chasing the man and gone after her.

  “You were faster, but I was stealthier,” Mercy said with a victory grin.

  Cameron’s eyes took a slow walk up her body, and he wished his fingertips had done the same. She was as sexy as hell, and just his type with her long black hair and eyes the colour of his favourite whiskey. “You were stealthy, but I’m still faster,” he said, and in the blink of an eye he was standing beside the downed vampire, but she was standing right next to him.

  “Wrong again,” she said and used her arm to catch him across the chest and knock him ten feet away onto his backside.

  “Damn, but you’re a tease,” Cameron said, rebounding to his feet. “A friend of yours?” He nodded to the man she was protecting.

  “Can’t say he is,” Mercy said.

  “Won’t say he isn’t,” Cameron said, watching the second vampire pull himself up to stand beside her.

  “Leave,” Mercy told the man beside her.

  “I have a little problem with that, not that I don’t mind being alone with you if that’s what you wish,” Cameron said, positioning his body to follow the man should he attempt to go. “But, I need a word with him.”

  “No, you really don’t,” Mercy said. “But you might need to talk to Chloe.”

  “Who?” Cameron asked.

  “Sister of Kaylee,” Mercy said, and in the blink of an eye, both vampires had gone.

  Cameron rolled his eyes. “Fine, make me chase you, but I get grumpy when I miss dinner,” he called.

  Now he had two reasons to hunt, and it might have been a while since he’d last had that much fun, but he wasn’t entirely opposed to doing it again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ~

  Mark eyed the teenager, and one thought went through his mind – could he really claim the gun went off by itself? An accident that solved everyone’s problems, especially his.

  But that left him with another problem – a daughter without a mate – damn, not only would she never forgive him, but he’d be stuck with her living under his roof for the rest of his life.

  That wasn’t how he saw his retirement going, he and Tanya deserved some alone time and the peace and quiet that an empty nest afforded them. Ugh! He was sorry he’d come on the hunt.

  “Your – dot – dot – dot,” Mark growled to himself. Great, just what he needed, another stroppy teenager hanging around the house and store, eating his food, and a Merry Christmas.

  Shauna’s hands went to her hips, and he knew he was in trouble. “Don’t say it like that,” she hissed her words at him like she was a snake ready to strike.

  “Your dot – dot – dot,” he said, feigning glee. “Sound better?” he asked, but then dropped the façade as easily as he’d gained it.

  Jacob took one long step forward. “Look, I know…”

  “Whoa – whoa – whoa, you don’t know, Wolfy-the-stray-boy,” Mark said, holding up his hand and waving that away.

  “Daddy!” Shauna berated him.

  “Hey, I’m in a little bit of shock here and trying not to let my itchy trigger finger have its way and do my talking for me,” Mark informed her.

  “Oh, but it was fine when Max found his mate,” she said.

  Mark screwed up his face. “No, it wasn’t fine, she’s a witch, but now family, so that’s by-the-by,” he added, arguing with himself. “We have to let some things slide…”

  “So, witches get a free pass while wolf shifters are…”

  “A pain in the butt,” Mark growled. “But, who am I to judge – oh wait, your father.”

  “Well, that’s not my fault,” Shauna said, lifting her chin in d
efiance and looking down her nose at him.

  Jacob tried again. “Look, I don’t want to cause…”

  “Too late,” Mark growled at the teenager. He felt like running headfirst into the nearest tree. “Damn, I need a full frontal lobotomy to deal with my children,” he grumbled and growled. “It gets easier as they get older – said no one, ever.”

  “Well, I’ve found my mate,” Shauna said. “What are you going to do – shoot him?”

  “I’m thinking,” Mark growled. “It’s not like he has anything to say for himself.”

  Jacob opened his mouth, but Shauna jumped right in. “That’s because you haven’t let him get a word in.”

  “He’s silent now,” Mark growled back.

  Jacob folded his arms, closed him mouth and watched them tossing words back and fro at each other.

  His new family was – interesting.

  “Because you’re being so – male,” Shauna berated him.

  “He’s male!” Mark snapped.

  “But, he’s the nice kind,” Shauna growled.

  “There’s a nice kind?” Mark tossed back, wondering how the hell he’d got into this argument with her. It should have been her mate that was putting his own case and not relying on a female to do it for him. “Speak up!” he snapped at Jacob, but the grin on the teenager’s lips unnerved him a little.

  “Don’t bark at him,” Shauna snapped.

  “I don’t bark – he’s the wolf that’s his job,” Mark snapped back.

  “I don’t believe you said that,” Shauna said, stalking over to stand beside her mate, and there it was – Mark’s worst nightmare and best daydream come true – his daughter had found a mate and didn’t need her Daddy anymore. “You should apologise.”

  “Alpha’s don’t apologise,” Mark informed her as the snow started to come down around them and he groaned inwardly.