by Anna Lowe
The kids looked up immediately, absolutely focused on their dad.
Their dad. Anna’s inner bear bounced up and down with the thought. Todd was just as doting a father as she knew he’d be, and as for her as a mom — well, she had to give herself a little pat on the back, too. The kids were a joy, and she was managing just fine.
Fay was a spunky little cougar shifter with inquisitive, yellow-green eyes and more energy than an entire litter of kittens. She wouldn’t actually shift into cougar form until adolescence, thank goodness, but her curious eyes and mischievous habits were a dead giveaway. Ben was their cautious, shy bear cub. The trauma of losing his birth parents had prompted Ben to shift into bear form, and Anna had spent a lot of late nights worrying whether he’d ever recover. Todd had insisted everything would be okay, and he was right. After two weeks of settling in, Ben had shifted back to human form. They’d woken one morning to find their brown-haired, brown-eyed cub was human again. The clear, please-love-me eyes were exactly the same, as was the way he clung to Todd. Anna had worked hard to win him over, too, so that he snuggled with her just as freely as he did with Todd. Around others — well, he was still shy, but that would come with time. Time and love, she figured, ready to provide both in spades.
“Santa, huh?” she murmured. Todd was the one who’d devoted hours to the search for exactly the right sled.
He gave her a look that said, My lips are sealed, and she kissed them for good measure. A kiss she could have stayed stuck in for hours if it hadn’t been for the kids.
Todd reluctantly broke away and nodded at the babies. “The natives are restless.”
Ben cooed and kicked in excitement, and Fay scooted over in her lightning-fast crawl.
“Okay, okay. Hold your horses. I’ll get your snowsuits,” Todd murmured, laying them both out and placing the kids on top. Fay crawled off immediately, while Ben let Todd zip him in. “Now for your mittens…”
It was adorable, watching her big mate work those tiny mittens onto plump little hands. Anna kept sneaking peeks as she scooped up Fay and worked her legs into a pink snowsuit. Winters with young children had to be easier in Arizona, but she’d never regret the move to Montana — something she was reminded of the second they stepped out the door.
Her breath crystallized in the frigid air, and her boots crunched over the frosty porch. Snow clung to the surrounding pines and blanketed the ground — a pure, clean white to the sky’s brilliant blue. The river gurgled cheerfully in the distance, just out of sight.
Todd stomped his feet and bounced Ben in his arms. “Ready to go sledding?”
Ben, she knew, was up for anything as long as Todd was there with his reassuring bulk and his calm, steady voice. Those two had bonded right away, just as she had bonded with Fay.
“Ready, sweetie?” she asked, even though it went without saying that Fay was ready for any new adventure.
The snow was knee-deep, but trails crisscrossed the clearing, and they set off with the sled in tow.
“Hi, Anna! Hi, Todd,” a young woman named Clara called from across the way. Like many of the other cabins, hers was cheerily spruced up for the holidays with a wreath and lights. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas. I love your wreath,” Anna said, making Clara beam.
“Gotta celebrate our first Christmas together in style,” Clara replied.
Anna waved to one neighbor after another as they made for the hill. Her new clan was made up of bear shifters, a few wolves, and a cougar/coyote shifter pair. They’d all been targeted by the Blue Blood rogues at some point, and all had banded together under Todd’s leadership. A few of Todd’s distant cousins had come out from Maine to help get things off the ground, too, making the community almost twenty strong.
Todd slung an arm over Anna’s shoulders as they walked. “It’s the perfect place to establish the new Black River clan, and we owe it all to you.”
“I didn’t do much,” she protested.
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re the one who found this place and figured out how to finance it.”
Outwardly, she shrugged off the compliment, but inside, she glowed. Todd and his cousins had inherited the Black River lumber mill and surrounding property, but every building had been burned to the ground in the Blue Blood attack more than a year earlier. Her cousin Sarah’s place in town had been torched, too. Both properties were filled with memories, good and bad, so Anna and Todd wanted to make a fresh start somewhere nearby. The local real estate agents didn’t have much to offer, though, so she’d gone door-to-door making inquiries. She’d been close to giving up when an older woman suggested looking up an abandoned fishing camp not far away.
Anna and Todd had headed out to see it right away, driving out of town and down a hard-to-find side road.
“It’s perfect,” Todd had said, taking in the circle of tiny log cabins set in a clearing deep in the woods.
“It’s perfect,” she’d agreed, looking past the sagging roofs and rotting stairs to the general layout. “The cabins give every family their privacy.”
“This can be our communal space,” Todd had said as they explored the main house in the center of the clearing. The massive living room and oversized kitchen that had once been used to cater to guests would serve perfectly for a shifter clan.
“Miles of woods to wander in, too,” she’d said as if she’d been born a shifter and not human.
“Perfect,” Todd concluded.
The only catch had been tracking down the owner and scraping together enough cash to buy the place. Their relatives at the Blue Moon Saloon and the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch had offered to loan them some money to start, but Todd had been reluctant to accept, knowing they’d need a lot more to get the mill working again.
“Maybe we can just live in some trailers at the old place,” he’d said, gulping down his pride.
They might have had to do that, too, if it hadn’t been for the Boone property in town. Sarah was ready to part with the place, and Anna had convinced an East Coast real estate buddy to include it in the listings they ran in major newspapers. That had set off a minor bidding war between wealthy city dwellers looking to build a western retreat. In the end, the sale had brought in enough money to buy the fishing camp outright.
“Consider that place yours,” Sarah had said when Anna called with the good news.
“Wait, that property is yours,” Anna protested.
“We’ll call it an investment,” Soren said, breaking the impasse at last. “You guys fix it up the way we’re fixing up the saloon, and in the end, everyone wins.”
Anna still felt like the biggest winner, but okay. Family was family.
A clan is a clan, Todd agreed.
That was another advantage to being a bear — the strong family ties, the dedication to a common cause. She’d noticed that about the Blue Moon Saloon even before she knew about shifters.
Another wish come true. She couldn’t believe her luck.
“I can’t believe how it all worked out,” she murmured as they walked along.
“Sure has,” Todd agreed.
Anna tipped her head up, picturing the sky full of stars. “And I can’t wait to learn more constellations.”
Todd laughed. Although they’d both been working their tails off on the property, they still made time to gaze up at the stars at night.
“As you wish, my mate. As you wish. But sledding first.”
By the time they trudged to the top of the south-facing slope, she was sweating and laughing and pink around the ears. Todd walked with barely a trace of a limp, she noticed with pride. Some of the injuries he’d sustained during the rogue attack on Black River would never fully heal, but he was making good progress on others — a process that delighted her as much as watching the kids grow. He was still deaf, but that didn’t matter much since she and their packmates could all send thoughts into each other’s minds.
“So, who’s first?” she asked, looking down the gradual slope.
“Definitely you two,” Todd said, touching Fay’s cheek, then Anna’s. “Ben and I will watch and learn how it’s done.”
“I thought a true alpha leads from the front,” she joked.
“A smart alpha knows when to lead and when to follow,” he shot back. “Especially when he’s got his own heroine to follow.”
Heroine — her? Anna blushed. “You’re just buttering me up.”
Todd shook his head gravely. “Not one bit, my love. Not one bit. Now go on.” He made a shooing motion. “We’ll give you a push. Right, Ben?”
The second Anna sat on the sled and hooked her feet on the runners, memories swamped her. She’d lived in Montana until age eight and had done her fair share of sledding back in the day.
“Wow. This sled is practically a remake of the one I had as a kid. This is great.”
“Super,” Todd murmured quietly.
Anna settled Fay in her lap and took a deep breath.
“Ready?” Todd asked.
She dug her heels into the snow to make sure she could brake. “Ready. Right, sweetie?”
Fay squealed as Todd gave them a push and sent them swishing down the slope — a slope just steep enough to keep them moving, while shallow enough to keep their speed in check. The wind kissed her cheeks and whipped the condensation of every breath over her shoulder. The sled bounced over bumps and responded as she shifted her weight left and right. Fay squeaked, all warm and cozy in Anna’s lap, and the sun seemed to shine right on them. By the time the sled eased to a stop at the bottom, Anna was laughing and hooting with delight.
“We did it! Did you like that?” she asked, turning her daughter around for a kiss.
Fay looked at her with eyes that glowed and said, Yippee! Let’s do it again!
Anna laughed and hugged her daughter, counting every bit of her luck.
My daughter. My home. She turned her head to look up the slope to where Todd waved. My mate.
She boosted Fay to her hip, grabbed the sled’s tow line, and started back uphill. “Daddy got you the best present ever, didn’t he?”
Fay smiled and looked at her with an expression that belied her years. Something like, Daddy got us the best present ever.
Anna stopped short and stared at Fay then at Todd. That morning, he’d told her he was saving her Christmas present for later, and suddenly, she knew what it was. That sled wasn’t just Todd’s gift to the kids. It was his gift to her, too. His way of bringing back the good parts of the past and welcoming her to a great new life.
She grinned all the way back up the hill and reeled him in for a hug the second she got close enough. Which made it a four-way hug with Ben and Fay because each of them held a child on a hip.
“You, my love, are the best mate ever,” she whispered. “And this is the best gift ever. The best. Thank you.”
A huge smile broke over his face. “You like it?”
“I love it.” She nodded. “And I love you.”
They nuzzled then stood looking out over the mountains. Their mountains, in a way. Anna sighed and brushed a finger over Ben’s cheek. “Are you ready to try it, sweetie? With Daddy?”
Ben’s brown eyes were as wide and serious as ever, but he looked game. Todd sat on the sled — which looked a lot smaller under him than it had under her — and carefully settled Ben in his lap.
“Ready?” she asked, putting a hand between his shoulder blades.
“Ready.”
She pushed and watched them slide down the slope, cheering them all the way. When Todd stood and waved from the bottom, his grin was huge. Ben’s too.
Anna hugged Fay tighter because it was another one of those too-good-to-be-true moments. And it was all hers. She could see the rest of the afternoon play out the same way: more rides, swapping partners each time, then building a snowman. Better yet, a snowbear. Then they’d head home to stoke the fire and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.
Home. Love. A new life.
She blinked back the tears of joy and waved madly to Todd and Ben. “Best Christmas ever,” she murmured to Fay. “Best Christmas ever.”
Chapter Five
4:50 p.m. Christmas Day
“Oh my gosh. That feels so good,” Summer groaned, leaning back on the couch.
“You like that?” Drew asked, half whisper, half growl.
She stretched her leg a little farther and tipped her head back. “Amazing.”
“Hold still,” he murmured, moving his hands over her skin.
“Trying.”
“Failing,” he scolded. “How am I supposed to paint your toenails when you’re moving around so much?”
She laughed but held still to enjoy her Christmas present. The one her bear shifter mate had surprised her with.
Her mate. The words still made her glow. She and Drew had only exchanged bites a week ago after all that had happened at Hope Springs, and she was still riding the high. She’d never had sex that passionate or that layered with emotion before. Heck, she probably never would again, but that was okay, because even ordinary sex with Drew — if she could call it ordinary — was off the charts. Two hours ago, he’d almost drowned her with pleasure in the shower. And she’d made his eyes roll in ecstasy when she straddled him that morning in bed.
Life is good, her wolf hummed. She sat on one end of the couch, and Drew sat on the other, both of them turned in to face each other and stretch out.
Sure is good, she agreed. Even just lying around the couch with Drew was a joy.
That’s because we’ve been working our tails off, her wolf sighed.
That they had, but she didn’t mind for a minute. This was her pack. Her new family. Her home.
And wow. The bare-chested mountain man sitting at the opposite end of the couch was hers, too.
My mate, her wolf squeaked.
Drew looked up and grinned. Oops. Ever since they’d exchanged mating bites, thoughts slipped easily from her mind to his. Not that they had any secrets — other than things like presents for their first Christmas together. She’d given him breakfast in bed — naked, that is, with honey and pancakes that they’d ended up eating off each other as much as off plates. The kind of breakfast that had left her skin sticky and ended with the two of them in the shower.
Nice, her wolf sighed deeply.
And his present to her? Just as good. The sun glinted off his skin, and his green-gold eyes focused on her foot like all the secrets of the universe might be found there. He’d already applied a layer of green to her nails and was on to a second, glittery layer. Who knew bears could handle nail polish so well?
“I can’t believe you’re painting my toenails,” she cooed, stretching her arms high. “Did Janna tip you off?”
Janna had asked her all kinds of strange questions over the past week, and now it made sense.
“Yep.” He leaned closer to study his handiwork and made a face. “I’m not sure I’m doing a good job, though.”
“You’re doing great,” she assured him.
“Not so sure, but it is kind of fun.” He looked a little sheepish admitting it. But why not?
Having Drew that focused on her body — even just her toes — had her heating up all over again. Which meant this gift was just as likely to end in sex as breakfast had. But heck — they had the whole day off. So why not indulge?
“What does your family usually do for Christmas?” she asked.
He drew the brush slowly along the nail of her big toe, intent on making straight lines. “You know, the usual.”
He must have felt her tense because he looked up immediately and frowned. “Sorry. I mean…”
She closed her eyes. Drew was the only shifter at the Blue Moon Saloon who had a fairly normal family — everyone alive and well and not nearly as screwed up as the wolves she’d grown up among.
“Do they do a big dinner, like here?” she asked, keeping the conversation moving.
He rubbed her foot, setting her at ease again. “Yep. On Christmas Eve, though. Th
at’s when the whole clan gets together. One of my great-uncles dresses up as Santa and comes in, ringing sleigh bells.” He laughed. “Real sleigh bells. Don’t ask me where he got them from. All the kids get superexcited, and just when they’re completely hyper and dying to open their gifts, my aunt stops everything and makes everyone listen to ‘ Silent Night. ’ ” He said it as if to complain, but his eyes glowed with the memories. “She cranks up the old Victrola and puts on the scratchiest record ever of some opera singer and makes us all listen.”
Summer laughed, imagining the scene. Then she imagined a much younger Drew, wiggling impatiently beside the tree, and laughed even harder.
“The kids roll their eyes during that song. Some of the older folks sing. One of my uncles has a really good voice, but a couple of the others — oh, man.”
He loved it, she could tell.
“They still do that. I mean, long after we grew up, they still did the whole ‘Look, kids! Santa is here!’ thing. I think they liked it as much as we did.”
She closed her eyes and pictured a teenaged Drew, suffering through that. Then she pictured the future, with an older, wiser version of Drew, and that warmed her, too. The aunts and uncles would be grandmas and grandpas someday, and she and Drew would be the grown-ups with kids of their own.
Her wolf sighed, just imagining it.
No, she wasn’t quite ready for kids yet. But, man — with a mate like Drew, any doubts she’d ever had were gone. When the time came, she’d welcome that new step in life. Heck, she’d even welcome growing old, as long as it was with Drew.
“And then what?” she prompted.
And then we lived happily ever after, her wolf decided.
“And then we finally get to the presents,” Drew said, continuing his tale. He leaned back and blew on her toes to dry the polish. “The kids are the elves who deliver the gifts. And everyone has to watch everyone open their gift, so it takes forever.”
He added a little more glitter to her big toe, as focused and serious as an artist restoring the Mona Lisa might be. She studied the details of his face: the lines around the corners of his eyes from all the smiling he did. The sparkle in his eyes. The happy quirk of his lips.
