A Bleacke Christmas (Bleacke Shifters 5)

by Lesli Richardson

  “Mmm-hmm.” But Nami wore a playfully teasing look, like she thought he’d been doing something else. He felt his face heat, and he was about to protest, when he realized exactly what she thought he’d been doing.

  Not Brianna, fortunately. For once, it’d be easier to let Nami think he’d been rubbing one out, rather than the truth that he hadn’t been alone.

  Whew. “Guy needs some private time,” he said, trying not to look at Brianna when he said it.

  But Nami fell for it. He knew, because she started chuckling. “Sorry, honey. Didn’t mean to interrupt your ‘private time.’”

  Nami turned when Asia said something to her. But then Brianna caught his eye and winked.

  His cock stiffened in his jeans and he couldn’t help winking back at her.

  Damn.

  Maybe it had happened, then.

  Except he wasn’t sure which option terrified him more—that he’d dreamed it, or it really had happened.

  * * * *

  Brianna could sense Da’von’s tension around his sisters mixing with his desire to sidle over next to her and hold her.

  We have to be careful.

  The other issue was that Brianna felt guilty as hell that here Tamsin was deeply grieving, and one of the things she was supposed to be doing was looking after Tamsin, and yet she’d abandoned her.

  To fuck a clueless human’s brains out and claim him as her mate.

  Right now, she draped her arm around Tamsin’s shoulders while they were waiting to be seated. Tamsin leaned in and tipped her head against Brianna’s shoulder.

  Peyton had been giving Tamsin gentle nudges with his Prime powers but, after talking with the doctor in town, he hadn’t wanted to go too overbearing on her. The doctor thought it might be better to let her work through as much of her grief as possible without taking over. Because yes, they needed to keep her eating and taking care of herself, but not working through her grief wouldn’t help her, either.

  That morning, Peyton had pulled Brianna aside to talk to her out of Tamsin’s earshot. The current plan was to let Duncan and Badger work with Tamsin once the two older shifters arrived in Idaho. Both men had lost mates and understood all too well exactly the grief Tamsin was suffering.

  All I have to do is keep up the act that long.

  Then she heard Tamsin sniffing.

  Sniffing her.

  When Brianna looked down, she saw the younger corgi shifter’s nose working, nostrils flaring.

  Shit!

  Brianna didn’t have time to take a shower. She’d ducked into their room to use the bathroom, and then raced downstairs to join everyone with the fib that she’d taken a quick walk around to explore a little.

  And hoped Asia and Gillian and the other wolves would be too busy to notice she now smelled like she’d just been fucked. Add to that Brianna gave thanks that the humans likely wouldn’t be able to smell her.

  She hoped.

  Tamsin, unfortunately, was so wrapped up in her grief that she wasn’t expending any energy on doing anything other than remaining vertical.

  Dinner was delicious, but a special kind of torture. Tamsin had been seated between Brianna and Gillian, but Da’von ended up on Brianna’s other side.

  Unable to help herself, she slid her foot over to his and hooked it around his ankle.

  Under the table, he reached over and patted her thigh, giving her a gentle squeeze before withdrawing his hand.

  But he didn’t yank his foot away, either, despite her being able to overhear his near constant mental chatter.

  Mostly full of worried thoughts about if he was going crazy or not. Or that Nami or Mateo would want to kick his ass when they found out about them.

  Shit. I can’t tell him about wolves.

  Not yet. He’d never believe her. She couldn’t shift and prove it to him.

  She’d have to wait until at least Mateo and Carl arrived. It wouldn’t be fair to tell everyone else first and not them.

  There was also the matter of Da’von’s sister, Lu’ana. She was a clueless human, too. Meaning they’d need one of the Primes to get involved to tweak memories.

  Now Brianna had a better appreciation for the extra level of secrecy that Mateo and Carl endured when she was little to keep all this from her.

  Throughout dinner, Tamsin listlessly picked at her dinner, even with Brianna quietly encouraging her to eat. Peyton hoped that maybe having Tamsin at the spa with the others might help distract her a little. Get her involved in activities with all of them.

  Brianna suspected it wouldn’t.

  After dinner, Gillian called for everyone’s attention. “Anyone want to go sit outside around the fire and drink hot chocolate and make s’mores?” Gillian, Asia, her kids, and various assembled cousins all wanted to go, as did Nami, Lu’ana, and Malyah.

  She sensed Da’von reluctantly add his vote.

  Tamsin wanly smiled, nearly painful to watch. “This has been ever so lovely,” she softly said, “but I think I shall turn in for the evening.” Brianna was also worried that Tamsin had been sleeping so much lately. “Thank you for dinner. It was quite wonderful.” She started to rise, and Brianna went to push her own chair back to go with her.

  “It’s all right,” Tamsin told her, laying a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

  “No, I’ll walk with you,” Brianna said. “Besides, I don’t have my jacket. I need to get it.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Da’von said. “I need to get my jacket, too,” he added. “It’s up in my room.”

  Nami’s gaze narrowed a little, softening when she focused on Tamsin again. “A’ight. We’ll see y’all out there, then.”

  They moved at Tamsin’s slower pace, leaving the restaurant and heading through the lobby to the elevator with Da’von trailing them.

  In the elevator, though, Brianna noticed Tamsin’s nose wrinkling again. Tamsin looked at her, then at Da’von, and back again, but she didn’t say anything.

  Da’von ducked into his room while Brianna went ahead and unlocked their room door, holding it for Tamsin.

  “Thank you,” Tamsin quietly said. Once the door closed behind them, Tamsin sank onto her bed. “He seems rather dashing, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he’s…nice.”

  Tamsin slowly nodded. “It’s quite all right, Bri. I won’t say anything.”

  A wave of guilt swept through Brianna. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I—”

  “It’s all right, love,” Tamsin quietly said. “I wish someone could find a happy ending. Goodness knows, one is needed in these times.” She sighed. “If I awaken in the middle of the night and you’re not here, rest assured, I shall be fine. I’d rather know where you are, and that you’re safe and happy, than worry that something happened to you.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  Tamsin held her hands out to her and Brianna walked over for a hug, folding herself around the younger woman. “I’m serious, Bri. Please, no apologies, right? Life is blasted short. Do you feel it’s serious with him?”

  “Yeah. I’ve never felt like this before.”

  “Like a bolt from the heavens?”

  “Yeah. I can hear his thoughts, and I know he hears mine. But he doesn’t know anything about wolves.”

  Tamsin looked up. “Then it’s likely a mate bond. Absolute true, pure love. Don’t waste a second of time you have with him. Live life to the fullest and capture every moment of happiness that you can. You never know when it might slip through your fingers. When do you think you might tell your families?”

  “I…I don’t know. Not until after Carl and Mateo get here. And because he’s a clueless human, and I can’t shift to prove it to him, I’ll need to talk to Peyton, probably. I’ll need his help to explain it.”

  “A Prime.”

  “Yeah. Plus, I’ll need to present Da’von to him as my mate.”

  Tamsin released her, and the shadow of what passed for a smile curved her lips. “That makes me a co-conspirator
. A little intrigue for such a worthy cause will truly distract me.”

  “Thank you!” Brianna grabbed her jacket and gloves, and a scarf and hat, and emerged from their room to find Da’von standing outside his and nervously shifting from foot to foot. “She knows,” she whispered.

  His eyes went wide. “What?”

  “She’s—” Her mouth snapped shut on the words “a shifter, duh.”

  Because Da’von didn’t know yet.

  Crap.

  “She’s perceptive,” Brianna said. “And she said she’ll cover for us.”

  He scowled. “Is that…right? To do that to her?”

  “She made a valid point that it’s a distraction for her. And she told me she wants to see someone get a happy ending.” She pulled on her jacket and then brushed a kiss across his lips. “Come on, before they send one of the kids looking for us.”

  Because the last thing she needed to deal with was a smart-assed wolf shifter teenager wanting to tease the two of them for their new mate bond when her own new mate didn’t even know they had one.

  Chapter Eight

  Over the next several days, Da’von found it more difficult to believe he wasn’t caught in some alternate dimension. During the day he enjoyed learning how to ski—and discovered he wasn’t just good at it, he shocked the instructor at how good he was. After only the second morning of lessons, Da’von was cleared to tackle the Blue Square trails with Brianna and Asia’s kids, while Lu’ana and Malyah were barely able to navigate the easier Green Circle trails.

  Even better, he didn’t have to spend a cent. Literally, everything was being taken care of for them, including their lift tickets, gear rentals—everything.

  Best. Christmas. Ever!

  Once everyone else retired for the evening, Brianna snuck over to his room and they spent most of every night wearing each other out in bed before falling asleep. Then she’d return to her room early in the morning, well before the others awakened.

  And she’d come up with condoms, too, eliminating one worry from his plate.

  As crazy as it sounded, he knew he was in love with Brianna. When he told her that on evening two, she said it back to him.

  At least if he was crazy, then he wasn’t crazy alone.

  There hadn’t been a repeat of the silent talking, so he shoved it out of his mind. It had to be a trick of his imagination.

  What he wasn’t looking forward to was their secret finally getting out. If Brianna was moving to Tampa, there was no way in hell he wasn’t going to see her once they were all home.

  When Carl and Mateo arrived with everyone else, it would make it more difficult to sneak around.

  One good thing—Nami seemed to have adopted Brianna and Tamsin both. She’d already welcomed Carl and Mateo in with open arms, especially once she found out Mateo and Brianna were orphans. It was like she instantly bonded with all of them.

  Da’von hoped that’d make things easier on him once he finally admitted to Nami what was going on.

  Maybe Nami won’t kill me then.

  At least Da’von was sleeping well, between his exhaustion from his activities inside at night with Brianna, and all his physical activities outside on the slopes. He loved spending time outdoors at the resort and it reinforced his love for the region.

  On the fifth day, Asia’s kids started out the morning by taking Da’von and Brianna to one of the Blue-Black trails, while Lu’ana and Malyah stuck with some of the cousins to ski the easier green courses.

  “Does that mean it’s what color you look like by the time you reach the bottom?” Da’von only half teased as he studied the sign at the top of the trail.

  Chelsea laughed. “It means it’s a skill level between a Blue Square and a Black Diamond trail. If you like this one, there’s a Black Diamond we can try tomorrow.”

  He shrugged, smiling. “I’m game.” He’d been enjoying everything so far, loving how much fun he was having. He was keeping up with Charles and Kent on the slopes, although little Chelsea was more nimble and took some of the turns faster than he was comfortable with. Arthur had the technical skills, but usually ended up hanging back with Brianna, who wasn’t taking the courses as fast as Da’von.

  Brianna looked a little nervous. “I’ll see you at the bottom. I’m going to take my time on this one.”

  “Don’t worry,” Arthur said. “I’ll stay with you.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  It took every ounce of self-control Da’von had not to lean in and kiss Brianna. Or want to shoulder younger Arthur out of the way.

  Except he knew that was stupid, because Arthur was almost fourteen, still a kid.

  Da’von took a deep breath of the mountain air to clear his thoughts. “We doin’ this?”

  Charles grinned. “We’ve skied this trail before. Stay behind me and Kent. Try to stick to the lines we take. We won’t hot-dog it.”

  “Okay.”

  He watched as Charles, then Kent headed down. After waiting a moment, he followed.

  It was definitely steeper and more challenging than the previous trails they’d skied, and for a brief moment, a flare of terror hit him that maybe he’d done fucked up.

  But then…it was like something took over, an unseen hand guiding him.

  Something about the rush of wind around his helmet and goggles, the way his body craved the speed, it was almost like the way he craved Brianna.

  Like there was a deeper vein of power struggling to break free inside him and see the light of day.

  Ahead of him, he thought he heard maybe one or both of them let out howls, and he laughed, howling in reply.

  It just…felt right.

  Maybe that’s why Bebe does it.

  By the time they reached the bottom of the trail, Da’von felt energized. He came to a stop near where the two were waiting for him.

  “Well?” they both asked.

  Da’von lifted his goggles. “That was freaking awesome! Can we do it again?”

  Charles pointed at the trail, where Chelsea had just come into view. “Let’s wait for all of them and see what they want to do. I’m game if you are.”

  “If you liked this,” Kent said, “maybe we should see how you do with snowboarding.”

  “Sure!”

  Chelsea had just joined them at the bottom of the run when they spotted Brianna, with Arthur not far behind her. A sense of relief filled Da’von as he watched her, and it took every ounce of self-control he had not to pull her into his arms for a hug and kiss when she joined them.

  “Well?” Charles asked her. “How was it?”

  “It was…fun. I don’t think I’m ready for anything more technical than this, though. If I was more tired, I’m not even sure I could handle this one. That was damned tricky.”

  Charles glanced at his watch. “Let’s go grab some lunch,” he said. “We’ve got some more cousins who are supposed to be joining us. We can decide then what to ski next.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Brianna said, glancing at Da’von.

  Arthur arrived, and they all headed over to the lodge. Chelsea ran ahead to find their mom and see if they wanted to join them. Pretty soon, they were all eating lunch at what had apparently become “their” table in the main dining room, because the staff kept several tables pushed together and perpetually reserved for the Bleacke kin.

  Da’von was still worried about Nami picking up on him and Brianna, but so far, they seemed to be flying under everyone else’s radar except Tamsin’s.

  On the twenty-third, when everyone else flew out to join them, they’d be leaving the resort and heading over to Peyton and Trent’s. If they could just make it past Christmas Day until their secret came out, that’d be great.

  Although he was hoping it wouldn’t come out until long after they were back in Tampa. Because then they could—truthfully—claim they met out here and wanted to get to know each other better.

  At least Nami seemed to love Brianna.

  Beck, Dewi, and Ken had reall
y helped Nami come to grips with Malyah and Joaquin’s apparently short romance.

  Maybe they’ll help with us, too.

  * * * *

  Brianna hated that she couldn’t open up to Gillian and Asia about their mating, but with Nami or Lu’ana usually within earshot, it wasn’t exactly something she could admit.

  Besides, she didn’t want to hurt Mateo and Carl’s feelings and tell the women before she told them.

  Yes, she absolutely was chickening out by not calling them yet and telling them.

  It could wait a couple more days.

  Meanwhile, she slipped into Da’von’s room every evening once she was sure everyone had settled into their rooms for the night. It sucked peeling herself away from him before dawn every morning, because she wanted to stay curled up in his arms. This plan, however imperfect, was working great.

  Until the morning of the twenty-second.

  That’s because she forgot to set her alarm before they started fooling around, and she overslept.

  She glanced at her phone. “Shit!” She jumped out of bed and frantically started searching for her clothes.

  “What?” he groggily asked.

  “Breakfast! I need to get out of here before anyone catches me!”

  He switched on the bedside lamp and started helping her look for clothes. She skipped the underwear when she couldn’t find them, yanking on her PJs and bolting out the door without looking first…

  And literally ran into Gillian and Asia standing there in the hallway and whispering to each other.

  Brianna gulped as the two wide-eyed wolf women looked at her, and then looked inside the room, where the door hadn’t completely swung closed yet.

  Asia lifted her nose and took a long sniff while Gillian caught the door with her hand before it shut all the way.

  And then Gillian silently pointed a finger into the room, her meaning clear.

  Brianna turned and headed back inside, Asia and Gillian on her heels.

  Da’von, who’d had his back to the door, turned, letting out a cry of shock when he saw Asia and Gillian standing there.

  He quickly grabbed a pillow and held it in front of him while easing toward the bed.

  Gillian sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I wondered what the hell was going on.” She smirked. “Anything you’d like to tell us, Brianna? Da’von?”