Shifters in the Snow
Page 1
Shifters in the Snow
Jacqueline Sweet
Amanda Jones
Cynthia Fox
Claire Ryann
J.K. Harper
J.M. Klaire
Christa Kelley
Liv Brywood
Auriella Skye
Gen Géricault
Alyse Zaftig
Edith Hawkes
Suki Selborne
Olivia Arran
Misha Carver
Contents
Copyright
Sneak Peek
A Honeybear Christmas
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Bears in Wonderland
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
About the Author
Grizzly Bell Rock
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Epilogue
About the Author
How the Bear Stole Christmas
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
About the Author
New Year Wolf
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
Before the Hunt
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About the Author
Bearing the Freeze
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
The Cowbear's Secret Christmas Baby
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
The Alpha Warlock Shifter's Gift (An Alpha Warlock of Kala West Short)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
Winter Solstice
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
The Panther's Runaway Surrogate
1. Gerard’s Investigation
2. Restaurant Shift
3. Medical Care
4. Chicken Soup
5. Labor and Delivery
6. Running Away
7. Next Morning
8. Martina’s House
9. Proposal
10. Mansion
11. Kaitlyn
12. Convincing
Epilogue
About the Author
Bear Naked for Christmas
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Jingle Bell Howl
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
About the Author
Snow Leopard Mountain
1. The New House
2. On The Road
3. Open Door
4. Home From Home
5. In Deep
6. New Flame
7. Wined And Dined
8. Helping
9. The Visitors
10. Taken
11. Flight
12. Interview
13. She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain
About the Author
Found
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
Stuff More Shifters in Your Stockings This Holiday Season
Copyrights held © 2015 by the individual authors
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Sneak Peek
A Honeybear Christmas by Jacqueline Sweet — When the Morrissey brothers and their mates gather for a Christmas day cook-off, nothing goes according to plan, and the untimely arrival of the Winter Witch threatens to ruin not just their dinner, but all of Bearfield.
Bears in Wonderland by Amanda Jones — Wonderland Valley used to be a peaceful place for alpha Patrick Ravenmore, but no longer. Someone has kidnapped his fated mate, Cat, and Patrick is imprisoned. He makes a deal with the devil to be freed, and when he finds Cat, she has no memory of him or the life they lived together. Can Patrick convince Cat that he is her fated mate?
Grizzly Bell Rock by Cynthia Fox — When the feisty O'Reilly sisters, Gracie and Catherine, travel over the river and through the woods straight into Mistletoe Hollow and its population of shifters, Two hunky shopkeepers show them the best Christmas presents come with four legs and fur.
How the Bear Stole Christmas by Claire Ryann — When an opportunity to run a friend's coffee shop for the winter season lands Andi in the path of the surly man that the locals call "the Grinch" will she be able to see beneath his gruff exterior to discover that the California Grizzly never really went extinct?
New Year Wolf by J.K. Harper — Caleb Bardou is a fighter at heart. When he was justifiably stripped of his Pack Guardian status, it knocked him out cold. But with his hard-won mate, Rielle, now by his side, Caleb forges a promising new path—until his arch nemesis threatens to take the shine off Caleb and Rielle's bright new year.
Before the Hunt by J.M. Klaire — When a wolf shifter with commitment issues teams up with a runaway bride to find her a new groom, the claws come out and the fur flies.
Bearing the Freeze by Christa Kelley — Polar bear shifter Gage Weston, known to the world as the Paranormal Problem-Solver, returns to his hometown to face down the one problem he could never solve: Mending Lily Tisdale's broken heart.
The Cowbear's Secret Christmas Baby by Liv Brywood —
Forced to hunt down the cowboy shifter who broke her heart, Rachel must convince Brady to help her save the dying son he never knew existed.
The Alpha Warlock Shifter's Gift (An Alpha Warlock of Kala West Short) by Auriella Skye — It's Christmas time in Kala West, but with werewolf Danika being forced to marry a stranger and half-breed Blaine's out-casting from the warlock community, they aren't in the holiday spirit. When the two realize their past connection to each other, even Florida won't be a match for the magical heat between them.
Winter Solstice by Gen Géricault — On the longest, darkest day of the year, magic sizzles the snow between cursed bear shifter Clayton Afters and his witchy true mate, Clementine Weatherspoon—but the winter solstice is full of surprises for this fated pair.
The Panther's Runaway Surrogate by Alyse Zaftig — Surrogate Devanta is on the run, but the baby's father, a billionaire panther shifter, won't rest until he catches her.
Bear Naked for Christmas by Edith Hawkes — Christmas in the arms of a handsome stranger, with a furry secret, wasn't on Katie's wishlist, but she sure wasn't going to say no and return him!
Jingle Bell Howl by Misha Carver — When reckless Laney Reynolds defies her parents and steals her mother’s car to go on a ski trip for Christmas vacation, things spiral out of control quickly. Will Nate, the handsome and charming billionaire wolf shifter be able to save her from herself as well as the forces that threaten to harm her?
Snow Leopard Mountain by Suki Selborne — When workaholic executive assistant Cadence takes a business trip to Aspen, she never expected to find herself a suspect in a kidnapping — or to be swept off her feet by Sawyer, a hot snow leopard shifter who might just know how to make her dreams come true.
Found by Olivia Arran — When Alpha Adam Colstone escapes to his winter cabin for some much needed solitude and relaxation, rescuing a voluptuous she-wolf from frostbite was definitely not part of his plan. Waking up in the arms of a sizzling hot stranger, Claire Kendal thought all her Christmases had come at once...but she had to keep on running–didn't she?
A Honeybear Christmas
by Jacqueline Sweet
Chapter 1
Mina took a deep breath of the cold, wintry air and steadied herself for battle. Weeks of preparation should have filled her with confidence, but they didn’t. If anything, she felt more nervous, as if all that time spent could not be wasted.
It was almost noon in Bearfield, and the ground was thick with snow. Mina had spent most of her life in Chicago, so snow on the ground at Christmas felt normal to her. But this was Northern California. It snowed once a decade and never accumulated. Something weird was going on. But she was too intent on the contest awaiting her to worry about a little snow. It was the weather. It would sort itself out.
If she made it to tomorrow, she could begin to worry about snow and ice and odd meteorological activity.
She had to survive the day first.
“Is this everything?” Matt asked. He was dusted with snow already. Mina turned and noted how it clung to his sandy hair and how flakes touched his hot shifter skin and melted instantly. Her husband was a bear shifter, from a family of bear shifters. He towered over her on the best of days, but with a puffy parka on, he loomed even larger. He clutched grocery bags and a canvas sack full of cooking supplies, looking like a tree from some children’s storybook that grew bags of flour instead of apples.
“I’m not ready for this, Matt,” she said. Before her was a gravel driveway that led through thick forest to a house. The house was technically a log cabin, but the logs had been felled by the paws of the largest bear shifter around and meticulously worked until they shone red. It looked more like a castle, or a fortress. It was the home of her brother-in-law, the Alpha of Bearfield, Marcus, and his human son, Sebastian. “Marcus terrifies me.”
“He’s not that bad. He’s a big softie once you—no, actually, he’s not really. He’s not a softie. He’s a hardie. Hardie? Is that a word?”
“That’s not a word,” Mina laughed.
“He’s the toughest, roughest, biggest, meanest bear shifter in California. But he’s our tough and rough and big and mean bear. He’s on our side.”
“What if I mess up?”
“You won’t mess up.”
“What if he hates my food? He basically never comes to my bakeshop.”
“He loves your food. And he’s just giving you personal space. If he showed up every day at your shop to eat your muffins and donuts and cronuts and pies and that frosted cinnamon bread and, wait, what was I saying? I got distracted mid-sentence.” He grinned at her again. He was being extra charming, trying to deflate and deflect her tension. “Oh yeah, if he rolled in every day you would feel like you were under surveillance. He knows the effect he has on people, it’s why he keeps to his ways.”
“Y’know, I know you’re right, but it doesn’t feel like you’re right.” The wind picked up and swirled an eddy of snow up around Mina’s waist, sending a chill into her flesh.
“We do this every year. It’s no big deal. It’s been a tradition for us ever since we lost our folks.” Matt took a deep breath and then bellowed, “The Great Morrissey Brothers Cook-Off! May the best bear win!”
“I never asked, what happens to the loser?”
“We’re not going to lose, so don’t worry about it.” Matt’s voice was cagey. Mina thought of it as his lawyer tone.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Plenty of things,” he grinned.
“Matthew.”
“Every marriage needs its secrets. I mean, if you saw my bedhead or smelled my morning breath or watched me bear out and eat a deer, you’d think twice before kissing me again.”
“Tell me right now, or you can cook all of this yourself.”
Matt shifted the heavy bags of groceries in his arms like they weighed nothing. “Okay, okay. First, the loser has to do all the dishes.”
“When you were growing up, it was just the four of you, right? You and Michael and Marcus and Sebastian? That’s not so many dishes.”
“True, and an excellent point from opposing counsel, but Michael always burned something to a pan so badly we had to shift to scrape it off. And there are going to be a lot more people here today. I mean, that orphan werewolf pack adds eight more sets of dishes, not to mention your mom and Sheriff Pete and whoever else Marcus invited.”
“That is a lot of dishes.”
“So we should try really hard to not lose. That’s my plan.”
“Your plan is to not lose?”
“That is the whole of my plan.” Matt grinned at her again. With every smile she felt tension leave her body. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have found the one man in all the world that was her fated mate. Or she was his? Just being near him, even if he was clearly not telling her something, made her feel better.
“Just pull the band-aid off, okay?”
“What?”
“We both know you’re hiding something. Spill it.”
“Okay, well, see,” Matt began, then paused to gather his thoughts. “So this tradition we have. Michael and I compete in the cooking, Marcus makes a roast or a turkey or something. And Sebastian judges who’s better. He has never once picked his dad, but that’s like a running joke between them. I just want to let you know that sabotage is not only allowed in the contest, but encouraged.”
“Michael is going to sabotage my scones?” The mere thought brought a boiling heat to her wind-chilled face.
“And we are going to sabotage whatever he’s making with Allison. I have a whole bag here with, like, food coloring and vinegar and crushed garlic. The only rule is that the food can’t be actually poisoned.”
“No way.”
“Huh?”
“I am not going to serve Christmas dinner to my mother with everything full of turmeric or ghost peppers or whatever else you have planned. We need a clean contest. No cheating. Talk to your brother.”
Matt’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, good point. It’s probably not fair to inflict our cooking war on other people. Though you should’ve seen Sheriff Pete’s face last year when he tasted the fresh whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. I slipped horseradish into the mix when Michael wasn’t looking and—” Matt caught sight of Mina’s horrified expression. She was a baker and a damn good one. The idea of someone tampering with her food was too much to bear. “And yeah, that sure won’t happen again.”
“I can’t even imagine what I would do if I ate a piece of fresh pumpkin pie and it tasted like horseradish.”
“Pete just kind of started sobbing, but in his defense, Michael and I had taken it to a whole new level last year. He bought some of those miracle berries that make sweet taste sour and sour taste sweet off of Amazon and spiked the cranberry sauce with them.” Matt laughed. “You should have seen Michael’s face when he lost and had to do the run, though.”
Mina’s blood chilled.
“The run? What run?”
Matt glanced around, as if looking for an exit or something to hide behind. But when you’re a six-foot-six shifter built out of solid muscle, things hide behind you.
Mina leaned closer and poked him in the belly with a cold finger. “Tell me.”
“So yeah, this part is non-negotiable. The losers have to run down to the lake and back. It’s like a half-mile but the trail is wide and clear.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.”
“Naked,” Matt added.
Mina wanted to be mad, but she couldn’t. It was exactly the sort of ridiculous tradition she’d come to expect from this family. “I’ll do it because I love you, and because I know we’ll win. Now come here and kiss me and warm me up before we have to get serious.”