A Shifter Under the Christmas Tree

by M. L. Briers

  “Well, I would,” she said, leaning in a little just to tempt fate. “But, I kind of need my hand back,” she added.

  Max realised that his hand was still covering hers, but he didn’t rush to remove it. Instead, he slowly ran his fingers over her hand and to her wrist, then he circled it, and the next moment he yanked her towards him.

  Kaylee could have used her magic to stop him, she could have ended whatever this was right there and then, but curiosity and a big dollop of excitement got the better of her.

  With one palm landing against the hard-muscled of his chest, and the other hand still captured by him, she didn’t do a damn thing when he dipped his head and his warm lips came down on hers – nothing but sigh inside.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  ~

  Things were getting serious.

  Seriously good.

  The thing was that now she was kissing him, she couldn’t seem to stop. She reasoned that she did have an addictive personality – one little bite of chocolate always led to the whole bar, one slice of chocolate cake and the rest could not be resisted, and now him.

  Damn, but his kisses were moreish.

  More – More – More; said Fate’s little foot soldiers inside her mind and body. But when he lifted her in the air like she weighed nothing, and her backside hit the counter, that little angel on her shoulder pulled down the white flag and smacked her upside the head with a sledgehammer.

  What did she think she was doing?

  She had Jackson to think about, and this was not thinking about anything but herself.

  She wasn’t Chloe – Jackson came first.

  When he broke away from her lips and dipped his head to take in her scent between her shoulder and her neck, she had a moment to think – but all she could think about was the next kiss.

  “I never got my cookie!” she blurted out and grimaced at how stupid that sounded even to her.

  Max pulled back just enough for her to see the grin on his face, and that made her words sound even more pathetic. “Cookie? That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” he asked.

  His eyes had darkened, and she knew why. He was thinking the same thing she was, and it had nothing to do with cookies.

  “No!” she said, screwing up her face as if she was looking at a man who’d lost his sanity. Then she realised what she’d said and rushed to make it right. “Yes! That would be a yes – cookie!”

  Max didn’t want those moments to end. Hell, he would have cut off his right paw to keep her in his arms – not that his bear appreciated the thought and certainly wouldn’t appreciate the gesture – but, he wasn’t going to press the issue.

  He had time – they had time – and he wasn’t about to give up wooing her, but pausing for a cookie wouldn’t kill him either.

  Max took a small step back from her, reached for the Christmas tin and with the pads of his thumbs he sprang the top off. “Your cookie,” he said, offering a look inside.

  Kaylee looked down at the tempting cookies in the tin, and back up to the tempting sight of her mate grinning with the kind of amusement that came from someone who knew she was playing for time.

  Well, didn’t she feel like an idiot? But if you couldn’t be an idiot with the love of your life who could you be an idiot with?

  The love of her life? Wow, that sounded so – final.

  Kaylee reached into the tin and retrieved a cookie. She’d just taken her first bite when his grin widened. “Cookie monster,” he said, teasing her with his words, his eyes, and that damn smile.

  As the taste of the delicious biscuit burst onto her tongue, she couldn’t help but make a little moan of appreciation in the back of her throat. That got his attention in a big way.

  Max twisted his head to one side and listened hard to that sound. He’d been trying to tell his little brain to retreat, but she’d just put the rocket booster on it.

  Kaylee saw the hungry look that swept over his face and heard the rumble of a growl that sounded like distant thunder.

  Whoops!

  So much for cooling him off. “This is sooo good,” she rushed out in hope to put him in his place, but when he narrowed his eyes and fidgeted on his feet, she knew it hadn’t worked.

  “Down boy!” she said and shooed him back with her free hand. There was no way she was giving up her cookie.

  “Not a dog,” Max said, grinning harder. But he did take a reluctant step or two back.

  Kaylee saw the opening, and she took it. She jumped down from the side, sidestepped his large frame, and started for the living room at a speed that wasn’t going to win her a medal, but it did get her out of there faster than normal.

  The gentle, deep chuckles from her mate followed her all the way. Who needed Jingle Bells when you had a laugh like that?

  Busted, but she didn’t much care.

  ~

  Chloe gently placed the knitted blanket over Jackson on the sofa, trying to cover his arms and legs that seemed to be trying to cover as much space as they could and stepped back smiling. The positions he got in while sleeping reminded her of Kaylee when she was that age.

  She turned to the Christmas tree that they’d managed to wedge back upright between them, and tipped her head at the unsightly state of it. It was a mess, and while she wasn’t an expert in tree decoration, she knew it would drive her sister insane until it was fixed.

  With a wicked smile on her lips at the thought of payback for just leaving the way she had, she turned away towards the kitchen, but that little tap of guilt on her shoulder made her stop and turn right back again.

  With a roll of her eyes and then her shoulders, she started towards the tree. Fixing the mess was the least she could do for the sibling who had taken on the responsibility of bringing up Jackson when she couldn’t.

  Chloe envied her that. Sometimes she didn’t feel like she had a maternal bone left in her body.

  It wasn’t fair on Jackson, but the alternative would have been far worse.

  ~

  Kaylee snapped awake to the sound of silence. It wasn’t normal – she was used to the sound of the city streets, and there was absolute silence.

  It had been the same every night since she’d packed and left her home behind her, but tonight was different, tonight she found herself laying against a warm, muscled body that had an arm around her.

  It was as if Cupid shot an arrow straight into her womb and from there all these feeling rushed through her – excitement pinged, lust bubbled, those feminine parts of her body sprung back to life, and there were x-rated thoughts shooting through her mind like a movie on fast forward.

  “Now I know where Jackson gets his sleeping habits from,” Max said, and in the flickering half-light that glowed orange from the burning logs in the fireplace, his deep, warm voice seemed to roll over her body like the feel of velvety goodness against her skin.

  Yep, she was toast to fate’s mating plan – and yet, she didn’t feel like it was the end of the world.

  Kaylee placed her palm against his ribs and pushed up as she unhooked her leg from where she’d draped it over the arm of the sofa in her sleep.

  She’d never actually fallen asleep in a man’s presence before in her life, mainly because it sent out entirely the wrong signal, but she had this time.

  Kaylee told herself that it had been one hell of a day, but she knew that wasn’t the whole truth. She just didn’t want to have to think on that pesky whole truth thing right then and there.

  She’d been put on the spot by her own stupidity.

  Max’s cabin felt like home, probably because Max felt like home. It wasn’t like she’d been on the run forever, and she wasn’t exactly on the run, she had just left before anyone thought to get the courts involved in Jackson’s living situation and his mother’s absence.

  Goddess only knew that Chloe couldn’t be relied upon to turn up and put things right – and yet, she had. She’d turned up with papers that said Jackson was hers until further notice by court order.


  She hated to think what magic Chloe had used on a poor unsuspecting Judge for that one. Maybe it was one of those vampires that her sister liked to hang around with – whatever it was, it had taken a load off her mind and lifted a weight from her shoulders that had been dragging her down.

  Now she and Jackson could put down roots somewhere again – but just not back home where they might ask too many questions.

  In her heart, Kaylee knew where home was but was that a good choice for Jackson, after all, he was the most important person in her life?

  Then there was the little matter of her mate – when she looked into those sexy chocolate brown eyes, she wondered how she could have ever thought leaving him behind was an option. But Jackson had to come first.

  “Sleeping like a sloth is a family thing,” she said.

  Max’s lips spread in a smile. “So, we’re going to have cubs that sleep like sloths?”

  Those words zapped a picture of domestic bliss into her mind that woke her brain up like only a bucket of ice water could do.

  Cubs – kids – her a mom? At least she wouldn’t be going in blind and unprepared – she’d certainly had the training for it with Jackson.

  “Don’t count your bear cubs before their even conceived,” she said, and it had sounded better in her head – the whole counting chicks before hatching thing, but now she just rolled her eyes to his widening smile.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Max said as he wrapped his strong arm tightly around her waist and hauled her up from the cushions and onto his lap.

  “Hey, that goes for me too,” she lied.

  “Oh, I think I got you right where I want you,” he informed her, and she opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t give her the chance. “And right where you want to be.”

  Damn it, he wasn’t wrong, but she wondered if she shouldn’t have protested a little more.

  There was no time when Max pulled her against his hard body, and his lips met hers, protesting was the last thing on her mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  ~

  Max couldn’t help but kiss Kaylee like his life depended on it because, in the big scheme of things, it did. Now that he’d met his mate, now that he’d known her, he knew that he could never go back to his lonesome ways.

  Fate was never wrong, and he’d lost his heart to her already – but did she feel anything for him?

  If the way she was kissing him back was anything to go by the answer to that was a damn big sexy yes. But Max couldn’t pin his hopes on her kiss; he needed to know for sure.

  The last time he’d broken their kiss she’d taken off on fast feet, he made damn sure his arms were wrapped around her this time. He wasn’t a man who made the same mistake twice.

  “You’re staying,” he whispered against her ear. “No matter what happens with your sister, you’re staying.”

  Kaylee could hear the underlying growl that mixed with his words and she wasn’t entirely sure that had been a question. She placed the palms of her hands on his muscled broad shoulders and pushed back to look him in the eye. “Is that a question or an order?” She asked.

  Then she tipped her chin up in defiance. “Because I can tell you, Mr Growl-a-lot, I don’t do well with orders.”

  Max couldn’t help the slow to boil sexy as hell smile that slowly dragged his lips wide and that smile lit his dark, sexy eyes with a sinful look that kept her bewitched until he spoke. “I guessed as much,” he said, in a teasing tone that made her cock an eyebrow at him.

  “That wasn’t an answer, it was a deflection if ever I heard one.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  “That’s what I think,” she tossed back, unsure what she thought because her mind was off on its own somewhere and her body was doing tingly, girlie, stupid things that wasn’t going to help her thought process.

  “Wanna know what I think?”

  “Ya think?” she said and cocked her head to one side as he cocked his the other way. “I think…” she said, trying to unscramble the last minute of their conversation.

  “Well, I’m just gonna go ahead and tell you what I think,” Max said, dismissing the muddle easily. “I think…” He paused to take a breath.

  “Ah, geez,” she said and giggled. “Sounds like a man to me…”

  “I was breathing…”

  “Was that the right moment to take a breath?”

  “I apologise…”

  “I accept.”

  Max grinned again, and she was hooked. “I’m asking you to stay with me – not for a night, not for a week or a month, but for the rest of our lives.”

  “Umm…”

  “Still breathing, I haven’t finished,” he said, and she giggled again.

  “Go for it…”

  “Ok…”

  “You’ve made a good start…”

  “Thank you.”

  This was another whole new side to him. He wasn’t the man she’d thought he was when they’d first met or that awkward time in the bar – for one thing, he’d found his voice, and what a great, deep gravelly voice it was – that alone made her body tingle. “I’m waiting,” she teased.

  “I’m getting there,” he offered back with a slow, low deep gravelly chuckle that sounded good to her ears too. “We can raise Jackson as our own…”

  Kaylee chuckled. “We’ll let Jackson decide that one.”

  “Fair enough, but I’ll be here for him, whatever he needs like he is my flesh and blood.”

  “Good to hear.”

  “And you…”

  “Me?” She tried for innocent, but he caught the wicked look in her eyes and that devilish, mischievous smile on her lips and couldn’t help the growl that rumbled through him.

  “You are going to be trouble,” he said, but not like it was a bad thing.

  “You can bet the farm on that,” she said, chuckling harder.

  “I will try my best every day, not to miff you off…”

  “Ooo, hard one, you’re male…”

  “All male, all your man, for now, and for the rest of our lives, and I will do my best to love and honour you as a man should…”

  “Which man?”

  Max took a long moment just to stare back at her in confusion. “A male mate…”

  “Cool,” she said and shifted position on his lap that contact with his hard length and brought another growl to his lips. This time that growl was hungrier than hell, and she liked that as well.

  “Cool?” Max asked, looking for a little more from her. His eyebrows rose and crinkled, and she found that adorably sexy.

  “Am I supposed to offer you vows or – something?” she asked, teasing him with another wicked smile. “Because if you’re looking for the word o-b-e-y…”

  “I’m not…”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” she asked, leaning in towards him. “I do, I accept, I agree – kiss me again, and I’m all yours…”

  Max’s lips came down on hers like he was trying to put out a fire, or start one, and the latter was probably closer to the truth. He’d certainly started a fire within her with his sweet words.

  Kaylee believed actions spoke louder than words, and she wanted to get to the action part. She wanted to get naked with him, wanted to feel them skin-to-skin, and then she’d show him how much she cared, how she felt, what she wanted.

  With a hearty grunt, he pushed up to his feet with Kaylee clinging around him like a vine.

  It wasn’t a million miles to get to the bedroom, but with her sex rubbing against his hard length, it sure felt like it. Each step was exquisite torture of the very best kind.

  Max’s mind, body and soul had never needed anything as much as he needed her right then – all of her – forever his, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.

  Max dug his knee into the mattress, and he took her down beneath him, still kissing her like his life depended on it even though he knew it no longer did.

  He’d wooed his wi
tch mate, and he was never letting her go.

  His beast was clawing within him. The bear had little patience for what it wanted, and it wanted their mate. The last thing he needed was for his damn fangs to make an appearance too soon.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  ~

  “What’s that for?” Cameron asked eyeing the blanket like it was possessed with a witch’s spell.

  Mark frowned. “Because my mate seems to think you’ll need it.”

  “I’m a vampire…”

  “I told her…”

  “I don’t get cold…”

  “I told her…”

  “But, sure, if it’s on offer,” he said with a shrug, and snatched it out of Mark’s hand, putting it down on sofa beside him.

  Mark snapped out a chuckle and grinned like Christmas morning was already there. Cameron turned suspicious eyes on the man, and he didn’t like what he saw.

  He’d fallen into a trap, but what was it?

  “I knew you needed a comfy blanket,” Mark babied him, and Cameron groaned inside. “Can’t sleep without one?”

  “Funny,” Cameron said and tossed the blanket back at the alpha. “You know where you can shove it?”

  “I get your meaning, and I’ll pass on the message to Tanya…”

  “Wait – what?” Cameron snapped to attention.

  “Oh, yeah, I don’t think you’ll be coming over for dinner anymore, but ok…” The alpha turned away.

  “Hey!” Cameron snapped. “You set me up,” he snapped, and then groaned inwardly. “Twice.”

  “Well,” Mark said, taking a moment to think on it as the sound of his mate’s footsteps grew closer. He tossed the blanket down on the sofa and Cameron frowned again.

  “What’s going on?” Tanya asked, and her mate shrugged.

  “I said we have a guest room, but he just wants to sleep on the sofa,” he said, before turning a grin on the vampire.

  “Three times,” Cameron grumbled. He’d been set up three times by the damn alpha.