by Aria Grace
Special Delivery: Father’s Day
Kallie Frost
Lorelei M. Hart
Colbie Dunbar
Harper B. Cole
Aria Grace
Jena Wade
Leyla Hunt
Summer Chase
Surrendered Press
Special Delivery: Father’s Day
Copyright © 2020
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.
Contents
Our First Father’s Day
1. Calen
2. Nathan
3. Calen
4. Nathan
5. Calen
Also by Kallie Frost
A Gentle Sprint
6. Avery
7. Todd
8. Avery
9. Todd
10. Avery
11. Todd
12. Avery
13. Todd
14. Avery
15. Todd
16. Avery
About Colbie Dunbar
A Gift for Father’s Day
17. Joel
18. Marc
19. Joel
20. Marc
21. Joel
22. Marc
23. Joel
About Summer Chase
Grown With Love
24. Rudy
25. Frank
26. Rudy
27. Frank
28. Rudy
Epilogue
Also by Leyla Hunt
Teacher’s Pet
29. Harley
30. Devon
31. Harley
32. Devon
33. Harley
34. Devon
35. Harley
36. Devon
37. Harley
First Comes Pregnancy
38. Percy
39. Marve
40. Percy
41. Marve
42. Percy
43. Marve
44. Percy
45. Marve
46. Percy
47. Marve
Epilogue
About Harper B. Cole & Colbie Dunbar
Father’s Day Prince
48. Flynn
49. Reynard
50. Flynn
51. Reynard
52. Flynn
Also by Aria Grace
Also by these authors…
Our First Father’s Day
A Full Moon Mates Holiday Tale
By Kallie Frost
1
Calen
“So, brother,” Oden said with a grin. “How does it feel to finally move in?”
I smiled too, both because I was moved in at last, and at being called brother. After decades as an only child, my father finding a true mate with kids close to my age had been a dream come true. The novelty of having siblings had yet to wear off.
“It feels great, brother,” I said.
I leaned back and looked around my new living room. The inspector found several things wrong with the house and the past three months had been a frustrating mix of repairs and set-backs. Not to mention crashing with my fathers and their new baby. I loved spending time with them and getting to know my new omega dad, but I knew they were still in their honeymoon phase. Plus my infant sister was a screamer. Who knew a baby could cry that loud?
But, thanks to my brand new family, I was all moved in. Our parents had taken little Adine home to nap, leaving me relaxing on my own couch.
“It feels great,” I repeated.
“I’m glad we got you settled before the full moon,” said my new sister, Piper. “Hopefully it will take some stress off your snowy.”
“You mean his wolfy?” Oden teased.
Piper flushed. “Right. Sorry.”
“It will. Thanks for helping me,” I said, silently forgiving the gaffe. My father and I were wolves, but my new family were snow leopards. Since a shifter always takes after the alpha, our new sister, Adine, was a wolf too.
“You’re welcome!” they chorused.
Species aside, Piper was absolutely right. My wolf had been reacting to the stress of moving. I hoped being settled in would calm him. Of course, nothing would tame my inner wolf like my true mate would. Each full moon our animals took control and we awoke the following morning with no memories of the night. For safety – both ours and others – we spent the moons in bunkers, which were usually just souped up shipping containers. As a rule, we spent full moons alone. Shifters, particularly alphas, could be aggressive and spending the night together with our animals in control was always a gamble.
Unfortunately, the isolation upset our animals too. They were prone to hurting themselves, sometimes fatally. It was the hardest for alphas. The only person we would never harm was our true mates. True mates could spend joyous moons together, never fearing for their safety or what the morning would hold. It was part of why I was so thankful my father had a true mate again. After my biological omega father passed away, my alpha father endured increasingly difficult moons. There were even a few where he would have died had I not checked on him. He was safe now; one less thing for me and my wolf to worry about.
Now, I just had to worry about myself. Moons were getting harder. Piper certainly hadn’t missed my injuries when we gathered for safety checks after each full moon. She knew I was having trouble.
“What shall we do for Father’s Day?” she asked, breaking into my thoughts.
“Father’s Day?” I echoed.
“For our fathers?” Piper clarified.
Oden frowned. “Isn’t that in June? That’s like three months away.”
“So? It’s a big deal! It’s the first well, everything, for our dads!” Piper started ticking her points off on her fingers. “It’s their first one together. It’s our dad’s first one with Calen.” She nodded toward me. “And it’s Calen’s dad’s first one with us! And it’s their first one with Adine!”
“Okay, okay,” Oden laughed. “It’s a big one. But it’s not three months of planning big.”
“I don’t know,” I said, taking Piper’s side. “Our dad does love holidays.”
By the time they left, we had a few ideas tossed around, but nothing concrete. I saw them out, then heaved a happy sigh and looked around my house. At last. My own place, and right near my family! It was a cute little cottage – perfect if I were ever lucky enough to find my true mate – tucked into the woods. Neighbors were few and far between and I suspected hunting would be decent.
In fact…
I stepped out onto my newly renovated and safer back deck and stripped. Once my clothes were folded and set on a chair, I stretched and then focused on my inner wolf. In seconds I was dropping as my legs changed. My skin itched, burned, as fur erupted, and my nose ached as it sprouted. And then, I was a wolf. My inner wolf sniffed the air and looked around. I gave him a moment. This is our new home, I thought, not truly knowing if he understood or even heard. And yet, I felt a sense of distant satisfaction, like he did.
With an ease born of decades of practice, I pushed my wolf aside and took control. I took a few sniffs of my own, then started off at an easy lope. Soon, I was running through the woods, darting around trees and jumping fallen logs. A rabbi
t burst out of the brush in front of me and I eagerly gave chase.
I still hadn’t decided if I wanted to catch it or not, when I was blinded by a bright light. I growled instinctively and snapped in the direction of the light. It wavered slightly and I could just make out a silhouette behind it.
A human silhouette!
Shit!
I couldn’t remember the last time I saw a human in my wolf form. Had I ever? Shifting where we could be seen was just plain stupid. So was running around in the woods before figuring out just how far I could go before getting too close to the neighbors.
I started to turn to run away, when a deafening bang shattered the air and my leg felt like it exploded. Pain! Blinding, burning pain!
I yelped and staggered. My back leg gave out and I fell. Had he shot me?!
I tuned to look at him in disbelief and horror. He had lowered the flashlight, giving me a good look at his face. To his credit, he looked somewhat shocked too. Then he took a step forward.
Hell no, I wasn’t going to give him another chance to shoot me!
Hoping he could tell I was retreating, I heaved myself to my feet and limped as fast as I could away through the trees. After a few agonizing minutes, I slowed down and continued home at an easier pace. My leg was throbbing and my other back leg was sore from taking all of the weight. As much as I longed to stop, I forced myself to keep going. If I lost consciousness I’d shift back. And I did not want to be an unconscious, naked human in the middle of the woods.
Home seemed so far away I was surprised when I suddenly found myself at the edge of my new yard. Just a little farther.
I limped up my back porch and shifted back. I would heal faster as a wolf, but I wanted to get inside and get a good look at the wound first. And here I thought a shower on the first floor was weird when I bought the house, now I was grateful.
I went into my bathroom and started rinsing it in the shower, cursing as it stung. The shot caught me right in my damn thigh. It was bleeding, but not badly enough that I thought the artery was hit. I couldn’t see the bullet, but had a feeling it was still in there.
After applying some pressure, the bleeding slowed down. Every shifter kept a good first-aid kid handy for after full moons and I was grateful it was already unpacked. I slapped on some gauze and wrapped a bandage tightly around my leg. It wouldn’t matter after I shifted, but I was feeling okay and wanted to call a shifter doctor first.
And then, knock at my door. Who the hell?
With a groan, I wrapped a towel around myself to hide the wound and started for the door, trying to keep the weight off my leg. I spotted my phone on a table as I passed and grabbed it so I wouldn’t have to walk over again.
The person knocked again. Harder this time.
“Hang on!” I yelled.
I made it to the door and opened it.
“Can I help…”
It was the man who shot me.
2
Nathan
I don’t know what I was expecting, but a man opening his door in a towel and crying out at the sight of me was not it.
“Um,” I said uncertainly. I considered the towel. Maybe he was expecting someone else and I startled him?
He cleared his throat. “How uh… how can I help you?”
A drop of water dripped down his chest and rolled over his abs, completely throwing off my train of thought as I watched its path.
I shook my head, hoping he hadn’t noticed. “Right, so…” I spotted a bunch of boxes behind him and realized this was the house that had been for sale for a while. “Did you just move in?”
“Today,” he said curtly. “What do you want?”
“Sorry, I know it’s late… um… and this is probably a weird welcome to the neighborhood… Anyway, so I was out hiking just now and there was a wolf…”
His eyes widened slightly.
“I know; there are none around here. But it was big, I don’t think it was a coyote. I’m pretty sure it was a wolf and… and I shot it,” I admitted. The sound of the poor thing yelping echoed in my ears. “I didn’t mean to,” I said quickly. “It was dark and I was just trying to fire a warning shot. It ricocheted off a rock or something.” I couldn’t believe the bad luck; my aim was better than that.
My new neighbor narrowed his eyes slightly, but said nothing.
“So, I followed it. Well, I followed the blood. Poor thing must be really hurt. I wanted to make sure it was okay or find where it went and call an animal rescue or something. Anyway, the blood trail sort of led…” Actually, the blood trail led straight here. “It led onto your back porch.” I peered around him warily. The thin screen door hadn’t looked like it could keep out a wolf. “I couldn’t tell were it went after that and I wanted to let you know there may be an injured wolf around here, maybe even under your house. Or in? Is your back door locked?”
Once again, he said nothing. He just kept regarding me with a small, almost wary, frown.
“Could I use your phone? I don’t have mine on me and I want to call an animal rescue.”
“I don’t have a phone,” he said. “I’m sure the wolf is just fine. Thanks for the heads up.” My eyes went to the cell phone he was clutching. His eyes followed and he cleared his throat. “I don’t have service yet. I changed providers and I’m uh… waiting for it. I was just checking and don’t have it. Thank you again. Goodbye.”
He started to close the door.
“Hey,” I protested, sticking my foot in the doorway and propping an elbow on the door. Sometimes, being a bodyguard had advantages. How rude! And here I was trying to help. It would serve him right if there was a wolf in his house!
A strange mix of anger and fear crossed his face. He stepped forward, hands up to shove me. I braced myself, fully expecting the smaller man to be unable to budge me. To my surprise, he pushed me hard enough to dislodge me and send me stumbling back onto the porch. But the force sent him tumbling out too. He staggered and cried out in pain. He caught the doorframe and used it to steady himself, clamping his other hand over his thigh.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” he growled. “I’ll be better once you leave!”
I snorted in annoyance and stood, dusting myself off. I was torn between telling him I hoped the wolf ate him or letting him know I still intended to search his property for the suffering animal. Then, I spotted a trickle of blood running down his leg. In fact, it was more than a trickle.
“Whoa! You’re really bleeding!”
“I’m fine!” he spat. He shoved off the doorframe and took a step back into his house, but the moment he put his weight on the bleeding leg, it gave out.
Rude or not, he was hurt and I wasn’t going to stand by idly. I quickly hurried over and helped him sit up. “What happened?”
“Forget it, I’ll be okay.”
“I have medical training, let me take a look.”
His eyes met mine, defiant, yet pained. I held his gaze and something… changed. He turned away from me and nodded once.
I carefully lifted the towel and spotted a poorly-wrapped bandage, dark with blood. “I’m going to remove this to see the wound, okay?” At another wary nod, I carefully unwrapped the bandage to reveal a nasty, fresh wound. I sucked in a breath. It looked pretty bad. In fact it looked… I frowned. It looked like a gunshot wound!
“How… what happened?”
He shrugged a shoulder without an answer. Not surprising.
He sucked in a pained breath as I gently examined it. This was a gunshot wound. Funny, it was exactly where I shot the wolf.
No. No, that was crazy. And yet… the blood trail led right here. Up the steps and onto his porch with no hesitation. And here was a man with the exact same injury.
No. I laughed at myself and dismissed the idea, scoffing at my wild imagination.
“You were shot,” I said.
“No,” he said instantly.
“Sure looks like it.”
He shook his head earn
estly. “If I had been shot, I would have called the police. And an ambulance.”
“Without service?”
His lips tightened and he glared at me. “Then I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t shot.”
“Right…” I studied the wound again. This absolutely was from a gun. Well, even if he denied it, I just had to clean it up and rebandage it with a better wrap. Unless the slug was still in there. “Do you have another bandage? Any more supplies?”
“In the bathroom.”
“Here, let me help you.”
I carefully pulled him to his feet and let him lean heavily against me as I guided him into his house. He dropped onto the couch and directed me to the bathroom.
The bathroom had blood all over. Luckily, the first-aid kit was clean, as were all of the supplies in it. I packed it back up and headed out. My foot slipped a little in the hallway and I looked down. Blood. I turned around and saw another splatter of it farther down the hall. A quick glance behind me confirmed he was still on the couch and out of sight. I followed the blood spot to another, and another and… right to the door of the back porch. I spotted a pile of clothing, underwear and all, that I hadn’t noticed before. A shiver went up my spine.
