Happy Howlidays: Shifters in Love Romance Collection (Shifter in Love Book 1)

by V. Vaughn

  “Pretty sure people celebrate Christmas in Miami,” Wyatt pointed out, breathing hard as the river path began slowly angling upward as they neared the top of town. “They just decorate those palm trees instead of pine trees.”

  Exhaling as they reached the end of the run, Orson shook his head. “You were too busy getting all googly-eyed over her to pay attention.”

  “Googly-eyed?” Wyatt demanded, also slowing down.

  Somberly, Orson nodded. “You couldn't take your eyes off of her, and you went kind of all soft in the face, even when she was yelling at you. I look at Cara that way all the time,” he added, his own face definitely going soft as he smiled. His mate sure had brought out the mushy side in Orson.

  “Whatever.” Wyatt shook his head, ignoring his bear's huffs of agreement. “Googly-eyed, my ass. I just—Brynna and I used to be close is all. You know we were super tight when we were all kids.” And when were grown ups, he wanted to add, but didn't. Damn if it didn't hurt to think about that.

  “Uh-huh,” Orson muttered. “She's still the one you want, Wyatt. It's always been that way. I figured you'd both be over it when you each left town, but I gotta tell you—seeing you both together right now, there's still a lot of spark between you both. Always has been.”

  Wyatt frowned. “We were pretty good friends. That's all. She told me a lot of stuff.”

  “Really.” Orson's tone had been speculative. “And how much did you tell her?”

  Everything. Wyatt had told her everything. He had never had any secrets from Brynna. They were always friends, just kids playing in literal sandboxes and then riding bikes in their neighborhood. She'd been his little shadow, following him everywhere, trying everything he did, even if it was kind of scary. Like climbing trees to the very top, or leaping off the swings at their apex and flying through the sky to land on the hard ground. She'd been cool, though, and a total tomboy. Fearless and daring, she could keep up with all the older kids on their bikes, swimming in the river, running around playing mock battle games in the woods.

  Then dinner the other night had proved she'd forgotten nothing about them being best friends growing up. And about how deep their serious dating relationship had been when they were old enough to look at one another that way. Then like a fool he'd gone and pissed her off, behaving like a maniacal caveman that night by growling and lunging at a guy who looked twice at her while she and Wyatt strolled along the riverwalk. She'd stormed off, snapping over her shoulder that if he wasn't ready to be an adult, she didn't need to know him again.

  He'd planned and plotted every second since that night to see her again, but running into her on the same riverwalk just a few days later had been a very unexpected, welcome surprise. Until he'd gone all jackass on her again. What the hell was his problem? He shook his head in savage fury. The way he was blowing it with her, he'd be lucky to even see her again before she jetted from Deep Hollow, let alone wine and dine her again just so he could soak up every moment of being in her presence.

  But he had to see her again, right? Something deep inside—his still roaring bear, probably—told him if he didn't, he was blowing the biggest thing that would ever happen to him in his entire life. Such as the fact that she was his mate. He couldn't let her go again. Even if it was Christmastime again, and the memories of that last Christmas when she'd smashed his heart were rearing up fast and ugly in his head.

  Damn it, though, that had been enough heartbreak for one lifetime. Right? Right.

  By the time Wyatt had run off enough steam to consider that he might be thinking clearly, and ignoring his bear's decidedly unhappy grumbles, he decided he couldn't risk his dumb heart being shattered yet again, and at his favorite time of year. He was just beginning a new life here in Deep Hollow. He'd bought a frigging house. His family and old friends were happy to have him back. Merriment abounded all around him at the moment, and he just didn't have the bandwidth for more fuckin' trauma in the form of a sexy, frustrating little deer shifter who didn't have plans to stay here either.

  Decisively, he nodded as they ended their run. “Going back to the office. Paperwork. Need to focus on work. I've got no time for a woman who's got no time for me.”

  Orson grunted as they walked back off the river path into the festively decorated town. “Even though you were about ready to drag her to dinner again? Sure you're done?”

  Wyatt growled under his breath. “I'm done. Don't push,” he warned.

  His friend just threw his hands up in a “don't shoot” gesture. “Cool. Holidays should be fun, anyway.” His tone sounded a bit off, but Wyatt ignored it.

  The past was the past. He was moving on. He'd have a merry Christmas this year or else.

  Now, back at his office, he reached for his door, setting his mind to paperwork. He did smile at the sight of his door, which he'd decorated with a snowman made from paper and plastic. His niece and nephew, the kids of his oldest sister, had helped. They'd added a long piece of red tinsel around the entire door and the words ho ho ho! as the final touch. Decorating his door in such a ridiculous manner had already made everyone else in the sheriff's department christen Wyatt “Santa,” but he didn't care. Christmas was fun again, and he wouldn't let the past take that from him. Or the present.

  He jumped when the rookie kid he'd almost forgotten about uttered a sudden “Sir” behind him, as crisp and clean as any ranking officer could want. Wyatt turned around to see Orson bearing down on them, his expression so bright he about glowed.

  “Hey, Deputy Donner.” Right, the kid's name was Donner. Wyatt should remember that. “Wyatt! New plan!” Orson's voice rapped out so cheerfully that it turned the heads of some administrative staff members chatting in a nearby doorway.

  Wyatt shook his head, completely lost. “Was there an old plan?”

  Orson drew to a stop in front of the door, awarding both Wyatt and rookie Donner a goofy grin. “So Thor's mate Alina is good friends with Cara, right?”

  Wyatt frowned at him. “Uh...okay. So?”

  “So,” Orson said in a voice that was both patient and pleased at once, “Cara just called Alina to find out what's going on with Brynna.”

  “Uh-huh.” Wyatt held in a sigh. This was beginning to sound like a game of telephone. Or like any moment back in high school. He could tell Orson was genuinely excited about something, though. He made himself listen.

  “She's not leaving today, Wyatt. Or tomorrow.” Orson beamed as he said those words.

  Utterly confused, Wyatt scrubbed at his neck as he peered at his friend. The rookie kid stood nearby, eagerly soaking up every word. “Yeah, cuz she's leaving the day after tomorrow. You got something wrong with your thinker?”

  Orson bobbed his head, now looking like a bobble-head toy on super-charged batteries. “Exactly! She's leaving the day after tomorrow.” He whispered the last few words like they were the key to the universe.

  Wyatt's bear moaned in sadness inside him. Irritation prickling at him now, Wyatt said more sharply than he intended, “Right. I got it, Orson. You don't really have to emphasize that to me.” He would have added, “emphasize that she's once again leaving me,” but decided giving the rookie kid too much information about his personal life, or lack thereof, wasn't really necessary.

  “You're not getting this.” Orson shook his head in despair at Wyatt's apparent obtuseness.

  “Clearly not.” Wyatt turned back to his door, opening it and striding into his equally holiday-happy small office space. He frowned at the sight of a tiny plastic reindeer prancing on his desktop. The piped station he'd left playing on the crappy little portable radio sitting on a shelf tinnily warbled “Blue Christmas.” His frown deepened.

  “Wyatt,” Orson said, following him in, “she's leaving the day after tomorrow. Brynna is staying here today. And tomorrow.”

  Wyatt closed his eyes and ground his jaw. Before he could respond, Orson plowed on. “She could have said she was leaving today. It's still early. Or she could leave tomorrow. But she's wai
ting a few days.”

  Wyatt's bear rumbled inside him. Wyatt ignored it and blindly messed around on his desk, pretending to be looking for something. “So?” he said, hitching up a shoulder in a shrug. Inside, his heart suddenly began thudding hard against his ribs.

  “So,” rookie Donner blurted out, making both Orson and Wyatt swing their heads around to look at him, “she's waiting another day because she wants another chance with you!”

  Orson barked out a laugh of approval, clapping the kid on his back and nearly knocking him over. The kid turned cherry red, abruptly shuffling his feet and looking downward. Wyatt just blinked hard for a few seconds.

  “Yes!” Orson crowed. “That's exactly what Alina said. Brynna hates the holidays, right?”

  Wyatt nodded, his heart still thudding hard and his mind suddenly beginning to spin.

  “And she told you she was antsy having been back here so long, right?”

  Jerking his head once, Wyatt felt that crazy little hope creeping through him again.

  “And much as she loves her family, they've been able to hang out with her for weeks now. No need for big good-byes, no need to drag it out more. Right?”

  “Right,” Wyatt said. His head felt light as the realization spread through him.

  “So, dick,” Orson said cheerfully, “that means she's waiting for one thing. For you to get your head out of your ass, stop being a cave bear, and tell her you're hers and she's yours. That you want her to stay here. Or if she won't, that you'll follow her anywhere she goes.”

  “Wait,” Wyatt said in automatic protest, even though his entire body felt light. “I just got back here. I have a great job. Deep Hollow is my home.”

  Orson smiled at him like he was a little slow. Or a lot slow. “Yeah, man. Deep Hollow is your home. But Brynna is your mate. That means she's your home,” he said with another goofy smile plastering itself on him, his face going all soft again as he probably thought of his own mate. “Wherever your mate is, that's your home. You have a chance now to make up for five years ago.”

  Wyatt felt all the blood surge to his head as he slowly nodded. He had no idea where Brynna was right now. But Orson was right. He was right.

  Brynna was his home. She always had been. He'd just thought that since she wouldn't come with him when he'd left Deep Hollow those many years ago, it meant they weren't meant to be. But no. She'd wanted him to come with her. He'd just been too stubborn, too butt hurt, to see it.

  Brynna was his mate. She was very special to him, and that meant one thing only.

  Suddenly turning, he raced out of his office and sprinted blindly down the hallway, heedlessly ignoring the confused exclamations that breezed in his desperate wake.

  “Where are you going?” Orson called behind him.

  “To get her,” Wyatt shouted into the echoing halls. “To get my frigging cute-ass little reindeer shifter mate, and not let her go again.”

  Orson whooped, the sound urging Wyatt on to go find the most stubborn little deer shifter in the world and this time, claim her as his.

  4

  Brynna frowned at herself in the mirror. “I'm not seeing it.”

  Behind her, Alina rolled her eyes, visible in the mirror. “How can you not see it? I swear, you're glowing. You're all glow-y and stuff. Oh, wait!” She gasped dramatically, pausing with her sharp little scissors in one hand and a hank of Brynna's long hair in the other. “You're not pregnant, are you?” She squealed like a high school girl instead of a woman over thirty. “Brynna Darby, my sweet lil sis! Are you pregnant? Did you and Wyatt do the nasty the other night after all? Oh, you can't leave now! Tell me everything!”

  A rousing chorus of “Let It Snow!” rang out from the speakers in Alina's little hair salon, much too cheerfully for the moment. Exasperated, Brynna leveled a death glare at her sister's ridiculously bubbly excitement. “No, I am not pregnant. You have babies on the brain.” Alina and Orson planned to have a whole passel of kids, and Alina had already designed the little nursery in their cute house with the white picket fence.

  "Spill," Alina commanded breathlessly as she went back to trimming Brynna's hair. She'd insisted that Brynna couldn't leave Deep Hollow without a fresh new cut. Brynna wasn't the type of girl to always have perfect hair and nails. Far from it. But that kind of stuff was important to Alina, so she'd made an effort since she'd been back in Deep Hollow to let her sister keep her hair healthy.

  "Spill about what?" Her voice was as casual as she could make it, but her sister the hairdresser had been hearing secrets told or kept for years. The woman knew full well when people in her chair were being truthful or not.

  “Spill about why you're glowing. Even though I already know why.”

  Irritated or not, Brynna couldn't help a small smile as she thought about Wyatt. He was the sexiest guy she'd ever known. She'd been stunned to run into him last week while out on an exercise session by the river. The same river, she thought as she wrinkled her brow, where he'd gone totally off the deep end yesterday, again. Geez, threatening to rip out Thor's throat and demanding that Brynna bow to his every whim like he was her lord and master.

  Um, no. That was not how the world worked. Brynna's world, at any rate. Even so—damn, was he a good kisser. The best. Her whole body had sort of hummed when they'd kissed a few nights ago. The only real reason she'd fled him that night hadn't really been because he'd gone all growly, possessive male on her by lunging at some other random guy who'd checked her out.

  No, it was because being with him again, kissing him again, feeling his hard, strong body pressed closely against hers, made it all come flooding back. The heartbreak when they'd gone their separate ways five years ago. The pain that she'd never been able to make a real connection with another guy since Wyatt. Not just because she was independent and knew she didn't need a man to complete her or whatever. Because, as her heart and her reindeer had always tried to tell her, Wyatt was her other half. Her soul.

  Her mate.

  But no, that was terrifying. He wanted to stay in cute small mountain towns forever, and Brynna wanted more. So much more. And she didn't want to be a reindeer shifter, darn it. So she'd made the excuse that he was an arrogant, pushy jerk by getting all snarly at that other random guy. Then she'd run away from Wyatt like all the demons in hell were after her, instead of only his startled, upset “Brynna!” chasing her down the street under the pale fingers of the half moonlight.

  Behind her, Alina made a little noise in her throat and shook her head, which Brynna caught in the mirror as she looked up. "I knew it. You've got that dreamy little smile you always used to get when you talked about him. I knew it," she said more softly, her face suddenly serene. “I've always known he was the one for you, Bryn.”

  Brynna swallowed hard and said nothing. For long moments, there was no sound in the little shop except the swooshing sound of cars driving by outside, the Christmas music coming from the speakers, and the soft snip and swish of Alina's scissors.

  Mate, the voice inside her insisted. Her reindeer. The little voice always with her, reminding her that she was indeed a half shifter. Wyatt is my mate.

  "Fine," Brynna finally, slowly conceded, feeling a sweet little flush even as she said it. "You're right, Ali. Wyatt is—he's the same he always was. And I still love him. So much," she breathed, her voice getting all choked up in her throat as she said it.

  Alina grinned hugely in the mirror even as she paid careful attention to her trim job. But her voice was soft when she answered. "I know. I've always known. But you needed to realize it yourself."

  Brynna sighed, tapping her fingers on the arm of the chair under the plastic sheet Alina had clipped around her neck. “I think I really knew today. Because...because my reindeer won't shut up about him.”

  Alina squealed with delight at the same time Brynna's reindeer indignantly huffed inside her mind. Despite herself, Brynna laughed. “I've been feeling her more and more each day I've been back home. Back here in Deep Hollow, I mean,” s
he quickly corrected herself, but Alina had caught it. Home.

  In the mirror, Alina's face softened. “Oh, baby girl, it's not that terrible here, is it? Even though I know you can't wait to leave again.”

  Brynna watched dark strands of her hair drop onto the plastic sheet and slide down as Alina neatly sliced them with her scissors. She sighed and shrugged. “You know why.”

  Alina finished the trim and put the scissors into a little container on the counter under the mirror. “It's only one night a year, Bryn. It's not that bad. And it's fun. It's really, really fun.”

  “Hmm,” Brynna murmured. “But you've always liked being a reindeer. Why should I have to be part of holidays I hate, when I never even signed up for being a shifter?”

  Alina's eyebrows knotted up. She shook her head. “No one ever forced you. It's just—it's tradition, Bryn. That's all.”

  “Well, tradition and I don't mesh.” Brynna said the words more harshly than she intended. Before she could apologize, her phone abruptly belted out its most recent ringtone, a jolting reveille. Alina jumped a bit, then looked down at it. Eyebrows raising again and her mouth making a little circle of appreciation, she smiled at it.

  “What?” Brynna demanded, twisting around in her chair to reach for her phone.

  Her sister smiled, looking more like a vixen than an innocent reindeer. “If I wasn't head over heels for Thor, I could find Wyatt pretty attractive.” She chortled as she looked for her broom to start sweeping up Brynna's hair from the floor, smiling with such a knowing expression that Brynna gritted her teeth.

  Fine, so Wyatt was hotter than hot. She stared down at the screen, where his wildly sexy face stared back up at her as he called. At their impromptu dinner, she'd snapped his photo to put it in her phone along with his number. So he looked like a totally lickable movie star. So just looking at his face made her stomach quiver with butterflies, made her lady bits quiver and clench, too. It just meant she herself had a dirty mind.