by V. Vaughn
Alina nudged her shoulder with her hand. “Answer that sexy man before it goes to voicemail. Don't lose this chance, little deer.”
Brynna rolled her eyes at her sister and pressed the flashing green answer on the screen. “Wyatt, I'm not—” was all she got out before his booming voice came through loudly enough that both she and Alina startled like, well, deer.
“Brynna, where are you? I have to see you. Now.” His voice, edged with a molten promise that boomed through the small, thankfully empty salon, seemed to thunder through Brynna's entire body. “Please,” he added so softly, so nervously, that she almost dropped the phone.
Nervous? Wyatt Walker Webber, hotshot deputy, growly possessive bear, nervous?
She had to swallow a few times, wetting her dry lips, before she could answer. “I'm getting my hair cut at Alina's.”
“I'm on my way to you now. I'll explain everything when I see you. Just—don't leave, Bryn.” Something hard scattered through his voice, making it like little pebbles bumping off the surface of an iced-over pond. “Not just because I don't want you to leave. Because if I don't get a chance to tell you what I need to, I'll never forgive myself. Give me this one chance, Bryn. Please. I—I have a Christmas gift for you. I hope you'll like it.”
With that, Wyatt hung up, leaving Brynna with her mouth dropped open and her body shivering with shock, interest, and something that might be delight.
The strains of “All I Want for Christmas is You” gently echoed into the store as Alina, her eyes shining, met Brynna's gaze in the mirror. “He's running right to you this time. Don't run away from him again, Bryn. That big ole bear of man will have another broken heart he'll never recover from this time. And so will you,” her sister added in a whisper, voice trembly. “Man's bringing you a Christmas gift. Wait to see what it is.”
Brynna's entire body trembled as she nodded. She wasn't going anywhere just yet. She would wait for Wyatt.
5
Wyatt pounded along the sidewalk, half-running. He drew more than a few stares but he didn't care. He had to find Brynna right now, no matter what. His bear roamed around inside him, barely restrained beneath the surface. He had to get to her. Had to see her. Ducking and dodging passersby on the quiet street, he headed toward the little store she'd said she was in.
Alina's. He'd grabbed his phone in his car to call Brynna, then typed the name of her sister's shop into his phone and got its exact location. He'd been semi-aware of jumping into his vehicle, racing as fast as he dared to the small shopping area downtown where his phone told him the store was located, pulling into the first spot that seemed able to park a car and leaping out to pretty much gallop down the sidewalk.
There. A pretty storefront window proclaimed it to be Alina's, with a fancy pair of scissors painted onto the sign below the name. It made sense. He remembered that Alina always did like to play with people's hair. Reaching forward, Wyatt yanked open the door and pulled it back, then lunged inside, quickly skidding to a stop on the slick floor. Brynna sat in a chair in front of a mirror, her long dark hair hanging around her face, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised as she stared at him. Next to her, her sister Alina stood, clutching a pair of scissors. She had a huge smile on her face.
Suddenly feeling like a reactive idiot, Wyatt took one more step toward Brynna before he stopped, his heart racing. "Uh...hi."
"Hi.” Brynna's voice was tentative, but not angry. Thank fuck. “What are you doing here, Wyatt?"
He scrubbed a quick hand over his eyes. He needed to focus. He couldn't screw this up again. Never again. Taking a breath, he reached out and gently laid his hands on top of Brynna's shoulders, leaning forward to look directly into her eyes. She shivered slightly under his touch, but it was an appreciative shiver. Holding her felt right. "I want to talk to you, Brynna. Seeing you again was—I don't know. A sign, maybe." He searched her face for any trace she was laughing at him, but she just nodded, looking as serious as he suddenly felt.
His heart thumped hard at how beautiful she was. At just how Brynna she was.
"But," he gave a quick glance at Alina, who was still smiling at him as if he were some sort of rare object that she clearly approved of, “let’s talk in private. If that's okay." He suddenly felt tentative. She had been pissed at him for being so domineering the other night. She was a little spitfire, he knew that. Maybe she was still mad.
There was silence in the small shop as Brynna looked at him even longer, her face expressionless. Shit. He'd pushed too hard earlier, with his over-the-top protectiveness, and she wasn't going to listen. Could he really blame her? But to his surprise, she finally nodded once.
"Okay. I'll go with you and listen to whatever it is you have to tell me." Her face softened and she whispered now. "I might have something to tell you, too."
He let out a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding and nodded back at Brynna, feeling wonder touch him inside again. "Okay. Let's go. I'm taking you to my place."
Alina whooped. Yeah, they were a good match. “About time!”
Brynna rolled her eyes but she smiled as she stood up. “Let's go,” she said, looking at Wyatt and holding out her hand. “I'm ready.”
Wyatt took her hand, feeling the dual softness of her skin yet the strength of her fingers. His Brynna had two sides like that.
His Brynna?
Yes, he decided as he guided her through the store and out to his truck. His Brynna, no matter what.
As long as she was cool with it, too. He sure as hell hoped she was. It was still too hard to tell.
On the short drive to his house, they were silent. Brynna stared out the window, obviously thinking about everything. But she was present. She wasn't distant. He sensed how open she was, how willing.
This time, he swore to himself with grim intent, he'd better not screw it up again by acting like a fucking he-man who wanted to throw his mate over his shoulder and march off to his cave with her.
Even if he did.
When they got to Wyatt's place Brynna didn't say anything, just examined the small house. Feeling suddenly self-conscious, he said in a gruff voice, "I just bought it. I know it's small, but I swear it's pretty decent inside."
Frantically, he sifted through his memories of the morning, trying to decide whether or not he'd left the place a pigsty. Deciding it probably wasn't too bad, as long as he kept her away from the kitchen, he glanced down at her. A grin tip-toeing onto her face, she marched up the walkway to the door, then stood and waited for him to open it for her. When they entered the little house, she made a startled sound. "Oh! This is nicer than I thought it would be."
"Oh, really now? What exactly were you picturing?" He surreptitiously took a look around to make sure the place was in decent shape.
Brynna laughed, the sound sending actual fuckin' flutters through Wyatt's body. It was nuts. But he had to admit he liked it. "Well, I know you, so I figured it would be practically empty except for maybe a beanbag chair and some pizza boxes." She shot him a side-eye look, an even bigger grin sneaking onto her face.
Wyatt snorted, enjoying the repartee. "I'm not a frat boy. This is a permanent move for me."
She nodded, her hair flipping prettily over her shoulders as she looked around. Then she suddenly caught her breath as her eyes landed on a large framed photo hanging up on the wall of the small living room the front door had opened into. Moving toward it, she looked at it for a long, silent moment. Wyatt watched her looking at the picture, letting his eyes travel back and forth between the barely-familiar woman in the picture and the beautiful woman standing right here in his house.
Finally, she let out a small sigh. "She was so beautiful, and you can tell she was kind, too. How's your dad?"
Simple, polite words, but loaded with meaning. Brynna knew everything about Wyatt's mom having died too young. Wyatt and his sister had been still in diapers when their mother died from one of the rare deadly illnesses that even shifter genes couldn't fight off. She knew everything ab
out how Wyatt had dealt with a loving but very distant, shuttered-down father almost his entire life. "He's good. Retired a couple years ago. He's got a girlfriend, nothing serious but he likes her. And he's got some good buddies, he goes hunting and messes around with his model planes, which recently turned into drones instead." Wyatt laughed, then shrugged again. "Basically, he's content. He's pretty happy I moved back, for sure."
Brynna turned to look at him, her eyes sympathetic and understanding. "Content but not happy?"
He tightened his lips for a moment before nodding. "Something like that. He's not exactly unhappy, but he's a lot better than he used to be when I was a kid." He grinned suddenly. "Back when you were my little shadow following me everywhere, not giving me a moment's peace."
He was close enough to her that she could turn and lightly thump him on the ribs with her hand. "Hey, now." Her smooth tones teased. "As I recall, I proved I could keep up with all the big kids and hold my own."
“Yeah,” he said back, feeling serious again. “You proved a lot of things to me.”
Her eyes studied him for another long moment, leaving Wyatt felt stripped bare. It was unsettling and exciting at the same time. He wanted her to know him. He wanted her to see him. The real him. Apparently, so did she, based on her next words.
"Wyatt, tell me why I'm here with you. Tell me exactly what's going on. Tell me," her voice wobbled for a brief moment but she didn't break her eye contact with him, "why I should stay here with you. Because if you give me a good enough reason, I promise I'll listen. And I just might stay.”
6
Brynna studied Wyatt as he stared at her, her heart hammering in her chest so loudly she was half surprised he couldn't hear it. The bright, naked hope that sprang into his expression told her everything. He did want her to stay. And everything in her—especially her pushy little reindeer, she thought, almost giggling at the irritated huffs that blew around her mind—wanted him to give her the right reason she should. "Tell me," she gently urged him.
Slowly, he nodded. "I've always been able to tell you everything, Brynna." The low rumble of his voice sent a heated flicker through her core. She'd been faintly aroused ever since he burst into Alina's store like a sexy warrior, ready to claim his woman. Well, the possessive streak she knew he had still made her kind of mad. But it was kind of sexy, too. Besides, she admitted to herself with another tingling thrill that blasted through her body, she really wanted to hear him keep talking. His deep timbre thrummed along her nerves in all the right ways.
"You remember I told you what it was like to grow up without a mom. To see what it did to my dad. To be some of the only shifter kids in town without a mom." He watched her carefully as he said that. They had touched on it during their stroll after dinner last week, but they hadn't discussed this part quite so boldly.
Brynna nodded, feeling held by the intensity of his bright blue eyes. Just as carefully but very clearly, she responded. "Yes. And how her death tore apart your family, and made your dad the way he is. Made you the way you are," she added more hesitantly.
Wyatt visibly shut his mouth on whatever words he had been planning to say. He crinkled up his face at her. "The way I am? How am I?"
She paused, assessing him. He could take it, she decided. Lying to Wyatt, even by omission, wasn't something she'd ever want to do anyway. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to ever be false to him.
“You,” she started slowly, dragging out the word as his brilliant eyes seemed to try to pierce into her soul, “are guarded, too. You never really shared all of yourself with me, you know. Not even when you planned to ask me to marry you.” He flinched at that, hard, but she pressed on. She had to. “I know we told each other everything, but you held back on me.”
He drew breath to speak, his brows lowering, but she shook her head and went on more quickly. “No, hear me out. I don't believe you ever lied to me about anything, Wyatt. Never,” she said as firmly as she could. He relaxed a fraction. “But,” and he tensed again, “you weren't completely there. Never. You trusted me with your secrets, but not everything. I could still tell that, at dinner the other night. What is it that you're still not telling me, Wyatt? I think that after we somehow came back into each other's lives, after all this time, I deserve to hear it all.”
Holding her breath, she waited. But it seemed Wyatt hadn't been law enforcement for years, not to mention a boy who'd grown up with a man who didn't show much affection or emotion over anything, to not have learned things. Instead of telling her, he neatly turned the tables on her.
“Tell me first,” he said in an equally careful yet firm voice, “about what you saw that night that made you run away from me. The real reason.”
Dammit. She fidgeted under his unbreaking blue stare. He'd called her several times after that night last week, asking what had happened. Texted her, too. She'd hung onto her annoyance that he'd lunged after that random guy who'd wandered too close and stared at her too long, using it as an excuse to not call him back, to reply by text that she was fine but it wasn't a good idea to see him again.
Now, though, she couldn't hide behind the excuse of his temper being the reason to not tell him the truth. Taking a breath, she walked over to the window of his living room. It looked out onto the street, where to her surprise she saw some fat snowflakes just beginning to fall. Up and down the cute little street, Christmas lights twinkled merrily from snug little houses just like this one. Brynna sighed. She wasn't sure if the sight still irritated her, or was starting to grow on her.
Turning around from the window, she looked at Wyatt. "I've never been happy being a reindeer shifter. You've always known that."
He nodded, his eyes shadowing. His beard caught the light from the living room lamp, and Brynna swallowed. Oh, how damned nice that beard had felt against her face the other night. Quickly, she went on.
"The expectations on us, they always made me kind of crazy. I mean, in concept, it's so sweet. But in reality? I hated having been born to something that I'd never asked for.” She always struggled to describe it. Everyone else thought being a reindeer shifter, even just half one, was so cool. Especially this time of year.
"I know." Wyatt's voice was as soft as Brynna's. "I remember hiding out on Christmas Eve with you so many times growing up. I think my dad whupped my butt a few times because we got the whole town riled up, out looking for you. And I was the one hiding you."
She couldn't stop the huge smile that burst out for his acknowledgement that he remembered just as much of what she had said as she did about him.
Holding his gaze, and that was kind of hard, she continued. "Standing on the river walk with you that night, feeling you touch me, hold me, kiss me, it all just felt—so right. So right, Wyatt." She could hear her voice going kind of dreamy as she replayed what happened that night, but kept her gaze firmly locked with his. "The breeze, the moonlight, the smell of you."
His mouth quirked and he raised an eyebrow. She let a slow, appreciative smile unfurl on her lips.
"Yes. You smell like wild forests and big ancient trees. Like the night itself." Just describing his scent, which naturally she could smell right this moment, Brynna felt shivers whispering over her skin. Wyatt's eyes darkened even more. "It all blended, and intensified. It felt like when we were together before. And I knew you had just moved back here, and you got this great job, and you bought a house, and you were happy. And for just a moment, it felt like maybe I'd made a mistake before. Leaving you five years ago, when you tried to give me that ring. And I said no." She couldn't stop the shake in her voice. Shame, sadness, loss. It suddenly felt almost overwhelming.
He stood unmoving, his sexy dark beard contrasting perfectly with the cobalt of his eyes that, even as they darkened, were still brighter than any blue eyes she'd ever seen in her life.
"And then I was standing there with you, wrapped in your arms, being kissed like I've never been kissed before—"
Wyatt's scent deepened into something wild an
d hot that was beginning to make her dizzy. In a very good way.
"—and then suddenly I could just see what was going to happen.” She paused to swallow hard before going on. “You were going to lead me to your home, to this place actually, and take me to bed. It was going to blow my socks off." She could hear her own voice dropping as she spoke, could feel the delicious chills of anticipation billowing through her now even as she shared her vision of what should have happened but that she had stopped so that it would never exist. Her and Wyatt, together. Happy in a little house with a picket fence, maybe a dog, simple little jobs, in a little town that had expectations of her.
"I could just see every single second of it. It was the most amazing connection of my life. A bond between us.” She knew she sounded startled, though her voice stayed soft. “Then I imagined that you—you bit me. On my neck. Claiming me. And I got so mad at that thought, the thought of someone trying to control me yet again, like being a reindeer shifter has controlled me all my life, that I just got pissed. And then you almost went after that guy that night, and then Thor the other night.” She jerked her shoulders in a shrug. “It made me so mad, Wyatt.”
Swallowing a few times against her suddenly dry throat, she went on. “I know we're mates. I know we are. But—" she broke off as her human side and her shifter side battled for a moment.
Wyatt spoke, his voice low and gravelly and brimming with the molten heat. That, and an emotion she couldn't quite pinpoint. "Tell me."
She took a deep, shuddering breath. She blinked once but still didn't take her gaze from him. "I never wanted to be a shifter, but I was one. And you were my mate. And it made me so angry to not have a choice about that, like I didn't have a choice about being a reindeer shifter, that I just decided to run away." Her voice barely above a whisper, she added, “I knew you were going to propose that night. Orson let it slip when he went ring shopping with you weeks before. Between that and my family getting so mad at me again, on Christmas Eve, that I just didn't want to be a fucking reindeer shifter pulling a damned sleigh all night long, that I panicked. I found the job in Florida, and left.”
