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

by V. Vaughn

  Max got a few hours of sleep on the navy base and then rode in the Justice Squad’s helicopter back to the Bahamas the next morning.

  Hawk slapped him on the back before Max hopped out on the tarmac. "You did well, Max. We'll see you back in Colorado."

  "I'll let you know," Max said.

  "What do you mean, you’ll 'let me know'?"

  "I can't just expect my mate to up and move to Colorado," Max said.

  "Oh. Well, whatever you decide. We welcome you to Fate Rock, and you’ll always have a place on the Justice Squad. I look forward to hearing your decision."

  Max turned and walked to his waiting cab. The whole way to the resort, all he could think about was Stephanie. He didn't know if he could live without the excitement and the adrenaline of the missions he ran with the Justice Squad. But more than that, he knew he couldn’t live without her.

  When he arrived, she was waiting in their room. Her eyes were wet with tears of joy, and her face was bright with anticipation. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. He enveloped her in his embrace, smelled her scent, and let her love surround him.

  "I'm so relieved," she said.

  "Did you enjoy yourself while I was gone?"

  "I certainly did." She smiled. “And I have a big surprise for you when we get home."

  "Home?" he asked.

  "Home to Fate Rock, Colorado."

  13

  Firelight flickered as the sound of “Auld Lang Syne” echoed throughout the room. Stephanie sipped her glass of hot buttered rum as Max held her in his arms. The clock had just struck midnight on New Year's Day, and she could still feel the warm buzz of his kiss on her lips. The whole Justice Squad was gathered around the Christmas tree, ringing in the New Year with the happy couple.

  Stephanie gazed up at the big painting that hung over the fireplace.

  "I can't believe how much it looks like the island where we met," Max said.

  "It's like the artist was reading our minds. Or maybe they saw the island themselves." She took another sip of her drink. Her chest was warm, and her heart was full.

  After they had all returned to the States from the Caribbean, she and Max had quickly packed up her things, said goodbye to her beloved friends in Fate Valley, and driven across the country to their new home.

  Hawk and the crew had arranged for them to move into their new house. Jameson was a real estate developer, and they had all just recently purchased houses in a rural housing development outside of Fate Rock. They all had big backyards and porches that were perfect for barbecues. They weren’t so close that they were stacked on top of each other, but they were close enough that they could take a stroll down the street for a chat at any time.

  The French doors looked out on the backyard and the snowy world beyond. The Christmas lights from the big blue-spruce Christmas tree twinkled in the glass’s reflection. The guys were all singing Christmas carols and making up for lost time from their mission. It was the first day they had all been at home and able to really relax together.

  Presents were stacked under the tree, and the crew was exchanging their gifts. Hawk had given everyone ugly Christmas sweaters with reindeers, Santas, and cats on them. Stephanie loved hers and thought it was adorable and hilarious at the same time.

  Sampson gave everybody new high-security smartphones. Titus gave everyone a year membership to the best gym in Fate Rock. Zander gave everyone a one-hundred-dollar gift card to the local bookstore and café. Jameson gave them all prank gifts from the joke shop. Being a barbecue enthusiast, Rider gave everyone new sets of barbecue wear.

  “There's something that I forgot to give to you." Stephanie grabbed her gift from under the tree and handed it to Max, full of excitement and anticipation. She ran her fingers over the necklace she’d had set in gold. It matched the gold-and-black-sequined dress she was wearing for the occasion.

  He tore open the small present and lifted the lid from the box. His eyes went wide when he saw it. He pulled out the thick chain with the single pearl pendant.

  She grinned. "I had it made in the Bahamas at the resort."

  He put it around his neck and stroked the pearl with his fingertips.

  "It’s so you’ll always have me close to you and you’ll always remember how much I love you."

  Stephanie saw a tear gather in the corner of his eye, and he pulled her into a tight embrace. Taking a deep breath of the top of her head, he shuddered against her. She pulled back and smiled up at him as he wiped the tear from his eye.

  "This is so perfect," he said. “I have one more present for you too." He grabbed a box from the lapel of his suit jacket. He looked so gorgeous in his tailored suit, with his hair groomed and his face freshly shaven. The smell of his high-end cologne mixed with the scent of his body. He opened the little black box, and the light caught the object inside, making it sparkle like fire.

  Stephanie covered her mouth with her hands as she gasped, taking in the sight of the two-carat princess-cut engagement ring.

  Max pulled it out of the box, took her hand in his, and slipped the ring onto her finger. "I would like to ask you to be my wife."

  "But we're shifters," she said. “I never expected—"

  "Nonsense. I want to marry you. I want to have a big, fancy wedding with all of your friends from Fate Valley. You deserve that."

  "Oh, Max," she gushed. "Of course I'll marry you. And I can't wait to have a wedding with all my friends, you sweet, sweet man."

  She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he held her close, caressing the back of her head and shoulders. She could feel his heart pounding as he took a deep breath and let it out again. His whole body shuddered with passion and happiness.

  When she looked up again, she saw the entire crew staring at them, holding their cups of hot buttered rum aloft. All of a sudden, they started singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow."

  Stephanie's cheeks burned with embarrassment. But she loved being Max’s mate, and she loved being part of his crew. It felt as though she were finally at home and had finally found the place where she belonged. She'd waited all of this time, checking mate.com every day, wondering where he was and why he was taking so long. But now that they had found each other, she knew that every single second had been leading her there.

  Also by Scarlett Grove

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  Under the light of the full moon, Avery experiences a night of endless pleasure in the arms of a seductive stranger. When she witnesses his transformation into a wolf, she's convinced their passionate encounter was part of an otherworldly dream. But her pregnancy test confirms it was all too real and now she must find the father of her child.

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  Guarding Her D
ragon - Julia Mills

  There Are No Coincidences.

  The Universe Does Not Make Mistakes.

  Fate Will Not Be Denied.

  What happens when a Christmas Elf with way too much sass for her little pointed ears finds a centuries old Guardsman buried in the snow?

  Well, she takes him home and nurses him back to health, of course.

  If only everything was that easy. With six older sisters, two baby reindeer and an evil Gnome of an auntie hellbent on world domination, Elsa’s got her hands full.

  It’s gonna take more than a little Elven magic and the love of her Dragon to make it to Christmas Eve, but this little Elf refuses to give. She’s guarding her Dragon with all she’s got and finding out the best things in life really do come wrapped in glittering green scales.

  Index of the Original Language of the Dragon Kin

  Guarding Her Dragon

  Mo chroi’……….My heart

  Mo ghra’……….My love

  Mo stór……….My treasure

  Mo maité……….My mate

  Mo Dragon……….My dragon

  Is brae liom tú……….I love you

  Mo Elf beag……….My little elf

  Mo stóirin……….My little treasure

  The Dragon Guard

  We soar the skies

  Free to a certain extent,

  As long as we stay hidden

  From prying human eyes.

  Our scales differ in color

  Our defensive weapons,

  Tails, horns, talons and all,

  Are never the same.

  We are one with nature

  We blend in with nature

  The wind helps us soar high in the heavens

  While the earth grant us healing strength in our hour of need.

  We are one with the world

  We are the guardians of our kin

  When evil conspire to maim and hurt

  We are protectors of this human race.

  As majestic animals of fairytales

  We share our beings with great men

  They walk in honor and the grace of Fate,

  Fate that we cannot deny.

  Copyright © 2016 Melanie Williams

  - This Poem is based on the Series, The Dragon Guard by Author Julia Mills.

  Copyright © 2018 Julia Mills

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictional manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  NOTICE: This is an adult erotic paranormal romance with love scenes and mature situations. It is only intended for adult readers over the age of 18.

  Acknowledgments

  Edited by Lisa Miller, Angel Editing Services

  Proofread by Tammy Payne with Book Nook Nuts

  Cover Designed by Linda Boulanger with Tell Tale Book Covers

  Dare to Dream! Find the Strength to Act! Never Look Back!

  Thank you, God.

  To my girls, Liz and Em, I Love You. Every day, every way, always.

  Prologue

  “One day I’m gonna figure out why the heck we chose to live in the godforsaken Arctic Circle.”

  “Let me know when you do, because I’m still trying to figure it out almost a century later.”

  Elsa laughed out loud at her sister Mona’s, reply. Not because it was especially funny but because it was the sad truth. Generation after generation of their kind had happily lived in one of the coldest places on earth. Mona, being the oldest, was just about to celebrate her two-hundredth birthday of freezing temperatures and dark days. It had originally happened out of necessity, to save their population from their dark cousins, the Gnomes. Later, as the enemies against those considered special grew in numbers, the Elves simply stayed in the frozen land where few other dared to tread.

  Although they only got three months—if they were lucky—of sunshine and one of those months—usually July—where the temperatures rose above freezing, it wasn’t so bad. It was, after all, all that Elsa had ever known and most days she was okay with that. But the older she got, the more she wanted to experience something different, something new... something not frozen.

  “Hey, stop your daydreaming,” Mona teased. “If we don’t get this tree home before dinner, Mom is gonna blow a gasket.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a shame we didn’t have a brother to help do all the hard labor.”

  “A brother? Now I know you have frostbite of the brain,” Mona laughed.

  “Pfft,” Elsa groaned, stomping over an oddly shaped snow drift just to waste a few more minutes before heading home. It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited for the holidays; it was just that it always seemed like Christmas when you lived in the frozen north. There was nothing so awfully special about it except for the presents and the food and even that had grown tiresome.

  Standing at the apex of the snow mound, the elf looked across the mountains to the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean. Due to the season, it was basically dark all the time. But since it was still before four in the afternoon, Elsa could see a colony of penguins, who had either been transplanted or had transplanted themselves from Antarctica—or maybe flown in a very special sleigh, splashing into the icy water as they slid down the drifts and farther out on the water. She could also see a herd of walruses diving for fish to feed their young, who were happily floating on a huge chunk of ice.

  She had to admit, compared to all the pictures she’d ever seen in books and on the internet, her home was the most beautiful place in the world. The one thing that stopped it from being perfect was the lack of anyone or anything not Elven. Kicking the ice that had formed under the newest layer of snow, Elsa’s toe hit a sharp metal corner of something that, not only ripped the toe of her boot, but made her foot hurt so bad she was hopping around and howling like a loon.

  “What happened?” Mona screamed, racing toward her.

  Plopping down on the snow bank, Elsa shook her head and cried, “I think I broke my toe.”

  Kneeling beside her, Mona looked at Elsa’s boot, pushed her finger through the rip, and sighed, “Only you. What the hell did you kick?”

  “How should I know? I was just looking at the penguins and walruses and…”

  “And goofing around because you don’t want to go home,” Mona harrumphed, slapping the top of Elsa’s boot before adding, “I’ll get the duct tape out of my pack. That’ll get you home without frostbite.”

  Feeling like an idiot with her butt beginning to freeze through her snowsuit, Elsa saw something glittering through the snow she’d just been kicking and her curiosity got the best of her. Digging through the snow and ice with her gloved hands, the elf felt a surge of unfamiliar magic dance along her arms and hang in the air around her. Not sure what to make of it and unsure of its origin, she continued to dig, ignoring the feelings of dread that grew within her with every swipe of her hand.

  “What are you doing now?” Mona’s bellowed retort took Elsa by such surprise that she slid down what she had assumed was a snow drift, uncovering the top and part of the side of a huge silver box covered with magical runes, the likes of which she’d never seen before.

  Unable to answer her sister’s question because of her excitement, Elsa jumped back to her knees and swatted at the snow, eager to uncover the rest of the box and see what was inside. It wasn’t long before Mona joined in and within just a few minutes, they’d completely unearthed what looked like a seven-foot-long sterling silver coffin with a lock the size of Elsa’s head holding it shut.

  Looking at her sister then back at the coffin then back at her sister, Elsa opened to her mouth to speak just as Mona whispered, “Do you f
eel that? Something isn’t right. The magic surrounding that thing feels wrong…dark…scary.”

  Nodding her head, Elsa replied, “Yeah, but underneath it all, I feel something good, almost pure, trying to battle his way out.”

  “His?” Mona asked, grabbing Elsa’s arm to keep her from moving any closer to the box.

  “Huh?”

  “You said ‘trying to battle his way out’. How do you know it’s a him?” Mona was no longer whispering and her tone said she was just about to play the big sister card and order Elsa to come home with her. So, the little elf did the only thing she could think of to finish what she’d started. Jerking her arm from her sister’s grasp, she pulled off her gloves, rubbed her hands together, and called on the High Magic she’d inherited from her mother.

  Warm, green light burst from her hands as she recited the words, “Mother Earth to whom we owe all things, lend me your power that I may open what is locked and save the being who is suffering,” over and over until her Elven Light literally hummed with power. Leaning forward, she touched her hands to the box and added, “Pour your power into this metal. Free who has been imprisoned.”

  Shades of blue, red, and brown mixed with the green, creating a kaleidoscope of colors that flowed from all around Elsa into the lock. Smoke rose from the tarnished metal. It popped and cracked. The mystic runes began to slither across the silver, hissing and sizzling before blinking out of sight.