by Zoe Chant
Jaron nodded eagerly. "I want to see everything. Learn about everything."
His eagerness was infectious, an energy flowing between them, catching hold of her and lifting her spirits. She couldn't believe that a few hours ago, she'd been miserable, thinking this Christmas was going to be the most dismal day of her life.
Now she was standing in a magical winter wonderland, on a ranch full of people who'd gone out of their way to help her and welcome her. Jaron's hands were strong on hers, gripping them as he gazed into her eyes.
The warmth of his gaze caught and held her. Snowflakes were settling on his hair, on his lashes.
Gloria opened her mouth, but no words came out. Jaron leaned forward slowly, giving her every chance to pull away. But that was the last thing she wanted. She leaned forward eagerly, and his mouth closed on hers.
As soon as his lips met hers, she melted against him. It was what she'd wanted to do since the first time their eyes met as he walked through the front door of the ranch house, and now it was real, it was happening, here among the glittering Christmas lights with snow falling all around them.
Jaron pulled back at last, looking flushed and tousled. Gloria could only imagine she looked the same, especially with snowflakes settling on her hair and shoulders.
"Wow," he whispered.
Gloria smiled and touched his lips with her fingertips. As she started to reach up to kiss him again, headlights washed over them, and a snowmobile pulled into the yard with a roar of its engine, pulling a trailer behind it.
The rider jumped off the machine and lifted off his helmet. This was someone Gloria hadn't met yet, but she knew from overhearing the others talk that it was yet another of the cousins who ran the ranch. Cory? No, Cody. A dark blond ponytail spilled down his back when he took the helmet off.
"Hey there!" he called. "Could you two give me a hand? I've got a pretty cold calf here that needs to get in out of the snow."
Jaron and Gloria hurried to help. She hadn't even realized that there was something alive on the trailer, but it kicked weakly as she helped tug off the snow-covered straps that had held it down.
"Poor thing!" Gloria said as Cody lifted the calf to its feet and then held it as it wobbled, getting its legs under it. It wasn't tiny, definitely not small enough to be carried; its head came up to the level of her chin. "Is it going to be all right?"
"Sure, she just needs to get warmed up." Cody hustled the calf along to the barn, giving it a shove whenever its steps faltered.
Gloria and Jaron trailed along behind. Gloria wasn't sure if she could be any help, but she'd never been this close to a cow before.
The calf's steps picked up once it realized it was headed for the barn and home. Cody opened the door, and Gloria and Jaron helped him herd the calf inside. Warmth and the smell of hay and animals washed over them as they walked in. It was overwhelming at first but pleasant, in a strong kind of way, once she got used to it.
"We need to get her dry," Cody explained, reaching for a ragged blanket that he used to start rubbing down the calf's fur and legs.
From the other end of the barn came a discontented bellow. The calf raised its head and bawled back.
"And there's Ma," Cody said with a laugh. "Settle down, kiddo," he told the calf. "Hey, Jaron, give me a hand holding her, would you?"
Between the three of them, they got the calf dried off. Gloria was fascinated by everything about it: the thick fur that was rough on her fingertips, the big liquid eyes with long lashes.
"I thought a calf would be tiny, but this one's so big," she said.
"She was born this spring," Cody explained. "She's growing up into a heifer now." The cow bellowed from the other end of the barn again, and Cody grinned. "Still not too big for her mama, though. C'mon, honey, let's go get you home. You want to come and see the rest of the cows?"
"Sure," Gloria said, lacing her fingers through Jaron's.
"It's just the moms and this year's calves in the barn," Cody explained as he released the calf into the pen, where she was reunited with her mother. "The yearlings and older cattle are outside."
"Aren't they cold?" Gloria asked, leaning against the bars of the pen to admire the cows. Most of them were black, their coats glossy beneath the barn lights.
"Nah, they're used to it. They've got shelter, and we put down a bunch of straw for them earlier. In the morning, we'll go out and check on 'em, make sure they have fresh water and everything. Actually, while I've still got my outside gear on, I should probably walk around and have a look at 'em."
Gloria gave one of the cows a last shy pat through the bars of the pen before they left. The wind felt colder when they stepped outside, and the snow had tapered to a few light flakes swirling down out of the sky.
"Oh hey, the rest of the boys are back," Cody remarked.
Gloria caught her breath as two great, shaggy shapes came shuffling out of the darkness, their heavy fur clumped with snow and frost. She couldn't speak. It was one thing knowing that these men could turn into bears. But she'd never even seen a bear in real life before. It was like something out of a fairy tale, watching the two big, dark bears stroll over to the ranch house door like tame dogs.
The door burst open and Daisy came running out, her blonde hair flying. She hadn't bothered with a coat. "Gannon!" she cried, flinging her arms around the darker bear's neck. He nuzzled against her hair.
Behind Daisy, Charmian appeared with her arms full of blankets. "Come on, you two," she said, addressing herself mainly to the bear that wasn't currently being hugged by Daisy. "You're soaked through. Let's get you inside."
She flung a blanket over the bear's great, shaggy hump, and an instant later, the ursine bulk dwindled and a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man was wrapping the blanket around himself.
Gloria pressed the back of her gloved hand to her mouth. Jaron's fingers tightened on her other hand, and she glanced up at him quickly. He looked a little worried. Gloria shook her head, too overwhelmed to explain that her reaction wasn't fear or horror. It was wonder. The entire night had an unreal quality, like she'd walked into a fairy tale where forest beasts could walk out of a snowstorm and become men.
Instead she squeezed his hand tightly until he relaxed and leaned against her.
During that moment, she'd missed the other man—Gannon?—shifting back. Daisy was now fussing with a blanket around his shoulders, while Charmian shepherded Alec back into the house.
The sudden roar of the snowmobile's engine made Gloria jump. She hadn't even noticed Cody was no longer with them; he'd gone back to the snowmobile and started it up again. She leaned against Jaron's side and watched Cody drive the snowmobile around in a big circle and into a shed beside the barn.
"So ... now you've seen it," Jaron said softly, his voice vibrating through the layers of winter clothing separating them.
"Is that what it's like for you?" she asked, looking up at him.
Jaron nodded.
"What does your bear look like? I didn't get to see earlier. Are you that big?"
"Not quite that big. I'm a lighter color than Alec or Gannon." He brushed a hand over his close-cut blond hair, sweeping off the snow. "Usually our bear is similar in color to our hair as a human. Alec and Gannon are both dark-haired men and so they're dark bears. I'm more light colored, for a grizzly."
"I can't wait to see it. Though maybe not now." She stretched on her tiptoes, tilting her face up toward his. "There are other things I'd rather do now."
His lips closed over hers in a deep kiss that went on and on. When they finally broke apart, she was flushed and panting.
"You're beautiful," Jaron murmured, cupping her cheek in his gloved hand.
"You too," she whispered back. "Uh. I mean in a manly way."
He smiled and dipped down for another kiss. One of his hands slipped under the bottom edge of her borrowed coat.
Across the yard, the ranch-house door slammed, breaking her out of the spell she'd fallen under. Drawing back, she admi
tted regretfully, "I guess we should go back inside and have Christmas dinner with everyone else." She let her breathing calm down, and added, "Unless you want to take me right here in a snowbank."
"Oh!" Fascinated delight blossomed on his face. "Do humans like doing that?"
"No!" She grabbed his hands when he reached to unzip her coat. He pulled back, looking confused and a little hurt. "No, I mean—I'm not saying no to sex! I want sex. Very much." She leaned forward to kiss him again, where the sad look had been washed away by a delighted smile. "Just ... not in a snowbank. And not in full view of our hosts."
"Oh." He glanced at the ranch house. "Yeah. Probably not. Uh, before we go back in, there's something I should tell you about. I think it's why Tara and Saffron wanted me to bring you out here in the first place."
"O...kay." Gloria tried not to bite her lip, her habit when she was stressed. Was this where the other shoe dropped? Where she found out he was married, or shifters weren't allowed to marry non-shifters, or some other terrible thing?
"It's a shifter thing," he said, and her heart plummeted all the way to her borrowed boots.
"All right," she said bravely. "It's okay. We can be friends if we can't be together. I'll still show you my world anyway."
"What?" Jaron looked baffled and hurt again. "You don't want to—? I don't understand!"
"Me neither." Gloria wiped her hand across her face. Apparently she didn't think clearly when she was being driven half out of her mind by her closeness to this incredibly sexy man. The fact that they were both bundled up in winter gear was probably the only thing giving her the self-control not to push him down into a snowbank. "What did you want to talk to me about? Aren't you going to tell me that our relationship is a mistake?"
"What? No!" he said, horrified. "No, it's, uh, it's kind of the exact opposite of that. You're the only one for me."
"We just met. You can't know that already." Although, deep down, she'd had that feeling ever since she'd met him, too. Her heart flipped over at the thought that he felt the same way.
"It's not a choice we make," he said seriously. "I mean, it is and it isn't. Do you know about shifters and fated mates?"
Gloria shook her head.
"Oh. Um. Look, you should maybe have the women explain it to you. They'll be better at it."
She shook her head again. "No, I think this is what they started to tell me inside, and then they said you should be the one to tell me about it. And I think they're right. This is about us, not about anyone else."
"You're right." He cupped her face in his gloved hands and gazed into her eyes. "Gloria, shifters like me, we have one person out there who's exactly right for us. One person in all the world. Our animal helps us find them. And as soon as I saw you, I knew you were that person for me."
"Oh," she whispered. "I—that's how I felt about you, when I saw you. I just didn't know why I was having that feeling about someone I never met before. Is this what they call soulmates?"
"I don't know. I never heard that before." He caressed her face; she leaned into his touch. "All I know is, there's a bond between us. It started to happen as soon as I saw you. And when we make love ... you've seen the little scars on the other women's necks? Right above the collarbone?"
Gloria touched her own neck, under her hair, with her gloved fingertips. "Is that what that's about?"
"It's a claiming mark. It'll let all other shifters know that you have a mate. And some people say there's a kind of magic that goes along with it. We'll be more in tune with each other than with anyone else in the world. But ..." He brushed a curl away from her cheek. "We won't do it if you don't want to. We won't ever do anything you don't want to do."
Gloria had to catch her breath. Everything was moving so fast. "Can I think about it?"
Jaron nodded vigorously, and she got the feeling he'd been afraid she'd say no. "Yeah, of course you can. Think as much as you want."
"Which is not to say that I'm backing off," she said quickly. "I want ... I want to show you the world. I want to show you me. Uh, that maybe came out wrong." She could feel herself blushing, and Jaron was turning even pinker. "I just mean, when we can get some privacy—later, maybe—"
Her stomach picked that moment to growl.
"But first, food," Jaron said, and she laughed, and nodded.
***
Christmas dinner was a chaotic affair. There was no big dining room table, and no room for one in either the kitchen or the living room. Instead, the kitchen table groaned under a load of food—ham and roast beef swimming in juices, baked yams and potatoes au gratin, crisp salad, mashed potatoes and a huge bowl of gravy—and everyone loaded plates and circulated, finding places to sit wherever they could.
Gloria found a place to sit beside Jaron on the couch. His shoulder brushed hers; her leg was pressed against his. Nobody seemed to mind if she was a little bit quiet, letting the cheerful chatter wash over her. Instead she looked around the room at all of these people who had been strangers to her a few hours earlier.
Tara and Axl sitting cross-legged on the floor with Lexie sleeping on a pillow between them, playfully feeding each other bites of food.
Remy with his big tattooed arms around his little son, holding Baz on his lap while the little boy chewed on a biscuit; Saffron with her arm around him and head resting on his shoulder.
Gannon, Daisy, and Fern in a corner by the Christmas tree, inseparable since the big, scar-faced bear shifter had returned from his trip into the snow to rescue the calf.
Crystal sitting in Cody's lap, his hand resting protectively over her pregnant belly, as if daring anyone to mess with his mate and child.
Alec and Charmian presided over the whole business as hosts and co-alphas, rarely touching each other in the open way of the other couples, but their deep love and respect for each other was obvious in every covert glance, in every casual brush of fingertips to the other's arm or hip.
Baz dozed off in Remy's arms. Saffron leaned down to kiss the little boy on top of his dark hair, and smiled at the others. "Well, it's getting late. I think we're going to head across the yard to our own house."
Tara smothered a yawn. "I was just thinking the same thing. If we get Lexie down for the night now, maybe she won't wake up before morning."
Remy chuckled and looked over at the other couple as he gently rocked his sleeping son. "Yeah, dream on."
"Remember what it used to be like to sleep through the night?" Daisy asked with a smile, tipping her head back to look up at Gannon. She was sitting between his legs on the floor, with tiny Fern asleep in her arms.
Gannon smiled down at her and pulled her against his chest. "Wouldn't change a thing."
Daisy started to say something else, but interrupted herself with a jaw-cracking yawn. "Mmmm," she murmured, snuggling against her mate's chest. "I guess we should be thinking about getting home too."
"Nobody's going anywhere in all this snow," Alec said firmly. "You're all spending the night here. No arguments."
"Like any of us would try to argue with you, boss," Cody said in a voice that was just a trace too innocent to be insolent.
"Is there room for everyone, though?" Crystal asked. "It's going to be awfully crowded."
"You can make up the couch for me," Gloria offered, feeling guilty.
"I can sleep in the barn," Jaron suggested.
"Oh, for—! Nobody's sleeping in any barns," Charmian scoffed. "We have plenty of room. Tara, Axl, you can fit some of the guests in your house, right?"
"Sure," Tara said. "There's plenty of room."
"Then Cody and Crystal can go over there. Gannon and Daisy can take our downstairs bedroom, because the main house is warmest, so little Fern won't get cold," Charmian explained. "And Gloria and Jaron can have the trailer, for privacy."
Gloria told herself it was just her imagination that a brief silence followed Charmian's announcement, and it had to be her imagination that everyone in the room was looking at her. She could feel her cheeks turning p
ink.
"Charmian, you might want to ask them if they'd like to share," Crystal said.
"There's room for at least one of you over at our place if not," Axl put in.
"Or ours," Saffron said. "We planned for a bigger family than just Baz. The spare bedroom is shut up to save heat, but we can open it up, or move Baz into our room for tonight."
Charmian looked at Gloria and Jaron, a slight smile on her lips, her dark eyes serious. "What do you two want?"
Gloria looked at Jaron, and in the warmth of his eyes, she read her answer. "Sharing with each other will be fine," she said quietly, and saw his eyes light up.
Alec got to his feet. "In that case, I better go start up the heater in the trailer or you two are gonna freeze out there."
He went out into the night. The other couples began getting their things together. Remy bundled up Baz for the trip across the yard, while Saffron went to help Charmian put leftovers away.
"Oh—Gloria?" Charmian poked her head in from the kitchen. "If you need any sleeping things or toiletries, you can borrow them from us. Tara can help you; she knows where everything is."
"I've got what I need in my suitcase. Thank you." She was overwhelmed once again at how they'd all welcomed her into their home. "I don't know how to repay you for this."
"Oh, hon, we were all lost and alone once," Tara said, looking up from helping Axl wrap Lexie in a soft blanket. "We've all been where you are, in our own ways."
"And the thing about families," Crystal said cheerfully, "is that there's always room for one more." She patted her pregnant stomach. "Sometimes two more."
"Well, I really don't know how to thank all of you." Gloria smiled, blinking her suddenly misty eyes. "You've made an absolutely miserable Christmas into the best one I've ever had."
Through the prisms of her tears, she caught Jaron's warm gaze, and she smiled shakily. It was more than just family camaraderie that had put the magic into her Christmas this year. She'd never dared to dream that she might truly have what appeared to have fallen into her lap the moment she'd stopped looking.
