ChoosingHisChristmasMiracle

by Charlie Richards

  There was nothing tentative about Raul’s kiss this time. His sweet human dominated his mouth, forcing his tongue between Sean’s lips and delving deep. Raul twined their tongues so they could taste each other.

  He didn’t know how long they kissed, but suddenly a deep chuckle intruded on Sean’s bubble of bliss.

  “All right,” Carson’s deep voice said as they eased apart. “You want us to check you out so you can keep making out?” he teased.

  Sean groaned, but wrenched away from Raul. “No. I need to make sure I don’t miss any of Lily’s things,” he said, somehow managing to pant the words.

  Raul’s brows creased as he stared at the sleeping baby. “She messy?”

  “She throws things sometimes,” Sean admitted. “Or drops things and they fall into crevices you wouldn’t think to look in.”

  “Maybe she’ll grow up to be a quarterback,” Jared stated. “You want me to stay with her while you pack up?”

  Raul’s brows creased. “A quarterback? Stay with her?” He rolled his eyes. “God, you’re an idiot sometimes.”

  Jared smirked. “No, I’m not. There are those women’s teams,” he pointed out.

  “They have some really hot uniforms,” Carson added.

  Sean snorted, shaking his head. “Seriously? What planet are you guys from?”

  “I think we call this Earth, don’t we?” Jared deadpanned, looking between Carson and Raul with a lifted brow.

  “It is. Yes,” Carson agreed.

  Sean burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it.

  “There’s your smile,” Raul murmured, taking his hand and tugging him toward the motel. “Come on. Lily will be fine with Carson.”

  Sean cocked his head, but allowed his mate to lead him as he tried to process what had just happened. After unlocking the room, he paused and watched his mate start picking up baby toys. “Wait a minute. Your friends spouted all that ridiculous nonsense because they were trying to cheer me up?” he asked incredulously.

  Raul paused and turned to look at him. He cocked his head. “Why does that surprise you?”

  Frowning, Sean racked his brain for a response. “I don’t think anyone other than my sister has done that for me before,” he admitted. Well, damn. Wasn’t that a sad admission?

  Sighing, Raul came toward him. The man was only a couple inches shorter than Sean’s six foot one height, but when Raul wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a hug, he fit perfectly in Sean’s arms.

  “They’re good guys,” Raul murmured, holding Sean close.

  “Yeah,” Sean agreed. “I’m beginning to understand that.”

  “I’m sorry we won’t have time to figure things out between us right away,” Raul added, pulling away and putting a few inches between them that Sean didn’t like. “But maybe it’s better this way.”

  Sean frowned. “Why?”

  “Because even though you knew we were mates for the last five months, I didn’t,” Raul explained. “I need to come to grips with this. I’ll be gone a few days, a week or two at most, then I’ll be back.” He pressed a kiss to Sean’s lips. “I promise I’ll be back. I will accept this, I just need time.”

  Raul’s admission nearly tore Sean’s heart from his chest. It was a real shame he understood where Raul was coming from, and Sean didn’t have the time to woo the human. He had to accept his mate was a strong, independent human.

  Even as he mentally chanted those words over and over again an hour later while standing in Raul’s front room as he watched Raul climb into Carson’s SUV, it didn’t make him feel any better.

  In fact, it really pissed him off. What the hell was Fate thinking?

  Chapter Five

  Raul couldn’t remember packing his bag or the drive to the airport, but since he carried it over his shoulder and climbed into Manon’s helicopter, he knew it’d happened. He tried to keep his breathing even, hoping that with each breath, his life would start to make sense. It didn’t work.

  Dropping his bag on the ground, Raul rubbed his hands over his face, then buried them in his hair. He massaged his temples, trying to get his shit together. They were about to face scientists and possibly jacked-up soldiers. He needed to be able to focus.

  Someone slapping him on the back pulled Raul out of his chaotic thoughts. He turned to see his friend’s concerned gaze. It wasn’t a look Jared wore often and appeared extremely out of place on his tanned face.

  “You doing okay?” Jared asked.

  Raul scowled. “No. No I’m not,” he answered honestly.

  “Which part is bothering you?” Carson asked from Jared’s other side, leaning over his mate to eye him with a penetrating gaze. “That he’s a man, a wolf shifter, or has a daughter?”

  Well, put like that, Raul had no fucking clue. He shook his head, shrugged, then dropped his gaze to the floor of the chopper as if the answers would be written there. They weren’t. Raul brought his attention back to Jared and his mate

  “All of it?” The concerned looks on the pair’s faces didn’t change. Raul shook his head again. “Even though I’m not gay, I never planned to have kids. And yet, Fate decides to fuck with my life and give me to a wolf shifter who is raising his infant niece? What part should I be okay with?”

  Jared cocked his head. “Let me ask you this. If it were a woman who arrived with a baby in tow, would it make it easier for you?”

  “At least I’d know what to do with her,” Raul muttered.

  Carson scowled. “So, it’s the fact that Sean is a man? You got a problem with gay relationships?”

  Okay, this was coming out all wrong. Raul rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Fuck no,” he snapped. Raul took a fortifying breath and after rubbing his hands over his face again, looked Carson in the eye and said, “It’s the fact that I don’t get a say in the matter.”

  God, how fucked up was that? He cared only that Fate was messing with his life. Sure, he’d been thinking about this guy and obsessing over him for months. He and Jared had even talked about seeing if they could find anything out about him. Except, now that Sean was there, in Stone Ridge, Raul didn’t know if that was what he really wanted. Knowing exactly how fucked up and selfish that’d make him sound, Raul kept those disturbing thoughts to himself.

  He’d seen how frustrated Jared had become when he’d had to be separated from Carson, even for a few weeks. That had been when the couple had first started out together and Jared still worked as an assassin.

  He and his friend had traveled the world together, Raul working as Jared’s spotter when the man needed it. Then Jared had gone to Colorado for his sister’s wedding, and when he’d returned, he’d been in love and mated to a shifter. For Raul, it was an eye-opening experience. He discovered not only were paranormal creatures real, but that they drew his best friend into their world, yanking Raul in right along with him.

  As he thought back to those first couple of weeks in Stone Ridge, meeting shifters and learning how a pack worked, Raul had been amazed and more than a little spooked. He never would have guessed such things as shifters and vampires and even gargoyles were real. Now, he knew better. And now, Fate decided to take things one step further. She decided to give Raul a mate, too.

  Jared squeezed Raul’s shoulder, drawing him out of his thoughts. “We work with the hand we’re dealt, Raul. You know that,” Jared said solemnly. “Sean seems like a decent fellow. Give him a chance.” Then he gave Raul a twisted smile that, if he weren’t used to Jared’s sadistic sense of humor, may have worried him. “And if he’s not a good guy, we can certainly whip him into shape.”

  Raul knew his laugh was just a bit hysterical, but he appreciated his friend’s words. “Thanks, man,” he muttered.

  Jared handed him a slip of paper. “Here.”

  “What’s this?” Raul asked. Opening the folded Post-It note, he read the name of a website he didn’t recognize. He glanced between Jared and Carson, the latter man not meeting his gaze.

  Jared grinned. “It’s
our favorite porn site. Watch it with Sean when you get back to town. It’ll give you some pointers.”

  Raul could feel the flush working up his neck to his cheeks. “You want me to watch porn with the man?”

  “Sure. It sounded like your mate had never been with a man either, so you both need instruction.” He grin turned lascivious. “That will definitely give you…instruction.”

  Yeah, he was definitely blushing. Damn his fair skin. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” he muttered. What if watching it only confirmed what he feared—that Fate was making a huge mistake in pairing Sean with Raul. Would the visual of a cock in another man’s ass scare him from the act completely? Sean would never be able to claim him.

  “You found your mate?”

  Manon’s question pulled Raul from his increasingly panicked thoughts. He looked at the wolf shifter flying the helicopter and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Congrats, mon ami,” Manon replied, glancing over his shoulder at Raul and giving him a big grin.

  Raul had gotten used to the way the Cajun tossed in French terms on occasion. At least those words he recognized as calling him a friend. The guy had recently found his own mate and seemed deliriously happy about it.

  Trying to convince himself that getting a mate was a good thing, even one he knew nothing about, was a man, and had a baby, Raul smiled back and said, “Thanks. We just caught up with each other so it’ll be nice to get back to him. There’s still plenty we need to learn about each other.” Well, those words are true anyway.

  Manon nodded, then said, “Kontra and Payson be meetin’ us at the airstrip. They got transportation all ready for us and show us where this place is.”

  Raul appreciated the change of subject, giving him something else to focus on. He remembered Kontra as the big bear shifter—a grizzly shifter, he’d been told. He didn’t remember the other guy though, so asked, “Who’s Payson?”

  “He’s a hyena shifter. A little touched in the head, but good in a fight,” Jared replied.

  Raul turned to him. “When did you meet him?”

  Jared shrugged. “I haven’t. But did you really think I’d work with people I didn’t know I could rely on?” he asked, lifting a brow.

  “When the hell did you have time to research them?” Raul asked, confused.

  Carson chuckled, shaking his head. “You took longer to pack than you think you did.”

  “Oh,” Raul muttered. The things Jared could do with a laptop would worry most people. Raul just found it helpful.

  “How many people do you think we’ll need to call in?” Carson asked.

  Jared cocked his head and smirked. “I don’t think we’ll need to call others in. There are already six of us. Any more than that and we’ll be too conspicuous.”

  Carson rested his hand on Jared’s thigh and squeezed. “As long as everyone stays safe.”

  Raul looked out the window of the chopper while Jared and Carson kissed. The enforcer may have said he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but Raul knew what he really meant. Carson was worried Jared would get hurt. Everyone else was secondary to a shifter’s mate. That was just the way it was.

  Sean would put me first like that. Would I be able to do the same for him?

  Just the idea of Sean in danger had Raul’s pulse picking up. Damn! He scrubbed his hands over his face again, trying to calm down. His mate was at home, safe and sound. Double damn! I already think of Sean as my mate!

  Needing something else to think about, Raul asked, “Did Kontra say how big this place was?”

  “Oui,” Manon replied in the affirmative. “He say it ‘bout seven thousand square feet a floor and he see two floors above ground. Payson manage to get in and the main floor is office buildings. The second floor is labs. The hyena say he could smell shifters, but not find them.”

  “More hidden elevators,” Jared muttered, making Raul realize his friend and his mate had finally come up for air. Raul looked at the man and saw the pleased smile and glimmer of excitement in his hazel eyes. Jared was looking forward to the challenge.

  And challenge it turned out to be. They spent two days doing reconnaissance, not only on the building itself, but by breaking into the local county archives and stealing every building plan on file for the structure.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t end up being real accurate. Payson, the hyena shifter, pointed out several places where there were discrepancies. Drawing on past experiences, Raul and Jared were able to pencil in three locations that could hold the elevator.

  Since they didn’t have an in and Payson had already been in the building once, the group decided to send Kontra and Manon through the front. As Raul waited for the signal to rush the side door he’d been assigned, Payson at his side, he prayed they weren’t making a mistake hurrying a mission along this way.

  Payson moved restlessly beside him. He glared at the shifter, not particularly pleased that he’d been paired with someone he didn’t know. Raul hoped it wouldn’t come back and bite him in the ass.

  Sadly, it did, almost the moment he walked through the door. Although, if Raul were to think about it later, he knew it wasn’t really anyone’s fault. These kinds of things just happened.

  Once they received the signal to head in, namely a text to everyone’s cell phones, Raul rushed forward, keeping just behind Payson. Payson used his shifter strength to yank the door open, snapping the lock. Three guards were striding down the hallway, talking amongst themselves about heading to the gym. Although they all only wore uniform trousers and white tank-tops, all carried guns strapped to their hips, and they were quick to use them.

  They pulled their firearms and started shooting, not even asking questions about Raul and Payson’s presence. Evidently, their door had been a guard entrance only. Raul and Payson dodged in opposite directions.

  Raul used his shoulder to slam wide a half-opened door and found himself in a room with three more armed men. He shot repeatedly as he rolled sideways behind a desk. Too bad the craftsmanship of the piece of furniture was shoddy at best. The bullets ripped right through the wood, splintering chunks in every direction.

  He couldn’t hold in his cry of pain as bullets slammed into his body. His suddenly numb right hand lost its grip on his gun and it clattered to the floor. Raul could hardly care about that as agonizing flames shot through his right thigh right before a hit to the side of his chest sent him flying sideways.

  Focusing on one slow breath after another, time seemed to stop. Everyone says that their life flashes before their eyes when they’re near death, but all that registered to Raul was the roar of a very large and very angry sounding animal. Maybe it was Raul’s imagination, but he thought he saw a massive, silver-tipped grizzly lumber into the room.

  The last thought before consciousness fled was that he really wished he could see Sean one more time.

  * * * *

  Kontra’s head whipped around at the sound of gunfire. He exchanged a glance with Manon, and both men sprinted toward the noise. Kontra knew the Cajun had found it odd that they hadn’t faced more opposition at security. Either this wasn’t a building owned by the Silver Lake Corporation, they weren’t expecting so swift retaliation, or all their people were hiding elsewhere.

  From the sounds of things, Payson and the human, Raul, had run into opposition, and a lot of it. It wasn’t often Kontra traded in his biker’s boots, but he felt grateful he had tonight. The sneakers were quieter and more comfortable as he pounded down the halls toward the gunfire.

  A cry of pain followed by the scent of blood told Kontra all he needed to know. Someone had shot their companion. Following his nose, he let out a roar and let the shift take over. He stood a better chance of rescuing the human in bear form.

  Rounding the corner, Kontra lumbered forward and roared again. Two guns drew a bead on him. He lunged toward the first, taking a bullet to the shoulder. It didn’t slow him down, and he swiped a clawed paw across the guard’s chest, shredding the man’s torso. From the
amount of blood spray and the way he crumpled to the ground, Kontra knew the guard wouldn’t live. Next, he moved toward the man pointing his gun at something behind the desk.

  He lunged over the piece of furniture, his massive bulk barely clearing the bullet-riddled obstruction. Landing on the other side, he crouched over Raul’s prone, bleeding form and struck out at the human. A pair of gunshots cracked through the room. Kontra grunted as another slug hit him, slicing through flesh and leaving a fiery trail across his side.

  Flesh wound.

  The crack of another shot had him crouching lower over Raul, but this time the human was the one who fell. His lip curled in a snarl as he swung his massive head around to take in the scene. Three men’s bodies were sprawled across the floor and Manon and Payson stood in the doorway, guns out and ready.

  Kontra shifted back to human form. Unmindful of his nudity, he checked over Raul’s injuries. The two wounds on his limbs didn’t seem too bad, but the one in his chest needed attention, immediately if the human were to have any hope of surviving.

  “Manon,” he roared. “You’re a paramedic, right? Get over here.”

  Chapter Six

  Sean sat in the glider in front of the fire, gently rocking Lily to sleep. He hoped Raul wouldn’t mind that he’d moved the chair closer to the fire, but he loved being able to relax and watch the flames dance as he fed his niece. It was peaceful—the first inkling of peace he’d felt in months. The only thing that would make it perfect was if his mate was by his side.

  Noticing Lily had nodded off, Sean rose from the chair and headed deeper into the house. As he laid her down in the crib, he still couldn’t believe the events of the last couple days. The beta, Shane Alvaro, had come and introduced himself as Declan had stated. After the shifter had confirmed that Raul and Sean were mates, he’d taken one look at the infant in his arms and made a call to someone named Caroline, who turned out to be his mate.

  Forty-five minutes later, and during that time Sean had been completely stressed out because he’d thought Shane wanted Caroline to take his Lily from him, the woman in question had arrived with several others in tow, men and women. Instead of taking Lily, they’d set up a bedroom for her.