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Wolf’s Holiday
Copyright 2015 by Rebecca Royce
ISBN: 978-1-61333-908-4
Cover art by Fiona Jayde
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
Look for us online at:
www.decadentpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Black Hills Wolves Stories/Decadent Recent Releases
Wolf’s Return
What a Wolf Wants
Black Hills Desperado
Wolf’s Song
Claiming His Mate
When Hell Freezes
Portrait of a Lone Wolf
Alpha in Disguise
A Wolf’s Promise
Reluctant Mate
Diamond Moon
Wolf on a Leash
Tempting the Wolf
Naming His Mate
A Wolf Awakens
The Wolf and the Butterfly
Infiltrating Her Pack
Omega’s Heart
Raven’s Claw
Claiming the She-Wolf
Worth Fighting For
Dangerous
Uncaged
Promiscuous Wolf
Disquieted Souls
A Cougar Among Wolves
Long Road Home
A Mate’s Healing Touch
Winter Solstice Run
Wolf’s Holiday
Winter Magic
Winter Secrets
Winter Ménage
Wolf in Winter Clothing
Also by Rebecca Royce
Another Chance
Bar Mate
Out of Place Mate
Mate by the Music
Unwanted Mate
Behind the Scenes
Believe in Me
Embraced
Rebirth
Return to the Sea
I’ll be Mated by Christmas
One Night With a Wolf
Paging Dr. Wolf
Forever
Love in One Night
February Lover
A Note From the Author
Dear Readers
Thanks so much for joining Drew and Betty again, and the Black Hills Wolves. I love writing this series and I loved visiting these characters again. Happy Holidays to all of you!
Much love,
Rebecca Royce
Wolf’s Holiday
Drew Tao is loving life. His pack is happy. And it’s time for the holidays. But his mate is keeping secrets and there is a crazy mother bear circling his borders. Can they survive the holidays or will everything fall apart?
Wolf’s Holiday
Black Hills Wolves
By
Rebecca Royce
Chapter One
The bar buzzed with the sounds of laughter and romance. His pack laughed, joked, and propositioned each other. He sat back and soaked in the happy. So many days, the rebuilding of Los Lobos didn’t have moments with anything other than pain and anguish. No good decisions, only bad choices, and trying to figure out which bad scenario was best.
When he’d killed his father, it had become his honor to lead the fine Wolves he called family. Drew pushed the thought away. Magnum had no place in the gathering in Gee’s bar. In the corner, a burst of high-pitched squeals sounded, drawing his attention. His mate, B, and four other women were giggling. He really didn’t want to know about what. Females could keep their secrets; the male population benefited from not asking too many questions.
He looked up as the chair across from his pulled back and Ryker, his Enforcer, settled in. The other man clunked his drink down with a grunt and didn’t make another sound to indicate his arrival. Drew had initiated these get-togethers at the bar with Ryker about three months prior. Once a week, they sat and had a state of the pack discussion.
Or at least that was how Drew got him to show up. Ryker wasn’t what anyone would call chatty. Truth was, Drew was determined to forge some kind of real, lasting friendship with his Enforcer. In a pack where they both shouldered the burdens of leadership, they needed each other.
At least a decade with the humans had taught him, they were stronger together. He wasn’t certain if Ryker would agree.
But the Enforcer showed up. Every week. On time.
“Get your usual?” Drew motioned toward the beer. Gee didn’t have a great deal of choice at the bar, their need to keep Los Lobos all but completely off the grid meant he didn’t do business with microbreweries or anyone who delivered fancy liquors.
Yet, he kept Drew’s favorite whisky in stock.
Ryker nodded toward the unopened bottle. No one save Gee opened his drinks; everyone else knew to serve him a sealed bottle. “I don’t know that I have a usual.”
“You do.”
The other man didn’t argue, which didn’t mean he agreed with Drew’s statement. It simply meant he was done talking on the subject.
“Do you smell that?” Drew motioned his hand in the air.
Ryker raised a dark, severe eyebrow. “Smell what exactly?”
“That smell in the air. It’s happiness.”He grinned. “This is the way a happy, relatively functioning pack scents.”
The Enforcer leaned back in his chair, popped the lid from the bottle then took a deep pull from his beer. “They’re certainly loud tonight.”
“I’ve been thinking of what you suggested about the holiday celebration and the pack run.”
“Saja’s suggestion.”
Drew nodded. “Right.”
Ryker gave his human mate credit for most innovative ideas. Drew liked Saja and he was more than happy to give the woman her due. “I talked it over with Bowe think it’s a great idea—let’s face it, you and I are not decorating trees or lighting candles. If the others want to do it, I say have a good time.”
The other man gave a brief nod. “Is there anything else?”
“You seem tense.” Ryker’s usually solid shoulders seemed hiked even farther than usual.
“We had ten returns this month. That’s a lot. Not everyone who has come back can immediately be trusted. And you keep letting them, letting them blood oath.” Not a criticism—Ryker didn’t critique him—but maybe a quiet suggestion lurked within his statement.
“Which makes your job harder.” Drew nodded. He valued the older wolf’s opinion even when it utterly disagreed with his own. The pack might be shocked by how much he relied on Ryker’s cynicism and experience or maybe they wouldn’t. It didn’t matter—the Enforcer never lied or sugarcoated anything. “We invited everyone back, told them the pack was reforming. This was their home. It can b
e again, if that’s what they want.”
He had a deeper belief in the goodness of his wolves than Ryker did. Then again, who knew how much fucked-up stuff Ryker had seen under Magnum that Drew didn’t even know about? If Ryker distrusted, it was with plenty of pack history to back him up.
“Is there anything else?”When the Enforcer was done with a conversation, he was finished.
“Actually, there is.” Drew let the whisky burn down the back of his throat. “I want you to know I’m grateful. This happiness tonight, the way the pack is gelling. That’s thanks to you. I want you to know I see what you’re doing, how you take care of our safety so I can bring us back to life.”
The other man stood. “Saja is waiting.”
“Right.” Drew set down his drink. Apparently, the man couldn’t take a compliment. “See you next week.”
With a fast, smooth step and a nod to Gee, Ryker walked away. Drew watched his exit with a heavy heart. He’d not had friends for ten years because he had to keep himself separate from the humans; he couldn’t get too close. Since his return, he was Alpha. A solitary position. And although B kept him loved and busy, he would have liked a buddy to talk things over with on occasion. Like what to get B for Christmas. One week away. He’d asked him a couple of times, and Ryker’s answer remained the same. Get her something she likes. Not. Helpful.
The Enforcer seemed to have less than any interest in opening that door. However, Drew was a shifter who got what he wanted. He’d keep working on it.
“You got eight minutes.” B slid into the chair next to him, a smile on her face. Her red hair was up in a bun with curls sliding down her cheeks. His mate was, without a doubt, the loveliest female ever born. “Is that some kind of record for Ryker? Eight minutes of conversation before he abandoned his beer and ran like you’d threatened him?”
He heard the ice in her voice, which spoke volumes beyond the words she used. His mate was always one to speak her mind. Well, at least her frankness had been the case since his return from exile. Before he left, she’d been easier, lighter. When Magnum forced him to leave, she’d been abandoned to face the years with Magnum alone.
She’d forgiven him for the role he’d played, which didn’t reset the clock.
And whenever she spoke of Ryker, she got a tone.
Drew touched her arm, running gentle fingers over a heart-shaped birthmark he loved. “Something to say, B?”
“No.” She picked up his whiskey and took a sip before she scrunched her mouth and eyes into a tight ball of unhappiness. B clinked the glass down. “Did you tell him we’re doing the Christmas thing?”
“I did.”
His mate needed to talk about her Ryker issues. Only, no one forced B to do anything she didn’t want to do and walked away with their balls intact. She’d tell him when she wanted, in her own good time.
Or she wouldn’t.
“Drew.” Gee’s voice boomed out into the room and he turned to regard the Werebear. “Ryker needs you, outside.”
The bartender’s hearing dwarfed his own. Drew nodded and stood before making his way out the door. B stayed tight behind him. The need to keep her safe warred with the desire to let B be B. She wouldn’t want to wait in the bar. Likely, there wasn’t danger. Gee would have led with a warning, and Ryker hadn’t charged through the door to throw himself between Drew and the world.
If Ryker and the dominant males had their way, Drew would likely never see any action again.
His Enforcer stood in the center of the square where, the next day, the pack would put up a Christmas tree. As shifters, they didn’t celebrate the holiday, but some of their human counterparts did. And Ryker’s mate thought they should honor the changes in the pack by having everyone celebrate, followed by a pack run which would include the humans, thus fusing everyone’s customs together. From a tree to a menorah to a yuletide bonfire—if anyone wanted their own holiday stuff included, it could go in as well. A regular smorgasbord of happy.
Snow slipped down onto the empty space, hitting Ryker as the white evidence of winter coated his dark hair. The other man held a small object in his hand.
“Gee says you need me.”
He held up a small wooden train to Drew. “This was sitting in the middle of the square.”
“It’s a child’s toy. A train,” B interjected. “You’ve seen them before, haven’t you, Ryker? Or were all children born miserable and unfeeling when you were young?”
Drew shot her a look to knock it off, although he doubted she’d heed him unless he made it an Alpha order. Their relationship was tricky. As Alpha, his way happened. As her mate, often it did not.
Instead of answering B’s challenge, Ryker handed the wooden toy to him. If Ryker thought the train warranted a look, Drew would give it one. “You found it here? In the center of the square where the tree’s going to go?”
His Enforcer nodded and Drew sniffed the toy. The scent of wood and the metal used to carve the piece wafted up to him, but nothing to make note about.
“Don’t you remember?”Ryker asked the question softly before the other man looked away.
“Should I?”Drew had been so young when most of what Ryker lived with took place. If he was missing a piece of information he should have, this time he needed it fed to him very clearly.
“He gave you one for your tenth birthday.”
Next to him, B gasped. “Stewart.”
Memories flooded Drew the way they always did, all at once like a dam opening. Stewart Lester, or as Magnum had called him Simple Stu, had been a constant member of the pack Drew’s whole life until he’d disappeared one day, never to be heard from again.
Magnum had found a reason to take offense at something the man said and kicked him off pack land. That was their former Alpha’s modus operandi. . Or at least that’s what he had done for the lucky ones. The others were dead before they ever got the chance to run.
Stewart had seemed old when Drew was a child. Kind, good with kids, and with a wandering mind that frequently left others confused, Stewart had amused Magnum because he’d been a constant source of fodder for his malicious nature.
“I forgot.” Shame made him stand straighter. He had to do better. “Is he here?”
“I haven’t seen him in two decades,” Ryker responded, shaking his head. “But this was his signature item. Someone either put this here to remind us of him, or he came back and placed it himself.”
Drew sniffed the air. “I don’t scent anyone I haven’t blood-oathed.”
Ryker shook his head. “The snow and the direction of the wind are going to make it hard. I want to know who left this train. It either indicates someone got onto pack land without my knowledge, or a message is being delivered. We need to know what that message is.”
“It’s not someone,” B interrupted, placing her hand on his arm. “Stewart is family; he is pack. In fact, I think he might be my father’s cousin once removed.”
“He hasn’t presented himself and taken the oath to Drew. He’s not pack. Familial relationships take second place to pack.”
“Since when?” If B got any more hostile, she was going to shift. Drew really didn’t need a scene in the middle of his happy pack.
“Well it’s process of elimination time, people.” Drew put his arm around B, hoping to cool her temper. “The only way to find out if Stewart left the train is to ask him. Do we know where he’s living?”
“The last I heard anything,” Ryker replied, “was he had a cabin one hundred miles outside of pack land at the top of Mount Carter.”
Drew nodded. He actually knew which peak Ryker referred to. Humans called things differently. Drew always had to know both.
“Not far. I’ll go ask him.”
Both Ryker’s and B’s reply of no happened at the same time. Drew would have laughed if he didn’t think they would both not appreciate the humor. “For once, you two agree. I’m going anyway.”
“Once you get to
the bottom of the mountain,” B continued, “there aren’t roads. You’ll have to hike and climb.”
“And your point would be what, mate?”He waited. If she brought up his bad leg, his good mood would flee. Although her eyes spoke of untold answers, she didn’t respond.
The enforcer shook his head. “You’re Alpha. You stay here.”
“Ryker”—he shook head—“Stewart was an adult male who showed kindness to me when no one else did.”If he stung the Enforcer with his words, he felt bad, but truth was truth. Sometimes it rattled feelings. Ryker gave no outward response to indicate he felt the implication at all. “I want to see how he’s doing. I want to know how he snuck into town, if he did. And I want to do it all personally. So I’m going. The pack can manage with their Alpha gone overnight. You’re not going to let it fall apart without me, are you?”
“No, of course not.”
Then it was settled.
***
Betty stewed the entire walk home. Why did her mate have to be so stubborn? Drew managed a world of responsibility and he did all of it without complaint. He shouldered burdens that would level most menthe apologized when the fault should have belonged to his father.
Her mate also limped, slightly, on his left leg. Thanks to Magnum and a bullet he’d taken courtesy of Malcolm’s cronies. He’d not been able to shift, and the wound never healed properly.
And the blasted male would never admit he should take care of himself a little bit more than the non-permanently injured needed to. What would they all do if he got hurt? What would she do if he didn’t come back again?
Drew walked in front of her into their home. The two-bedroom, two-thousand-square-foot bungalow wouldn’t have satisfied the previous Alpha. But her mate was a simple man. With the pack rebuilding, he wouldn’t hear of living in splendor.
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