The Snow Leopard's Christmas Surprise

by Emilia Hartley

  ***

  Savannah watched intently until she heard the telltale roar of Tom’s finished shift before submerging herself completely under the water. When she resurfaced, her body was shivering; instinctively, she knew that this was not because of the cold. It ached and quivered with unsatisfied pleasure, the heat in the pit of her stomach radiating outward, calling for the alpha bear that left her to swim alone. She’d summoned up every bit of courage to take the next step, hoping that it would be the push he needed to stop holding back. She couldn’t have been further from wrong.

  Thinking back on what had just transpired, she supposed part of her was glad that he exercised a bit of restraint; she could see the merits in taking things slow. It didn’t stop her bear from thrashing about in frustration or her body from aching for Tom’s return. Luckily, she’d be seeing him again in only a short while. She thought of the two of them, alone and content after the swim and allowed herself some hope that maybe more satisfying endings were to come once she met up with him there.

  “It’s nice to see you making good use of your time.”

  Savannah shrieked, spinning around in the water to lock gazes with Lucas. He was completely naked, having recently shifted to his human form, and his grin was sickening as he gazed down at her body, vulnerable in the water. She snaked an arm hastily over her breasts, her stomach churning as she quickly remembered to lower her gaze in his presence. “Lucas! What are you doing here?” She tried to mask her terror into something like concern. “I-I mean, what if Tom’s still close by and smells you?”

  “Never you worry about me,” Lucas reassured, voice dripping with menace. “I’m more interested in what you have been up to.”

  “I’m just doing what you ordered me to,” Savannah replied, voice wavering. “Trying to get Tom to trust me.”

  Lucas’s eyes traveled hungrily down her body. “I can see that,” he murmured appreciatively. Her body quivered under his gaze. It felt like a million invisible spiders were crawling under her skin.

  “So,” he began, lowering himself to sit on the damp bank and dipping his long legs into the water. “It’s been a few weeks. Tell me everything you’ve learned.”

  Savannah fought not to back away out of his close proximity, trying to hide the fear and unease she felt around her pack leader. The time she’d spent away from him had been amazing; she’d finally begun to stop living in fear of his watchful eye… until this. Lucas arriving had catapulted her back to the days when she was terrified of any move she made, fearing how her leader would take it and if one tiny mistake would mean pain for her.

  She’d finally felt something like happiness with Tom, and now Lucas was back to remind her that the world she was living in wasn’t hers to enjoy. Everything she’d done, the person she’d become, it was all for Lucas to control. She’d joined his pack knowing this, accepting that as a fact, as if that was how packs were run. Then she met Tom, and Nick and Jo, and knew there was so much more to experience, so much more happiness and respect and love between pack mates, and it was all just lost to the Northern Wind pack. But it was too late, she’d agreed to Lucas’s terms, she’d willingly allowed herself to become his property, and now there was no turning back, no matter how much her mind and body screamed for her to run.

  She gave Lucas a sad smile as she dove into a play by play of her actions over the last month.

  She watched with caution in her eyes as his lip curled at the thought of Nick’s confirmed human mate, how his glare flashed when she mentioned that even now Tom still didn’t fully trust her, and the way his chest rattled contentedly when he heard how she’d effortlessly slipped into their ranks without a single snag.

  She told him everything she knew aside from her personal emotions and thoughts, afraid that he might be testing her. She knew he’d watched her from time to time while she was in Woodhaven, but it was fleeting and sporadic; he couldn’t watch her non-stop. She didn’t know what he already knew from what he’d learned as she spoke, but she didn’t want to think of the punishment he’d rain down upon her if he caught her in a lie or half-truth.

  When she was finished, Lucas leaned back, resting his hands behind him as he tilted his head up to the sky. “Yes, if you keep on this path of wayward seduction, I’m sure you’ll best even that distrusting fool,” he spoke skyward. Slowly, his eyes slid over her body once more, and that feeling of spiders returned. “I’m happy to see you truly doing whatever it takes to please me, little cub.”

  He grinned wickedly. “Quite impressive, if I might add,” he hissed, approvingly, leaning forward to get a better look. “I can see why it’s so… effective.” Slowly his hand dipped into the water, and a terrified scream bubbled up Savannah’s throat, threatening to spill out into the night as his fingertips lightly brushed the slight curve of her breast. It was fleeting, over before her mind could process the contact properly, but the damage was done. She feared she’d lose the contents of her stomach right there in the water as her abdomen churned violently.

  He leaned down close, breath warm on her ear. She was frozen in fear, unable to move though the voice in her mind was screaming at her to flee. “I see the look in your eyes right now. You’re afraid,” he whispered. “I want you to remember how you feel right now as you work your way into that alpha’s bed. Remember who you belong to. Remember your orders. And perhaps most importantly, remember that I won’t tolerate failure.”

  She gave the smallest of nods. “Yes, Lucas,” she whispered. She didn’t move as he stood, dripping water down on her as he turned to take his leave. She waited until his footsteps faded deep into the forest before franticly pulling herself from the water.

  She laid out on the bank, clutching her knees to her chest as her body shivered all over. Her stomach rolled violently and she wasn’t sure if she was going to cry, be sick, or both.

  Lucas had made it abundantly clear that he’d take her as his own after she finished exacting his orders. The thought of being mated to him nearly pitched her over the edge of her sanity, and she vigorously shook the thought away. She didn’t want this; she didn’t want to do any of this anymore.

  But what choice did she have other than to obey?

  Chapter Twelve

  Despite the incessant churning in Savannah’s stomach, she carried on with the plan to meet Tom back at the shop. She’d gone home to take a hot shower in the hope that it might burn Lucas’s scent from her skin and the memory of him from her mind, but it did little to make her feel clean. Still, she knew that if she canceled, it would set her back with Tom. Though she wasn’t feeling much in the mood anymore, taking steps back would only make Lucas angry on top of her missing her chance of something more with Tom in the future.

  She frowned at the thought. As if the possibility of having anything with Tom was even an option anymore. It never was. Lucas had made sure to remind her of that fact, that this was all a game by his design. She was nothing more than a pawn to be used by him to get what he desired. None of what she’d built with Tom was real.

  As she walked numbly into the office of the mechanic shop, the scent of hot Chinese hit her nostrils. Her stomach roiled aggressively, and she held her hand over her mouth and nose to keep the smell out.

  Almost immediately, Tom was by her side. “Is something wrong? Is the smell of the food bothering you?” he asked, voice heavy with concern.

  “No, no, I’m fine,” Savannah assured, though it couldn’t be further from the truth. “I guess all that swimming exhausted me to the point of having no appetite, or something,” she lied, hoping that she’d kept her voice and heartbeat neutral enough to keep from sounding any alarms in Tom’s head.

  “Oh, okay. It’s fine if you don’t want to eat,” Tom said. “I was wondering what you’d want to do first anyway, so that answers that.”

  “First?”

  “Yeah, which first, eating or talking,” he clarified, a slight smile on his face.

  “Oh,” she muttered, feeling foolish. “Right, sure.”
She could see his grin fall at her lack of emotion and slumped shoulders. “Eating first is fine, by the way,” she finished, weakly.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked. “You’re acting totally different, and it’s only been a couple hours. Did something happen?”

  She tried to fake a reassuring smile. “Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine. It’s just, our last talk was so… heavy. I kind of get lost in thought as I brainstorm about it, that’s all.”

  He nodded his understanding. “Alright. As long as everything’s fine.” He turned towards the locked door at the back of the office. “I’m going to go grab a few dishes out the back. Do you mind setting out the food while I’m gone?”

  “No, not at all,” Savannah replied, watching as he undid several locks on the door before slipping inside. Just like the first time, a familiar scent wafted past her nose as the door closed behind him, her bear raising its head up on high alert. She still couldn’t quite pinpoint the smell, though. It only raised more questions in her mind.

  What was going on back there? Why hadn’t any of them so much as mentioned it to her since she’d arrived? Why was the door locked? Several times?

  It reminded Savannah that, though maybe not as bad as infiltrating an enemy pack and seducing an alpha bear into her leader’s trap, this alpha pack still had secrets of its own. She quieted her bear, promising that she’d work to fit a question or two about the locked room into the conversation tonight. She wasn’t in the mood to do much more than talking anymore, anyway.

  ***

  Tom slipped quietly past Dan, the man was already asleep for the night. He had to work to remain silent; just the mere scent of Savannah as she entered the office was enough to make his hands aquiver.

  The moment he’d walked out of sight and sound of her back at the lake, he’d called himself all kinds of foul names for being so stupid. ‘Too much, too soon’? What kind of excuse was that for an alpha to give the woman he fancied?

  He knew it was the right thing to do, but it took some self-persuasion to not make a third dive into the lake and take her right there in the water.

  He’d talked himself down from the precipice of desire since then, but now she was here, back within arm’s reach of him but acting like a completely different person. Had he really made the right call back in the forest?

  “I can hear your mentally fretting all the way over here,” Dan grumbled, sitting up.

  “Sorry,” Tom said softly. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “I wasn’t asleep,” the man replied. “Just thinking with my eyes closed.”

  Tom raised an eyebrow. “You counting down the days until you’re finally out of my hair like I am?”

  Dan coughed a small chuckle. “Something like that,” he mumbled. “Actually, your brother came to chat today.”

  “Oh?” Tom prompted, already predicting what the conversation was about.

  “Yeah, surprised the heck out of me,” Dan said. “He didn’t stay long, but basically spelled out the position I’m in right now.”

  “You mean being packless, injured, and utterly alone in this cold, cruel world?”

  Tom had been surprised at first to find that he and Dan shared a similar sense of humor, but now as Dan cracked a grin, he was just happy they could share some idle chatter and get his mind off Savannah, if only for a short time.

  “Yeah, something like that. “

  Tom chuckled. “So what was your answer?” He saw Dan’s mild look of shock and shrugged. “Yeah, I know it may come as a surprise, but I’m in this pack too.” He flashed a grin. “So I’m usually made aware of possible additions to the group beforehand, as weird as that sounds.”

  Dan laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.” He rubbed his hand over his mouth, wiping away the smile. “In all honesty, I told him I wasn’t sure. That I’d think on it. You guys have been good to me, and I have nothing left with the Northern Wind, but I don’t want to think my only options are to choose one pack over another. There’s a lot of factors to consider before I have an answer.”

  Tom nodded. “I can respect that. It’s not an easy decision to make.” He was sure there was more that Dan wasn’t comfortable enough with him to share, but Tom didn’t really care about the pillow talk much past making sure that Dan wasn’t going to betray them to Lucas. Speaking with him hadn’t raised any red flags thus far, so he allowed the injured bear the benefit of the doubt until something changed.

  Dan nodded towards the dishes in Tom’s hands. “Dinner for two tonight?”

  Tom cracked a small grin. “Yeah. You aren’t jealous, are you?”

  Dan shrugged the accusation away. “Why would I be? I’ve been making my own food for the past week. I’m just wondering why you’re in here chatting with me when you’ve got someone out there waiting for you to return.” Tom’s grin fell a bit. Savannah was out there waiting for him, and he was hiding with the Northern Wind bear in an effort to avoid the complicated situation he’d gotten himself into.

  He muttered a curse under his breath, hiding it with his own shrug. “I thought you might be lonely in here all by yourself and figured you could use the chitchat, but hey, you’re absolutely right. I have a hot date eagerly awaiting my return, so it’s about time I get back to her.” He sounded unsure of himself, even to his own ears.

  Dan snorted. “There’s that mental fretting again.” He looked knowingly at Tom. “Girl problems?”

  Tom waved the question away. “Nothing more than the usual song and dance that comes with meeting a girl and wondering if it’s worth pursuing.” Only except it wasn’t the usual. It was so much more than normal and vastly different than any other girl Tom had dared to take steps with. Tom knew his time with them was temporary, but with Savannah, his attraction was swift and electric. It consumed his body when she was near him, his thoughts when she was away. She’d come into his world asking for trust and walked away with his sanity. He didn’t know or want to contemplate what this meant for him, but he knew he wanted to see where this new relationship took him. Though, after seeing that distant look on her face as she walked through the shop entrance, he was just hoping she still felt the same way.

  Despite this, he didn’t think he and Dan were particularly close enough to start chatting about woman gossip, so he kept his thoughts to himself. He wasn’t really keen about over sharing anyway. Shrugging, he finished, “I’m sure you’ve been there before.”

  “Well if you’re up for taking unsolicited advice from the injured enemy bear that’s crashing on your couch, I say just let whatever happens, happen,” Dan replied. “What’s the harm? At worst, you had yourself a good bit of fun with someone you like. At best… you had a good bit of fun with someone you love and are happy to spend the rest of your life with them keeping the good times rolling. Not a bad problem to have, if you ask me.”

  Tom nodded, unwilling to admit aloud that Dan had actually given him some pretty sound advice. “I’ll keep that in mind. I better get going.”

  Dan leaned back on the couch, wincing only slightly as he propped his leg up on the cushions. “Don’t let me keep ya. It’s not like I’m going anywhere any time soon.”

  Tom offered Dan a small wave before slipping back out of the room with renewed resolve about the woman that waited to dine with him.

  What’s the harm?

  ***

  Savannah was practically vibrating with nerves when Tom finally returned with the plates. At first she was relieved to have a bit more time to herself, but he’d been gone for so long that flashes of old romantic comedy movies had begun to play in her mind, and she pictured Tom as the man crawling out of a high bathroom window simply to get away from his terrible date. It was uncanny, only this time, no one was laughing.

  “Sorry I kept you,” Tom apologized, setting out the dishes. “There wasn’t a clean dish back there. I had to deviate from the snatch and grab plan and wash some plates or else we’d be eating out of our hands,” he said with a grin.

  She tried
to smile back, but if it looked twice as strong as it felt, it was still pretty feeble. It was far from convincing, so she turned to busy herself with a fresh cup of coffee. “It’s no worry. I like the quiet.”

  She dumped extra sugar in the cup, breathing in the strong scent of the beans. She needed the pick-me-up. “So I saw that you got shredded beef as well as sweet and sour. I’m okay with either, so you can take your pi—” She gasped hard as Tom’s arm slipped softly around her waist.

  “What if I pick you instead?” he growled, lips close enough to her ear that she could feel the warmth of his breath as it tickled her neck. It sent delicious shivers through her body.

  “What happened to ‘too much, too fast’?” Savannah breathed, heart hammering frantically in her chest, in equal parts anticipation and fear. As his lips laid the first feather-light kiss on the curve of her neck, Savannah let out a long sigh, closing her eyes and allowing herself a moment to enjoy the pleasure he was giving her. Things were finally moving forward; why she insisted on picking at the situation by asking too many questions was beyond her comprehending.

  Savannah stood completely still, letting Tom know that she wasn’t going anywhere. Taking her cue, he touched another gentle kiss to her neck. She tipped her head back to give him better access to her neck, and with a growl he pulled her back against him.

  She made a small noise of surprise in the back of her throat as she felt him already hard and willing, his erection pressing firmly into the small of her back. The shiver that rocked her body in response to him was amazing, and she ground her hips back into him, urging him to keep going.

  He rumbled a rough growl against her throat, pulling away for a short moment to look at her. He seemed to search for something in her eyes, and she remained deathly still, not sure how to react. Just when she thought he might step away for good, he let out a shuddering sigh before dropping his lips to hers.