The Snow Leopard's Christmas Surprise

by Emilia Hartley

“I know.” The man’s smile grew despite the pain she knew he must be feeling. Suddenly the smile fell as if he’d just realized what he’d said. “I mean… my name’s Dan. Dan Hart,” he corrected hastily, as a redness that had nothing to do with the swelling washed across his cheeks.

  “So, uh, what were you doing with a dog like him anyway?” he continued, eager to change the subject.

  Lucy shrugged, gazing off in the direction her brother had left and already feeling a soft pang of regret for sending him away in anger like she had. Deep down she knew what had happened wasn’t her fault, but she could never stop feeling responsible for her brother’s mistakes. “He’s family.”

  “Could be worse, I guess,” Dan muttered to himself, but not quiet enough to keep it from Lucy.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, a single eyebrow raised inquisitively.

  “I mean, you know, he could be…” Dan’s voice trailed off as he floundered for the right words. Lucy was sure he was alluding to the fact that she’s luckily single, but she didn’t dwell on the hope that warmed inside of her at the thought that he might care about that at all. Sure this man was attractive enough, beaten face notwithstanding; he had strong, muscled arms that boasted just how strong he was, his brown eyes were honest and almost always held a bit of mirth in them, and he always seemed to find a reason to smile. But even still, Lucy wouldn’t fool herself into thinking she had a chance with the likes of him. Life was too complicated for things like relationships right now.

  She stepped back slightly and cleared her throat. “It’s fine,” she assured, and the rest of Dan’s excuses promptly died in his throat. There was something about the way he looked at her that made her feel important, aware, and completely on display. She wasn’t sure if she liked it, but she also didn’t want him to look away.

  “Well, uh,” Dan began after a couple of beats of silence. “I suppose I’d better head home,” he said. “Maybe get a compress on this or something.” He tried to chuckle, but it left his lips as an awkward cough.

  She spotted a bag at the edge of the alley and quickly walked to retrieve it. Returning it to Dan, she said, “I really hope everything clears up nicely. Again, I’m sorry for what happened. There’s no excuse for his actions.”

  Dan shook his head. “Don’t be sorry for something you didn’t do, Lucy.” He grinned. “Besides, I’d gladly take another wallop to the head if it means I’d get to see you again.”

  The shock of Dan’s sudden flattery brought a bright smile to Lucy’s face. Try as she may to quell it, her lips only spread further. It wasn’t often that she encountered a man who knew how to sweet talk. “I’m not worth physical injury, but I’m flattered nonetheless.”

  “I meant every word of it,” Dan guaranteed with a light nod. His face fell somber as he glanced down the dark alley. “So where’s home for you?”

  “I—” Lucy’s voice cut off, unsure how to answer the question. They’d left the only home she’d ever known only a short while ago to come here, and any place they’d have called home since was no longer welcome to her since she decided to cut ties with Dominic. Her brother wasn’t lying when he’d said she had nothing and no one without him. She’d lived in his shadow all her life. He dictated everything that she was allowed to have or do, everyone she was allowed to see, and she’d let it all happen because it meant she wouldn’t be alone. But now she was, for the first time ever, and she wasn’t sure what the next step was supposed to be. “I’m… not sure. To be honest, I don’t actually even know what to do now that…” She let her voice trail off, not wanting to get back into her nasty habit of rambling when upset. And to a stranger, no less.

  “You don’t have anywhere to go?” Dan asked.

  Lucy she could see the complete and honest concern on his face. She shook her head. “Dominic was all I knew. He was my home and decided to move here to help out a family member of ours.” She steeled her gaze. “But I’m tired of helping him do terrible things for terrible people. I’m tired of putting family above my own wellbeing. If it means being homeless the rest of my life, I’ll still be better off because I’ll be away from him. Thanks for helping me see that.”

  She could see the confusion and curiosity coloring his face, and for a moment she thought he might start asking questions, but he only touched a gentle hand to his cheek with resolve in his eyes.

  “Listen,” he began. “The takeout is getting cold and my friends are waiting for me. Why don’t you just hang with us for a while? Just until you can get back on your feet.”

  Lucy tilted her head, not sure if following him was the best idea at all, but definitely still interested. “Where to?”

  “My friends have this cabin on the outskirts of town and I was gonna catch dinner with them,” Dan replied, holding up the takeout in his hands for emphasis. “I always grab a little extra for some guaranteed leftovers, but I’m not above sharing if you’re hungry and aren’t afraid of a little small talk while we all eat.”

  Lucy wasn’t sure how to respond. Surely, it was crazy to run off into the forest to a place she’d never been to with a man she’d just met to meet people she didn’t know and eat food she didn’t buy. However, at the same time, she didn’t feel anything other than safe with Dan. The logical warning bells rang in her mind, but never made it to her heart, and she found herself nodding before she could talk herself out of the decision. “If you don’t think they’ll mind, that is…” her voice trailed off as his hand reached for hers. Their fingers touched in a sizzle of electricity that left her breathless.

  “No, of course they won’t!” Dan promised, completely unfazed by whatever shock she’d felt between them. “I hope you like shrimps; I put it on everything! Good stuff if you like Chinese, I guarantee it!”

  A tiny laugh tumbled playfully from Lucy’s lips as she watched the swollen man speak animatedly about takeout fast food. It was both reassuring and comforting to watch him be so alive before her. “It sounds perfect.” She was glad she’d taken his hand. Hers felt warm and secure, as she secretly hoped he’d never let go.

  “And thanks, Dan.”

  Chapter Six

  “Is something burning?” Lucy asked as they approached the cabin, her small button nose wrinkling in discomfort.

  Dan glanced down at her, mild surprise on his face. “That’s an impressive sense of smell you got there,” he quipped.

  She smiled back up at him, though it appeared to be marred with a bit of confusion. “Well yeah, of course I do,” she replied. “Don’t you?”

  Dan shrugged. Of course he did, but there was no way he’d be able to explain bear senses to her without breaking some pretty serious rules, so he let that part of the conversation end. “Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, that smell is why I have takeout,” he laughed. “Nick was cooking, and from what Jo said, it didn’t go so well, and there was a fire extinguisher, and…” his voice trailed off as he took in her perplexed expression. With a start, he realized that he’d been so distracted trying to regale Lucy with entertaining tales that he hadn’t checked to make sure everything he was saying made complete sense first. She didn’t know a thing about Nick or Jo and why a story about them burning food was hilarious.

  He cleared his throat awkwardly as they made it to the steps of the cabin’s porch. “Well, here we are,” he smiled, taking the steps two at a time and knocking on the front door. “They’ll be friendly, don’t worry,” he added, though she didn’t really look worried at all. Maybe he was the one who was worried?

  She smiled as if she were the one reassuring him, and she probably was. Dan knew at least one of his pack members was terrible with change, but the poor girl had nowhere to go, and far be it from him to deny her a place to hang out while she got all her ducks in a row. Surely, Tom would understand, right? Probably not, but he had to try. She was putting her faith in him; for once tonight he’d try to not let her down.

  The door opened and Jo stood framed in the doorway. “Dan!” she exclaimed, eyes zeroing in eagerl
y on the bag of takeout he held in his hand. “Thank heavens you’re here, I’m starving!” She lifted the bag from his hands, and departed into the cabin without a second look his way.

  “Um, Jo?” Dan began tossing an apologetic look back at Lucy.

  Jo turned back to Dan, her eyes widening slightly as she looked at him. “What happened to your face?” she gasped.

  Dan shook his head impatiently. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. That’s not what I meant.” He motioned back to Lucy before any more tangents could be made. “I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

  “Oh?” Jo’s eyes followed Dan’s presenting hand, her gaze confused as it shifted slightly to the left. Clarity brightened her eyes as she took in Lucy for the first time. “Oh! I’m sorry.” She was gracious enough to look embarrassed at her oversight. “I was so distracted, I must’ve looked right over you!”

  Lucy gave Jo a kind smile. “Oh, it’s no big. It’s pretty dark out and I was standing back. Totally understandable.” She took a step forward so that she was bathed in the soft cabin lighting. “I’m Lucille. Call me Lucy.”

  Jo placed the takeout on a nearby table, holding out a hand in greeting as she made her way back to where Dan and Lucy stood. “I’m Jo, nice to meet you.” She smiled. “I didn’t know Dan had friends in town.”

  “Oh, we only just met tonight,” Lucy replied, grasping Jo’s hand with a smile of her own. “He helped me out of a tough situation and offered me dinner to boot!”

  “Hey, uh,” Dan began, looking past Jo as she and Lucy made their way inside. “Is Nick around? I need to talk to him about something.”

  “About what?” came a voice from the nearby tree line behind Dan. He turned to see Nick, Tom, and Savannah all exit the forest, Tom and Savannah chattering idly about something as they came into view on the front lawn.

  All at once, the three bears seemed to lock onto Lucy, and all talk ceased. In the taut silence of the night, Dan awkwardly cleared his throat, eyes passing from one bear to the next in the hope that this wasn’t all about to blow up in his face. “Um. I wanted to introduce you guys to Lucy.”

  They remained mute. Slowly, Lucy raised a single hand, eyes clear and confident as she grinned out at them. “That’s me.” Still no one spoke.

  Dan caught the helpless looks she threw at him before stepping into action. “Her brother kinda dropped her here. She had nowhere left to go,” he babbled, eager to give some kind of explanation before everything exploded right in front of him. “I didn’t think it would be too big a deal to bring her along with me here, just to eat some dinner and figure out what her next step was, you know?”

  “I really don’t mean you guys any trouble,” Lucy added, the first hint of concern tainting her words. “I’ll leave right away, if you wish.”

  “You didn’t cause any trouble at all,” Dan assured her with a light smile. “If anyone screwed up, it’s me.” He tossed a pleading look at Nick, hoping he’d understand or at least say something at all.

  Nick shared a serious look with Dan that promised a talk later, then another with Tom before he turned to Lucy with a kind smile on his face. “Like Dan said, it’s no trouble at all. You’re welcome to stay for dinner,” he welcomed as Tom groaned, his head falling to his hands forlornly.

  “Not again,” the alpha brother moaned. “Why does this keep happening to us?”

  “Tom!” Savannah chided sharply, but Dan could see the amused smile she was trying to hide as she jabbed him in his side. “Don’t be rude.”

  “Why does what keep happening?” Dan and Lucy asked in unison. Their eyes met and Dan could feel a wide grin spread across his face, a mirror image of hers.

  “Hi,” Savannah greeted, breaking away from the other bears and ascending the steps to shake Lucy’s hand. “I’m Savannah. It’s nice to meet you, Lucy.” Dan saw her work to ignore Tom’s dark muttering as he lamented to Nick about how much he hated change.

  Savannah leaned in jokingly. “Don’t mind him,” she said in a mock whisper. “Tom’s just an old stick in the mud who doesn’t do well with flux, especially when it comes to rogue shifters.”

  Dan’s heart lurched as his brain rushed to compute Savannah’s words. Rogue shifter? Lucy? “Hm?” was all he could say, leaning his head forward as if he’d surely just misheard. “Shifter?”

  Savannah’s gaze shifted from Dan to Lucy and back, eyes thoroughly confused. “Yeah?” After a beat of silence, her eyes shot open wide, her face the picture of complete shock. “Wait, you mean you didn’t know?”

  “I… well…” Dan tried to reason, but he could already feel the telltale blush of embarrassment beginning to color his cheeks.

  “Come on, Dan!” Savannah teased. “What good are all those bear senses if you never use them?”

  “Look, this whole day has just been once big exhausting distraction, okay?” Dan retorted limply, trying to hide how foolish he felt. How many more times would he completely fail his innate bear senses before he finally learned to use them properly?

  Lucy’s giggle joined Savannah’s teasing, and he looked over to see her covering her smile with a delicate hand. “You honestly didn’t know?” she asked.

  “Some bear you are,” Nick jabbed lightly, joining everyone on the porch as Tom trailed behind.

  “Not you, too,” Dan groaned. “You know me and my human side don’t really get along.”

  Nick opened his mouth to retort, but Jo made herself known in the doorway. “The food’s getting cold,” she announced firmly. “Can you guys please discuss this inside while we eat?” she looked past Dan to where Savannah and Tom stood. “Snacks are in the fridge if you guys want to sit in with us, but I’ll die before you guys finish teasing poor Dan about his weak nose.” She shot an apologetic but amused smile Dan’s way. Even a human could notice how completely inept Dan had been today. Great.

  “Good idea,” Dan muttered, quickly passing by everyone to stalk inside before they could pelt him with more jokes. He took extra care as he lifted his and Lucy’s food from the bag. He’d already pushed her over, got punched out by her brother, and completely overlooked her bear. The last thing he wanted to do was make an even worse first impression by dumping the food he’d promised her all over the cabin floor.

  Jo took Savannah and Lucy into the kitchen to get dishes, and Dan could already see that Lucy was fitting in nicely with the others.

  And she was a shifter.

  Dan shook his head. Though there was something comforting and peaceful in learning that she was one of them, for the time being it didn’t change things. The pack had much too much to worry about without Dan trying to throw his feelings into the mix. He was much too clumsy to juggle it all, anyway.

  “So,” Tom began, sneaking up on Dan as he let his mind wander. “Are you planning on explaining any of this, or…”

  “At least explain how you walked side by side with a shifter and thought she was human,” Nick added with a wide grin. Dan groaned inwardly, but underneath it all he was just happy that Nick was taking everything so well.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Dan muttered. “I get it. I dropped the ball on that one.” He knew there was no excuse for it, so, he’d just take the jokes and jabs until they found some other blunder of his to pick on.

  Nick shot him a knowing look. “Yeah, I get it, too.”

  Dan scratched the back of his head, giving Nick a confused look. “Huh?”

  Nick grinned. “A beautiful girl with nowhere to go asks for your help, and you’re too busy tripping over your own feet to notice she’s a shifter. That can only mean one thing.”

  “You’ve got it bad, man,” Tom finished with a raised eyebrow.

  Dan let out a long whoosh of breath, his heart beating a little faster at the thought of it. He was never opposed to sharing something between him and Lucy, even when he thought she was human, so he couldn’t help but agree with Nick’s observation. He just shrugged in lieu of a committal answer, slightly averting his gaze.

  “
You’re not going to deny it then? You dog!” Nick laughed, slapping Dan on the shoulder before his face grew a little more somber. “Listen, I really don’t mind that she’s here for the night. In fact, I’m happy to see that you’re making friends, but if she’s looking to stay for any longer than tonight, I’m going to need some serious back story before I can even consider it.” He gave Dan a strong look that left no room for debate.

  Tom snorted. “I don’t like it.” He ran a hand over his face, muddying his steely gaze before continuing. “But I’m not going to get in the middle of your love life, or whatever you’re calling this. If Nick gives her the go ahead to stay, what you two do is none of my business until it becomes a liability to the pack.” He shrugged, his gaze trailing back to where his mate was still collecting dishware with Lucy. Dan could tell Tom wasn’t on board with having Lucy anywhere near Savannah, not just yet, and he couldn’t blame the alpha for his wariness. Lucas was due to strike any moment now. Any shifter that wasn’t a part of the pack was seen as a threat.

  Nick rolled his eyes. “I get your sentiment, but you really need to start being more trusting, Tom. Not every bear is out to get us.”

  “I wouldn’t eat a steak from a poisoned cow in hopes that my cut didn’t get tainted, brother,” Tom rebutted quietly as the women exited the kitchen, deep in a conversation of their own. He raised his hand in a limp wave and set off to help Savannah with the stack of plates she held before either of the other men could respond.

  “Thank you, Nick,” Dan murmured apologetically. He hated that his decision had pitted the brothers against one another. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate your trust. I’m sure Lucy does, too.”

  Nick grinned, nonplussed by the words he’d just exchanged with Tom. “No problem at all. I’m just happy to see you putting yourself out there. What’s a little blind trust if it means you’ll find something like what Tom and I have with our women?”

  Dan fought more building embarrassment as he glanced over at Lucy. She didn’t appear to be listening in on the conversation, thank goodness. “I’m not sure it’s anything like that at all. She was in a pretty rough spot and I just wanted to help.” He let a grin spread across his lips. “The fact that she’s drop dead gorgeous is just a bonus,” he added quietly enough that she couldn’t overhear.