0f Mistletoe And Mating: Holiday Short (Claws Clause Book 1.5)

by Jessica Lynch

  “It’ll be fine,” she told Evangeline. “This is how they’ve always worked out their problems. Hasn’t Maddox told you about his squabbles with Colton when they were younger?”

  Well, sure. When they were first dating, Maddox went to great lengths to hide his Para status. He got this crazy idea in his head that Evangeline would never want to be a shifter’s mate so he pretended to be human. It didn’t take long for her to see through his act—not that she ever cared anyway since she loved him for him—and after he revealed that he was a wolf shifter, he didn’t shy away from what he was ever again.

  Except for when the witch stole her memories and she didn’t know he was a shifter, that was. But even then, even after Evangeline worked out that she was dealing with a Para—though she hadn’t learned he was her husband just yet—she’d been interested in his wolfish nature.

  So, yeah, she knew all about what it was like for him growing up as a Para. He used to love telling her stories about fights with Colt, not to mention the trouble the pups got into, especially when Dodge ghosted along with them.

  One problem, though.

  That wasn’t Colt.

  Evangeline had seen both brothers in their wolf shape countless times before. She didn’t need Sarah to spell out that Maddox was facing off against her mate—Maddox’s father—to recognize that the brindled wolf wasn’t Colt. Colt shifted into a white wolf with arctic blue eyes while Maddox… she’d know that big grey wolf anywhere.

  Paranormal shifters were bigger than their animal counterparts. Alphas? Double the size, easy. As a born alpha, all of Maddox’s muscle and bulk shifted into one hell of a massive wolf with fangs that stretched longer than one of her fingers.

  The two wolves were currently circling each other. They weren’t fighting—but they had been.

  Evangeline focused on her mate. Mud covered his side. Snow and dirt kicked up the ground. Dots of red sprayed against the white—blood. Someone had gotten in a lucky swipe with their teeth or their claws, though neither wolf appeared hurt.

  Maddox’s muzzle lifted in the air. The grey wolf’s lips peeled back as it snarled a warning at the large brindled wolf.

  One second. That’s all it took. Maddox’s ears twitched, his head jerking to the side just long enough for the wolf to catch sight of Evangeline in its glowing amber gaze. Maddox’s attention strayed to his mate—and not his opponent—for only a second and Terrence took advantage of his son’s lapse.

  The brindled wolf leaped at Maddox, aiming straight for the grey wolf’s throat.

  The grey wolf dodged the attack, wheeling around, its jaws snapping at the brindled wolf’s hind leg as it landed roughly against the snow. Terrence yipped, snarled, and kick his leg out. Maddox let go, paused for only a heartbeat, then dove at his father again.

  After that, the fight was fast.

  It was brutal.

  It was decisive.

  After a few terrible moments where fur flew and blood sprayed and Evangeline fought the urge to cover her eyes with her hands, the fight was over. The brindled wolf lay on its back, legs kicking out wildly, the weight of the grey wolf pinning it down as it lowered its muzzle toward the brindled wolf’s face.

  As Evangeline continued to watch in horror, the grey wolf closed its jaw over the brindled wolf’s throat. Not enough to break through the fur or pierce its skin—but enough to show that, if he had wanted to, he could have easily torn it out.

  Terrence went still.

  Maddox kept the pose for a good fifteen seconds. When the brindled wolf didn’t show any sign of restarting the fight, the grey wolf carefully opened its jaw, lifting its fangs from the other wolf’s throat. It climbed off of its opponent, tail down, ears flat, as he limped a few steps away.

  It didn’t look behind it. No need. With that decision, the grey wolf knew that it was the biggest, baddest wolf in the whole east. It had toppled the previous Alpha.

  It was the new ruler of the pack.

  * * *

  Maddox shifted back first.

  Since Evangeline was the only non-shifter there, she was the only one who had a problem with the open nudity. Watching her mate strut around butt-naked was one thing, but when she realized that her father-in-law would shift back without a stitch of clothing on next, she spun her back to them, ignoring Sarah’s muffled laughter.

  She heard another twang, then the rustle of clothing as the two men yanked their clothes back on. When Maddox softly murmured her name, she turned around again to see that, despite the battle, both men were upright and regarding each other with open affection and respect.

  “You beat me,” Terrence said to Maddox, reaching up to rub the red gashes that ringed his throat. In an hour or so, the marks would be gone thanks to the shifter’s amazing regenerative properties, but for now the marks remained as a symbol of his defeat.

  Mirroring his father’s stance, Maddox touched his own neck. The ragged, ruined skin—the sign that he wore the silver collar while he was locked in the Cage—would look like that forever. He wore his brand proudly, though, since it proved he’d rather suffer in the Para prison than live for even a moment without the memories of his precious mate.

  “I did,” Maddox said.

  Terrence looked over at his mate. His expression softened when his gaze fell on Sarah. “You witnessed your Alpha fall.”

  She nodded, beaming over at him. “I did.”

  His golden eyes slid over to Evangeline. “You witnessed your mate become Alpha,” he rumbled.

  Since everyone else already agreed, Evangeline figured she should do the same. “Um. I did.”

  “That settles it then. By the laws of the pack, Maddox Wolfe is the newest Alpha.”

  Then, with the three others watching closely, Terrence Wolfe tilted his throat and offered his human throat to his son.

  Maddox tossed his head back and howled.

  And, unless Evangeline was imagining it, the wild wolves that made the mountains and the nearby forest their home all howled back in return.

  * * *

  Three days after his parents left the cabin, Evangeline still hadn’t told Maddox the news about the baby.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, either. It was just… there didn’t seem to be any time.

  After he beat his father in the dominance challenge, Maddox was named the new Alpha of the pack and, well, that kind of took precedence over her news. Everything would be changing now that he went from next-in-line to the head honcho. And, sure, throwing a pup into the mix was another huge change, but she had a couple of months before she would give birth.

  Maddox was Alpha of the Eastern pack today.

  Thankfully, since it was so close to Christmas, Terrence offered his son an early gift: he’d save the announcement and the official transition of power until after the new year so that Evangeline and Maddox could enjoy their first holiday as a bonded mated pair without interruption from the rest of their packmates.

  Evangeline knew that Sarah had something to do with that. After the fight, she took her mate aside with the excuse that she needed to tend to his injuries. When they left the bathroom, Terrence said he would delay the announcement until early January before Sarah said it was time for them to go.

  The next morning, though, her mother-in-law called convinced Evangeline to take a ride into town with her while Maddox was missing again.

  Convince was the right word.

  One of the effects of the crash where Evangeline almost died was a newfound phobia when it came to being a passenger in a moving vehicle. Part of Cilla’s cruel spell was forcing Evangeline to relive the accident over and over again until she’d been so twisted, she pushed the last vestiges of Maddox from her mind while experiencing pure terror at just the idea of being trapped inside of a car. Even now that the spell was broken, she couldn’t stop herself from imagining the truck flipping end over end, careening off the mountain—even if the trip was as simple as running down to the store.

  Making matters worse? The
cabin was built on the same range of mountains where Maddox and Evangeline were forced off the mountainside. It was such a struggle to drive up to the mountain in the first place, Maddox had to sedate her before they could take the trip.

  No drugs this time. She couldn’t, not in good conscience, not now that she believed she was pregnant. And the only reason why she even pushed herself to get inside of Sarah’s car was because her mother-in-law found a respectable OB/GYN who would see her on short notice.

  When the human Evangeline nearly snapped the grab bar off the inside of the car because she was clutching it so tightly, she began to regret forgoing the drugs.

  She got a frantic call about ten minutes into the drive. Turned out the bond alerted Maddox to her severely anxious and fearful state and he returned to the cabin to discover her gone. She only managed to calm him enough to keep from dashing after her when she confessed that she was doing some last-minute errands with his mother and she’d be home before he knew it.

  It was the truth. Just because the main purpose of the trip was to visit the doctor, it didn’t mean that the two women didn’t make a few pit stops along the way.

  In a bid to keep Evangeline’s mind off of her very valid phobia, Sarah did all the talking. Not only was she Maddox’s mother and a very honest and sharing woman, but Sarah had also been where Evangeline was, pregnant and unsure how to navigate these strange new waters.

  She realized they were both at fault. Sarah explained that, while the early stages of a shifter pregnancy—and, just because Evangeline was human, the pup she was carrying meant it was a shifter pregnancy—had a female’s hormone levels through the freaking roof, that only explained the way she’d been feeling. Sad, angry, abandoned… she took a situation that normally wouldn’t have been too upsetting and turned it into the end of her mating.

  Maddox, on the other hand, might have been subconsciously following his instincts when it came to his pregnant mate, protecting her to the point that he was neglecting her, the man he was should have known better than that. Especially since it was still extremely obvious that he was hiding something from her.

  Which was kind of fair, she admitted, since she hadn’t told him about the baby just yet.

  By the time Christmas Eve rolled around, Evangeline decided that one of two things needed to happen: she needed to either prove to herself that her mate still wanted her, or she needed to drop the bomb and let Maddox deal with it.

  She couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah’s advice. Maddox would eventually figure it out on his own, but unless she basically jumped his bones, Maddox might not get the hint that all she wanted was her husband’s loving touch.

  That night, when Maddox finished his patrol, she knew exactly what she was going to do.

  Hell, she seduced him once. She could do it again.

  Right?

  5

  Maddox thought his mate had turned in for the night.

  With the excitement of Christmas being the next morning, Maddox put his worries off to the side for the evening, eager to get the chance to play Santa Claus—or, as he liked to think of it, Santa Claws. The big gift was too damn big to even think about bringing it inside of the cabin, but he quickly got the last of his presents together, adding them to the growing pile under the tree.

  He was just propping the awkwardly wrapped bicycle up against the wall behind the Christmas tree when he heard the creak on the stairs and knew Evangeline wasn’t sleeping.

  She also was wearing a coat.

  Maddox finished hiding the bike, shifting his bulky body so that he could cover it up. Between the size and his disastrous attempt to wrap it in half a roll of wrapping paper, it was kind of obvious what it was, and he didn’t want her to guess what it was before Christmas.

  He also had no clue what she was doing wearing a coat—since the bare legs peeking out from beneath the hem told him that she didn’t really have any intentions of going out into the freezing cold night.

  Still, he had to ask. “Hey, sweetheart… it’s a little late. You going somewhere?”

  Evangeline didn’t answer him. She just gave her head a coy shake. And then, to his shock and surprise, she unzipped her coat.

  His mate was wearing the teeniest, tiniest, flimsiest lingerie nightie he’d ever seen before. A pale pink, almost completely see-through, it had a deep, plunging neck, and a wispy skirt that whispered just past her pussy.

  It was also brand new. He would’ve remembered if she’d ever worn anything like this.

  Evangeline bit her bottom lip, jutted out her chin—and her chest—then let the coat tumble to the ground behind her.

  His cock punched straight to life. All of the blood rushed straight to his groin, leaving none for his brain as he stared at the vision of his mate in front of him. He couldn’t think of a damn thing to say and settled on licking his lips.

  God, she was fucking gorgeous.

  She shrugged one shoulder, allowing the thin, lacy strap to slip down to the crook of her elbow. It took half of the see-through top with it, baring a full tit, a rosy nipple winking right at Maddox.

  He stifled his groan.

  What was she doing?

  Did she want him to explode in his jeans?

  ‘Cause he might. It was definitely a possibility.

  He should stop her. Unless… unless this was a Christmas gift. Evangeline had been so distant lately, so quiet, always looking at him with a sad frown. And then there the dreams… at night, when he laid beside her in bed, she would whimper and cry and, when he asked her about them in the morning, she always acted as

  He didn’t want to push her. As soon as he claimed her, he’d wanted to fuck her every which way he could, whenever he had the chance. But then Cilla stole Evangeline away and tried to really hurt her, then the witch tossed Colt out of a fucking window, and Maddox had to watch over his brother while he recovered.

  By the time things were slowly getting back to normal, and he could finally enjoy the mate that was destined just for him, danger struck again and, damn it, Maddox knew whose needs he had to put first.

  Newsflash: it wasn’t his.

  Even so, it would be damn rude to refuse a gift, right? If that’s what his Angie was offering him, he couldn’t deny her anything. If she wanted to show off her body and possibly do a little more for Christmas, could he really say no?

  If this was what she wanted, he’d go along with it, Maddox decided just as Evangeline slowly tugged the second strap down, the rest of the material pooling at her waist. She shimmied it down past her ass, Maddox swallowing roughly when he saw that she wasn’t even wearing panties beneath the nightie.

  Ah, hell.

  A man could only take so much temptation. And while his wolf was urging him to take his mate, claim his mate, Maddox wanted to prove to himself that he wasn’t all beast. Until Evangeline was fully recovered, until the bad dreams went away and he didn’t feel like he needed to hide her away, he shouldn’t take pleasure in her body when he was such a shitty mate, her life was constantly in danger.

  And what if, this time, his seed finally took? Could he really bring a pup into this? When he was newly the Alpha, and Colt was out risking his own wolf, searching for Cilla while taking on the Nightwalkers?

  But if he refused her…

  Ignoring his wolf’s howl and his twitching cock, Maddox followed his heart—and his bond. Evangeline had come to him, bared herself to him… and he knew in an instant that, if he pushed her away, he’d do far more damage than anything his claws could do.

  Besides, he really, really wanted to mate her.

  No time to change his mind. No time to strip, either. In a snap, he shifted into his wolf, let it offer its mate an excited yip, then forced the change back. The tatters of his clothes rained down around him, but he didn’t give a shit. Shaking off the remains of his shirt, his jeans, his boxers, Maddox reached down, gave his aching erection a single, promising pump, then curled a finger at Evangeline.

  This was her show, r
ight? Her gift? He was just going along for the ride.

  Her forest green eyes sparkled with a promise that nearly brought Maddox to his fucking knees. Instead of moving toward him, though, she turned away, letting him gobble up the slight curves of her long, slender body. Already so magnificently tall, she glided easily on the arches of her feet, lifting her ass high as that he could watch the cheeks sway as she walked away from him.

  The sight might’ve stunned him at first, but no way in hell was he letting it get away. He’d follow her anywhere. Like a puppy on a leash, he matched every step, unable to break from her mesmerizing spell.

  She led him into the bedroom, pointing at the bed when he stopped

  He wasn’t about to ask his mate twice.

  Maddox spread out on the bed, his cock bobbing to and fro as it pointed eagerly toward the ceiling. When he shifted to make room for Evangeline in the center of the bed, the wayward appendage seemed to follow wherever she went.

  And, as soon as Evangeline’s soft hand closed around its length, the damn thing still didn’t to behave.

  Maddox felt her warm breath against his overheated skin a heartbeat before her lips closed around the head. Control was a fleeting thing. As her cheeks hollowed on the first drag against his sensitive cock, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pump, to explode, or to lay back and enjoy her gentle touch.

  She stroked the length of his erection with her practiced hand, her tongue laving the side between a strong, sucking motion that had Maddox’s eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head.

  “Ang,” he grunted, trying to keep from going off too soon. “It’s, uh, it’s been a while. Just warning you.”

  At the sound of honest need and concern in his raspy voice, she gave the head of his cock one last lick, her tongue lapping up the pre-cum that beaded at the tip. After wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she gazed right into his dazed expression. “It has, hasn’t it? Maybe we should get right to the good stuff.”