The Winter Collection

by Alexa Riley

  “I’ll make sure it happens tonight,” I tease her, and she laughs. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me close.

  “It’s adorable he gave her the ring. I hate that we have to take it back.”

  “She’ll have it one day,” I remind her.

  Cami nods in agreement, still looking a little sad about it.

  “How about I take Jase shopping this weekend? We get him a temporary one,” I suggest, and her face lights up.

  “That would be perfect. You always know what to do.” The way she looks at me warms my chest and makes me think I could conquer the world for her. She’s right, though. I’d do anything for her, including giving her that baby girl she wants.

  I lean in and kiss her again just as I hear laughter coming in the front door. Our family is back together and my heart is full, and it’s another day in our lives where the love is unstoppable.

  * * *

  THE END!

  Beauty Sleeps

  Fairytale Shifter Book 2

  Xavier has watched Gwen for years, sneaking outside her window just to watch her sleep. She calls to him in a way he doesn't understand.

  After he loses his mom and his sister in a tragic accident, he disappears into the woods and lets his wolf take over.

  Gwen has been waiting around for her knight in shining armor to show up, but years have passed since she reached her mating age, and he still hasn't come.

  When Xavier makes his way back to Gray Ridge, one scent captivates him like no other...

  He's on a mission. Claiming Gwen as his mate is all that matters, even if she doesn't remember him.

  What he isn't prepared for is Alpha Stone keeping them apart.

  Warning: This fairy tale contains a hero in desperate need of his sleeping beauty, a heroine who wants to mate with her beast, and an alpha trying to keep it from happening. This is meant to be over-the-top, extra sweet, and lots of fun. Come roll around in it.

  To the hubs: my life, my love, my mate.

  Prologue

  Xavier

  5 years earlier…

  “Why do you watch me?” Her soft voice fills my ears, warming my chest. It reaches places inside me I didn’t even know existed. The sound makes my wolf lie down lazily inside me, like we could drift off just to the sound of her voice. Does she mean when I watch her now, or when she sleeps? It doesn’t matter because either way I don’t know the answer.

  “I don’t know.” I tell her the truth because making up some lie to tell her just seems wrong. I can’t deny that I do it, and telling her that I don’t would be deceiving her.

  She smiles at my response and goes back to doodling in the notebook in her lap. Her blonde hair falls over her face, hiding her crystal-blue eyes. I never knew eyes could be that blue. I like to watch over her when she sleeps, but during the day I like seeing her eyes more. A wolf could get lost in eyes like hers.

  “If my brother catches you, he’ll have your hide.” This time when she looks back up at me, her dimples dip in her full cheeks, and it makes her youth show. I know she’s only sixteen, five years younger than me, but I’ve been watching her since the first time I saw her over ten years ago, and I can’t figure out why. I just do it, and I can’t seem to stop myself.

  She’s right, though. If the alpha catches me, he’ll try to have my hide. ‘Try’ being the operative word.

  “Does it bother you? I could—” I pause. I was going to say I could stop, but that would be a lie. I’m not sure I could stop myself. Something pulls me to her, and being near her is calming. It’s as if everything is right in the world. I spend my days building houses and making sure I’m keeping food on the table for my mother and sister. Since my dad passed over seven years ago, that’s all I do. I make sure they’re cared for and I work. I’m utterly content with that as long as I get a glimpse of Gwen each day. What more could I ask for?

  “No. You’re kinda hot. I like looking at you, too.” Her words are bold, and I find myself blushing. She’s too young to be thinking people are hot. The idea that she thinks about boys or men that way irritates me for some reason. When I’m around her I don’t understand my feelings. I’m calmed and happy, and then I’m confused.

  “I watch you when you sleep, too.” I’m not sure why I confess my secret. The words just tumble out of my mouth like she should know.

  “I know.” She puts her pad down next to her and stands from the porch before making her way towards me. Her fragrance fills my lungs, and I close my eyes just to savor it. When I open them again, she’s right in front of me.

  Even with her wolf shifter genes, she’s still short compared to me. She’ll still probably grow a few inches, not that that would help her when it comes to me. I’m six feet nine, and I’m sure she’ll always be at least a foot shorter than me.

  She reaches up, placing her hand on my bare chest, making my wolf stir as he tries to feel her touch.

  “Would you kiss me?” She takes another half-step towards me, but I take a step back, surprised by her question. Immediately, I miss her smell, and my wolf whines.

  “I can’t.”

  Her hand falls away and I miss the warmth of her touch. My wolf growls in my head when her smile drops away, too. He’s upset she isn’t happy anymore.

  “Why?” Her voice is softer now, not as bold as before.

  “You’re too young to kiss, and I will only ever kiss my mate.”

  She narrows her eyes at me, the blue darkening with irritation “Wouldn’t it bother your mate that you watch me?” She raises her chin like she’s challenging me.

  “I’m here to protect you.” If my protecting her would upset my mate I’d—

  My brain pauses at the idea. I’d still watch her. Maybe I should steal her away, then my mate could never find me. We could live in the wild, and I could watch her all the time. I’d never have to stop.

  “That’s not what I asked.” She places one hand on her hip and cocks her head to the side, waiting.

  “I’ll always watch you.” This makes her smile again, and it warms me on the inside. If only I’d known this would turn out to be a lie.

  Chapter 1

  Gwen

  Present day…

  “God, I would kill to have a place like this.” Winnie flops down on my bed and stretches out.

  “Not much longer and you can,” I remind her as I search through my closet for something to wear to the Fall Street Fair tonight. “You’re saving all your money, right? You’ll be eighteen soon enough and free to do what you want.”

  “Whatever,” Winnie says, the tone in her voice making me turn to look at her. She has lived in Gray Ridge for a few years now with the Stockton family. They took her in after Sheriff Dominic found her out in the National Forest all alone. It took us three days to get her to shift out of bear form. Since that day she’s never shifted back. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, never letting your animal out.

  “Why ‘whatever’? It’s why you started working here to begin with, right? To save up?”

  She rolls to her side, propping her head up on her arm, her gold-brown eyes meeting mine, and she just shrugs. Shrugging doesn’t work for me.

  I took on working at Red’s Goodie Basket full time after Sheriff Dominic mated the owner, Ruby, and knocked her up with three of his pups. I had to hire someone to help me out with the place being as busy as it is. Even with living in the apartment over the bakery, I still couldn’t get it all done on my own, even if I worked day and night. Shifters have a sweet tooth, and they cleared the bakery out daily. So keeping this place stocked is a two-person job.

  “Spill it.”

  “It’s nothing.” She sits up, letting her legs hang over the side of the bed, and looks anywhere but at me. She tries to avoid the question by trying to change the subject. “What are you going to wear?”

  Damn, she knows my weakness. Clothes distract me easily, and I let her have this one because I don’t want to push her. Winnie retreats into herself, and that�
�s not what I want to happen today. We closed the bakery early, and tonight’s about having fun, something I know she needs. I like to go out and have a good time, but Winnie likes to put her nose in a book and forget the world.

  “I was thinking a sweater dress with some boots.” Dresses are my favorite, and with summer long gone and the chill of winter getting closer, it’s time to put up the summer dresses and break out something new.

  “God, I’d kill to have your legs. I’d wear dresses all the time, too.”

  “You can wear dresses,” I snap at her, harder than I mean to, and it makes her flinch. It’s so subtle that I almost don’t catch it. Then she just rolls her eyes at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about.

  It kills me when she does this to herself. She’s a beautiful girl, but growing up the last few years around wolf girls probably hasn’t helped. We’re lean by nature; it’s just how we’re all built. I can eat all day, every day and still not add anything to my hips. But the downside is a lot of wolf females are also bitches. I’m not sure if that’s by nature or not.

  “Look at Ruby, she’s curvy and Dominic follows her around like a lost puppy. He can’t keep his hands off her.”

  “They’re mates”

  “What’s your point?” I reach for a dress and pull off the one I’m wearing. I slip on the dark blue sweater dress and grab my boots. I walk over and sit next to Winnie on the bed to slide them on.

  “My point is, of course he can’t keep his hands off her.” Winnie says, like she doesn’t like the idea of that.

  “The mating heat stops after the full moon. It’s been over and he’s still all over her like a dog in heat.”

  Winnie’s face turns red, making me smile. I grab her hand, linking her fingers with mine, wanting to give her comfort. Shifters like human contact, well, wolves do. I don’t know much about bears, Winnie being the only one I’ve ever met, but I’m guessing they like it, too.

  “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this but you’re gorgeous. You may not look like the wolf shifter females, but that’s because you’re not one.” She flinches again, but I just squeeze her hand in mine. “You’re a bear, Winnie, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember the things you don’t like about yourself are the same things other women want. I’d kill to have some boobs and ass like you’ve got. Hell, you’d fill this dress out better than me. Bet some of the tourist boys would hit on you if you put this on.”

  She always hides behind the baggiest clothes, which make her look bigger than she really is. I don’t know who did this to her ego, but I think it has something to do with the Stockton daughters. Those two bitches are always up to no good.

  It doesn’t help that I know they sleep with the human boys who pass through town. Why, I have no freaking clue. Shifters can’t get off unless it’s with their mates, so what’s the point? If you ask me, it seems like the oh-so-perfect Stockton twin sisters have ego issues of their own. If they’re spreading their legs for absolutely no reason except for some male attention, they’ve got problems.

  “I guess. Do you think Alpha Stone would think I’m pretty in a dress?”

  My eyes almost bug out at Winnie wanting my brother to notice her. Maybe because I have the opposite reaction to him. I avoid him like the plague if I can, hence my moving out into my own place. He’s so overbearing and I don’t get it.

  He acts like I run around town hooking up with random guys or something. Sure, I like to go out and have a good time and throw back a few drinks, but that’s it. I’m waiting for my mate.

  The thought makes my stomach clench, like it does every time I think about my mate. I thought I’d found him once. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed him up and he was never really here. He told me he’d always watch me. That was a lie. I’ve never seen him since that day. I knew then he wasn’t mine. My question must have scared him when I asked about his own mate. He must have found her, because he never returned to watch me again.

  “Hmm… maybe? Stone nags me about my clothes so maybe not.”

  Her shoulders slump at my words.

  Things start to click together then. Winnie always wants to come over to dinner to my brother’s house, and she’s always asking about him. While he doesn’t even seem to notice her, he did help place her in a home when Dominic found her. Stone keeps tabs on her like he does everyone in our makeshift pack.

  I wonder what a wolf and bear mating is like.

  “You like my brother?”

  “No! I just thought…” Her words trail off and she looks away.

  “Thought what?” I nudge her shoulder with mine, trying to get her to talk.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is he your mate?”

  “No!” she squeals, and it’s the loudest she’s ever been.

  “Okay, okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Let get to the fair before all the good food is gone.”

  Pulling her by the hand, I head out to the fair before she can change her mind.

  Chapter 2

  Xavier

  I climb down off the roof and put away some of my tools. Most of them are under the porch so the weather doesn’t get to them. I’ve been fixing up the house for the last couple of weeks, and it’s coming along nicely.

  Ever since Dominic came into the woods and had a talk with me, I’ve been working on the house. I’ve been so long out in the wild I forgot what living felt like. I’ve just been surviving for the past few years and not taking care of myself since…since the day I lost my mom and my sister.

  They were out hunting together on a sunny afternoon and went too far north of the protected property. They went beyond our boundaries and into an area humans were known to sometimes sneak into. They must have gotten lost and weren’t paying attention. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a problem because I was usually with them. I would watch over them and make sure they didn’t go beyond the safety zone. But that day I was distracted. I didn’t make it home in time to go with them, so they left without me. Two hunters saw them and thought they were wild wolves. The hunters were trespassing, and when they came across two wolves hunting a deer, they shot them.

  Stone found the bodies and tracked the hunters down, taking care of them. I never got my revenge, and after hearing the news, I went mad. I shifted and fled to the woods, unable to be in my skin for a very long time. I didn’t think I would ever fully shift back, but over time it happened slowly. I was still part-wolf up until a few months ago, and some of my features never really returned to how they were before.

  I should have been there that day. I could have protected them.

  I stop that train of thought and focus on the task of cleaning up. I can’t let myself go down that road.

  The sun is setting, and I’m all finished for the day. Shifters are amazing creatures with lots of strength, but I realize that I had neglected my body for a long time, only eating when I gave in to the hunger pains.

  I’d always built houses, so I knew my way up one side and down the other when it came to putting one together. But the first day I tried to do just some basic work, it about broke me physically. After a few good hunts, I was doing better. And about a week later, my body was back. I could feel the strength in my arms and legs grow as my shifter genes helped repair the years of damage I’d done to myself. I am bigger than I have ever been.

  I’ve been given free rein of the forest surrounding Gray Ridge, but a few acres are specifically mine. I’d built a home on some land out here before my mom and sister died, but I hadn’t been back since the accident. I built it so that one day, when I took a mate, I would have room for everyone. I couldn’t bring myself to go back after they died, but from what Dominic told me, he and Stone would go over every so often and take care of things for me. I think Stone knew at some point I would want to come back, and he made sure it was kept up.

  Once a week Sheriff Dominic comes to check on me and brings me supplies. Sometimes he even offers a hand to help me with the place. When he f
ound his mate, he made me realize what I’d been missing. I’d let myself go and let my wolf run for so long that I forgot about the things I want in life. I want a mate, and someday I hope to find one. Dominic made me see that I wasn’t doing what I needed to. I need to provide a safe home for my mate, and I have to be able to protect her. The power of his words hit me when he asked if I would have allowed another shifter to make my sister live the way I was living. His words hurt, but he was right. I wasn’t a worthy male, and I need to be. A mate deserves the best, and I intend to make the best home there ever was so that when I find mine, she’ll be happy.

  I stand up and turn around, seeing Dominic. “Must be Friday, and it’s weird that you always smell like cookies now.”

  “My mate likes the way I smell, thank you very much.” He sets the big basket of food down on the picnic table and looks at the progress I’ve made since last week.

  Dominic has been worried about me a lot lately, but I can’t figure out why. It’s as if he keeps coming back to make sure I’m making progress. Like something is going to happen and he’s making sure I’m prepared.

  “You’ve come a long way, X. The house looks great.”

  “I’ve got nothing but time on my hands,” I say as I grab the basket, pulling out the cookies first. They are my favorite and always smell the best.

  Not too long ago, I was doing pretty bad and walked too close to town. I think I was in a daze and following a scent. I stumbled upon the back of the town bakery, and I stopped when I saw a woman coming out. I’d been smelling something so good coming from the shop, and I think that’s what led me there. When I saw her, I thought she was my mate, though I was surprised that the scent wasn’t stronger. It was only a hint of my mate. It turned out that the woman was Ruby and she belonged to Dominic. She wasn’t mine, but the cookies she had in her hands smelled like mine. So now every week he brings me a basket from her, and the cookies are what I look forward to the most. They remind me of something I have buried deep in my heart, and I refuse to let it out.