Christmas After Dark: A Holiday Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Abigail Owen

  The winter wind howled through the red rock mountains, stinging my bare skin, but I hardly noticed as the change sucked the air from my lungs. Fuck. I fell onto all fours, clenching my mouth shut to keep from screaming. The shift from man into a wolf was painful every single time, but the freedom that came with it was worth every second of torment.

  My muscles tore, ripping and stretching, then reknitting around my new bone structure. Thick brown hair forced its way through my skin as my face jutted forward. Sharp teeth erupted through my gums, and I snapped my jaws.

  I panted through the pain as it gradually faded away. Sniffing the air, my mammoth brown wolf hopped out of the ravine, his ears twitching as he took in his surroundings. During the full moon, the animal half of my soul took the lead. I was still conscious and aware, and at times I could even guide the animal. He wasn’t obedient, but we respected each other.

  We loped out of the desert, back toward the community center. He slowed, trotting around the back of the building. The lights in Sedona were yellow and dim, some kind of star gazing ordinance, but the wolf didn’t care. His sense of smell was much stronger than his sight anyway.

  Sorting through the mingling smells, he cataloged dogs, cats, cologne, brownies, humans, and finally, his lips drew back in a snarl. Vance was nearby.

  The wolf started for the back door, sniffing the crack at the bottom edge, but I managed to coax him back, away from the lights. We had to be patient. If the humans saw a wolf they’d panic, and Vance could slip away.

  The wolf crept back into the shadows outside the parking lot and crouched down, keeping all his attention on the door.

  People and pets came and went. A couple of dogs barked in our direction, probably catching our scent on the wind, but no one outted us. A branch swished to the north. We turned, the wolf sniffing the air. His hackles rose.

  A jaguar shifter, but this wasn’t the one we were hunting. Quietly the wolf followed the scent, wary of the intruder. Jaguar shifters shifted during the new moon in the cover of darkness. So, while I was a wolf, the jaguar shifter would still be a man.

  Careful to stay upwind, we finally found the source of the scent. A man dressed all in black from head to toe was crouched behind a boulder with a rifle and a silencer.

  The wolf tipped its head, unsure of the threat.

  I pushed my will on the animal. This wasn’t our quarry, but any jaguar shifter, especially an armed one, was dangerous.

  We lunged forward, snapping our jaws around his wrist. The man dropped his weapon, struggling to free his arm. Before we could attack him again, the back door of the building opened. Vance.

  The wolf abandoned the man with the rifle, racing toward Vance, teeth bared.

  Vance turned around, reaching for the door handle, but the door swung open and woman with fiery red hair and green eyes that sparked a memory. Piper?

  The muffled pop of a silencer teased the wolf’s sensitive ears. He leapt past Vance landing on the woman and knocking her to the ground. Pain seared through his haunches as they fell. She stared up at him, her eyes wide and full of terror.

  She was dressed up as an elf, complete with a red and green hat with a bell at the pointy end. Vance took off on foot toward the other jaguar. Maybe they were working together.

  I tried to get the wolf to move off of her, but it whined instead, unable to lift our weight with the injured back leg. Shit.

  “Easy, big guy.” Piper’s voice was low and calm for a woman pinned by an injured wolf. She moved slowly, careful not to startle the wolf. “Let me help you, okay? I won’t hurt you.”

  She slid out from under us. Pain flared in our flanks. She examined the wound and tensed.

  “Crap,” she whispered, glaring at the darkness over her shoulder. “I don’t know who’s out there with a gun, but I need to get out of here.”

  She looked at the wolf again, and I did my best to assure the animal she was a friend, not a threat.

  Piper sighed. “Damn it. I can’t leave you in the parking lot. They’ll see a wolf and…you don’t want to know.” She shook her head. “Stay right here. I’ll get my truck.”

  The wolf panted, and I struggled to fight the shift. Fuck. No. Not here. Not yet.

  I forced my will on the animal, trying to get him up before he changed back into a bleeding naked man. We needed to get away.

  A full-sized white pick-up stopped between the us and the desert. Shit, shit, shit. I fought to urge the wolf to run, but the animal wouldn’t budge.

  Piper came around the truck, keeping her head down. She had a syringe in hand. “Easy big guy. This will help, okay?”

  She slid the needle between our shoulders, and my panic subsided as we sank into oblivion.

  2

  Piper

  I peered into the woods. The shooter must’ve been long gone by now, or they would have taken another shot when I came out with the syringe, but I waited it out just in case. I wished I didn’t know that, but sadly this wasn’t my first rodeo with gunfire.

  Nothing moved. I started toward the wolf with no clue how I would get him loaded into the back of my truck. But I needed to figure it out. I’d given him enough tranquilizer to keep him out for at least an hour, but the clock was ticking.

  The door opened behind me, and I spun around with a gasp. It was Vance, the Australian guy who just adopted Abigail the French bulldog.

  He put his hands up. “Sorry ‘bout that. Wondered if you needed any help with the big pooch.”

  “This is a wolf, not a dog.” I blinked, trying to figure out why he was so friggin’ calm about gunfire and a giant wolf. I tipped my head toward the woods. “And someone just shot at us.”

  “Yeah, but he won’t do that again.”

  He seemed pretty sure of himself. “Did you call the police?”

  “Nah, I handled it.” His accent reminded me of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. Maybe all the deadly animals from down under made wolves seem tame.

  I raised a brow. “Are you in law enforcement? What’d you do with him?”

  “I don’t have a lot of time for questions Dr. Holland, my new mate is waiting in my car. Want some help with this big guy or not?” He crouched down by the wolf’s haunches. “He took a bullet for you.”

  I nodded, lifting the wolf’s upper lip with my gloved hand. His gums were a healthy pink, and other than the gunshot wound, he appeared to be healthy. Really healthy for a wolf that I couldn’t identify and was not indigenous to Arizona. How the hell did he get to Sedona? Bearizona Zoo was nearby, and they owned some Arctic Wolves and Alaskan Tundra Wolves. This guy was definitely neither of those.

  His dark chocolate brown coat set him apart from wolves in this area, and he was by far the largest wolf I’d ever seen. Much larger than the North American Gray Wolves so many sanctuaries were working to save.

  Vance cleared his throat, yanking me back to the problem at hand. I straightened up. “I guess we better get him into my truck before he wakes up. I’ll drive him back to the animal hospital.”

  Vance squatted down near the wolf’s haunches, leaving me with the toothy head. On a three count, we lifted the limp canine, taking hurried steps toward my truck. Damn it, this wolf weighed a ton. Vance helped me slide him into the large cage in the back. I’d had eight rescue dogs in it earlier tonight. This wolf took up the entire thing.

  Vance wiped his forehead. “I better go check on Abby before the poor pooch decides she’s been abandoned again.”

  “Thanks for your help.”

  “Anytime.” He paused, pointing at the cage. “Be careful with that one. He’s not a wolf from around here.”

  I turned around, ready to ask how he knew that, but Vance was already jogging around the building. Weird. Maybe he was familiar with wolves in the area. New Mexico and Arizona did have a small population of wild Mexican gray wolves, but this big chocolate brown guy would never be confused with one of the smaller Mexican grays.

  There were more important things to worry about than
how Vance knew the wolf wasn’t local. I closed the tailgate and double checked my new passenger. He didn’t move. Good. Hopefully I could get him back to the vet hospital and sutured up without needing to sedate him again.

  I climbed into the driver’s seat and adjusted my mirror. The elf hat startled me. I forgot I was still dressed as one of Santa’s helpers. I pulled off the hat and tossed it on the bench seat.

  Hopefully no one saw us in the rear parking lot. A cell phone video of a wolf taking a bullet for one of Santa’s elves would be a Christmas viral video I’d never be able to live down.

  Ugh. I’d need to move to a new city again. After tonight’s ambush, I might have to anyway. That gunman couldn’t have been after Vance.

  I shoved the thoughts away and focused on driving. The wind had dragged in a blanket of thick clouds that covered the full moon, making the darkness almost suffocating. Snow drifted into the beams of my headlights and I slowed little. The last thing I needed was to hit a patch of black ice with a tranquilized wolf in my truck.

  When I finally parked at the back of the vet hospital, I breathed a sigh of relief. The automatic gate rolled closed behind us as I jumped out of the cab and hurried to open the tailgate. Icy wind stung my face as I eyed the big wolf. I’d never be able to carry him in alone.

  I took my keys from my jacket pocket and headed for the back door. The vet hospital owned a wheeled surgical table, like a gurney for animals instead of people. The wolf would probably dangle off the sides, but it was my best chance of getting this guy inside without throwing out my back.

  Seeing my name on a plaque on the wall still filled me with pride. I’d worked my ass off to pay my way through vet school, and landing a spot here at the Red Rock Veterinary Clinic had been the culmination of a lifelong dream to help animals. I’d been practicing here for almost a year, but I was still by far the new kid on the block.

  My specialty was exotic animals, so this wolf would definitely qualify, but whatever care he needed would come out of my pocket since he didn’t have a responsible party to foot the bill.

  Unless he broke out of Bearizona. A girl could hope.

  Either way, the office was closed until Monday, so I had a little time to see if I could track down where he came from. The bullet went straight through without braking any bones, so I could clean out the wound and suture it without calling in another vet to assist. Everyone had been very welcoming when I came on board, but I wasn’t eager to rock the boat with an unpaid surgical procedure. Probably not my best career move.

  I pushed the rolling cart out to my truck, the wheels sliding through the snow. It snowed in the high desert, but it came down at night, and was usually gone by noon the next day. I didn’t keep a snow shovel handy.

  But the white stuff stuck, collecting on the ground tonight, and coming down harder now. I managed to get a muzzle on the big guy, just in case he woke up while I tried to get him inside. He didn’t move. So far so good. I grabbed his front legs and pulled. By the time I slid him from the truck bed onto the cart, I was sweating right through my elf costume.

  At least it kept me from freezing my ass off.

  I wheeled him inside and the metal door slammed closed behind us. My patient flinched. Shit. I hustled around the operating room, yanking off my coat and pulling on a fresh pair of latex gloves. I gave him a little more sedative and shaved the wound area.

  The bullet went through his right hind leg. He’d been in midair, jumping in front of me. That bullet would’ve gone right through my chest.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and grabbed a surgical gown. There would be plenty of time to figure out who attempted to kill me later, right now I needed to heal the wolf who just saved my life.

  3

  Shane

  I woke up shivering, and every part of my body ached. I was also in a cage.

  What the hell?

  The bright fluorescent lights and lack of windows made it impossible for me to know how much time had passed, but I had no trouble seeing I was trapped in…a vet clinic. I took a deep breath and my heart stuttered.

  Oh shit.

  The scent of another werewolf made warning lights flash through my head. As if I weren’t fucked enough yet. Damn it. One of the vets here had to be a member of the Pack I’d been trying so hard to avoid ever since I arrived in Sedona.

  But a werewolf vet would’ve noticed my wolf’s scent. He would’ve recognized I was a shifter like him.

  And last night he wouldn’t have been in the clinic. He would’ve been a wolf like me. It was the full moon.

  My heart took off at a gallop as the memories came flooding back. I’d seen Piper Holland. There was a shooter, a jaguar shifter, but not Vance Park. Not the assassin who took everything from me. The wolf heard the pop of the silencer and knocked Piper out of the way. A vague memory stirred of her staring into our eyes, her voice calming the wolf.

  I glanced down and cursed under my breath. This just kept getting better. I was naked and locked in a cage in a vet clinic, and the wolf the veterinarians cared for was gone. It didn’t take much detective work to connect the dots.

  Fuck.

  The wolf saved Piper, and in return, she must’ve taken the wild animal to the vet to save him. But if I didn’t get out of this cage fast, I wouldn’t be able to come up with enough lies to explain where the wolf went and how I got…I slid my fingers down my right thigh and sucked in a pained breath.

  Stitches. I had stitches in my thigh. The same spot as the missing wolf.

  Adrenaline shot through my veins as the reality of the fucking mess sank in. I needed to get the hell out before someone found me. My fingers trembled as I reached through the bars, fumbling with the latch on the cage. I gripped the snap and carefully popped it open to free the latch, but the damned thing slipped out of my numb fingers and clanked on the floor.

  I froze, holding my breath. No one came into the room. Maybe I was alone. I could check once I had pants on. Finding clothes in a pet hospital was probably going to be tough.

  “Oh my god!” A woman gasped behind me. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”

  I turned around, one hand up, the other shielding my junk. “I’ll explain. I just need pants.”

  Piper. Her eyes were wide. “Shane? Shane Dodd? What are you doing here?” Her gaze wandered down my body. This wasn’t her first time seeing me naked, but it had been ten years. I wasn’t the teenager she knew anymore. Her attention locked on the stiches.

  We’d been lab partners in high school. She was the most intelligent person I’d ever met. And while some teased her about it, I’d been in awe. We dated for over a year. God, I loved that girl.

  And then she vanished without a trace. I’d convinced myself it was for the best. Not long after her family left Kentucky, I shifted into a wolf for the first time. That first shift changed us forever, once our wolf awoke inside us, our Pack became our grounding force, and the reality that somewhere in the world, fate had tied us to one mate settled onto our shoulders. I remember looking at my parents and wondering if I would ever find my mate, the other half of my soul.

  It seemed impossible. With all the people on earth, how would we ever cross paths? So, I did my best to ignore the instinctive pull to find her. I dated. I slept with my share of beautiful women. But the stories the Pack elders told about that one moment when you touched your mate skin to skin tormented me. They said the wolf would recognize her.

  Yeah, that legend never happened for me. Again, it was probably for the best since I was on a mission of revenge that most likely would get me killed anyway.

  Piper cleared her throat, her gaze back on my face. “Where are your clothes?”

  “Outside with my phone. I was…camping.” There was no way she would buy this. Piper was way too smart, but the truth sounded even crazier.

  She turned around and went into a closet. When she came back, she tossed me a pair of scrubs. “I can’t concentrate when you’re…” She gestured to me. “…like that
.”

  I caught the pants in my free hand, keeping the jewels covered with the other. “Thanks.”

  After I walked around a bank of equipment, I pulled on the loose-fitting blue scrubs. I winced as I bent my injured leg. I healed a little faster than humans, but I was far from immortal. If she hadn’t sutured the wound I could’ve died from blood loss or infection.

  I came around to face her again. “You forgot to grab me a shirt.”

  The spark in her eyes told me she hadn’t forgotten at all. And something in me warmed. After months of living in the darkness of my pain and rage, the slight curve to my lips felt completely foreign. I couldn’t remember the last time I smiled.

  “Sorry I surprised you.” I glanced around the room. “I’m not sure how I got here. Must’ve had more beer than I realized.”

  She came a little closer and picked up the snap I’d dropped from the cage. Straightening, she put it down on the counter top and her bright green eyes met mine. Unlike me, she was not smiling.

  “Do you by chance remember seeing a huge brown wolf in here? He was in this cage recovering from being shot. I sutured him up myself.”

  Shit. Piper was the veterinarian. I looked at her rumpled red and green elf clothes. She’d spent the night at the hospital with her patient.

  “You’re a vet.” I shook my head, the memories of our late-night talks about the future filling my head. “You did it.”

  She placed her hand on her hip. “You must’ve forgotten your fireman’s gear while you were camping, huh?”

  My bullshit was falling flat. But no way would she believe the truth. It wouldn’t go over any better. I needed to cut my losses and get the hell out of dodge. But part of me wanted to wrap her in my arms. Our bodies had always fit perfectly, and in the ten years since she’d been gone, I’d never been able to talk to anyone like we used to. When she vanished, I lost more than my girlfriend, I’d lost my best friend too.