Christmas After Dark: A Holiday Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Abigail Owen

  I slid the casing into my pocket and sat on the rock trying to reconcile my emotions. If only it were so simple.

  I kissed Shane Dodd last night. None of it was a dream.

  The ramifications left me angry, confused, and…damn I almost wished it had all been a dream. Being in his arms again had seemed so right, like I’d somehow found my way home. But if the feeling had been mutual, he wouldn’t have crept out of the clinic, content not to even look back. If I hadn’t stumbled onto him confronting Vance, I probably never would have seen him again.

  Seeing him again brought back all the feelings I thought I’d left behind. God, I loved him. Used to love him. Big difference.

  And then there was the wolf.

  I didn’t want to think about it.

  But I couldn’t stop. Shane had my stitches in his leg. A gunshot wound in the same spot as the wolf, crazy coincidence, but I’d recognized the sutures.

  Was I seriously contemplating that Shane and the wolf were one in the same? Maybe I was losing my mind.

  Vance and Shane came back up from the valley. Shane trailed behind Vance, sweating in spite of the icy wind. He’d probably busted a few stitches with all the hiking.

  Vance glanced at each of us. “Well kids, I have to go home and grab Abby so we can open the rock shop before ten o’clock. Can’t say it’s been pleasant.”

  “Wait.” I put my hand up. “Should I be expecting more visitors with Nero tattoos?”

  His well-practiced smile faded. “Depends. I don’t know why they want you dead. Could someone have hired a hit?”

  “I’m a veterinarian. I don’t have any enemies that I know of.”

  He raised a brow. “That’s part of your story, but you knew to ask to see my wrists, so this isn’t your first brush with Nero. Why would they be hunting you?”

  I bristled. “I guess the short answer is, I might want to wear a bulletproof vest for a while.”

  He shrugged. “I could ask around.” He turned to go, but glanced back at Shane first. “Sorry about your family. I’m no angel, but I don’t hurt tykes.”

  Vance walked away, leaving me alone with a ghost from my past. I had so many questions, but the ball of emotions blotted out my ability to speak.

  He took a step toward me and I raised my hand, stopping him in his tracks. “I don’t even know what to say to you. I think I need some time.”

  He nodded and sat on the same rock the sniper had used the night before. “Me too.”

  Blood soaked through his pant leg and I groaned inwardly. “You should get over to urgent care. I think you tore your stitches.”

  He shook his head, looking up at me with pained dark eyes. “I can’t.”

  I raised a brow. “Can’t or won’t?”

  He shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter, does it?”

  “Jesus, Shane.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re just as stubborn as I remember.”

  He chuckled, staring into the valley. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t want to leave last night.”

  “But you did. I woke up thinking I dreamed you, and that was apparently what you were counting on.” I shook my head zipping my jacket higher against the cold wind. Sirens blared in the distance. Someone must’ve called in the fire. “We better get out of here.”

  Shane stood up, a muscle tensing in his jaw. He looked like hell and I shouldn’t care.

  But I did. I went over and took his hand, completely ignoring the surge of awareness the simple touch sent up my arm. With my other arm around his waist, I helped him back down to the community center.

  When we reached my truck, he draped both arms over the bed. “Thanks for the help.”

  “I need to take you to the ER. You can’t drive like this.”

  “No.” Suddenly he was upright shaking his head. “No hospitals. No doctors.” His tone softened. “I can’t.”

  “Why? I don’t understand.”

  He turned my way. The intensity in his eyes had my pulse racing. “I think you do. You don’t want to, but you do.”

  My mouth went dry. I broke eye contact and stared up at the sky, struggling to keep from remembering the way that giant wolf had looked at me after he took that bullet. He didn’t growl. He didn’t attack. Wounded animals lashed out until they could get someplace safe.

  But that wolf inexplicably trusted me.

  And even though all of this was insane and completely impossible, Shane had a gunshot wound in the same spot as the wolf. My stitches were still in his leg.

  Without looking at him, I forced the words out, my voice no more than a whisper. “That wolf last night…that was you.”

  “That’s why I can’t go to the hospital. One blood test or a tissue sample, and I’d be locked away and studied like a lab rat.”

  I laughed, finally turning his way, tears welled in my eyes as I shook my head. “This can’t be true. You’re asking me to believe werewolves are real, that you’re a…”

  “Shape shifter,” he finished.

  My head hurt as I struggled to process his words.

  Shane caught the side of the truck again. “I think I need to get off this leg.”

  This was something I could handle. I popped the locks on the doors and helped him into the truck. I drove him back to the clinic in silence, my mind churning with questions so fast, I couldn’t articulate them.

  We entered the clinic through the back door. “Can you get your pants off or do you need help?”

  His voice was deep and raw, and way too sexy. “This wasn’t how I imagined we’d be getting naked together again.”

  I shook my head as I took off my coat and snapped out a pair of latex gloves from the box. “Oh, we’re not getting naked. You can keep your boxers on.”

  But now memories of his chiseled body from the night before filled my head, warming me from the inside out. I tried to distract myself by gathering my wound care supplies. Our operating room wasn’t set up for human beings, so the table wasn’t long enough for him to lay down.

  Shane boosted himself up onto the edge of the table, and I did my damnedest not to notice the way his t-shirt strained around his broad shoulders and tense biceps. Okay, so I noticed. I shoved the hormones aside and laid my blue towels over his tan thigh to frame the wound. He’d ripped out more than half of my sutures. Shit. Blood oozed from the angry red laceration.

  “This is going to hurt a little while I numb it up.”

  He caught my wrist. “Don’t waste your drugs. I’m fine.”

  “You’re far from fine, Shane. Once I get this cleaned up you’re going to need antibiotics too.”

  I ignored his tough guy talk and injected the local in three places. While I gave it time to work, I glanced up at his face. Pain lined his eyes and sweat rolled down his forehead, but even beat up, the stubble on his jaw accentuated his chiseled features, and something in his eyes still made me feel like the only person who mattered to him.

  How was that possible after ten years apart?

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say it before, but I’m really sorry about your family.”

  “My Pack.” He clenched his teeth.

  I sighed. “Because wolves live in Packs.” I focused on arranging my tools, unwilling to waste any more time on monsters I wished I could pretend were fictional.

  His cool finger caught my chin, gently raising my attention to his eyes. “Do you remember the winter formal, back home?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded slowly. I’d never forget that night.

  “We walked to the lake and it started to snow.”

  His deep voice cast a spell, taking me back to the night we made love for the first time in the back of his car. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “I was wearing those dumb shoes.”

  He chuckled, the sound warming me all the way to my toes. “Yeah. They weren’t made for hiking.”

  I’d worn a pair of four-inch heels to the formal. In high school at five foot nine, I was one of the taller girls, and I usually wore flats, but Shane towered
over most of the guys at our school. I took the opportunity to try heels. I’d talked my dad into buying these sling backs made of clear vinyl with rhinestones on the straps. Secretly, I felt like Cinderella in my blue silk dress and sparkly glass slippers.

  “I twisted my ankle and you carried me back to the car.”

  He nodded, his fingers sliding along the underside of my jaw, sending tingles through my entire body. “How many teenagers do you know who could carry someone a half a mile, uphill, on a rough trail?”

  I stepped back away from the distraction of his touch. “You were always strong. That doesn’t make you a werewolf.”

  He put his hand back down on the edge of the table. “You can keep making excuses, but you sewed these stitches into a wolf. How are you going to explain that they’re in my leg now?”

  And there it was. The reality I couldn’t escape.

  My hands trembled, my breathing shallow. “That’s why the injured wolf didn’t attack me.”

  “When I shift, I’m still alert while the animal part of my spirit takes over. I recognized you. The wolf sensed you were a friend, not a threat.”

  I forced a deep breath into my lungs. Panic wasn’t going to solve any of this. I put some pressure around the wound. “Does this hurt?”

  “No.” He tightened his grip on the table. “How did you know about Nero?”

  I cleaned out the wound, all my attention on his leg. “They’re the reason we left Lexington in the dead of night.” I peered up at him. “I didn’t want to go.”

  He frowned. “Why would they be after you?”

  “Not me. My dad.” I started stitching. I’d double back this time. Hopefully they’d hold better. Maybe when he shifted from a wolf back into a man it weakened them or stretched the skin. I had no idea how it worked, but I was more than a little worried that I was starting to believe it could be real.

  “Your dad was a computer programmer, right? Doesn’t seem like someone Nero would be hunting.”

  I shrugged as I pulled the stitches tight. “He was doing some freelance coding for them and he saw something. He wouldn’t tell me what it was. He thought the less I knew the safer I’d be, but whatever it was, he was convinced it was dangerous and the government was covering it up. I know he told my uncle, and now he’s dead.”

  Shane cleared his throat. “Where’s your dad now?”

  I finished the last stitch and reached for my scissors. “Far from here.” I inspected my work and straightened up. “I’m the only one who knows where he is or how to contact him. We thought it would keep me safe because then Nero would need me alive. Since the headquarters blew up, things have been quiet. I thought maybe the threat was over, but I guess last night proves I was wrong.”

  He took my hand. “Those Nero assassins are jaguar shifters.”

  I wasn’t sure I could take much more. How much of my world was still a mystery? Were there other monsters lurking around the corner?

  I cleared my throat, struggling to keep my head. “Vance looked pretty human to me.”

  “Nero won defense contracts from the government to create super soldiers. They did experiments on shifters.” He clenched his jaw, a cold glimmer in his eyes. “A couple guys from my Pack volunteered once. They never came back.”

  The door opened behind us, and I spun around. Suddenly Shane was off the table and in front of me. How he moved so fast with a wounded leg was beyond me.

  His voice was deep and…menacing. “Who are you?”

  “I own this clinic.” Dr. Vega’s voice rumbled, almost like…a growl. “Who are you?”

  I scooted around Shane. “Hi Cole. This isn’t what it looks like.”

  My usually mild-mannered boss ground his teeth and…his nostrils were flaring. “Piper, I need you to wait outside.”

  Shane took my hand. “You know damned well it’s not safe for her out there.”

  Cole raised a brow. “Not that it’s any of your concern.”

  “She’s not going anywhere.” Shane’s body tensed beside me.

  “What the hell is going on here?” I looked at each of them. It was like they were speaking in a secret code and I didn’t have a decoder ring.

  Cole glanced my way. “Your friend here is trespassing and if he brought his…friends…we’re going to have a problem.”

  “My Pack is dead.” Shane’s hands balled into fists. “I’m here for retribution against the Nero assassin who slaughtered them.” He shook his head slowly. “I’ve got no problem with you. Unless you give me one.”

  Cole finally glanced down at Shane’s lack of pants and newly stitched thigh. “You’re in no condition to threaten me.”

  “I’m not threatening. I’m promising you that if you try send Piper out there alone, I’ll tear your throat out.”

  “Enough.” I put myself between the two men. My mouth went dry. This was the second time today that I struggled to convince Shane not to kill someone. What had happened to him in the ten years we’d been apart? I looked up at Shane. “I’m armed. I’ll be fine.”

  The pain in his dark eyes made me ache to heal him. His voice softened. “Please stay.” Before I could answer, he looked at Cole again. “She knows what we are.”

  We? I blinked, hoping the shock wasn’t written all over my face. Dr. Cole Vega a…werewolf? He had a gift with animals. Maybe they could sense the animal in him too.

  “You told her?” Cole’s eyes narrowed. “Are you insane? You know how risky that is.”

  Shane met my eyes, but I couldn’t read his expression. Finally, he faced Cole again. “Piper’s my mate.”

  7

  Shane

  Standing off against another werewolf in my boxers with my wound exposed was not one of my better ideas, but there was no fucking way I would let Piper go outside alone. We killed a Nero assassin. More would come. Hell, another one might be waiting right now.

  I’d be able to catch his scent.

  Piper wouldn’t.

  I hated dropping the mate issue without talking to her about it first, but if her boss was in a Pack, he’d understand the instinct to protect her.

  Cole crossed his arms. “So, I’m supposed to believe you’re a lone wolf?”

  “I am. Call your Alpha. Let him decide if I’m a threat.” Alphas had a connection to their Pack that went above our heightened senses. My Alpha had been able to channel his strength into Pack members when they needed it. He gave me the last of his when he sent me away.

  Cole ran a hand back through his hair. “Our Alpha was in bed with Nero. Now he’s dead.”

  I frowned. “His son didn’t ascend to Alpha?”

  “He didn’t have any offspring.” He cleared his throat. “We all help each other. We don’t need an Alpha.”

  That was pure bullshit. Since I’d been on my own, my wolf yearned for a Pack and a leader. Cole had to be feeling that same thing. But whatever was going on with this Pack in Sedona was none of my business. All I wanted was to find the jaguar who took my life and my future.

  “Fine.” I shrugged. “Once I kill the jaguar that slaughtered my Pack, I’ll be out of your hair.”

  Cole glanced past me to Piper. “You sure about that?”

  I turned around, and her gaze pinned me in place. My heart stuttered. My mate. God, I was an idiot. How could I leave her behind? I couldn’t. But even if I earned her forgiveness for lying to her, I couldn’t expect her to leave with me. Being a veterinarian was her dream as long as I’d known her. Now her name was on the wall with DVM after it.

  This was her home now.

  I looked over at Cole. “Can you let your Pack know I’m nosing around Sedona and not looking to get killed?”

  “Vance already did.” Cole almost smiled. “I caught your scent this morning, but I figured you left town. When Vance told me you were still here, I came over to check on Piper.”

  “Wait.” I frowned. “Vance told you I was here?”

  “Things are…complicated here since the fall of our Alpha. Our Pack is
anything but traditional.” He crossed to Piper, and I struggled to give him some space. Although the man in me recognized Cole was her boss, the wolf was agitated to have another male so close to our mate. The aggression was a surprise. The mate instinct was primal and raw. I wasn’t sure how to explain to the wolf that our mate may never accept us.

  The thought scared the shit out of me. Crazy. A couple days ago, I welcomed death. And now…I craved a life. With her.

  Cole stopped in front of Piper. “I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about werewolves, but it’s important that this stays a secret. If word about shifters got out—”

  “I’ve heard the lecture.” She crossed her arms. “You’d be lab rats.”

  “Or hunted.” Cole glanced my way, and back to Piper. “There are little ones here, and they’ve already seen too much death.”

  My chest tightened. Shifters were born in sets of twins. We’d had two pairs in our pack before Nero descended on us.

  Piper shrugged. “Who would believe me anyway, right?”

  “Yeah.” Cole turned to me and held out his hand.

  I reached past it, clasping his forearm in the traditional Pack greeting. Emotion swelled inside of me. I hadn’t greeted Pack since I lost mine. “Thanks Cole.”

  “Piper has my number if you need me.” He released my arm. “And Vance is calling in some favors to see if he can get a name for you. Sorry about your Pack.”

  He went to the door and peered back over his shoulder. “Don’t forget to lock up.”

  “Will do.” Piper replied.

  The door closed behind him, and I faced Piper. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

  “I keep wishing I’d wake up. You called me your ‘mate’? What does that mean?”

  Nothing got past her. “Can we sit first? The local in my leg is wearing off.”

  She picked up my jeans and handed them to me. “Do you have a clean pair someplace? You’re going to attract attention at the Red Rock Fantasy in bloody jeans.”