Shifters of Silver Peak: A Very Shifty Christmas (9 page)

He shook his head, frown lines creasing his forehead. “Not as of a few minutes ago.”

“Son of a bitch.” Valerie felt cold fear descend on her. “Take us to Juniper, right now.”

“You should probably go to the hospital for a quick—” He saw the look on her face. “Nope. Okay. Let’s go, then.”

They all piled in his SUV and headed toward Juniper.

“What exactly happened with the car? Roads too slick?” he asked as they drove.

“No, I lost the brakes. The car was fine when I left the house, but the brakes went out when I went around a curve.”

He scowled. “I see,” he said, his tone ominous.

They drove in silence. Valerie knew the wheels in his head were turning, and hers were too. It seemed too much of a coincidence that the cabin had caught fire and then Morgan’s car’s brakes had gone out.

Everybody knew that she was the only one who drove that car.

Nelda was still the one most likely to want to get rid of Valerie alone. And she wouldn’t have known that her son and daughter were going to grab a ride with Valerie.

Elmira had seen Festus climb into Valerie’s car and hadn’t said a word, so it couldn’t be her. Hud and CoraBelle were also possible suspects, although it would make more sense for them to sabotage Morgan’s car than Valerie’s.

They arrived in Juniper ten minutes later.

As they pulled up to the rec center, they saw Arthur dash up, carrying a shivering Teddy in his arms.

“Oh, thank God.” Valerie heaved a sigh of relief as Morgan parked the car.

Arthur ran inside the building, and Valerie, Morgan and the others quickly followed.

For once Teddy wasn’t talking a mile a minute. Her lips were blue and her teeth chattered. They stuck her in front of a radiator and fed her hot chocolate as her shivering slowly subsided and a paramedic who’d been waiting on scene checked her out. There were no signs of frostbite, fortunately.

CoraBelle and Hud walked in, looking put-upon. They’d shifted to go search for her, but now everybody was coming back in.

“Oh. You found her,” CoraBelle said, her voice flat.

“All that work for nothing,” Hud said in annoyance. “Come along, dear – I think the shops in Silver Peak are still open.”

As they left, Nelda pushed past them and rushed in.

“Where did you go? What did you do, you foolish child?” Nelda said to Teddy, blinking back tears.

“I was walking into Juniper, but I got turned around. I went to get you a Christmas present. Since you got me one,” Teddy said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

“Oh.” Nelda cleared her throat and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “My allergies are acting up. Must be all the dirty people here.” She blinked hard at Arthur. “Aren’t these the dirtiest people you’ve ever seen, Arthur?”

He nodded. “I expect so, ma’am.” He put his arm around her shoulders, and again she looked surprised but didn’t move away. She stood there for a while, dabbing at her eyes and composing herself. Then she threw her arms around him and gave him a long, hard hug. Valerie exchanged a look of shock with Morgan. She had never pictured Nelda as a hugger.

“Thank you for finding her, Arthur,” Nelda murmured.

“Any time, ma’am.”

“You can just call me Nelda,” she said, not meeting his gaze.

Then she scowled down at Teddy. “Young lady, trying to go to town by yourself was just silly. You must never do that again. In fact, you’re coming back to our house, where I can keep an eye on you. And furthermore, I am giving you a very long, hot bath. And new clothes.”

Teddy looked down at her overcoat, the hem of which was sodden and blackened from dragging in the dirt and snow. “What’s wrong with these clothes?”

“Don’t get me started. Let’s go,” Nelda said. She glanced at a Juniper police officer who’d been standing by with the paramedic.

“And if her mother wants her back, she can come speak to me. And my lawyers. I will need proof that she’s actually functional again before I am willing to return her.”

The officer shrugged. “Fine with me,” he said. The town of Juniper didn’t pay a lot of attention to shanty town residents, and the Rosemonts were very well known.

“I can help you make her a present,” Honoria said to Teddy, taking her grubby hand. “I know what she likes.”

“You do? What does she like? Are you her daughter? Who’s that boy? Is he her son? Are you going to read me a story? What are we making her?” Teddy was clearly starting to feel better again.

Arthur cleared his throat. He said to Nelda, “Before any of you drive anywhere, I’m going to check over all of your cars.”

“We need to talk,” Morgan said to Valerie as she sank down on his bed.

Teddy was downstairs with Nelda, soaking in a giant hot bath full of bubbles. Once she’d thawed out, she hadn’t stopped talking the whole way back, according to Honoria, who’d ridden with her mother on the drive back to Morgan’s house.

“Don’t you need to get to work? You just spent your whole morning dealing with the Teddy crisis,” she said, flopping back against the pillows.

“Screw work,” he said.

Valerie turned to look at him in shock.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” She pressed her hand against her forehead. “I think I have a concussion. I could have sworn that I heard you say ‘screw work’.”

“Screw. Work. Work can go fuck itself. You are my sole concern.”

“Actually, I think it’s you who has the concussion. Can shifters get concussions?”

He looked her in the eye. “Valerie, I know I’ve been a total dick since we got back from our time in the woods.”

She nodded. “No argument there.”

“You could argue a little,” he suggested.

She shook her head. “Nope. Carry on. Would you like to insult yourself some more, or shall I help you?”

He sat down next to her on the bed. “Honoria called me to tell me you guys had been in an accident, but she didn’t tell me whether you’d been hurt, and then she hung up and wouldn’t answer my phone calls when I was driving. I suspect she did that on purpose. That was the longest ten minutes of my life. It was ten minutes that lasted decades, ten minutes when I thought I’d lost you and you’d never know how I feel about you.”

He looked at her reproachfully.

“You didn’t answer your phone either.”

“I left my purse in the car. I was kind of in shock. I would have answered if I’d known you were calling,” Valerie said. She sat up. “Wait, how do you feel about me?”

“I’m crazy about you. I can’t stop thinking about you. When you’re not with me, I imagine that you’re there. When I do something stupid, I think about what you’d say to me, and it makes me want to do better. When I do something smart, I think about what you’d say, and it makes me feel warm all over.”

She felt her heart speed up in her chest, and her breath caught in her throat. “It does?”

He seized her hand and squeezed it. “The way I’ve been acting since we got back…”

She put her hand over his and met his intense gaze. “I understand that this time of year is hard for you. Honoria told me about your father.”

He drew in a sharp breath and looked away.

“I’m sorry about what happened to you back then,” she said quietly. “It was terrible. It’s an enormous burden to carry all by yourself.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m here for you, Morgan. You don’t have to carry that burden alone.”

He looked away, staring out the window into nothingness. “When my mother lost my father…it nearly killed her. She was lost to all of us, for years. It was terrifying, Valerie. You know what’s just as terrifying? The thought that I could love someone as much as she loved him, and lose that person. What if it destroyed me like it did her, and I couldn’t take care of the pack anymore?”

“You’re not her. You wouldn’t let that happen. And you’ve been letting this fear dictate your life, make you live in this protective bubble. Working from the minute you get up ’til the minute you fall asleep, shutting away all your feelings. But that’s not really living, Morgan.”

He looked at her again, and this time she saw the deep, dark depths of pain that he’d lived with. “When we were in the woods, I felt as if we were melting together. Fitting together like two pieces of a puzzle. I felt as if I couldn’t live without you. And it scared the hell out of me. That’s why I’ve been pulling away. And if it hurt you, I’m so sorry.”

“Of course it hurt me, you jerk.” Tears filled her eyes.

“Do you want to smack me upside the head or something?” he offered.

“Kind of,” she sniffled, “but it would just hurt my hand and you probably wouldn’t even feel it. Because you’re so damn hard-headed.”

He gave a brief laugh, his face softening in a way that was unfamiliar, and Valerie realized that the arrogance she had always seen in his features hadn’t been that at all. It had been pain. Fear of failing the people he loved; the people he felt responsible for. And maybe she could help him to let that fear go.

Then his expression turned serious again and he bent down and kissed her hard, passionately. His arms locked around her in a possessive embrace that left her short of breath – or maybe that was the way he was claiming her mouth, his lips firm and warm against hers.

She clung to him, drinking in the masculine scent of his skin and the taste of his mouth, butterflies fluttering inside her with every touch of his lips, every tilt of his head.

He tore his mouth away with obvious reluctance and looked deeply into her eyes. His pupils were dark, fathomless pools of desire, and she felt like she was tumbling into them. She never wanted to stop falling.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he said. “This isn’t just a mating of convenience. I want you to stay with me forever. I want you with me, wherever I go. Will you do that?” The muscles of his arms were almost trembling with tension beneath her palms.

“Of course I will, you big, stupid wolf,” she said, eyes burning as tears ran down her cheeks. “I love you.”

“Oh, thank God,” he said on a long breath of relief. “I love you too. I was afraid that I was too much of a rude, stupid ass and you were going to leave me forever.”

“You are definitely too much of a rude, stupid ass, but you’re my ass. I love your ass.”

His smile was one hundred percent masculine smugness as he pressed her back onto the bed. “I do have a really sexy ass,” he agreed.

She really might have smacked him then, but he kissed her so thoroughly that the impulse completely disappeared from her head. The only thing she could think about was the blossoming heat between her thighs and the thrilling little shivers of anticipation running over her skin.

Morgan tangled one hand in her hair, and with the other he explored her body, palming her breast and giving a satisfied hum as she arched up against his hand.

His fingers moved lower, exploring, and Valerie winced and gave a sharp intake of breath when he pressed against the tender spot on her ribs where she’d been thrown against her seatbelt.

Morgan pulled back, his expression concerned. “You told me you weren’t hurt,” he chastised her.

She took his hand and placed it back on her breast. “It’s nothing,” she reassured him. “Just a few bumps and bruises. It’s lucky I’m well-padded.”

Morgan dropped a soft kiss on her lips, then his fingers went to the buttons of her blouse. He slipped them from their buttonholes one by one, exposing her lace-clad breasts. The intentness of his expression made her ache, and she felt slickness between her thighs. Morgan peeled her blouse down her arms, careful not to brush the seatbelt-graze on her shoulder, then unfastened the front clasp of her bra and tossed the garments onto the floor, leaving Valerie naked from the waist up.

He bent his head and brushed his lips over the scrape near her collarbone, a touch so gentle that it felt like little more than a whisper of breath. She sighed as he moved down her body to kiss her breasts, cupping them with his palms and tweaking one nipple and then the other with his lips. It sent arousal coiling down her body, making her core clench with desire.

He put his big hands above her hips, fitting them into the curve of her waist, and bent his head again to kiss the bruised skin on her ribs. The blossom of purple felt tender under the slight pressure of his lips, but the small pain was welcome, anchoring her to the moment, reminding her that this was real. Morgan wanted her to stay with him forever, as his mate. Her heart, throbbing fast with anticipation, seemed to miss a beat.

Morgan hooked his thumbs under her waistband, pulling down her slacks and her underwear, kissing each inch of flesh he uncovered as he pulled the fabric over the plump curve of her belly.

Valerie let out a squeak when he parted her thighs, which turned into a moan when he placed his mouth against her pussy and gave her a long, slow lick that ended with a sweet, swirling pressure on her clit. A pulse of arousal so sudden that it made her gasp and shudder had her twisting her fingers into his hair, pulling him up to lie over her, desperate to have him inside her.

He lay between her thighs, rolling his hips against her, the hard, hot length of his shaft a sweet friction against her slick folds. Shudders and flutters raced through her body while sparks of electricity seemed to dance over her skin. His big, hot shifter body pressed down on her, hard with smooth, toned muscle, and she wrapped her legs around his lean hips, urging him inside her with squirms and moans, far too turned on for words.

Morgan obliged her gladly, eagerly, plunging inside her with a fevered desperation that mirrored hers. His thick cock stretched and filled her, driving the breath from her body in a low, long moan of absolute pleasure. She placed her hands flat on his back and felt his muscles flexing against her palms as he began to work his way in and out of her wetness in a steady rhythm that with each thrust drove them both higher.

Their skin was sheened with sweat, their breathing ragged as they moved together, oblivious to everything but each other, their bodies meeting and parting and meeting again. Exquisite sensation pooled between her thighs, building higher and higher. She clutched at his shoulders, urging him on, and when he thrust even harder and deeper, something inside her shattered into a million sparkling fragments that drifted blissfully then settled like falling snow.