Santa Claws: A Holiday Shifter Romance Read online

  Fiercely independent, indeed.

  “Nope. No deal. I’m courting you, remember?” I grinned, pushing her hand away before I slapped my card on the counter.

  She looked like she was about to protest, but I placed a finger on her lips and shook my head.

  “Let me try, Holly,” I said, softly. “Let me show you that I can be what you deserve.”

  Her eyes sparkled and she nodded slowly, kissing the pad of my fingertip. The contact sent shivers down my spine and made my cock twitch. Holy hell, I wanted her. I was still staring at her when the woman behind the counter cleared her throat. She cocked a brow at us as I turned. Two keys sat on the counter.

  “Damage that room in any way and I’ll charge you up the ass,” she threatened. “That goes for messes, too. Especially the sheets.”

  “We’ll be the picture of cleanliness,” I promised, picking up the keys.

  “Breakfast is at nine,” she said, turning her back on us. “First those hunters with bows and now this,” she grumbled, and Holly went stiff beside me.

  “What hunters?” she asked, making the old woman turn.

  “A pair of ‘hunting buddies’, though hell if I know what kind of game they were hunting around here with those insane cross bows, dressed head to toe in black,” her gravelly voice rambled into a tangent. “Used to be nice, normal folk around here. Now we get all the weirdos.”

  She leveled a look at us, like we were the problem.

  “How long have these hunters been here?” Holly pressed.

  “What business is it of yours?” Her wizened eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Just thought they might be friends of ours,” I said, grabbing Holly’s arm. “We’ll see ourselves upstairs now, thanks.”

  Holly was quiet as we climbed the carpeted stairs to the second floor and found our room. The moment I closed the door behind us, she spun around.

  “Can you sniff them out?”

  Her eyes had that deadly, serious focus they got when we were on the hunter’s trail.

  “Probably,” I shrugged, “but how do you know it’s them?”

  “The folks in Idaho described the group to us. Said they dressed in black and favored crossbows.”

  I rubbed the back of my head. It was a wild coincidence if they were part of the group we were after. I had a hard time believing it.

  “We’re right by Seattle,” she pushed, sensing my doubt. “What if they were out hunting shifters and needed a place to crash, just like us? It’s not that crazy.”

  “How will we know it’s them?”

  “I’ll know,” she said with certainty. “I’ll never forget their scent. It was all over my mother. Like grease and sage.”

  “Sage?”

  “I don’t know why, but they burn it a lot. Maybe it’s to confound those of our kind with more sensitive noses.”

  I looked longingly at the bed that we should have been in by now, but this was more important. I had to prove to Holly that my presence in her life was warranted, better than she’d be on her own.

  “Okay,” I sighed. “Stay here, I’ll go sniffing around.”

  “Be careful,” she grabbed my hand, pulling me in close. “If you’re not back in twenty minutes, I’ll tear this place down until I find you.”

  “Not with my card on file,” I laughed, closing the gap between us.

  Holly always tasted so good, like cinnamon and chocolate. I kissed her long and deep, not letting go until I could smell how hot and bothered it made her. Her eyes glazed over with lust when I pulled back to look at them.

  “Be right back.”

  I managed to peel myself from her, already missing the feel of her round curves against me, and walked out the door. In the hallway, I took a deep breath to steady myself and calm my raging cock. It was time to focus. The bed and breakfast was a big three-story house with more twists and turns than I could count. I figured the best strategy was to start at the top floor and work my way down.

  I climbed the staircase, sifting through the multiple scents in the air. I debated half-shifting, let my wolf out just a little bit, so I could smell better, but decided against it. The last thing I needed was to run into hunters with my eyes glowing and a mouth full of fangs. I sniffed around the third floor, but found nothing.

  Aside from a few awkward encounters where other guests caught me sniffing the air, I didn’t find anything. I was back on the first floor, ducking to avoid the old woman’s gaze, when I turned a hallway and the scent of burning sage slammed into my face. I fought the urge to retch. The stink was overwhelming and my wolf hated it. I was glad I hadn’t let him out at all because I was pretty sure the heavy, medicinal smell would make his head spin.

  I walked down the pink carpeted hall, sniffing gingerly outside the doors lined with green wall paper. The scent only got stronger as I went. I reached the end of the hallway and looked at the last door. I couldn’t get closer because the smell of sage was overpowering. And there, layered in with the stink of the herb, was the tang of grease.

  Holly had been right.

  I heard shuffling from inside and my heart thudded. These people were cold, heartless killers. I spun around and walked down the hallway, keeping my cool as the door opened and footsteps landed on the carpet. I gulped as the person passed me. The man was tall, dressed in a black thermal, black cargo pants, and black army boots. His brown hair was cut short, and he had an ice bucket in his hands.

  He turned, his eyes a light, crystal blue that pierced into mine. He nodded curtly before striding ahead of me, his limbs corded with muscle and power.

  He stank of sage.

  Fuck me, these people were scary. He looked like he could take out an army, let alone pick off a few defenseless shifters. I kept calm, though I was quaking in my boots, and somehow managed to keep a normal pace as I made my way back to the stairs.

  I opened the door to our room and Holly jumped up.

  “Well?”

  “It’s them,” I confirmed, my heart sinking like a stone. “First floor, room two.”

  “Oh my god,” she gasped. “We found them.”

  “What now?”

  “We trail them back to their base, then report at the summit on New Year’s. This is bigger than just us.”

  “Holly, the guy I saw,” I paused, trying to calm my racing heart, “he was no joke. Looked like he could take down an elephant with his bare hands.”

  “We’ll be careful,” she promised, her eyes lighting up with the challenge. “We should keep a watch on them. Make sure they don’t leave without us noticing.”

  “I’ll take first watch,” I volunteered, even though fatigue made my bones weary.

  “No,” she said, “I’ll do it.”

  “I can’t—,” I began, but she cut me off with a peck on the lips.

  “I want to do it, Jace. I need to do it.”

  “Fine,” I relented, “come wake me when you want me to relieve you.”

  Holly

  “Wake up, you,” a voice croaked at me.

  Hands shook my shoulders and I groaned.

  “Why pay all that money for the room if you’re going to shack up in my lobby?”

  My eyes flew open and I saw the wizened face of the owner.

  “I dozed off,” I sat up, shaking the sleep away. “What time is it?”

  “It’s time for you to get the hell out of here, is what it is.”

  I looked around for Jace, but all I saw were people munching on breakfast. None of them Jace, and none of them the hunters.

  “Shit,” I said, leaping up.

  I ignored the woman’s ramblings as I raced up the stairs and burst into our room. Jace was passed out on the bed. He looked adorable, and I was all too tempted to crawl into bed with him, but instead I ran and shook him until he opened a bleary eye.

  “What?”

  “We both fell asleep,” I said, and he shot up.

  “Shit.”

  “My words exactly. Let’s go see if they’re st
ill here.”

  He followed me until we stood outside room number two, watching as housekeeping cleaned it up. It had obviously been vacated, the scent of sage still strong.

  “You can track them, right?” I grabbed Jace by his collar, desperate to get back on the trail again.

  I couldn’t accept that we’d lost them. That I’d lost them.

  “Probably,” Jace curled his fingers around mine and rubbed them.

  Despite myself, the action was soothing. I leaned into him, letting him hug me. He was so big, I barely reached his shoulder.

  “We’ll find them,” he said into the crown of my head. “Don’t worry.”

  “Okay,” I breathed, trying to fight the flames of desire that were beginning to lick through me. “Let’s go.”

  We rushed to the desk, paid our bill, and were out of there in less than five minutes. We’d travelled light with only the clothes on our backs, to prepare ourselves for a situation exactly like this one. My skin prickled in the cold as I watched Jace sniff the air.

  “It’s faint, but I can smell them. If I shift, I’ll be able to pin point the direction.”

  I nodded and we trekked into the woods, away from prying eyes. As for my prying eyes, well, I didn’t avert them as Jace stripped, handing me his clothes. I appreciated the way his sinewy back muscles rippled as he moved. His ass was like a slab of marble and I wished he’d turn around so I could see what he had hanging between his muscled thighs. My clit throbbed at the thought and Jace growled.

  “Holly,” he warned, “I can’t…my wolf…the Moon is tonight. I have a hard time controlling…. if I scent your arousal on the air…,” he trailed off, looking at me over his shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I said, my cheeks heating.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself and closed my eyes. I focused on my mother, on the task at hand, and the hunters we needed to track. A warm breeze tickled my skin, signaling Jace had shifted. I opened my eyes and there was his large wolf with black, shaggy fur. He raised his snout into the air and sniffed. Once, twice, then those silver eyes opened as he snapped his head towards me.

  “Jace,” I said, putting a hand out.

  The huge wolf stalked my way, a predator hunting its prey. The look in his eyes was deadly and lustful, and I felt a stab of worry his wolf had taken over. I had an uncanny feeling it wanted to mount me. I thought he wasn’t supposed to lose control until the full moon hit.

  “Jace, stop,” I said, but the wolf only growled as it loped closer.

  I groaned. I didn’t want to do this, but I had to get him back to his senses. I stripped down and shifted, my large, white polar bear towering over the wolf. I bellowed at him, my breath coming out in hot clouds, but he didn’t balk. If anything, he looked even more excited. I could have sworn I saw Jace’s grin on the wolf’s face.

  So we were going to fight then. I raised onto my hind legs, ready to bat him away with a large paw, when the heady, earthy aroma of sage filled my nostrils. I looked at Jace, begging him to run with my eyes, before something whizzed by my ear and bit into my neck. I staggered, falling forward. By the time I’d landed on the cold, hard snow, I’d shifted back.

  Naked and trembling on the ground, I saw Jace lunging towards an unknown assailant, and then the blackness took me.

  Jace

  I’d never attacked a human before.

  It wasn’t in our nature to hunt people, but this man hurt my Holly, and it was in our nature to protect. My wolf went insane. I didn’t think twice before I pounced on him, jaws snapping at his exposed neck. He shoved his forearm into my jaws, and I clamped down, my fangs ricocheting off hard metal greaves. The impact made my teeth sing and he swung his other arm around, his fist landing square between my eyes.

  I staggered back, dropping my prey as my world spun.

  “A wolf and a polar bear,” he said, his voice deep. “You don’t see that every day.”

  I snarled, crouching low before I lunged at him again. He sidestepped me easily, his cold, crystal blue eyes penetrating me. He was the same man from the hallway. Before I knew it, the reek of sage hit my sensitive nose, and a whine escaped my wolf. The smell was strong. Too strong. I staggered back, dizzy, my nose swimming with pain.

  A woman walked from the woods behind him, holding a huge bundle of sage that smoked violently. She smiled, a cruelness gracing her features as she did so, and walked towards me. She stuck the burning sage out in front of her, the fumes billowing over my snout. I cowered against a tree, the scent making my head spin and my eyes water. I tried to get up, tried to attack, but my legs were weak and I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t believe it. I was incapacitated by a damn smudge stick.

  “Poor puppy,” she said, that dark smile still on her face. “Is the sage too strong for you, little wolf?”

  I mustered up a growl, but she stalked towards me and put the burning herb under my nose. The smoke curled into my nostrils, blurring my eyes. I sneezed violently, shaking my head, whining until my world swam away and I collapsed at the base of a tree.

  “Leave him,” the man said. “We take the bear. We’ll track the wolves later.”

  Holly. They were taking Holly. And I was paralyzed, my head rocking like waves on the sea, unable to stand let alone chase after them.

  “Come on, Damien,” the woman whined. “Can’t we have a little fun with him?”

  “You seriously want to go head to head with a wolf during the Full Moon?”

  “Fine,” she said. She placed the burning sage at my paws. “A little something to remember me by.”

  The smoke made me gag. I dry heaved onto the snow and could do nothing but watch as the man reached for Holly’s naked, unconscious body.

  He slugged her over his shoulder like a sack of flour and walked away.

  Holly

  I woke with a throb of my head. I kept my eyes closed, pretending I was still out from whatever they had drugged me with. My hands and feet were tied behind my back. The crackle of a campfire warmed my exposed skin and snow crunched under boots in the distance. We were in a campsite then, somewhere in these wild woods.

  Why bother to keep me alive at all? Were they taking me back to their clan? I hoped Jace had gotten away. We’d been so foolish and distracted, to our peril. These hunters were smart and strong. We’d underestimated them. It was idiocy to shift so close to the bed and breakfast. Once upon a time, I would have known better. But Jace…damn it, Jace.

  What were you doing to me?

  Even now, hog tied and captured, he was all I could think about. Was this part of a bear’s heat? The same way Jace couldn’t control his lust, could I not control my infatuation? Was it a sign that I’d let him in, that I wanted him to be a part of my life, more so than a life alone? It didn’t matter. I wasn’t about to get a chance to find out, not when the full moon was tonight and I was far from him.

  Except, I wouldn’t be for long. My mind raced, formulating my escape plan. No, I’d shift and run out of here as fast as my four legs could carry me. I felt around for my bear, ready to let her out, and my blood ran cold. She wasn’t there. In all my twenty-one years, I’d never called for her and not felt the caress of fur, the rush of strength, her stoic pride.

  Fear, bone-chilling and raw seized me.

  What the hell kind of drug had they given me? I had to get out of here. My blood roared in my ears as the primal instinct to survive took over. I peeked open an eye and saw the two hunters sitting around the fire on camping chairs. The sun was just starting to set, and the light of the full moon was beginning to shine through the growing darkness.

  I wriggled my wrists, my ankles, hoping to loosen the ties, but I was bound with precision. Without my bear’s strength, I’d never break free of these bonds. I was tied so expertly that even the smallest movement of my wrists made my entire body move as I yanked at the rope. My heart stopped as one of the hunters, the woman, cast her dark eyes on me. She smiled, and it sent a chill up my spine.

  “Look who’s awake,”
she said, and the other hunter, the tall man with icy eyes, looked at me too.

  “What’s the matter?” the woman crooned, sipping from a thermos. “Can’t find your bear?”

  “What the hell did you do to me,” I croaked, wanting to sound fierce, but failing miserably. I needed water. Badly.

  The man got up and walked over to me, pulling a canteen from his hip and holding it out to my lips.

  “Drink.”

  I eyed the canteen suspiciously. What if they’d drugged it too?

  “I won’t be offering again,” he said, his voice hard.

  I glared at him as I opened my mouth, allowing him to pour the crisp, cool water down my throat. He took a moment to wipe a stream of water that had fallen down my chin before he moved back to his seat by the fire.

  “Look at those eyes on her,” the woman laughed. “She’s ready to flay us alive. If only she could let the teddy bear out to play.”

  “What did you do,” I repeated, casting my furious gaze on this woman who so delighted in my torment.

  Her gold hair offset dark eyes, giving her a strange, mad look. Or maybe it was just that pure madness shone from within her. She grinned.

  “The tranquilizer doesn’t just put the human out,” she said. “It knocks out the beasts inside of you, too. And lasts far longer on them.”

  Despite the situation, a large amount of relief washed over me. This was only temporary.

  “We’ve found that bears are especially sleepy,” she added. “We can’t have you shifting as we take you back to the base, now, can we?”

  I looked between her and the man. Despite her yapping, he was stoic and silent, just staring into the fire. Jace hadn’t been kidding when he said the man looked like he could take down an elephant. He was enormous. Even sitting on the chair, he radiated power. A person honed to hunt monsters.

  “Where are you taking me?” I turned back to the woman. I had a feeling I wouldn’t get any answers out of him.

  “Someplace far away, where we can test all sorts of goodies on you.”