Wolf's Holiday (2 page)

Memories flooded Drew the way they always did, all at once like a dam opening. Stewart Lester, or as Magnum had called him Simple Stu, had been a constant member of the pack Drew’s whole life until he’d disappeared one day, never to be heard from again.

Magnum had found a reason to take offense at something the man said and kicked him off pack land. That was their former Alpha’s modus operandi. . Or at least that’s what he had done for the lucky ones. The others were dead before they ever got the chance to run.

Stewart had seemed old when Drew was a child. Kind, good with kids, and with a wandering mind that frequently left others confused, Stewart had amused Magnum because he’d been a constant source of fodder for his malicious nature.

“I forgot.” Shame made him stand straighter. He had to do better. “Is he here?”

“I haven’t seen him in two decades,” Ryker responded, shaking his head. “But this was his signature item. Someone either put this here to remind us of him, or he came back and placed it himself.”

Drew sniffed the air. “I don’t scent anyone I haven’t blood-oathed.”

Ryker shook his head. “The snow and the direction of the wind are going to make it hard. I want to know who left this train. It either indicates someone got onto pack land without my knowledge, or a message is being delivered. We need to know what that message is.”

“It’s not
someone
,” B interrupted, placing her hand on his arm. “Stewart is family; he is pack. In fact, I think he might be my father’s cousin once removed.”

“He hasn’t presented himself and taken the oath to Drew. He’s not pack. Familial relationships take second place to pack.”

“Since when?” If B got any more hostile, she was going to shift. Drew really didn’t need a scene in the middle of his happy pack.

“Well it’s process of elimination time, people.” Drew put his arm around B, hoping to cool her temper. “The only way to find out if Stewart left the train is to ask him. Do we know where he’s living?”

“The last I heard anything,” Ryker replied, “was he had a cabin one hundred miles outside of pack land at the top of Mount Carter.”

Drew nodded. He actually knew which peak Ryker referred to. Humans called things differently. Drew always had to know both.

“Not far. I’ll go ask him.”

Both Ryker’s and B’s reply of
no
happened at the same time. Drew would have laughed if he didn’t think they would both not appreciate the humor. “For once, you two agree. I’m going anyway.”

“Once you get to the bottom of the mountain,” B continued, “there aren’t roads. You’ll have to hike and climb.”

“And your point would be what, mate?”He waited. If she brought up his bad leg, his good mood would flee. Although her eyes spoke of untold answers, she didn’t respond.

The enforcer shook his head. “You’re Alpha. You stay here.”

“Ryker”—he shook head—“Stewart was an adult male who showed kindness to me when no one else did.”If he stung the Enforcer with his words, he felt bad, but truth was truth. Sometimes it rattled feelings. Ryker gave no outward response to indicate he felt the implication at all. “I want to see how he’s doing. I want to know how he snuck into town, if he did. And I want to do it all personally. So I’m going. The pack can manage with their Alpha gone overnight. You’re not going to let it fall apart without me, are you?”

“No, of course not.”

Then it was settled.

***

Betty stewed the entire walk home. Why did her mate have to be so stubborn? Drew managed a world of responsibility and he did all of it without complaint. He shouldered burdens that would level most menthe apologized when the fault should have belonged to his father.

Her mate also limped, slightly, on his left leg. Thanks to Magnum and a bullet he’d taken courtesy of Malcolm’s cronies. He’d not been able to shift, and the wound never healed properly.

And the blasted male would never admit he should take care of himself a little bit more than the non-permanently injured needed to. What would they all do if he got hurt? What would she do if he didn’t come back again?

Drew walked in front of her into their home. The two-bedroom, two-thousand-square-foot bungalow wouldn’t have satisfied the previous Alpha. But her mate was a simple man. With the pack rebuilding, he wouldn’t hear of living in splendor.

She waited while he assured himself of the place being safe, and then followed him through the door.

“B, you are thinking so hard it is slamming at my nerves. Say what you want to say already.”

Her mate slipped off his coat and sank into his favorite chair. A real eyesore, the orange fabric of his seat didn’t really go with the rest of the blues and browns in her home. He’d salvaged it from his grandmother’s home, and B would never tell him he couldn’t have it front and center in their living room.

She would, however, let him know when he was being a jackass.

“Andrew.” He really needed to listen to her.

“Elizabeth,” he answered. “Since we’re doing full names, I thought I should respond in kind.”

She took a chair opposite him. “You aren’t going to jolly me out of this conversation.”

“That’s really too fucking bad.”

“I didn’t say it in front of Ryker, which doesn’t mean I won’t say it to you.” Her head hurt. The last wine at Gee’s might have been one too many. She would have stuck to water if she’d known their night would end with them facing off in the living room.

He stretched out his legs in front of him, and she couldn’t help but glance at the place where she knew his skin was scarred, always raised, always painful. She loved him. The boy who had broken her heart and come back a grown male she was proud to follow and walk beside. With everything she was, B had loved and would love him all his days.

She could not lose him again.

“Funny, you felt free to say quite a lot of other things in front of Ryker.”

“Aren’t you two best buddies? Shouldn’t we be able to say whatever we want?” She got to her feet. Movement was good. “You have an injured leg. It is the middle of winter. I don’t happen to think the train is that big of a deal, but, since we all take Ryker’s lead when it comes to pack safety, let’s assume it
is
something to be concerned about. Are you really the appropriate person to go traipsing up a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm?”

“Yes.”

The snarl escaped before she could stop it. “Andrew.”

He rose and walked over to her. His body language was calm, but his eyes had gone all wolf. Deceptively lethal, that was her mate. Not that he’d hurt her; he never would. But Andrew Tao had ways of making her relent. Only Betty had no intention of giving in on this subject.

She placed her hands on his broad chest. Beneath the white cotton shirt, she could feel his heart beat. “I won’t lose you. Do you understand what it would do to me if you died? I don’t want to talk about the Alpha ramifications. I want to talk about us. You see, I actually know what it is to live without you. Please don’t make me do it again.”

“And you have so little faith in my abilities; you think walking up a mountain is going to be the end of me?” Drew ran his finger down the slope of her nose. “My mate. My life.”

She closed her eyes at his words and let him draw her against him. Her bones were tired, and she wanted to sleep for a year. Why couldn’t things better left in the past simply stay where they belonged? Why did they have to come back and wreck her whenever she let her guard down?

His mouth pressed to hers, and she wrapped her arms around him, heat melting the cold core of her fear.
Live in the moment
.

She tried so hard to. All of the time. He was the other half of her soul and he was there. Why couldn’t she let the decade without him go?

Drew picked her up and carried her over to the chair he’d vacated. She knew where she was even before she opened her eyes. The fabric of the orange monstrosity scratched at her hands.

He pulled her shirt off; followed by the bra he’d asked her to quit wearing. Her mate wanted her all but naked whenever he could have her. She still wore it to irk him a bit. A girl had to have some control, even when her mate was Alpha.

With a growl in her ear and his warm breath caressing her cheek, he undid the clasp and threw it to the side. Drew could have torn the fabric from her body. He didn’t—a slight victory to her getting to hold onto some autonomy.

“Hold onto the chair,” he ordered, and she obeyed. She always would in bed because she needed to as much as she wanted to come; she wanted it to be because he had told her to.

She gripped onto the scratchy orange nightmare. “I’m not going to change my mind because you fuck me into submission.”

“I didn’t think you were. I’m still going to, as you say, fuck you until your knees give out.”

He tweaked her nipples, and they hardened beneath his fingers before he massaged her breasts, bringing a moan from deep in her throat. She had been made for this male, had wanted him as soon as she’d been old enough to, but then so had all the females. The Tao heir. The future Alpha. Only she had seen Drew the man and loved him for all of his flaws.

She couldn’t see him with her back toward him. “Do you still have your clothes on?”

“I’m not getting naked. Not until I’m ready. Even then, it might only be my pants.”

“You’re going to strip me bare and leave yourself dressed? Doesn’t sound fair?”

He kissed the back of her shoulder blade. “It’s not. I never promised you fair. I will make you come. Hard.”

As he’d taken off her shirt, he stripped away her skirt. Soon she was as naked as he’d told her she would be. The simple act of being undressed made her quiver. When he finally touched her, pressing his fingers first inside her pussy before he found her clit, she panted.

“Drew.” She knew he’d understand. He always did and he’d never made her feel weird or ashamed of asking for her desires.

“Topping me from below. That’s my B.” The laughter in his voice soothed her before his hand smacking her ass causing her to cry out with desire. The second whack made her pussy weep. “You want me inside of you, then you are going to ask me for it.

She shook her head. “No.” Part of their game. He had to make her, and she wasn’t there yet.

Another smack on her rear end, this time harder. “Ask me.”

Betty gritted her teeth with need. If she relented, he’d soothe her after he fucked her into oblivion. But the longer she delayed, the sweeter it would be when she finally gave in. “Not yet, Andrew.”

Whack. Whack. Whack.
She could tell by the way his hand shook with the final spank he wanted her as much, too. As much as she craved the spanking, her mate loved to give it to her.

“Please come inside of me. Please, baby. Please.”

She heard him unzip his pants and his shift to get them off jarred her slightly.

With a strong push that made her knees bend, Drew pushed his cock inside her and after a moment, he was balls-deep and she was panting. With a yank, he tugged her back against his still-clothed chest. “You good?”

Her mouth went dry. He always checked. When it got rough, Drew made sure she was on board. “Fuck, yes.”

“Your dirty mouth.” Laughter then pressure as he pressed in and out. In and out. His hands were everywhere, on her breasts, her clit, her stomach. Pumping and surging and finally, when she thought she saw the world shift from the pleasure and pain rocking together inside of her, she came hard around his cock.

His mouth gripped down on her neck, marking her, claiming his mate as he sometimes did. She didn’t know why he marked on some occasions and then on others didn’t. If the need moved him, he staked his claim, and she was more than good with his choice.

Drew spent inside her then rested his head on her back.

“B.” He sighed and, on his lips, the one initial, the beloved nickname he’d given her in childhood, sound like a prayer.

“You’re still going.” She nodded, pressing her forehead to the orange chair.

“I need to, my mate. Like I need to breathe. Like I need you. I need to see to Stewart myself. Even if he didn’t leave the train. I want to look him in the eyes.”

She closed her lids. He was still inside her, and she didn’t want to fight. “And apologize to him, as you do, for atrocities you had nothing to do with causing.”

“So protective of me.”

That was when the thought dawned on her. The answer was simple. Why hadn’t she realized earlier? “Fine. You go. I go. If you’re going to see Stewart and hike up a mountain, then, so help me, so am I.”

There.

He didn’t answer for a moment and then pulled himself out of her before turning her over to stare her in the eyes. “You think you’re going to protect me on the mountain? I killed my father. I can manage myself.”

“I spent ten years without you.” Her voice hitched, and she hated it. “I don’t want to sleep another night without you there.” And, yes, if it came to it, she’d protect her perfectly strong mate from whomever or whatever came at him.

“Don’t you need to get things ready here for Christmas and the hunt?”

“Saja can manage the Christmas frivolity.” Betty belonged with Drew. She always had.

He pushed her hair off her forehead. “I thought you liked the idea.”

“You liked it. I like that you do. I don’t care one way or another about it.”

Hugging her, he continued stroking her skin. “It’s bonding for the pack.”

“Says my mate who lived with the humans for ten years. Wolves don’t need to bond. We oath and we mate. We’re good. But we’ll bond. For our humans. For you. Because they all love you, Drew.”

Even if the part of her who sometimes sat up at night afraid it was all going to go away wished they were all afraid of him, too.

The car ride with B had gone beautifully. She’d chatted happily about all sorts of topics and he’d gladly listened. The acrid smell of sadness rolling off her in waves the night before seemed gone and for that he’d be grateful. If she wanted to hike the mountain with him, he would enjoy her company. Really, they’d done harder treks as children just for fun. Since his return, they’d never had real alone time together other than when they fell into exhausted sleep every evening.