Isabella

“Merry Christmas beautiful,” Lucas said as he wrapped his arm over Isabella’s body.

“Hi there.” Her body was sore in all the right places. She was naked lying in their bed in the cabin. “What time is it?”

“Nearly ten.”

“And no one came to wake us? What about breakfast, Santa with the cubs?”

“Your mom came by a couple hours ago, I told her you were sleeping. I also told her I slept on the couch, so relax, I can see the anxiety on your face.”

“Shit, my mom? Ugh. That woman has the worst timing.”

He shook his head, “Nah. She could have come by sometime last night, or really early this morning. That would have been awkward.”

“Oh yeah.” She was reminded of their hot flesh rubbing against each other. She nuzzled further into him.

“So where do we go from here?” He asked her, just above a whisper.

“I don't know where you're going, but I’m going back to the castle. Clan business, I need to talk to Cole.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her. “What is it now?”

“Everyone at the table heard what Uncle Josh and Liam were talking about. We all have supernatural hearing, when everyone actually stopped talking you know that there was certainly some family drama going on down at the end of the table.”

“Oh yeah, when we were chopping wood Liam mentioned something about that. But he's not going to talk to Cole about it. He said it was just Joshua being a pain in the ass. Nothing to worry about.” He wrapped his arms around her tighter. “So we can just relax in here all day.”

“Nothing to worry about?” She pulled away and turned towards him. “You and I both know that making a statement like that in front of everyone is pretty much going against the alpha. Cole deserves to know what’s going on. Ugh. So maybe now I'm not going to back up Liam, now I'm going to undermine him, fabulous. That’s going to go over well.”

“So you're saying you need backup?”

Isabella smiled at him, her dark green eyes glistening as a devilish plan began to develop in her head.

“That would be helpful. You know anybody?

“Actually, I do. So, what’s the plan? If you just show up to the house, Liam will try to stop you. I mean he sounded pretty sure that he wasn’t going to involve Cole.”

“So, we leave before him. And besides I have another option; Olivia. Olivia has new boyfriend and she’s one of my best friends. We can go back to the Bradwick Castle under the impression we’re visiting her and introducing you, or meeting her new boyfriend. And while we’re making nice I’ll casually fill Cole in on the West Virginia clan situation. No one will suspect anything. I’ve visited Olivia hundreds of times.”

“Okay… So when do we leave? I don’t have a job or anything to go back to right now. I work in construction for a small family business, they’re closed for the holidays. I’ve got some time. And a bag that’s already packed.”

“Now, before Liam notices how close we’ve gotten. Ugh he’s going to be pissed. That isn’t going to be fun.”

“And you don’t have a job to get back to right?”

She stood up and began throwing on some clothes. “No. I mean not since the law was enacted, and all my friends are traveling so no one will miss me. I’ll call my family when we get there. It’s only a few hours from here.”

She stopped as she grabbed her cell phone. How the hell were they going to get there?

“Ummm Lucas, can your bike fit two people?”

He laughed. “Not really, but we can make it work.”

She nodded, “Okay then, let’s go.”

Lucas stood from the bed and put his hands on her shoulders, she looked up into his eyes. “What’s the rush? I know this isn’t all about your family drama.”

She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “You’re right it’s not. I just don’t want to end my time with you. And this seems like a perfectly good way to get you to come on a little getaway with me.”

“So the sex was good?” He smirked.

“The sex was amazing.”

“Then I’ll get packing.” He turned around and she noticed scratch marks on his skin, she had left them all over his back. She traced her finger over a couple of them.

“I scratched you. I’m sorry.”

He reached behind him and felt for her hand. “I didn’t even notice.”

She saw that most of them were healing, but one on the back of his shoulder was still fresh, though it didn’t look any deeper.

“This one isn’t healing.”

He shrugged, “That’s weird. I’m sure it will when I shift next time.”

She nodded as he tossed on a shirt. She threw the rest of her clothes into her suitcase and started putting her boots on at the door. “So you never told me, what did you want for Christmas?”

He laughed. “I figured I was getting coal this year.”

“Oh, well I didn’t ask for anything either, so I guess we don’t need to do gifts.”

As she stood up he wrapped his hands around her face. “I guess I was wrong to not ask for anything though.” He paused and she fell deeper into him. “I must have been very good this year though. Because Santa brought me you.”

She laughed as he kissed her. She threw on her coat and then prepared for the wintry blast outside. It didn’t matter how cold it was though, she now had Lucas to keep her warm.