Chapter Six

 

 

Gloria regretted a little (well, okay, more than a little) missing out on the promised manflesh bonanza when the bear shifters got back. Axl and Jaron had rendezvoused with Cody, on his snowmobile, at the edge of the yard, and then dressed quickly and came inside.

But she thought maybe it was just as well. She didn't want to spy on Jaron. Whatever she took of his, she wanted to be freely offered.

She wanted to see him shift. She wanted to see him naked. But only if he knew she was there, watching and admiring.

Meanwhile, she got to watch red-haired Tara reunite with her husband Axl, who swept her off her feet into a deep kiss that made Crystal and Charmian cheer. Clearly years of marriage and kids had done nothing to dampen their eagerness to see each other again.

Gloria noticed that Jaron was standing awkwardly by the door, looking like just as much of a third wheel as she felt at the moment. If you want to talk to him, she told herself, now's your chance.

"Hi there," she said shyly, coming up beside him.

"Hi." He smiled at her, and it rocked her backward. That was a smile you could get lost in, a smile that went straight to her core.

What was it about this guy? She'd never felt this kind of attraction to anyone before. Definitely not to her last boyfriend; that had started out as a blind date, and they'd settled into a relationship and then broken up, but never at any point had she felt this intense sense of rightness whenever she was around him.

Not to mention this sheer animal arousal. Just standing near Jaron made her tingle.

Jaron looked like he was desperately hunting for something to say. He opened his mouth and closed it. Don't talk to women much, do you? Gloria thought sympathetically.

"I'm Gloria," she offered.

"Oh. Right." He blushed. "I'm Jaron."

"I know."

He looked surprised. "How do you know?"

"Oh, the ranch women told me." Now it was her turn to blush. She'd as much as admitted she'd been asking about him.

She hadn't been fully aware of how tall he was when she was sitting down on the far side of the room. Now that she was standing close to him, she had to tip her head back to look up at him. She was seized with a brief vision of Jaron leaning down, closing his lips over hers—

The door opened in a swirl of snow and one of the other ranch men came in—Remy, she thought. There were just so many people she'd been introduced to. Snowflakes dusted his close-cropped hair.

"Hey, you're Gloria, right?" he asked.

"Yes?"

Remy held out a big hand. "Is this your phone?"

"Oh. I guess so." She took it in surprise.

"It was in Charmian's car," Remy explained. "Cell reception up here is really spotty, but since they put in the new repeater over on Bald Mountain last summer, it's been a lot better, and I noticed your phone was going off in the car. Someone tried to call you."

"Oh, I bet it's my brother." She gave Jaron an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry. I should probably call him back so my family knows I'm not in a ditch somewhere. I was driving to Spokane."

"That's where you're from?" Jaron asked. "That's pretty far."

"Oh, no, I'm from Georgia. Even farther. Which is why I should call my family and let them know I'm okay." She looked up hopefully. "You'll be here when I get back, right?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Jaron promised.

Gloria took the phone to a relatively less noisy corner of the room, over by the big picture window looking out on the swirling snow. The phone was flickering between one and two bars, but it was able to connect on her second try. When her brother answered, she heard Christmas music playing in the background.

"Oh, Gloria, thank God," her brother said. "I'm so glad you're all right. We expected you earlier, and they're forecasting heavy snow east of here."

"I know, I got caught in it," she said, putting her hand over her other ear to try to hear him over a fresh burst of squealing and laughter from the kids.

Even while she was on the phone, her gaze was drawn across the room to Jaron—who was now talking to Tara and Saffron, she noticed, or rather, the women were talking to him. All three of them looked over at her, then looked away quickly when they noticed she was looking at them.

What was that all about?

"Gloria?" her brother asked, and she realized he'd been talking and she hadn't even noticed. "Is everything okay? Where are you?"

"I'm in Montana. My car broke down—don't panic, I'm fine! I met some nice women who invited me back to spend Christmas with their family. I'm not going to make it to your place this evening. Probably not for a couple of days, at least."

"The important thing is that you're okay," her brother said. "These women—you trust them? You haven't been kidnapped or anything?"

Gloria laughed. "No, they're very nice, and so are their families. There are a bunch of people here, kids and everything. It's a good old-fashioned family Christmas. In fact, I should probably go. I think dinner's going to be ready soon."

"I'm glad you found a good place to land. We'll miss you, but I was going to suggest you look for a hotel room anyway, if the blizzard's as bad as the weather channel says it is."

"Oh, this is much better than a hotel," Gloria promised as there was another squeal of childish delight and laughter from the adults. "They're really friendly and they've been so welcoming to me. I'm going to have a good Christmas, I promise."

"I hope so. As long as you're safe and happy. Merry Christmas, sis."

"Merry Christmas."

She hung up the phone with a small twinge. It would have been nice to see her nieces and nephews, and she had a whole suitcase of presents for them in her car. But she found that she wasn't feeling nearly as bad as she'd expected about not being able to spend the holiday with them.

Because she really did feel comfortable here. It wasn't her home; it was someone else's home. But all her recent Christmases had been spent in a small apartment, with her family far away.

Now she looked around at the Christmas decorations, the tree, the snow outside the window, the family all gathered together. It was like something from a holiday movie.

I want a home like this someday, she thought.

Perhaps it was only a coincidence that she caught Jaron's reflection in the window at that moment, gazing at her across the room with a cautious, hopeful smile.

She tucked the phone away and went over to him.

"So, you talked to your family?" he asked, and she nodded. "Are they okay that you can't come?"

"They understand. Nobody can control the weather."

"Yeah, I guess not." Jaron shuffled his feet. "So, uh, the ladies say ..." He gestured to indicate Tara and Saffron, who were in the kitchen doorway with their heads together, whispering. "They say we can't eat 'til the rest of the guys get back, so they suggested we might ... uh, I mean ... what I'm saying is, you want to take a walk in the snow?"

Gloria gave the two women in the doorway a wry smile. They both tried not to meet her eyes. Oh yes, I know exactly what you all are up to, she thought. But she really didn't mind a bit. It was so crowded in the house that there was no chance to talk to Jaron without being interrupted. And snow was still magical to her.

"I'd love to."

She borrowed a heavy coat, boots, and warm gloves from the other women, and walked with Jaron into the falling snow in the yard. The Christmas lights glimmered through the dark, the snowflakes dancing in haloes around them. At some point, wiser heads had prevailed on the music, and now it was playing more softly and in harmony, adding a further touch of magic to the night.

"This must be a lot different from Georgia," Jaron said.

Gloria laughed. "Yeah. A bit. We do get snow there occasionally. I saw it a few times, growing up. But never much, and never for long. This ..." She tipped her head back, gazing up at the snowflakes whirling down out of the dark sky, blinking them off her lashes as they try to land in her eyes.

"It is pretty great." Jaron's voice was quiet. Gloria glanced at him. The snow settling on his short, bristly hair made her want to reach up and brush it off.

"Did you grow up around here?" she asked.

"Yeah. Back in the mountains. I left my family to come work for the sheriff's department. I wanted to help people."

Her heart swelled. The attraction she felt for him was a powerful, physical thing, but everything he said to her, his quiet courtesy, his attentiveness, made her like him. "That's very brave of you," she said.

His cheeks were already pink with cold; now they turned pinker. "It's brave of you to come all the way from ... Where is Georgia, anyway?"

Gloria tried not to laugh. She didn't want to hurt his feelings and break the mood. "You don't know where Georgia is?"

"I didn't learn about much outside the mountains, growing up." He looked down at the trampled snow underfoot, not meeting her eyes.

Gloria reached out and shyly, cautiously, hooked her gloved fingers through his. "I can teach you, then. If you want me to."

She'd never before experienced the feeling of being able to teach new things to someone else. She wasn't dumb by any means, but she didn't have a college education, and she didn't have the kind of occupation that people wanted to hear about, like a scientist or a doctor. She was just ordinary Gloria Munson. She'd been working in a shoe store before she got laid off.

But Jaron looked at her like she was something precious and magical. Like everything she said was smart and wonderful.

"Do you mean that?" he asked quietly.

"I do. I would love to teach you about the world I come from."

"I hope you will," he said quietly. "I still have so much to learn. I've never been to a town bigger than the ones in Pinerock County. I didn't even know how to drive a car 'til Sheriff Axl taught me."

He spoke cautiously, as if he was putting his heart in her hands. It must be hard for him to admit those things. Gloria took his other hand. Their breath curled like smoke between them.

"I can't wait to show you everything I know," she said. "I want to travel with you and see the world. Do you want that?"

Jaron nodded eagerly. "I want to see everything. Learn about everything."

His eagerness was infectious, an energy flowing between them, catching hold of her and lifting her spirits. She couldn't believe that a few hours ago, she'd been miserable, thinking this Christmas was going to be the most dismal day of her life.

Now she was standing in a magical winter wonderland, on a ranch full of people who'd gone out of their way to help her and welcome her. Jaron's hands were strong on hers, gripping them as he gazed into her eyes.

The warmth of his gaze caught and held her. Snowflakes were settling on his hair, on his lashes.

Gloria opened her mouth, but no words came out. Jaron leaned forward slowly, giving her every chance to pull away. But that was the last thing she wanted. She leaned forward eagerly, and his mouth closed on hers.

As soon as his lips met hers, she melted against him. It was what she'd wanted to do since the first time their eyes met as he walked through the front door of the ranch house, and now it was real, it was happening, here among the glittering Christmas lights with snow falling all around them.

Jaron pulled back at last, looking flushed and tousled. Gloria could only imagine she looked the same, especially with snowflakes settling on her hair and shoulders.

"Wow," he whispered.

Gloria smiled and touched his lips with her fingertips. As she started to reach up to kiss him again, headlights washed over them, and a snowmobile pulled into the yard with a roar of its engine, pulling a trailer behind it.

The rider jumped off the machine and lifted off his helmet. This was someone Gloria hadn't met yet, but she knew from overhearing the others talk that it was yet another of the cousins who ran the ranch. Cory? No, Cody. A dark blond ponytail spilled down his back when he took the helmet off.

"Hey there!" he called. "Could you two give me a hand? I've got a pretty cold calf here that needs to get in out of the snow."

Jaron and Gloria hurried to help. She hadn't even realized that there was something alive on the trailer, but it kicked weakly as she helped tug off the snow-covered straps that had held it down.

"Poor thing!" Gloria said as Cody lifted the calf to its feet and then held it as it wobbled, getting its legs under it. It wasn't tiny, definitely not small enough to be carried; its head came up to the level of her chin. "Is it going to be all right?"

"Sure, she just needs to get warmed up." Cody hustled the calf along to the barn, giving it a shove whenever its steps faltered.

Gloria and Jaron trailed along behind. Gloria wasn't sure if she could be any help, but she'd never been this close to a cow before.

The calf's steps picked up once it realized it was headed for the barn and home. Cody opened the door, and Gloria and Jaron helped him herd the calf inside. Warmth and the smell of hay and animals washed over them as they walked in. It was overwhelming at first but pleasant, in a strong kind of way, once she got used to it.

"We need to get her dry," Cody explained, reaching for a ragged blanket that he used to start rubbing down the calf's fur and legs.

From the other end of the barn came a discontented bellow. The calf raised its head and bawled back.

"And there's Ma," Cody said with a laugh. "Settle down, kiddo," he told the calf. "Hey, Jaron, give me a hand holding her, would you?"

Between the three of them, they got the calf dried off. Gloria was fascinated by everything about it: the thick fur that was rough on her fingertips, the big liquid eyes with long lashes.

"I thought a calf would be tiny, but this one's so big," she said.

"She was born this spring," Cody explained. "She's growing up into a heifer now." The cow bellowed from the other end of the barn again, and Cody grinned. "Still not too big for her mama, though. C'mon, honey, let's go get you home. You want to come and see the rest of the cows?"

"Sure," Gloria said, lacing her fingers through Jaron's.

"It's just the moms and this year's calves in the barn," Cody explained as he released the calf into the pen, where she was reunited with her mother. "The yearlings and older cattle are outside."

"Aren't they cold?" Gloria asked, leaning against the bars of the pen to admire the cows. Most of them were black, their coats glossy beneath the barn lights.

"Nah, they're used to it. They've got shelter, and we put down a bunch of straw for them earlier. In the morning, we'll go out and check on 'em, make sure they have fresh water and everything. Actually, while I've still got my outside gear on, I should probably walk around and have a look at 'em."

Gloria gave one of the cows a last shy pat through the bars of the pen before they left. The wind felt colder when they stepped outside, and the snow had tapered to a few light flakes swirling down out of the sky.

"Oh hey, the rest of the boys are back," Cody remarked.

Gloria caught her breath as two great, shaggy shapes came shuffling out of the darkness, their heavy fur clumped with snow and frost. She couldn't speak. It was one thing knowing that these men could turn into bears. But she'd never even seen a bear in real life before. It was like something out of a fairy tale, watching the two big, dark bears stroll over to the ranch house door like tame dogs.

The door burst open and Daisy came running out, her blonde hair flying. She hadn't bothered with a coat. "Gannon!" she cried, flinging her arms around the darker bear's neck. He nuzzled against her hair.

Behind Daisy, Charmian appeared with her arms full of blankets.  "Come on, you two," she said, addressing herself mainly to the bear that wasn't currently being hugged by Daisy. "You're soaked through. Let's get you inside."

She flung a blanket over the bear's great, shaggy hump, and an instant later, the ursine bulk dwindled and a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man was wrapping the blanket around himself.

Gloria pressed the back of her gloved hand to her mouth. Jaron's fingers tightened on her other hand, and she glanced up at him quickly. He looked a little worried. Gloria shook her head, too overwhelmed to explain that her reaction wasn't fear or horror. It was wonder. The entire night had an unreal quality, like she'd walked into a fairy tale where forest beasts could walk out of a snowstorm and become men.

Instead she squeezed his hand tightly until he relaxed and leaned against her.

During that moment, she'd missed the other man—Gannon?—shifting back. Daisy was now fussing with a blanket around his shoulders, while Charmian shepherded Alec back into the house.

The sudden roar of the snowmobile's engine made Gloria jump. She hadn't even noticed Cody was no longer with them; he'd gone back to the snowmobile and started it up again. She leaned against Jaron's side and watched Cody drive the snowmobile around in a big circle and into a shed beside the barn.

"So ... now you've seen it," Jaron said softly, his voice vibrating through the layers of winter clothing separating them.

"Is that what it's like for you?" she asked, looking up at him.

Jaron nodded.

"What does your bear look like? I didn't get to see earlier. Are you that big?"

"Not quite that big. I'm a lighter color than Alec or Gannon." He brushed a hand over his close-cut blond hair, sweeping off the snow. "Usually our bear is similar in color to our hair as a human. Alec and Gannon are both dark-haired men and so they're dark bears. I'm more light colored, for a grizzly."

"I can't wait to see it. Though maybe not now." She stretched on her tiptoes, tilting her face up toward his. "There are other things I'd rather do now."

His lips closed over hers in a deep kiss that went on and on. When they finally broke apart, she was flushed and panting.

"You're beautiful," Jaron murmured, cupping her cheek in his gloved hand.

"You too," she whispered back. "Uh. I mean in a manly way."

He smiled and dipped down for another kiss. One of his hands slipped under the bottom edge of her borrowed coat.

Across the yard, the ranch-house door slammed, breaking her out of the spell she'd fallen under. Drawing back, she admitted regretfully, "I guess we should go back inside and have Christmas dinner with everyone else." She let her breathing calm down, and added, "Unless you want to take me right here in a snowbank."

"Oh!" Fascinated delight blossomed on his face. "Do humans like doing that?"

"No!" She grabbed his hands when he reached to unzip her coat. He pulled back, looking confused and a little hurt. "No, I mean—I'm not saying no to sex! I want sex. Very much." She leaned forward to kiss him again, where the sad look had been washed away by a delighted smile. "Just ... not in a snowbank. And not in full view of our hosts."

"Oh." He glanced at the ranch house. "Yeah. Probably not. Uh, before we go back in, there's something I should tell you about. I think it's why Tara and Saffron wanted me to bring you out here in the first place."

"O...kay." Gloria tried not to bite her lip, her habit when she was stressed. Was this where the other shoe dropped? Where she found out he was married, or shifters weren't allowed to marry non-shifters, or some other terrible thing?

"It's a shifter thing," he said, and her heart plummeted all the way to her borrowed boots.

"All right," she said bravely. "It's okay. We can be friends if we can't be together. I'll still show you my world anyway."

"What?" Jaron looked baffled and hurt again. "You don't want to—? I don't understand!"

"Me neither." Gloria wiped her hand across her face. Apparently she didn't think clearly when she was being driven half out of her mind by her closeness to this incredibly sexy man. The fact that they were both bundled up in winter gear was probably the only thing giving her the self-control not to push him down into a snowbank. "What did you want to talk to me about? Aren't you going to tell me that our relationship is a mistake?"

"What? No!" he said, horrified. "No, it's, uh, it's kind of the exact opposite of that. You're the only one for me."

"We just met. You can't know that already." Although, deep down, she'd had that feeling ever since she'd met him, too. Her heart flipped over at the thought that he felt the same way.

"It's not a choice we make," he said seriously. "I mean, it is and it isn't. Do you know about shifters and fated mates?"

Gloria shook her head.

"Oh. Um. Look, you should maybe have the women explain it to you. They'll be better at it."

She shook her head again. "No, I think this is what they started to tell me inside, and then they said you should be the one to tell me about it. And I think they're right. This is about us, not about anyone else."

"You're right." He cupped her face in his gloved hands and gazed into her eyes. "Gloria, shifters like me, we have one person out there who's exactly right for us. One person in all the world. Our animal helps us find them. And as soon as I saw you, I knew you were that person for me."

"Oh," she whispered. "I—that's how I felt about you, when I saw you. I just didn't know why I was having that feeling about someone I never met before. Is this what they call soulmates?"

"I don't know. I never heard that before." He caressed her face; she leaned into his touch. "All I know is, there's a bond between us. It started to happen as soon as I saw you. And when we make love ... you've seen the little scars on the other women's necks? Right above the collarbone?"

Gloria touched her own neck, under her hair, with her gloved fingertips. "Is that what that's about?"

"It's a claiming mark. It'll let all other shifters know that you have a mate. And some people say there's a kind of magic that goes along with it. We'll be more in tune with each other than with anyone else in the world. But ..." He brushed a curl away from her cheek. "We won't do it if you don't want to. We won't ever do anything you don't want to do."

Gloria had to catch her breath. Everything was moving so fast. "Can I think about it?"

Jaron nodded vigorously, and she got the feeling he'd been afraid she'd say no. "Yeah, of course you can. Think as much as you want."

"Which is not to say that I'm backing off," she said quickly. "I want ... I want to show you the world. I want to show you me. Uh, that maybe came out wrong." She could feel herself blushing, and Jaron was turning even pinker. "I just mean, when we can get some privacy—later, maybe—"

Her stomach picked that moment to growl.

"But first, food," Jaron said, and she laughed, and nodded.

 

***

 

Christmas dinner was a chaotic affair. There was no big dining room table, and no room for one in either the kitchen or the living room. Instead, the kitchen table groaned under a load of food—ham and roast beef swimming in juices, baked yams and potatoes au gratin, crisp salad, mashed potatoes and a huge bowl of gravy—and everyone loaded plates and circulated, finding places to sit wherever they could.

Gloria found a place to sit beside Jaron on the couch. His shoulder brushed hers; her leg was pressed against his. Nobody seemed to mind if she was a little bit quiet, letting the cheerful chatter wash over her. Instead she looked around the room at all of these people who had been strangers to her a few hours earlier.

Tara and Axl sitting cross-legged on the floor with Lexie sleeping on a pillow between them, playfully feeding each other bites of food.

Remy with his big tattooed arms around his little son, holding Baz on his lap while the little boy chewed on a biscuit; Saffron with her arm around him and head resting on his shoulder.

Gannon, Daisy, and Fern in a corner by the Christmas tree, inseparable since the big, scar-faced bear shifter had returned from his trip into the snow to rescue the calf.

Crystal sitting in Cody's lap, his hand resting protectively over her pregnant belly, as if daring anyone to mess with his mate and child.

Alec and Charmian presided over the whole business as hosts and co-alphas, rarely touching each other in the open way of the other couples, but their deep love and respect for each other was obvious in every covert glance, in every casual brush of fingertips to the other's arm or hip.

Baz dozed off in Remy's arms. Saffron leaned down to kiss the little boy on top of his dark hair, and smiled at the others. "Well, it's getting late. I think we're going to head across the yard to our own house."

Tara smothered a yawn. "I was just thinking the same thing. If we get Lexie down for the night now, maybe she won't wake up before morning."

Remy chuckled and looked over at the other couple as he gently rocked his sleeping son. "Yeah, dream on."

"Remember what it used to be like to sleep through the night?" Daisy asked with a smile, tipping her head back to look up at Gannon. She was sitting between his legs on the floor, with tiny Fern asleep in her arms.

Gannon smiled down at her and pulled her against his chest. "Wouldn't change a thing."

Daisy started to say something else, but interrupted herself with a jaw-cracking yawn. "Mmmm," she murmured, snuggling against her mate's chest. "I guess we should be thinking about getting home too."

"Nobody's going anywhere in all this snow," Alec said firmly. "You're all spending the night here. No arguments."

"Like any of us would try to argue with you, boss," Cody said in a voice that was just a trace too innocent to be insolent.

"Is there room for everyone, though?" Crystal asked. "It's going to be awfully crowded."

"You can make up the couch for me," Gloria offered, feeling guilty.

"I can sleep in the barn," Jaron suggested.

"Oh, for—! Nobody's sleeping in any barns," Charmian scoffed. "We have plenty of room. Tara, Axl, you can fit some of the guests in your house, right?"

"Sure," Tara said. "There's plenty of room."

"Then Cody and Crystal can go over there. Gannon and Daisy can take our downstairs bedroom, because the main house is warmest, so little Fern won't get cold," Charmian explained. "And Gloria and Jaron can have the trailer, for privacy."

Gloria told herself it was just her imagination that a brief silence followed Charmian's announcement, and it had to be her imagination that everyone in the room was looking at her. She could feel her cheeks turning pink.

"Charmian, you might want to ask them if they'd like to share," Crystal said.

"There's room for at least one of you over at our place if not," Axl put in.

"Or ours," Saffron said. "We planned for a bigger family than just Baz. The spare bedroom is shut up to save heat, but we can open it up, or move Baz into our room for tonight."

Charmian looked at Gloria and Jaron, a slight smile on her lips, her dark eyes serious. "What do you two want?"

Gloria looked at Jaron, and in the warmth of his eyes, she read her answer. "Sharing with each other will be fine," she said quietly, and saw his eyes light up.

Alec got to his feet. "In that case, I better go start up the heater in the trailer or you two are gonna freeze out there."

He went out into the night. The other couples began getting their things together. Remy bundled up Baz for the trip across the yard, while Saffron went to help Charmian put leftovers away.

"Oh—Gloria?" Charmian poked her head in from the kitchen. "If you need any sleeping things or toiletries, you can borrow them from us. Tara can help you; she knows where everything is."

"I've got what I need in my suitcase. Thank you." She was overwhelmed once again at how they'd all welcomed her into their home. "I don't know how to repay you for this."

"Oh, hon, we were all lost and alone once," Tara said, looking up from helping Axl wrap Lexie in a soft blanket. "We've all been where you are, in our own ways."

"And the thing about families," Crystal said cheerfully, "is that there's always room for one more." She patted her pregnant stomach. "Sometimes two more."

"Well, I really don't know how to thank all of you." Gloria smiled, blinking her suddenly misty eyes. "You've made an absolutely miserable Christmas into the best one I've ever had."

Through the prisms of her tears, she caught Jaron's warm gaze, and she smiled shakily. It was more than just family camaraderie that had put the magic into her Christmas this year. She'd never dared to dream that she might truly have what appeared to have fallen into her lap the moment she'd stopped looking.

But if you understood how magic worked, then it wouldn't be magic, would it?

Alec came in, stamping snow off his boots. "The heater's running and the trailer's warming up. I put your suitcase over there too. Jaron, you need anything for the night?"

Jaron shook his head. "No, sir." He glanced at Gloria, shyness becoming bolder at whatever he read in her eyes. "I have everything I need."

Alec's sharp blue gaze flicked back and forth between them. "And just to double-check, you're both fine with sharing accommodations?"

Jaron glanced at Gloria, clearly willing to leave the decision up to her. Gloria nodded firmly.

How long had it been since she'd just gone for what she wanted? And ... she wanted this. She wanted it more than anything.

 

***

 

The snow was falling again, but much more lightly, when they stepped outside into a crystalline stillness. Gloria couldn't get used to how quiet it was in the country. A snowy hush lay over everything. The crunch of her boots was the loudest sound.

Axl and Tara walked down the porch steps with them, Axl carrying a sleeping Lexie tucked under his coat. "You can't miss the trailer," he said, pointing. "It's right there by the barn. Looks like Alec shoveled out the path and left the lights on, too." He smiled fondly. "My brother is conscientious about that sort of thing."

Gloria was still feeling too overwhelmed to be able to properly thank them, but Tara clasped her in a firm hug. "I was telling the truth earlier," the redhead murmured into Gloria's ear. "Every one of the women on the ranch knows what it is like to be alone. We all found home here. I don't know if this will be home for you, but we recognize a sister when we see one, and we'd never have turned you away."

"I don't know if we should be worried about all this female whispering," Axl said to Jaron, grinning.

Tara turned around to whack him playfully in the arm with the back of her hand. "Why don't you worry about getting our daughter inside before we all freeze out here?"

"Your wish is my command, love," he said, nuzzling against her hair, and put his free arm around her, steering her away. "Good night, you two. Merry Christmas."

"Good night!" Gloria called, waving to them as they crossed the yard with their breath trailing like smoke clouds in the glow of the Christmas lights. She turned to Jaron and stuck out a gloved hand. He smiled and took it.

The trailer was even smaller than she'd expected, a little aluminum one, wearing a large hat of fresh white snow. When Jaron opened the door, warm air greeted them. An oil heater was going full blast. The trailer was too small to have a separate living and sleeping area; it was all one small, narrow room. The bed had been folded out, taking up most of the floor space, and neatly made up with flannel sheets. Gloria's suitcase sat in the middle of it.

"Didn't they say one of the couples used to live here?" Gloria asked as she removed her suitcase so they could sit down and take their boots off; there was nowhere else to sit except the bed. "Remy and Saffron, or Crystal and—oh, it's hopeless, I can't keep everyone straight. Anyway, this looks like a nice place to spend the night, especially compared to sleeping in my car in the middle of a blizzard. But it would be awfully crowded living here, even with just two people."

"I dunno, it's pretty cozy in here." Jaron looked around. "I grew up in a cabin in the woods not much bigger than this, with my parents and some cousins."

"That sounds hard to deal with."

He shrugged. "You only know what you know."

True. Gloria had spent most of her life in medium-sized towns. Big cities like Atlanta intimidated her, but so did tiny little towns like the ones she'd driven through to get here, the sort that were just big enough for a gas station and a Dairy Queen.

If she were picking places to spend Christmas Eve, a ranch in rural Pinerock County wouldn't even have been on the list.

And yet, here she was. Loving it.

"Who would have thought," she said quietly, looking around at the trailer's interior as she took her coat off, "that having my car break down in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere would be the best thing that's ever happened to me?"

"Best thing?" Jaron repeated. "Really?"

"Yes." She got up and checked to make sure the blinds on the trailer's small windows were firmly closed. The windows were furred with frost, and she could feel the cold coming in through the glass, but the heater was making the interior of the trailer toasty.

Turning back around, she let the coat fall to the floor. "So," she said, with a hesitant smile. "What's the best thing that ever happened to you?"

"This," he whispered.

Rising from the bed, he took her in his arms, and Gloria was treated to an encore of the panty-melting kiss she'd experienced earlier. Except this time, they weren't separated by what had felt like a dozen layers of winter clothing. Underneath his coat, he was wearing only a light plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She couldn't imagine how he wasn't cold, but his body felt like a furnace, hot and hard and pressed against her, all firm hard planes with strong muscles rippling every time he moved.

His mouth captured hers in a series of scorching kisses that left her weak-kneed and wet, leaning into him. God, if this was what having a shifter mate was like, no wonder the other women had been wrapped around their mates half the night. He hadn't even touched her yet, beyond the strong arms wrapped around her—one hand on her back, the other just above the curve of her ass—and she was already shivering with her need for him.

Jaron dipped his hands under her bottom and picked her up. Gloria gasped against his mouth, and then wrapped her legs around him. He was so strong! Lost in his kisses, it felt like she was weightless, soaring through the air—

—until the back of his knees hit the bed. Gloria felt them go off balance, flung out an arm to try to stabilize them, and whacked her elbow on the wall instead. They tumbled onto the bed in a startled heap.

"Are you okay?" Jaron asked breathlessly.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." Gloria giggled and sat up, rubbing her elbow ruefully. "Okay, so it's not very big in here."

"And I'm a big guy. Sorry about that. I could've hurt you if I fell on you—"

"Jaron." Gloria cupped his face in her hands. "Stop. I'm not breakable. And the bed is where I wanted to be anyway."

His eyes darkened with arousal, his breath quickening. Still, he was infinitely gentle as he touched her face, drawing her to him for another kiss.

But Gloria didn't want gentle. Not now. She wanted to be taken. Ridden. She wanted to break the springs in this mattress, to punish the trailer's suspension even harder than the rough road to the ranch must have done.

She climbed into Jaron's lap, kissing him back with mad abandon. Her hands were all over him, combing her fingers through his short hair, working her other hand under the loose tails of his shirt to feel the scratch and burn of the coarse blond hair curling on his stomach.

Jaron fumbled with the buttons on her blouse, finally getting it loose and pulling it down over her arms. Breaking away from her hungry mouth, he trailed kisses down her bare shoulder in the wake of the sliding, silky fabric.

Her bra was next, though she had to reach back to help him with the clasp. When the cups slid away from her breasts, Jaron made a small, inarticulate noise in his throat.

Gloria drew back, steadying herself with one hand on his shoulder. He was gazing at her naked torso with a look of sheer wonder, like a man gazing upon a goddess.

"Jaron ..." Gloria began, a suspicion dawning on her. "Have you made love to a woman before?"

The look of panic in his eyes said it all.

She leaned forward to kiss him, but more gently. "Relax," she murmured. "Nothing you do here is wrong." Well, unless you drop me again, she almost added, but managed to squash her inappropriate urge toward flippancy; she didn't think he'd take it in the playful sense it was intended. Later, when they knew each other better, she could tease him out of his serious demeanor. For tonight, he needed to know that she was taking as seriously as he was.

"I want this, more than you would believe." She began undoing the buttons of his shirt. "Just do what comes naturally. I want you to take me, Jaron." The next words came up from deep inside her, from some primal part of her soul; she didn't even know she was going to say them, but they felt infinitely right on her tongue. "I want you to claim me."

Jaron's breath caught in his throat. He surged forward, caught her up in another kiss, and there was nothing at all tentative about it this time. A low growl rose in his throat, and it vibrated through her, going straight down to the hot core of her.

When he laid her back on the bed, she went willingly, letting him lay her out before him. He undid the button on her jeans, kissing her belly. The panties followed the jeans, and then he was between her legs, tasting her salt.

Oh God. She threw her head back, her breath hitching.

He tongued her folds and her hot nub, sending waves of pleasure through her, but pulled away before she'd had nearly enough. Gloria raised her head, panting, molten heat pooling in her core, and watched him undo his pants and strip them off. He wasn't wearing underwear, so there was nothing to stop his fully erect cock from springing free, massive and thick, with a drop of moisture beading at its tip.

Gloria leaned forward to wrap her fingers around him, guiding him toward her wet, ready entrance. She arched her body to meet him and he slammed into her, pushing her down against the bed. She pushed back eagerly, meeting him thrust for thrust. Pleasure was rising in her so rapidly that she knew she wasn't going to last long. Jaron, head bowed and sweat matting his short blond hair, seemed to be fighting for self-control just as hard.

They strove together, riding the rising waves. Jaron brushed his open mouth across her shoulder, and she gasped, shivering as his teeth raked her skin.

There was an instant's hesitation, and she sensed that, even with lust driving him as hard as it was driving her, he was waiting for the answer to an unspoken question.

"Yes," she gasped, digging her fingernails into his back. "Yes, Jaron, yes; don't stop now!"

He shuddered in response and thrust forward, pushing into her as his teeth clamped onto her neck. There was a sharp spark of pain and then a surge of pleasure so blinding it wiped out everything. She was united with him in an endless moment of ecstasy, dimly aware of his staccato thrusts as he arched into his own orgasm.

He relaxed slowly, and so did she, the two of them melting together, their newly united bodies easing into rest.

Jaron was the first to stir as his softening length slid out of her. He pushed up on his elbow and looked down at her with an expression of wonder and delight. This changed to a slight frown as he brushed a thumb across her collarbone, where she felt stickiness and a brief flare of something that wasn't quite pain or pleasure; it was more like pure compressed intensity of sensation.

"What's it look like?" she murmured, reaching up to touch it with her fingertips. Already the edges of the cut flesh had knit together. It didn't really seem to be bleeding much.

"Beautiful," he whispered. "Everything about you is beautiful."

Gloria thought of the little silver scars on the other women's necks. It was beautiful, a shared symbol that only shifters knew about, the outward manifestation of a ritual as old as shifterkind.

And now it was hers too.

"Hey," Jaron said softly, looking up at the clock on the wall. "Guess what time it is?"

"I don't know." She felt too relaxed and lazy to move.

"It's after midnight." He leaned down to kiss her just below the claiming mark, and a slow surge of pleasure rolled through her, almost like a second orgasm. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she whispered back.

Then she nearly jumped out of her skin, or at least into Jaron's arms, as a sudden, loud peal of music rattled the trailer's walls, coming from somewhere outside. It was so loud that it took her a moment to recognize "Carol of the Bells," with the volume cranked all the way up.

Both of them sat up and turned toward the wall of the trailer facing the yard. There was the sound of a slamming door, and then a male voice shouting, "Just wait'll I get the speakers warmed up, Remy, you son of a—"

This was followed by a female voice, also yelling across the blaring music: "Alec, if I hear a single jingle bell down there, you're sleeping in the barn tonight!"

And, from the other side of the yard, a voice that Gloria recognized as Tara's: "So help me, both of you, if that woke up Lexie, you two get to put her back to sleep!"

Gloria and Jaron shared a speaking glance that sent them both collapsing into silent giggles. They peeled themselves off the bed and crept to the window, peeking out into the winter-still yard just as the music cut out. On the porch of Remy and Saffron's house, Saffron was standing in a bathrobe, holding up an electrical plug victoriously. Remy, at the bottom of the steps, turned back and threw out his arms in an exaggerated "Hey!" stance.

Saffron unplugged the other end of the cord from the stereo, rolled it up, and went back into the house, taking it with her.

Someone else—Gloria couldn't see who, but it was coming from a window of the main house, so it was probably either Charmian or Daisy—gave a tiny cheer.

At the top of the snow-covered steps leading up to his house, Remy turned around and pumped his fist in the air. "Merry Christmas, Circle B clan!" he shouted.

There was a chorus of "Merry Christmas!" echoing around the yard, and a couple of stray moos from the cattle, then a moment of silence, followed by a single female shout of, "And now, can everyone just go to sleep!"

Convulsed with quiet laughter, Jaron and Gloria collapsed back onto the bed.

"Is it always like this around here?" Gloria asked.

"I don't know," Jaron said, his face going serious. "I'm not here much. I'm not really a part of the clan, just an ... an honorary member, I guess, because my former clan alpha Gannon is one of them."

"Oh," Gloria said, completely lost. All this shifter and clan stuff was going to take some getting used to.

"Never mind." Jaron stroked the side of her face. "I have you now, and I feel like I'll never be lonely again."

She felt that way too, at the moment—though she'd been around enough to know that people did need their families too. Even a soulmate wasn't quite enough. Families, and friends, and clans. It was lovely to be invited to spend Christmas with the Pinerock clan, but they weren't her clan; she was a welcome guest, but only a guest.

But now that she and Jaron had found each other, they had all the time in the world to find the place where they belonged.

No matter what, they had each other ... and right now, right here, it was enough.

Jaron got up again to turn down the heater. Gloria snuggled down under the covers. Jaron slipped into bed beside her, and there was a little bit of pleasant squirming until they managed to get themselves into a comfortable spooning position, with Gloria as the little spoon.

"Sex is nice," Jaron murmured sleepily into her hair.

Gloria giggled into her pillow and reached up to lace her fingers through his, where his hand was draped over her hip. "Yeah," she murmured. "Yeah, it is."

As the snow piled up outside the trailer, she fell asleep in her new mate's arms.

 

***

 

Not a creature was stirring ...

In the newly built little farmhouse, with its pretty stone walkways and Saffron's carefully tended garden hidden by the fresh blanket of snow, Saffron and Remy made love quietly so as not to wake the cub asleep in his bedroom downstairs.

Tara and Axl were doing likewise in their house next door. She muffled her cries in his shoulder as she came, and he cradled her in his strong arms—the sheriff bear, the first of their clan to take a mate, the one who had paved the way for all the others.

Cody and pregnant Crystal had already admitted they were both too tired tonight, laughing quietly in the darkness of Tara and Axl's guest bedroom. They contented themselves with kissing and a little playful nibbling, and a promise of more to come tomorrow, and fell asleep as they always did, wrapped up in each other's arms.

In the main house, Gannon and Daisy slept curled tightly together, side by side in the guest bedroom downstairs. Little Fern slept beside the bed in a cradle that Baz had used when he was tiny, passed down from Remy and Cody's parents—an heirloom of love, those long-gone grandparents still looking on, protecting their grandchildren with the work of their hands.

Upstairs, Alec and Charmian sat awake, watching the snow fall. Their little dog Bucket, shut up in the bedroom for most of the day since he wasn't used to having so many people in the house, lay on the foot of the bed, curled up and content.

Alec looked out on the ranch, surveying it as its alpha ... and occasionally glanced at his mate, his co-alpha in her own right. Her dark skin was glorious in the soft luminescence of the falling snow, begging to be touched. Unable to resist, he lightly brushed the soft skin at the nape of her neck with his fingertips, just below her closely cropped hair.

"What?" she asked softly, looking at him with a gentle smile.

It was only like this, away from the others, that Alec could see how soft his mate could be. Like any alpha, she put up a front of strength for the clan. The ability to see into an alpha's heart was reserved only for their mate ... as he knew she could see into his heart, into the soft and secret places that he kept hidden from the others.

And from those secret places of hidden softness came a confession. "I fully expect you'll make my life hell for this," he said, smiling, "but I have a terrible secret to tell you."

"Oh, no." She tucked her bare foot under her hip. "What is this terrible secret?"

"I didn't get you anything for Christmas." He brushed the corner of her mouth with his knuckle. "I'd like to say that it's because I couldn't find anything that was worthy of you, my mate, my everything ... but actually ..." Alec smiled wryly. "It's really more like, I got so busy with ranch business that I didn't even realize how close Christmas actually was, until it was too late to order anything and have it shipped here in time. I stand prepared to receive my punishment."

Her mouth tugged up in a smile, curving under his touch. "Well, perhaps I should make my terrible confession first, before any punishments are handed out. I didn't get you anything either."

Alec barked out a sharp laugh, smothering it quickly to avoid waking the guests downstairs. "You're kidding."

"I wish I was. And I don't even have the excuse of conveniently forgetting. I just couldn't think of anything. I ran all over town today, trying to find something, and I got a gift for everyone else, but you ..." She raised her dark eyes to his. "Nothing just screamed 'Alec' to me."

Gazing into her eyes, cupping her face in his hand, he murmured, "If anyone's screaming 'Alec' around here tonight, I want it to be you."

Her eyes lit with warm humor. "Subtle."

He shared her smile, but it dropped away as he turned serious. "The only gift I need is the one in my arms right now."

"Same," she murmured.

"And you know," he said quietly, "all I could think, looking out at the snow—well, besides 'I forgot to buy Charmian a Christmas present, she's gonna kill me'—is that I wouldn't change anything about our lives if I could. Nothing at all. Except maybe remembering a present next time."

"I don't want hearts and flowers and pretty wrapped packages," Charmian whispered. "I've never been that type. Everything I want is right here." And she leaned close to take his lips with her soft ones.

They made love to the gentle music of the falling snow, and came together, clasped in each other's arms, as the world turned beneath them and the darkness carried them toward a brand new Christmas morning.

The snow fell softly, fell and fell, covering everything.

And, a long while later, in the darkness of Alec and Charmian's bedroom, a whisper: "Okay, I have to admit, flowers every once in a while are nice."

"I'll buy you a very nice bunch of 'I'm sorry I forgot your Christmas present' flowers as soon as the florists are open again this week," Alec whispered back.

"Roses, preferably."

"The biggest bunch of roses in the shop for my sweet, perfect mate."

Charmian giggled and kissed him, and then all was quiet again, all through the night.