Westmore Wolves Series: Shapesifter Collection Bks 1-5 Page 28

  “Now. Before they come.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  The velvet tip of him slid inside her and in one swift thrust he filled her, stretching her wide.

  “Oh…” She gasped, wiggling her ass against him. “Hard. Now.” Her magic swirled around them and he growled into her hair.

  He gripped her hips and began to piston inside of her in earnest. Fingers wandering, he found her erect nub and teased her until the first raging orgasm lit up the night. She clenched around him, her body welcoming the flood of his seed as his powerful thrusts came to a jerking halt.

  “Allyse…” He pressed a kiss against the side of her neck and held her close, their breaths evenly matched.

  The sound of a door opening and the barking of dogs met the quiet of the night.

  “Well that didn’t take long.”

  “It never does.” She sighed, content with her life. He pulled away and they put themselves to rights.

  “But would you change it, even for the world?”

  “Not a chance.” She grinned as Mr. Stinky and Hailey bounded down the walk. Not. A. Chance.

  If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment and leave a review. Only a few lines means the world to an author.

  Turn the page for Mistletoe Kisses, Book Five in the Westmore Wolves...

  Mistletoe Kisses

  Westmore Wolves, Book Five

  Naughty Nights Press LLC

  http://naughtynightspress.com/

  Third Edition January 2019

  ISBN: 978-1-77357-098-3

  Copyright © 2016 Erzabet Bishop

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

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  Mistletoe Kisses

  With some gifts, it’s all about the unwrapping...

  Jess looks forward to a holiday season of saving puppies and working at the shelter. With her new sister-in-law taking over the Yuletide Gathering, it’s run for the hills or wind up covered in glitter. What she doesn’t anticipate is her brother lining up yet another in a long string of bodyguards. She might be a wolf who can’t shift, but that doesn’t mean she needs anyone’s protection. When things heat up during the festivities, she finds herself face to face with the one man who just might hold the key to her heart.

  It was supposed to be a two-week Ops for ridding the world of hybrid wolves, not a babysitting gig for the spoiled sister of the Westmore Pack Alpha. But when Thorne sets eyes on the curvy brunette, he finds a fierce beauty with a soft interior just begging to be tamed, and he’s just the gargoyle to do it.

  Dedication

  To my husband for keeping all my seasons merry and bright and to the little fur balls who may be gremlins in disguise. You give me purpose. And to Badger. My sweet and faithful boy, you fly with the angels now. I will love you always.

  To Taddy. You are my heart. Even with your blindness, you always see.

  Acknowledgements

  To all the readers who have enjoyed the Westmore series and have found just a little bit of themselves in the characters within the pages. May you all have your fondest wish this holiday season and you’re your joy. Remember…when you rescue an animal, it might just be you they’re rescuing right back.

  To Kathryn and the folks at All Romance. Thank you for giving my stories life. All the voices in my head thank you. LOL.

  Chapter One

  Thorne sat across the desk from his new employer and tried unsuccessfully to shake away the incredulous feeling gnawing at his gut. He’d come to Westmore with the understanding that this would be a two-week Ops mission to locate and destroy the violent hybrid wolves he’d been hearing about. They a role to play in his father’s death, he was certain of it, and now he could finally get the answers he was seeking and kill a few in the process. But, as he sat across from the Westmore Pack Alpha, he found himself staring at the man, completely disbelieving his ears.

  “That wasn’t the job.”

  “I want her protected.” Thorne met Carrick’s eyes, and Thorne struggled to hold in his frustration. This was why he’d been brought to the famed Westmore Estate? The Alpha was legendary for taking down his predecessors with nothing but brains and his own two hands…but to suggest he babysit a female? He was no one’s nanny.

  “You want me to be a bodyguard? For a woman?” Thorne sputtered and erupted from the chair, stalking to the window. He kept one eye on the comings and goings outside and another on the man behind the desk. Thorne had come at night, as requested, to see the estate at its most vulnerable. What he hadn’t expected was to be insulted.

  “Not just a woman. My sister. And the job is a trial period for two weeks.”

  “And after?”

  The Alpha thrummed his fingers on the desk. “We’ll talk about that if you’re still here.”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  The door opened and another man entered, closing it behind him. Thorne eyed the man and waited to be introduced. The pinched look of the other man’s mouth and worry lines in his face indicated he cared about this woman. Interesting.

  “Where is she?” the Alpha demanded.

  “Probably at the shelter again. She’s not in her room and the guard at the front gate said she took off around eight this morning. Something about an adoption drive at Barks.”

  “Thorne, this is Reid, my second in command.” Carrick ran his hand through his mane of dark hair and frowned. “Jesus, she knows I want her to be careful. I keep telling her to quit, but she won’t listen. After what happened with that fucking dragon…”

  The other man, Reid, unconsciously rubbed at his arm.

  “You were injured.” Thorne stepped away from the window and moved deeper into the room. He could sense their unease. Perhaps something more was happening here than met the eye.

  “I was.”

  Dragons? Now that was interesting.

  “I was told there were hybrid wolves.”

  “Originally, that was the contract. Yes.” Carrick rose from the chair, came around the desk, and leaned against it. “But we’ve come to find out that the previous alpha may still have some support out there.”

  “A dragon?” Thorne raised an eyebrow. Dragon kind and Night Wing gargoyles were not on friendly terms. Territorial disputes in his homeland had made them natural enemies. But here? That would remain to be seen. Not that he would mind tangling with one.

  “An old bas
tard of a firefighter, too. Seemed like he was setting more blazes at the end rather than putting them down.” Carrick’s lips thinned and his jaw clenched. “He endangered the life of my mate.”

  Thorne considered the Alpha carefully.

  “If you’ve rooted him out, then why am I here?”

  “He’s not the only one,” Reid bit out. “We know there are more out there. What remains to be seen are when and where they choose to rear their ugly heads.”

  “Why don’t you go to them?” It seemed a simple question, but the shuttered looks from the men in front of him stopped the suggestion before it could go any further.

  “The Yule Gathering is coming and I want no complications. Likely as not, there are more of them out there and I won’t take a chance with my mate, my sister, or my pack. I spoke with your last employer and he said you were the best, most unobtrusive operative he had.”

  “I am.”

  And Thorne could find the creatures the Alpha sought. All he had to do was give the command.

  Thorne wasn’t boasting. It was the truth. People paid for his work and paid him well.

  “Good,” Reid snorted. “If you’re tailing Jess, you’re going to need it.”

  “Is she your mate, this…Jess?”

  “No.” A shade of pink crept up the sides of the other man’s face. “More like…a sister, if you want to know the truth.”

  The Alpha sighed. “And she’s stubborn.”

  “Yeah…”

  The two men glanced at each other, a pregnant pause filling the room. Any information withheld could jeopardize Thorne meeting whatever goal they had in mind.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Her last bodyguard didn’t make it longer than a day.” Carrick closed his eyes, a twitch of humor playing at his lips.

  This ought to be good.

  “May I ask why?”

  “He, ugh…went up in flames.” Reid coughed, but underneath the sound Thorne was certain he heard a note of laughter.

  Flames?

  “What did she do, torch him?”

  “Not exactly.” Carrick cleared his throat and turned his face away in what Thorne was sure was an effort to compose himself.

  Were they hinting he couldn’t handle a woman? It didn’t sound like she needed protection in the least.

  Thorne’s lips curved up in a humorless smile. “If she’s such a force of nature, then why the protection? I thought your females were fierce.”

  Reid met Carrick’s gaze and the Alpha cleared his throat until his second glanced away, his eyes finding Thorne’s.

  “Tell him.”

  “She can’t shift.” The Alpha sighed.

  Reid crossed his arms over his chest. “Won’t shift. There’s a difference. She can but she doesn’t want to.”

  “I don’t accept that.” Carrick pushed off from the desk and went to the window.

  “Well, you’d better start. You and I both know that bastard damaged her. She may be strong for a female, but her wolf is broken,” Reid replied, his tone filled with frustration.

  Thorne’s stomach lurched at the thought. To hear that her beast had been harmed was unacceptable. War with men he understood well, but not females. Women being abused made his skin crawl. He’d seen much in his line of work, but that was one thing he would not tolerate. It took a good bit of doing to squelch an animal. He should know.

  “What happened?”

  “You’ve heard what took place here? What the previous alpha did? The atrocities and the genetic experiments?” Reid asked with a bitter twist of his lips.

  “I have. The overthrow of the previous regime was unavoidable. Your prowess in battle is legendary.” He nodded to Carrick in a show of respect. He’d found the main source but some of the tendrils remained. And he fucking wanted to tear out the rest of them by the roots. That was why he came here.

  Reid shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. He took them…the girls. The women. He…”

  “Stop.” Carrick’s voice was strained and his stance was tense. “We don’t need to hash out any of the details.”

  He didn’t.

  Raw disgust churned through Thorne’s guts at the images that provoked and he held up his hand. “No. I understand.”

  The Alpha’s reaction needed no explanation. Reid approached him and handed him a picture of a brunette woman, her eyes full of spark and sass and boundless curves that set his inner beast tingling.

  He had been without a woman for far too long and, nearing his ninetieth year, it was time for him to select a mate. He had never set much stock in such things and he pushed the unwanted burst of desire from his mind. This was his client, not a prospect for fucking.

  He shoved the picture back toward the wolf. “Is that what you want?” Thorne inquired. “To force her to shift?”

  “No.” Carrick turned from the window. “But I do want her watched over. If one of the hybrids comes for her I might not make it in time. Even with the company growing as much as it has and all the security measures, with a house full of guests we are at our most vulnerable. I want you to monitor her and make sure she stays out of trouble.”

  Follow her?

  “And if I refuse…”

  The Alpha appraised him, his eyes growing cold. “Then be on your way.”

  “Carrick. We need him,” Reid snapped.

  “We do. But on my terms.” The moon shown through in the Alpha’s gaze and Thorne got a truer glimpse of the man beneath the thin veneer of civility. This was a man who would not hesitate to kill to protect what was his. And he had, or he wouldn’t be standing here before Thorne. “I know why you came here and you’ll get your wish, but first you’ll do as I ask.”

  Now he was curious.

  “Go on.”

  “Stick with her. Like fucking glue, and for Christmas you might just find something more than coal in your stocking this year.” Carrick waited for his response, the muscle in his jaw visibly clenched.

  He wanted him. Why?

  “I’ve seen my gargoyle cousins patrolling the grounds and your legion of wolves has grown to nothing less than legendary. Why do you need me?”

  The Alpha parted his lips, his teeth sharp. “Because I need my sister protected and you are the man for the job.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “It’s the only answer you’re going to get.”

  “I am no one’s nursemaid,” he spat. He had toppled governments and protected kings. To be asked to do such a menial job was insulting.

  The Alpha stared him down, jaw clenched.

  “They will not take her again. Will you let a woman go unprotected to appeal to your own vanity?”

  A hollow pang sliced through Thorne. He knew. Of course he did. He was Thorne of the Night Wings—son of Claymore, ruler of the Aeries. Was. But that was no more. He was also a mercenary who protected his charges for money while he bided his time and plotted his revenge. He could do this. It was, after all, just a job. And in doing so he would find the answers he sought.

  “No. I would not.” He closed his eyes and tried to banish the dead eyes of his father from his memory. This man too had lost much and had found his place. He would do this job and earn the right to slaughter his enemies, even if it meant keeping track of one ornery woman. Two weeks and that would buy him his future.

  “You’ll do it then?” Reid shifted his weight, his hand once more rubbing at his arm.

  Wordlessly, he gave a single nod.

  “Good. You start now.” Carrick glanced at his watch and tossed a set of keys in his direction. “I would start with Barks if I were you. It’s on Main Street. And I hope those boots are steel-toed. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”

  “Wear a cup.” Reid shook his head and grimaced.

  Right.

  Thorne caught the keys, his reflexes sharp. In two strides, he was out the door and into the hall, the image of the photograph burned into his brain.

  He p
ulled out his phone and had already started Googling the location before he reached the front door. Shoving his phone into the holster at his hip, he stepped through to the darkness outside and shifted enough so the breadth of his feathery stone black wings could lift him up into the night.

  Chapter Two

  “That’s it, then.” Jess smiled wistfully as she observed the last remaining rescue pup carried off toward the front of the store by his new owners. Tongue lolling, the chocolate lab puppy couldn’t stop licking the young boy’s face as he struggled to keep the squirming fur ball in his arms. The child’s mother reached down and patted the dog on the head, instructing her son on how to hold him properly, and quickly righted the shopping cart filled with all manner of toys, food, and bedding.

  Jess stretched her back and rubbed at a sore muscle on her shoulder. Her body was sore from her workout, done earlier that morning before she headed over to the shelter to be ready for the afternoon’s adoption party. The self-defense classes had taught her to be more aware of her environment and how to defend herself.

  Holiday music piped through the air and, for a moment, Jess wished the little guy was going home with her. A lonely bed was waiting and it would have been nice to cuddle up with a warm, wriggling puppy.

  Her thoughts gave a jagged little twist and her smile faltered, sliding off her face.

  It wouldn’t be with Reid, that was for sure. All her life she’d thought she and her brother’s handsome best friend, now second in command of the Westmore Pack, were meant to be together. That was before last full moon when all her best laid plans had gone up in a pop of fur and a mating she never saw coming.

  Caroline, the new wolf helping Sage—her brother Carrick’s mate—with holiday decorations for the Yule Gathering, had come out of nowhere and claimed the man Jess had assumed would someday be hers. In her mind, it was a betrayal that stabbed her in the guts and she didn’t know what to do about it.