A Shifter's Christmas Box Set by Emilia Hartley

Author:Emilia Hartley [Hartley, Emilia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

He couldn’t deal with it anymore. Claus couldn’t stand being so close to Holly without being able to touch her. Every moment around her was another nail in the coffin. It was not his future that he worried about, but hers. If the mating bond took hold of her, it would drag her into the mess that he called his life. That wasn’t what he wanted for her.

Outside, he stretched his arms, throwing them wide. The pull on his muscles felt glorious. His beast stirred. No one was around, no humans that would see the beast he wanted to unleash. Still, he walked toward the woods, eager to put more distance between him and Holly.

Claus allowed himself to consider what life might be like if he stayed with her. There was no arguing that her smile and her cackling laughter was delightful. He couldn’t get enough of it. Especially when she was pulling a fast one on her family. Holly was clever and quick. She would have fit right into his world, but that wasn’t a place that he wanted her to be.

For a moment, he thought about finishing this job and going out on his own. Not to become any kind of crime boss, but to live a life mostly on the straight and narrow. He could clean up his act, maybe move to Raleigh with Holly, and just be…normal. Though, he didn’t have any marketable skills that employers would want.

And, what would a polar bear shifter do in Raleigh? Claus thought he would miss the snow, miss the wide-open spaces of the North East. The South was no place for a man like him.

His beast was not convinced. It pushed at his form and slid free, falling to all four massive paws. It would not mind the smaller spaces or the freedom from the pressure of his current job. The fur on the back of his paws should have been red, not white. The bear was tired of it, tired of the screams that came with meting out his boss’s punishments.

Life with a loving mate was much more preferable.

The bear meandered through the woods. Snow had recently fallen, coating the ground in a layer of white that allowed Claus to blend in. The woods smelled of deer and wood. He could see where they had rubbed their antlers against the trees, scraping the bark down to raw wood. There was no mistaking this wood.

It belonged to the Carters.

Still, Claus did not think they were anything to fear. He was worth two, if not three of them. Deer were not predators, either. So, he did not think to mind his surroundings or scent the wind. Not until they had him surrounded.

Claus looked from reindeer to reindeer, trying to identify them. He figured the one that stalked forward with her head held high was most likely Elise. If this was about the credit card theft, he had no voice to tell them to fuck off.

Instead, he reared back onto his hind legs and rose to his full height.

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