Miracle Wolf for Christmas

Evernight Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2015 Vanessa
Devereaux

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-640-5

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry
Designs

Editor:
Brieanna
Robertson

ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

MIRACLE WOLF FOR
CHRISTMAS

Kalispell Shifters, 12

Vanessa
Devereaux

Copyright © 2015

Chapter One

Kent
took off at top speed, feeling the wind slice through his pelt. He put his nose
up into the air and inhaled. Snow was on its way. He looked down into the
valley beneath him. Big Sky Country sure was beautiful, especially at this time
of the year. It was as if nature had specifically created it just for wolves.
He ran again, this time dodging some fallen logs and low hanging branches. In
all honesty, he hadn’t enjoyed himself this much since his last visit to
Kalispell. Running with a pack would have been a lot more enjoyable, but most
of the other wolf shifters had been somewhat of party poopers and left him all
by his lonesome about an hour ago.

Okay,
it was Christmas Eve. He’d give them that, but when did these guys become so
human-like that they needed to head home to wrap the last of the gifts or put
even more of that sparkling crap on trees that belonged outside, not in? This
was the proper way for a shifter to spend the holiday. Outside in nature, and
running amid trees too fucking big to fit inside a house.

Kent
looked to the west. The sun was getting lower in the sky and he wanted to enjoy
what was left of the day doing some more running. It had started to snow and
there was nothing he liked better than feeling the cold droplets hit his pelt.

He
stopped for a few minutes and looked down on the valley housing Kalispell. Kent
had thought he’d come back just for a short visit to see his cousin, but the
beauty of the place made him think about making this a permanent move. The town
had a larger share of shifters than anywhere else he’d been. He liked being
around his own kind.

Lots
of things had changed since he’d been away. Shifters marrying humans, for a
start. One by one, including his cousin Nick, had succumbed to the temptation.
Not that he had anything in particular against shifters who favored humans, but
somehow, it didn’t seem right. Shifters belonged with shifters, period. Sure,
all their mates seemed nice enough, but it had started a fire. In the wolf
shifter community, there was even talk of a war brewing. Some packs were
thinking of going out on their own and not being part of the Kalispell Shifters
now that the humans were starting to infiltrate and breed with them. Word was
it was just a matter of time before everything fell to pieces and these humans gave
away their secrets.

He
put his nose into the air, getting the odor of real wolves and quite a few of
them. Not that they’d be any trouble for an alpha like him, but he knew that a
lone wolf didn’t sit pretty with a pack and could lead to trouble.

Kent
decided to sprint down the hill and into a thick set of trees close to a
stream. Despite the time of year, and the current temperature, the water still
ran freely. He leaned over and took a sip. Cleanest, freshest he’d tasted in a
long time. Yeah, it was good to be back.

The
sun slid farther down on the horizon. He didn’t want to be out running for much
longer. Nick and his wife Ava had asked him to spend Christmas Day with them to
help celebrate their daughter’s first holiday.
 
He’d accepted, but only for his cousin’s sake. Family was family, even
if said family had married an outsider. Kent had even brought a dress and toy
for the baby. After all, it wasn’t her fault she was half human.

Kent
made his way back close to where he’d parked his car. He planned to drive to
the hotel, watch some movies, open a bottle of wine, and relax before he had to
socialize tomorrow.

He’d
left his clothes in his car and had pulled into a turnaround spot where no one
would easily see him. It was about a five minute run, and soon he’d be sipping
wine and chilling.

****

Ally
hit the brakes, looking at the road ahead. Part of her knew she’d done the
right thing by telling Axel she’d man the center over the holidays. The other
half wanted to turn around, head home, bury her face into a cushion, and have a
good cry. After that, she’d get into bed, pull up the covers, and try and
forget it was Christmas. How she envied the bears. They got to hibernate. They
slept through one of the saddest times of the year. Well, it was when you were
single. She hadn’t been that way last year and that’s what hurt the most.

What
a shitty year it had been. She hoped she never had one like it ever again.

She
wiped a tear from her eye. It was getting dark, so she needed to get her act
together and decide whether she was going to work this holiday or head home and
watch the hands on the clock move painfully slow around its face.

Axel
would probably not be happy if she let him down at the last minute. If she was
going to the center, she had another thirty minute ride and it was now snowing.
She put her foot on the accelerator and guessed she’d made her decision without
giving it any more thought. Work would be the best thing for her. She’d picked
up enough groceries to last her for the next three days. She looked with envy
at everyone picking up turkeys and prime rib at Albertsons. Not that she
couldn’t enjoy a home cooked meal—both her parents and her brother had asked
her to spend the holidays with them. However, she couldn’t burden them with her
angst. The saying wasn’t true—misery didn’t like company. Well, at least in her
case it didn’t. It liked being all alone. It had seemed fitting that she’d
walked over to the frozen food section and picked out a turkey TV dinner,
complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

She
headed into higher elevation and, as always at this time of the year, the snow
fell heavier and faster the more she climbed. Ally reached the top of the ridge
and couldn’t help but glance sideways at all the twinkling lights of Kalispell.
So beautiful. All the houses, and inside, people celebrating the holidays with
their husbands and children.
 
Tears
formed in her eyes, momentarily blinding her. An animal dashed in front of her
car. She hit the brakes, hoping she could avoid it, but it was a little too
late.
 
Her car skidded to the right and
then
thud
, she’d hit the poor thing.

Ally
put the car into park and opened the door. She got out and rounded the left
hand side of her car. There in the headlight’s beam laid a wolf.

No, no, please
don’t be dead. Please don’t let me have killed you
.

She
knelt down beside it. It was huge, beautiful, and sort of ironic that she’d hit
her favorite wild animal. Her Master’s thesis had been all about wolf habitats.
She loved these creatures with a passion.

Ally
gave the wolf a visual check before touching him. Judging by its size, it was
male. She sighed with relief when she felt his chest rising and falling. The
wolf lifted his head to look at her. She worked with these creatures every day,
studied them, but she’d never seen one with such beautiful eyes before. It was
almost like he was checking her out.

“It’s
okay. I’m going to help you. Don’t move and I’ll be right back.”

Ally
went to the trunk of her car, moved the boxes and grocery bags aside, and found
her flashlight. She turned it on and then walked back to the wolf. She leaned
over and shone the light across his body. It looked like his leg was injured.
Ally knelt. She showed him her hands and then gently touched his leg to assess
the damage. He whimpered.

“Sorry,
and sorry for hitting you. You came out of nowhere.”

No
good blaming him. He was a wild animal with no road or traffic sense. The
accident was all her fault. She shouldn’t have been trying to sightsee while
driving.

She
suspected his leg might be broken. If she could get him into the car, she could
drive him to the research center and take a better look at him. Axel could even
fix his leg if it was in fact broken. She’d lifted wolves before, taking them
from one cage or enclosure to another, but never one quite this big. At least
she had to give it a try because she couldn’t let the poor creature lay out
here with an injured leg. They were at the top of the food chain, but still,
another car might hit him, or as a lone wolf and clearly injured, he might fall
prey to a pack.

“I’m
going to take you to the place where I work and we’ll fix you up.” She took off
her coat and laid it flat on the road. “This might hurt but it’s for the best.”

Ally
pulled his body toward her and the coat, hearing him yelp and whimper. She
hoped with a little luck she could merely slide him onto it without having to
lift him. She’d save her energy for getting him into the car.

“Sorry,
so sorry,” she said. He was so big his body wouldn’t even fit on her plus size
clothing, but she did the best she could and slowly pulled him around to the
side of the car and opened the back door. How she was going to get this big
beast up and onto the seat, she didn’t know, but she’d gotten him this far and
she wasn’t going to give up now.

Ally
leaned over and lifted the edge of her coat upward at the same time she put her
arms around his neck.

“Hold
tight.”

She
gradually lifted him up. Half his body was now on the seat, but unfortunately,
a bigger portion was still outside. He yelped one more time as she managed to lift
the rest of his body up and in. She ran around to the other side of the car,
opened the door, put her knee on the seat, and gently pulled so he was now
safely placed on the back seat.

Blanket.
She needed to keep the poor creature warm because he was probably in shock. She
knew she would be if she’d been hit by a car. She kept one in the trunk of her
car just in case she got stranded during a snowstorm.

“I’ll
be right back.”

It
wasn’t unusual for her to talk to all her research animals, but something about
this one told her he understood everything she was doing, and was hanging on
her every word.

She
walked to the trunk, popped the lid, and rummaged under her bags for the
quilted blanket that was tucked in back. She shook it out and then placed it
over the wolf. He seemed to be breathing heavily and she knew from experience
that it was a sign he was nervous.

“I’ll
get you to the research center and Axel should be able to help you out.”

Ally
got back into the car and shook the snow off her hair and shoulders. She put it
into drive and put her foot down on the gas. This being Christmas Eve, she
doubted any cops would be around this far outside the city limits of Kalispell.
Well, hopefully they’d all be opening gifts and she wouldn’t get stopped with a
wolf sitting on her back seat and have to waste value time telling them the
whole story.

****

Kent’s
leg hurt like hell. After she’d hit him, he thought that, just like any other
human, she’d pull him over to the side of the road and be on her way like
nothing had happened. However, this human obviously wasn’t like the rest.
Florence Nightingale had taken it upon herself to put him into her car. He’d
planned to shift, hobble back to his car, and drive to the shifter clinic to
get an X-ray. But now he was being driven out to the middle of nowhere. Where
did she say she was taking him, a research center?

Fucking
hell. That was the last place he needed to spend his evening.

He
lay back, hoping she’d run out of gas or need to answer nature’s call. Something,
anything that would get her out of the car, out of sight, so he could shift
back into man form without her seeing. His clothes and car were miles back to
the west, and it was going to be freezing, but hopefully, he’d manage to get
himself there. However, as the miles piled up and they headed farther into the
mountains, that was looking more and more unlikely. He looked out to see where
they were, but it was dark and snow was now falling, and he’d suddenly lost his
sense of direction.

She
turned on the radio. Christmas music sounded throughout her car. He hated
Christmas tunes.
 
Santa, snowmen, and
candy canes. So human, and so sickening. She burst into song. Kent wasn’t sure
what was going to make him throw up first, a human singing along to the radio
or the pain in his leg.

She
sang with vibrato. Kent hated when shifters did that and, as for humans, if he
had his hands, they’d be going around her neck right now. She turned the music
up louder, her fingers tapping the steering wheel as she rode along singing. If
only he had fingers, he’d stuff them into his ears, but for now, paws over them
would have to suffice.

Wolf kills woman
who was driving him home for Christmas.

Hmmm,
now that would make an interesting headline.

“And
how are you doing back there, Mr. Wolf?”

Mr. Wolf—how dare
she call me that. And I’d be doing just fine, Ms. Human, if you’d turn that
friggin
’ music down and stop singing.