A Furry Little Christmas, page 1
A FURRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS: NICHOLAS AND STEPHANIE
The Macconwood Pack Tales 9
C.D. GORRI
A Furry Little Christmas
Nicholas and Stephanie
A Macconwood Pack Tale 9
by C.D. Gorri
For those of us who love the holidays!
Copyright 2021, 2022 C.D. Gorri, NJ
Contents
A Furry Little Christmas
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Beware… Here Be Dragons!
Have you met the Barvale Clan Bears?
Other Titles by C.D. Gorri
Excerpt from Sealed Fate
Excerpt from Tempted By Her Protector
Excerpt from Purrfectly Mated
About the Author
A Furry Little Christmas
What do you get when you mix two Wolves with a little holiday spirit? A furry little Christmas…
Stephanie DeMarco sold her house to take over her late father’s business, but running a Christmas tree farm is a lot harder than it looks. There are events to organize, vendors to hire, and one huge, very serious issue to deal with. Stephanie needs a Santa Claus stat!
What she doesn’t need is entanglements of any kind while she figures out what it is she really wants to do at this stage of her life.
Tell that to the hunk her Pack’s Alpha sent to work for the almost fifty she-Wolf. She might be getting older, but some things simply won’t be denied. Like her attraction to the sexy as sin Nicholas Winters.
Will Stephanie steer clear of the hot young Werewolf or will she wind up all tangled in tinsel with Manning Farms’ new Santa?
Prologue
Nicholas looked over at Clara sleeping quietly in her bed. His daughter was just ten years old, but sometimes it felt like she was going on thirty. He knew it was hard on her not having a mom like the other pups in her new school, but Maccon City was going to be good for them.
He believed that with all his heart. Had to, for Clara’s sake. After three tours of duty, losing his right foot for Uncle Sam, and serving for six years as a beat cop in the 135th precinct in New York City, he was ready for a different kind of life. For himself, and for his pup.
Technically, a member of the Macconwood Pack, though it had been years since he’d visited the almost all Shifter town of Maccon City, Nicholas reached out to the Wolf Guard for permission to move within city limits. He’d heard a rumor the new Alpha, son of one of the most ruthless SOBs ever to rule a Pack, was nothing like his father.
With the end of the Curse of St. Natalis, all Werewolves had been experiencing a huge shift in their relationship with their beasts. His Wolf was present all the time, in the forefront of his mind, in his heart, and never had his Wolf appeared so effortlessly.
The change from human to beast was swifter than ever, and his animal’s ability to push his desires on his human mind fiercer. Yes, they needed a change. And it would be good for Clara to get out of the city. To be with pups like her.
“Maccon City, here we come,” he murmured, checking the stacked boxes and suitcases. Their apartment was small, but it was still a lifetime’s worth of memories and things to pack.
He was renting a small place in Maccon City for now and hoped to find something to buy in the future. Money was not an issue, but he did not want to rush things.
That’s how he wound up with a kid at twenty-two years old, no wife, and a stint in the army while his parents helped raise his little girl. Dad was gone now, Mom retired to Florida, and it was time for Nick to step up.
He loved his Clara, so it was no hardship. The decision to move was easy.
“Daddy?”
“What’s that, honey?”
“Will Santa find us all the way in Maccon City?”
“Of course he will. I sent him a change of address form and everything,” he told his daughter with a straight face.
“Because I really have been extra good, and I really want him to get me what I asked for.”
“Well, you know, honey, Santa does his best.”
“I know, Daddy.”
“What was it you asked for?” Curiosity piqued as he thought of the list of toys and clothes he’d already bought and stashed away for Christmas for his baby girl.
“Well, I know I have you and Nana, but I wanted a bigger family this year,” she said, averting her gaze to follow the snow on the side of the highway.
His heart squeezed inside his chest, and he sucked in a breath. Nick could only imagine how difficult it was for his daughter to not have a mother, especially now that she was entering her pre-teen years. He would do his best, though. Always had.
“We’re gonna have a good life, Clara. I swear it.”
It was the least he could promise his only child.
“I know, Daddy, and this Christmas will be great.”
If only he could share her enthusiasm. New Pack. New Life. New location. Same Loneliness. But they had each other, and that was enough.
Chapter 1
Stephanie gasped under the weight of the box of calendars she was carrying. Who knew a bunch of paper could be so dang heavy? The Macconwood Charity Calendar was a pretty big deal to the Pack, and as their reigning Miss July for more years than she cared to count, it was her duty to sell her fair share of copies.
She dropped it onto the hand truck and placed her hands on her hips, taking a moment to listen and look at the families who’d come to see the newly reopened Manning Farms.
“This is what you wanted, Daddy,” she whispered to herself as she looked at the new sign she’d commissioned for the place.
She wiped away the single tear that spilled down her cheek, shaking her head at her own silliness.
Stephanie wasn’t fond of mushy emotions. Just ask her stepdaughter, Cassie, and her husband David. The couple had welcomed their first child, a beautiful bouncing baby boy named Marco, just a few months ago, and Stephanie loved being an official nana, even if it made her feel a tad on the old side.
Cassie had snorted with laughter when she demanded the baby refer to her as Stephie and not Grandma or Nana, after all, she was too young and cool to be called anything like that.
“Too bad Stephie. You’re a granny, period.”
Her daughter always was a defiant brat, but damn if she didn’t love the female. She’d married Cassie’s father out of a deep affection for the man and his only child after his first wife had passed. Matt DeMarco had seemed the perfect man.
So kind and good. A terrific father, and an overall sweetheart of a human being. She’d been unable to get pregnant by him, but that was okay. Pregnancy was difficult for Werewolves or had been before the curse was broken.
Cassie had been a special kid with a sort of innate magic intuition that had allowed the child to see the Wolf within her stepmother. The little rascal had been taught to keep her new stepmother’s secret, and she’d been taught to avoid the Alpha.
Zev Maccon was a real dickhead. He hated normals almost as much as he’d hated Witches, but he wasn’t the only worry in her life at that time. Stephanie also had to ensure the Council of Shifters did not get wind of her new daughter’s abilities to see them.
Keeping the Shifter secret was very important to them and their survival as a species. Cassie had learned fast, and Stephanie loved her all the more for it. She might not have birthed the little girl, but she was her daughter alright, in every way that counted.
A small piece of her ached with regret at never having had more children. Stephanie’s Wolf growled softly inside her mind’s eye, and she felt the animal’s love for their daughter fill her veins.
Life was too short for regret. Even a Werewolf’s supernaturally elongated life. Besides, she had little Marco to dote on. That would be enough.
She smiled at passing customers and got back to work stacking boxes of that year’s calendar onto the hand truck. Thanksgiving was over and folks were already decorating for Christmas. Something she was deeply grateful for.
Her father had passed away over twenty years ago, and the family farm had sat unused ever since. She’d been loath to sell it, memories of the man who should have doted on his only daughter haunted her.
Her husband had never pressed her to sell, even when they’d needed the money. Matt had been fine with her refusal to acknowledge the Manning legacy. And she’d been fine with it, too. Until now.
Bitterness over her father’s treatment had gone on too long. The old farm was in excellent shape because of the caretakers the estate lawyer had hired, and really, all she had to do was open the doors.
The greenhouses were running superbly and were filled to the brim with white and red poinsettias. She’d notified the various Christmas tree lots they’d previously sold too that they would keep fields three and seven for their cut-your-own tree sale this year.
Some had whined, but many congratulated her on bringing back a wonderful tradition to Maccon City. The warmest thanks and praise had come from her Pack. The Alpha and his family included.
“I recall visiting the farm once when I was very young,” Rafe Maccon had told her when she’d informed him of her decision to sell her house in town to move back to her old homestead.
“My mother took me to see Santa Claus, and we cut down a six-foo
“I’m glad you have a good memory of it, Rafe. I just felt it was time to bring it back.”
“Yes, I think you are right. My pups and Charley will love it for sure. So, who will you get to play Santa?”
It was that question that had stumped her when she’d started her plans to reopen Manning Farms all those months ago. And being the helpful Alpha Rafe Maccon was, he’d offered to find a solution.
Little did she know that solution was to come in the form of an almost seven-foot-tall army vet, who despite a brutal injury that cost him his right foot, was the most gorgeous man she’d seen in over a decade.
“Need a hand?”
Speak of the devil. Stephanie was glad her back was to him, so he couldn’t see her reaction to his sudden presence. She was too damn old to get all shaky over some guy!
Nicholas Winters.
Her Wolf had recognized him before her human half had caught up. He always smelled the same. Peppermint and dark chocolate. Kind of like the Mint Christmas bark she sold, along with cider donuts, chocolate truffles, and a million other goodies, decorations, and wintry odds and ends in the barn store next to the tree lot. Only Nicholas Winters smelled even better.
Sigh.
“No,” she snapped, ignoring the deep chuckle that followed. “I mean, no thank you,” she corrected.
“If you’re sure,” he returned casually.
Stephanie didn’t have to see his grin to know it was there. Smack dab on that sexy, chiseled face of his. Even with the full beard he kept, the same shade as his dark auburn hair, she knew his face was defined and rugged. Like most Werewolves, he was physically devastating.
And like most she-Wolves, her inner beastie panted at the very sight of him. She scoffed and struggled to push the now overloaded hand truck. Of course, the snow and ice covering the graveled parking lot made that near impossible.
With an impatient growl, big hands suddenly covered hers, and Nicholas’s arms enveloped her in their warmth before he gave the thing a hard push to get it going.
Just as quickly, he released her, and she missed his considerable heat the second he let go. Damn. She really needed to keep her distance from the too-young Wolf.
Hmmpf. Probably had his share of the young females in the back. No reason for him to be sniffing after her.
“Thanks,” she murmured, knowing full well he’d heard her before shoving off to the barn store where the calendars would be sold, but only from behind the counter.
She didn’t want any young children opening the racy calendar, even if it was for charity. Sigh. How she’d gotten roped into this every year was beyond her. Still, she’d do almost anything for a good cause. It was just her way.
The encounter with Nick, her sexy Santa, no matter how brief, sent her pulse racing, heart pounding, and dammit, her hands were still shaking. This was ridiculous. She was fifteen years his senior, at the very least.
No matter what her she-Wolf thought, Nicholas Winters was not for her. She just had to get through the next couple of weeks without doing something dumb. That shouldn’t be too difficult.
Sad whine.
Chapter 2
“I know you said this stint would be easy, Rafe, but I had no idea I would meet my fated mate! She is definitely the one,” Nicholas Winters accepted the beer his Alpha held out and confessed to the leader of the Macconwood Pack and one of the strongest Wolves he’d ever come across, that he had the hots for his new boss.
Fucking hell. How did this happen?
“Stephanie DeMarco? Really?” Rafe seemed stunned.
“She’s fucking gorgeous, man,” Kurt Lowell, one of the Wolf Guard, stated, and before he could stop himself, Nicholas was snarling fiercely at the man.
“Easy,” Rafe commanded, using his Alpha voice and soothing the ruffled fur of Nick’s beast.
Shit.
This was so not good. He could not afford to fuck things up with the Pack Alpha’s inner circle. He shook his head and apologized immediately.
“I’m sorry, man. It’s just my Wolf, you know, he’s a bit edgy.” He shrugged, lifting his beer to his lips and taking a long pull from the cold brew.
“Part of a cop’s life, I guess, huh? Knowing when to swallow your pride? Dude, I’m a lawyer, I get it,” Kurt replied.
“But seriously, Stephanie DeMarco? Holy hell man! I wondered when someone was going to set their sights on her again,” Rafe said and whistled long and slow.
“Understand,” Seff, the Pack Beta, inserted. “And I mean no offense, Nick, but Stephanie Manning, uh DeMarco, she’s a widow if you didn’t already know—” Seff paused, and Nick just nodded.
He did know, and it hurt him to think she had been hurt by the death of her first husband. He could never hope to replace the man she loved, but he hated she was denying them what was so obvious to him and his Wolf. Nicholas felt it deep in his bones. Stephanie was his fated mate.
“So yeah, you see, Stephanie man, she was like this super beautiful woman to a lot of us guys in here, way out of our league, like a pinup model, and again, I say this with all due respect, man,” Seff said, head whipping to the doorway.
The older Wolf grinned as a mysterious woman with curly hair in about seven shades from brown to red to blonde appeared, her eyes were just as dubious to explain. One second, they were blue, the next violet, the next green. Nicholas shook his head to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating her.
“And just who is it my man is talking about in here? Old flames, is it?”
“Mate.”
Seff seemed to breathe the word as he crossed the room and wrapped the female in his arms before claiming her lips in a soul-searing kiss.
The other males looked away, Nicholas included. It felt wrong somehow to watch a couple so intensely in love greeting one another. His Wolf whined, longing for his own true and fated mate.
Stephanie.
“Now man of mine, I would not be telling a young unclaimed Wolf that you and your friends fancied his yet-to-be mate when you were still wetting your bedsheets,” the strange woman said.
Then she turned her multi-colored eyes on Nicholas, and he froze like a deer in headlights. Too stunned to move.
“I’m Sherri,” she said, offering him a hand.
Nicholas took it and felt a pulse of magic drill into him. He tried to pull away, but the woman was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. Her eyes went white, and every Wolf in the room stilled. After a moment, she let go and Seff swung her up in his arms before she could slump to the floor.
Nicholas watched as he bent his head to his woman’s lips. The Beta nodded and turned to him.
“You’re right about Stephanie. She is fated to be yours, but only if you stay the course.”
“Stay the course?”
“Yeah.”
Nicholas frowned. What the hell did that mean? Well, he didn’t have time to ponder as he stood to make his leave. Clara was getting out of her after school activities club that the Pack ran from one of the guest houses on the property really soon.
The Manor, as the Pack house was affectionately known, was truly stunning. Nothing like that existed anywhere else. It was more a compound than a house, with several smaller buildings dotting the estate. In fact, this part of town was called Macconwood, owned by the Alpha, and one of the corporations under the Pack’s name, to ensure it would always belong to the Wolves under his care.
There were acres of pine forest behind the Manor on one side and a twenty-minute ride to a private beach on the other. A state-of-the-art gymnasium, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, workout rooms, tennis, soccer, two swimming pools, and even a mini bowling alley were just some amenities.
