Miracle Wolf for Christmas Read online

  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.<
br />
  “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.

  “It’s not much farther,” she added.

  Geez, how on earth had he ended up in this car? Maybe he’d bite or wrap his paws around that neck of hers. Kent glanced at the clock on the dashboard. They’d been driving for at least forty-five minutes. How the shit was he going to get back to his car? Tomorrow when he didn’t show up at Nick’s place and his cousin didn’t get an answer on his phone, they’d send out a search party. But just how the hell would they find him at wherever it was she was taking him? Shit, going for a run in the middle of nowhere had been a bad mistake. Getting hit by this looney woman, a tragic event. Didn’t humans believe the holidays were time for miracles? If he could get out of this car, he’d believe in them too.

  “Oh, I love this one,” she said, turning the radio up even louder.

  Kent buried his head under his paws and whimpered. Worst fucking Christmas ever.

  With his sharp hearing, and despite the racket in the car, he was able to hear the indictor ticking. She was turning left. He peeked out the window. They were still miles from nowhere, but up ahead was a building with some lights on out front. She turned down the radio, sounded the horn, and then turned off the ignition.

  Kent took another peek and zeroed in on the nameplate by the door.

  Glacier Area Wildlife Research Center.

  The word research had so many connotations, especially when humans were involved. Thoughts of being experimented on, shackled, and maybe having drugs injected into his veins flashed through his mind. Maybe he should shift and run. Maybe she wouldn’t notice, but now another human was in the picture. A man in his early forties walked toward her car.

  “I didn’t think you were ever going to get here,” he said.

  “I know. I had a little mishap on the way. I hit a wolf and I have him on the backseat. I think he’s got an injured leg. You think you can take a look at him before you go?”

  The man looked at his watch. “Sure, what’s another thirty minutes or so?”

  “Great.”

  “I’ll bring a cart and we can get him loaded onto it.”

  A cart. They were going to put him on a cart like he was a piece of meat.

  The woman got out and opened back the car door as far as it would go. “There, you see Mr. Wolf, help’s on its way.”

  I swear if you call me that name once more, I’m going for your jugular.

  The man wheeled out some contraption on wheels and together they lifted Kent out and placed him on top of it. They’d placed a blanket on top and already it was making him itch. He just hoped it wasn’t flea infested.

  Geez, his leg was aching now. Not quite as bad as his ears from the deafening music and singing, but still not pleasant. The snow fell on him and he blinked the flakes away as he saw lights ahead, and then he was inside.


  Animals—real wolves, bears, you name it—were around here someplace. He could hear each and every one of them talking. Maybe he’d let them all out, let them go free. No more being experimented on by these crazy humans.

  “Let’s take him in here. Well, that’s assuming it’s a him,” said the man, holding open a door. He turned on some overhead lights and Kent saw a metal examination table. “Okay, on my count of three, we’ll lift the wolf up and onto the table.”

  They picked up corners of the coat she’d laid him on and up in the air he went, then down on the cold table.

  The man turned him over. “Oh yeah, he’s male all right.”

  “Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen a wolf with that big of a…”

  She stopped and turned red.

  Oh yeah, baby, it’s impressive, isn’t it? You should see what it’s like when I’m in man form. That would really knock your socks off.

  “Definitely alpha of his pack with a dick and balls like that,” said the man. His hand hovered pretty close to Kent’s prized possessions.

  Don’t even think about it, buddy. Touching these babies is strictly for the females.

  “They are starting a program where some of the wolves will be neutered,” he said.

  Definitely don’t even think about that unless you want to spend Christmas in the ER.

  “He’s too beautiful for that,” said the woman. “Can you imagine what gorgeous pups he’d produce,” she said.

  Maybe he’d wronged her after all. She clearly was intelligent.

  “If you say so. Let me look at this leg.” He pulled and pressed it. Kent yelped.

  “You think it’s broken?” the woman asked.

  “Could be. I’ll have to X-ray him. You want to get something to put him out?”

  Wait a minute.

  “No, I don’t think we need to. Look, he’s really calm.” She stroked his head. Kent had to say he enjoyed her touch.