Bought for Christmas (12 page)

As
though it had only happened yesterday, Hunter saw himself pulling
a lifeless
Jasper out of the wrecked car. Heard the noise of
the explosion and felt his skin tear and burn as the fire rocketed against him.
The pain, the despair and then nothing but blissful darkness until he opened
his eyes to read the truth in his mother’s tearstained gaze.

Fuck,
he couldn’t do this. Not caring about what it must look like he tore away from
Emilia and the suffocating heat of the fire. He needed to get outside, to
breathe clean air, to shift and to run away from the ugly demons. He was out of
the door and half shifted before Emilia’s shout registered.

“Hunter,
stop. Please, Sir, don’t do this. Don’t run away.”

Breaths
heaving in and out of his chest, Hunter turned at the bottom of the steps to
find Emilia still holding that damn bauble. Tears ran down her face, and she
shivered in the freezing air. The storm was over, but it was still far too cold
to be out in this. The leggings and long jumper she wore would be no protection
for her.

“Get
back inside.” He grimaced at the hoarse quality of his voice, and Emilia shook
her head.

“No, not without you.
Not until we
talk about this,” she said, and Hunter groaned.

“Damn
it, woman, you’ll freeze, standing there. There is nothing to talk about. You
wanted a tree. I got you one. A tree needs decorations. I’ve got you some. What
is there to fucking talk about?”

Emilia’s
eyes flashed fire, and he got a second’s warning of her intentions before she
threw the bauble at his head, with a growl that would have done any she-bear
proud. He ducked at the last minute, and the bright red decoration sailed past
him and plopped into the snow. Like a red tear it lay there, before it slowly
sank into its powdery grave.

All
the fire seemed to have gone out of Emilia following that action, because she
sniffed, and turned back round with a muttered, “Damn you to hell and fucking
back, Hunter Monahan.” She slammed the door shut with so much force that
an avalanche of snow slid off
the roof, further burying the
item from his childhood.

Hunter
swore under his breath, got to his knees and shoveled the snow away with his
hands until his fingers touched the bauble. A grim smile played on his lips, as
he pulled it out, and properly looked at it. There, written in tiny, childlike
writing was the message he’d scribbled on it himself.

 
Santa, roller skates

The
moisture running down his face took him by surprise. Hunter couldn’t even
remember the last time he’d allowed himself the luxury of tears. They didn’t
achieve anything, bar making you look like a fucking pussy, and left you with a
lump in your throat and a fucking headache to boot.

Something
crashed inside the cabin, and he winced. He wasn’t the only one crying.
Emilia’s tears burnt a path of acid over his heart, and he was up the stairs,
through the front door and in front of her in seconds.

Huddled
in front of the box Emilia looked up at him, and he dropped to his knees and
pulled her in for a hug.

Neither one of them said anything for
the longest time, and
when she finally pulled away, and wiped his tears
off his face, something broke inside of him.

“I’m
sorry,” she said. “We can put this away, and—”

“No.”
Her eyes widened at his growled reply, and he cupped her face and kissed the
remnants of her own tears off her face. The salty fragrance of her skin called
him, and he licked along her jaw. Her heart beat picked up under his
fingertips, and it took considerable effort to pull away. Holding up the red
bauble he still held in his hand he showed the inscription to Emilia.

“It
was a tradition in our house to write what we wanted on the baubles. Mum and
Dad got four new ones every year, and we would scribble on them whatever it was
we wanted most that year. I remember doing this. I was seven. Fiona at school,
who I loved with all the passion a seven year old is capable of, had roller
skates and she promised to teach me how to use them, if I got some of my own.
Naturally, that meant roller skates were the must have present that year.”

He
glanced up to see Emilia smiling at him.

“Naturally,”
she said. “Did you get them?”

Hunter,
too, grinned in remembrance.

“Oh,
yes I did.
As did every boy in our class.
I’m afraid
Fiona was rather a tease.”

Emilia
giggled, and Hunter relaxed further into telling his tale.

“Of
course that meant the competition was on. I had to become the best damn roller
skater in the school. One has to impress the ladies, you know.” He reached up
to put the bauble on the tree, and picked up another one.

“This
one—”

“Hang
on,” Emilia interrupted him. “What happened with Fiona? Did you get your girl?”

Hunter
hung his head and stuck his bottom lip out, which made Emilia giggle. Hunter
breathed a sigh of relief. He so loved that giggle.

“Sadly no.
After all that
effort she chose Lawrence. Who didn’t know how to roller skate, was short and
fat, but a genius, and did her homework for her.”

Emilia
tried to stop laughing, but failed miserably, and Hunter winked at her.

“Brain
over brawn, was it?”

“Oh,
I had the brains, but I wasn’t gullible enough to help her cheat, and I’m no
one’s doormat.”

Emilia
sobered and nodded.

“No,
I bet, even back then you were rather the take-charge type, huh?”

Hunter
shrugged and bared his teeth at her in a goofy smile.

“I
shall neither confirm nor deny that, for fear it might be used against me at a
later time.” He kissed her on the nose. “Now, like I was saying, this one, I
got my dad to write, because I didn’t know how. I was three, and I wanted a
train set.”

Time
flew by as Hunter told the stories associated with each bauble, and his heart felt
lighter with every little thing he shared. Emilia chipped in with anecdotes
from her own childhood, and by the time he lifted her up on his shoulder so she
could put the star at the top of the tree, it was late, and Emilia yawned.

In
truth, Hunter, too, felt exhausted. All this purging one’s demons wore a man
out.

He
threw another log on the dying fire and pulled Emilia into his side, as they
lay on the soft rug, looking up at the tree.

She
propped herself up on one elbow better to see him, and his throat went dry at
the wealth of emotion he saw in her gaze.

“Thank
you for sharing that with me, Sir. It can’t have been easy.”

Hunter
nodded and pulled her back down until her head rested on his chest, and his
bear grunted his approval at having
her this
close to
him.

“It
wasn’t, but telling you has made me realize that there are plenty of things in
my past worth remembering. I had forgotten I even had that box. I found it in Mum
and Dad’s house after they’d passed on, and I couldn’t bring myself to chuck it
out, so I brought it up here and shoved it into the spare room.”

Emilia
snuggled in closer and kissed his chin.

“Did
they not celebrate Christmas either after…
”

Hunter
sighed and shook his head.

“No,
none of us did. Or if they did, I wasn’t part of it. To be honest I spend most
of the Christmases that followed too drunk to even remember them. It seemed
easier that way. Once they passed away within hours of each other, I just
pretended Christmas didn’t exist.”

Emilia
sat up, and he, too, followed, not ready to lose contact with her.

“Within
hours of each other?” she asked. “Is that another shifter thing?”

“Yes,
kitten. They were a mated couple. It syncs their life spans. Typically one
doesn’t survive long without the other. It’s what makes the whole being mated
thing such a big deal. It really is for life. There is no divorce when you’ve
found your mate.”

Emilia
went quiet and worried her bottom lip with her teeth again. He was beginning to
realize it was a tell-tale sign of her emotions. She was chewing something over
in her mind, and his insides twisted in on themselves.

“So
how does one become one’s mate? Is it like in the books?” She blushed when he
raised his eyebrows.

“And
what sort of books would that be, kitten? Because I’m pretty sure there are no how-to
manuals for shifters in existence.
At least not for humans.”

Emilia
avoided his gaze, and he grasped her chin to make her look at him.

“Eyes
on me, girl, and answer my question.”

A
pretty blush stained her cheeks, and had it not been for his enhanced hearing
he’d have missed her mumbled reply.

“Shifter erotica, Sir.”

“I
see. So, you tell me what usually happens, and I tell you if you’re right.”

Hunter
had a hard time keeping a straight face. She looked too adorable all flustered
like this.

“Err,
no, Sir, I’d rather you tell me, because … well, that’s just fiction.”

Hunter
smiled and ran his thumb over her soft lips.

“Truth
can be stranger than fiction at times.”

“So,
it seems, but will you please tell me how it works?” She didn’t quite manage to
look at him when she said that, and the emotion choking him meant he had to
clear his throat several times before he could project his voice with any of
its usual authority.

He,
too, stared into the fire, his senses too aware of her reactions as it was.

“I
guess, humans would call it falling in love at first sight, but it goes much
deeper than that. It’s the knowledge that that particular person is the only
one for you. It’s everything. The way they talk, look, their scent. A person’s
scent changes as they get older, did you know that?” He glanced across at her
to see her shaking her head. “So, even though you might have known them for a
while, say as a child…”

Emilia
gasped and drew her knees up to her chest, and an ice cold fist squeezed his
chest. It made breathing difficult, and he forced his bear to stand down. The
animal was too agitated by the confusing signals Emilia sent out right now.

“When
you see them again, all grown up, you realize they’re your mate? Is that what
you’re saying?” Emilia whispered the question, and Hunter breathed out slowly,
all too aware of the way her breathing sped up and her heart beat thundered.

“Yes,
kitten, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Emilia
took a deep breath as though to try and steady her nerves.

“Has
that happened to you?” she asked. The wobble in her voice meant he
had
to
look at her, and he knew his bear was showing in his eyes by Emilia’s reaction.
Her breathing hitched and her eyes widened, and she leant in closer, as though
she, too, felt the pull of the mating bond.

“Yes,
it did,” he said.

Emilia
opened her mouth as though to say something, but nothing came out bar a
strangled squeak, and he balled his hands into fists on his thighs to stop from
reaching out to her. A myriad of emotions crossed her face, and when she
finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

“So,
why haven’t you claimed her?” She flicked a glance up at him, and he smiled.

“It’s
not as easy as that, kitten.”

“Why?”

Hunter
sighed, and an uneasy silence fell between them, only broken by the sound of a
falling log. Emilia jumped.

“Is
that why you didn’t just take the shares?” she asked.

“I
was never going to take the damn shares. Not for me anyway. They’re yours,
kitten. They should always have been yours.”

Emilia
shook her head and gave a short humorless laugh, so unlike her that his gut
twisted.

“You
know full well that women in our family never inherit anything. Besides, I make
my own money, and I have no wish to be associated with a company that was
responsible for the collapse that killed so many people.” She glanced at him
and smiled grimly when he just stared at her. “Mama told me about it before she
died. She also told me that I should give you a chance if you were ever to
approach me. Guess she knew something I didn’t. After all, your name was mud in
our house, you know.”

Hunter
gave silent thanks to the amazing woman that Annalisa had been and smiled at
Emilia in an effort to reassure her.

“Yes,
I was well aware of that.
One of the many reasons why I kept
my distance.
Besides you were too young for me, still are, truth be
told.”

Emilia
rolled her eyes, and Hunter’s heart felt lighter.

“Poppycock,
we’ve already discussed this.”

“When
this was just us spending the weekend together, kitten, not…” He let his voice
trail off and giving into the need to touch her, ran his fingers over the
strands of her hair falling across her face. Lifting it off he allowed the
silky feel to soothe his agitated bear.