Winter Moon: A Christmas Novella (Seven Book 8) Read online

  Winter Moon

  A Seven Series Novella

  Dannika Dark

  Contents

  SUMMARY

  Dear Reader,

  Also By Dannika Dark:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Back Page

  Want More?

  Books by Dannika Dark:

  WINTER MOON

  A Seven Series Novella

  * * *

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  DANNIKA DARK

  * * *

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2016 Dannika Dark

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author. You must not circulate this book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Edited by Victory Editing and Red Adept. Cover design by Dannika Dark. All stock purchased.

  * * *

  www.dannikadark.net

  OFFICIAL DANNIKA DARK NEWSLETTER

  SUMMARY

  The Weston pack waited until the last minute to prepare for Christmas. Spirits are low, and now they’re in a scramble when a freak snowstorm knocks out the power. Despite bickering among packmates and the threat of rogues, the family is determined to make this a memorable Christmas.

  But when an important family member goes missing, the pack is galvanized into action. Time is running out, and the temperature is dropping fast.

  * * *

  Book 7.5

  Dear Reader,

  * * *

  If you have not read the Seven series, this novella takes place after the final book. Please begin with Seven Years, book one in the Seven series.

  * * *

  I’d like to dedicate this novella to my pack. Your unwavering love for these characters continues to inspire me. Thank you for taking the journey and opening your hearts to these stories.

  Also By Dannika Dark:

  THE MAGERI SERIES

  Sterling

  Twist

  Impulse

  Gravity

  Shine

  The Gift

  * * *

  MAGERI WORLD

  Risk

  * * *

  NOVELLAS

  Closer

  * * *

  THE SEVEN SERIES

  Seven Years

  Six Months

  Five Weeks

  Four Days

  Three Hours

  Two Minutes

  One Second

  Winter Moon

  * * *

  SEVEN WORLD

  Charming

  Chapter 1

  Lexi and Austin

  “Travis, hold still,” Lexi chided as she struggled to put on his other sneaker.

  “No!”

  No was her little boy’s favorite word. Travis was sixteen months and a handful, just like his father. Same alpha spirit, same icy blue eyes, same stubborn streak. The only characteristics that Travis had inherited from Lexi were her sense of humor and signature laugh.

  Travis giggled when he flipped onto his stomach. He quickly scrambled to his feet and squawked as he scampered down the hall toward the kitchen. Lexi erupted with laughter because when Travis ran, he looked like a drunken old man. Whenever he tripped and fell, which was often, he rarely cried. Fortitude was a common trait among alpha children.

  Lexi remained seated on the floor, her gaze fixed on the crackling fire in the hearth. The staircase wall on the left made it a cozy place to sit. Usually they kept the space open to give everyone access to the guest bathroom beneath the stairs, but in the winter they’d drag the sofa and chairs from the right side of the room and arrange them around the fireplace where there weren’t any drafts. The staircase wall boxed in the heat, and the firelight danced sublimely off the wood floors.

  While they hadn’t put up a Christmas tree this year, a few of her packmates had decorated the house with simple adornments. A garland on the mantel, a few white lights strewn around the windows and up the staircase, and a wicker basket filled with scented pinecones in the sitting room up front. The holidays had snuck up on them, and it wasn’t until the last minute that Lexi realized they didn’t have a Christmas tree.

  “Hold on, little man,” Austin boomed from the hall.

  Travis squealed with delight when Austin lifted him into his arms.

  “Where’s your shoe? Is your mama trying to dress you again? Didn’t you tell her that the Coles are wild men who don’t wear shoes?” He gave Lexi a playful wink and strode around the sofa.

  Travis wrapped his arms around his daddy’s neck. Sometimes it brought tears to her eyes to see that bond between them. She had never known a father’s love, so watching Austin’s face light up each time he laid eyes on Travis filled her heart with unspeakable joy.

  Lexi tapped the little shoe against the red-and-brown area rug. “Austin, he can’t run around barefoot.”

  “Why not? We do.”

  “If we didn’t, we’d track in dirt. It’s too cold, and what if he steps on something sharp?”

  Austin took the shoe from her hand and sat down in the leather chair with Travis in his lap. “Let’s see your foot, little man. Show me what a big boy you are.”

  Travis always wanted to impress his daddy, so he lifted his leg and allowed Austin to slip on the sneaker. Lexi took a mental picture to capture it in her memory. She loved the small moments they shared, which were often eclipsed by first words, first steps, and birthdays. Austin was never more handsome to Lexi than when he was holding his son.

  “Kitty!” Travis pointed his chubby little finger at the cat entering the room.

  Sparty strutted over and sat on the hearth, his soot-colored fur giving him a shadowy appearance. When his pink tongue poked out, Travis giggled and squirmed until Austin set him on the floor to chase the cat around.

  On days when the pack was home and scattered throughout the house, everyone watched Travis. Packs believed that each member of the family was responsible for raising a child, and that was how they created a bond. Lexi never felt overwhelmed with being a new mom, especially with her mother around, who was still basking in the afterglow of grandmotherhood. Lynn would sing to Travis, take him for long walks on the property, and loved reading him stories.

  Lexi reclined on her back, one arm folded beneath her head. “How much more snow are we supposed to get?”

  Austin leaned back and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Eight inches.”

  “Mmm, now that’s what I like to hear,” Naya purred as she entered the room with impeccable timing.

  Naya loved a good innuendo.

  Lexi watched her saunter into the front study where Travis had gone. Wheeler was in there—kicked back in a chair and no doubt trying to get Travis to eat a piece of dried-up jerky. Their interactions were always hilarious since Travis’s vocabulary was limited. He couldn’t pronounce Wheeler’s name correctly, so he just called him Wheels.

  Austin scooted out of his chair and crawled next to her. He nudged his right leg between her thighs and brushed his lips against the soft curve of her neck. Everything about it felt so damn right: his musky scent, his experienced hand ca
ressing her breasts, his lips traveling down to her shoulder. Austin’s body heat rivaled any fire, so in the winter she often slept naked, all pressed up against him.

  “Did someone wrap the faucets outside?”

  “You worry too much,” he murmured against her neck.

  She replied in honeyed tones. “No big deal. Just the snowstorm of the century.”

  “I thought you liked snow.”

  She nibbled on his earlobe. “I like four inches, but we’ve already had seven. This is Texas, not Ontario. When have we ever had this much snow?”

  Lexi gasped when he rocked his hips against her, his fingers crawling beneath her shirt and pinching her nipple. Her body tingled and came alive, wanting more—needing more.

  “Let’s cancel Christmas and make babies,” he suggested, kissing her neck more insistently, his whiskers scratching against her skin.

  “There’s not much to cancel.”

  Austin rolled onto his side and rested his head in the palm of his hand. “I know we waited until the last minute to do things, but it’ll be fine.”

  “I know. I just wish we would have bought a plastic tree before they sold out.”

  Denver strode in and plopped on the sofa. “Plastic?” He dipped his spoon into a can of SpaghettiOs. “The Weston pack doesn’t do plastic.”

  Lexi sat up. “Nobody complained about our old plastic tree. If it hadn’t caught fire last year—”

  “That tree burning down was a sign.” He waved his spoon, and a dollop of sauce fell on his bare chest. “Do you want a real donut or a fake? A real mate or a plastic one?”

  “Depends on the speed settings,” Naya said, rushing toward the kitchen.

  “You’re a pervy little panther,” he yelled over his shoulder.

  Lexi stared at the empty corner. Everyone had forgotten about last year’s fire until a few days ago. By that point, it was too late to bother with a tree, so everyone agreed on not decking the halls this year. The Cole brothers behaved as if they couldn’t care less about decorating for the holidays.

  But that wasn’t entirely true.

  It hadn’t escaped her attention how they were the ones who took the lights out of the box and volunteered to string them up outside the house. Christmas had never been a big deal for the Coles—not the way people celebrated it nowadays. The brothers would grumble about how the spirit of Christmas was dead and the holidays were all about commercialism and profit. But when the lights were aglow, their eyes twinkled. That kind of magic was worth every penny, so it was disheartening to see that this year everyone seemed okay without a tree. What was next? No lights? No presents?

  Lexi stripped her eyes away from the empty corner and watched the flames leaping and dancing in the hearth.

  “Are you going to sulk all day?” Denver asked. After another bite of his pasta, he set the can down and stood up. “Fine. You talked me into it. I’ll go get a stinkin’ tree.”

  The way he bounced on his toes belied his reluctant words. Lexi had brought up the tree that morning, but everyone had an excuse about the snow. Since she wasn’t badgering anyone about it, they hadn’t taken her seriously. But no one liked seeing a female unhappy, and Denver must have hit his limit.

  “I don’t see why we can’t chop down a tree from out back,” Austin suggested. “We’ve got an axe.”

  Lexi drummed her fingers on the floor. “Those aren’t Christmas trees. It’ll wind up looking like the Charlie Brown tree if you try to hang an ornament from a baby maple. They’re probably all sold out of real ones anyhow.” She looked up at Denver, suddenly feeling a smidge of guilt for putting him out. “Why don’t you just go to Walmart and—”

  “Over my dead body,” Denver retorted. “You’re a bag of nuts if you think I’m going in that madhouse the day before Christmas. Anyhow, they sold out. Remember? There’s a tree farm not too far from here where you can go cut down your own.”

  “Sounds like a big-boy job.” Wheeler swaggered into the room and gave him a once-over. “You can’t even cut your own steak.”

  Denver held up his middle finger. “Shut it.”

  Wheeler gnawed on a piece of jerky, his hair disheveled and sticking out in every direction. “Don’t worry, Lexi. I’ll babysit dickhead here. I need to stretch my legs and get out of the house anyway.”

  Denver yanked the jerky out of Wheeler’s mouth and stalked toward the front door. “Then maybe you need to stretch your legs to the cat box and clean it out. I’ll be warming up the truck.” He put on his white down coat with a NASA emblem on it and glanced up the stairs. “Wanna go for a ride, Peanut?”

  Maizy came halfway down the stairs and leaned over the handrail. She had her blond hair pulled up in a ponytail. “Where are you going?”

  “To saw down a tree.”

  “Have fun with that!” she said, jogging back upstairs.

  “You’re going on my naughty list!” Still shirtless, Denver zipped up his coat and searched through the shoe pile.

  Lexi smiled. The idea of having a real tree made her a little giddy, and suddenly she wanted to bake a pie.

  Wheeler grabbed his leather jacket from the closet. “You look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from that movie.”

  Denver ran his fingers down his coat and admired it. “It’s vintage, but you wouldn’t know anything about style.”

  “Thank the fuck for that. Let’s go, Puffy.”

  Austin scooted behind Lexi and wrapped his strong arms around her. “See, Ladybug? Everything’s going to work out the way it always does. Even without a tree, we’ve still got the pack, and that’s all that matters.”

  “I know. I just want traditions that don’t always involve a barbecue.”

  Travis shrieked from the study, and they listened to the sound of his little feet stomping across the living room.

  “Come back here, little baby,” Naya sang. “Auntie Naya’s going to tickle you!”

  Austin rocked with laughter when Travis disappeared in the kitchen and let out a silly laugh.

  Lexi’s laugh.

  She leaned against Austin and smiled. “Sounds like his little wolf knows a panther is chasing him.”

  “Hmm. Maybe I should teach him not to run from anyone.”

  “Not everything has to be a lesson, Daddy Packmaster. Let him play.”

  Travis was just a baby, but Lexi was learning just how differently Shifter children were raised from human ones. Especially alphas. Austin was always cognizant of how Travis reacted to the world around him, and every situation became an opportunity to groom him as an alpha. Luckily, Jericho’s alpha twins were much older. Otherwise there could have been a lot of friction in the house with their wolf spirits fighting for rank. Even though the kids wouldn’t go through their first change until later in life, those animal instincts were embedded in their DNA.

  Lynn entered the room with two steaming cups of hot apple cider. “You two kids drink these before they get cold,” she said, setting the mugs on an end table before returning to the kitchen.

  Austin kissed Lexi’s temple. “I love the way she still calls us kids. It takes me back.”

  Lexi pulled away and got on all fours to get her drink. “Oh? Does it take you back to when you used to pluck the eyes out of my stuffed animals?”

  He slapped her behind playfully.

  “Mmm, do that again and we might have to cancel Christmas after all,” she purred, tingles roaring. When she glanced over her shoulder at him and shook her ass, Austin’s black pupils swallowed up all that icy blue. That man could make her toes curl every single time. His alpha energy hummed against her skin as he looked at her with a fervent gaze.

  Austin gripped the waistband of her jeans and bit one of her cheeks. “That cider won’t keep you half as warm as I will.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  He gave her a wolfish grin. “Challenge accepted.”

  Chapter 2

  April and Reno

  “I shouldn’t have waited until the last m
inute to buy gifts.” April sulked, staring at the barren makeup aisle at Walgreens. The good stuff was already gone thanks to a recent holiday sale.

  Reno held up a bottle of pink nail polish. “How ’bout this?”

  April gave it a cursory glance and returned her attention to the top shelf. “Pink isn’t Mel’s style. She’s going through that teen phase where she wants to be different. She’s not really into nail polish, but I thought I might find a wild color. The only ones left are the shades that no one likes.”

  What made the situation worse was the weather. After the slippery drive to the store, they agreed not to venture anywhere else. Especially since Reno had borrowed Austin’s Dodge Challenger. April was forced to do all her last-minute shopping at the drugstore—her karmic reward for procrastinating.

  Reno’s wet boots squeaked against the floor as he circled behind her and kissed the top of her blond head. “She’ll like whatever you get her, princess.”

  April smiled up at him. Reno was six foot three and built like a soldier. Even though he was over a hundred, he looked like a man in his late thirties. Now that she’d become a Mage, they finally appeared the same age. April loved everything about her man, especially when she could make that tough guy smile. He winked, amusement dancing in those dark brown eyes, and swaggered to the back of the store.

  April tugged on the ends of her short hair and resumed scanning the shelves.

  The twins were into hunting and fishing, so she’d ordered fishing poles for them a few months ago. They liked the outdoors, and ever since the war, they’d spent more time camping in the woods. Reno said their alpha nature was telling them to brush up on their survival instincts—something they’d need in order to effectively lead a pack one day.