Page 43 of Wounded Christmas Wolf
“It was.” Holly sighed a little. “Gingerbread house decorating, Christmas music playing all the time ... and we put the tree up on December first, even though the needles would be half gone by Christmas Day.”
That made Jace realize there was something he hadn’t seen in the house at all. “You guys don’t have a tree this year?”
Holly winced. “No. Pretty funny for a tree farm, huh? I guess Dad and I just got so busy we couldn’t find time. And decorating it by myself doesn’t seem like much fun.”
Jace had never decorated a Christmas tree before, but he supposed it couldn’t be that hard. It sounded ... fun, actually. “Do you want to put one up when we get home this evening?I’ll help. We can put on Christmas music and maybe make some gingerbread, or buy some, and do all those—all those things you were just talking about, or some of those things. I know it won’t be the same, but ...”
He trailed off, because Holly was, once again, looking at him with a warm, soft depth in her eyes that he didn’t know how to cope with.
“Jace Wheeler, you are the sweetest guy.” She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck of a kiss.
There was a chorus of “awwww” from nearby shoppers, who were mostly women from the middle-aged parent to the grandparent demographic.
“Honey, you better not let that one get away,” said a cute elderly woman with a halo of frizzy white hair standing in line behind them, carrying a large light-up reindeer.
Holly blushed to the roots of her hair. She finished paying for her purchase and fled, pausing only to grab a handful of Christmas cookies from a plate by the door and stuff one into her mouth.
Jace was laughing when they got outside. He didn’t remember the last time he felt so light and free. “What’s that about not wanting to spread rumors?”
“Oh, make yourself useful and carry this,” Holly said through a mouthful of cookie crumbs, but her tone was playful. She passed him the shopping bag to join the others he was carrying for her. “And here, this one’s for you.” She aimed a red and green frosted cookie shaped like a snowflake at his mouth.
Jace stopped walking, and the playful attempt to shove a cookie into his face turned suddenly tender. Holly placed it carefully between his lips, and Jace nipped off half in a single bite. It was overly sweet, but somehow, with the snow falling around them, it tasted good anyway. Holly ate the other half,flushing as bright as she had in the store. Her lips closed over the place where his had touched.
Without warning, all of that fell apart.
“What the hell? This guy again?”
A hand settled on Jace’s shoulder. Jace jerked away, sidestepped and spun and delivered a push that sent the newcomer staggering.
“Rob,” Holly said in a choked voice.
Jace glared at him, filled with the rising heat of anger. He hadn’t gotten a good look at Rob at the community center. He had been focused on Holly, her discomfort and fear as that jerk hassled her. Now he got an eyeful, and he didn’t like what he saw.
Rob was a big guy with a once muscular physique, who looked like he had let himself go. Muscles were running into fat, and there was a visible beer gut under his open jacket. He had brown hair that was at the unflattering stage of growing out of a not too recent haircut, and a scraggly mustache.
Jace could not for the life of him imagine what Holly ever saw in this guy, but that was up to Holly. He also wouldn’t have thought, just from looking at him, that Rob had the force of character to break into Holly’s childhood bedroom and destroy her stuff.
But maybe that was exactly the kind of thing he’d do. Slinking around behind her back, too much of a rat to confront her openly or to respect what she had told him she wanted.
“Get your hands off her,” Rob snapped.
“You getyourhands off her,” Jace growled. It was followed by a real growl, rumbling out of his chest, sounding like an angry wolf.
And an angry wolf was exactly what it was. His wolf wanted to sink their teeth into this loser’s throat. Tear him apart for scaring and hurting Holly.
The sense of his wolf rising up inside him brought mingled exhilaration and fear. It didn’t feel out of control, but it was way too close to the surface.
He became aware of Holly’s hand on his arm. Just a light touch, but a grounding touch. With her here, he didn’t feel like it was going to break free against his will. His hands weren’t breaking out in fur; his teeth weren’t pointed. He was angry, and his wolf was angry, but that wasallit was.
“Jace, it’s okay,” Holly said. “Let’s not make a scene. Let’s just go.”
“You’re not going anywhere with him,” Rob snapped.
Holly flared, “Iamleaving with him and you’re not coming. You don’t get a say in this anymore.”
Rob moved forward belligerently, getting into Jace’s space. Jace could smell booze on his breath. He stank like he’d just come from a bar. “You leave my girlfriend alone,” Rob snarled. “Quit bothering her.”
“I’m not your girlfriend!” Holly snapped back, her eyes flashing anger.
