Holiday Mates: Supernatural Enforcers Agency Short Stories (5 page)

Penny moaned.  Yep, best Christmas Eve ever. 
She couldn’t wait to see what delights Christmas Day may hold.

The end

Fudging Cupid!

Cutter grunted and absently swatted at his face.  Something was tickling his nose.  His wolf roared at him to wake up, but Cutter begged for a few more minutes.  Last night, his mate had been excitable and giggly and… inexhaustible.  On reflection, he should have indulged in a few power bars before he took her to bed. 
About fifty would have done the trick.

“Ugh,” he grumbled as the tickling reached his cheeks.

If this was a fly, he was going to set his wolf on the blasted thing.

His eyes snapped open to find his mate’s lovely, smiling face an inch from his.  If she weren’t the least scary thing put on earth since marshmallow fluff, he’d have yelped.

“Morning!” she chirped and pressed her lips to his for a sound kiss.

His wolf wagged his tail like a puppy, the way the soft beast always did when his little hedgehog shifter mate was around.  Cutter would have made more effort, too, were it not for the fact that ninety percent of his body was still sleeping.  Instead, he scratched his nose and mumbled, “Morning,” in return.

Lucie giggled and jumped off the bed, returning seconds later balancing an enormous tray laden with all sorts of delectable looking treats.  That made him wake up, especially when he smelled her pancakes.  There was nothing better to wake up to.  Well, there was one thing, he thought as his arousal surged.  But Lucie said she would only wake him up that way on his birthday and Christmas.  She didn’t want to spoil him too much.

Speaking of spoiling him
...  His eyes hooded as they took in the slinky red nightie she was wearing.  It was a far cry from the usual flannel pajamas.  Not that he was complaining about them.  Lucie could make anything sexy, and he did get a thrill out of peeling them off her.  There was just something so wholesome about a female who wore bunny print pajamas.  And he did so love to be the big bad wolf who corrupted the sweet, little hedgehog.

He pushed himself up the bed as Lucie plopped the tray onto his lap.  She smiled shyly.   A look entirely at odds with the sexy nightwear.  A little drool almost escaped his mouth as he feasted on the swell of her plump breasts and the way the material barely even grazed the tops of her thighs.

Heat blossomed on her cheeks.  “You like?” she asked, clearly happy with his reaction.  She twirled, and he caught sight of her ass cheeks peeking out.

He let out a groan, which is all he could manage at that moment.  Although he wasn’t exactly in charge of all his faculties at that moment, distant alarm bells did start ringing in his head, and his wolf let out a curious snarl.  The nightie, the hopeful smile, the mountainous breakfast…
oh crap!
  Was it her birthday?  No, no, she just celebrated her birthday two months ago.

His eyes drifted down to the pancakes shaped like hearts.  And over the toast shaped like hearts.  And to the fried eggs which were also somehow shaped like hearts.
  Okay, definite theme going on here
.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” she squealed, jumping up and down.

He took a moment to enjoy that.  Her body was poetry in motion.  It was one of the reasons why he insisted she come jogging with him.  Although, they never got very far.  He always got too excited and threw her over his shoulder so he could run home and corrupt her a little more.

However, the next moment was another ‘oh, crap’ moment. 
He’d forgotten Valentine’s Day
.  Their first Valentine’s Day as a couple.  Honestly, in his heart of hearts, he didn’t think it was a big deal.  He’d never celebrated Valentine’s Day before.  None of the women he’d ever been with had ever expected him to be romantic or loving, and until Lucie, he’d never managed love.  Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal.  It was all just a marketing ploy anyway.  People who celebrated that kind of thing were idiots.  He didn’t need a special day to show his mate how he felt.  His feelings were
implied
– twenty four seven.

He was about to tell her that when the happy smile plastered on her face wilted ever so slightly.  His wolf whined.

“You forgot,” she said, with just a hint of disappointment.

“No, I didn’t forget,” he lied, shamelessly.

Lucie scrunched her nose, and he bit his cheek to stop himself from chuckling.  She did that when she shifted to her hedgehog, too.

“You’re a terrible liar, James,” she said, with a small smile.

Crud, she rarely used his first name and it generally wasn’t a good sign.

“I didn’t forget… but if I did, which I didn’t,” he added quickly, “how mad would you be?”

Lucie cocked her head on one side and chewed her lip.  “I’m not mad at all.  It’s fine.  Valentine’s is no big deal.”

Cutter uneasily chewed on a pancake.  Those were definitely the words he wanted to hear but… they didn’t sound quite right coming out of Lucie’s mouth.  This was a woman who dyed her underwear green and baked a hundred cookies in the shape of four-leaf clovers for St. Patrick’s Day.  She
loved
holidays.

“If you’re sure…”

“Quite sure.  It’s all so commercial anyway.”

She gave him a thorough kiss,
and she certainly didn’t seem to be holding back
, before bouncing towards the shower.

“Hey!  Where are you going?” he called through a mouthful of toast.  “What about the…ah…”  He looked her up and down, shuddering at the mere sight of the filmy garment.  Surely, she was wearing that for his benefit.

Lucie smirked over her shoulder.  “Oh, this is just a preview for tonight.”  With that, she gave him a slow blink – because she had trouble winking – and wiggled her ass as she sashayed out of the room.

His wolf practically rubbed his paws together.  He couldn’t wait.  If she was excitable last night, just wait until…  Then he realized.  The reason she was excited
was
for Valentine’s.  She was probably wondering what exciting surprise he had for her and… he had nothing.

Well, hell.

*

Cutter squeezed his mate’s hand as they stepped off the elevator.  “Are you sure?”  He’d asked her five times on the drive over and twice more in the parking garage.

They both worked at the Los Lobos branch of the Supernatural Enforcers Agency.  Cutter was an investigator and Lucie was a nurse.

Lucie shifted the box of cookies in her other arm and gave him a patient smile.  “Yes, of course.  I told you.  Valentine’s is no big deal.”

The fact that she had baked enough heart shaped cookies for everyone in the building, and was wearing a tight, white, drool-worthy dress decorated with pink hearts begged to differ.

Cutter wasn’t good at outwardly showing his affection in public.  He preferred to keep that kind of thing private.  Unless threatening any males who dared to look at his mate counted, which Lucie assured him didn’t.  But in deference to how shitty he was feeling, and his obnoxious wolf who was really rubbing it in, he sucked it up and pulled her hand to his lips to press kisses into her palm.

“You know how much you mean to me,” he murmured.

Her eyes dilated, and the black of her animal shimmered in her huge orbs.  “Of course, I do.  That’s why it’s not important that you forgot.”  He opened his mouth to object but she raised an eyebrow, and he hushed.  “I love you, and you love me – end of.  Now scoot, get your cute butt to work.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  He almost believed her that time.  Were it not for the lingering disappointment he could sense in their bond, he would have let the matter drop half an hour ago.  But Lucie was trying not to be disappointed, and he guessed that was all that mattered.

Lucie beamed and trotted down the corridor, handing out cookies to random people.  Yep, he’d won the lotto in the mate department.  He was constantly bad tempered, took her for granted more often than he cared to admit, got jealous and angry over absolutely nothing and was generally a pain in her perfectly peachy shaped derriere and yet she adored him.

His reflective simpering was cut short as Mason, a burly gorilla shifter agent, hauled a guy in a diaper to the elevator.

“Get moving,” rumbled Mason, his face stony.

“But I am Cupid, the god of love!” proclaimed diaper guy.

Cutter couldn’t hold back the snort.  The guy was middle-aged, balding and packing a serious beer gut.  He was also wearing a set of fake wings, holding a golden bow and had a quiver of golden arrows on his back.  The look was slightly ruined by the worn-out Nikes he wore.  He didn’t smell like a shifter, but perhaps he was some kind of witch or warlock.  Their scents weren’t always easy to distinguish.

Mason rolled his eyes. 
Ah yes, Valentine’s
.  Some people thought Halloween brought out the crazies.  Nope, Valentine’s was a lot worse.  All people did on Halloween was try to raise the dead.  It was the love spells on Valentine’s that really caused chaos. 
Was it any wonder he didn’t bother to remember the holiday?

“Who’s this?” asked Cutter in amusement.  He kept one eye on Lucie as she smiled and giggled while passing out cookies.

“Howard Boggs,” said Mason, flatly.  “Low level warlock.”

“I am Cupid!” repeated Howard.

“You’re no more Cupid than I am Cleopatra,” snapped the patience wearing thin gorilla shifter.

“I only wish to bring love and happiness to those who are lonely.”

Mason ignored him and gave Cutter a look of sufferance.  “Picked him up in Westcott’s Department Store.  He was slinking around asking women if they were lonely then started threatening to shoot them with arrows.”

“Love arrows,” corrected Howard, or Cupid, or whatever.  “They cause absolutely no physical harm.  But they do force people to meet their destiny.”

“The arrows are harmless – they’re full of dust.”

“Dust?!” squawked Howard, indignantly.

Mason barely paused.  “Plus the store doesn’t want to press charges.  They don’t want it reported that they had Cupid arrested on Valentine’s Day.”  He snorted before glancing down the corridor.  “Lucie bring in cookies again?”

“Yeah.”

The gorilla virtually licked his lips.  “Good, been thinking about them since she brought in the lemon slices for New Year, and the snickerdoodles for Christmas, and the pumpkin spice bars for Thanksgiving.”

Cutter shook his head. 
Was it any wonder their grocery bill was astronomical?

“I’ll show you what’s dust!” snapped Howard.

With more speed than anyone would credit him, Howard elbowed Mason, whipped out an arrow and fired it down the corridor.

*

Norma peered down her nose at Lucie’s offering.  Norma was a middle-aged warthog shifter and the secretary to Gerry, one of the directors.  She was known for being joyless, sour and harder to charm than a block of wood.  She’d supposedly been mated once, but it was hard to imagine.  Although there was a rumor that one of the agents in the Tau team – a moose shifter nearing retirement – had a crush on her.  Isis, an agent, and tiger shifter totally dismissed this ludicrous rumor that anyone could find Norma attractive, but then she didn’t get on with Norma.  Isis called Norma the ‘door bitch’, because she guarded Gerry’s door to within an inch of her life.  The only people who ever managed to get past her without an appointment were Gerry’s mate, boss and ex-wife.  Of course, Norma in turn called Isis ‘that stripy slut’ – so it evened out.

Lucie, on the other hand, was convinced there was a happy person just waiting to explode out of Norma.  Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely that her red velvet cookies were going to make that happen.

“I don’t like sweet things,” said Norma, waspishly.  “I can’t manage sweet.”

Wayne, an agent and gator shifter, who was impatiently waiting to get his cookie stifled a laugh.

Lucie gave the older woman her sweetest smile, the smile that got a certain uncouth wolf shifter to wash dishes and do laundry.  “Just try one.”

She was about to give in when Gerry swept along the corridor, tugging his mate behind him.  “Norma, I have a meeting in five minutes, I need those files.”

Gerry was in a sleek suit and shiny shoes and his mate, Jessie was, oh! 
Wearing the same dress as Lucie
.  The two women looked at each other horrified for a moment before bursting into laughter and assuring the other it looked better on them.  They gushed and tried to argue with one another over that.  Norma huffed at them while Wayne tried to sneak a cookie.

They all froze as they heard Cutter growl.  Her inner hedgehog mewled as something whipped past Norma and Lucie’s heads, exploding dust over both of them.  The two of them sneezed as they inhaled the sickly, sweet substance.  Lucie wobbled and Wayne righted her.  She looked up into his worried face and then sneezed again.  She looked round to see that Norma was also shaky, and Gerry was holding her up.

Cutter knocked Wayne out of the way.  “You okay, sweetheart?”

“Hmmm?  Yes, I think so.”  Her head felt fuzzy, and the link to her beast felt tenuous.  She could sense the alarm of her hedgehog, but it almost felt like she was disconnected from it.  “What the fudge was that?”

Cutter grinned.  He always enjoyed it when she ‘swore’.  “That was a fudging lunatic who thinks he’s fudging Cupid.  Don’t you fudging worry, I’m going to knock his fudging teeth out.”