ining rose and gold.
She whirled and ran down the corridor, pushing past anyone who got in her way, until she reached the front doors of the tower and burst through them. In the square outside the Seelie Court, she went down hard on her knees in the snow. It immediately soaked through the fabric of her jeans and numbed her skin, but that only made that part of her body match the rest of her.
All around her, revelers stopped their singing and laughing and stared at her. To Bella it truly was the longest, darkest night of the year.
Before her, on the other side of the square, loomed the Black Tower of the Unseelie Court. All the dark art she’d tried so hard to suppress fluttered deep within her and rose on grief-encrusted wings. All the curses she’d never given voice to beat against the box within her mind where she’d locked them, those for the queen most especially strong. Long-repressed magick bubbled inside her, ready to explode.
She closed her eyes. No. She might have Unseelie blood flowing through her veins, but she wouldn’t give in to the impulse to hurt others because she was feeling hurt herself. That was not Bella and never would be.
Maybe she could manifest something good. Perhaps instead of weaving curses, she could weave a wish instead. Maybe if it came from her heart . . . She closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could on the outcome she wanted. Magick bubbled out of her like water quenching dry earth.
Please, Danu, please.
It wasn’t possible that she could have come this far, lost Ronan for so many years, only to find him and lose him again this way. His soul was a perfect match for hers, singing and twining in a beautiful song within her heart. Even his magick complemented hers—more than she could have ever known.
This ending simply wasn’t possible.
Would she be able to feel it when they killed him? Would a cold, dark place open up inside her? Maybe they’d already done it. Maybe he was already dead.
She looked up at the Unseelie Court rising across the square. Around her, revelers gave her a wide berth as they sang Yuletide carols. They downed mugs of warm cider and toasted one another with Wassail bowls, yelling in the traditional Old Norse, “Ves heill!” Be well and be in good health.
Bella dry-heaved in the snow.
She would never again step foot in the Rose Tower. She could never look upon the queen’s face again and not want to give in to the dark impulse within to curse her. Maybe she would give in to the dark pull of the Unseelie Court. It was time to put her fear aside and start a new life.
Someone touched her shoulder and Bella looked up to see Aislinn. The entire square had fallen completely silent. All the fae stared at someone standing behind Bella.
Taking Aislinn’s offered hand, Bella stood and turned.
The queen stood in the square, backlit by the light spilling through the open doors of the Seelie Court and dressed in a thick white fur coat, the hem trailing in the snow. No red spray of blood marred its perfection. Hurray for small favors.
“It’s Yuletide Eve,” she said. It was quiet enough to hear the snow fall. Not even a murmur could be heard from the Unseelie side. “Therefore I’ve given you a gift.”
That was when she noticed Ronan standing to the left of the queen, hidden in the shadow of her glow. Bella’s heart stuttered and then started again, beating twice as fast. She took a step toward him, but something in the way the queen stood made her halt. The queen seemed like a raptor ready to strike—one false move and she’d sink her fangs in deep.
“Happy Yuletide to you both, but it’s not all sunshine.” The queen drew a breath. When she spoke next, it was loud enough for everyone around them to hear, including the Faemous film crew. “Bella Rhiannon Caliste Mac Lyr and Ronan Achaius Quinn are hereby banished from the Seelie Court, effective immediately.” She turned and walked back into the tower, a brace of guards following her.
The doors shut behind her with a final-sounding thump.
Bella ran to Ronan and threw her arms around him, concerned only with one thing—he was alive, warm and real in her embrace.
Ronan pulled her up against his chest and slanted his lips over hers. His tongue slipped within her mouth and heated her blood, making her forget the snow and cold, making her forget all the other celebrating fae in the square who looked on in curiosity.
When they broke the kiss, she drew a trembling breath. A look of sorrow had enveloped his face. “Because of me you’re banished from Seelie. You’ve lost everything. It’s exactly the thing I was trying to prevent all those years ago.”
“Oh, Ronan.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. “No. Don’t you see? I have everything because I have you.”
“Even if we have nowhere to sleep tonight?”
“We’ll figure it out. We’re together now and we can overcome any obstacle in our path. Why did she let you live?”
“I’ve had contact with the Phaendir. I know who might be able to be swayed for a certain price. The queen held a blade to my throat and demanded that information from me after you left, but I refused to give it up. Instead I told that when she had need of me, I was hers. So long as the rest of the time I could be yours—warm and alive.”
“So pragmatism won out over her slighted pride.”
“The banishment is her way of saving face in front of the court.”
“Where do we go now?”
Ronan looked at the Black Tower and squeezed her hand.
“Unseelie,” she said.
He nodded. “I don’t know how this will turn out, Bella. The Shadow King is not pleased with me for turning my back on the Black Tower, and now I’ve given the Summer Queen a piece of the bosca fadbh, something he would like to possess.”
She chewed her lip. “Bodes ill.”
He pulled her toward him for a quick kiss. “I have reason to believe he’ll take us in despite all of this. Leverage, Bell. I have it on both the royals.”
“It’s a dangerous game we’re playing.”
“Life in the courts is always dangerous.”
They turned and walked toward the center of the square. Bella supposed she ought to be nervous about the fact she was now banished from the only home she’d ever known, yet all she felt was gratitude and happiness, leavened with a dash of excitement for the adventures to come and the things they’d see.
Aislinn stood near the maligned statue of Jules Piefferburg that marked entry into Unseelie territory. “I’ll miss you,” her best friend said, staring up at the Black Tower.
“I’ll miss you too.” Bella gave Aislinn a hug, feeling a cloud of loss rising up into her chest and throat. When people were banished from the Seelie Court, that meant no contact with its members. She and Ronan had given up a lot to be together. Bella wiped away a tear. “Can you make arrangements for Lolly?”
“Of course I will.”
She parted from Aislinn and took one last look at the Rose Tower. There were many people she would miss—Lolly, her other friends, her family. Ronan caught her hand and followed her gaze. He’d be missing people too.
Then they looked at each other and smiled. They didn’t have to say a word, because they each knew what the other was thinking: The sacrifice was worth it.
Hand in hand, they walked farther into the square. Above their heads fireworks sparked and exploded, and all around them Yuletide bonfires glowed. The celebrations had resumed and lighter days were on the horizon.
Before them lay their future, a brand-new path they’d create and walk together.
A Christmas Kiss
Lora Leigh
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thank-you to all the dear and special friends who have stood behind me, beside me and in front of me through a very difficult year.
Lue Anne, Natalie, Jennifer and Janine. Jessica, Crissy, Donna and Sheila. For my son, Bret, who always has my back; and my dearest friend, Sharon, who has supported me more times than I can count.
For my daughter, Holly, for running the roads; and Ryan, for putting up the fenc
e. For Renae, for helping when I needed it the most; and for Ann Marie, for the shoes and wonderful e-mails.
All of you have made my life brighter, enriched it and understood when things got crazy.
Thank you.
ONE
Wolf Mountain, Colorado Wolf Breed Compound, Haven
There was something about a winter snowfall that Jessica
Raines had always loved. A sense of warmth, despite the cold. A sense of wonder, a remnant of her childhood that she had never lost.
Now, as she moved through the soft, heavy winter white that fell around her, she had never felt less like a child. At twenty-four, she felt old, worn and tired.
Christmas was coming. Lights were strung around the Wolf Breed Compound of Haven and windows were lit up with the festive colors of the season as lavishly decorated trees twinkled merrily into the winter night.
Christmas was coming and Jessica had never felt less festive.
The snow was beautiful though. She had missed it last year during her imprisonment in the underground cells to which the Wolf Breeds had kept her confined. Because she had been a traitor. No matter how reluctantly, still, she had betrayed the very people she had believed in so deeply. Even as she had done it, helpless against the compulsions rising inside her, Jessica had raged, fought, screamed silently. But still, she had hidden information, relayed defense maneuvers and revealed the residences of the Wolf Breed alpha and his mate, as well as their second-in-command to her father.
The pure blood society he had worked with had nearly killed them. If she hadn’t found the strength to pull two of the mates from their homes before the attack, then they would have been killed.
She pushed her fingers through her hair, tugging at the tender roots as she fought to make sense of the betrayal her father had dealt her. He had been sending her to certain death. He had to have known it. The drug he had slipped into her food and drinks when she visited, the orders he had given her—he had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would be caught, and that she would die. And still, he had done it.
She couldn’t even ask him why he had done it. He was dead now. The society he had been a part of was disbanded. Advert, the small town outside the Breed compound was under Wolf Breed control, but still, Jessica suffered.
She had lost everything because of his hatred for a species that hadn’t asked to be created. One that was determined to survive now that it existed. He had sacrificed his daughter, and then his own life, for nothing.
She lifted her face to the falling snow and imagined the dampness on her skin was the moisture of the melting ice. It wasn’t. It was tears, and she knew it. Her father wasn’t the only one who had lost in his bid to destroy the Breeds; Jessica had lost as well, much more than anyone could imagine.
Pausing, she leaned against the large trunk of a towering oak and gazed up at the close canopy of thick, dark clouds. The snow was flying thicker, harder. It suddenly had a heavy, ominous feel to it, as though nature were moving in to exact vengeance for crimes untold.
Or perhaps against her.
Grimacing at the flight of fancy, she shook her head before moving quickly to turn back to the cabin she had left. That sudden movement was followed by a loud retort and a chunk of bark striking her in the face.
There was a second of disbelief, a pause as the realization that someone was shooting at her filtered through her system, before Jessica jumped behind the tree, heart racing, fear pounding within her.
Someone had just fired on her.
She was in the middle of the forest with no coat, no weapon, no guards. She was undefended in a place where she shouldn’t have needed defending.
Now what?
She stared around the bleak winter landscape, fighting to catch her breath through the pounding of her heart as she tried to think quickly. Logically.
She couldn’t see anyone, couldn’t sense anyone. Right now she would give her eyeteeth for those nifty super-senses the Breeds possessed. Advanced hearing, seeing and sense of smell would come in handy right now.
She couldn’t stand there much longer, she told herself. She was going to have to move soon or the shooter could work his way around until he had a line of sight on her that she couldn’t escape.
There was only one course of action. She gripped the rough trunk of the tree, hard, before throwing herself past it and racing for the large rocks and boulders a short distance away.
Shots fired behind her. Clumps of dirt flew up, striking against her as she ran. She slid into the snug embrace of the boulders, flinching on a hard shudder as another bullet exploded against the side of a huge rock.
“Cowards,” she bit out furiously, pushing herself as close against the rock as she could. “Bastards.”
Surely to God one of the Breeds would have heard the gunshots by now. Haven, the Wolf Breed Compound, was patrolled by one of the best Breed security forces in the world. So where were they now? Maybe it hadn’t really been such a good idea to slip away from her bodyguard.
On hands and knees she crawled through the mess of boulders lying around like a child’s toys tossed about haphazardly.
The sharp retort sounded again, this time sending chips of stone flying over her head as she wedged herself between upright columns and fought to make herself as small as possible.
She was dead. The Breeds should have just killed her a year ago when they were debating the action, because she was definitely going to die now.
Where the hell were the Breed patrols? Or was that who was shooting at her?
Fear rushed through her system in a surge of adrenaline as the next shot sent a bullet tearing into the stone above her head. They were getting closer. She wasn’t going to survive. She would die here, in the cold and the snow, and it would probably take a while for someone to find her body. Evidently no one was too concerned with her now that she had been released, though she was confined to Haven. It was probably a Breed trying to kill her.
“Jess.” A hand clamped over her mouth and strong arms jerked her behind the rocks as another shot struck beside her shoulder.
Heated, hard and male, the large body she was suddenly cushioned against was a welcome relief, a place of security as she recognized the voice at her ear.
Hawke Esteban.
Relief poured through her system with enough force to leave her dizzy. One arm curled around her waist, dragging her backward to the security of another outcropping of the large rocks she had been using for protection.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he hissed in her ear, his dark, brooding voice sizzling with anger.
She tried to shake her head. How the hell was she supposed to talk with his calloused palm clapped over her lips?
“Stay still,” he ordered as she struggled against him. “Mordecai and Rule are moving in on the shooter.”
Mordecai, the cold, steel-hard Coyote assigned to Haven from the Coyote pack in the cliffs above, and Rule, the Lion Breed who normally worked as personal security for the Director of Breed Affairs, Jonas Wyatt.
Both men were killers, true stone-cold Breeds bred to shed blood.
“Let’s get you out of here.” His hand slid away from her mouth. “Stay behind me. We’ll work our way back to the cabin and let them take care of business here.”
awke could feel fear crawling through his system as he gripped Jessica’s hand, and following Rule’s directions, began to lead her along the most secure path back to the cabin she had been assigned.
Fear was an unknown emotion to him, until now. Until he had faced the realization that someone was shooting at his mate. That he could lose her. That everything he had fought for over the past year could end in her death.
He couldn’t face it, he realized in the moments that he, Mordecai and Rule had raced to her rescue. He couldn’t face Jess’s death. In the past year she had already faced more than any woman should have had to endure; to lose her this way was more than he could contemplate.
Lifting his head, he p
ulled the scents of the forests into his nostrils, drawing farther away from the sharp tang of evil and gunfire. He could literally smell the intent of the man stalking Jess. The murderous anger; the determination to kill her.
“He’s drawing away, Hawke.” Mordecai’s voice came over the communication link. “We don’t have an ID yet, just scent. Rule is moving in place to capture.”
“Capture, don’t kill,” Hawke warned the Coyote Breed, his voice hard. “I want enough left to question.”
“If I have to,” Mordecai drawled.
“You’re dragging me, Hawke,” Jess protested behind him.
He was dragging her. He was pulling her through the forests at a quick pace, forcing her to keep up with him as he rushed her back to safety.
There had been no report that she had left her cabin, though there were strict orders that he was to know each time she so much as stepped out on the porch.
“We have to get back to the cabin.” He slowed his steps marginally though, knowing she didn’t have the endurance that he himself had. “Did you let anyone know you were leaving the cabin?”
“No,” she stated mutinously behind him. “I didn’t want company.”
“Well, you had company anyway,” he growled. “The wrong sort.”
“Story of my life,” she muttered.
He glared back at her before jerking his head forward again and concentrating on getting her to safety.
He should have known better than to look back at her. Each time he looked at her he was struck by a rush of arousal that bordered on painful, just as he had been the first time he saw her two years ago.
With her red-gold hair falling behind her shoulders in heavy, ribbon-straight curtains, her wide blue eyes and porcelain perfect skin, she was like a vision of angelic innocence. Cupid’s bow lips, finely arched brows, high cheekbones. Her slender body was sleek and compact; at five feet and six inches, a little on the short side compared to Breeds, but with generous breasts and tempting hips.
She made a man think of all the nasty things he could do to that perfect body even as he felt like a perverted monster whenever he looked into her innocent face.
The innocence was real. Jessica Raines was still a virgin, as medical reports attested. And she was his mate.
“What the hell were you doing out here by yourself?” He snarled at her, angry at himself for the overriding lust tormenting him; angry at her for being the innocent, delicate creature she was.
“I’m always by myself,” she snapped back. “Why should a walk in the woods be any different?”
He almost winced at the statement, because it was the truth. She’d been imprisoned for a year, seeing only the doctor, a few of the higher ranking Breed female mates and her interrogators until they managed to figure out why Jessica had betrayed them. When she had been released, it had been into Haven only. She wasn’t allowed off the compound. She was given her own cabin, and most Breeds steered well clear of her because she was his mate.
“You have bodyguards,” he reminded her coldly. “Sharone and Emma were assigned to you when you were released. They’re not exactly unfriendly, so why weren’t they with you?”
Sharone and Emma, two of the rare Coyote Breed females, loved trouble. He’d expected any day to have to deal with a situation they had orchestrated where Jess was concerned.
“They have two days off.” She shrugged. “I imagine today was one of those days.”
“Ashley?” He barked out the name of the other coyote female. “She’s on backup.”
She shrugged again. He felt the movement through her arm as they cleared the woods and headed for the cabin. The compound was on red alert. Breeds were rushing through the woods now, the main gates were closed and the entire compound on lockdown.
Hawke’s lips thinned. Jess was to be protected at all costs. She was to have a guard twenty-four/seven and he would be damned if he wouldn’t know, and know fast, exactly why one of those guards hadn’t been present.
God help Ashley if she had deserted his mate. Coyote females were rare, and they would be one less if he found out the flighty, girlish little Coyote had literally thrown his mate to the enemy.
TWO
Jessica had a feeling she was getting ready to see Hawke explode when they entered the roomy cabin and heard the muffled thump against the basement door.
Her lips set mutinously as Hawke turned, stared back at her narrowly, then strode to the door that led to the basement below.
He jerked it open, his expression freezing a