“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 fence. 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.