TEX (Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Holiday Heat Book 2) Read online

  TEX

  Holiday Heat

  HAILEY STORM

  Contents

  Foreword

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  1. Tex

  2. Tex

  3. Lilla

  4. Tex

  5. Lilla

  6. Tex

  7. Lilla

  8. Tex

  9. Lilla

  10. Tex

  11. Lilla

  12. Tex

  13. Lilla

  GABE

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  Sneak Peek

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  About the Author

  Foreword

  Sparks fly, making this a Valentine’s Day neither Tex nor Lilla will ever forget…

  Tex Calhoun is a brooding and moody wolf. His crew thinks it’s because of an old heartbreak with the woman he thought was his forever. While Tex would never admit to it, deep down he knows there’s a sliver of truth to their thoughts. He also knows his darkness has deeper roots into his past than just his recent ex.

  Lilla Anderson only wants to provide for her daughter and find a sense of happiness in the life she’s created for the two of them, but life continues to toss her sour lemons. It isn’t until a sexy cowboy with a mysterious air asks her out for Valentine’s Day coffee that she realizes sometimes a person gets sour lemons so they can truly know when a sweet one comes along.

  This Holiday Heat installment is a heart-pounding romance with action and a lonely wolf looking for his fated mate.

  Copyright © 2017 by HAILEY STORM

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Cover Created by E. W. Designs & Photography

  Edited by Red Road Editing

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  Chapter One

  Tex

  Icy air blasted against my face as I pushed the sliding glass door off the main house living room farther open and stepped outside into the night air. I gripped my cowboy hat, securing it in place. My lungs pulled in a deep breath as I fished inside my front pocket for my pack of cigarettes, filling themselves to the brim. My muscles loosened when I exhaled.

  It felt damn good to be in the country again.

  City life hadn’t been for me. Cramped quarters. Skyscrapers. Concrete everywhere you looked. The wide variety of suffocating scents waiting around every corner. It was enough to make both my man and my wolf go stir crazy.

  My wolf needed room to roam. He needed space.

  I wasn’t the only one either. Others in the Midnight Pack had felt the same, but for a while there wasn’t anything we could do about it. Not while Cole had been the leader of The Coven.

  Cole. My wolf snarled at the thought of him.

  There hadn’t been a single thing I liked about the vampire. He’d been as nasty and vile as heartless vampires were always made out to be on TV. My grip tightened on the cigarette pack in my hand as I thought about how he’d forced Ava to be his Blood Slave.

  There wasn’t a day that went by I didn’t say a little thank you to her for ripping that bastard’s heart out.

  I knew she’d done so out of a pure need for survival—for her and Gabe—but somewhere inside of me I liked to think she’d killed him for all of us. By doing so, she’d earned her new position in The Coven hands down. No one deserved to lead them more than her.

  I plucked a cigarette from the pack and placed it to my lips. My gaze drifted over the dense woods surrounding our new home.

  Home. The word sent warmth through me.

  It had been too long since I’d been able to call a place home and truly mean it. When Cole was in control of The Coven—which also meant in control of the Midnight Pack—we’d never stayed in one place longer than a couple weeks.

  That’s what happened when you went around causing chaos.

  My wolf growled as thoughts of how many messes I’d been forced to clean up for Cole flashed through my mind. That’s what a Midnight Wolf did though. We cleaned up the messes of The Coven and protected them from any harm. We were their furry bodyguards. Cole took that notion to an extreme. He acted without conscience or merit.

  I loathed the asshole.

  I pulled in another long breath and released it slowly. My mind stilled and my wolf mellowed. While we hadn’t lived in Baron Valley long, the place felt like home nonetheless. My gaze drifted to the star-speckled sky.

  Yeah, Gabe and Ava couldn’t have picked a better place for our crew to settle.

  I found my lighter and lit my cigarette. A girlish giggle floated to my ears. I knew it belonged to Ava even before I spotted her and Gabe on a blanket in the yard. This was their nightly ritual when it wasn’t raining—stargazing and chatting as they cuddled.

  I zeroed in on them, taking in the way their limbs tangled with one another’s as though they were trying to become one person. I took another drag off my cigarette as I continued to stare, knowing I should look away but feeling unable to. Something inside me stirred at the sight of them together—a hunger I couldn’t force away.

  Gabe leaned in to kiss Ava and I tore my eyes away, allowing them the private moment they thought they were getting.

  Jesus, what was I doing out here? Besides smoking? I shouldn’t have been staring at them the way I had been. I wasn’t a creeper. Gabe was my Alpha and Ava was the new leader of The Coven. Together they were the authority figures of our crew.

  I needed to remember this without having one of them remind me.

  Gabe was no longer a scrawny little wolf who harbored problems with authority and got on my last damn nerve. He was no longer allowed to be viewed as a little brother in my eyes. He was no longer allowed to be viewed as a friend. He was the Alpha to the Midnight Pack. And as for Ava, she was no longer the weak human he loved. She was practically vampire royalty now.

  Times had changed.

  Everything was different, even within the dynamics of the crew. No longer were we divided as Pack and Coven, wolves and vampires. We were now one. We were a crew.

  Gabe and Ava had brought us together.

  Ava laughed again. The pitch to it had images of red hair and pouty lips flashing through my mind. My chest contrasted and expanded, and suddenly I was drowning in a sea of old memories I wished would disappear.

  Jesus, it had been weeks since I last thought about Beth. Stupidly, I’d thought I was finally over her. Guess I’d just been lying to myself. Would I ever be free from the vixen? My wolf howled out his misery. He didn’t enjoy the trip down memory lane either. Both of us had thought Beth had been it for us.

  She’d had other plans though.

  My lips twisted into a snarl. I took another drag off my cigarette and pushed thoughts of her away. The only good thing that came from knowing her was learning that a person could love someone, but they could never make them love them the same way or the same amount.

  “Hey, old man!”
Gabe shouted. “What’s your deal? Why you being so damn creepy over there?”

  I exhaled a puff of smoke and felt a smirk twist at the corners of my mouth. “I’m not being creepy. I’m following Ava’s new rule.”

  “Oh yeah? And what new rule might that be?”

  “The one that says no more smoking cigarettes inside the main house.”

  “You remembered.” Ava rolled over onto her stomach and lifted up on her elbows to look at me. I could make out her violet eyes through the distance. I’d always thought they were a stunning color. “I think you’re about the only one who has. Thank you, Tex.”

  “You’re welcome, darlin’.” I grinned. “But I’m not the only one. Ryan remembered too.”

  “Ah, Ryan. He’s another good one.” Ava rolled back over onto her back and looked up to the night sky.

  “Ah, Ryan? What’s with the dreamy tone?” Gabe demanded.

  I shook my head. He would never be able to tame his confrontational side wholly. No matter how hard the kid tried, it would always be there, simmering beneath the surface.

  “There wasn’t a dreamy tone in my voice. What you heard was me exhaling as I rolled over. Calm down.” Ava placed a kiss across his lips. Gabe visibly relaxed at the contact and I found myself wondering if Beth had ever done the same for me.

  I didn’t think she had.

  Beth had done many things, but calming me down with a simple kiss wasn’t one of them. Maybe that should have been my first clue that we wouldn’t work. She’d been a firecracker and I always seemed to be the flame ready and waiting to set her off. Better yet, she’d been the beauty and I was the beast.

  That description of our relationship hit closer to home.

  My heart hammered against my rib cage as the memory of revealing my true nature to her flashed through my mind. Her wide eyes. The way her entire body trembled. How for a while she couldn’t form words. She’d claimed she was ready to see what I was, but she’d been wrong.

  She hadn’t been accepting like she always claimed she would be—she’d been terrified.

  She packed her shit and left that night. I didn’t blame her. I was a monster. Her exact words. They’d dug into me deep, but now all that was left was scar tissue in their wake.

  I put my cigarette out on the bottom of my boot and shoved the butt in my pocket. Pieces of Gabe and Ava’s conversation floated to my ears as I turned toward the house. They were making Valentine’s Day plans. I hated Valentine’s Day. It was the only holiday dedicated to making single people feel like shit.

  My grip tightened around the handle to the sliding glass door. I jerked it open and stepped inside. Warmth and the sound of laughter coming from my crew enveloped me. I maneuvered past those sitting around the coffee table locked in an intense game of cards and headed to the kitchen for another beer.

  “Yuck, you smell like a cold cigarette,” Amber snarled as I walked past her.

  “A cold cigarette?” I scoffed. “Since when can you smell the temperature?”

  “It happens to be one of my many talents,” she boasted.

  “Noted.” I opened the fridge and reached past the bottles of blood for another cold beer.

  Once I popped the top off with my lighter, I took a swig and then headed back to my recliner. It had been a long week. I’d been on rotation at the furniture shop. While it might not sound like a taxing job, it was. I loved it though. Working with tools, creating something, it all lit me up and kept my man happy, allowing him the chance to keep my wolf on a leash for once.

  A head of dark hair could be seen in my recliner when I rounded the corner. Gavin. He was watching the crew play their stupid card game. There was a goofy grin plastered on his face. I kicked his sneaker with my boot and he hopped out of my chair like it was on fire. He situated himself on the floor, crossing his legs in front of him as he leaned against the couch. At barely eighteen he was the baby wolf in our pack. We’d pick him up on our final trek through the city. He was a decent kid, albeit a little skittish. It had something to do with being the low man on the totem pole of rough and wicked street smart wolves he’d been with before us. I guessed it was a good thing Ryan and Amber had stumbled across him in one of the nightclubs. Amber noticed him first, or so she’d said. He’d been bloodied and bruised lying on a couch in one of the back VIP rooms. She’d tended to him and refused to leave him behind. Ryan hadn’t stood in her way. He loved pleasing his mate—seeing her happy.

  For a split second, I remembered what it felt like to make someone you loved happy. The satisfaction. The sense of accomplishment.

  Jesus, Beth really did a number on me.

  I’d never realized how deep her wounds ran until now.

  It had been months since she’d gone, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that wished she’d come back. My wolf craved companionship and so did my man. It had to be because I was aging. While I didn’t consider thirty-three as old by any means, it had seemed like the perfect age to settle down with a mate and procreate.

  If only I could find the right one, because Beth hadn’t been her.

  “Where are Gabe and Ava?” Holden, another vampire in The Coven, asked as he tossed a card on top of the pile forming in the center of the coffee table.

  “Outside, cuddling while they chat about Valentine’s Day.” I took another swig of my beer, hoping the others couldn’t sense how envious I was of what they shared.

  Amber shifted until her hazel eyes were boring into me. She’d caught a whiff of what I felt and I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d let it go.

  “Is that a hint of jealousy I’m picking up?” she asked as a sly grin formed on her face.

  “Nope.”

  “I don’t know, I think it is,” Sage, another female Coven member, chimed in before taking a healthy swig of her bottled blood. “Does someone need us to set him up an account on Mated Match?”

  Heat simmered through my veins as I listened to the chorus of laughter wrap around me from Sage’s mention of the supernatural dating site that had recently opened online. It was all everyone had been talking about.

  “Jesus, look how red his face is getting! I think y’all might be embarrassing him,” Ryan chuckled. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen him that shade before.”

  “Leave him alone,” Amber insisted. “That’s enough. Just because we haven’t seen him date anyone since Beth doesn’t mean he hasn’t been on the hunt for a mate.”

  Words formed on the tip of my tongue, but I forced my lips to remain pressed tightly together. My wolf snarled and snapped, begging to be set free so he could draw blood from each of them for taunting me.

  “I don’t know who Beth is, but she must’ve been something to him.” Gavin grinned. “Look at the veins popping out of his neck at the mention of her! Holy shit!”

  I leveled my gaze with his and narrowed my eyes. My nostrils flared as my wolf scratched at the surface of my skin. Gavin’s face lost all color and I knew it was because he could sense how close my wolf was too bursting free and tearing into him.

  Without taking my eyes off Gavin and his trembling form, I gripped my beer tightly and stood. Silence stilled the room as I walked away. I could feel their eyes on me, but I didn’t acknowledge them. It was best if I didn’t.

  After downing the remainder of my beer, I left the empty bottle on the kitchen counter and headed out the sliding glass door. I needed distance between myself and my asshole crew. Anger licked at my insides as I pulled the door closed behind me with more force than necessary. As I stomped off the porch and cut into the yard, I passed Gabe and Ava without uttering a word. I headed straight to the cabin farthest from everyone, because it was mine. I knew there’d been a reason behind my choosing it as my own.

  Distance was something I needed often.

  My boots thumped up the wooden stairs as I climbed to the small porch and all the tension left my body. I kicked my boots off at the front door and stepped inside. The crackling fire I’d started
before heading to the main house still burned bright in the fireplace, illuminating my cabin in a soft orange glow. I headed to the kitchen for the bottle of whiskey I’d stashed away for a rainy day. The instant I retrieved it, I twisted the cap off and took a heavy swig. The dark liquid burned my tongue and scorched my throat, but it sure did wash away all the shit that just happened. I took another long swig to drown the old memories surfacing next.

  Jesus, what was wrong with me? The older I got the more desperate my need for a companion became. It festered like a cancer, taking on a life of its own deep inside of me. I held no power over it and it scared the shit out of me, if I was being honest.

  I tipped my bottle of whiskey back again and headed toward my favorite recliner. Jerking on the arm of it, I positioned it closer to the fire before sitting. I gripped the lever on the side and propped my feet up. My gaze drifted to the flickering flames dancing in the hearth of my fireplace and more thoughts crashed into me. The crew was never going to let me live down the fact that they’d gotten underneath my skin with talk of not having a mate. I might as well get used to them tossing around that moronic Mated Mach site. My wolf growled when thoughts of them creating a profile without my consent floated through my mind.

  Heads would roll…

  I tipped my bottle of whiskey back and chugged. While alcohol might not solve problems, it damn sure could erase them for a minute.

  My fire dwindled as I sat there. I set my bottle down and stood to retrieve another log to toss on it before it went out. I grabbed one of the smaller logs from the crate where I kept them and placed it on the fire. Orange embers shot up from the disruption as the yellow flames proceeded to lick away at the new piece of wood. I reached for my iron poker and stirred the glowing embers beneath the logs, allowing air to seep through so that new life could breathe back into the fire.