Jingle Bell Wolf by Terry Spear

Chapter 16

Landon knew the sisters didn’t want to separate Gabrielle and him, but she needed some time with her friends, and he was perfectly happy to give them their space. “Do you all live near each other in Daytona Beach?”

“We live about a half mile from each other,” Zelda said. “We were all at the beach one night really late. We were as surprised to see a wolf as she was to see a couple of jaguars. Odette and I were playing in the surf, and she was standing on the beach watching us. Of course, as soon as we noticed her, our first thought was that she was a big dog that looked like a wolf. We were certain no wolves lived in Daytona Beach, and we didn’t know about wolf shifters at the time.”

“Exactly,” Gabrielle said as they reached the lodge deck and removed their skis. “I knew right away they were jaguars, of course. This happened about eight years ago. I didn’t even know jaguar shifters existed back then. At first, I thought they had escaped from a zoo. Or maybe there was a big-cat rescue organization somewhere near Daytona Beach that I hadn’t heard of. I was really worried they were real cats and not shifters. They could easily have killed me if so.”

“We weren’t sure what to do,” Zelda said. “We just watched Gabrielle, not wanting to give her a heart attack if we left the water. She didn’t bark, like a dog would, or make any sound at all and she wasn’t leaving. We were afraid she thought if she turned away from us and ran off, we would attack her. If we had been all jaguar, we probably would have. We carefully left the water, trying not to look like big cats prowling on the hunt, but that’s just the way we move. Then I figured if I shifted, the dog would just realize we were human and go on about its business. Imagine my surprise when the dog, or in reality a wolf, shifted too.”

“We were totally in awe of Gabrielle,” Odette said.

“Yeah, like I was of the sisters. I invited them to my house for drinks after that. We shifted back into our respective furry forms, loped off to our vehicles, shifted, dressed, and they followed me home. We must have talked until three in the morning.” Gabrielle smiled. “We even went for a swim in my pool. We’ve been friends ever since.”

“We sure have been,” Odette said. “You couldn’t find a better friend than Gabrielle.”

“I just didn’t know you were in the matchmaking game,” Gabrielle said to her friends.

“Well, we knew you needed to be with a pack,” Zelda said.

“Before it gets too much later, we’ll get some hot toddies and nachos so the two of you can go up to the room and get changed into your swimsuits,” Odette said.

“Okay, thanks.” Gabrielle led Landon to the office’s storeroom where they left off their skis, poles, and ski boots while the sisters went to the rental place and dropped off theirs.

It didn’t take Gabrielle and Landon long to reach her room, and then the two of them were quickly stripping out of their clothes in her room and exchanging them for their swimsuits. They didn’t want to take too long in case the sisters wanted to return to their room while Landon and Gabrielle were swimming.

Then they went downstairs and Landon put out the pool party sign. They waved at the sisters who were drinking their hot toddies and snacking on red and green nachos fireside, both smiling at them and raising their mugs to them.

They smiled and waved back at the sisters.

Landon wanted to swim their laps and return to the room and change so he and Gabrielle could free up the room. He was certain the sisters would like to relax in their room soon, after their flight and because they were still on Eastern Standard Time, two hours later, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves for now.

In the swimming pool area, Gabrielle seemed to have the same notion and was out of her cover-up and flip-flops before he even had time to pull off his shirt. She moved to the deeper end of the pool and dove into the water.

He yanked off his shirt and removed his sandals, then jumped into the water after her.

Gabrielle was too enticing to just want to swim laps with, so Landon swam after her as she did a breaststroke across the length of the pool. He dove under the divider to the outside part of the pool and caught her foot, then pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

“I’m going to miss this with you.” He kissed her cheek. Their warm breaths and the warm water collided with the cold air and created a magical mist.

“Hmm, me too with you. I never believed I would be swimming with a hot wolf in a pool surrounded by snow and trees covered in Christmas lights.” Gabrielle wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m so glad I’ll be with you at night until I leave. You are sure you’re all right with taking us into town tomorrow so I can show Odette and Zelda the tea shop?”

“Yes. You need time to be with your friends too. Otherwise, I would happily monopolize all your time.” He kissed her nose. “Ready for our laps, then we’ll head up, change, and go to the house?”

“Yeah, I figured we wouldn’t spend as much time frolicking as we usually do so we can free up the suite for them.”

“Exactly.”

They swam more laps, but frolicking just seemed to be part of the routine and though he was trying to just swim, she fell behind on her lap and grabbed his feet. That had him laughing, though while they were in the pool after hours, they tried to suppress any loud laughing or conversation so they wouldn’t bother anyone who might be putting kids to sleep or was trying to get some sleep themselves.

They kissed and hugged and chased each other, then called it quits so her friends could return to their room.

They left the water and he pulled on his shirt and sandals while she was getting on her cover-up and flip-flops. The sisters were still enjoying their snacks when Gabrielle and Landon reached the lobby.

“We’ll be right back and you can go up to your suite,” Gabrielle told them.

“Take your time. We’re fine,” Zelda said.

But they would be as quick as they could. Besides, he was sure Gabrielle would want to see the lights on the snowman like he wanted to, and then he was eager to go to bed with her. He was glad the guest bedroom had its own bathroom en suite so they would have more privacy.

Once they had dressed, they pulled on their warm outer gear and put their wet bathing suits in the pocket of the bag that Gabrielle had left in the room for him.

They stopped on their way through the lobby so she could give her friends hugs before she and Landon left the lodge.

“Night, you two. We’ll see you in the morning,” Zelda said.

“Breakfast at the bar and grill,” Gabrielle said.

Odette smiled. “Okay, night all.”

Then Landon and Gabrielle headed out into the cold to drop off all their stuff at the house. Once they reached the house, they could see the snowman all lit up. “Oh, I wish my friends could see it like this.”

A family was taking pictures of themselves while they stood at the base of the snowman. They waved at Landon and Gabrielle who smiled and waved back.

“We can bring the sisters over here to see the snowman tomorrow night after going to the tavern,” he said as Gabrielle took a picture of the snowman and sent it to her friends.

“What will we do about taking showers?” she asked as they went inside the warm house. His sisters had already gone to bed, giving them privacy.

“We have a bathroom attached to the guest room. Totally private.”

“What are we waiting for then?”

He smiled and carried their bags into the room and closed the door while she began stripping out of her clothes in a hurry.

He was soon joining her in the shower, thinking how his showers had become wild and exciting instead of just a time to wash up. It sure wouldn’t be the same without her.

Then they were in bed together, and he thought this couldn’t get any more perfect. Unless they were mated.

* * *

The next morning, Gabrielle and Landon woke late, and though she absolutely loved being with him in bed, all cuddled up to him and nice and cozy and warm, she groaned. “Being with you is not conducive to getting up early. If we ever did mate”—he raised his brows looking hopeful, and she smiled—“we would really have to work things out better than this.”

He smiled and kissed her mouth. “We will, if it comes to that. I think I heard my sisters leave earlier.”

“And you didn’t wake me?”

“It was way too early and I fell back to sleep. Wild night, you know.”

“Hmm, well, I smell the eggs, ham, and hash browns they made. Coffee, Irish tea.” Gabrielle grabbed her phone off the bedside table and texted Odette: Did you already have breakfast?

Gabrielle was afraid they already had.

Odette responded: Yep, and the food is great at the bar and grill. We’re off to ski. Meet you for a break of hot chocolate topped with loads of whipped cream at ten.

Gabrielle groaned again and texted: Okay. Sorry about that. I meant to have breakfast with you.

Odette responded: No way. This is all working out just as we planned. Off to get on the chairlift. See you later.

Landon had already dressed. “What did they say?”

“They’ll meet us for hot chocolate at ten.”

“Okay. What do you want for breakfast?”

Gabrielle was still lying in the bed, not wanting to get up. “What your sisters had. It smells delightful.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Do you want breakfast in bed?”

“No. Go work on it. I’ll make myself presentable and I’ll come in to help you. I have to admit it’s tempting, but we’ll never get going if I don’t get my lazy butt out of bed.”

Landon smiled. “Sure. See you in a bit.” He left to make breakfast, and she got up and dressed.

What a way to wake up, though, with a hot wolf willing to make her breakfast in bed! Not to mention all that came before that.

Gabrielle soon joined him to help make breakfast, but he was about done and beginning to serve the food. All the kittens were coming to greet her, including Princess Buttercup, and she stopped to pet them.

She washed up and then made Landon some coffee and started some tea for herself. “Wow, you are sure handy.”

She brought her tea and his mug of coffee to the table.

“I am only too happy to make us breakfast.”

“Your sisters must have been super quiet this morning. I think I heard a little bit of noise, but so barely audible that I drifted off to sleep again. I had no idea you had been awake too.”

“Yeah, my sisters are the best. I figured we both needed the extra sleep.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Perfect.”

“Great. I watched you add all that milk and sugar to it when we had breakfast here before, so I winged it.”

“You winged it just right. Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you, did you ever figure out the Secret Santa gift? Who it was for and who it was from?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah, it had to be for one of the jaguar sisters. It was a stuffed jaguar, but they claim that they don’t have a clue who might have given it to them, and there wasn’t any scent on it indicating a jaguar interested in either of them gave it to them.”

“Nicole or her brother could always look into it,” Landon said.

“The sisters are good at what they do too. But we can mention Nicole to them, if they think they might need someone else to help them check into it.”

“Okay. About swimming—”

“The pool is open already to guests.” Gabrielle smiled at him. “We can swim tonight after going with the sisters to the tavern for dinner. I’m ready to ski right now.”

“You got it.”

Before long, they were out on the slopes having a great time skiing. When it was finally ten, they met up with the sisters to have hot chocolate. Gabrielle’s friends were beaming.

“We were talking about how great this is going to be with you moving here. We’re making plans for several trips already,” Odette said.

Gabrielle laughed. “You would be welcome to visit anytime.”

“Hey, we thought we would take turns skiing with Landon down the expert slopes while one of us skis with you,” Odette told Gabrielle.

“Oh, I would love that. Great thinking!” Gabrielle hoped she wouldn’t screw up too much while she was skiing with her friends. She was used to messing up with Landon, and he was so good and helpful about it with her. It was funny how she’d thought it would be more embarrassing to fall in front of strangers than if she was falling all over the place in front of her friends. But she was comfortable with Landon now.

They finished their hot chocolates, and Gabrielle and Odette went on the chairlift first while Landon and Zelda followed behind them. Odette was the firstborn of the twins, and she was usually in charge, but the twins got along famously. They would disagree with each other sometimes, but it never lasted long, and then they were back to being a united front.

Gabrielle said to Odette on the ride up, “Landon asked me about the stuffed jaguar. Do you have some idea of who might have sent it to you?”

“A really far-out notion,” Odette said. “Still, we didn’t want to discount it, and it’s another reason we wanted you to stay with Landon and his sisters.”

“You were teasing when you mentioned the she-cat you were chasing down might show up here, weren’t you?” Gabrielle asked.

“Only half-heartedly. All the evidence suggests the woman killed her mate. They had a fight the night before at a restaurant and she said he’d started it, egging her on. And then he turned it around as if he was trying to calm her down and be the good guy in the whole situation. So what the patrons saw was her blowing up and him trying to settle her down.”

“And then he was found dead after that?” Gabrielle had bad outcomes with her clients sometimes because of pets dying, but she couldn’t imagine trying to track down a jaguar who had murdered his or her mate.

“Okay, well, that’s the thing. He convinced her to go boating with him in the Gulf of Mexico to make up for the fight they’d had. Again, that was witnessed. She seemed moody and not at all happy. He was cheerful, greeting everyone at the marina—”

“Making a show of it,” Gabrielle said. “As if he wanted everyone to remember them for the final scene to play out.”

“Exactly.”

They reached the top of the ski lift, and Gabrielle wanted to hear the rest of the story. She guessed Odette and her sister hadn’t wanted to mention the situation in front of Landon because he was a civilian. So was Gabrielle, but they knew she wouldn’t tell anyone about it.

They moved out of the way of the chairlift and skied off to an intermediate slope.

“You know Landon is deputized to arrest people in Silver Town,” Gabrielle said.

“Oh, okay, then I guess we should clue him in later. Are you ready to ski?”

“No, Odette.”

Odette smiled at her and they moved way over out of everyone’s way so other skiers could ski down the slope. “They went out on the boat, had dinner and cocktails, and she felt overcome with sleep—”

Gabrielle frowned. “Knockout drug!”

“Zelda and I considered it. Then she wakes sometime in the night, lights are out, she’s got blood all over her, there’s blood in the boat—”

“And he’s lying dead on the floor of the boat in a pool of blood.” Gabrielle could just visualize it.

“Nope. No body. It appears she killed him and dumped his body overboard. Of course she says she believes pirates boarded the boat while she was passed out, and she didn’t have anything to do with it. She calls for the Coast Guard and they come out, take her into custody, take the boat into shore, the sheriff’s department tests the blood, and it comes back that it’s her husband’s.”

“But?”

“When we find no body, that’s always…suspect.” Odette texted her sister, then pocketed her phone. “She’s released on bond, she runs. We track her down, turn her over to the agents that will incarcerate her in the JAG confinement facility, and you know the rest. Are you ready to ski down now?”

“Yeah, here goes nothing.” Gabrielle skied down the slope as Odette followed her. She did really well, and she was so glad that she didn’t mess up. When she got down to the bottom, Odette quickly joined her and got a text.

Odette pulled out her phone and responded to it. “I told Zelda I was telling you about our perp. She said if I wanted to go down with you a few more times, I can, and then we’ll swap partners. She’s having a ball skiing the experts with Landon. He’s even given her some tips.”

“Oh, great. He’s super patient and a really good instructor.” Gabrielle started to ski toward the chairlift again. “So about your runaway jaguar?”

“She doesn’t remember killing her mate. The thing I thought was odd was that both drinking glasses had been rinsed out.”

“So he washed up the glasses and then she killed him.”

“Right. But if it was as she said, he got rid of the evidence that he gave her a drug to knock her out.”

“But what about all the blood?”

“He could have taken some from himself earlier and then smeared it all over the boat in strategic places. Even donated some for the ‘project,’ saved it until he needed it, and voilà, no dead body, but it sure looks bad for her.”

“Okay. Did a doctor check for a drug in her system?”

“It was too late, way past the twenty-fours that would show the drug was in her blood by the time she came to and notified the Coast Guard to get her back into the marina.”

Gabrielle didn’t ask anything more about the situation because she was too busy concentrating on getting on the chairlift. When they were both seated, they rode it up.

“So how does he benefit from pretending to kill himself off when he could just divorce her? At least jaguars can do that, unlike wolves.”

“He was in debt up to his eyebrows—gambling debts, was losing the house, and some loan sharks were after him. Zelda and I figured if he pretended to kill himself, he could get rid of both his debts and his wife, who he fought with more and more over his gambling issues.”

“That makes sense, then.”

They reached the top of the slope, got up to off-load from the chairlift, and skied down a couple more times. Then Odette switched with Zelda to ski with Gabrielle several times.

“So Odette told you about our perp.” Zelda and Gabrielle rode up the last time on the chairlift before it was time for lunch in town.

“Yeah. I feel sorry for the woman.” Gabrielle couldn’t imagine having a mate who would set her up to take a murder charge just so he could get out of the financial bind he was in from gambling. “Do you think the stuffed jaguar might have been from her? If so, why would she send one to you?” Gabrielle got off the chairlift, and Zelda joined her as they skied to the intermediate slope.

They stopped off to the side of the top of the slope like Gabrielle and Odette had done to stay out of other skiers’ way earlier.

“Because she likes us. She genuinely made a connection with us. While we waited for the other JAG agents to take her into custody, we mentioned we were supposed to meet you at the lodge in Silver Town after Thanksgiving. So she knew we were here. And she talked about her future plans, once she’s cleared of the crime. We never suspected she would escape her escort and flee again. She believes we’re on her side.”

“Are you?”

Zelda let out her breath in the frigid air. “Yeah. We believe her. Which was why we were trying to catch up to her so bad and missed out on part of our vacation to be with you. Of course once we learned you were having fun with a wolf, we felt better about not joining you right away. Making sure you wanted to join the wolf pack was also our priority.”

Gabrielle smiled at her friend. “Landon sure made a difference when I hadn’t had anyone to be with all this time. But I’m glad you’re here. I sure hope you can learn the truth soon about the jaguar.”

“She did mention double jeopardy. If she’s found guilty of murdering her husband by the jaguar court, and she learns he’s alive and she’s finally set free…”

“If he ends up dead for real this time—by her hand—they couldn’t try her again for the same crime. Payback’s a bitch.” Gabrielle mentally prepared herself to ski down the slope.

“Don’t you know it.”

Gabrielle skied off down the hill, Zelda following behind her. Both her friends had said nothing but praise about how well she was doing and how grateful they were that Landon had taken her to this level already.

But now it was time to regroup and have lunch with the ladies at the tea shop, and Landon was ready to have his hamburger.

“The ladies gave me a run for my money.” Landon gave Gabrielle a hug and a kiss. “This afternoon, I’m ready to go back to skiing with you down the intermediate slopes.”

She laughed.

“Don’t you believe it. He looked like a professional skier zipping down the slopes,” Odette said. “We’re going to sleep well tonight.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Zelda said.