Page 14 of Wounded Christmas Wolf
No drugs.
Drinking is permitted indoors only, unless problems occur, in which case your drinking privileges are revoked, and removal from premises may follow.
Feel free to use cooking facilities, fireplace, and fire pits. Basic cooking supplies are provided, as well as fresh farm eggs.
All guests will attend dinner at the main house promptly at 18:00.
Quiet hours from 21:00-7:00.
Turn down heat and turn off lights when you leave. (Christmas lights are an exception from Dec. 1-Dec. 26.)
Jace raised an eyebrow at that one, but it was nothing compared to what came after it.
Rule #1 - BREAKING THIS RULE WILL BE IMMEDIATE GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL FROM PREMISES.
DO NOT DATE THE COLONEL’S DAUGHTERS.
Daughters? Jace wrenched his thoughts away from that particular drift. There was no point in thinking about it. Or dwelling on the kiss with Holly, which he was trying very hard not to think about.
At least he didn’t seem to be wolfing out any worse than he had been. He pulled off his gloves and examined his hands. They were as they had been, the backs still furry, the fingers slightly curled with claws at their tips. He ran his tongue across his teeth: still no points there, anyway.
So he wasn’t going to fall down on all fours and turn into a ravening beast just from touching Holly, earlier experiences aside. There was that, anyway. He might be able to make it through this.
Having his gloves off made him realize the room didn’t seem to be getting any warmer. How had she set the thermostat? He checked it, an old beige box on the wall that had tobe twenty years if it was a day, and found that she’d cranked it up to 72. He ought to be feeling some heat by now.
The rules had mentioned a fireplace, and there was one, but it appeared mostly ornamental. The actual heater was a small direct-vent unit located at the base of the wall near the thermostat. He crouched to examine it. The burner wasn’t kicking on as it should. It was getting fuel. Maybe the air intake was clogged with snow? He stomped into his boots and stepped outside.
Full night had fallen while he was inside. Down the hill, the lights of the main house glimmered soft and gold, an invitation in the dark.
All around him, the other cottages were dark except for the glimmering of their lights, colored to match their various themes. Gingerbread House had gold lights. The one on his other side (Kringle Kabin?) was red and green. They marched onward: blue and white lights, green and gold, finally red and gold. His was green and white, to match the mistletoe theme.
He went down the steps and around the side of the house. Yeah, the air intake was frosted up. The heater had probably been turned off, or run very low, and when the weather got cold and the snow fell, it had melted and then frozen around the pipe. He tried using his fist to break it off, then found a stick of wood discarded near the porch and pried loose the ball of ice. He cleared a little snow around the end of the pipe so it wouldn’t happen again.
Then he looked up.
The sky was very dark here. There was almost no light pollution apart from the holiday lights. The clouds from the earlier snowstorm had rolled away to the horizon, leaving the sky as clear as the crystal in a Christmas light display. Except these lights were a million light-years away. Stars like sharp pinpricks in a velvet backdrop. He couldn’t remember the names of his constellations, but he could make out a fewof them. He could even see the Milky Way, a faintly shimmering concentration like a river of starlight pouring down the sky. The pine trees draped the hills in inky black, and patches of snow in the open fields were faintly luminous.
Jace found himself smiling unexpectedly. His wolf felt calm, soothed by the wide open spaces around them. He spent a little more time looking at the stars before cold finally drove him in.
After the sharp cold, it was a relief to be inside, even if it was still chilly. He reset the heater, and while he waited for it to restart, he explored the cottage.
It was a nice little vacation place, cozy and sized for one person or a couple who didn’t mind being up in each other’s space. Downstairs, there was a table and two chairs, a kitchenette, and a comfortable-looking armchair in front of the fireplace. A ladder led up to a loft, and he climbed it to find a queen-sized bed with a nightstand and small chest of drawers, tucked under the cabin’s sloping roof. The bed was piled with decorative pillows featuring holly, winter scenes, and, of course, mistletoe. There was a stuffed Santa doll flopped on the nightstand, and more mistletoe hanging above the bed. A whole garland of it.
Whoever designed this placereallyloved Christmas.
But it was nice, and private, and clean. When he came back down the ladder, the heater was running, pouring warm air into the room. Jace grinned, genuinely happy for once. He took off his gloves and held his hands under the warm draft.
This, at least, he was good at.
He couldn’t fix his life, but he could troubleshoot a furnace.
HOLLY
Holly blewout a breath as she motored back down the hill in the gathering dusk. Holy moly, but this was going to be a difficult week to get through.
The ATV engine throbbing between her spread legs was helping not at all.
She had been unprepared for her visceral reaction to her sight of Jace’s face. (And now she knew his name. Also not helping.) When she first saw him standing at the edge of the yard, looking awkward and out of place with a beat-up duffel over his shoulder, she figured he was simply going to be one of her dad’s fixer-upper projects. For all that the Colonel gave off an air of gruff unconcern most of the time, he had helped a lot of current and former military men and women over the years—helping them get set up with counseling, with civilian jobs, or just giving them a soft place to land for a little while.
