Free A Christmas Home by April Zyon Page B

kid you
hired, kick his butt for leaving us such a mess, please.”
    “I
will, promise. Now go, otherwise I’ll never get these drawers clean enough to
actually go back in there. Make sure there are no others that need to be
disinfected, too, would you, please?” He grabbed up the hose, then stood back
to spray off the worst chunks of whatever was still stuck inside.
    “Don’t
worry. I’ll bring you some more, I’m sure.” She grinned at her bear and winked.
“I love you, my big mechanic bear. I just love a man that works with his
hands.” She put a sashay into her walk as she strolled away from him.
    “You’re
going to get it later for teasing your man. I’m not going to tell you what your
punishment will be, but you’d better believe I will dish it out,” he called
after her.
    “Promises,
promises!”
     
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    Leaning
on the railing around the porch, Jagger watched Ophelia mostly because he
could. The woman was pure sunshine and had a body that screamed sensuality. His
lips curved up when he caught her laughing at something one of his pack mates
said to her. He was glad she was being so easily accepted by the majority.
    Not
all were happy, but he’d known that would be the case. There were some females
who were very pissed that they hadn’t been the one to bag the alpha of their
pack. But Jagger had always known his mate wasn’t within the pack. A few of the
females figured he was wrong or they could change his mind. Little did they
realize an alpha’s mind wasn’t so easily changed.
    “I
like her.”
    Glancing
over, Jagger gave a nod to one of his lieutenants. Garth had been his best
friend since they were four and ended up in the same mud puddle together. Good
Lord their mothers were pissed when they’d finally gone home. Jagger could
still remember the look on his mom’s face when she’d seen him before he’d
managed to figure out how to get some of that muck off. His dad, on the other
hand, had taken one look and burst out laughing right before he went to get his
camera. Jagger still had that photo on the wall in his bedroom at the cabin.
    Garth
propped a hip to the railing near Jagger and chuckled. “Your female is
definitely getting a few stink eyes, though. Think those females will
eventually get over it?”
    “They’d
better,” he said, straightening up. A last look to his mate and Jagger turned
to lean his ass against the railing, his attention shifting to his friend and
the other lieutenants that had joined them on the porch. “You’ve all read the
proposal, and I know some have started to dig around. What do we know so far
about this pack wanting permission to move here?”
    Layla
pulled out her phone and after a moment passed it over to him. “I had a friend
do some digging. He’s an old army buddy of my dad’s so he was cool doing it as
a favor. I told him that if he ever needed anything we could help with to
definitely let us know.”
    Jagger
nodded while reading the point form report from the man. He wasn’t liking what
he was reading. Correction, not so much what he was reading—it was more what he was not seeing in the report. “This is awfully thin, Layla.”
    “I
know. I called Dad’s buddy up and asked him about it. According to him it was
all he could swing in the twenty-four hours I’d given him to dig. He said that
the only folks from this pack’s previous home he managed to talk to knew next
to nothing about them. Didn’t matter who he asked, the majority of folks would
give him this blank look. Occasionally he could jog out a few details, but
nothing solid. He’s digging all the harder now because he told me flat out he
got a weird vibe from the place in general. Nothing he could pinpoint, but he
did mention that the fact the town seemed damn thinned out has him curious.”
    “Good,
if he needs anything get it to him. Money, support, whatever.” Layla’s contact
was doing them a huge service by digging around in the pack’s past. No