Christmas Moon Read Online Free PDF

shrill blare of the phone jarred him out
of sleep. Again. Hunter groaned and laid his arm across his eyes,
as if that could blot out the sound. It rang again and this time he
rolled off the couch with a snarl and stalked across the living
room. Snatching the phone off the side table he clicked it on.
    Quiet breathing greeted his ears.
    “Stop calling,” Hunter snapped out, his spine
rigid. He’d barely gotten any sleep at all with this bastard
calling constantly all night. If Breanne dealt with this every
night...
    It was a wonder she didn’t have dark circles
under her eyes.
    The breathing hitched on the phone, probably
surprise, but Hunter didn’t stop there. “And if I catch you on pack
lands again you’ll be a dead wolf before Enforcement ever knows we
had a rogue problem.”
    The phone clicked off and Hunter tossed it
back to the table, fully ready to collapse on the couch, when he
caught sight of Bree standing in the walkway. The same baggy pants
and loose, white tee, her hair rumpled with sleep. She
looked...soft. Breathtaking.
    And he stood there frozen, drooling like a
thirteen-year-old boy after his first crush.
    She gave him a gentle smile as she leaned
against the wall. She crossed her arms over her chest. He couldn’t
help but wonder if she knew that pushed her breasts up, making them
look plump, ripe for the taking.
    “You don’t look like you slept at all,” she
said, voice soft.
    “I didn’t.” He jerked his hand toward the
phone and then glanced at her. “You look like you slept fine.”
    “That’s why I leave the phone out here. I
don’t have to hear it. Should have thought about that last night,
I’d have turned it off...” She let the words trail away and Hunter
stared at her, dumbfounded.
    “Does he call like this every night?”
    Bree shrugged. “Not really sure. Like I said,
after the first few, I left it out here. Those first few nights it
varied. One call, then six, then two. Figured it was a bunch of
kids thinking they could spook an old lady.”
    She wasn’t old, and by the way her lips
twitched when she said it, he knew she was teasing. Making light of
a situation that should never have existed. She’d thought it was a
bunch of teens from his pack trying to torment an ex-Hound out of
pack land. She’d given them slack where Hunter never would
have.
    But still, if the bastard calling was the
same one that had lurked outside her house last night, it wasn’t a
kid prank calling. No, he was old enough to know better and he’d
just taken the harassment to a whole new level. Now, he was
dangerous. Very dangerous.
    “You should call Enforcement.”
    Bree arched an eyebrow. “Would you like some
tea?”
    Stubborn. But fine. He’d let her believe he
was letting it go. The moment he left here, he’d call in someone to
watch her house and then he’d drive his ass down to the
local Shifter Town Enforcement office and report the
rogue-slash-stalker himself. Hunter put on a fake smile. “I’d love
some.”
    “And yet I get the feeling you’d rather
strangle me.” She gestured for him to follow as she strode for the
kitchen.
    As stubborn as she was, strangling was still
the last thing on his mind. Hunter watched her hips sway as she
moved around her kitchen. He leaned back against the counters, his
elbows braced on the faux-granite behind him. Still, probably best
to change the subject. “It’s almost Christmas and you don’t have a
single decoration. Why?”
    Not a tree, a light, a Christmas card....
    Pain fluttered across her gaze and she looked
away, instantly making him regret the question. “Arianna,” he said
softly, knowing the moment her daughter’s name left his lips that
he was right.
    Holidays, birthdays, they had to be the
hardest for her. So full of memories of a child she no longer had.
A family she no longer had.
    A ghost of a smile touched her lips and when
Bree turned back to him he could see the tears misted in her eyes.
“Yes. This time of year only