A SEAL Wolf Christmas

Bjornolf told him about the man who had caught Anna trespassing and how she’d used Nathan and his faux watch as an alibi.

“Where were you when Jessica’s father was hassling Anna?” Nathan sounded like he was about to take Bjornolf on for not protecting her.

Bjornolf fought smiling. The kid was cute. “I was there.” Not that Bjornolf had to explain himself to Nathan, but he wanted to. “He asked for an ID and Anna said she wasn’t changing her name to mine.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Will she now?”

Bjornolf snorted. “We don’t actually get married on paper.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Nathan hung up another section of lights, then climbed down the ladder to move it again. He climbed back up and then turned to Bjornolf. “When was the first time you had sex with a human girl?”

Hell. Bjornolf stopped unraveling strands of lights and looked up at Nathan. “This isn’t about that Jessica Everton girl, is it?”

Nathan frowned, turned, and continued to hang lights off the house.

Not good. “How old is she?” Bjornolf asked. He hadn’t expected to have these kinds of talks with the kid.

“She’s seventeen. Like me. But we can do it with human girls because as wolves we can’t get them pregnant.”

Bjornolf frowned at him. “Most of the time, no.”

Nathan’s jaw dropped.

“It happens occasionally. Haven’t you ever heard Tessa’s story?”

“She was mated to Hunter before she got pregnant.”

“Her mother was the byproduct of her human grandmother and her werewolf grandfather’s union.”

Nathan stared at Bjornolf for a moment. “Oh.” Then he began hanging the lights again.

“It’s rare, but still risky.”

Nathan turned. “But Tessa wasn’t one of us. Hunter had to bite her.”

“Yes, but that’s not the point, is it? Her mother’s mother became pregnant. That’s the point. Further, we usually have multiple births so all of a sudden you wouldn’t have one child but possibly several.”

Nathan was quiet for a long time. Then he said meekly, as if he was afraid that Bjornolf would tell him that his thoughts on that subject were also urban legend, “We can’t get STDs from humans.”

“You’re right. Still, Jessica’s underage and jailbait.”

Nathan sighed. “You’re not going to tell me about the first time you had sex with a human?”

“You know how long we live, Nathan.” Bjornolf was sure Nathan’s father hadn’t talked to him about his own sex life before he mated Nathan’s mother. He wasn’t sure what the protocol was here. Bjornolf’s father certainly never talked to him about the birds and the bees.

“Yeah, I know once you reach puberty, you age only one in thirty years.”

“So it’s been a very long time.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “You don’t remember?”

Bjornolf frowned at him. “Of course I remember.”

“Well?”

“She was sixteen.”

“Sixteen? That’s worse than me.”

“You’ve already done it with Jessica?” Bjornolf shouldn’t have sounded so astounded, but he had guessed the kid was trying to sound him out, to see if Bjornolf thought it was acceptable. Before he did it.

Nathan turned and hung another strand of the lights. “I shouldn’t have. I guess. Do you think Anna knows?”

Bjornolf was surprised Nathan would worry about what Anna thought. Then he recalled how she’d lectured him about not getting involved with a human girl. Which made him wonder when Anna had been involved with a human boy for the first time. That thought made his gut clench. It shouldn’t matter what she’d done so long ago, now that she was his.

Bjornolf shook his head. “I don’t know if Anna guessed or not.”

“She didn’t like it that I was seeing Jessica,” Nathan said morosely.

“If we have sex with a wolf-shifter, it’s for life,” Bjornolf warned, thinking that’s maybe why Nathan tore off to see Sarah. “So for years we seek… companionship with humans until we find a worthwhile mate. Don’t go having sex with Sarah unless she’s truly the one you want to be with forever, or you’ll both be stuck with each other for a very long time. No divorce for mated wolves.”

“Which means it’s okay to be with Jessica for now.”

“No,” Anna said, shoving the door open with her hip. She walked across the snow-covered grass, carrying a tray of hot, buttery crescent rolls and mugs of cocoa topped with mounds of whipped cream.

Nathan turned a little red as he eyed her.

“I brought you some breakfast. Not much, just something quick to snack on while you work.”

“You cook?” Nathan said, sounding surprised and at the same time glad as he climbed down the ladder to snatch a roll and a mug of cocoa.

“Don’t ever let Hunter and the SEAL team know. They think a woman should do all the cooking on missions. They tease me about it, but it’s not all bantering. I let them know otherwise.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.” Nathan scarfed down two more rolls.

“Thanks, Anna.” Bjornolf grabbed a couple before Nathan ate them all and helped himself to the other mug of cocoa. He’d fixed cocoa and rolls tons of times for himself before, but something about Anna preparing them made the food and drink taste even better.

“Yeah, thanks,” Nathan managed to say before he took another bite of his roll, concentrating on devouring them.

“Don’t worry,” she said to Nathan in a teasing tone. “I’ll feed you again.” She glanced up at the house, and her expression softened as she spied the lights hanging near the roof. “The lights are nearly done. They look great. I can’t wait to see them tonight when it’s dark.”

“Yeah, it’ll look great,” Nathan said. “We’ll be going inside to work on the tree next. Okay?”

“Sounds good.” Anna smiled at them warmly, then headed back inside. She shut the door.

Nathan stared at the door and calculated when she might be well out of earshot. “I think she heard us talking. I mean, about most of it. Don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think she did.” Bjornolf could just imagine her questioning him about his encounter with the sixteen-year-old human girl next time they were alone. Or maybe not. She might not want to touch the subject because he was liable to ask her about her past misadventures.

“Jessica’s adopted,” Nathan finally said.

“She’s still human.” Bjornolf was finally getting that Nathan was really hung up on the human girl.

“She…” Nathan paused. “She smells like a wolf.”

Bjornolf didn’t say anything for a moment, trying to process that bit of information, then asked, “What do you mean exactly?”

Nathan shrugged. “She smells like a wolf. Like all of us do—part wolf, part human. I asked if she owned a pet wolf. She laughed at me. Of course she smells more human because her parents hug on her all of the time. Probably because she’s adopted.”

Bjornolf stared hard at the boy, not believing this.

Nathan sighed. “Tessa was the granddaughter of a wolf. Maybe Jessica is also.”

“She can’t shift then. If this is true.”

“She told me she believes in the paranormal. I thought she was hinting that she was a lupus garou but that she was afraid to come out and say so.”

“You didn’t tell her about us, did you?” Bjornolf growled. Not that a human would believe Nathan, but still, they didn’t tell humans what they were. Period. Not unless they had to turn them.

“No. Of course not. Sure, I was hoping she was one of us. But why would humans have adopted and raised