Chapter 6

BLAKE

While Lacey got Emilia dressed and ready for the day, I finished my phone call. A member of my security team was tailing Fisher and from his intel, the old man spent every day at his horse ranch. It was a good sign, that he wasn't meeting with Unibrod or any other company. I wanted to know the moment he stepped foot in Paradise Peaks. This wasn't quite the same as running through the forest after a rabbit, but I was still a wolf on the hunt. Whether it was a piece of bloody meat or Fisher's signature on a contract, this prey would be mine.

By the time I walked out of my room, Lacey and Emilia were already in the living room. They were sitting on the floor at the coffee table. Emilia was busy doodling on a hotel notepad while Lacey was writing furiously on the backs of Emilia's discarded doodles.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

I squirmed under Lacey's long gaze. She must have picked up on my restless energy. In the short time that she had worked for me, we had spent enough time together to learn each other's mannerisms and tell-tale signs of tension.

Forcing myself to put work out of my mind, I shot her an easy grin. "Everything's fine. Just excited to spend the day with my girls."

"Can we go ride the horseys?" Emilia asked.

I sat down next to Lacey and examined Emilia's drawing. It was a mess of scribbles and odd potato-shaped figures with stick limbs, but even I could tell that it was a picture of a small child in between two adult figures. It didn't take a genius to figure out who the three people in the drawing were supposed to be.

"Of course. We can go on a horse carriage ride and even see the big Christmas tree and Santa."

Emilia dropped her pen at the mention of Santa, all thoughts of drawing forgotten. "Santa's here?"

Lacey laughed. "Uh-huh. And all his elves too. You can tell him what you want for Christmas."

"Let's go! Let's go!" Dragging Mr. Snuffles by his ears, Emilia ran to the coat rack and sat down on the wooden bench underneath. She pulled out her snow boots and tried stuffing her feet into the tops.

Lacey giggled at her excitement even as she went to help her with her boots. "Woah, hold on. We have to have breakfast first."

"And then we can go see Santa?" Emilia asked hopefully.

"Yes. Breakfast downstairs first, then we can go visit Santa. I promise," I said.

After breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we walked to the park. Emilia was all too excited to be out after being in the hotel for so long. She skipped and hopped while holding onto Lacey with her left hand and me with her right hand. The shops along the street from the hotel to the park were all festively decorated, and it was nice to disappear into the crowd of people out doing their Christmas shopping.

The town park was full of happy families waiting in line for their children's turn to sit on Santa's lap. A stall nearby was selling roasted cinnamon almonds, filling the air with a wonderful sweet roasted aroma.

Finally, it was Emilia's turn. One of Santa's elves came over to guide Emilia over to Santa. While we waited for Emilia to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, a frigid gust of wind blew through. I noticed that Lacey wasn't wearing her scarf today and placed mine around the back of her neck.

She tugged the scarf tightly around her neck and buried her nose in the cashmere as if she was breathing in my scent. Then she closed her eyes and let out a quiet hum of pleasure that only my wolf's sense of hearing could pick up through the noise of the crowd.

A shiver ran down my spine, but it wasn't because of the breeze. There was no way she was drawn to me as I was drawn to her. My cock grew rigid, pulsing with blood as I imagined all the ways I could cover her with my scent. Fill her with my seed. I clenched the edges of my long wool coat around me. There I go again, lusting after my employee like I was a perverted boss. How cliché. What the hell was wrong with me?

Two of Santa's elves helped Emilia off of Santa's knees and held her hand as they guided her over. Emilia grinned at me and then ran toward Lacey.

Enough. I was too old and my wolf's lust was too depraved for a good woman like Lacey. She was too important to me and to Emilia for me to fuck this up because I couldn't resist the temptation of her flesh and sweet scent. I clenched my jaw. All I had to do was make it after the New Year. Once we were back in Huntington Harbor, we wouldn't have to spend so much time together. I would go back to my office and Lacey would be busy with Emilia.

Lacey picked Emilia up as she ran into her arms. "Did you tell Santa what you want for Christmas?"

Emilia nodded. She glanced at me out of the corners of her eyes before shooting a sly look at Lacey. "It's going to be the best Christmas ever."

I paid the elf for the photo and discreetly pocketed the note he handed me with what Emilia told Santa. Next, we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. Emilia sat sandwiched between Lacey and me. It was both for her safety and so that my lust-addled mind could cool off.

When we arrived back at the hotel, the lobby was packed with people.

"What's going on?" Lacey asked.

I pointed at the sign next to the doorway to the hotel's ballroom. "It looks like an art exhibit." There were men, women, and children coming in and out of the ballroom. "I think it's open entry. Do you want to check it out?"

Lacey glanced longingly at the exhibit. "I don't know. Emilia might be tired."

Two children, a young boy, about Emilia's age, and an older girl, ran out of the exhibit and raced around the water fountain in the lobby.

Emilia followed them eagerly with her eyes as they dashed across the hotel lobby and back into the exhibit room. "Nuh-uh. I'm not tired. I'm a big girl."

Lacey shrugged. "What do you think?"

It was the first time since the death of her mother that Emilia showed signs of any interest in playing with other children.

I shrugged. "Let's take a quick look before we head upstairs."

Dozens of vibrantly colored abstract paintings hung on the walls of the hotel ballroom. In the center of the room, stood various pieces of sculpture, some of them made of metal and stone, while others looked like a giant rainbow-colored sea anemone made of glass.

Lacey held onto Emilia's hand as she headed toward a painting made up of swirling slashes of blue in various shades.

"It reminds me of the crashing waves of the ocean." She tilted her head as she examined the painting.

I studied the way the brush strokes clashed against each other while moving together in harmony. "It's a reminder of our smallness, that we're all just floating along together, carried by the waves of life."

Lacey hummed in agreement and made a motion tracing the lines of the painting.. "We're all small and adrift, but not alone."

Emilia tugged on the edge of my coat sleeve, interrupting our analysis of the artwork.

"What is it, Emilia?"

She pointed at the corner of the room where it looked like a children's area was set up with miniature easels and drawing paper. The two children who were running around the lobby were there.

"That looks like fun," Lacey said. "Why don't we go see what that's about?"

There was a young woman with the two children. The three of them shared similar eyes and noses. Two siblings and their mother, I deduced.

The older little girl came over first. She carried herself with a confidence that was beyond her age. "Hi, I'm Sorah and that's my brother Will and my mommy."

Emilia clutched at the fabric of my pants and hid behind my legs. Her earlier excitement about meeting new friends faded.

Lacey smiled at the little girl. "It's nice to meet you, Sorah. I'm Lacey, that's Blake, and this is Emilia."

"We're drawing Santa's village. Would you like to help us?"

"Oh, I'm not very good at drawing, but Emilia is." Lacey squatted down to Emilia's height. "Sorah's drawing sounds like a lot of fun. Can we go help her?"

I felt Emilia nod against my leg. Lacey took Emilia's hand in hers and followed Sorah to the easel where her little brother was scribbling vigorously with a marker.

As I watched her play with the two children, a pang of guilt hit me as I realized that this was the first time Emilia had been around other kids. It couldn't be healthy for a child to spend so much time with only adults. I had been so busy with work and barely functioning as her guardian that I had completely neglected her social development.

I heard them coming behind me before I saw them.

"Wulfthorn. I had no idea you were a family man now."

It was Huxley Cain and Derek Fox, alphas of the Huntington Harbor wolf pack. They paused beside me, and together we watched the children with the women who were deep in conversation with each other. It didn't take long for me to put two and two together. These were their pups and their shared mate.

"Cain. Fox." I nodded at them in greeting.

While I had no hard feelings with their pack, we were not exactly on friendly terms. Over the years, they had approached me with an offer to join the pack, but I preferred being a loner. My own family and Reeve were all the wolves I needed in my life.

"Emilia is my niece."

"My condolences to your family. Opal was a formidable she-wolf," Derek said.

I clenched my teeth at the mention of my late sister. Judging by the soft look in his eyes, I could tell that he was being sincere. The two of them had a brief fling in college before they determined that two dominant wolves in a relationship was never going to work out.

"She was taken from us far too soon," I muttered.

Huxley nodded. "That we can agree with." He paused for a moment. "Have you had any luck with the Bean Brewing deal?"

My head shot up.

Derek chuckled. "Everybody in town knows you're gunning for Fisher. You've always been like a rampaging bull in a china shop when it comes to closing a deal."

I let out a growl, hating that they knew me too well despite my efforts to stay under the radar. "He's been avoiding me."

"Fisher's going to be here on Friday. We're having lunch at The Fitzpatrick. Join us." Huxley held up a hand. "Relax. There are no strings attached. You're a lone wolf, and our pack is full as it is. Our kind needs to stick together."

The Fitzpatrick was a private hunting club hidden in the woods in the mountains surrounding Paradise Peaks. It was where politicians, royalty, and the world's leading businessmen made deals that changed society forever. As much as I didn't want to be indebted to anybody, this was my chance to convince Fisher to sell his company to me.

I nodded. "Invitation accepted."