A True Alpha Christmas by Alisa Woods Page A

she’s coming to the party tonight, but if she is…”
    Mia cringed again. “You don’t want to face her.”
    Lev gave her the king of all puppy dog looks. “I have to go, Mia—all the alphas are having submission ceremonies along with the full moon tonight, including Lucas. If I don’t show… let’s just say that’s not really an option. And if I do show… well, I could really use your help navigating the Rebecca Stormfront. Clearly, I’m out of my depth here.”
    Mia’s shoulders dropped. Yet another mess she made out of a potentially perfect relationship. At least this one she might have a chance of fixing. It sounded like a simple misunderstanding… and if it was just words that made the mess, then words could fix it. Unlike her problems. Which she would have to face eventually. And if Lucas was having a special submission ceremony—that once-a-month time when everyone in the pack re-dedicated themselves to their alpha—well, she really should be there. Technically, when she submitted to him for the mating, that was sealed into her blood, along with the magic. She didn’t have to resubmit to him every month: her submission was permanent. But in practice, the submission bond was strongest—and the pack healthiest—when that pledge was made new each month with the moon. She didn’t want to mess that up.
    She took a breath. “All right, Lev.”
    He tipped his head back, closing his eyes and pressing his hands briefly together. “Thank you, New Girl. You are saving my furry hide here.”
    She smirked. “Given that I’m the one who got you in trouble, seems only right.”
    He pointed a finger at her while simultaneously snagging her coat off her desk chair. “That is true. And after you patch up things with Rebecca, just enough so she doesn’t think I’m a creep worse than Colin, remind me not t o have you on the Get Lev A Mate Committee.”
    “That’s not fair.” She let him slide on her heavy pea coat. Her gloves and hat were still tucked in the pockets, so she was all set.
    “All’s fair in love and pack business, Mia Fiore,” Lev said quietly from behind her. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
    “Yeah,” she said with a smile thrown over her shoulder. “I’m starting to.”
    He took her hand, hooked it around his arm, and led the way out of her dorm room. She scooped up her phone on the way. The thought of having to face Lucas was somehow easier to bear with Lev by her side.

Jupiter wasn’t kidding about the Tree Lighting party being deep inside the Olympic National Forest. Mia and Lev drove for over an hour, on increasingly narrow, and eventually dirt, roads before finally pulling off to a clearing that served as a parking lot. Over a dozen vehicles were parked haphazardly in the grass. The moon’s bright light and the thin blanket of snow gave a luminescent quality to the open spaces… even the shadows between the trees were lightened to a mystical gray by the diffused moon-borne light.
    Mia quickly scanned the cars and recognized several of them… including Lucas’s red-hot sports car, turned inky dark by the moon’s light.
    “Where is everyone?” she asked.
    “I’m sure they’re all at the tree by now,” Lev said, buttoning his coat and pulling on his gloves. “Come on—I don’t want Lucas growling at me for being late.”
    Mia’s borrowed boots crunched loudly through the snow, but she kept pace with Lev striding toward the trees. The forest was utterly still—even the racket of their passage didn’ t  stir the nature sleeping all around them. If there were any night creatures, they had already taken flight or climbed high to see the moon.
    It peeked between the treetops as they weaved between the moss-covered trunks, both standing and fallen. Along the way, Mia lost some of her foreboding—the scent of the forest flooded and calmed her. It was always like this, which was why most of the wolves she knew came here often to reconnect with the wildness that