Home For The Holidays (Dirt Track Dogs #6) by P. Jameson Page A

to swallow a five pound slug and he’d do it. She owned him.
    “Thank you.” She sighed, resting her head on his chest, and he reached up to drag his hands through her curls.
    Gracie stumbled into the kitchen, yawning. “Artie fell asleep,” she announced. “Right there on the stairs like a slinky that just stopped.”
    “Well,” Beast said, bumping the tip of Punk’s nose with his finger. “I guess that’s our cue to get going.”
    “Yep,” she agreed. “You get Artie and I’ll help clean up.”
    He pushed through the kitchen door, giving Gracie’s hair a tousle. She rubbed her eyes with her closed fists. “How many days ‘til Christmas?” she mumbled.
    “Twenty one,” Blister answered. He knew exactly.
    She groaned. “How am I supposed to be good for twenty-one whole days? It’s getting to be too much. Santa has requirements that I just can’t meet.”
    “And that’s our cue,” Tana said, eyeing Surge.
    He nodded. “Yeah, the little one gets hissy when she’s tired.” He turned back to Aaron. “We’ll see you at the Christmas parade, brother?”
    Aaron frowned, but Surge clapped him on the shoulder before turning to scoop Gracie into his arms.
    “Annie says you used to race. You still have your car? I bet we could get you entered to ride it in the line up. We have extra lights and sh… crap.” Surge pressed Gracie’s head against his shoulder and she murmured, “Daddy, Santa’s gonna bring you soap for your mouth if you don’t watch it.”
    “I know, baby. But me and Santa worked out a deal a lot of years ago. It’s okay.”
    “I need to make a deal with him too.” Her voice was fading and her eyes had drifted closed.
    “Soon enough, princess.”
    “Sold my car before I left,” Aaron grunted. “I don’t race anymore.”
    “Huh.” Surge raised an eyebrow. “Well, stick around and I’m betting we can change that.”
    Aaron looked away, and Blister could see conflicting emotions playing over his features.
    Punk reached around Annie’s brother to grab her purse off the counter. “See ya around, asshole.”
    “Later, wolf,” he replied.
    She laughed, and so did the others. “Oh, I’m human. Didn’t you know?”
    Aaron’s eyebrows flew up.
    “Yeah,” she laughed. “One hundred percent fucking human, here. And I hate you waaaay more than the others. Chew on that next time you wanna be all humans rule, shifters drool.” She winked, and turned to wave bye to the others.
    Aaron watched her walk away. He had the look of someone whose core beliefs had been shaken. It was an echo of the same thing Blister had observed for hours. His family was proving the bastard wrong by doing nothing more than being real.
    Aaron looked at Surge and Gracie.
    “Bobcat,” Surge explained, pointing to the little female asleep on his shoulder. “But I’m definitely wolf.”
    “Panther,” Tana said, reintroducing herself to the human.
    “Wolves here,” Drake added, linking his arm over Ella’s shoulders.
    “Bobcat,” Destiny murmured, watching him intently. Blister wondered for a moment if she’d seen this in one of her visions. Destiny’s premonitions had guided the pack in the right direction more than once since she’d adopted her powers and became an Elder.
    “Wolf,” Diz said, bouncing one of his squeaky triplets in his baby carrier until the female settled.
    Aaron swallowed hard. “And Beast?”
    “Wolf,” Drake said.
    Aaron squinted, tilting his head. “Your pack is… diverse. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
    The way he said that, Blister wondered just how many packs the man had encountered. And how. And why.
    “It is,” Drake agreed. “We’re unique. A hybrid pack, we like to call it.”
    “A hybrid pack.”
    Drake nodded. “You seem to know a lot about our kind.”
    Aaron tipped his head, noncommittal, and his gaze went to Annie. “I guess you could say I’ve had some experience with changers.”
    “You call them changers instead of shifters. You