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

Punk, was human and she’d had a healthy delivery, but that didn’t mean Annie would be as lucky.
    Blister had never been on Luck’s good list. What if that transferred to his mate?
    Barely more than a young himself, he lost his entire family in a wildfire that had spread up the mountain to his pack’s land. Everyone he loved, wiped out in the night while they slept. It was the cause of the burn scars to half his body and also the reason he hadn’t slept in a bed until Annie had coaxed him into one.
    Drake, a wolf from the other side of the mountain, had carried him down to the valley where the remaining survivors, Beast, Surge, and Diz, united to form a small pack. The Dirt Track Dogs. They were his family now. His brothers. Along with their mates and young, they were his family.
    But Annie… she was his air. His next heartbeat. The ache in his chest because it was so full of love for her. She was his world.
    He could never lose her and survive it.
    He looked away, running a hand through his hair. Didn’t she understand how much he loved her? Didn’t she feel the same way? Would she not be devastated if he was hurt in a race?
    He froze. Would she be?
    He’d never considered it before. Maybe there was just no way for a female like his Annie to feel this life-alteringly needy of another person. Maybe she didn’t love him the same now that there was a life growing inside her, needing her love too.
    The thought left him feeling like he was going to be sick. Because he needed her to love him. The baby inside her would be loved by many, but he only had Annie. And he wanted all of her love.
    He felt selfish for even thinking that way. He wanted her to love him more than their child? What kind of man was he becoming?
    “Blister?”
    He refused to look at her. How could he after thinking such awful thoughts about their young.
    Annie’s hand landed like a butterfly on his arm and he jerked away. “Don’t touch me,” he managed through a strangled throat.
    “What?” her voice cracked the air.
    He didn’t deserve her touch right now.
    “Just don’t, okay.”
    “Don’t touch you?” She confirmed angrily. “Since when do we say crap like that to each other?”
    Blister shook his head. “I need to go. I’ll see you at home.”
    “Are you kidding me with this? Blister, no. Talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
    He stared up at her, knowing she could see the guilt and stupid fucking pain in his eyes but unable to shield it, and with no way to explain why he felt it. “I left the truck running.”
    Before he could do something more hurtful, he turned and walked out of the storage closet, out of the bar, stalking to his truck for escape.

Chapter Two
     
    Annie scowled at the Christmas card once again, reading through the words her twin brother, Aaron, had written. After the drowning death of their parents, he’d decided to leave Cedar Valley. She realized now, it was his way of mourning. Running away instead of dealing. She recognized it because her mate was the same way.
    She sighed. Her sweet Blister. He was too hard on himself. Always had been. But when something bothered him, he retreated into himself instead of scraping all the junk out so it could be sorted. Usually with her though, he was a lot more revealing. She loved that he trusted her with his junk. They’d found a lot of treasures that way.
    Eyes narrowing, she read the card again but the words didn’t change.
    Aaron had been in the wind for so many years she had no real idea what his life had become. There was only ever his yearly Christmas card to help her guess. He never called. He never said much even in his writing. But she had to hope he was well, and maybe he’d found love, and was happy.
    Now, she had to wonder.
    Hey, sis. I’m coming home .
    Short and sweet. She should be excited to see him after almost ten years, but all his words did was baffle her.
    There was never a return address on his cards so she hadn’t been able to update him