Shifters of Silver Peak: A Very Shifty Christmas Read Online Free Page B

all of your requirements. And also, you own a million subsidiary companies. You can have someone from one of those companies approach Valerie’s grandparents and offer to make them a low-interest loan in exchange for a partial share in their business, and they’ll never know where the offer came from. And then your main company could just coincidentally come along and place a bunch of orders with them, so they’d have plenty of revenue coming in.”
    “Well…” Morgan glanced at Valerie. “She actually makes some good points.”
    “But it’s… We can’t… I mean…jeez. I don’t know if I should thank you or murder you in your sleep,” Valerie said to Eileen.
    “Why in my sleep?”
    “Well, I’m human and you’re a shifter. I can’t kill you if you’re awake.”
    “I sleep next to a very big, very grumpy shifter who sleeps with one eye open. You’ll just have to thank me, I’m afraid.” Eileen smiled sweetly.
    “You’re forgetting something,” Valerie said. “His mother said no.”
    Morgan scoffed at that. “I’m the Alpha. Nobody tells me who I can mate.”
    He stared off into the distance for a moment, then nodded. “It makes sense. We’ll do it. I’ll arrange to have your stuff moved into my house today.”
    “Moved into your house?” Valerie said with alarm.
    “Yes.” He glanced at her impatiently. “We’re pretending to be mated, so we need to be convincing. We’ll be sharing a bed for the next month, Valerie.”

Chapter Four
     
    Valerie stared up at Morgan’s house, a growing unease swelling inside her. She was doing this. She was actually going to try to pull this deception off, to live a lie in front of Morgan’s family. She’d left behind her small apartment in Juniper, filling up one of Morgan’s pickup trucks with the essentials for the next couple of weeks until Morgan’s family and packmates left.
    He lived in a stone-and-timber mansion on the outskirts of Silver Peak. The exterior was hard and imposing. The windows had been coated with weatherproofing film, so from the outside they looked like dark, hooded eyes glaring with disapproval. The balconies had spiky iron railings. The hedges around the house were severely trimmed into geometrical shapes, and thorny.
    Morgan’s servants were carrying her suitcases into the house. His family had called to inform him that they would stay at a hotel, in protest of his appalling choice of a mate.
    The whole house reminded her of something, she just couldn’t figure out what. “It’s a metaphor,” she said, frowning in thought.
    “What?” Morgan said.
    She looked at the spiky gates again. “Your heart!” she said. That was what it reminded her of.
    He looked at her oddly. “My heart’s doing just fine, thank you.” He headed up the steps to his house.
    “I would imagine, since you hardly ever use it,” she said, following him inside. “Speaking of which, I’m adding a condition to our deal.”
    “A new condition? No. I’ve already had one of my companies approach your grandparents with an offer, which they accepted. That is what I agreed to,” he said, leading her into the house’s great hall. It had flagstone floors, oil paintings of various ancestors glaring from their gilded frames, and a massive crystal chandelier. There were huge doorways on either side of the hallway leading off to other areas of the house, and at the end of the hallway was a spiral staircase that led to the second floor.
    He headed toward the staircase and she trotted behind him, hurrying to keep up.
    “Yes, I know, my grandparents just texted me,” she said breathlessly. Damn him and his long legs. “They think it’s a Christmas miracle. Okay, here’s my condition. That painter you were screaming at? He doesn’t get fined. You’re ahead of schedule on the construction of the new spa. It’s not going to kill you to give him a few days. His wife is recovering from a very severe case of pneumonia.”
    Morgan paused at the