Jingle Bears: A Pacific Northwest Bear Novella: (Shifter Romance) by Moxie North Page B

the damn door!” Edward called out. He was in the middle of the tree that had to be twelve feet tall. Luckily, the front room of their cabin had fourteen-foot vaulted ceilings.
    “I am picking up my end. You need to get the lead out,” Cage growled at his dad.
    Sophie came rushing out of the kitchen and squeezed between the tree and the wall to keep the front door open. The men managed to get the tree down the short entryway and into the great room. While they were outside wrestling the tree, Connie and Sophie had moved some furniture out of the way to accommodate the tree.
    Since Cage mated Sophie, there had been a few changes to their holiday traditions. They used to put the tree on the side of the fireplace closest to the kitchen. For reasons unknown, it had always been there. During Sophie’s first Christmas, she decreed it HAD to be by the window so you could see the twinkling lights as you drove up. And the space between the window and fireplace meant you only had to decorate the front so it would look fuller.
    Apparently fuller was important, Cage had found out. They had two trees in their house. One in the front room, not as big as his parents’ tree, of course. And a smaller one in Micah’s room. Sophie said that every little kid should fall asleep during the holidays staring at their Christmas tree.
    Connie and Sophie had already prepped the tree stand. Now the guys just had to heave the massive tree upright. With two big bears it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Swearing and blaming followed.
    By the time they managed to get the tree locked into the stand Micah, who had shifted back to a boy, was running around yelling, “Ship, ship, ship.” Thank goodness for his cute two-year-old lisp or he’d be teaching his younger cousins how to say shit before preschool.
    “Damn, next year we are getting a shrub. A Christmas shrub and I don’t wanna hear anything more about it,” Edward declared.
    Sophie skipped up behind him and placed a kiss on his cheek, “Thanks, Daddy-O.”
    She’d started calling him that when he told her the story of how he and Connie met. That it was in the fifties, and she looked hot in a poodle skirt.
    Cage watched as his father blushed under his mate’s attention. She had everyone wrapped around her cute little finger.
    “All right, the tree is up. What now?” Cage knew never to assume he was done with a task until his wife told him he was done. Safer that way.
    “Sweetie, we need to hit the store for supplies. The girls are coming over to make Christmas cookies after lunch,” Sophie called out. She was trying to wrestle a twisting toddler while she wiped his mouth.
    “Mom, can you watch Micah so we can both go?” Cage asked. His parents knew taking a toddler out to the store and having him shift in the vegetable department was problematic.
    “Of course, we’ll pull out the decorations while you are gone,” Connie called out. She had been down the hallway rustling through a closet. She came into the kitchen holding a dozen Santa hats.
    “Not the hats, mom,” Cage groaned. His mother’s tradition was everyone that was doing Christmas activities must be wearing the appropriate festive headgear. Clearly she was off her game since they made it in the house with the tree bareheaded.
    “Don’t you fuss. It’s Christmas Eve, and we are wearing hats!” His mother dumped the pile on the large kitchen island. Micah was trying to twist out of Sophie’s grasp to get his own hat.
    Connie could hear her son grumbling, but she knew that once his brothers showed up they’d be fighting over the newest hat. They always did. Some of the hats were looking a little thin. There was two that lit up and one that played music.
    Sophie eyed a hat that was red like the others but had little pointy elf ears. She snatched that one and shoved it in a drawer at the counter. She made a sshh gesture to Connie and got a wink in return.
    Cute headwear for baking cookies. Check.
    “All right, let’s