Holidazed, p.1
Holidazed, page 1
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Spooky Shenanigans
Title Page
Copyright
Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Holiday Shenanigans
Title Page
Copyright
Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Valentine Shenanigans
Title Page
Copyright
Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Lucky Shenanigans
Title Page
Copyright
Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Thank You
Holidazed copyright © 2021 Pepper McGraw
Digital Edition
Spooky Shenanigans copyright © 2020 by Pepper McGraw
Holiday Shenanigans copyright © 2020 by Pepper McGraw
Valentine Shenanigans copyright © 2021 by Pepper McGraw
Lucky Shenanigans copyright © 2021 by Pepper McGraw
Cover images:
Howling Wolf © Hakan Ertan | Dreamstime
A Glass of Beer © Leonora Adamchuk | Dreamstime
Christmas Martini © Wollertz | Dreamstime
Christmas Ribbon © Michael Gray | Dreamstime
Christmas Ball © Roman Milert | Dreamstime
Silhouette Cat Pet Animal © Christos Georghiou | Dreamstime
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Edited by J.L. Troughton
PMG Publishing
Spooky Shenanigans Copyright © 2020 Pepper McGraw
Digital Edition
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover and title page images:
Silhouette Cat Pet Animal © Christos Georghiou | Dreamstime.com
Smoky Girl © Doodkoalex | Dreamstime.com
Edited by J.L. Troughton
PMG Publishing
Black cats and witches and ghosts — oh my!
It's all kinds of spooky, Shenanigans style.
Kitty Sweet’s been a cat for a while now. Long enough to have forgotten what her real name is and even what her real form is. Perhaps a cat is all she’s ever been and all she’ll ever be. That would be a shame, though, because she just met the man of her dreams.
Logan’s given up on ever finding a mate. He’s resigned himself to a lonely life and takes comfort in knowing his sister, at least, has found happiness. Then he meets Kitty Sweet. So she’s not exactly the companion he’s been hoping for (she’s a cat after all), but at least she keeps the loneliness at bay.
The witches have a plan though, if only they can keep room thirteen under wraps and that darn poltergeist from stirring the cauldron.
Chapter One
KITTY SWEET KNEW that wasn’t her name, but she couldn’t quite remember what it should be, just like she couldn’t remember her original form. She’d been so long in this one, she was beginning to feel like it was the only one she’d ever had.
She knew that wasn’t true though.
She’d been something else at one time.
Someone else.
This form was so small and vulnerable, the world looked and felt entirely different while in it.
She especially liked it when the Dory woman cradled her and walked the floors with her, talking to her long into the night.
“I know you’re not really a cat, Kitty Sweet,” she’d say, “but for now, I appreciate the company. The traveling’s been wonderful, but a bit lonely until you came along.”
Then she’d stroke her hand along Kitty Sweet’s back and scratch her head and under her chin and a rumble would rise in Kitty Sweet’s throat.
The first time that happened, it had startled Kitty something fierce. It had taken her a moment to realize it was a happy sound.
Her first days in this form had been incredibly scary filled with terrifying sounds and scents. Everything had been so huge and scary.
Then Dory had found her, trembling and soaking wet, in the ruins.
Ruins of something.
Kitty couldn’t quite remember anymore.
But Dory had swept her into her arms, dried her off, fed her and given her a home.
It wasn’t such a bad deal after all.
Being a cat.
In fact, if Kitty had known how wonderful it was to be a cat, she might have actually wished to become one. Which made her wonder if that was how it had happened. Maybe a wish had come true.
Except it didn’t feel like a wish.
It felt like something had gone terribly wrong, not right.
And even though Kitty enjoyed being a cat for the most part, now that she’d found Dory, she also felt as if something was missing.
Something quite large.
Vital even.
She was supposed to be doing something else.
Or being someone else.
Something.
Still, if figuring out what that something was meant leaving Dory behind, Kitty thought perhaps she would be fine as a cat.
Well, okay, maybe not forever.
That seemed an awfully long time to not be doing what she should be doing.
And there was definitely something else she should be doing.
Being.
Being and doing.
She tried not to think about it too much.
Instead, she focused on finding every patch of sunlight in the many different rooms they stayed in and chasing the prisms Dory’s crystals cast across the floor, and in so doing, fell deeper into the joy of being a cat.
Then they went on a plane ride.
Kitty had to ride in an awful carrier in the bowels of the plane, which was a horrendous experience.
Loud and cold.
When the flight was finally over, to Kitty’s horror, there was a second flight to endure, then a long car ride.
Finally, though, they walked into a hotel.
They had stayed in a lot of hotels in their travels, but this one felt different the moment they entered it.
Dory checked them into a large suite and Kitty had never been so relieved to finally be set loose from the carrier.
That sense of relief didn’t last long.
Someone was in the suite with them.
Kitty could sense them.
Him.
Her.
It.
She didn’t quite know what to call it, but it was definitely there, hovering, listening, watching.
And then Dory abandoned her.
She set out food and water, gave Kitty a quick stroke and a scratch, then headed out the door to visit her nieces. “Be good, Kitty Sweet! I’ll be back with some help before you know it!”
Help for what, Kitty didn’t know.
Hopefully it would be someone who knew how to deal with this other being that shared the hotel suite with them.
Kitty spent the next several hours hunting the entity that refused to show itself. She’d sense it and pounce, only to have it disappear. Not that she ever saw it, but she definitely sensed when it was there and when it was gone.
Of course, it was never gone for long. A few moments would pass and then it would be back, making the fur on Kitty’s back stand on end.
“Rawr!” Kitty swiped at the air, then tore around the room, trying to appear as large as she possibly could in this terribly small form. She leapt to the top of a desk and from there to the top of a bookcase.
The entity was gone again.
She glared around the room.
Any minute now, it would be back and she would be ready.
Kitty fell asleep waiting for the entity to return.
Chapter Two
“SO WHEN’S YOUR aunt supposed to arrive again?” Cole asked Megan as she closed the shop.
“Any day now.” Megan tested the door to make sure it was locked, then turned and hooked her arm in Cole’s. “Come on. Lara and Jessica are probably already at the hot el waiting for us.”
“Yes, because as usual, you insisted on closing the shop yourself.”
“You know how they are. If I left them in charge, I’d have a mess in the mornings.”
“Or maybe, they’d have a mess they could clean up themselves.”
Megan huffed. His logic made no sense. Why he couldn’t grasp the simple concept that it was just easier to do things herself, she had no idea, but she wasn’t going to bother explaining again. It would be a colossal waste of time, seeing as they’d already had this conversation about ten thousand times in the last four months.
“I thought your aunt was dead.”
Megan gasped and jerked to a stop. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Well, for one, she’s technically your great-aunt, plus she’s old.”
“You’d better not let her hear you say that!”
“And for another, she just disappeared.”
“She didn’t disappear.” Megan started walking again. “If she’d died, don’t you think there would have been a funeral? Don’t you think we’d have been a little sad when we showed up here to take over her shop?”
“So, if she’s not dead, where has she been all this time?”
“Traveling. She retired. It’s a thing, you know.”
“Traveling?”
“No, retiring. I know it seems rather weird to you, a cougar, that someone would actually work a job their entire lives and then retire from working to, you know, enjoy their twilight years.”
“I don’t even understand what you’re saying right now.”
“Right. Because you’re a cat and cats are all about not working.”
“I work! I work very hard, I’ll have you know.”
Megan pulled him to a stop and just stared at him.
He stared back.
They stood there on the sidewalk, just staring at each other for several long moments, each of them waiting for the other to break.
Finally, Cole grinned. “Fine. I think about working.”
Megan rolled her eyes and started walking again. “Thinking doesn’t count.”
“I honestly don’t understand this obsession with work.”
“And I don’t understand how you can be content to live in a cave!”
“Hey, I like my cave. It’s perfect.”
“It has no electricity. Or plumbing!”
“I’m a cougar. What do I need plumbing for?”
Megan let out a huff of exasperation. She honestly had no idea if he was messing with her or not, but if he was, it was the longest practical joke in history.
He’d taken her to his “cave” back when they first mated and she’d put her foot down right away. She was not moving into a cave. Not even for her true mate.
So he’d moved into her apartment above the store.
Sort of.
He’d only moved in some clothes and shoes and not much of either of those. When she’d asked when he was going to move in the rest of his stuff, he’d insisted he didn’t have much and what was left belonged in the man-cave.
Whatever that meant.
She’d decided long ago, she absolutely did not want to know.
So whatever.
He kept his man-stuff in his man-cave and slept with her in the apartment, and as far as she was concerned, that was good enough for her.
During the day while she was working, he went off to do whatever it was cougars did, which she suspected involved a lot of sleeping and not a lot of work.
After all, caves didn’t exactly cost a whole lot to maintain, and since Megan and her sisters owned the store and the apartment above it outright and the store more than covered their basic living expenses, she really didn’t need him to contribute.
So fine.
She figured it was more than fair since he’d given up sleeping in a cave for her.
Or so he said.
Besides, as she was the one insisting on having a roof over her head, it made sense that she (and her sisters) would pay the utilities for said roof.
He contributed groceries, which led her to suspect he might just be messing with her.
How could he afford food if he never worked?
It was a big mystery and one she wasn’t going to solve anytime soon.
In the meantime, she kept him around for the amazing sex and because she kind of loved the big, lazy bastard.
And because, despite all his faults, he could be really sweet.
Case in point: as they arrived at the hotel, he swept an arm around her shoulders, opened the door for her and ushered her inside.
* * *
Lara and Jessica were excitedly catching up with their aunt, hearing all about her travels on the other side of the world, when Megan arrived.
“Well, it’s about time,” Lara exclaimed. “Look who’s here.”
Megan let out a joyful cry and hurried to hug their aunt.
“You look wonderful, Aunt Dory!”
Lara had said the exact same thing to Dory, who looked as if the traveling had done her a world of good.
“Oh, you!” Dory waved her hand as if to dismiss the very idea.
“So what brings you home so soon?” Megan asked.
Dory smiled. “Well, I actually have two reasons for visiting. First, I can’t believe you girls got mated and didn’t invite me!”
“Oh, dear. Aunt Dory—”
Jessica snickered and Lara grinned.
They’d both fallen for Dory’s sad face too.
Dory burst into laughter. “Oh, don’t mind me, darling. I’m just teasing. Believe me, I know a shifter doesn’t wait for anyone when his mate is in his sights.”
Megan giggled. “Have you met my Cole?” She reached back to catch his hand and pulled him forward to meet Dory.
“I certainly have,” Dory said.
Cole looked surprised.
“Don’t think you fool me. Not for one instant, mister!” Dory shook her finger at Cole. “You and that other one, always coming around and stealing my pumpkins.”
Lara, Megan and Jessica all burst into laughter at the deer-in-the-headlights look on Cole’s face.
“Oh. Um. Sorry.”
“Well, where is your partner in crime anyway?”
“Hold on. Are you talking about Dan?” Jessica demanded.
“Um.” Cole looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was.
“You two used to steal from our aunt?” Jessica asked.
“Wait a minute,” Megan said. “Are you the reason our zucchinis keep disappearing?”
“And our watermelons?” Lara demanded.
“Okay, now you can’t blame the watermelons on us. That’s Karl’s deal.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Lara asked. “My own mate’s been stealing my watermelons?” It all made sense now. There were never any seeds or pits or rinds left behind and now she knew why. Their thieves were of the two-legged variety!
“So all the groceries you’ve been bringing in are from our own garden?” Megan exclaimed.
“Well, not all of them,” Cole said. “I have to pay for the canned goods and the bread.”
Megan narrowed her eyes. “What about the milk and eggs?”
Cole looked a bit sheepish. “Well, see the wolves are real good at stealing eggs from the chickens. They run right away the minute Karl slinks into the hen house, so—”
Lara gasped. “Karl’s been stealing from our neighbors?”
“I don’t think he considers it stealing. More like reallocating. I’m sure they don’t mind. Or they wouldn’t, if they knew it was us. And if they knew shifters existed.”
“That’s a great way to get shot!” Megan shouted exactly what Lara was thinking. “We do not need your stolen goods, especially not if they come at the price of your life.”
Cole grinned. “Aw, darling. I knew you cared.” He swept her into his arms and kissed her.
At that moment, Dan and Karl walked into the hotel.
The minute Jessica saw her mate, she started raging, “You should be ashamed of yourself, Daniel!”
“And you!” Lara exclaimed as the two of them stormed toward their startled-looking mates. “What were you thinking, Karl?”
“Uh.” Dan threw a wild look at Karl, who shook his head, appearing completely mystified.
At that moment, while their mates were clearly a bit panicked trying to figure out what they were in trouble for, five older women walked into the hotel and right past where they were standing.
