An Enchanted Thanksgiving - The Mundane & the Monster: Arcana Glen Holiday Novella Series, #9

By Tara Maya

Cody Lawson and Caroline Longford are colleagues. Nothing more. No matter how much Cody admires his cool, beautiful partner in the Department of Arcane Affairs, he knows better than to risk their professional relationship by admitting his feelings run deeper than they should between two agents.

 

He intends to keep his emotions under wraps. That applies to family too. Cody knows that during the last year, when he was struggling with his discovery that magic was real, he alienated his brother and his sister, who both married arcanes, people with magic. His solution—cut off all contact. That way, he can't hurt anyone again.

 

However, when Cody and Caroline are assigned to his hometown, Arcana Glen, Cody's sister Marla insists they attend the family Thanksgiving celebration. To maintain their cover at the feast, Cody and Caroline pretend to be dating. What if working closely with his gorgeous partner tempts him to cross the line and he forgets that their relationship is only a cover story?

 

 

This is a stand-alone paranormal romance novella set in the magical town of Arcana Glen. It can be enjoyed by itself or with other Arcana Glen holiday and Major Arcana novels.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Misque Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215997215

Book preview

One

July 5, Tuesday

Waxing Crescent Moon

I’m going to kill my brother, Cody Lawson swore silently. If I ever get out of this mess.

Cody’s brother, Spencer Lawson and his girlfriend, Rowena Grayhide, had overpowered Cody and his associate, Caroline Longford. Rowena was an arcane, specifically a shifter, and Rowena had surprised them by transforming into a giant Gray Wolf and nearly ripping Caroline’s throat out.

Spencer, the dirty rat, had left Cody stripped naked down to his boxers, tied to a chair in the bomb shelter below the basement of their family ranch. Worse yet, while feeling around with his hands, trying to untie the knots, Cody discovered that he was bound, back-to-back, with Caroline. He could smell her perfume, a fragrance that as was subtle and complex as she was.

Cody’s fingers accidentally brushed lace and bare skin. A shock jolted him. He realized that Caroline also been stripped down to her undergarments.

Caroline Longford was a tall, cool blonde, with shapely legs that went on for acres and electric blue eyes, with a spark that belied her otherwise icy composure. Beautiful, competent, logical, and ruthless, she embodied the perfect agent of the secret three-letter agency that she represented, the DAA: Department of Arcane Affairs.

Interesting. She’s wearing lacy panties.

An erotic image of her stripped nude intruded into Cody’s thoughts, and he couldn’t push the vision out, no matter how inappropriate it was to think of her that way. She wasn’t his girlfriend; she wasn’t even his partner, though they had been working together as temporary partners for several months now. As a teen, Cody had accompanied officers of the Sheriff’s Department before they recommended him for the Sheriff’s program; in a similar way, the DAA had a trial and observation period for potential recruits. Caroline, the senior agent, was working with Cody on real cases, all the while evaluating him to see if he deserved an invitation to join the elite, top-secret anti-magic organization. She tested him constantly. Some of the tests were grueling, or bizarre, ranging from everything from asking him to try on a number of magic hats, to see which affected him, to once handing him a gun and asking him to kill an unarmed shifter point blank.

Cody had no idea which tests he had passed. If any. His only glimmer of hope was that Caroline was still here, so even though he was certain he had messed up multiple times, maybe he still had a shot.

He had originally wanted to join the DAA because he saw it as a way to avenge his father. Now Cody admitted his motive was as much to impress Caroline. That was foolish. She wasn’t likely to be impressed by anything Cody did. But he knew that if he had a chance to be her partner, in truth, not just as a trial, he would grab it.

Meanwhile, Cody twisted his wrists and manipulated the ropes, working at the knots. He knew exactly which knots his brother Spencer had used, because Cody would have used the same ones.

Are you awake? he asked softly. He couldn’t tell because he was facing the other way.

However, he felt her backside stiffen. Her bare skin brushed against his bare skin. The simple touch struck a jolt of desire through his body. He was glad he faced away from her, so she couldn’t see the dramatic effect she had on him.

I’m awake, she clipped the words. Would you object terribly if I assassinated your brother?

I sure would, he said, because then I wouldn’t have a chance to strangle him.

A low, throaty chuckle rewarded him for his dark humor. If Cody hadn’t already been aroused, that sound would have done it.

This is torture. He redoubled his efforts on the ropes. He had to free himself and find some clothes before Caroline saw how he’d lost control around her.

I never would have guessed that Rowena Grayhide was a Lycan, he said. When she almost killed you... he swallowed the emotion that threatened to well up, resuming his sentence only when he could speak without inflection, I was surprised, I gotta say. Does that mean her whole family are Lycans too?

Of course, Caroline said.

Cody rolled his eyes, though she couldn’t see it. "And you never thought to tell me that?"

"What I’ve told you—over and over, I might add—is to trust nobody, said Caroline, unrepentant. Anyone might be an arcane and all arcanes are dangerous to humans. Yet you continue to be far too trusting."

Cody laughed darkly, not wanting to reveal that her dismissal stung him. No one but you has ever accused me of that, Longford. They always used last names with each other, a reminder that their relationship was strictly professional. Most people tell me I’m too quick to judge.

That’s because most people today are spoiled by living in a high trust modern society, said Caroline. In a high trust society, the default is to assume the good will of others. But if you deal with arcanes, you are back in the Dark Ages. You must assume everyone is your enemy, until proven otherwise. That’s the only way you’ll survive this world, Lawson.

And what about you? he challenged. You’re human too. How do you survive?

I can protect myself because I have studied magic, including how to defend myself against powerful arcanes, she said. You’re ignorant of magic, and therefore you’re powerless against magic.

I’m not ignorant anymore.

You had no idea that the Grayhide Pack were Lycans.

"But you knew... and chose to keep that from me. Shouldn’t I be able to trust you, at least?"

Absolutely not, she snapped. "What part of trust nobody don’t you understand? You have no idea what my past is, what I’m capable of, or what my real motives are, aside from what I’ve chosen to reveal to you. You should not trust me, any more than I trust you."

Longford, I get being cautious, Cody said, but there have to be some exceptions. Don’t DAA agents rely on their partners?

If and when you join the DAA, then we’ll see about that, she said. Meanwhile, we have to get out of this wretched basement... I suppose I could... she trailed off. He could hear the frown in her voice.

Could what?

There are procedures for emergencies.

Like what?

It’s not something I want to do. Her tone squashed further questions.

Cody shook his head. Sometimes he suspected the DAA really stood for Don’t Ask Anything. Everything was a secret, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a mystery. He was tempted to sit still and force Caroline to try whatever emergency procedure she had in mind, just out of curiosity to see what extreme she’d go to. Then he decided that might lead to something bad, like her braking both her thumbs, so he pulled apart the last of the knots and stood up.

It’s not necessary, he said. Fortunately, during the conversation about the Grayhides, his obvious arousal had subsided, so he was able to face her with a big grin of triumph. I’ve untied the knots.

Caroline also stood up, gaping at him with such astonishment that Cody couldn’t help but preen.

How did you...? Did you use magic? she asked.

No, ma’am, just good old fashioned Boy Scout techniques. We Lawsons may be mundanes, but we aren’t as helpless as you seem to think.

Caroline raised her eyebrows, smiling back at him. You’re not too bad.

She wore matching black lace bra and panties, and she was even sexier than in Cody’s fevered vision. Her eyes grazed him, taking in his state of undress. A flush colored her cheeks. He’d never seen her blush before.

We had better find where they left our clothes, she said briskly.

Yeah, Cody said, trying to conceal how much he enjoyed the view.

However,Caroline discovered, Spencer and Rowena had not only hidden their clothes, they had also emptied the house of all clothes, every last jacket, coat, shirt, blouse, pair of pants, skirt and dress in every closet. Cody started cursing his brother in extremely colorful prose and Caroline started fantasizing out loud about gruesome methods of execution.

They did find their cell phones—smashed. The old phone wires in the house had also been cut.

Finally, Caroline fashioned a sarong out of a sheet. Cody just wore the boxers, leaving his gorgeous pectorals exposed, to her secret delectation.

Caroline wrenched her gaze away from Cody Lawson. Damn, but the man was buff. If she hadn’t known for certain he was a full-blooded human, completely mundane in every way, she would have sworn he had Titan blood. He was built like one.

He continually surprised her. How had he managed to free them both so quickly? She wondered again if he was secretly arcane, hiding it from her. She despised arcanes and hadn’t hesitated to emphasize as much to him. Wouldn’t it be ironic if he were one of those that she kept telling him he had to be prepared to fight? It would explain his cocksure attitude.... But then again, perhaps so did his own cowboy ancestry.

She remembered the first time she had seen him. He’d been wearing the tan and brown uniform of a Deputy Sheriff, including the iconic hat. He looked to her like he’d walked straight out of a Western. Caroline had been wrestling with a purse snatcher, and Cody had come to her rescue.

When the purse snatcher switched from his human form into that of a Wendigo, armed with a long iron hook pulled from the ether, Caroline had been prepared to reverse their roles and rescue Cody from the arcane. But Cody, though shocked, hadn’t hesitated. He’d used some martial arts move to disarm the Wendigo and maneuver the creature into a wrestling hold on the ground.

The Wendigo had twisted its head around 180 degrees and opened not only its first set of jaws, but two more sets of jaws, each inner set magically wider than the outer, until a yawning maw of shark-like teeth opened like a chasm inches away from the Deputy Sheriff’s head.

At that point, she did need to save him, whether he knew it or not. Caroline picked up the Wendigo’s own weapon and hit him in the only vulnerable spot on a Wendigo, the base of his spine. The foul creature exploded into black dust.

That was Cody Lawson’s introduction to the existence of the arcane.

Caroline discovered that he was the brother of a suspect in her case. Normally, she would have not considered recruiting someone with such an obvious conflict of interest. But Cody had impressed her, so she’d argued for him to her boss, and her boss had agreed to let her keep an eye on him for evaluation.

She wasn’t looking forward to explaining her current predicament to her boss. Nonetheless, she contacted her superiors through a method that she wouldn’t explain to Cody—she used the old euphemism, emergency procedures.

Caroline’s boss, Zeus Guile, came in person, with suits for both of them. Zeus was a huge guy, pallid and bald with an aquiline nose, and an upper torso that was visibly muscular despite his dark brown suit. He had thick gray brows over sunken gold-flecked brown eyes that missed nothing. His teeth looked like a toothpaste commercial, but his smile was that of a predator, a sign of displeasure, not friendliness. He smiled when he picked up Cody and Caroline.

"Sir! I’m sure we can pick up the trail of Spencer Lawson and Rowena Grayhide