Christmas in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 7) Read online

  Christmas in a Fur Coat

  The Fur Coat Society, Book 7

  By Sloane Meyers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  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

  More Books by Sloane Meyers

  Thank You For Reading!

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Sophia Brooks took a deep breath and hit “send.” As a secretary to John Taylor, the top partner at a large San Francisco law firm, Sophia sent hundreds of emails a day. But this email was different. This email was asking John for a vacation—and a vacation over the Christmas holidays, no less. John rarely took any time off himself, and he especially frowned on time off during the holidays. He thought it showed a lack of commitment. But Sophia hadn’t had a Christmas off in the entire seven years she had worked here, and all of John’s big cases were pretty quiet right now. Surely, he would give her a week off.

  Sophia minimized her email inbox and pulled up her internet browser. She gazed longingly at the adorable little cabin near a Colorado ski resort that she was planning to book for a few days as soon as she got her time off request approved. Two years after the bear flu epidemic had cut the world’s population nearly in half, things were starting to get somewhat back to normal. People were traveling and enjoying life again, and there were a lot of good deals to be had on vacation homes.

  Sophia shook her head slightly as she remembered the horrors of the bear flu epidemic. A lot of people, her family included, had tried to escape to remote locations to avoid the highly contagious flu. But Sophia had stayed put in San Francisco, along with John, working away as though somehow the legal circus must go on despite global disaster. Sophia didn’t care that much about her work, but she had figured she’d rather take her chances on getting sick than be cooped up in the middle of nowhere.

  Luckily for him, John had survived. Sophia had too. She was a bear shifter, and, as it turned out, shifters were immune to the flu. So now, here she was, still working away with no break for a man who was the textbook definition of a workaholic. Sophia jumped as she heard the door to the conference room down the hall creaking open loudly. John was out of the meeting he had been in, which meant he was probably already scrolling through emails on his phone. Sophia held her breath as she heard his footsteps coming down the long hallway. She hadn’t planned on him reading the email right in front of her, and she felt her heart pounding as she waited for his angry response. She just hoped that when he settled down, he would at least give in to the vacation request.

  “Sophia, I’m going to need to go to New York City next Monday,” John said as he approached her desk, which consisted of a small cubicle just across the hallway from his office. He didn’t bother to look up at her as he spoke. “Can you book me a flight, preferably early Monday morning? And I’ll need a hotel for three nights. The place I stayed last time was fine.”

  John suddenly stopped talking and froze as he looked down at his phone. Sophia watched his face turn red with anger, and she knew he had seen her email. He finally looked up at her, and Sophia winced at the fiery look in his eyes.

  “Are you kidding me?” he asked, raising his voice. “You want a vacation? And during the holidays? You know how I feel about that.”

  Sophia took a deep breath and told herself to remain calm. “I know you prefer that I not take a lot of time off,” she said. “But it would only be a week, and work is really slow right now. I haven’t taken time off during Christmas in the whole seven years I’ve worked here.”

  John’s face turned redder, until it was almost purple. “So you think working here for seven years somehow makes you entitled to a Christmas vacation?” he yelled. “I think you’d better revaluate your priorities. I’ve been here twenty years, and I’ve only taken one Christmas off that whole time.”

  Sophia bit her lip. She wanted to say that he owed her for staying during the bear flu epidemic, but she knew he didn’t see it that way. He had no sense of how hard she worked, or how ridiculous his expectations were. Sophia could already see her dreams of a cozy Christmas getaway vanishing before her eyes.

  “It’s only a week,” she tried again. “I won’t ask for another vacation next year, I promise.”

  John laughed. “My answer is no. I’m not going to condone such lazy, uncommitted behavior. No vacations during the holidays. That’s my final answer. Now that we’ve settled that, please get my trip to New York booked.”

  Sophia felt anger bubbling up inside of her, stronger than she’d ever felt it before. Without thinking, she crossed her arms, stared straight into John’s face with her own angry eyes, and flatly said, “No.”

  John looked at her in shock, and for a moment Sophia thought he was going to drop his phone. But he held onto it, clutching it tightly as his face darkened with renewed anger.

  “What did you say?” he asked in a low, seething voice.

  “I said no,” Sophia said, grabbing her purse as she slowly stood. Her knees felt shaky, and she couldn’t believe she was about to walk out on her job. But she’d hit a wall. She’d given too much, for too long. It was time to stand up for herself.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” John asked, looking mildly concerned for a moment.

  “I quit,” Sophia said, then she turned on her heel and started heading for the door before John could respond. There were a few moments of silence, and then John called after her.

  “You’ll regret this,” he yelled. “Don’t think you can just pull a stunt like this and then come back begging for your job later. And you know how awful the legal job market is right now. You’ll be lucky to find a job that pays even half as much as what you’re making here.”

  Sophia ignored his warnings, and refused to look back. He was right. She had no idea how she was going to find another job. But she would rather be broke out of her mind than work another day for that bastard. She kept walking, finally reaching the door, which slid open automatically when she approached it.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Brooks,” the computer cheerily greeted her as she stepped out to the elevator bank.

  “You’re not quitting,” John yelled, with one final, angry huff. “You’re fired!”

  “Whatever,” Sophia muttered as she quickly dashed into an elevator. John always wanted to have the last word, and she didn’t have the energy to fight him on it. If he wanted to claim she was fired, she would let him. It wasn’t worth arguing with him.

  Sophia stepped off the elevator and into the large lobby of the high rise building where she no longer worked. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered an impressive view of San Francisco Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge rising into low fog. Several boats dotted the choppy water, and on the streets in front of the building, hovertaxis darted by constantly. The city wasn’t nearly as crowded as it had been before the bear flu epidemic, but its population had still fared better than many other large cities.

  Sophia glanced at the delicate gold watch on her arm. The time was displayed digitally with sparkling, crystal-like numbers. It was t
wo-thirty in the afternoon. Sophia had no idea what she was going to do for the rest of the day now that she was unemployed, but she figured that walking home was a good place to start. Her apartment was two miles from the office, and she had plenty of time. There was no need to get a hovertaxi or hop on the hovertram to speed up the journey.

  Sophia stepped outside and started walking, slowly and thoughtfully. She realized with a wry grin that she’d gotten her wish. She had Christmas off. She just didn’t have a job to go back to once the holidays were over. Sophia breathed in the cool air coming off the bay. The smart thing to do would be to start looking for another job. But Sophia wasn’t sure that’s what she wanted. She’d been working as a secretary since she graduated college with a degree in communications. She hadn’t known what she wanted to do, and the job at the law firm had paid well. It had seemed like a logical stepping stone to whatever she decided to do next. The only problem was that seven years later she still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do next.

  Briefly, she considered calling her dad. Sophia’s parents lived in Red Valley, which was about two hours outside of San Francisco, but she didn’t see them that often due to her busy schedule. Her dad had been trying to convince her to come to Alaska for Christmas. Sophia’s parents were going to visit her adopted brother Drew, who was fully human but was married to a bear shifter named Hope up in Alaska. Drew and Hope had a one year old little girl, whom Sophia had only met briefly last summer when Drew and Hope visited the San Francisco Bay Area.

  Sophia felt a pang of guilt at how little she had seen her family. She knew she should go to Alaska, but the truth was she felt a little overwhelmed by the idea. Several bear shifter clans were having a reunion in Frost Peak, Alaska this year. Sophia had never felt like she fit in with the Alaskan shifters. Her dad loved them, but he had known them for decades. Sophia was more of a loner than most shifters, and the last time she went to Alaska she’d felt like a fish out of water. For a bear, she was strangely uncomfortable in the middle of a big clan. Her brother Drew, though human, seemed more at home with the other shifters than her.

  Sophia reached into her purse and pulled out her mobile phone. She stared at the screen for a long time, trying to decide what to do. She could ignore the fact that she had no income now, book that trip to Colorado, and wait until after the New Year to deal with finding a job and apologizing to her family for missing out on Alaska. Or she could do what she knew deep down she should do, and go spend time with her parents.

  With a sigh, Sophia typed out a message on her phone: Hey, Dad. I just quit my job. Any chance you and Mom are free for dinner tonight?

  Before she could change her mind, Sophia hit send. Then she slipped her phone back into her purse and hurried the rest of the way home. She had a feeling she was going to be heading out to Red Valley tonight.

  Chapter Two

  Four hours later, Sophia’s hovercar pulled up in front of a large airplane hangar just outside of Red Valley. Her dad lived in a huge bunkhouse building next door, along with several other shifter families. This was home base for the group of smokejumpers her dad belonged to, and it was where Sophia had grown up. The inside of the bunkhouse had undergone massive renovations to bring it up to date with the latest technological developments, but the outside still looked the same as it had for the last twenty-plus years. Memories flooded her mind as she hopped out of her hover and headed for the grassy area behind the hangar, where she knew the crew would already be barbecuing a ridiculous amount of meat.

  About half an hour after Sophia had texted her dad, he had called her. She wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t a big texter, especially when he had something important to say. He preferred actually talking to sending written messages. He’d asked Sophia to come out for a barbecue tonight, and she had agreed without any protest. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy being around her parents. She loved them fiercely. It was just that she got tired of all the questions from the rest of the crew. Everyone always wanted to know what her career plans were, or when she was going to settle down with a man, or why she still lived way out in the city. Sophia hated questions like this, mostly because she didn’t have a clue herself what the answers were. She would love more than anything to find a man to settle down with, but with every year that passed, she had begun to wonder if maybe love just wasn’t in the cards for her. Even her brother, who had always been a bit of a wild rebel, had finally settled down with a family. Sophia sighed. She really couldn’t complain. Her dad thought the world of her, and her mom treated her like a princess. Sophia’s biological mom had died when Sophia was very young, after abandoning her dad. But her dad had found her, and the woman he had married was the best mother Sophia could have asked for.

  “Hey pumpkin!” a loud voice called out from behind her. Sophia spun around to see her father walking toward her from the direction of the bunkhouse. He was holding a large dish of what looked like potato salad, and his face had a wide grin on it. Sophia smiled at the sight of him. Despite her apprehension about what kind of questions she might have to field tonight regarding her love life or career choices, she had to admit that it was really good to see her dad.

  He had the same face as hers, only older. He’d gained quite a few new gray hairs in the last few years, probably due to the stress of the world almost ending. The crow’s feet around his eyes had deepened, too. But he was still handsome, tall, and strong. Every year now, he talked about how it was probably time to give up his job as a smokejumper. But every year, he decided to keep going for “one more year.” Sophia admired his tenacity and dedication. If only she could find a job she felt passionate about, too.

  “Hey, Daddy,” Sophia said, giving him a hug from the side, carefully avoiding the large potato salad dish.

  “How are you doing?” he asked, concern etched into his face. “I was shocked when I got the text that you’d quit your job. I thought you loved working there.”

  Sophia shrugged. “I’m fine. The job was a good distraction but I didn’t love it. And I tried to take off a week around Christmas, but my boss refused to approve it. So I quit. After seven years, I still can’t take a proper holiday vacation. It’s ridiculous.”

  Sophia might have imagined it, but she thought her dad’s face lit up a bit at her explanation.

  “Does this mean you’re coming to Alaska?” he asked.

  Sophia had known the question was coming, and she did her best to stall. “I’m thinking about it,” she said. “But I have a lot to figure out now, with finding a new job and making sure I have enough savings to tide me over.”

  Her dad frowned. “We have plenty of money to help you,” he said. “I know you’re proud and stubborn and don’t want to take anything from Mom and me, but we’re happy to help however we can. Especially if it means we get to see you for Christmas in Alaska.”

  Sophia crossed her arms. “I don’t want to take your money,” she said. “Just let me think about everything, okay?”

  Her dad nodded. He knew better than to push her too hard. Sophia was the kind of girl who would only dig her heels in more the more you tried to get her to do what she didn’t want to do. Before either of them could say anything else, a loud voice cut through the air.

  “Zach, you didn’t tell me Sophia was coming!”

  Sophia and her dad, whose name was Zach, both turned to see Ian Reed, the alpha of the crew, approaching. Ian wasted no time in sweeping Sophia up into a giant hug.

  “Hey, Uncle Ian. Good to see you,” Sophia said, grateful that his interruption kept her from having to answer more questions about Alaska, at least for the moment.

  The next half hour was a flurry of activity as Sophia was greeted by her many aunts and uncles, and, of course, by her own mother. It didn’t take long for word to get out that Sophia had quit her job, which brought on unanimous cheers of approval from the group. None of them had been fans of Sophia’s employer, and they felt free to make their feelings crystal clear now that Sophia wasn’t working there anymore.
Not that they had ever really been shy about telling her she needed to look for a different job, anyway.

  As the evening wore on, Sophia started to relax a bit. She’d had a few glasses of wine, which helped take the anxious edge off of her nerves. And the questions about her future died down as the conversation moved on to shop talk about next year’s smokejumping season. Sophia half-listened, smiling as she looked around at the bear shifters who had all helped raise her. They weren’t her aunts and uncles by blood, but to Sophia, they were family. She had stayed away for fear of answering questions about her future, but now she realized how much she’d been missing them. For the first time, Sophia started seriously considering making the trek up to Alaska for Christmas.

  Her dad must have read her mind, because he came to sit beside her and gave her a determined look.

  “So, you’re coming to Alaska, right?” he asked.

  “Daddy…” Sophia protested. But her voice sounded uncertain and she knew her resolve was weakening.

  “Listen, pumpkin. I know you don’t like being around big groups of shifters and answering all their nosy questions. But you can’t let a small thing like that stop you from spending the holidays with your family. Drew and Hope want to see you. And you should spend time with your niece. Do you know how lucky you are to have the option of going to see your family any time you want? I didn’t even know where you were for the first several years of your life, since your biological mother tried to hide you from me.”

  Sophia felt a pang of guilt. Her dad was right. She had a family that loved her, and so many things to be thankful for. And yet here she was whining about having to answer a couple of annoying questions from some nosy aunts and uncles. It wasn’t fair to the rest of her family to be so selfish.

  “Okay, fine,” Sophia said, throwing up her hands in surrender. “It would be nice to actually spend Christmas with family. I’ll go.”