by E A Price
He rifled through the fridge, grabbing some ingredients for a sandwich, and set about making it one-handed.
“How many slices of bread? Four or six?”
Mikey made a small noise and blew a bubble.
“Six it is.”
Mal hadn’t exactly been resting on his antlers for the past year. He was hardly the type to sit at home and take up knitting – not that there was anything wrong with that. But needing something to do, he had taken over the head enforcer role in the herd. Mal wasn’t entirely comfortable slipping into herd life. Growing up, living as a shifter outside a herd, he had naturally developed a healthy – or unhealthy, depending on how you looked at it – suspicion about all strangers, something that served him well as a hunter. Suddenly, being forced into a herd, surrounded by so many reindeer who were intent on knowing every single detail of his life was not easy. But, he could deal with it, and the herd mates were finally starting to get the message that he wasn’t interested in sharing anything about himself or getting to know them.
The reindeer herd had lost its head enforcer – who had moved to Florida for the fishing and to be near his daughter. So the alpha offered the role to him. The alpha had thought his enforcers were getting sloppy and wanted him to whip them into the shape. Mal made it clear he wanted to return to being a hunter, but the alpha, Branch, just wanted him to train the enforcers and make sure there was someone ready to replace him when he left. Mal was sure his second in command – an enormous reindeer nicknamed Tank – would be the ideal candidate, not that Mal appeared to be going anywhere soon.
He threw a few pickles onto his sandwich and Mikey gurgled happily as he gummed his rattle.
Okay, life in the herd wasn’t always fast-paced, but Mal surprised himself by actually not minding it too much. He never thought he could. His father had always ranted and raved about how awful pack life was, and how they were so much better off being alone, without all the stifling rules. But, Mal didn’t really hate it as much as he thought he would. He didn’t hate it at all. But maybe that was only because he was – until recently – sure that he was going back to his real life with the hunters. Until now, being with the herd had only felt like a holiday. Though, it did have one particular challenge…
Mal looked up sharply as he heard a key in the door. That was something that took a lot of adjustment – how familiar herd mates were with one another. They just walked into one another’s houses with barely a thought. They did not take kindly to Mal putting them in a headlock. But, his inner beast was hardly worried about their current visitor. Nope, he was too busy panting pathetically over her. She was the challenge he had to deal with daily.
Ariel glided into the kitchen. The female seemed to glide everywhere. She made movement effortless, or so it appeared to Mal who disturbingly found the world going a little fuzzy whenever she was around. Yep, he was a thirty-four-year-old pervert who had a crush on the twenty-something sister of his boss and alpha.
“Oh!” she exclaimed on seeing him, and red dusted her sculpted cheeks. “I’m sorry, Mal, I didn’t think you’d be here, I ah… I didn’t mean to just walk into your house.”
No, he had noticed that after a couple of headlock incidents that herd members were careful not to just walk in when he was there. Not that Ariel had to worry about that. He would never put her in a headlock, though he could think of a few other things he could do… Yep, pervert.
“It’s fine,” he murmured, looking over her shoulder expectantly. He narrowed his eyes. “Where’s your enforcer?”
“Burke’s outside – he didn’t think he needed to come in, and I agreed I’d be fine in here,” she quickly added in Burke’s defense.
His beast humphed. The male was probably outside having a cigarette – any excuse to slope off from his duties. While Mal didn’t particularly want Burke in his house, he also didn’t want the male to slack off when it came to Ariel’s safety. Burke had requested to be assigned to Ariel more and more recently. Mal had been a little suspicious about that, but Burke’s interest seemed to lie elsewhere other than Ariel, so Mal put up with it, on the basis that he wasn’t too keen on any of the other unmated male enforcers getting close to her.
“My mom made a casserole for you and Carrie, and she asked me to bring it over,” she explained, placing a bag on the counter.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary, Ariel’s mother, Martha, seemed certain that he wasn’t eating enough. It appeared to be a motherly trait shared by just about all the reindeer cows in the herd. Though, not one that had ever affected his mother who didn’t seem to mind that her son spent half his childhood shoplifting to make sure his little sister could eat.
“Plus, I was making cookies to give out at the blood drive I’m running at the moment and thought you might like some. Also, there’s a pie in here – I always make a bunch of them to give to the homeless shelters every Thanksgiving, and I always make spares in case they burn or something and thought you’d like one. It’s a new recipe, so I’d appreciate your input. Oh, and there’s a pan of mixed vegetables in here – I grew far too many this year in my garden, so I’m giving them out to everyone. I’d suggest cooking them in a tiny bit of garlic butter – they’ll be delicious.”
“Thanks,” he said lamely.
Hard to believe but everything she just said was just the tip of the iceberg of all the things she actually did. Ariel worked full time for the herd and yet she did a dozen things for local charities as well as helping her mother take care of the older members of the herd, by visiting, cooking and cleaning, and the younger members with babysitting. He’d known since the moment he met her – back when she was still a teenager – that she was far too good for him. He hadn’t known how true that really was. She was evidently in the running to be the patron saint for reindeer. Ariel really was perfect, inside and out.
Mikey squirmed in his hand, clearly pleased at seeing Ariel – by far his favorite babysitter (and that included Mal), and unlike Mal, he didn’t feel like he had to hide his excitement at her presence.
Ariel beamed at the baby. “Hey, cutie. Don’t you look handsome today? I also brought you a new sweater that I knitted. I hope you like it – I’m kind of a novice when it comes to knitting.”
She pulled out a tiny blue sweater with knitted duckies on it that looked more impressive than anything she could have picked up at a designer store. Mikey lit up even more brightly than he did when it was feeding time. Mal’s reindeer huffed jealously.
“May I?” asked Ariel, holding out her hands to Mikey.
Mikey virtually tried to jump towards her. Mal couldn’t really blame him. He handed his nephew over and wondered just how calculating the little mite was – he wasn’t even a year old yet. But he immediately snuggled against Ariel’s chest, and seemed, if anything, to be giving Mal a smug smile.
Ariel giggled in delight and cooed over the baby. Mal just watched her, enchanted by the sight. In the year that he had been with the herd, he hadn’t seen Ariel dating or making any move towards mating. He knew she wasn’t – he got regular updates from the enforcers he assigned to her, grilled them to within an inch of their lives to find out what she did and where she went. The fact that he was glad about her not dating worried him. He figured if she actually mated, he might get over this silly crush, but then, he wasn’t sure what his smitten reindeer would do if she did find someone.
On seeing his stare, Ariel reddened a little more, “So where’s Carrie?”
“Asleep in the living room.”
Ariel nodded kindly. “I wish I could do more to help.”
Mal raised an eyebrow at the bag of food she brought. She genuinely regretted that she couldn’t do more. His reindeer trembled a little; the whole Saint Ariel thing was such a turn on. But that only made him feel even more like a pervert.
He watched as she managed to fold Mikey into the new sweater with very little trouble. The last time Mal tried to dress the little blighter, it ended with powder all over the nurse
ry and one of them puking – he refused to admit which one. Ariel put him into his high chair and gently ran a hand over his head.
“The father ought to be helping,” grumbled Mal and gave his sandwich a savage bite. “Want some?” he offered, waving half his sandwich at her.
Daintily, she took the proffered sandwich and nibbled on it, delight shining in her eyes. “I’m sure there’s a reason that he isn’t here.”
“Humph, Carrie won’t tell me.”
His beast harrumphed. He had tried to get it out of her over the past year, but Carrie could be downright stubborn when she wanted. It probably ran in the family.
“I’m sorry, Mal,” she murmured, giving him that sympathetic look that made him do crazy things like kiss her.
“Maybe you could talk to her,” he blurted, before the urge to kiss her really did take over.
He’d had a few close calls over the past year, but he’d always managed to stop himself in the knowledge that she deserved a lot better than him, and that starting something was definitely a bad idea – given that he was planning on returning to his life as a hunter and all.
Ariel frowned. “I don’t think Carrie will tell me if she won’t tell you. But, maybe I could ask Carrie out to lunch and if it comes up…”
“Thank you,” he rumbled.
Ariel looked up, and their eyes met. Those lovely, blue eyes stared straight into his, and the world became even fuzzier. Not even Mikey’s little growls could distract him from her.
“Ariel,” he breathed.
“Mal.”
“Ariel?”
Ariel dropped the rest of her sandwich in surprise as Carrie shuffled in.
“Carrie!” exclaimed Ariel, immediately reddening. “Oh I’m sorry, I’ll just…”
“It’s fine,” murmured Mal.
They both bent down to pick up the sandwich and banged heads.
“Oopsy-daisy,” said Ariel, rubbing her head, while Mal pretended he didn’t enjoy that kind of language from her.
Mal held up a hand. “I’ll get it.”
Carrie shuffled over to Mikey, giving them both quizzical looks. “What’s going on?”
“I was just dropping off some food, and I wanted to know if you wanted to get lunch together tomorrow,” Ariel blurted in a rush.
Carrie blinked at her sleepily. “Umm, sure.”
“Okay, great, I’ll see you then, and umm…” She looked at Mal, awkwardly, “Ah, thanks for the sandwich.”
Mal watched as she made her escape, pointedly trying to not look at anything that would increase his pervert quotient. This meant he could look at her ear, but even that was a little dicey.
“Everything okay with you and Saint Ariel?” asked Carrie as she took Mikey in her arms.
“Sure.”
Nothing that an ice cold shower wouldn’t fix anyway.
Chapter Four
Ariel nibbled on her bottom lip as she made her way down to the ground floor.
“You can do this,” she murmured, trying to buck herself up. “He’s just a guy - just one incredibly hot guy who sends you into spasms of panic with just a roll of his eyes. Ugh.”
Her reindeer chuffed in support. She both loved and hated having Mal living full-time in the herd. Well, maybe not hate – that was too strong of a word. Found it nerve-wracking was probably closer to the truth. She wasn’t scared of him, but she was a little scared of her feelings for him. She loved being able to indulge her love struck side – and her soppy reindeer - but she had to be careful she didn’t do anything embarrassing like throw herself at him and beg him to kiss her again. She had a close call at Christmas with the mistletoe.
Ariel replayed their first and only kiss over and over, and oh, she desperately wished he would do it again. But, she knew that wasn’t going to happen and yes, she had made her peace with that. She knew she wasn’t his type of female – no male seemed to see her as ‘their’ type of female. At least, no male she had ever met. No doubt he had been entangled with some beautiful, sexy, mysterious women over the year – women who were his equal. Rather than a dorky, little herd princess who spent her Saturday nights doing jigsaw puzzles. Though, she bet if they had ever known the thrill of completing a puzzle blind – without using the picture on the box at all – they would soon love puzzles as much as her.
So many females in the herd had crushes on him – and who could blame them? All reindeer males were large and muscled, but he had something else – he was tough and enigmatic and all the females melted for him. Though, she hadn’t seen him with any females at all over the past year. Maybe he was discreet, but she preferred to believe that he hadn’t had any female entanglements.
Ariel stepped off the elevator, waving at people she knew as she made her way to the enforcers’ offices. The term ‘offices’ was perhaps an exaggeration; really it was one large break room and a small room attached for Mal when he wanted to work without interruption. Mostly the enforcers just used it as a place to watch TV, while they waited to be needed, but she knew Mal had a desk and a computer for when he needed to do some research.
Since Mal took over the enforcers, apart from when she was in the herd office building, or safely at home – where she lived next door to her alpha – she had an enforcer assigned to her. She literally could not go anywhere without a hulking presence watching her every move. Made going bra shopping a little awkward – for her, that is. The male enforcers didn’t see her as sexy any more than any other male in the herd did.
“Hey, Ariel.”
Ariel smiled as Nadia fell into step beside her. Nadia was also a reindeer shifter. The two of them went to school together, though given that Nadia was a couple of years older, they didn’t really move in the same circles. Though that probably wasn’t the reason why. Nadia was always busy with cheerleading and dating the captain of the football team. Ariel, on the other hand, had been in a dozen clubs – including a cross-stitch club – and had spent a lot of time volunteering, all of which had infinitely added to her dorkiness.
“Hi, Nadia.”
“Are you heading to the enforcers?” she asked with a smile.
“Yes, I need to speak to Mal.”
“Mmm, me too,” said Nadia with a smile, that Ariel had to believe was because she was thinking about Mal. Her reindeer tried not to pout.
“Something wrong?” inquired Ariel, trying to tamp down the green-eyed beast inside.
“Just need some advice about getting a new security system. I hope Mal will come over and give me some personal advice if you know what I mean.” She let out a saucy giggle, and then after looking Ariel up and down, she gave her a look that suggested Ariel probably didn’t know what she meant.
“I’m sure he’ll be very helpful,” murmured Ariel, deflating a little.
Physically, there weren’t that many differences between the two of them. They were similar heights and builds, but clearly, Nadia was putting something out there that males were picking up on. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that Nadia wore tighter, shorter and lower cut clothes than Ariel did.
Ariel paused at the door, breathing in for courage, but Nadia had no such need. She just blazed into the room and basked in the admiring glances that were immediately thrown her way by the half dozen enforcers in there. When they spotted Ariel, they straightened up and immediately pretended they were busy.
“Is Mal here?” asked Nadia, smiling coquettishly at them all.
As if on cue, Mal came out of his small office, followed by a grumpy looking Burke, though he gave Ariel a half-smile when he saw her. A lot of herd mates found Burke hard to deal with, and okay, yes he could be a tad selfish and annoying, but recently, he had become a lot easier to deal with – mostly because of his developing crush and his need to impress the object of his desire – Ariel’s best friend.
“Mal,” Nadia virtually purred.
Mal’s eyes rolled over Nadia and then moved onto Ariel, making her blush right down to her toes.
“Something I can d
o for you?” he asked coolly in that quiver-inducing voice. He was speaking to Nadia, but he didn’t take his eyes off Ariel.
Nadia’s mega-watt sexuality dimmed a little as she noted she did not affect him. Ariel considered that she ought to be satisfied that she had six other males virtually panting after her – it was undoubtedly more than Ariel had ever managed! But then all the males – apart from Mal – had all seen her high school marching band uniform. She didn’t really blame them for not seeing her in a sexual light after that – it had a cummerbund and everything.
“I need some advice about my new security system,” said Nadia, trying to rally. “I need…”
“Red will help you,” interrupted Mal, gruffly. His eyes flew to the enforcer Red – imaginatively nicknamed for his bright red hair. The male almost fell over in surprise as he tried to stand up even straighter.
Nadia almost convincingly managed to hide her dismay. “Oh, but I…”
“Red’s our alarm guy – he’s an expert.”
“I wouldn’t say I was an expert…” started Red modestly, but a look from Mal silenced him.
“Tell him what you need,” said Mal in a commanding voice. “You can use my office.”
Nadia opened her mouth as if to argue, but Mal nodded at Red to get on with it, and the enforcer hopped to it, ushering her away. Ariel felt her beast relax a little. She always figured that someone like Nadia would be perfect for Mal, but he didn’t seem particularly moved by her. Not that he was very easy to read.
“Haven’t you got anything better to do?” asked Mal in a quiet voice.
He was looking at Ariel when he said it, and for a moment, she thought he actually meant her. But given the mass exodus of enforcers from the room in two seconds flat, she realized he meant everyone but her.
