A Polar Bear Christmas

by Emilia Hartley

  Holly leaned close to him and whispered. “Probably with his human assistant, emphasis on the ass. As in ass in the air.”

  Claus tried and failed to hide his laugh. All eyes turned on him. The reindeer shifters sized him up, probably scenting him for the first time. He stood straighter and flashed a sharp-toothed grin, just to remind them that he was the only predator in the room.

  “It’s good to meet you, Claus. Please make yourself welcome in our house.” Holly’s father cut off any further arguments between Holly and Elise. “I assume you will be staying in Holly’s apartment.”

  Claus nodded. A man in the corner of the room moved from foot to foot. Claus peered to the side and found Robert Carter nervously glancing at the exit. He grinned at Robert. It was clear that one member of the family knew exactly why Claus was there. He wondered when Robert would bolt.

  He would give the man time before he bagged him. The boss was waiting, but he could wait a few days more. Robert would make a good Christmas present, anyway.

  Holly looked to him, sensing something had changed. She followed Claus’s gaze and caught on quick, if the way her lips parted was any indication. She said nothing but stiffened beneath his arm. Claus couldn’t remind her that this was just a job.

  Hell, he could barely remind himself at times. He wondered, for a moment, if he was putting off his mission just to spend more time with her. If he left her alone with her family now that they announced their fake relationship, she’d be the laughing stock of the holidays. The abuse she endured would only get worse.

  That was what Claus told himself as he tore his gaze away from Robert.

  “Well,” the father said. “Don’t expect any special treatment. It’s not like the two of you are mated, so we know this won’t last forever.”

  Claus scowled. “What makes you say a thing like that? I think that’s mighty rude to assume.”

  Her father’s brows shot up, as if he couldn’t understand why it was rude. He gestured to his daughter. “It’s not like she has a beast. Holly will never mate. You, on the other hand, will want to find a mate eventually. Therefore, this isn’t going to work out.”

  Holly said nothing, even though Claus could feel her stiffen beside him.

  “I’m not sure who taught you anything about shifters, but I’ve seen a number of mates who happen to be human women. It’s not that uncommon when the shifter community is filled with self-righteous assholes like yourself.”

  Holly snickered but hid it behind her hand. Despite her laughter, it was obvious Claus’s remarks had not earned him any points with her parents. Her father glowered at him. If looks could kill, Claus would have been a pile of ash before any formal challenge was issued. But they couldn’t, and the man wasn’t about to try to take on a polar bear, so they kept to their sides of the room and didn’t try to fight Claus.

  “Oh! Is that a punchbowl filled with eggnog? I love eggnog!”

  Claus wandered toward the bowl in the next room. The tension was so thick he could have swum through it. He didn’t know the last time he’d had to deal with family like this. His mother had given birth to him and that was about as far as her involvement had stretched before she dumped him into his uncle’s lap. His uncle hadn’t been the friendliest man. Instead of teaching Claus to ride a bike, he’d taught him all the ways to kill a person.

  He had his uncle to thank for the life he led now.

  When Claus glanced up from his cup of eggnog, he noticed Holly arguing with her parents in the foyer. He didn’t try to listen but watched Holly’s annoyed gestures slowly die into a position of defeat. Her shoulders drooped, and her head dropped as she listened to what they had to say.

  He wished he could be a better man for her. He wouldn’t have minded taking the woman on a real date, but there were things Claus had done that he didn’t think Holly would ever come to terms with. He didn’t want to put that on her. His sins were his own, and they would stay that way.

  The life he led had no room for a woman, or even a mate for that matter.

  Turning away from the argument in the foyer, he faced the massive Christmas tree decked out with fake snow and glittering silver ornaments. They spun in the light, as if turned back and forth by a ghostly hand. He pondered how they managed such a thing. Maybe the tree was enchanted. He couldn’t tell technology from witchcraft anyway.

  “Do not bring any more men into our house!” Holly’s father shouted. The sound shook the walls.

  Claus didn’t know how to come to her rescue. He didn’t have the right words lined up or any way to defuse the situation that had already blown up. Eyeing the tree in front of him, he had an idea. He dug for the cigar and lighter in his pocket.

  ***

  “Hey folks!” Claus threw his arm around Holly’s shoulder. He smelled of alcohol, eggnog, and cigar smoke.

  She moved to push him off, angry that he’d abandoned her in the foyer with her parents, when the scent of smoke intensified. She paused. Her parents inhaled, their eyes meeting before moving toward the nearby living room.

  Fire crackled as it leapt from branch to branch. Real pine needles popped from the heat, splattering the walls with boiling sap. Her parents ran for the tree. They called for help as they attempted to put the fire out. Holly slapped her hand over her mouth. When she looked to Claus, she saw the cigar hanging from his lips and the sparkle in his eyes.

  “You didn’t have to go that far,” she muttered.

  Claus said nothing. He only grinned.

  The chaos ensued, people running from every direction to help douse the fire. Hired staff ran in to help, taking on the brunt of the situation while her brother came to linger in the corner. Balthazar watched with his arms crossed over his chest. When his gaze slid to Holly and Claus, she shrugged.

  Bal retreated. The teen was sulky and didn’t want anything to do with his family, though for different reasons than Holly. He was very clearly a shifter. His reindeer was beautiful, Holly remembered. Sleek and black like the hair on his head. Though, when the role of heir passed over him, Holly suspected that they didn’t share the same father.

  Perhaps that had caused a chasm to open between her parents. Not because her mother had clearly cheated on her father, but because the daughter they’d produced together had been useless. It was as if her mother had feared any more terrible offspring and chose to rut with someone else to avoid whatever their relationship might have borne.

  Claus leaned and whispered in her ear. “This is going to be a real hoot. I’m convinced they hired a witch to enchant that tree. Do you know how long it took to catch?”

  “Claus. No.” She held a finger over her lips, which she quickly pulled away when a servant ran past.

  “You can’t tell me we don’t burn witchcraft in this country.”

  “You’re pushing it, buddy.” Even though his humor was crude, Holly found herself laughing. They needed to leave before anyone else caught on.

  Chapter Five

  Watching Claus work the room during dinner had been absolutely wonderful. He’d forced every shifter in her family to look away, stopping many of the barbed quips that would have been thrown in Holly’s direction. She enjoyed every moment of it.

  When they retreated for the night, claiming to be exhausted even if she was only tired of her family, she’d heard the subtle scuff of footsteps following her. Elise didn’t show her face until they were nearly to the apartment door.

  “Isn’t this sweet?” Elise said, strutting past them to block the entrance. The smile on her lips was smug as she looked between Holly and Claus. “Just a couple of pretenders heading to bed for the evening. Don’t think I didn’t hear your statement about my fiancé, Holly.”

  “What are you going to do? Punch me again?” Holly was well and truly exhausted. In that moment, she would rather get the fight over and suffer the consequences, so she could crawl into bed, than let it drag on.

  “I don’t have to hit you to make you hurt,” Elise said. She leaned against th
e door behind her, getting comfortable while she wasted their time.

  “Little girl,” Claus warned. “I can lift you off the ground and put you in the trash bin where you belong. Now move it.”

  Elise’s face twisted with wrath for a split second before she smoothed it over. “You wouldn’t dare.” Her gaze shifted to Holly. “Not when I could run to mommy and daddy and tell them about their daughter’s fake lover.”

  So, Elise had figured it out. Holly couldn’t help but wonder if Elise would have thought their relationship fake even if it had been real. Elise would never allow herself to believe that Holly could catch a man like Claus. Not a shifter.

  Never.

  Holly sighed, but it was Claus who responded.

  “Go ahead, little tattler. Whine to the ones holding all the money and face the fallout when Holly and I prove you wrong. What will you do then? What will you do when they take away everything they’ve given you?”

  When Elise’s jaw dropped, Holly balked. She couldn’t believe that Claus had put her aggressive cousin in her place. Quickly, Elise remembered herself. She snapped her mouth shut and glared at the fake lovers.

  A smile curled across Elise’s face, hungry and filled with malice. She reached out and dragged a finger along Claus’s chest. Holly had never felt such jealousy as she did in that moment.

  “When you get tired of the human girl,” Elise offered, “you should visit me. I have a lot more to offer than she does. Wouldn’t you want to be my pet? I could shower you with all kinds of gifts.”

  Before Claus could move, Holly snatched her cousin’s finger and twisted her arm. Elise wouldn’t break that easily, so she allowed herself to put everything she felt into the grip. “Touch him again and I will snap this finger.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to get bored with this one,” Claus commented.

  Holly caught the flash of pride on his face, and it warmed her. She pushed Elise away and waited for her to retreat. Once they were alone, Holly let out the breath she’d been holding and felt herself deflate.

  She needed a hot shower and a comfy bed. One or the other would get rid of the feeling that clung to her, the thing that had latched on when she saw Elise touch Claus. The bear of a man was her fake boyfriend, but Holly had acted as though it was real. She could claim that it was all for show, but the truth was that what she’d felt had been so raw and new. Around Claus, she was full of light, wattage brighter than anything she’d ever seen before.

  Inside, Claus did a lap around the room. When he stopped in the middle of the living area with his hands on his hips, Holly paused. It was clear that he was put off by something, not quite upset, but maybe confused.

  “I thought this was an apartment,” he noted.

  Holly nodded. “It is. It has a kitchenette, a massive bathroom, and…” she swept her hand in front of her to indicate the living area.

  Claus only laughed, a bitter kind of laugh, the one when the other party clearly didn’t understand something. It was Holly’s turn to put her hands on her hips. She was too tired to deal with whatever his problem was.

  Finally, Claus pointed at the futon. “If you think I can sleep on that without falling through, then you have another think coming. There is no way a futon is going to hold a whole bear.”

  She shrugged. “Then don’t shift.”

  “When I said bear, I meant me. Not my beast. Hell, there isn’t enough room in here for me to turn around in my bear form.”

  A sigh bubbled up her throat, but she swallowed it. “Then what do you want me to do? Are you suggesting I sleep on the futon?”

  “Well, I’m not saying that. You don’t have to sleep out here.” He watched her carefully. A smirk touched the corner of his lips. “We could…ah, share a bed. If it’s large enough.”

  Her cheeks warmed. The lines between them began to blur again. If she let him sleep in the bed with her, would one thing lead to another? Would she be able to keep her hands to herself? Claus had already made it clear he was interested. Perhaps not in a long-term relationship, like they were pretending at, but the kiss at the diner wasn’t without it’s share of passion.

  Finally, Holly made a decision. “Let me get my stuff from the bedroom. I’ll sleep on the futon.”

  Claus didn’t hide his disappointment. He made a face, but Holly didn’t waste time on him. She pushed past to gather her clothes from the bedroom behind him and then disappeared into the bathroom. She cranked the water in the shower until the room filled with a cloud of steam.

  It brushed over her skin and eased the pain throbbing in her chest from the bruise Elise gave her. Holly lingered in the water, her mind drifting to the man outside the bathroom door. Claus was not what she’d expected. He was gruff, sure, but he was also much sweeter than she’d thought he’d be.

  He could have accepted Elise’s offer and gotten favorable treatment, at least for a while. He could have made the best of this trip by exploiting her family, and yet he stood beside her and fielded all the crap her family threw in her direction. The dinner had not been easy. They’d had to keep their story straight while they’d been bombarded with questions, half of them openly incredulous.

  Her mother had even flashed her heirloom ring. It had been handed down through generations in their family. The firstborn was always given the ring when it was their time to marry, but her mother had made it clear that because Holly wasn’t a shifter, the ring would never be hers. If Holly had the ring, then the ring would drift away from the family.

  It had to go to another reindeer.

  When her mother commented that Holly might have had the ring, it had broken her heart. It was an old wound, and yet it tore her open so easily.

  “Coming through!” Claus burst into the bathroom.

  Holly shrieked and covered herself despite the fact that she was behind an opaque curtain. “What are you doing?”

  “I would lie and say I had to take a piss, but the truth is when I realized I couldn’t surprise you with my gloriously naked form in bed because there’s a door between the rooms, I figured I would try to check out your gloriously naked form.”

  Holly snorted.

  “Don’t you berate yourself. You are a beautiful woman that I fully intend to take advantage of while we pretend to be besotted lovers.”

  “I’m impressed,” Holly commented, ignoring his offer of sex. “I wouldn’t have thought the word besotted would be in your vocabulary.”

  “You offend me, miss. I’ll have you know I have a two-year college education.”

  “Two whole years,” she teased. She turned off the water and stuck her hand out from behind the curtain. “Towel, please.”

  “Hm,” Claus hummed. “What do I get for such a favor? Do I get a peep show? A little peek?”

  “Are all predatory shifters this horny?” Holly’s body thrummed with desire, though she wasn’t ready to give in to it. She feared she would get attached to him. When he left, the pain would be worse than anything she might have avoided with her family.

  “I’m just trying to make the best of my situation.”

  The terrycloth towel touched her hand. She quickly pulled it into the shower and wrapped herself with it. Instead of waiting for him to leave the room, she pulled the curtain open, feeling brazen. Claus leaned against the counter across from her. His eyes flashed with hunger as they roved over her exposed limbs.

  “You’re in luck,” Holly mentioned. “It looks like someone came in and replaced all my soaps with unscented products.”

  He raised a brow. “Do you really think I care about that right now? I don’t have enough blood in my brain to calculate two plus two.”

  She was about to ask where it would have gone when she realized what he meant. She wished she could duck her head and hide behind her hair, but it was wet and clung to her scalp, offering nowhere to hide from the hungry bear in her bathroom.

  She hadn’t thought this through. Trapped in there with him, she couldn’t dry herself off or get dressed w
ithout removing her towel. It was obvious Claus knew exactly what he was doing from the dimple on his cheek. He grinned like the cat who ate the cream, clearly proud of himself.

  “You win,” she said.

  Though Holly was not a shifter, she had been raised in a house that decried modesty in all forms. Shifters weren’t allowed much in the way of it, especially right after they shifted between forms. So, Holly had been raised with the same mentality. The only difference now, as she let the towel fall from her body, was that Claus watched her with an intensity she’d never felt before.

  Perhaps it was because, for once, she had been seen by someone. She was no longer the black sheep in the corner. He looked at her as though she were the center of the universe. It was all for show, she told herself. How else would he get what he wanted from her?

  “Well, that wasn’t what I expected, but I must say I very much enjoy it.” Claus’s voice grew husky.

  Holly looked down at herself. She felt the urge to reach for the fallen towel and hide in it again. Claus had allowed her to forget what she looked like, the scars she’d tried to hide with tattoos. Unable to bear the shame, she grabbed the towel. Claus stopped her, his hand on hers.

  “I said, I like it.”

  She met his gaze and found the truth in it. Slowly, the shame she’d carried with her whittled away into nothing. She knew it would come back later, but for the time being she stood proudly.

  “You sure have a lot of tattoos. I guess you were right when you said you were durable.” Claus let go of her hand and leaned back on the counter, though she thought she caught him gripping it behind him as if he wanted to jump her but held himself back. “You even have one on the top of your foot. I’ve heard that’s not an easy place to get tattooed.”

  She looked down at the brightly colored butterflies, remembering the inking process. “That one hurt. A lot. The artist was holding my foot down near the end because I couldn’t stop it from shaking.”

  Claus frowned. “Don’t you think that was a sign you should have stopped?”