by R. E. Butler
“I’m…oh my…what?” She couldn’t form a complete sentence.
Rhys slid his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close, lowering his head to whisper in her ear. “You know what this is, Merri.”
She shivered at the warmth of his breath against her skin. “The Northern Lights.”
“I want you to think about what that means for where we are right now.”
She looked behind her at what resembled a small town in the middle of nowhere, with all-white buildings that blended perfectly into the surrounding snow. A hidden city. She frowned as she turned back to look at the beautiful colors swirling and dancing in the distance.
“When the two guys grabbed me and we landed here, they said they’d made a mistake. That I looked like their boss’ wife.” She chewed on her lip for a moment, thinking about her outfit. “I was dressed like Mrs. Claus. The woman who bumped into me in the city looked just like me. She had the most amazing hug.”
Rhys chuckled. “That’s her special brand of magic – she can invoke fond memories with a touch. It helps put people at ease.”
“Magic?” Merri snorted. “Someone has a magical hug?”
“They both do, actually. I haven’t hugged SC since I was a kid, though, but I remember in one hug feeling like I always did on Christmas morning, with my parents waiting by the tree in their matching pajamas, the scent of fresh pine, and the sound of the crackling fire in the fireplace.”
“Who’s SC?”
He gave her a steady look, like he was willing her to know what he was talking about. The trouble was that she didn’t really know…did she?
Chapter 5
Rhys wished he could telepathically communicate with Merri, to share with her everything that he knew to be the truth about their connection. He wished he could show her all of his memories.
Her nose wrinkled and she said, “If the woman who nearly knocked me down was dressed like Mrs. Claus because she actually was Mrs. Claus, then I think you might be a few nuts short of a fruitcake…except there’s something very honest about you. I don’t know why, but I trust you. I was all freaked out when I was in your room, but when you showed up, the fear started to slip away.”
“It’s because we’re meant to be together. I want to show you what I am, but I want you to promise that you won’t be afraid.”
Her brow arched. “As long as you’re not going to let someone else kidnap me, I think I can handle whatever else you have to show me.”
“No one else will hurt you, I swear.”
“All right, so show me what you are. This might sound crazy, but part of me feels like you’re not entirely human and that kind of scares me but also makes me curious.”
“There’s nothing to fear from me or anyone else in NPC.”
“What’s NPC?”
He gestured to the town as he took off his coat and slipped it over her shoulders. She tugged it closed. “NPC is what we call North Pole City.”
She hummed, a short sound of disapproval, and narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
He stripped quickly, laying his clothes on the snow and crouching. He thought over to his beasts and chose the least threatening one – the reindeer. “Promise you’ll stay put no matter what.”
“Why are you naked?”
“Don’t like the view?” he teased.
Her cheeks turned even pinker than they were from the cold, and she pursed her lips, but a smile still escaped. “I think you know you’re gorgeous.”
“I’m in good company,” he said with a wink. Letting go of his human form, he took on the shift of his reindeer. His favorite shift was the polar bear, but he believed that Merri would understand the magic better if she saw his reindeer form.
The change came over him quickly, shifting him from two feet to four legs in what felt like a heartbeat. He snorted, billowing steam from his nostrils.
Merri’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates and her mouth hung open. He stood still so he didn’t startle her. She looked a lot like a doe about to bolt. He could hear her heart pounding and the slight gasping sound of her panting breaths.
“I did not just see that,” she said. She moved a few steps toward him and reached out her gloved hand. He turned his head slightly and rubbed his nose against her palm. She jerked her hand back like she’d been burned and then made a fist. “Damn. Is this real? Am I dreaming?”
He wished he had the ability to speak in his shifted form, like the reindeer in some of the human movies.
“Okay, so let me get this straight. I was kidnapped because those guys thought I was Mrs. Claus. I’m actually here in the North Pole, and you’re a reindeer, like one of the sleigh reindeer?”
He nodded.
“Hmm.” The corner of her lips twisted into a grimace, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted. He bellowed and released his shift, lifting her into his arms from the snow. He knelt and felt for her pulse, finding it slow and steady.
Patting her cheek, he whispered roughly, “Merri? Merri?”
Her eyelids fluttered, and she moaned, batting at his hand. She blinked at him. Her eyes remained unfocused for a brief moment, and then she sat up so swiftly that she cracked her head against his and he saw stars.
“Ouch, damn it,” she said, groaning.
He chuckled and ran his thumb gently over the place their heads had connected. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s get back to my room so you can warm up.”
He set her on her feet and grabbed his clothes, pulling on his icy pants and boots.
“Do you want your coat back?” she asked.
“You need it more than I do, and it’s not a far walk back to the males’ dormitories.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I get some more information, Rhys.”
“It’s cold out here,” he pointed out. In spite of the warm clothes she wore, he knew her human body was going to feel the effects of the weather more acutely than him.
“You just shifted into a freaking reindeer, and it made my brain short out. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
He donned his shirt, giving himself a brief moment to think. In for a penny, he thought.
“You’re in North Pole City, the home of Santa Claus. Back there,” he gestured to his hometown, “are the elves and shifters who call NPC home. I’m one of them. I’m actually a quad – what’s known as an arctic shifter. I can shift into four arctic creatures – polar bear, reindeer, arctic fox, and snowy owl. Our people only find their mates in one of two ways – either Mrs. Claus matches a male and female through her magic, or we find our fated mate.” He took a deep breath and met her skeptical gaze. “You’re my fated mate. That means that you and I are meant to be together.”
“I’m human.”
“And?”
She huddled into the two coats a little more and let out a deep breath. “I think I’m dreaming. I’m having the most fantastical dream that any person has ever had. There’s no way that shifters are real, especially not ones who look like you.”
In spite of the cold, he could scent her arousal. She smelled like sugarplums. He’d caught the scent when they’d kissed earlier, and it had been like a drug to him.
“Like me?” he asked, stepping closer.
“You know what you look like.”
“I know you’re beautiful and you smell like sugarplums. I want…”
“What?” she asked, gazing up at him breathlessly.
“I want to take you back to my room and warm you up.”
“You said that already.”
“I don’t mean a hot shower and some cocoa.”
Her lips parted, and her eyes drifted to half-mast. “I don’t know if I believe in fate.”
“That’s a bummer,” he said, swinging her up into his arms and heading toward the dormitories.
“Oh?” she asked with a chuckle.
“What’s wrong with believing in something that’s big
ger than us? That the universe saw to it that you and I would find each other this Christmas?”
“It wasn’t fate; it was a kidnapping.”
“A fate-engineered kidnapping.”
She snorted.
“What else can I do to convince you that we’re meant to be together? You’ve seen where we are, and I know you’re attracted to me.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Because I can scent it. You smell like sugarplums when you’re turned on, and I happen to love them.”
“What do you smell like when you’re turned on, Rhys?” she whispered in a sultry tone that made his brain fog over.
“You tell me.”
He felt the air move over his neck as she pressed her nose to his neck and inhaled. She kissed his skin, her lips parting and her tongue lightly dragging up his neck. His fingers tightened on her. She hummed and it sounded like a purr. “Snickerdoodles.”
He stopped walking for a moment and looked at her as she ceased her sweet exploration of his neck. “The cookie?”
Her eyes danced. “Cinnamon and sugar, and I don’t know…something warm. Like the way they taste when they’re almost too hot to eat but you do it anyway because you know they taste melty and delicious.”
“Damn, Merri,” he said, his voice tipping to a growl.
He glanced around and saw where they were and then changed direction, heading toward the factory. She went back to exploring his neck with her lips and tongue, and it was all he could do not to drop her to the ground and find out if she tasted as good as she smelled.
He elbowed the door of the factory open and eased inside. Putting her down gently, he felt along the wall for the light switches. He didn’t want to turn on every light because he was concerned it might make the security team investigate, and the longer he could keep Merri to himself, the better chance he had of convincing her to stay.
He found the far switches and flicked on two of them. At the back of the main building, overhead lights illuminated, bright in the darkness. Merri blinked and gasped, stepping slowly away from him. He didn’t like separating from her, but he forced himself to let go of her. He followed as she walked toward the illuminated area of the factory. They passed row after row of work tables that were empty of all but neatly arranged tools for each station.
“Where is everyone?”
“SC gives the toy makers a weeklong vacation after the toys are loaded onto the sleigh.”
“I’ve always wondered about that.”
“What?”
“How he gets millions of toys onto a sleigh.”
“Magic.”
She snorted. “You say that like it’s an answer.”
“Well, it is. SC is magical in a way that even I don’t entirely understand, and I’ve lived here my entire life. The makers make the toys, and the stable elves load them into the bag, and somehow, they fit.”
She veered to the left and walked to a set of doors that were marked for storage. She opened one door, and an automatic light turned on, illuminating the interior. Rhys had never paid much attention to the factory. He’d visited his mom when she worked there when he was a child, and he’d liked knowing that his mom helped make toys that made kids smile.
Merri stopped suddenly, staring at a shelf full of fluffy stuffed animals.
“Those are the leftovers. Sometimes, when SC checks the list twice, there are kids who don’t qualify for his gift, so those toys earmarked for those kids are set aside. NPC kids can pick from them after the factory opens when vacation is over.”
She reached toward the shelf, causing stuffed animals to fall to the floor as she dug through them.
“Merri?” He moved to her as she straightened, clutching a teddy bear. He recognized it immediately as one like his mom used to make. It was cream colored with a velvet bow around its neck.
“I have this,” she said, her voice cracking as her hands tightened on the bear.
“What?”
She looked up at him, her blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I…this is mine. I mean, I have it. Or I had it when I was a kid. I remember it so vividly now. I was seven, and after the presents were opened, I saw something still under the tree, and there he was.” She crushed the bear to her chest, and Rhys’ coat fell off her shoulders and pooled at her feet. “My parents said that the bear was old, that I’d had it and had just forgotten about it, but I knew they were wrong. I knew it was a new gift, even though they’d said it was familiar to them so I must have had it for years. I believed that Santa had left it for me.”
Rhys put his hand on the bear and rubbed its soft ear between his finger and thumb. “Kids know things that adults dismiss.”
“I believe you now,” she said.
His brows rose. “You do?”
She nodded and tears slid down her cheeks, but she was smiling. “It’s so clear to me. Like it all just snapped into place, and suddenly, it makes sense and it feels right.”
He was so relieved he could have danced a jig. Brushing the tears from her cheeks, he cupped her face and kissed her tenderly. “Sugarplum, you are a wonder.”
“I’ve never actually had a sugarplum.”
He chuckled. “I’ll get you some. It’s a hard candy. They don’t taste like plums, but they’re shaped like them.”
He leaned down to kiss her, undoing the buttons on the jacket she wore and slipping his arms inside and wrapping them around her. He hauled her close, reveling in the way her body melted against his.
He spoke softly against her lips. “I like you, Merri. I more than like you, actually. I’m completely drawn to you in every way.”
“You’re talking about love at first sight.”
“You feel deep down that we’re meant to be together, don’t you? You can call it fate or magic or Mrs. C’s intervention, but you’re here with me right now because you’re my fated mate. I never want to let you go.”
“This is crazy. I don’t want you to let me go either.”
“Crazy but right.”
“Can we go back to your room?” She chewed her lower lip and looked around the storage room.
“This isn’t too romantic, is it?” he asked.
“It’s not bad, if I didn’t think it would be weird to have dozens of stuffed animals watching us.”
He laughed. Bending and picking up his coat, he slipped it back over her shoulders and said, “We can go back to my room and talk.”
Nodding, she said, “I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I’m not scared of you or this situation, and I want to be with you.”
“I’m yours, Merri.”
“Just promise me forever, Rhys. That’s all I really want.”
“That’s all? You got it.”
Chapter 6
Rhys hurried them out of the factory and toward the building where his room was. He said they were called barracks, and all the unmated males lived there. The cold was so severe that she’d almost retreated back into the warm toy factory, but the thought of getting to be with Rhys in a room with a real bed made her push through the discomfort that stung her cheeks and made her teeth chatter.
Rhys was gorgeous, and he looked at her like she was the only person on the planet. Searching her heart, she knew she felt the same way. She couldn’t explain how their connection was possible, but the jumbled pieces of her life had come together now that she’d met Rhys.
He pulled open the door to the barracks and ushered her inside. Ahead of them was a door that he said led to the rooms on the first floor, and the stairs were to the left. They took the stairs to the third floor, and by the time they arrived on the landing, her muscles burned. To her surprise, Rhys lifted her into his arms and carried her the rest of the way as if she weighed nothing.
“You must be naturally strong,” she murmured, brushing her fingers through the short hair at the side of his head.
“All shifters are, but quads are the strongest.”
“So there are people who aren’t quad
s but still can shift?”
“Yes. A quad can shift into the fourth animal – the reindeer. Other shifters have three animals instead of four. There are twelve quads in NPC, and eight of us work for SC.”
“What do the others do?”
“They work in security. I also work in security, but it’s an honor to be on the sleigh team. When a position opens up, SC chooses the quad who will fill that place.”
“Is there a ranking to the sleigh team? Like, is there one place on the team that everyone wants?”
“The team is ranked by our names. The lead reindeer is the Dasher position, and it goes on down through the names until the lowest position, Blitzen. But the sleigh team, even the lowest-ranked position, is a well-respected job.”
“Which one are you?”
“Dasher.”
She hummed. “Head of security and the top reindeer, that’s pretty neat.”
He opened the door to his room and slipped inside, shutting and locking it without putting her down. He carried her to the big bed in the corner and set her down gently, kissing her swiftly before he straightened. He took the stuffed teddy bear she’d taken from the storage room and propped it on the dresser, and then he returned and drew the gloves off her hands and the hat from her head, before helping her out of both coats.
When he disappeared into the closet, she kicked off the moccasins and tugged the socks from her feet. As she started to undo the buttons of the shirt, he came out of the closet with an ivory candle and a match. He flicked a light switch, tossing the room into darkness.
There was a faint scent of sulfur as he struck the match and held it near the wick. “Quads aren’t magical. The only real magic in NPC is through Santa and Mrs. Claus. But there are some things that they’ve given us for special occasions. This candle sat in my closet for years. I never thought I would have a need for it, but I remembered that Mrs. C told me that I would someday find someone to share this with, and I know it’s you.”
