by V. Vaughn
Her phone softly jingled again. Glad you finally came home, little deer. Come on outside and meet me. I have a business proposition for you.
A business proposition?
Jingle jingle. I know what you want for Christmas. Happy to give it to you. Just need you to sign some paperwork first. Hurry up, the others are out here with me and they're getting impatient.
Paperwork? The others?
Lot of kids waiting for their gifts, Brynna. We only have one night to get them all out there. Put a hustle in your step.
Blinking at her phone, Brynna sat up. Old habits died hard. She couldn't say no to the old man, even though she'd shaken her fist at his hold on her life ever since she had learned what being a rare reindeer shifter was all about. Pausing, she looked back at Wyatt snoozing so peacefully beside her. She leaned down and whispered a bare kiss onto his shoulder. He murmured in his sleep, making her smile. Then she swung her feet out of the warm bed. Quietly, Brynna dressed and tiptoed out of the house, wincing as a floorboard creaked. She carefully shut the front door behind her, shuddering as a cold blast surrounded her. Walking out almost all the way to the street, she turned around and looked skyward, searching the rooftops. There they were. Right on top of Wyatt's roof, actually.
Shaking her head, Brynna couldn't help smiling. “A sleigh and seven tiny reindeer,” she said, rolling her eyes at one female reindeer who giggled quietly. Alina, of course. “You're missing one,” she added. “There are supposed to be eight. But okay then.” She looked at the jolly old man dressed in red seated in the sleigh, glasses slipping down his nose as he shook some papers in her direction. “Tell me about your business proposition, Santa. I'm listening.”
Wyatt woke out of a sound sleep with Brynna's sweet voice echoing in his head. He blinked, reaching out a hand to search for her. But no sweet, sleeping mate was to be found. He shot straight up, then tangled in the sheets and fell from the otherwise empty bed to the floor, cursing and flailing. Scrambling to his feet, he wildly looked around.
No Brynna.
He raced through the four rooms in the small house, calling her name. She was gone. His heart felt like it would burst inside him.
She'd left him. Again.
He hunted around his bedroom until he found his phone, looking for a text or call from her. Nothing. Had she just left? Could he catch her? Barely taking the time to yank on a pair of pants, careless of his bare feet, he ran outside, looking around.
“Hey, man,” a familiar voice called out from somewhere above him. “Up here.”
He twisted around and looked up. Then his jaw dropped. On the roof of his house, his new house, sat a sleigh. Leather traces attached it to eight reindeer, each one of which was pawing the roof—his roof, for crying out loud—and snorting or shaking their heads. Impatience was clear in each one. Seated in the sleigh was Thor, wearing a frigging Santa outfit. Red velvet hat trimmed in fluffy white, red velvet suit with a shiny black belt, a big old belly, a huge snowy white beard. He waved an arm at Wyatt. “Hurry up. These guys are getting really restless. It's hard to hold them back.”
A female shifter's voice, speaking in her deer language yet perfectly understandable to Wyatt, crackled out into the cold night. “Thor Calhoun, you'd better know by now you can't hold me back.” She sounded surprisingly dainty despite her deeper voice in her shifted form.
Wyatt rubbed his eyes, then looked again. That sounded like Brynna's sister, Alina. He peered hard. Yup, that was her all right, in the traces at the head of the team. Right beside her, daintily pawing his roof and sending puffs of air out each time she snorted, was the prettiest little deer shifter in the world.
“Brynna?”
Her laugh echoed out over the roofs of the houses on Wyatt's street. “It's me!” Her voice sounded so excited, so happy, that it made a smile blaze over Wyatt's face. “Come on up. I signed a deal with Kris Kringle. He's in charge of all the Santas around the world, of course, so he's really busy this time of year. They really did miss having me here. I'm on the annual Deep Hollow Christmas sleigh team now. Full benefits, and some great stocks. And,” her voice suddenly changed from happy but businesslike to a little shy, “you're the new Santa in Deep Hollow now. If you want it, I mean. I know how much you love Christmas.” There was a little pause, then Brynna whispered in a suspiciously thick voice that trembled right on the edge of happy little reindeer tears, “Merry Christmas, Wyatt. I hope you like my gift to you.”
Nodding, feeling his face splitting into a crazy huge grin, Wyatt had to swallow and blink hard a few times before he could trust himself to speak. “Yeah, babe. I love it. I'll be Santa. As long as you keep pulling the sleigh.”
Alina burbled, “Awwww!” echoed by the happy little noises of the rest of the reindeer team.
A deep, peaceful silence billowed around them, broken only by the soft snorts of the reindeer, who Wyatt now recognized as Brynna's extended family. And one little guy at the back, who looked an awful lot like—
“Deputy Donner? Is that you?”
The rookie nodded ecstatically, sending all the bells on the traces to jingling. He even had some bells and tinsel wound into his antlers. “That's me! Brynna's my second cousin. And see, I told you we'd be a good team. On the patrol beat or on Christmas. Come on, Deputy Webber. It's the most fun ever.”
Thor chimed in, as did the team of deer with happy little barks and huffing sounds. “Let's do this, Wyatt! I'll be the lead Santa tonight and show you how it's done. I think you're gonna love it, man. But let's get going. We've got a lot of gifts still to deliver.”
Wyatt stared, the grin on his face getting bigger and bigger. Then he nodded, opening his mouth to ask how to get up there. But the team immediately stepped off the roof, they and the sleigh gently landing in Wyatt's front yard. “Shit,” he whispered, staring more.
Brynna bucked in her traces with giddy excitement. “Jump in, Santa! Kris left a suit for you. Put it on while we're flying.”
Wyatt felt like a kid again as he hopped into the sleigh and pulled on the suit Thor handed him. Then Thor gently slapped the reins over the deers' butts, earning a little ear flick and kick from Alina as they leapt into the air, sleigh and all.
The streets of Deep Hollow were very quiet in the middle of the night as they flew over them, jingle bells whispering on the harnesses. Wyatt soon held the reins as Thor genially instructed him on how to do it. Brynna kept doing cute little deer bark-giggles as they flew. Beside her, Alina said in a big sister voice, “Brynna, you have to go faster. We'll never be done at this pace.”
Behind them both, their mother snorted into the cold air. “You both need to go faster. This is the perfect time for sisterly rivalry to start. Get competitive, girls!”
Wyatt saw Brynna peel her lips apart in a grin that probably wasn't common to natural-born reindeer as she barked her own cry into the dark. Aw, hell, this was fun. Really fun. And he could tell she was loving it. She'd been missing out her whole life, but that didn't matter anymore. She'd found her place here. So had Wyatt. Kicking out at the sky, his cute mate did yet another little buck in the traces, tossing her head again and again just to hear the bells shivering with little tinkles.
“Seriously, Brynna, you're such a newbie at this!” But Alina's tone was playful, sounding just as happy as Wyatt felt.
He laughed. To his surprise, his voice sounded deeper than usual. Huh, weird. But cool. He tried it again. “Ha ha ha ha!” His voice echoed into the night, drifting over the cozy houses below in the town that was his home. His and Brynna's.
“Nah, man,” Thor said. “It goes like this. Ho ho ho!” he boomed out, startling Wyatt. The noise of it drifted through the sky, accompanied by the whispering bells on the sleigh as it flew through the night. “You try,” Thor said to Wyatt, flashing a grin over his white beard.
Wyatt felt silly for a second. But all the reindeer chimed in, encouraging him. Especially Brynna, his sweet, pretty, sexy mate. “Come on, Santa! Let's hear it,” she giggled,
sounding happier than he'd thought he'd ever heard her.
Taking a deep breath, Wyatt did it. “Ho ho ho! HO HO HO!” he bellowed out, getting the hang of it.
“Yes!” Brynna chortled, bucking so hard in the traces that the sleigh dipped from side to side and her mother reprimanded her. But they were all laughing, both Santas and all the tiny reindeer.
His heart bursting with joy, filled with the certainty that right here was where he belonged, side by side with his mate and his family and his friends, Wyatt let loose, allowing the joy to fill his voice. “HO HO HO! A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
Everyone’s happy, festive laughter filled the sparkling night air as they flew through the skies above Deep Hollow, spreading cheer and joy and gifts to all.
Merry Christmas!
I hope you enjoyed The Reindeer Shifter’s Christmas Gift! If you’d like more of my bears and their mates, check out my Silvertip Shifters books.
BEGIN THE SILVERTIP SHIFTERS SERIES WITH….
HUNTER’S MOON
(a Silvertip Shifters/Black Mesa Wolves crossover)
Grab Hunter’s Moon now!
(also in Kindle Unlimited)
Get another adorable Silvertip Shifters Christmas story: Mountain Bear’s Baby! (also in Kindle Unlimited)
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http://www.jkharper.com/
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About the Author
J.K. Harper writes about paranormal romance because despite a lifetime of wishing, all the cool supernatural book characters of her childhood just don't seem to be real. Besides, it's really fun to make stuff up. She lives in the rugged, gorgeous canyon country of the Southwest, which is a great place to let her imagination run wild.
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Snowed in With the Bear - Isadora Montrose
A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance
Forbidden love: BBW grizzly shifter Amanda has no business drooling over a billionaire black bear. Playboy bachelor Calvin scorns earthy she-bears. But this curvy, widowed grizzly rips off his sophisticated veneer and unleashes his primitive inner bear. On Christmas Eve they are trapped alone by a blizzard. Dare these alphas light each other’s fire?
SNOWED IN WITH THE BEAR:
A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance
By
Isadora Montrose
©Copyright Isadora Montrose 2018
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers.
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1
Calvin~
The persistent jangling summoned him from a nightmare in which he was wrestling his father. Fricking fighting his old man for the girl. As if any woman was worth fighting his own father over – even – make that especially – Amanda Arutta.
Calvin Bascom shook off the last tendrils of his disturbing dream, and groped blearily for his cell phone. Eventually it dawned on him that the harsh noise was coming from the old-fashioned house phone on the bedside table. He finally managed to grab the handset and bring it to his ear.
Dusty Taylor’s voice was a feeble croak over the crackling landline. “Dakota’s plumb gone,” he said, desperation in each word. “I can’t find him nowheres.”
Calvin sat up and forced himself fully awake. “Calm down.” He infused the cold edge of authority into his words. “Report.” He liked Dusty Taylor. He and the old stable hand had had a long friendship. But Dusty’s panic had to be cut off. Right now Cal needed to figure out what was wrong.
His sharp command worked. Dusty pulled himself together. His voice strengthened. “I woke up at 0000 hours, looked at the screens, and did a quick check of all the stalls. Dakota’s was empty. I phoned Dr. Arutta and she said she was on her way. But she never come.”
Dusty was on overnight duty in the stable block of the Bascom Quarter Horse Stud. He had been dozing in the tack room between checking on the horses on the video feed. Which was perfectly normal. Dr. Arutta was on call for emergencies. Also normal.
A missing horse was not normal, expected, or even likely. And if Arutta was also missing, they had two emergencies.
It was now 0043 hours. It shouldn’t have taken Amanda Arutta forty-three minutes to get from her house to the stable block. Hell, it shouldn’t have taken twenty minutes. He might have his issues with his sister’s new veterinarian, but response time wasn’t one of them.
Arutta was a former Army officer. Competent, shrewd, strong, and totally responsible. If she said she was on her way, she was. On the double. But she wasn’t a Colorado native. Calvin strode over to his window trailing the phone cord.
Snow was clumped on the glass, obscuring his view of the great outdoors. There ought to have been a moon tonight, but the windowpane merely reflected his own unshaven face back at him. Was Arutta lost in this storm?
“We seem to be having some snow,” Calvin cut off Dusty’s wittering.
“Yup.” The old man sounded increasingly distraught. His voice quavered. “I’m on my own out here, Mr. Cal. You gotta come. I can’t think who’d of taken Dakota. Miss Laura don’t think no more of that gelding than I do of my right arm.” Dakota was Laura’s favorite horse, the one she rode everywhere.
His sister Laura had left him in charge of the stud. That made both Dakota and Arutta Calvin’s responsibility. “I can chat, or I can get dressed, Dusty. Expect me in seven minutes.” Before he hung up, Cal had a sudden concern. “Stay put,” he barked. “Don’t leave the stable block, Taylor.”
“You don’t have to shout at me,” grumbled Dusty.
Calvin didn’t know precisely how old Dusty Taylor was, but the veteran had been gray-haired when he had taught Cal and his twin to ride. Cal rather thought that Dusty had served in Korea. His war was about the only thing the garrulous old man never mentioned.
Calvin didn’t want Dusty wandering into the teeth of a Colorado storm to look for their missing horse or vet. More to the point, as fond as Laura undoubtedly was of Dakota, she regarded Dusty as family. She would not want him risking his scrawny neck on a forlorn hope.
As it turned out, it took much more than seven minutes for Calvin to get to the stable block. By the time he got dressed, the storm had rendered the road impassable. There was no visible pavement to drive on, just deep, drifting snow and more falling every second. This storm was turning into a real Colorado blizzard. Not fit for man nor beast. Not even a man-beast like Cal.
He took Laura’s snowmobile. Even with the high beams on, the headlights did not penetrate far into the falling snow. He had to throttle back to make sure he didn’t drive off the road into the ditches or the pastures. Thankfully, he knew every inch of the Double B Ranch. Had driven this route in every sort of weather since he was a kid.
Yet in the dark, and with the whirling snow collecting on his visor and windshield, Calvin nearly came to grief a dozen times. Beyond the arc of his headlights, the darkness was absolute. Calvin had exceptional eyesight, part of his bear shifter talents, but although the snow amplified the tiny amount of available light, it also scattered it into glare. He was basically driving blind.
He rounded another bend, taking pains not to be misled by the remembered gap in the trees that lined the road. Someone had been less cautious. A bright orange snowmobile, the mate of his own, lay in the ditch. Under its blanket of snow, not much of the snowmobile was visible. He blessed whoever had thought of painting all the ranch and stud vehicles that bright, attention-grabbin
g orange.
2
Amanda~
Taking grizzly had seemed like the most sensible solution after she overturned her snowmobile. Amanda had figured on cutting straight across the snowbound pastures and following her nose to the stables. Forty horses made a vibrant scent signal no grizzly could miss. She should have been there by now.
She had underestimated the violence of the storm. As incredible as it seemed, despite her finely-honed sense of direction and her grizzly nose, she was lost and freezing. Shivering, despite her formidable muscles, heavy coat, and a thick layer of fat.
Freezing! Grizzlies didn’t freeze. They were armored against the winter by fur and fat. She just had to keep moving and she would be fine. Surely the stables had to be close by? She had been almost there when she ran into the ditch.
However, if Dakota was out in this blizzard, the horse would be in trouble. He was a big, full-grown Quarter Horse, well-muscled and fit, and he had grown a winter coat. But by comparison with the animals who survived on the open range, he was nothing but a pampered pet. She didn’t give a fork what happened to the thieves, but Dakota was her responsibility.
It wasn’t in her nature or her training to give up. Officers didn’t quit when the going got hard. Grizzlies didn’t surrender. Grizzly shifters were not just brawny, they were brainy. She had to come up with a way to get through this storm and complete her mission.
