by R. E. Butler
She whispered his name. It was a plea and a demand wrapped up together.
“Whatever my sweetheart wants,” he said, sliding his hands up the inside of her thighs and pushing them open. She gasped as he kissed her clit and then licked a circle around it. He slid his hands up her sides and held her gaze as he worked her clit, licking and sucking until her hips were flexing frantically and her body was creaming. She grabbed a handful of the blanket over her head with one hand and grasped her breast with the other, digging her fingers into her flesh as he drove her to the height of pleasure. He growled softly and his tongue vibrated, making her arch her back as he rolled his tongue over her again and again until she came, crying out his name as pleasure pulsed through her.
She was vaguely aware of the sound of clothing being tossed aside, and then he lifted her and moved her farther up the bed before rolling to his back and taking her with him. She let out a surprised squeak as she found herself straddling his thighs. She brushed her fingers lightly over the tops of his thighs, watching as his erection bobbed. He was thick and long, the head glistening, and she bent and licked the drop of pearly liquid. He made a sound in his throat, a growl and groan combined. He tasted sweet and salty, and she smiled as she straightened and rose over him. Grasping his cock, she rubbed the hot head against her slick folds, savoring the moment just before she took him inside.
Lowering herself slowly, she felt an awareness snap into place in her mind as their bodies touched and he was firmly, deeply within her. Her nails bit into his stomach as she absorbed the feeling of being so full and so connected to him, even though they’d known each other only hours.
He cupped her face and lifted his hips, pushing deeper. She scraped her nails along his stomach and then grasped his wrists, moving on him. She twisted her hips slightly with each pass until she felt a pulse of bliss shoot through her. He put one hand on her back and pressed the other to her belly, rubbing her clit with his thumb. He helped her move on him, and she planted her hands on his chest. Her skin prickled and heat pooled in her core.
His eyes were a beautiful, deep gold, and fangs parted his lips. She wasn’t afraid of the fangs, and some part of her knew that he wanted to bite her. How she knew that, or what it meant, she didn’t know, but she didn’t care. Mire was hers – boyfriend or mate or whatever the term – and that was all that mattered.
She let out a sharp gasp as his thumb continued to rub her clit, driving her to the edge of pleasure. Her whole body shook as she came, gasping and writhing on top of him as her climax hit and everything within her turned to molten lava. He drew her down to his lips with his hand on the back of her neck, still surging slowly into her as her fingers and toes tingled and her body responded to his assault.
She felt the heat of his breath and saw the striations of bronze in the depths of his eyes. She kissed him and then tilted her head to bare her throat to him.
He growled softly and brushed her hair aside, and then he struck, sinking his fangs into her throat. She cried out at the burst of pain, but just as quickly as it happened, the sting eased, and warmth filled her. He lifted from her throat, and then he licked across the fresh mark, and it soothed the ache that had remained. Then he rolled them so she was on her back, and he drove into her again and again, hard and fast. The headboard smacked against the wall rhythmically. He roared as he came, covering her with his body and holding her close as he climaxed inside her. The heat of his come filled her, and rightness settled over her as she stroked his back and closed her eyes.
She’d finally found her true home. And it was nothing like she’d imagined, on top of the world in a frozen place of snow and ice, with a man who could transform into animals at will.
* * *
Mire pulled the blankets up over them and rested his head on his upturned hand. Noelle was so beautiful, especially when her cheeks were rosy with passion and her eyes glittered with happiness. He felt elated himself, too. Not only had they made love, which was an experience he could honestly say he’d never had before, but also he’d marked her. He knew she didn’t understand marking or fated mates, but she’d tilted her head in the throes of passion and offered her throat to him. Whatever made her the unique blend of human and shifter gave her a subconscious knowledge about their people, and she’d instinctively known what to do.
The mark on her neck was healing. He stared at the two puncture wounds and felt pride but also a strong sense to protect her. Noelle was his to love and care for, and he’d spend the rest of his life ensuring that. He’d certainly never been happier.
She smiled drowsily at him, and although he was tempted to let her rest and to snag a few hours of sleep with his arms around her, he knew that talking now, before he had to leave for the Christmas Eve run, was paramount.
“So about the bite,” he said.
She hummed. “It kind of hurt, but then it felt good. Weird, right?”
He smiled. “Yeah, but normal I think, for fated mates.”
“I’ve heard that term a few times. What is a fated mate?”
“Think of it like a soul mate on steroids. I’m a quad, which means I can change into four different animals. A polar bear, arctic fox, snowy owl, and reindeer. After I bit you, I scratched my tongue with my fangs and licked the mark, which pushed some of my blood into your wound.”
“Why?”
“It completes the bond between us, and it’s like a supernatural GPS. I can find you anywhere now that we’re fully mated.”
She hummed. “That’s cool.” She was quiet for a moment and then she asked, “So my dad isn’t a quad because he only has three animals he can change into?”
“Yes, only quads can change into reindeer.”
“And that’s important because of Santa?”
“Right. There aren’t a lot of quads in NPC.”
“NPC?”
“North Pole City. Sorry, we use a lot of abbreviations. Like SC and Mrs. C, for our leaders.”
“Am I supposed to call him SC?”
“You can call him Santa if you like.”
She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “I can’t believe he’s real.”
“You believed in him when you were a kid.”
“Yeah. But people expect kids to get over that belief. It’s okay to believe in Santa and elves and reindeer until you’re maybe eight or nine, and then if you still do, it’s considered babyish.”
“That’s sad. There’s nothing wrong with believing in magic.”
“I definitely believe in magic now,” she said with a smile.
“We can leave NPC for twenty-four hours from six a.m. on Christmas Eve to six a.m. on Christmas Day, but that’s it. If one of us were to be stuck outside of NPC after six a.m. on Christmas Day, we’d be trapped in the human world for a year until the city was open again.”
She was quiet for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip. “It’s why Santa said we didn’t have a lot of time?”
“Yes. But also because I have to do the Christmas Eve run tonight. We’ll be back around three a.m.”
“And then I have to leave?”
“What? No!” He pushed back his beasts, who had rushed to the surface at the idea of her leaving. “Sorry, I mean, no, you don’t have to leave. You’re my fated mate, Noelle. That alone means you belong with me, but you’re also half-shifter which makes you an elf. Or half-elf, since females are elves and males are shifters, and your mom was human. SC said you were welcome to stay here with me. If you want to go back to your home, though, to stay, I’ll leave here and come with you.”
She sat up and turned to face him.
“You’d walk away from all of this for me?”
“Of course. Where you are is home for me, sweetheart.”
“But your life is here, and your family…You do have family, don’t you?”
“Yes. My mom is an elf and works in the clothing guild, and my father is a builder.”
“And he’s a quad?”
“No, a regular shifter. I’m
sure they’ll be thrilled to meet you.”
“I’m human.”
“Half-human.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re my fated mate. Our people find our mates in one of two ways – either we find our fated mate or we have Mrs. C mate-match us. That means that a male or female goes to Mrs. C and asks to be mate-matched, and part of her power is that she can choose the perfect mates for our people.”
“You don’t date?”
“Not really. There’s a bar where our people gather, and there are hookups, but we don’t date like humans do.”
“What’s the other part of Mrs. C’s power?”
“She can evoke fond memories of Christmases past with her hug.”
“Did you ever want to be mate-matched?”
“I might have considered it, if the quads hadn’t started finding their fated mates. With you, I’m now the fourth quad to find his fated mate. Arian, the Blitzen position, Rhys, the Dasher position, and Sullivan, the Prancer position, have all found their fated mates, and their mates are all humans.”
“They live here?”
He nodded. “Arian lived in the human world with Charli for a year, and then they moved here. Rhys and Sullivan both live here with their mates, and there have been babies born to two of the couples.”
“Would our kids be able to shift?”
“If they’re boys, yes. If they’re girls, they’d be part elf.”
She rubbed at the top of one ear, something he noticed she did when she was thinking or upset. “What’s going to happen to my dad?”
“I don’t know. SC said not to worry about it, so you shouldn’t. For now, we need to talk about the future. I have just a couple hours before I need to get ready for the flight.”
“What will I do while you’re gone?”
“You can rest here in my room. But we need to figure out our plans.”
“Right.” She looked around the room and pressed her hand over her heart. “You didn’t really ask me.”
“Ask you what?”
“To be your mate. You just keep saying that I’m yours, but you know, a girl likes to be asked.”
She smiled at him in an all-too sexy way, and he growled. Sitting up, he took her hands and kissed the tops, and then said, “Noelle, please say you’ll be mine. We’re fated mates, and I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. Build a life with me here, in NPC.”
She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, pretending she didn’t know the answer right away, and he snarled softly, knowing she was teasing him. With a laugh, she hugged and kissed him. “Yes, I’ll be yours, and yes, I’ll stay here. But we have to talk about this room, because it’s kind of like an efficiency apartment, and I can’t even cook in here.”
“Mated couples get a house. Our builders are always working on new homes, and I’m sure that if one isn’t ready right now, it will be soon.”
“Good. I’m not sure I want to share a bathroom with a bunch of guys. No offense.”
“None taken. I don’t want to have to bust any heads because someone accidentally sees you naked.”
She made a face. “I don’t want that either.”
They discussed going to her apartment after he got back from the run so she would be able to pack her belongings.
“That’s not enough time, though,” she pointed out. “You’re talking about two hours to pack up my life and say goodbye, to make sure people don’t worry about me. Fortunately, I had already talked to my friends about asking my dad if I could move up to Canada to live with him, so I don’t have to worry about them thinking it’s weird that I’m taking off.”
His mind spun. “I’ll take you to meet my parents, and then they can accompany you to your apartment along with a few of the shifter guards, and they can help you pack up.”
“They won’t mind?”
“We’re fated mates, sweetheart. Of course not.”
She blew out a breath and glanced at the clock. “How much time do we have before we meet your parents?”
He looked at the clock. “An hour, give or take.”
“Good.”
“Oh?” he asked, loving the sexy gleam in her eye.
“That’s just enough time to make love again. And maybe I’ll bite you.”
“Bring it on, sweetheart. I’d love to feel your teeth in my neck.”
And he did. Although she didn’t break the skin with her blunt teeth, he loved the hell out of the way it felt to be claimed by his mate. She’d practically purred as she’d bruised his throat, and he’d reveled in the claiming. Nothing had ever felt as good as Noelle’s teeth pressing into his flesh, and although the bruise would heal with his quick-healing abilities, he’d ask her to bite him again. Again and again.
Chapter 7
Noelle loved meeting Mire’s parents, Trish and Roger. They were welcoming and so excited to meet her. They were thrilled she would be staying in NPC with Mire. She also wanted her dad to know that she was staying in NPC and that they could finally be together as a family. But she was worried about him because he was still unconscious. Even while she spent time with Mire’s family, she found her thoughts drifting to her dad and hoping that he woke soon. Their family no longer consisted of just him and her; she had Mire and his parents as her new, extended family. Mire considered the other quads to be family, too, so she suddenly had seven kind-of brothers, three kind-of sisters, and a few kind-of nieces and nephews, too.
“We’d be happy to go with you to pack up,” Roger said. “We’ll need two more guards, so I’ll ask Gentry and Hall.”
“Why do we need so many people?” Noelle asked.
“Because it takes magic to go from NPC to the human cities,” Roger said. “And although you would have some magic in you because you’re part elf, it won’t be strong enough to take you to your home and then back here. Plus, you’ll have bags to bring back, and we’ll need a few extra hands to make sure the magic is strong between all of us so we can get home.”
She hummed. “I’ll need to call my friends and boss and then figure out what to do about my apartment.”
Trish smiled. “Just make sure to bring your banking information with you, and our computer experts will handle closing everything out for you. They can even arrange for whatever you leave behind to be donated to charity.”
“That’s good.”
“Well,” Mire said, “the three other fated mates have ensured that the process of moving up here is a lot smoother than it was when they moved. The last thing we want to do is draw attention to someone leaving and make it seem like a disappearance.”
“Will I ever be able to see my friends again?”
“I can take you back to visit them next Christmas if you’d like. And you’ll be given a private email and video call programs that are untraceable so you can stay in touch with them.”
That would make leaving easier for sure. She knew she was getting a lot from Mire by having him as a mate, but it would have been hard to walk away from her friends, thinking she’d never be able to contact them again. She didn’t want them to worry about her, or wonder if she’d died or been kidnapped. She could ease their minds, and that would, in turn, ease hers.
Roger glanced at the clock on the mantel and said, “About time for you to get going, isn’t it, son?”
“Yeah. I hate to leave, though.”
“But it’s important,” Noelle said. “I’ll be here when you get home, and plus, if you aren’t there, the sleigh won’t work, right?”
He chuckled. “There are other quads who could take my place for this run.”
She shook her head. “I want you to go. This is part of who you are. You can’t skip out every Christmas Eve just because we’re mates.”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m abandoning you.”
“I promise I don’t.”
He kissed her. “Then let’s go to the barn so you can watch us take off, and then you can head to your home.”
After bundling up, Noel
le and Mire headed to the main barn with his parents. Two large double doors stood on either end of the barn, and a wide, red sleigh, gleaming in the light from the lanterns hanging all around, sat near the back of the barn. A lot of men with pointed ears were running in and out of the stalls.
“I thought that men were shifters and women were elves?” she whispered as Mire led her to the stall that had a nameplate that read “Vixen,” on it.
“Males can be either elf or shifter, but females are always elves. Sorry for the confusion.”
“It’s too bad that girls can’t be shifters. It would be cool to be able to turn into an animal. What’s your favorite shift?”
“Polar bear. But without the reindeer I couldn’t help drive the sleigh, so I like him a lot, too.”
“Will you show me your fox and owl sometime?”
“You bet.”
She met the other members of the sleigh team as they came into the barn. They greeted her warmly, excited that another one of their team had found his fated mate. She looked at the harness that hung on the side of the stall, and she touched the soft leather. “You’ll be safe, right?”
“I promise.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed him. “Thank you.”
“For what, sweetheart?”
“For everything. You kidnapped me, but you brought me to my real home. Now I get you, and a family, and my dad, and I feel like I finally belong. I never fit in before.”
“I wish you’d been here years ago.”
“Me too.”
She stepped away and took the clothes that he handed to her as he stripped. Then he winked and changed into his reindeer form. She had only a heartbeat to appreciate his thick furry coat and big antlers when her ears started to burn. Then the other quads began to change, and as each one planted his hooves on the wooden floor, the pain increased in her ears, until she dropped to her knees and slapped her hands over them. Tears leaked from her eyes as the pain grew so sharp that she couldn’t do anything but cry.
