The Reindeer's St. Patrick's Surprise

by E A Price

  He tossed it to the ground and grabbed his phone as he rolled his shoulders. He had enjoyed the run, letting free as his beast was always satisfying. He just wished he didn’t have to go back to his human life now. Particularly given the message that had just popped up on his phone.

  It was from Corinne, simply stating, ‘We were happy once. We can be happy again.’

  He dropped his phone onto his pile of clothes – lest he wanted to crush that in a fit of rage too. He needed another run.

  No, he wouldn’t be happy with Corinne, and not just because of what happened eight years ago. He was starting to believe he couldn’t be happy living without Tempest.

  Twenty

  Temp smiled as Candace oohed and ahhed as she opened another gift. It was a first edition book and Candace either loved it or she was an excellent actress.

  It was Candace’s surprise bridal shower. Candace had blushed and demurred that she was too old for one, but her friends wouldn’t hear of it. Temp was invited to come by Candace’s matron of honor. Given that it was being thrown by a woman in her late fifties – a judge no less – the tone of the bridal shower was classy, with finger sandwiches and petit fours, books and ornaments as gifts and polite conversation. The last bridal shower Temp attended was thrown by Heather for her older sister, so it involved noxious cocktails, male strippers, edible panties as gifts and lots of screaming. Temp preferred Candace’s shower.

  Temp filled up her plate with more tiny sandwiches and cakes – Candace’s friend hired a divine caterer and Temp was taking full advantage of it.

  It had been two days since the disastrous coffee date with Eric and Harlan. She hadn’t heard anything more from Harlan, though Mira kept her up to date with Branch’s lack of progress negotiating with the other herd’s alpha. Her private investigator friend didn’t have any news yet either.

  Eric had been in contact. He was actually very receptive to giving her his sperm. Jeez, he was actually all for giving it to her that very day! He told her it was time to put down roots, time to settle down and stop sowing his wild oats. Temp wanted to point out that he had until recently been married – and most people considered that settling down – but she decided to keep quiet. She suspected he thought there was a chance they were going to get together again, even though she had adamantly told him they wouldn’t.

  “Temp,” said Candace approaching her. “You don’t seem happy to be here.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Temp quickly, “I am, I…”

  Candace put a hand on her arm. “Whatever it is, just say it,” she said entreatingly.

  Other than her own turmoil, she couldn’t deny she still had a number of misgivings about her dad’s upcoming nuptials.

  Temp sighed. She couldn’t lie to Candace – the woman was too nice. “Please don’t hate me for this, but I just don’t know how I can look you in the eye when I know my dad is just going to let you down, and probably cheat on you and dump you.”

  Rather than outraged, Candace actually looked quite relieved. Apparently what she said wasn’t quite as bad as her imaginings.

  “Temp, you don’t know that for certain.”

  “He’s done it to his last four wives! Plus countless girlfriends. He’s my dad, and yeah, I love him, but I also care about you too.”

  Candace beamed in pleasure. “Thank you, I care for you too. But I’m not walking into this marriage blind. I know about his history, but I think he is worth the risk.”

  Temp shook her head. “His past…”

  “Isn’t perfect – nobody’s is, but I’m just hoping for the best. Isn’t that all we can do?”

  Temp gave her a weak smile and a second later Candace was called away to unwrap more gifts. Yeah, maybe that was true. Though, Temp never really had any hope for any of her relationships. She’d considered them doomed from the very start, and yeah, they had been, but maybe that was partly due to her. Maybe if she had a little courage, maybe if she tried harder, then maybe it could work it.

  *

  Harlan strode into his brother’s office. His brother snarled at him to knock first, and Harlan ignored him completely as usual.

  Branch gave him a hard look – he wasn’t sure his brother owned any other looks where he was concerned.

  “I have a meeting with the Crowe alpha – Davies - in ten minutes, and no, you’re not coming.”

  “Negotiations going well?” quipped Harlan.

  Branch let out a warning growl. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes. He was never really in the mood for jokes, but this growl said that he really, really, really was not in the mood for jokes.

  Harlan heard that Davies wasn’t budging below seventy-five percent of their company. The Crowe alpha was an idiot, but he was a stubborn idiot, and even he could see that he currently held all of the cards. All of the deck really at that moment in time.

  “Don’t go,” said Harlan.

  Branch snorted at him. “Right, because pissing him off is going to make this easier.”

  “Don’t go,” he repeated and inwardly growled at his reindeer to hush his objections. “I’ll mate Corinne.”

  His brother stared at him and softened slightly. “Harlan…”

  “You and I both know this is the only feasible choice. We’ve both known it from the start. You don’t have to ask me to do it. You don’t have to sacrifice me – I’m willing to do this.”

  Now he just had to persuade his inner reindeer to be willing too, because the willful beast sure as hell didn’t want to mate her.

  Branch shook his head. “I’m willing to continue negotiations.”

  “The bastard will never go as low as we’re willing to pay. He’d rather take this to the council of shifters than give up a chance of a fortune.”

  Harlan believed that the Crowe alpha was sure Branch wouldn’t make him marry Corinne. The Crowe alpha was probably cackling in glee at the thought of all the riches coming his way – greedy asshole probably had a Scrooge McDuck fantasy of diving into a room full of coins. To find out that Harlan was agreeing to the mating would probably piss him off no end – Harlan would allow Branch the delight of getting to tell him. It would be a small compensation for having Corinne in their family.

  Branch walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you really serious about this?”

  “Why not?”

  He had no idea what being mated to Corinne would be like. But the woman he wanted didn’t want him, so the least he could do was save his herd.

  Branch sighed. “If you’re sure, but… you have to be the one to tell Mom.”

  Uh-oh. As bad as marriage could be to Corinne, he suspected the hardest part might just be telling his mom. The word apeshit sprang to mind.

  Twenty-One

  “Hey! Je suis… ah, back! I’m back!”

  Heather burst through the door to Temp’s office. Temp barely flickered an eye – she knew Heather was coming home today so she had spent the day in a state of preparedness for one of Heather’s entrances. Marion on the other hand nearly leaped through the roof.

  Temp patted her hand apologetically. “You get used to her.”

  Marion nodded though she gave Heather a doubtful look. Heather beamed at her and pulled something out of her bag.

  “Here, have some cheese.”

  Marion took it in surprise. “Oh, ah…”

  “That’s real French cheese.”

  “You smuggled cheese from France?” asked Temp with mock disapproval.

  “Only because I thought the authentic French baguettes would go stale before I made it back. Don’t worry, I wrapped my socks around the cheeses so they wouldn’t get bruised or anything.”

  “Oh good, as if cheese isn’t stinky enough,” chuckled Temp, feeling happier than she had in days. Heather had a crazy way of making her laugh and making everything seem a little less bleak.

  Heather stuck out her tongue. Marion shrugged and left with her cheese. Hopefully, she knew to just throw it out. After a plane ride from Pa
ris, it wasn’t going to be great.

  “Here,” said Heather, handing Temp an envelope. “A courier outside gave me this for you.”

  “Thanks.” Temp took it and started ripping it open. “How was the trip?”

  “Not bad, lots of meetings, but I did manage a little taste of the Paris nightlife.”

  “What about the Eiffel Tower? Or the museums? Did you see the Mona Lisa?”

  Heather blinked at her. “Those are in Paris?”

  Temp giggled, but as soon as she saw the contents of the envelope, she stopped. They were her divorce papers.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Heather, scooting around her desk. She let out a long whistle. “I take it things are over.”

  “It was never really on,” admitted Temp as she scanned the document. It seemed pretty straight forward, but then, she’d never read one before.

  “Shame. You two were really cute when you were smooching it up on St. Patrick’s Day.”

  “Sure.”

  “You were! When I last saw you two, you were trying to guess this redheaded guy’s name, except every guess you made was Seamus. Turned out he was called Leslie. He got really pissed because you were annoying him and Harlan got in his face for upsetting you.”

  Temp started blushing as the memory returned. Not one of the strangest things they did that night.

  “Maybe we had fun but…”

  “Holy cow! Look at all those zeroes!”

  Temp stared in stunned disbelief at the settlement amount he wanted to give her. “Why would he give me money in the divorce? There’s no need, we… we weren’t really married.”

  It was stipulated that the money was hers to do with as she chose.

  “I really don’t know why he would do this.”

  Heather gave her a smug, knowing look. “Seems like you made an impression.”

  Apparently so. She couldn’t accept it… could she?

  *

  “You’re serious?” grumbled the Crowe alpha, echoing Branch’s words. He couldn’t believe Harlan wanted to mate Corinne either. Harlan was having a little trouble coming to terms with it as well.

  The Crowe alpha didn’t look pleased, but Corinne was beaming at him. Perhaps she thought it meant he still loved her. Perhaps unlike her alpha, she thought this was the better option for her herd. If the Crowe alpha got his hands on their business, he’d drive it into the ground within a matter of years. This way, she had her foot in the door and perhaps thought she could sway them into giving members of her herd jobs, and other things. Perhaps she imagined this was the more fruitful option. Whatever her reasons, she looked as pleased as punch.

  The Crowe alpha was almost whining, and Branch growled, hushing him.

  “We will have to arrange for the mating to take place,” said Branch gruffly.

  The other alpha nodded – he was almost as unhappy as Branch about the whole thing.

  “Yes,” agreed Corinne, twinkling at Harlan, “as soon as possible.”

  Harlan didn’t say a word. He really had nothing to say.

  Twenty-Two

  Temp was reading through the divorce papers for the sixteenth time when Candace called.

  “Hey, Candace, what…”

  “Is your father there?” she asked breathlessly.

  Temp paused. “No, should he be?”

  “No, I suppose not,” she said quietly.

  All too familiar alarm bells started ringing. “What happened?”

  “It might be nothing…”

  Temp doubted that and had to bite her lip to stop herself from saying something spiteful about her dad.

  “We were having breakfast together yesterday, and he came over all funny and ran off. Now I can’t get hold of him.”

  That seemed strange and sudden even for him.

  “Did anything happen at breakfast? Anything out of the ordinary?”

  Candace blew out a breath. “I don’t know; I think I said something about how we’ll be eating breakfast together for the rest of our lives and he went all funny.”

  “Okay, I’ll try and find him.”

  “Thank you,” breathed Candace in relief.

  Temp just hoped she could. She dropped the divorce papers on her desk and was almost out the door when she turned back and grabbed the information her private detective friend had given her. After she talked to her dad, she needed to do something with that too.

  *

  “Hey, there’s my best girl,” slurred her dad. He looked at her with a dazed expression; one of his eyes didn’t seem to be able to open.

  Temp took the stool next to him. “Don’t call me that.”

  He wasn’t hard to find. Whenever he was happy, he went to his club. Whenever he was sad, he went to his club. Whenever he was depressed, he went to his club. Apparently, the combination of golf, a steam room and a well-stocked bar with a bartender who knew every cocktail known to man was an irresistible mix no matter what emotion he was dealing with.

  Her dad frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong?” she muttered incredulously. “You’re supposed to be getting married to someone who actually seems like she’ll make you happy, and you’re here, ignoring her calls and trying to drink yourself into a stupor.”

  “Tempy…”

  “And don’t call me your best girl.”

  That really did surprise him. “Why not?”

  “Because it doesn’t mean anything!” exploded Temp, channeling twenty-two years worth of resentment. “You say it to all your wives, to all your girlfriends – to the girl at the freaking frozen yogurt stand – it doesn’t mean anything!”

  “It’s a term of endearment,” he protested weakly.

  “No, it’s what you say to whoever is basking in the sun of your love at the time. After mom left, for a while that was me, but then you found Glinda, and then it was her. Then you found Leah. Then you found…”

  “Where is all this coming from?” he interrupted – which was probably a good thing as there were a lot of names on that list. “You’ve never told me you were unhappy before.”

  “No, because I was at boarding school, and then college – you never saw me, and then I became an adult, and that was that.”

  Her dad huffed unhappily. “I have always loved you and provided for you, I have always been generous.”

  “With money, yes, but I wanted you – I wanted a father to keep his promises. I needed you.”

  He damn near pouted at that. “I was upset after your mother left.”

  Temp nearly throttled him right then and there. “So was I! Do you know how hard it is to know that your mother didn’t want you? That she just left to start a new family? I felt like I wasn’t enough. But then you sent me away too, and I just… I just got used to being on my own.”

  And then she didn’t really trust anyone when they said they loved her because she was sure they would let her down or leave her. That was why she was so dead set on having a baby on her own. Not because she couldn’t find the right guy, but because she actively hadn’t wanted to.

  Her dad looked crestfallen, never for one second imagining that his daughter might have been unhappy. “Tempy, I… I’m sorry.”

  She sighed and dialed back her fury. Getting angry over the past was pointless – she couldn’t change what happened to her, but she wasn’t about to let him hurt Candace.

  “Dad, I love you. I do. Though if you don’t go through with this wedding, you are putting that love in serious jeopardy.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Why not?”

  He gave her a vulnerable, brittle look. “What if Candace leaves me?”

  Temp placed her hand over his. After all this time, he was still hurting from her mother leaving. Still too scared to really be with anyone else. It made her resent him a little less.

  “I can’t promise she won’t, but it’s a risk you’re going to have to take.”

  All these marriages. He’d found women he wasn’t likely to fall he
ad over heels in love with and so whenever the relationships ended he hadn’t minded too much, but now, he’d found one, and he was terrified. She knew the feeling.

  He gripped her hand and gave her a watery smile. “Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?”

  “I can’t remember...”

  “I am. I always brag to my friends about my wonderful daughter, and her charity and the way you’re always trying to make everyone’s life better. My selfless little Tempest.”

  Temp shook her head dismissively and quickly changed the subject.

  “Candace is wonderful,” she said encouragingly. “You really have to give her a chance. Don’t focus on all the bad things that may happen. Focus on the wonderful things that can.”

  Her dad nodded. “Good advice.”

  Maybe it was advice she should start taking herself.

  Twenty-Three

  Harlan stared out of his office window. Perhaps this was a view he should learn to love. After he mated with Corinne, he imagined that throwing himself into work might be the way to go.

  Someone knocked on his door. Harlan yelled at them to bugger off, and naturally, the door opened anyway. He was about to snarl at them when the sweetest scent hit his nostrils.

  “Tempest?”

  He turned and found his dark-haired temptress hovering by the door.

  “I’m sorry, the guard on the front desk let me by. He told me where to find you.”

  Slowly, he rose to his feet, unbelieving it really was her. He had been dreaming about her non-stop – maybe it was another illusion. But she certainly smelled real.

  Could it be she was there for him? His heart beat erratically, but as his eyes dipped and spotted the envelope in her hands, the truth hit him square in the chest with the subtly of a bulldozer. She brought him the divorce papers in person. How kind of her.

  “I have something for you,” she said almost breathlessly, “but first…”

  “I’m not changing the terms of the divorce,” he growled stomping over to his drinks cabinet.

  Stocking the cabinet had been one of his assistant’s first tasks. He assumed that in the weeks, months and years to come he would need plenty of alcohol ready to hand.