Dasher's Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book 2)

by R. E. Butler

  Dasher’s Fated Mate

  Arctic Shifters Book Two

  By: R. E. Butler

  Copyright R. E. Butler 2016

  Dasher’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Two)

  By R. E. Butler

  License Notes

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Cover by Dammonzza

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

  * * *

  Editing by Jennifer Moormaan

  * * *

  Many thanks to Joyce & Shelley for their help.

  Much love to Aunt B. L. and B. B.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Contact the Author

  Other Works by R. E. Butler

  Coming Soon in the Arctic Shifters Series

  Dasher’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Two)

  By R. E. Butler

  When Mrs. Claus sneaks away from the North Pole on Christmas Eve, Santa sends out a security team to bring her home before dawn on Christmas Day. The team follows the tracking beacon in Mrs. Claus’s coat to downtown New York City, finding her in the crowded streets of the human city. They hustle her into an alley and use magic to take her home to North Pole City.

  Merri Blevins has had a rough night. Not only was her adorable elf costume unavailable at the costume store, forcing her to take a Mrs. Claus costume, but she’s late for a Christmas Eve party in New York City. It’s cold, it’s crowded, it’s late, and a crazy woman dressed just like Merri bumps into her and nearly sends her toppling into the gutter. Could her night get any worse?

  When Rhys is called by the security team to return to his bedroom after the Christmas Eve run because of a problem with Mrs. Claus, he realizes immediately that the woman wearing the traditional red dress is not Mrs. Claus but his fated mate. She’s human. She’s pissed. And he has to take her back to her human world before dawn or she’ll be trapped in North Pole City for a year.

  Can Rhys convince her to give him a chance to prove his worth as a mate, or will Merri demand she be taken home immediately? Only Santa knows what the future will bring.

  Chapter 1

  Rhys, lead reindeer and head of North Pole Security, shoved the shower curtain aside and grabbed the towel hanging on the hook. After rubbing his short hair a few times, he wrapped the towel around his waist and walked across the tile floor of the shared bathroom to the sinks.

  “Ready for tonight?” Declan, his second-in-command and the Dancer position on the sleigh team, asked as he glided a razor across his jaw.

  Rhys, the Dasher position on the team, nodded as he unzipped the leather case holding his toiletries. “Yeah. You?”

  “Sure,” Dec said.

  Something about the way the male was staring at Rhys made him turn away from the mirror to stare at his friend.

  “What’s up?”

  “I don’t know. I feel like something is going to happen tonight.” Dec ran his razor under the thin stream of water from the faucet and returned the blade to his cheek where he finished removing the shaving cream.

  “Of course something is going to happen tonight. It’s Christmas Eve.”

  Dec splashed water on his face and dried it with a towel. “No, I mean, I feel like something else is coming. You know what happened two years ago.”

  Rhys knew exactly what Dec was talking about. Two years earlier, the newest addition to the sleigh team – Arian, who became the Blitzen position – had fallen from the sleigh when his harness broke and plummeted to the ground. He could have died, but instead he’d woken up in the arms of his fated mate. Arian had opted to stay with his human mate, Charli, but the following year they had come back to North Pole City to live, along with their beautiful baby girl, Hope.

  Rhys shook his head. “No one is falling from the sleigh this year. We’ve taken the necessary precautions to ensure that each team member is safe.”

  Dec snorted. “You know I’m not talking about that. I just have a feeling that things are going to change again.”

  Sullivan, the Prancer position, opened the bathroom door. “SC just sent a message to the team. Everyone’s to report to the stables as soon as possible.”

  “Why?” Rhys asked.

  “He’s got an announcement,” he said and stepped away from the door, letting it close.

  “Interesting,” Dec said. “Wonder what’s up?”

  Rhys quickly lathered his face with shaving cream. “Doesn’t matter. The boss has called and we’ve gotta answer.”

  “I’ll see you there,” Dec said, grabbing his toiletry bag and heading out of the bathroom, leaving Rhys alone.

  As Rhys quickly shaved, he thought about what Dec had said. He could admit that he hadn’t slept well the previous night. He had been a member of the sleigh team for twelve years, so he knew he wasn’t nervous about the upcoming flight. He’d woken up in his room feeling unsettled, so he’d meandered in his favorite shifted form – the polar bear – but hadn’t felt any better. Usually, when he felt off, going out in his shifted form helped center him, but it had done little to calm the strange nervous energy coursing through him. That Dec, one of the more serious males on the team, was also feeling like something was going to happen tonight made Rhys wonder about SC’s announcement and whether life around NPC might be changing. Finishing shaving with a few more swipes of the blade, he rinsed off, grabbed his bag, and headed to his room.

  The unmated males shared a dormitory in North Pole City. The sleigh team all lived on one floor of the dorms, and each male had a large room with a shared bathroom and living area. As Rhys dressed in trousers and a shirt, he wondered if Mrs. C had decided it was his time to be given a mate. Males in NPC had to wait for Mrs. C to choose their mates for them. Although not as magical as her husband, Mrs. C had a special magic all her own, which allowed her to match up unmated males and females in NPC. There were more males than females in the hidden city. Shifters were always males, but the elves could be male or female. Mrs. C would use her magic to bring together a male and female. If it was his time to be given a mate, maybe that was why his beasts were feeling unsettled. Maybe they had an animal instinct about what the night would bring that Rhys wasn’t privy to.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” he said to himself as he opened his door and stepped out into the hall.

  “Yo, wait up!” Jack, the Donner position, called.

  Rhys waited while Jack jogged to catch up to him.

  “Any idea what the announcement is?” Jack asked.

  “Nope.”

  Jack hummed. “Something’s in the air tonight.”

  “You too? Dec said the same thing earlier.”

  “It’s Christmas Eve.”

  “And?”

  With a shrug, Jack said, “Interesting things
happen on Christmas Eve.”

  * * *

  Mrs. Claus’s heart was pounding a mile a minute, but she did her best to appear calm. She had a plan, and timing was of the utmost importance. Her husband was preparing for his annual trip around the world, so he was distracted, but he did have a sixth sense about things, and she didn’t want to tip him off that she was up to anything. Truly, it wasn’t bad. She wasn’t trying to escape from North Pole City, but she wanted to get a gift for her husband on her own. She could have easily asked one of the workers in the toy department to secure the gift for her, but this year she wanted to do it personally.

  Her husband, who did so much and asked for so little, loved the dark chocolate truffles from a chocolate shop in New York City. A Little Bit of Heaven stayed open until two a.m. on Christmas morning. After her husband and the sleigh team left for the night, she would use her magic to travel to the city where she could buy a box of the truffles for him.

  Once upon a time, she and her husband had traveled to New York City at dawn on Christmas Eve. Their magic allowed them to leave North Pole City for twenty-four hours every year. After dawn on Christmas Day, NPC was closed to all except Santa, who was powerful enough to come and go as he pleased. It was her plan tonight to leave and get back before anyone knew she was gone.

  She stood next to her husband while he made his announcement to the sleigh team – that the first mated member of the sleigh team, Arian, who was the Blitzen position, and his human mate, Charli, were expecting their second child. Mrs. Claus focused on calming her nerves and following their normal routine. She followed Santa to the sleigh and told him not to eat too many cookies, and then he made a veiled sexual reference to her about presents, and she rolled her eyes and blushed. She was almost one thousand years old, but he could still make her blush.

  When the sleigh was gone and the stable hands were busy cleaning up, she hurried outside and disappeared into the woods, drawing her thick coat around her. Keeping the address of the shop in mind, she let her magic take her away in a gust of glittering snowflakes.

  Chapter 2

  “You’re coming tonight, right?” Dell, Merri Blevin’s co-worker, asked as he leaned over the top of her cubicle wall.

  “Yep. I’ve got to pick up my costume first and then I’ll head up. I’m excited. I’ve never been to New York City before,” Merri said.

  “My wife got us matching gingerbread kid outfits,” he said, chuckling.

  “Aw. I’m sure you’ll look so sweet together.”

  Merri’s company hosted an annual Christmas costume party. Normally, it was held at a local hall, but the company had a great year, so the executives decided to treat everyone to a night out in the city. Along with a fancy catered meal, and a live band complete with dance floor, all employees were being given a night in the hotel as well, which was something that most of them were willing to make the long trip for. As a Jersey girl, Merri was well aware of her northern neighbors, but she’d never ventured into New York, let alone the city.

  “What are you going as?” Dell asked, taking a drink from a bright red coffee cup plastered with an image of Santa.

  “An elf. Pointy shoes and everything.”

  “Jingle bells?”

  “Of course!”

  He laughed. “If you want to ride up with us, let me know. There’s plenty of room in the SUV.”

  “Thanks, but I’m going to drive myself. It’s about time I took a drive to the most amazing city in the world.”

  “See you tonight.”

  He patted the top of the cubicle wall and walked away. Glancing at the clock, she realized she needed to get going or the costume shop would be closed. After printing out the directions to the hotel where the party was being held, she slipped on her jacket, grabbed her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk, and hurried out of the building.

  Her phone buzzed after she pulled out of the parking lot, and she answered with her hands-free system.

  “We’re getting ready to board the plane. I just wanted to check in with you,” her mom said after Merri answered.

  “I’m on the way to pick up my costume for the party now.”

  “Send me a picture in your costume. Are you excited?”

  “Well, as excited as a person can be going to a costume party without a date.”

  Her mom clucked. “You’re a beautiful girl, Merri. You’ll meet your Mr. Right.”

  “Maybe I’ll ask Santa for him,” she quipped.

  “That’s one option. You could also ask your dad to set you up with one of the lawyers from his firm. There are some very handsome fellows.”

  “Mom,” Merri said, making a face, “don’t say that kind of stuff and absolutely do not ask Dad to set me up with anyone.”

  There was a pause and she said, “Are you sure you don’t want to come on our cruise? Your dad can pay for a ticket for you for tomorrow, and you can meet us at the first stop on the cruise in Florida.”

  “It’s okay, really, Mom. You two deserve a nice vacation, and I absolutely am not interested in being on a boat for two weeks, no matter how pretty and tropical the destinations are.”

  “I don’t know where you got your love of cold weather from, but it certainly wasn’t from me.”

  “Maybe because you named me Merri?”

  “I spelled it differently.”

  “Barely. I’m at the costume shop, so I need to run in before they close. Give Dad my love, and have a safe trip.”

  “Be careful up in the city, honey. Love you.”

  Ending the call, she turned off the car, shouldered her purse, and headed into the small costume shop in the strip mall. After waiting for two other customers to pick up their costumes, she stepped up to the counter and said, “Merri Blevins. I’m here to pick up my elf costume.”

  The woman behind the counter wore a Santa hat with blinking red lights on it. She said, “I’ll be right back.”

  While the employee was gone for several minutes, Merri looked around the shop and saw a lot of Mrs. Claus costumes, several reindeer costumes that required two people, and one huge sparkling paper-covered box with cutouts for head, arms, and legs. She snorted, thankful she’d planned ahead and placed a costume on hold.

  “I’m really sorry, Miss Blevins,” the woman said as she came back to the front counter, “but your costume was given away already.”

  “What? But I reserved it weeks ago.”

  She shrugged. “We hired some temps to help with the holiday rush, and one of them gave it to another customer without realizing it had been reserved. I’m very sorry. I can offer you one of our remaining costumes for half price.”

  Merri looked around the shop in dismay. The elf costume had been adorable – a short green dress with a wide black belt, green and white striped tights, and cute pointy shoes with jingle bells. She couldn’t go to the party without a costume, and she knew any place else she went would also be as picked clean as this shop was.

  “I guess the Mrs. Claus costume,” she said.

  The woman moved to the wall and took one of the costumes down after she asked for Merri’s size. Merri paid for the rental while the woman put the costume and accessories into a large paper sack and handed it across the counter to her. “Have fun at your party.”

  “Thanks,” Merri said, then headed out to her car. She opened her car door and dropped the sack onto the passenger seat as she sat down and tried not to dwell on how disappointed she was. When she got home, she showered quickly and pulled on the costume.

  The red velvet gown came to her ankles and had wide white lace on the collar and cuffs, with a frilly white apron that matched the cap that had fake white curly hair attached to it. Grimacing, she braided her long, dark brown hair and pinned it to her head before slipping the cap over it. Picking up the tiny, wire-rimmed glasses, she tossed them to the bathroom counter and stared at herself critically in the wide mirror over the sink.

  “I wish it was a sexy Mrs. Claus costume,” she said with a sigh. A s
hort red dress, some thigh-high stockings – now that would be cute. But seeing as how she had a three-hour drive ahead of her and no other options, she decided to just go with it.

  Lifting her phone into the air, she took a selfie and sent the picture to her mom with the caption – No elf for me this year. Maybe my Mr. Right will be dressed as Santa and it will be a match made at Christmas.

  * * *

  Four hours later, Merri couldn’t even get near the hotel because of the heavy traffic. She pulled into a parking garage four blocks from the hotel, knowing it would cost her a small fortune. She would come back after the party and get her overnight bag for her stay in the hotel. Since she was already late to the party, she’d pay for the parking instead of delaying her arrival any longer. If she waited too long, she’d never make it at all, and then it would be a completely wasted evening.

  From the multi-level parking garage, she took the elevator down to the street and looked for the hotel, which she could see in the distance. Snow had started to fall, and she clutched her coat around herself tighter and held her hat on top of her head to keep it from blowing off in the stiff wind. People rushed around her, pushing and shoving to get to where they were going faster. She had only four blocks to go, but because of the crowds, it felt like it was taking an eternity.

  Someone bumped Merri hard, spinning her around and almost sending her tumbling to the street. After righting herself, she turned to see who had so rudely bumped into her and found herself staring at a woman dressed almost exactly like her. There was something mesmerizing about the woman who looked like Mrs. Claus. Her eyes were pale blue and her white-blonde hair was curled around the white ruffled cap she wore.