by R. E. Butler
She reached out and squeezed Merri’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, my dear. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you hurt?”
Merri blinked, feeling like she was staring at someone she had known her entire life. “No, I’m…fine. Have we met? You look very familiar.”
She smiled, and Merri felt warm all over, like when she would get a hug from her favorite grandma who had long since passed on. Tears sprang to Merri’s eyes.
The woman said, “Oh, my dear, it’s quite all right.” She glanced upward, and Merri swore her eyes twinkled. “I think tonight will change everything.”
“Wh–what do you mean?”
“I mean,” she said, squeezing Merri’s shoulders more firmly before letting go, “that you’ll have a good night. Whatever comes, remember that everything happens for a reason.”
Before Merri could say anything, the woman turned and disappeared into the crowd. She looked for her white cap in the sea of people, but she couldn’t find her. Turning to head back toward the hotel, Merri found herself hustled into an alley by four large men.
“Hey! Help! Let me go!” she shrieked, struggling hard against their muscular bodies and tight grips.
One of the men shushed her. “Do you want to call attention to us?”
“Yes!” she yelled, kicking the nearest man in the shin.
He grunted at the impact, and her shoe went flying, clattering across the concrete.
She opened her mouth to scream again when the four men surrounded her and time seemed to stand still for a moment. Then snowflakes swirled around them, and she felt as if she were flying without the benefit of an airplane. Cold air buffeted her skin, and her whole body felt like it was being squeezed. Nausea rolled through her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that she was dreaming.
Chapter 3
“Damn it,” Santa muttered as the sleigh hovered somewhere over the Pacific.
Rhys cracked his neck and looked around. The air was crisp, and the ocean was a darker shadow in the dark night. Next to him, Dec snorted in curiosity.
“Mrs. Claus is missing. She’s not in NPC,” Santa called.
Rhys and the other reindeer bellowed in alarm.
“I’m calling the security team to find her. She was wearing her heavy coat, and there’s a tracker in it. What in all the stars was she thinking?” Santa grumbled. A long moment later, Santa had tasked the remaining members of the security team with locating Mrs. Claus and bringing her back to NPC.
“Let’s get done quickly so I can have a chat with my wife,” Santa said. He was clearly upset that she’d gone missing, but Rhys had known her his whole life, and he didn’t think there was anything sinister about her leaving. He hoped it was as innocent as he thought it might be. She had magic and could get herself home, unless she were hurt. Which he hoped to hell she wasn’t.
He and the team pushed themselves to finish the toy delivery faster than they ever had before. All of them were anxious to find out why Mrs. Claus had left the safety of their city and gone out on her own, and most importantly, to make sure she returned home safely.
When they landed in the stables two hours later, the stable elves hurried and unhooked their harnesses from the sleigh, and each reindeer headed to his stall. When Rhys had shifted back into his human form, he grabbed his trousers and tugged them on. A shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see Max and Khramer from the security team standing in front of the stall.
He didn’t like their expressions. Guilty and worried.
“What?”
“There’s a problem,” Max said with a low voice.
“With?”
“Just come on,” Khramer urged.
Rhys shoved his feet into his boots and grabbed his shirt. He pulled on the shirt as he followed the two males from the stables and toward the unmated males’ dormitories.
Curiosity and genuine worry over what was going on prompted him to follow them closely. “Did you return Mrs. Claus? Is she safe?”
“She came back on her own, and she’s fine,” Max said.
“Why did she leave?”
“She wanted to get some candy for SC. She’s waiting for him in their home,” Khramer answered.
“Then what’s all this about?”
Khramer glanced over his shoulder as he stopped in front of Rhys’s room. There was an angry shout and the sound of something heavy hitting the other side of the door.
“What the fuck?” Rhys demanded, shoving open the door.
To his surprise, a brunette woman stood against one wall, holding a piece of broken wood in one hand, which she swung like a club. He looked around and saw his desk chair was broken, and she was using one of its legs to defend herself. Her face was streaked with tears. The red dress she wore was torn at one sleeve, and she was missing a shoe.
Herbert and Zeke, two other security team members, looked at him sheepishly.
“We made a mistake,” Herbert said.
“Take me home right now, you loons!” the woman yelled.
“What exactly did you do?” Rhys asked, not taking his eyes off the woman. He scented the air and found her to be human, but instead of warning bells going off in his mind that a human was in his bedroom, all he could think about was how beautiful she was, even in her fury.
“We followed the tracker, pulled Mrs. C into an alley, and brought her home,” Zeke said. “When we got here, it wasn’t Mrs. C, but a human woman dressed like her.”
“How could you make that mistake?”
“Mrs. C told us she put the tracker on this woman because she’s special. She told us to find you when you got back and that you’d know what to do,” Khramer said.
The security team filed toward the door.
“Wait, what?” Rhys asked.
Max shrugged. “She’s your problem now. Mrs. C said so.”
The door shut, and Rhys turned to fully face the woman. Her hand trembled as she gripped the chair leg. His beasts were rolling under his skin, anxious to get close to her.
“My name is Rhys. What’s your name?”
She blinked impossibly blue eyes at him. “Take me home.”
He glanced at the clock on his nightstand. It was just after one a.m. If she didn’t leave NPC in five hours, she’d be trapped for a year and be unable to leave. The magic of their protected city ensured that it was only open for twenty-four hours a year.
Fudging the truth slightly, he said, “I can’t right now.”
Her mouth turned down, and she stumbled backward, smacking into the wall. The chair leg clattered on the hardwood as she sank to the floor and put her head in her hands.
His beasts roared at him to comfort her as the scent of her tears filled the air. He cursed under his breath and moved slowly to her. Squatting next to her, he laid his hand on her shoulder and inspected the rip in the sleeve of her dress. His fingertips brushed her skin, and he saw a light scratch.
“How did you get hurt?” he asked softly.
She scrubbed at her face with her hands and exhaled a shaky breath. “When we got here, I pushed those guys away from me, tripped over a bucket, and scraped my shoulder on the corner of a stall.”
“Let me tend to your wound. Are you injured anywhere else?”
She met his gaze, and he felt a connection between them snap into place. He wasn’t just in the presence of a beautiful human woman – she was his fated mate. The one woman in the world made just for him. Until his friend Arian had found his fated mate, Rhys had always thought that fated mates were a legend. Shifters and elves relied on Mrs. C as a matchmaker to help them find their mates. Fated mates were special and revered. Immediately, he knew he couldn’t take her home; he’d never survive the separation.
“No,” she said.
“No, what?”
Her brow arched. “No, I’m not hurt. I’m pissed and scared.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“Oh? Do you kidnap innocent women on the streets of New York often?” Her mouth
quirked up at the corner in a wry smile, and his heart pounded.
“It’s my first kidnapping. How am I doing?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Splendid.”
He stood and offered her his hand. “I swear on my life that you’re safe here. I’m sorry that you were brought here the way you were. It must have been terrifying.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” She looked at him, her gaze traveling slowly up his legs and torso until she finally locked eyes with him. She took his hand, and electricity jolted through him. “What are you, Rhys?”
The question was simple and complicated at the same time. He knew he would be breaking a million NPC rules if he didn’t immediately take her to SC and have him wipe her memory and take her home, but there was no way in hell Rhys could do that.
“Let me show you. But first, I need to get you out of that dress.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice rose slightly.
He scented her panic. “No! Damn it.” His cheeks heated, and she started to chuckle, her panic disappearing. “I mean, you’re wearing a dress and missing a shoe. I’d like to take you outside, but it’s cold.” He moved to his dresser and pulled open the drawers until he found a warm shirt, trousers, and socks. Grabbing a pair of leather moccasins from the closet, he gave her the items and headed for the door.
Giving her some privacy, he stepped out into the hall and found Declan and Sullivan standing outside. His hand tightened on the knob as he saw their matching looks of concern and suspicion.
“We heard there was an issue in New York,” Dec said.
“I’m handling it,” Rhys answered.
Sullivan’s brow rose. “I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, but there shouldn’t be any handling of anything. She’s a human intruder, and she needs to be turned over to SC immediately. The longer she’s here, the more memories he has to wipe. That’s not good for either of them.”
Rhys bit back a snarl. “I said I’m handling it.”
Dec looked at him calculatingly. “What’s really going on?”
Guilt flashed through him at not telling his best friends more about the situation, but protectiveness for his mate quickly overshadowed those feelings.
“I’ll talk to you later. Right now, I’ve got a scared human to attend to.” Rhys opened his door and slipped inside, wanting to be in the same room as his mate and also to keep her away from the unmated males.
He knew he was acting irrationally, but he couldn’t dwell on that right now. Figuring out a way to get her to agree to stay in NPC for a year so they could get to know each other – and doing so within the next five hours – seemed like a stretch, but he was up for the challenge.
She stood next to his dresser wearing his clothes. The trousers were far too big for her, and she had gathered the waistband with one hand to hold them tighter. He was more than six feet tall, and she was probably closer to five foot four.
“You never told me what you are,” she said.
“You never told me your name,” he countered.
She hummed. “Merri Blevins.”
When she spelled her name, and explained that her parents loved the holidays, he couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll tell you what I am, after I show you where we are.”
He handed her a belt and then took two coats from his closet and helped her on with one before putting on the other. He tugged a stocking cap over her dark hair and gave her a pair of gloves. His body ran warmer than humans because of his shifter nature, so he didn’t need the extra coverings. He offered her his arm and she took it.
“It’s the strangest thing,” she said as he opened the door, thankful the hallway was empty.
“What is?”
“I’m not scared.”
His beasts blew out a collective breath. “Good.”
He walked her down the hallway toward the back stairs, bypassing the shared gathering room where he was certain at least some of his friends were hanging out. After the Christmas Eve run, the unmated males tended to go to the bar to get a drink and celebrate a good night’s work. Sometimes they hooked up with the female elves, but Rhys hadn’t been interested in random hookups in a long time. After seeing Arian and Charli together, he’d decided that he didn’t want to keep settling for no-strings-attached sex, he wanted the kind of passion that came from finding a mate. That he was being gifted with finding his soul mate made him feel blessed on an epic scale.
He paused at the door that led outside. “Are you ready, Merri?”
“Are you going to send me hurtling through space again?”
“No,” he said, chuckling. “No hurtling.”
“Then I’m ready to see what you want to show me, Rhys.”
Inhaling deeply, he pushed open the door and ushered her out into the cold darkness. He wasn’t just stepping into the cold; he was wandering right into a wealth of problems if he couldn’t convince Merri to stay in NPC with him. How the hell he was going to accomplish that in what few hours they had left, he didn’t know, but he’d damn well try his hardest.
Chapter 4
Merri winced as the frigid air bit into her skin. She was thankful for Rhys’s warm jacket and clothes. The Mrs. Claus costume would have provided zero insulation against the severe cold.
She turned her head, and Rhys wrapped his arms around her, sheltering her from the frigid wind. “Is it too much for you?” he murmured in her ear.
“Just give me a sec,” she said. Truth be told, while it was frigid, she liked the way his arms felt around her. There was something strangely comforting about this super sexy guy protecting her against the cold. She’d been terrified of what had happened to her – grabbed in the street, pushed into the alley, whizzed away to who-knew-where, and told she couldn’t be taken home.
Her gloved fingers curled into the wool coat he wore, anchoring herself more firmly to him, as if she were afraid he might disappear and she’d be stuck with the idiots who had kidnapped her. Rubbing her cheek against the soft front of his coat, she frowned at her odd thoughts. Why wasn’t she scared anymore? She was outside – she could run away screaming for help, but instead she was cuddling up to a guy who appeared to be the leader of the guys who kidnapped her.
Tilting her head, she looked up and their gazes locked. Heat simmered between them, a slow burning, all-consuming kind of heat that made her feel like going back into his room and finding out how comfy the big bed in the corner was.
Before she knew what she was doing, she’d lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. She flicked her tongue along the seam of his lips, and he parted them, touching his tongue to hers for a brief moment before he hauled her close and twisted her toward the building, pushing her gently against it. He tasted like sugar and snow. Unlocking her grip from his coat, she moved her hands to his head and ran her fingers through his dark hair. She fisted the short strands and sucked on his tongue. He groaned, and it rumbled in his chest like a growl.
Nipping her lower lip, he blinked golden eyes at her. “Mine.”
“Your eyes,” she said, her fingers tightening in his hair at the sweetly possessive word.
He eased away slightly, keeping her shielded in his arms. “It’s part of what I am.”
“Color changing eyes?”
“Among other things.”
She licked her lips, and his golden gaze tracked the movement. He grabbed her hands and squeezed. “Are you used to the cold yet?”
“I don’t know if that’s possible. I thought it was cold in New York, but it’s freaking arctic here.”
He smiled. The gold was slowly eclipsed by hazel, until his eyes were back to normal. “Beautiful,” she said.
“You are,” he said, tugging the cap down farther on her head and then taking her hand.
She blushed. “I mean your eyes.”
He glanced at her and said, “Let’s go. What I want you to see is past the buildings.”
He walked swiftly but not so fast she couldn’t keep up. The cold seeped into her, through
the coat and warm shirt and deep into her bones. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to get warm again; although asking Rhys if he’d be willing to help her warm up was very appealing.
She looked over her shoulder and saw the building they’d exited. It looked like a hotel, with white walls and roof. Buildings surrounded them, connected with cobblestone streets and sidewalks that were plowed. All the buildings were entirely white like the one they’d come from. Judging from the old-fashioned wooden signs hanging from the roofs of each building, she could see there was a cafeteria, a tavern, a doctor’s office, a post office, and a large building called The Factory.
“Is that a club?” she asked as they passed by The Factory.
“It’s a toy factory.”
She snorted. “Really?”
“Yep. My mom worked there when she was young. She specialized in porcelain dolls, but she could also make amazing teddy bears. Now she works in the commissary.”
She could hear the pride in his voice.
“What about your dad?”
“He’s a mechanic.”
“You’re a security guard, right? I heard one of the guys who took me say they had to talk to the head of security.”
“That’s me,” he said, drawing her around the corner of the toy factory toward a bridge. “I’m the head of security, partly because of what I am but also because of my other position here.”
She brushed a few snowflakes from her nose and said, “You say a lot of cryptic stuff.”
He chuckled. “Sorry. It’ll be clear in a minute.”
The bridge creaked as they walked over it; icicles that had formed on the railing cracked and shattered as they crossed. On the other side, the snow was plowed in a straight line up a small hill. Something glowed in the night sky, not the moon or the sun rising, but something else. Curiosity piqued, she followed Rhys to the top of the hill.
She opened her mouth to ask him what she was supposed to see at the top of the hill, but the view made her shut her mouth with a click. They were standing in front of a large frozen lake that was bordered by huge pine trees laden with snow. It was a beautiful scene. But beyond that was what captured her attention – the Northern Lights twinkled and moved across the sky.