Happy Howlidays: Shifters in Love Romance Collection (Shifter in Love Book 1)

by V. Vaughn

  Mona screamed. “Stop it, Elsa. Stop it, now! You’re going to get hurt!” But the elf would not be moved. She was determined to open the box and save whoever she felt struggling to survive just under the lid.

  Pushing more and more of her magic into the padlock until her arms ached and her throat was raw from reciting the spell so many times, Elsa was just about to give up when the box began to shake. The top, bottom, and sides bowed out and back in like the metal itself was taking large, heaving breaths. Then the one remaining rune, the biggest of all, rose from its place in the center of the lid to Elsa’s eye level and spun around in circles before exploding in a shower of soot and ash.

  Elsa’s Elven Light blinked out as the box gave its final shudder and the lock fell to pieces at her knees. A split second later the lid flew open with a loud boom. Taking a deep breath, the elf leaned over the high sides of the coffin and gasped. Jumping to her feet, she took three quick steps back and screamed, “Oh my Goddess! There’s a man in that box!”

  1

  “But he has a heartbeat. It’s faint but it’s there. We can’t just leave him out here to be eaten like road kill by whatever creature with fangs and claws is hungry enough to hunt.”

  “No, Elsa. Just no. We are not taking the frozen man in the box home with us. I don’t care if he has a heartbeat. I don’t care if he gets up and dances the jig.” She put her fists on her hips. “Get a grip. What if he’s a mass murderer…or on the run from the police or…”

  “Or has been trapped in this freakin’ coffin forever?” Elsa had to interrupt. Her sister was driving her nuts with all her hemming and hawing around. “Good heavens, Mona, look at him. He can barely even be considered a man. First, he’s frozen harder than a popsicle and from the looks of it has been for a really long time. Second, his hair is all long and scraggly and matted. He’s got a beard down to his chest and look,” she pointed at the left side of his chest where his cloak had fallen behind him before freezing in place. “His skin is all saggy and you can…you can…” she shuddered, “see his bones.”

  “That doesn’t mean he couldn’t just jump out of there and eat us both.”

  Putting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes, Elsa asked, “So now he’s the boogie man?” Shaking her head, she added, “Make up your mind. Either he’s a murderer or a monster.”

  “Maybe he’s both,” Mona accused from where she stood about ten yards away, unwilling to come any closer.

  Sighing and kneeling back down, Elsa put her hand in the box and touched the strange man’s hand. An electric current shot up her arm and made her heart skip a beat before landing squarely in her womb. Sensations unlike any the elf had ever felt made her tingle all over and heat rise in her cheeks.

  Bowing her head to keep Mona from seeing, Elsa cleared her throat and quickly continued arguing with her sister. “Well, I’m not leaving him out here all alone…to freeze to death.”

  “He is frozen, Elsa.” Mona stepped forward and pointed emphatically. “Look at him.”

  “I am,” Elsa mumbled to herself because she didn’t want to admit she couldn’t take her eyes off him. It didn’t matter that he looked like one of the walking dead. To her he was beautiful. She could see his aura and, although the deep dark red that said he was really, really angry was a bit intimidating, it was the strong blue of his masculinity combined with the passionate light red mixed with the royal purple hues then highlighted by the orange of his confidence with the strong foundation of rich, earthy brown all wrapped up in brilliant white that made him absolutely irresistible. His soul was calling to hers. She had to help him. There was no way she was leaving him and Mona could just pound snow if she thought otherwise.

  Hesitant to stop touching him but needing to figure out a way to get him home, Elsa pulled back her hand and in doing so just the tip of her glove touched the edge of the silver box. A loud pop filled the air as a foul-smelling smoke rose all around her. Jumping up and back, the elf barely kept her balance when Mona screeched, “Oh my goddess, look at your glove! Look at your glove!”

  Whipping her hand around, Elsa gasped as she saw scorch marks covering the tip of the bright red material protecting her fingers from the cold. “What the…?”

  “I told you! I told you!” Mona was dancing from one foot to the other and screaming to drive her point home.

  “You told me what?” Elsa asked. “You never said the box was going to attack. You said he was going to jump up and get me.” She shook her head and stepped forward. “And as you can see, he is still laying there like a block of ice.”

  “But, I…”

  “But you have done nothing but tell me what not to do and what won’t work.” Elsa huffed, so mad that she shook. “Why don’t you try being part of the solution for once. This man,” she pointed, careful not to make contact with the box again, “is special and you are being a pain in my butt!”

  The instant the words were out of her mouth, Elsa wanted nothing more than to call them back and erase the last ten seconds, but that was not going to happen and Mona had already taken two steps forward with her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.

  “He’s what, Elsa?”

  “Nothing,” the youngest elf quickly answered, turning on her heel and heading to her large pack to see what she could use to get the man in the box back to her house and in from the cold.

  “I heard what you said. You said he was special.” Mona’s voice got louder as her boots crunched through the frozen snow, heading toward Elsa.

  Unwilling to listen anymore, the little elf jumped up, spun around, and with her finger wagging at her older sister, growled, “I said he is special. I don’t know how I know but I just do.” She took a breath and kept right on going. “I can feel it here.” She laid her hand over her heart. “He is a good man who has been trapped by…Oh my Goddess! That’s it!”

  Not finishing her sentence, Elsa pulled the large thermal blanket from her pack, ran around her sister, headed straight for the box, and once there laid the blanket on the side closest to the ground. Then running back to the other side, plopped down, butt-first in the snow, lifted her feet, and put the thick rubber soles of her boots on the side. Taking a deep breath, she summoned all her strength and with one big push shoved the box onto its side, making her mystery man fall out of the coffin and onto the coverlet with a loud crack.

  Jumping to her feet, Elsa ran to the man, and using all the adrenaline racing through her body, flipped his still frozen form onto its back before landing on her bum in the snow with a loud, “Oomph!”

  Mona’s eyes were as big as saucers and her mouth had dropped open as she stood staring. Elsa enjoyed two full seconds of silence before her oldest and most opinionated sister yelled, “What on earth do you think you are doing?”

  “I’m saving him! What does it look like I’m doing?” She answered with as much exasperation as she could work up while wrapping the blanket around the man.

  “It looks like you just dumped the already frozen man onto the frozen snow. How is that saving him?” Mona asked with her usual air of superiority, which at that moment danced on Elsa’s last nerve.

  Jumping to her feet and advancing on her sister she yelled, “It’s the box, you bonehead.” She pointed behind her with such force that her feet slipped on the snow, but the little elf didn’t let that stop her, she kept right on screaming. “It’s the box that’s evil.”

  Stopping in her tracks as another thought went through her mind, Elsa spun around and headed back toward her frozen man and his silver coffin. All thoughts of fighting with her sister evaporated in light of her new belief and as she mumbled to herself, more so than her sister, she began working it all out. “Those symbols…it had to be the symbols more than the lock that held him in there. I knew they looked weird…they definitely got angry when I hit them with Elven Light.”

  Rifling through her pack, she pulled out a notebook and pen and began sketching what she could remember of the glyphs. It surprised her how many she
could recall and how evil they truly looked. Of course, Mona had to ask, “What are you doing now?”

  Sighing as she finished the last of the runes, Elsa closed her notebook, put it back in her pack, and looked up at her sister, trying to decide whether to answer her question or not. Knowing Mona would just ask again and again, Elsa responded as she went back to bundling up the frozen man with the extra green woolen beanie cap and the matching muffler knitted by her mother. It was hard dressing a man that was stiff as a board and talking at the same time, but the elf made it work. “If you must know,” she had to stop and take a breath, “I am trying to get him as warm as possible for the trip home.”

  At this point she was sweating under her snowsuit and wishing she’d asked Olivia, the middle sister of the seven, to come with her instead of Mona. At least Ollie loved a good mystery, was up for almost anything, and would’ve been more help than Miss Bossy Pants, who was already screaming her adamant disapproval at Elsa. “Oh no…no, no, no, no! Absolutely not! You are not taking him home. He is not some lost penguin…he’s a…he’s a…he’s a man!”

  “Very good, Mona, you know a man from a penguin,” Elsa retorted, too tired for anymore arguing and already dreading the mile and a half trip home. Still bundling the man up, she added, “I am taking him home, with or without your help. Poppa always says we are to help those in need and if this guy isn’t in need,” she stood and wiped the sweat from her brow and glared at her sister, “then I don’t know who is.”

  “But…but…but…what if…” Mona stammered, clearly taken back by Elsa’s conviction.

  “If if’s and but’s were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas, Mona,” the little elf countered with her mother’s favorite rhyme to combat her children’s grumbling at having to do chores. “Now, are you gonna help me get him on the sled or do I have to do that myself too?”

  Running toward their oversized toboggan, Mona squealed, “Oh no! I draw the line at using the sled. We have to use it to get the tree home.”

  Completely exasperated and more than fed up with her sister’s attitude, Elsa stalked over to the bobsled, pushed her sister’s hands off the handlebar, and growled, “I am putting him,” she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, “on the sled and taking him to the house. You can either help me or get outta my way.”

  Taking several steps back with the color draining from her face, Mona stood with a look of complete awe, opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water. Deciding to let her sister work through her acceptance of the situation, Elsa spun around and marched back to her frozen man.

  She had to smile and wondered what he would think if he could see himself all bundled up in a pink and grey plaid blanket with a bright green stocking cap complete with fuzzy ball on the top and matching muffler around his neck. Something told the elf that he would not be pleased. Even in his popsicle-form, as she had been thinking of him, he looked stoic, regal...like a warrior of some sort.

  His thick dark brows were furrowed, his lips pulled into a thin line of a frown, and his shoulders thrown back as if accepting of his fate but vowing revenge at the first opportunity. There was no doubt in Elsa’s mind this man served a greater purpose and it was her job to see to his welfare. Her sister and anyone else who chose to oppose her could just, well…they could just take a long walk off a short snow bank.

  Glancing back and forth between her sister and the sled as she maneuvered it toward her patient, Elsa asked, “Are you gonna stand there with that judgy look on your face or are you gonna help me?”

  Heaving a sigh and shaking her head, Mona started to follow. “I’m going to help but only because he is seriously the most deserving of it as anyone I’ve ever seen, but I swear if he jumps outta that box and eats us for Christmas dinner, I’m gonna haunt you for all eternity.”

  “Whatever you think is best, Mona,” Elsa snickered, then mumbled under her breath, “Knew you couldn’t resist.”

  2

  “You know Dad is gonna be mad when he gets home and sees what you’ve done?”

  “Yes, Mona.”

  “And Mom is gonna have a heart attack that we don’t have the tree?”

  “Yes, Mona.”

  “And our house is already busting at the seams. What are you gonna do with him?” She said the word like it tasted bad before adding, “He’s at least six and a half feet tall and even all skinny and gross and frozen he’s still as big as a moose.”

  “Yes, Mona.”

  “And…”

  “And if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna put him in your bed because it’s going to be empty,” Elsa interrupted with a grumble.

  “But, why would my bed be empty?” the oldest elf asked with her nose all crinkled up and her brows furrowed.

  Stopping the sled and looking directly at her sister, she said, “Cause I’m gonna leave you out here to freeze and see how you like it.”

  “Well, I never,” Mona huffed.

  “Yeah, you never shut up.” Elsa grabbed the handlebar and started pushing again, glad they were heading downhill, even if it was a tiny one.

  Pouting, Mona caught up but still refused to help push. Instead, she walked alongside the toboggan, cutting her eyes to Elsa and grumbling under her breath about ungrateful sisters and men who get themselves frozen in the arctic. Elsa thought about apologizing. She knew it wasn't Mona’s fault that she was a big pain in the butt, it was just how she was wired. It went against everything in her not to follow the rules and stick to the plan. The oldest of the O’Leary girls was a true type A personality. Her world was black and white. She did not color outside the lines or buck the system…ever.

  Elsa, on the other hand, rarely followed the rules, always came up with new and inventive ways to subvert the plan, and never, ever, ever colored inside the lines. Hell, she usually made the sky pink, the grass purple, and the people every other color under the sun. She believed variety was the spice of life and had never met a person she couldn’t talk to. To say she and Mona were complete opposites was only the tip of the iceberg. but it didn’t mean she didn’t love her big sister. It just meant she rarely listened to her and always gave her a hard time.

  The rest of the trip home was traveled in silence. Elsa never apologized and Mona turned pouting into an art form, but they finally made it to the gate and down the long lane to the two-story cottage they’d lived in their whole lives. The long, dark day was getting even darker and the candles her mom always kept in the windows were lit and shining like beacons, assuring the elves the home fires were burning and all was well.

  Of course, still pissed and licking her wounds from their argument, Mona ran into the house, left the door wide opened, and yelled, “You are not gonna believe what Elsa brought home this time.”

  “It had better not be something I have to feed. I can barely keep up with all of you. Whoever said girls don’t eat as much as boys didn’t have any,” her mother called out as she stepped into the doorway and gasped, “What in the name of the Goddess?” Carolyn stood, staring as five more faces appeared around her, all with pointed ears, wide eyes, and mouths in the shape of an ‘O.’

  “It’s a frozen man. Who was in a box and Elsa used her magic to free him then insisted on bringing him home,” Mona tattled. “Tell her she’s crazy and make her take him back, Momma.”

  “Could you be any more of a tattletale, Mona? You do know you’re two hundred years old, right?” Elsa rolled her eyes before speaking to her mother and ignoring Mona’s rebuttal. “What was I supposed to do? Leave him in that horrible coffin in the middle of nowhere when the weather is just starting to turn bitter?”

  She walked toward her mom and continued to explain, “He’s been there a long time. Locked away by evil magic.” The elf shivered just remembering it. “I had to help. There’s just something about him…” Her voice trailed off as her body, by its own volition, turned to the side so she could look at him again then whispered, “He’s special, Momma, really special.”

 
; Walking past her daughter, still silent, Carolyn along with Olivia, Penelope, and Muriel, the sisters closest to Elsa in age, stepped up to the sled and assessed the man, still quite frozen and still unmoving.

  “He has icicles on his beard,” Penelope giggled.

  Chuckling, Muriel mused, “I bet he’s kinda handsome under all that hair.”

  “He needs to eat. He’s skin and bones,” Olivia chimed in. “But I guess he has to thaw out first.”

  Ignoring her sisters while watching her mother closely, Elsa held her breath as Carolyn looked up, took a deep breath, and asked, “Are you even sure he’s still alive?”

  “Yes, ma’am, he’s got a heartbeat. It’s faint but it’s there,” Elsa quickly answered. Then added, “And it got stronger when I got him out of that cursed silver box,” and crossed her fingers inside her gloves that her mother would let him stay. Of course, instead of just saying yes, there were more questions.

  “And how do you know he’s not the one that is evil?”

  “Because, even when he was in the coffin, I could see his aura and it’s beautiful, Mom, really beautiful, like a kaleidoscope lit from within with bright white light.”

  Carolyn nodded as she shivered in the cold, wrapped the shawl she always wore tighter around her shoulders, and walked around the sled staring at the man. When she did finally speak, it was in a low tone, almost as if she was thinking out loud. “Yes, I see it and there appears to be no immediate danger but I don’t think we should let him in the house before your father gets home.”

  Elsa blew out the breath she’d been holding and snapped her mouth closed as her mother said, “But you can put him in the barn with the reindeer calves. It’s heated and only the two little ones are there until your father returns with the others.” Carolyn looked over the frames of her glasses that always seemed to sit on the end of her nose no matter how many times she pushed them up and added, “Put him in the incubator stall with the heat lamps, that should get him thawed out quickly.”