by R. E. Butler
Prancer’s Fated Mate
Arctic Shifters Book Three
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2016 R. E. Butler
Prancer’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Three)
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 Damonza
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.
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Editing by Jennifer Moorman
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Many thanks to my best sisterfriend Joyce, who loves Christmas more than anyone I know.
Thanks to Shelley for her help, my amazing Street Team, the Wild Shifter Babes, for their support & love, and to my Aunt BL and BB who I love dearly.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Contact the Author
Other Works by R. E. Butler
Coming Next in the Arctic Shifter Series
Prancer’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Three)
By R. E. Butler
Kerri’s excited to be able to help plan the wedding of her sister’s friend. Decorating her sister’s middle-of-nowhere cabin and taking some R&R after finally finishing cooking school is exactly what she needs before she starts her job hunt. Unable to sleep, Kerri heads out into the woods before dawn on Christmas Eve to cut pine boughs to decorate the fireplace mantel. It’s cold and dark, but Kerri finds herself enjoying the early morning walk in the woods. Until an unwanted guest in the form of an enormous polar bear intrudes on her quiet morning.
At dawn on Christmas Eve, Sullivan, an arctic shifter, goes with two members of the NPC security team to scout out the location for a close friend’s wedding. Deciding he’s a better hunter in his shifted form, he chooses the polar bear, his favorite of his four shifts. Heading into the woods that surround the cabin, he follows the scent of something amazing and comes face-to-face with a beautiful woman who watches him shift back into his human form and promptly passes out.
When Kerri awakens, she feels immediately connected to a man she’s pretty sure she saw change forms from bear to human. She can’t explain why she feels drawn to him, but he can. He’s a quad shifter, part of Santa’s sleigh team, and she’s his fated mate. For a human who never realized that shifters, or Santa, were real, Kerri has to make a choice…fast. Either she’s waiting when Sullivan gets back from the Christmas Eve run, or he’ll leave her behind. Will Sullivan get his Christmas wish for Kerri to accept being his mate and join him in the North Pole, or will this be a blue Christmas for everyone?
Chapter 1
Sullivan took a drink of beer and smiled at the scene before him. Merri, the human fated mate of Rhys, one of his best friends, was seated in a chair in the center of Santa’s living room, surrounded by gifts. Sullivan had grown up with Rhys and the other members of SC’s sleigh team. As quads – arctic shifters with the ability to shift into four different animals – they were unique in North Pole City. There were other shifters in NPC, but only quads could take on the all-important fourth shift of the reindeer. His favorite shift was the polar bear, but he did enjoy flying high in the sky as a snowy owl, or tearing through the forest as an arctic fox.
Rhys and Merri had met through an unexpected encounter involving Mrs. Claus and a case of mistaken identity the previous Christmas Eve. Merri had opted to leave her old life behind in the human world and join Rhys in NPC, which was a magically protected secret city where elves and shifters lived and worked, helping Santa deliver toys to children all over the world.
Merri tore off the glittery white wrapping paper covering a large box, which was a gift from Arian and his human fated mate, Charli. They’d been together since his sleigh harness had broken during flight and he’d fallen into the woods outside of Charli’s cabin.
Merri lifted out a quilt.
“Oh, it’s beautiful! Did you make this Charli?”
“Yes! Arian’s mom taught me how. The pattern is called wedding ring.”
“It’s so lovely, thank you!”
At that moment, RJ, Merri and Rhys’s infant son, cried out sharply. “Someone misses his momma,” Rhys’s mother, Flora, said as she walked into the room with the little boy.
Merri took him, and he settled immediately, snuggling against her throat with a yawn. Watching them made Sullivan’s chest hurt. His friend had a beautiful mate and a son. In a few days, they were heading to the human world for Merri and Rhys’s wedding, which was taking place at Charli’s cabin.
As Merri helped Rhys open the rest of their gifts with her free hand, Sullivan thought that maybe this was his year. His beasts had been antsy lately, an emotion he couldn’t really attribute to anything in particular. He knew he could ask Mrs. C to mate-match him. There were no female shifters in NPC, but there were female elves. Along with her immortality, Mrs. C’s magic allowed her to make perfect matches between shifters and elves.
But he pushed the idea from his mind. Although many of the eligible female elves were attractive and friendly, he didn’t want to be matched up with magic. He wanted what Rhys and Arian had – a fated mate. The one female in the world who was perfect for him, brought to him through fate.
“I think this is going to be an interesting Christmas,” Mire, the Vixen reindeer position, said as he swiveled back and forth lazily on the stool.
“Oh? What makes you say that?” Sullivan asked, his beasts sitting up in curiosity.
Mire shrugged. “I just feel like maybe this Christmas one of us will be lucky enough to find his fated mate.”
Declan, the Dancer reindeer position, lifted his bottle of beer and said, “Anything’s possible. It’s Christmas, after all.”
The three males clinked their beer bottles together and then turned their attention back to the party. In a few days, it would be Christmas Eve and they’d be heading to the cabin at dawn for a Christmas Eve morning wedding. Maybe Mire was right and there would be mate magic in the air on Friday morning.
Sullivan sure hoped so.
Chapter 2
Kerri hummed a Christmas tune as she parked behind her sister’s cabin and turned off the engine. Several months ago, Charli had asked if Kerri would help plan a Christmas Eve morning wedding for a friend named Merri. Kerri had spent many hours on the phone with Merri’s mom, Roseanne, talking about the wedding. It made her wish she was getting married. Unfortunately, unlike her sister, Kerri was painfully single.
She lifted the box of electric candles from the front seat and opened her car door, bracing herself against the frigid winter air. It took only a moment to let herself inside the cabin, which felt just about as cold as it did outside. There was a gas generator, but it was only running at the bare minimum to keep the water pipes from freezing. After setting the candles d
own on a work table at the back door, she hurried out to her car and retrieved a gas can, which she used to add more fuel to the generator. Her sister had hired a local company to keep an eye on the cabin for her, and they tended the yard and ensured the generator wouldn’t run out of gas. Kerri wasn’t sure why Charli hadn’t just sold the cabin, because she’d moved away with her husband and their daughter and only came back to visit on Christmas Eve.
She carried in her bags and turned on the lights. The whole place needed a good dusting, which was why Kerri had decided to show up three days early. No bride wanted to get married with dust bunnies as her Maids of Honor.
After starting a fire in the beautiful brick fireplace, Kerri finished bringing in the rest of the decorations and food. Merri and Kerri had Skyped a few times, and she’d asked Kerri to keep things simple. There were only seventeen people attending the wedding, including Kerri, so it was a small, intimate affair. Someday, Kerri hoped to have a similar type of wedding with the man of her dreams. She just hoped that he’d show up sooner rather than later. She felt like her life was passing before her eyes, even though she knew it really wasn’t. It just felt like that sometimes.
Turning in a slow circle in the center of the family room, she decided to move the furniture first, and then she’d clean. With nothing to distract her, she knew she’d be able to finish in no time.
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Six hours later, when all the family room furniture was in the spare bedroom that had once belonged to her niece, Hope, she surveyed the freshly scrubbed hardwood floor and wiped her brow. Her cell phone rang, and she tugged it from her pocket.
“Hi, Roseanne. How are you?”
“I’m well. I just checked with the florist, and everything is all set for pickup tomorrow afternoon. We should be there by seven a.m. on Friday. Merri wants the ceremony to start at eight thirty.”
“It’ll be beautiful. I got here earlier today and just finished cleaning. I’m going to grab a bite to eat and start decorating.”
“I appreciate you doing so much! I wish we could be there now to help.”
“I don’t mind a bit.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do. Have a safe trip.”
After hanging up, Kerri rinsed off the cleaning tools and hung them in the laundry room, and then she made something to eat. Although she could cook many wonderful and amazing dishes thanks to her culinary degree, she often preferred the simplest of foods for herself. Like a good old-fashioned peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich, with the crusts cut off.
Her mother had often made the sandwich for her, letting their family dog, Baxter, eat the crusts. Kerri and Charli were teenagers when their parents died in a car accident; the girls had gone to live with their aunt, who had gladly taken them in and loved them dearly. She had passed away several years ago, leaving a large sum of money for the girls to split. Charli had bought the cabin so she could focus on her romance writing, and Kerri had opted to go to culinary school. Kerri and Charli had always been close, and even though they Skyped once a week, Kerri had been feeling less and less connected to Charli ever since she and her family moved to Canada for Arian’s job. Kerri supposed she was feeling like her sister was moving on with her life, while she was spinning her wheels. With her schooling complete, she could find the perfect job somewhere, and then she could maybe get started on the next chapter of her life – having a family of her own.
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The night before Christmas Eve, which she supposed she would call Christmas Eve Eve, Kerri tossed and turned in bed. She didn’t know why she couldn’t get to sleep, but no matter how often she changed positions, adjusted the blankets, or ordered herself to go to sleep, it eluded her. It wasn’t because she had tasks to do for the wedding – everything was ready. All the food was prepared for the brunch, the family room was decorated, there was plenty of wood for the fireplace, and she’d even taken a broom to the front porch to sweep off the freshly fallen snow.
Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was nearly dawn. She couldn’t believe that she spent most of the night not sleeping. But there wasn’t time for any sleep now. Charli had told her that they’d arrive after dawn, the women first and then the men so the bride and groom didn’t catch sight of each other before their nuptials. In two hours, the house would start to fill up.
“Maybe I can sleep later,” she said, sitting up and stretching out the kink in her neck. “Have to be in bed early tonight in case Santa shows up.”
Chuckling to herself, she got out of bed and then smoothed the handmade quilt on top that had been their aunt’s. After starting the coffee pot in the kitchen, she showered and then dried her long, dark hair. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she thought about how similar she and Charli looked, from their hair color to their petite build. But where they differed was in the eyes – Charli’s were brown and Kerri’s were green. When her hair and makeup were done, she slipped on a robe and fixed a light breakfast for herself of cereal and toast, and then she cleaned up the kitchen. Afterward, she loaded up the wood in the fireplace and set it ablaze, then went to get dressed.
After slipping into her sleeveless, forest green dress that flared at the hips and flattered her curvy figure, she added a string of her aunt’s pearls and put on enough makeup to cover the dark circles under her eyes. After checking her reflection in the mirror, she cleaned up the bathroom and then went to turn on all the electric candles in the family room, which flickered on every surface.
The room looked beautiful. Folding chairs, decorated with white lace and red ribbons, lined both sides of an aisle runner of white fabric. A live Christmas tree sat next to the fireplace, decorated with red ribbons, strings of crystals and pearls, and glittering snowflakes, complete with a beautiful gold angel on top.
She tilted her head as she stared at the mantel. She’d arranged several candles on the stretch of polished wood, but it felt incomplete. Checking her watch, she saw she had a half hour until dawn, which was plenty of time to cut a few pine boughs and decorate the mantel. The additional greenery was just what the room needed to look perfect.
Stuffing her feet into her boots, she wrapped up in her long winter coat and scarf, and donned her gloves. She found a limb cutter in the laundry room with the other outdoor tools and stepped onto the back porch. The sun had not yet risen, but after flicking on the porch light and grabbing a flashlight from a hook at the door, she knew she’d be fine. It wasn’t like anything dangerous was in the woods.
She was pretty sure.
Stepping off the porch before she decided it was a bad idea, she let the flashlight beam bob ahead of her as she moved into the woods. She looked for a pine tree with low branches that were thin enough so she could cut the boughs easily.
Whistling “Santa Baby,” she looked up and saw a bright star in the dark sky just above where she stood. “A Christmas star? Cool.” Closing her eyes, she made a wish. If she were smart, she would have wished for the perfect job, but the romantic in her decided to wish that Santa would bring her Mr. Right.
“If only Santa brought people, I’d be in heaven,” she said with a chuckle, returning her attention to the woods.
Chapter 3
Sullivan looked at himself in the mirror hanging over the dresser in his room. It was nearly dawn, and he had to be outside of the barracks in less than ten minutes so he, Declan, and Mire could check the woods surrounding the cabin. It wasn’t that they thought there would be anything bad in the woods, but a large group was following thirty minutes later, and it wouldn’t do to have a human wandering around in the woods when they arrived. Although supernatural occurrences went mostly unseen by humans, there were people who were more sensitive to the supernatural and might see them. It was best not to take chances.
After adjusting his tie, he slipped on his suit jacket and tugged down his cuffs. There was a knock at the door, and he opened it.
“Ready?” Declan asked.
“Yep.”
S
ullivan shut his bedroom door and walked down the hall with Declan. All the unmated males lived in a large dormitory that they referred to as the barracks. The sleigh team lived on one floor and shared a bathroom. Now there were only six of them who were unmated. Arian and Rhys both had private cabins in NPC.
Mire was waiting for them at a door that led outside. “Two minutes,” he said, glancing at his watch.
Sullivan yawned.
“Tired, man?” Declan asked.
“I didn’t sleep well last night. I kept feeling like I needed to be somewhere, and my beasts were going crazy in my head.”
“That’s weird,” Mire said.
“I always feel a little keyed up the night before the Christmas Eve run,” Declan said.
Sullivan could recall many years where he would have said the same thing; sometimes he’d even taken a run in his shift to let out some nervous energy, but he just didn’t feel as though this situation was the same.
Mire’s watch beeped, and the three stepped out into the frigid arctic air. The magic of NPC was only opened for an all-too-brief twenty-four hours. Once dawn on Christmas Day had passed, no one could leave or return to NPC except Santa, who was the only one whose magic was strong enough to bring him home at any time.
The three males pressed their shoulders together as they stood in a tight circle, and they thought about the cabin in the woods. In a heartbeat – as brief as a flash of light – they were hurtling through space, leaving the North Pole and landing in the front yard of Charli’s home. All supernatural creatures in NPC had the ability to teleport, but only SC and Mrs. C could do it alone; everyone else needed to travel in groups of three or more.