What the Sleigh?

by Mina Carter

  Darrick’s face broke into a broad grin. “The ass end? I’d pay to see you in a reindeer suit.”

  She flipped him the bird and carried on talking. “No, I mean I am an actual reindeer. You wanted to know what kind of shifter I am. I’m a were-reindeer. Direct from the North Pole.”

  His eyes widened, the blue orbs filled with surprise, then the corners of his lips twitched as he made the connection. “So…Rudi…”

  “Yeah, yeah… My grandfather was Rudolph. No, my nose does not glow.”

  She turned back to Iliona, one finger held up to stop Darrick talking. “So, which Claus elf are we taking? Rhod?”

  She hoped it was Rhod. At least then Darrick wouldn’t be sniping at him all the freaking time like he would Cole.

  “Actually no, we have a new Claus that just arrived.” A knock at the door made Iliona pause to call out, “Come in.”

  Rudi closed her eyes as the door was pushed open and steps announced a new arrival. A new Claus. No, it couldn’t be.

  “Hello, Rudi.”

  Chapter Two

  Rudi was just as beautiful as he remembered. Barely daring to take a breath, Nick Claus stood by the door and watched the woman of his dreams, the one he’d let walk away five years ago, stiffen as she recognized his voice.

  He could only see her back, but his eyes devoured her. Took in the graceful arc of her neck, his lips curving at the messy braid her hair was always in. He remembered the silk of her hair brushing his skin… on the heels of the memory, a hundred, no a thousand, crowded in.

  It had been five years since he’d seen her and she still took his breath away.

  “Nick.” She nodded but didn’t turn around, her shoulders tense. The set of her body screamed loud and clear wild horses wouldn’t make her turn around.

  “What’s he doing here?”

  She fixed the woman in front of her with a hard look and the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Nick winced in sympathy. Rudi had a glare which could cut a person to the bone and gave zero fucks about who she leveled it on.

  The guy in the seat next to Rudi had no issues turning around to look at him. Tall, broad-shouldered, and in head to toe leather, his dark hair shimmered with blue highlights. Nick kept the curl of his lip under control. Pixie. Distantly related to elves, the two species couldn’t stand one another. But the hostility in his gaze went beyond a species dislike. It seemed more…personal.

  The pixie turned back to Rudi, his expression hard and his voice when he spoke harder, “This him?”

  She nodded, the movement almost imperceptible, but her attention was all on Iliona. Nick froze, his gaze leveled on the other guy. This him? He didn’t need it spelled out for him. Rudi had told this…pixie about them. His eyes narrowed as he looked between the two of them. Were they a couple? His lip started to curl. Was she sleeping with a fucking pixie?

  “He’s going to be helping us on this mission,” the woman behind the desk folded her hands, gaze level on Rudi. Nick had to give it to her, she didn’t flinch or back down from the reindeer’s wrath. She didn’t blink, not even at Rudi’s sharp intake of breath and the wind whipping loose strands of her hair around her face, a sure sign she was losing control over her shift.

  “No.” Rudi’s answer snapped through the air. She stood, so quickly that her legs slammed back into the chair and sent it toppling backward. “Cole or Rhod. Not him.”

  “Rudi, please.”

  Nick took a step forward, only for the pixie to shoot to his feet and block his path. Anger shot through him like a chain reaction until every inch of his body was on fire.

  “I don’t think she wants to talk to you, buddy,” the pixie rumbled, his expression calm and neutral but his eyes brimming with malevolence. Nick’s fists itched as he bunched them. Oh, yeah, this guy was just asking for it.

  Rudi didn’t make any indication she’d heard him, stepping forward to plant her hands on Iliona’s desk. “Not him.”

  Iliona tilted her head, eyes narrowing for a second as she studied Rudi’s face. Nick couldn’t see her expression, but he could guess it wasn’t good.

  “He’s the only one we have free at the moment. Rhod and Cole are assigned to operations covering other malls in the city.”

  “So assign us to one of them then.”

  Frustration threaded through Rudi’s voice, the catch in it telling Nick she was close to lashing out…or crying. Not because she was upset, but because she was overwhelmed. A fond smile wanted to curve his lips, but it was overruled by the need to hold her tight and ease her mood. Fuck it, who was he kidding? He just wanted to hold her again. He’d lost five years, all because of a fucking stupid mistake and his pride.

  Iliona flicked him a little glance, almost imperceptible but Nick caught it. Guilt twinged in the center of his chest. She couldn’t assign Rudi to one of the other teams. The PPA didn’t have enough Claus elves to cover all the possible hit locations for this Grotto Gang, not without him and the elves he’d brought down from the Pole, and he’d made having Rudi on his team a condition of his help.

  Did he nod to get her out of the bind? Did he hell. Unwilling to give up his one advantage, he folded his arms and eyeballed the pixie. If the guy wanted to throw down and dirty here, then he was up for it. Asshole needed to learn respect for the Claus and Nick was just the Santa to teach him some.

  “I need you on this one, Rudi… You and Darrick,” she nodded toward the pixie. “You’re the toughest team we have and I need you on the primary target. I don’t want to risk putting anyone else in there.”

  Ooh, excellent move. Mentally, Nick congratulated the woman. Appealing to Rudi’s pride and sense of duty was exactly the right way to handle her.

  “No.” Rudi’s answer was short, sharp and completely took Nick by surprise. But not as much as her next words did. “Get someone else. I quit.”

  Turning around, she stomped from the room, leaving the three of them looking shocked. Even the pixie looked stunned.

  “Fuck!” Iliona burst out. “I didn’t expect her to resign.” Her expression furious, she caught his gaze. “Right, sunshine. I don’t care what happened or what you did to piss her off so much, but I am not losing one of my best operatives for you.”

  “I’ll talk to her.”

  Darrick started forward, but Nick stopped him with a hard hand on his shoulder. “No. This is my problem to deal with.”

  “The fuck you will!” The pixie snarled, already winding his fist back.

  “Darrick, you lay one hand on him and I’ll assign you to Rat’s team. Don’t you think I won’t.”

  The pixie froze, color draining from his skin. Interesting. Whoever this Rat was, he scared the shit out of pixies.

  “Nick. Go.” Iliona nodded toward the door. “You have five minutes. If she’s not back on board by then, you and your team pack up and ship out. We’ll deal with this some other way.”

  He nodded and turned to the door. Five minutes was all he needed.

  ***

  “Lying, cheating, asshole fucking Santa!” Rudi burst out as soon as she reached the relative sanctuary of the alley out back of the building. It was empty at the moment. No one to see her mini-breakdown. Thankfully.

  Turning in a circle, she looked for something to hit and ran a shaking hand through her hair. The movement yanked strands free from the braid and she hissed in temper. Fucking typical. Even her hair was ganging up on her today.

  “Arrrgh!” She slammed her fist into the service door and felt the wood crack beneath her blow. Or maybe it was her knuckles… She wriggled her fingers and gasped as pain lanced through her hand.

  “Fucking son of a bitch!”

  Her hand hurt like a motherfucker. Definitely a busted knuckle. With a sigh, she put her hand flat on the broken door, waiting for her deer to heal the damage. It did, grumbling all the time. Bitch was a pain in the ass at times. But at least it was focused on the pain rather than on the man back in that office. The poor thing had barely survi
ved what Nick had done to them last time…she wouldn’t risk breaking its heart again. Never again.

  Just the thought of him opened the floodgates and she gasped. Nick was here. Why? She closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against the wood. Everything washed up to almost overwhelm her, leaving her clinging by a thread. She focused on her breathing. In and out. In and out. She would get through this. She always did.

  How had he found her? She’d been so careful to disappear altogether. And when the North Pole was involved, disappearing was nigh on impossible. Naughty or nice: everyone was on one list or the other. Even those in government protection programs had files. No one was untraceable from the Pole’s magic. Unless you’d been brought up in the heart of the magic and knew how to hide from it….

  She did. A part of the magic since the day she was born, she knew how to conceal herself from it. Knew all the little tricks the Pole didn’t want anyone to know. To do that, though, she’d had to completely cut herself off from everyone and everything she’d known. Friends, family…the deer on her team. Start totally fresh. It had been a no-brainer though. She couldn’t bear to stay and see the pity in their eyes when they looked at her. As they watched her, talking behind her back as her perfect life fell apart.

  How could she have faced them? How could she have told them Nick hadn’t loved her enough to keep it in his pants? Admitted she hadn’t been enough to satisfy him and he’d had to turn to that bitch Ginger Snaps, to get what she couldn’t give him?

  Hot tears welled in her eyes and she dashed them away with the back of her hand in anger. She hadn’t faced them. She’d run like a coward and hidden away. The guilt almost choked her. She should have stayed. Been strong enough to look the cheating son of a bitch in the eye and walk past him with her head held high.

  In the last long five years, she’d learned regret hurt almost as much as a broken heart. More in fact. She’d long ago stopped asking why he’d done what he’d done. Some people were just assholes.

  The door opened behind her. She stiffened as she sensed a familiar presence. His presence.

  “Rudi?”

  His deep voice filled the alley, teasing her senses. Of course, he’d followed her. Why wouldn’t he? He had to have gone to some trouble to leave the pole this close to Christmas and what for… To play cops and robbers with an armed gang? No, Nick Claus never did anything without a reason.

  “Which asshole tipped you off?” She didn’t look at him, but she did lift her head from the door. She refused to show weakness to anyone. Especially him. “Rhod or Cole?”

  “Neither.”

  His steps drew closer until she felt him just behind her. Without thinking, she took a deep breath in. Cinnamon and spice filled her nostrils, with an undertone of citrus and pure man. A pang of longing hit her hard. His scent was as familiar to her as her own. It was as unmistakable as the man himself. Nicholas Claus the 3rd; the heir to Christmas and Santa’s actual grandson.

  She turned her head a little but kept her eyes closed. She couldn’t look at him. Not yet. She needed just a moment to gather her defenses.

  “Then who?”

  “Rhod’s wife. But it’s not her fault. She was talking about the PPA, described you…as soon as she said your name I knew.”

  “Fuck!” She kicked the door. “I knew I should have left as soon as Rhod arrived.”

  The air moved behind her and she spun on her heel. Batting his hand away before it could land on her shoulder, she fixed him with a glare could enough to freeze hell over. “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me,” she spat, backing up when she realized how close he was.

  He didn’t move, blocking her view of the alley with his broad shoulders. He was just how she remembered him. Tall and muscled, with the looks of a decadent rock star, he was as far from the archetype of Santa as it was possible to get. But he was Santa. The Christmas magic in her recognized the same in him and reached out in yearning. For him, for everything he stood for. For everything she’d lost.

  “Rudi, please…let me explain.” His eyes were tinged with heart-breaking sadness, holding her immobile as he took a step forward. She stiffened and her heart sped up. The need to push him away hammered through her with each beat but she couldn’t.

  “I don’t want to know.” The only thing she could move was her mouth, so she employed it. “I don’t want anything from you. Now get the hell out of my way, I have packing to do.”

  “You’re really going to do this then?” he asked, lifting a hand again as though to touch her shoulder. She blocked him with her forearm against his wrist, but try as she might she couldn’t knock his hand away. They froze in place like some kind of mime show. “You’re really going to let your pride get in the way of helping people?”

  “Bastard.” Her lip curled back as she hurled the insult. “Don’t you dare… My pride? You think I have any fucking pride left after what you did?”

  Pain darkened his eyes, but he didn’t move. “Rudi, I’m sorry. If I could go back and change it all, I would. I swear.”

  Anger surged through her at his words, allowing her to knock his hand away finally. “Sorry? Is that it?” She felt tears sparkle in her eyes, hot and heavy. “No excuses, no ‘it was an accident’?”

  He held her gaze steadily, moving closer until she was corralled in the corner, his body between her and freedom.

  “There are no excuses for what happened, for what I did. You found me with another woman in our bed, how can that be an accident?” He reached up, ignoring her flinch away to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “All I can say is I’m so so sorry. I love you, I always have, and these last five years have been hell without you.”

  Slowly he leaned down until his lips just brushed hers. “Please don’t let my mistake change the person you are. Please don’t let me stop you helping people.”

  Then he leaned down to kiss her and she was lost.

  His lips brushed hers with the softest of pressures. It was the merest brush of skin on skin, but it held her in place even though all her muscles bunched to push him away. She couldn’t though, her body frozen in place. He did it again, caressing her lips with soft, hesitant touches which seduced her into staying still.

  Her whispered moan escaped before she could stop it. Not her fault. It had been five long years since she’d kissed anyone. Kissed him. Memory aiding and abetting his seduction, clouding her reason.

  Hands cupping her neck, he moved closer. His lean, hard body pressed into her, her curves the perfect complement to his sculpted muscle. The kiss deepened, his tongue brushing the closed seam of her lips. It wasn’t a demand, instead it was a soft request. One accompanied by the gentle brush of his thumb against the side of her neck. Then against the soft spot just under her ear, the one that made her knees weak.

  Whimpering, she parted her lips to let him in. He knew her better than she did herself, knew how to play her body and her responses, and she couldn’t remember why she shouldn’t let him. Heat and desire filled her, effervescent pleasure sparkling through her veins like the bubbles in fine champagne.

  He cradled her in his hands and tilted her head so he could plunder her mouth. His kiss blew her away, scattering every thought process as he slid his tongue deep to taste her. Teased and stroked and touched until she couldn’t remember which way was up. Her world was dominated by him. His talented mouth, and sinful lips. His touch, his taste…the little rumble he always made in the back of his throat when he was aroused.

  Had Ginger liked that rumble as much as she always had?

  The thought was like a dash of cold water in the face. Rudi snatched her lips from his, turning her head to break the kiss.

  “Nick, no.” Her protests were weak, even to her ears. He didn’t stop, kissing the corner of her mouth and along her jaw instead. When he nuzzled under her ear, her knees weakened, her hands clutching at his shoulders for support. She couldn’t…

  “Please—”

  “She said no, asshole.” A rough voice br
oke through the sensual haze surrounding her and the next second Nick was ripped away from her. The sound of fist on flesh was like a gunshot in the silence of the alley.

  She gasped at the sudden lack of contact, swaying on her feet only to be propped up by Darrick’s arm. He stood protectively in front of her, his leather clad body tensed for action as he glared at the Christmas elf sprawled on the ground in front of them.

  Nick wiped blood from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand and flicked a glance up at Darrick. If looks could kill Darrick would have been stretched out cold and unmoving on the dirt beneath their feet.

  “You’ve a good right hook, Pixie, I’ll give you that.” His voice was dangerously quiet and he flipped to his feet in a movement worthy of any martial arts movie, stalking toward Darrick with murder in his eyes. “Now it’s my turn.”

  “Yeah? Bring it on, asshole.” Darrick, never one to back down from a fight, snarled. “No one hurts my girl without answering to me.”

  “No! Stop it, both of you!”

  In a heartbeat, Rudi slid under Darrick’s outstretched arm and got between the two of them. Darrick was a good fighter, yeah, but Nick was something else. Before they’d taken on the magic of Christmas, the northern elves had been a warrior race. One which fought polar bears for fun. With the sort of magic Nick could pull, he’d end Darrick in a heartbeat.

  “Get out of the way, Rudi,” Nick snarled and kept coming. “This is between him and me.”

  “No!” She planted a hand in the middle of Nick’s broad chest, her back against Darrick. “No more fighting. I won’t have either of you hurt because of me.”

  “Oh, I won’t get hurt. He will.” Nick grinned nastily and pulled her hand out of the way. She slammed the other into his chest to stop him.

  “Yeah? You and who’s army?” Darrick was just as bad, snarling back. She had to side step and literally body slam him against the wall to stop him going after Nick.

  “STOP IT!” she bellowed, the sound loud in the alley, startling them into silence. They might both be male and bigger than her, but she had the power of her deer backing her up. “Behave, or I’ll knock you both on your asses.”