by Viola Grace
She nodded and kept working, resetting the gearing system and waiting for her moment. It took a few minutes for him to dye the stripes before he pulled the larger mass. From the blueberry scent wafting toward her, she could guess what today’s flavour was.
With his back to her, she exhaled magic into the machine and repaired the embossed rollers.
Rex called out casually. “You know, I thought you were just a good mechanic and that you couldn’t possibly be a reindeer, but here you are.”
She looked up in surprise, and his sparkling grey eyes were aimed directly at her while his body continued to work on the candy on automatic. His neck had to be twisting something awful.
Bel stared at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“It was clever, waiting until I turned my back to you and knowing that I would have to. It was hard to catch the wisp of magic used to fix that mangled roller, but it was definitely there.”
The candy was ready, and he walked over to the roller that she had fixed earlier that day. Without breaking stride, he put the stripes on the cylinder, and then, he tossed the candy into the rollers.
He now had time to grin at her, and as he watched her, his own appearance shifted.
His eyes tilted and widened, his nose flattened and his neck widened. The ears that extended up and out of his hair had grey tips.
Bel jolted. Myth and legend, even amongst the reindeer. She was looking at a wolf-fey. She remembered one of the other girls telling her that the wolf-fey would come out to get them if they dared to stray from the workshop. Apparently, that moment had come.
He was smiling, but he obviously read the panic in her eyes. “Bel, what is it?”
“They warned us that you would come for us and tear our throats out.”
“Who warned you?”
She rubbed her forehead. “When we first arrived and Ru couldn’t watch us, we had fey caretakers. Well, some of us did. Mine warned me of the wolf-fey that hunted reindeer and tore us apart. She said that if I ever tried to leave the workshop, the wolf-fey would be sent to hunt me.”
Rex moved quickly, coming around and gripping her arms. She was too surprised to move.
“Tell me her name and I will give her a taste of her own medicine when we get back.”
She blinked. “So, you were sent to get me.”
He sighed and ran his hands along her arms. The gloves he was wearing stuck to her so he peeled them off and discarded them in a bin.
“Of course. We were sent to get all of you, but not like you think. You have to come back willingly or not at all. No one can force Christmas magic. It has to be offered up willingly.”
She licked her lips. “So, you aren’t going to hurt me?”
“No. Who was your nanny?”
“Loma.”
He made a face. “Loma was a bitch. Literally. She was a beta in the workshop fey clan and eventually ended up transferred away. No one knew why, but now, I am getting some ideas. This was right after you arrived?”
She nodded. “Yes. When Ru and Santa were recruiting the others.”
“Did you know that a reindeer of Santa’s team can destroy a fey with little effort?”
Bel shook her head, swamped in the sweet scent of him. “I have never tried.”
He grinned, and she could see the sharp edge of his canines.
“Don’t start now on my account. I just wanted you to know that I know so you don’t have to hide. I have five more days to convince you to come back with me.”
She blinked. “You really mean convince and not coerce?”
“I do.”
She looked at the press and blew gently, smiling as the gears settled into place. “Fine. I will watch you make candy canes and you can start convincing.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips and then left her, gloved up again and went to work shaping the warm candy.
“Can you man the trays?”
He started to fill the first one with swift motions.
“Um, sure. You might want to put the glamour back on. You look a little feral for a candy maker.”
He chuckled. “I do this every year. Rex’s Candies has been in operation for over a decade. Before that, I was somewhere else, as someone else. The magic chooses for you, as you know.”
She looked down at herself. “I look like me.”
“Only because this is your first time in the human world.”
Bel moved into position and switched out the pans when the first was filled. There was a rack waiting, and she set it into place.
“So, the wolf-fey face...”
“Is my real face. It doesn’t change. The humans here can’t see it. The snowflake magic covers my appearance, no matter what I do to myself.”
She moved the full tray out of the way; his hands kept working.
“Wow, um, okay. Was it the snowflake that gave it away?”
He chuckled. “It let me know I was on the right track. You could have been anyone, from a customer to a delivery driver. I have been watching for you for weeks.”
She nodded. “Should I start the second copper vat?”
He grinned. “Are you willing to help?”
“Of course. I want to see that press in action.”
He nodded, “Right. The candy has to be hotter for that.”
“I know. I will just get it started. You have to do the actual work.”
She set the copper pot on the burner, loaded in the premeasured sugar and turned the flame on.
When the sugar was started, she went and switched out the pans again, leaving him one for the last of the batch.
With that done, she returned to the sugar and watched that the heat was not too high.
When she heard the snap of gloves, she knew that Rex was behind her.
“Well, it seems you have things under control here. I will wash out the last vessel and set it to dry.”
She nodded and kept an eye on the sugar. The melt was slow, but when it started to go, it seemed to all get the same idea in a rush. The crystals disappeared and the clear liquid continued to heat.
Rex walked up behind her. “Now, keep an eye on the temperature once the bubbling starts and move the paddle slowly through the sugar.”
He wrapped his arms around her and helped her move the paddle in the proper motion.
She grinned and enjoyed the moment.
He taught her how to stir, how to check and, finally, how to shift the dangerous mass to the cooling table. Working with the pallet knives was difficult, but after a little practice, she got the hang of it.
Her phone chirped, but she ignored it.
Rex chuckled. “Don’t you have to get that?”
“Nope. I am my own boss. They can leave a message and I will get back to them when I am done here. This is fun.” She grinned.
“We are making another batch of blueberry. It is surprisingly popular. So, how did you end up as a mechanic?”
“I was always mechanically inclined and born near the beginning of the industrial revolution. It was a time when new discoveries were everywhere, including my being a shapeshifter.”
She worked carefully and folded the sugar over on itself.
“How did that happen?”
She shrugged and kept working. “I don’t know. Even Santa was never able to tell us. All he said was that it was fate, that we had a purpose and only we could keep the magic of Christmas going. My family didn’t really follow Christmas, but they knew a calling when they heard one, and the horns kind of gave it away.” She chuckled. “The first time I met Ru, the horns appeared.”
“I thought she was the youngest.”
“The most recently born, but she has been with Santa the longest. She was on all our recruitments. She came to us and we changed, some for the first time, others not. When our families gave us up, they took us to the workshop. When we were all grown, we became part of the team and have been for hundreds of years n
ow.”
“I thought the team grew over time.” He corrected her grip on the knife, and she was able to flip more on the next sweep.
“It did. We didn’t all grow up at the same time. You know that time doesn’t work properly at the workshop. It is why the reindeer got so bored. It is an eternity of filing reports from the naughty-or-nice list.”
She looked to him and pointed to the mass. “I think it is ready for flavouring.”
He chuckled. “First, cut the sections to be coloured. Use either the shears or the knives.”
He helped her to separate the sections, and she mixed the colours into the hot mass, the gloves barely protected her. She could handle heat, but she didn’t know how human hands could get used to it.
The rest of the cane was a little more awkward. It wasn’t due to weight but, rather, the necessity of going up on tippy toes to reach the hook.
“Let me guess. You make all the candy canes?”
He chuckled. “The hook will lower when I leave.”
She sighed. “Okay, you finish it.”
“I will pull the candy. You are going to need to test your repair work on the crank mold. Get the colours.”
She retrieved the coloured pieces from near the fire and handed them to him, a few pulls and he had something that was more ivory and purple than anything else.
“You crank and I feed?” She bit her lip.
“Other way around. I trust you not to crush me.” He smiled, and the blueberry mass wobbled in his grasp.
She darted over to the machine and started a slow crank. The candy pressed through the molded rollers and came out the bottom, embossed with a reindeer’s head.
Rex balanced the still-hot candy, and she kept a steady, strong crank on the handle. She swept the cooling pieces away as the area under the press filled up.
They worked together for five minutes until the mound of candy was huge and the press had proved that it was completely fixed.
Rex dusted the candy with powdered sugar and cracked the small, round pieces apart. He ran his hands over them until the layer was one candy thick.
“Now, we do some packaging. If you have time.”
Bel smiled. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”
“Don’t you have to be getting to your other client?”
She shrugged. “I am due for a break, and this is more fun than napping. It is probably the sugar, but I feel energized.”
Rex laughed, and they spent the next hour packaging all the candy he had made that evening.
The fleeting kiss was lost in the banter between them, and it wasn’t until he walked her to the door with another candy cane in her grasp that she remembered it.
“Your lips have turned blue.” He grinned.
She smiled and licked her lips. “I suppose it is an inevitable side effect.”
He moved close and kissed her slowly. “That does taste good.”
She blinked and tried to be clever. “You make a good product.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t talking about the candy cane.”
She blushed hotly. “Is this part of the convincing?”
“This whole evening has been about that. The kiss was about what you tasted like.” He stroked her cheek with a slightly sticky thumb.
Her phone went off again, and she sighed. “I think that is my cue to run away.”
“I won’t chase you, Bel, but you know where I am. Come here day or night and I will be here.”
“Isn’t that a little rough on the system?”
He chuckled. “I sleep above the shop. I know your scent now. When you arrive, I will be down in moments.”
Bel nodded and swallowed. “Good to know. I will work on that. Uh, I am still sending an invoice for the press.”
He grinned. “Of course.”
Right. She turned and scampered into her truck, setting her toolkit down behind her seat. She checked her messages, and one of the calls was desperate. It seemed like a simple repair, and it was on the way home.
If she were wrong about the simplicity, a little bit of magic would soon have her in her own bed. Too bad she was going alone.
You couldn’t grow up in times past with not having a passing idea of sex. Families lived in rooms, not bedrooms. Parents cuddled together in winter under the covers. It was wasteful to heat an entire house when only one room was needed to keep everyone safe and healthy for the night. Sex happened.
The odd thing for Bel was that she hadn’t thought anything of it. It was part of life. Here, in the modern age, it was something to be alternately hidden and flaunted, but never treated as normal.
With her fascination with Rex’s body foremost in her mind, she tried to put thoughts of sex away, but Ru did say that she was supposed to pursue what made her happy. Bedding the wolf definitely belonged in that category.
It was two days before she could get back to Rex’s Candies. She was wearing normal street clothes and got in line with the rest of the patrons. Rex came out in three minutes, lifted her up, squealing and protesting, as he hauled her into the back.
The laughter that rippled behind them filled Bel’s cheeks with a solid blush.
The heavy scent of chocolate was in the air as he walked through the work area and up a set of well-hidden stairs.
“You weren’t kidding. You sleep above the shop.”
He was silent until he set her down on a chair. “Two days, Bel. You made me wait two days.”
She blinked and stifled a laugh. His fangs were out. His words were carefully enunciated. The frustration in his gaze was unmistakable.
Bel smiled and stroked his cheek. “I had to work and sleep. I came when I could.”
Rex sighed and knelt on the floor, his head between her breasts.
Bel was startled. She gently wrapped her arms around his head, running her fingers along his hair and gently stroking his ears. She murmured softly, no words, just sounds. He wrapped his arms around her hips and simply breathed her in.
He shuddered. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
There were a number of connotations she could draw from that, but she whispered, “What is?”
“Finding a mate. We get one shot at it. One woman to be ours for eternity. Wolf-fey are highly monogamous.” He shuddered again, finally looking up at her.
His pupils were flaring with magic. The snowflakes inside his grey eyes gave it away.
“How did the magic know?” She stroked his cheek again.
“It is what it is, as we are what we are. We are where we are supposed to be, as uncomfortable as it is.” He sighed.
The slight touch of her hand seemed to sooth him; he relaxed and his feral demeanour diminished a little.
She leaned in to kiss him, and he pressed her back in her chair.
Bel stroked his tongue with hers and carefully made it past the sharp teeth. His hands tightened on her hips, and he got to his feet, holding her above him as he walked across the loft to his bedroom.
She continued to kiss him, stroking his shoulders and kneading his neck. Her hands plucked at his t-shirt, and she shuddered herself. He gradually lowered her until she was on her feet, and then, he pulled her leather jacket off.
Her clothing disappeared in a swirl of magic, and she didn’t know if it was hers or his.
His clothing disappeared a moment later.
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “Oh, wow.”
His body was covered with tattoos, marks of swirling snow. It covered his shoulders, the hard furry planes of his chest and cascaded over his belly to swirl in a flurry around his groin.
She grinned. “I think it is trying to tell me something.”
She followed the spirals of silver and black down until she caressed the length of his cock and smiled. “Do the marks cover your back as well?”
He gently removed her hand from him and turned. The marks did, indeed, start at his shoulders and narrow toward his tailbo
ne. Wide spirals on his buttocks made her want to trace the pattern with her fingers, so she did.
The muscles flexed, and he shuddered. “Are you teasing me?”
“Exploring. I only have three days left before I head back to the workshop, so I am getting all the experience in that I can.”
He froze and turned at a glacial pace. He scowled. “What do you mean?”
“Going back. You know, for Christmas Eve. All of us reindeer are heading back on the twenty-third. It was part of our plan.”
“Did Santa know?” He gripped her arms and scowled.
She used magic and snapped their hair down. Two wild things above a candy shop. “I don’t know. If he didn’t know, he expected you to get us home, and you will. If he did know, he sacrificed his elves to the reindeer. Either way, I get time in the human world and the touch of a man whose voice makes me wet.”
Apparently, that was a magic word. She was lifted again and tossed lightly on the bed; the air came out of her when he thumped down on top of her.
He lifted up almost immediately, and he rubbed his lips against her neck, moving down her body and inhaling her scent as he went. He smelled like butter and chocolate today. It was a heady and delightful combination. “Fudge today?”
He parted her legs, and his scenting continued with one thigh draped on his shoulder.
He licked at her skin, and she was as wet as she had promised. His light forays of tasting broke down as he feasted on her, his tongue sliding and jabbing inside while she twisted to take him deeper.
She arched in a bow when her orgasm hit. A tiny squeak left her lungs.
Rex’s lapping slowed, but didn’t stop. She breathed heavily as the tension started to build one more time.
He muttered something against her and worked his way back up her body. He nuzzled the side of her neck, and she heard him whisper, “Even better than a kiss.”
She knew he was talking about her taste, but she kept herself from saying something snarky. With a slight adjustment to both of them, he pressed between her thighs.
Bel gasped as the length and girth filled her slowly. Rex wove a hand through her hair and held her head so the only place her gaze could go was him.
It was a bit of an effort and a snug fit, but he did fit completely and without any pain.