Miss Claus and The Christmas Wedding
A Shifter Christmas Romance
Book 3
J.L. Hendricks
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright (c) 2018 J.L. Hendricks
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be 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 are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.
Cover Design by Roz Marshall of Alba Covers
Edited by Candy Crum
First Edition November, 2018
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2018 J.L. Hendricks
Other Books by J.L. Hendricks
The Voodoo Dolls
Book 0: The Voodoo That You Do (Join my Newsletter to get this exclusive freebie)
Book 0.5: Magic’s Not Real
Book 1: New Orleans Magic
Book 2: Hurricane of Magic
Book 3: Council of Magic
Alpha Alien Abduction Tales Series
Book 0: Worlds Revealed (join my Newsletter to get this exclusive freebie)
Book 1: Worlds Away
Book 2: Worlds Collide
Book 2.5: Worlds Explode
Book 3: Worlds Entwined
A Shifter Christmas Romance Series
Book 0: Santa Meets Mrs. Claus
Book 1: Miss Claus and the Secret Santa
Book 2: Miss Claus under the Mistletoe
Book 3: Miss Claus and the Christmas Wedding
Book 4: TBD (November 2019)
The FBI Dragon Chronicles
Book 1: A Ritual of Fire
Book 2: A Ritual of Death
Book 3: A Ritual of Conquest
See these titles and more at https://www.jlhendricksauthor.com/
Table of Contents
Other Books by J.L. Hendricks
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Author’s Notes
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New Orleans Magic
Prologue
Chapter 1
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Chapter 1
Bella
“Well, that was weird.” I hung up the phone and looked to my twin sister, Bethany.
“What was weird?” Beth asked.
“Mom said we had to come home for summer break because they were having a Round Up?” I scrunched my nose and wondered what my mom really had planned.
Over the past few years, my parents had wanted my sister and me to experience everything we could while in college. We didn’t have to go back to Polaris, where our pack is from. We had the ability to go anywhere and do anything during our college breaks as long as we came home for Christmas and helped with the family business.
Christmas was our family business.
I don’t mean department store Christmas’s either. I mean Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, toys for all the good little boys and girls of the world kind of Christmas. My dad was the last Santa, and when it was time for him to retire, my oldest sister Lizzie, married Palo, who became the next Santa Claus.
One might wonder how that works. I don’t know everything, but I do know there is such a thing as Christmas Magic, and the magic controls the fate of Santa and his pack of Arctic Wolf shifters.
Yup, that’s right. I’m a wolf shifter.
Not the werewolf kind where someone has no control over their shift and with every full moon they wolf out uncontrollably. Nope, I’m the kind where I can choose when and where I shift and for how long. I also have complete control of who I am while in my wolf form.
I’d like to say all Arctic Wolf shifters love humanity and would do anything to protect it, but I can’t. Just like in the human world, there are bad apples in the shifter world. My family, more than most, have experienced more hatred and animosity toward us. In fact, my Uncle Kris was murdered before I was ever born because of hatred and jealousy.
Thankfully, my twin sister and I had been spared most of the violence. Off and on during our childhood there were skirmishes and other issues. It’s been smooth sailing for the past four years, and we were allowed to head down to Seattle for college. We didn’t even have to take any protectors with us, also known as Enforcers.
With only a month left of classes before summer break, my sister and I were looking through options for the summer and trying to decide what we wanted to do. I wanted to go to Europe and backpack around, checking out old castles, but she wanted to head to China and see the Great Wall and all the other major sites through the country.
I thought about my call with Mom and wasn’t too happy that our plans needed to be cancelled.
“What’s a Round Up?” Beth scrunched her nose and looked up from the travel brochures.
We were sitting in our off-campus apartment in Seattle, Washington. We were both going to be juniors in the fall at the University of Washington, the same college our other sister, Mandy, went to.
I was sitting on the faded tan couch with the built-in recliners while my sister sat in the red Lazy-Boy recliner with magazines spread out on the table next to her as well as the coffee table in front of her.
“Mom said it’s a gathering of wolves to play games and have competitions. Kind of like a choosing ceremony…”
I couldn’t finish what I was saying before my sister jumped up and all the magazines in her lap fell to the ground with a light thud.
“Nuh-uh! No way on Earth am I being forced to marry. We get to choose who we want, when we want! What now? Is there some bear shifter who’s demanding one of us?” My sister’s eyes narrowed, and she put a fist on her hip.
I put my hands in the air. “Whoa, wait just a second. It’s nothing like that all. If
you would have let me finish, I could have explained it to you already.”
Beth huffed and sat back down. “Fine, what is it?”
I couldn’t help myself, I laughed at my sister and her instant anger. She was so much like the guys in our pack, quick to anger and slow to simmer.
“Like I was saying, a Round Up is when a large group gets together for contests and games. It’s just for fun, but it’s also a great way to network and make friends. People come from all over the place to participate. I’ve heard of Native Americans doing this as well as cowboys when they do their rodeo things.” For the life of me I couldn’t understand riding an animal that wanted nothing more than to gore you with its horns or stomp you with its hooves.
Beth considered what I said for a moment before asking, “Why are we doing this? I don’t get it. You and I don’t have to find a mate, and we don’t want one yet. Why are our parents, and Santa, because I’m guessing he’s on board since he’s the Alpha of our pack, doing this?”
I scratched my head and sighed. “Palo thinks if we do these once in a while, we might have better relations with the other packs around the world, and they won’t keep trying to kill our family or steal Christmas from us. Not that they could.”
I never did figure out why the stupid European packs who wanted to steal Christmas from us thought they could. We didn’t choose to be the family, or pack, who had Santa. The magic chose our family. There was no way we could hold onto the mantle of Santa Claus if the Magic chose another pack. We also couldn’t give it away to anyone else. No one has ever been able to take the role from my pack. Sure, some have tried, but the reigning Santa always beat them.
Beth nodded. “Huh, who all’s coming?”
“That’s just it, for the first time ever, they also invited the dragon clans.” I bit my lip waiting for my sister to go ballistic.
Less than four years ago, a few wayward dragons kidnapped Mandy and tried to force her to mate with one of them. Thankfully, the dragon prince, Jax, saved my sister. Before that, we didn’t even know dragons still existed. We know about a lot of different shifter species, but we were always told the dragons died off. Turned out, they were just hiding from mankind and other shifters.
“Really? Oh! That’s going to be so exciting! This will be better than traveling to China. Just you wait and see. Some of those dragons are hot! And I don’t mean their fire. I mean their bo…”
“Beth! How can you think that way? If Mandy and Jax hadn’t fallen in love, you or I would have been forced into mating with one of them.” I shivered thinking how horrible it would be to be forced to mate with a dragon. Mandy was right when she called them demons.
Beth stood up and walked to me, then leaned over and slapped my shoulder. “How can you think that? Don’t you remember the way the dragons looked when they came for the mating ceremony? There were several of them that you and I both drooled over. Come on, it could be fun.”
My twin sister smiled and suggestively raised her eyebrows a few times. “We don’t have to mate with any of them, but we can flirt and maybe go out with a few of them while they’re in town.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, a really loud and obnoxious laugh. There may or may not have been a snort. I’m not telling.
My sister was still boy crazy.
I was more into enjoying the freedom we had as college students. Meeting all sorts of people. Most were human, but they could be a lot of fun, even if we couldn’t tell them our secret.
There was a local bear shifter pack, and they were really fun when we needed a run. I had made friends with quite a few of them.
Shaking my head, I said, “Come on, Beth. It’s time to grow up. If you go in there and flirt with all the dragons, you have no clue which one of them might hit you over the head with their club and fly you off to their cave. Their cave with no electricity!”
The dragons lived off the grid, literally.
“Who said anything about mating with them? They all know better than to be grabby after what happened with Mandy. Plus, she’s lived with them off and on for the past few years, and I’m sure she’s educated them on how to treat a wolf. Especially one from Santa’s family.” My sister sat back on her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She always was the stubborn one of the two of us.
“Well, we still have finals to get through before we have to leave. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the dragons won’t show.” I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them, which wasn’t very far considering how big they were.
Beth looked up dreamily at the ceiling and sighed. “I hope all of the single dragons show up. I want to see them shirtless.”
I chuckled and wondered what had gotten into my sister’s brain. Then I thought maybe she’d lost it with finals coming up. I know I was a bit scatter-brained from studying all day and night and hardly eating or sleeping.
Chapter 2
Bella
“Oh, look! Mom’s already here waiting for us, and so are Lizzie and Mandy!” We were taxiing to the hanger, where we disembarked, so I couldn’t jump up and down like I wanted. Even though I had seen all of them last Christmas, this summer was going to be a blast. I just knew it! Even if the dragons had to tag along.
Beth leaned over me to look out the window. “Is Mandy showing yet? I can’t wait to see how her pregnancy is going. And I can’t wait to see our nephews and niece! Can you believe Lizzie has three pups so far? I wonder how many more they’re going to have.”
“Oh, it would be nice to have another niece, wouldn’t it? Someone we can dress up and play princess with.” I turned my head to Beth and took on a more serious look. “As long as she’s not forced to mate a dragon, that is.”
My sister sighed and leaned back. “Bella, there will be no forcing of anyone to mate again. The hope is that as long as we have good relations with the dragons, and all of Santa’s descendants understand the issues, someone from our line will always fall in love with a dragon. It’s bound to happen, just you wait and see. I bet you fall in love once we graduate college and marry one of them!”
I scrunched up my face in disgust. “No way! No how! Nuh-uh. If I ever fall for a dragon, please kill me.” I shivered just thinking about having to live with a demon and touching one. No way.
“Oh, please. You just don’t like them because they don’t believe in electricity. I think lighting a cave with candles is kinda romantic. You would probably get to live close to Mandy and Jax, and since they are royalty, you would probably get a nice cave.” Beth giggled.
I pointed my finger at her. “You know, since you think it’s so romantic, why don’t you fall for one. Just wait until we graduate college. It’s important to get our degree, even if we don’t end up working in the world. We have already come up with some really great ideas to help Santa with sorting the letters, and that came from a business class we took.”
My twin sister shook her head and chuckled. “Alright, miss business lady, I promise to finish my degree with you.” She tapped her forefinger to her chin. “But you have to promise me the same. You are boy crazy, my dear sister. I know you won’t be falling for a dragon, but with all of the male wolves here, I wouldn’t be surprised if you fell for one this summer.”
The plane stopped, and Mikey, Jr. walked out of the cockpit. “Hey, girls. Are you excited to be home for the summer? I know your parents are very happy for everyone to be here. I heard your grandparents are coming, too.”
Both Beth and I squealed. “Really? I didn’t know they were coming. What about our great grandparents? I never see them anymore.”
“Yeah, I miss your great grandparents. They’re great wolves. I think they’re planning on coming for a few weeks, but their work in Siberia with the children takes all their time. Running an orphanage is a lot of work. It’s not a place where you are free to take many vacations.” Mikey, Jr. opened the door and put the stairs down for us. He stood to the side and waited for us to exit before following us down.
Most of my family
was just outside. Dad wasn’t present, but my mom, Mandy and her dragon husband Jax, Lizzie and Palo, along with their kids. It really was nice to be home and not have to worry too much about Christmas, yet. At the end of the summer the entire village begins the ramp up for Christmas season, but now, we get to have some fun.
I stopped in my tracks. Before I could even start to squeal or hug my mom, I noticed two very tall men standing behind Jax - dragons. I knew they were going to try to force us to mate with them. How could mom do this to us? Lizzie and Mandy had said they would never force us to mate with anyone. In fact, Mandy spent time getting to know Jax just in the hopes of falling for him, so we wouldn’t have to mate with dragons. Now, Lizzie tricks us into coming home just to mate us off? I wasn’t going to allow this to happen.
“NO way. Not going to happen.” I stood stiff with my arms crossed over my chest and gave both my mom and Lizzie the stink eye.
Both of them pretended to play innocent and looked at each other with their mouths open and brows furrowed.
“What are you talking about?” Mom asked.
I pointed to the two strangers. “Them. You tricked Beth and I into coming home, and you are going to force us to mate with dragons. How could you?” I felt like stomping my feet and throwing a temper tantrum like I did when I was seven years old. However, I knew that wouldn’t work. It didn’t work back then, so it wouldn’t work now.
“Darling, we would never do that. I want you to finish college. This isn’t a trick. Let me introduce you to Jax’s guards. They’re here to assist the prince in his duties, not to mate with anyone.” My mom raised one brow and pursed her lips.
Uh-oh, I was in trouble. Whenever she did that when I was growing up, it meant either no dinner that night or something was taken away from me. Mom hardly ever punished me. Dad was always the one who did it. Well, until Palo married into the family and my parents took off to help the kids in Africa. Then, my punishment was handled by Palo and Lizzie, my big sister. Beth and I could have left with Mom and Dad, but we had zero desire to move to a desert. We wanted to stay in the snow with the elves and all our friends.
Miss Claus and the Christmas Wedding (A Shifter Christmas Romance Book 3) Page 1