Miss Claus Under The Mistletoe

by J. L. Hendricks

  “We are going to have it here. The last weekend of November. I still want to stay and help the Kringle’s get ready for Christmas. Dad, you would love some of the traditions they have. It’s really a lot of fun. And, I’ve made a lot of friends here. I think it would be much easier to have our ceremony here.” Jax stared his father down.

  I had heard it wasn’t smart to stare down a dragon who was older than you were. Jax must have really wanted this if he was challenging his dad.

  “After Christmas you both will be come back to the cave and our clan? For good?” The king asked.

  “We haven’t really spoken about our plans yet. I only asked her earlier tonight.”

  “You do realize you are my heir and as such are expected to live with our clan and assist me with keeping all of the other clans in line, right? Your mate would be expected to attend events with you.” Erol looked from Jax to me.

  “Your highness, if you could give us a few minutes to talk, I think I have an idea.” I knew I’d have to live most of the year with the dragons.

  “Of course. I’ll go speak with your parents and see what they think about all of this.” Erol stood and left the kitchen.

  “I want to keep coming back to help with Christmas preparations. Would it be possible to live most of the year with your clan and then spend three months here? Your father and any other dragons who were interested would be welcome. The more the merrier is our motto around here, as I’m sure you’ve seen.” Biting my lip I worried we wouldn’t be able to do this and I would lose out on Christmas.

  “That is exactly what I want, too. Will you be fine living in a cave? It’s not exactly like Maker’s Rock, but it isn’t like this house, either. We do have rooms and running water, so it’s not totally primitive. Although, some dragons do prefer caves like yours.” Jax shrugged and waited for my response.

  “Yes. I think it would be the best of both worlds. I can’t believe we are doing this! Even my wolf is excited! She can’t stop howling inside. I’m going to need to go for a run soon and let her out. Care to join once we tell everyone what we want?” I still needed to find out what happened to Alexandru, but it could wait until tomorrow. I didn’t want him to spoil my perfect night.

  “I would love to go for a run with your wolf. It’s probably a good idea to have my dragon and your wolf spend some fun time together.” My future mate stood up and offered me his hand. I knew I was going to want to hold his hand for the rest of my days. I only hoped I had at least a hundred years with him.

  “Together?” I asked.

  Jax kissed my hand. “Together.”

  We walked into the living room where Erol and my dad were discussing the merits of where we should live.

  “Hi! We’ve come to an agreement.” I yelled over the loudness in the room.

  “Mandy, tell Erol you have to stay here so you can help your sister prepare for Christmas.” My mom said.

  “Jax, tell the Kringles your mate and you must live with our clan since you are the prince and being groomed to take over one day.” Erol stated.

  “Mandy and I discussed this and we have a solution you all will have to accept. We will spend nine months of the year with my clan and the last three here, helping Santa prepare for Christmas. Of course, if we are needed we can always travel to see someone. Just expect for the foreseeable future we will move back and forth between the two locations.” Jax informed everyone of our plans.

  He stood tall and looked everyone in the eyes when he told them. He wasn’t going to brook any disagreement. This was our lives, not theirs.

  “Can we come visit you?” My mom asked.

  “Of course, mom. You are all invited to visit whenever you want. And Kind Erol, you are always welcome here. In fact, I would love it if you would stay here the rest of this year and experience Christmas with us.” Smiling, I walked over and hugged the father of my future mate.

  “What happens when you start having hatchlings? They shouldn’t travel their first few months.” Erol stated.

  “We will have to think about it all when the time comes. For now, this is what we want.” I knew I needed to be strong and tell everyone what I wanted and what I expected. No fear, and no backing down. I was going to be a princess and future queen, if I lived a very long life.

  “I think I can work with this.” The king responded.

  “So can we.” Santa added.

  “Good, then let’s enjoy the rest of this night for tomorrow we have a mating ceremony to plan!” I couldn’t think of a time when I was so happy or confident about my future.

  “Mandy, I’m going to do everything I can to make you happy for as long as you live. I hope you know that.” Jax kissed my temple before hugging me tight against his chest.

  “And no more dropping from the sky! I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.” My mate rested his chin on the top of my head and I knew my life was going to be more than I could have ever hoped for.

  “I promise, next time I will let you rescue me.” I knew he would, too.

  Epilogue

  Mandy

  The next day I discovered the dozen dragons flying toward Alexandru and I were there to protect me. Once Jax had me, they swooped in on Alexandru and forced him to a remote mountain where they locked him up. I wasn’t going to have to worry about that monster for a very long time.

  Our wedding plans came along as well as could be expected with my family. Lizzie wanted to do things her way and Erol insisted all of the dragons in his clan as well as the leaders of all clans attend our ceremony. It turned into the largest bonding ceremony our pack had ever put on.

  A shifter bonding ceremony isn’t like a human wedding. It’s more like a pledge between our human forms and our natural forms to love each other and agree we all wanted to bond together.

  On the morning of my ceremony I wasn’t even nervous. I knew this was what I wanted. Jax and I dressed up in our best clothes. He had a black suit and red tie. I wore a red dress. It was one of the compromises I made. When dragons mated the female was to wear a dress the color of the clan’s official colors.

  Since Jax was wearing a red tie, I wore a red dress. It was a long gown with long sleeves and puffed out like a wedding dress, but it didn’t have a train or all of the lace and beading most wedding dresses had.

  “Are you ready?” Jax asked as he took my arm.

  “Yes, my love.” I smiled up at him ready for the rest of our lives.

  Jax led me down the long aisle. On either side of us were all of our friends and families. Once we made it down the aisle together Santa and the king were waiting for us. It was always the alpha who performed the ceremony. Since we were going to be members of both Santa’s pack and the king’s clan, both were presiding.

  Santa started the ceremony. “Welcome family and friends. We have all joined together to witness the promise between Prince Jaxton Rurik and Amanda Kringle.”

  Palo continued with the human portion of the ceremony.

  When it was time for our natural forms to come out Erol took over when Jax and I shifted. Everyone else stayed in their human forms, but us.

  When we had both promised to love and protect each other Erol also brought out a crown and crowned me as Princess Mandy Rurik. I had to take Jax’s last name since I would be their future queen. I was okay with it. Most female shifters never changed their last name. But most weren’t the crowned princess of a dragon clan.

  Life was good. I had a wonderful mate who truly loved me and a family who welcomed him in with open arms. I had never thought much about my long life, now I was very glad I waited for a male I loved instead of taking a mate just for protection.

  Moving forward I had high hopes of integrating our two species. I might even be lucky enough to see one of my future relatives willingly mate with a dragon and help to infuse even more Christmas Magic into my new clan, or another.

  The End

  Thank you so much for reading my Christmas book! Keep reading for a sample o
f another one of my stories that incorporates shifters.

  Author’s Notes

  Thank you so much for reading this far! I really hoped you enjoyed my light hearted version of Santa and his family. Each book in this series focuses on a different Kringle. Next year you will see the twins get their own book.

  This was probably one of my toughest books to write. I would have expected it to be much easier than it was, but right before I started I found out I had to have open heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. I have an anomalous right coronary artery. Sometimes, it can be moved. In my case, moving it wasn’t the best idea because of where the vein was located along my right artery. So, the surgeon “unroofed” it. It’s complicated, and I still don’t completely understand it. But needless to say, I’m still recovering from the surgery. It was a success and I’m healing up much better than most people expected, but for some reason I had a rotten case of writer’s block in the beginning and it just didn’t move along well, at all.

  The story finally came to me about a week ago. Since then, I’ve been working hard to get the story down. I’ll probably go back and do some small re-writes and maybe even another pass with an editor and beta readers. I just ran out of time to do it all. I spent four weeks trying to get this story down, it was extremely stubborn and just didn’t want to leave my head. LOL

  Finally, it let go and let me write it down.

  Next up is book 2 in my FBI Dragon Chronicles series! I’m really looking forward to getting back to Alyson and Vlad!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Book 1 in my Voodoo Dolls series!

  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a truly blessed New Year!

  Jen

  Newsletter Sign-up

  If you want to make sure you hear about the latest and greatest, sign up for my newsletter at: http://jlhendricksauthor.com/newsletter/ I will only send out a few e-mails a month. I hate spam and lots of e-mails from others, so why would I do that to you? I won’t. And I will never sell your address either. I will however, do cover reveals, snippets of new books and giveaways or promos in the newsletter, some of which will only be available to newsletter subscribers. J

  By signing up for my newsletter, you will get a free copy of Santa Meets Mrs. Claus, a 13K word prequel story.

  New Orleans Magic

  The Pussycat Dolls meet Urban Fantasy!

  When Acadia goes missing, her two sisters come to us, The Voodoo Dolls, for help. We just discovered that magic, vampires, and shifters are real! While we are still learning about the paranormal community in New Orleans, we obtain much-needed help from Rico and his pack of wolf shifters in tracking down the missing triplet. I only hope we find her before she becomes a vampire's next meal!

  Who is this mysterious vampire who's helping us? Is my sister, Kat, involved with a blood-sucking creature of the night?

  We are an indie-rock band, who also run a touristy shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Most tourists swear by our voodoo dolls and love potions. My sister, Indie, also makes the best aphrodisiac fudge around. Don't believe me? Ask the women who keep buying it and referring their friends!

  This is a story with witches, vampires, and wolf shifters. If this were a movie, it would be rated PG-13. If you love anything with the paranormal set in an urban environment, then you'll be enthralled by New Orleans Magic!

  Prologue

  Indie

  “Oh my Buddha! Kat! Why’s that vampire still chasing us?” I was almost out of breath.

  Kat and I were on the run from a vampire who wouldn’t leave us alone. It’s not like we tried to start any trouble. Trouble just sorta found us.

  “Keep going, Indie! We’re almost back to Bourbon Street,” Kat huffed as she ran around a corner with me following.

  We were running down a side alley. It was a shortcut back to civilization, or so we hoped. There were no lights on, and the area was covered in debris. It looked like someone had used this alley as their own personal dumpster. There were broken crates, open garbage bags, and beat-up furniture lining the pathway.

  The place smelled worse than any dumpster I could remember. I wasn’t sure if there were dirty diapers everywhere, or if a group of people had used this alley as their own personal toilets. My nose itched from the acidic smell surrounding me.

  I had to jump over a pile of junk. Hopefully, this would slow the guy down, but I doubted it. It probably just slowed us down.

  I hope I can make this jump. There is no way I could handle landing in that pile.

  “Oomph!” I barely made it over the debris. My foot almost touched something brown and gooey. Which caused me to shiver just thinking about what was beneath my feet.

  “You are so cute. Do you really think you can outrun me?” The vampire hissed in my ear.

  How did he get so close so fast?

  “Aahhhhh!” I screamed as he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to a stop. “Let me go! When the pack finds out what you’ve done, they will kill you!” I spat in his face.

  “Let.Her.Go!” Kat yelled as she conked him over the head with a metal rod.

  The vampire let me go and swirled around to grab Kat. His hands were a blur as he yanked the metal rod out of her hand and sank his teeth into her neck.

  “Aaahhhh!” Kat screamed and tried to push the bloodsucker away from her.

  The demon from hell pushed her away and spit her blood out. “What are you? You taste like a mutt!”

  He wiped his mouth with his shirt sleeve and spit the rest out of his mouth. While he was busy, we continued to run toward the safety of lights and crowds.

  “Not so fast.” He grabbed us by our collars and pulled us to him.

  “Stop right now! Let us go. We’re protected by the local pack. You know you can’t mess with us. It’s in your own laws!” I continued to struggle but to no avail.

  “Where are your protectors? I don’t see any wolves trying to help you.” He cackled and sniffed my neck.

  “If you were under my protection, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. Would you like to be mine?” The vampire nuzzled my neck and licked right over an artery. “Mmm, I would love to keep you in my arms at all times.”

  “Not even if my life depended on it!” I tried to kick against his shin, and he just laughed into my ear.

  “Dear, your life does depend on…” The devil’s spawn was cut off before he could finish his sentence, and we were free.

  Kat and I both spun on our heels to see who saved us. “Ivan! Perfect timing, again.” Kat smiled at the new guy.

  “Who’s Ivan?” I asked, and then it dawned on me. “Oh! He’s your…friend. The one you told us about a few weeks ago?” I covered my mouth and looked between Ivan and Kat.

  “Yes, he’s a vampire. Don’t worry, Indie. We’re safe now. Ivan will take care of the trash.” Kat flicked her hand toward the vampire who was struggling against Ivan’s hold.

  Ivan’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight when he looked at Kat. When he looked at me, his smile showed his fangs, and I took a step back. “Are you sure I’m safe? I’m not the one with partial wolf-shifter blood.”

  A few weeks ago we learned that Kat was descended from wolf-shifters. We guessed that she was only a small part wolf, since she couldn’t shift. Vampires hated the taste of shifter blood. Kat was lucky. Me…not so much.

  “All of Kat’s sisters are safe with me. I would never harm any of you.” Ivan nodded to me.

  “Okay. Thanks?” I furrowed my brow and watched as Ivan continued to squeeze the neck of the vampire in his arms. He had one arm around the guy’s chest, and his right hand looked to be squeezing the enemy’s neck off.

  “I get it. These girls are under your protection. I’ll leave them alone, Ivan. How was I to know you were protecting them when they don’t smell like you?” The vampire continued to squirm and try to get away.

  “Nice try, Vasily. They already told you they were under the protection of the New Orleans pack. You should have left them alone
as soon as they mentioned Rico’s crew. You know better.” Ivan squeezed harder while Vasily continued to squirm.

  “I promise I won’t ever touch them again. Now let me go. You shouldn’t even be in town. The Queen has forbidden you to feed here.” Vasily narrowed his eyes.

  Ivan looked at Kat and tightened his hold on Vasily. Vasily began to scream and Ivan ripped his head off. Blood squirted on my face, and I’ll admit, I freaked out a bit. “Ahhh! Kat! He ripped the guy’s head off! How? What?” I pawed at the blood on my face.

  “Shh. You’ll be fine. Just keep it down. We don’t need any more paranormal creatures showing up tonight.” Kat pulled me to her and held me tight.

  “How can you be so calm? Some vampire just bit your neck, and then another one comes to save us and rips the first vamp’s head off, covering me in blood! How can I be calm?” I couldn’t breathe. My chest was tight, and it was difficult to get air into my lungs.

  “Breathe. I need you to take a deep breath and release it, Indie. Can you do that for me?” Kat rubbed my back as I tried to inhale and exhale.

  “A…alright.” I sucked in air a few times. Things started to clear up. My breathing went back to normal, and I wiped the blood off my cheeks with the back of my right hand.

  “Are you alright now?” Kat pulled away and looked me in the eyes.

  “Yes, I think so. How can you be so calm?” I shook my head.

  “Because this isn’t my first time going through this. Remember? A situation very similar to this is how I first met Ivan. I watched as he destroyed another vampire who had tried to suck my blood.” Kat pursed her lips and looked to Ivan.

  “Kat, you should take your sister and get back to the shop. It won’t be safe out tonight. The coven is searching for some humans who know too much. I don’t know all of the particulars, but someone discovered their lair. Or something to that effect.” Ivan wiped his hands on the shirt of the dead vampire.