“That’s the last of them,” said one of the elves. “Get back in position. Time for another flight.”
Ethan got in position. He was the first reindeer to have finished his deliveries.
“Damn, Prancer,” said Santana. “My elves tell me you were the slowest at first, and then, became the first to finish your deliveries. What’s your secret?”
“It’s Christmas, this is my job, and I’m a billionaire,” said Ethan. “Doesn’t that mean I’m supposed to be good at my fucking job?”
“I suppose it does,” answered Santana with a chuckle, knowing the truth.
For the first time in a long time, Prancer didn’t make Ethan’s mark burn when he cursed.
* * *
“There we go,” said Avery. “It’s perfect.”
Carol looked around. They’d set up the bakery so that families could come and pick up boxes of cookies for free. There was also a station with hot Christmas beverages and other treats. After all, the families needed something to enjoy on their way home.
“This is perfect,” said Carol. “I think we can open the doors now.”
Avery flipped the sign on the door to read ‘Open,’ and she turned on the neon sign. Five minutes passed by, and nobody came.
Then, there was a knock at the door.
Carol hurried to the door and opened it. “Please, come in!”
In walked a single father with four kids.
“Hello,” said the man. “I know this might sound crazy, but I heard you were giving away free cookies?”
“We are!” said Carol. “Come right this way. We made too many cookies and wanted to give them to families that would enjoy them. Four kids…here! This should be enough cookies!” Carol passed the man a big box of cookies.
“I don’t know what to say,” said the man. “I thought this was some practical joke someone was playing. I can’t believe you’re being so generous.”
“Well, y’all should help yourselves to the treats on the table,” said Avery. “We’ve got hot cocoa, eggnog – alcohol-free, of course, and hot cider, and tea…and all those pastries, they’re free too.”
“Wow, they are?” asked one of the kids.
“It must be a Christmas miracle,” said the other.
“Thank you, Christmas angels!” said the third kid.
The fourth kid was already stuffing a cookie into their mouth.
After the family left, Carol looked to Avery.
“Well, at least we got one set of takers,” said Carol. “Scratch that – five takers.”
“The night is young,” said Avery. “You’ll be surprised what can happen at the last minute, especially on Christmas Eve.”
* * *
“Ethan, you need to be careful out there,” said Krampus, speaking into the comms device. “You’re delivering presents in record time. You know what happens to reindeer that break records on Christmas? They break limbs being careless.”
“I’m fine,” insisted Ethan, hoping down the chimney, tossing the gifts underneath the tree, and hopping back up the chimney. “I didn’t become a billionaire by being careless. I became one for many reasons…and one of those reasons was stinginess.”
“And?” asked Krampus, watching as Ethan made another set of deliveries in mere seconds.
“And this is the first Christmas where I’m being a Santa instead of a Scrooge,” said Ethan.
* * *
It had been slow going at first, but more and more people visited the bakery. There weren’t lines out the door, but, by the end of the night, they’d given away all the boxes of chocolate chip cookies and the leftover pastries they’d made for the folks coming to pick up the cookies.
The last family left with the last box of cookies, and after an hour of no activity, Carol and Avery decided to call it quits. It was time for them to go home.
“I think we made a lot of Christmases special this year,” said Avery, as Carol swept the floor.
“I just wish I’d done more,” admitted Carol.
“You did something – which is more than most do,” admitted Avery. “Merry Christmas, Carol. Now, you need to get out of here so you can sleep for The Ride – I mean, sleep for your ride tomorrow. I’ll clean all this up and lock up, okay?”
“Really?” asked Carol, putting down her broom.
“Hon, you’ve done a lot of good tonight,” said Avery, pulling Carol in for a hug. “Now, let me give you the gift of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Merry Christmas, Carol.”
“Merry Christmas, Avery,” said Carol, giving Avery a smile before leaving the bakery.
Chapter Eleven
Christmas Day, 2009
Ethan landed on the tarmac outside Santana’s Workshop an hour before the break of dawn. The other seven reindeer shifted back into men in black tactical suits, members of Boreas Winter’s ice elemental crew. Krampus was out on the tarmac, ready for Ethan’s landing.
Ethan shifted back into his human form, wearing his black tactical suit, and collapsed onto the tarmac for a second.
“You’re fuckin’ insane,” said Krampus, leaning down and giving Ethan a glass of milk and a cookie. “Here. That milk’s caffeinated and the cookie’s nutritious. Leave it to Santana Claus and his elves to develop military-grade milk and cookies.”
“I don’t have time,” said Ethan. “I need to get to her, to Carol.”
“It’s your last day to get off The Naughty List, Ethan,” said Krampus. “If you don’t get off the list —”
“I know what happens,” said Ethan. “I know, Krampus. I haven’t cared about any of that since I met her. Frankly, if I lost my shift and my mate mark, all the better. I’d give up being a shifter for her because she’s my true love.”
Krampus was growing tired of Ethan’s rant, so he took his necklace up and tossed it in the air. Ethan was so distracted drinking his coffee and eating his cookie, the very things he had said he had no time to consume, that he didn’t notice the chain coming down around him in a circle, filling with emerald flames. It was only when Krampus pushed him through the tarmac, through the portal formed by the chains, that Ethan realized what had happened.
Ethan was freefalling through the air. He dropped his cookie and his cup of milk. He turned, looking down, and realized he was falling toward Camp Kringle. He looked back up, but Krampus was nowhere to be found.
“Shit!” Ethan cursed aloud. The mark on his chest may have been emerald green, but it burned fire red as he cussed.
Calm down, said Prancer. Just shift.
But I can’t fly without the harness, said Ethan.
Who told you that? asked Prancer. Shift, before you turn us into a pancake.
Ethan changed in midair, shifting mere inches before he hit the tops of the fir trees of Camp Kringle. His hooves brushed against the tops of the trees as he stopped falling and started swimming through the air.
You frikkin’ lunatic, said Ethan. Why didn’t you tell me I could fly before?
And give you a way to get off Camp Kringle and avoid your training? Nuh-uh, I don’t think so, said Prancer.
Ethan flew across the lake in a mere two minutes. It was much faster than rowing across the icy water in a rowboat that seemed to be made of the same stuff as a rusty tin can. He aimed for the Bear Claw Bakery and landed. Ethan shifted and went inside.
“Carol?” called Ethan. “Carol?”
“Ethan?” asked a voice. “Is that you?”
Ethan turned. Carol wasn’t there, but Avery was.
“We’re not open yet,” said Avery, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “What are you doing? Oh. Right. Carol. She should be at her place, getting ready to leave.”
“Shit,” said Ethan, causing the mark on his chest to burn again.
“She lives —” started Avery.
“I know, I’ve been there,” said Ethan, shifting back into his reindeer form to run out the back door and take off.
Ethan got in the air and looked down at The Wreath. He remembered how he
’d gotten to Carol’s house the night he’d walked her home after work. He made a beeline for her neighborhood. As he approached her rental, he saw that there was an SUV parked in the front of the house, trunk in the back open. As he came down, he saw a familiar BBW in a puffy jacket put in one last box and close the trunk before she got in the driver’s seat of the car and took off.
Prancer, I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, said Ethan.
What are you going to do? asked Prancer.
If I tell you, you won’t let me do it, said Ethan, coming down to the road and aiming so that he would land right in front of Carol’s car.
Ethan’s hooves hit the icy pavement. He was twenty feet in front of Carol’s car. He saw her try to break, but Ethan hadn’t accounted for Carol’s SUV being a reasonable person’s car and not some billionaire’s sports vehicle that could turn on a dime. The front of Carol’s car hit Ethan with a thud, and he fell over like a tipped cow.
You crazy bastard, cursed Prancer.
I know you’ve got advanced healing powers, or that Santana has some frikkin’ reindeer hospital, retorted Ethan. Merry Christmas, Prancer.
Carol got out of the driver’s seat to see what she’d hit. One minute, she was driving on an empty road, and the next, a big hunk of brown fur fell out of the sky on to the section of road directly in front of her. As she got out of the car, she watched as the animal, which she recognized as a reindeer, started to change.
“Ethan?” called Carol, before the reindeer had fully shifted. “Ethan, is that you?”
Ethan stood up from the ground. He was wearing an all-black tactical suit that was worse for the wear.
Carol shoved Ethan backward.
“What the heck are you doing?” squealed Carol. “Ethan! I could’ve seriously hurt you!”
“I had to come here to talk to you before you left,” said Ethan. “The letters. Did Krampus give you the letters? They explain everything — why I’m here, why you just saw me shift out of the form of a reindeer, why — “
“Why you had to leave,” said Carol.
“How did you know?” asked Ethan.
“I read the letters, Ethan,” said Carol. “They made no sense. I thought you were either pulling my leg or had gone crazy. But…I guess now, I’ve seen a reindeer fly.”
“Do you believe me now?” asked Ethan. “Carol. I would’ve come back to you, but I was literally not able to. I was given two options — save Christmas, and hopefully get a chance to say goodbye to you or get stuck to the floor in Santana’s locker room until my literal demon boss chose to release me. I played along, just so I could see you, either to explain myself if you’d hear me out or say goodbye if you wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sorry I ruined your Christmas.”
“Ethan, I don’t care about the Christmas magic stuff,” said Carol. “Christmas has never been my favorite holiday. It’s at the bottom of my list. Well, it was, until you showed me a good time this holiday season, and I don’t just mean the sex. I mean playing in the snow, I mean the holiday baking, I mean all that. I guess I don’t know what Christmas is to me now. But anyway, I don’t care about any of the stuff in the letters. It doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”
“And what way is that?” asked Ethan.
“I love you, okay?” asked Carol. “I wouldn’t have been so frikkin’ upset about you bailing on the party if I didn’t love you, you goof. You may be a billionaire, but if you can’t figure that out, there’s no way you’re a genius to boot.”
“I can’t promise that I’ll never hurt you again,” said Ethan. “Things are bound to happen. Maybe I’ll leave a cup out, and for some reason, it really riles you up. Maybe I’ll forget to take out the trash. Scratch that, maybe I’ll forget to ask the housekeeper to take out the trash. Maybe I’ll go on a long business meeting to another country and not have reception and not be able to call you at the time I promised I’d call you. But I can promise you two things. First of all, I’ll always try to keep my promises and to never hurt you. Secondly, I love you. I have since, well, you put me in my place, which nobody had done to me in a long time. There’s no ‘until,’ because I’ll love you to the day I take my last breath.”
All of a sudden, the mark on Ethan’s chest started to glow through the black tactical suit. The word ‘Naughty’ glowed emerald green and then, there was a flash of red. Ethan undid the front of the catsuit and looked down at his chest.
“Your mark, it changed,” said Carol. “Ethan…all that stuff you wrote in the letters was true, even that? Even all that stuff about trying to get off The Naughty List and onto…”
“Welcome to The Nice List,” said a man walking out of a puff of smoke that appeared in the middle of the road. “Took you long enough, Ethan, but I supposed you always did have a flair for the dramatic.”
“How did I get off the list?” asked Ethan.
“You helped someone believe in Christmas magic,” said Krampus.
“But she said she didn’t care about Christmas magic,” said Ethan, confused.
“It doesn’t matter what she thinks,” said Krampus. “What matters is what’s in her heart.”
“Hello, I’m right here,” said Carol, waving.
There was a poof of glitter, and a familiar BBW walked out of the magical cloud.
“Ethan, you finally did it!” said Avery with glee. “Carol, you must be so excited. Not only did you get off of The Naughty List, but you found your fated mate. On the way, the two of your learned that the true meaning of Christmas is giving.”
“I have no idea what’s going on,” said Carol.
“Well, I’m a Christmas elf, Krampus is a Christmas demon, and Ethan was, is, I’m not sure about it, a Christmas reindeer, who helped pull Santana Claus’s sleigh last night,” said Avery.
“You’re a frikkin’ Christmas elf?” asked Carol. “Why didn’t you tell me, Avery?”
“Not her rules,” said Krampus. “The order came from upstairs, from The Jolly Fellow himself – Santa Claus.”
“Stupid frikkin’ rules,” said Avery.
“Ahem,” said Krampus, clearing his throat. “For helping someone believe in Christmas Magic, you, Ethan McLean, are off The Naughty List and back on The Nice List. That means you get these back. I’m not really supposed to give you your shift back until you claim your mate, but, in the interest of time…I’ll make an exception.”
“You mean you’ll break the rules,” said Avery, crossing her arms.
“That’s what I said,” joked Krampus.
Krampus reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar snow globe. He put his hand out. On his palm was Ethan’s true mate mark.
This is goodbye, friend, said Ethan.
Until you manage to get your dumbass in trouble and get sent back up to Camp Kringle, joked Prancer. You did good, kid.
Krampus held out the snow globe. Ethan took it and felt the familiar exchange of power. His bear roared, and Ethan smiled. Things were back to normal. Well, they were nearly back to normal.
Krampus pressed his palm against Ethan’s chest. Ethan felt a chill. He looked down at his chest through his open catsuit and saw that Krampus had returned his mate mark.
“Is that really your frikkin’ mate mark?” asked Carol.
“Yeah, you see why I went to business school?” asked Ethan.
“Ahem,” said Krampus, interjecting again. “Remember, Ethan. If you don’t get off The Naughty List and claim your fated mate by the end of Christmas Day, you will lose your shift forever.”
“He’s saying don’t waste any time,” said Avery, taking Krampus by the arm.
“Wait, you impatient Jezebel,” said Krampus, shrugging off Avery’s arm. “Here.”
Krampus reached into his pocket and pulled out an evergreen velvet bag. He passed it to Ethan. Ethan opened the bag and pulled out its contents.
“Is this what I think it is?” asked Ethan. “Because it looks like…”
“…A giant pickle,” said Carol with a gigg
le. “What the heck?”
“If The North Pole needs you one day, we’ll use this to contact you,” said Krampus. “Don’t question it. Just make sure to hang it up on your tree, every Christmas season, okay?”
“Fine, old man,” said Ethan, putting the pickle back in the bag. “Anything else?”
“Like Avery suggested, it’s time for us to get lost,” said Krampus.
“Merry Christmas!” said Avery.
“Merry Christmas,” said Krampus, and with a flash of smoke, Krampus and Avery were gone.
“Well, that was freaky,” said Carol. “That was almost more Halloween than Christmas.”
There was another puff of smoke, and something hit the ground. There was a new note attached to the present.
“‘You forgot this,’” read Carol. “What is this, Ethan?”
“Let’s go inside, and I’ll show you,” said Ethan.
Ethan took the box from Carol before she had a chance to really look at it. He led her back to her rental unit. They went into the living room. Ethan sat Carol down in one of the armchairs and then, got down on one knee.
“Carol Carter, you’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted to spend Christmas with, much less my entire life,” said Ethan, popping open the ring box. “Will you take what’s in this present and be my wife?”
Carol looked down at Ethan, who was on one knee, looking like an absolute wreck, covered in snow, dirty, a bit of mud, and more than a bit of sweat. He didn’t look anything like the billionaire she knew him to be. He looked like a man who had crawled through Hell and back just to earn an audience with her.
“Was everything you said in those letters true?” asked Carol.
“I think you already know the answer to that question, babe,” said Ethan.
“Then yes, Ethan, yes,” said Carol.
Ethan slipped the large solitaire diamond ring on to Carol’s finger. He had to admit, whatever the deal was with Pandora and her Christmas magic, the magic obviously had good taste. The ring was classy but bold, perfect for a woman like Carol.
Prancer Claws: The Twelve Mates Of Christmas, Book 3 Page 11