Vixen's Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book 4) Read online

  She felt hands on her, and someone carried her away. She faintly smelled chocolate and cinnamon, and then she felt the blast of cold as she was taken outside.

  “There, there,” Santa said as the door to the barn closed with a clang. “It’s clear you can’t be around our people when they’re in their shifts.”

  Santa put her on her feet, and her knees wobbled, but Trish grabbed her and kept her from landing in the snow. Noelle rubbed at her tear-streaked face. “I can’t be with Mire?”

  SC smiled. “Of course you can. You’re one of my people. But you can’t be with him with your ears deformed. Mrs. C and I did some research, and it turns out that when an elf’s ears are trimmed the way that yours were, it affects not only the look of the ears but also the magic. It’s as if you were stunted as a child because of your ears. A few decades ago, there was a young elf who was injured in a hunting accident, and one of his ears was damaged. He couldn’t transport because of the injury. Now, whether your father knew that having your ears trimmed with plastic surgery would stunt you or not, remains to be seen, but I don’t think he did. It’s not common knowledge.”

  She touched the tops of her ears, and they stung like they’d been burned. “What am I going to do?”

  Mrs. C reached out her hand to Noelle and said, “Just take my hand, dear. It will all be well.”

  Noelle joined hands with Mrs. C and felt calm spread through her. She felt almost sleepy, as if she could doze off right in the snow, standing up. Large, warm hands cupped her ears, and she felt a blast of frigid wind. She tried to open her eyes, not even aware that she’d closed them, but she couldn’t. She felt like her skin was being pelted with ice, and then her ears ached with a sharp, hot pain that lasted for only a moment, and then it was gone. In the wake, that same, sweet peacefulness claimed her.

  She opened her eyes and saw SC and Mrs. C smiling and hugging each other.

  “What happened?”

  She reached for her ears and found that they no longer hurt, and the tips had been changed. They were pointed!

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, throwing herself into their waiting arms and hugging them both. “You gave me back my ears!”

  “It was the only way to keep you from being in pain every time your mate shifted. In case you didn’t notice,” Mrs. C said, “our city is full of shifters.”

  She laughed and tears slipped down her cheeks. “I did notice. Thank you both so much. It’s the perfect Christmas gift.”

  “You’re welcome, dear,” Mrs. C said.

  “It was my pleasure,” SC said.

  “Hey,” a man called through the barn door, “Mire is about to take the door off. Is everything okay out there?”

  “Just fine,” SC said. “Let’s show your mate your new ears.”

  Trish said, “They look lovely, Noelle. How do you feel?”

  “Perfect. Like something has always been missing but I didn’t even know.”

  Trish smiled. “Magic is funny like that.”

  SC threw open the doors, and a very annoyed and worried-looking reindeer was being restrained by several of the elves. She rushed to him, her smile so wide her cheeks ached.

  “Look! They’re fixed! SC fixed them!”

  All those years of hiding her ears and now she didn’t have to.

  Mire relaxed visibly and stopped struggling. He rumbled in approval, and she tucked her hair behind both ears and pirouetted. “Look!”

  Everyone laughed at her exuberance.

  SC clapped his hands together, and Noelle put her arm around Mire’s neck, resting her cheek against the side of his head. “Best Christmas ever.”

  “It’s time to deliver presents,” SC said. He and Mrs. C moved away, talking quietly, and Noelle walked with Mire to his place on the sleigh. She watched as the elves hooked up the reindeer.

  She ran her finger up one of his antlers, feeling the furry exterior and the hard bone underneath. “I’ve seen two of your shifts now. I can’t wait to meet your fox and owl. Have a safe trip. I’ll be waiting in our room when you get home.”

  She kissed the tip of his snout and smiled, stepping back to where the other mates were standing watch. SC waved and snapped the reins. In a blink, the sleigh was gone, the wind rushing around them.

  “Wow,” she said.

  Trish nodded knowingly. “He moves so fast with his magic. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to make all his visits in one night.”

  “Is there anything SC can’t do with his magic?” she asked.

  “Well, he and Mrs. C never had children,” Roger said. “They’re immortal and part of that immortality is the inability to conceive.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “That’s why they enjoy making and delivering toys so much,” Trish said. “In a way, all the world’s children are theirs.”

  “I’m ready to go back to my apartment,” Noelle said. “The night is going to go fast.”

  “Then let’s get you there and home, ASAP,” Roger said.

  They hurried from the barn and met with the two shifters who were accompanying them to her apartment. She explained the details about her apartment, the street address and her apartment number, and then they all moved close together, their shoulders touching so that they formed a very tight circle. She closed her eyes and thought of her family room, and in a heartbeat, she felt the rush of air around her and heard a whooshing sound. She opened her eyes when the sound stopped and found herself in her family room with the others.

  “Holy crap that was awesome!”

  “It sure was,” Trish said. “Your place is so cute.”

  “Thanks. I’ve lived here since my mom died. Dad slept on the couch when he came for visits.”

  Just thinking of her dad, still unconscious, made her want to hurry back so she could stop in to visit with him before she met Mire back in his room. “You can pack two bags,” Gentry said. “Make sure you pack warm things. In case you didn’t notice, it’s super cold up there.”

  “I wish I had time to shop. I’d buy better winter clothing.”

  “We can order anything you need,” Trish said. “We have people who shop for us, and then they go pick things up on Christmas Eve.”

  “Cool. Let’s get packing!”

  With the five of them working hard, they were able to pack what she wanted to take in the span of two hours. She made sure to gather the gifts she had for her dad, as well as her favorite toys that he’d given to her over the years. When the packing was done, she made her phone calls – first to her boss’s voice mail, and then to her friends’ direct voice mails. She explained to them that her dad had been willing to take her back with him to Canada to live, and she was on her way up there. She promised to be in touch after she got settled and wished them an enjoyable Christmas Day.

  She slipped her laptop and checkbook into the front zipper of her biggest suitcase, and then she bundled up in her warmest coat, scarf, gloves, and hat.

  “Picture Mire’s room,” Hall said. “We’ll transport directly there so you don’t have to lug the suitcases anywhere.”

  She took one last look around her apartment, making sure she had all the mementos from her mom and that all of her personal items had been packed.

  She turned to the group and smiled. “I’m ready to go home.”

  Chapter 8

  A week after Christmas, Mire was woken by a loud pounding on the door. He jumped to his feet, blurry eyed and confused for a moment, and then he shook his head to clear away the fog of sleep. He opened the door just enough to peer out, blocking the view of his sleeping mate.

  Jack stood in the hallway. “Noelle’s father is awake, and he’s asking about her.”

  “We’ll head over right away,” Mire said. “Thanks for the wake-up call.”

  “Sorry it had to be at three a.m., but I knew you were both waiting for news, and I was on duty in the security office when the alert came in.”

  Mire thanked his friend again and closed the door. He hurried to the bed, wher
e Noelle still slept, and gently shook her awake.

  “Sweetheart?”

  She mumbled an argument against waking up, but he persisted, saying her name several times.

  “What?” she asked finally, peering at him through heavy-lidded eyes.

  “Your dad’s awake.”

  She sat up so fast that he narrowly missed them having a head-on collision. He grabbed her as she jumped from the bed and tried to walk to the door.

  “You’re naked, sweetheart,” he said.

  She froze and looked down at herself and then grinned at him. “Oh. Oops.”

  They both dressed swiftly and then went to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Within minutes, they were on the way to the medical center.

  “This is a really neat way to start the year off,” she said. It was New Year’s Eve, and later in the morning they were moving into their new home, a charming three-bedroom cabin next to Rhys and Merri’s cabin. “I’m so glad he’s awake.”

  When they reached Tobias’s room, Noelle rushed into it, and Mire watched as she hugged him tightly and started to cry.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d ever wake up!”

  Tobias hugged her, and his eyes squeezed shut as tears streamed down his face. He opened them slowly and met Mire’s gaze. “I heard it’s been an interesting week.”

  Noelle snorted loudly and then laughed. “You have no idea.”

  His brows rose. “Your ears are fixed!”

  She tucked her hair behind her ears and tilted her head, rubbing the tip of one ear with her finger. “SC did it on Christmas Eve. Being around the shifters when they changed form made them hurt for some reason. They’re perfect now.”

  “You were perfect before,” Mire said.

  She looked at him and smiled sweetly. “You’re biased.”

  He shrugged. “And truthful.”

  She faced her dad and reached for his hand. When their fingers were joined, she said, “Dad…all these years. Why didn’t you tell me what you are and what I am?”

  “Oh, honey, I wanted to. Every time I came to see you, and I saw a little bit of my nature peeking through your eyes, I wanted to tell you the truth. At first you were too young, and I didn’t want to upset your mom, and then it seemed like it was too late.”

  She wiped tears from her cheeks, and Mire lifted a box of tissues from a side table and handed her a few. She smiled in thanks.

  “I was going to ask you this time if I could come live with you. Turns out that even if I’d moved to Canada, I still wouldn’t have been with you.” She smiled to soften her words, but Mire could see the anguish and hints of betrayal that stirred in the depths.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I made a lot of mistakes. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “I want to know everything. I don’t want any more secrets between us.”

  Tobias grabbed a pillow at his side and put it behind his back to prop himself up. “NPC is a magically protected city. Everyone but SC can only leave this area for twenty-four hours starting at six a.m. on Christmas Eve morning.”

  “Santa can leave whenever he wants?”

  He nodded. “He’s the only one powerful enough to come and go as he pleases any time of the year. During the year, our people are busy working on the toys for the Christmas delivery as well as the day-to-day aspects of life. If anything needs to be ordered from the human cities, it’s done in a way that it will be available on Christmas Eve, so that our people can retrieve the items and return home safely. If one of us were caught outside of the city after six a.m. on Christmas Day, we’d be trapped for the year

  “As a builder, I leave on Christmas Eve morning to head to various human cities to pick up supplies. We transport back and forth to carry supplies as needed. One year, twenty-four Christmases ago, the group I was with finished our supplies run, and we decided to check out the local nightlife. Your mom was a cocktail waitress, and we hit it off immediately. We spent the night together, and I left before dawn, leaving a note to let her know I was heading out of town and wouldn’t be back until the following year. Back then, the builders didn’t have Internet access, only the elves and shifters who handled purchases did, so I really had no way to stay in touch with her, and it wasn’t like I could write her letters. I felt bad for leaving, but I hoped she’d let me see her the next year.

  “Much to my surprise, the next Christmas, she answered the door with you in her arms. She’d waited for me that whole year, wondering if I would show up again. Your ears were pointed, so I knew you were going to take after my people. I let your mom believe it was a birth defect, and I thought about taking her with me to NPC right then. I was young, and I knew I’d be in trouble with SC. I was worried that he’d wipe her memory of me and I’d never have a chance to know you. Now I know that was selfish and ridiculous.”

  Tobias stopped speaking for a moment, and Mire could see that Noelle struggled not to cry. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t want to intrude on their time together, so he kept his distance, knowing that Noelle would turn to him if she needed him.

  “Our people don’t use money within NPC, but I’d taken some that had been left over from the supplies orders and invested it. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but the stocks ended up doing well. I gave your mother access to that money for the both of you. I asked her if she’d move away and live with me, but her parents were sick and she was taking care of them and didn’t want to leave. They both died a few years later, but by then, you’d had your ears fixed and started school, and…I don’t know, honey. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything then, or any of the other years.”

  “When Mom died?” Noelle asked with a sob.

  “You were so mad at me for missing her funeral. I wished like hell I could have been there for it. Been there for you.”

  “Was she your fated mate?”

  He shook his head. “No. I cared for her a great deal, but she wasn’t my fated mate. I could have asked Mrs. C to mate-match me, but I chose to stay true to your mom. One day a year I got to spend time with my family, and I cherished those hours. Thankfully, as technology evolved I was able to stay in touch with you more, with video calls and emails. Oh, Noelle,” he said, his eyes shining with tears, “do you hate me?”

  She looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes, tears leaking from the corners. She inhaled shakily and then looked at Mire. “I wish a lot of things had been different. That mom had known your secret so we could have been together, here, as a family. But I get you in my life – full time – and I also found Mire. I can’t hate you. You’re my dad.”

  Tobias sat up and hugged her tightly. “You’re more forgiving than I deserve.”

  “No more secrets, okay?”

  “I promise.”

  Noelle pulled away and held out her hand to Mire. He moved to her swiftly, linking their fingers.

  Tobias looked at Mire. “The doctor mentioned that SC wants to see me.”

  “I’m worried about you, Dad,” Noelle said, her voice hitching at the end.

  “You shouldn’t be. I have a lot of regrets, but knowing your mother and having you for a daughter aren’t among them. Whatever happens to me is worth it because you’re here.”

  Tobias squeezed Noelle’s hand and said, “Can I talk to your mate alone for a moment?”

  Noelle looked between Mire and her dad and said, “Sure.” She stood and kissed her dad on the cheek and gave Mire’s hand a squeeze. Then she left the room.

  When the door clicked shut, Tobias said, “I see that you’ve marked her already.”

  Mire nodded. “When we went to bring her to NPC, I knew the moment we met that she was mine.”

  “Are you living in the barracks?”

  “We’re moving into a three-bedroom cabin later this morning.”

  “Good. The barracks are no place for a wife. Speaking of wife, you do know that humans like to get married, right? It’s not enough to just be mated. They like to have a ceremony, too. I never did right by her mom, but you can
do right by her.”

  “I plan to. I was waiting for you to wake so I could ask for your permission to marry her.”

  The three quads who had found their fated mates had all married them. As soon as he and Noelle were in their new home, he planned to ask her to be his wife, and talking to Tobias about it was a good first step. He didn’t know the male well, but they were going to be in-laws.

  “Good. You have my blessing.”

  “Thanks. Are you worried about SC? I know you told Noelle not to worry.”

  Tobias exhaled loudly and pushed back the covers, swinging his legs over the edge. “If I said I wasn’t worried, I’d be lying. Part of me is, but I’m overjoyed that Noelle is here in NPC and that she found her fated mate. I’m going to focus on the good things that came from this and not worry about my fate. It’s out of my hands anyway.”

  “I’ll grab some clothes for you,” Mire said.

  “Thanks.”

  Mire opened the door and let Noelle back in and then went into the doctor’s lounge and grabbed a pair of sweats from the supply closet. He returned to the room and gave them to Tobias, and then he and Noelle waited in the hallway for him to change.

  “Is everything okay with you and my dad?” she asked as she leaned against him, her ear over his heart.

  “Yes. How are you feeling?”

  “Like the world turned upside down for me again.”

  “Again?”

  She lifted her head. “The first time was when I woke up here and realized I’d been abducted. Then it happened again, when you shifted outside. And then again when I found out that Santa is real. So four times the world’s gone all cuckoo on me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She gave him a lopsided smile. “You don’t have to keep apologizing. Whatever the reasoning behind my dad’s deception, I wasn’t the only one affected. I can’t deny that I wish things had been different, but I don’t want to focus on the past. I want to focus on our future.”

  “Me, too, sweetheart.”

  The door opened and Tobias stepped out, wearing hospital-issued slippers and the light gray sweats. “I’m ready to meet with SC.”