Chapter 1
Mire twisted lazily in the desk chair behind the station, glancing periodically at the clock on the wall. The bank of monitors in front of him showed various places around North Pole City where he lived and worked. Because he was a special type of shifter known as a quad – able to transform into a polar bear, snowy owl, arctic fox, and reindeer – Mire was not only part of the NPC security force but he was also one of the reindeer who helped pull Santa’s sleigh. Mire was the Vixen position, the fourth reindeer.
The door behind him creaked open, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Vaughn, the Comet position on the sleigh team, standing in the doorway.
“All quiet?” Vaughn asked.
“Yep.”
NPC was a hidden city at the top of the world. Santa Claus’s magic kept it hidden and protected. Only SC, Santa’s nickname to the locals, was magically powerful enough to leave the North Pole any day of the year. Everyone else, including Mrs. Claus, could leave for only twenty-four hours beginning at dawn on Christmas Eve. Mire normally didn’t mind being stuck in NPC all year long, but over the last few years, he’d watched three of his best friends and fellow sleigh team members find their fated mates.
Fated mates, as they were known, were the one true mates for the supernatural creatures who called NPC home. Fated mates were rare, and up until Arian, the Blitzen position, who had found his fated mate in a human named Charli, no one had found a fated mate in years.
Mire turned his body to face Vaughn. “Do you ever think about asking Mrs. C to mate-match you?”
Mate-matching was something that Mrs. C’s magic accomplished. Through her magic, she could match up couples who were meant to be together. Mire’s parents, like many couples in NPC, had been mate-matched.
Vaughn shrugged. “I might have thought about it more if the team wasn’t finding their fated mates. I don’t mind waiting for the right female.”
Mire knew that the mate-matches were perfect, but they weren’t fated mates, which were revered by their people. Fated mates had a connection that mate-matched couples didn’t.
“Are you thinking about it?”
Mire growled out a sigh. “Not really. I mean, I think about how nice it would be to have a mate, and I don’t want to rush the process, but damn, if I wouldn’t like to meet her sooner rather than later.”
“I think most of us are feeling that way, too. Before Arian met Charli, I didn’t think fated mates were even something that could happen again. It had been so many years since they’d happened. I guess I feel like if Mrs. C mate-matched me, then I’d be doing a disservice to my fated mate.”
“How so?”
“Well, if there’s a fated mate out there for everyone, then there’s one for me, and I’m hers, too. If I take myself out of the running to be an eligible mate, what happens to her? Would she be unmated for her whole life, or thinking that something’s missing forever?”
That jarring thought never crossed Mire’s mind. “Maybe if fated mates get matched up to others, the connection disappears and both can move on.”
“Maybe. But I wouldn’t want to chance it. Would you?”
“No, of course not. Still. It would be nice if fate would hurry up a bit.”
Vaughn snorted. “I hear that.”
Mire turned back to the monitors and logged off the system so Vaughn could take over for the next shift. Then he stood and stretched, before moving out of the way.
“Are you going out for a drink?” Vaughn asked as he entered in his name and password to start his shift.
“Maybe. I should probably go clean my harness. Christmas Eve is just two days away.”
Mire said goodbye to Vaughn, grabbed his coat, and turned to walk out of the room. As he passed over the threshold, there was a crashing sound outside, and alarms went off on the monitors.
“What the hell was that?” Mire demanded, returning to the monitors.
“Shit!” Vaughn picked up the console phone. “All emergency personnel report to barn three immediately! The roof has caved in!”
“I’m on my way,” Mire said, sprinting from the room while tugging on his coat. Slamming his hands against the security bar of the door, he pushed it open and ran toward the third barn.
As he closed the distance to the barn, he saw Declan, one of the quads. Mire stopped beside him just outside of the building. The roof creaked.
“Let’s go,” Declan said, handing a flashlight to Mire.
Other quads and shifters joined them inside the barn, looking for survivors. Mire found a male trapped under a heavy, wooden beam, and he called for Sullivan, who helped him lift it off. The male’s legs were broken, and he’d fallen unconscious, so Mire lifted him as gently as he could and hurried from the barn, laying him on a waiting stretcher.
Mire turned back toward the barn, and Declan came out with a male slung over his shoulder. The male bled from a deep gash on the side of his head.
“Anyone else in there?” Mire asked.
“Not that I could scent,” Declan answered as he laid the male on another stretcher.
“Noel,” Tobias, the injured male rasped as his eyes fluttered open.
“What?” Declan asked.
Tobias lost consciousness, and Mire shrugged when Declan gave him a curious look.
“He said noel, so maybe he’s worried about Christmas?” Mire offered.
“There wasn’t anything but building supplies in this barn, though. It wouldn’t affect the sleigh team or gifts for the kids.”
Two elves appeared and lifted the stretcher between them, hurrying off to the medical building.
Mire, Declan, and Sullivan returned to the building to ensure there were no others trapped and found none. Half of the roof had collapsed, and Mire felt confident the rest would come down soon. Building supplies filled the barn, so any houses being constructed would have to wait until the city opened on Christmas Eve.
“What happened?” Mire asked as he flashed his light around the ceiling. There was a big gap now, where he could see starlight and dark night sky.
“There were five males in here when it happened. Three were fast enough to get out when the roof started to collapse, but Tobias and Roderick got trapped. They said that they were stacking wood planks in a wagon, and apparently, the load was uneven at the back, and the whole thing tipped, sending the planks into one of the support beams,” Declan said.
“At least no one was killed,” Sullivan said.
“Hopefully, Tobias and Roderick will heal quickly,” Mire said.
They left the barn, and Declan walked over to a group of builders who were moving supplies out of the collapsing barn. Declan instructed them to raze the building when they were finished.
Mire rubbed his hands together and blew on them. As a shifter, he didn’t get as cold as a human would, but he still felt the cold, nonetheless. And it was freaking cold.
“I’m going for a drink,” Declan said. “You guys in?”
“Kerri’s waiting for me,” Sullivan said with a smile. The third member of their sleigh team to find his fated mate had met the human at a wedding for the lead reindeer, Rhys, and his fated mate, Merri.
“I’m in,” Mire said. “That was a pretty damn exciting end to the shift.”
Declan snorted. “I’m just glad we don’t get a lot of excitement like that around here.”
“Me too,” he answered as they headed toward the tavern. Although he wouldn’t mind some excitement of the finding-his-fated-mate sort.
Someday.
Hopefully, soon.