There’s a forest in Montana called The Wreath, for the forest is wreathed ‘round a town…and that town is called The Wreath as it’s wreathed ‘round a lake…and that lake is called The Wreath as it forms a wreath ‘round an island, Camp Kringle, where legends say a demon runs a Christmas tree camp.

Those legends are true.

The lake rarely freezes all the way over, for reasons unknown to most. To the few that know the secret of why The Wreath doesn’t freeze over, they know that the demon running that camp casts spells to keep the lake icy but not quite iced over, a form of magic known as demoncraft.

Of course, when bribed with pastries and coffee from the cafe across the lake, Bear Claw Bakery, the cafe managed by his wife, a woman with a pointy-eared secret of her own, that demon can be persuaded into removing his ‘curse’ upon the lake…at least for as long as it takes him to eat the pastries and drink the coffee and get through the secret diaries of one Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

On this winter day, two young people bribed that demon, known as Krampus, with pastries and coffee from his wife, known as Avery, so that they could freeze the lake for ice skating.

A young man leaned over the floating dock near the bakery and put his hand on the surface of the water. After murmuring a spell, the lake water started to harden and whiten, and that solidity and paleness spread ‘cross the lake like kudzu over a Louisiana garden, until it reached from the outer shores of the lake, touching the town of The Wreath, to the inner shores of the lake, along Camp Kringle.

“You think it’s hard enough?” asked Jack, pulling his hands away from the water.

“I think that the water of the lake is shallow enough that if we fall through the ice, we won’t drown,” said Pandora, walking out onto the ice.

“Pandora!” hissed Jack.

“What, you worried your ice isn’t strong enough?” asked Pandora wickedly. She jumped on the ice and came back down on the ice with all her weight, hard. Jack cringed, expecting it to crack, but the ice was magically enchanted to be stronger than regular ice.

“Pandora, you shouldn’t scare me like that,” said Jack. “You might just scare me to death.”

“Come on,” said Pandora, walking back to the dock without slipping on the ice. “You’re just worried that if you let me get hurt, my dad’ll put you on The Naughty List. Now, are we gonna do some frikkin’ ice skating or what?”

Pandora heard her bear roar. She hadn’t let her shift out much that season, spending a lot of time with Jack, and the same applied to Jack. Pandora calmed her shift and let it take over. As a highly magical being, Pandora’s clothes didn’t burst when she shifted — not even when she turned into a frikkin’ bear. There were some benefits to having learned about how to use Christmas magic. If Pandora had never been taught how to use Christmas magic, her clothing would’ve just ripped when she’d shifted.

Big. Furry. Black and white, and not exactly ‘red’ all over, Pandora was, as her name suggested, a panda.

Pandora watched as Jack came out onto the ice and shifted. She couldn’t help but laugh at his form. Jack was this big, buff, mischievous bad boy…but when he turned, well, he looked frikkin’ adorable, and a little delicious. Like Pandora, his shift was black and white, but unlike Pandora’s shift, it looked a lot more like a chicken than a grizzly, for Jack’s shift was that of an emperor penguin. Unlike his rockhopper penguin father, Jack’s penguin was big and regal, but it didn’t have cute yellow ear-feathers. That would’ve made Jack too adorable for words, and that just wouldn’t be realistic.

Jack flapped his wings sarcastically and waddled out onto the ice. He started running and then, slid, using his ice powers, even in his shift, to make a loop to slip on, like the plastic loops used by children playing with new toy cars on Christmas day.

Pandora felt the cold ice against her fur and rolled around. The coolness of the ice was relaxing. She’d had a fun time with Jack over the last few weeks, but it had not been a relaxing time, by any definition of the word.

They’d done nearly every winter sport imaginable together — from sledding and skiing to snowboarding and using ATVs in the snowy wilds.

They’d done all the festive Christmas activities The Wreath had to offer, from caroling and dancing at Christmas balls to helping Krampus and Avery deliver Christmas trees and baskets of goodies to needy folks, as neither Krampus nor Avery had a ‘seasonal temp’ that year.

That meant there wasn’t a couple for Pandora and Jack to hook up, but that was no matter, as they were busy hooking up themselves, making up for lost time whenever possible…and wherever possible.

Pandora’s bear roared. Pandora agreed with her bear. Jack was a good mate, and rather good at mating. Pandora hadn’t spent as much time using her bear as she’d wanted, but…her bear understood that sometimes, a bond between mates had to come before the relationship between a shifter and their shift. Pandora smiled to herself. She was lucky her shift was far more even-keeled than she was.

Pandora chased after Jack, who was sliding on his belly. She gently swiped at his feet, turning Jack into a living ‘fidget spinner,’ as by causing the end of his body to rotate, with the center of his body remaining relatively still, she’d made Jack spin around and around.

Pandora sat on her big furry butt and watched as Jack spun and spun. Jack tried to stand up, but, he fell on his feathery behind. Finally, he gained his bearings — his penguin-ings? — and Jack started to waddle around the lake.

Pandora chased after Jack, worried he was mad at her. She gave him a friendly bark to get his attention. Jack turned to face Pandora and put a wing up to his beak, signaling for her to stay quiet. Pandora was confused but nodded anyway. She walked with Jack quietly across the lake.

Jack motioned down with his peak. There, beneath the surface, were fish — bright red oddities that were different than their brethren that could reach the ocean. They were kokanee salmon, a breed of landlocked salmon found ‘round the United States, including in The Wreath.

Pandora looked at Jack. Jack put his flipper up, reminding her to stay quiet, and then, he waved his wing over the lake in a circle. The ice turned to slush and then, disappeared into the water. Jack had used his ice magic to make a fishing hole in the lake!

Jack dove into the lake, grabbed a fish quickly and tossed it up to the surface. Pandora smacked the fish, stunning it, and then, bit its head. She tossed the dead fish aside and was hit in the face by another fish, thrown out of the fishing hole by Jack! Pandora moved to pick that squirming fish up, knocked it out, and killed it. Before long, Jack and Pandora had a big pile of fresh salmon that, in their shifts, they could enjoy raw.

Jack and Pandora sat by the fishing hole, munching on salmon, spitting the scaly heads and sharp fins and spiny skeletons and slippery guts and other scraps into the fishing hole, where those parts would go on to nourish the lake.

A penguin and a panda — two creatures from opposite worlds. An ice shifter and a Christmas magic wielding Claus — two magical beings from polar opposite ends of the earth. Yet, they were there, together, eating salmon on the lake, enjoying simple, carnal pleasures of the hunt. This is where they belonged — together. Nothing could pull them apart the way that they could tear apart the salmon flesh from its skin.

Well, at least, neither of them felt as if anything could tear them apart.

Reality has a funny way of not aligning with feeling.

The fishy festivities stopped once they heard a roaring sound coming toward the dock.

“Outta the way!” roared a voice.

Pandora and Jack quickly moved to the shore and shifted back into their human forms, clambering up the stairs to the area just past the dock.

Coming across the lake was frikkin’ hovercraft, with a giant sexy curvy Christmas elf painted on the side, an elf that looked a lot like Avery, driven by a man that looked a lot like her husband Krampus — because the man was her husband, Krampus.

“I finished my book, and you two are going to catch a death of cold if you keep at this,” said Krampus. “Go inside and get warmed up. Your fathers won’t forgive me if I let you two freeze. Now, I got a wife to take on a surprise date. Shoo!”

Pandora and Jack walked up the stairs to the back patio, giggling to themselves as Krampus stormed the bakery’s back door as if it were the very gates to Hell. It was hard to believe that, until a few years ago, Krampus and Avery had been in denial of their obvious attraction to each other…although, of course, Pandora and Jack had been in the same situation, denying the fact they obviously liked each other for far too long.

Pandora and Jack went into the bakery, ordered their drinks, and, Pandora was going to go to the back patio, but Jack tugged on her sleeve.

“What?” asked Pandora.

“Ever go down there?” asked Jack, motioning to the basement, which wasn’t locked.

“No,” said Pandora. “It’s just storage.”

“Is it?” asked Jack. “I do recall we saw one couple down there before, trying to, uh, stay warm.”

“Well, it’s not very cold,” said Pandora.

“Isn’t it?” asked Jack, snapping his fingers, and causing it to snow right over Pandora.

“You know, everyone’s gonna think I have frikkin’ dandruff if you keep covering my head with snowflakes,” grumbled Pandora. “Okay. Fine. Whatever. We can go down there — to see what’s down there, and then, we gotta come back up, before Avery catches us.”

“Ah, yes, the woman who’s on a romantic date with her husband is really gonna come down here to catch two mischievous young adults,” said Jack sarcastically. “I think you’re just scared — a scaredy-bear!”

“Says the ice chicken!” hissed Pandora. “Come on. Let’s just get this over with.”

Pandora chugged her iced coffee, put the empty cup down in the dirty dishes bin by the back door of the bakery, and went down the stairs into the dark basement. Jack quickly drank his drink and followed suit.

“See, there’s nothing down here,” said Pandora, turning on a light, causing the entire space to become illuminated in Christmas lights. “It’s just a bunch of boxes and —”

“And what?” asked Jack. “A frikkin’ Kraken or something?”

“Well, I guess we know where Avery naps on the job,” said Pandora, crossing her arms. “Look.” Pandora pointed with her chin. She was pointing toward a rather large bed…shaped like a sleigh.

“Wouldn’t you know it…fucking in a sleigh is one of my bucket list items,” growled Jack.

“Mine too,” admitted Pandora, turning to Jack. “Problem is, I just got my sleigh detailed, so…I guess we’re gonna have to make do with what we got.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s just…too bad,” said Jack, picking Pandora up and carrying her over to the sleigh bed. He went and made sure the entrance to the basement was closed, locked from the inside, and then, he went over to the bed. The basement was dimly lit by Christmas lights. The sleigh bed had a set of flannel sheets, as soft as the ones in Pandora’s bedroom, with a red and white snowflake pattern.

“To be fair, this is a nice bed,” said Pandora, on all fours, examining the sheets to make sure they were clean.

“Not as nice as your ass,” said Jack, reaching down to grab Pandora’s butt through her jeans.

Pandora turned. “Wow, you get right to it, don’t you?”

“As if I can’t scent your arousal from here,” said Jack, quirking a brow.

“That your shifter side cluing you in on that?” asked Pandora.

“Unlike bears, penguins aren’t exactly known for their sense of smell,” said Jack. “I’m not sure Avery could bake enough cookies to mask the musky scent of, well, you. I know you, Pandora…and I’ve very much enjoyed getting to know you more…intimately.” Jack ran his hand down Pandora’s slit, feeling her moistness even through her jeans.

“Then prove it,” challenged Pandora, moving her butt.

“With pleasure,” growled Jack. He pulled down Pandora’s jeans roughly and lowered his own jeans just down to his knees. He popped his cock out of his pants and pressed it to Pandora’s slit, moving aside her panties and grabbing her by the hips as he pistoned in and out of her.

“Jack!” said Pandora with surprise, but soon, it turned to a moan, as she gripped the flannel sheets in her hands. “Oh…Jack…”

“That’s right, baby, say my name,” said Jack, gripping Pandora by her underwear’s waistband and pressing in and out of her, his ice-cold cock getting warmed up by Pandora’s tight, warm pussy, as it clenched around her. “Fuck, nothing’s hotter than that.”

“You sure?” asked Pandora, turning to face Jack. “That’s what you think about…when you’re Jack-ing off?”

“Ha-ha,” said Jack sarcastically, ripping Pandora’s panties right off and stuffing them in his mouth.

“You really are an animal,” said Pandora, half impressed, half disgusted.

Jack spit the panties out on the ground. “I told you. I want to get to know you very, very intimately.”

“And how do I taste?” asked Pandora. “Not…fishy, right?”

“No, but, you saw all the salmon I ate,” said Jack. “You think I’d care if you tasted fishy?”

“Jack, you always know just what to say…oh!” said Pandora, startled as Jack tipped her hips up so he could penetrate her even more deeply. Her legs quivered, and her arms failed her entirely. She lay down on the bed, her butt in the air, as Jack thrust in and out of her.

“Come on, babe, don’t tell me that I’m so boring, you’re gonna fall asleep on me,” said Jack, pulling out of Pandora. He spat on his hand and pressed his fingers against Pandora, feeling her arousal. He turned Pandora on to her back and got in the bed, on top of her.

“I could never fall asleep while you’re — well, especially when you’re doing that,” said Pandora, her sentence interrupted by Jack using his ice-cold index finger to rub circles around her clit. “Fuck, Jack.” Pandora reached up to hold Jack’s torso against her hot body, to have him cool her down. She tried pulling him down, but he resisted, keeping space between them as he played with her clit while thrusting in and out of her. Pandora clawed at Jack’s back, trying to get him to pull closer, her back arching to try and press her torso against hers, but it was no use…until Jack chose to push down onto Pandora, closing the space between them.

Pandora kissed Jack deeply as he hiked her legs up around his waist, entering her slowly, screwing in and out of her as slowly as his tongue parted her lips and danced with her own tongue. Pandora kept running her nails along Jack’s back, reveling in the sensation of his icy body against her fingers…until, all at once, like Jack’s magic turning the ice to slush, she came, hard, melting into Jack.

Jack crashed into Pandora, giving her one last kiss before pulling out of her, exhausted.

“Guess coming down here was a good idea,” admitted Pandora.

“And I guess you weren’t too chicken — or, in your words, too ice chicken,” teased Jack, giving Pandora a kiss on the hand before standing up.

Pandora watched as Jack got changed. She never tired of seeing his hot, sexy body, whether it was in clothes, getting out of clothes, naked, or getting changed into clothes she’d tear off later…but, when Jack turned while putting on his shirt, Pandora saw something, some odd marks.

“Uh…Jack?” asked Pandora, lifting Jack’s shirt up. She looked at his pack. There was an array of grooves forming hash marks. She put her hand up to the slots, then, turned her hands and made a claw with her fingers. The scores were from her, from her fingers on Jack’s back!

“Yeah?” asked Jack.

“There’s a problem,” said Pandora. “Your back.”

“My back?” asked Jack. “What, you scratched it too hard?”

“I think so,” said Pandora. “All my claw marks, they left grooves in your back.”

“They what?” asked Jack. “Am I bleeding?”

“No,” said Pandora. “But…they’re full of water. Sweat.”

“This…isn’t normal,” said Jack. “But, we shouldn’t panic.”

“Okay, you can choose not to panic, but I’m going to,” said Pandora. “My boyfriend has big grooves in his back full of ice water, and seems to be…melting or something.”

“Look, I probably just need some magical strength deodorant,” said Jack. “It’s probably just sweat — or some kind of magical bruising or bleeding. Maybe you just need to cut your nails or wear mittens when we fuck. Let’s not assume the worst. Can we just have a nice day today? Before all the Christmas hullabaloo starts?”

“Okay, but, first thing tomorrow, we’re seeing someone for help,” said Pandora.

“Who?” asked Jack.

“Oh, you know — this guy with thick, gnarly horns, curly black fur, and four hooves that stomped straight out of Hell,” answered Pandora.