Kevin helped carry the last of the boxes into the community center. A bunch of kits for building gingerbread houses and many boxes of shoe-shaped gingerbread cookies were out on the tables. As Kevin unloaded Avery’s car, the pile of donated shoe boxes inside the community center grew bigger and bigger, like a Christmas pyramid. The shape almost reminded Kevin of a Christmas tree. The whole town of The Wreath had come together and helped in any way they could, from setting up the community center and donating brand-new boxes of shoes to volunteering to work with the kids and giving them baked goods.

“Alright, is that all of them?” asked Kevin.

“Yep,” said Avery. “But, not so fast — I have you for the day, so you’re my bitch for the whole day.”

“What do you want me to do?” asked Kevin. “Clean out the ovens back at the bakery?”

“I could make a dirty joke about that, and I will — that sounds sexual, Kevin, and if I’m being honest, I’d prefer if your boss ‘cleaned’ my ovens out,” sassed Avery. “But, no. I want you to volunteer here with Stella.”

“No problem,” said Kevin. “What does that entail?”

“Let me know if we need to send over extra kits,” said Avery. “Maybe a kid drops theirs, and they need a replacement after running out of the included backups. Maybe they need more icing.”

“Wait, extra kits?” asked Kevin.

“I’m a Christmas elf with baking magic, among other things,” said Avery. “I can just snap my fingers and make them appear out of thin air.” Avery snapped her fingers and made a kit appear out of thin air. She worked even faster than the elves from the story with the cobbler.

“Then why didn’t you just make all the kits?” growled Kevin, wildly gesturing. “You could’ve saved Stella so much time!”

“To give you and Stella some time together!” said Avery, passing Kevin the kit. “Krampus thought she was meant to be with Nivek — every year, the bakery gal has ended up with his lumberjack, and he didn’t include you in that number until Nivek’s shenanigans yesterday. I guess he switched teams in the eleventh hour. Anyway, toodles, bitches — I got Christmas elf shit to do.”

Avery got in her van and drove off, leaving Kevin with a gingerbread kit in his hands.

Kevin walked into the event space.

“Here,” said Kevin, passing Stella the kit. “I guess Avery found an extra.”

“Great,” said Stella, putting the kit on the table. “Well…I guess you can head out now.”

“Avery wants me to help you,” said Kevin. “So, whether you like it or not, I’m going to be here, tonight. I’ll try to stay out of your way.”

“Works for me,” said Stella.

An event coordinator came up to Kevin and Stella.

“Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt you two,” said the event coordinator, a cheery woman with cat-eye glasses whose nametag read ‘Darla.’ “Two of our volunteers dropped out at the last minute. I know you two work with the bakery, but…”

“We’d love to help,” said Stella.

“Yeah, we’re all yours,” said Kevin. “What do you need us to do?”

“Great,” said Darla. “Today’s event is an event for foster kids and their mentors. Well, one boy’s mentors got sick and couldn’t come today — after all, there are a lot of kids here, and we wouldn’t want them to get sick too. Would you mind working with him tonight?”

“I’m great with kids,” said Kevin.

“You are?” asked Stella.

“Have to be,” said Kevin. “If a kid gets lost in the woods, we don’t want the forest rangers scaring the kid away. I have to be extra gentle because I’m so big and scary. Roar!” Kevin made a goofy teeth gnashing movement, his hands up in the air, curled like claws.

“Well, this kid’s a little shy,” said Darla. “He already got dropped off. He’s right over there.” Darla pointed to a table where there was a single boy, sitting alone, waving his legs in his chair.

“Just grab three of those kits — one for each of you three — and, well, help him have a special Christmas,” said Darla. “Thanks for being little Seanathan’s Christmas angels.”

Stella grabbed three kits off the table, and the pair walked over to Seanathan.

“Hey, little buddy,” said Stella. “Can we sit here?”

“No!” said Seanathan. “Those seats are for Mandy and Andy, my mentors.”

“Mandy and Andy are —” started Stella, but Kevin shook his head.

“How about we keep you company until Mandy and Andy get here?” asked Kevin. “I’m Kevin, and this is Stella. We’ve got these gingerbread house kits here, but, nobody to show us how to build them!”

“You don’t know how to build a gingerbread house?” asked Seanathan.

“Well, I think Stella might need some help,” said Kevin, shooting Stella a wink.

“Y-yeah!” said Stella. “Do you think you could find the time to help me?”

“It’s so easy,” said Seanathan. “Even little kids can do it! You really can’t do it? I guess I could help you…but I didn’t hear a please.”

“Please, Seanathan, will you help me build a gingerbread house?” asked Stella, smiling and shaking her head at how sassy Seanathan was.

“Well, you did say please,” admitted Seanathan.

Seanathan didn’t ask about Mandy and Andy for the rest of the night. Instead, he was distracted by Stella and Kevin. Seanathan and Stella worked together on building a house, with a little help from Kevin, who helped them glue the pieces together so that Seanathan could focus on house decorating.

“I think I have it from here,” said Seanathan. “I just need to make this peppermint path, and it’ll be perfect!”

“Here,” said Kevin. Stella turned to Kevin. Kevin had let Stella and Seanathan do all of the decorating. She hadn’t noticed that Kevin had put together a gingerbread house kit in the meantime.

“What’s this?” asked Stella.

“A house for you to decorate, silly,” said Seanathan.

“Oh, I’m too old for that,” said Stella.

“You weren’t too old for it a few minutes ago,” said Kevin, raising a brow. “This is a blank canvas, Stella. You can build whatever you want.”

“Fine — but you have to decorate one too,” insisted Stella.

“But of course,” said Kevin.

Stella watched as Kevin gingerly put together the gingerbread house. She looked at the house he’d built her. It was sturdy, but lacking any decoration. Stella looked at the kit for ideas. They had a variety of decorations on the table, decorations that Seanathan had picked out with Stella on a trip to the decorations station. But, what did Stella want her house to look like?

The house on the box was fancy looking. Stella had had her fill of fancy houses.

“You’re overthinking it,” said Kevin.

Stella looked up. Kevin’s gingerbread house looked even fancier than the one on the box! He had tiny candy shingles all over the roof and was applying icing icicles.

“Great, now I feel self-conscious about mine,” grumbled Stella.

“Just have fun with it and put the kind of candy you like to eat on the gingerbread house,” said Kevin. “You decorate cookies at the bakery. This shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Well, it is,” said Stella.

Kevin reached over and put a line on Stella’s gingerbread house roof.

“Hey!” said Stella.

“Do something about it,” said Kevin, going back to decorating his gingerbread house.

Stella looked at the line. It was a janky looking line, not a swirl, not a straight line, barely a curve. She could rub it into the gingerbread, but it would soak the gingerbread and make the roof weak. She could cover it, but the line was funny looking, thin in some places, thick in others. She looked at the candy on the table and picked out some chocolate coated sunflower seeds in a variety of colors and some lentil-shaped chocolate morsels. She arranged them so that the line was covered up by their rainbow glory. The swirl of rainbow inspired her to keep adding on to the roof and make it a mosaic. Before long, she finally got in the swing of things, creating a psychedelic mosaic with no subject but with every color.

“See, now you’re getting into it,” said Kevin.

Stella looked up. She’d been so focused on her gingerbread house that she hadn’t noticed Kevin’s. One of Seanathan’s friends from the program, a young boy around his age named Darrel, had come over to help Seanathan decorate. Seanathan was occupied with his friend and had no interest in helping Kevin with his house — which was fine, as the event was about giving the foster children a fun Christmas activity to do with their friends and mentors.

Kevin had put together a miniature model of Bear Claw Bakery, complete with windows drawn on to the gingerbread in warm yellow and orange, painted on with tiny tools. In one window, there was a curvy silhouette, underneath a sprig of mistletoe.

“It’s beautiful,” whispered Stella.

Stella looked at the gingerbread house that Kevin had built. It was on the table, in front of Kevin’s torso. It made Stella think of Kevin’s other ‘gingerbread house’ — his mate mark, on his chest. The thought was bittersweet. There was no denying Fate…but even if Stella was Kevin’s fated mate, that didn’t mean she was his fated wife. After all, there was still the problem of The Naughty List. Kevin had gotten on The Naughty List three times. What had Kevin done to get on the list three times? How could he be the sweet, sensitive shifter that builds gingerbread houses with a foster kid…while being a bad boy?

“And it’s tasty too,” said Kevin. He snapped off a piece of the ornately decorated roof and munched on it.

“Kevin!” squealed Stella. “Yours was so pretty! Why would you break it?”

“Gingerbread houses are fun to make, even more fun to eat,” said Kevin, passing Seanathan a piece of the base and giving Stella a piece of the roof. “They’re not just there to look pretty. The real fun was making it with the two of you.”

“I’m gonna keep mine,” said Seanathan. “This isn’t just a gingerbread house — it’s a gingerbread home.”

Seanathan’s foster parent arrived to pick him up. She made sure to pick up a pair of donated shoes for Seanathan – brand new snow boots, perfect for playing in the snow.

“Wow,” said his mom. “I haven’t seen him smile this wide in a long time.”

“I had a lot of fun,” said Seanathan simply.

Stella and Kevin left the building with Seanathan and his mom as Seanathan babbled on to his mom about how much fun he’d had with Stella and Kevin.

A harsh wind swept through the parking lot as Stella and Kevin said goodbye to Seanathan. Kevin had just finished giving Seanathan a hug when the wind blew Stella’s scarf away, up into the air!

“Oh, no!” said Stella.

Without thinking, Kevin pulled away from the group and shifted into his reindeer form. As he reached for the scarf, his hand turned to a hoof, and then, so did his other hand, and then, his feet. His whole body transformed!

“He’s a reindeer?” squeaked Seanathan.

Then, Kevin jumped into the air and didn’t fall back down.

“He’s a flying reindeer?” yelped Seanathan.

Kevin soared through the air. Although there was wind, there was no snow that night, so he had clear visibility. He saw Stella’s bright red scarf dancing through the air. He reached out for it, but it flew away! Kevin chased the scarf and chomped down on it with his reindeer teeth.

Kevin looked down at the community center, which was dozens of feet below him. He carefully went in for the landing. He dropped the red scarf in front of Stella and shifted back into a man.

Seanathan nearly dropped his gingerbread house. He’d never seen a flying reindeer before! The stories were true. Santa did have special helpers, including reindeer who could fly and make Christmas very, very special, for all kinds of boys and girls – including Seanathan. Seanathan’s smile grew wider as he watched the big flying reindeer swoop through the air.

“Seanathan?” asked Seanathan’s mom, who was already in the car and had missed all of this. “We need to get going!”

“Merry Christmas, Seanathan,” said Kevin.

“Merry Christmas, Kevin — and can you, uh, tell Santa I’ve been good this year? Really good?” whispered Seanathan.

“Of course I can, sport,” said Kevin, rustling Seanathan’s hair.

Seanathan got in the car, and Kevin and Stella waved as the car pulled out of the lot.

“Hey, I need to run inside real fast,” said Stella. “All that apple cider finally got to me.”

“Run, run,” shooed Kevin.

Stella rushed into the community center. Kevin walked to the community center slowly, taking his time.

“Ey, kid, wanna buy some drugs?” asked a man leaning against the community center’s outside wall, wreathed in shadows.

“No thanks, man,” said Kevin. “Drugs are for losers.”

“I got all the good stuff, man — candy cane dust, eggnog poppers, mistletoe shots,” said the man, stepping out from the darkness and revealing himself to be nonother than Krampus.

“Krampus? What are you doing here?” asked Kevin.

“You’re off of The Naughty List,” said Krampus, arms crossed.

“What do you mean, I’m off The Naughty List?” asked Kevin.

“What I just said — you’re off the list,” said Krampus. “When you shifted in front of that kid and flew, you had him believing in Christmas magic.”

Kevin unbuttoned his shirt and peeked. The mark had changed again. It did say Nice instead of Naughty!

Krampus reached into his pocket.

“Please — don’t send me back,” begged Kevin.

“Relax,” said Krampus, pulling out the snow globe. “It’s sorta become tradition around these parts that the bad boys get to have their bears back the night before The Ride.”

“Including Nivek?” asked Kevin.

“Well, you know, it’s just the darnedest thing,” said Krampus. “I just wasn’t able to find his snow globe.”

“Well…I can’t use my bear,” said Kevin. “The snow globe doesn’t work on me anymore.”

“Doesn’t it?” asked Krampus, deadpan. “Look, Donner, you’re not the only one that knows how to play games and keep secrets, and I don’t much like Nivek, so you keep your mouth shut about reindeer recess, and I’ll look the other way about this snow globe mess. I’ve just been trying to do what I think I gotta do – same as you.”

“I’m not going to get in trouble for —” started Kevin.

“Do I need to know?” asked Krampus, shutting Kevin up with a finger to Kevin’s lips. “Right. Well. Let’s see if some ‘Christmas magic’ can’t fix the snow globe problem…for tonight.”

Do it, said Donner.

Are you sure he’s not gonna rat us out? asked Kevin.

He’s a demon — he isn’t obligated to play by anyone’s rules, not even Santana’s, insisted Donner. I won’t let that rat bastard Nivek use me. Don’t worry. If he does, I’ll have him get a hoof to the face — repeatedly. Stop hitting yourself, et cetera.

Kevin put his hand on the snow globe. He felt Donner leave his body and felt his bear enter his body as rivers and ribbons of red and gold light ran through Kevin’s fingers. He swore he could smell freshly made clove oranges and Christmas tea, that he could hear the tinkling of jingle bells.

“Huh, funny how that just so happened to randomly work after it didn’t work all the other times we tried this back at camp,” said Krampus. Every single day, except for that very day, Krampus had tried to get Donner to leave Kevin’s body and failed. Krampus knew what that meant, but kept the information to himself.

“So you’re not sending me back to Nuthusk?” asked Kevin.

“Nope,” said Krampus. “I made a mistake, Kevin. I’m not an idiot. I can admit that — I did think that Fate had made a mistake, bringing you to The Wreath. But, obviously, you’re meant to be here…and to go on The Ride.”

“What about Nivek?” asked Kevin.

“What about him?” asked Krampus. “He’s none of your concern. Santana will figure out what to do about him and his shift. If he’s a huge dick, Santana might just rescind his Second Amendment rights.”

“His what?” asked Kevin.

“His right to ‘bear arms,’” said Krampus. “You know — taking away his shift, for good.”

“You mean bear paws?” asked Kevin.

“Bears have arms, don’t they?” asked Krampus. “Whatever. Just, row home at the end of the night. The boat’s on this side of the lake. I’ll take your shift back tomorrow before we head North.”

With that, Krampus snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Stella came back outside in a few minutes.

“Hey,” said Stella. “The organization doesn’t need any help cleaning up, so…I guess we’re free to go.”

“I guess we are,” said Kevin, looking down at Stella. She was all bundled up in thick sweaters, a scarf, a hat, jeans, and winter boots, but all he could think about was how gorgeous she looked when she’d been beneath him, naked, taking him in. He’d never heard of a person rejecting the call of Fate, refusing to be with the shifter that Fate had paired them with…but he’d also never been in love before. He’d never met a woman like Stella before, and before he’d met Krampus, he’d never believed in Christmas magic.

Stella looked up into Kevin’s kind eyes and gulped. How could a man who made her feel like she was melting inside, like a bowl of ice cream getting covered in hot chocolatey fudge, be a bad boy?

“You wanted to go ice skating,” said Kevin. “Did you ever make that happen?”

“No, actually,” said Stella. “It’s kind of late. Do you think any places will be open?”

“Only one way to find out,” said Kevin. “Come on.” Kevin gestured for Stella to follow. Stella instinctively reached out and grabbed Kevin’s hands.

“Oh,” said Stella, pulling her hand away as if she’d touched a hot stove. “Sorry. Reflex.”

“It is icy out,” said Kevin, offering his hand. “You should hold my hand — for safety reasons.”

“Fine — for safety reasons,” said Stella, reaching for Kevin’s hand. Kevin’s fingers closed around her hand, holding it firmly but softly. Stella entwined her fingers in Kevin’s. Kevin looked at Stella, surprised that she was pushing for a more intimate handholding experience. He took a risk and hooked his arm into hers. Stella leaned into Kevin’s gentle side embrace, and the pair started walking.

The town of The Wreath was a very walkable town filled with small shops all around the lake known as The Wreath. Whether the town was named after the lake or whether the lake was named after the town was an argument that old men had over their cranberry scones at Bear Claw Bakery. The lake was a wreath ‘round Camp Kringle, and the town, a wreath ‘round the lake. Around the town, there was a forest — also named The Wreath. Whether the wood was named first was a topic of discussion that occurred over hot toddies at the pub between little old grannies.

In the night, the town was sandwiched between the dark of the lake and the dark of the forest. The town glowed with warm white lights from streetlights and the Christmas lights strung up over all the trees lining the streets. The Christmas lights glowed red, blue, green, yellow, and pink in the night, coloring the speckles of snow that fell from the sky.

Dotted around the town were various winter attractions. One of a handful of ice rinks was near the community center, but as Kevin and Stella approached, still arm in arm, hand in hand, the caretaker of the ice rink was chaining the gate shut.

“Excuse me,” said Kevin. “Do you know of any ice rinks that are open later than yours?”

“Sorry, sonny,” said the man whose nametag read ‘George,’ taking off his train engineer’s cap and dusting the snow off of it before putting it back on his head. “I do not recall.”

“Is there any way you could let us skate here?” asked Kevin. “Just for a bit?”

“Well…I have to stay here late to clean up the rental skates,” said George. “I would have to open up the rink again…”

“What if I help you with cleaning up the skates?” asked Kevin. “Can she skate while I help you with that?”

“Can you sharpen them too?” asked George.

“Trust me. I’m a park ranger. If it’s anything like sharpening an ax, it should be easy,” said Kevin. “Besides, one year, I worked at the local ice rink and had to sharpen these daily. I might be a little rusty, but trust me – these will be razor sharp by the time I’m done with them.”

“Well then, boy, you’ve got yourself a deal,” said George, shaking Kevin’s hand. “Come on.”

George led Kevin and Stella into the ice rink, which was empty. Stella got a pair of skates from George and insisted on paying for both time on the rink and her skates because George had opened the ice rink back up for them. George showed Kevin how to clean the skates.

“So, how long have you two been dating?” asked George, picking a sock out of one of the skates and tossing it away.

“We’re not,” said Kevin.

“Then does she know you’re in love with her?” asked George.

“Is it that obvious?” asked Kevin, running a whetstone over a skate blade.

“Let me just tell you — I’ve met men who rented out this rink for big, grand gestures…but I’ve never met a man who was willing to clean out dirty skates just to put a smile on a woman’s face,” said George. “That means one thing — you two are in love.”

Kevin looked out at the rink. Stella had gotten her groundings and was skating on the edge of the rink, slowly. She did have a smile on her face, and that did make handling all the stinky skates worth it. Kevin smiled to himself.

“Ah, heck,” said George. “All this…it can wait until tonight.” George pulled out his key ring.

“Just use this to lock up the rink with that chain when you two are done, and toss this into cubby 69 when you’re done skating,” said George, putting a pair of shoes away and leaving the counter.

“Wait, what?” asked Kevin.

“You two are a cute couple, so have fun on the rink, on the house,” said George. “Even though I run an ice rink, I’m not cold-hearted. You two have a Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too,” said Kevin.

George left the ice rink. Kevin found a pair of skates in his size and carried them with him to the edge of the rink. Stella skated over to him.

“Hey, what’s up?” asked Stella, leaning on the edge of the rink. “I thought you were on skate cleaning duty.”

“George let me off early,” said Kevin with a wink. “Now…you planning on hugging that wall all night, or do you want a real skating lesson?”

“I’ve been clinging on to this wall so tight that it’s going to get a restraining order out on me,” joked Stella. “Get in here…and thanks for getting us in here in the first place.”

Kevin slipped on the skates and entered the rink. He took Stella’s hands and started to skate backward, away from the wall.

“Whoa!” shouted Stella.

“Just hold on to my hands, and trust me,” said Kevin. “Tonight, you don’t have to do any skating of your own. Just get used to the feeling of being on the ice, on the skates.”

“Okay,” said Stella, holding on to Kevin’s hands with a white-knuckle grip.

Stella squatted and leaned forward to try and stay balanced.

“You’re overcorrecting and could actually fall off balance that way. Typical beginner’s issue. Try not to lean over so much,” said Kevin. “I’ve got you.”

“Okay,” said Stella, breathing in and out.

“Just let me lead,” said Kevin. “It’s just like dancing.”

“Like ballroom dancing?” asked Stella.

“Yes, exactly,” said Kevin.

“Oh, okay,” said Stella. “I did that during my debutante training. I can let you lead. No problem.”

“Notice how you didn’t slip while we were talking?” asked Kevin. “Just don’t psyche yourself out. Just trust me, Stella. I’d never let you get hurt.”

As Stella let Kevin lead her over the ice, the act of skating felt less like falling awkwardly and more like dancing…albeit dancing awkwardly. She wasn’t comfortable on the skates, but she was surprisingly comfortable in Kevin’s hands.

Kevin led Stella in simple figure eights over the ice. He looked down at the curvy woman and saw her eyes twinkling back at him, reflecting all the colors of the Christmas lights hung up around the rink.

“You ready to graduate to skating without skates?” asked Kevin.

“What do you mean?” asked Stella with a frown.

“Just trust me,” said Kevin. “Do you trust me?”

“You already know the answer,” said Stella.