Chapter Two
Christmas music jingled in her ears. The smell of pinecones and sugar cookies invaded her nose. Yet it hardly felt like a jolly Christmas to either Nikki or her sister Sarah. It was hard to feel joy after they had just lost both their parents.
Nevertheless, here was Nikki, standing in line with her little sister on her hip waiting to see Santa Claus. She would do everything she could to make sure that Sarah had a good Christmas, and what little kid didn’t want to see Santa?
Looking down at the three-year-old girl who was sucking on her thumb, Nikki sighed. “You need to stop doing that, baby. You’re a big girl now, remember? Big girls don’t suck on their thumbs.”
Sarah turned her head and stared at Nikki with those big light-green colored eyes with gold flecks that reminded her of their mother. The sight caused her heart to squeeze in pain. As Sarah stared at her with vulnerability, Nikki sighed again, this time in resolution. There was no way she could enforce the no thumb rule right now. Not when it had become her sister’s security blanket after their parents’ death.
The best she could do was distract Sarah and hope the little girl gave her thumb sucking up that way. Looking around at where they stood in the line, Nikki caught sight of the large Christmas tree in the center of the mall. Pointing at the tree, she spoke in a soft murmur to her sister. “Look at the tree, baby. See all the pretty lights?”
Her sister turned her head and looked at the tree. Sarah silently watched the tree for a long moment before whispering “pwetty” around her thumb. Nikki watched her sister as the little girl stared at the twinkling lights. Maybe the sight of the gorgeous tree hadn’t persuaded the girl to give up her thumb, but Nikki could tell by her big eyes and the small smile that tipped the side of her mouth that it made her happy, and that was all that really mattered. She would do anything to make the little girl happy again.
Nikki was just about to point out the candy canes at a nearby vendor when a growl from the front of the line caught her attention. The sound had been low, too low for human ears in fact, but her sensitive shifter hearing had picked up the vibration. That sound could only mean one thing—there was another shifter here. Turning her head, she locked eyes with Santa himself, who was staring at her as if she were prey and he the predator.
Oh shit! Santa was the shifter.
But what was his deal? Why was he growling like that? Suddenly the line moved forward and Nikki moved along with it. As she took a few steps up, it finally hit her. His smell. Warm aroused male musk wrapped up in cinnamon and spice. A shiver racked her body and the juncture of her thighs began to throb. There was only one thing that could make her body react like this.
The mating scent.
Santa was her mate!
Caught somewhere in between awe and shock, Nikki didn’t know what to think. Her mind whirled with all the implications. The man sitting on the seasonal holiday throne in front of her was the man meant to be her life partner. He would more than likely want to seal this mating as soon as possible with a romping round of sex and then move on to building their lives together.
It was at that moment that Sarah pulled on her sleeve. “Sissy?”
The small action was like a bucket of ice cold water being poured over her head. Looking back to the Santa, who was now talking to the little boy on his lap while watching her from the corner of his eye, she felt reality slap her in the face.
Sarah had lost too much already. Everything in the poor kid’s life had been turned upside down. The last thing she needed was for her big sister, the person who had overnight become solely responsible for her, to get distracted by a guy. Nikki didn’t have time for a mate.
End of story.
The line moved again. One step closer to the presumably sexy shifter. It was hard to tell under cheesy red velvet and a fake white beard. But he was a shifter, after all, and sexy was typically part of the bargain. Despite her best intentions, Nikki found herself scanning him from head to toe beneath her lashes, looking for any hint of what he might be like under his holiday disguise. Realizing what she was doing, she gave herself the equivalent of a mental head slap.
No way, no how. Nikki had a little sister to raise and that meant she had no time for mating, sexing, or building a life with someone new. Hell, she barely had time to brush her teeth some days. There was no way she could fit someone else in her life.
Mate or not, she was just going to have to walk away. She started to do just that when Sarah tugged her sleeve again. “Sissy, I wanna see Santa!”
Nikki looked down to the little girl with torn feelings. She didn’t want to come face-to-face with the man she was telling herself she couldn’t have. The man who was already tempting her more than was good for her or Sarah. And that was without even knowing what he looked like! But dammit, she had promised Sarah they would see Santa today and now the little girl’s heart was set on it. What was she going to do?
The line started to move forward again and the man behind her cleared his throat impatiently for her to get moving. What the hell was she going to do? One look down into her sister’s imploring eyes and Nikki knew.
They were going to see Santa. She would not be responsible for letting Sarah down. Their father had done that enough already.
Nikki slammed the brakes on that line of thought. She wouldn’t think about their parents—not about the accident had taken their mother’s life instantly and not about the selfish choice her father had made to die with his mate rather than survive and care for his youngest child. It was one thing for her—she was an adult. But he’d chosen to die and abandon Sarah and that still made her so angry that she couldn’t bear to think of it.
Stepping sideways and forward back into the line, Nikki put steel in her spine and found her determination. She was going to take Sarah to see Santa Claus… And then she was going to tell him have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year without her.