Chapter 7
Noelle loved meeting Mire’s parents, Trish and Roger. They were welcoming and so excited to meet her. They were thrilled she would be staying in NPC with Mire. She also wanted her dad to know that she was staying in NPC and that they could finally be together as a family. But she was worried about him because he was still unconscious. Even while she spent time with Mire’s family, she found her thoughts drifting to her dad and hoping that he woke soon. Their family no longer consisted of just him and her; she had Mire and his parents as her new, extended family. Mire considered the other quads to be family, too, so she suddenly had seven kind-of brothers, three kind-of sisters, and a few kind-of nieces and nephews, too.
“We’d be happy to go with you to pack up,” Roger said. “We’ll need two more guards, so I’ll ask Gentry and Hall.”
“Why do we need so many people?” Noelle asked.
“Because it takes magic to go from NPC to the human cities,” Roger said. “And although you would have some magic in you because you’re part elf, it won’t be strong enough to take you to your home and then back here. Plus, you’ll have bags to bring back, and we’ll need a few extra hands to make sure the magic is strong between all of us so we can get home.”
She hummed. “I’ll need to call my friends and boss and then figure out what to do about my apartment.”
Trish smiled. “Just make sure to bring your banking information with you, and our computer experts will handle closing everything out for you. They can even arrange for whatever you leave behind to be donated to charity.”
“That’s good.”
“Well,” Mire said, “the three other fated mates have ensured that the process of moving up here is a lot smoother than it was when they moved. The last thing we want to do is draw attention to someone leaving and make it seem like a disappearance.”
“Will I ever be able to see my friends again?”
“I can take you back to visit them next Christmas if you’d like. And you’ll be given a private email and video call programs that are untraceable so you can stay in touch with them.”
That would make leaving easier for sure. She knew she was getting a lot from Mire by having him as a mate, but it would have been hard to walk away from her friends, thinking she’d never be able to contact them again. She didn’t want them to worry about her, or wonder if she’d died or been kidnapped. She could ease their minds, and that would, in turn, ease hers.
Roger glanced at the clock on the mantel and said, “About time for you to get going, isn’t it, son?”
“Yeah. I hate to leave, though.”
“But it’s important,” Noelle said. “I’ll be here when you get home, and plus, if you aren’t there, the sleigh won’t work, right?”
He chuckled. “There are other quads who could take my place for this run.”
She shook her head. “I want you to go. This is part of who you are. You can’t skip out every Christmas Eve just because we’re mates.”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m abandoning you.”
“I promise I don’t.”
He kissed her. “Then let’s go to the barn so you can watch us take off, and then you can head to your home.”
After bundling up, Noelle and Mire headed to the main barn with his parents. Two large double doors stood on either end of the barn, and a wide, red sleigh, gleaming in the light from the lanterns hanging all around, sat near the back of the barn. A lot of men with pointed ears were running in and out of the stalls.
“I thought that men were shifters and women were elves?” she whispered as Mire led her to the stall that had a nameplate that read “Vixen,” on it.
“Males can be either elf or shifter, but females are always elves. Sorry for the confusion.”
“It’s too bad that girls can’t be shifters. It would be cool to be able to turn into an animal. What’s your favorite shift?”
“Polar bear. But without the reindeer I couldn’t help drive the sleigh, so I like him a lot, too.”
“Will you show me your fox and owl sometime?”
“You bet.”
She met the other members of the sleigh team as they came into the barn. They greeted her warmly, excited that another one of their team had found his fated mate. She looked at the harness that hung on the side of the stall, and she touched the soft leather. “You’ll be safe, right?”
“I promise.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed him. “Thank you.”
“For what, sweetheart?”
“For everything. You kidnapped me, but you brought me to my real home. Now I get you, and a family, and my dad, and I feel like I finally belong. I never fit in before.”
“I wish you’d been here years ago.”
“Me too.”
She stepped away and took the clothes that he handed to her as he stripped. Then he winked and changed into his reindeer form. She had only a heartbeat to appreciate his thick furry coat and big antlers when her ears started to burn. Then the other quads began to change, and as each one planted his hooves on the wooden floor, the pain increased in her ears, until she dropped to her knees and slapped her hands over them. Tears leaked from her eyes as the pain grew so sharp that she couldn’t do anything but cry.
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.”