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“Be nice to our new toy shop worker,” Zina said. “Besides, I made cranberry and almond chicken salad and you hate that.”
Billie wrinkled her nose. “Oh yeah, I do. Bleh. Hey, have fun, True. It was nice to meet you. Enjoy my snackle box but save me the fruit snacks if there are any.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
Zina hooked her arm through True’s and said, “I heard you fell out of the sky, hon. You must be an angel or something to be flying high like that!”
By the time Winter found her in the toy shop at the end of his shift, True was having the best time of her life. A handful of woodcarving elves had welcomed her with open arms, given her a workbench and tools, and asked her to carve something for them. They all had specialties but worked on whatever Santa requested, from trucks and trains to music boxes and animals. The room smelled like wood and oil, and she immediately felt at home.
She picked a piece of wood from the stack in the corner and sat down at her workstation. As the hours passed, she carved several animals: an owl like the ones she’d made for her cousins, a dog because one of the elves had a picture of his pet, and a polar bear for Winter, although she hadn’t seen him shift yet.
“Hey, sweetheart, that’s incredible,” he said, joining her. “Joy, did you get a load of this bear? I swear it looks like me.”
Joy, one of the music box carvers, smiled from her station. “She’s got a knack for animals, and that’s lucky because a kid asked Santa for a train with animals to play with. Sounds like a nice combo job for True and Maxy.”
“You know it,” Maxy said, blue eyes twinkling as he bent his graying head over one of the train cars. “I need two elephants, stat.”
True giggled. “I had the best time today,” she said. “Is it really time to go?”
“Yep, you need to eat, and I haven’t seen you in seven hours. Plus, I have plans.”
“Sexy plans?”
He let out a grunt. “Eventually. Not-sexy-plans first.”
“Boo.”
“I figured you were having fun, so I switched to the day shift so you could work here while I’m on patrol if you want.”
“Oh, yay, thank you!” She hugged and kissed him, then carefully put her tools away and stood, stretching out a kink in her back. “See you tomorrow, everyone.”
“I’ll bring a snackle box for you,” Zina said. “Chicken salad okay again?”
“It was delicious, so yes, that’s perfect.”
“Have a good night, kid,” Maxy said, not lifting his head.
Winter took her hand and led her out of the toy shop. “You look like you had the best time today.”
“I always wanted to be able to carve toys for… for real, you know? Yes, they’re fun to give as gifts, but I wanted something more from something I loved so much. This was an amazing day, but now I’m all yours. So tell me about this not-sexy plan of yours, which will hopefully lead to a very sexy time later.”
“Would you like to shift with me?”
“What? Shut the front door, I’d love to!”
He barked out a laugh and put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. “A few of us are going to shift since the weather is clear, and I figured you would like to join in. Dinner first, though.”
“Awesome. I’m starving. Oh, and I need to grab some fruit snacks.”
“Why?”
“I ate Billie’s.”
After dinner, they joined a small group in a barn near the main building that was used for storage. She met Declan, a wolf, and his mate Winterlyn, who was a non-shifting arctic fox; Maverick, a snow leopard, and his reaper mate, Aralyn; and when she saw Emberlin, she gave her a hug of thanks when she arrived with her mate, Sebastian. They all found private areas to strip and shift, and True was entirely mesmerized not only watching Winter strip, because he was super sexy, but because she got to watch him turn into a freaking big polar bear. His fur was pure white and so soft that she wanted to curl up and take a nap on him. Instead, she kissed him on his furry snout and stripped herself, then shifted into her owl. It felt good to be in her shift after the traumatic way she’d come out of it during the storm.
The moment she was hopping around on her feet, her talons clicking on the wooden floor, she felt her connection to Winter grow even stronger. They were mated because he’d bitten her during sex, but they were still getting to know each other. And while the feelings were hot and heavy, they were new, and that was okay.
But she was definitely falling for him.
