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Leo chuckled at her odd choice of words. “It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out there, but I like to ski.”
“That’s good, my boy,” Richard said with a mouthful of food. “Very good.”
“Yes.” Donna studied Leo as she took a sip of her drink. “How is your holiday spirit?”
“Good, I guess.”
“Wonderful,” Richard said. His eyes shined like he was about to reveal a delicious secret. “We’ve secured you a job as part-time help for the holiday season at Sugar Mountain so that you can get close to Gracie Templeton. And…” He giggled.
Donna laughed too before she said. “You’re going to be a reindeer.”
“A reindeer?” Leo chuckled. He guessed dressing up as a reindeer had to have been Richard and Donna’s doing. But he understood why the idea of him dressed as a cute animal on skis would be amusing. Clan warriors did tend to be full of themselves.
But there weren’t any werebear clans near Sugar Mountain, which made Leo lower his eyebrows with skepticism. There were a few reasons a werebear might not be with their clan, and most of them were not good. “What’s the catch?”
“Gracie is”—Donna glanced around and spoke so softly that only a werebear could hear—“human.” The older woman sipped on her drink like she hadn’t dropped a bombshell.
Leo wasn’t bothered by his mate being human. There were a few human-turned-werebear women in his clan. It was common knowledge among werebear that humans who could be mated had to have one werebear parent. But in order to be accepted into a clan, the individual had to change into a shifter. Something a pure human couldn’t do, which was why most human-werebear relationships couldn’t be long term. It was also why most of the werebear in a relationship with a human never revealed their shifter abilities. His heart sank, because it occurred to him Gracie probably didn’t know anything about werebear. “I take it she doesn’t know of her heritage.”
“You are correct.” Richard smiled. “However, you do have the power of true love on your side.”
Leo understood true-mate attraction was an addictive feeling that was hard to defy. But it wasn’t a guarantee a woman would choose to leave her human life to belong to the underground world of werebear. Especially since a human group who wanted to extinguish the entire werebear race had recently become a strong threat. Convincing Gracie to be with him might not be easy. However, Leo didn’t fail missions, and he wasn’t about to fail this one.
Nora set a fresh basket of truffle fries before him. He inhaled deeply, but it wasn’t to breathe in the scent of the tasty treat, it was to find his warrior side. He asked, “What can you tell me about Gracie?”
CHAPTER2
Gracie
“Vixen?” Gracie closed her eyes and took a deep breath in order to keep her cool as panic began to tighten its painful grip on her lungs. She fondled the velvety soft fabric of the reindeer costume’s antlers in her hand. “Can’t I be Comet or Donner?” she asked her boss, Tracy, the head of guest services at Sugar Mountain, a ski and snowboard resort.Any reindeer but a sexy one, thought Gracie. She and other employees would be wearing the costumes on the slopes as they greeted skiers and snowboarders for the holiday week. They’d also hand out candy and hot drink vouchers to children they met on the beginner trails.
Gracie had looked forward to the week because she loved the outdoors and interacting with children. But she was also excited about hiding inside a costume where she wouldn’t be as self-conscious as she usually was when standing next to one of the pretty girls who worked the guest services desk with her.
Carla muttered under her breath, “OrBlitzen.” That made Maggie and Fiona laugh. Tracy shot them a stern glare, but the damage was done. Gracie’s face burned as she wished she could find a way to be immune to the insults the three mean girls she worked with couldn’t resist lobbing her way. She was thirty years old, after all, and it was time to get past feeling like she was in high school. But Carla, Maggie, and Fiona were the kind of women who were blessed with the thin bodies and petite features that were considered beautiful, and Gracie had witnessed numerous times how easy life was for women like them because of it. Life had never been easy for Gracie.
Her boss, Tracy, shook her head. “Sorry, it’s—” The woman grimaced as if she could feel Gracie’s pain, and she spoke softly. “I have to go by size with these things.”
Gracie held out the costume to inspect it. It was a jumpsuit that had a hood, and she saw the reindeer’s name embroidered on the chest in large letters. She sighed. Because she was six feet tall with a solid body to match, she knew Tracy was trying to be tactful about the fact she needed a costume made for a plus-size person. “I understand,” Gracie said.
Her shoulders rounded as she tried to slink into the background of the lodge area where guest services, ski school, and ticket sales were located. Gracie had worked in housekeeping at Sugar Mountain in previous years. She’d been happy to be behind the scenes cleaning the lodge, but the casual friendship she’d formed with Tracy had led the woman to request Gracie be promoted to guest services this winter. The raise had been too much to turn down, but each day was an emotional challenge. If it weren’t for the way Tracy nurtured her as a mentor, Gracie would have begged to get her cleaning job back. As it was, though, she knew the woman was teaching her valuable skills it was time she learned, and it was nice to have someone care about her wellbeing.
Tracy handed out the other costumes, and Fiona let out a squeal of joy. “I’m Rudolph! Oh my god, I’m going to paint my nose red and put little whiskers underneath. I’m going to be so cute!”
“You totally will,” Carla said. “Maggie and I are going to be prancing and dancing.”
“So perfect for you two,” Fiona said. “After all those years of dance.”
Maggie piped in, “I know, right?”
Tracy handed out four more costumes to the guys in the room, and Fiona asked, “Henry, what did you get?”
Henry gave her a smirk. “Dasher.”
Of course he did, thought Gracie. Not only was he charming, but Henry was beyond gorgeous with his dark hair and brown eyes that made women melt like an ice cube in a sauna anytime he looked at them. But Gracie didn’t have a crush on Henry. She liked him because he was a genuinely nice guy, and he treated Gracie as someone who deserved his attention. She also envied the way he and his girlfriend, Kate, looked at each other as if nobody else in the world mattered.
“Where is my Cupid?” Tracy asked. She tugged her phone out of her pocket, and Gracie heard her say, “Mark, where is the new hire? He’s supposed to be picking up his reindeer costume.”
“New hire?” Fiona cooed. “I hope he’s hot.”
