Chapter 2 #2
Once the meeting was over, the Hopefuls all left for the hotel connected to the Stable.
We had an hour and a half to get ready before the Mixer.
The Mixer was downstairs in the hotel bar, as was tradition, so folks didn’t have to find transportation after a long night of drinking and…
everything else that allegedly happened there.
The thing was that the Mixer and the Reindeer Games took place during the start of Autumn, usually the same day as the Equinox.
This was peak rutting season for reindeer-shifters, when we were driven to find a mate and fuck them silly.
So, the Mixer was started as a means for Hopefuls and the Nine to…
get their energy out before the games. People always talked about it as if it was a giant orgy, but no one really knew what happened at the Mixer unless you were there, and no one who was there ever talked about it.
“I’m loving how fucking juicy your ass looks in that skirt, girl!
” North praised as I took in my whole look in the full-length mirror.
I wore a burnt orange and cream floral corset with a black shrug cardigan and a tight-fitting dark green midi-bodycon skirt.
Between the slit going up my thigh, how tightly the skirt hugged my curves, and how perfectly the corset lifted my boobs, I knew the girls were going to be drooling.
The black knee-high heeled boots I wore that added a couple of inches to my height would also do some favors.
My make-up was glam and sparkly, with a dark brown lip and gold highlights.
My curls were full, voluminous, and luscious ringlets, behaving for once.
I really did look incredible with the whole ensemble.
Maybe even good enough to eat if I played my cards right.
I had no idea what was happening to me. Mating season normally didn’t affect me like this.
Was I a little more horny than normal during it?
Sure, but that’s what my trusty poinsettia vibrator was for.
But now, a heat mounted within me that no cold shower could remedy.
I wasn’t sure how long the shrug cardigan was even going to last at the rate my body was scorching.
I also had never thought about sex as much as I had since the locker room.
Nothing seemed to satisfy my hunger for more.
My vibrator did nothing for me before, during, or after my shower, leaving me unsatisfied even after five back-to-back orgasms. Remembering Felicity grinding on Merry’s leg, Merry’s dirty talk, and Merry’s fingers inside of Felicity only seemed to make me more insatiable.
It was getting harder to focus through the haze of need.
“Excuse me? Is that my corset?!” Carole’s cry of indignation helped ground me slightly. I sat back down at the desk where I had my phone propped up. My sisters were seated at our kitchen counter with the phone set to landscape to capture everyone in one frame.
“Technically, it’s Jingles’s corset from her store,” I corrected.
“That you stole from my closet!”
“We are sisters. We have a shared closet that’s split into four different rooms.”
North nodded. “She makes a valid argument.”
Carole rolled her eyes. “Well, it had better be returned to my share of the closet in one piece.”
I thought about how Merry had torn Felicity’s outfit with one hand. I looked over at Belle. “Jingles? Can you make another one of these? Just in case it doesn’t survive tonight?”
“Wynter Reese Norwood, what the fuck?” Carole exclaimed.
Belle patted Carebear on the shoulder. “I sure can.”
“Yeah, you are going to the Mixer tonight, so it definitely won’t be surviving. Especially with two reindeer-shifters who are feral for you? Yeah, that whole outfit is done for.”
“North!”
“What’s this Mixer that y’all keep talking about?” Mom came into view, wiping her hands on a tea towel. Her micro-locs were tied back and away from her sweating face as she cooked.
“It’s nothing, Mom!”
“Oh, it’s gotta be something with that outfit you’re wearing!”
“Mom, please. Let’s not ruin your innocence—”
“It’s a social event for the Hopefuls, the Nine, and others ahead of the Reindeer Games the next day,” Carole explained.
North snorted. “Oh, it gets real social all right.”
“What does that mean?” My sweet, beautiful, precious mom, who didn’t even curse, asked with a raised eyebrow.
“She means that it’s a seasonal rut fest where everyone gathered bang until dawn,” Belle waggled her eyebrows with a devious grin.
Banging Felicity and Merrilee until dawn? Fuck, that’s what I need. I sent my head back as I took off the shrug and fanned myself from the surging heat within me.
“Wynnie, are you okay? You look a little feverish,” North noticed with furrowed eyebrows.
I nodded. “I have been feeling hot today, but it doesn’t feel like I’m sick—”
“Do you have any other symptoms?” Mom tilted her head, a knowing smile blossoming across her face as she continued. “Did you happen to start feeling this way after a certain pair of athletes?”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Looks like your girls are your mates and have triggered a heat for you.”
For the second time today, my brain short-circuited completely. “They are my who and did a what now?”
Mom laughed. “It isn’t common, but it isn’t rare either among reindeer-shifters and tends to happen during mating season. If you have found your mate or mates, then your body tries to get your head and heart on the same page by triggering a heat so you can bond. It’s perfectly natural, sweetheart.”
“Oh! That happened to a girl at work a few years back. I heard it’s intense as fuck. Like some soulmate type shit,” North added.
Soulmates? Could Felicity and Merrilee be my—? No, that’s not a thing. You couldn’t start building a life with two people you just met based on some universal woo-woo shit. That only happened in fairytales and Hallmark movies.
Right?
I mean, I was a flying reindeer-shifter who had wind powers and wanted to drive Santa’s Sleigh. Things like soulmates weren’t too far off from my reality.
“Will it happen every mating season now?” I panted.
Mom nodded. “I’m afraid so, my love.”
“Aw, it’s like a vow renewal from the universe,” Belle said. “How romantic!”
Easy for you to say, I thought, fanning myself faster.
“OMG, this means that Wynter will finally have to bring girls home. Oh, I have been waiting for this moment for her to get the Full Mom Treatment for years,” Carole hollered.
“Yes!” Belle clapped. “We will need to find the album with her stuck in the tree in nothing but her diaper!”
“Oh, and they are going to love getting Mom’s house tour, complete with seeing your room with your posters of them—”
My phone vibrated with a text from Felicity saying they were downstairs and waiting for me. I thanked the gods for the reprieve.
“I have to go! I will see you guys tomorrow night, right?”
Mom nodded. “We will be sitting right in the front row! I can’t wait to see you make your dream come true, sweetheart. I know you will do great. No matter what, I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
I blinked back tears, grateful for magical mascara. “Thank you so much, Mom. For everything. I love y’all!”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
“Have fun!”
“Get absolutely wrecked, babe!”
“Love you, honey!”
I ended the call with a smile. Then, I gave myself one last check in the mirror before I grabbed my clutch with my phone and hotel keycard and headed downstairs.