Chapter One #2
As elves we didn’t have fated mates like the shifters on earth did.
No, we tended to find our special person and then we stayed with them for hundreds of years.
Basically, mated for life. For life! Just thinking about it made me nearly break out in hives.
I had yet to meet anyone I could endure for more than a few months, let alone consider spending hundreds and hundreds of years with.
But my mom and dad thought all their children should be as blissfully happy as they were, and they weren’t above ambushing any of us with potential prospects.
Fuck, fuck, fucking tinsel on a tree!
And before I even knew what my mouth was blurting out, I answered, “Yes! I’m seeing someone!”
Oh, what the ever-loving mistletoe had I just done?
“Atlas! Atlas! Did you hear?”
“I heard, Fallon, I heard.”
“Balfour, you must bring them, him, her, to dinner when you come!”
And then my mouth did it again!
“Him,” I said softly, seeing mischievous brown eyes, a shock of red, red hair, and a smile that always made my heart speed up a tiny bit when he would grin at me.
“Wonderful! We’ll see you tomorrow,” Mom told me cheerfully. “We’ll need to find someone for Adaia,” she said to herself, “maybe she and Birch will get on.”
And the phone went blissfully silent. I briefly wondered if I should warn my brother, Birch, but then thought better of it. He was kind of an asshole and I wasn’t gonna feel sorry for him if he got set up on a blind date originally meant for me.
Now I just needed to convince Kendrick to be my fake date for Thanksgiving.
If he agreed, he would never–and I mean absolutely never–let me forget this teeny tiny favor he would be doing me. I was going to owe him big time.
It was a price I was willing to pay to not be subjected to whatever blind date my parents wanted to saddle me with.
Pulling out a second cell phone from my pocket, I quickly typed a text message.
Me: I will pick you up at 8 tonight. Be ready. I don't have time to wait on you.
When I didn’t get a response right away, I opened my bottom drawer and pulled out the snow globe I kept there. It depicted a decorated Christmas tree, surrounded by snow and a mountain in the background.
Shaking it vigorously, the dome turned completely white before clearing and showing me the man I would be traveling to the human realm later tonight to pick up and bring back to Santa’s Village.
Kendrick Mallory sat on an impossibly tiny and uncomfortable looking chair surrounded by a group of small children at his feet.
I couldn’t hear him, but he held a large picture book, and I could tell by the way his lips moved he was reading to them in his classroom.
When he finished the page, he flipped the book to face them, pointing out something on the page to them.
Glancing at the clock on my computer, I quickly calculated the time in the human realm, in the Pacific Northwest. Kendrick was in Sweet Alps, California, located in the northern part of the state.
Calculating time differences between Santa’s Village and the human realm had baffled me in school.
But since taking over as head elf, it was something I had mastered.
I would patiently wait for Kendrick to text me back and contemplate how I was going to ask him to please act like my fake boyfriend for a few hours in front of my parents.
Hours later, I was jolted from analyzing the numbers on yet another spreadsheet, when my phone vibrated across the desk where I had tossed it. Realizing it was the special phone that allowed me to text the human realm, I grabbed it up, seeing it was a response from Kendrick.
Nemesis: No can do. Make it 9. Better yet, 9:30.
Me: That won't work. I have a schedule to keep.
Nemesis: Just stop time like you do. Use your elf magic. I'll see you at 10.
Me: Nik can stop time, not me. 10? No, I said 8. Schedule, remember?
Nemesis: Yes, yes, your precious schedule. See you at 11.
Me: Absolutely not! 8! What are you even doing that is so important?
Nemesis: I got suckered into a blind date. I’m waiting at the restaurant for him now. I just don’t want to hear any bitching and whining from you about it being past your bedtime.
Me: When do I bitch and whine?
Nemesis: *laughing emoji* All. The. Time. So much bitching and whining with you. Aren’t Santa’s elves supposed to be jolly? Isn’t that like part of the job description?
Me: You enjoy making me grind my teeth together, don't you?
Nemesis: So, soooo much. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
Nemesis: Oh, Goddess, he’s here. Fuck. Me. Gotta go. Maybe make it 9. I do NOT see this going well. In fact, call me in 30 and act like there is an emergency.
Me: Why would I do that? What emergency? Have you been drinking? Talking to you makes my head hurt.
Nemesis: It's what friends do to help other friends when they need to escape a truly bad date. Just do it!
Me: Fine, fine! I'm only doing this so you don't whine to your brother, and then he makes crocodile tears at Nik, and I have to act like I care about his feelings and apologize.
Nemesis: There was a lot to unpack there. Gotta go. 30 minutes, Bal! I mean it! Look at it this way, you’ll be able to keep to your precious schedule.
Setting the phone down, I realized I was grinning.
When did Kendrick start making me grin? When had I started looking forward to our little text exchanges?
The ones that had been happening more and more lately, and not just when he was coming to visit his brother and I was on pick-up duty.
Just random text exchanges in the middle of the day, for no reason at all.
I wasn’t sure when it happened, but Kendrick had gone from being a thorn in my side to someone I looked forward to talking to.
As much as we sniped at each other, idly threatened, taunted and teased, he was one of the few people I actually shared things with. One of the few people I looked forward to speaking to.
In fact, he had started invading my thoughts for a truly alarming amount of time lately. And disrupting my sleep.
Suddenly, every time I shut my eyes, my dreams were nothing but the tiny, redheaded omega. His chocolate brown eyes. His pink lips. The tiniest little gap between his two front teeth that most people wouldn’t even notice.
Kendrick was seriously cute, with a tight, sexy body, a sharp mind, a razor sharp tongue, and he gave as good as I dished out, or even better.
And my body had started taking serious notice of him. On more than one occasion I had woken hard after a night of Kendrick invading my dreams.
It was why he had been the first person that came to mind when I had lied to my parents.
And now he was on a date with someone else.
All kinds of feelings swarmed through me, tying my stomach in knots.
This wasn’t the first time Kendrick had been on a date since we had met. Hell, he’d had boyfriends, even. It had never bothered me before.
But just thinking about him on a date tonight with someone else had me wanting to do more than break it up with a call about a fake emergency.
I wanted to transport to the human realm right fucking now, march through the restaurant, snatch up my omega, and punch the alpha who dared touch what was mine in the nose.
Rubbing a hand over my face roughly, I sighed loudly.
I was in trouble. Deep trouble, if I didn’t get my weird ass feelings for Kendrick under control. We were friends, barely, nothing more. He was human. And not of this realm.
He was off limits.
Balfour
Past…
Me: They’re sending me to bring you to the human realm for this infernal holiday your brother insists we celebrate. Be ready at 7 p.m.
Nemesis: Who is this and how did you get my number?
Me: Funny.
Nemesis: I know I am. Why you? I’d literally rather ride a reindeer backwards than have you come get me.
Me: I don’t know. Nik said I’m to get you, so I’m getting you.
Nemesis: He pulled the boss card, didn’t he?
Me: He is The Santa, so yes, he pulled the boss card. I’m not any happier about this than you are.
Nemesis: I’ll be ready at 8.
Me: I said 7. I have a schedule to keep.
Nemesis: I have you penciled in for 9.
Me: I don’t care if you are here or not.
Nemesis: But Keegan does and if he is upset, Nik will be upset, so I think you really do care. See you at 10.
Me: I dislike you so very much.