Chapter 11 Reed
ELEVEN
REED
Christmas Eve at Right as Rain(deer) was different this year than in the previous three.
When I helped Aunt Mollie every winter, I never understood how people left buying a tree until the last minute. But now I was a mate and was pregnant, I had a small insight into how people got overwhelmed. And I didn’t have a nine to five job and gaggle of kids to feed and look after.
But all day since we opened, and even before, families rushed between the trees and children tugged their parents’ hands toward the prettiest specimens. Despite the frenzy, the air was filled with a promise of Christmas magic
I'd been on my feet since dawn, helping customers find their perfect trees while trying to ignore the nausea that reminded me there was a baby in my belly. And I wept as I said goodbye to Doug who left with his loving family.
“Reed, do you have anything smaller than this Fraser Fir?” Mr. Cumming, a regular buyer of our trees, asked. He was standing beside a six-footer that dwarfed his small vehicle. “I may have overestimated the size of my car.”
I led him toward a section of potted Noble Firs. “These are perfect for apartments. They're just as beautiful, and they'll fit on a tabletop if you want.”
As I helped him choose between two nearly identical trees, Christmas carols drifted across the farm from someone's car radio. “Jingle Bells” gave way to that one. I’d stopped using its name, fearing my mate would grow antlers and a muzzle around humans.
But some customers began to sing along to the music.
Oh no, no no. This wasn’t good. I’d overheard conversations between pack members and customers that told me some of our visitors were shifters but many were human.
Roscoe was across the lot helping a family load their tree, but his head had snapped up at the music.
But instead of fur sliding over his skin and his feet becoming hooves, he put on earbuds.
Some of the other pack members disappeared into the darkness and I suspected they’d shifted.
There was something urgent in their movements, like they'd been preparing for this exact moment.
“Reed?” Mr. Cumming’s voice brought me back to the present. “The tree?”
And as “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” reached the crescendo, wild reindeer emerged from the tree line.
Not one or two, but a small herd with thick winter coats—Roscoe had taught me how they protected themselves in winter—and huge antlers.
They weaved between the customers and trees as if they belonged there.
Everyone stopped and stared while some held up their phones and snapped photos.
“Daddy, look!” A little boy clapped. “Real reindeer!”
“Are they wild?” his father asked as he pulled out his phone
“They must be passing through,” said another customer as one reindeer sniffed at the tree she’d just bought. “Maybe this is on their migratory route.”
The reindeer weren’t scared of the crowds, though they refused to let anyone touch them. They strode up and down the rows of trees, sniffing at the ones that remained unsold, not that there were many left.
Some of the younger teenagers and the kids appeared with tubs of carrots. Where did those come from? And who was going to eat all those vegetables? But they handed them to the customers and urged them to feed the reindeer.
The visiting children grabbed a carrot. Some were apprehensive and needed their parents to hold their hand while others went up to the wild beasts and watched as the reindeer munched on the carrots.
“They like vegetables,” one boy shouted.
“Maybe you should remember that next time you tell me you don’t want to eat your carrots.” His dad ruffled the boy’s hair.
I stood transfixed, imagining a Christmas carol and a Christmas card becoming a live action event and unfolding on my tree farm. This was the ultimate Christmas magic and nothing could better this.
“What’s going on?” I asked as my mate appeared beside me. This was a build up to something else. I was sure of it.
He adjusted my scarf and tucked his arm in mine.
“Are these shifters?” I whispered as the reindeer wandered around munching carrots.
He shook his head. “They used to come to our land. This is one of the reasons why it was so important we had a home by Christmas.”
“Aunt Mollie said they visited the first year she was here.” I startled the reindeer closest to me but he took the carrot I offered. “That was about thirty years ago.”
He nodded. “Zelda told me that was the year before we bought our land when Rayne was the Alpha. Your aunt would only have seen them one time.”
“This is why you had to be here.”
“That and some of us had to prepare.”
I was confused, turned upside down and inside out as I wondered what they were getting ready for. Having witnessed the pack shift, I was certain I recognized some of them in the midst of the wild herd.
My mate craned his neck and looked up at the clear sky. Thank gods there was no snow this evening. Someone was playing more Christmas music with sleigh bells and it was accompanied by a swishing.
Faces tipped upward.
“Is that…?” someone asked
Then we saw them.
Santa's sleigh swept across the sky above the farm, pulled by a team of flying reindeer who glowed from the lights wrapped around their antlers. People shrieked and gasped and anyone who had a phone was videoing the spectacle. But not me and not any of the pack. Magic didn’t film well I suspected.
Did the humans suspect this was a display I’d put on? That I was generating images into the sky? It didn’t matter. It was special either way.
I tugged Roscoe’s coat. “Those lights are familiar.”
“Sorry, Erik borrowed them at the last minute.”
What did Erik have to do with Santa?
“He’s up there. He was called on at the last minute and I’m so proud.” He explained that was another reason they needed land. Santa chose replacement reindeer if they were anchored to the soil.
That was a thing, like standby at the airport. My human eyes picked out Erik who’d helped build the barn and charmed my customers. Go Erik! I had no idea he could fly.
As the Alpha, I wondered if Roscoe had ever flown with Santa. But he anticipated my question and told me because he worked outside of the pack, his beast wasn’t trained to fly.
“And that’s okay. Besides, my reindeer gets car sick so flying all night, all over the world, dipping and soaring, would not be a pretty sight.”
They’d be back by dawn when the pack would feed Erik and put him to bed for the next three days.
When the sleigh flew out of sight, families took their trees and headed to their cars.
Everyone was talking excitedly about what they’d witnessed with most assuming it wasn’t real.
But they told me they’d be back next year.
Some of the kids cried, saying they wanted to stay and see Santa again but their parents explained they had to be in bed asleep before Santa filled their stockings.
As the farm emptied, the wild reindeer disappeared into the woods, and some of the remaining pack members shifted and went with them. The rest headed to their cabins, leaving Roscoe and me standing among the trees. I consoled them saying they’d grow bigger and taller before next Christmas.
If our little one was a shifter, they might fly with Santa one day. What an honor, but I couldn’t imagine letting my child go off and fly around the world with a jolly gentleman and a heap of presents.
“I suspect your aunt had an inkling of how special this place was after the first Christmas and that’s why she named it Right as Rain(deer).”
Wow! Roscoe and I had been linked since before we were born though there’d been a lot of detours along the way until he turned up at the farm.
“You've been part of this since the moment you said yes to us staying,” Roscoe told me. “Since you opened your heart and the farm to a pack of displaced reindeer shifters and trusted us with your home.”
He kissed me, not in front of the Christmas tree in our living room but under the Christmas stars. Noelle and Doug were gone but the remaining small trees rustled their approval and the scent of pine filled the crisp winter air.
“Merry Christmas, my mate,” Roscoe whispered.
“Merry Christmas, my dearest love.” My heart was full of love and wonder.
Tomorrow when Erik returned, we’d have our first Christmas as a pack and Roscoe’s and my first one as mates and parents-to-be. So much magic, I expected to wake up and find it was all a dream.