Chapter 10
HART
"We have an emergency," Santa said when I deposited the bag of cookies and two cups of coffee on his desk. "I need your help."
"Have you heard about the salt shortage?"
I nodded. Silver said he would need more salt to make his gingerbread cookies.
"Then you know how important it is to keep Silver and Gold in stock.
It will be in short supply this year, and the Christmas Village bakeries have first dibs on the remaining salt.
" Santa shook his head and grumbled, "It astounds me that the village bakeries still can't make a decent cookie after all these years.
" He reached for the bag of sugar cookie stars Gold had put on top of two boxes of cookies.
"Two different bakeries used salt instead of sugar to make their entire orders for the tree-lighting ceremony. They don't even look alike!"
No wonder the village stores were out of salt.
I didn't want to argue about the visual differences, since I couldn't tell them apart.
Bopp had filled our sugar bowl with salt once.
Our granddad had to go to the emergency clinic because it gave him heart palpitations.
I'd put a spoonful in my cherry blossom tea, making it even saltier.
"What do you need me to do?" I asked.
Santa took a bite of his cookie and offered me the last remaining star with little silver and gold flecks on top. I held up a hand and shook my head. I couldn't possibly take the last cookie from Santa.
"Offer to take Silver south to Denmark. Salt is cheap there.
Not as cheap as Russia, but it's in our delivery territory.
And it's not Russia," he muttered under his breath.
"It might take a while to talk him into it, but when he is ready, I'll give you the map to my vacation home, a letter for the wholesale retailer, and a practice sleigh. "
Our practice sleighs were nothing but runners beneath a flatbed. They didn't even have a cockpit. "Won't Silver be uncomfortable riding back there?" I asked.
Santa laughed. "He's a dragon. If he wants, he can fly."
"Couldn't he carry the salt by himself, then?" I hadn't seen Silver's dragon form yet, but I assumed he was as big as a house.
Santa's eyes twinkled as he shook his head. "He would need to make several stops to rest. Dragons are magical creatures, but they don't have magical flight like yours."
Magical flight. So that was why we never tired in the air, even when we worked our muscles to the max.
"Together, you'll save Christmas for the Scandinavian children. Our workshops run on Silver and Gold's cookies, Hart. We're counting on you."
I had a feeling Santa chose me for this mission with an ulterior motive. Did he know Silver and I were dating?
Who was I to argue? I meant it when I said I'd do anything for Santa.
Silver agreed the moment I asked. He didn't even stop to ask Gold if he could go. "We're almost out of salt, and our friends could use more, too."
I frowned. "He's only sending me," I said. "I don't know how much salt you need, but I can only carry so much on a practice sleigh."
"I'm sure it will be enough." He patted my shoulder. "At least it's not flour or sugar. That would get heavy."
He ran into the back to tell Gold where we would be for the next couple of days. When she shoved through the swinging doors and marched past the counter to our table, I stood with both hands outstretched to pacify her. Did she think I was trying to kidnap Silver?
Instead of yelling at me, or even asking my intentions with her brother, she pulled me into her powerful arms and squeezed until I couldn't breathe.
"Thank you so much," she said. "You're going to save Christmas, just like Santa said."
I tried to answer and choked for lack of breath. She laughed and released me, pounding on my back until I could inhale without choking.
"Sorry. We're scraping the bottom of our salt barrel, so to speak.
Please tell Santa we won't let him down.
He's getting the next batch of chocolate-filled croissants on the house.
" She bent down. "You'll tell him we need enough salt for Laurie to make her chocolate sauce, yeah? " she whispered in my ear.
"Once I tell him about the croissants, I'm sure he'll agree."
Silver and I went to our separate homes to pack our bags, and then we met at Santa 30's office. It was still eerily quiet without his assistants tapping away on their keyboards and Donner talking to himself while he configured a new route for us to fly during practice.
Once we discussed our flight details and I had the letter for the wholesaler tucked into my overnight bag, I asked, "Where is everyone?"
"Three years ago, we tried mandatory vacations for our most overworked reindeer," Santa said. "This year, we're trying three days of mandatory rest for everyone."
"Except Hart won't be resting," Silver pointed out. "He'll be flying a sleigh to Denmark."
"Yes, but spending time with his fated mate during the Christmas season is the best kind of rest for a flying reindeer shifter." He winked at us.
"We really are fated mates?" I asked.
Silver blushed a deep crimson and bowed his head. "Is that a bad thing?"
"No!" I grabbed his hand and cradled it to my chest. "It's just a surprise, is all."
Santa laughed. "It's only a surprise because you've been ignoring your beasts.
No wonder you've been so distracted during practice.
" Santa slid a set of keys across his desk.
On the back was a sticky note with an address I recognized in Denmark.
"If you leave now, you'll arrive at the cabin before midnight.
Tomorrow, you can fly the rest of the way to Copenhagen, trade for the salt, and return to the cabin before heading home the next morning.
I want you well-rested when you return."
"Yes, Santa." Sex with Silver was off the table, then.
"The best rest I've ever had was after a good lay." Santa winked.
Silver barked a laugh and covered his mouth, his eyes bulging as he tried to suppress more guffaws. I stood motionless, my face burning hotter each second. All responses that popped into my head were things Bopp would say, which only made my embarrassment worse.
"Um, I think we should get going," I finally stammered.
"Safe travels!" Santa called as I pulled Silver into his small reception area.
"I did not need to know the Santas were sexual beings." I led Silver down a hallway between the workshop and warehouse until we arrived at the hangar where we practiced takeoffs and landings. "Here are the practice sleighs."
"Santas are elves," Silver said. "Why wouldn't they have sex?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "I guess I've never thought about it. It seems wrong to think about, like imagining your parents having sex."
"Ew. No. Did not need that mental image." Silver laughed. "Still, Santa 30 is hot. I bet he could get anyone he wants."
Santa was hot? I hadn't noticed. I could barely look him in the eye, for fear he would kick me off his team for being a typical Comet.
He had wavy white hair covering his pointed ears and a close-trimmed beard that glittered with silver.
His narrow face and athletic figure hid how many cookies and sweet drinks he consumed daily.
He was pleasingly attractive, but at several inches shorter than I was, he wasn't my type.
I rolled back the tarp covering the nearest practice sleigh. While most were completely flat, this one had a bench seat with storage. "Will this one do?"
"Yes, thanks." Silver followed my every movement as I prepared the harness and hooked it to the sleigh. "I've never been to Denmark," he said after a lengthy silence. "Have you?"
"Not to Copenhagen," I said. "This will be a first for me, too." I glanced over my shoulder at the empty hangar. "The elves must have the day off, too. I'll need your help to buckle the harness."
"Whatever you need!"
First, I had to be naked. For some reason, unzipping my parka and removing my hat and gloves felt different, more vulnerable. Silver had seen me naked, but he hadn't met my reindeer yet.
For his part, my beast rushed to the surface, wanting to rip through my clothes to meet our dragon mate. I unbuttoned my shirt with shaking fingers, which had nothing to do with the cold.
Finally, I stood naked before Silver, my pack tucked inside the practice sleigh's single bench seat. Silver's gaze heated with appreciation as I stepped into the rigging and placed the harness over my shoulders. The rough leather scraped against my chest, and the buckle chilled my skin.
Silver scooped up the cold buckle and wrapped his fingers around it. The backs of his fingers dragged against my skin, and I almost forgot what I was doing.
My reindeer rushed to the surface again, tired of waiting for my conscious brain to make the decision. My chest flared and my front legs flailed, trying not to kick Silver as gravity pulled me toward the ground.
Silver stepped back and chuckled. His movements with the buckle were quick and efficient, and then his large palm landed on top of my head, between my antlers.
Flying reindeer didn't shed their antlers until after the Christmas season, since this time of year was often too stressful for a successful rut.
As he continued to pet me, running his hands over my shoulders and sides, I sniffed him with my heightened reindeer senses. He smelled sweeter, with a hint of clover added to his usual charcoal and cedar.
"Mine." I couldn't stop my reindeer instincts from rubbing my snout on him to scent-mark him.
Silver stepped back, a deep blush spreading across his cheeks. "We should go."
I wanted to ask him when I could meet his dragon, but we were losing precious time. It would take four hours to fly to Santa's cabin if we left now, most of those hours in complete darkness.
Silver hopped onto the bench seat behind me and grabbed the reins.
With a grunt, I pulled against the harness, sending the oiled runners gliding across the slick concrete to the hangar door.
Once we were on the smooth runway, it took only a few steps before I reached launch speed, and then I turned southeast, toward Denmark.