Yuletide with the Yetis (Hemlock Mountain)

Chapter One

Treg

Hemlock Mountain

I readjusted my earmuffs. They weren’t as solid as my headphones were at keeping noise at bay, but they kept my ears a helluva lot warmer.

Plus they had snowflakes on them. The few weeks before and after Yule were the only times I felt wearing these particular ones don’t make me stick out like a sore thumb.

They were almost too warm for the car in fact.

Still, soon we’d be at the meeting place, and I didn’t want to have to put them back on when we got there.

In the passenger seat, my best friend, Chasten, drummed his fingers against his lap.

This was our first solo outing since his third child was born.

The pup was a few months old now, but he still smelled a bit sad to be away from his kids.

I didn’t blame him. My god kids were great but they were also a lot of work.

Today, their sire, Kirk, had them while I took Chasten out for a much-needed break.

“Did you check your sugar?” I asked and cringed, knowing he hated when I asked, but sometimes it was hard not to worry. Sometimes it was even impossible. A handful of years ago, he hit the ground hard at a fall festival from low blood sugar and I wasn’t sure I’d ever not worry about him again.

“I did, but this isn’t a food thing, right? I mean, I could eat. I can always eat. I’m a wolf after all, but when I asked you said…”

“It’s not a food thing. Some people will probably have snacks, though. I have snacks too in the backseat,” I said. “Just in case.”

“So, explain this to me again. We’re going to talk to a demon?” Chasten asked, side eyeing me as if I made the whole thing up just to get him out of the house.

Sure, I write a web comic for a living but even I couldn’t have invented the Snow Demon of Hemlock Mountain.

As far as I was concerned, the Snow Demon was a myth that went in and out of fashion as the years and decades rolled by.

I was mostly interested in seeing how people handled the myth in real life and what they’d do when no one showed up.

“Inspiration!” my wolf sounded off into my thoughts. “We’re here to listen to the loud mouths for inspiration! You can’t go around telling everyone we’re looking forward to seeing how disappointed they all are. That’s just mean.”

I wasn’t mean but sometimes I just felt that way. When every little noise rattles your brain the wrong way, sometimes it’s nice to know you’re not the only miserable person in existence.

“The story goes that a long time ago this wolf made a pact with a snow demon. Some people say it was Juda Hemlock himself but I’m not sure I believe that since we know Juda is real and we don’t know for sure about the snow demon yet.

Some versions say it was one of his kids or grandkids.

Any which way a deal was made. The peaks of the mountain range that make up what we call Hemlock Mountain would always be cold year-round to keep this icy souled demon cozy but once a year the pack could summon him and he’d have to tell someone where their true-mate was.

There are so many stories about this demon doing just that. ”

“You don’t believe it,” Chasten side eyed me again.

“Well, I think we’d know his name by now if he was real,” I shrugged.

“Maybe someone knew it and we just lost it. We do that with historical stuff all the time or perhaps he’s like some of the fay and won’t give his name to anyone.”

“Or maybe he’s made up,” I shrugged.

“Maybe,” Chasten said, looking back out the window at the snow coming down in big fluffy flakes. The world was already coated but there was no end in sight. Technically, we were driving in a blizzard, but these were the weather conditions needed to summon the Snow Demon.

The question of why we were going to see something or someone I didn’t believe was real hung in the air. Sure, I wanted to see all the loud mouths let down but part of me wanted this guy to be real. If he was, maybe he could tell me which rock my true-mate was hiding under.

“A quiet one,” my wolf chimed into my thoughts again. “Our omega is hiding under a quiet rock and reading. That’s why we can’t find them.”

“I believe it,” I sighed back.

“It’s not too late to sign up for Mated for the Holidays,” Chasten said when the silence between us dragged on for too long.

“I mean, there is a last-minute fee, but Kirk and I don’t mind paying it.

Ever since he transferred to pediatrics, he’s making more money and it’s not like I’m short on cash. Let us sign you up for Yule.”

It wasn’t like I hadn’t rolled the idea of signing up for the holiday theme matchmaking program around and around inside my head for years but I wasn’t looking for just any old companionship.

I wasn’t running out of opportunities to date.

I was tired of one or two dates only to figure out we were incompatible.

I was done with the whole scene. Not to mention explaining that while, yes, I was assigned male at birth, that I was non-binary and that actually meant something to me but I was also tired of all the questions people asked.

I was once in the middle of telling a waitress my order when my date interrupted her to ask if I still had a dick.

I ended the date and ate alone. I tipped the waitress what I would’ve spent on my date’s meal.

There were a time and place for some questions but while ordering dinner wasn’t one of them.

Also, since I wasn’t taking him to bed, it was zero percent of his business what went on in my pants.

Yes, I had a dick, and I knew how to use it, but I was raised better than to go around asking about other peoples’ genitals.

“Maybe next year,” I said to Chasten, keeping my voice level as I switched to our exit lane.

“I know the tech behind it has come a long way but most people don’t meet their true-mates.

Plus, I don’t want someone in my house that I have to explain things to.

It’s bad enough when I can leave bad dates at the restaurant.

Most people just don’t get non-binary and haven’t caught up to keeping the thoughts inside their heads, well, inside their heads. ”

“Who do I need to beat up?” Chasten asked, flashing me a playful smile. “I’m still feeding a puppy. I’m one million percent protective carrier right now. I will show them not to open their mouths and let the stupid out.”

“Or you could just come and make fun of the Snow Demon myth with me?” I grinned, as the parking lot came into view.

The place was packed enough that under most circumstances I would’ve said fuck it and kept driving.

Only I had Chasten with me and he really needed some time out the house.

Plus, how was I going to include a comic strip about the Snow Demon if I didn’t stop in for the main event.

Thankfully, after a little incident where I bit two other alpha wolves in line at the grocery store for refusing to stop playing with sound effects on their phone after even the cashier asked them to, I was granted ‘access parking’ at events and other places.

Most access parking went to families with young children, the elderly, and those who had a mobility disability.

Pregnant parking was a separate assignment too.

It was only in the last handful of years or so that Rune, the first mate of Hemlock Mountain, decided that providing it to pack members with sensory issues might also benefit everyone involved.

Rumor was that soon they’d have quiet shopping hours and lanes too at all pack-owned grocery stores.

I showed my ticket and parking pass to the short wolf wearing the shirt that read ‘HEMLOCK MOUNTAIN SECCURITY” and he waved me through to access parking.

I parked at the farthest edge of the area that I could, saving the closer spaces for those with mobility difficulties.

Sometimes I still felt like an imposter when I used my parking pass but the quiet helped.

The lower foot traffic was nice too and since it was access parking, I didn’t have to hurry up and get in and out.

The murmur of the crowd still made its way here, but the walk gave me time to adjust slowly. Not that I’d ever fully adjust to the racket but sometimes I had to put up with it to do the fun things. Chasten took my hand and I teased him that Kirk was going to get jealous.

“No, Grina is going to stop by and visit him,” Chasten laughed.

Grina was our other best friend. She’d met her true-mate, Abby, around the same time that Kirk and Chasten met.

The ladies only had one kid so far and Abby didn’t seem keen on many more.

I didn’t blame her, though. Kids were so much work.

They were little treasures but the greater the treasure the more upkeep it/they required.

“So, he’s going to be regaled about long pussy eating sessions?” I teased, bumping into his shoulder. It was an ongoing joke ever since Grina couldn’t shut up about that part of her and Abby’s anatomy when they first met.

“She better not around my kids. If my girls start saying that…” Chasten shook his head.

“Grina wouldn’t let the kids hear and I don’t think she talks to Kirk about that. She saves her oral sex conquests for us, Chasten,” I said, trying to soothe out the fur I ruffled with my bad joke.

“I know,” Chasten sighed. “I really do think one of these days I’m going to bite someone over my kids.”

“Undoubtedly,” I nodded. “Chasten, I bit not one but two fuckfaces because they couldn’t respect a shared space and called a cashier a ‘bossy bitch’ while I was overstimulated.

We’re wolves. Eventually, we all bite someone.

The sooner everyone accepts that either the world gets kinder, or we get bitier, the better off everyone will be. ”

“Try not to bite anyone today. Let me do it instead. Then I can cry about how I miss my babies and it’s so hard to concentrate when that happens and I thought they wanted to—”

Laughter from the main event drowned out whatever Chasten thought these imaginary shifters wanted to do.

He squeezed my hand, and I did my best not to crinkle my nose at the sounds.

Laughter was supposed to be a good sound and sometimes it was but no sound was a good sound in a large group of people.

I’d gotten a press pass to the ‘secret’ event because of my web comic. That meant we didn’t have to wait in line and the ticket taker even tossed in a free Snow Demon plushie for Chasten’s kids. The plushie was really just a snowball with a gaping mouth with sharp teeth made out of soft material.

“Doesn’t matter what it looks like,” Chasten grinned, holding it out for better inspection. “It’ll be a chew toy soon anyway. Del’s still chewing on everything.”

“I love your sweater!” A wolf woman dressed up as a holiday helper said, pointing at my chest.

“Thanks,” I said and glanced down to remind myself of what I was wearing.

It was Rudolph standing up on his hind legs dressed up as an over the top sexy Mrs. Claus.

Grina had got it for me a few years back, claiming it was proof that the famous reindeer was at the very least, gender non-conforming.

I wasn’t sure it meant that, but I loved her optimism.

Mostly, I wore it because it was comfy and didn’t rub my skin the wrong way.

If not for art, Chasten, and Grina, I’d have gone and lived with wild wolves long ago. They didn’t have to wear clothes.

The press pass meant we had front row seats to watch the folks dressed up in white robes and accessories summon this so-called Snow Demon.

“We are gathered here today in hopes that the promise made by this ancient creature to Juda Hemlock will still be honored and that some lucky pack member will receive insight to where their true-mate is,” the guy in the most elaborate robe said. His had fur all around the hood and trim.

“Maybe if he didn’t call it a creature the Snow Demon would play nice,” Chasten rolled his eyes. “Do you know that I have two commissions for this guy? They didn’t call him the Snow Demon outright but I’m pretty sure this is what they want. They just didn’t want to come out and say it.”

“Cool,” I grinned and the guy leading the ceremony shot us a dirty look.

No one else seemed bothered by our chitchatting.

The ceremony leader rambled on, and I thought about how Chasten might draw an erotic Snow Demon.

He took commissions for erotic art for a living and a lot of it went into furry territory because of course it did.

Most of us on Hemlock Mountain were shifters after all.

“Maybe he could jizz snowflakes!” my wolf chimed into my thoughts, a little overzealously and Chasten laughed when it leaked onto the pack link. A second later, several other wolves close by laughed too.

“Would you like to come up and share with everyone?” the ceremony leader said.

“If you weren’t listening in, you wouldn’t know why we were laughing!” A wolf woman in the back said. “Hurry up and summon the demon or sit down so someone else can do it!”

“Yeah!” A dragon man echoed from the other side of the gathering. “My carrier spent good money on this event! Hurry up and get us our true-mates!”

The ceremony leader rolled his eyes and continued with his script. I tried to be quiet and keep my thoughts in line but now I was too curious about how Snow Demons had sex. Did they have sex at all? Were they ace? Were they horny snowballs?

The rambler finally shut up, and candles were lit all around the circle.

Someone had taken the time to stamp down the snow to give the ceremony participants a place to work.

The wind danced, blowing snow this way and that but the candles stayed lit.

Those were probably elven candles made by the First Mate of Hemlock Mountain himself.

The fire mesmerized me and gave the whole ordeal an official and spooky atmosphere.

The hair on my arms and legs stood up and my wolf got up on their feet too.