Page 1 of How the Orc Stole Christmas
CHAPTER ONE
JULES
It had been a long-ass day, working the emergency room on a full moon. I hated working the full moon shifts. Everyone was absolutely right about it bringing all the crazies and lunatics out. Seriously. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone sprouted fur and trotted through the ER at the rate things were going. And the kicker was my last patient, a true dumbass, had decided to see if a ceramic tree made a good anal plug.
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. Oh, and it really fucking hurts when it comes out, not that it was easy to remove.
I wish I could say it was a stupid college kid, but no, it was a thirty-something genius who won’t be sitting pretty for Christmas Dinner in a week.
Meanwhile, I barely made it to the Christmas with Santa for the sick kids in the pediatric wing. I loved this event. It was the highlight of my year. Only this time, the dumbass made me late so, instead of standing with Santa and handing out presents to the children, I was stuck wheeling the cart, relegated to cart-horse duty.
Hey, someone had to do it. But I worked my ass off for years to be with Santa, who was actually the head of Pediatrics, andthe kids. It was my Christmas. My family was gone now. Well, they may as well be. My parents divorced when I was eight and they both remarried, starting new families. I never quite fit in with either of them, being the odd child out. As soon as I was old enough, I struck out on my own. Occasionally I was invited back for a holiday, but I knew the day would be awkward and stilted. I preferred to spend it working, letting others enjoy their family. My holiday was Santa’s visit to the children’s ward.
And it was ruined.
Now, it was late, almost midnight, and I was stuck on the side of the road, with a dead cell phone, a flat tire, wearing an elf costume because I didn’t wait to change at the hospital. Could this day get any worse?
I didn’t even have a charger cable in my car. Adulting fail.
I got out of my car, swung my useless purse over my shoulder and started waking down the desolate road, hoping to find the convenience store I passed a couple of miles back. I didn’t get far before I regretted my choice of footwear. My nursing crocs were a heck of a lot more comfortable than these, but I had left them in my locker at work, so I was stuck with these soft elf slippers.
A series of bad choices. At least it was a warm night. As much as I wish sometimes that I lived in a colder climate and could have snow for Christmas, I was grateful, especially now, for our temperate climate here in Arizona.
Though this fog could put a damper on this pleasant midnight stroll.
Quickly, I could not see the road in front of me. My feet scuffed the road, and I stumbled, recovering quickly. I felt so tired all of a sudden, like I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It had been a long day, but I couldn’t remember ever being this tired before, not bone-tired like this.
I stumbled again and fell to my knees but, instead of the asphalt, the ground felt soft, wet, cold. And the temperature haddropped markedly. I sat back on my heels and rubbed my arms, trying to get warm, but I shivered in the cool air. My eyelids drooped and my head bobbed. I jerked awake. I couldn’t fall asleep. Not in the cold. Too dangerous.
My thoughts grew sluggish and my eyes closed. I didn’t even feel it when I sank to the ground.
Sinteklas
Isettled the furs around my shoulders against the snow gently falling around me and snapped the reins to urge the horses to move faster. The metal buckles jingled as they upped their trot in the snow. I wanted to get back to the clan before nightfall. Days were shorter in the winter season and supplies run scarce, especially now that our clan was exiled from our traditional lands in Orc territory. We’d found sanctuary with a minotaur herd and worked together for safety and mutual aid. It worked for us and I was grateful for their assistance. One of our own had even mated a human with a minotaur.
Several of their orcs have mated humans, despite the rigid control that the usurper orc king had placed over matings. Illegal auctions still occurred over the border for human females who wanted a protector or for those more unusual cases of human females who wandered into our realm from another. Human females were much prized, especially now that our own females had died out from a disease, requiring us to look elsewhere for mates.
Our auctions were a bit unusual. We paid to enter, but the females got to select the winners. If the top bidder was not acceptable, she could refuse. Unless the king found the female first, then she was trapped in his harem and no one wanted to talk about their fate.
I never attended one of those auctions. I was older than many orcs in the clan, though not in my dotage by any means. I felt our younger orcs deserved a mate more than I. Though, I wished for one in the long, cold nights in my hut. Maybe I would talk to my clan mate, Kharag, and have him train me one of his hounds for a companion. They might smell bad, but it would be company.
As we jingled down the path in the sleigh laden with supplies from the local town, I spied a dark bundle ahead, lying motionless just off to the side. I reined in the horses and we stopped just shy of the shape. It wasn’t a rock or a tree stump. It was more recently laid there, since snow had not gathered on it. I looked around, searching the dark forest in case this was a trap. The orc king often sent out his soldiers to recapture those who escaped his rule. I didn’t want to be conscripted into his army. Not again.
After a long moment, when no one attacked from the forest and the horses didn’t sense something out of sorts, I got out of the sleigh and cautiously made my way over to the bundle. As I got closer, I noticed that it wasn’t a rock or anything like that. It was too colorful. It was green and red and white, almost blinding in the brightness. Was it a discarded bundle of clothing?
Before I could poke it with the long stick, the bundle moved, rolling over. Rich auburn hair spilled out onto the snow, along with a weird red and white cap. Her face was beautiful, pale, with full lips and an upturned nose. She was terribly dressed, not at all, for the weather. I didn’t know where she got that ridiculous outfit, but I had never seen anything like it in all my travels through the realm.
But maybe she was a female from another one, having fallen through a portal. Could she be a female for me? One of my clan mates had met a female on the road to another town and now they were happily mated with an orcling. Kharag’s mate, Olivia, believes that the portal sends females to our world who need to be here, and they find their true mates. Maybe she is for one of my clan.
Then she opened her eyes and screamed.
CHAPTER TWO
JULES
Holy shit! What the hell was staring down at me? Was it a demon? No wait, demons were red, I think. Elves were green, but I thought they were smaller. This man was easily six and a half feet tall if not taller, with broad shoulders that blocked out the sky. All I saw was green skin and fur and black hair threaded with silver. His chest was carved from jade, corded with muscle and covered with a leather vest edged with fur and a fur cloak. I was freezing, and he wore a vest, not even showing signs of being cold. His tree trunk sized legs were covered by leather pants.
Clearly, I wasn’t in Arizona any longer, unless this guy was an amazing cosplayer from a local Comic Con, but I doubted it. He didn’t look human and no makeup could make him look this different.
