Page 12 of Snowed in at Santa's Lodge
I stepped back from the window and grasped the nearest chair for balance. No, this couldn’t be happening. In a blur of motion, I stepped into my boots and threw on a hoodie that belonged to Ragnar and headed for the main lobby. I wasn’t careful this time, either.
Once I got to the front door, I intended to go outside and prove myself wrong. I was not awake enough. I’d imagined it. It couldn’t be.
Just when I was about to go out and ensure my mental capacity was intact, Ragnar came into the lodge, eyes wide. His breaths ragged. He wore only a pair of jeans. No shoes. No shirt.
“I saw…it was a… What in the hell?” Ragnar stepped toward me, and I held my hands up. “No. Explain. I-I need to sit down.”Instead of finding something to sit on, I flopped on the floor, landing on my ass with a thump. Ow, that hurt. I was still sore.
“Aspen,” he said, crouching. “Baby, I’m a shifter. A reindeer shifter. He was driving me crazy this morning, so I had to go out and let him run a bit. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I was going to tell you today. That was my secret. Yesterday, when you were asking me if I was a serial killer.”
My breathing stilled a bit. The man that I’d mated with only hours ago was a shifter. A person who changed into an animal. He turned into a reindeer. A fucking massive, majestic animal.
“You turn into an animal. That was you outside.” I restated the obvious, but my brain couldn’t quite get the hint.
“Yes. I do. I was born a shifter. Baby, I would never hurt you, and neither would my reindeer.”
That shocked me. “How could you know that? I could be outside, minding my own business, and that giant could stomp on me with its hooves or run me over. I’d be gone in an instant.”
Ragnar looked at the floor. “He would never hurt his mate.”
“His mate?”
“Yes. When a shifter finds his fated mate, there is no chance in hell that their animal could ever hurt them.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. This conversation required much more coffee. “You turn into a reindeer. A reindeer who thinks I’m your mate and would never hurt me. What about you?”
Ragnar opened his mouth. “You think I would ever, ever in my life hurt you?”
“No. I mean, you said your reindeer thinks I’m your mate. What about you? Do you think I’m yours?”
He nodded. “I do. I knew it from the first moment I saw you and scented you. Yes, it’s biology that tells me we belong together, but it’s you that made me fall for you.” He inched closer, and goddess help me, I allowed it. There was nothing buttruth and sincerity in his words. I had to ground myself in the facts I knew. Ragnar would never lie to me or hurt me, and the truth was, if I’d let him, he would’ve told me all of this the night before.
“What was wrong with him? Your reindeer? You?”
“What do you mean?” He closed the distance between us and gathered me up in his arms. Despite being out in the cold, he was incredibly warm. I let myself melt into his embrace.
“You said your reindeer was driving you crazy, and so you had to go out and run. What was wrong with him?”
“Oh. He was mad at me.”
“About what?” I looked up at those green eyes to find them already peering down at me. There was nothing but love and concern in them. He rubbed circles along my lower back, comforting me. Could this be real?
“He knew you were my mate, our mate, and he wanted me to mark you as ours and for you to mark us. He was upset at me but I couldn’t, wouldn’t do that without your consent and without you knowing everything about me.”
“Thank you for being honest with me.”
For what seemed like an hour, we sat there in the lobby. Him whispering words of love and safety to me, and me soaking them in.
“Are you okay?” he asked after a while.
“I am. I need to think about what all this means but it feels right. It feels so good to be here in your arms. For the first time in a long time, I feel safe and secure and…cared for.” Loved was what I meant, but we hadn’t crossed that line yet, though my heart was filled with love for him.
That was too soon, right?
Maybe not for a shifter.
Hell, maybe when you knew, you knew. Some people took years to fall in love, and then some lucky people fell instantly.
Maybe Fate had smiled on us.
