The Reindeer's Halloween Claim Read online

  The Reindeer’s Halloween Claim

  (Reindeer Holidays)

  By E A Price

  Copyright ©2018 by Elizabeth Ann Price

  All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No reindeer were hurt in the making of his novella, though a few cougars may have been… nobody’s crying over that though.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  “How about this one?”

  Heather Tam held up a barely there Halloween costume and waggled her eyebrows.

  Her oldest, dearest, best friend and partner in crime, Temp, rolled her eyes.

  “Sure if I wanted to make Harlan have a fit.”

  “Old, married prude,” teased Heather.

  Temp stuck out her tongue and browsed the costume rack. She pulled out various outfits, Heather glared at them witheringly, and Temp kept on browsing.

  Temp had always been a good sport, but she never really wanted to celebrate Halloween – she wasn’t a fan of horror or scary things. Though, she did always make an effort at her charity center for the kids. Temp had founded and was now running a charity that helped families. Whether it be with something as small as watching the kids after school while their parents were at work, or fundraising to get money for necessary medical procedures, Temp was on hand.

  “I like this one,” ventured Temp.

  Heather snorted. “What even is that dress for?”

  “It’s an Elizabeth Bennet costume.”

  Heather gave her a non-plussed look.

  “From Pride and Prejudice. You know, the Jane Austen novel.”

  “All I know about Jane Austen is that Colin Firth looks mighty fine dripping wet.”

  The scene where he jumped into the lake was watched repeatedly when she was younger. So much so her old VHS eventually wore out.

  “And,” added Heather, “in that you would look like a nun in training.”

  Temp pursed her lips and gave the getup a critical look. “It’s not that bad.”

  “It has a bonnet!” But, she thought about it for a moment. “Although, if you could persuade Harlan to do a Mr. Darcy lake dive, I may change my opinion.”

  Temp’s lips twitched in amusement. “You’re right; maybe it’s not such a good idea. I wouldn’t want any girls losing their heads over him. Especially you!” she taunted playfully.

  Heather affected a look of mock hurt. “How dare you! It’s Colin Firth or nothing as far as Mr. Darcy goes!”

  Her best friend smirked and put the dress back. As if Temp had anything to worry about. Her husband was handsome sure, and he turned heads – as did Temp – but anyone with eyes could see he was equally as besotted with his new wife as she was with him. Seriously, they were in a restaurant the other day, and Harlan didn’t even notice the young waitress flirting with him – he actually called her ‘sir.’

  They continued searching. Temp came up with some dismal costumes, while she shot down all of Heather’s more risqué suggestions.

  The two of them had been friends since college, and since they had randomly been put together in a dorm room. Temp was tall, lovely, and sweet, while Heather was short, saucy and outgoing. They were inseparable.

  Recently, Temp had married a handsome devil of a man called Harlan Connors. Although Heather was vociferously annoyed at how much Harlan monopolized Temp’s limited free time – even going so far as to draw up a schedule for the two of them to share her (much to Temp’s annoyance) – she was thrilled for her best friend. Temp had never been much of a dater, never having much faith in men – which was no wonder given her douchebag of a father thought Heather sourly. She had been considering having a baby by means of a sperm bank when Harlan came along. While Heather one thousand percent supported Temp in any endeavor, she was glad that Harlan had turned up and that the two of them were considering having children together. Though there was no rush on that – Heather insisted there was no rush. The last thing she needed was Temp producing some kids and giving her mom some ideas that maybe it was time Heather should be starting to have kids too. It was bad enough with her own treacherous and pregnant little sister. There was only so many family dinners she could stand where her mom asked her how long she expected her eggs to stay fertile – yeuch.

  Heather supposed she wanted kids of her own one day – like way, way, way in the future one day, but she could honestly take them or leave them. She wasn’t quite ready to settle down, wasn’t quite there when it came to getting a ring slapped on her finger. Couldn’t wholly abide the thought of having a full-time man in her life and her apartment who would want to know where she was every second of the day. She had tried that before with a live-in boyfriend, and he drove her absolutely nuts with his constant phone calls and text messages. Her sister called that devotion. Heather called that stalkerish.

  Her mom despaired at her attitude, wondering why Heather was so commitment phobic. Heather denied she was, and it wasn’t as if she had any issues that she needed to spew out to an overpriced therapist. Unlike Temp - whose mother took off when she was a kid and whose dad dumped her at boarding school so he could embark upon numerous disastrous marriages - growing up, Heather had been surrounded by countless happy couples in her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and her own parents who had a stable, happy marriage. Her lack of desire for settling down couldn’t be blamed on anything; she just liked her life the way it was. Though, she could do without her mom’s speculation on the state of her womb.

  Her phone chirruped, and Heather flickered her eyes over a text message before stowing her phone in her bag.

  “Was that Christoph?” asked Temp as she inspected a witch costume.

  “Who?” murmured Heather, before it dawned on her. She had been seeing a guy called Christoph a month back, but they parted ways when she found out he was also seeing another girl. Hey, no judgment on her part, but while she was a serial dater she was a monogamous dater. Almost all of her relationships ended amicably.

  “Oh no, it was just work, and besides there’s been a Roger and a Stefan since then.”

  Temp smiled at her. Her best friend would never dream of dating the way Heather did, but there was never any condemnation from her, never any suggestion that Temp thought she was doing anything wrong. They supported each other fully in anything they did.

  The two women loaded their a
rms with a few costumes and made their ways to the changing rooms. When they each had their first outfit on, they flung open the dressing room doors and guffawed in laughter.

  Temp actually was dressed as a nun while Heather was in a tiny squirrel costume. They both looked each other up and down and shook their heads before retreating into the changing rooms for another costume change.

  This time, Temp came out dressed as a lumberjack – fake beard and everything – while Heather was dressed as a bunny.

  “Got a thing for small rodents, huh?” giggled Temp.

  Heather wiggled her butt in the mirror, watching the pom-pom tail jiggle. “Does Harlan have a thing for lumberjacks?”

  Temp stroked her beard. “I doubt it, though not much seems to turn him off.”

  “Umm-hmm.” Heather smirked.

  Temp blushed slightly, though she wasn’t embarrassed. “So, are you bringing anyone to the herd Halloween party?”

  Heather gave her a covert look. “Can we say herd out loud?”

  “I just did,” chuckled Temp.

  Yep, Temp had fortified herself with alcohol before she told Heather the truth about her husband – that he could change into a giant reindeer at will. Heather had assumed Temp was having some kind of break down at first. But Temp had insisted and when Harlan came home to encroach on their scheduled girly time – grrr – he was annoyed at first but finally relented and showed her the truth. He wasn’t altogether happy with Heather knowing, but Temp said she could no sooner keep this from her bestie than she could stop breathing. That was met with some eye rolls from her husband, but it meant that Heather was now sworn to secrecy over the truth about shifters and had an open invitation to all herd-related celebrations. She hadn’t really attended any, given that her own parents generally celebrated every holiday. But given her mom’s aversion to everything scary, Halloween was the one free holiday she had, and as such she was going to the herd party who apparently went all out every year by booking out a small theme park. These were reindeer who took Halloween very seriously, and Heather was kind of getting excited about it.

  “I don’t think so,” said Heather airily. “Just me.”

  She actually kind of preferred it that way. She wanted to enjoy the theme park whole-heartedly, and didn’t want to worry about lugging a date around, and whether he was enjoying himself or not. To be honest, she hadn’t met anyone she really liked in a long time. Oh, she’d met plenty of men who were nice and whose company she enjoyed – she was happy to go out to dinner with them and the theatre, and liked them enough to take them home for sex. But really liking them enough to want to spend time with them not doing anything interesting, or wanting them to spend the whole night – that was entirely a different matter. She’d perhaps only found that once with the live-in boyfriend, and he had turned out to be one popsicle short of an ice cream truck.

  Temp smiled. “Good, I have you all to myself.”

  “As per the schedule,” snickered Heather.

  “Sure, the schedule,” grumbled Temp.

  “Come on; I’m dying to see you in the clown costume.”

  “Harlan hates clowns. Scares the hell out of him apparently.”

  Heather grinned villainously. “Really? Then you should definitely get that one.”

  “Evil woman.”

  Heather preened, taking it as a compliment and decided to try out the slinky cat costume.

  Chapter Two

  “There’re hardly any females here tonight,” grumbled Dex.

  “No there is,” sighed Dozer, “they’re just not about to approach us because we’re in a reading corner.”

  He frowned at the pile of books on their table. They were at a bar, ostensibly there to drink, but really there to ogle women and perhaps lure some of them into spending time with them.

  Jax had come out with his twin brother, Dex, their older brother, Dozer and their herd mate, Alden. It was Alden who had brought the pile of books with him.

  “It’s not my fault,” complained Alden. “I need to learn all these herd laws before Friday, and there are seventeen volumes of this stuff all as big as this one.”

  He slammed shut the book he was looking at for emphasis, and it did cause a small quake. Dozer was a herd protector, handling security for the herd and enforcing their alpha’s will. Jax and Dex were currently in training to be protectors too. They wouldn’t really be suited to one of the herd office jobs – they were rather large to be relegated to a small office space. Plus, being protectors was kind of the family business. They were following in the footsteps of their grandfather, their dad, their uncle and their cousin Tank – whose huge size even made Dozer look a little on the average side.

  Alden, on the other hand, had been named herd historian. Being bookish and gifted with an incredible memory, it was a role that suited him. However, it was a role that had been thrust upon him suddenly after the last historian died, and Alden had been given little time to get to grips with the intricate and often contradictory laws and rules for shifters before they were in crisis and their alpha was almost forced to marry. Of course, now the alpha had married because he wanted to, so everything was okay, but that and a few other incidents had left his first year as historian a little shaky. While finishing his college degree, he hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to spend studying the herd tomes, but now that he had graduated, Alpha Branch made it clear that now he was expected to learn all their lore, rules and history immediately…. Because he was going to be tested on Friday.

  “You’ll be fine,” boomed Dozer giving Alden a firm slap on the back that had his glasses slipping to the end of his nose and would no doubt leave a handprint for days.

  Dozer had insisted Alden come out for a drink to lighten up. The young male had been disappointed and moody since the herd female, Maris, had mated with the alpha’s uncle. Though, Dozer had reckoned without the collection of books adorning their small table.

  “Half this stuff doesn’t make any sense,” grumbled Alden, “and the other half is just plain odd. Did you know that a hundred years ago females were supposed to give clementines to males they were interested in, and the males then had to fight during rutting season to see who would win her? The losers would hand over their clementines as a sign of defeat, and the winner would then eat them all before mating with the female.”

  Dex gave him a bored look. “Who cares? All these books and this boring talk is keeping the females away.”

  Dozer looked mildly confused. “What’s a clementine?”

  “Small orange type fruit, quite sweet,” replied Jax as he started picking up a book to leaf through it.

  He had never considered doing anything as drastic as looking at a book before, but fruit talk was something he could get on board with.

  “Huh, it says here,” murmured Jax – who didn’t let the fact that he moved his lips when he read bother him, or that he would be severely hampered without his index finger, “that gifting a pineapple to the alpha of another shifter group is a declaration of war.”

  “Really?” asked Dozer.

  “Oh, don’t you start,” groused Dex. “It’s bad enough that Jax is getting into this.”

  “Maybe because it’s pointy,” surmised Dozer, ignoring his younger brother completely.

  “Maybe because it’s really sticky when you cut it, and no one likes the stickiness,” pondered Jax.

  “Maybe I’m not related to you two,” groaned Dex before straightening. “I’m going to sweet talk that redhead in the corner.”

  He sauntered away, and Alden flickered a look at Dozer. “Think he stands a chance?”

  “Nah,” dismissed Dozer picking up a book, “see that blonde female she’s with? She was sweet-talking her earlier. Pretty sure they’re about to leave together.”

  “Poor Dex,” said Alden without too much sympathy, and given that Dex was pretty caveman towards women, he didn’t really deserve any.

  Of the three brothers, when it came to women, Dozer tended to be level-
headed and calm. Dex was… well, Dex was incorrigible. But Jax had always been the nervous, fidgety brother. Took him years before he could even say the word bra without giggling. The only reason he actually came out that evening was Dex, who wouldn’t stop bothering him about it, and Jax knew that Alden would be quite a staid presence. It was just pure luck that he brought the books with him.

  Alden shook his head as Dex received a slap from the redhead – it was probably deserved. “Maybe he should try some of the mating rituals in these books,” said Alden. “According to this one,” he said picking up volume four, “if a shifter gives a family heirloom to a female, and she accepts it without returning it within the space of six months, then he can bind her to be his bride.”

  “Family heirloom?” muttered Dozer. “Like a chest of drawers or something?”

  “Probably more like jewelry. The only way she can get out of the mating is if she is unaware of the male’s shifter nature – say if she were human and didn’t know he was a shifter. Or if another male can best him and all his respective herd or clan or pride during rutting season for her hand and then takes her as his mate.”

  Jax hid behind his book, trying not to blush. Rutting season for reindeers started in August and came to an end at the start of November. It was when the females were fertile, and they were desperate to mate. The males would become aggressive in their need and would fight with other males over females. Both sexes were horny all the time. It was at its worst in August, and thankfully, now that they were in October, the mating frenzy was starting to dwindle.

  As for shifters, it wasn’t quite so bad as if they were actual animals, but the frenzy did hit some males pretty hard. There had been one or two incidents between unmated males that the alpha had to deal with, and Dex had been pretty unbearable for the last couple of months. However, the real blush-worthy thing about the season was their parents and older brothers. Other than Dex and Dozer, they had two older mated brothers both also living at home with their parents, and well… Jax spent the whole of August sleeping in the shed because he couldn’t bear listening to the moans or walking in on any of his family members getting jiggy.