He shook his head. “They used to come to our land. This is one of the reasons why it was so important we had a home by Christmas.”
“Aunt Mollie said they visited the first year she was here.” I startled the reindeer closest to me but hetook the carrot I offered. “That was about thirty years ago.”
He nodded. “Zelda told me that was the year before we bought our land when Rayne was the Alpha. Your aunt would only have seen them one time.”
“This is why you had to be here.”
“That and some of us had to prepare.”
I was confused, turned upside down and inside out as I wondered what they were getting ready for. Having witnessed the pack shift, I was certain I recognized some of them in the midst of the wild herd.
My mate craned his neck and looked up at the clear sky. Thank gods there was no snow this evening. Someone was playing more Christmas music with sleigh bells and it was accompanied by a swishing.
Faces tipped upward.
“Is that…?” someone asked
Then we saw them.
Santa's sleigh swept across the sky above the farm, pulled by a team of flying reindeer who glowed from the lights wrapped around their antlers. People shrieked and gasped and anyone who had a phone was videoing the spectacle. But not me and not any of the pack. Magic didn’t film well I suspected.
Did the humans suspect this was a display I’d put on? That I was generating images into the sky? It didn’t matter. It was special either way.
I tugged Roscoe’s coat. “Those lights are familiar.”
“Sorry, Erik borrowed them at the last minute.”
What did Erik have to do with Santa?
“He’s up there. He was called on at the last minute and I’m so proud.” He explained that was another reason they needed land. Santa chose replacement reindeer if they were anchored to the soil.
That was a thing, like standby at the airport. My human eyes picked out Erik who’d helped build the barn and charmed my customers. Go Erik! I had no idea he could fly.
As the Alpha, I wondered if Roscoe had ever flown with Santa. But he anticipated my question and told me because he worked outside of the pack, his beast wasn’t trained to fly.
“And that’s okay. Besides, my reindeer gets car sick so flying all night, all over the world, dipping and soaring, would not be a pretty sight.”
They’d be back by dawn when the pack would feed Erik and put him to bed for the next three days.
When the sleigh flew out of sight, families took their trees and headed to their cars. Everyone was talking excitedly about what they’d witnessed with most assuming it wasn’t real. But they told me they’d be back next year. Some of the kids cried, saying they wanted to stay and see Santa again but their parentsexplained they had to be in bed asleep before Santa filled their stockings.
As the farm emptied, the wild reindeer disappeared into the woods, and some of the remaining pack members shifted and went with them. The rest headed to their cabins, leaving Roscoe and me standing among the trees. I consoled them saying they’d grow bigger and taller before next Christmas.
If our little one was a shifter, they might fly with Santa one day. What an honor, but I couldn’t imagine letting my child go off and fly around the world with a jolly gentleman and a heap of presents.
“I suspect your aunt had an inkling of how special this place was after the first Christmas and that’s why she named it Right as Rain(deer).”
Wow! Roscoe and I had been linked since before we were born though there’d been a lot of detours along the way until he turned up at the farm.
“You've been part of this since the moment you said yes to us staying,” Roscoe told me. “Since you opened your heart and the farm to a pack of displaced reindeer shifters and trusted us with your home.”
He kissed me, not in front of the Christmas tree in our living room but under the Christmas stars. Noelle and Doug were gone but the remaining small trees rustled their approval and the scent of pine filled the crispwinter air.
“Merry Christmas, my mate,” Roscoe whispered.
“Merry Christmas, my dearest love.” My heart was full of love and wonder.
Tomorrow when Erik returned, we’d have our first Christmas as a pack and Roscoe’s and my first one as mates and parents-to-be. So much magic, I expected to wake up and find it was all a dream.
