“Why don’t you give me an explanation for what I just saw?” I kept my voice even, the same tone I used when one of the trees was struggling and needed extra attention. “Because I'm pretty sure people don't normally grow antlers.”
I studied his profile, noting his jaw that was now its normal shape. Not that I knew what normal was anymore.
“So what is it?” I wanted to say what are you but didn’t want my question to sound like an accusation.
Roscoe was silent for so long I suspected he’d changed his mind about telling me. Was I supposed to go on with my day and accept the man I lusted after was able to grow antlers and retract them? That was a huge ask.
“I’m a reindeer shifter.”
He spoke but the words made no sense. I was familiar with reindeer and they had antlers but what in the heck was a shifter?
“Can you give me more details?” Anything, because I was grappling with a concept I couldn’t grasp.
“A reindeer shifter,” he repeated. “As in I have a reindeer inside me.”
Now I wished I hadn’t asked. How was that possible? And besides, I’d seen reindeer up close. No way would one fit inside him. It would be so squishy.
I did the rolling thing with my hand, telling him to keep talking.
“I’m not human.” He looked around at his family. “None of us is. We’re all reindeer shifters. We can shift between our human form and our reindeer.”
I let that sink in. He’d just told me he and the others weren’t human. I was surrounded by people and I was the only human. I didn’t expect that when I wokeup this morning. Thinking back to Aunt Mollie saying magic was real and we could make our own magic, I used to interpret that as we could make things happen if we believed in ourselves.
Opps. Was I wrong? Literally, magicwasreal and I was maybe the first human on earth to witness it.
“So what happened to the reindeer? I saw the antlers? Where’d he go?” I looked around. I couldn’t have missed a huge wild beast gallivanting off. And how did he get back in?
“I was triggered into a partial shift. I lost control because when I’m stressed or experiencing powerful emotions neither my reindeer nor I can stop the shift.”
Something caused him to show me what was inside his body. Maybe he was stressed about money, cause they’d given me a chunk, or that the barn wouldn’t be ready by Christmas. While I couldn’t put myself in his place, I understood how stress affected you. It colored the world in shades of gray instead of the rainbows.My stress had been alleviated by the lease money but now I wondered if I should have charged more.
He rambled about shifters, packs, and shifter councils and how shifters lived among humans. That was a lot to deal with and I’d wrestle with the implications later, but why was a shifter pack leasing my land? Surely, they didn’t come because they wanted to buy Christmas trees and get in line before everyone else?
“And someone stealing your land, was that a fib?”
There was a resounding no from everyone. Okay. I got that.
The pieces started clicking into place. "And the urgency about getting settled before Christmas?”
“We needed to find a permanent home by Christmas Eve because some of our pack members are on call for special duties that night. And other things.”
“What?” I screeched but everyone put a finger to their lips. Damn, I had to wait until the day before Christmas. I ignored the ‘other things’ reference because my head would explode with more information.
But instead of going home to bed, I pressed on. “You came here prepared to negotiate a lease agreement, but you ran out of my office as if you were being chased and today you almost shifted. What caused that?”
“You changed everything,” he said, though his voice rose at the end of the sentence. “You and your ridiculous love for these trees. You made it impossible to see this as just a business transaction.”
The words hit me like a series of huge waves, and my heart did that pitter patter thing I hadn’t experienced in years. “Roscoe.”
“I was supposed to be professional and complete the transaction and leave." His head drooped and hisface was smeared with confusion. "But you offered me terrible coffee and talked to your trees as if they were your children.”
Me? I was the one who’d messed with his head and maybe other parts of him? Hope stirred inside me. Was his behavior that of a typical shifter when they met someone with a little flare? One who was a tad quirky like my aunt?
Our eyes locked and we stared at one another. Time passed and neither of us moved. I sensed a new connection between us but that could have been because I was the only person who knew about shifters. But I so wanted it to be more.
He broke the spell and said I should process what had happened. I asked him to stay close and it was then I discovered the rest of the group, or I guessed the pack, had drifted away.
I ran over to Noelle and she waved her branches. I confided in her that the guy I fancied was magic. “He’s adorable, right? Do you like him too? Do you think Doug does?”
