Rubbing the mirror with his palm, Nick thought about the old Santa. He had met the old beta as he was leaving the castleand Nick was moving in, but they hadn’t done more than shake hands and wish each other good luck with the future.
Nick rubbed the mirror all the way into the living room where he dropped down on the couch.
At first nothing happened. All Nick accomplished was smudging the mirror’s surface, and he was just wondering if he needed to take off his glove when the glass started to ripple and shimmer. Nick stopped rubbing, and a few seconds later the old Santa’s face was staring back at him.
“Hello?” the old Santa said, sounding perplexed.
Nick cleared his throat, his face red and hot, and swallowed his humiliation. “Hi. This is Nick, the new Santa.”
“Oh, yes! The alpha. What can I do for you?”
Nick bit back a groan.That’swhat a Santa should sound like. Jolly, helpful and kind. It made him want to throw up.
“The elves aren’t able to use the castle magic,” Nick said, forcing himself not to sound angry or threatening. He was coming to the old guy for help, and he had no right to treat him poorly.
The old Santa’s brows scrunched up.
“Cut off from the magic, you say? That’s odd. Have you channeled magic into the castle yet?”
Nick said that he had, admitting that he’d overdone it and turned the calibration stone red.”
“That shouldn’t do anything but give the magic an extra kick,” the old guy said. “Is that when it stopped working?”
Nick shook his head. “No, it worked all day yesterday. It’s today that’s the problem.”
“And did you do anything with the magic between the end of yesterday and this morning?”
Nick was about to say no, but then he froze. This couldn’t have happened because he checked the calibration stone, could it?
“I went up to check the calibration stone last night. I hadn’t noticed it before, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t purple.”
The old Santa frowned. “Tell me exactly what you did.” Nick bristled at being told what to do by a beta, but he forced his indignation down and gave the old man a complete blow by blow of everything that had happened in the channeling room.
“That explains it,” the old Santa said, nodding his head. “You must never channel tame magic into the castle—the elves can’t work with it. You have to channel the wild magic flowingoverthe castle. The only way to fix this is to drain the castle completely and refill it. Do you know how to do that?”
Nick took a deep breath, calming himself. Why hadn’t someone told him this? It wasn’t even in the book! This wasnothis fault.
“I know how to drain the castle, yes,” he said. It would take him a few days, but it could be done.
“Good. That should fix it. You might want to give the new Krampus a call, too. He’s an alpha like you. The two of you working together should be able to drain the castle in just a few hours.”
Nick blinked. “There’s a new Krampus?”
He knew that the council was looking to fill the post, but he hadn’t realized that they’d found someone.
“Yes. His name is Damon, if you can believe it. Seems fitting, doesn’t it?” The old Santa laughed.
“Thank you for your help,” Nick said, ignoring the comment. He rubbed the mirror and willed the connection to break. The old Santa’s face disappeared.
Nick knew Damon. The alpha was cocky, hot and mean—and he’d been Nick’s main competition for willing submissives when they were at school together. Young, cocky and popping a knot at everything that moved, the two of them had been insatiable. It got to the point where the academy administrator had to step in and order them to stop having sex with other students because it was interrupting their learning.
In the end, that had probably been a good thing. Nick at twenty was not nearly as capable of controlling himself as Nick at thirty-two.
Fuck it.Biting the bullet, acting before his instincts rebelled at the thought of going to another alpha for help, Nick rubbed the mirror and thought of Damon. Within just a few seconds, Damon’s face appeared in the glass. He was smiling, his skin flushed and sweaty, and he was breathing hard.
Nick felt his cock harden. Though Damon was an alpha, he was also one of the prettiest men Nick had ever seen. His face looked like it was cut from marble, and he had the brightest blue eyes Nick had ever seen.
“Nick! Or should I call you Santa, now?” Damon yelled into the mirror, laughing at his own joke as he brushed his hand through his hair and swept it away from his face.
