What the Sleigh? Read Online Free Page B

him, huh?” Darrick murmured, all the normal attitude absent from his voice. “You do realize he’s still in love with you?”
    She snorted and pushed away from him. “Fuck off, not a chance.”
    “Oh, I know the look well,” the pixie carried on as she walked inside, heading for Iliona’s office to apologize. “He’s got it bad. Real bad.”
    This time she laughed, hand on the door to the office. Her voice was sharp with remembered pain as she answered, “Then why did I find him balls deep in another woman?”
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    Nick made sure he was nice and early for the briefing the next day. At twenty-five to nine, he sat in meeting room three waiting for everyone else to arrive. Sitting back, he crossed one leg over the other and looked around. The PPA offices were plush and luxurious, but they were obviously a hive of activity. This particular room had been set up for their special task force operation. A large board at the back already had diagrams of the mall they were going to be located at pinned up, as well as grainy surveillance photos of the gang. A picture in the corner caught his attention and he stood to walk over to it, wincing when he realized it was a color shot of the two dead reindeer from the previous attack.
    Checking over his shoulder the door was still closed, he reached out and unpinned it, slipping it quickly into his pocket before returning to his seat. Rudi might act hard as nails, but he knew her. She had a soft heart, especially where her animal’s cousin-kind was concerned. She didn’t need to see something like that.
    He lifted his mug of coffee as the door opened, taking a healthy swallow. Thick and laced with cream and sugar, it sent a jolt of warmth through his system but was nothing compared to the feeling which coursed through him when Rudi walked into the room. Dressed for business in black jeans and a fitted leather jacket over a t-shirt, her hair was neatly scraped back and she carried a bunch of files under her arm.
    Nick’s expression darkened as she was followed by her pet pixie, Darrick. For Pole’s sake, did the guy own anything that wasn't leather? The two men locked gazes, the active hatred in the pixie’s eyes nothing new to Nick.
    He didn’t get a chance to say anything because the room filled quickly. As well as Rudi and the pixie, there were a couple of other shifters, werewolves if he wasn’t mistaken, and an ethereally beautiful woman who had to be some kind of nymph.
    “Thank you for all being here on time.” Rudi moved to the head of the table, calling the meeting to order just by speaking. The others in the room instantly sat up a little straighter, paying attention as she spoke.
    “Okay, as you’re all alive and haven’t been living under a rock for the last month I’m going to assume you’ve all heard about the armed gang the police are referring to as the ‘Grotto Gang’.”
    All credit to them, there wasn’t one snigger due to the name. Instead, every person in the room listened intently as she went over the details of the recent attacks. Nick had read the file from beginning to end, so he didn’t listen. Instead, he watched her.
    She’d changed. He hadn’t missed the way she walked and moved now. Like she was harder somehow, the subtle vibes coming off her saying she knew how to handle herself in a fight. A fact he’d seen yesterday when she’d kept him and the pixie from kicking seven bells out of each other.
    She wasn’t the soft, laughing, happy-go-lucky woman he’d known five years ago. She’d always been capable… hell, she was practically a living legend at the Pole. Were-deer were rare as hell, and the other deer loved them. If it was Rudi heading up a sleigh team, then Christmas night went like a dream. She never got lost, never missed a drop and kept her deer, and her Santa, in order. She’d made him look good, but the arrogant tosser he was, he hadn’t realized. He’d thought it was all down to him, the