Page 5 of A Bear Ski Instructor Christmas (Holiday Shifters of Frost Mountain)

Santa Doesn’t Have any Sexy Elves

“She did what ?”

Andrew straightened, glancing up from the wooden pole he was polishing, and fixed his friend with an incredulous stare. Still hunched over the straps he was hammering onto a pair of skis, Michael let out a sigh for what he imagined was the twentieth time since yesterday.

“She kissed me,” he said. “It happened so suddenly. I didn’t even see it coming.”

His friend let out a guffaw. “How come you didn’t tell me about this yesterday?”

Michael pondered the question for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess I was still trying to make sense of the whole thing myself. It’s not every day some random woman appears on the mountain and kisses you moments before attacking you.”

The workshop was empty except for the two men and the dozens of new wooden skis they’d managed to craft over the past couple of weeks. The scent of tar hung in the air, growing fainter as gusts of cold wind wafted through the open doorway. Neither man was bothered by the chill despite the fact that they were both bare-chested; rivulets of sweat trickled down Michael’s broad chest to his firm abdomen.

“Look,” he said, “I just feel weird about it all. She knew my name. I don’t remember ever seeing her in my life, and she knows my last name. I’d say maybe we bumped into each other once back in my world, but she was saying things about me abandoning her. You know what that sounds like?”

“It sounds like you two were…”

“Close? Exactly.”

“I was going to say involved ,” Andrew said with a grimace. “But yes.”

Michael suppressed a groan. “What else could she know about me?” Less than a day had passed since his encounter with that elfish woman. What was her name again? Rachel. The woman he couldn’t seem to remember for some reason. The woman who’d kissed him.

“Who knows? She’s got to be someone from your past.” Andrew held up the pole he’d been polishing, admiring his handiwork for a moment.

His past. Michael felt his gut clench at the thought.

It had been barely three years ago when he woke up on Frost Mountain with no idea how he’d gotten here. Half-buried in snow, his head pounding where he’d struck it against a nearby rock, he might have wasted away in the cold if the people of Melinor hadn’t discovered him when they did.

It had taken Michael weeks to recover from what Reba insisted was some kind of accident. Right from the start, a few things had already been clear to him. The first was that he wasn’t from Frost Mountain. He’d come from another world, an entire dimension away. The second thing was that his memory had been impaired. It had taken weeks for him to remember most things.

Andrew had been there to help. Both men had been friends for nearly three years now. Born and raised on Frost Mountain, Andrew had no trouble helping Michael get accustomed to the place and Melinor. Over the years, they had become almost brothers.

He and Andrew spent most of their time together, either skiing or practicing their woodcraft in the workshop. Between the adrenaline highs of hurtling down the mountain and the soothing effect that woodwork had on them, Michael thought they lived pretty satisfactory lives.

“Someone you know?” Andrew offered again. A smirk appeared on his lips. “Someone you loved, maybe?”

The question stilled Michael for a moment. Rachel had kissed him earlier. But if they’d been lovers, he certainly would remember her, right? He was pretty sure he remembered every significant detail about his life. He knew he loved to ski; he knew he was skilled at crafts. He knew he was a bear shifter. He knew he’d been in different relationships before he arrived here. Yet the memory of Rachel was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

The memory of Rachel’s lips on his filled his mind again, and he felt his heart pick up the pace. If she hadn’t broken the kiss and slapped him, they might have stood like that in the snow forever. He didn’t know this woman, but that brief encounter with her had felt…right.

He hadn’t seen her since they returned to the village. Was she okay? He had to admit, she’d been occupying his mind for hours.

But he had other things to worry about. With Christmas fast approaching, he and Andrew were fashioning as many skis as they possibly could so he could train the villagers as he did yearly. Michael had never imagined becoming a ski instructor, but when the people of Melinor saw what he could do, they all wanted to learn how to do it. Every year, at least two dozen new people wanted to learn from him. If this were a business back in his world, he’d be swimming—no, skiing —in dollars.

But that world was gone forever. Frost Mountain was his only home now.

And it was Rachel’s, too. He remembered how long it had taken him to get used to this place. No doubt, she was confused and terrified. It wasn’t every day a person got whisked from their life onto a mountain that defied nature.

Maybe he could look for her later to check up on her—not for any other reason, of course. As someone who’d found himself on Frost Mountain all of a sudden, he was fully aware of just how trying it could be to adjust to this new reality. Then again, so were a large number of the village folk. Melinor was home to all, but the way Michael saw it, this place had more connection to his old world than to the mountain.

“Michael!” He heard a series of footsteps, and two little girls no older than eleven appeared in the doorway, beaming at him. They both wore sweaters too large for them, their blonde hair in messy pigtails. “Hi!”

“Hey, Sadie,” Michael said, grinning at the sight of the pair of them. “Katie. What are you two up to?”

“We just wanted to see if the skis were ready,” Katie replied. She was slightly taller than her friend, with a more oval face.

He resisted a chuckle. Everyone in Melinor knew who Michael was. Everyone wanted his help with something now and then, whether it was teaching them to ski or creating furniture. Even the kids in the village loved him. Michael didn’t mind the attention. If anything, it made him feel more a part of the community.

Still, it saddened him sometimes to see children around here. Frost Mountain was no place to live. Crawling with dangers from the cold to literal monsters and dark powers, this mountain was a death trap. It was no place for an adult bear shifter like him and certainly no place for children. His only consolation was that Melinor was mostly safe and hidden from the rest of the mountain. People who found this place did so by accident.

“They aren’t all ready,” Andrew said before Michael could utter a word. “And even if they were, you two aren’t going to smell them this Christmas.”

Both girls pouted in unison. “Why not?” whined Sadie. “We want to learn to ski!”

“You’re not old enough.” Michael chuckled. “Reba would have my head if I let two children tear down Frost Mountain on skis taller than them. It’s too dangerous for you.”

“But—”

“No, Katie. Maybe when you’re older.” He stepped back from his craft and faced both girls. “Why don’t you two run along now? There’s a bunch of other stuff you can do. Build a snowman or something.”

“Snowmen are boring,” Sadie complained. Just then, her eyes lit up. “Will Santa be coming this year?”

At the mention of the word, Michael felt his grin widen. The little kids in Melinor mostly had no idea who their Santa was; quite unlike the older ones, who’d put two and two together and realized over time that Michael and Santa were never in the same room—like Batman, he liked to think sometimes. He’d been wearing a complete Saint Nick costume, white beard, stuffed belly, and all when he first arrived on Frost Mountain years ago. Why Santa was wearing skis, Michael wasn’t really sure, but he’d never given it much thought.

For the past couple of years, during Christmas, he’d put on that costume and paraded the streets of the village to the delight of everyone who cared to watch. The way Michael saw it, that was what Christmas was all about: spreading joy to anyone and everyone possible. You didn’t need to buy gifts to fill stockings and place under trees. On Frost Mountain, where there was no Walmart, sometimes the most you could do was give the people the three Hs that came with the nostalgia of a Santa-filled Christmas: hope, harmony, and happiness, all condensed into the well-known “ Ho, ho, ho!”

“Maybe,” he said. “If you two are good. Now, run along, will you?”

“Okay.” Both girls turned and disappeared.

Michael turned back to his skis and picked up the hammer.

“So…” Andrew said before he could resume working. “Is there any chance this Rachel woman could be one of…Santa’s elves?”

He burst into laughter, and Michael shook his head, struggling not to join in.

“What?” Andrew folded his arms across his chest. “You’re drawn to this woman, aren’t you?”

Michael considered replying in the negative, but if he’d admitted the truth to himself, denying it to his closest friend seemed needless. He nodded. “Why does it matter? Santa doesn’t have any sexy elves.”

“Might I remind you that Elena still has her eye on you?”

At this, he threw his head back with a groan. Reba’s daughter, Elena, had had her eye on him ever since he stepped foot in Melinor.

“Do I need to remind you that I’m not into her?”

Andrew shot him a smirk. “Why don’t you tell her yourself?”

Michael lifted an eyebrow at his friend. “She’s Reba’s daughter.”

“So?”

“ So , I’m not sure I want to hurt the feelings of the village chief’s daughter by rejecting her.” He shrugged.

“You say it like it’s going to put you on Reba’s bad side or something.” Andrew shook his head. “Did it ever occur to you that you might already be hurting her feelings?”

Michael blinked.

“Look,” Andrew said, “you haven’t outrightly told her that you’re not interested in her. It’s been a little over a year since she made it clear that she had strong feelings for you. All you do is pretend to be busy or distracted. How do you think that makes her feel?”

“So, you want me to tell her to her face…?”

“I’m not telling you what to do, Michael. You know best. All I’m saying is, Elena’s not going to like to see you chasing after some other woman.”

Michael frowned at his friend. “I’m not chasing after her.”

Are you sure about that? asked a tiny voice in the back of his mind.

“Right now, I’m just going to focus on these skis,” he said. “Christmas is on the way. We’ve already got plans. Some woman appearing on Frost Mountain and claiming to know me shouldn’t cause so much of a problem, right?”

“Right.” Andrew’s smirk widened. “Any plans for later?”

Michael shrugged. “I might go skiing again.”

It was just what he needed to clear his head.