Page 3 of Beary Mated Christmas

“Tell me about it. Yesterday, I was trying to read and my brains were rockin’ around the Christmas tree the whole time. Couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s almost over.”

“Have you gotten your teacher presents yet?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. You?”

“Nah. All of them will roll in during the next week.” He put his finger to his lips to make one of the more wigglier students be quiet. There was always a wiggler, and it varied from day to day. Today, it was Micah. A notorious re-offender. Once Micah got the hint, James turned to me. “So, what are your plans for Christmas? Hanging out with the family?”

Shit. I hadn’t planned for that question. Everyone assumed I was going to be with my family for Christmas, but I hadn’t celebrated with them in years.

The truth was, ever since Denali left me, left this town, Christmas had never been the same. So, I did what any lying wolf would do. I was dishonest about my holiday plans. “No, this year my best friend and I booked a cabin in the woods for us. We’re just going to spend the holidays chilling.”

“Ooh, what kind of chilling?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows. Goddess, I wished it was the kind of hanging out he was insinuating. I would love nothing more. Even after all these years, I loved Denali as much as before.

Before he left me.

“The kind that is completely PG. Cookies. Christmas movies. Sleeping in until noon at least.”

“That sounds like a dream.”

“It will be. What about you? I think you told me.”

James chuckled and smiled at the kids doing their little dance on stage. Some of them had been entrusted with the bells and a drum or two. It was going as well as could be expected, considering they were kids.

The parents were entranced. Every phone was in the air. Flashes lit up from time to time. The whole thing was being recorded and would be uploaded to our private server, but they insisted on having personal recordings as well. The administration gave up on trying to make them stop a few years before.

“I’m driving up to be with the family, but I have some get-togethers with my friends as well. I look forward to that time even more than my relatives. They can be a bit overbearing.”

I nodded. Mine were the same. They expected me to be merry and bright, but I didn’t want to.

I missed my mate.

Denali had owned my heart since we were old enough to have our first crushes. We both looked forward to the first shift, talking about what it would be like. Where we would run. What we would do. I was sure before our shift that Denali was my mate. More than that, I would’ve sworn on my life that when we shifted, I would scent him and know that he was my fated mate. That all the pieces would fall into place. That our lives together would be sealed forever.

We’d gone out that day to take a hike. He and I were avid hikers and lovers of nature because we were shifters, but it was also our thing. What better way to spend Christmas Eve. We’d just turned eighteen. I’d felt my wolf before that, hearing him speak to me weeks before and maybe even before that. Denali had been feeling his bear as well.

We were ready. More than ready for the change about to take over.

We shifted in an explosion, me a minute before him. We were both caught up in our first change. I’d never heard of two shifters simultaneously phasing into their animals for the first time. Especially two different species, but there we were, experiencing a life-changing event together.

Then everything changed.

I thought he would be my forever. He smelled like polar bear. No bakery scents invading my senses. No cinnamon-roll alpha smell making my head fuzzy. None of that. Just Denali, smelling the way he always did.

The way he withered when I told him broke my heart. He thought I didn’t notice, but I did. How could I not? He was my Denali.

I wished I could live that moment again. Be someone else. Be the person he wanted me to be, but I simply wasn’t his mate.

Fate had been cruel to us.

And Denali couldn’t take it. He ran off as soon as he could and, as far as I knew, never looked back. Not only had I lost my hope for a mate, I’d lost my best friend in the process.

I mourned that day, had since it happened. Denali and I would never be the same, and he’d run, proving that point.

All of that happened on Christmas Eve and so, on top of things, I loathed the season. The snow and the smells and the pine trees only reminded me that he wasn’t mine. Hell, by now, he probably belonged to another omega. I bet he smelled like heaven to them.

In the meantime, I had to get out of here. Once the week was over, I got ready. The cooler contained all the cold things I needed. Creamers for endless coffee. Butter for cookies. The basics. I’d been going to the cabin for years to get away, so now, packing everything up was a piece of cake. I could do it in my sleep if necessary—although why would it be?

And, of course, there were boxes full of books. I kept some of my novel choices to the side. Knowing I would have an uninterrupted vacation to read and be lazy, I prepped for it all year.