Comet an mm mpreg holida.., p.1
Comet: An MM MPreg Holiday Shifter Romance, page 1
COMET
AN MM MPREG HOLIDAY SHIFTER ROMANCE
ABIGAIL KADE
Copyright © 2023 by Abigail Kade
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Copyright © 2023 Danielle Dolittle with Doelle Designs
Editor Amber Krough
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Foreword
Dedication
1. Comet
2. Alden
3. Comet
4. Alden
5. Comet
6. Alden
7. Comet
8. Alden
9. Comet
10. Alden
11. Comet
12. Alden
Also by Abigail Kade
FOREWORD
A himbo reindeer went hiking…
It came upon a midnight clear that Santa told me in no uncertain terms I had to take a vacation this year. The thought of laying around on some beach doing nothing was my idea of hell, so hiking the Appalachian Trail was my plan. Everything was great until a near-sighted barn owl sent me careening down the side of a mountain in a snowstorm. Now, I’m tucked away in his cozy cabin while my leg and shoulder heal. Alden Kirk is the adorable owl shifter, and he’s sincerely sorry, seriously attentive, and did I mention he’s adorable? He keeps telling me how smart and clever I am, but he’s just being nice. Right? I’ve always been the heavy lifter, not the smart one. But the longer I stay, the harder it is to resist my sweetly sexy feathered friend. Would someone so smart and sweet even consider a big himbo like me?
A nerdlet owl is falling…
Okay, so I went flying in the snow without my special glasses. What’s the worst that could happen? Leave it to me to make a common-senseless decision and cause serious injury to one of Santa’s freaking reindeer a few months before Christmas. Hale Comet is a big sexy beast of a guy, but he’s sweet, kind, funny and clever even when he doesn’t mean to be. I can parse a sentence and write a novel, but when it comes to my growing feelings for Hale, I’m clueless. I have to help him heal so he can get back home, but the longer I spend with him the more I’m certain I can't just let him walk out of my life. Would a gorgeous guy that’s so kind and important even consider a nothing nerd like me?
Hale and Alden might fight their feelings, but in the end they’ll learn that hearts are gonna heart, fate is gonna fate, and mates are gonna mate!
Comet is the fifth book in the multi-author M/M Shifter Mpreg Christmas romance series Mated at the North Pole, featuring Santa’s reindeer who find their mates while on a mandatory vacation. Comet features an alpha reindeer who falls down a mountain and the barn owl shifter who not only helps him heal his injured body, but his fragile heart as well. Also featured are a snow storm, Appalachian folklore, a cozy cabin, meddling woodland creature hijinks, only one bed. Of course, there will also be true love, fated mates, a surprise baby, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
DEDICATION
For all the Mpreg lovers, here’s something as cozy as a blanket fort on a cold winter evening.
1
COMET
“No, you have to slow down and look where you’re landing to hit the target, Rayne!”
The young reindeer was flying too fast, and I knew, even with the reminder, he’d never make it. Sure enough, he started to panic at the last minute and missed the bright red landing spot I’d marked in the snow to indicate his landing target. He hit the ground hard, then tumbled, antlers over hooves, across the icy clearing I’d set up for practice until he abruptly stopped in the safety snowbank I’d made just for this purpose. After shaking the snow off his barely there antlers, he shifted back to his human form with an embarrassed flush immediately covering his dusky cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Comet. I keep trying to slow down, but it’s hard to figure out everything all at once. It’s so frustrating.” He balled up his small fist and punched at the snow surrounding him. He hadn’t noticed where he hit was the only thing holding all the rest of the snow in place after his crash landing. The rest of the bank fell on top of him with the impact.
Running over to help extract my student, I tried to cover my laughter. These younger reindeer trainees weren’t old enough to join the real training, but the ambitious ones always wanted to start early. I loved helping them learn and train their bodies to reach their intimate potential. Someone else could teach them about books, history, math, and all the academic stuff I wasn’t great at. I wasn’t smart like that, but I could train them to be their best physically.
I watched Rayne fight with the snow for a few seconds, then reached in and pulled him free. He shook his head to get the powder out of his hair, then hung his head in defeat. “I’ll never be good enough for one of Santa’s sleighs.”
I gently touched his small head and ruffled his damp strands. “Rayne, you’ve got years before you can even go into the official training. You’re just starting. Lift your head and look at me.”
His head tipped up, and I bent down so we were eye to eye. “Never give up on a dream. You’re great for just starting out. We’ll keep working, and you’ll see. Okay?”
He gave a small lift of his lips and nodded. I smiled back, stood up, and clapped my hands. “Alright, now that we’ve got that settled, go ahead and shift back and run the course twice before you head home.”
“Can I just run it once, Mr. Comet? I’m supposed to be home early tonight because Mom might need to help with a delivery.”
Rayne’s mom was a part-time midwife for the village. I’d helped train Rayne’s older brother years ago, so working around her schedule was nothing new.
“Tell you what, promise to run home, and we’ll call it done for the day.”
Rayne jumped and gave a fist bump in his excitement for getting out of the course run. “Deal! I promise I’ll run all the way. Mom said if I got home early, she’d let me pick what we had for dinner before she left for Tundra’s house. I’m gonna choose veggie pasta!”
Shock rocked through me hearing Tundra’s name, but I masked it as well as I could. I watched Rayne shift, then run down the trail to his house. Rayne was my last lesson of the day, and even though I was tired, I decided to run my course myself instead of heading home. Hearing Tundra’s name and knowing his new mate was about to deliver, I needed the endorphins from a hard run. Besides, there might be limbs down from the winds we’d had last night.
I decided not to shift and just set off, running steadily while letting my mind run simultaneously. Even though my feet were moving me around the curves and hills of my training course, my mind stayed in one spot.
Tundra
I hadn’t thought about him for a long time, over a year, to be exact. We had been so close once. I’d thought it would last forever. Mates were hard to find, and there was no guarantee that we would find The One. Hell, sometimes a reindeer would meet their mate and not even realize it at first. There were lots of happy relationships where they weren’t fated, but they were just as happy. But Tundra wasn’t one of those.
He’d met his mate.
One day, I’d kissed him goodbye before he’d gone on a supply run, then the next day, he’d come back to tell me he couldn’t see me anymore because he’d met his mate on the trip.
The devastation was still fresh. Remembering the heartbreak, the shattering of dreams I had about a life together, I ran faster and faster. My legs burned, and my reindeer warned me to slow down, but I didn’t listen. I hadn’t shifted specifically because I had known he’d stop me. I needed the oblivion of physical exhaustion. While the last words Tundra had said to me were seared into my memory, I pushed myself even harder.
“I’m sorry, but you had to have known it wouldn’t last. You’re all muscle and physicality. Sure, you’re gorgeous and strong, but I need someone with more than that.”
I was dumb. That was what he hadn’t said, but it was implied. He’d always laughed when I didn’t immediately understand one of his intellectual jokes, but I thought he had been charmed that I was slightly naive. Nope. He could never be with someone who was pretty but dumb. A himbo that filled out a pair of pants perfectly but couldn’t tell you what a quadratic equation even was. My reindeer sniffed at that, and I knew he thought that was bullshit. But my human brain and its inner saboteur were in charge now.
The beating of my feet on the ground made a drum beat to accompany the self-loathing voice in my head. My reindeer tried to drown it out, but I was in a spiral, and all I heard was my heartbeat and the words I was convinced were true.
Thump, thump, thump.
You’re dumb. You’re dumb. You’re dumb.
The words circled my brain, drowning out the other voice, telling me not to listen and that it was a lie. But it was true. That was what Tundra had literally said to me.
When I was rounding back to the beginning of the course and nearing the exhaustion state I’d craved, I turned towards home and nearly plowed over one of the Santas. I caught him before he fell, then bent over, resting my hands on my knees to catch my breath.
“Comet, my boy, you nearly took me out.” With a jolly laugh, he straightened his coat and stomped his feet to get the snow off his boots. “There would have been a lot of dis
Straightening up, I returned his smile as best I could, but I got the feeling he wasn’t fooled. His twinkling eyes grew sharper as he took in my exhausted form, still trying to catch my breath. Santa number three was a kindly man who didn’t speak much but noticed everything. To diffuse any suspicion, I responded with a laugh. “None of us could take y’all out. Every single one of you has powers we can only guess. I’m sure you could have just teleported yourself to safety in the blink of an eye and been alright.”
He didn’t laugh immediately, but with a tap to his nose, a wink, and a nod, he said, “You never know, my boy. You never know. Now, I need to finish my walk, and it looks like you could use a rest, so I’ll leave you to it.”
He walked down the trail, following my circuit, until another small walking trail veered off to the left, and he was gone. Shaking my head, I trudged through the snow toward home. I lived on the edge of the woods since I liked the quiet and solitude. Santas’ village was nearby, but I still had privacy and room for my training. The younger reindeer were always self-conscious when starting out, so not having anyone close by to watch them learn was essential to build their confidence.
I was nearing exhaustion but pushed even further, jogging up towards my cabin. Breath fogging in front of me heavier than before, and my feet like bricks at the end of my burning legs, I made it to the clearing that was my front yard. Through blurry eyes, I took in the front of my cabin, and my toxic inner monologue abruptly stopped as I realized how much I loved my home. I’d built it all myself. I’d hewn every log and stacked every stone by hand to make it exactly how I’d dreamed it could be. That was an accomplishment I could be proud of, even if it were still something physical and not intellectual.
I stumbled into the house, went straight to the bathroom, and turned the shower on full blast. I stripped in front of the mirror, noticing how pale and exhausted I looked, before I stepped under the water and washed the day away. If Santa had noticed even half of the exhaustion on my face, there was a possibility I might get a stern text to take care of myself.
They were a kind group, the Santas. As I soaked under the blissfully hot water, I smiled at the myth that surrounded all of us at the North Pole. Legend said there was only one Santa, and he and his reindeer made it around the world in one night to deliver all the gifts and goodies to the good children of the world. Hell, even with magic, that would have been impossible. There were many Santas who lived here in the main Christmas Village, each with their own region and specialty. Some were Father Christmas, Sinterklaas, or Papa Noel. Each knew the traditions of their country and region in order to make every child in the world smile and be proud of their heritage. Santa 3 had been the one I ran into that evening. He was the Midwest US Santa and the one I was closest to after Santa 1, the big guy. He was as close to a friend as I had lately. After the Tundra incident, I had withdrawn and focused on my work.
As the water cooled, I turned it off and grabbed my towel off the heater on the wall. The warm towel was a luxury I never regretted when building the house. Who wanted a cold towel in the arctic north? After getting dry and wrapping up in my favorite fleece robe, I felt the weight of exhaustion hit me again. I usually had dinner, then read before bed, but I was too tired to even get in another chapter of the thriller I had on the bedside table. I dropped my phone on top of the hardback and collapsed into bed. I’d had enough of this day and wanted to sleep away the rest. Maybe tomorrow would be better.
As I was drifting off, I heard a ding on my phone that meant I had a message from Santa. Well, from a Santa. I slapped my hand onto the bedside table and fumbled until I found the phone, then brought it up above my face to read the text.
Comet,
You and the rest of the reindeer have been working so hard lately. You, especially, have been doing great with the younger kids, but you’re exhausted. I’ll bet you’re reading this in bed, about to pass out without even eating dinner again. We’ve decided you need a vacation this year. This is non-negotiable. Take some time, go somewhere fun and enjoy yourself.
Santa
I read, then re-read, the text. It was so eerily specific that I glanced around to see if anyone was filming me. The accuracy was scary, and I felt unavoidably called out. Was I that predictable?
Looking at the screen again, I saw another text under this one.
No, there’s no camera. We just know how hard you push yourself. 😉
“Owww! Damn it!”
I’d dropped my phone on my face when I read the new text. Rubbing my nose to make sure it wasn’t broken—phones were heavy, dammit—I turned my phone screen off and put it back on the table. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought of places I’d like to go. It looked like I had a vacation to plan.
2
ALDEN
The cursor blinking on my blank screen taunted me over and over again. I could hear its accusations in my head. Where the voices of my characters had gone silent, that damn cursor was filling in the blanks. You’re never going to finish this novel. It’s crap, and you know it.
For the seventh day in a row, I closed the lid on my laptop and walked away from my desk with no words to show for the hours I’d been writing. My word count was abysmal, and I wasn’t too fond of the story. Even the characters who usually filled my thoughts and even my dreams sometimes seemed to hate it, too, since they’d abandoned me. It felt like they were saying, we’ll come back when you have something better than this shit for us.
I walked to my kitchen window and looked out at the Smoky Mountain view. Gentle hilltops blanketed by low clouds in the growing dusk usually filled me with peace and inspiration, but today, they just looked dull and gloomy. I loved this place when I saw it online for the views and the isolation and booked it immediately. I’d thought it would bolster my creativity when I rented it for the year. All I would have was inspiration, time to work, and a place to shift and fly without worrying about anyone knowing my secret.
I’d had plenty of inspiration at the beginning of the year. I’d also been able to fly whenever I wanted since no one ever came on the trails near the cabin. I steered clear of the nearby Appalachian Trail and flew parallel to avoid the serious through hikers who picked this area of North Carolina to go from Georgia through the Nantahala Gorge and onto the northern trail. I’d definitely had time for inspiration and flight, but work was another story.
“Work, yeah. None of that again today, guys.”
My squirrel and chipmunk friends had scrambled up onto the windowsill while I’d been daydreaming, chittering to remind me I hadn’t put out fresh corn yet today.
“No story today. No story yesterday either.”
I didn’t know if they understood completely, but I got the feeling they knew I was frustrated and sad. I got the dried corn bag, trudged onto the porch, and placed the cobs onto the holders. The gray squirrel I’d named Lois scampered over first and picked off a kernel. Then, one of the smaller flying squirrels crept up onto the feeder and did the same. His name was Tim because he was so tiny. I smirked at my clever literary humor but then inwardly cringed.
“I’m such a nerd, guys. No wonder I don’t have a mate yet. If I make myself cringe, who else would want to put up with me?”
Lois put her corn kernel down and looked into my eyes like she wanted to tell me something. I was about to reach out to touch her, but my phone dinged, and she broke eye contact and skittered away down the nearest tree trunk. I looked over the railing down the fifteen feet or more to the ground but couldn’t see where she’d gone.
The phone dinged again insistently, so I dragged the bag of corn back inside, then closed the door against the increasing breeze. It was getting chillier this evening, and the sky had been heavy all day. Determining to check the weather app, I picked up my phone and saw a missed call from Mom.
