Vix

There was no mission report to devour. No preparation. Just waiting. "I'm going to go search Krampus's cabin." I jumped to my feet and grabbed my pack. A little breaking and entering would be nothing. It was all a part of the Claus magic that we all were infused with when we entered the service. Who knew when you would have to step up and take over for the general. We all had to be prepared to carry out the mission no matter what.

"What's that gonna tell you, man?" Cupid sat at the dining table of Faith's cabin twisting one of her hair tie things in his fingers. "I imagine he packed up and you know. . ." He put his finger to the side of his nose. "Poofed out."

"He could have missed something." I hooked my bag over my shoulder and marched out. Fucking Peter Black hadn't checked out. That was the first thing we checked. But he certainly wasn't on the island. We had canvassed the beaches, and none of the waitstaff had seen him at meals since Christmas Eve. "Please, have missed something," I whispered to myself as I stalked up to the cabin door and pulled my bag around to pull out the tool I needed to hack the electronic lock on the door. "There's got to be a trace we can follow."

Upon first look, the cabin seemed to be empty of any personal effects. But a second sweep brought a cell phone that had slid under the bed. I pressed the power button, but the phone was dead. Not surprising since it had been sitting unplugged under a bed for two days.

I tucked the phone into my pocket and gave the cabin one last run through, but found nothing else.

It was something, at least.

I jogged back to the cabin to find a charger for the phone. Likelihood was that it was Faith's, since Krampus would have noticed his missing. I held the phone aloft as I burst back into the cabin. "Someone grab me a charger." I dumped my bag on the floor and waited for Dash to hand me the charger. Once the phone was plugged in, it was just a matter of waiting for it to charge long enough for it to be turned on.

Message after message flooded the screen. Each and every one was from Birdie. I went to see if I could unlock the phone when a call brightened up the screen. I swiped my thumb to accept the call and put it on speaker.

"There better be a fantastic reason as to why you haven't returned any of my calls for two days!" The irate woman on the other end growled. "I've been worried sick."

"Birdie, I presume?" I tipped the phone so that the others could hear.

"Who the fuck is this?" It made my heart glad that my mate had such a fierce best friend. "And what have you done to my Faith?"

"Sadly, I do not have any answers." I set the phone down on the table and paced around the room. "As to who I am? I am Vixen Hallewell. It is certainly a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Birdie. Though I fear that it is not the best of circumstances."

"Where's Faith?" Birdie seemed to have subdued quite a bit.

"I fear she may have been abducted."

"The fuck you say!" Birdie's voice hit a decibel I'm sure only dogs, and unfortunately shifters, could hear, but I understood her anxiety. "She's on an island, how did she get abducted?"

"The how is still being deduced." I told her carefully, eyeing my brothers. "But rest assured, we are on it."

"Oh, you're on it, are you?" My mate's best friend was fantastic. "What the fuck are you going to do?"

"I assure you that we have the skills in which to bring Faith home again." There was a sharp knock at the door, before it opened, and in walked the general.

"I need a sitrep, where are we with Krampus?" Santa rolled the sleeves of his fatigue shirt up his forearms, displaying his thickly inked skin. "I have boots on the ground in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. I can't imagine my brother would stray far from his old stomping grounds."

"Ex-nay on the Ampus-Kray," Cupid pointed at the phone with wide eyes. "Birdie, we're going to have to call you back."

"Nope." We can hear Birdie smack something, I assume it was the table, as it gave a wooden thump as her hand struck it. "Tell me what's going on. Faith is my responsibility. I'm her best friend."

"I assure you Bernadine Yeats Spankmeyer, Faith Amanda Cox nee Greathouse, is in expert hands with my men and I." Santa gave me his little secret wink and picked up the phone off the table. "She will be home before you know it, and you can give her that kitten you found for her."

"Okay. . . that's just creepy."

"Santa knows all, my dear." He looked at each of us in turn. "Now, as much of a pleasure as it is for us to chat, I think we can all agree that finding Faith is our top priority."

"I can understand knowing my name; you all are military types. I'm sure you ran a background check, but how do you know I got her a kitten?" Birdie asked quietly.

"I promise to tell you when we bring Faith home," was all Santa said before ending the call.

"She's just going to call back." Dash raised a brow at the general, who just laid his finger along his nose and winked. Then his phone dinged. "It seems we have a location." He held up his phone. Bad Wimpfen, it looked like we were headed for Germany.

Faith

The footsteps stopped before they reached the door and retreated again. I could hear a door slamming deeper in the house, but then there was silence. I tucked my knees up to my chin on the straw mattress against the wall and watched the door. It was a long time before I heard anything else, and by that time the light that filtered through the filthy windows had waned, and my eyes were heavy.

My growling stomach was the only sound I could hear as my eyes drifted closed, but chaos exploded through the house moments later. Silence had reigned the entire time I had been awake, and now, suddenly, the world was awash with noise.

I pressed my back to the wall and pulled the poor excuse for a mattress up as far as it would go. It was little more than a sack of muslin filled with sharp barbs of straw, and it sagged as I tried to pull it onto its side, but it was all I had. I sat huddled under the straw, the cold from the concrete seeping into my skin when the door burst open. I could see splinters wrenched from the frame tumble to the floor as the door slammed against the wall and Peter stood there.

"You have proven to be a problem." He stalked towards me, ripping the mattress from my grip with ease, and locking his long fingers around my throat. "It seems the cavalry has arrived. Sadly, your mates are not among them, and thus you have outlived your usefulness."

He pulled me to my feet, his fingers digging into my neck until I was fighting for air. I tried to pull his arm free, but he just squeezed tighter. He lifted until my toes barely touched the floor.

"You see." He slammed me against the wall with a force that made my bones rattle. My head spun where it connected. I tore at his fingers around my neck, my lungs screaming for air, but his grip was like a vice. My nails tore as I dug them into his skin, but he didn't even flinch. "I was meant to run the Alpha Team." He shook me, slamming me again into the wall and the world tilted. "I was the generals second in command, and then Vixen came." Peter pulled me away from the wall, his nose pressed right against mine, his breath bathing my face as my lungs worked, trying to bring in that oxygen he was carelessly wasting against my skin. "Vixen and then Dasher, and finally your precious Cupid. Meddling fuckers digging into everything." He tossed me at the floor like I was nothing but a rag doll. My head cracked against the concrete and my vision blurred. "They stole my birthright. So, I will take their mate." I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what he had in store for me next. The flash of something in the bulb's light above us seared into my mind as I squeezed my eyes shut.

I heard two pops. Then nothing.

Cupid

Faith's fingers were so limp in my hand as I listened to the steady beat of her heart monitor. I lay my head on the mattress near our linked hands and let out what was probably my first full breath in a day. "The doctors say you're going to be fine," I told my sleeping mate. "They've given you some medication for your head, it's making you sleep. We worried a lot about you, Faith." I ran my fingers over her knuckles, wishing she would wake up, that her fingers would lace with mine, and my heart would be whole again. "Birdie's been blowing up your phone. She heard a few things that were classified, and now she's freaking out. The general and Dash went to go pick her up. But she's gonna have a lot of questions, like about how you got to Germany, and why we're at the North Pole, and about Santa, and you know, if there really are elves, you know, all kinds of things we should have told you before we left." I sighed and tipped my head towards the head of the bed, just watching her lashes flutter against her cheeks.

"Hey man," Donder leaned in the doorway, a cup of coffee in his hand. "The general's back."

"Send Birdie back when he's done talking to her, yeah?"

"Can do." He handed me the coffee mug and knocked on the door frame before waving his goodbye.

"You said your job was mobile, right?" I set the mug on the nightstand to cool and brushed a hair off Faiths cheek. "'Cause we would really like it if you would stay here with us." I sat back in my chair and ran my hands over my face. Three day's worth of scruff tickled my palms. "We have so much to tell you, baby girl."