Page 7 of The Elf’s Naughty Toy

“Wish upon a star tonight and it will be there for you in the morning,” I tell her. “Now, run along, pretty girl, and I’ll see you in your sleep.” Gumdrops, I can’t wait until the stars come out tonight. I’ll be outside her bedroom window, waiting to hear her special request.

8

Millie

It can’t be real. There’s no way he’s really an elf. But I saw it with my own two eyes. This little ornament appeared out of thin air. He opened his hand and—poof!—it was there. I spin the thing in the air, looking for another possible explanation. But there is none. It’s a porcelain little deer that couldn’t just magically appear, not unless there was actual magic involved.

“Did you buy that at the mall?” Laney’s voice startles me, and the thing slips right out of my hand, falling to the ground.

“Oh no!” I drop to the floor in a panic, devastated when I see the destruction of my magical little gift. I quickly work to pick up the broken pieces, hoping that my special gift will magically fuse back together and fix itself, but it doesn’t.

“I’m so sorry, Millie. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I can hear the panic in Laney’s voice, as she comes rushing to my side. “Please don’t hate me, Millie. I’ll get you a new one. I promise.”

I drop the pieces and reach for her. “I’d never hate you, Laney bear. It’s just an ornament.” Only it wasn’t just any ornament, itwas the most special ornament in the world. But I’m not going to let her believe that some inanimate object could mean more to me than her—even if it was a magical object. “You’re my sister. I love you. Always.”

“Will you drive me to the mall tomorrow so I can get you a new one?”

I shake my head. Not wanting to tell her the truth of where it came from because then she’ll feel really bad. But then an idea hits.

“I’m going to put it under my pillow tonight and ask Santa to fix it for me.”

Her smile couldn’t be any brighter. “You believe now?”

I’m not sure what I believe, but all signs point to the guy in the mall telling the truth. But I guess this will prove it one way or another. If the ornament is fixed in the morning, then my world just got a whole lot crazier because that means magical beings are real and that there’s really a big fat jolly man who delivers presents all over the globe to little boys and girls. But then why did he never come to my house? Or I guess stopped coming to my house. I remember there being presents under the tree marked from Santa, but I thought my dad or mom had just filled out the label. But when I turned ten, they stopped. But then again…that was the year that I stopped believing in anything joyous and merry. That was the Christmas I learned the truth.

“I think I do,” I tell her. “But we’ll see in the morning.”

She scoots off my lap. “Okay, well then we have to go to bed, so he’ll come.” She gives me a tight hug and then darts from my room. And I collect all the little broken fragments of the ornament and tuck them under my pillow. Silently making my wish as I close my eyes.

Santa, or Santa’s elf, if you’re real, will you please fix the ornament you gave me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break it. I…

“I saw the whole thing, little dove. You don’t have to apologize. I know it was an accident.”

I nearly leap from my bed as the deep voice whispers by my ear. My eyes fly open on a gasp and another wave of panic hits when I see a guy sitting behind me on my bed. A stranger dressed in black. A man with muscles way too big for me to defend myself against. His dark eyes are peering right at me. “Who are you? What do you want?” I scramble off the bed, trying to get as far away from this strange man as I can, wishing I’d grabbed my phone from the nightstand as I ever so slowly back my way towards my door.

“It’s okay, Millie. Look.” He runs his hand down over his face and a swirl of gold sparkles emanate from his palm. “It’s me.” His hand drops and the guy I recognize from the mall is now staring at me, the fat and jolly Santa, though the eyes are still the same. Now I’m even more freaked out. This is all a bit too much. Santa is real. Magic is real. And apparently, there’s an elf sitting on my bed.

“Sorry.” His shoulders drop. “I didn’t mean to scare you with my hideous looks. I won’t do it again.” Hideous looks? I’d say it’s the opposite. I’ve never been this close to such an attractive man, but I definitely wasn’t expecting him to be an elf. He looked like a rebel who belongs to a biker gang, not a little Christmas elf who builds toys in Santa’s workshop. There is nothing small or childlike about him. Nothing pointy or awkward.

I swallow back the lump of nerves. “You just startled me is all. Is that what you really look like?” Maybe he mirrored his image from a seriously hot, rugged magazine model, or someone he saw on TV. Maybe he’s not allowed to be in his true form when he’s around humans.

He nods, and for some reason, that fact pleases me a little too much. “Yeah. I’m deformed. All the other elves are tiny and cute. I’m an ogre. It’s because my father is a giant.”

“A giant?” Giant what? Is he saying there are other mythical creatures out in the world?

He nods. “Yeah. The giants of the North Mountains are keepers of the magical realm. You probably know them as Bigfoot.” Bigfoot? “They aren’t supposed to fraternize with the elves. It’s one of our most sacred laws. But it didn’t stop my father from falling in love with my mom. Thankfully, Santa took me in anyway, and forgave my parents. But it still left me with birth defects. My frame is large. My voice is deep. My muscles are too thick, and my elvish marks are black when they are supposed to be invisible.”

Those must be the tattoos I saw. Wow, so they’re elvish marks. “Can I see them?” I ask without even thinking. I might be asking something extremely personal. I know nothing about his kind.

He shakes his head, and embarrassment hits my cheeks. “I have to go into my natural form. I don’t want to repulse you.”

“You are not repulsive. Quite the opposite. I mean…” My voice trails off, realizing what I just revealed. But again, I didn’t think before I spoke. I’m at a loss of thinking right now. This whole situation is kind of blowing my mind. Not only am I sitting here with some magical elf from the North Pole, but I’m attracted to him. And flustered as all get out. If it weren’t for the fact that his cheeks are turning a cherry shade of red, no doubt matching mine, I’d really feel foolish.

“Are you saying you like the way I look, little dove?” His deep voice dropped even lower and now my cheeks are burning even hotter, the flush now coasting down my neck. It almost feels like he’s flirting with me.

“I…um…yes…” I breathe, again not putting a filter on my lips. But I’m sure with his magical powers, he knows when someone is lying. “Can you read my thoughts?” The question comes flying out. He was able to hear my mental wish, so that means he canprobably hear exactly what I think of his sexy body and dark, dreamy eyes.

“No.” He shakes his head. “I only hear what you intend for me to hear. Everything else is safeguarded. And now that you’ve seen my true form”—his body transforms again, returning to one sexy hulk of a man, who if it weren’t for his pointy ears would never be mistaken as anything other than one fine human—“I’ll be able to hear you if you say my name: Brawn.”

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