Page 1 of Holiday with the Aliens

The Alien Reindeer’s Wild Ride

Kate Rudolph

She’ll be home for Christmas… even if she has to steal a ship to get there!

Rowan has missed out on the last three big family holidays, and she’s determined not to miss another. Holiday travel is always a mess, and even worse when she needs to get from Mars to Minnesota. Every flight is booked through the New Year and things aren’t looking good. Until someone whispers the name Dashiel Blitz and gives her a bit of holiday hope.

He just wants to spread good cheer…

Dash makes a life shepherding sick children from planet to planet so they can be with their parents or get medical treatment. Rowan isn’t like his usual passengers, but his soul sings when they meet and he can’t say no. She’s on his ship for a ride, but he wants even more.

One tiny problem…

Dash isn’t just a pilot. He’s a reindeer shifter and he needs to keep that a secret if he wants to stay safe. But if Rowan is hismate she needs to know the truth. And when a delay in their trip threatens to strand her on the wrong side of Earth, he may have to reveal himself in the most dramatic way possible.

Could a determined human woman want an alien shifter for a mate? Or will their wild ride end with a crash and burn?

Chapter One

Rowan Lambert rushed from her final meeting of the day and dodged around a droid cart, trying to make it to the ticketing station as quickly as she could. She was supposed to be getting on a shuttle and heading back to Earth, but a last minute appointment had sent her scrambling to reschedule. And an oversight—on the part of the shuttle company, definitely not her fault—meant she didn’t have a ticket to replace the one she’d given up.

Normally it wouldn’t be a problem. There were dozens of shuttles that flew passengers between Earth and Mars every week, but this was no normal week. Seven days until the big holiday, and every seat was taken on every major and minor vessel leaving the planet.

But that didn’t stop Ro from running. She’d heard a rumor from a trustworthy source that a batch of tickets was about to open up. Thirty lucky people would get seats, but they were bound to sell out in minutes. And the only way to get one of the seats was to show up in person and purchase it at the ticket counter. Barbaric, but it was the only flight home and she needed to be on it.

Was it still home if she hadn’t set foot in the place in more than three years? Four? Damn, how long had she been away?

Ro wasn’t going to think about that now. Her sister would give her enough grief when she learned about the ticket mix up. No need to borrow trouble by thinking about her own failings.

She was going to make it home this time. She didn’t let herself think about how she’d been sure of that last year, too. It wasn’t her fault that her company’s biggest client had shown up unrequested to speak to her about a large sale. Was she just supposed to let millions of credits slip through her fingers? The year before a giant storm had stopped all traffic between the planets, and before that, Ro had figured missing one holiday wouldn’t matter too much. She wasn’t going to miss the fourth in a row. She hadn’t seen her nephew since he was barely more than six and now that he was edging on ten, she didn’t even know if he’d remember her.

No. She was going to make it.

But the line at the ticket counter was disheartening. There were at least fifty people, humans and all kinds of aliens, crowded in front of the one open window and clearly ready to pay an exorbitant amount if it meant getting off Mars in time.

If there were only thirty tickets there was no way she’d get one, not with this many people around. And it would take a miracle to get them to leave.

A miracle or a bit of… creativity.

She felt a twinge of guilt as she pulled out her communicator, but she didn’t let it stop her from putting it up to her ear and speaking in an exaggerated whisper. “Tickets at the south station? You’re sure?” The person standing in front of her whipped their head around and Ro looked down, as if she didn’t want to give away the secret. “A hundred credits? You’ve got to be joking.” The tickets they were all in line for were five times that price. “I’m waiting for someone. Do you think they’ll still bethere in half an hour?” The person in front of her leaned close, trying to hear without being obvious, and Ro spoke just a little louder, making sure they didn’t miss out. “Okay, I’ll head over when he gets there. Save us a spot.”

She stuck her communicator back in her pocket and pretended to look for the companion she’d just made up.

Whispers swirled around, and after a minute, two people around her broke away and took off for the fabled tickets at the south station. Another handful followed soon after. That still left a few dozen people waiting for tickets here, but it gave Ro a fighting shot.

And it wasn’t her fault if people were gullible enough to place their faith in a stranger’s whispered comm conversation.

It took another half hour before she made it to the window, and she could tell by the apologetic look on the attendant’s face what she was going to say. “I’m sorry, the block of tickets has sold out. The next open shuttle is in eight days. Or we have flights available out of the solar system right now.”

Ro grit her teeth. “Is thereanythingbefore that? What about a flight to the moon? I can get a connection there.”

The ticket woman grimaced. “All inner solar system shuttles are booked, I’m afraid.”

“Ineedto get home, I’ve been gone too long. I can’t let…” Ro bit off the rest of that sentence. The same was true for everyone who’d tried to buy tickets, and it wasn’t like complaining would make any appear out of thin air.

The ticket woman gave the still gathered people a furtive glance before lowering her voice. “Dash might be able to help. Dashiel Blitz. But keep it quiet. I’m sorry.”

What kind of name was Dashiel Blitz?

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