Page 2 of An Avalanche Hero Christmas

In response, he’d simply chuckled. “Go on a vacation. Spend some time with family or friends. It’s almost Thanksgiving, and Christmas is just around the corner. And then there’s New Year’s. And—”

“I get your drift,” Mallory had said with a sigh.

“Good. Give yourself a break, Teaks,” Dr Grace had told her. The corners of his mouth twitched. “Doctor’s orders.”

And that was how Mallory had found herself on a plane to Chicago to spend the next couple of months with her stepbrothers until after New Year’s. She’d been reluctant to pack her things, even to leave the hospital, but here she was, on a flight thousands of feet above Nebraska, a few days before Thanksgiving.

She glanced down and barely resisted a chuckle. She hadn’t given it much thought earlier, but she supposed she looked an absolute sight. She was dressed in a gray button-up shirt over brown khaki pants; her pink MediPack settled on her waist like a WWE championship belt. Now that she thought about it, she’d received a couple of odd stares back at the airport. Not that it mattered, anyway. The way she saw it, it was probably better for people to think of her as a weirdo than to know what she really was.

At the thought, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, feeling a light tension in her torso. One of the many fun parts of being a fae in a world where most people didn’t look like her was constantly having to tuck her wings under her clothing. Right now, they were wrapped around her upper body, almost like a binder, just out of the way of her bra straps. It wasn’t exactly peak comfort, but at least it wasn’t suffocating. Besides, there was no point keeping them out in the open when she wasn’t flying with them.

Not to mention, hiding her wings and keeping a mostly low profile was one of the main reasons she was still in one piece today.

She’d somehow bypassed the X-ray scanners at the airport, which wasn’t exactly easy to do with airport safety measures at an all-time high. Keeping her existence as a fae a secret wasn’tout of the ordinary. Pretty much every supernatural hid their true nature from the rest of the world, although over the years, there had always been a few people who let it slip who they were and either ended up on YouTube or mysteriously disappeared. The last thing Mallory needed was to end up in Area 51 with metal tubes sticking out from between her shoulder blades or whatever they did to people like her.

In fact, even the people who knew what she was, like her human stepbrothers, were not particularly fond of her. Typical humans, Mallory had always told herself. At least they’d been decent enough to mask their discomfort around her with forced smiles that made them look like the Cheshire Cat.

Besides, they’d kept her secret since they were kids, which was more than Mallory expected from most humans. Tolerance was a rarity; secrecy even more so among their kind.

Mallory hadn’t dated much, either, mostly because she’d been too engrossed in her work, but when she did, she always dated other supernaturals, never humans. Considering how hard it was to bump into someone else like her in a city where everyone seemed to pass for human, her dating pool was the size of a bathtub.

But that didn’t bother her at all. As far as Mallory was concerned, dating a human could only end badly. With her luck, she’d end up with a bounty hunter—or, worse, some guy with a fetish. It was better for her to stay buried in her work than to try to have a regular social life that could land her in the operating room at Living Grace Hospital.

Yeah…not happening.

Not that she wouldn’t like to be in someone’s bed again. How long had it been since she was last with a man? Two or three years? She managed to dismiss the gnawing sensation that clawed at her chest at the thought.

Another couple of thuds jerked her back to her mundane, frustrating reality. It was the guy with the headphones. Mallory gritted her teeth. What was his deal, anyway?

She twisted in her seat. “I told you to stop doing that.”

The man pulled off his headphones again. “What’s your deal?”

“What’smydeal?” Mallory could hardly believe her ears. “You keep kicking my seat. I happen to find that very annoying.”

The man shrugged. “I’m just grooving to my jams.”

So he was listening to music.

“You’re acting like a toddler right now.”

“Just let me enjoy my music, will you? You’re kinda harshing my mellow.”

“What?”

God, this man was going to make her blow a fuse. She stopped herself from making a scathing remark about his nose ring and called to a flight attendant who was passing by.

“How can I help you, ma’am?” the woman wanted to know. Her eyes drifted from Mallory to the man behind her. “Is there a problem?”

“You could say that uh…” Mallory’s gaze momentarily dropped to the name tag on the woman’s chest. “Emily. He keeps kicking the back of my seat.”

A look of exasperation came over the woman’s freckled face. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to stop doing that. You can’t keep bothering other passengers.”

“Can’t a guy enjoy his music?” The man shook his head incredulously.

“You can, sir, but the peace and comfort of other passengers on this flight is a priority. If there are any more complaints, you might be forced to give up this seat, I’m afraid.”

“Bullshit. I want to talk to whoever’s in charge.”

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