Page 1 of Violet: A Monster-ly Undercover Christmas

Chapter 1

“Idon’tlikethis,Vi,” Nole growls, sounding very much like the bear he is. This morning, my mate looks it, too. All rugged and… hairy.

I try to hide my amusement as I take him in. Last night, his brothers ambushed him with water guns—nothing new there, since the three of them are total pranksters—but this time the guns were filled with Hair Growth Formula… which is actually sort of my fault. Long story.

His brothers didn’t mention that the liquid wasn’t water. They just doubled over laughing and lumbered off to cause trouble elsewhere. But it became pretty obvious this morning that they’d done something, since Nole woke up covered in hair. Cash cast a counterspell, while trying not to laugh—not that I blame him—and it hasn’t kicked in yet. My bear’s covered from head to toe in hair. I’m talking wild beard and body hair long enough to braid hidden under his blue reindeer Christmas sweater.

I bat my eyelashes innocently up at him. “You don’t like having so much hair?”

Nole frowns. “I don’t like you putting yourself in danger. The hair is just… an inconvenience.” But the glint in his eyes tells me he plans to “inconvenience” his brothers tenfold.

Probably not a good time to suggest French braiding his body hair.

My other mate, Liam—who’s a troll—towers over me, his hands resting lightly on his police duty belt, his expression serious. “What Nole means to say is that he loves you and he wants you to be careful.”

Nole nods. “Or better yet, stay home.”

Cash—my third mate, who drinks blood, casts spells, and hates being called a wampitch or witchire—buttons up his suit jacket and shakes his head, making the Santa’s hat on his head jingle. “I’m not too happy about this, either, if I’m being honest. I know I’ll be worried sick until it’s over.”

“It’s just a Christmas photoshoot with naked people.” I roll my eyes. “What are they going to do, hide weapons up their buttholes?”

Buttholes.I snort, like the totally mature adult I am. If one of my besties, Juniper, was here, she’d find it hilarious—or explain exactly how one would stash one’s weapons up one’s butthole—but my guys are not amused.

“Whole thing’s stupid.” Nole frowns, tugging uncomfortably at his sweater. “Just get an actual cop to go undercover. That’s what they’re there for.” He turns on Liam. “Violet’s a librarian. You’re placing our mate at risk.”

Liam’s trollish face contorts in pure, undulated rage. My troll’s got a bit of an anger management problem—all trolls do—so I place a gentle hand on his arm to help calm him. “I volunteered to do this, remember?”

“Doesn’t make it a good idea.” Nole pouts.

“I second that,” Cash adds.

Liam growls. “Speaking as Violet’s mate, I don’t like this either. But—” he adds as I start to protest, “like I said before, it’s completely safe. I never would have gone along with it otherwise. And I’ll be there to make sure nothing goes wrong. There will be armed officers surrounding the building. I’ve taken all the precautions.”

“See?” I shoot a pointed glance at my other two mates. “And don’t forget, I fought Raicus and his henchmen.” I spent an entire year pretending to be an old lady to avoid him, and when he finally caught up to me, he almost killed my best friend. I shudder at the memory and remind myself that the evil creep is safely locked up in the Silver Springs Penitentiary. “I can totally handle this.”

“It won’t be anything like that, Violet.” Liam takes my hands in his. “I would never put you in a situation where someone might want to hurt you.”

I smile up at him softly as warmth floods my chest. “I know you wouldn’t.”

Liam turns to the guys. “Do you trust me to protect our mate?”

They grumble, but nod.

I grin. “Then we’re doing this?”

Excitement courses through me. I feel more giddy than I do on Christmas morning—which is only a few days away. I don’t even care what the guys got me—okay, fine, I always care when it comes to presents—but I can’t wait to go undercover.

Nole sighs. “Just promise me you won’t quit your day job and become an undercover cop. I don’t think I could take being this worried about you every single day. All my hair would fall out.”

“No chance of that,” I tease, cupping his furry cheeks. “But I love working with you every day too much to quit. And I love being a librarian. I just want a little adventure from time to time.”

“Like a jungle safari?” he asks hopefully.

“Like working undercover as a photographer at a Christmas boudoir shoot that may or may not be a front for a stolen magical goods dealership,” I say as I start to shift.

I allow my body to age so I no longer look twenty. Nor do I look like an eighty-year-old, the way I did when I first met my mates. More like somewhere right in between. Tattoos take shape on my skin, and a creepy-looking snake stares back at me from my forearm.

My hair lengthens—not all over my body, like Nole’s, thank the goddess, just on my head—and my curls disappear. My comfy jeans and red Christmas sweater morph into a skin-tight shiny green leather dress that threatens to suck all the oxygen out, and a piercing materializes on my tongue. That’ll take some getting used to.

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