Free Snow Time for Love by Zenina Masters Page A

just a single-fey thing. Once they mate, they lock in, just as you do.” Transporter Sampson looked at her hopefully.
    It dawned on Nova. “You are having a problem finding takers for this.”
    “Most just want to meet another shifter and live happily ever after.” The transporter’s shoulders slumped.
    “Well, I will tell you now...I am not one of those shifters. I will take this on.”
    “You will?” Transporter Sampson’s wrap slipped and she clutched it to her.
    “I have nothing to lose. I have already been rejected in every way, shape and form. What is being ignored by an elf going to do to my ego?” Nova shrugged.
    She glanced over at the family photo that her sister had sent her for the holidays. With her newborns on her lap and her other two sets of twins standing next to her, Stella was buried in children while her husband beamed behind her.
    All around the room, her family smiled at her from their nests of family and friends. Nova felt the lack in her life and she wanted more.
    “Wait. Can shifters and fey have children?”
    “That is one of the questions that they are trying to answer. The dragon says it is not only possible, it has happened before, just not in Europe or the colonies. The fey breeds true, but it is possible.”
    Transporter Sampson was chirping it by rote.
    “This is all new to you as well.” Nova handed her a cup of tea.
    “It is. Normally, we just wait for you folk to call us. Going out and contacting those who didn’t find a match the first time was not something I imagined when I specialized in transport.”
    Nova grinned. “Nor was showing up naked.”
    The woman blushed. “Or that.”
    “Don’t worry about it. Shifters are used to nudity. Next time, just ask them to have a sheet or blanket standing by. They won’t think anything of it.”
    Nova sipped at her tea. “Are there already fey there?”
    “They are just waiting for volunteers to try to make a match. If you really are going to sign up, there will be no fees attached. The fey are picking up the tab.”
    “Oh. Well, that is even better. Will you call me with a timeline?”
    The transporter leaned forward and set her cup down on the coffee table. “I can and I will. This is exciting.”
    The transporter disappeared in a flash of light and the strange scent of mint.
    Nova looked around at all the pictures of family members who were enjoying the holiday with their cozy little gatherings. She had been to the family event on the previous weekend, but now, she was back to being alone.
    She liked being solitary, but she preferred it to be a choice and not something forced upon her.
    With a curl of hope in her chest, she watched the flashing of her Christmas tree and she wished as hard as she could that she found a man she couldn’t frighten into a corner.
     
    * * * *
     
    Isobel Sampson dropped in at the Guild centre and the folk around there were a lot less accepting of her nudity.
    Isobel took the robe that one woman held out to her, and she ran to speak to the Transporter Guild Master.
    Krisia looked up from her desk with a smile. “Iso. What is it? You look excited.”
    “I’ve got one!” She tried not to hop up and down.
    “What?”
    “I have gotten one of the previously rejected shifters to come back to the Crossroads!” Iso clapped her hands.
    Krisia reached for her files. “Which one?”
    “Nova Spalding. Siberian tiger shifter.”
    In a few seconds, Krisia had the file. “Wow. Okay, let me cross check for candidates.”
    Iso stood while her guild master called the fey seers to see if any of them had found a large cat in their readings.
    It took twenty minutes, but the fey were going to send five candidates who were up for a challenge, two of which had tigers in their personal evaluations.
    Krisia put her phone down and nodded. “Ask her if she can be ready by the end of the week. Everything will be in place for her and the men will arrive after she does, so she will have home court