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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Copyrighted 2023 by Delta James

  ____________________________

  Acknowledgments As Always to My Team:

  Development and Editing: Lori White,

  Intuitive Editing and Development Services

  Cover Design: Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

  Proofreader: Melinda Kaye Brandt

  Created with Vellum

  BAH HUMBUG MATE

  A SMALL TOWN GRUMPY/SUNSHINE SHIFTER ROMANCE

  MYSTIC RIVER SHIFTERS

  DELTA JAMES

  CONTENTS

  Keep Up with Delta on Social Media

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Also by Delta James

  About Delta James

  Acknowledgments

  This book, as are all the rest, is dedicated to

  My Two Best Friends:

  Renee and Chris, without whom none of

  what I do would be possible and to the Girls,

  who bring joy to my life every single day.

  And to my readers who love my

  characters and stories almost as much as I do!

  Leave reality behind and

  Welcome to My World!

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  CHAPTER 1

  DASH

  Mystic River, Alaska

  United States

  Dash Samuels made his way down the stairs from his apartment over The Workshop to check-in with the morning staff and do some bookwork. It was still relatively early, but Dash had learned there was money to be made in the breakfast trade.

  He liked owning The Workshop. It provided him with the closest thing he’d ever had to a family. Many thought it was unnatural for a caribou shifter to live on his own, but it was all Dash had ever known.

  Northwest Territory, Canada

  Twenty-Odd Years Ago

  The forest snapped and crackled as the flames leapt from tree to tree, bringing light and death to everything around him. Dash had shifted from human to caribou to go for a run in the forest. Dash loved to run—leaping and bounding over the Canadian landscape. His parents forbade him from doing it, considering it too dangerous for a child to go wandering around or exploring on his own. They might have been right for a human child of ten, but the same age in his caribou form was fully mature. It was the odd juxtaposition most shifters faced.

  He wasn’t sure how the fire started. All he knew was that by the time he was aware of it, the fire had engulfed the tinderbox that characterized the trees and undergrowth at this time of year. A wall of flame now separated him from his family and his herd.

  Dash charged to the top of the ridge to watch the fire burn—the acrid smell of smoke and destruction filled his nostrils. The little boy inside cried out for his parents. The caribou into which he’d shifted knew he and the boy were in danger and turned from the flames, bounding away to safety.

  By the time it had been safe to return, there was nothing left but rubble. His family and herd were dead. Death permeated the air and the child within hid in the corner of the caribou’s mind and grieved. The caribou turned east and headed away from where the herd wintered. The child would not be safe until he had grown into a man.

  Until then, the caribou would keep him safe.

  Mystic River, Alaska

  Present Day

  “Well, if it isn’t the reindeer-shifter,” called one of his regular patrons.

  Dash had grown tired of trying to correct people politely. “I’m not a reindeer. I’m a caribou. My kind have always been caribou, not some childish fantasy that flies around the world, drawing a sleigh with a fat man and a bag of toys.”

  “Nah, this time of year, you’re a reindeer,” said the man who was already inebriated.

  Dash looked to his bartender who gave him a nod, indicating he was aware of the situation, had the guy’s keys, and would ensure he didn’t drive himself home.

  “Nope. Caribou. Do you see any fucking tinsel on my antlers?” The phone rang in the background. “No, you do not.”

  “Dash? It’s for you. Guy says it’s important.”

  Toronto, Ontario

  Canada

  That had been three days ago. Now he sat in the waiting room of a lawyer’s office in Toronto, waiting to meet a man about a grandmother Dash had never known.

  Grandmother? If I have a grandmother, where the hell has she been the past twenty years? Why didn’t she seek me out any time during what was a lonely and frightening childhood?

  Dash slipped his finger inside the collar of his button-down shirt. The shirt his friend Derek Grayson had insisted he had to have. In fact, Derek and his mate, Tess, had insisted on dragging him to Seattle to buy a proper suit for this meeting. Dash hadn’t seen the need. After all, the lawyer had requested his presence in Toronto for the reading of his grandmother’s will.

  Dash took in his surroundings. From the look of it, his grandmother must have been loaded to afford a lawyer with such posh surroundings. Everything seemed dark and opulent—from the dark paneled walls to the dark furniture to the dark, oriental rug. Places like this gave him the heebie jeebies. They were designed to impress and intimidate. They exerted control and power. Dash was used to Alaska—the last great frontier.

  The people weren’t much better. They were all done up, unfriendly, and seemed to know his suit was off-the-rack. It was an expensive rack, but Dash was fairly certain that the guy shooting him daggers with his eyes from across the room was well aware of that fact. The man’s florid complexion and red nose indicated a man who indulged in far too much booze—owning a tavern, Dash knew the type. Dash’s keen sense of smell told him that the man, and the frightened-looking woman sitting next to him were shifters—most likely caribou shifters. But the man’s body language practically screamed ‘don’t ask.’

  He wondered again what he was doing here and why he cared. He could answer the first part. The paralegal he’d spoken to on the phone had indicated his grandmother had named him in her will. He’d hinted that as a beneficiary, it would behoove him to come, as the will had a few conditions before he could inherit some undisclosed amount. Considering the plumbing work that needed to be done at The Workshop and the gathering storm of the Shadow League, an inheritance couldn’t have come at a better time.

  Dash stood and approached the receptionist. “Excuse me. Is this going to take much longer? I was requested to be here by ten and it’s now ten-thirty.”

  “Mr. Nelson will be with you shortly,” she said, without ever looking up or making eye contact.

  “Well, you can tell Mr. Nelson he has fifteen minutes before I leave this office and head back to Alaska.”

  “Why don’t you just leave now?” asked the man in the custom-tailored suit.

  Why does he want me to leave? Could he be a second beneficiary, and if I’m not here, I get disinherited, and he gets everything?

  Whatever the reason, the exchange seemed to get the receptionist’s attention. “I am so sorry. Mr. Nelson is usually very punctual. I’ll go check on him and see what’s the matter. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “Is that what you call that weak, tepid cup of weasel piss you gave me earlier?” asked Dash. Harsh words, but the stuff had been truly appalling.

  The receptionist giggled. “It is truly awful, isn’t it?”

  Before she could leave her desk, a tall, large man came out from the private office off the lobby, extending his hand to Dash. “Clifford E. Nelson; my friends call me Blitz. I take it you’re Dasher Samuels.”

  “It’s just Dash. My mother named me for Dashiell Hammett, the author who wrote hard-boiled detective novels.”

  The lawyer’s bushy eyebrows shot up as if he meant to dispute that but thought better of it. There must be enough money involved that the guy didn’t want to make an enemy of Dash.

  “My mistake,” said the lawyer, trying to cover.

  “He doesn’t even know who he is. How could you and my grandmother be so sure he’s the rightful inheritor,” said the man in the suit.

  “That’s enough, Rudy,” admonished the lawyer. “Your grandmother had been searching for him for years and became convinced Dash was her daughter’s son. I did my own research and came to the same conclusion. “You’ll have
to forgive Rudy.”

  “Will I? Why don’t we just cut to the chase, and you tell me what this is all about?”

  “Let’s step into my office, and I’ll be happy to answer any and all of your questions.” The man the lawyer had identified as Rudy stood. “No, Rudy. Why don’t you head home? If you’re needed, I’ll give you a call.”

  Rudy sputtered but was silenced by one look from the lawyer, who showed Dash into his office.

  Sitting down, Dash jerked his thumb over his shoulder back towards the lobby. “What’s his problem?”

  “I think Rudy, along with many others, expected to inherit the bulk of your grandmother’s fortune.”

  “Fortune? What kind of money are we talking about?”

  “In terms of cash?” The lawyer named a sum of money that made Dash’s head spin. “If you liquidated everything? About triple that.”

  Dash sat back and emitted a low whistle. “No wonder Rudy is pissed. I have no reason to own anything in Canada; why don’t you just turn everything into cash and send me the check.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not quite so easy.”

  “Sure, it is.”

  “You would turn your grandmother’s whole herd off the property they have lived on for years and which has been home to generations of reindeer…”

  “Caribou,” Dash corrected.

  The lawyer smiled. “I stand corrected. Generations of caribou have inhabited?”

  “Well, fine. Then liquidate what you can without displacing them and send me what’s left.”

  “Again, it’s not quite so easy. Your grandmother had a couple of provisions.”

  “What are they?” Dash asked, letting his annoyance bleed into his tone.

  “Well, the first was that you come to Toronto to meet with me. I think your grandmother was hoping you’d feel some kinship to this place.”

  “Why? I’ve never been to Toronto before. My family and herd were killed in a devastating fire a long time ago in the Northwest Territory. Why is it my grandmother is only now looking for me? The days of my needing her or her herd have long since passed.”

  “Your grandmother had been looking for you or any sign of you since she learned you had survived.”

  “Doesn’t matter. But I’ll tell you upfront if one of the conditions is I stay here in Toronto, you can tell Rudy it’s all his. My home, and those I call family, are in Mystic River.”

  “You remaining here was a wish of your grandmother’s, not a condition of your inheritance.”

  “So, how many conditions are there to this inheritance? Granted, it’s a large sum of money, but I’m not inclined to disrupt my entire life just to get my hands on it.”

  The lawyer chuckled. In spite of himself, Dash was beginning to like the lawyer who’d indicated he preferred being called Blitz. He was sure there were some who saw it as a rugged name, but Dash was willing to bet it was short for Blitzen.

  “Your grandmother and I were friends long before your father drove your mother away from her origin herd and took her to the far north. There were those who worried that it would destroy the legacy, but it didn’t. I can tell you both your grandparents wanted your father’s head mounted on a wall. Your father truly loved your mother. It was said they were fated mates.”

  Dash smiled. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about his parents for years. “They died when I was so young. I barely remember them, except for my mother telling me they were fated mates, and I should wait for my fated mate to appear and then hold onto her with everything I had. Sweet story, but we all know that whole fated mates legend is just that—legend. I think it’s something the apex predators made up to justify their kidnapping and subjugation of the females they force into pair bondings.”

  “Spoken like a young man who has never been in love,” said the lawyer with an indulgent smile. “Take it from an old man who has been blissfully mated to his wife for longer than you’ve been alive, legend or not, the phenomenon of fated mates is real.”

  “Or maybe just a man who likes to indulge in romantic fantasies.”

  “Maybe. That’s the worst thing about all of this. I wish you had the time to find your fated mate and to fall in love, but a time limit is also part of the condition.”

  The small hairs all along the back of his neck started to rise. Dash was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. “So, how many conditions are there?”

  “Basically two. The first, as I said, was to come to Toronto.”

  “And second?”

  “You are to take a mate.”

  “Fuck this. That’s what you dragged me all the way from Alaska for? Are you fucking serious? Was my grandmother out of her ever-loving mind? She can’t make that a condition of her will.”

  “I assure you, she can. I can also assure you Rudy is counting on this reaction. He wants to inherit so he can flex his muscles and become leader of the herd. The herd will not flourish under his leadership. Your grandmother could be a hard woman, but she never made decisions without putting the well-being of the herd first. I can assure you that will be the last thing on Rudy’s mind.”

  “How long do I have to stay married?”

  “I’m sure her hope was forever, but the will stipulates a minimum of ten years.”

  Dash rolled his eyes and groaned. This was the most insane thing he’d ever heard, but still something about what the lawyer said about Rudy struck him as truthful. He might not know those in his grandmother’s herd, but could he really just walk away and leave them hurting?

  “And there is a deadline for when this has to be accomplished,” continued the lawyer.

  “Of course, there is,” said Dash, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. “What is it? Valentine’s Day?”

  “I’m afraid not,” said the lawyer. Dash opened his eyes and looked at the lawyer. “The winter holiday. This winter holiday.”

  “What do you mean I need to be mated by the winter holiday? Are you kidding me?” Dash said standing before beginning to pace back and forth in Blitz’s office.

  “Look, Dash, I didn’t write the damn will. Well, I guess technically I did, but your grandmother was very particular. Even after all these years, she was still angry your mother left the herd. So, if you want to inherit what is rightfully yours and protect your family’s legacy, you need to be married by the holiday deadline.”

  Which is?”

  “December 24th.”

  “You aren’t serious.”

  “I’m afraid I am. Your grandmother took these kinds of things seriously.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Blitz, where the hell am I supposed to find a comely, female caribou-shifter…” he glanced at the calendar on the wall “…and convince her to marry me before the deadline?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know, and there are provisions that will have you tied to this girl for at least ten years.”

  Dash plopped down in the chair. “A decade? I have to spend a decade with some girl I don’t even know?”

  “I’m sure you know lots of girls,” said the attorney.

  “And none of them I’d want to marry.”

  “If I wasn’t married, for that kind of money and to save your grandmother’s legacy, I’d marry Godzilla.”

  Dash grinned at him, “Do you have her number?”

  CHAPTER 2

  DASH

  Dash shook his head as he left the lawyer’s office. Rudy was waiting for him as he exited out onto the cold and gray Toronto streets.

  “Well?” he said without preamble, stepping into Dash’s personal space.

  This city caribou had picked the wrong man on the wrong day to try and get intimidating. Dash grabbed him by the lapels of his very expensive suit and put him into the side of the brick building. “Not on my watch, asshole. Come hell or high water, I’ll be married by Christmas Eve. You’ve lost the money and my grandmother’s herd will remain in their homes.”