Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special Novels & Stories

The first thing you should know about me is that I have spent seventeen years as the world's least impressive consolation prize. My brother Lucien arrived first, screaming like he was already giving orders. The full moon was out. The elders felt his wolf before he even took his first breath. Golden eyes. Perfect lungs. Future alpha material. Then I showed up. The room went quiet. Silver white hair. Pale eyes. Skin so light I looked like I had been assembled in the dark. Some elder whispered "cursed," which was rude, but also fair.

An actual call, past midnight, breaking the careful boundary we’d set for ourselves without much deliberation behind the decision. She picked up on the second ring. “You should be sleeping,” she said, though there was no real reprimand in it. “Couldn’t. Too much adrenaline still. Figured you’d understand that better than anyone I know.” “I watched the whole thing. I think my neighbors heard me yelling during the third period.” A pause, warmth creeping into her voice. “You looked terrified and completely alive at the same time. It’s a strange thing to watch from the outside.” “Feels stranger from the inside.”

He was tall, really tall for a Santa Claus, that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes—oh, his eyes. They were an icy gray that seemed to bare my soul, uncovering every hidden secret before his eyes. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine, but I couldn't tell if it was from the cold or the way those eyes made me feel, something so distinct yet I couldn't put my hands on it. “Merry Christmas,” he murmured, his deep baritone causing my heart to thrum so loudly in my chest I could only stand there and gawk like a damn fool.

"Ivy, my sweet girl, how did you end up in there? "I never let you be cold when you lived with me! How could this happen to my baby?" As if she'd lost her mind, she grabbed a coat from the couch and draped it over my body. "No, my Ivy isn't dead. She's just too cold. She'll wake up once I cover her up!" Covering me with the coat wasn't enough. Grandma tried to rub my hands warm. But when she touched my hands—frozen solid like icicles—she couldn't hold it together anymore. She let out a bone-chilling scream.

Perfect. The owl strained her ears and ducked her head forward as the slender figure emerged down the steep hill, coming through the wood. The bird let out a shrilling squawk. Cassandra was on her way back home. She had just returned from the grocery store. She and her foster family had come to see the Magic Ice of Siberia, which was an annual international festival of snow and ice sculpture.

“I think I am alright.” Morozko glanced around. “I can see ice crystals in the air, like the scales of a fish. But I am cold, bitterly so. Is this what it is like to be a child of the north?” He opened his pale blue fingers and examined them. “I feel like an ice sculpture, newly carved. I have lost my smoke tricks, but now, I can summon the heart of winter, or rush like a blizzard across the world. I can find Anya, and I am powerful enough to face off against that stupid koldun, wherever he may be. I never did like kolduny.”

THEN KNOCK. Dinner done. Kids. Stairs. With Susan. With Margaret. With Lily. Movie night. _FROZEN_. Again. “Because Elsa is crew,” Alex said. Fire. Going. Not cold. 64 degrees. But Christmas. Me. Couch. Adrian. Next to me. February. Asleep. On him. 10 months, 7 days. Doll in hand. _FEBRUARY_. Bear. Floor. Sweater. _GOOD BOY_. Resigned. But warm.

“Mommy, do I have abnormal genetics from Daddy’s side?” “A little,” I said. “Good,” he nodded. “Because I’m going to Siberia. Uncle Igor said we could stay in a cabin and cut a hole in the ice to catch fish.” Pascha let out a loud sigh. “And then you freeze to death in five minutes.” Max crossed his arms. “Uncle Igor said he has a jacket made from mammoth fur.” “Your uncle also said he can talk to reindeer,” Pascha shot back. Max gave me a side glance. “If Daddy won’t let me, I’ll just wait for Uncle Igor to come on his own. He said he has a helicopter if necessary.”

Ice knew how calendars worked, of course, and so he knew that Christmas was in nine days – but since he’d learned over the years to studiously ignore that fact, he’d kind of been on automatic pilot with this Christmas too. But seeing Vix all curled up in his bed, all thrilled about the snow that was sure to keep her housebound at his place for a week at least for her safety, Ice’s heart didn’t sink at the thought that Christmas was almost upon him. In fact, he wanted to celebrate it for the first time in twenty-nine years – and he wanted to do that with her. That was when he decided to share another big truth about himself; maybe the biggest one that he had. “I’m going to go get something fr

That power-hungry asshole. Mt. Glacier was even whiter, and colder than usual. A human couldn't survive twenty minutes there. It was vastly ice, a different kind of ice that was far colder than average. The mountain itself was covered with unbreakable ice which had been thickened by the pioneer vampires. It had scribbles of sacred drawing, each needing its own spell to crack it. I snapped out of my thoughts, when Alex was finally alone. I pulled him into the shadows, and placed the edge of my blade against his neck.