Sometimes the wrong Santa is the exact one you need.

I didn’t volunteer to run the Winter Pines Community Center Christmas Spectacular. I know my limits, but when I miss a meeting thanks to a stupid flat tire, I find myself the proud owner of the position. With the event less than a week away, I have everything in place; the food, the gifts, the decorations, even the music. All that’s left is waiting for the big day.

That is until I get the one phone call that threatens to unravel the entire event. Santa quit and every person I call to try to replace him with is booked. I’m about to give up and order a Santa suit for myself. Hopefully, none of the kids will notice I’m not even thirty. But I find abusinesscard for Santa that includes his address at the North Pole. He’s probably already booked, but it’s worth a call. The kids are counting on me.

All I want for Christmas is my mate.

I love everything about my life at the North Pole from my job, to my friends, to the abundance of cookies. What more could an elf ask for? Someone to share it with. That’s what. I’ve tried dating, going as far as using the North Pole’s version of a matchmaker. But it always ends the same: me waking up alone.

This year I have a plan. Rumor has it that if you are really naughty, Santa sends you to the perfect place to find your mate and done—happy ever after. Sure, I’ll need to be a knickknack for a little bit, but for my fated? Yeah, that would be worth it.

Only try as I may, I stink at being naughty and at my worst, I’m messy and annoying. When I get called into Santa’s office I think I’ve finally done it, finally made him mad enough to send me to my true love. Instead, he asks what I want for Christmas. What do I say to that? I tell him I want to be a bad, bad elf and he laughs hysterically. At this rate, I’ll be alone forever.

I’m beary ready for a snowed in Christmas.

I love the ocean. The coast is where I work and live my life. But this year I wanted something different for Christmas. When the opportunity arose to swap my condo for a cabin surrounded by snow, I couldn’t turn it down. It’d be fun to get away for the holiday and relax.

Or so I thought.

First, I meet the hottest guy in existence, only to have him leave, then I slip on ice and sprain my ankle… oh and there’s a naked man walking into the cabin… in the middle of winter. And what’s with the footprints in the snow and the fake bear ears on the mailbox? And that’s only the beginning…

This is going to be a Christmas to remember.

When is a gnome not a gnome? When he’s an elf.

Santa Claus’s helper, omega elf, Sparkle, is tossed out of Santa’s Workshop and the North Pole. He shrugs off his job termination, until he discovers he’s a figurine and has to sparkle in someone’s garden, looking pretty. Talk about boring.

A dog tries to pee on him and the neighbor’s son pitches baseballs at his head. But that’s not the worst of it. He’s mistaken for a gnome. A garden gnome! His gnome friends in Christmas Village would chuckle at the mistaken identity.

The garden’s owner, an alpha, wants to donate him to a thrift shop, until Sparkle scents the guy and… he’s no longer a figurine. But how do you tell a wolf shifter his fated mate is one of Santa’s elves who lost his job because of a teensy-weensy mistake? And the clock is ticking down to a Christmas mating deadline!

Sometimes the wrong number is the exact one you need.

When I bought my house, I promised my grandfather that I would always have a landline. He might be gone, but the phone remains, just where it always was. When it rings in the middle of the night, I jump out of bed to answer it. The last time this happened, the news on the other end wasn't good. At least now it's either a scammer or a wrong number. No bad news comes from that, right?

Before I can say, “Hello,” the person on the other end starts telling me, through sobbing tears, that they need me down at the station with bail money for Grams. I try to tell him I'm not who he thinks he is, only to have the line go dead.

I could go back to bed. Nothing's stopping me, but also… Grams is going to be in that cell for a long time if someone doesn't let the man on the other end of the phone know he got the wrong number. It has nothing to do with the way his voice had my beast perking up. Nope. Nothing at all.

I thought revenge would taste sweet… but it's not revenge I keep wrapping my lips around.

Bartending is far from my career goal, but I'm not at La Luna Noir to pad my 401k. Heck, I'm not even here to pay my bills. I took this job for one reason and one reason only: answers. If only it were that easy. This place might be filled with secrets, but all I've been discovering is new cocktail recipes… until today.

The office is left open and now's my chance. All I have to do is go in, find what I need, and get out. Easy peasy. Right?

Wrong.

Now I'm a prisoner in the mob boss's basement, struggling for my life, and hating how hot I think he is. Oh yeah, and he bit me for no reason… who does that? And why did I like it?

Sometimes the mate you've been looking for is only an app away… times two.

Human Alpha Jackson needs a date for his brother's wedding. He refuses to prove his parents right, that he will be alone forever because he's too picky to take a chance on love. Even if they are right. Jackson invites a co-worker, who declines, citing other plans. They hook him up with a dating app. It should be easy enough to find a date on Love　Hate. Who doesn't love an open bar?

Alpha dragon shifter, Brooklyn, spent his college years sure he'd met his one and only mate. At his first shift, he instantly scented his error. Just as well, since he came home to discover his omega in bed and not alone the next day. He planned to stay single, forever. But lately? Lately he's been thinking it might be time to try again. At least there's a shifter dating app to help.

When omega dragon shifter Marcelo downloaded Love　Hate months ago, but never set it up. In theory, he wanted to find a mate, but taking that next step wasn't so easy. Not after the last app he tried, where he was ghosted four times… in a row. His friends told him, it wasn't him, but it's hard to believe when it keeps happening. Maybe he'll give this app a try. It couldn't be worse than last time.

Sometimes it's more than love that sparkles.

Omega unicorn shifter Brett wants a new start, one where he can be Brett and not “that unicorn”. He appreciates that his foster parents took him into their wolf pack and loves them very much. But growing up a herbivore in a pack of predators sucks. He's ready for a change and when a job opens up at a small community hospital hundreds of miles away, he jumps at the opportunity.

Alpha snow leopard Anders loves being part of Snowford's sizzle. Snow leopards might not traditionally be pack animals, but his beast prefers it, and so does he. Really he does. But lately, seeing his friends with their true mates has him longing for more—for everything. Maybe the sizzle isn't where he belongs, after all.

When Anders drives a co-worker to the hospital for an appointment, he scents him immediately—his mate. But when he follows the scent, it ends in the parking lot. His mate is gone and he's left with only the mating pull. His heart is already beginning to ache.

I was hit by a train and woke up in another world—one where I was famous!

I thought I hit the jackpot with my wolf mate. He is kind, protective, and exactly who I need in my life. And then one day—poof, I run into my bear mate, and the three of us make it work. I'm happier than I ever dreamed possible.

My life is exactly how it should be.

Fate disagrees and sends me Seymour, just in time to help deliver my baby. Now I have to balance my life as a father of a newborn while I begin my life with my new dragon mate, and keep the life I have with my wolf and bear from falling apart. Easy peasy… or more likely, the most difficult thing I've ever done.

I went undercover to break up an organized crime ring—not to fall in love with a mob boss.

Investigating one of the biggest crime families is risky work. I knew that going in and am prepared for anything. If I get the story, it will all be worth it.

Only the story consumes my entire being, and I end up at a speed-dating event in the hope of meeting a distraction, and is the alpha I meet ever the distraction. He's tall, smexy, and has eyes I can't stop looking into. If only he let me know up front who he was.

Now I'm longing for a mob boss, trying to complete my investigation, being rescued from a different mafia family who sees me as the risk, and… oh yeah, getting stuck in a mountainside cabin with the hottie from round 7. At least my life isn't boring.