Page 33 of Reindeer Flames
I reached for my belly, placing my hands protectively over the place where our eggs were developing. Dragons often had clutches of two, three, or four. How many would we have? It would be hard for a midwife to tell until I laid them, thanks to the hard protective shells. When I asked my dragon, he was cryptic."Dragon and not dragon,"he said. That meant we were having more than one, then, with some dragon and some not dragon. I patted my belly. Though I wished for a small clutch, I found myself asking the goddess for healthy babies, instead.
Finally, it was the moment my dragon had been waiting for. We walked out the back door, into the winter wonderland we'd seen from the first floor's picture windows. I'd mistaken the bushes along the back of the house for the property line. Instead, we found a large yard lined with bushes, a living privacy fence. The open space was large enough for me to shift and lay our eggs. Already, I wanted to shift, curl into a ball, and spin in circles until I'd carved a birthing bowl into the snow, soil, and rock below.
"This is perfect," I whispered when Hart approached. He slid his arm around my waist, and we stood side-by-side in peaceful silence.
"What do you think?" Melvin asked from the doorway behind us.
"We'll take it," Hart called over his shoulder. He leaned in and whispered, "If I can't afford it, I'll ask Santa for a raise."
I already knew I had more than enough saved in my bank account, but my alpha still believed he needed to provide for me. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. "We'll do it together," I said instead.
CHAPTER 16
HART
I don't knowwhat I expected my two-hundred-plus-years-old mate to do with his money, but he shocked the hell out of me when he told Melvin we could pay cash for our home. I had a nest egg, sure, but nothing like what Silver had stashed away.
"Gold and I split the costs and profits for the bakery." He was so adorable when he blushed. "It's nothing."
"You've saved more than I expected to make in a lifetime," I said. "Granted, I only work one day a year, and you work six days a week, but still." My tone veered into snarky territory, which I hated, but Silver laughed.
"I work hard, and the bakery is doing well. You also work hard, and you've paid your fair share."
We'd split the cost 30%/70%, which hurt my pride more than I wanted to admit.
"And you'll be home with the babies half the year," he reminded me. "That's so much more important than money."
Was it, though? I was a Comet. Under pressure, harsh criticisms still flowed off my tongue, especially as Christmas neared. I wasn't as mean as Bopp, and I tried not to insult my teammates, but I had so much to unlearn. Could I take classes, or read books, something to reprogram my brain?
Laurie had the answer for me. As a spider fae, she too had learned predatory techniques to survive in the fae realm. When one of the Santas invited her to come to the human realm, she'd agreed to stop preying on others.
She guided me to online resources to help me build my emotional intelligence. They even had practice bots who graded my responses to their simulations and offered ways to improve. She also recommended audiobooks I could listen to while practicing, thanks to my new headphones that sat inside my reindeer ears without blocking out the noise. When Donner called for us to bank left, I followed his instructions, all while learning new skills for combating bullying and standing up for others.
The weeks flew by until I pranced in the hangar on Christmas Eve, waiting for Rudolph's signal to fly. Donner called out our flight directions, but Rudolph coached us through take-offs and landings, since he could see the ground better than we could.
I left my headphones at home. This was the big event, and I didn't want to mishear a single command.
As we stood on the tarmac, awaiting our signal, I nudged my row mate, Marty Cupid. We couldn't talk to each other, but he vibrated with nervous energy. I nodded my head and scraped my hoof against the packed snow, my way of telling him, "You've got this," in my reindeer form.
He nudged my shoulder with a soft nicker that sounded a lot like "Thanks."
Rudolph brayed twice, our signal to take off. Once we reached the human population, his signals would switch to flicks of his white tail, but for now, we followed his audible signals and ran as fast as we could.
This time, I wore my protective mask to prevent my breath from coating my fur with ice. I wouldn't need a dragon intervention, but my thoughts drifted to Silver as we flew. Inone week, we would move into our new home together. A few weeks after that, Silver would lay the eggs that would hatch into our children in five months. It seemed so sudden, but so did Christmas Eve when it rolled around each year. Yet here we were.
I could do this. As passionately as I trained to deliver presents each year, I would prepare to be a father.
I rushedto Silver's apartment the moment we landed, wanting to wake him with a kiss. Instead, he greeted me with a plate of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls topped with icing and a cup of hot chocolate with a peppermint candy cane stir stick. When he kissed me, I could taste mint on his tongue.
We sat at his small dining table, sipping our drinks and eating the entire pan of rolls. Even after all that sugar, I felt like a zombie. When Silver pulled me to my feet, I toppled into him. My reindeer needed sleep, but I couldn't let Christmas morning pass without exchanging gifts.
"Merry Christmas, Mate." I pulled a delicate wrapped box from the pocket of my sweats and tucked it into his palm.
"Merry Christmas!" He stepped out of my embrace and ran off to the bedroom, returning with a large box topped with a red satin bow. Then, he dragged me to the couch and bounced on the seat beside me. "Open it."
"At the same time?" I asked. Anxiety overwhelmed me. Gold had helped me pick out my gift, but I worried it wasn't enough.
Silver nodded. A ribbon held the lid to his present, and he slid it to the side. I snapped the two pieces of tape holding the lid to my box, and we raised them at the same time.
