The Dragon's Christmas Wish
Page 11
“When you first came home and told me that you thought you had found your heart-mate, but you did not know if you could make her happy because our species are so different, I began to research her immediately. After all, you are my oldest clutchling, who means everything to me. I sat on you for ten months.”
“About five minutes in total,” Jaspar corrected her.
Karmelite ignored him. “My research showed that she was loyal to her family, very moral, and excellent with children, which is all that I could possibly ask. And if she is your heart-mate, you would never be happy with anybody else. I was happy with your father for many decades until his glorious death in battle. I would not wish anything less for you.”
“Do you mean a happy marriage, or a glorious death?” Jaspar asked.
His mother waved her hand at him dismissively. “Whatever.”
“So all of your sabotage was meant to push us closer together. Mother, you are truly devious and manipulative.” Jaspar grinned fiercely. “I have never been prouder to be your son.”
Liza shook her head in amazement. “Will wonders never cease?”
“Not on Christmas,” Jaspar said to Liza with a huge smile.
* * * * *
Christmas eve on Far North…one year later…
“I am exhausted,” Jaspar declared to Liza, collapsing into a chair in front of the fireplace. “Human young are insatiable. My wings are aching as if I’d just battled an entire clan of Harbingers.”
He had spent the last ten hours straight giving children Santa Drakken rides. He’d even allowed himself to be fitted with a saddle for their safety, and also donned a beard. Liza and her family were the only ones on Far North who had both an Insult Santa and a Santa Drakken Business was non-stop. They now had a small tavern and half a dozen booths serving food and drink to all the customers who were waiting for rides, and their Christmas tree lot business was booming as well.
Liza settled into his lap. She had two cups of steaming hot cocoa, and she handed him one. He hugged her close to him and kissed her neck. After a year of being married to him, he still brought shivers of pleasure to her with his merest touch.
“Don’t worry. The day after tomorrow, we get to go on vacation to Eden,” she said. Eden was the name that had been given to the tropical planet on the other side of the portal.
The portal had been ruled to be the property of the entire colony, and now Far North was a year-round vacation destination. People still flocked from all over the galaxy to visit for Christmas, but a resort had also been built on the tropical planet, and many of the colonists were splitting their year up, living and working in a newly built colony on the tropical planet during the off-season.
The colonists would be able to repay their debt to the First Galactic Bank in full within a couple of years, now that they had year-round income streaming in. From now on, their children would no longer be saddled with that debt, and would be able to work towards building their own futures, buying safer hovercraft, and expanding the colony.
Geneva was home for the holidays. She had one more year left in school, and then she planned to travel the galaxy. It would be a graduation gift from Jaspar and Liza. She’d be travelling business class, which meant that her ship would have private security protecting it.
“You guys are so gross and sappy,” she told them, leaning back in a recliner and taking a healthy swig of eggnog. “I’m never going to be like that. I’m going to be an intergalactic businesswoman.”
“You realize that saying that is tempting fate?” Liza grinned at her younger sister. “You’ve just about guaranteed that you’ll be married within the next year.”
“Never!” Geneva vowed, and took another sip.
Jaspar and Liza exchanged knowing looks and smiled.
Mawmaw hurried in. “I just checked on the babies, and they look so adorable!” she crowed. Jaspar had built an incubator right next to the bed and breakfast, where his and Liza’s first three clutchlings were growing. Karmelite and Mawmaw spent a ridiculous amount of time over there fussing over the eggs, and Mawmaw had taught Karmelite how to knit.
Sure, Karmelite was knitting tiny little suits of armor and shields for her grand-clutchlings, but what could one expect? She was a Drakken through and through.
Marjan and Korl were on Arcadia, getting ready to start their own family. They’d spent a year travelling around the galaxy as paid mercenaries, which had apparently been their honeymoon. Liza had breathed a sigh of relief when they’d landed safely on Arcadia. She’d also refused Marjan’s offer to make her baby clothes from the pelts of her defeated enemies.
“Liza’s saying that I’m going to be married in a year. Make her stop,” Geneva complained to Mawmaw.
“Would that be so terrible?” Mawmaw asked.
“You people.” Geneva set her mug down and stood up. “I’m going to go wait on the last customers outside, because I’m all about the business, not about all this mushy stuff.”
She walked to the doorway, but she paused and looked back at them, and there was a smile on her normally pouty face.
“You guys aren’t so bad, I guess,” she admitted. “Maybe someday I’ll end up married, if I can find someone who loves me as much as Jaspar loves you.”
“It’s a Christmas miracle!” Liza held up her cup of hot chocolate in a toast to Liza.
“You, Liza, are my Christmas miracle,” Jaspar declared, and leaned forward to kiss her. He tasted like sweet chocolate.
“Eww, gross, mushy!” Geneva shrieked, and ran outside into the snow.
And there was peace on Far North, and goodwill to men. And women. And aliens.
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THE END
About the Author
Hello, I am Georgette St. Clair, writer of hot, sexy romances which star all Alpha heroes, all the time. The road to love may be rocky and fraught with peril, (and humor and scorchtastic sex and healthy heapings of snark) but my shifters will stop at nothing to claim their fated mate.
A little about me: I live in Florida. My checkered career involved stints as a newspaper reporter, EMT, internet marketer, cocktail waitress, temp, nurse’s aide (but not all at the same time...)
Now I’m living my perfect life, spending my days in a fantasy universe where I nudge my smart-mouthed, take-no-guff heroines onto the path that will set them on a collision course with true love.
Check out my website for a complete list of titles and what’s coming soon. Or connect with me on Facebook.
Also by Georgette St. Clair
The Mating Game Series:
The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (The Mating Game Book 1)
Dating a Dragon (The Mating Game Book 2)
Shifters of Silver Peak series:
Mate Marked: Shifters of Silver Peak
Shifters of Silver Peak: Mate for a Month
Shifters of Silver Peak: A Very Shifty Christmas
Bridenapped Series:
Bridenapped: The Alpha Chronicles
Bridenapped: The Alpha’s Choice
Shifters, Inc Series:
The Alpha Meets His Match (A paranormal romance) (Shifters, Inc. Book 1)
His Purrfect Mate (A Shifter Romance) (Shifters, Inc. Book 2)
Pixie the Lion Tamer (Shifters, Inc. Book 3)
Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW Paranormal Romance)
Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.)
Blue Moon Junction Series:
Blue Moon Shifters: The Alpha Claims a Mate (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Blue Moon Junction Book 1)
Blue Moon Shifters: The Bobcat’s Tale (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Blue Moon Junction Book 2)
Blue Moon Shifters: Hard to Bear (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Blue Moon Ju
nction Book 3)
Blue Moon Shifters: My Heart Laid Bear (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Blue Moon Junction Book 4)
Timber Valley Pack Series:
Bride of the Alpha (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack Book 1)
Purr for the Alpha (A Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack Book 2)
Hard as Steele (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack Book 3)
Timber Valley Pack: Lynx on the Loose (A Paranormal Romance with Shifters)
Taken by the Alpha (Timber Valley Pack Book 5)
The Alpha Won’t Be Denied (Timber Valley Pack Book 6)
Standalone titles:
Grayslake: More than Mated: Grayslake: Furrever Yours (Kindle Worlds Novella)
Badlands: The Lion’s Den