by Sasha Winter
“What comes next, Eric? Where do we go from here?”
He heard her perfectly though she spoke into his chest. She sounded lost, hopeless, and that reassured him a bit that he wasn't the only one.
“Elise, I...” He shook his head, clearing the cobwebs from his thoughts. “I've been thinking about how to say this the last few days and I'm not quite sure words can do it justice, so please…” He paused for emphasis, and Elise pulled back, looking up at him with mixed emotions on her face. Erik reached into his jacket pocket, and Elise looked confused, shocked even, as she saw the long wooden box.
“What’s this?” she asked, eyes wide. “A gift?”
“You could say that. But it’s not a Christmas gift,” he replied. He slowly opened the delicate wooden box, revealing the necklace.
“Oh, Erik,” she breathed, reaching out to take it. Erik didn't want to hold his breath, but it seemed like a good sign. “Is this...?” she asked, looking up into his eyes.
“My family crest,” he confirmed with a nod. “By all accounts made sometime between the fourteen and fifteen hundreds.”
She looked at the pendant, turning it over in her hands, eyes wide with awe.
“I want you to have it, Elise,” he added.
Awe turned to shock and confusion.
“But Erik, this is such a valuable heirloom. This should be passed on to your children.”
She met his gaze, and he felt his knees go weak as little snowflakes began to fall from the sky in a beautiful sprinkling. Realization suddenly crossed her face, and she gasped.
“Elise. This past week has been so much to take in, I know. But I've never been more certain of anything in my life. You are the perfect woman for me. You are my ‘PurrfectMate’. You make me feel things no other woman ever has, and I'm not happy at the thought of letting that slip through my grasp. Please accept my family crest as a promise. Please consider my offer to stay and make me the happiest man in the world. After you’ve visited your family, of course; I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be without you for Christmas. Although I sure will miss you.”
He wasn't prepared for her to fling her arms around him and kiss him, and she nearly knocked him off balance in doing so. He eagerly kissed her back, pulling her close and trying to convey every emotion he was feeling into that one kiss. She pulled back long enough for him to take the necklace from her, undo the clasp, and redo the necklace with the pendant lying directly over her heart.
He looked at the way the pendant nestled between her breasts, and he wanted nothing more than to tear off her clothes and take her then and there. She seemed to have similar ideas as she leaned in and kissed him passionately, grabbing at his clothes. She backed him up to a sizeable boulder, and he sat down hard, pulling her with him.
“Wait,” he said before they went any further. “It’s starting to snow.”
“I know,” she replied, her eyes twinkling. “It’ll help cool us off when we’re done. Christmas isn’t the only thing coming soon, sheriff…”
She straddled his hips, kissing him fervently for a few moments before pulling back and sliding her pants down her long legs. He unzipped his pants, pulling them down just enough to be out of the way before she crawled back on top of him.
He leaned back awkwardly, propping himself on one hand as he reached down and guided his hot, hard length inside of her. He watched her impale herself on him, and he fought hard for some shred of control as she rose and fell, riding him with such sweet abandon. He could have died happy in that very moment, watching her, gripping her hips as she kissed him. She sucked and licked, teasing, as she rode him hard. He couldn't handle it. It was such a feverish, desperate flurry of emotion bubbling up inside of him and he couldn't take it anymore. Burying his face in her breasts, he wrapped his arms around her, thrusting his hips up into her as he came hard.
Elise’s eyes were damp with unshed tears of joy as she pressed their mouths together. It didn’t matter that she had to go home for Christmas—she would be back to spend every other Christmas with Erik for the rest of her life.
Chapter 16
The city felt strangely cold when Elise returned, and it wasn’t because of the seasonal chill in the air. It had only been a couple of weeks that she’d been gone but it no longer felt like home. Susan had swept her into a somewhat violently enthusiastic hug and they’d both ended up with bruises from the coffee table but the laughter helped.
“I’m moving to Sawmill Grove after Christmas,” Elise confessed when they’d successfully debriefed each other and Susan had smiled.
“Of course you are,” she said and lunged to wrap her arms around Elise’s neck. There had been some tears but plenty of smiles.
“You better tell Sheriff Erik that the spare room is mine whenever I visit,” Susan said with narrowed eyes. “Also, that he figures out which one of his deputies I’m going to have a fling with. Shifter, human, I’m not going to be picky this time.”
Elise threw her head back and laughed so hard she felt a little lightheaded.
***
Donald cried a little when Elise gave her resignation a few days later.
“The archives won’t be the same without you,” he said and blew into the plaid handkerchief he’d had in his pocket for at least as long as Elise had been working for him. Elise fought the urge to both roll her eyes and cry a little herself—she would miss Donald more than anyone else except Susan. She hugged him.
“There are still phones and email, Donald,” she said. “I’m not going to the other side of the world.”
She took a fierce, slightly feral delight in carrying the box of her belongings from her desk past Tom’s section. His wide-eyed surprise and the way he half-rose out of his seat with his mouth open like he wanted to say something was deeply satisfying.
“Merry Christmas, Tom,” she said in the breeziest voice she could muster up.
She’d never felt taller than when she just kept walking without even waiting for his response, or caring whether he gave one.
***
Erik was waiting for her when she pulled into the parking space behind his cruiser two weeks later. He wasn’t in uniform and he swept her up in his arms the second she got out of the car, crushing her to his chest and burying his face in the side of her neck.
“Put me down before you scandalize your neighbors!” she hissed.
He laughed into her hair, pressing a kiss to the skin behind her ear. “You’re here to stay,” he said and she could hear the satisfied rumble behind his words. “They’ll have to get used to being scandalized because I don’t plan on stopping.”
As soon as her feet were back on the ground he was kissing her like they’d been apart for months instead of the two weeks it had been. She sighed into the kiss but gripped handfuls of his shirt and pushed herself against him regardless.
She wasn’t going to admit it and validate his ridiculous show but she’d missed him too.
***
“I would be honored if you chose to work here at the museum!” Callahan boomed when Elise ran into him in town on her second day as a Sawmill Grove resident and mentioned that she was looking for work. His eyes were wide and bright with excitement. “Come, come, we can get you settled and registered today!” He threw an arm out and almost upset someone’s tray of coffees before herding Elise towards the door of the coffee shop, already chatting a mile a minute.
“Mr. Callahan!” a tired voice called from the counter. Elise barely heard it over the sound of Callahan’s enthusiastic rambling. “You forgot your order again!”
Epilogue
One year later
The dust had finally settled, and the snow was falling once again.
The town had adjusted to having a shifter as their sheriff and public opinion was slowly edging its way in favor of harsher consequences for discrimination against them. No one would ever forget the horrible killing that had marred the joy of last year’s Christmas, but the town was slowly moving on, and Dylan Barnes’ p
arents were surrounded with support every day. This year, a huge Christmas Eve feast had been organized for them by the townspeople, in honor of their departed son. It was only a small gesture, and it wouldn’t bring the young man back, but it would help his parents feel loved and supported during this time of the year, which would always be difficult for them despite the festive joy it brought everyone else.
Elise loved her work at the museum and she loved being able to come home to Erik every day even more. Susan had come down for a visit a few weeks before and Elise had never laughed so hard at the realization that her fearless predator of a fiancé was more than a little intimidated by her bubbly, outgoing best friend.
All in all, things were wonderful. The emotional upheaval of her breakup with Tom and the drama surrounding those events had faded to barely a bad memory and now Erik and Elise were relishing in the happiness they’d both earned.
It was early on the evening of Christmas Eve when Erik wandered into the study where Elise was reading through some books from Callahan, trying to decide on the final pieces for a new exhibition which would be in place by January. He was still wearing his silly Santa suit after having spent the day doing last minute Santa duties at the town’s department store, and Elise giggled as she took him in.
“Hello, Santa Claws.”
He grinned. “The Barnes memorial dinner will be starting soon,” he said as he bent down to kiss her. It quickly grew heated, Elise’s hands closing around his forearms as he guided her to her feet. “Are we still going?” he added.
“Of course,” Elise replied. “But I thought it didn’t start for an hour?”
“By soon, I mean after I’ve had time to attend to a certain lady of mine,” he said, pulling a sprig of mistletoe from his pocket and holding it over her head. “You know what this means, right? You have to kiss me.”
“Is that so?” Elise murmured against his mouth before a book, precariously perched on the edge of the desk, clattered to the ground. She swore and broke away from the kiss to bend down and pick it up. When she put it back on the desk it fell open to the chapter she’d been reading. Her eyes lit up and she turned back to Erik.
“I wanted to ask you something,” she said, stretching up to press a quick kiss to his mouth. “I was reading about shifter families and it wasn’t very clear about the children.”
“Mm?” Erik hummed, kissing the side of her neck.
“Do shifter children get their abilities from their parents?” she asked, arching further into his touch instinctively.
Erik hummed again. “Usually,” he said. “I got mine from my mom, my dad was human. If one parent is a shifter then it’s usually a safe bet to say the kid will be.” He pulled back and raised an eyebrow at her. “Why?”
Elise splayed one hand out over her abdomen and used the other to accentuate what looked like a big lunch belly. She smiled, a little coy, and looked up at Erik through dark lashes. “Just curious,” she said. “I mean, we’re going to find out soon anyway.”
“What?”
Her smile grew wider. “Let’s just say the real Santa brought us an extra gift this year. I was going to wait till tomorrow to tell you, but I can’t hold it in any longer.”
“You’re pregnant?”
She nodded.
Erik’s insides erupted into a flurry of panic, joy, and surprise, and all he could do was stare at Elise in utter wonder. The smile on her face turned soft and she reached out for his hand to put it underneath hers. Even through her loose shirt he could feel the heat coming off her soft skin and the thought that there was a baby in there left him shell-shocked.
“Our baby,” she said like she could read his mind. Her smile dropped a little, uncertainty creeping in. “Are you ready for that?”
All it took for the joy to overtake everything else was to see the uncertainty in her face. He gathered her up and hugged her against his chest while a bright burst of laughter left his mouth.
“I’m so ready,” he assured her before bending to catch her mouth in a searing kiss. “I’m ready for it all. It’s our little Christmas miracle.”
THE END
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