Sugar, Spice, and Shifters: A Touch of Holiday Magic

by Élianne Adams

  She didn’t even know what they actually were. Or whether what they were even had names. But the god did.

  He’d called her something. Something like Nellana and Witch. Like he’d recognized her for what she was. And he spoken as if he knew what the children were, as well.

  Maybe this was where they were supposed to be. Her tiny bit of precognition told her to say yes. That this was where they belonged.

  The rational part of her said that was absolutely crazy. That it was just his power or some weird type of lust he was creating in her.

  She looked at him. “I have questions. We don’t even know what we are. I don’t know what that word Nellana even means. I don’t know if my children are even human or not. Or if I am. We were all alone, and we ran until we found each other. The younger four were dropped on my doorstep at different times. We’ve only had one another for a very long time. I’m not sure what we should do next.” She looked at Fayden, who nodded at her. “But I trust the voices telling us that we are to stay here. For a while at least. But…I am not sure what it means.”

  She looked at him again. “I think we need your help.”

  SIXTEEN

  He looked at the children fully for the first time. The eldest was grown enough to be considered adult in some cultures. But he was claimed as Teagan’s, and a quick trip through the youth’s head showed nothing but love and loyalty to Teagan and the younger children.

  And Lothon Druid powers yet untapped.

  “Your boy there. He is a Lothon Druid. Rare, yes, but there are many here. He may even find the line of his forefathers. My cousin created them. You will meet him soon, as he pesters me almost daily. The girls, werewolves. Better known in this world as Lupoiux. The others, their Kinds are found here, as well. They will have roots, connections here. But they will always be welcomed in my home. In my family.” In hers and his; that was what he wanted to say.

  But that was not a discussion to be had in front of the children. The youngest clung to Teagan, the bond between mother and child strong.

  Beautiful.

  His own mother hadn’t wanted him or Eiophon. She had made that quite known.

  But these young, and any they made between them, would be loved by Teagan. He could see that.

  Which meant these foundlings would be his, as well.

  A responsibility he would not take lightly. He would see them raised, and raised well. And safe. It was his duty to his mate, wasn’t it? Acylias laid his hands on her shoulder.

  “Teagan, your children are well. You have confirmed that with your own eyes, your own touch. Come with me now. You can return to them shortly. We have much to discuss.”

  He wanted her. Wanted to tell her exactly what she meant to him, what this new life would be like for the both of them.

  Most of all he wanted to get started on making a child between them.

  For the first time he could ever remember, Acylias hungered for responsibility and ties to another being.

  To his mate.

  He couldn’t believe he had finally found her. Acylias held out a hand to her. “Come with me, Teagan. Let me show you the world I created thousands of years ago for the female I am destined for.”

  SEVENTEEN

  He had built Levia for the mate he would one day have. And in Teagan he had found her.

  Pale, thin, braver than she needed to be, Nellana Witch of undetermined heritage. Mate of one of the oldest gods in the worlds.

  And he had created Levia for her. It was time he showed it to her.

  His world had been a beautiful place before the Dark Sorcerer’s attacks months ago. And he would see to it that Levia returned to the glory it had once had.

  But first… “The children’s suites are two floors below ours, in what is the nursery. There is room enough for all of them.”

  The nursery he had designed thousands of years ago for the children this female would one day give him.

  His body tightened at the very thought of it. The making of those babes would be one of his ultimate pleasures.

  Her eyes sparked and he felt the hope that rushed through her. The love. What would it be like to be loved by her?

  But that would have to wait. She wanted her children settled, and as her mate it was his duty to give her what she wanted.

  And he would do that for the rest of their days.

  And those days would be long and more numbered than any human could ever count.

  “Give the child to his sister. You and I have things to discuss.” She complied, surprising Acylias. He held out his hand and took hers. She didn’t pull away from him. Acylias wouldn’t have let her, anyway. He tugged her closer and kissed her still wet hair. “Come. We talk.”

  “Why? What’s so special about me? Why did you come for me and my children? I don’t understand, I don’t understand any of this.”

  “Let me tell you a story, a story of the worlds.” He led her away from the children and into the hall.

  “See, you’ve already lost me. There’s only one world, isn’t there?”

  “There are eighteen or nineteen, maybe more, maybe less. No one knows, some die out, some are made. But there are shifts of energy when the worlds are in flux. And that happened months ago. When my brother’s castle was nearly lost to the Dark Sorcerer’s fires. Since then we are working on rebuilding my world. And there are others who seek to protect their own worlds.”

  “I just want to go back to Arizona. Where things almost make sense.” She looked back at the room where her children waited.

  “A Zar demon hunting young girls and unmated females in Arizona makes sense to you? I suspect he was released into your world—Gaia—when the barriers came down.”

  “And why did the barriers come down?”

  “The Dark Sorcerer is a damned bastard who will one day be punished for his sins. A power hungry being of old who is after the worlds to make them his own. We gave the order that all non-humans, which you and your children are, were to be evacuated. The humans are not capable of stopping this sorcerer or of processing and understanding his existence. So the humans were to be left alone. In the hopes that none with power would draw him to them. He feeds on power, Teagan. Do not ever forget that. And he will come here again.”

  “There must be someplace else I can take my children. Where they won’t be targets. Isn’t there any place safe? This is turning into another nightmare.”

  And he felt guilty for that. He had used creatures’ nightmares to terrify them before when he felt they deserved it.

  But the knowledge that his female was frightened was a nightmare for him. “They will be safe with me. I can promise you that.”

  “But why? What am I and my children to you? Why do you even care?”

  — — —

  Teagan stared at him, waiting for his answer. Why did she and nine kids matter to this creature so much? She didn’t know why she pushed, but she did. “Tell me. Why do you keep promising me that? Why do you, this god of whatever you are, care about me? Is it one of my children you’re after? I need to know. Before I make any decisions about what I am to do, I need to know. Now.”

  “Yes, you would make demands of a god, wouldn’t you? So brave, little Witch. Perhaps foolishly so.” He touched her hair with an almost reverent finger. Her hair dried immediately. Into those ridiculous ringlets of curls she had always hated. “Beautiful. Do you truly wish to know what I seek? Who you are to me?”

  “Do I have a choice?” He laughed, his smile so perfect and golden. Godlike? “Tell me. Why did you find me? Bring me here? Why you and why me?”

  He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her straight off of her feet. Why did he keep doing that to her? Why did he keep putting his hands on her?

  “Because I am a god…and I have one fated mate. A female made just for me, perfect in every way that I am not. The other half of my whole. My soul.”

  “And what does that have to do with me?”

  “Do not be dense, little Witch
. The one female meant for me is the one I have in my arms right now. And will always be.”

  EIGHTEEN

  He meant it. This god guy honestly thought she was the mate he’d been waiting for. Teagan’s stomach clenched and every nerve in her body started to tingle. Was he tricking her, using some kind of power against her? She dismissed that idea quickly. She wasn’t without her own powers and she would have felt a compulsion if he was using one.

  Whatever was going on between them was actually going on between them. Her and him, and nothing causing or pushing them to be together.

  He thought she was his.

  What was she going to do about that?

  She followed him around what was obviously an honest to goodness castle almost without thought.

  This place was as different from the old farm in Arizona as anything could get.

  And there were far too many bird accents for her to believe. One look from the windows proved that point in the simplest of ways. His home towered above the trees, giving him a huge sight advantage.

  Acylias took great pride in his world; it was evident in the words he used as he showed her around the interior of what she had to think of as his nest. And it was obvious that he wanted her to love it, as well. And she did. It was a beautiful place.

  “Why are you showing me this?”

  “Did you miss what I said earlier? You little Witch, are the mate I have been waiting for.” He smiled, then swooped right at her.

  Teagan just gawked.

  “You’re crazy.” Probably not the smartest thing to say to a deranged god, but it slipped out. “I’m no one’s mate.”

  “No? Then why does your heart speed up when you think of it? When you remember the way my skin feels against yours. Do you know how long it has been since the touch of a female has even began to excite me? I look at you and all I can think about is getting these clothes off of you and claiming you. Of making you mine for all eternity.”

  “Yeah, about that. If you’re a god, won’t you live forever? I’ve only got about forty or fifty years left.”

  He laughed, then slid his hands under her shirt. She didn’t have a bra any longer, and his fingers almost singed the skin of her breasts. “Silly little Witch. You don’t know, do you? You and those nine children will live thousands of years. Thousands. There is very little that can actually kill you. There is so much you need to know of this world. But first…there is so much you need to learn of me. Your male. Forever. Lupoi mate for life.”

  What was she supposed to think of that? “I—“

  He lifted her off the ground until her eyes were level with his. “You are mine. The knife proves what my heart already knows.”

  NINETEEN

  Teagan didn’t know what to think. So she ran. Straight down to the rooms her children waited in. They were comfortable; more than that the rooms were beautiful. And in the short hours since he’d brought them there they had made themselves at home.

  Fayden greeted her when she rushed in the door. “Mom, you’re supposed to be with Acylias. You’d probably better go back now.”

  She stared into his brown eyes a moment. He’d always felt it was his place to tell her what she was supposed to be doing. And she let him somewhat; she let him be himself with her, like he couldn’t be with too many others. “Am I?”

  For a moment the expression on his face changed to wise and introspective. She knew what it meant. “Yes. He’s supposed to be with you, too. It’s why he found us. He’s been looking for you for a while, I think. A long time. Just in the wrong world.”

  “I see.”

  That meant something, but what? She wasn’t about to just make those kinds of decisions because a precognitive child decreed that was so.

  Four hours earlier they had been running for their lives. Now her children were spread out around a sitting room playing with toys, reading books, and playing strange looking board games.

  It was all so oddly normal. Yet so weird, too.

  Mason stood and stepped out into the hall. Teagan followed. “Mase?”

  “Do we have any choice? Can we go home? Fayden seems to think not. And I am not sure that any of them want to.” He towered above her, so strong. So close to being a man. She was proud of him, and always would be. She hugged him quickly. “And I agree with them.”

  “Why?” Had he done something to her children? Influenced them somehow?

  “Information. The library alone has thousands of books. On the different types of creatures we are. Sayla and Sara are Lupoiux werewolves. And I…think I am a Druid of some kind. It feels right. I’d like to learn more. We all would. Even Wyatt has found what Kind—that’s what they’re called—he is.”

  “And you all want to stay here. To learn who and what you are.” She understood it. She did. When she’d been a teenager there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have done to learn who she truly was.

  She still didn’t know. And the idea of having that information right there before her was tempting. Very tempting.

  But could she pay the price Acylias was so obviously demanding?

  — — —

  He waited. It was one of the hardest things he had ever done, but he waited for her.

  For three hours. Nothing compared to the millennia he had already waited, but it seemed like forever.

  He knew she was spending that time with her children. And they needed that from her—as much as she needed to be with them during this major change in their lives.

  But he had slept apart from his female for more than twenty-five thousand years, and he wasn’t going to go another night without her in his bed.

  But how to get her there?

  She was a clever Witch and managed to hide herself away from him for longer than he expected.

  But when the night had ended, and he knew her children would be abed, and guarded well by his highest Solestru warriors, he went searching for her.

  Acylias enjoyed the hunt.

  He found her in the sitting room of the children’s wing, curled beneath a blanket.

  Sound asleep.

  It couldn’t have worked out better if he had planned it that way.

  Acylias scooped his female into his arms.

  TWENTY

  Teagan woke being carried by strong male arms, with her face pressed into hot skin. There was a medallion beneath her cheek.

  It took her a moment to remember what had happened. To identify who carried her. The feature of her erotic dream—or nightmare, rather.

  The god. The god of nightmares. Acylias.

  Who said she was his. She’d tucked her children into beds carved from purple wood. Blankets woven from cloth so exquisite she’d been afraid to touch.

  She’d met a being so light and beautiful she hadn’t known what to say. The woman had claimed to be the keeper of his house. And then she’d told Teagan that every Solestru female had been made in the image of Acylias’ mate. Told her the story of how he had created the Solestru warriors, and then to prevent them getting too lonely he’d created the females. Modeled after the mate he’d waited so long for but had never seen. How he had seen her in his dreams.

  And then she had bowed to Teagan and said she’d waited a lifetime to meet her goddess.

  When she’d called Teagan ‘my lady’, Teagan had almost wet herself. It had been such a moving exchange. And then the woman, Roebyn, had vowed to always care for the children, as if they were her own.

  The children were happy, they had people willing to care for them. They had the answers she knew most had been seeking.

  And the god in charge of the place wanted only one thing in return.

  But was Teagan capable of giving him that? A part of her wanted to. Truly wanted to. But was that just her body?

  She kept her cheek where it was, not wanting him to know she was awake. Not yet. She needed this time to think. To study him.

  To decide what it was she wanted to do.

  “I know you’re awake, little Witch.” His arms
tightened around her. “You cannot pretend with me.”

  “I’m not pretending. I just don’t know what it is that you want from me.” She lifted her head and looked at him.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He squeezed one of her butt cheeks and leered at her. “You’ll sleep in my bed. Every night.”

  “And what will happen if I’m in that nest?” She refused to think of him and bed together. But nest…didn’t sound that much safer, did it?

  “The things that happen between a god and his mate. The things that I am aching to do to you now."

  Teagan knew exactly what he meant. Her body clenched at his words. At the touch of his hands on her back. The cloth of whatever gown he’d provided for her was extremely thin.

  His touch burned her right through it.

  The god shifted her until her chest was pressed to his. She tried to grab on to something to hold onto. The only option she had was his shoulders. His broad, perfect shoulders.

  She really was in trouble, wasn’t she?

  Teagan recognized the suite the instant they entered it, though he had taken down a different hall than the one that afternoon. “What are you doing?”

  “My mate. My suite. My bed.”

  “Maybe I’m not your mate, have you considered that?” He put her down gently. The exact opposite of how he’d treated her earlier when he’d dropped her. “Maybe you’re wrong.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. When he looked at her, his eyes glowed. He stepped forward.

  Teagan stepped back. Not because of fear—she would not allow herself to be afraid of him, any longer—but out of self-preservation. He looked like he was ready to devour her.

  And Teagan wanted to let him.

  He was right there in front of her. Hot, intense, and probably the sexiest creature she had ever seen. Her body burned even more.

  There was nothing demonic about this guy, even though he was as different from anything she had ever seen before.