Chapter 10

After spending the day with her family, Winterlyn and Declan drove her car toward Howling Creek. They left that night, stopping at a hotel at the halfway point before picking up the drive in the morning on the day after Christmas.

“Traveling by portal is so much easier,” Winterlyn said as they finally reached Howling Creek around dinnertime.

“Absolutely. But I enjoyed the drive. It gave us a chance to talk.”

She smiled at him before getting out of her car. “I liked that too.”

She stretched the kink out of her back with a squeak. Declan’s parents’ home was in a development that was near the alpha’s home, the street lined with quaint homes and pine trees. The front door opened as they approached, and a male who looked just like Declan grinned at them.

“Welcome, welcome! I’m Declan’s dad, Barron. You must be Winterlyn.”

He gave her a quick hug and smiled down at her. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Come in, it’s cold out! Well, not as cold as up north, I’m sure.”

“It feels so much nicer here, for sure,” Declan said.

They set their boots on the rug at the door. Barron hung up their coats and ushered them into the kitchen, where a female with shoulder-length gray-blonde hair was stirring something on the stove. She turned with a smile.

“Oh! You’re here, I’m so happy! I’m Denise.” She gave Winterlyn a warm hug. “Welcome to the family, Winterlyn.”

“Thank you so much.”

“I made chicken and dumplings again,” Denise said. “This time I’m not trying to bribe you with anything.”

“Bribe?” Winterlyn asked.

They sat at the table while his mom brought over the pot of stew. “She wanted me to take a mate from the pack and settle down.”

Winterlyn’s brows went high. “Really?”

“Don’t mind me,” Denise said. “I just wanted some grandbabies to love on. But I’m really glad he didn’t take my advice.”

“I’m glad too,” Winterlyn said.

“Trust me, I wasn’t going to be swayed with chicken and dumplings. I was determined to wait for my mate, no matter how long it took.”

“I bet the chicken and dumplings was good luck!” Denise said.

“How on earth is that even a thing?” Barron asked.

Denise paused in ladling stew into his bowl. “You don’t know. Maybe my chicken and dumplings is magical, like the Well up at the North Pole. Maybe something amazing will happen to Declan and Winterlyn tonight because of it. Magic dumplings. Could you imagine?”

Winterlyn smiled broadly. His parents were so sweet.

“After what I’ve seen this week, I believe anything is possible when it comes to fate and magic,” Winterlyn said.

“The alpha would like to see you two after dinner,” Barron said.

“Oh? Did he say why?” Declan asked.

“No, but he told us to come along as well,” Denise said. “I’m sure it’s related to your mating. Alpha Phoenix is a great male.”

“Is he mated?” Winterlyn asked.

“He was, but she was from an arranged mating and ended up breaking the mating and running off with a male from her former pack. The alpha never re-mated. They had two kids together before she took off, and their oldest, Maxwell, will take over the pack when Phoenix steps down in the future.”

“That’s sad,” Winterlyn said.

“And a good example of why sometimes it’s better to wait for your truemate than be in an arranged mating that’s not right,” Declan said.

“Ours worked out wonderfully,” Barron said. “But it’s good to follow your heart.”

While they ate the most amazing dinner Winterlyn had ever had, his parents asked her questions about her family and her people, the witch who’d brought her and Declan together, and their plans for the future.

“We’ll live up in Northernmost until we have kids and want to bring them around their wolfy peers, as my sweetheart likes to call them,” Declan said. “Plus the family of course.”

“That sounds lovely,” Denise said. “There’s some land available in the development to build a home whenever you’re ready. The construction company that the pack owns is always looking for local work.”

“Perfect,” Winterlyn said. She already couldn’t wait to start a family with her mate. Knowing there was a place for them to build a home was icing on the cake.

After the meal was over, she helped Denise clean up while Declan grabbed their things from the car and put them away in the spare bedroom.

“Thanks for letting us stay here for a few days,” Winterlyn said.

“Of course, that’s what we do for family.”

She’d been feeling like an outsider in her own family, wondering if her future mate would be disappointed she couldn’t shift. But Declan’s love had shown her that the right male didn’t care about her deficiencies and would see her for who she was, not what she could or couldn’t shift into.

“I’m so glad I made the mistake of going to Northernmost with that crazy witch,” she said.

Denise gave her a hug. “Honey, I’m so glad you did too.”

Jack Frost had lost a lot on Christmas Day—the pyrite blade, the magical cloak, and his right-hand male. He cared less about Valeth than he did the damn cloak or blade, but still, it was a hassle to lose him.

Azure had stepped right into the number-two role as soon as he’d learned that Valeth was dead, and Thale took over Azure’s place in the hierarchy. It had seemed like a perfect plan—to throw the magical pyrite blade at his brother while he’d been coming into Northernmost. Because his magic would be waning after the long night of delivering toys to all the snot-nosed children of the world, he couldn’t enter the perimeter quickly and had to use most of the remainder of his magic to slow the sleigh down.

Valeth had been under the cloak and entirely invisible, but he must have inadvertently signaled one of the Guardians because now he was dead, the cloak was shredded, and the knife destroyed.

He’d lost a dozen followers, too, and he’d have to replenish those numbers at some point.

Azure appeared in Frost’s office, looking like the cat with the cream.

“Is there anything we can do now, boss?” Azure asked.

Jack took one last drag on his cigarette and stubbed it out in the crystal dish. “Not anything you can do,” he answered. Flicking his wrist toward the door, he sent the male away, waiting until the door was closed before he picked up his phone.

He’d had high hopes for Valeth and the blade.

Those hopes were dead now, and the Well was effectively closed to him until next year. Which was a shit bit of bad luck, when all he wanted to do was rule the magic of the world and turn it dark.

Darkness was more fun, the good magic followers just didn’t know it.

So while he was pissed that his brother was still breathing, it wasn’t the end of the world. That would come later when he had control of the Well and had taken his rightful place as Santa.

In the meantime, he’d reach out to an old friend who owed him a favor.

“Hello?” the gruff answer brought Frost back to the present and out of his lofty ideals of reigning with an iron fist and driving out every ounce of good magic in the world.

“Grim, it’s Frost.”

The most powerful reaper, Grim, was a towering male with hair as black as coal and eyes as dark as a moonless night. Like most reapers, he was neutral in his magic, replenishing through the harvesting of souls. But unlike most neutral reapers, Grim liked darkness just as much as Frost.

Who had saved his ass more than once.

“What the ever-loving hell do you want?”

“I’m calling in one of the favors you owe me.”

Grim sighed. “Fine. I’m in the middle of harvesting a soul.” There was a swishing sound followed by a thud. “I’ll meet you at the ancient church, I’ve got a wayward reaper who has to be assigned there, and I want to scout it first to make sure it’s miserable enough that she’ll want to do her damn job.”

Interesting. But irrelevant to what Frost needed. All he needed was his good friend—okay, decent acquaintance—on his side. With the power between the two of them, they could easily take out Frost’s brother. “See you soon.”

As the call ended, Frost smiled.

Enjoy the year, brother. It will be your last.