13. Wink

13

Wink

W e stayed to visit with Fannie Mae until well after dark and Derek’s eyes had begun to droop. I could tell he didn’t want to leave, but we couldn’t stay either. She apologized that she couldn’t offer us a room, but the roof had sprung a leak some years back, and after the wood had rotted and caved in, there was now a snowdrift in the back bedroom.

I practically carried Derek to the car as he dragged his feet, leaning heavily into me, his head lolling. “We have to fix it,” he murmured.

“Fix what?” I asked.

He huffed, eyes drifting shut. “Everything.” He didn’t seem capable of further conversation, so I decided we would have to revisit the topic tomorrow.

Derek was up bright and early, baking up a storm. I insisted he put me to work, so he had me rolling out dough to put into tart pans, which he then filled with butter, raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar. By lunch, we were on our way back to Fannie’s, the picnic basket in the back seat filled with all kinds of fresh-baked goodies. Sandwiches and cut fruit rounded out our lunch, which promised to be delicious. And if Fannie Mae’s raccoon was as food-motivated as Derek’s was, I had a suspicion that she would be extra glad to see us.

Especially since food wasn’t the only thing we’d brought.

There was a beautiful gleam to Derek’s eyes as we parked in front of the cabin, not to mention a stubborn set to his shoulders as he clenched his jaw and drew in a deep breath. I loved this fierce side of him.

“Are you ready to get to work?” he asked me, even though he already knew the answer. I might not have been as festive as some other elves I knew, but I was certainly no slacker. I was always ready for work, and if it helped my mate and his family? There was nowhere else I would rather be.

Fannie Mae met us outside with a huge grin, which morphed into confusion while she watched her grandson unload his car. “What’s all this?” she asked, tromping through the snow in an old pair of rubber boots to help carry something. I passed her the lightest thing I could find, a plastic mop bucket.

“Well, we’re not exactly handymen, but I figured we could help clean up some of the rotten wood and maybe relocate the squirrels living in the back bedroom, and then we’ll have someone from town come out and fix that roof for you.”

“Oh, no, I can’t ask you to do that,” she tutted, trying to put the bucket back in the trunk.

“You didn’t ask, but we’re gonna do it anyway,” he said with a wide grin, giving her a bump with his hip on the way by, snagging the mop bucket out of her hands and practically skipping into the house, loaded up with cleaning supplies .

I laughed and closed the trunk before she tried to put anything else back. “There’s no point in arguing with him. He’s very stubborn once he sets his mind to something.”

“I can see that,” she said, but she was smiling. It was clear she was enjoying getting to know everything about him.

I hadn’t known Derek all that long in the grand scheme of things, but this was the happiest I’d seen him, the most full of life. He had so much energy!

We sat around the small, scuffed wood table and ate our sandwiches together, the stone fireplace keeping the cabin toasty warm. His granny brought out a jar of pickled red peppers and apologized for not having more food. She grew her own vegetables in the summer in the field behind her cabin and preserved what she could to last through the winter. This late in the season, she was running low.

Saving our dessert as a treat for when we were done, we got to cleaning. I left Derek and Fannie to get started inside, while I grabbed the shears we’d brought and set to cutting back the overgrown briars out front.

I soon lost track of time. This wasn’t quite as artistic as a lot of my previous jobs, and in fact was quite a bit more tiring. I could’ve used magic to make it all go faster or easier, but there was something satisfying about using my muscles like this, the bunch and flex, and I liked the idea that they might even ache tomorrow.

Even doing it the boring way, when Derek came out looking for me, he was blown away by how much I had achieved. “This looks like a whole new house!” he gushed, and I basked in the praise.

“Or maybe like the house used to be,” I corrected, giving him a kiss.

We stood side by side, dreaming of what it had once been—maybe what it could be again .

After a minute, he sighed, half wistful, half weary. “There is one last thing I need to do before we can have our dessert.”

“What’s that?” I asked, trying to decide if it was good or bad. His expression gave me zero clue about what was going on inside his head.

His smile was tight. “I can feel him, you know. In here, and in here.” He tapped his head, then his chest. “Being here, leaning about where I came from and meeting Fannie Mae, it’s unlocked a part of me I’d never known existed until you came along. All day, he’s been pushing at me. He wants to come out, so… I’m going to try and shift.”

“Okay,” I said without hesitation. It might not happen the first time he tried, but I knew he could do it. He was the most determined man I knew.

We headed around to the back of the house which was more sheltered from the wind, since he had to take off his clothes, and it wasn’t exactly balmy weather we were having. He passed me his jacket, then peeled off his shirt and handed that over too. He was already shivering.

“Don’t worry, your beast has fur to keep you warm,” I told him, hoping that might work as incentive.

We both turned to look as Fannie Mae dragged one of her kitchen chairs into the backyard so she could watch, butter tart in hand, and Derek paused, hands on the waistband of his pants. “Um, this is awkward.”

“To be fair, shifters are pretty used to nudity by necessity, but for now, how about I do this…” I held his coat up, flaps open to block her view of his privates. For all intents and purposes, he had been raised human.

He gave me a grateful smile, then shoved his pants and underwear down to his ankles. Goosebumps erupted down my body, but it had nothing to do with the cold, which as an elf I hardly felt, and everything to do with my beautiful mate. I may have snuck my own peek at his cute ass when he bent over, but then again, I was pretty sure he was angling it my way on purpose. He left his boots on as long as he could so he didn’t have to stand barefoot in the snow, but eventually, there was nothing left to do but shift.

The lighthearted mood from the day seemed to take a dive as the sky’s color began to deepen to rose-gold. Derek’s gaze went unfocused as he scanned the trees, and I suspected he was seeing a whole other life he might’ve had under different circumstances.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I asked. “There’s no pressure from me either way.”

“I want to try,” he whispered. His throat bobbed with a swallow as he stared down at his hands. “My name was Jacob…” he said, voice ragged. “My parents, Daniel and Beth, loved me.” He tipped his chin up to look at me, his eyes filled with tears. “I want them to be proud.”

“They are,” I assured him, and he smiled.

And just like that, my beautiful mate shifted. Fur sprouted, his shape and size contorting, until his beast stood in his place.

“I’m proud of you too,” I said, crouching down and opening my arms. His raccoon climbed straight into my arms, but when I went to carry him back to Fannie to introduce them, I found that she’d shifted too.

I set him down and watched as they approached each other cautiously, sniffing a few times, whiskers bristling. Derek’s raccoon was larger, but he quickly rolled onto his back in a show of respect, chattering. The two of them rolled and frolicked through the snow and bounded into the tree line to climb and scavenge. Certainly a different range of food than what he would find on his midnight raids to the fridge.

This was where he belonged, where he was always meant to be, and my heart felt so full.

I sat down in Fannie Mae’s chair and let them get out all that energy. It was fully dark by the time Derek scampered back and shifted, his eyes shining with excitement. His granny had already come back and gone to bed. “That was amazing!” he said, taking the clothes I passed him. He hopped around on one foot while trying to get his pants on. “When can I do it again?”

“Whenever you want. That’s for you and your beast to figure out.”

He stopped, half dressed, to drag me in for a deep, heated kiss. His skin was warmer than it was before, now that his two halves had been reunited. “Thank you. If not for you, who knows how long I might’ve gone on like that,” he said, his voice husky in a way that made me want to get him home as quickly as possible. “How can I possibly thank you?”

A smirk tugged at my lips. “Oh, I’m sure we can come up with something…”

We raced each other to the car, and Derek taught me how to speed. We got home in record time.