1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Seb

“ H ow many kids are left on our list?” Ailin asked me as we walked out of a shoe store—one of our kids, Clover, had been talking about these specific boots she wanted for weeks. We figured that’d been a hint and added it to our Winter Solstice gift list.

I counted the names that weren’t crossed off yet and sighed. “Ten.”

Ailin, my partner and viramore —soulmate—groaned. “That many? Really? We’ve been here for hours already.”

I shook my head. “We’ve been here for exactly seventy-three minutes, Mr. Dramatic.”

“Yeah, but this is the fifth time we’ve been shopping for gifts.”

“That’s what happens when you have a billion kids, and those kids have kids.”

He huffed. “A billion is pushing it, just a bit.”

“Not by much.”

He snorted and elbowed me.

Ailin didn’t look a day older than his twenty-six years when we’d first met, thanks to those witch genes. And I didn’t look a day older than my thirty-five—thank god. I had my enchanter genes to thank for that.

We might’ve looked fairly young, but the truth was that we had eighteen kids. When Ailin was sixteen, there’d been a horrible attack on his coven and all the adults were killed, leaving Ailin and fifteen younger kids the only ones alive.

Ailin had protected them from the enemy, and instead of sending his younger siblings and cousins into foster care, he’d stepped up as the head of the coven and taken care of them all. Aspen, Ailin’s sister, was only a year younger than him, so she’d helped for a few years, but she’d already moved out of the house by the time I’d come into the picture. Ailin was the one who’d stuck around and raised them all as if they were his own children.

Because of that, we didn’t count Aspen as one of our kids—but we did count Ailin’s two younger siblings because they absolutely were our kids in every way that mattered.

When I’d come along and somehow slotted into place beside Ailin, the kids had accepted me as not only Ailin’s partner but their other father as well. Ailin and I had eventually adopted three more kids because, apparently, fourteen hadn’t been enough for our crazy family.

And then we brought our youngest son’s best friend, Tan, into the mix. We never officially adopted him—not for a lack of trying—but he was still ours.

And now here we were with eighteen adult children who almost all had their own families, which meant we had grandchildren of all ages running around.

Being a witch had some amazing benefits, and not aging—or aging so slowly we’d hardly notice it for centuries—was definitely one of them.

Thank god being an enchanter came with the same ones, or I would’ve been a severely wrinkly old man standing beside my Ailin. And I had no doubt I would be beside him no matter what either of us looked like. We were soulmates, and even after decades together, I loved him more and more each day.

“Who’s next on our list?” Ailin asked me.

I checked it. “Niya.”

He groaned. “What crazy thing does she want this year?”

“She hasn’t told us what she wants for years, A.” I rolled my eyes. Most of our kids told us we didn’t need to buy them anything, but we enjoyed giving them gifts, so we ignored them and did it anyway. “But I have rock climbing gear written down.”

He rubbed his forehead and grunted. “That’s right. I forgot that’s what we’d settled on.” We almost always got her some kind of gear for some adventure or another. Out of all of our kids, Niya was the most energetic and always needed to be doing something outlandish. “That girl is going to be the death of me one of these days.”

“Same. But I think the sporting goods store is at the end of the mall, that way.” I pointed to the right.

“Lead the way, baby.”

We walked in that direction, side by side, both of us weighed down with several bags already. I heard a lot of commotion coming from the lower level of the mall, so I headed to the rail that overlooked it, just to take a peek. It didn’t sound like anything was wrong, but if there was about to be some kind of supernatural attack, I wanted to be prepared.

A sigh of relief left me in a rush when my eyes landed on a big red chair with a man in a red suit sitting on top of it and a giant decorated Christmas tree behind it.

“What’s going on down there?” Ailin asked me as he took a look as well.

I glanced around at the rest of the scene, taking in the hundreds of people—most of them were kids—and all the gifts sitting in a giant pile near Santa Claus. The kids were waiting in line for a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and receive a gift while the parents took pictures and made their way over to the tables set up on the side.

The tables had a ton of Christmas decorations on them, and it looked like the parents were shopping for things. On the other side of the Christmas tree, there was a huge red carpet where kids were sitting and opening their gifts from Santa.

“This must be the mall’s annual Christmas Gift Party Event. It’s for low-income families. Not sure how they handle all that, but I do know that every family that shows up gets one gift per kid from Santa, a chance to shop at the decoration tables—but things are free or something; I think they get tickets—and they’re allowed to take pictures with Santa. I didn’t realize it was this weekend, but I guess that makes sense since Christmas is less than two weeks away.”

Ailin eyed me. “How do you know about this?”

I sent him a grin. “People were talking about it the last time we stopped by Eastbrook.” Eastbrook Youth Academy was the orphanage we adopted our three youngest children from. It also happened to be where I grew up, though it was about a million times better and a much happier place now, thank god.

“Huh.” Ailin stared at the people below for a long moment before facing me. “That’s a really nice program.”

I sent him a soft smile. “Agreed.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Come on. We need to keep going or we’ll never get done, and I don’t want to have to spend another day shopping. We have way too many presents to wrap.” We seriously needed all the time in the world to prepare for Winter Solstice, and we only had one week left to do it.

My phone rang right before we headed into the sporting goods store, so I grabbed it out of my pocket and smiled when I saw Tan’s name on the screen. To Ailin, I said, “It’s Tan.” Then I answered with a, “Hey, bud.”

“Hey, Seb,” he said, and I could tell he was smiling. For once, someone wasn’t calling us because something was wrong. I should mark the date on the calendar.

“How are you?”

Tan was our son, Remi’s, best friend and didn’t grow up in the best home, so he’d spent most of his teenage years in ours. Ailin and I had wanted to adopt him—not that he knew that—but his parents wouldn’t agree to it, so we’d done everything we could to keep him at our house as much as possible. And when he grew up, we made sure to include him in everything we did as a family to ensure he knew he was one of our kiddos and very much a part of the Ellwood family.

“I forgot to write down the time for Winter Solstice, and I tried scrolling through the group chat to find it, but it’s impossible. There’s like five million messages since you sent the info out.”

I snorted. Wasn’t that the truth. The kids loved to text in the group chat, that was for sure. “We’ll be there all day, obviously, so you’re welcome anytime. But I think most people are coming between ten and eleven so we can do brunch.” I followed Ailin into the store.

“Okay, got it. Thank you. I asked Remi, and he was no help whatsoever.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

He chuckled, then paused for a beat. “I’m… looking forward to having Garrick and Oakley come with me this year. I’ve never brought anyone before.”

My chest warmed. Tan had recently found his viramore, a dragon shifter named Garrick, who was at least fifteen hundred years old. And with Garrick came his twenty-something kid, Oakley.

It was unfortunate that Garrick lived on the other side of the world in Gauhala, but we were lucky that we had magical means of travel, so it wasn’t difficult to get there. Ailin and I didn’t know the dragon well yet, but he made Tan happy, so we were both happy.

If he ever did anything to hurt our kid, well, he would pay immensely for it.

“It’ll be great. He came to a movie night last month, and it went well,” I said as I continued to follow after A.

“True. But this feels different… I guess because it’s a holiday.”

I could understand that. “It means they’re both a real part of the family.”

He seemed to think about that for a few seconds. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. We’ve made our own little family here, but including them with my family feels… important.”

“It is. And you know we love having them.”

“I know.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and ask about the time. Oakley’s apparently dragging me to the store with them, so I should probably get myself ready.”

“Okay, bud. We’ll see you next weekend, but don’t hesitate to call if you want.”

He let out a small laugh. “I won’t. Thanks, Seb. Talk soon.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

We hung up, and I looked at Ailin, saying, “He’s fine. Just checking in and asking about next weekend.”

Ailin nodded. “I figured. You didn’t feel upset, so I wasn’t worried.” Being viramores meant we were connected through our hearts, souls, magic, and minds. We could feel each other’s emotions and even speak telepathically—sometimes that even happened accidentally.

I shot him a grin and gave him a shoulder-bump.

He waved at the display. “I have no fucking clue which one to get.”

I stared at the gear with a frown. “Me either. Let’s ask someone.”

My viramore groaned but didn’t hesitate to follow me through the store.

“ P lease tell me we got everything,” Ailin said as he set the last batch of bags on the living room floor. I’d asked him to grab all the gifts—not just the ones we bought today—so I could make sure we had everything.

“I think we did. I’m going to go through and double-check, just in case.”

“Thank the Mother of All.”

Snorting, I grabbed my checklist and a pen and started organizing all the gifts.

Three minutes in, my viramore plucked the notebook and pen out of my hands, ignoring my protests, and grabbed hold of my hips, tugging me close. His nose nudged mine before he rested our foreheads together and whispered, “Hi, baby.”

“Hi.” I closed my eyes and gave myself a moment to soak him in as I draped my arms over his shoulders. Maybe we had a lot to do, but he seemed like he needed the closeness, and honestly, I could use it too.

“We can finish this later, yeah?”

I grunted and gave him a small squeeze. “Yeah.”

Ailin’s lips brushed across mine, and I didn’t hesitate to lean into the kiss and swipe his mouth with my tongue. He opened up, and our tongues brushed, making him moan into our kiss.

God, he tasted so damn good, felt so fucking good.

He gently pushed me back until my ass hit the couch’s armrest. I spread my legs open, and Ailin stepped between them, pressing our bodies together. I ran my hands down his back and pulled him even closer, groaning when I felt his bulge rub against my half-hard cock.

A’s fingers slipped under my shirt, and I shivered from the touch. Damn, I loved having his hands on me.

“I need you naked. Right now,” he murmured into my mouth.

Just as he grabbed the hem of my shirt, his phone rang.

I whined, and Ailin said, “Ignore it.”

We kissed, long, hot, and heavy, and my need for him grew. He said he needed me naked, but right now, I was the one who needed him naked and pressed against me.

Ailin lifted my shirt over my head, dropping it on the couch, and I went for his, but his phone rang again. Dammit!

Both of us sighed in defeat. If someone was calling twice in a row, there was usually a good reason for it. Son of a bitch!

Ailin pressed a chaste kiss to my lips, stepped away, took a long inhale, and pulled out his phone. “It’s Alec.”

“Fuck,” I said under my breath as I grabbed my shirt, slipping it back on since I knew what was coming.

Alec was Ailin’s brother-in-law and the head of the Brinnswick Central Agency. The BCA handled all supernatural criminal cases, and even though Ailin and I didn’t work there full-time, we were called in as consultants pretty damn often.

Honestly, we should’ve just accepted the full-time positions they’d offered us years ago at this rate, but we’d wanted control over our work hours and over what cases we took—not that we ever said no to them. If they called us, they needed help, and as much as we complained about it, we also wanted to help keep people safe.

“What?” My viramore was so lovely when he answered phone calls—eye roll.

Since Ailin had the phone on speaker, I heard Alec say, “I need your help.”

Of fucking course he did.

Sigh .