Chapter 8
Merri sat down in front of the laptop that Rhys had set up for her to video call her parents. She’d gotten used to the weekly calls with her parents after being in NPC for six months. She wished she could see her parents more often than once a year, but she was thankful that NPC had up-to-date technology so she could stay in close contact with them. After initiating the video call, she waited for her parents to answer and then greeted them.
“I wish you could come sooner than Christmas Eve morning,” Merri’s mom said, her voice slightly scratchy over the Internet connection.
Merri smiled at her parents. “I know, but work is keeping me busy, and it’s expensive to fly.” Which was partially true. She was learning how to make teddy bears in the toy factory. She wanted to make a special bear, and Rhys’s mom had been happy to teach her.
“So what is this wonderful news you have?” her dad asked.
“We found out we’re having a boy!”
Her mom clapped and squealed in glee, and her dad grinned broadly. “Really honey? That’s wonderful!” her mom said, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“I just had the ultrasound, and everything is looking good.”
Rhys stepped behind her and leaned down so he could be seen in the monitor.
“Congratulations,” her dad said.
“Thank you. We can’t wait to meet little Rhys.”
“Stop saying his name is Rhys. I haven’t agreed to anything!”
“It’s a great idea. You can call him RJ,” her dad suggested.
“Don’t you start!”
While Rhys and her dad laughed, Merri shook her head.
Her parents had met Rhys over Skype a month after she’d moved to NPC. Before that, she’d kept up with her weekly calls to her parents and had casually mentioned meeting a guy named Rhys. Once they’d met him over Skype, she’d told them they were getting serious, and then a month later, she explained they were living together and that Rhys had asked her to marry him. The timing had coincided with her finding out she was three months’ pregnant, and the joyous news was celebrated in NPC with a huge party.
Fated mates, according to Rhys, carried a stronger bond than a human marriage, because marriage could end in divorce, but fated mates were forever. In NPC, when Mrs. C mate-matched, the couple had a joining ceremony, which according to Rhys was a lot like a wedding. But she couldn’t have a joining ceremony in NPC and invite her parents, so they’d agreed to have a wedding in the human world so her family could join in. They were planning a Christmas Eve morning wedding at Charli’s cabin. The small gathering was being handled by Merri’s mom and Charli’s sister, Kerri. All Merri and Rhys had to do was show up and tie the knot.
“Are you sure we can’t take your baby for you so you can enjoy your honeymoon?”
“That’s sweet of you to offer again, Mom, but we have to head back that same night because Rhys has a work thing.”
“On Christmas? You must have some kind of taskmaster for a boss!”
Merri stifled a chuckle, and Rhys pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.
“He’s great, really. My folks will be watching RJ for us,” Rhys said.
“I like the name already,” her dad said.
“Oh my gosh! Stop naming my baby.”
“Our baby,” Rhys corrected, bending to kiss her cheek. He waved at her parents and stepped away.
“He’s so sweet with you,” her mom said.
“I know. I’m really lucky to have him in my life.”
Rhys cleared his throat, and she glanced at him. He pointed to himself, and she knew he was telling her that he was the lucky one. They would just have to agree to disagree on that point. She was certain no other woman in the world was as loved and cherished as she was.
After chatting with her parents for a little while longer, she ended the video call and leaned back in the chair with a sigh. She stared at the blank screen for a moment and then said, “In three months, we’re going to have a baby.”
Rhys joined her again, and she stood, slipping into his embrace and resting her cheek over his heart. “Are you nervous?”
“About being a mom? Kind of, but also not really. I’ll miss not being able to be around my mom, but your mom is great.”
“It’s not the same, though.”
“No. But you know what I want the most? To be where our baby and any other kids we have can be with their own kind. I’d be terrified for them to be in the human world if they have the ability to shift.”
He kissed the top of her head. “You gave up so much for me. Don’t think I’m not humbled every day to know that you love me that much.”
She tipped her head back to look at her sexy mate. “I knew you were worth anything that I needed to do.”
“No regrets?”
“Aside from you occasionally leaving beard trimmings in the sink, no.”
“I’ll work on that.”
She snorted. “Do you have any regrets?”
“Only that I didn’t meet you years ago.”
Rising onto her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. What started out as a sweet kiss slipped quickly to passionate, as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
* * *
“Did you want to use a blue ribbon for the bow?” Flora asked as she sat next to Merri and watched her finish sewing the teddy bear closed.
“Yes,” she said, glancing up at nearby shelves in the toy factory with hundreds of rolls of ribbon, organized by color and pattern.
Flora pushed back her chair and stood, moving to the shelf that held blue ribbons. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, which exposed the pointed tip. All the females in NPC were elves, but aside from the ears, they looked human. There were male elves as well. The only males in NPC who didn’t have pointed ears were the shifters.
“How about this one?” Flora asked, pulling a length of powder blue ribbon from a spool.
“That’s perfect.”
Cutting the right length, Flora returned to the station and sat down. The toy factory was full of busy workers, making different toys for the children of the world. Merri had been entranced with the toy factory from the beginning, happy to sit and watch the workers make everything from stuffed animals to dolls to train sets.
“Have you decided on a name yet?”
Merri smiled. It was a great source of amusement for her that Rhys, and all the quads, liked to argue about names for their baby.
“Not officially. Rhys keeps mentioning how much he likes his name. How did you choose it?”
“It was my grandfather’s name. He was a quad, and the Cupid position on the team. He and my grandmother were not fated mates but were joined by Mrs. C.”
Only Mrs. C and SC were immortal. Everyone else in NPC was mortal. Merri thought it must be difficult for the couple to be immortal and watch their friends grow old and die. They never had children of their own, part of what Mrs. C called the “curse” of being immortal – the inability to have young.
“Rhys said that Arian was the first one to find a fated mate in years.”
“I think there were only one or two fated mates in my generation, and before that, there were more but not a lot. You have to remember, also, that our people hardly leave NPC. There are teams of elves and shifters who will head to the human world for supplies on Christmas Eve morning, but they never stay in any one place long.”
“Mrs. C’s brand of magic makes perfect matches, but not fated mate matches.”
Flora hummed in agreement. “If a couple were fated mates, they would know and wouldn’t need help being matched.”
“What was it like when Mrs. C matched you and Dare?”
Flora leaned back with a smile, fiddling with a leftover piece of fluffy fabric. “I wasn’t really looking for a mate at the time. I was enjoying myself, working at the toy factory, and hanging out at the tavern with my friends. Then Mrs. C came into the factory one day and told me that she thought it was time for me to be mated. I looked up at her, and it was like suddenly finding my mate was the most important thing in the world.”
“Is that part of Mrs. C’s magic?”
“No, it was just the right timing. I hadn’t thought about it much, but when she said she thought it was time, it just clicked with me. I met with her that night at their home, and that’s when I met Dare. I knew him by name, but I hadn’t ever really talked to him. Mrs. C said we were a perfect match for each other, and he took me to the commissary for our first date. I thought it was pretty lame to go to the place where everyone else goes, but then he surprised me by having our meal packed up in a picnic basket. He had already planned to treat his mate right from the first moment, so he’d set up a tent with a heater up by the lake, and we took our picnic dinner there and spent the whole night getting to know each other.”
“How long before you had your joining ceremony?”
“About a month. We moved into one of the cabins after the ceremony, and Rhys was born nine months later. We were never blessed with any more children, but he was a handful, so all I have to say about the bun in your oven is, honey, watch out.”
Merri joined in with her mother-in-law’s laughter. Rhys had already told her some of the trouble he got into when he was a boy, everything from sneaking out when he was a teenager with his friends, to hiding food he didn’t like in a houseplant.
“Maybe he’ll take more after me,” she said.
“Either way, he’ll be well loved.”
After trying three times to tie a perfect bow on the teddy bear, she finally got it right. The cream-colored bear, similar to the one she’d been given as a child by Santa, was soft and huggable, and a perfect first gift for her son.
“I think I’ll let him be named Rhys, but we’ll call him RJ like my dad suggested.”
“It’s a sweet name.” Giving the teddy bear’s ear a gentle tug, Flora said, “The bear is perfect. If you’d ever like to start working in the toy factory, I know they’d happily let you join in.”
“Seriously? It took me three weeks to make this one perfect. Everyone in here is so fast.”
The toy factory workers had a high output of toys, some of them making upwards of two or three dozen toys a day.
Flora smiled gently. “It’s because you wanted to have something special for your son that you took so long. There’s love in every stitch.”
Merri hugged Flora. “Thank you for being patient and sharing this time with me. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too, sweet girl. Your son is one lucky boy to have such a caring mom, and my son is truly the luckiest male to have you as a fated mate.”