Jonathan had been worried that Reed would try to put up a fight, but once Henrik arrived with a friend of his, another dragon shifter whom he introduced as Raul, Reed was quickly dealt with.

“Where is he taking him?” Angel asked when Raul flew away, Reed securely held in his claws. “Is there a shifter police force?”

Jonathan nodded. “Something much like it. Don’t worry, we know that human prisons wouldn’t hold a shifter like him. We have our own prisons, and strong shifters that can deal even with a dire wolf.”

“The dire wolves won’t like that,” Clara said and laughed. “They pride themselves on the fact that none of our own ever had to pay for a crime they had committed.”

“It’s about time that changes.” Mona smiled as she looked at her mate, and a moment later, both of them started laughing softly.

“I think we just found our plot for Millennium Woman Six,” Clara announced, eyes gleaming as she turned towards them. “Maybe there’ll even be a cameo for a thief who hides in plain sight as a dog.”

“And if that gets you the attention you’ve been trying to hide from?” Jonathan looked at the iron crown resting next to Clara. “You got rid of one of them—but there’ll be more. And with another king to rule them, the dire wolves could become a real problem if they decide that they’ve had enough of hiding in the shadows.”

Clara’s smile widened. “Only one way to deal with that,” she said. “It’s time to let go of the past.”

She took hold of the crown and held it out. “Would you do us the honors?”

Despite the warm smile, there was a core of steely determination in her eyes. She had the heart of a wolf. A queen of the dire wolves.

Someone strong enough to resist the lure of easy power. Someone who’d taken her life into her own hands, fighting impossible obstacles to be with the one she loved.

Jonathan felt a deep respect rise up in him as he contemplated her. And a sudden distaste at his actions ten years ago.

It had seemed like the only possible solution back then—but he knew that he’d never again listen to the seductive song of the ice.

Some things are worth fighting for. Some things are so precious that it doesn’t matter at what cost they come.

To be with Angel, wouldn’t he have done the same? And wouldn’t, perhaps, his sister and Vincent have done the same...?

He shook off the thought, focusing on the task at hand.

“Thank you,” he said simply. It was a sign of tremendous respect to be trusted with this.

Then he reached inside himself, to the core of pristine white at the heart of him, where his dragon’s power resided.

He breathed in and held out his hand, not quite touching the crown.

And when he exhaled, coldness flowed from his fingertips. It enveloped the crown, freezing it so rapidly that white steam rose from it.

He cooled it down to such an extent that he could feel the strong iron turn brittle, the flawed rubies close to cracking along the imperfections hidden within the red jewels.

“Thank you,” Clara said calmly. Then she turned, still holding the crown—only to hurl it with all her might against a rock that jutted out from the cover of snow.

The second the brittle, frozen iron hit the hard rock, it burst into a thousand tiny pieces. They scattered all over the pristine white that surrounded them here.

Clara was breathing heavily, staring at her empty hand with an expression of shock.

And then, very slowly, the corners of her mouth turned up.

A moment later, she began to laugh.

“It’s done!” She turned around to Mona, who hugged her tightly.

“You really did it!”

“Now we’re free. Really free,” Clara said. She looked relieved, as if she’d just gotten rid of a burden she hadn’t even known she’d carried. “Damn, this feels great. We should have done it years ago! Now let them squabble for leadership for decades to come. This’ll weaken them considerably. And we can just go on and live our lives.”

Next to Jonathan, Henrik prodded one of the tiny bits of iron with his foot. “All of this for a crown that wasn’t even worth that much.”

Clara smirked. “You dragons don’t know everything. It isn’t always just gold. That crown was worth a lot more than its weight in diamonds. It wasn’t money—it was power.”

“Power that’s gone now.” Mona gave a deep sigh of relief.

“And you two? What’ll happen to you now?” Angel asked.

“With Sean and Reed in prison and the crown destroyed, I think we’ll just go on living our lives.” Clara wrapped her arm around Mona. “And we’ll make sure that the rumor gets out that the crown is gone. That’s probably the best way to handle it.”

“You should tell Sean,” Angel suggested. “He seems like the sort of person who can’t keep these things silent.”

“You’re right. He’ll try to sell the information—and then the wolves will go wild. They’ll be at each other’s throats, trying to fight for leadership the old-fashioned way. With teeth and claws.” Clara laughed. “Which is just what we want.”

“And meanwhile, the two of you can enjoy a peaceful Christmas,” Mona added. “With no dogs spying on you and no wolves attacking. Sorry again for that.”

“That’s all right,” Jonathan said, his voice rough when Angel leaned against him. “Without all of that, I’d still be asleep in the ice, without my mate. And I’d rather fight a hundred battles than lose her.”

With sudden sadness, he thought of the way his family had always gathered for the holidays.

He remembered waking up early on Christmas morning when he was ten and teasing his sister, telling Maya that he’d seen Santa and that she’d just missed him. He remembered building snowmen with her, having snowball fights, and using their dragon powers over snow and ice to cover the house with glittering icicles before their relatives arrived.

He remembered the simple comfort of sitting in the kitchen with Maya, the air heavy with the scent of cinnamon and sugar, listening to her tell him about the man she’d met. The shifter who was her mate.

Back then, he’d been jubilant for Maya. He’d imagined their life would continue the way it had been. That there’d be more Christmas mornings to come where they’d hang out in their pajamas in the kitchen, clutching a steaming cup of coffee as they caught each other up on their lives. That in a few years, he’d have little nieces and nephews to shower with presents.

Instead, he’d not only ruined his own life, but almost hers as well.

He missed her, he suddenly realized. He missed her and their parents with a sharp ache that took his breath away.

Having Angel was more than he’d ever thought he’d have—but he’d never stopped loving his family. The ice he’d hidden in had dulled the ache, but Angel hadn’t only thawed his body. She’d also thawed his heart.

And his heart still longed for the family he’d been forced to leave behind.

***

They convinced the Mitchells to return with them to Snow Castle for a day.

Once both Reed and Sean had been dealt with, they relaxed in Henrik and Dara’s private wing in the large mansion. From the windows, they had a perfect view of the frozen lake where people were still skating. Faintly, they could hear the sound of music and laughter.

Dara and Angel were bent over Dara’s laptop, giggling softly and trying very hard to be secretive.

But then, it was almost Christmas, and he hadn’t yet found a present of his own for Angel.

Jonathan had hoped he would, by now. Not just a present, but also a home. Of course, then Reed had interrupted his plan...

Angel looked incredibly pleased with herself when she shut the laptop at last.

“All done for today,” she announced. “What’s next?”

For a moment, Jonathan considered keeping it a secret after all. He could fly her over on Christmas Day. Make it a real, secret Christmas present.

But that seemed wrong. If this was going to work, it had to be something they both chose. Something they both wanted from the start.

“If you can excuse us for a while, there was something I wanted to show Angel before the dire wolf emergency interrupted us,” he announced.

“Oh,” Mona said, eyes gleaming. “Don’t let us keep you.”

“But make sure to tell us all about it when you get back,” Clara told Angel with a wink.

“You’re not going to turn this into a movie, are you?” Angel asked, looking startled.

The two women laughed without a hint of guilt. “We’ve been thinking about producing a Christmas movie together. We had someone offer us a script last month, actually.”

Clara wrinkled her nose. “But I didn’t like the hero.”

“And I hated the ending,” Mona said.

They looked at each other again, then grinned. “But with a different hero and a different heroine, and a different ending, and a different title...”

“Just a few small fixes,” Clara said brightly. “I can already see it so well.”

Jonathan laughed. “We’d better be careful about what we tell you from now on.”

Not that he cared if they wanted to add dire wolf or dragon shifters to their movies. Everyone would think it was just another fantasy movie. No one would realize it was all real.

Unless my sister sees it...

He’d deal with that if the movie really went ahead. He already had too many problems to worry about fictional ones.

And right now, there was something he wanted Angel to see.

***

This time, the flight was uneventful. By the time they reached the sprawling, empty mansion, the afternoon sun reflected off the plains of snow beneath them, so that it looked as if they were flying across an ocean of gold.

And when he landed in front of the building he’d last seen ten years ago, the sun made the windows gleam. The icicles hanging from the roof were shining as bright as diamonds.

To his relief, he saw that the building didn’t look as bad as he’d feared. They must have tried to keep it in shape, hoping that it would sell eventually.

The building was an architect’s nightmare—or secret dream. It was a mansion with playful towers and strangely shaped walls and roofs. Inside, Jonathan knew that it would look just as strange, with some rooms that were triangular, and others that were perfectly round.

“What is this place?” Angel said. To his great relief, she sounded amused instead of put-off.

“It looks like an architect got drunk and then went crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She giggled softly. “I love it.”

“I’m not sure if he got drunk—but the man who designed it definitely went crazy with his designs. He wasn’t family exactly, but everyone I knew just called him Uncle Jeremy,” Jonathan began to explain.

“He wasn’t a dragon shifter. He was the son of magpie shifter parents, but couldn’t shift himself. He made up for it by collecting pretty much anything he could get his hands on. Inside, it’s a museum—literally. He didn’t just collect paintings, or statues, like some people. He also collected weird inventions, and everyday objects from the days before modern technology. Like two hundred year-old doll houses, barrels for churning butter by hand, a handwritten book by his great-grandmother with her favorite recipes... It’s all there.”

As he looked at Angel, he saw her eyes widen. There was a sudden spark in them as she eyed the house thoughtfully.

“Has it all been cataloged, do you know? Do they maybe need an assistant to help with that? Someone to organize tours for school classes? Or maybe just someone to run a little gift shop?” A moment later, Angel sighed. “Never mind, I know places like this have no money to hire anyone. I’ve got a pile of rejections from a hundred places like this. Usually, they can barely pay for their own upkeep.”

“You’re right,” he said softly. “When Uncle Jeremy died, one of his cousins inherited the house—but only on the condition that he not tear it down or sell the collection. For a while, they were trying to turn it into a small, local museum. But upkeep was expensive. And in the end, he didn’t want to spend his entire life out here, looking after this house.”

“What a pity,” Angel murmured wistfully. “That was always my dream. Spending my entire life looking after a place like this. Teaching children about the history of this place. Making it interesting for them.”

“Really?” Jonathan felt something heavy lift from his shoulders. All the way here, he’d told himself that it was a stupid idea. That his plans never worked out. That she wouldn’t want to spend the rest of her life inside a museum together with him.

“Of course. What’s not to love?” Angel gestured excitedly towards the roof. “Look at that little turret! I’d feel like a real princess, living here.”

“A princess living here with her own dragon?” he asked hopefully.

In response, she laughed and gave him a loving look. “Of course. If the dragon wants to live in a run-down museum, of course, instead of a fancy high-rise apartment in the city.”

Jonathan swallowed. “Then it’s probably the time to admit that the house is still up for sale. It’s been for years, because they can’t find a buyer willing to sign a contract that states that the house can’t be torn down, and that the weird collections inside can’t be sold off. And that they have to be made available to the public, too.”

Angel tilted her head at him, as if she was trying to figure out what he was suggesting.

“This could be your home,” he said softly. “Don’t say anything right now. Let’s go inside and take a look around first. But if you could imagine sharing this place with me... I’d love to see this place come back to life. And I don’t ever want to sleep in the ice again. I want a home that’s warm and full of life. And in the winter, when there’s snow outside, we’ll spend the evenings in front of a warm fireplace.”

“And during the school year, we’d open the collections so that school classes can tour it. Maybe every now and then, we’d have a researcher show up. Or maybe a grad student who for some reason decided to write a thesis about butter churning.” Angel laughed, turning away from him to survey the house once more, her hands on her hips.

“It’ll be a lot of work,” she said slowly. “I’m not a dreamer. I can see what we’d have to do. Years of work. But that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted.”

He stepped forward, close enough that he could wrap his arms around her from behind and press a kiss to her hair. “Then let’s go in and have a look around.”