~

 

Angelique had to admit that decorating the tree with the two elders was fun. Scoffing the Christmas cookies and drinking wine was fun as well, but not as much fun as the way that the females picked on Leo.

The cantankerous elder just couldn’t seem to win a victory over either of them, especially when they ganged up on him, and Angelique had joined in too. It had resulted in Leo grumbling a growl and muttering obscenities as he headed for the back door.

Perhaps the alpha was out of chicken legs.

“You know that these are Mirabelle’s Christmas decorations?” Isobel said.

“I have a Christmas tree up every year. My mother was human,” Mirabelle added.

“I took Christmas decorations from you?” Now Angelique felt guilty than she had before.

“Only some, I kept the ones with sentimental value, and we still have time before Christmas to buy new ones — I look at it as a shopping opportunity,” Mirabelle informed her with a sly grin.

“And boy, can she shop,” Isobel chuckled.

“That red bauble, three branches from the top to the right, should be a branch over,” George offered as he stroked his chin thoughtfully and considered the tree as a whole.

“Who made you the Christmas fairy?” Isobel sneered.

“Apparently the fairy godmother did,” Angelique sighed.

“He really is the Christmas fairy?” Mirabelle snorted a chuckle.

“Why does everyone find that so hard to believe?” George shook his head in dismay. He thought he was doing rather a good job as the Christmas fairy.

‘Because you’re an idiot.’

“Because you’re male,” Mirabelle shrugged.

“Because you don’t exactly look like a Christmas fairy, now do you?” Isobel offered.

“Why is he still here?” Luke growled out toward Jett, and the beta shrugged.

“Because I…” George got no further as he felt the hard slap of Jett’s hand against his shoulder.

A moment later and he was lifted up in the air, his feet moving like flippers, searching for the floor before he was tossed out of the open doorway where he landed face first into a fresh bank of snow.

George spluttered as he pushed upward. He shook off the snow from his head and grumbled out a few obscenities.

“I really don’t like this job.” He muttered to himself.

 

~

~

~

 

“She looks happier than she did when you first met her,” Jett offered his alpha his opinion as he sidled up to him, folded his arms, and considered the witch mate.

“She looks drunk,” Luke grumbled.

“You plied her with alcohol?” Jett offered him a scathing look.

“I didn’t need to ply her with it. Apparently, to a witch it’s like baby milk,” Luke grumbled back.

“Well that’s not good,” Jett muttered to himself.

“You don’t have to tell me — I’m going to need to sober her up…”

“Coffee — gallons of it.”

“I don’t think a human can drink gallons of anything,” Luke offered back.

“Except — maybe alcohol?” Jett chuckled.

“Go put the coffee on,” Luke grumbled back.

“Just not gallons of it,” Jett tossed back over his shoulder with a hearty chuckle for the alpha when the man groaned.

“My pack — so damn helpful,” the alpha shook his head in dismay.

This certainly wasn’t how he imagined wooing a mate.

 

~

~

~

 

“I’m stuffed!” Angelique blew a breath upwards, and the hair from her eyes hovered.

“Like a Christmas turkey?” The alpha asked and brought his mate’s gaze toward him.

She had a hungry look in her eyes, and his hard length twitched within his jeans. Maybe she was coming around to the idea of him being her mate; it was about time.

“Oh, turkey and trimmings,” Angelique grinned like a hungry wolf that had cornered its prey.

Maybe she wasn’t coming around to the idea of him being her mate after all.

“Well, we’re leaving now,” Isobel announced.

Angelique went from a hungry look to one of panic. Luke grumbled to himself. The thought of being alone with him had alarmed her once more.

“So soon?” Angelique rushed out.

“Well, for some of us, it’s bedtime,” Mirabelle offered her a knowing grin that stretched from ear to ear.

Angelique felt the rush of panic as it slammed straight into the fire of excitement within her. It was a strange and heady experience. Kind of like being two people at once.

She didn’t want to look at the alpha, but, the sound of a low, deep, hungry growl that rolled through the air toward her made her curiosity piqued, and she snatched a look at him and wished that she’d gone with her first instinct.

Luke eyed her in exactly the same way that she had eyed that plate of Christmas cookies. She couldn’t say that the wave of excitement that went through her body that time wasn’t pleasurable — it was — but it wasn’t something that she wanted to believe possible.

She hated fate.

She hated the Christmas fairy.

She hated the mating pull.

But most of all, she hated that she was attracted to her mate.

Who would have thought it?

Attracted to your soul mate?

Unthinkable.

Except, of course, that it wasn’t. That was fate’s plan. And she was back in a full circle of hating fate again.

Ridiculous.

The man might have looked like a whole heap of sinfully good, sex on a stick, or all you can eat hunk of lovin’ — but that wasn’t the point.

How could she be a mate?

Angelique guessed the alternative was to walk away from the alpha — her mate — and never look back again. Not that she’d be able to look back.

In all likelihood, the man would become a rogue wolf, and his pack would have to kill him. That didn’t sit well with her.

Then there was the fact that she would never find true love ever again. That didn’t sit well with her either.

Fate was evil — bad and evil — and it was a shame that she couldn’t tell fate as much.

True mates — the mating pull — didn’t fate understand the meaning of free choice?

Every time she’d accidentally brushed against him she’d felt that stomach-flopping jolt of excitement go through her. The same thing happened when she’d snatched a look at him and been busted for it.

Was that fair?

Even those little growls of his made her damn toes curl in her socks. There was no escaping the sexual chemistry in the air, and she didn’t think it was catching from the elders.

Everyone wanted to find their one true love. Their sure thing. Didn’t they?

But now that she’d found him, she wasn’t sure what to do with him, well, she had mental flashes of what she’d like to do…but, once she’d dipped her toe in that pond there was no going back.

Did she want to dip?

Did she care about going back?

Was the meaning of life really 42 – wait, maybe she’d had a little too much to drink.

Could you ever have too much wine – or chocolate?

Angelique was distracted by the thought of chocolate. Maybe cake – maybe chocolate cake.

Did she have the munchies? She had to wonder because she’d done a pretty good job polishing off the cookies.

“Coffee!” Jett announced as he walked in carrying a mug that was as big as his large fist and he snapped her right out of her daydreaming.

“Wine!” Angelique groaned.

It felt like life just had too many choices for her that weren’t really choices at all.

“Wine?” Jett offered a look of disbelief to his alpha, and Luke shrugged. “She sure can drink a lot — gallons?” He chuckled.