Page 6 of A Very Denarius Christmas

“Merry Christmas!” Alex’s voice rang out just before he leaned over and gave me a kiss. “Good save, Papa,” he winked. The little ones hopped up as their sweet versions of the words were passed along. Gramps, Great-gramps, Odem, and the whole Drakemyre clan were in attendance.

“There’s enough cocoa for everyone on the stove. Merry Christmas to all!” I too felt the holiday bug bite me as we gathered around the tree waiting for the madness to begin.

Messy as this was about to be, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Chapter Four

Alex

After so many Christmases of it just being me and Gramps, having a house full of dragon-in-laws and my beautiful babies had me dancing through rooms, smiling so wide my cheeks hurt. Lights, love and laughter, that’s what Christmas had always been for me, and today, celebrating on such a wild and grand scale, there was a moment when my heart nearly shattered, because the two people I missed the most in this world couldn’t be here to celebrate with us.

They’d never gotten to see me find my mate. They’d never get to meet their grandchildren or hold my sweet babies and make a fuss over them. I felt cheated. Robbed of something so many took for granted, but after the way my mate had acted last night with his little tantrum, the last thing I wanted was for anyone to see my tears today.

I knew the universe was give and take. That sometimes things weren’t fair. That sometimes, bad things happened to good people, and it was just shitty that there was no avoiding the things fate had in store. Today, it was hard to suck it up and move past it, so I sipped the delicious cocoa my mate had made and smiled even wider, as if smiling could somehow close the hole my parent’s absence had left in my heart.

“Tutu!”

Luna’s sweet voice rang out as paper went flying. At least it wasn’t on fire, though I did glance down to ensure that I’d remembered to stash a couple of fire extinguishers behind the chair Great-gramps was seated in. Yup, they were there, all was right with the world. Or at least in ours.

“Wear tutu!” Luna insisted, so I swept into the room and lifted her, blowing raspberries on her belly as I helped her into it.

She giggled and wiggled around, already trying to dance before I fully had her in it. Since they tended to be her firebug brothers’ favorite target, I sat her in my lap so she could open the rest of her gifts, hopefully unsinged.

Wooo, woooo,the sound of a new, rather loud toy filled the air.

Oh, Goddess, you have a strange and sometimes terrifying sense of humor, I thought as the twins finished tearing the paper off matching ride-on fire engines one of my smartass brothers-in-law had thoughtfully gifted them. With lights and buttons that produced sirens and horn sounds, the twin’s attention was firmly engaged.

When I glanced over at Odem he held his hands up and shook his head, wide-eyed and looking slightly terrified, a sure sign that it hadn’t been him. He’d have been smirking and laughing when our eyes met if it had been him. I wasn’t the only one staring at him either. Ionus’ narrow eyed gaze was fixed firmlyon his younger brother like he was millimeters shy of sending a storm his way.

“I swear, it really wasn’t me,” Odem insisted.

“It was me,” Mattias said with a shrug of his own. “I thought it might help them turn their attention towards stopping fires instead of starting them. What kid doesn’t want to be a firefighter?”

Everyone laughed at that and the twins, who happily pressed all the buttons, giggling and having so much fun with their new toys that they didn’t want to put them down to open the next present.

Our living room was a mess of shredded paper and bows, while my poor bestie rested in the recliner, feet up and looking exhausted, and we weren’t even close to finished with the unwrapping yet. I knew that expression. It had been on my own face just a few months ago. Next Christmas, my dragonets would have a cousin to share the occasion with, and there would be even more toys with buttons and lights, and maybe even a bit of something alcoholic in the cocoa to help all us adults deal with the cacophony of noise that was sure to ensue.

Oh, how I came to love it though and this big, boisterous family of ours.

“Merry Christmas, Gramps,” I said as I snagged the gift I’d wrapped for him and passed it over to him as Luna tore the wrapping paper off the tiny toy piano with light up keys someone had given her.

“Now that one is from me,” Odem said, as Luna did her best Schroder from the Peanuts cartoons impression and started plinking away at the keys.

“Yayyyyyy,” she said. “Yay, yay yaaaa yaaaa.”

Her sweet sing-song voice rose and fell with the keys, her adorable melody lit up the room as brightly as they did.

“Yay, Yay, yay, yaaaaa,” Uncle Odem sang back to her.

Those two were going to have fun with that piano and who knew Odem had a voice like that. Cocking my head, I studied him while trying to figure out how to get him to sing Christmas carols, then said to hell with it, and launched into Jingle Bells.

He could really sing. Even on a fun song like that one it was apparent, but the best part was my little Luna, singing Jingle Bells along with us, chanting sleigh, sleigh, sleigh, sleigh, when we got to that part. So much so that my imagination, and that piece of me that wanted to give my dragonets everything they asked for, began dreaming up designs for a sleigh big enough to be pulled by my dragon mate.

Of course, we would need plenty of snow for that, but I was certain that mother nature would have no trouble dumping plenty on us soon enough. If not, my gifted mate could surely conjure a storm or two if asked. How much fun would it be to sip cocoa while wrapped up in warm blankets with our babies cuddled against my sides as we dashed over fresh powder.

The song features a one-horse open sleigh, not a one dragon one.

Open for interpretation, my prickly mate.