Page 25 of Beary Mated Christmas
I didn’t know a lot about babies being born. I wasn’t an omega and honestly hadn’t paid enough attention during that part of health class, but this didn’t feel normal. Sure, placentas came out, but they didn’t usually come with this kind of screaming.
Five minutes later, I discovered why.
“Well, this explains it.” Mac held up our daughter. “You had a little stowaway hiding in there. Twins.”
Abel’s jaw dropped. “Twins?”
Mac placed her on his chest, and I put our son there too as they both latched on for their first meal. Mac helped to deliver the placentas, which were nothing compared to birthing two babies, and then gave us some time alone.
“We need to name our sweet little ones,” I said softly.
We had picked out names, but now that they were here, I wasn’t sure they were the right ones.
“He looks like a…” Abel said, eyes on our son, “I think he’s Aster.”
“I agree,” I said. “Aster is perfect.”
“But what about her—our sweet daughter?”
“What about Luna? I know it’s cliché, and she might be a bear, but moon and stars kind of go together.”
“They really do. Welcome, Luna. I didn’t know you were in there. I’m glad you were.”
I snuggled into the bed beside my mate, watching as Luna and Aster, our moon and star, suckled away. I’d never been more grateful that I decided to hide out for Christmas in a lodge that had no idea how to handle a reservation.
Epilogue
Abel
Next Christmas came fast.
The twins, Luna and Aster, were just at that cuddly, adorable baby stage, but also more active than I could have ever dreamed they would be so soon. Shifter babies could be that way, Mac had informed us, and we had to be ready for just about anything.
Including shifting. In both our families, shifting didn’t happen until people reached their maturity, their late teens, but apparently our mixed-up genetics meant everything was on the table. There had even been a chance of them coming out in their fur, but nothing that dramatic had happened. Animal wise, at least. The fact that there were two of them? Plenty dramatic for me.
Our families both wanted us to come to them for the holidays, but my alpha had something else in mind, and that meant if they wanted to spend Christmas Eve with us and the kids, they were going to have to visit us on our lands for our wedding.
No, most shifters didn’t have weddings. It was more of a human custom, but my mate had a romantic streak a mile wide. And I loved him even more for it. After his proposal, we’d shopped for rings at various jewelry stores and, just when we thought we’d never find any we liked, we stumbled upon a combination thrift and antique store. They had a whole drawer of rings, and the proprietor knew the stories that went with each one.
Some were not inspiring. People who’d divorced or had a tragic ending to one of the couple were a no for sure. Others were fine, but the couple just didn’t resonate with us. Still, we loved hearing the stories, especially the happy ones. And I’d justdecided that we wouldn’t find anything here, either, when the little old proprietor snapped his fingers and jumped off his stool. “I don’t know why I forgot. Wait. Don’t leave. Promise me?”
“We’ll sit right here,” Denali promised. After the man disappeared into the back, my mate leaned close to me and murmured, “Whatever he has, we’ll stick around long enough to see, but I’m sure it won’t be right. Maybe we could design our rings. I don’t know how these humans do it.”
“Maybe this is part of why shifters don’t do weddings,” I replied, gaze fixed on the doorway to the other part of the store. “It’s too hard to pick.” And this was just the rings. There were so many details to a wedding.
“Maybe so, but I want to marry you.” He reached for my hand and linked our fingers. “It shouldn’t be hard for us, since we’re making our own traditions. We don’t have to do anything that doesn’t make us happy.”
“Here we are.” The old man held a small wooden box. “I have to tell you now, it’s not what you’d expect, but it spoke to me. It’s very old, and the couple who owned the contents were so much in love. They lived to be over a hundred and died within a day of one another.”
“Wow.” I reached out grabby hands. I wanted our love to be connected to that couple’s long, long relationship. I didn’t care how the rings looked. But when I lifted the lid, what I saw brought tears to my eyes.
“Are you ready, mate?” Denali approached where I stood in the doorway to our cabin. Winter weather here was not as severe as the resort where we’d found one another again, so while the reception would be indoors, we would be exchanging vows in the backyard, where we’d hung some of the many strings of colored lights and ornaments. The wreath we’d created together hung on the back door.
“I am.” Linking arms, we walked down the path to where our parents had charge of the twins and our friends stood in a half circle in front of the archway we’d had built just for the occasion. It was covered with white lights and every white flower our local florist had been able to find at this time of year. It was the first wedding for most there, since they were shifters, but they all seemed eager to begin.
The officiant was Mac, our midwife, who had gotten an online certificate just to be able to marry the two of us. Everyone we loved was there, and after we exchanged vows we’d written, Mac held out the box with the lid up.
Not rings at all but silver chains with a little silver disc at the bottom. Engraved on the back of each was one word.Yours.We kissed and led our families and friends, mostly pack from both sides, inside to the feast we had catered, scooping up a baby each along the way.
Christmas Eve. Once my favorite day of the year. Then not for a long time.
But now it was again. So, if our guests thought our decorations over the top. If they wondered why we had some sort of Christmas tree in just about every room, even on the bathroom counter? They didn’t say anything. Rather, they hugged us and wished us happiness, wished us every joy together, and brought tears to my eyes over and over. It seemed everyone who loved either or both of us had suffered, too, while waiting for us to come to our senses. Thank the Goddess we had. Maybe expectations were not the best thing to have when planning to meet someone to love.
Maybe just accepting that my heart beat triple time every time he came into a room was enough. Denali was my fated, my true mate, the other half of my soul. Luna wriggled in my arms and I kissed her chubby cheek and smiled up at my mate. “I’m going to sit down and feed them.”
“I’ll sit with you.” He rubbed noses with Aster. “Help keep one distracted while you feed the other.”
Of course I agreed. And we snuggled on the sofa, accepting congratulations from everyone, while I fed the babies. We’d have matching jammies later, when it was just us and our parents. And cocoa. And maybe sing carols.
Our children were going to have the best memories of Christmas. Almost as good as ours.