We exchange gifts until only mine remain. “Okay, you said handmade, and I actually made these, so I’m sorry if they’re silly or they suck.”
Alyssa snatches hers up and rips the paper off before Bitsy can even grab the box with her name on it and lets out a little shriek of joy before pulling on the hooded scarf I knit for her. She shoves her phone into my hands. “Take a picture. Ihaveto show Darika. She’s going to lose her mind at how damn cute this is.”
She wraps the scarf around her neck and tweaks the little teddy bear ears on the hood with a giggle, then throws up a peace sign just as I snap her picture.
Ellie grabs for her box and dons her fox hat immediately, the rusty orange wool a perfect match for her red hair. “Oh saints, you didn’t make one of these for Simon, did you?”
“I… um, no? Should I have?”
“Oh, he’s going to be so fucking jealous.”
“I thought he’d think it was too silly.”
“Junie, I swear. My brother will bebeggingfor one.”
“I do love it when they beg,” Bitsy says offhandedly before ripping the paper off her box. Her mouth drops open and I swear I catch a sheen of tears in her eyes.
“Punk rock unicorn?” she says, awe in her voice.
“What else would I make for you, Bits?”
She dons it and does an experimental head bang, giggling in pure glee when the multi-colored yarn mane shakes. “Junie, this is, no lie, the best thing anyone’s ever made me. And I adore you, and you better have one too, because I’m making Connor take a million pictures of us. Omega Girl Gang withhats.”
I hop up off the sofa and go over my coat and dig out the bunched up black cat hood, donning it and giving them a wink.
“Pictures! So many pictures,” Bitsy demands, and out we shuffle into the snow, just four omegas having the best Yule ever together.
* * *
Luca is waitingfor me at our bridge, a boyish smile on his face. It’s the first time I’ve been by the bridge since All Saints’ Day when we crossed back over it after our last motorcycle ride of the year. The creek burbles over stones, each bank covered in picture-perfect white snow. Small animal tracks cross through the blanket of white, racing around the bridge. The boughs of the trees above are covered in a light coating of snow, glittering above the bridge.
I dash toward him and my boots skid on the icy bridge, taking me right into his arms. He holds me tightly, burying his nose in my hair, drinking me in just as I drag his scent into my greedy lungs.
“I have a Yule present for you,” he says against the shell of my ear, the brush of his lips making me shiver.
“But you already took me skating and stargazing!” I protest.
He laughs and releases me, slides his hands down my arms until he can take my hands in his. “That was a date. This is a present. I started making it, saints, a week into the term?”
“You made me something?” Awe softens my voice and I pull a small, wrapped package out of my bag. “I made you something too.”
“It’s back in my dorm if… if that’s all right? I can understand if you’re not comfortable going back there, or if you don’t feel ready yet.”
“I’m ready,” I say quietly. “But I want to see it. The mask. I don’t want to be afraid of it anymore.”
“Presents first?”
I grin. “Presents first.”
* * *
I joinMarcus at the bench tucked back in the woods and we make our way through the omega residences.
“Thank you for supporting me in this, even after he lied to me.”
“He’s a good alpha, sweet-tart. And I won’t lie and say I wouldn’t do the same if given the opportunity. Not all of us have the means of getting you papers or getting you out of the country like Cassian does. So, we protect you how we can.”
I pull him into a hug. “At least your future clients won’t be such a challenge.”
