“That everyone in my life is doing their best to steal Christmas from me?”
“That isn’t—” Abigail’s face fell, and his heart dropped with it. “I’m not—it wasn’t—”
“That was a joke,” he said quickly, and took her shoulders to bring her to face him. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
She sighed, and Jasper and his inner dragon both tensed. “Nothing’s wrong. I just—”
Alarm bells rang in his head.
Abigail was his fated mate. The other half of his soul. Hiswife.There should be noI just,with that closed-in expression on her face, like she was trying to lock away whatever she was feeling.
Guilt turned a back-flip inside him. Of all times of the year, this should be the best, and he’d been doing his best to make sure it was.
He should have tried harder.
“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised.
Her frown deepened. “No, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about—”
*DADDY!*Ruby wailed in his head.
Jasper flinched. Abigail paled and put a hand to her chest. “Was that Ruby?”
Abigail wouldn’t have heard Ruby’s telepathic cry—but she must have felt his jolt of shock through the mate bond.
“Yes.” He turned in the direction he’d last seen Ruby. The play area by the snow-fight zone was empty. *Bee-bee, where are you?*
*The surprise went wrong!*
“What’s happening? Where did they go?” Abigail asked urgently.
He grabbed her hand and repeated Ruby’s message.
“Surprise? What—oh no.”
She ran, tugging him with her, towards the frozen lake.
The beautiful, serene, sparkly lake of ice. With its tiny island in the middle.
Which was on fire.
Neither of them had their skates on yet. They sprinted and skidded across the ice. Jasper’s dragon fought to transform, but he wouldn’t let it. There were humans here who didn’t know that shifters existed.
And adding another panicked, fire-breathing creature to the situation was not going to help.
*HELLHOUNDS!*he yelled. *WE NEED SOME FIREFIGHTING OVER HERE!*
*Uncle Jasper!*another voice wailed.
*Cole, what the hell is going on?*
*They dumped a load of snow on me and disappeared!*
“I thought Meaghan and Olly were watching them!” Abigail panted.
“So did I.” He caught her as her feet skidded from under her, and then they were on the island.
There were three lonely pine trees on this stupid island, and they were all on fire. Heat seared against his face and snow crunched under his feet as he searched for the kids. Ruby and the others’ psychic signatures were here somewhere, but—
