Abigail looked up at her husband. She took his hand, and he shook himself as though coming out of a dream.
“Donuts?” she suggested.
An expression of something close to regret flickered over his face, and her chest tightened.
“This wasn’t what I—” he began, but Ruby interrupted.
“Donuts!” she declared. “I get FIVE.”
She clambered down from his shoulders and marched off, leaving them no choice but to hurry after her through the glittering Christmas village.
“Come and find me after you get the donuts!” Meaghan called after them.
“I feel like someone just stole Christmas off me,” Jasper complained as they rushed after their determined daughter.
“Maybe they’re just excited to help out?” Abigail suggested innocently.
Ruby found the donut truck. And then, with an attention to detail Abigail had never noticed in her before, she found every other food and drink truck in the village. By the time they made it back to the main pavilion, they were laden down with holiday treats and trinkets from the market stalls.
One look at Ruby’s shining eyes as she showed her parents all the things she’d bought and listed which of her friends they were for, and Abigail knew there was no chance she was going to take up Meaghan’s offer to watch her while she and Jasper snuck off together.
If she could even convince Jasper to sneak off.
Not that that was what this was all about, even if that was what her friends believed.
So, they stayed. They cheered the choir and whooped as fireworks filled the sky. They spent the evening drinking hot chocolate and feasting on food truck treats, and as Abigail watched the reflection of fireworks and fairy lights in her family’s eyes, something eased inside her.
Maybe she had been wrong. Jasper wasn’t overworking himself over Christmas. She’d got the wrong end of things—probably because of her own lingering Christmas-related issues.
Everything was fine.
4
Jasper
Everything was not fine.
*What was all that about last night?*he demanded the moment he sensed Caine in telepathic range. He assumed the hellhound was leading one of the dogsled tours around the valley, if he was that close. In human form, of course; they had actual dogs to pull the sleds. Ones that didn’t leak sulfur-scented smoke into the air.
*What was what about?*Caine asked with a psychic laugh.
*You jumping in and taking over the fireworks!*
*Thought you said you wanted help?*
*I wanted…*Jasper groaned. *Yes, help, but…*
He couldn’t put it into words. Why couldn’t he put it into words? It was obvious. He wanted to make this Christmas the best Christmas ever, to show his mate and his family that—that—
That his mate would never have to make that expression he’d caught in her fleeting glances ever again. The one that she’d worn so often when they first met: small and still and worried. Like she was expecting the world to throw bad things at her.
It had appeared again this Christmas, just as things were starting to ramp up. And when he focused on the shining mate bond that connected his soul to hers, it shivered with unease.
He needed to fix this for her. To give her the perfect holiday season she deserved.
*Anyway, Sheena did most of the stealing. You know how her inner hellsheep has more crazy in it than she knows how to deal with. Some controlled explosions were the perfect outlet for all that energy, with Fleance to tease it if it got too distracted. They make a great team.*
Caine’s telepathic voice was overlaid with a shy sense of pride. Jasper knew he still found it strange, being the alpha of a hellhound pack. But he and Meaghan had taken on their responsibilities with that same sense of pride and determination to do right by the others who were bonded to them by pack status. Even if Fleance and Sheena were on their way to making their own pack.
