She looked up into his handsome face. “Not alone,” she breathed. She then turned to Cory and Holly. “I should get back to the booth.”
Hunter and Brie continued around the festival to the Sweet Summit Bakery booth. The scent of cinnamon and sugar filled her nose as she stepped behind the counter. Rows of holiday pastries lined the shelves and display cases, each tier draped with evergreen garlands twisted with tiny white lights and red velvet ribbon.
Sugar-dusted cranberry orange scones sat in wicker baskets lined with red and green checkered cloth. Glass domes protected delicate linzer cookies filled with raspberry jam, their powdered sugar tops creating perfect snowflake patterns through the cutout hearts and stars.
The Victorian mansion gingerbread house was the centerpiece of her booth, standing nearly three feet tall on its snow-white royal icing foundation. Every shingle had been piped individually in chocolate brown, while candy glass windows glowed amber from the battery-operated tea lights hidden inside. Miniature wreaths made from green frosting and red-hot candies decorated each window, and icicles of pulled sugar hung from the elaborate gingerbread trim work along the roofline. Festivalgoers stopped to snap pictures and marvel at the intricacy, especially the tiny gingerbread family visible through the parlor window.
Warming trays held fresh batches of sticky pecan snowflakes drizzled with maple glaze, while tiered stands displayed peppermint bark brownies cut into perfect triangles and decorated with crushed candy canes. Mason jars filled with snickerdoodles, gingerbread bears, and frosted sugar cookies shaped like mittens and snowmen lined the back counter. The air grew sweeter each time someone opened the case holding the cinnamon rolls twisted into Christmas tree shapes and glazed with green tinted cream cheese frosting dotted with red cherry “ornaments.”
“How are things going here?” Brie asked Jake. “Where is Maggie?”
“We’re running out of cranberry orange scones. But there’s a fresh batch still at the bakery. Maggie took a break. I think she’s having her fortune read at the psychic booth.”
“You can take a break as soon as she gets back,” Brie said, pulling on her apron to take the next customer in line.
Mrs. Whitaker stepped to the front of the line. “Your sugar cookies are the best I’ve ever had this year. I had to come back to get another dozen.”
Brie smiled as she filled a box with sugar cookies and rang up the order. When she was done with the line of customers, she spotted Dom and Valeria walking toward them. She waved enthusiastically as they approached her booth. Dom looked happy and protective gazing down at his pregnant wife, whose belly looked like it was about to burst.
“I have your favorite cinnamon rolls,” Brie said as Valeria walked to the front of the line.
“That’s exactly what I wanted,” she said with a smile. “It’s like you read my mind.”
Brie began to fill a box with cinnamon rolls as Valeria winced and rubbed her belly. “The baby’s doing gymnastics this afternoon,” she said.
“We’re going to get you home right after we get these pastries,” Dom said in a low voice.
“Nonsense, I’m fine,” Valeria said just as her mouth dropped. Brie was holding the box of cinnamon rolls in midair as the sound of splashing water filled her ears.
“Oh my word,” Valeria said.
Dom grabbed his phone and quickly dialed a number. “Everyone to the Sweet Summit Bakery booth. We have an emergency situation.”
The pack quickly closed in while Dom dialed the hospital. Blaze and Ryder cleared a path through the crowd. Axel and Siren followed behind Dom and Valeria.
“Good luck, Valeria!” Brie called after the pack.
“Our first little wolf born to Savage Steel,” Hunter said in a voice more whimsical than she was used to.
“Hopefully it won’t be the last,” Brie said with a smile.
Hunter wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head. In that moment, all Brie could think about was the fact that they still hadn’t claimed each other. After all these weeks and all of their struggles, they still remained as two separate halves of a whole, having not yet completed the mating bite.
She took a deep inhalation of his scent and let herself be enveloped in his warmth and love. It was like a miracle. A blessing. A monumental happening that she and Hunter had come together. They had survived so much. They had brought down a criminal ring and a crazed scientist threatening her home. All in the process of coming together as mates.
Brie’s phone rang, and she saw that it was a FaceTime call from her mother. She smiled happily as she answered, excited that they would get to see her booth.
“Hi, Mom,” she said as she answered. She could see the blue waters of an Australian beach in the background.
“Hello, my love,” her mother said, blowing her a kiss. “We got the pictures of the gingerbread mountain. We couldn’t be more proud.”
“Thank you, Mom and Dad. I worked so hard to make it happen. Hunter has been by my side this whole time. He really is the best fated mate a girl could hope for.”
Brie could see a tear forming in her mother’s eye.
“Nothing but the best for our girl,” Zach said.
“We’re going to let you go. I know you’re busy. But we just wanted to check in and say congratulations.”
