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Torrance and Wylfrael Bonus Christmas Story
Torrance and Wylfrael Bonus Christmas Story
The sleigh cruised gently over fallen snow through the Sio
I know, girl. It’s nice to have a mate.
I snuggled in closer to Wylfrael’s side on the sleigh’s bench, enjoying the radiating heat pouring of off his skin and filtering through my cloak. Since getting pregnant at the begi
When I felt his warm hand sliding up my thigh beneath my dress, I pulled away from the kiss and swatted playfully at him. I’d told Wylf ages ago that we needed our own sled – I could no longer stomach the idea of the poor Sio
“I need to pay attention!” I said, laughing at his sternly raised brow.
“Right,” he said. “I remember. You need to find-”
“The perfect one,” I finished for him.
The perfect Christmas tree. Two, actually. One larger one for the castle’s entrance hall that all the women could help decorate, and a smaller one just for Wylf and me in our bedroom. Next year it won’t be just Wylf and me... I watched the trees rolling by in the protective embrace of Wylf’s arm and ran my hands up and down my gently rounded stomach. Next Christmas, there would be a little roly-poly stone sky god baby under that tree.
I tried not to let hormonal visions of chubby, winged, cherubic babies with starry skin take over my brain as they so often did these days. I focused on the landscape, eyeing each tree as we sledded by. Too big, too pink, too ski
“There!” I called breathlessly, suddenly seeing something peeking through the pink and purple trees. I scrambled to the side of the sleigh, gripping the edge with my leather gloves and leaning out. “Those two!”
Wylf’s hands settled immediately about my shoulders as he called to the sonta
“Careful, beloved,” he murmured against my hood.
“What?” I teased. “Worried I’m going to fall out?”
I couldn’t see him – he was behind me – but I heard the seriousness in his voice when he quietly replied, “I worry about many things.”
I turned towards him, smiling reassuringly. It was kind of cute seeing Wylfrael all spooled up about me. He was already more protective than I wagered most men were about their wives. Some of that, no doubt, was due to lingering trauma about what had happened at Heofonraed. But these days, most of it was due to the fact that I was pregnant. Every twinge, every headache, was treated like some grave illness, with Wylf as my most diligent (and gruffly panicky) nurse. Thank goodness my morning sickness is done, I thought. Wylf had nearly crawled out of his own skin with worry when I’d spent most of the early days puking. The times when I did have an appetite, often in the middle of the night when Aiko was off duty, he’d spend hours in the kitchen concocting Sio
Though I was feeling much stronger and less pukey now, Wylf’s attentive concern only seemed to increase along with the size of my stomach. He didn’t give me the chance to step down onto the snow, instead holding me against his chest as he floated down to the ground on his wings. He used his power to clear a smooth spot for me to stand and gently put me down.
I turned and pointed to what I’d seen.
“Those two!” I breathed, excitement tingling through me. If I squinted, they looked like actual Christmas trees, perfectly shaped and a dark, rich emerald colour. The two glittering green ones were together in a cluster of pink and purple trees. One was much larger than the other, the pair reminding me of a parent and child. Wet warmth gathered in my eyes as grief-tinged nostalgia for the past and hope for the future swirled inside me.
“I used to do this with my dad,” I told Wylf as we walked down the path he cleared towards the two trees. “Every December we’d go to a nearby tree farm to choose one to cut down.” I laughed through a sheen of tears. “He always wanted to pick a nice, big, fluffy, symmetrical one. A real perfect specimen of a tree. But I got the final say, and without fail I’d always choose a scrawny, sad-looking one because I felt sorry for it and worried that no one else would bring it home for Christmas.”
God, I was about to start blubbering now. These pregnancy hormones were something else. I sniffed hard and blinked rapidly, squeezing Wylf’s hand for support.
“I like when you tell me things like that,” Wylf said. “Because then I can make sure we do them with our son.”
That definitely wasn’t helping the tears situation. I sniffed mightily as we came to a stop before the two trees.
“These two?” my husband asked in confirmation.
“Yes. These two.”
They were the most perfect non-Earth Christmas trees I could have imagined. Deeply green and so glittery under the winter sun that they almost didn’t even need ornaments. But they would have ornaments. Because we had loads of them. The other women and I had been making ornaments as a hobby for weeks out of silk and feathers and bits of crystal. Even Aiko and the rest of the Sio
I liked it. I liked the energy, the people, the friendship. I couldn’t wait to go back and decorate the trees with everyone.
Unlike the old days with my dad, we didn’t need to chop it down then strap it into a truck. Wylf used his power to cleanly sever the trees at their bases, and he simply levitated them behind the sleigh for the entire ride back. Though Wylf was technically mortal now, he was just as powerful as ever. As the two trees soared gracefully behind our sleigh, I thought back to a time when his power made me hate him even more. Now that we weren’t enemies at each other’s throats, I could finally admire the sort of power he had. I’d have the same sort of power to admire in our child, too.
Our return with the trees brought much excitement to humans, Sio
“Tree inside? Tree inside?” he barked frenetically, tossing his great head and tracking snow into the hall, tail thwapping. It was only the repetition of a very stern command that kept the excited hound from peeing on one or both of the new Christmas trees.