A Mate for the Christmas Dragon

by Zoe Chant

  He closed his eyes. There was no way Abigail could have had this custom inscribed only this morning, but that didn’t matter. She had bought it for him. Her love for him infused every atom of it, every particle of jasper and gold, shining from the inscription:

  Merry Christmas, to the one who has my heart.

  He closed his hand over the jasper heart. Gold sang against his skin, and his own heart sang inside his chest.

  “I know it’s cheesy…” Abigail began. He didn’t let her get any further. Heart singing, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her until she melted against him.

  He still had the stone heart in his hand, pressed against the curve of her lower back. The gold sang against his skin— and inside him, through him, into his mate, his Abigail, until the air around them seemed to shimmer with it.

  Jasper broke the kiss. He looked down at his mate— and blinked. I have to be imagining this.

  The air was shimmering. Lights flickered through the air around him and Abigail, like a thousand fireflies or a thousand tiny suns. Abigail’s eyes were wide.

  “Are you seeing this?” she breathed.

  “Yes.”

  “Is it a dragon thing?”

  “I don’t know,” Jasper admitted. It was magic. It had to be magic. But what sort of magic? What was it for?

  He pulled Abigail closer. Everywhere she touched him, his skin was on fire. It was as though the lights weren’t just around them, they were inside him, as well, flooding his veins. He looked down at Abigail. Was it just a reflection, or were there lights in the depths of her eyes, as well?

  The lights grew brighter, and the song of the gold became louder, chiming like bells in his ears. In his heart. His soul.

  And then he knew.

  “Abigail,” he whispered, and her gaze locked on to his. “We don’t need to go to my hoard. It isn’t up in the mountains. Not anymore.” He drew his hand around from her back and raised it. “It’s right here.”

  The heart was glowing, the gold gleaming bright as the heart of a fire. His gold, the first gold gifted to him by his mate. The heart of his hoard.

  He folded Abigail’s hands over it and felt the shiver that went through her as she felt its power.

  “Abigail George. Will you be my mate, mine to protect and care for, as long as we both live?”

  “I will,” Abigail said at once, her face alight with happiness. “Will you be mine? To protect and care for, as long as we both live?”

  He didn’t know if that was the proper way to do things, his human mate offering him her protection. But he didn’t hesitate. “I will.” Proper or not, it was right. After all, hadn’t she protected and cared for him today?

  He led her through to the bedroom, and the bed he hadn’t slept in since he arrived in Pine Valley. It was huge, a heavy, super-king-sized four-poster piled high with comforters and pillows. Too huge for one person. Perfect for two. Perfect for his mate.

  He laid the heart on the middle pillow, where it glowed, and turned to Abigail. He knew he was smiling like an idiot. He couldn’t help it. Abigail smiled back, and reached up to touch his cheek.

  “I love you,” she said, and laughed. “Warning you now. Now that I’ve started saying it, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”

  “Good.” He unzipped her snow jacket. His snow jacket, which hid her curves like a tent. She shimmied it the rest of the way off.

  “I love you,” she said again, eyes bright.

  He stripped off his own jacket, and then started on her sweater.

  “I love you!”

  Shirt. Pants. Garments began to litter the floor.

  “I love you. I— oh!”

  Jasper shed his underwear and clasped her to him, skin to skin. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders and her eyes bloomed dark with desire. “I love you,” she repeated, her voice rough. “I love you, I love you, I… ohhh…”

  Her skin was so soft. He wanted to touch every inch of her, caress her, stroke her and nuzzle her and kiss her, but every brush of her body against his made his need more urgent. He was breathless with it, so hard he ached.

  This was different to the other times they had slept together. More primal. Before, he had lain with her. Tonight, he would claim her.

  He met her eyes and found the same wild, passionate desire in them that burned in him like wildfire.

  “I feel—” Her eyes widened, lips parted as though she was tasting the air. Tasting the magic and desire that filled the world around them. “Oh, God, Jasper. Take me. Make me yours!”

  He pushed her back onto the bed, gently but firmly. Her skin was creamy against the richly colored comforters. Her whole body quivered under him, her breasts heavy and inviting, the scent of her arousal intoxicating his senses.

  Jasper kissed her breasts, one after the other, sucking her nipples into his mouth and making circles around them with his tongue until Abigail’s whole body was shaking with small tremors of desire. He lifted his head and looked up at her.

  She stared back, cheeks pink, eyes black and bright with need. She ran her fingertips down his back, digging in with her nails. “Please,” she begged.

  He rose up above her, pulling her arms from around himself and kissing the palms of her hands. he nipped the tip of one finger and she groaned. He nipped another and then pinned her wrists above her head.

  Abigail lay stretched out beneath him, vulnerable and beautiful and his. She was giving herself to him, fully and forever. His mate. His Abigail.

  “I love you,” he whispered, and thrust into her.

  CHAPTER 18

  Abigail

  Abigail cried out as Jasper entered her. He was so hard and hot and so, so perfect. Pleasure built inside her, so strong already she almost came as he buried himself fully inside her.

  Her whole body felt as though it was about to fly apart. Was this magic? The lights had followed her from the front room— they danced around her, and inside her, too, she was sure. In her blood. Her heart.

  She stared up into Jasper’s ember-bright eyes. The lights were there, as well. And the gold…

  Jasper was pinning her wrists with one hand. Still buried deep inside her, he reached up for something on the pillow above her head. Then he pressed something into her hands. The jasper heart.

  She still blushed when she remembered the inscription. It was so cheesy, so ridiculous. So true. Jasper had her heart. He had stripped away her spiky walls and all her fearful defenses, and her heart was his. Forever.

  Jasper closed both his hands over hers, trapping the heart between their palms. His dark hair fell over his face. With his burning eyes, he looked somehow more than human. More primal and powerful.

  She shivered with anticipation— and then something else.

  Jasper leaned down, whispering in her ear, “Do you feel it?”

  Something was ghosting over her skin, tracing feather-light trails down her wrists and arms. She looked up. “The gold?”

  Gold was flowing from the heart, shining tendrils winding like metal ribbons down her arms. Several tendrils looped around her wrists, and others kept moving down her body. She twitched as they tickled over her ribs and Jasper groaned, thrusting against her hips. Her head fell back, pleasure pulsing through her as his cock pressed against her most sensitive places, so overwhelmed she barely noticed where the other gold went.

  Then it tightened around her ankles, pulling her legs apart.

  She looked up at Jasper, shocked. She had already opened her legs for him, but this was different; the gold was spreading them further apart, transfixing her beneath him.

  Gold at her wrists, gold at her ankles. The tendrils were slender— there hadn’t been much gold on the heart, after all— but she knew that if she tested her bonds, they would not break. Her heart fluttered.

  Jasper pulled out of her. “Is this alright?” he asked, his voice rough.

  His eyes were darker than she had ever seen them, the pupils so large there was only the barest hint of gold and
red around the edges. His hair fell over his face, tangled and wild. His skin was flushed. Muscles bunched in his shoulders and biceps. His whole body was like a bow pulled tight, powerful and strong.

  She couldn’t move. That didn’t matter. She didn’t want to move. She wanted him, here, now. Forever. Hers.

  “Make me yours,” she replied, her own voice throaty with passion. Jasper groaned out loud and thrust into her. Harder than before. Primal. Perfect.

  He pounded into her so hard it left her breathless, then thrust in again, until she had no breath left even to moan. Desire built inside her, every thrust stoking the bonfire of her love until she thought her whole body would catch fire. She was completely open beneath him, helpless and vulnerable and lost in passion.

  She gasped and cried out, toes curling, and then opened her eyes to find herself caught in Jasper’s gaze. His eyes were like coals, black with heat. His fingers tightened around her own. The stone heart seemed to pulse between their palms, and the gold burned on her wrists and ankles.

  “My mate,” Jasper gasped. Abigail’s breath caught in her throat. “My own. Forever. Always. My mate, my Abigail…”

  His voice was low and hitching, as though he could barely control it. Barely control himself. Abigail flexed underneath him. She was trapped by the gold but she could still move her hips, her body, returning his thrusts with the same frenzied passion until—

  Abigail cried out wordlessly as pleasure overtook her. Stars burst in front of her eyes. Real, or magic? She didn’t know. She didn’t care. She was dissolving, floating in an endless ocean of stars, strange constellations stretching out on all sides. She was the stars, burning and shining and so alive with happiness she thought she might cry.

  She opened her eyes. Her vision was hazy; she blinked, found Jasper’s face, drowned herself in his gaze. His ember eyes. Her dragon.

  She raised her head, demanding a kiss. When he kissed her, she bit down on his lip until he gasped, then softened, teasing his hips until he groaned. The noise reverberated against her lips, deep into her bones. She could no longer tell where her body ended, and his began. They were together, bound by love, floating in a velvet sky of stars.

  “Mine,” she gasped. Pleasure was still cascading through her, new waves shuddering through her body with Jasper’s every thrust. “My mate.”

  Jasper cried out, thrusting deeper and harder into her as he came. The chains around her wrists and ankles tightened— and then released, and he was in her arms, falling beside her in the bed, limbs tangling together and lips locked in a kiss she hoped would never end.

  They lay still together, lost in wonder and happiness. Jasper’s eyes were embers again, dancing like firelight as he kissed her. Slow kisses. Leisurely. Endless.

  Abigail smiled and stretched, pressing her body against his as he slowly trailed kisses down her neck. She shivered as he reached her collarbone. She was sated, exhausted— but these kisses might convince her otherwise…

  Then he reached her breastbone, and she jerked. “I feel it!”

  Jasper was up on his elbows in a second, eyes furrowed with concern. “What?”

  “The— the—” It was too wonderful. She couldn’t put it into words. She pressed her hand against his chest, hoping he would understand.

  His eyes widened. “The mate bond? You feel it, too?”

  Abigail nodded. There it was, in her heart. In the space that she now realized had always been waiting for it. A warmth, a light, like a sun inside her chest— and a glowing chain that linked her to Jasper. If she concentrated, she could feel it. If she closed her eyes…

  She could see it, stretching between their bodies. Glowing gold-bright, like the gold that had bound her during the ritual. Connecting her to him, and him to her. Forever.

  She smiled. “Too late for me to run away now.”

  Jasper narrowed his eyes mischievously. “Too late indeed.” He buried his hands in her hair. “I guess I’m stuck with you.”

  “And I’m stuck with you, dragon-man.”

  “Your dragon-man.”

  “Mine.” She liked that. God, how she liked that. “My Jasper. My mate.”

  Desire kindled in his eyes and Abigail laughed. “My mate,” Jasper echoed back at her. “Say it again.”

  “Mine.” Jasper’s eyes burned brighter, and she knew she was playing with fire. Excitement flared inside her. “My mate. My— Jasper!”

  CHAPTER 19

  Jasper

  *

  25 DECEMBER

  CHRISTMAS DAY

  “Thank God for interfering older sisters,” Jasper muttered, pulling a bag of coffee from the cupboard. Even though he’d barely spent more than a few hours in the cottage over the last week, Opal had kept the pantry fully stocked. Even the milk was fresh. Left to his own devices, Jasper knew, he would have been dining on stale bread and water.

  No longer, though. Not with his mate here. He knew what she liked; he was already planning how to re-stock the pantry when the shops opened after the holiday. All of Abigail’s favorites. And some of his own. He was sure he would be able to win her over to them.

  After all, he’d won her over to Christmas.

  He glanced over his shoulder at Abigail. She was lying stretched out on the sofa in front of the fire in the front room. They’d barely been out of each other’s arms since the afternoon before, let alone out of sight. Except for certain vital, private functions, of course.

  Jasper turned back to the counter and tipped coffee into the French press. A moment later, the soft patter of bare feet on floorboards warned him of Abigail’s approach.

  She wrapped her arms around him from behind.

  “Couldn’t stay away?”

  “Mmmm.” Abigail held him tighter, pressing her breasts against his back. “Maybe. Congratulations, you’re more interesting than the sofa.”

  “And I’m glad to hear it.” He twisted around and kissed the top of her head. “Coffee’s almost ready. How are you feeling?”

  Abigail released him and walked around to lean against the counter. Jasper’s heart glowed as he looked at her. Though, really, it had hardly stopped glowing since he claimed her.

  She was wearing a pair of his trousers, the hems rolled up around her ankles, and another of his shirts. The soft cotton hung over her curves like the garment was made for her.

  “You look beautiful,” he told her, and she wrinkled her nose. “I told you, you don’t need to be embarrassed. Everyone’s going to know—”

  “Oh God,” Abigail groaned, and Jasper laughed as she covered her face.

  “Everyone’s going to know that you’re my mate. Trust me, you having to borrow my clothes is by far the least embarrassing way the Heartwells have been introduced to a new member of the family.” He poured the coffee and added a generous dollop of cream to both cups. “After Cole’s gone to sleep, maybe I’ll convince Opal to reveal the torrid story of how she and Hank met…”

  “Opal’s your sister, right? And Hank’s your brother-in-law.” Abigail paused, a line forming between her eyebrows. “And Cole is… four?”

  “And very big on jumping on people from roofs.” Jasper held her coffee out of reach until she kissed him, grumbling. “Speaking of which, I recommend hiding behind me at all times when we’re outside.”

  “I think I can survive a four-year-old jumping on me,” Abigail retorted, blowing on her coffee to cool it. Jasper watched her lips, hypnotized. When she started to sip, he groaned aloud— making sure she could hear him.

  A vivid blush spread across her cheeks. “Stop it. We’re going to see your family in twenty minutes.” She shot a glance out the window, into the pre-dawn darkness. Then her eyes crept back to Jasper. When she saw that he was still watching her, her blush burned even more fiercely. “Hey.”

  She was frowning, but a pleased smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she sipped more coffee. Jasper leaned back against the counter, preening. He raised his hands in surrender, and started on his own coffee.r />
  Abigail’s eyes flicked over to him again, and he laughed out loud. “I shouldn’t have teased you. You’re right, we don’t have time. If we’re late, we’ll have a hundred pounds of juvenile dragon rage to deal with.”

  “A hundred pounds? What sort of four-year-old weighs ninety pounds?” Abigail’s eyes widened. “Oh. Of course. You’re pretty massive as a dragon, so Cole…”

  “…Is the size of a small pony, yes.” He waited for Abigail to work through this new fact. She grimaced, and then grinned at him.

  “Maybe I’ll hide behind you after all,” she relented. She finished her coffee and licked her lips in a way that made Jasper wish they really did have more than twenty minutes before they were meant to meet his family. “We’d better get moving if we’re going to dig my car out…”

  “We don’t need a car.”

  She snorted. “I’m not walking— oh. Oh. That isn’t the only option, is it?” She put down her cup, wonder dawning on her face. Jasper’s heart glowed as he watched her, and he stopped resisting the impulse to pull her into his arms. She buried her face in his chest and groaned. “There’s so much I’m going to need to get used to, isn’t there?”

  “Absolutely.” He kissed the top of her head.

  “Will your wings be okay? Yesterday—”

  “I told you, I’m a fast healer.” He straightened his shoulders, striking as heroic a pose as he could manage while still clasping Abigail to his chest. “Didn’t you check all my cuts and bruises already? I seem to remember you making a very detailed survey…”

  “Mmm.” Abigail bent her head back and narrowed her eyes. She traced the mark on his lip with one gentle finger. “So, what? You’re keeping this one deliberately?”

  Jasper caught her hand before she could pull it away. Her touch was too sweet to lose. Especially there.

  The cut on his lip was almost healed— but unlike his other wounds, this one was leaving a scar. This had never happened to him before. He wasn’t doing it on purpose, no matter what Abigail believed.