Naughty Elf: Mistletoe (Santa’s Naughty Elf Mates)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

MIZ

I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Winter dragged on, Ryan and Ellie started family therapy, and we went out to dinner three more times in the wet and dreary Minnesota winter and early spring. I couldn't call them dates, exactly, but I loved listening as Ryan shared the details of his therapy sessions and the progress he and Ellie made.

I tried to make good use of my time by taking pictures of everything I didn't recognize and looking them up on my phone. I also researched phrases I didn't know. When no one else was around, I resorted to asking my phone assistant.

I'd learned plenty from watching my favorite streaming shows, but then I fell down the rabbit hole of short how-to videos and cooking shows, and I was hooked.

I limited my phone time to one hour per day, at least, that was my goal. I was learning so much, but I didn't want to lose time with Ryan and Ellie. They needed me to brighten their days as much as I needed them to brighten mine after learning how much I didn't know.

April didn't seem much better than January. The meteorologist on the morning news said the temperatures had improved, but the warmer air was full of moisture. The dampness seeped into my clothes and chilled my skin in a way I'd never felt at the North Pole. I was not a fan.

Finally, the weather turned from rain and damp to sun and warmth. Ellie and I played outside until dinner most days. Instead of using the play animals, we pretended we were a unicorn princess and a dragon.

The first time Ellie dragged me out into the woods, I thought we were trespassing on some unsuspecting farmer's property, but both she and Ryan assured me they owned the wooded acreage behind their house. It stretched from their cul-de-sac all the way to the highway.

I worried I would get us lost out there. When I told Dru, she laughed and told me to download the latest maps application. "There's a cell tower across the highway. You're too close to civilization to get lost back there."

Ryan went outside more frequently after dinner while I helped Ellie get ready for bed. He stayed out there for over an hour at a time, sneaking inside to listen to my bedtime stories.

Ellie and I quickly ran through the books she'd amassed. I made the mistake of telling her a story I made up when we ran out of books, and it stuck. She wanted to hear a new story every night, the same as Scheherazade's lover.

Ryan also seemed captivated by the stories. He sat on the other side of Ellie's bed from me while I read. Sometimes, I thought I saw desire in his gaze, but he fled the room as soon as Ellie fell asleep, leaving me to tidy her shelves and make sure she had clothes picked out for the following school day.

Warm days followed warm days until Ellie had only one week of school left. Her last day of school was also a date night with Ryan.

I wasn't surprised when Ryan asked Ellie to come with us to celebrate. Disappointed, but I half-expected it. Ryan loved his daughter, and she had worked hard this semester. She'd brought up her math grade from a B- to an A.

In a note on the back of the report card, Ellie's teacher wrote she was struggling with reading. I wished I'd known sooner. I wouldn't have stopped reading her books and letting her follow along. Whenever I tried to return to her hardcover book collection, she refused to look at them, or me, until I reverted to a story from my own imagination.

If I had to write them down so she could learn her words, I would do it. I wouldn't have as much time now that she was home from school, but she got one hour of educational television before dinner each day. I could use that time to write a few words on my phone.

When I told Ryan my plan, he balked at the idea of me writing my stories longhand. "Why not buy a laptop?"

He was serious. He didn't understand the deep level of temptation that would be for me.

"If I had a laptop, I would browse the internet all day instead of writing."

"I've seen how passionate you are about your stories," he said.

I was about to argue, but then he showed me his web browser on his phone. The device in the image had a keyboard and a screen like a laptop, but the screen was black and white without any back-light. It looked more like a piece of paper than a screen. Around the image, text boxes explained the benefits. "No distractions. No eye strain. Hours of productivity."

"That's interesting," I said. It was cheaper than a laptop, too.

"It might take a few weeks to get here. You can write in your notebook until then," he teased.

We were still seated at the table after Ellie's last day of school. She was long gone to her room to get in a couple hours of playing before our dinner reservation.

"I wanted to talk to you about something else," Ryan said before I got too lost in my phone search for the electronic notebook he'd showed me.

"Yeah?"

"My therapist and I think I might be ready to try dating again, now that it's been three years."

The anniversary of John's death had been in April, and it was my hardest day so far while staying with them. I'd wanted to comfort them, but it was much more important for them to comfort each other. Instead, I sat between them on the couch while we watched a sad movie and they both cried and cried. Afterward, they hugged each other and me. We ate big bowls of ice cream in the kitchen before we all went to our separate beds, exhausted.

If Ryan's therapist thought he was ready to date again after that, who was I to judge?

"I was wondering if you?—"

"I'm free next Friday." I couldn't help myself. "Every Friday, really. Whenever you are." Yes, I sounded desperate, but I didn't care.

"I—" He cleared his throat. "I thought you would be more interested in finding your fated mate. The fae snowbirds down the street are coming home next week."

He still didn't know he was my fated mate. I thought shifters had better sense about these things. Dru had made it as clear as she could without spelling it out for him, but that had been months ago, when he wasn't ready to date anyone, especially not his fated mate.

I sighed. "You want to date someone else?"

"No, I—" He sighed. "I'm failing miserably here. I want to date you, but I don't want to keep you from finding your fated mate. You have my blessing to date someone else, if you want."

"You want my blessing, too?" I asked. "It's only fair. The clause in our contract says we both need to consent." I didn't want him to date anyone but me. Knowing my face's superpower to display my every unfiltered emotion, no matter how tight I kept my lips sealed, I was sure he knew it, too.

He smiled. "Great. It's settled."

"But you'll date me next Friday?" I asked.

"Sure!"

I wanted to be happy about it, but his quick response sounded more like consolation than true excitement. So what if it was a pity date? I'd take whatever I could get.

Ellie's celebration dinner was a blast after our awkward talk. It wasn't that I was less awkward around Ellie, but she found a way to make my awkwardness seem cool. Enviable, even.

Several times during dinner, I caught Ryan giving me heated stares when he thought I wasn't looking. I felt like I was in a romantic comedy because every time I turned my head, he looked away. The only telltale sign I'd caught him was the trace of red across his cheeks, though it sometimes blended too well with his sparkling stubble.

A week later, the unbridled passion in those looks was all I could think about. I wanted to ask him about it on our date, possibly our last before Ryan decided to start seeing other people. He was ready to move on, and I feared it would be without me.

The last Friday in May was the nicest day yet, with the temperature in the seventies. Ryan suggested walking to the late-night diner near Ellie's school after we dropped Ellie off at Dru's house for some s'mores and ghost stories.

I tried to take Ryan's hand as we walked down the street, but he pulled away to wave at a couple sitting on their porch. "Juice! You're back early!"

We elves had weird names, but this was the first time I'd heard Juice as a name.

"Hi Ryan! Did you miss us that much?" An ageless female fae with long pink hair waved back.

"I was hoping to talk to you about my friend, here. He thinks his fated mate might be around here somewhere."

She blinked hard at him and then grinned at me. "Oh dear. Or should I say, oh deer?" She winked.

"Deer?" He glanced at me, and then back at her.

Another beautiful fae with a carnation red pixie hairdo swished through the front door with a pitcher of lemonade and two full glasses on a wooden serving tray.

"Fated mates," she said under her breath.

"The moose doesn't know," Juice responded.

"Doesn't know what?" Ryan asked.

"I'm Cherry, dear," the redhead said, extending her hand over the porch railing for me to shake.

"Miz."

"Ryan, you can help him find his fated mate," Juice said over our introductions. "Your beast will know."

"That's wonderful news," I said, turning back to him.

He wanted to stay and chat, but the longer we stayed, the more I worried Cherry would give away my secret. Santa hadn't said so, but I had a feeling Ryan needed to learn we were fated mates on his own.

I dragged Ryan past their house, saying, "We don't want to be late. Thanks so much for your help!"

"I'm not sure I can help." Ryan's hand settled in mine as we continued down the street. "My moose doesn't know what to think of you. You're all swirls and images to him."

Ryan knew his beast better than I did. Who was I to argue? I hoped eventually his moose would tell him what the other shifters and fae in the neighborhood could sense a mile off. Dru didn't even have to see us together to know we were fated.

I bet Santa was watching my progress in a snow globe while he enjoyed his summer vacation. If he was, I had a feeling he was laughing.

I immediately loved the little diner Ryan chose. It was small but spotless. The stainless-steel napkin dispenser reflected our side profiles when I wasn't staring right at it. My cheeks were slightly flushed, same as always when Ryan was nearby.

He ordered a burger, fries, and a milkshake, and I did the same. The food arrived so fast, we'd barely had a chance to discuss more than Ryan's day at work. We ate in comfortable silence.

I didn't want the night to end so soon. I was relieved when Ryan asked our server to list the dessert menu. He asked for key lime pie, and I ordered a slice of caramel apple.

Once they arrived, we fell into an easy rhythm of questions and answers starting with desserts and working our way through favorite subjects in school, which led to a discussion of how different my school was from his. We kept our voices low, not wanting to disturb the surrounding tables with talk about the North Pole and moose herds.

Ellie's school had its own differences. We shared stories about how we had both misunderstood at least one of Ellie's homework assignments. Ellie wanted to be a teacher someday, and she would be a good one, as patient as she was when describing her assignments to the two hapless adults in her life.

Before we knew it, the moon had risen high in the sky, our server had left for the night, and the lone cook behind the counter kept glaring at us and then staring at their watch.

"We should probably get home," Ryan said. "Dru's keeping Ellie until tomorrow, so we can continue the conversation there."

"I'll make hot chocolate," I offered. Ryan loved my hot chocolate. He once tried to convince me his powdered stuff was faster, but he had actual candy bars in his pantry, and real chocolate was always better.

We left the cook a hefty tip to split with our server and walked home. The night was still warm, but not warm enough for bugs. I slipped my hand into Ryan's again and we walked home shoulder to shoulder.

The hot chocolate tasted sweeter hours after the tart pie apples. We sat on the couch, gravitating closer to each other as we leaned forward to set our drinks down on the coffee table or pick them up. I felt an electric shock go up my leg the moment his knee made contact with mine, and then our gazes met.

"I wish I was your fated mate," he whispered.

"Do you want to shift tonight, to see what your moose tells you?"

He shook his head. "No. I'd rather not know tonight. If my moose tells me there's someone else out there for you, it will be hard enough to let you go." He sighed. "Is it wrong of me to say I don't give a shit about fate tonight?"

"Not wrong."

"I want you." He leaned in, sniffing my neck, my ear, and the top of my head.

"What's stopping you?"

If he said fate, so help me, I was going to drag him outside and force him to shift, so his moose would tell him we were fated once and for all.

"Not a damn thing." He lifted my chin, angling my head toward his.

"Good, because I want you, too."

His lips were soft against mine and tasted of chocolate and cedar.

I'd dreamed of this moment, of kissing him, but I'd never imagined how wonderful it would feel. He licked the seam of my lips and I opened for him.

When he slotted our mouths together, all the weirdly aligned puzzle pieces that had made me feel so awkward and out of place at the North Pole realigned and righted themselves. This was who I was supposed to be, Ryan's partner and mate. I'd been an elf and omega my entire life, but now I was his omega elf mate, and it all made sense.

If only he could see us the same way.