CHAPTER 15
MIZ
Ryan's words echoed in my head as I waited for my phone timer to count down three minutes.
"We're a team, no matter what happens."
I didn't know what I expected. It was far too early in our relationship for a baby. Ryan didn't know me well enough. Hell, I didn't know me well enough. I was still struggling not to be the same elf who had missed a deadline, almost started a fire in Santa's workshop, and then ditched work to attend a party.
Just when I thought I'd gotten over my obsession with videos, I found the kitten channel and spent mindless hours watching kittens play while Ellie read a book and Marshawn wandered around the living room in his ball.
Dru didn't disclose her patients' names, but she often shared something they all had in common: pregnancy brain. Each time, I joked I had that without the pregnancy. I worried it was about to get worse.
I balanced one hip against the sink and stared at my face, looking for signs. I had dark circles under my eyes and new worry lines in my forehead. I still looked young for my age, but the stress of the unknown was catching up to me.
My phone alarm made me jump. I almost knocked the little test stick into the sink. It was still upside down, thank gumdrops. "Ryan!"
He cracked the door open so quickly he must have been waiting outside.
"I don't want to look at it alone," I admitted.
"I'm right here, omega mine."
He entered the room, closing the door behind him. It was a tight fit for both of us between the sink and the bathtub. Ryan straddled my legs, wrapped his arms around my waist, and dropped his chin to my shoulder. I turned the test stick over with shaking hands. Two blue lines.
"We're having a baby!" Ryan kissed a spot on my neck hard enough to leave a bruise. Then he picked me up and spun me around in his arms. "We're having a baby!"
"Technically, I think I'm supposed to handle that part." I tossed the stick in the garbage can and washed my hands, doing my best to ignore the absolute joy on his face.
"But you're not alone. I'm here!"
"We're a team," I said, repeating his absurd words from earlier.
"We're more than a team," he whispered. "We're fated mates."
We were, but Ryan hadn't marked me yet. He didn't know yet if he wanted to keep me forever. Honestly, I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't want to keep me, either.
He nuzzled the spot on my neck he'd bruised a moment ago, and I wondered if he was thinking about my absent mark, too.
I shrieked when he picked me up by my ass. I wrapped my arms and legs around him. I don't know where I expected him to take me, but I yelped in surprise when I hit the bed.
"There's something missing." Ryan nibbled at the spot on my neck as he leaned over me. "Right here."
He made quick work of my clothes, stripping me down and propping my hips on a towel-covered pillow.
"Are we really doing this?" I asked. He'd just gotten home from work. It wasn't even time for dinner yet.
"I want to set a good example for Ellie, and I can't keep a secret to save my life." He chuckled. "I'm going to mark you, and then we're going to tell her about the baby when I take you both out for dinner."
"Did you at least lock the door?" I asked.
"Yes."
He kissed me, muffling my laughter in my throat until he silenced it completely with his tongue. He was such a good kisser. Every time, I swooned, lost to the sensations until he dropped his hands to my ass, kneading my cheeks apart. I was already slick and ready for him, and he slid inside me without any preamble.
Without the prep, his cock already felt as thick as his knot. I loved the way it dragged against my prostate. In no time at all, I was close, the anticipation of his bite driving me ever closer to release.
A thought sobered me. "Should I bite you, too?" I didn't know if elves marked their mates or not. Some primal part of me was drawn to bite down on his firm peck, right above his nipple.
"Yes." He growled in my ear and pressed my cock against his ridged abdominal muscles.
I couldn't hold back when he nailed my prostate again and sent me over the edge. I bit down, and he brayed, his face partially shifting to his moose snout, giving him the reach he needed. He bit my shoulder above the clavicle, breaking the skin around the tendons there.
I tasted the coppery sweetness of his blood in my mouth. Then, the peppermint brush of Christmas Village magic washed over me and blended with the musky heat that gave Ryan the ability to shift into his beast. Hot and cold magic twisted together around us and filled my bite and his. I held onto his shoulders and squinted my eyes shut as the world spun around us.
Ryan's knot stretched me further than it ever had before, filling me up to an almost uncomfortable thickness and pressing hard against my prostate. Wiggling my hips was enough movement to send me careening back into bliss, my cock spurting between us a second time.
"Fuck, omega mine," Ryan whispered, kissing the already healed spot on my neck. "That was …"
Several words came to mind. Earth shattering. Mind bending. Incredible.
"I don't even have words for it," Ryan said. "You've blown my mind. No words left."
I laughed and kissed the spot where I'd bitten him. It was also healed over from his fast shifter metabolism, but a silvery scar remained. "I marked you. Will it stick?"
"Yes." His knot had loosened enough for him to roll off me. "The magic set my mark and yours."
He covered his bite with his hand and gazed at me with so much adoration, I could almost believe I was more than a screw-up who had been kicked out of the North Pole.