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“It’s also to celebrate you and the way you show right here how different types of people can come together and create a beautiful harmony,” I went on. “I wanted to honor all the many traditions that make up your kin group. So your alpha and I asked representatives from various families to bring a dish they feel showcases their unique sensibilities to add to our feast. You can find those dishes interspersed with the ones from the estate kitchens all around the room.
The guests craned their necks to peer at the serving tables with renewed interest before their gazes came back to me.
“We shifters have always come together despite our different animal natures,” I went on, “and I think it’s those differences that make us so strong together.”
A shout of agreement carried through the crowd, followed by a few whoops. I had to grin. The anxious twitch in my gut finally settled.
“Now I’d like to give the families who contributed to our meal a chance to stand up and share with everyone the thoughts that went into their chosen dish. Only if you’re not feeling too shy, of course. Who’d like to speak?”
A family of skunk shifters stood up and spoke for a minute about the history of their raspberry-glazed chicken. The brother and sister grizzlies followed, talking about the excitement of fishing their salmon out of the river near their home. Several more said their piece, until no one new stood up. My daughter squirmed, and my stomach rumbled.
“Thank you again, everyone, for making this feast even more memorable,” I said. “Now let’s eat!”
The kin held back as the alphas and I grabbed our plates and made our way to the serving tables along the edges of the room, but as soon as we’d started scooping up food, they streamed over to join us. The sight of so many different dishes, the mingling of all those delicious smells in the air, left me wishing that my daughter didn’t seem to be lying on my stomach right now, squeezing it to half its usual size.
“Eat up, mother-to-be!” Nate said with a wink, nudging me toward a roast pig. I stuck out my tongue at him, but I kept heaping food into my plate. Our little one might move in ten minutes and then I’d be starving twice as much.
“Well,” Marco said, cocking his head as he poked at a dish of shiny noodles mixed with seaweed and pumpkin seeds. “This experiment has certainly given us a wide variety of flavors, hasn’t it?”
“I’m pretty sure there’s enough food here that you can find something that suits you,” I said.
“Or maybeyoucould experiment a little and open up that refined palate of yours,” Aaron teased.
“I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of experimenting,” Marco said loftily. His nose twitched as he caught a scent. “But not when there are seared tuna steaks to be had. If you’ll excuse me…”
“He’s really never going to get over himself, is he?” West said with what looked like a barely contained eye roll.
“You should be used to him by now,” I said, bumping him along with my hip. “And, I mean, considering the patience we giveyouand your grouchy moods…”
West glowered at me, but the heat in his eyes was far from irritation. “I don’t recall any recent complaints.”
“Oh, I think you got in at least ten years’ worth of grumbling just in the first month I knew you,” I said, with an affectionate quirk of my lips. “It’s going to take a while to off-set that.”
The wolf shifter made a faint growling sound in his throat, and then he was kissing me, quick but hard. He lowered his voice. “And every day I’m thankful for your patience then, believe me.”
Marco had circled back around. “More eating dinner, less eating our princess?” he suggested in a wry tone as he brushed past us. West muttered something inaudible but clearly scathing under his breath, but he moved on.
When we returned to our table at the front, I sampled everything I’d managed to squeeze onto my plate and then dug back into my favorites. I’d heaped the plate high enough that I only made it through about half of the food before I had to sit back with my hand lower down on my belly, where my stomach was achingly full. My daughter wiggled as if eager to come out and enjoy the offerings firsthand.
Not yet, darling, I thought at her.Your time’s coming soon enough.
I had enough time to settle down from aching to just very full, and then Nate’s attendants started clearing the tables. I stood up again, holding up my arm for the attention of the gathered shifters.
“I think you were all told about the tree,” I said. “I hope you’ve brought your own item to add to it. Everyone and everything is welcome! Please come join me in the back yard.”
Evening had fallen while we were eating. In the fading light outside, the air had turned not cold but crisply cool. Close enough to winter that it wasn’t too hard to picture the massive pine Nate had chosen for our purposes as a Christmas tree. The twinkling white lights that wound around it and the glittering star at its highest peak—courtesy of Aaron—made it all the more fitting.
The shifter kin gazed up at it with gasps and murmurs, and then after a few encouraging gestures from me, they started walking right up to it and picking spots to hang the decorations they’d brought to add to our grand Christmas tree: glinting balls painted with symbols or scenes, toys and figurines hung from loops of ribbon, here and there a candy or a candle. Soon the lower branches were dappled with delights.
“I think it’s still missing something,” Nate said, his voice playful, as he considered the tree. “There’s not enough of our dragon shifter on there.”
I shot him a puzzled look, and he drew something out of his pocket with a grin. It was a silver dragon figurine, rearing on its hindlegs, fire blazing from its mouth. A black cord looped from its back. “For your strength,” my bear shifter said, and moved to add that ornament to the tree.
The other alphas were all pulling out figurines from their own coat pockets. Aaron held a dragon that was glossy white with two amber gems for eyes, its head tipped in an authoritative pose. “For your integrity,” he said, and went to find a free spot to hang it.
The dragon in Marco’s hand had been carved entirely out of a gleaming red gemstone, stretched out in flight with its wings spread. “For your passion,” he murmured, stealing a swift kiss. He hooked its cord over the tip of the highest branch he could reach.
West’s fingers tightened around his for a second before he opened them, as if he were afraid his wouldn’t live up to the others. The dragon he’d brought was whittled from a fine-grained wood, its body looping around on itself as if it were reaching toward something or someone behind it.
