All I Want For Christmas Is My Mating Stone Read online

  A glow­ing beak bar­reled to­ward Mack, and Kyran stabbed it when it was in strik­ing range. Feath­ers flew, and a screech rent the air be­fore the Wak­iti tum­bled down­ward. An­other one landed on Mack’s head, and she jumped to her feet, stand­ing on the dragon’s back. Arms flail­ing, she tried to knock the crea­ture off her head, but its claws were tan­gled in her hair.

  “Doona move,” Kyran or­dered as he tried to grab the crea­ture, but Mack was mov­ing around too much.

  She yanked the Wak­iti out of her hair, and tossed it away, but the move­ment threw off her bal­ance, and she fell off Leg­ette’s back. Kyran’s heart stopped as he watched her fall to­ward the ground.

  “Leg­ette!” Kyran shouted and pointed down­ward.

  “I see her. Hold on,” the dragon or­dered then lunged down­ward. Kyran’s hands grap­pled for some­thing to se­cure his hold, and latched onto some scales be­fore he joined Mack in the air.

  Kyran couldn’t see Mack’s body as she dis­ap­peared into the dark abyss be­low, and he pan­icked. They weren’t that high off the ground. It wouldn’t take long for her to fall to her death.

  “Where is she?” Kyran yelled as he looked in ev­ery di­rec­tion. “Mack!” he shouted at the top of his lungs but there was no re­ply. His body sud­denly jos­tled, and he prayed it wasn’t Leg­ette reach­ing for Mack, and miss­ing.

  “Mack!” he shouted again, his voice crack­ing with emo­tion.

  “I’m right be­hind you, leech!” replied Mack, and it was the sweet­est in­sult he’d ever heard. Kyran looked over his shoul­der to see Mack perched on Nate’s back, and smil­ing his di­rec­tion. “You’re not get­ting rid of me that eas­ily.”

  Re­lief washed over Kyran. If any­thing had hap­pened to her, he didn’t know what he’d do. His life would mean noth­ing if she weren’t in it.

  “Doona ever do that again, mate,” he scolded as his heart­beat re­turned to nor­mal. “Thank you, Nate. I owe you one.”

  “Can I get that in writ­ing?” Nate an­swered then re­leased a stream of fire, bar­be­cu­ing the re­main­ing Wak­iti. His mas­sive snout widened, and the dragon de­voured them midair. “Tasty lit­tle fuck­ers.”

  Kyran felt a painful burn in his shoul­der where the crea­ture had stung him. “Is this shite sup­posed to hurt?” he asked Leg­ette.

  “For a day, or so. You’ll have a rash, as well. Keira will have oint­ment that soothes the pain. Don’t be such a baby,” Leg­ette told Kyran.

  Up ahead, Kyran spot­ted the cas­tle, Tata­nen. Home of King An­gus and Queen Keira. They were also Izzy’s guardians, which was the rea­son for their visit. Hope­fully, the Vam­pire Princess could help them lo­cate the miss­ing mat­ing stones. Oth­er­wise, this trip was a waste of pre­cious time.

  6

  “Aun­tie Mack!” squealed Izzy. Mack couldn’t climb off Leg­ette fast enough. It had been too long since she’d seen her niece, and de­spite the ur­gency to find the stones, Mack was elated to visit with her.

  “Iso­bel!” she cried out and rushed to­ward the dark-haired girl.

  Izzy threw her arms around Mack’s neck, and hugged tight. “I’m so happy you’re here. I haven’t slept a wink since An­gus told me you were com­ing.”

  “What am I? Chopped liver,” Kyran’s deep voice in­truded as he ap­proached them.

  “Of course not, Un­cle Kyran,” Izzy re­torted as she pulled away from Mack and em­braced Kyran. “I was sav­ing the best for last,” she mut­tered and winked at Mack.

  Good Lord, Mack thought as she eyed the princess. Her body was chang­ing to that of a woman, and her tight jeans and t-shirt only ac­cen­tu­ated her curves.

  “Girl­friend, I can­not be­lieve how much you’ve grown. You’re as tall as me. What are they feed­ing you?” she teased as she slipped off her back­pack and un­zipped the main com­part­ment. “I hope this fits you,” she ex­plained as she pulled out a red t-shirt.

  Izzy took the gar­ment and un­folded it. She glanced at the de­sign and laughed. “It’s per­fect. Thank you so much,” she gushed as she held the shirt over her blos­som­ing chest. In black let­ters, it read ‘You can take the girl out of the Tehrex Realm, but you can’t take the Tehrex Realm out of the girl.’

  “Don’t want you to for­get your roots,” Mack de­clared with a smile. “Ev­ery­one sends their love, Iz. It’s not the same at Zeum with­out you.”

  Izzy met her gaze, and Mack watched beau­ti­ful blue orbs mist over. “I love the shirt, and I’ll cher­ish it al­ways. I miss all of you so much, Aunt Mack, but I re­ally love it here. Khoth is awe­some, and An­gus and Keira have been great,” she re­layed as the king and queen walked out of the cas­tle to­ward their group.

  Mack re­called Kyran telling her about An­gus when they first met. An­gus left Khoth when Keira went miss­ing, and later dis­cov­ered the por­tal was sealed, pro­hibit­ing his re­turn home. He was trapped on earth for a mil­len­nium, search­ing for his beloved Keira when Zan­der of­fered him a home and a fam­ily. It wasn’t un­til Mack and Kyran ac­ci­den­tally slipped through a hid­den por­tal to Khoth that An­gus re­turned to his king­dom. Of course, An­gus’s hap­pi­est mo­ment was when he found Keira, and made her his queen.

  Leg­ette, Lorne, and Nate joined the re­union, and greet­ings and hugs were ex­changed by all.

  “Let’s take this in­side. You men­tioned your visit will be verra short,” An­gus ad­vised and mo­tioned the group to­ward the cas­tle.

  Mack wished their trip called for cel­e­bra­tion. Un­for­tu­nately, it didn’t, and the clock was tick­ing. Mack couldn’t risk any­thing hap­pen­ing to Elsie’s baby.

  She fol­lowed Kyran and An­gus into the mas­sive stone struc­ture, and im­me­di­ately re­called her time at Tata­nen. Count­less mem­o­ries were made, along with, friend­ships that would last a life­time.

  They walked through the spa­cious en­try­way and made their way to the for­mal din­ing room. The long ta­ble was piled with enough food to feed an army, and Mack’s stom­ach growled at the sight. She ac­knowl­edged she’d eaten very lit­tle since dis­cov­er­ing her stone was miss­ing and hoped she could man­age to eat with­out feel­ing nau­seous.

  As ev­ery­one took a seat, two kids en­tered the room. “Blaze, Josie, come in and join us. Blaze, you re­mem­ber Mack and Kyran, doona you?” An­gus asked the boy with bright-green hair and turquoise-col­ored eyes. He was the spit­ting im­age of Keira, but Mack saw An­gus in his fa­cial fea­tures. While he looked older than Izzy there was some­thing that told Mack he was still a young dragon.

  “Of course,” Blaze an­swered. “It’s nice to see you again,” he added and took a seat be­side Izzy.

  “Blaze, I canna be­lieve how you’ve grown. You were this high the last time I saw you,” Kyran ac­knowl­edged as he held his hand a few feet off the ground.

  “Yes, he hit a growth spurt re­cently, and I can’t keep clothes on the boy be­cause he out­grows them so quickly,” Keira ad­mit­ted as the lit­tle girl crawled into her lap.

  “Geez, Mom,” Blaze scoffed with a roll of his eyes. Yep, teenagers were all the same, Mack thought as she pe­rused the var­i­ous items of food. The smell of torc per­me­ated the room, and she re­mem­bered when Nate cooked it for her and Kyran. The large an­i­mal re­sem­bled a wild hog, but the meat tasted more like roast beef. It was de­li­cious, and her mouth wa­tered for a taste.

  “Mommy, can I have some cake?” the lit­tle girl asked as she eyed the desserts near her.

  “Af­ter you eat some torc and veg­eta­bles,” Keira replied as she made a plate for Josie.

  “I don’t be­lieve I’ve met you, Miss Josie. What beau­ti­ful eyes you have,” Mack said as she stared at the girl’s light-green eyes. “They’re just like your Dad’s.”

  “Daddy calls me Fire­ball be­cause my flames are the hottest,” she mut­tered then opened her tiny mouth. A stream of f
ire shot into the air, and Mack prayed she didn’t set the ta­pes­tries on fire.

  “Josie, what have we told you about flames in­side the house?” Keira scolded, and Josie looked at Mack sheep­ishly and grinned. Yeah, she was a Fire­ball, al­right.

  “Well, you should come sit by me be­cause Kyran calls me Fire­cracker. We’re prac­ti­cally sis­ters,” Mack shared with a wink. Josie looked at her mom, seek­ing ap­proval, and when Keira nod­ded the lit­tle girl climbed off her lap and grabbed her plate then dashed to the empty chair be­side Mack.

  “Wine?” Keira of­fered and Mack and Kyran nod­ded si­mul­ta­ne­ously.

  “Aye. In fact, we need a cou­ple of bot­tles to take home. We’re al­most oot of the pen­quino, and it’s aboot the only wine I’ll drink now. I’m spoiled,” Kyran con­fessed as Keira filled his gob­let to the rim with the red liq­uid. “Oh, Leg­ette men­tioned you have oint­ment for Wakati stings,” Kyran added, and rubbed his shoul­der.

  “Oh, did you get stung? I hate those things. We have a spray we ap­ply at night. It’s made with tar­ragon, which de­ters them. But, yes, I’ve got some cream that I’ll grab for you,” Keira of­fered, and ex­cused her­self.

  “Please, ev­ery­one, help your­selves to the food,” An­gus in­structed with a sweep of his hand.

  “Look, I hate to be a Debby Downer, but we re­ally need Izzy’s help. The sooner, the bet­ter,” Mack pro­claimed, and the at­mos­phere quickly turned somber.

  “Why? What’s hap­pened?” the Vam­pire Princess asked then her eyes widened as panic flashed across her face. “Are Mom and the baby okay?”

  Mack stared at Izzy cu­ri­ously. Did she have pre­mo­ni­tions like her mom? “Why would you ask me that?”

  “It was just a guess, I sup­pose. Am I right? Tell me what’s go­ing on,” she de­manded, and her blue eyes turned se­ri­ous. Mack saw Zan­der in her strong per­son­al­ity. She was go­ing to be a for­mi­da­ble princess when she got older, Mack ac­knowl­edged.

  She thought about where to be­gin and re­leased a heavy breath. “Long story short, I no­ticed a few days ago that my mat­ing stone was gone. Come to find out, all the stones have dis­ap­peared. Since then, strange things have hap­pened, and we be­lieve it’s be­cause of the miss­ing stones,” Mack in­formed Izzy and the oth­ers.

  “What kind of strange things?” An­gus in­ter­jected as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  Keira re­turned with a small con­tainer and handed it to Kyran as Mack con­tin­ued. “Well, for starters, I was in­jured dur­ing bat­tle, mainly be­cause I kept miss­ing my tar­get,” Mack ex­plained bit­terly. It still pissed her off that a piece of shit skirm bested her in a fight.

  “That doesna sound like you,” An­gus re­marked with a shake of his head.

  “Right? Then, I saw Tori, and her wing is caus­ing un­bear­able pain again. Her stone pro­tected her wing. But the worst part is…Elsie,” Mack di­vulged then paused. The last thing she wanted to do was up­set Izzy.

  “What? What hap­pened to Mom?” Iso­bel blurted as panic crossed her face. “Tell me!”

  “The baby was dis­tressed, but don’t worry,” Mack in­stantly re­as­sured. “Jace healed the baby, and both are fine. He put your mom on bed rest for the next few days, and he’s keep­ing a close eye on them.

  “Oh, that’s ter­ri­ble!” Keira in­ter­jected as her hand flew to her chest. “Is there any­thing we can do?”

  “No, but I’m hop­ing Izzy can,” Mack replied and hated the way her voice cracked. Her emo­tions were get­ting the best of her, and she didn’t know how to con­trol them.

  She felt an arm wrap around her shoul­der and glanced to Kyran. He al­ways knew when she needed him most. There was no greater bless­ing than a Fated Mate. He was her other half, in ev­ery sense of the word. Their souls in­ter­twined and that com­bi­na­tion resided in each of them. It en­sured they knew the other bet­ter than they knew them­selves. He was her se­cu­rity blan­ket, and she cher­ished him.

  “That’s aw­ful. But I don’t un­der­stand. How can I help?” Izzy asked with a fur­rowed brow.

  “We need to con­tact the God­dess,” Kyran in­ter­jected. “She’s the only one that can guide us to them, or tell us what to do,” he ex­plained.

  The color drained from Izzy’s face as she lis­tened to Kyran speak, and Mack’s heart dropped to her stom­ach. In­stinct told her Izzy’s re­ac­tion was a bad sign. “I’m afraid that’s im­pos­si­ble,” Izzy de­clared with a frown.

  “Why? You’re the amulet. A di­rect con­nec­tion to Mor­ri­gan,” Kyran coun­tered and Mack sensed his frus­tra­tion.

  “I’ve tried sev­eral times to con­tact her, but she hasn’t re­sponded. Maybe she can’t reach me on Khoth,” Izzy pos­tu­lated then bowed her head in shame.

  “Hey, Iz. That can’t be the case. The God­dess came to me dur­ing our mat­ing cer­e­mony here on Khoth. She spoke in my mind,” Mack ex­plained with a small smile. “I’m cer­tain she can hear you.”

  “Then I must’ve up­set her. Maybe she’s mad that I left the Tehrex Realm, and my fam­ily,” Izzy mut­tered as tears filled her eyes.

  She was be­com­ing a young woman, but Izzy was far from be­ing ma­ture, Mack thought as she pulled Izzy into an em­brace. She couldn’t imag­ine what life was like for her. Her small shoul­ders car­ried such a heavy bur­den.

  “I se­ri­ously doubt that, Iz. The God­dess knows you had to leave. You weren’t safe, and your par­ents would never for­give them­selves if any­thing hap­pened to you. The God­dess would never hold you ac­count­able for some­thing that’s out of your con­trol,” Mack ex­plained as she com­forted Izzy.

  “I hope you’re right,” Iso­bel replied and sat back in her chair. She wiped a tear that es­caped and straight­ened her shoul­ders. “I’ll try again,” she an­nounced, and Mack re­leased a breath she didn’t re­al­ize she’d been hold­ing.

  Sud­denly, two gnomes en­tered the din­ing room, and rushed to Izzy’s side. “Princess Iso­bel, we sensed your sad­ness and came right away. Who has up­set you? We’ll be­head the dread­ful neme­sis,” Pep­per de­clared with a snarl.

  “Yeah, just point them out,” Dip­ple sneered as he looked around the room of guests.

  “Hi, guys,” Mack said with a wave. She hadn’t seen the two mis­chief-mak­ers since they left Zeum to visit Izzy. They were pains in the ass most days, but com­pletely de­voted to Iso­bel.

  Dressed in black trousers, and green and blue striped shirts, the gnomes re­minded Mack of the pen­cil top­pers she played with as a kid. She loved twirling the stick be­tween her palms and watch­ing the red hair swirl in a wild mess. Pep­per and Dip­ple would be con­sid­ered cute and cud­dly, if not for the rows of jagged teeth that filled their wide mouths. Luck­ily, they were harm­less crea­tures, for the most part.

  “Mack­endra,” Pep­per ex­claimed and threw his palm up for a high-five. She slapped his tiny hand, and of­fered the ges­ture to Dip­ple, too.

  “Oh, great! It’s Dumb and Dumber,” Nate scoffed as he shoved a leg of torc into his mouth. Nate wasn’t a fan of the small men that lived at Zeum. Prob­a­bly be­cause it was his re­spon­si­bil­ity to keep them in line, which was no easy feat.

  “Ah, blow it out your gazoo,” Dip­ple coun­tered then picked up a sherulla and threw it as Nate. The dragon shifter caught it mid-air and took a large bite out of the fruit. Mack re­called it tasted like straw­ber­ries and was de­li­cious in smooth­ies.

  “Now, what has Princess Iso­bel so up­set?” Pep­per asked as his big blue eyes re­mained fixed on Izzy.

  “Mack and Kyran asked me to con­tact the God­dess, and I was telling them that I’ve tried, but she hasn’t re­sponded. And, they re­ally need to speak with her,” Izzy ex­plained to the short gnome.

  “Why do you need to con­tact God­dess Mor­ri­gan?” Dip­ple asked cu­ri­ously.

  “The mat
­ing stones have dis­ap­peared, we don’t know where they could be, and we’re hop­ing Mor­ri­gan has an­swers,” Mack re­layed in one long sen­tence. Her pa­tience was wear­ing thin, and she didn’t have time to ex­plain their dilemma to ev­ery per­son that walked into the room.

  “Mat­ing stones. Aren’t those the pretty gem­stones that match the eyes of the Fated males?” Pep­per in­quired as he scratched his head.

  “Yes, ex­actly. They’re very spe­cial, and we need to find them. Elsie al­most lost the baby,” Mack snapped. “Now, if you two don’t mind, Izzy was go­ing to try and con­nect with the God­dess.”

  “Um, Pep­per? We should prob­a­bly go,” Dip­ple stam­mered and started back­ing his way out of the din­ing room, tug­ging the other gnome with him.

  Pep­per shrugged him off and planted his feet firmly. “No. I want to see this. Plus, Princess Iso­bel needs us right now.”

  Mack glanced to Dip­ple, and no­ticed the gnome was act­ing ner­vous. He was gnaw­ing on his lip and look­ing in ev­ery di­rec­tion but hers. And then it dawned on her. Gnomes were no­to­ri­ous for tak­ing any­thing that sparkled. She couldn’t count how many times she’d found her stash of rhine­stones amongst their hid­den trea­sures. And, the gnomes had been in Khoth for a few months, which fit the time­frame of the miss­ing stones.

  “Dip­ple, do you know some­thing about the miss­ing mat­ing stones?” Mack ques­tioned as she glared at the gnome.

  “Noooo,” he replied, but wouldn’t look at her.

  “Dip­ple?” she asked again, and the pitch in her voice rose three oc­taves.

  With­out warn­ing, Dip­ple turned and fled from the room. Mack stood so fast her chair top­pled to the floor. “Catch that Oompa Loompa!” she yelled then chased af­ter Dip­ple.

  Gnomes were fast. So fast Mack could barely keep up with him. She heard the oth­ers hot on her heels then Kyran flashed past her, and tack­led Dip­ple to the ground. The gnome squirmed in his grip, but Kyran held him in place. “Tell us where the stones are, or Nate will char­coal your lit­tle arse,” he growled.