Page 35 of Donner

I stayed back for a moment, wiping at the tears still stubbornly falling from my eyes.

"Derek?"

The name sounded familiar. A tiny ray of hope brightened my mood. Maybe Santa had other plans for Jax besides bringing him back to the North Pole.

I walked to the bedroom door and found Jax and a dark-haired white man about his height both staring at me.

"It's true, you found your mate!"

The other man had pointed ears. Elf. He was an elf. My brain struggled to catalog the information.

"Beau," Jax said, "this is my best friend, Derek."

I crossed the room to shake his hand. He had a friendly smile, which was on full display as he focused first on Jax, then on me.

"Fantastic!" Derek said. "You're coming with us."

Wait. What? I stared at Jax, unable to get anything above my throat, which clicked as I swallowed, to work.

"Where are we going?" Jax asked.

"To the North Pole, of course. Santa sent me to come get you. He said you needed some magical help."

I was still reeling. "I can't leave. I need to sell my mom's house and update my resume."

Derek shook his head. "It's already done. There are plenty of jobs in Christmas Village, and we just closed on the house when you shook my hand. The money is in your new bank account, and we'll take care of transferring your old account before we put you to work."

My mind was reeling. "You're … what?"

"I know, it's a lot to take in." Derek smiled at me again. Even though he was Jax's friend, it felt like he was my friend, too, like I'd known him my whole life. "We'll walk you both through it. First, do you wish Jax could be your mate?"

I met Jax's gaze and fell into it, same as I had the first night at the club. "Yes. I know he is."

"And do you wish Beau was your mate?" he asked Jax.

"Yes. He's my mate for life."

Derek nodded. "That's the strongest wish magic. I want you both to close your eyes and wish to start your new lives together as mates."

"You'd do this for us?" Jax asked.

"You are fated mates, as you said, and you're my best friend." For the first time, Derek's jovial smile turned dark and he glowered at us. "I would do whatever it takes to see you happy. Now close your eyes and wish."

I grabbed Jax's hand first. I didn't want to do something so momentous as this without a physical connection. I didn't know how magic worked, and I wouldn't risk ending up somewhere else.

"Make the wish and think about what that would look like." Beau couldn't help it. He imagined Jax playing with a passel of children, their children. "Now think your mate's name."

Wind rushed past my ears and the ground seemed to open beneath us. I still had hold of Jax's hand, but that was the only constant in my world. Everything else fell away, flew away, from the sound of it, and then the ground caught up to us again and the world shifted. The air around us felt crisper, cleaner somehow. It was still as cold as the air-conditioned suite, but this cold felt natural, not the result of air flowing over super-cooled coils.

I opened my eyes and tugged Jax's hand, pulling him into my arms. He met my gaze for a moment and then looked at our surroundings. "You're here," he breathed.

"Where is here?" I couldn't look away from his radiant face.

"My apartment."

It didn't seem dark, and the lighting, while harsh under the entryway light, looked natural as it emanated from the floor-to-ceiling wall screens. The living room wall looked like a rain forest.

"That's … not real," I said.

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