Page 35 of Arctic Panda's Secret Mate
Underneath the insulation, resting on the anvil, he found a single strip of lightweight aluminum. There were tin snips on the workbench where he hadn’t seen them before, and an awl. Tristan looked at them skeptically for a moment, then cut the strip into a few petals, used the awl to punch holes, and strung them into a perfectly suitable flower, pinching everything into place with needle-nosed pliers.
By the time he was finished, he was stumbling with exhaustion, his fingertips were screaming in pain, and his eyes were badly strained from working in the poor light, but Tristan felt like he had something he could give Haisley for Christmas without shaming himself. He left the garage and shut the door behind him before him before he thought about finding a vase for his flower gift. Surely the garage had an old jar or a bit of tubing he could use…
The door was locked behind him.
Tristan tested it several times, putting all of his shifter strength into trying to open the latch, and it didn’t budge at all.
31
HAISLEY
Haisley woke in an empty bed.
It took her a moment to identify what woke her as the sound of someone bustling around in the dining room, and a moment longer to remember what she and Tristan had done the night before.
A little flush of remembered pleasure ran through her.
It was Christmas, she recalled then, just as someone in the dining room burst into quiet Christmas song. She recognized the voice as someone that Corkscrew Guy called Darling. She was joined in the chorus by the mountainous chef from the kitchen.
Haisley was not sure she had ever felt so alone.
She got dressed and listened through the wall wistfully as they talked about their Christmas morning plans. Pastries. Presents. A breakfast spread.
Then the outside door slammed shut and someone stomped their feet.
“Oh, Tristan!” Chef called down the hall.
Haisley’s heart raced faster. Tristan couldn’t come byher room without betraying her now, and he’d promised not to do that. Where had he been?
“Ah, Chef! You’re up early!”
“Not as early as you, and I can see thatyou’vebeen busy all night.”
Haisley flushed, then realized that the chef must be talking about all the cookies they had baked; they’d left the gift boxes out on the counter.
“Oh, right. I was going to put them under the tree,” Tristan said. “With the other gifts, you know.”
“When are we going to meet her?” Darling asked in a teasing voice.
“Her?” Tristan’s voice was very close to Haisley’s door, and she could hear how alarmed he was.
“Your mate!” Chef boomed. “You can’t possibly believe that you’ve kept her hidden all this time! Unless you’ve suddenly become a carnivore.”
“It is very hard to bake macaroons this beautiful,” Darling chided. “And you could barely manage the oven controls when we got here.”
“Not that I blame you for keeping her to yourself while you can,” Corkscrew Guy said rakishly. “I mean, we know that she’d be all over me the moment we met. Who could help themselves?”
“Breck,” Darling scolded him. “Be nice to Tristan. You wouldn’t steal his mate. Tristan, no one is going to steal your mate. We just want to meet them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tristan lied boldly, and Haisley loved him for the effort.
The charade had gone on long enough. Haisley hoped her hair didn’t look too wild, gave it one hopeless pat, and opened her door.
“I asked him to keep me a secret,” she confessed as she walked into the dining room.
Darling was very beautiful, with strawberry blonde hair and a dust of freckles over her perfect face. Breck was as good looking as he obviously thought he was, with dark hair and a sly smile. Chef was even more intimidating from the front.
Haisley put her chin up, but walked boldly into the dining room. “I’m Haisley. I am not supposed to be here and I’m very sorry for hiding, but I didn’t want to get fired. Finding out that you were shifters was much better than thinking you were nudist exotic animal smugglers.”
