Page 67 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

*Don’t ruin your clothes,*Peony warned him. *Not all of us can afford to replace our mate’s wardrobe when they run mad and transform without planning to.*

Mordecai narrowed his eyes at her mock-seriously and ducked behind the corner of the house to undress. He called on his dragon as he tucked his socks into his shoes and set them tidily against the wall.

Really? Here? Now?

We’ve been asked to help,he said, and the strange feeling inside him suddenly made sense. He’d been looking at the Fishers’ present-hunting tradition as though he was an outsider. But he wasn’t.

This is Peony’s home. But it’s mine now, too. And these are my people.

*Hurry up? Please?*Peony’s voice brushed against her mind. *I know I’ve been playing it super cool, but I REALLY want to see your dragon form.*

He acquiesced.

Snow sheeted away from him in great drifts as his dragon took form. He unfurled his wings and gloried in the brisk chill of winter air on their leathery skin, the skitter of ice sliding over his scales. He shook himself and caused a minor snowstorm.

His dragon was sinuous and long, with nimble-clawed legs and a forked tail that slithered on the garden tiles like it had a mind of its own.No wonder Peony’s cat kept chasing it,he thought. His scales gleamed moodily. They were black except for an ember-like glow at the root, almost invisible where each scale overlapped with its neighbor. Standing in front of the candy-colored Fisher house, he must have looked like a leftover from Halloween.

But none of that mattered, because Peony was gazing up at him with stars in her eyes.

Our mate likes how I look?his dragon asked.

Yes.His huge, scaly, needle-clawed, black dragon. He’d always thought it looked like the sort of creature a hero would slay, and that made it easier to build himself up as the villain. But Peony was looking at him like he was a knight in shining scales.

“Wherever we end up living, it has to be somewhere you can safely shift,” she breathed. “And where you can take me flying.”

“I don’twantto fly,” Briar protested.

“That’s okay. We’re not going to fly on Mordecai. We’re going to use him as a ladder.” She grinned at the small boy. “Watch me after I shift. I’m going to jump onto his leg and climb aaaaall the way up onto his back and then aaaaall the way up to his head, where I’m going to look around for presents. Do you want to come with me?”

“Yeah!”

Mordecai’s dragon held still as Peony and her little cousin picked their way up its back. Peony tapped her paw where Briar could find a good handhold, and Mordecai kept his wings stretched out to form a safety net if Briar lost his balance. But the little boy was as sure-footed as he was sure he didn’t want to go flying. When he reached Mordecai’s head, he sat firmly behind his horns, buzzing with excitement.

*Ready to go?*Peony asked, chirruping the same question to Briar. She laughed silently. *He’s nodding. This communication problem thing goes both ways, huh?*

With Briar as navigator, Peony as translator, and Mordecai providing the essential service of being a very long dragon who could raise his head giraffe-like to the very tops of the trees, they headed into the woods. Snow sheeted off his wings and sides as he wound through the trees. Above, the sky was full of strange and wonderful creatures. Griffins flew wing-to-wing with winged horses, huge eagles, and chimeric animals he didn’t even have a name for. Below, Iris picked her way delicately through the wintry undergrowth. The older kid with them walked ahead of her, pulling low-hanging branches out of the way of her horn, and Jessamine howled with laughter as Elaine tossed her a few feet in the air with every step.

Mordecai rehearsed what names he could remember as they wandered deeper into the woods, checking with Peony when he couldn’t match a name to a face (furry or otherwise). The silvery winged snake was Peony’s Uncle Theo; the delighted child throwing him into the branches to wind around a present was her cousin Astaria.

*Or my second cousin? Third? I can never remember how these things work.*

*I’m still trying to decide whether the floral naming scheme is helpful or not.*

*It used to be, when it was all of us from Mom’s side. But then the others started naming their kids after plants too, the cheats, and now it’s a free-for-all. Ooh! Look!*She nudged Briar with one soft paw. *I see your name on that present!*

The gift was dangling from a high branch a few trees away. Mordecai balanced himself carefully as Briar stretched forwards, using the dragon’s horns as safety handles that no OSHA office in the world would have considered compliant. “Look! That one’s for me!”

The boy’s excitement was so vivid, it was hard to believe he wasn’t already telepathic. Mordecai laughed silently—and his dragon made a soft chirrup-chuffing noise that wasitslaughter.

You’ve never done that before,he told it, amazed.

I’ve never had so much fun before! Look! Tell Peony there’s another present for Briar up ahead!

It didn’t sound resentful of the years they’d spentnothaving fun. Or the ways Mordecai had tried to make it something it wasn’t.

Of course I don’t.It sounded puzzled.If I didn’t know what I was meant to be, how could you? We were figuring it out together.It sighed happily.And then our mate figured it out for us.

17

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