Page 69 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

Mordecai’s grandmother landed on the forecourt. Her dragon form was as elegantly sinuous as his, but her scales were a deeper blood-red, and her horns curled back from her head like a ram’s.

Her voice thundered into Peony’s mind. It tasted of ash and rust, the same scent that had pervaded her home. *Here you are. Good. I hoped to find you before you got too far.*

She’s speaking as though he’s running away,Peony thought, and outrage sizzled in her veins. As though now that Mordecai had given up on her toxic plans for him, he would scurry away like a mouse, not the noble dragon that he was.

“Grandmother.” Mordecai’s voice was calm. If Peony hadn’t been holding his hand as they stood together on the porch, she wouldn’t have had any idea of the tremor of tension running through his frame. “Merry Christmas.”

Disbelief and the taste of ash mixed with rain rolled through Peony’s mind. Around them, the members of her family who’d heard the news of another dragon winced.

Her mom sent her a worried glance. *Is everything okay?*

*This is Mordecai’s grandma.*

*Oh! That’s . . . lovely?*

*More like complicated. But we’re handling it.*

Mordecai took a deep breath. His shields were lowered again, and her heart ached at the turmoil she sensed in him. It was a show of how much he trusted her that he let her see it. On the outside, he was cold and controlled.

Inside, he was holding on to the threads of a happiness he had only known for a few hours and was desperate not to lose. She touched his thoughts, and her breath caught in her throat.

If Peony’s family knows where I come from, really, would they still welcome me as one of their own?

*Of course we would,*she told him roughly. Her cat was wide awake now, hissing with rage. How dare his grandmother come here and make him so vulnerable?

“I thought you said you never wanted to see us again!” Peony shouted, letting go of Mordecai’s hand and striding in front of him. “Funny way you’ve got of showing it.”

Aurelie turned her lizard-like head towards her. Thin streams of smoke whispered from her nostrils. *So I did.*

Aurelie’s dragon eyes were the same as her human ones: hard and hateful, as though everything she saw was an enemy.

Peony held her gaze.Mordecai took the worst of your awfulness last time,she thought grimly.I’m not going to let him do the same now.

“Why are you here?” she demanded. “You made it clear yesterday that you didn’t have any use for Mordecai if he wasn’t going to stick with your horrible crusade. Your revenge is over. The Hypatia ismine. Mordecai gave it tome. And I’m not going to abandon it or destroy it to make you feel better about losing it. I’m going to rebuild it. The arcade. The apartments. Even thepool,“ she decided in a rush of confidence, with an apologetic aside to Mordecai about how much it was likely to cost.

*The cost doesn’t matter.* He sounded dazed.

“By the time I’m done with it, the Hypatia isn’t just going to be the way it used to be. It’s going to bebetter. The board are going to be sick every time they see it, and they’re not going to be able to avoid it, because it will bebrilliant. Like a star stolen straight out of the sky for everyone to enjoy.”

For a moment, she wasn’t sure if the old dragon was going to burn her down or leap forward and devour her in a single bite. Then a tremor went through her. Her wings, the color of cooling embers, sagged.

*Thank you,*she said, her voice a rusty croak. *For saving Mordecai from me, and for showing me that I was wrong. I thought I wanted to destroy the Hypatia. But to have it restored to all its glory, not a ruin that reminds me of my shame every time I see it . . . that would be better. I didn’t see that until now.*

She collapsed in on herself. One of Peony’s aunts ran forward with a dressing gown in her arms and wrapped it around the old woman as she shifted back into human form.

Aurelie’s sharp eyes found Peony’s again. She nodded once, exhausted, then gathered her dignity back around herself as though she was wearing a fur coat, not a fluffy pink robe. “As for you, grandson of mine—“ Mordecai tensed, and Aurelie relented. “I’m sorry. That’s why I came here. To thank your little spitfire mate for taking you away from me, and to apologize to you. You deserved a better grandmother than I have been to you. I should never have made my anger your problem to deal with.”

Mordecai hesitated before he answered. “Thank you for saying that,” he said at last. “And for coming out here.”

“I couldn’t leave things the way we did yesterday.” Aurelie twisted her neck, and Peony saw the echo of her dragon shuffling its wings in the movement. “But I’ve said my bit, now. I’ll wish you merry Christmas and leave you to your mate’s good care.”

Mordecai’s emotions were in turmoil. Peony put her arm around him, and he sent an image into her mind: his grandmother’s apartment. Not the way he saw it, but the way she had. The cold. The dust. The rows of photo frames full of the people she’d lost, and the emptiness everywhere else in her home.

*She’s right,*he said. *You saved me. If I hadn’t met you, I would have ended up the same way she did. Just as lonely and miserable. She was all I had, and I didn’t know how else to be until I met you. But I don’t think she did, either.*

*She still hurt you,*she reminded him gently.

*I know. I’m not going to pretend I’ll forget and forgive. But this can be a start, at least.*He put his arm around her, his eyes warm. The broken glass in them wasn’t sharp and jagged-edged anymore; it was melting into something brighter. Like the night sky in a blazing, faceted jewel, catching the light and reflecting it back in shimmering joy. *Why destroy when we can start to rebuild?*

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