Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
CHRISTMAS EVE
Tonight has to be perfect. It has to be the best Christmas Eve ever, the Christmas Eve to trump all Christmas Eves, because they need to know that I am a good Omega and that they are right to choose me.
It has to be perfect so I can ask them to let me bond them for my Christmas present.
It may be too fast, but I really don’t care.
I want their bonds. I want to see my bite marks on them, to feel them in my chest. It feels right.
I’ve known and loved Clara forever, and I know I can never be without her. And Gabriel may be a new relationship, but I know the type of man he is, and I want him. I want to know that they are mine forever.
I might be jumping the gun, but I’m going to ignore that feeling in favor of delusional optimism.
Christmas Eve has always been special in my family, and now I get to share it with my pack.
Oh my God, I have a pack!
I grab the television remote and put on a movie while I bustle around the kitchen, making breakfast. Gabriel and Clara ask if they can help, but I shoo them away.
This is my time to shine.
I whip up some eggs, toast, bacon, and a couple of yogurt parfaits. Simple, not impressive, but it’s a start. As we eat, I struggle to focus on the conversation at hand. My mind is spinning with the tasks I want to accomplish tonight so we are ready for Christmas morning.
As much as I love getting presents, that’s not what Christmas is about for me. I love the togetherness and the traditions that come with it. And for this, our first Christmas as a pack?
I need it all to be perfect.
After we clean up breakfast, I get to work on Christmas Day preparations. I make a massive breakfast casserole that can sit in the fridge, ready to be popped in the oven as soon as we wake up, and mix up dough for rolls. Once that’s rising off to the side, I start peeling apples for pie.
“When did you go grocery shopping?” Clara asks, looking over my shoulder as I lean into the fridge.
“I had it delivered yesterday,” I say, intentionally backing up to where my body presses against hers.
I can do that now. I get to touch her as much as I want.
She wraps an arm around my waist and kisses my cheek. “Well, put me to work!”
“Nope! You and Gabriel can sit there and keep me company. I don’t need help!” I shoo her away to the couch, where Gabriel is reclining, watching me with amusement. “How do you typically spend Christmas?” I ask my Alpha. “Do you have any traditions I should know about?”
He laughs and picks up his coffee from the table. “Whatever you have planned is great. I never much cared what my family was doing as long as we were doing it together. The only thing that was always consistent was new pajamas. We’d all get a new pair on Christmas Eve so we could match.”
“Oh, I love that!” Clara says. “That sounds like fun.”
“We don’t have those!” I say, spinning around. “We need pajamas. Clara, call Hazel and see if she can bring us pajamas.”
“Or I can go pick some out,” Gabriel offers, pushing to his feet. “Since it is my tradition and all.”
The idea of Gabriel leaving, going out in the cold, being away from me, has a whine building in my throat. I try to swallow it, but I can’t. He lowers himself back down, his gaze softening.
“Hazel would pick out some great ones. Clara, I think you should ask her if she could get us some.” Gabriel asks. The knot in my throat loosens, and I spin back around, my focus on the pie crust renewed.
“Do you want to build gingerbread houses?” I grab the box from the top of the fridge and hold it out to Gabriel. “I got us a kit. Or I could make one from scratch. I should make one from scratch.” I move to throw the box away when he jumps up and snatches it from me.
“Are you okay, Felix?”
“I just need everything to be perfect. I have you both, and I never thought that would happen. I want this to be the best Christmas ever.”
My Alpha leans down and places a soft kiss on my mouth. “It already is, Felix. We could order Chinese food and it’d still be the best I’ve ever had.”
“We’re not ordering Chinese food,” I snap. “I have a prime rib.”
He holds his hands up and takes several steps back. “You’re right, that sounds much better.”
“Hazel said she’ll see what she can find last minute, but that she wants an invite to Christmas dinner for her trouble,” Clara calls out from the couch. “Is that okay?”
I don’t love the idea of someone else being part of our first Christmas together, but I hate the thought of not having those pajamas more, so I agree, forcing myself to adjust to the idea of having another person here.
“We could invite Mitchell,” Gabriel says, leaning against the counter. “I think his family is leaving around lunchtime. That way it’s not just Hazel and us, and she doesn’t feel out of place.”
“That’s a good idea,” Clara agrees.
It’s a good idea, but it’s also an awful idea.
I don’t want two more Alphas in my space, around my pack. This is our first Christmas together!
But I don’t say anything.
Clara and Gabriel make plans with the others as I continue to cook, leaving the pies behind to prepare dinner for tonight.
Gabriel pushes back from the table, groaning. “That was incredible, Felix.” I beam at his praise, feeling fuzzy inside. “I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb with pomegranate before.”
The lamb was hands-off to cook, as it required braising, so I had time to roast some acorn squash and crisp up Brussels sprouts to accompany it.
My Alpha and Beta enjoying the meal I cooked, with smiles on their faces and happy noises in the air, was, without a doubt, the greatest gift I’ve ever received.
Clara and Gabriel refuse to allow me to clean up, the former pushing a mug of my homemade mulled cider into my hands and shoving me down on the couch to watch a movie while they handle the whirlwind mess I left our kitchen in.
I may be a good cook, but I’m not so great at the “clean as you go” thing.
At least everything is prepared for tomorrow, and we should have leftovers for days with the amount of food I’ve got planned for us.
Hazel dropped off the pajamas an hour ago, and we invited her to stay for dinner, but she said she’ll take us up on it tomorrow. The three wrapped packages sit on the coffee table in front of me, calling my name. I’m bouncing in my seat, losing patience at waiting to see what she picked out for us.
She also brought a plate of cookies that Gabriel and Clara had decorated a few days ago on a date they had and didn’t tell me about.
I feel like I should be more upset than I am that they kept their match from me, but it’s hard to when I know that by doing so, I got that incredible moment with Clara.
It truly was the perfect way to share our feelings. We’ll tell our grandkids the story one day.
The two of them join me on the couch, squishing me between them, and finally, some of the tension leaves me.
I’m not feeling well, but I chalk that up to nerves. My stomach is cramping, and I’m a little sweaty, which would make me believe my heat is about to start if I weren’t just coming off suppressants. It should be a few weeks before that happens.
My excitement gets the better of me, and I can no longer resist the pretty packages. I grab them and place the presents in their respective laps.
“Do you guys wanna open these now?”
Clara laughs, that beautiful sound that I want to wrap myself in, and pulls at the corner of her package. “If I say no, will that stop you?”
“Absolutely not.”
I rip open my package to reveal red silky pajamas with white piping.
Leave it to Hazel to get something high-end and luxe, but I’m not complaining. I love them.
I rush off to my room to get changed, and when I come back, my Beta and Alpha are both dressed in theirs, and together, we look like the perfect Christmas photo.
Gabriel grabs my arm and drags me down onto the couch, and I fall between the two of them, half on both of their laps.
“Let’s take a photo,” he says, wrapping an arm around me. “Our first Christmas as a pack.”
He sets his phone up on the TV console, and Clara squeezes in tightly beside me. I wrap my arm around her as I stretch out on Gabriel’s lap. The camera flashes and catches me mid-laugh, and I make him take four more pictures so we have a variety to frame.
As the day winds to an end, we munch on cookies and watch our childhood favorites, and I know that this will forever be my favorite Christmas ever.