Chapter 24
“You’re fidgeting.”
Victor forced his hands to still. Chloe was right. He’d been adjusting his scarf for the third time in as many minutes.
“I’m fine.”
“Liar.” She squeezed his arm. “We don’t have to go if you’re not ready.”
But despite his nerves, he was ready. That was the strange part.
For years the Yuletide Festival had been something he observed from a distance. Too many people. Too much noise. Too much risk of Hyde rising in the chaos.
But now, standing at the edge of the town square with her beside him, he felt… calm.
Hyde was present—he was always present—but he was quiet, focused entirely on the woman at his side.
“I want to go,” he said, and meant it. “With you.”
She smiled up at him, that warm, brilliant smile that made his chest tight. “Then let’s go.”
They stepped into the festival together.
The town square had been transformed. Colorful stalls selling everything from hot cider to crystals to hand-woven blankets lined the edges of the square.
The center contained a small shaking rink and Santa’s village.
White lights had been strung between lampposts and children laughed as they threw snowballs.
Music drifted from the gazebo where a small band played.
It was beautiful and festive, but it was also overwhelming. His shoulders tensed as the noise crashed over him in waves—conversations and laughter and the crunch of boots on snow. There were too many heartbeats and too many scents—cinnamon and pine and woodsmoke and magic.
Hyde stirred. Not aggressively. Just… aware.
Protect her.
His body shifted slightly, his muscles expanding just enough to make him larger, a more solid buffer between Chloe and the jostling crowd.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yes.” Strange but true. “Hyde’s just being protective.”
“I noticed.” She patted his arm, which was now noticeably larger than it had been five minutes ago. “You grew about two inches.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Only if you knock over the hot cider stand.” She grinned up at him. “I’m fine, you know. The baby’s fine. We’re both safe.”
He knew that, intellectually, but Hyde wanted to be sure. He wanted everyone to see that Chloe was protected. Claimed. Loved.
“Let me know if I get too…” He gestured vaguely at himself.
“Enormous? Scary? Likely to frighten children?”
“Any of those.”
She laughed. “You could never frighten me. And everyone here knows you. They know what you are.”
“That’s the problem,” he muttered. He’d been the receiving end of too many hesitant glances not to know that he was regarded with caution, if not fear.
“Not anymore,” she said cheerfully, and she was right.
As they moved through the festival, people smiled and waved. Gladys called out a cheerful greeting. Ben lifted a hand from his position behind the ale stall—which was practically ebullient for the grumpy Other. Flora smirked at them from a stall labeled Giant Christmas Balls.
No one looked afraid. No one recoiled or whispered or backed away. They just… accepted him, both sides of him, and the realization made his throat tighten.
“Hot cider?” she asked, steering him toward a stall draped in evergreen boughs.
“You should sit down,” he said. “I’ll get it.”
“I’ve been sitting all day. You said walking is good for me.” She rubbed her belly, eight months along now. Round and perfect and beautiful.
Ours, Hyde rumbled with satisfaction. Our family.
Yes. Ours.
He ordered two ciders. The vendor—a cheerful brownie named Maple—handed them over with a knowing smile.
“Looking good, Doc. Both of you.”
“Thank you.”
“Baby coming soon?”
“Next month,” Chloe said, accepting her cider. “Give or take.”
“Well, you got the best doctor in town taking care of you.” Maple winked. “Even if he is a little overprotective.”
He felt his face heat. “I’m not—”
“You absolutely are,” Chloe agreed, but she was smiling. “It’s sweet.”
Sweet wasn’t the word he would have used. Necessary, maybe. Essential.
They moved on through the festival, past stalls selling handmade ornaments and winter preserves and a tiny Christmas village.
Houston was playing a not entirely convincing Santa but none of the excited children waiting in line seemed bothered by his horns and fur.
Then again, the line of children included everything from werewolf pups to young gnomes.
Ginger was assisting him, dressed as one of Santa’s elves. She grinned at Chloe and tugged her aside. Hyde didn’t like it, but he allowed it, using his enhanced senses to keep an eye out for problems. As a result, he heard their quiet conversation.
“I’m so happy for both of you,” Ginger whispered. “Was it hard to convince him?”
He could see Chloe smiling. “Not in the end. He came to my rescue when the blizzard hit and everything just kind of… worked out. I guess you were right about being snowed in together.”
“I told you. Nature to the rescue.” Ginger laughed, then frowned at Chloe. “At least I suppose it was nature. You don’t think Flora had anything to do with the storm, do you?”
What? Was Ginger suggesting that Flora had been responsible for putting his mate in danger?
Remembering the way she’d shown up at his door to tell him to go to Chloe, he couldn’t suppress a growl.
Both women turned to look at him. Chloe must have seen the anger on his face because she immediately returned to his side and patted his arm soothingly.
“I’m pretty sure Flora didn’t arrange for a county-wide blizzard,” she said calmly. Ginger didn’t look quite as convinced, but he took a deep steadying breath. Whether Flora had arranged it or not, the blizzard had brought them together and in the end, that was all that really mattered.
“Let’s catch up after the festival,” Chloe told Ginger, and the other woman nodded before going back to handing out candy canes.
They continued on, stopping to admire an ice sculpture contest that Sam was judging. The tall Kraken was standing near the edge of the square, his dark hair pulled back. Sharp blue eyes watched the crowd with a protective intensity he recognized.
And beside him, tucked close under his arm, was Nina, small and delicate with soft grey eyes and light brown hair escaping from under a knitted cap. She looked up at Sam with absolute trust. The same way Chloe looked at him. Hyde rumbled approvingly.
“Let’s say hello,” Chloe suggested, already heading toward them.
Nina spotted them first and her face lit up. “Chloe!”
The two women embraced carefully, navigating around Chloe’s belly.
“You look beautiful,” Nina said. “How are you feeling?”
“Huge. Tired. Constantly hungry.” She grinned. “But happy.”
“That’s what matters.”
Sam nodded to him. “Walk with me?”
He glanced over at Chloe. She was already deep in conversation with Nina, comparing notes about pregnancy cravings and nursery colors. Safe and happy.
“Yes.”
They moved a little way away from the crowd for privacy.
Sam was quiet for a long moment. “You look different.”
“I’ve gained weight,” he said. “Chloe keeps feeding me.”
And now that he was no longer taking the suppression drugs, he actually had an appetite.
“Not that.” Sam studied him with those too-perceptive eyes. “You look… at peace.”
At peace. Yes. That was it exactly. The constant war between control and suppression had ended. The fear that Hyde would destroy everything he loved had faded, because Hyde loved Chloe with the same fierce, devoted protectiveness. He wasn’t a monster to be caged, but a guardian to be trusted.
“I am,” he said simply. “For the first time in my life, I’m not afraid of what I am.”
“Because of her.”
“Yes.” No point denying it. “Chloe sees all of me and accepts it all. She loves all of me.”
Sam’s expression softened. “Nina does the same. Strange, isn’t it? After spending all those years convinced we had to be alone in order to protect people from ourselves.”
“When what we really needed was someone who could see past the monster.”
“To the person underneath.” Sam glanced towards Nina and Chloe. “We’re lucky.”
“We are.”
They stood in companionable silence. Two predators. Two protectors. Two males who’d found something they’d thought impossible. Acceptance.
“I never thought I’d be here,” he admitted. “At a festival. In a crowd. Without—” He gestured vaguely at himself. At the slight increase in size that hadn’t faded. At the green glow he could feel behind his eyes.
“Without losing control?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not,” Sam pointed out. “You’re just being what she needs. A guardian.”
“A slightly enlarged version of myself.”
“Does she mind?”
He thought of her teasing, her easy acceptance. The way she’d patted his expanded arm like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“No,” he said. “She doesn’t mind at all.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Sam was right. The opinions of others—the fear, the judgment he’d spent years avoiding—none of it mattered anymore.
Only Chloe mattered, Chloe and their baby and the family they were building together.
“You look happy,” Sam added. “Genuinely happy.”
“I am.” He met his friend’s eyes. “I’ve never been happier in my life. Hyde is at peace. I’m at peace. Love was the answer all along.”
“Ironic, isn’t it? We spent so long running from the one thing that could save us.”
“Terrified we’d destroy it.”
“When it was strong enough to hold us all along.” Sam smiled slightly. “Nina anchors me. Keeps me grounded.”
“Chloe does the same.” He glanced toward the women. They were laughing about something, Chloe’s hand on her belly and Nina’s expression full of warmth. “She and the baby. They’re my world now.”
“Good.” Sam clapped him on the shoulder. “You deserve that. After everything you’ve been through. Everything you’ve overcome.”
He thought of his father and the fear and suppression that had defined his childhood. Of the years spent convinced he was dangerous. All of it leading here. To this moment. To Chloe and the family they were creating.
Maybe it had been necessary. Maybe he’d needed to walk through the darkness to appreciate the light. Or maybe he was just incredibly, impossibly lucky. Either way, he wasn’t questioning it.
“We should get back,” Sam said. “Before Nina tries to carry all the festival purchases herself.”
“Chloe’s the same way. Stubborn.”
“They’d get along well.”
They already were. When Victor and Sam returned to the women, they found them making plans.
“Dinner next week,” Chloe was saying. “You and Sam should come over. We can compare notes on living with protective monsters.”
Nina laughed. “They’re not that bad.”
“They’re terrible,” she corrected, her eyes warm. “And wonderful.”
He felt Hyde rumble with satisfaction. She understood. She knew what they were and still chose them every day. Just as they chose her.
“Dinner sounds lovely,” Nina said. “If Sam promises not to lurk in the shadows the entire time.”
“I don’t lurk,” Sam protested.
“You absolutely lurk.” Nina patted Sam’s arm the same way Chloe patted his. “It’s very dramatic.”
They made plans and then Sam and Nina wandered back towards the ice sculptures and he found himself alone with Chloe again.
Well, as alone as you could get in the middle of a crowded festival, but it felt private. Just the two of them. Three, counting the baby. Four, Hyde corrected and he grinned.
Yes, four.
“Having fun?” she asked.
“I am.” He pulled her close, careful of her belly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For bringing me here and not letting me hide.”
She smiled up at him. “You were never hiding from the world, Victor. You were hiding from yourself.”
She was right, as always. He’d spent years fearing Hyde and treating him as an enemy instead of an integral part of who he was. But she had seen the truth and had loved both of them. She’d shown him that he didn’t have to choose. He could be both. Human and Hyde. Man and monster.
“I love you,” he said. The words came easily now, with no fear or hesitation.
“I love you too.” She touched his face. “Both of you.”
Hyde purred and the sound rumbled through his chest loud enough that she laughed.
“Is he happy?”
“Ecstatic.” He kissed her gently. “We both are.”
They stayed at the festival for another hour, wandering through stalls, listening to music, and sharing roasted chestnuts and stolen kisses.
He let himself expand a bit more when the crowd pressed too close, let Hyde rise just enough to keep Chloe safe and comfortable.
And no one cared. No one even blinked. Because this was Fairhaven Falls where monsters and humans lived side by side, where love mattered more than species, and where he could finally, finally, be himself. All of himself.
“Tired?” he asked as she yawned for the third time.
“A little.” She rubbed her belly. “Someone’s been kicking all day.”
“Then let’s go home.”
He tucked her scarf carefully around her neck and let Hyde grow large enough to shield her from the cold wind as they walked.
People waved goodbye and Flora blew them a kiss. The town had accepted them, but more importantly, he had accepted himself and that made all the difference.
They walked home through the quiet streets, snow crunching underfoot and the stars bright overhead. Chloe leaned against his side, trusting him to keep her safe. And he would. Always. Both of them would. Man and monster, finally, beautifully, completely at peace.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked as they reached their house.
He looked at the warm lights glowing in the windows and the wreath on the door. The home they’d made together.
“How lucky I am,” he said. “How grateful.”
“Me too.” She squeezed his hand. “Every single day.”
He promised himself that he would never take it for granted. Not the woman who’d saved him. Not the child they would raise together. Not the monster who’d become his greatest strength instead of his deepest shame.