Chapter 33
Chapter
Thirty-Three
Brie stood at the center of the Fate Mountain Community Center, the Winter Festival in full swing.
Fairy lights were strung across the ceiling and around the centerpiece where her gingerbread mountain was on display.
The icing snow glistened in the twinkling lights as a toy train wound around the mountain.
Hunter wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“It’s perfect,” she said in a low voice, snapping another picture to send to her mother.
She knew her parents would be so proud. Hunter squeezed her to his side, and she felt a surge of satisfaction in her chest that they had come through so much conflict and strife and trauma to finally stand here in the heart of Fate Mountain, surrounded by family and friends, triumphant and at peace.
“I should get back to the Sweet Summit Bakery booth,” she said, taking Hunter’s hand. With Sophie still in the hospital, they were short-staffed, and they needed all hands on deck. The Winter Festival was more popular than ever this year, and it seemed like everyone in the community had turned out.
They passed booths of local craftsmen and foods and holiday goods.
Brie waved to Joy Kincaid at her honey and soap booth.
Her mate, Officer Andre Holt, stood beside her with their toddler Willow on his hip.
Andre worked with the police department with Valeria’s brother Gabriel.
It made her smile to think how everyone on Fate Mountain was connected.
Children rushed past holding candy canes and trailing ribbons, their laughter filling Brie’s heart.
They passed Holly Bright’s ornament booth, and Brie couldn’t help but stop to chat with her childhood friend.
Holly’s mate Elias stood strong and stoic at the back of the booth, wrapping up delicate ornaments for their customers.
“Your booth looks amazing this year, Holly,” Brie said.
“Thank you so much,” she said, placing her hand on her heart.
Cory Bright appeared, carrying a tray of hot chocolates. His face lit up when he spotted Brie.
“Uncle Cory,” Brie said, moving in to hug Cory as he handed the tray to Holly.
“I was just admiring the centerpiece, Brie. I think that your gingerbread mountain is probably the most magnificent display we’ve had so far. Your mother would be so proud.”
Brie’s cheeks burned from the compliment, but she accepted it with the kind of grace she knew her mother would have wanted.
“That means a lot, Uncle Cory. I’m just glad I was able to actually finish everything for the festival with all the drama going on this year.”
“Drama is an understatement,” Hunter said.
“I knew there was something wrong with Doctor Brennan when I fired him. I should have done more to protect the community.”
“There’s no way that you could have known,” Brie said, grasping Cory’s arm. “It’s not your fault.”
“But I do feel responsible. You know what it’s like, growing up with your dad. S&R never really leaves your blood.”
“Now we have Steel Protection to protect us,” Brie said, wrapping her arm around Hunter’s waist.
“You and Hunter should come over for our Christmas Eve celebration,” Holly said. “Dad always puts on the best parties.”
“I’d love that,” Brie said. “With my parents away this year, I was going to be on my own.”
“Not on your own,” Hunter said, squeezing her tighter.
She looked up into his handsome face. “Not alone,” she breathed. She then turned to Cory and Holly. “I should get back to the booth.”
Hunter and Brie continued around the festival to the Sweet Summit Bakery booth.
The scent of cinnamon and sugar filled her nose as she stepped behind the counter.
Rows of holiday pastries lined the shelves and display cases, each tier draped with evergreen garlands twisted with tiny white lights and red velvet ribbon.
Sugar-dusted cranberry orange scones sat in wicker baskets lined with red and green checkered cloth. Glass domes protected delicate linzer cookies filled with raspberry jam, their powdered sugar tops creating perfect snowflake patterns through the cutout hearts and stars.
The Victorian mansion gingerbread house was the centerpiece of her booth, standing nearly three feet tall on its snow-white royal icing foundation.
Every shingle had been piped individually in chocolate brown, while candy glass windows glowed amber from the battery-operated tea lights hidden inside.
Miniature wreaths made from green frosting and red-hot candies decorated each window, and icicles of pulled sugar hung from the elaborate gingerbread trim work along the roofline.
Festivalgoers stopped to snap pictures and marvel at the intricacy, especially the tiny gingerbread family visible through the parlor window.
Warming trays held fresh batches of sticky pecan snowflakes drizzled with maple glaze, while tiered stands displayed peppermint bark brownies cut into perfect triangles and decorated with crushed candy canes.
Mason jars filled with snickerdoodles, gingerbread bears, and frosted sugar cookies shaped like mittens and snowmen lined the back counter.
The air grew sweeter each time someone opened the case holding the cinnamon rolls twisted into Christmas tree shapes and glazed with green tinted cream cheese frosting dotted with red cherry “ornaments.”
“How are things going here?” Brie asked Jake. “Where is Maggie?”
“We’re running out of cranberry orange scones. But there’s a fresh batch still at the bakery. Maggie took a break. I think she’s having her fortune read at the psychic booth.”
“You can take a break as soon as she gets back,” Brie said, pulling on her apron to take the next customer in line.
Mrs. Whitaker stepped to the front of the line. “Your sugar cookies are the best I’ve ever had this year. I had to come back to get another dozen.”
Brie smiled as she filled a box with sugar cookies and rang up the order.
When she was done with the line of customers, she spotted Dom and Valeria walking toward them.
She waved enthusiastically as they approached her booth.
Dom looked happy and protective gazing down at his pregnant wife, whose belly looked like it was about to burst.
“I have your favorite cinnamon rolls,” Brie said as Valeria walked to the front of the line.
“That’s exactly what I wanted,” she said with a smile. “It’s like you read my mind.”
Brie began to fill a box with cinnamon rolls as Valeria winced and rubbed her belly. “The baby’s doing gymnastics this afternoon,” she said.
“We’re going to get you home right after we get these pastries,” Dom said in a low voice.
“Nonsense, I’m fine,” Valeria said just as her mouth dropped. Brie was holding the box of cinnamon rolls in midair as the sound of splashing water filled her ears.
“Oh my word,” Valeria said.
Dom grabbed his phone and quickly dialed a number. “Everyone to the Sweet Summit Bakery booth. We have an emergency situation.”
The pack quickly closed in while Dom dialed the hospital. Blaze and Ryder cleared a path through the crowd. Axel and Siren followed behind Dom and Valeria.
“Good luck, Valeria!” Brie called after the pack.
“Our first little wolf born to Savage Steel,” Hunter said in a voice more whimsical than she was used to.
“Hopefully it won’t be the last,” Brie said with a smile.
Hunter wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head.
In that moment, all Brie could think about was the fact that they still hadn’t claimed each other.
After all these weeks and all of their struggles, they still remained as two separate halves of a whole, having not yet completed the mating bite.
She took a deep inhalation of his scent and let herself be enveloped in his warmth and love.
It was like a miracle. A blessing. A monumental happening that she and Hunter had come together.
They had survived so much. They had brought down a criminal ring and a crazed scientist threatening her home.
All in the process of coming together as mates.
Brie’s phone rang, and she saw that it was a FaceTime call from her mother. She smiled happily as she answered, excited that they would get to see her booth.
“Hi, Mom,” she said as she answered. She could see the blue waters of an Australian beach in the background.
“Hello, my love,” her mother said, blowing her a kiss. “We got the pictures of the gingerbread mountain. We couldn’t be more proud.”
“Thank you, Mom and Dad. I worked so hard to make it happen. Hunter has been by my side this whole time. He really is the best fated mate a girl could hope for.”
Brie could see a tear forming in her mother’s eye.
“Nothing but the best for our girl,” Zach said.
“We’re going to let you go. I know you’re busy. But we just wanted to check in and say congratulations.”
They said their goodbyes, and Brie hung up the phone, a lump of happiness and pride in her throat. Maggie returned to the booth with a look of expectancy and shock on her face.
“How did the fortune-telling go?” Jake asked with a smirk.
“The woman told me that I’m going to be matched with a shifter. Can you believe that? I never would have thought that I would be a shifter’s fated mate.”
“You know they just tell you what you want to hear,” Jake said.
“You don’t know that, Jake. Fate works in mysterious ways. Just look at me and Hunter.”
Jake took his break while Maggie went back to her spot behind the cash register. In the distance, beyond the craft booths, Brie could see the carolers gathering around the gingerbread mountain. Someone blew into a pitch pipe, and the first notes of “Jingle Bells” filled the community center.
Hunter’s phone buzzed, and he picked it up to read a text.
Brie watched a slow smirk form on his lips.
“It’s from Axel,” he said. “He says they made it to the hospital safely. Dom’s freaking out.
Valeria’s laughing at him between contractions.
She’s upset that she left her cinnamon rolls at the booth. ”
“Tell her we’ll bring them to her as soon as we close down here for the night.”
Hunter typed out a text, his eyes bright and a smile on his lips.
“I get to see Dom in a panic. That will be a first,” he chuckled.
“I’d rather it be now when the doctors have everything in hand than during the raid that saved Sophie’s life.”
“We can visit Sophie in the hospital too. Bring her some pastries,” Hunter suggested.
The tension that had formed in Brie’s shoulders when this all started felt like it was finally starting to unwind. As the notes of “Joy To the World” filtered through the laughter and murmur of the crowd, Brie knew that everything in her world was now right.