The Barbarian Before Christmas (Ice Planet Barbarians #17.5)(22)

“We can bring the children,” Shail assures me.

“Are there many females?” Sessah asks, stepping forward. His eyes are bright with interest.

“Many,” I assure him, and I suspect I have found yet another volunteer to visit the Icehome tribe.

This is all perfect. Kits will be reunited with family, and newcomers will welcome the help of those at ease with our land. And I…I will get to stay home with my mate and kits and know that my tribes—both of them—are doing well.

I cast a look over at my Georgie, and I see she is giving me a look of promise that suggests many, many things when we are alone again.

Ah yes. It is very good to be home.





11





ELLY



Despite my best efforts to look as if I’m still asleep, my stomach rumbles.

Bek rubs my butt. “I know you are awake.” His voice is soft and I can feel his tail still twined around my knee. My body’s spooned against his and I’m in no particular hurry to move. “We should join the others in the celebration. They will be looking for us.”

I half-groan and hide my face under the furs. I don’t want to move from this spot. “I’m fine. Let’s just stay here.”

Bek leans in and nibbles on my shoulder. “If nothing else, let us go eat.”

I wait for him to comment on how thin I am, or point out that I haven’t been eating like I should, but when I hear his stomach rumble, I feel guilty. Maybe he’s the hungry one. “All right, but promise we won’t stay long. I want tonight to be about us.” And the next day, and the next day, and the next day…I’m greedy like that.

“It will be,” Bek promises me. “We will come back to our hut and roll back the smoke-flap so we can look at the stars together.”

Oh. I love doing that with him. It’s been far too long. Pleased, I turn and give him a fierce kiss before rising out of bed to get dressed. The nights are getting colder, which means that bundling up in all my fur wraps is a job all on its own. I’m busy concentrating on putting on my layers when I notice Bek is at my side, a leather-wrapped bundle in his hands.

Wordless, he holds it out to me.

I look up at him in surprise. “What…?”

“Your No-Poison gifts. I have not collected leaves for you, but I can do so tomorrow.” He nudges the package toward me. “Please. Take it.”

I do, and it feels lumpy and heavy all at once. I blink up at him, still astonished. “You made me presents?”

He nods, his expression a little stern, as if he’s uncomfortable…or shy. “I could think of nothing else but my mate while we were separated. Every rock made me think of something new to show you, every bird in the sky something we were not sharing together. So I collected you things so we could share them when I returned.”

My eyes blur with tears. I carefully set the present down on our bed and then fling my arms around his waist, burying my face against his chest. “I love it.”

With a chuckle, Bek rubs my back. “You have not even looked at what I have given you yet.”

I don’t need to. His words have been the best gift I’ve ever been given. Even if it’s a bag full of sand, I’ll adore it because of the thought behind it. I squeeze him tightly, so full of love for him that I could burst.

We sit down on the furs, facing each other, and I unwrap my package with reverence. There, laid out in front of me, are mementos from his travels. He explains each one as I pick through them. There’s a pretty stone from the walk there, a tiny, shiny component stolen from the alien ship. There’s a bag of salt from the ocean, and since I know how treasured spices are around here, this is a huge gift on its own. There are tiny, spiny things that have dried into the shapes of wiggly, spiralized stars. And there’s a bag of shells. The shells are similar to the ones on earth—pearly, swirly, ridged—but still alien enough for me to gasp over their shapes and wonder at the creatures that filled them. Each shell has a small set of holes drilled through it, and I hold one up to Bek, a question in my eyes.

“Ah. Yes.” He touches the one I hold in my palm, his fingers skating over my skin. “I wanted to make you a necklace. Something pretty to wear. But then I remembered the collars…and I did not think you would like it. So I drilled holes in them that you may sew them to a tunic and admire them that way.”

I blink rapidly, because I’m going to start crying. It’s the most thoughtful gift I could imagine. He remembers what I like and dislike. He remembers me when he walks on the shores. More than that, I imagine him sitting by the fire each night, carefully drilling holes in the tiny, delicate shells so he can gift them to me.

And now I can make myself a tunic that shows everyone just how much Bek loves me. “It’s wonderful.”

The smile that lights his face is the warmest, most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Tonight, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

In several worlds, actually.