Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 85(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 85(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Claire suggests that Croatoan’s people enjoy Halloween, and the fun begins as everyone joins in. There are costumes! Vegetable carvings! An ice maze! And a surprise for a beloved couple.
This novella features fluff, fluff and more fluff. It’s just some happy holiday fun and involves no dramatic plot lines.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER
ONE
CLAIRE
I tug the new fur coat tighter around Relvi's shoulders. "Hold still, baby. I want to see how this fits."
"Why can't I have a cloak?" my daughter complains. "I don't like this!"
"A coat is cute," I reassure her, fastening the leather frogs I've made in the front of the little coat. I've spent weeks working on this coat, off and on between other chores. The sleeves were a real devil to figure out, but I finally got them on correctly. I finish fastening the front of the coat and then pull the little hood with the ears I've made over my daughter's head, and then step back to look at the results.
It's...not good.
My sweet Relvi is a stout little girl and she's short for her age compared to the other kits. The coat hangs low on her, the sleeves too long, and the hood sags, making the charming ears I've spent so much time creating sag backward instead of standing jaunty atop her head. The body of the coat is too tight, too, and Relvi stands stiff and miserable before me.
She looks like an offended teddy bear.
I smother a laugh behind my hand and look over at my mate. "What do you think?"
Ereven pauses from stirring the stew. He eyes our daughter, then looks back at me. "I think you worked very hard and it looks very warm."
That means it's ugly as sin. Biting back another giggle, I gesture for Relvi to come here. "Maybe I'll take the sleeves off. Let me play with it some more."
My daughter happily removes the coat and hands it back to me. She trots across the house, flips on her favorite ratty cloak, and then races out the front door.
"The meal will be ready soon," Ereven calls back at her retreating back. "Tell your brother!"
I sit on my stool and smooth the soft fur coat with my fingers. This particular fur makes for a pretty cloak but it's too puffy for a fitted garment. I think of Relvi and her stuffed bear look and finally let my giggles out. "God, I'm such a bad mother."
"You are the best mother," my mate says mildly, tasting the stew. He adds a bit of spicy herbs to it and pulls out a chunk of root, carving it into disks over the hearth and dropping them, one by one, into the stewing pouch. "You worked very hard on that coat. I have seen the time you put in on it. I am just sorry you did not like how it fit upon her."
I get the giggles again. "Did you see her expression? She looked like a miserable teddy bear."
Ereven gives me a blank stare. "A what?"
"Oh, uh, kinda like a snow cat but they are bigger and eat everything. Sorta. Or maybe like a really, really big quill-beast. Except no quills."
"So nothing like a quill-beast," he teases.
"She doesn't really look like a bear, anyhow. It just reminded me of a horrible costume I had when I was a kid. My mom made me go as a teddy bear every Halloween because she thought it was cute. I was a really small kid until puberty, so there was no need for a new costume, but I remember how much I hated it because it itched." Even now I feel the phantom tag scraping against the back of my neck, and I scratch at it. "I really wanted to be something cool for Halloween, and instead I was just a stupid bear."
Ereven eats a disk of raw root, then carves a bit more into the stew. "You realize I do not know any of the things you just said?"
"Oh, sorry!" I tend to ramble about home sometimes. I no longer miss it, now that I have a mate and two adorable children and an entire village of friends, but it's hard not to dream of coffee or even a nice fat novel to read every now and then. Ereven likes hearing me talk of home, but he makes me pause to describe things to him frequently. I think back to my rambling about the bear costume. "Which part do I need to go over again?"
"You wished to be something cold for hollow ween. And you were a horrible caw-toom as a kid."
That...makes no sense. I parse back through my words mentally. "Costume. And oh—okay, I wished to be something cool. That means I wanted to be something exciting looking."
"You are exciting looking to me." He eats another disk of root. "I find all of you very exciting to look at."
Pleasure curls in my belly at his words. It's been over ten years now since we mated, and touching him still makes me absolutely crazed with need. I thought marriages were supposed to slow down at some point? Yet I'm in love with my sweet, easygoing barbarian more than ever. "Behave yourself or the kids are going to come back and find dinner cold and their parents in the furs."