Wyvern Protection Unit - Chapter 83: Chapter 83

After walking for an entire day, Candy could not believe her eyes. Was she hallucinating? If she was…holy fluffin’ snow berries, was this a good one!
Nervous little lightning strikes of awareness zipped and zapped up and down her spine. The cave should have been dark, the walls covered in ice, but he had a nice fire going, and had hung plastic to block the wind so it was already toasty and warm inside.
The firelight reflected off the icicles hanging from the ceiling, and the effect was breathtaking. Like a thousand little glowing candles were lit all around them.
Holy fluffernutters was he smokin’!
“Hello, I’m Candy,” she said, breaking the silence, and with any luck, the strange man’s impossibly direct stare.
The breathless quality her voice had adapted startled her. She was no simpering maid, but snowballs, did she sound like one. It was the regular way to start a conversation, but she could hardly expect anything to be regular when she stood in the face of such devastatingly handsome splendor.
This has to be him. I just know it.
Jolly was not kidding when he said Elves did not have that same ability to sniff out their mates like other supes, but what he did not know was when confronted with his or her fated mate, an Elf, felt it deep inside. Like being hit by lightning, she mused. Candy felt her entire body was completely attuned to the stranger.
Granny had been so right. The small bundle in her arms chirped, and she looked down to see the baby penguin she’d rescued stirring and struggling to be free of her scarf.
“Shh,” she cooed to the animal, ignoring the curious look of the strange man who was destined to be hers.
“Candy is a food, not a name,” he returned.
“It can be both,” she replied easily.
He smiled and nodded his head, then peered to see what she held.
“What is that there?”
“This is Fluffy,” she told him and turned her precious bundle around so he could see for himself.
The little chick chirped and struggled to be freed. Candy let her down gently on the dry floor of the cave. She hovered around the small thing, watching her closely as she sniffed and waddled across the cold ground.
“I found her wandering outside and figured she was better off with me. Her parents must’ve been killed to leave her behind,” she whispered as the small chick climbed on the bedroll the strange man had casually tossed next to the fire earlier.
“You have a big heart, Candy, whose name means food,” he murmured.
“Well, I don’t know if it means food exactly, but it can be food. Anyway,” she murmured, a small smile played at the corner of her mouth while Fluffy burrowed into his sleeping bag.
“That is my bed, small aquatic bird.”
The beautiful man frowned, his dark eyes glittered like burned sugar in the flickering light from the fire he’d built inside the small cavern. He had bronzed skin and sharp, chiseled features, making him appear more like a sculpture than flesh and blood.
Too bad she hadn’t thought of that herself, it would have helped her to revive the small creature faster. As it was, she’d wandered for hours through the frozen wasteland that was the real North Pole after leaving Santa’s Magical Christmas Village.
Fluffy seemed to like the sleeping bag, and Candy had half a mind to follow the bird inside the bedroll. But she still wasn’t sure of her welcome.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his eyes flicking from her to the penguin.
“Oh, well, I thought it would be a good idea to have some shelter before the blizzard hits.”
“What blizzard?” he scoffed, as if surely, he would’ve known if a blizzard was heading his way.
She’d spied a lot of gadgets in his packs and wondered at them while he set about taking care of his dogs and himself. He was clearly new to the arctic, but he seemed caring and smart.
Certainly handsome, she thought and felt her cheeks blush.
With his rugged good looks and sun-kissed skin, he was devastating. Even if his ears were decidedly round. That was a feature she could overlook, she thought as she took in his magnificent form beneath the bulky attire.
“That blizzard,” she replied and lifted her hand, pointing to where the wind was currently trying to rip through the plastic sheet barrier he’d set up.
The Huskies whined in their pen but settled down as she walked over to them, humming a Christmas carol. She bent to pet them, laughing as she accepted doggie kisses and nuzzles.
Candy had worked in the reindeer barn long before she’d been promoted to toy research and development. She adored animals.
“Such good puppies,” she said and scratched the lead dog’s ears, which resulted in happy puppy barks and more licks on her ungloved hand until the thing was sopping wet.
“Yes, they are a fine team,” he answered, and she turned to see he’d crossed the cave floor and was now standing right behind her.
“Oh,” she gasped and saw he held Fluffy in his hands.
“This bird is for cooking?”
“No!” she yelled and took Fluffy back. “I told you I rescued her from the cold. She is not for cooking.”
“I see,” he frowned as she replaced the small animal back on his bedroll.
“She is defecating on my sleeping bag,” he growled, and Candy blushed as she looked down to see the small penguin had, in fact, left a little poopy on his bedroll.
Oopsies.
“Oh, uh,” she didn’t know quite how to respond.
He grunted and took the small metal package that had been heating on the fire and held it out towards her.
“You require food?”
“Um, yes, I would love to share with you,” she smiled widely.
This is promising, she thought and stole a glance at Fluffy, who’d made a veritable nest in his bedroll.
The exhausted chick nodded out immediately after she was finished, and Candy noted the small, slightly chewed piece of salmon jerky she was sure the man had snuck to her when she wasn’t looking.
“What’s your name?” Candy asked.
The man seemed to grow taller as he turned to face her with his hands on his hips in his snow pants and thick thermal shirt, having removed his parka.
His bronzed skin was smooth and clear, and he had short-cropped hair and the slightest smattering of facial hair. He was uniquely handsome in her opinion, and if Granny Elf was right, he was hers.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
The very thought had her toes tingling in her snow boots. A mate. She had a mate. It was thrilling, to say the least. She bit her lip, waiting for his response. All the while, her heart raced in her chest like a runaway train. Candy had never seen anything quite like him.
“I am Medjed, Warrior and Guard to the House of Osiris. I have been called Demon, Demigod, and the Sword of the Underworld. Most recently, I have been called friend by the and I freelance for a secret government agency called the Department of Paranormal Creatures and Activity, or DPCA for short, which has sent me here to the arctic to explore certain anomalies.”
“Oh, uh—” Candy faltered.
She did not know how to respond to that, but it didn’t matter because he was still going.
“I have been an assassin, a guardian, judge and jury. I have seen and meted out more death than you can imagine, sweet innocent, but I am loyal. I have been just recently released from an unjust confinement, but I am a fast learner. I do not know a lot about the modern world, but I do know one thing for certain⁠—”
“Yes?” she swallowed.
“You, sweet Candy, are my mate.”
His brown eyes darkened noticeably until they looked almost black. They flickered in the light of the fire, and Candy felt the truth of his statement all the way to her toes.
She wanted to scream and clap like she’d just won the lottery, but hey, what girl, or she-Elf, was going to give in to a man who boldly made a statement like that?
“Sheesh, wow. Okay, buddy, well, I mean I have to say that is some fluffing line to land on a gal you don’t even know.”
She snorted and sat down crisscross applesauce on a blanket she’d snagged from his sled when he wasn’t looking.
“It is merely a fact, rohi,” he purred, his movements languid as he stepped closer. “But yes, thank you. I accept your offer to get to know you better,” he purred.
Medjed stood hovering over where she sat, handing her a spoon to go with the packet of the rehydrated hot stew. Candy almost swallowed her damn tongue, he smelled divine! Like cinnamon deliciousness.
“What’s that mean? That word you’re calling me?” Candy asked, trying to ignore the blush that stained her cheeks.
Christmas Elves had a knack for blushing anywhere from pale bubblegum pink to full on holly berry red and she was no exception. Her toes tingled, her stomach clenched, and her mouth watered, and it had nothing to do with the stew.
“Eat, rohi,” he commanded, ignoring her question, as he handed her a small metal spoon.
“You will need your strength.”
Candy almost choked on a piece of carrot before she handed him back the pouch. They were sharing after all, she took a sip from the water bottle he extended to her and wondered what she should say next. The big, sexy man leaned close, sniffing her just under her ear.
Holy fluffin’ sleigh bells. That was hot.
“Mm, you smell like evergreens and cranberries,” he growled as he leaned in and did it again.
The long pulls of air ended with an equally deep exhale. Candy bit her lip to stop herself from moaning over how good his warm breath felt, tickling her skin.
“I do? Um, okay, thanks,” she whispered, scooting over to make some room, and if she were being honest, to create some distance.
“So, uh, I think maybe we should talk?”
For some reason, that came out as more a question than the statement she’d intended. Candy had spent hundreds of years waiting for the man of her dreams, and here he finally was.
She should be happy, elated, relieved, but for some reason, she was nervous as all get out. He sounded strange. His accented voice was smooth as a hot toddy, and sweeter still.
She felt warm on the inside, and shivery at the same time. Her stomach was doing somersaults, and she felt as if she’d swallowed a whole jar of fireflies.
Oh, Candy, get a grip!
“Easy,” he murmured, approaching her as if she were a skittish mare. “I have waited an eternity to find you, rohi,” he murmured in a voice laced with honey, as if he had reached into her mind and plucked her fears right out of it.
Snow bells, the man was so hot he could melt a glacier. What if she messed this up? Surely, he knew a lot more about lovemaking than she knew. Were mates even supposed to do anything besides, er, mate when they met? She was so nervous and unsure.
Okay, so he already called her his mate. That meant he liked her, too, right? So that was good, right?
Oh, if only she had asked Granny about this part. Candy did not know what to say or where to start. She wrung her hands in her lap and bit her lip until she thought it might bleed.
“There is no need for nervousness, sweet one. I can wait a few moments more before I take you in my arms and stake my claim. Will it please you to talk with me first?” he asked kindly, and the patience in his eyes warmed her even more.
“Um, yeah, sure. Talk,” she whispered, swallowing down her nervous giggle.
Medjed turned, so he was facing her. His gaze never left hers, and Candy was hypnotized by his cinnamon scent and liquid brown eyes.
“Shall I go first?” Medjed asked, a grin curving his decadent lips.
“Sure,” Candy replied, tongue-tied, and feeling ten times a fool.
“May I ask what you are doing sweet Candy, wandering around here in this frozen land?” he asked and tucked a strand of hair behind her pointed ear.
She froze, waiting for him to withdraw, but he did not. Only traced the thing and made her shiver in the process. Elves loved having their ears stroked. It was their hot spot, so to speak.
“Oh, well,” she hedged.
Candy felt her blush burning her cheeks even more furiously and ducked her head down, but Medjed would not have any of that. With two fingers, he lifted her chin and forced her to meet his stare.
This was it. Truth time.
“I’m an Elf from Santa’s Magical Christmas Village. Every Earth year, we appear in the North Pole for the week leading up to Christmas Eve. Years ago, when I was a young girl, my Granny Elf told me I would find my fated mate when the stars on the earthly realm aligned,” she told him in a rush of air, pausing to take a sip of water before she continued.
“I have been watching the stars and waiting ever since for them to align. Finally, tonight, it happened. So, I left the village and trekked out into the human world to find my mate. To find you, I think,” she finished and inhaled a great gulp of air.
Jingle balls! That was a lot for a girl to get out. Now, she just had to see how he would take the news.
Please stay. Mine. Mate.