Page 47 of His Winter Wonderland

“Promise?”

“Yes. Come on. Let’s talk about Kaede now.”

He followed her over to her couch. Instead of sitting in the couch across from her, he sat right next to her. She tensed for a moment. He pretended not to notice. Slowly, she started to relax.

“If you try anything,” she started.

“You’ll stake me,” he finished for her. “I know, Kitten.”

“Do not call me that.”

“Shush, Kitten. We’ve gotten past the yelling stage. We’re now able to sit side by side and talk in our bedroom voices. I mean inside voices.”

“Don’t push it, Rhen.”

“Okay. Okay. Calm down. Let’s vote on what to do.” Rhen raised his hand. “I vote to kill Kaede.”

“Put your hand down. How can we vote when there’s only two of us? And no matter how many other votes there were, we’re not killing Kaede.”

“What do you suggest, Kitten?”

“Rhen, my name is Winter.”

“What do you suggest, Winter Kitten.” Though her eyes shot daggers at him, he noticed the slight lift at the corner of her mouth. “Hey, is that a smile? Did I just make you smile.” He pointed at her mouth.

She shoved his hand away. “Shut up. Get serious.”

He was serious. He’d made his mate smile. Another one of his Christmas wishes had been fulfilled.

“Okay. I’m serious,” he told her. “I seriously think turning Kaede is our only option. Unless you want me to chain him up.”

“He’s an alpha dragon.”

“Right. He’ll just break out or burn through the chains. Death is the only way to stop him.”

“I’ll look through my shadow book. I used to have a spell to make a person sleep for a long period of time. I burned it though. Damn. I wonder if Silvia knows any witches who can help.”

“I’ve already talked to her about it. She’s looking into it. But the power of the full moon curse is strong. It’s going to take one strong witch to come up with a spell that can help Kaede. That brings us back to my plan.”

“We’re not doing your plan,” Winter told him.

She then went on a tirade about why his plan wouldn’t work. He tuned her out. He was too busy looking at the table across the room. On top of the table was a deck of homemade playing cards. Staring at them, and idea came to mind. As the best gambler this side of the Frozen Region, he knew every card trick in the book. He also knew every game there was. And he was the best at cheating. But his Kitten didn’t know that.

“Hey,” he said, interrupting her.

“I was talking.”

“How about we play for who gets to decide what happens to Kaede.”

She opened her mouth then closed it. “Play what?”

His mate was a gambler like himself. “We can play cards.” He nodded to the deck in the corner. She looked back, then returned her gaze to him.

“You want to play against me with my cards in my house?”

He nodded. “You scared?”

Winter smiled. “I don’t know what that word means.”