Page 162

Leon smiled and placed the snow leopard exactly where he’d found it.

“The goldvein ash.” Lucien's voice drew my attention to the other shelves. He was looking at the small frames between the books. “And the copperlace.”

Leon followed my gaze. Each frame held a leaf embroidered on pale fabric, copied from one I’d asked to see during our evenings in Lucien’s library.

Lucien held out his hand without taking his eyes off the stitches, and I slipped mine into it.

“You showed me which ones you liked looking at most.”

His fingers tightened around mine. He leaned closer to inspect the tiny branching threads, then glanced towards the chair beneath them.

“I thought you could show the girls while you read to them.”

“The veins are remarkably accurate.”

“I asked for those to be copied carefully. You spent ages explaining them to me.”

“I did not realise you intended this.”

“That was the idea.” I smoothed his sleeve. “Do you like them?”

“Very much, my darling.” He brought my hand to his lips, held it there briefly, then lowered it.

“Will the chair need to be nearer?” Alaric asked from behind us.

Lucien looked from the leaves to the seat. “A little, so they can see while we read.”

Alaric moved it, then waited while Lucien checked the view. I watched them make the tiny adjustment together before Lucien turned back to me.

“Will you sit with us when I show them?”

“Of course. You'll have to explain some of it again to me as well.”

“I would be glad to.”

I could already see him sitting there with a book across his knees, two little heads turned toward the leaves. Out in the growing room, the graft still needed time and a lot of patient attention, so for now I could give him these embroideries. The leaf I hoped to grow for him would stay a Christmas secret.

Darius was standing beside the cots. He’d checked the doors as soon as he came in, obviously, but now he looked between the little snow leopards in the cots and the dressing room.

“Do they have enough?”

“Clothes?” I laughed and slipped my arms around him. “They have more clothes than they'll wear.”

His gaze stayed on the dressing room. “It does not seem enough, little one.”

Leon joined us at the doorway. “There are more in the drawers.”

“I'll show you.”

I opened one and picked up a pink onesie we’d folded that afternoon, then laid it across Darius’s palm.

“That's for a whole person,” I said softly.

His thumb moved over the tiny sleeve. The whole thing barely covered his huge palm, and suddenly I could picture one of our daughters lying there with her little hand wrapped around one of his fingers.

“They have everything they need and more, Darius. They are very lucky girls to be born into a Pack that can provide all of this for them.”

He turned towards me.