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Holly’s jaw dropped. Then she smiled. Joy radiated from her. “Thank you. I really do feel like I’ve come home.”
She was right. Now that he’d found his mate, Ice realized this ranch was his forever home, too.
Epilogue – A Holly Jolly Christmas
Cougar Lake Ranch
Christmas Eve
The interior of the ranch house glowed with candlelight as the members of the Cougar Lake Pride arrived in groups of two and three and four. Most of them carried desserts of various kinds as their contribution to the pride’s Christmas dinner.
Long banquet tables, set end to end, stretched through the big open-plan living room and dining room areas. Fine china, silverware, and crystal sat on festive red tablecloths decorated with fir twigs and holly branches.
A giant Christmas tree stood in one corner of the living room, next to the fireplace. Its gilded star topper brushed the beams of the high vaulted ceiling.
Both Holly and Ice had spent most of the day helping Daniel and his mate Margaret prepare for tonight’s dinner, which would serve the pride’s fifty members.
When she and Ice arrived after breakfast, she admired the big, multicolored project plan printouts fastened to the doors of the giant stainless-steel refrigerator. Every task for preparing a prime rib dinner for fifty guests, along with starting and ending times for each of those tasks, appeared in the plan.
“Well, it’s not like Chef Daniel runs a restaurant or anything,” Ice joked after she complimented the level of organization. “Now, let’s get to work before he starts yelling at us.”
“I never yell,” Daniel informed them in his Gulf Coast drawl. “I just speak loudly at times so that y’all can hear me and understand what you need to do.”
Ice straightened and gave his boss a mock salute.
While Holly peeled and quartered a huge sack of potatoes and Ice chopped onions and minced garlic, Margaret wrangled the other pride members who showed up to help, including Becca and her mate Paul, as well as Daniel’s brother Pete and his mate Kayla Swanson, who was Margaret’s daughter.
Daniel snagged another few sets of helping hands for the kitchen.
Under Margaret’s direction, the rest of the helpers set the tables, hung decorations, and performed the thousand and one other tasks hosting a dinner for so many people required.
Meanwhile, the house filled with the mouthwatering scents of herb-crusted prime rib roasting in the oven, baking bread, and cooking vegetables.
Finally, it was time for the celebration to begin.
Festive music filled the house as servers circulated with trays of mouthwatering hot and cold hors d’oeuvres: meatballs in a fragrant chimichurri sauce; tiny puff pastries filled with melted Brie cheese and fig jam; skewers of cold shrimp with a fiery horseradish cocktail sauce; baked mushroom caps stuffed with crabmeat, and topped with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese; and many more delicacies.
Holly, whose long black cocktail dress draped neatly over her cast and crutch, laughed as Ice maneuvered her under a ribbon-bound sprig of mistletoe hanging in the doorway that led to Margaret’s office.
Before the party started, they’d both changed out of their cooking clothes and into their party outfits. She’d never seen him in a suit before. He looked damned sexy.
Expecting a kiss, she was most definitely not expecting him to drop to one knee before her.
The room instantly stilled, as if Ice had primed the guests to expect this moment.
“Holly, when we first met, you told me you’d decided to spend the holidays alone because your relatives couldn’t accept you for who you are,” Ice began. “But when you accepted me—all of me—my sabertooth half informed me you were a keeper. These past few weeks have been the happiest of my life, and I don’t ever want them to end.”
Holly’s face heated as she gazed down at him. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears. Was this really happening? Was he really about to propose?
“I spent a lot of years wandering the country, looking for a home,” he continued. “As soon as we met, I knew I’d finally found what I was looking for. It’s you, Holly. My home will always be wherever you are.”
Happy tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision. “I love you,” she whispered.
“And I love you, too.” His smile was brighter than the sun. “I want us to make a home together here on the Cougar Lake Ranch. We’ll always have a place to celebrate the holidays… our place. A place where we can just be ourselves.”
She nodded, unable to speak because of all the emotions clogging her throat.
“Holly, you’re already my mate. Will you marry me and become my wife, too?” Ice reached into his suit pocket and drew out a small box.
