Winter Solstice Wishes

  Winter Solstice Wishes

  By Gayle Parness

  A Rogues Shifter Series Short Story

  Featuring Sasha and Elle

  Copyright 2014 Gayle Parness

  Dear Readers & Rogues,

  This short story is about two of the characters from the Rogues Shifter Series: Sasha, who’s been with the series since Rebirth, and Elle, who we met in Cut Off. Because the heat level is much higher than in my original YA series, I consider this story to be an adult read. Sasha and Elle are way past young adulthood. In case you’re keeping track of the timeline, this is book 7.5 in the Rogues Shifter Series, but it can be read on its own.

  Winter Solstice Wishes first appeared in the 2014 holiday anthology, Candy Cane Kisses and Magical Embraces—no longer available for purchase. Happy reading!

  Elle, a fae female, has refused to return to the Faerie Court because of the treatment she endured under the former queen, Fionna. She's been a guest in Sasha's home for the last few months, and is finally beginning to feel comfortable in this new world—finding herself drawn to the gentle warrior, but not feeling worthy to stand at his side. When she sees how Sasha has decorated his home for Christmas, Elle invites him to celebrate the winter solstice with her.

  Sasha, a vampire with a violent past, is completely smitten by this sweetly elegant female, but he has many demons of his own to dispel. When Elle invites him to a magical celebration, he jumps at the chance to spend time with her. But can they heal each other on the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year?

  Winter Solstice Wishes

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Acknowledgments

  Other Books by Gayle

  Connect to Gayle

  Books by Marie Booth

  Connect to Marie

  Excerpt from Playing with Passion by Marie Booth

  PROLOGUE: Faerie after the fall of Queen Fionna

  Elle

  When I heard the squeak of the bedroom door opening, I jumped to my feet and wiped the tears from my eyes. I must not seem weak. My dagger was already in hand, hidden in the folds of my skirt. This time I was certain I could muster the courage to die with honor. But it was a male I did not know who entered, one whose voice I did not recognize.

  “Do not be afraid, child,” he said in rich tones. “No one will hurt you now that I have returned. Garrett and his family have requested that you leave Faerie and accompany them to the Mortal Plain so that you may find peace away from court. I have agreed, although I am saddened that you may decide never to return.”

  He was standing in the shadows, so I could not see his face, yet my skin prickled with the effect of his power. “Step into the light,” I demanded, my blade shaking along with my hand.

  The moment he did, I collapsed to the floor, the shock of seeing this male forcing the breath from my lungs. Finvarra, the former King of Faerie stood in my dank and barren room. He and Queen Aine had abandoned the people of Faerie centuries ago. His disappearance was the reason his daughter, Fionna, had taken the crown. My suffering under her rule had been as much this royal’s responsibility as Fionna’s, yet because of his unparalleled magic, I could not carry through with my plan to attack whomever next entered my room. I’d hoped to die in the attempt, which would have suited me well.

  Now it appeared I would be forced to live outside of Faerie until I healed. I cast my eyes downward in deference and embarrassment. There would be no healing for me.

  “Stand, child.” I did. “What is your name?” he asked.

  “Elle, sire.”

  “Follow me, Elle.” The king spoke with great gentleness, the tone a balm spreading warmth throughout my body. “I will find you a suitable room where you may wash and eat. Then perhaps you will name the males or females who hurt you? I will see to them personally and they will not go unpunished.”

  “Thank you, sire.”

  “You will be leaving with Garrett and Jacqueline in a few hours, but only if you agree to go. No one will force you.”

  No one will force you. Could this be true? For so many months I’d wished to die. But I’d watched a vampire fight with all his strength to live, battling blood loss and the effects of torture, keeping alive to finally be rescued by his mate, his son and his friends. A shiver raised the hairs on my arms and legs as I remembered how I also had fought against my torturers at first. My hope had died quickly. I’d been weak.

  I followed my king to the nicer room and sat down to eat when he asked me to, although I could taste nothing. Whether I was in the Mortal Plain or Faerie did not matter. No one could rescue me from my memories.

  CHAPTER ONE: The week before Christmas in Crescent City, California

  Sasha

  Elle walked down the stairs, her blue gown brushing each step as she passed, her natural grace a gift to my senses. When she reached the bottom step, she frowned. “Sasha, why have you brought a tree into your home?”

  Rick and I were enjoying a beer, having just lowered the enormous fir tree into the stand and adjusting it to Rick’s specifications. Holidays didn’t mean much to me, but because Rick enjoyed Christmas, I humored him. Like any part-time yuletide participant, I made myself scarce when it was time to hang the lights, but even I had to admit decorating the tree on Christmas Eve, inviting our friends to join in, and making the occasion into a party was worth all the effort.

  In a few quick strides Elle had reached the tree. She crouched and leaned forward, placing her hand on the trunk where it met the tree stand. “You have chopped it down?”

  Neither Rick or I could have predicted the look of horror she aimed at me. “It’s a tradition,” I said, the words tumbling out in my defense. “The tree doesn’t go to waste. Sinlae uses it for compost after the holidays.” Sinlae was a demi-fey who along with her mates, took care of our gardens. I thought maybe the idea that we were helping the environment would unruffle some of Elle’s lovely feathers, but in preparation for the worst, I swallowed the last of my beer. Elle had a temper.

  “Hmph. To some residents of Faerie it would be seen as a killing offense.” Head bent, she mumbled a few words in her musical language, rising when she’d finished. She peeked out the bay window and asked, “But where do you hold your winter solstice ceremony? It is tonight. We must make preparations.”

  Rick stood, gesturing in a gentlemanly way that she should join us. “Would you like a glass of wine, Lady Elle?” The smile she directed his way was bright and friendly. Guess I shouldn’t tell her Rick was the one who’d wielded the ax. He owed me one, but then I owed him my life a dozen times over.

  “Thank you, Heinrich. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I have no need of refreshment at the moment.” She glided to the chair beside mine, sitting as elegantly as she did all things in life. I could watch her move and listen to her speak for hours and never feel the need to do anything else.

  Rick chuckled, breaking my sublime meditation by loudly gathering our beer bottles and tossing them in the recycle bin. As usual, he’d caught me staring at her like a love-struck teen. I glared at him in warning, hoping to discourage any jibes. Rick’s taunts were getting old.

  “You need to ask her out, Sash. Your simpering stares are giving me shingles.” Because we were vampires in the same nest, we could communicate mind-to-mind, a handy gift in all circumstances, but particularly when you were being ridiculed by your BFF.

  My glare dissolved, a resigned huff taking its place. “I’m not in her class.” Fae ladies did not date vampires who over the centuries had
murdered hundreds of humans and other supernaturals. Granted, I hadn’t been given any choice, but that didn’t pardon even one death.

  “If I hear that excuse one more time, I’m going to decorate the tree with your toes.”

  “Real festive.”

  Elle, who was used to our mental ping ponging, was still waiting patiently for an answer to her question. I sat up straighter, explaining, “Vampires don’t celebrate the solstice. That’s a fae thing.”

  She wrinkled her forehead, the lines adding shading to the smooth plains of her skin. My fingers twitched, eager to hold a sketchpad and a stick of charcoal, although any attempt at capturing her radiant glow would fail. “But were you not once human? Human groups enjoy solstice festivals, do they not?” She turned to Rick for confirmation, ignoring me.

  Back on the couch, Rick put his feet up on the coffee table. Elle arched an eyebrow and his feet hit the floor. She never scolded Rick, mostly because he didn’t behave like a dungeon dweller, the phrase she’d recently begun using for me. We both wanted to please her, but I’d often do things I knew would rile her up. My world was complete whenever Elle scolded me, frowned at me, laughed with me, smiled at me—noticed me.

  “My family always celebrated Weihnachten, or Christmas as humans call it here,” Rick explained. Having been made vampire only fifty years ago, Rick’s German accent still flavored his English and a lot of his American girlfriends-slash-blood donors found it adorable. Rick was six foot eight inches and three hundred pounds—not exactly adorable in my estimation. But then who was I to judge?

  I scanned Elle’s lovely lines, her delicate features strengthened by courage and determination, her pale skin glowing with warm shades in the firelight. I wanted so badly to paint her portrait, but she’d refused, saying she wouldn’t have time to tend to her duties if she spent hours posing for a picture she’d be embarrassed for anyone to see.

  Despite her difficult past, I wouldn’t have painted her as a vulnerable maiden, a victim or a servant, even if most of the world saw her that way. To my eyes Elle was a warrior, a female who’d survived the worst and battled her way back.

  I cleared my throat, wanting Elle’s attention back on me. “My family didn’t have time for special holidays because we were too busy trying to stay alive. Winters in Russia were the worst.” I’d been forced into the tsar’s army, trudging through snow up to my thighs so that we could breach the next hill and destroy another village. I still had nightmares about that time, although they were less frequent since our beautiful house guest from Faerie arrived. Now my dreams were all about her.

  Elle ignored me. Again. “And what was Christmas like for you, Heinrich?”

  “I remember—”

  “Why do you always call us by our full names?” I asked a little too loudly.

  Elle’s chin jutted in irritation. “It is a sign of respect, as is not interrupting your friend when he is speaking.”

  I did my best to look sheepish—not my forte. “Is Elle short for something?”

  “Elle is not my full name. It is the name I was given by Queen Fionna when I served her at court.” She looked past me to the window, her eyes glazing over. The pain of her time at court was still evident. “It is not a proper name for a lady of Faerie.”

  “You’ve lived in our house for six months and you’ve never told me your full name? Why?”

  Her violet gaze pinned me to my chair. “Because you have not earned the right to address me in that way.”

  Her attempts to put me in my place were a game I enjoyed on so many levels, but there was something hurtful about this last comment. “I like the name Elle. It’s sweet, like you.”

  I’d caught her off guard, but the frown returned with a blink of her large eyes. “Which only proves you are feeble-minded. I am not sweet.”

  I ignored Rick’s laughter and leaned closer to Elle, almost within touching distance. I lowered my voice, adding a hint of huskiness. “I can’t argue the point, since you haven’t allowed me to taste you.” I made sure my grin showed off the tips of my fangs.

  Elle pretended to be offended, tossing her head in a sexy way that made her dark waves dance around her shoulders. I’d spent many a sleepless day fantasizing about fisting my hands in that lovely hair as I bit into her neck, taking in the most delicious of all nectars. Fae blood held powerful magic, but my craving was more specific. I’d happily turn my back on a houseful of fae, instead crawling on my hands and knees to beg this female, the one who’d been diving me mad for six months, to offer me one delicious drop. Or better yet, some romantic time alone with her.

  Elle and I were still only inches apart and she was fighting back a smile with everything she had, the proof in the tiny creases around her large eyes. I’d grown to love those smile-induced lines. My only wish was to see them more often.

  “Did you happen to notice the plant I hung over the doorway?” I asked, moving on to another subject that might make her smile.

  Heinrich chuckled, holding up his hands and shaking his head. “That was his idea.”

  She looked where I was pointing. “Yellow mischief? Is there some significance?”

  “We call it mistletoe and hang it above somewhere a beautiful woman might stand. If we catch her there we’re allowed to kiss her.”

  Her giggle brought on happy creases. “You are a cad, Sasha Vodinski, to trap a female in such a way.”

  I leaned back, the music of her laughter still singing in my ears. Elle had been through hell and back at the fae court, used and tortured by Queen Fionna’s sycophants. Although she rarely spoke about her experiences, she’d chosen not to return to Faerie even though King Finvarra, a gentler ruler, had reclaimed his crown and Fionna had disappeared. However, Elle was a subject of Faerie, staying with us by the king’s grace. If he told her to return, she’d have no choice but to obey him.

  With nowhere else to place her, Garrett, the head of our nest, had suggested she move in with Rick and me, telling us about her life at court and making sure we understood how fragile she was. The first month was tough: hearing her cry but not able to do anything to help her, sending up food that was rarely eaten. But then one evening she’d walked downstairs, rolled up her sleeves and begun to wash the wine glasses we’d left in the sink.

  Like most households, we had an appliance that took care of that job, but Rick and I were way too startled to speak, staying where we were so we didn’t scare her back into hiding. When she’d finished, she sat in the wingback chair across from us, her lyrical words enchanting me. It was the first time I’d ever heard her speak, the first time I’d been close to her, the first time I’d known she was mine.

  “I apologize for my behavior. I have been an unworthy house guest who has not shown proper gratitude for your kindness and your patience. Sinlae has scolded me on several occasions and I am determined that I will not continue to shame my people by behaving like a child. From now until the time I am sent away, I will assist Sinlae in the gardens and I will also help you tend to your lovely home in the hopes that my service will make up for my early misdeeds.”

  Despite our insisting that her status as our guest did not include the duties of a servant, she’d stubbornly done as she’d promised, keeping our world clean and organized, weaving her faerie spell into my heart with every graceful movement, small smile and musical laugh. She’d bewitched me without a hint of magic and I’d welcomed each moment I spent wrapped in her spell.

  What made me happiest was how staying with us was helping her heal. A small crack had worked its way up the wall she’d erected to protect herself after the horrors of her life at the Faerie Court. I figured if I just kept chipping away, gently, steadily, she’d let it crumble. And then, who knew? I couldn’t wait to find out.

  Rick laughed again, bringing me back to the present. “As I was saying before Sash interrupted, I remember holiday celebrations in Munich. We would eat sausages and roast goose, exchange presents, and drink winterbrau. As a child, during Advent our parents
would fill stockings with small gifts and candy. Christmas was an opportunity to spend time with family members you hadn’t seen for many months.”

  “Sounds cool.” I shrugged and turned away, suddenly jealous that I didn’t have any happy holiday memories. My family had died of influenza while I’d been with the army killing innocents in some border village, all because the tsar and his generals wanted the territory. I found out later that local soldiers had burned my parents’ and sisters’ bodies along with our family cottage.

  I still missed the sound of Mama working in the kitchen, her hands and clothing scented with the comforting smells of cooking food. My younger sisters would tease me often, giggling over a scheme they’d planned or joking about some girl I had a crush on. I missed them, too.

  When I looked up again, Elle’s gaze pierced mine, as if she could see into my troubled soul. “We will make memories tonight. You will come with me into the forest to celebrate the winter solstice.” She smiled at Rick. “You may also accompany us, Heinrich.”

  He winked at me and stood. “Sorry. Hot date. But thanks.” He’d be going to one of the donor clubs in Gasquet to feed. He treated his females like queens, buying them gifts and protecting them from other, more violent vampires. In return, they fussed over him like a harem over their maharaja and called him adorable. Rick often boasted that he wasn’t a one-woman male, and his stable seemed to accept that fact. I suspected he just hadn’t met the right female.

  Now me, on the other hand, I was pretty sure the female I was meant to spend my very long life with was currently living in my house and sleeping in the bedroom next to mine. But she rarely met my gaze, except in irritation, and never came close enough to touch my skin, except by accident. Maybe accompanying her to the winter solstice celebration would widen that crack in her wall, or better yet, crumble it.