Tropical Holiday Tails - Zoe Chant Page 0,16

up.”

Before he left the room, he paused and turned back. “Guard Chet,” he growled.

“Your Majesty?”

“Protect her,” Einar said firmly. “Whatever parts of your vows you feel are worth throwing away with your career, swear you will protect her.”

“I swear it,” Chet said grimly, feeling the cut of his king’s words more deeply than he wanted to admit. “I swear it with my whole heart.”

Twenty-Two Years Later

Chet gazed out of the top floor window, down over the frozen lake.

It was like a photo postcard for the impending Christmas holiday.

Lace-like white mountains spanned the Canadian horizon, and the evergreens were all heavy with brilliant snow. It looked like a train model, with every tree lovingly placed on the picturesque slopes. The sky was a curious variegated blue: rich blue overhead and a pale baby blue where it kissed the mountains, almost indistinguishable from the distant shadows. The lodge windows were clear, triple-paned, and set in great logs from trees that must have been monstrous lords of their forest.

Twenty-two years of traveling, and he and his mate were still finding new kinds of beauty and luxury to enjoy. He wasn’t sure how Agneta managed to ferret out something fresh and interesting every time, but every few months, she packed them up and moved somewhere completely different and uniquely wonderful.

“This place is a little chilly,” Agneta said thoughtfully, coming to stand by him. “You’d think that as a polar bear, I’d be more interested in this climate, but I am definitely planning somewhere tropical next.”

“Does it remind you of home?” The sting of their exile was not so keen as it had been at first, gentled by more than two decades, but there were many days that the sight of snow or the smell of saltwater would trigger melancholy.

Agneta shrugged carelessly. “In ways, I suppose.”

Chat turned to draw her into his arms. “Regrets?” he asked seriously.

Her smile was slow and sultry. “Not one,” she promised, and Chet had to believe her, because whatever grief or guilt he carried, he could not regret his choice to embrace a life of travel with the woman he loved more than the world.

And if her smile made his existence complete, her kiss set it on fire.

She pulled away slowly. “I’ve already picked our next place,” she said, and her eyes were sparkling. “What do you dislike most about all of the places we’ve lived?”

Chet considered. “The cooking is hit and miss,” he said. “But that’s not a universal complaint.”

Agneta’s smile took a hint of mischief. “Do you remember what you said when you first saw that forest?”

“That I wanted to go wander it in bear form, and it was a shame they had so many cameras around the lodge,” Chet remembered.

“Good for the wildlife enthusiasts, not so good for the wildlife guests,” Agneta quoted him, nodding. She looked full of promise and excitement. “I found a place where we can be ourselves.”

For a moment, Chet misunderstood, thinking of himself as Royal Guard in an unexpected gulp of hope. But no, she meant— “A place where we can be shifters?”

Agneta showed him a poorly-designed brochure, folded not quite square. “It’s so-subtly called Shifting Sands Resort. Read between the lines, or give the owner a call, like I did. She was lovely, though the connection was terrible. It really is a resort for shifters, and it sounds amazing. A big pool, a beach, a full-service spa!”

“A kitchen?”

Agneta hesitated. “A restaurant,” she said with regret. “I asked for a cottage with a kitchen and was told they had none available for any price.”

Chet could see her excitement and wanted no part in dampening that. “I can do without,” he promised. “What will your codename be?”

Pretending to be spies had been a harmless diversion when they first went on the run, a fun spin on their new drifting life that gave it a fictional twist to take off some of the sting of leaving their duties and families behind. She always went with a flower name, and he usually picked an obscure spy from screen or page.

“I will be Magnolia,” she said firmly. “I quite like it as a name, and it is a lovely flower and a strong tree. For you…James Bond?”

Obscure, it was not, but Chet would do anything for his mate.

Even go to another luxury island where he would never let her know that he was bored to tears.

Agneta breathed in deeply as she climbed out of the van, the springs of the vehicle creaking. After more than two