she grins up at me mischievously. “I don’t think I can ever complain of not being spoiled enough by my mate,” she murmurs.
The happy smile that wreaths her dam’s face is one of dignified beauty and warmth, and full of approval as she looks upon me. There is no suspicion in her eyes, just the kind of welcome I never expected from anyone. Looping her arm with mine she gives me a gentle tug and leads me into the house where my mate’s sister, Tonya I recall, looks up from where she is reclined on the couch. With a happy shout, she scrambles from the couch to embrace my mate with much laughter between the sisters, and then to my surprise, she welcomes me as well in a shockingly tight hug!
I do not know what to do with touches not coming from my mate, so I stand awkwardly in the embrace, looking to my mate for guidance or just plain rescue as I am squeezed tightly. The only thing that keeps me from being alarmed is the sparkle of amusement in Steph’s eyes. My ahandral’s lips part but only one word comes from them.
“Family,” she murmurs softly.
I look at the females as they surround us with activity and gossip, and Harriet begging shamelessly to see our fetch forms—something which my mate indulges with softly spoken words of caution from me to happy shrieks greeting her fetch form from her niece—a strange happiness settles over me. My mate is as beautiful in fetch form as in her human form and I love her equally as both. To see the dark unicorn mare filling a given space never fails to steal my breath. To see the wonder on her family’s face, however, it is beyond compare.
I was my parents’ only foal and they had been gone from the living world centuries now, so it is perhaps I have forgotten or not realized what it meant to be a part of a family. Seeing this love and acceptance, hearing the laughter filling the room along with the playful bickering, makes something ease deep within me bloom.
I’m entertained with wild stories of my mate’s youth and fed so much food that I doubt my ability to walk out of there, but I love all of it. Every touch was done with feeling as a manner of connection, and every word exchanged full of love. Arms embraced me as one of them even as the exclaimed excitedly over the arrival of our foal.
Family. Yes, my mate was right for us to begin our family here with them. I want my foal to experience this kind of love, something which guarantees many more regular visits in the future as far as I’m concerned. And so, I am happy to have them close on hand three days later when my son arrives.
He looks like any unicorn male. His soft fur covering his entire body, and his tiny tuft of a tail whipping around him angrily. Although he is as ivory as any unicorn stallion, he has much of his mother’s beautiful features in the shape of his chin and mouth, and the deep velvety eyes with the slightest cast of purple on the dark depths. His horn is barely a bud as any foal, but I am certain that it is larger and more pronounced than many foals. He will have powerful magic when he matures, I am certain.
But more than anything, I am proud to share him with my new family.
“Isn’t he just the most precious little one,” my mate’s dam murmurs. “Looks just like his mama too,” she chuckles as my son wrinkles his face in a fierce scowl.
“Good lord, so it is,” Tonya laughs, and my mate sticks her tongue out at her in jest.
“I don’t see where I get the reputation for being the scowler,” Steph protests. “You would think that everyone believes that I am the stubborn one around here.”
A quiet laugh escapes me as I sit beside her on the bed and drop a loving kiss upon the top of her head as she watches Harriet coo over our son, her little arms folded around him as she takes her turn to hold him. She is fascinated with him in every way and is talking to him in a low voice that forewarns of plots between children in the near future.
But my gaze is hungry for my mate and I look down at her, my heart so full of love that that it feels like it can barely fit inside of my chest.
“Not stubborn at all,” I tease. “But just enough for a unicorn to wager everything on a small trick.”
“One I’m not going to forget any time soon,” my mate retorts. “Don’t think I’m going to forget it any time soon.”
“I will be happy to continue passing my days making it up to you,” I murmur, enjoying the way her blush darkens her cheeks. “And I think your scowls are adorable.”
“Very cute,” she murmurs around a laugh.
I grin down at her, a feeling of immense satisfaction and adoration filling me. My trick designed to win merely time to woo my mate gained me everything. It gave me my mate, my son and now a family to call my own. A unicorn dreams of a mare, but only the lucky find the true love of an ahandral mate and the bonds of a family that he has always wanted.
Of all unicorns I am no longer cursed, but the luckiest.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for joining me for Eliph and Steph’s story. I’ve wanted to write about this flirtatious and bold unicorn since he came up in the The Orc Wife. In fact, for the Monsterly Yours series, he was the one that I got the most requests to see have his own book, so I was thrilled to finally be able to write it. And given the origin of his appearance it seemed appropriate to bring readers back around to his initial appearance with a quote about unicorns directly from the book.
My unicorns are a bit different, but I try to include actual bits of lore about unicorns. As a child I was obsessed with both horses and unicorns, and I loved movies like Legend, The Last Unicorn, as well as being fascinated with the Unicorn Tapestries. In result, I tried to give a little back from all of that with this book!
The goblin Grimsal was particularly fun to write, and you can expect to see him in a future book in this series, but first we have an orc and a troll king that coming up for this series, both books hopefully this year before we can visit Grimsal. We shall see how it goes! Needless to say, each book in the Monsterly Yours series is a true pleasure to write and share with all of you!
SJ Sanders
Other Works by S.J. Sanders
The Mate Index
First Contact
The VaDorok
Hearts of Indesh (Valentine Novella)
The Edoka’s Destiny
The Vori’s Mate
Eliza’s Miracle (Novella)
A Kiss on Kaidava
The Vori’s Secret
A Mate for Oigr (Halloween Novella)
Heart of the Agraak
A Gift for Medif
The Arobi’s Queen
Teril’s Fire
Monsterly Yours
The Orc Wife
The Troll Bride
The Accidental Werewolf’s Mate
The Pixie’s Queen
The Unicorn’s Mare (coming soon)
Sci-Fi Fairytales
Red: A Dystopian World Alien Romance
Sirein
Ragoru Beginnings Romance
White: Emala’s Story
Huntress
Ragoru Romance
A Mother’s Night Gift
Dark Spirits
Havoc of Souls
Forest of Spirits
Desert of the Vanished (coming soon)
Dark Spirits Fairytales
The Mirror (also part of Mischief Matchmakers)
Matchsticks
Shadowed Dreams Erotica
The Lantern
Serpent of the Abyss
The Mintars
Librarian and the Beast
The Atlavans
The Darvel Exploratory Systems
Classified Planet: Turongal
Serpents of the Abyss (coming soon)
Mist World: Asylum of Graelf (currently an ongoing serial in reader group)
Argurma Salvager
Broken Earth
Pirate’s Gold
Sands of Argurumal (out now!)
About the Author
S.J. Sanders is a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. With a love of all things alien and monster she is fascinated with concepts of far off worlds, as well as the lore and legends of various cultures. When not writing, she loves reading, sculpting, painting and travel (especially to exotic destinations). Although born and raised in Alaska, she currently as a resident of Florida with her family.
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