Funk-N-Fiction

This morning we’re treated with another adorable seasonal short for our Halloween Flash Fiction blog event! This sweet story is from Julia Talbot, writing as Minerva Howe. I hope you love all our stories this week, and be sure to check at the end of each one for the contests/giveaways!!

BURNT CUPCAKE OFFERINGS
A Cupcake Halloween Story
MINERVA HOWE

 

Chapter 1

The smell of something burning woke Devon up in the wee hours on Halloween morning. 

His eyes popped open, and he sniffed the air before rolling out of bed so could sprint to his daughter’s room. Arielle didn’t mean to set things on fire most of the time. She just didn’t have control of her dragon fire yet, and sometimes she had bad dreams…

Except she wasn’t in her room. Neither was her dog, Tiny. The big wolfhound stuck to her like glue, especially at night, so Devon knew he had to be with her, wherever she was.

He headed down to the kitchen, the scent growing stronger with every step he took, and he knew it wouldn’t be Tyson’s fae housekeeper, because she rarely burned food, and she wouldn’t be awake at this hour. At least not in their dimension.

Just before he walked into the big kitchen, he heard wild sobbing, and he ran, terrified that Arielle had burned herself. 

“Baby girl? What happened. Are you okay?”

She looked at him, smoke pouring from her nose, tears rolling from her eyes. “I burnded the cupcakes, Da.” She had her little tablet with the dropable bouncy rubber case on it on the counter, open to a set of very fancy looking Halloween cupcakes. 

Uh-oh.

“Oh, sweetie. It’s very , um, middle of the night to be making cupcakes.”

“I wanted to make them for you! And Pop-Pop.” She sniffled and held her arms out. “For Howl-o-ween.”

“Of course you did.”

“You always makes middle night things. For all of us.” 

He did, in fact, often cook for everyone and they would all pile into the kitchen and have goodies and tea and laugh a lot. Brand, my love? he called mentally to his mate.

Mmmph? Where are you?

In the kitchen. We’ve had a bit of a disaster. Can you gather the others and come down for midnight goodies?

Of course. We’ll be there in— how long? 

We need ten or fifteen to get the new batch of pumpkin cupcakes into the oven… I’ll also put in frozen pizzas. He’d eaten his weight in those when he was pregnant with Arielle, and they always made her smile.

Gotcha. We’ll shuffle down in shifts.

Love you.

“Can we makes more, Da?”

“We can. I see you were careful to use papers, so that makes it super easy to get the burned ones out. Get me the trash can…”

Twenty minutes later they had new cupcakes in the oven, the mixer running to make buttercream, the kettle on, and a full kitchen of family members wearing the Halloween pajamas his bother in law Tyson had procured for all of them. They were printed with dragons wearing witch hats. 

Arielle was beaming and feeding little bits of pizza to her dog, her tears turned to happy laughter. 

“See, baby girl? Even burned cupcakes can start a party.”

She beamed at him, a lick of fire escaping her mouth. “Happy Halloween, Da.”

“Happy Halloween, little dragon. Happy Halloween.”

Hey y’all!

I’m Julia Talbot, and I write paranormal action adventure. As Minerva Howe I write mpreg and omegaverse, and that was what my cupcake story reminded me of. In Minerva’s Dragon Hoard series, the guys and their mates and kids gather at all the holidays for food. And this made me think of Halloween cupcakes!

And I’d love to give away an ebook copy of Dragon Scholar to one commenter!

You can find all my Julia stuff at www.juliatalbot.com and all the Minerva love at www.minervahowe.com

Happy Halloween!
XXOO
Julia/Minerva


Contest starts today, and our winner will be chosen from all eligible commenters at the end of our event. Winner will be chosen, then announced in our wrap-up post on November 1st.

Good luck!!