Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Christmas Day
HOLLIS
Curled up on the couch, I watch out the window as the world is blanketed in snow. It feels quiet and peaceful, and the cabin smells like cinnamon and chocolate as Malcolm cooks breakfast.
It’s tranquil, and the last six days have been incredible. There’s no work, emails, or phone calls. No family drama, and Lars and Caleb texted me to say Merry Christmas this morning. They said they’d see me when I got back with an update, but that was it.
My friends aren’t the most patient of alphas. All I can hope is that they don’t have Nova locked up somewhere.
“Coffee?” Felix asks, handing me a mug as I smile in thanks. “How are you doing?”
“Me? I’m great. This has been so nice. I don’t think I’ve disconnected and taken an actual break in ages. Even when I got hurt, I had to work,” I say, taking a sip of my coffee.
“Good. It’s hard to slow down,” he admits, carefully lifting me up to lay behind me. I’m cradled against him, and I smile because it’s becoming second nature to have one of them to lean against as my own personal body pillow.
This place has a nest and a giant bedroom, making it perfect for packs without children. There’s been lots of sex on every surface of the house. Felix is already joking about having to disinfect things.
“You’re so comfy,” I mumble happily, my eyes feeling heavy. Since I’m supposed to be waking up, I take another sip of my coffee.
“I’m glad. Don’t fall asleep,” he teases me, smoothing back my hair. I’m wearing a lounge set and fluffy socks, completely happy to be comfortable today. “Malcolm is almost done making breakfast and then we’re going to do presents. I have to run out for a little while, but I won’t be long.”
“Oh?” I ask, looking up at him. We went snowmobiling yesterday, and my body is a little sore from spending the day outside. It was so much fun though. This area is gorgeous. I was able to take some great photos of the five of us.
I want to frame a few of them I think.
“Mmhmm. I have a present for you that’s in town,” he says.
“I guess I’ll be a good girl and be patient,” I tease him.
I typically don’t give a shit about being societally “good.” I would rather carry a big stick and make a mess of the rules. However, I really enjoy this push and pull I have with my alphas.
It’s fun.
“You good? That’s adorable,” he growls, kissing my lips hard.
“If you keep doing that, we’ll be having her for breakfast instead,” Remy teases.
“No!” Mal yells from the kitchen. “Feed the omega, and then you can eat her on the counter for all I care.”
“It’s sad that cock isn’t a food group,” I murmur, getting up off the couch.
“It’s a fucking travesty,” Remy chuckles, grabbing my hand to walk the short few steps to the kitchen.
“What’s a travesty?” Brice asks, leaning against the counter with a plate of French toast drizzled in chocolate and cinnamon.
Mmm. My mouth is already watering.
“Cock not being a breakfast food,” I say immediately, climbing onto a chair.
Despite my height, I think everything was created for giants in this place.
Brice smirks as he shrugs as if saying that this is what he gets for asking at all. He’s not wrong, I’m finding that the five of us together are ridiculous in the best ways.
“Travesty or not, here’s your food that is not cock,” Mal purrs, making me shiver as I take my plate from him.
“It looks amazing,” I say, my eyes on him and not the food as he chuckles.
“You’re so much trouble,” Brice says.
“Do you want to watch a Christmas movie after we open presents?” Mal asks.
“Can we watch Miracle on 34th Street?” I ask, brightening as I take a bite of my food. My lashes flutter as I moan, the fluffy bread perfection against the sweetness of the chocolate and cinnamon.
“Yes we can, and fuck, your noises are my favorite part of watching you eat,” Mal groans.
“You watch me eat?” I ask, covering my mouth with my hand.
“Oh yeah,” Felix murmurs.
“It’s my favorite part of meals outside of eating them,” Remy adds, making me blush.
“The addiction runs deep, Baby Girl,” Brice says. “Please don’t let us keep you from eating.”
They’re insane. Smiling, I continue to enjoy my meal and coffee, enjoying the easy banter between us. We don’t have a tree since we’re at a rental, but the various presents are piled up in the living room. Mal cleans in stages as we eat, and the kitchen is immaculate by the time we’re done.
He puts our plates in the dishwasher and starts running it, calling it good enough. They each have their ingrained routines on how they do things, but it makes sense. There’s no pressure for me to mess with the perfection of how it all works.
“Present time?” I ask, getting excited. I love giving gifts.
“Yes,” Brice grins.
Sliding off the chair, I walk into the living room and begin handing out presents. The guys make a little pile in front of me and each other, and then they begin opening their presents.
I gave Malcolm sticky notes in the form of butt plugs, a recipe book, and a new hooded sweater that I fully expect to steal back at some point. His lips twitch at the sticky notes, and I notice the way that he focuses on the recipe book.
Malcolm likes things that are clear cut, and that have instructions to follow so that he can branch out later to put his own spin on it. It’s why he loves to cook and garden.
I also learned recently that he is really good with cars since he used to work on them with his dad.
Their fathers were all conspicuously absent from the brunch, and the guys told me that their dads hate the way that the rest of the family acts around them.
I asked if they made the same comments that I heard at the brunch, and the four of them said that they didn’t.
Their fathers are supportive of their company, as well as their choices, and that’s the only reason they may allow them to stay in their lives. The rest of their families are cut off though.
My eyes focus on Brice as he opens his present from me, and I force myself to focus off my thoughts.
“Hollis,” he murmurs. It’s a framed photo of all of us. I managed to get one when we were hanging out on the couch together a week ago. “I love this. Is this a voucher for…dance lessons?”
Brice said recently that he has two left feet and didn’t know how to dance. I told him that I’d be the judge of that.
“Are you up for it?” I ask, grinning.
“I may stomp on your foot, baby, but I’m game,” Brice says with a grin.
“You’re a ninja gift giver,” Felix teases me, opening his gift. “A sketch pad?”
“I saw your sketches for mock ups of toys that you make for the guys to pitch for distributors to make,” I say shyly. “They’re really good.”
Felix finds more art supplies in there and grins. “You see a lot more than anyone gives you credit for,” he says. “I minored in art in college, but didn’t think I’d be good enough to make a go at it.”
“I think you are,” I say with a small shrug. “Even if it’s just for you, that’s fine too.”
Mal tucks me into his side and kisses my forehead. “You’re amazing. I’ve been trying to tell him this for ages.”
Felix just smiles, looking down at the sketch pad as Remy opens his gift.
“Concert tickets?” he asks.
“You remind me to dance like no one’s watching. Angelic Demons are coming into town, so I got tickets for us all to go,” I explain.
“I really like them,” Mal says, surprising me. “I’m an angry driver. When traffic is heavy, I like to listen to them.”
“And since he’s the driver, we know all the lyrics,” Brice chuckles.
“So this is a good present too,” I say with a laugh. “Well, that works perfectly. There’s a new notebook inside too with naughty quotes all over it that you can use to mess with your employees.”
“Fuck yes,” Remy grins.
“Your turn,” Mal says, pulling my presents toward me as they open their other gifts from each other.
I would love to say that I am the kind of person who gets a lot of gifts, but I’m really not. Caleb and Lars tend to kidnap me for Christmas or my birthday right after to spoil me, but outside of that, I’m very closed off from people.
This also means that no one knows when my birthday is since I hate talking about it.
The guys all had the same idea as I did about date gifts, and I find a date to a museum exhibit I had talked about once, a painting date to help the organization that I went to the charity for with Felix, and an ice skating date. The last one is for a hockey game, which makes me look up at them.
“You enjoy violence,” Mal smirks. “What’s better than watching guys slam each other on the ice?”
“Other than the eye candy? Nothing,” Remy adds.
I fucking love them.
“This is awesome,” I say. “Thank you. This kind of takes the guesswork out of dates, doesn’t it?”
“They can feel like a lot of pressure, and we don’t want that,” Brice says intently. “It’s just us hanging out and enjoying each other’s company instead.”
“It’s perfect,” I admit. My cheeks hurt from how hard I’m smiling, and soon we’re cleaning up our trash so Felix can get going.
“Walk me out, baby?” he asks.
Nodding, I hug him as we walk toward the door.
“If I ask you to do something, would you think I was crazy?” he asks.
“No,” I say. I could give him shit about it, but Felix looks pensive and nervous about whatever this is.
“Will you bite over your mark for me?” he asks. “You can’t see it as much any more.”
He leans down to show me, the buttons on his sweater open to expose his throat.
“You should know by now that I’m a biter,” I murmur. Over the last week, I’ve given them various bites and scratches during our sexcapades.
“Oh I know,” he says. “I just don’t have a fresh one here.”
His thumb rubs over his throat, and I find myself really wanting to mark him again.
“I guess I’ll have to change that,” I purr. My fingers tug on his hair to bring him closer to me, and I can’t help myself. My tongue drags over his skin, making him groan my name.