Chapter 41
“I can’t believe he’s still dragging her around to show her off,” Mal muttered as she spied something in the distance as we roamed around the market.
Rosa glanced up and made a face. She couldn’t look away fast enough.
Overhearing them, examining a rather phallic looking drinking mug made from blown glass I was contemplating purchasing doubles of to shock my mates with, because you know, funsies and shit, I looked up and wished I hadn’t.
Rek was with what’s-her-name. Rosa and Mal and I made up random names for her, anything but her real name. I’d decided to call her Clementine and Claribelle, whenever an actual name was needed. It was closer to her name and less obvious than Jezebel. I mean, she’d known he was mated and came with him willingly. It was still even now hard to stomach.
I knew if I wanted to truly get past it, move past him, I’d have to confront him and find some way to put him behind me, really make peace with all this.
I just really didn’t want today to be that day.
Rek was practically shoving her at a male I knew was unmated. Perhaps he was building his family grouping? They’d been together for how long now? Knots formed in my stomach at the thought of them trying for a baby.
We were supposed to have a baby, damn it!
Feeling myself getting worked up, I set the phallic glass mug down and ordered two, each in colors to match the dick statues decorating my hut. It could be a funny little inside joke and fun surprise for when they returned home.
“Have ready in this many,” the merchant, Tikti, he’d introduced himself, told me.
“Two days? Okay. How much?” I inquired with a nod.
“Ticks on phoned clock,” he corrected. “No many. Odix say Jo comes to buy, Odix buys.”
My eyebrows winged upward. “Are you saying my hairy butt is covering my shopping binges?” I joked.
Without an ounce of a sense of humor, he nodded. “Jes.”
“Well, alrighty then. In that case, may I see that pretty grey shawl?” My smile matched his as he handed it over and I tried it on. “This too. It’s gorgeous. Did you make this?”
“Mate make it,” he told me proudly.
“It’s so soft and pretty. Compliments to your mate.”
Tikti beamed. “My Lolly be pleased to hear.”
With an agreement to be back in two hours to collect my cups, I wandered over to the smithies pit to say hi and wish the head smith’s mate well, as well as inquiring about something I’d been thinking about a lot lately.
“You can do it? I’ll be back later and I can have it to you then.” I was trying to contain my excitement.
“Jes. Come back next moon full. Have all ready. Good, strong. Like door,” he promised.
“Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you! You’re the best,” I told him.
He blushed but waved me off. “Sound like my female. All the nice things. Too nice. Shoo. Go. Make face hot!”
I laughed as I did as he bade, rejoining Mal and Rosa.
“You know him?” Mal asked.
“Ybor. He did my door.” I nodded as Mal linked her arm in mine and we walked.
“He’s kinda scary looking.” Rosa glanced over her shoulder at him.
Mal patted the little back of Binc strapped to her chest.
Booger was somewhere around here, with the fussy little girly strapped to his chest screaming her head off whenever he slowed down to a walk. Booger was going to have thighs of steel spoiling that kid.
Zhuii was just outside the market area, teaching his kiddos how to make mud castles with Gopher’s youngest sisters, who’d taken a shine to Kehko and the boys.
“My girls!” Mamma walked over to us with Papa and BapaGo fast on her heels, Elle and Amee-lee in tow. Mamma had quickly realized how important Mal and Rosa were to me and they’d become her girls, too.
“How’s BapaFuz doing?” I asked.
“Stubborn,” she muttered, then rolled her eyes. “As always. But, he’s healing.”
“He’s too ornery to kick it,” Papa chimed in, effortlessly dodging one of Mamma’s elbows to his side telling him to hush it.
“They’re taking us shopping,” Mamma told us with a twinkle in her eyes.
“No need more things,” Elle grumbled, folding her arms over her chest.
Mamma sighed but smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “They love having many daughters, my mates tell me, but do they tell you they’re as pigheaded as their fathers?”
Papa and Bapas sharp shock of laughter told me they didn’t think the girls got their stubbornness just from their daddies.
“So I should aim to have all boys, then?” I joked.
Mamma threw her hands up at that one. “One boy. An angel. He wants to move as far away as possible the moment he’s of age!” Shaking her finger at me, she warned me, “The girls will drive you crazy but the boys, the boys will break your heart! Mark my words, ladies!”
“Mine better not,” Rosa muttered with a frown as we said our good days and headed for Zhuii.
Mal and I grinned at that.
“I’ve got to head back in about two hours. I bought some cups for my guys,” I told them.
We walked into utter chaos as Zhuii glanced up, covered from head to toe in mud as much as the boys, Kehko a safe distance away, out of mud firing range as she played with her dollies and little wooden soldiers and Gopher’s sisters helped her swap the doll’s dresses.
“She wasn’t kidding,” Rosa muttered as she threw her hands up and joined her mud monsters. “I’d offer to come back with you but we’ll be scrubbing mud from funny places, I’m afraid.”
“Their fur will be nice and soft after that full body mud bath,” I joked.
Rosa laughed but shook her head. I wasn’t sure if the head shaking was at me or the mud madness.
As if on cue, Binc began to kick up a fuss.
Rejoining us, looking pooped, Booger grumbled, “Babies need naps, Booger nap too!”
“Go get your nap on.” I gave Mal a gentle nudge. “I can manage my way home from here.”
“Are you sure?” Mal looked loath to ditch me.
“It’s fine,” I assured her. Motioning to the girls hanging with Kehko, I nodded. “I’ll escort these four back home for Rosa. They can keep me company.”
The girls glanced up, nodding and said their good-byes to Kehko.
I found both of my hands trapped by smaller hands as I led them back to their place.
They prattled on the entire way, my responses to the new dresses they were making, the shoes one grew out of, a funny thing another did, who was getting along or arguing with whom about what, a soft noise in my throat that conveyed an equivalent of an oh, wow or oh my were commentary enough for them.
Despite Mamma’s warnings, I smiled at the idea of having a stubborn little girl to call my own. The idea of a little boy of my own to one day break my heart was already pre-breaking it. I’d get over that prickle poking at me, though, because, boy, girl, pre-breaking my heart silliness aside, it didn’t really matter. I just wanted a little one to call my own.
Hell, if I ended up with four at a time, even all crazy little wildmen for boys, I’d accept that fate with a crazy grin to match theirs. Four at once… Gah. I had no idea how the other brides did it. It would be chaos and I’d never pee alone again, or sneeze without peeing, but I’d be a mama.
BapaFuz was feeling as chatty as the girls when I got there, demanding I stay for tea.
By the time I left my stomach was pleasantly full of tea and tiny cakes, my head swimming with convos to later mull over, and it was time to head back to market.
The market was all but empty for a few vendors closing up shop. I smiled, noting that they were still there.
True to his word, Tikti had my mugs ready. The clay they used was like some magical rapid-fire stuff, he’d shortly explained. After heating it to a specific temp, it resembled blown glass. Ready to use in hours. Eyeing my new pretties, I couldn’t thank him enough. Tipping was a foreign custom to them and might be misconstrued, so I just nodded my thanks and made a mental note to meet his mate at the next big event. I could maybe bring her some treats and sneak in my thanks covertly. I was getting pretty good at baking shit other than sweet treats now. I’d burned enough bread I was developing that baker’s sixth sense with my oven.
Cradling the cloth wrapped bundles in my arms, there was a bounce in my step as I walked home. I couldn’t help the stupid smile tugging at my lips as I imagined Odix and Gopher coming back and the looks on their faces as they unwrapped their gifts.
As I was opening my front door, I turned and there it was, an odd shadow in the distance across the water. What the hell? Again? Was this going to be a regular thing now, hanging over my head? God, I was so sick of this!
“You don’t scare me, you know!” I called out. “I’ve figured you out!”
The bushes moved, rustling loudly enough for me to make it out.
My grip on my cloth bundles tightened. Fuck. That so was not my flippin’ imagination.
Like I’d just been dropped into a horror movie, a hand fell on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I had no idea what the person grabbing at me said as the figure in the shadows emerged, looking very much not like a Krampus as whoever was grabbing my shoulder spoke, but a Lo denaii, a very about to be dead one, holding up smoothed branches made up to look just like animal horns popped free.
My mind just froze. It was fixated on the Krampus thing and being touched. Nothing else was quite registering. The scream that tore from my throat, it just started and wouldn’t stop. Even long after the Lo denaii faking a very convincing shadow Krampus had given up his act, I was just… stuck.
Not until Not-Krampus began fanning the branch antlers around, did I finally snap into action.
Spinning around, I dropped one mug, the crash of glass not quite registering as I lifted the other one and beat my assailant about his body with it.
Hands trembling, entire body shaking with heavy tremors, I stopped long enough to catch my breath, and then I was blindly swinging and screaming in a panicked haze once more.
Don’t let it touch me, I kept thinking. Don’t let it get me.
Strong arms wrapped around me. A deep voice cut in on the chaos, slicing through it as my arms were pinned to my chest and I was bodily dragged away.
I’d stopped screaming but I was panting now, breathless, crying and shaking uncontrollably.
“What the fuck,” I panted out, over and over, stunned stupid beyond belief.
“It okay,” he crooned over and over. “Okay now, my Jojoknee. Okay now. Rek has. Him no hurt. No Krampus. No hurt. Jojo ‘kay now.”
Rek didn’t let go until I relinquished my hold on the bloodied rag covered mug in my hand. Letting it go, it was like my body finally gave out. With a pitiful noise, I sagged against him.
I’d have tumbled to the ground as all that adrenaline left me, leaving me feeling drained and nauseated, if he hadn’t held onto me.
My assailant or, well, victim of his own stupidity at this point, stood gaping down at me, huddled near the muddy clumps of snow and mug, clutching at his face. I, uh, mighta broken some of, erm, all of that. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I sputtered. My voice quavered, cracking as I spoke.
“No breathe through nose! Save Jo from bad Krampus, this what Jo do?!” the male I recognized as the penis statue wielding moron from Daisy’s garden party squawked. What was his name? Vigor? Vigo? Vigler? I couldn’t recall. Fuck twat. That’s what I was gonna call him, regardless.
“You mean that fake Krampus that popped up when I freaked?” I growled.
His well, shit face literally said it fucking all.
“You have gotta be fucking kidding me!” I exploded, glad I was too tired to murder him in cold blood. Too messy. Too many witnesses. Too much garden work to get rid of the rest of him once I was done. Who honestly has the time, really?
Just now recalling someone still had their arms around me, did it finally sink in just who was holding me, crouching as they cradled me in their arms. With a sputtering gasp, I jerked free of Rek’s hold to stand on wobbly legs. “Don’t touch me!”
Rek stood up along with me, slowly raising his arms to show me he wasn’t going to try anything. “Jo ‘kay?” he asked softly, his voice filled with concern.
“Is Jo ‘kay? Is Jo ‘kay?!! No, Jo is not ‘kay!” I spat the words at him. “The fact that you think you can just show up and act the hero all of a sudden, is just… mind fucking blowing baffling! Am I okay… Are YOU okay? Huh? Are you? Because to me, you’re- You’re just… You’re fucking mental if you think I ever want to see your fucking face again, let alone have you touch me!”
“Rek?” his diminutive little pixie of a mate called out for him.
Because of course she was fucking right here!
Rek growled, like he was pissed at her hunting him down, yet again.
Nabbing up my cloth wrapped bundle from the ground, I winced but forced back the hiss on my lips as glass jabbed into my hand.
Holding out my hand for him to hand over the other one, ignoring the whining asshole at my back that was so going to get a beat down when I told my mates what he’d done to me, thinking what? That I’d want him to take me on thinking he’d keep me safe from whatever dummy he’d talked into being his fake Krampus? Revenge for not wanting him? Whatever it was, there was no excuse! This stunt… it was some sick, twisted shit!
Rek hesitated to hand it over. “Why smell blood?” he rumbled out hesitantly.
Jerking my chin to the mess of a beast behind me, I gave him a duh stare.
Rek’s gaze unerringly flew to my ring. “Jojo- Jojoknee looked beautiful, dancing at wedded day.” His throat worked like he was fighting past emotions. Emotions that were his fucking problem and not mine.
“Yeah, I was. It was fucking magical. So were my mates. So, yeah, awesome for not letting me kill dummy over there. My mates will love that you let him live, for now. Now give me my shit,” I snapped at him.
“You bleed!” Rek grabbed my hand, spying my red stained palm.
Shit. I was really bleeding. Like, a lot.
Ignoring the male whining about his face off behind me, and Rek’s mate calling for him, he dragged me inside my hut and slammed and locked the door shut behind us.
My gaze stuck on the door. “My mates won’t like this,” I pointed out woodenly.
All that red stuff seepin’ outta me, it was muddlin’ my brain. A fit of the whoozies hit me.
“Jojo mates not like Jojo bleed to death,” he growled out softly, walking me over to the table to grab a clean cloth and swap it out for the bloodied-mug one.
Jerking my hand out of his, I pressed the cloth tightly to it and stood. Opening my mouth to tell him I was going to pop over to Dorothy’s to have her or Lukar look at it, he jerked me to him with so much force the words died in my throat.
He stared down at me with such loss and longing, I nearly fell for it. Almost but no fucking way, asshole.
“I said I’m fine!” I burst out, and shoved him away.
He didn’t budge, instead jerking me back to him and hugging me to him tight. “Miss Jo,” he choked out as he started to shake, clinging to me. “Miss my Jojomine so much.” His voice cracked and his throat worked like he was swallowing past a sudden lump in it to speak.
Fuck me, I couldn’t drive the stake home. My gaze darted away. After all this fucking time, and still, even after all of the shit he’s pulled, his tone, that lost, heartbroken- Fuck me. “I’m not yours anymore,” I muttered softly, mustering up all the resentment that appears to have abandoned me once he was here and holding me and telling me how much he fucking missed me. Damn him!
“No. No. Jojomine always Rek’s. Rek never say Jo not mine!” Pulling back, he grabbed my shoulders.
Fully expecting him to shake me a little, his fingers dug into my flesh as he croaked out hoarsely, “No one believe Rek. Rek no want her.” He was smart enough not to say her name. It would totally set me off. Carrie. Her name was Carrie, like the horror movie. My life had felt like a horror movie after she’d entered it. I wanted to douse them both with pig’s blood many a late night contemplating my revenge on them. “Jo listen. Rek tell. Have to believe Rek!”
“I don’t have to believe anything! And if you think I’m going to buy whatever cockamamie thing you’re going to try and sell me on to try and make shit all better, when I know good and well you two are literally still shacking up-”
“NO! She clings, like sticky sap! No leave Rek ‘lone! Follows everywhere! Like big, whiny baby! Need constant Rek say, you fine, you ‘kay, you safe, stop crying! Rek no kick you out you room! You no have to be mate to stupid male you no want. Rek not force to stay with other male, not want them. Make Rek’s head ache!”
“Boo-fucking-hoo. I- Did you just say she has her own room?” I blurted. Fucking weird, but whatever. Maybe she hates his snoring?
“Yes! What Rek trying to say!! Rek no want her! Only take her to save!” Releasing me, he paced. His arms waved around frantically as he spoke. “Rek go to get special thing for my Jojomine.” He glanced up at me then with the most utterly pathetic, pleading look. “See female, her male yells. Yells loud. Say she no do things right. He hits and hits and yells. She cries. Him bad male. No good. Rek roar at male to get him to stop. Him gets scared and says, “Fuck the shit”, and leaves. Female cries and cries, begs him not to leaves her. Thinks Rek want eat her. Rek say no. She needs go. She say, nowhere she go. Rek think in head, what my Jo do? My Jo not leave female all ‘lone, nowhere go, with mean mate. Rek say, okay, you come with Rek. Go Rek home. No males hit and yell and beats on female. She scared. Rek say no one hurt. Rek promedthis with the pinkies. Tell her, my mate strong, too. She beats up anyone hurts her, Rek say.” All the while, Rek is miming this all out, his voice changing for the female and male speaking parts.
I just stared at him in disbelief.
“And all this time, she’s been living with you because…?” I prompted with a mental roll of my eyes.
“She no leave me! She keep saying, Rek say she stay with him, promises with pinkies. Rek know Rek not want break promise with the pinkies! No want curses!” he burst out, grabbing at his hair and growling in frustration. “Rek take to no mates hut, she cry and cry and make self sick! Refuse to eat! Keep coming back to Rek hut, crying into cracks of door until Rek opens door! No care it snowy and cold, just wants in! She says Rek safe. Rek try to find her mate, but they think she Rek’s and Rek looking for other males for grouping, not mate for her! Rek shunned! No one want talk, listen. All say Rek bad male. Even Kirch say no make no sense! Say Rek fucked up bad and need to find way to fix it. But no one want her and she won’t leave Rek alone! She’s like small, annoying bug buzzing ‘round Rek all the times, won’t leave Rek ‘lone! Eats all Rek’s food, talk-talk-talks about nothings! Rek say go ‘way, you bug me, talk all the times, but then she cry and cry until Rek apologize for making cry, then she say it okay and then she come right back! She say she not want Rek when Rek say Rek no want you, Rek has mate. Rek loves my Jojomine and only my Jojomine.”
“Did you take on a mate or a pesky little sister,” I muttered under my breath.
“She not Rek’s!” he burst out, roaring the words at me.
“Fine. Whatever. Get out of my face and move out of my way so I can go get my hand put back together.” I hated myself for almost buying it. Not just what he was saying, but his reaction, it just- Maybe I just wanted to believe him so badly I was willing to go along with all this madness?
“Jojo MINE,” he growled, grabbing me up to crush me to him. Burying his face in my neck, he inhaled deeply and groaned. And yet one of his hands found mine and he pressed the cloth to it more tightly.
“I’m mated, happily,” I pointed out.
“To Rek,” he growled out, fisting a hand in the back of my coat.
“To Odix and Gopher,” I corrected. “To Tor and Celuk, if they’ll still have me.”
“And to Rek,” he muttered. Pulling back, nostrils flaring at my body’s response to him, damn that hoochie coochie, a deep, satisfied purr rattled his chest.
“Not to Rek,” I muttered, but couldn’t meet his heated gaze fully.
I knew if I looked in his eyes and they told me he was telling the truth, or at least that he’d convinced himself that he was at this point, he had a very good chance of getting me naked.
“Most to Rek!”
“Get off of me.”
“No.”
Lifting my head to glare at him, he gripped my chin and quickly stole a kiss. It was short, so brief I blinked and it was over, but the sizzle and pop, that electric zip from just that brief contact, couldn’t be denied.
“Mine,” he rumbled out softly. “Jojo all mine.”
His grip on my chin loosened and he brushed the backs of his claws down my cheek. Pressing his forehead to mine, his breaths were as ragged as mine. “My Joanie,” he whispered brokenly.
His nose bussed mine.
Fuck. It was always like this. This intense, undeniable… irresistible…
His breath coasted over my mouth, minty and a hint of tea, his lips close but too far.
“My Jojo. My Jojomine. Rek missed my Jojomine so much.” His voice caught. He had to pause to collect himself before continuing. “Hate see my Jojo so sad. No one let Rek see my Jo. Celuk tell Rek, Rek come see, he bury Rek and no one never know.” His words grew bitter, his voice deeper. “Just want my Jojo… just want tell truth, make the hurts go away… My Jojomine no’ look at Rek like that no more…”
“Fuck,” I muttered, right before his lips slammed down on mine.
One kiss. That’s all it took and all bets were off.
With a growl in his throat, he picked me up, nabbing up a small jar in the basket Gopher kept by the door, and dropped me onto the table. Breaking our kiss just long enough to smell the jar, he got right back to kissing me while opening it and dumping a heaping helping of the dried herbs inside of it onto the cloth for my hand.
Distracting me with his tongue dancing with mine, his hips rolling, pressing, that thickness between his legs rubbing up along the seam of the crotch of my pants, he had the herbs pressing to my cut as he dry humped me into the table, my ankles hooked at his back, and was tying the ties around my hand off before I could process what he was doing.
Scooping me back up, he dropped me onto my feet and spun me around. Jerking my jacket down, until my arms were caught in the sleeves, he gently pressed my face and upper body into the wall to quickly press himself in behind me. Coming over me as his other hand slid down the front of my pants, going right for the gold, he sucked on my nape as he played with my clit. His fingers were thick and warm, a growl in his throat as he realized I’d forgone the neatly trimmed landscaping I’d previously, meticulously maintained to openly embrace the wilderness Odix was so fond of exploring. A groan of a moan tore from his throat as he pet my pussy and the crisp, dark hair surrounding it.
It’s been so long. Too fucking long. He felt so good. Rek was so in tune with me— he knew my likes and dislikes, every little secret sensitive spot— how to turn me on and really get me going. In the bedroom, like this, we were utterly in sync.
I was a hot mess, garbled garbage gurgling in my throat. I was as impatient as his shaking hands told me he was.
Jerking the tie of my pants, he tugged them down my hips, until the material was fluttering to the floor.
An animalistic noise left him when he eyed me, bared to him below the waist. “MINE,” he growled right into my ear as he jerked my hips and kicked my legs apart. At the last moment, he jerked me around and tugged my jacket the rest of the way off. “Take my Jojomine, just like this,” he purred, hefting me up, my legs automatically coming around his hips, to press my back into the wall and kiss me long and hard.
His hot length bobbed thickly between us. It jerked when I moaned.
With a growl in his throat, he pulled back to stare down between us.
“MINE.” Snarling triumphantly, he watched as the tip of him found the heart of me and he slowly pressed home. “Oh… Oh, my Jojomine. Oh- Oh, feels- Feels so good,” he growled out fiercely. His breaths were short, choppy pants. Gritting his teeth, he took his damn time, like he wanted to savor this moment.
Glancing down between us, I nearly swallowed my tongue, eyeing that monster he calls his penis as he pulled out a little, his cock coated in slick, and slowly pressed back home.
My channel clenched and he moaned, the sound tapering off into a low purr of a rumble as he realized I too was watching the show.
His cock jerked and my channel clenched yet again. A soft hiss left him when he had to pull out once more to glide right back home, but each and every time, he slid harder, deeper.
When he was fully seated, he kissed me again, and again, the sexiest little growl in his throat erupting from him as he started to move.
My nails dug into his shoulders. Burying his face in my throat, he growled into my flesh.
It felt so good, all of it. With him, it was like coming home.
“Feel… so… good. My Joanie so soft, sweet, wet… Rek loves my Jojomine’s breasts,” he growled as his chest pressed to mine and my nipples, hard and aching, rubbed against his fur. Grabbing a handful of my ass, he gave it a squeeze, using his hold for leverage, angling me just the right way, until I was clawing at him and mewling for more.
Rek narrated the entire thing, when he wasn’t kissing me or growling to his heart’s content. He told me how good it all felt, how much he loved me and missed me, and some rather lurid depictions of what we were doing, what he was going to do, how much he loved certain parts of my anatomy.
Tears streamed down my cheeks when he got mushier and mushier with his love talk and I felt like he was echoing my feelings of everything before leading up to now—how lost he felt without me, how much it killed him to be parted from me, to know I thought the worst. Rek began kissing my tears away but that wetness splashing my face persisted. It took me a moment to realize he’d grown a little misty eyed in the midst of all of this.
Through all of it, he brought me to the edge to drive me over it, then kept going, riding me right through that storm and into the next.
I knew he’d come several times. His legs were starting to get shaky, his movements growing uncoordinated. He just kept going.
I was so close again and it felt so good. I just needed that little something, that little nudge to throw me over the edge.
“Come for Rek, one more time, my Joanie,” he groaned, then buried his face in my shoulder to sink his fangs into my sensitive flesh.
Intense pleasure mixing with that literal bite of pain, I came then with a harsh cry, digging my nails into his back.
Rek clung to me long afterward, after the rush of it all had slipped from me and I was left feeling confused, more now than ever, more than slightly sticky, with that pain in my hand letting itself be known.
Rek grunted as his member eventually softened and slipped free.
Wow. We’d made a mess.
“Rek cleans it up,” he rumbled out with a look down at the mess on the floor. “Jojomine gets clean. See Rothy like want for hand.”
Going along absently in a weird sort of daze, I went about following his instructions mechanically. I had that odd detached feeling, not quite numbness but oddly absent of anything but the throbbing in my hand and a pinch in my stomach at what I’d just done.
The whole time I kept wondering if Odix and Gopher would be upset with me for this. If they’d believe Rek, or me that I’d if only for a moment, honestly believed him.
Rek helped me into my coat and pants. I couldn’t one hundred percent recall when I’d lost the boots but I obviously had. How else could he have scooped me up to fuck me senseless? Talk about completely lost to the moment. I’d kicked out of them at some point, obviously, I just hadn’t thought about it.
“I should- I need to-” Good god, where had my brain gone?
Rek glanced up, towel in hand. Noting something in my face as our eyes met and I swallowed convulsively, he nodded and stood. “S’okay, my Jojo,” he purred softly. Reaching out, his fingers brushed along my shoulder. He focused on that spot as he swallowed thickly. “S’okay. Jojo can go. Rek not follow.” His gaze lifted then. “Jojomine find Rek, Jojoknee ready, yes?”
“I- Uhm- Okay,” I blurted.
Rek nodded. “Rek love Jojomine. Rek wait for Jojo.”
Nodding, I accepted my purse as he handed it to me. “I- I think I’ll walk alone, if it’s all the same to you. I think we can put that whole Krampus sightings business to bed once and for all, seeing as how it wasn’t even real. I’ll… go and pop over to Dorothy’s.” Hesitating at the door, I blurted, “I think- I might- I think I might crash there.”
“Rek clean up and make sure Carrie no get into trouble,” he rumbled out, his voice tapering off into annoyance. He sounded annoyed just saying her name.
This was… I was in Bizarro Land, is what it was.
“I’m… gonna go,” I mumbled, then jerked my thumb at the door, before quickly taking my leave.
As I headed for Dorothy’s, fingers curled around the cloth holding herbs to my cut, I got halfway there before turning back around and trudging back. I felt like I was being pulled both ways.
Lost to my thoughts, I headed right past my place and was nearly to the big magic portal rocks, before I snapped out of it enough to realize my mistake.
Cursing myself, I turned around to head back.
As if to contradict my earlier statement and call me a liar, I heard rustling at my back and turned around right as a large set of horns popped up from the bushes.
My god. This ends NOW.
“So not fucking funny, I don’t care what you and Broken Face Mc Dumb Ass were thinking. Or not thinking!” Marching over there, right into the bushes, I glared at nothing.
Popping back out, I shook my head. Probably just a critter. I’m seeing things now, too?! Walking over to a fallen log, I plopped down onto it. Cradling my hand, staring down at it, I sighed.
I’m losing my fucking mind. I mean, what am I doing?! What was I thinking, I-
“I’m not falling for it,” I muttered as the bushes shook at my back.
Lightning fast, long, thin fingers clamped down over my face. A muffled shout left me as I grabbed at the hands covering my nose and mouth. My puny, useless nails, short and natural because I was between sets and letting them breathe, dug in to no avail. I thrashed but it didn’t matter. They were too damn strong. I couldn’t breathe. They were suffocating me!
Grabbing my purse in a blind panic, I brought it up to blindly swing it at them but they grabbed it and easily tossed it away. Shit!
Another hand clamped to my throat, squeezing as I started to scream.
Pulled against a bony chest, the noise they made, pleased with their capture, had bile rising in my throat.
As they lifted me up, black spots dancing in my vision, I kicked out. My boot made contact.
They let me go with a soft hiss of a growl. Dropping to the ground, I gasped in air dizzily and tried to scramble away. The lack of oxygen was doing me in.
Three stumbling steps away and I opened my mouth to scream. Nothing ever became of it. A heavy arm swung at me, clipping me in the side of the head.
Nothing more than a soft yelp left me as I dropped to the ground.
I was pretty sure I blacked out for a bit, as the next thing I knew, I was tossed over a very bony shoulder and we were deep into the snowy woods. It was dark, only a faint sliver of moonlight to guide, and I was freezing.
My vision was off and it wasn’t from half hanging upside down for so long. My arms hurt, swinging limply over my head. My head was killing me. Everything was oddly blurry, the tang of iron rich in the air. My face was wet, a steady drip rolling down the side of my head.
Panic threatened as I realized that pain exploding in my face was a gash that I was bleeding from.
A part of me was thinking it was okay, because that left a blood drop trail for my mates to follow, while the other part of me was panicking wondering how much more I had left to drip in comparison to how much I’ve already lost.
Knowing putting up a fight was probably not in my best interest, my assailant/kidnapper trudged on.
He was shockingly fast for a rail thin wraith.
When he finally stopped, he dumped me into the snow and just left me there. Pretending I was still out, I watched him through tiny slits as he gathered wood, grumble-hissing and growling in his native tongue. Smacking rocks together, he started a fire.
To my shock and further dismay, he walked over, grabbed me up by the back of my coat, and dragged me closer to the fire.
Thinking he might think me dead and thus meant to burn my ass in the flames, I grabbed at his leg, tripping him, and slammed my weight into him with everything I had. Grabbing one of the branches sticking out of his makeshift fire, I jerked up and swung it at his head as he lifted up, a snarl on his lips. Flying back, he roared and grabbed at his face.
Screaming for help, the echo of my voice shockingly loud, I took off at a run.
I knew I probably didn’t stand much of a chance but I had to try.
His snarls were right on me as I trampled through the woods. I probably sounded like a wounded elephant, stomping and stumbling about, making strange bellowing noises.
He was fast. Too fucking fast.
He didn’t run up on me. He dropped down on me, using his claws to do this weird leaping thing from tree to tree high above and land right on top of me.
Catching this too late, I turned to run the other way right as he dropped down atop me. This left his head near my legs.
As if I’d enraged him past the point of any sort of coherence he might have been capable of, he dug his teeth into the first thing he made contact with, which happened to be my calf.
I screamed bloody murder, and kept it up as pain burst and spread.
When he lifted his muzzle to glare at me, blood and black, inky ichor dripped from his lips.
My fingers scooped up dirt and snow and I threw it at his eyes.
A pained snarl tore from his throat as he scrambled to scrub at his face.
He was heavy and I was feeling weak as shit at this point. Trying to drag myself out from beneath him, I rolled, sending him tumbling, and finding I couldn’t stand to escape I crawled.
He was on me once more, but instead of pouncing on me, he dug his claws into the sides of my hips, burying them in my flesh, and dropped down atop me, hunching over me, to tear into my coat with his teeth.
That blinding pain in my leg was crawling up my thigh. I’ve been poisoned. It felt like he’d injected fire in my veins that was rapidly spreading. It made it incredibly hard to move.
Tearing my coat to smithereens above me as I scrambled to buck them off, I felt the kiss of the cold on my upper back, his hot breath as I fought and kicked, then his fangs sank deep.
My scream was more of a howl but I didn’t expect anyone to hear me. I had a horrible feeling we were too far out.
He didn’t stop there.
He pulled back and waited until I started to fight anew beneath him before tearing more of my coat and shirt off to sink his fangs into my side as he heaved atop me.
My mouth opened as venom coursed through me. My heart pounded wildly, blood thrumming in my ears. I was going to die by their hands. All I could think about was my mates. I’d never see them again, any of them. They’d never know what had happened to me. They might even assume my dumb ass had abandoned them.
My mouth was open in a silent scream as tears streamed down my face.
Again, it bit me, fangs digging deep, flesh tearing, on the spot between the shoulder and side back bites, so my entire left side was an angry, pulsing wound.
Sniffing at me as it released me, he chuffed in my ear, a silent Fuck you if I’d ever heard one. A long, forked tongue snaked out to taste the air, then they lifted off of me.
Leaving me there, I listened, trapped in my own internal pain as much as the external, as they moved around their makeshift camp.
“Help me. Someone, please,” I softly begged, staying slumped where I’d been discarded.
At the soft sounds I was making, they walked over and grabbed me by the back of my hair to drag me to my feet. It hurt to move, every jerk agony.
When I cried out, they cuffed me, hard across the side of my head. My hands shook uncontrollably as I dug my nails into the bony fingers digging into my scalp, clamped down in my hair, on my head, to toss me this way and that as if it gave them some great sense of satisfaction.
When they finally threw me away from them, then did I get a good look at them.
I found myself staring at a nearly identifiable copy of the Krampus who’d been following me in the woods before, the crazy-eyed bastard I’d first run into.
Growling at me, he kept slapping his chest and tapping a spot near his shoulder. He didn’t use one of his arms very much. It hung limply at his side most of the time.
This went on for what felt like hours. Slowly, my vision started to clear, but I was so wracked with pain that even if I could clearly see my way out of here, there was no way I was going to be able to pick myself up and move fast enough to escape.
When he turned and gave me his back, I realized this was the crazy-eyed stalker, not a copy. But they’d killed the three Krampus following me. This one still had a nub of a stub of the arrow that was fired at him and had made contact sticking out of his shoulder.
The head Tor had brought me must have been to one of his Krampus kin? A brother or den mate of some sort? A twin working with him, mistaken for him?
I wanted out of this nightmare.
Feeling around on the ground, I made to sit up but found I couldn’t, slumping down almost instantly. My fingers found purchase on an old chunk of bark. Curling my fingers around it, I gave it a squeeze. It was hard as a rock.
Storming over to me, he hissed in my face. Bared teeth dripped with black, dribbling down his menacing glare.
“I’m not moving,” I whispered. “I’m not moving.” My hand lifted in a little wave.
“NO. MOVE!” he bellowed. That was all the warning I was given before he grabbed me up and back handed me so hard I felt his claws catch on my skin.
My head cracked on the fallen tree nearby.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled to myself, as if to whisper it to my mates as he came down over me, snarling, huffing and puffing, looking ready to rip my head off in retribution for whatever slights he’d decided I was guilty of. Even if I had any fight left in me, I was seconds from passing out.
He grabbed my head and slammed it into the forest floor once, twice. After that, I was blissfully ignorant.
When I came to there was an odd gurgling sound. It wasn’t coming from me.
I heard a soft voice as my face was touched. It sounded like a cartoon squirrel.
I was clearly hallucinating but too far gone to care.
When I bothered to open my eyes, the fire was too bright and everything was odd, large, blurry blobs. It was all like a Picasso that had gotten wet, misshapen mishmashes all out of order. I could barely make heads from tails.
Struggling to sit up, I groaned as I slapped to the wet earth.
“Don’t move!” the squirrel squeaked. “You’re hurt! You shouldn’t move!”
“Help. Help me, please,” I mumbled.
“Help is coming!” the squirrel assured me.
“Careful. Krampus,” I softly whispered, closing my eyes on the dizzying display of misshapen blobs.
“It’s okay.” Cold fingers brushed across my forehead, moving my hair to the side, and a cloth pressed to the side of my aching face. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Squirrel Girl’s soothing actions were strangely comforting for a head injury induced hallucination. At least I wouldn’t die all alone. I’d have someone in my last moments, even if it was an imaginary stranger.
I passed out yet again.
My eyes popped open at the sound of a snuffling grunt.
I was paralyzed with pain at this point. I didn’t even try to fight the thick fingers that turned me onto my back.
Everything felt fuzzy, from my thick tongue, my brain. I struggled to recall how I’d gotten here. Purple polka dots on purplish grey blobs caught my eye. “Who are you? Where am I?”
“Safe,” a soft, melodic, deep voice rumbled out.
Forced to close my eyes in the face of the bright light stabbing my eyeballs, I frowned as I realized I was tucked into a thick cocoon- a sleeping bag? My fingers ran along the side until I found the zipper. My hands then slapped to my head. Cloth was wrapped around it. Every little movement cost me.
“S’okay,” he rumbled out sweetly.
God. Now, where had I heard that before? Why was that so familiar to me?
My mind kept coming up blank.
“Help me, please,” I murmured, forcing myself to sit up. The world spun, taking me along for the ride with it.
Strong hands grabbed my shoulders. Another set captured my hands, another set my hips. How many of them were there? Why did I feel like I was forgetting important things? Why were they so important? I couldn't shake the urgency.
Then I opened my eyes and the light streaming in had me groaning and clamping my eyes shut.
“I take,” was all I was told, then strong arms, all three sets, were lifting me up like I was the barn they were raising, and I was tucked up against a wall of warmth.
“Where are we going?” It was hard to speak, focusing on breathing through the pain.
“Home,” he said simply.
That word. Again, I had that weird sense of deja vu.
When I couldn’t recall what I felt like I should be recalling, nausea threatened. I hurt too much to think.
As he walked and I continued to feel all those arms on me, I blurted, “Those are all yours, aren’t they? There isn’t a group of you carting my fat arse around, is there?”
His grunt in answer had me forcing my eyes open to peer up at him.
Even this close, he was a fuzzy blur. I stiffened when I made out odd, spiraling horns.
“Buu-Kehr no hurt,” he grumbled, sounding put out that he had to explain this to me.
Awesome. I got the grumpy rescuer. I mean, I wasn’t complaining, it’s just that two grumpies and no sunshine to balance us out in sight was a bad combo. Where was our much needed happy go lucky middleman?
“If you wanted to kill me, you already would have,” I grumbled back, slumping against him.
Ugh. He was so warm it felt criminal.
Peeking my eye open a crack, despite the wincing this produced, I muttered, “Was Squirrel Girl real?”
A garbled noise left Peekaboo or whatever he’d said his name was. I was too messed up to give two shits to try and recall.
“What scurwellgurl?” he grunted out.
“That’s what I thought,” I muttered, clamping my eyelid shut once more. “What’s your name?” I asked as he tromped along. The steady thump-thump of his heart, the crunch and squish of stuff underfoot as he took me far, far away from the campsite of horrors and my almost end, I focused on all of that, desperate to distract myself from the pain.
“No ‘member?” he grumbled in annoyance.
“It escapes me,” I replied tiredly.
“No need know, then,” he returned.
Right then. Maybe I don’t need to know.
“I’m sorry I asked.” Snuggling down into him more, my lips twitched when he let out a surprised sound bordering on a shocked grunt.
He’s warm, I’m in pain and cold. It wasn’t that complicated. He could be aloof all he liked and I wasn’t about to say jack, he’s rescuing me after all. And I’m still gonna snuggle down deeper while I can, because I had a very strong feeling he was about to dump me the second we reached our destination so I needed to catch some shut eye if I wanted to hopefully feel well enough to take care of myself, possibly by myself.
By some miracle, either induced by my inability to take another moment of pain or he was just that comforting to slap up against as he walked, I dozed off and caught a few winks.
The cave he took us to looked nothing like the ones closer to the village. It was all a blobby mess but the colors were what threw me. Faded greens, blues, and golds dominated the low lit cave system.
It was snowing so heavily as we came up on it, he had to set me down, mumbling something that sounded like an apology, to dig the entrance out.
I’m sure all six or eight or however many arms I thought I was blurrily looking at made it a bit easier. I’ve been rescued by a furr-ipede.
He was still shockingly warm when he came back for me. I couldn’t say the same for myself.
My arms and legs had locked up. I couldn’t move them if I’d wanted to.
“Am I dying?” I asked him through chattering teeth.
“Krampus bite no goot. Make sick,” he rumbled out as he scooped me back up.
“That d-d-doesn’t ans-s-s-swer my ques-s-stion,” I chattered out.
“No,” he said simply.
“H-how d-d-o you know English?” Tilting my head as he ducked inside the cave, I found it much easier to open my eyes in the low light. The walls glowed with odd spots, like little neon dots.
Instead of answering, he let out a loud grunt as he made several lefts and then a right. He traversed the catacombs with ease.
My throat began to work as he took us to a large room full of small, bubbling pools of water.
Setting me down, he got to work unzipping me from the sleeping bag.
For once, I was glad I couldn’t see correctly. I didn’t think I was ready to see just how bad off I was yet.
“Is this your mate’s? Is she here? Can- Can she be the one to get me naked?” I mumbled weakly as he ignored me and proceeded to unwrap me like a sausage roll and assist me in removing the rest of my clothing.
Pointedly staring at my face, bright, purple eyes, a soft lavender with spots of royal purple shot through met mine. “Safe,” he grunted out before picking me up and gently scooting to the edge of the water.
Mumbling something that sounded an awful lot like yet another apology, I heard his legs splash into the water first.
With a grimace I feared was for me, he popped us right into the water.
The second the salty water tickling my nose touched my skin, it was agony, worse than the wracking pain I was already in.
Too weak to fight, hoarse cries left me as he held me down up to my neck in the water.
It was too much. My hands slid over his wet fur, slick and slippery. I couldn’t get a good hold of him to try and get away from the water. My cries turned to soft pleas, then outright begging. Was he helping me, or killing me that much faster?!
His hold on me tightened. Black bubbled the water as it oozed from my wounds. I couldn’t gape at it a moment longer, squeezing my eyes shut tight.
Tucking my head under his chin, he talked, hummed, anything to distract, but nothing could take away the pain.
I was lucky he had a hold of me when I succumbed to it all.
Dizziness swept over me. It was puke or pass out time. I felt my head loll, water splash at me as it started to dip, but he was right there, keeping my head above water. I was safe with him. He had me.
I blacked out with that stray thought floating around in my head.