9. Forever
CHAPTER 9
FOREVER
A YEAR LATER
D o you know how hard it is to get a bag of oranges in Blackmoor?
That was my goof. I didn’t want to take up my limited luggage space by packing fruit, figuring that I can stop in one of the oblivious towns in between Blackmoor and the rundown, quiet airport about thirty miles away from the dark forest.
Sandra was able to offer me one last year before they stood back and watched as I walked into the woods. Even if Blackmoor doesn’t exist to anyone but those invited—and those who invite themselves back—the rest of the world does. Getting a bag of oranges should’ve been simple.
Despite navel oranges being in season this time of year, it seemed like every shop I hit was fresh out. Luckily, the taxi driver was a gem who didn’t mind taking a couple of detours until I had a sack of them.
The sack was a nice touch. I thought Ruprecht would appreciate that.
And, if any of the Blackmoor council members try to stop me from walking back into the forest again, I have a makeshift weapon. Ten pounds of oranges to the head should be enough to get them to think twice about keeping me and Ruprecht apart.
Not like I’m expecting any trouble. After Jacques accompanied me on the drive over to the airport last year, the dark-skinned council member who’d watched me so curiously before I went into the forest passed me a note as they let me out of the car.
Ich habe mich in dich verliebt.
Lassen sie sich zeit.
— R
Ruprecht .
I didn’t read it until I was in the airport waiting area. But that, coupled with the only thing Jacques said to me after introducing himself, and the next year of my life was planned before the sun ever set on December 26th.
Now, it’s almost a full year later, and the same three council members are standing between me and the forest.
Jacques steps forward, smiling at me warmly. “You took the council up on its offer.”
Even now, I remember exactly what he said in his solemn voice before I opened the door to the car.
You passed the three days. You’ll get what you came here for. But if you choose to return… Blackmoor will always welcome its own.
It took me a while to understand what he meant. At first, I thought he was referring to the village itself—but the longer I spent in Alabama, pretending like my life wasn’t changed… that I wasn’t fundamentally changed after those three days last Christmas… I knew better.
Blackmoor is all of it. The village with its council members acting like a vetting agency. The outer reaches that conceal the hidden town. And, of course, the mythical forest itself. The legends that call it home… that’s Blackmoor, too.
And, after my time inside of it, so am I.
“I did.”
He waves his hand to the side, gesturing me toward the dark woods. “They always do.”
Now, magic is real. I spent three memorable days with a Christmas demon and a pervy Santa Claus. It’s real— but only in Blackmoor.
I learned that one the moment I left the woods. When Sandra immediately brought out my knapsack and luggage, shock written on the older woman’s face as though she never expected to see me again, to Ken explaining how I’ll get my prize, it didn’t take long to understand that the magic stops as soon as you leave Blackmoor’s borders.
Sure, I was five grand richer, but my hip still twitched as I walked away from the forest. It actually got worse as the effects of Ruprecht’s healing tongue wore off. But the council promised me a wish if I beat them at their game, and even if it wasn’t as simple as snapping my fingers and the pain was gone, they upheld their end of the bargain.
How? By paying every last scent for my hip replacement surgery and the ten months of recovery that followed.
I don’t know where they got the funds from. More magic, maybe, but so long as the checks to my orthos and the home health aids cleared, I didn’t care. I went into this agreement determined to do whatever it took to ease my pain.
And that’s exactly what I did.
Was I being stubborn? If I’d stayed with my Krampus, I’m pretty sure his healing kiss would have done it that much easier. But I didn’t want easy. I wanted Josie to do what Josie always does: figure it the fuck out. How could I expect a man I barely knew for three days to be responsible for me forever?
Especially when he didn’t seem to want me to stay?
"Lassen sie sich zeit.”
Take your time …
That’s what I did. I took my time. I recovered and I healed, and I researched everything I could about Krampus as I could. Then I threw all that research out because the man I knew? He’s Ruprecht—and he was meant to be mine.
Just like I’m meant to be his.
“Ich habe mich in dich verliebt.”
I’ve fallen in love with you.
Same, R. Same.
But just because I tossed everything I found out about Krampus, that doesn’t mean I didn’t dig even deeper into the lore of Blackmoor. When I was there, I was told that only four of the last one hundred petitioners left on the third door. I’m number five. But of us five, four of them came back to add rumors to what Blackmoor can accomplish—and all four of them seemed to disappear within a year of their last messages online.
And, look at that. I’m number five for that, too.
They always do . That’s what’s echoing in my ear as I roll my suitcase behind me, knapsack strapped on, sack of oranges slung over one shoulder. Because he’s not wrong, is he?
Fated mates. I know the idea of it sounds nuts, but one of the usernames—Scarlet999—mentioned that she felt some kindred connection to the wolf she met in the woods of Blackmoor. She danced around the topic, but I found a deleted comment that mentioned how he turned into a man when the moon was high, and I remember how I thought there might be werewolves lurking in the shadows.
Maybe so. There were definitely Christmas elves and an old Germanic demon, so why wouldn’t there be werewolves? She called herself his mate, too, and wondered if it would be too late to return to him. Her last message—from eight years ago—was a goodbye, and I like to think that Scarlet999 found her happily ever after.
I sure the hell am planning on it.
I did everything right. Because of my surgery, I never went back to work so I didn’t have to quit another dead-end job. My next-door neighbors were pretty helpful while I recovered, so I threw an early Christmas party for a couple of us that was secretly my send-off.
I spoke to my mom, too, to make sure that she’ll be okay without me. My dad can suck a dick; I couldn’t care less if he wonders what the hell happened to me. But mom… even if we live on opposite sides of the country—or, now, on opposite sides of the world—I wanted her to know that I ’m okay, too.
She’s happy now. Last year, she met a nice guy on her cruise, and they’ve been together ever since. Love looks good on her, like it does me, and though I couldn’t tell her that I was going to a mythical pocket that’s way out of her reach to be with the one being meant for me, she was happy to hear that I’ll be happy, too.
And I will be. As soon as I’m back with Ruprecht again.
Is three days enough to know that you want to spend forever with someone? I never would’ve said it was, but that was before I spent a fucking year pining over Krampus. For all of January, I craved peppermint. I dreamed of his claws trailing up my thighs, and his tongue… damn it, did I miss his tongue.
His generous nature, too. The way he protected me without expecting anything in return, then claimed me to save me from Nicklaus doing it first… and all while knowing that we were meant to be.
Even he agrees. Because, when I finally got tired of trying to open the wood box and took a hammer to it, I found out what Ruprecht’s twin gave me last Christmas: an undated one-way ticket back to the airport just outside of Blackmoor.
So, yeah, I get it now. Fated or whatever this is, I don’t care. Ruprecht told me to take my time. That he was in love with me. Well, I’m back. I’m ready. I got my wish—and now it’s time I get my own happy-ever-after.
I had planned to be back earlier. Remembering what he told me before, I expect him to be hibernating after Krampusnacht was over. It’s the one day of the year that Krampus is at his most powerful, and with Nicklaus—being both Saint Nicholas and the bastardization of Santa Claus that Saint Nicholas became—only hitting his peak at Christmas, Ruprecht hibernates through the rest of December.
But when I stayed home on December 5th, hoping I’d see him in my world and super disappointed when I didn’t, I decided my best bet would be to return on the twenty-fourth. Nicklaus would be distracted, at least, and I could wake Ruprecht on my own.
Not saying that I don’t trust Ruprecht’s brother… but, yeah. I don’t. I wanted our reunion to be special, and keeping that cuck out of it seemed like a pretty good idea to me.
But you know what’s even better?
After wheeling my suitcase about a hundred yards past the boundaries of the forest of Blackmoor and seeing a pair of gleaming golden eyes watching me go.
I’d know those eyes anywhere.
I let the sack of oranges fall to the dirt. Releasing my luggage next, I hear a thump as it falls behind me, but I’m already stumbling forward. My new hip works like a dream after all the physical therapy, but my need to get to those eyes coupled with the fifty-pound backtrack strapped to me makes my run awkward.
Ruprecht, on the other hand, bursts from the trees, running easily on his cloven hooves.
“Alte liebe. Josie. Can it be you?”
Joyous tears well up in my eyes. My whole life, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone sound so happy to see me—until now.
Within seconds, I’m wrapped up in his warm embrace, and the chill I’ve been suffering from since I woke up alone on the twenty-sixth finally thaws from my bones.
He strokes his claws through my hair. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“That’s your fault,” I say, putting enough tease in my voice so that he knows I’m only a little serious about that. “I was waiting.”
Taking me by the elbows so that there’s still a connection, Ruprecht pulls back so that he can search my face.
“I cannot leave Blackmoor?—”
“Krampusnacht,” I remind him. “December 5th.”
A hint of red bleeds into his gaze. “You are my good girl, Josie. I would never punish you. No matter that it is what I was created to do, or if you were naughty while we were apart… you are safe from me. You always will be.”
Oh. I know that. I knew that from the moment he brought me to his cottage and he watched over me as I slept that first night. And, true, I woke up with my arms chained, but he was just making sure the elves couldn’t steal me during the night while he, ahem , took care of himself.
I was never really afraid of Ruprecht—and I don’t think I ever will.
“Duh. But I did what I was supposed to for the Feast of Saint Nicholas the next morning. I put out my shoes and sugar cubes. If you were checking to see who were naughty and nice, you should’ve at least stopped by that night.”
Releasing my elbows, Ruprecht takes me by one hand. “If I passed by your home, I would’ve put you in my sack and stolen you away.”
I shrug, loving how earnest he said that. “Yeah? It would’ve saved me a flight if you did.”
“Josie? But I thought… once you saw both sides of me, you wouldn’t have ever stayed.”
I pat him in the chest. “See? Now that’s what us mortals call assuming. And you know what happens when you assume?”
It makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’—and causes a whole year where we stayed apart.
“I do not,” he murmurs softly. So softly, I don’t have the heart to be a bitch about our last year’s separation.
Besides, it was what I needed. In order to find a partner that I could trust, that I could settle down with and know instinctively that he’ll never stray, never cheat, never dump me when I needed him like Colin did… first I had to finish what I set out to do.
It would’ve been so much easier to let Ruprecht use magic to heal my hip. But I wouldn’t have earned it. And maybe I’m being ridiculous, feeling some sense of accomplishment that, after seven years of chronic pain, I was responsible for finding my own relief… but I needed that.
And now I need him.
So, instead of giving him shit, I smirk up at him. “Don’t worry about. Besides, I don’t know why you thought I’d jump ship because of your baggage. I met your brother. He’s a freaky weirdo Santa, and I will never let him anywhere near our bed again, but he’s not a dealbreaker.”
When Ruprecht frowns, I’m not sure if it’s because of my modern way of speaking—since, sometimes, my English is probably as indecipherable to him as his German is to me—but it isn’t long before his eyes dim and I realize there’s more to it than that.
“Nicklaus will never,” he vows. “As long as the legend of Krampus persists and I survive, you are my mate… whether you exist in the mortal world on your own or in Blackmoor with me.”
It sounds like he’s still trying to give me the chance to go back to my old, boring, dead-end human life.
Um. Pass.
And then he says, “And it is not Niklaus that I speak of when I mention the other half of me, “ and I know we have a bigger problem to tackle before he can accept that there’s no shaking me now.
“Then what is it?”
Ruprecht shudders out a breath. “I am Krampus. I reward those who are good, and punish those who are naughty. It is who I am… but I never wanted to punish you, my Josie. And last Christmas…”
Ah. I think I’m finally getting it.
We never had the chance to discuss the way he went from gentle lover to wicked and domineering in bed—or how much I liked seeing the beastly side of my demon. We just left the Toymaker’s workshop and walked together
The air was heavy with the promise of something new, something changing , and neither of us mentioned the way he roared as he came, or how his eyes were blood-red the entire time he pounded in me.
I was in awe. Ruprecht, I’m beginning to understand, was ashamed.
“Last Christmas was the best night of my life,” I tell him honestly—no tea required. Though, if my poor deprecating Christmas demon needs me to drink some to assure himself of how I feel… I told you. I’m a total tea girlie. “And I was hoping that, as an early Christmas gift, once
“Josie…” Almost seven feet tall, with features like a bull and a dick that makes him seem like he’s hung like a fucking horse, but as Ruprecht says me name, he purrs like a goddamn kitten. “Are you asking me to mate you?”
I now know that there are two meanings to the term. To ‘mate’ is to ‘fuck’—but it’s also to choose him as my lifelong partner. And since Krampus is immortal, and staying with him in Blackmoor as his bride—partner— mate once he claimed me meant I would be basically immortal, too…
Nicklaus broke his brides. Three days or three centuries, I know deep within my soul that Ruprecht will treasure me for the rest of or time together.
Even when he was rough, he was still protective and caring. I’ll be his forever.
And I’m looking forward to it.
“Yes, Ruprecht. You bet I am.”
From earnest earlier to hopeful and now confusion. My big demon honestly doesn’t believe that I’d choose to return to him, does he? Or stay . Even after he told me he’d wait… he’d gone centuries without a mate. This last year was torture for me; I can only imagine how painful it was for him. To have what he wanted, then give it up because his mortal wanted her wish…
I got it. And now it’s time to give him everything he desires.
Starting with the sack.
If that doesn’t show him how much I care, that I’m not just coming back because I miss sleeping with, I don’t know what will.
I try to slip my hand out of his so that I can go and grab it. I’ll need to get my suitcase, too, since I’d rather go naked than resign myself to an eternity in that heavy Christmas ballgown again, but for now, I need the fruit.
But Ruprecht refuses to release me. Almost as though he expects me to disappear if he does, he clings tightly without cutting me with his claws.
It’s charming, in a way. At the very least, I stop trying to break free of him. Instead, I give him a tug and point over toward where I left my stuff.
“I got something for you. Come. Let’s go get it.” As soon as we’re there, I heft up the sack with my free hand. “Here.”
His eyes light up. “Oranges. For me?”
“And you alone,” I tell him with a small laugh, offering him the sack.
I can tell just how much Ruprecht wants those oranges, though he hesitates to take them from me. After all, fruit is Krampus’s only weakness, but my Krampus? He has another one.
Me.
And when he can’t seem to let go of me, even to take the sack of oranges, I know that he’s already imagining me walking away from him again when Christmas is over.
So lower the sack back to the ground for him before turning into his chest, laying my palm against his heart. Despite the chill, he’s hot to the touch, his big body so still, I know he’s fighting the instinct to throw me to the snow and fuck me out in the open.
I’d rather make it back to the cottage myself, but since he came all this way to meet me when he should’ve been hibernating… well, I’m game.
But first?—
I clear my throat. “Ich werde bleiben.”
He sucks in a breath as the words reach him. Then, letting go of me only long enough to lay his hands on my hips, he hoists me up easily. He’s so strong that not even the extra fifty pounds on my back can slow him down as he urges me to wrap my legs around him. His hands move to my ass, the points of claws gently grazing me through my jeans as he nuzzles his bearded jaw against my cheek.
Then, in accented English, Ruprecht asks me, “How long will you stay, my Josie?”
I tried my best to learn German for him. Running his note through the online translator on my phone, I knew that’s what it was. I wanted to be able to talk to him in his language, even if it’s an older dialect. It became pretty clear that languages are not my thing, but I purposely memorized that sentence for him.
Just like I did one other one.
Clutching him around his powerful back, clinging to him, knowing that I made the right decision in returning, I smile into his hair.
How long?
“Für immer.”
Forever.
Because that’s how these legends and stories go, isn’t it?
They all lived happily ever after—and that’s exactly what my Christmas demon and his not-so-broken, not-so-mortal Josie do .