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Chapter Seven
“Told you she’s a fainter,” Jax said as Leven laid me on the bed, and despite my wavering focus, Leven’s words circled my mind. The ones about making me scream—in the best possible way. And hearing a man speak to me in such a way, while he was naked and his antlers retracted, should not have been turning me on. Except I was burning up with arousal.
Tatum was at my side and he handed me a glass of water. “Drink. You’re dehydrated.”
I gulped down the refreshing drink and stared at the three men around the bed, now dressed, yet in my mind, I pictured them naked. I wasn’t sure I could ever get that wonderful image out of my head.
“Best we get to sleep,” Tatum said, reaching for the bottle of whiskey and pouring himself another glass. The label with a skull on it caught my attention.
“I think that’s one of my whiskeys.” A sense of pride shot through me, even though it was my uncle’s hard work.
Tatum checked the bottle and nodded. “Yep, says here Holler Distillery. It’s good stuff. You should be proud.” Jax was by his side and grabbed himself a shot as well. I sat back and watched Jax pull the spare blankets and pillows out the closet and set up his bed on the couch while Tatum laid a blanket in front of the heater.
“Maybe I should take the couch,” I said.
“No.” Leven crossed the room and vanished into the bathroom while the others got comfy. To say everything felt unreal was an understatement, and maybe when I woke up, I’d find myself at home, having experienced the weirdest dream in history.
By the time Leven returned, he wore only jeans. He switched off the lights and climbed into bed with me. I wasn’t going to shoo him away when I was occupying their bed, so I shuffled over to my side, curling the covers over myself. The mattress bounced and indented behind me. “I’m not going to bite,” he said.
“You two better not be getting on, or I’m joining,” Jax called out.
“Nothing is happening,” I replied, thankful the lights had been switched off and I didn’t need to face anyone. How could Jax assume I’d jump onto Leven because we shared a bed? Was that what they did when they met a woman? I curled the blanket tighter around myself.
“Go to sleep,” Tatum blurted out.
Leven lay behind me, his exhales playing across the back of my head, and I sensed his heavy presence. While part of me wondered what it would be like to curl into the arms of a man like him, I wasn’t sure I was ready to go there. Whenever I got close to anyone, they hurt me. Like my parents. The foster system. Even the few friends I had ending being jerks, stealing money from me. Maybe it was just me—I attracted the assholes.
It was just Britta and me in this world, and I’d do anything to protect her. Exhaustion pulled through me and I couldn’t stay awake knowing I needed to get back to my sister.
So I closed my eyes and let myself drift off to sleep, needing today to be over and to stop feeling as if I wandered through fog. I was tired of not believing my eyes, of my head thumping and me passing out. If I was going to have a nickname, it had to be something cool, not The Fainter.Gah.I pushed those thoughts away and pictured Britta and me going out Christmas tree hunting. She’d squeal with delight and I couldn’t wait.
* * *
“I thoughtyou had a car we could use.” I gripped my hips and stared at Tatum, who stood in front of me in deer form. He was an enormous animal, covered in a white pelt, towering over me. He had a streak of darker fur across his brow. I should have been scared, but I was simply amazed after watching him transform.
The morning breeze carried a chill, ruffling my hair, and I pulled the collar of my coat higher around my neck. We stood deeper in the woods with snow blanketing the ground as far as I could see. Overhead, gray clouds smudged the sky, but the storm had eased, and the guys had insisted on taking me home. Foolish me expected a car.
I stared at Tatum… or more like the animal in front of me, strapped with a saddle they had borrowed from someone in town. Hot breaths floated from Tatum’s flaring nostrils as he proceeded to kneel down on bent legs.
“That’s your car, sweetheart,” Jax said, his body already shimmering into a transformation. And maybe the three of them assumed I’d embraced the whole shifting-into-a-reindeer thing, except I hadn’t. It freaked me out, but I held back the nerves wracking through me. How could I explain I struggled to believe what I’d witnessed firsthand? I’d figured after a long sleep, I’d wake up and all of this would make sense. Sure, my mind was clearer, but everything else remained a twisted mess. Now the other two were changing into reindeer too. God, how could I be hallucinating for so long?
Leven nudged me closer, yet my legs refused to move. “You want to see your sister, right?”
“Don’t,” I said. “I’ll do this my way.”
He raised his hands and backed away, his transformation already taking him over. Clothes withered away as if magically vanishing, replaced by the white pelt stretching over his morphing body. The snapping bones had me flinching each time, and I looked away, meeting Tatum’s stare. He grunted and rocked his head back and forth.
“Goddamn, I can’t believe I’m even doing this,” I said. But by the time I would find a car to hire, convince them to rent the vehicle to me with no money, as my wallet was still in the broken-down van in the woods, it might take hours. Tatum and his crew didn’t have any funds, having used it all on the motel and food. Seeing as they weren’t leaving my side, I’d gone along with this idea. Running away was impossible, as they’d keep up, so fuck, I’d accept this insanity a while longer.
I climbed onto the saddle, straddling Tatum, and reached out but found no reins. “Hey, what do I hold on to?”
But when he started to get up, me lurching back and forth from his movement, I reached forward, seizing his antlers, and held on. And we were off, me riding a reindeer while the other two strode behind us. I fell into the steady rhythm, figuring I could get used to this bumpy ride. What a sight I must have been, but at least we were moving forward. Soon, Tatum picked up the pace, and we covered ground fast, following the snowy road.
By the time we reached the section of the woods where my van had broken down, we slowed down and trotted past my vehicle that now looked half its size, flattened, and caked in snow.
Dread slithered up my spine as I remembered the attack that had thrown my world into chaos. Maybe I ought to get off and see if my wallet and phone were retrievable, except Tatum didn’t stop and instead burst into a gallop. I held on for the rest of the trip, trying to come to terms with what I’d experienced.
The whole Santa and Krampus drama.
