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Reindeer shifters, orArietesas they called themselves.
And how darn sore my thighs were getting. Why did anyone choose to ride horses intentionally?
Hopping up and down with each move, I gritted my teeth and rode through the discomfort until we emerged from the woods. Ahead was the rear of the distillery and my house. The sight had me beaming, and I straightened my posture. No longer feeling the pain, I urged Tatum to move faster. This end of the yard had no fence and backed onto the woods, which explained how the three guys had entered my yard that time I’d spotted them near my home.
Once we reached the distillery, we came to a stop, and I slid a leg off Tatum, jumping off him before he lowered himself. My thighs wobbled beneath me, and the stinging ache raced down my legs. Yep, I felt bowlegged, but I didn’t care. I was home, and I turned toward the house when in the distance I spotted someone stepping down from the front porch, carrying what looked like a huge garbage bag over their shoulder.
“Jana,” I called out, hurrying forward, wondering if she’d had enough and was headed home. I’d have to make it up to her, but the closer I got, the more the figure didn’t resemble Jana. Whoever it was, they were taller and wore all black and dragged something else in the snow behind them.
Someone grasped my shoulder from behind and pulled me to a halt. Leven stepped in front of me.
“Get behind us,” he growled.
“What are you doing?” I peered past the three men in front of me, all of them in human form and now magically dressed in their jeans and jackets. But my sights set on the person near my home.
The person stepped out of the shadows and looked nothing like Jana. I gasped loudly, and ice threaded through my veins.
The thing I stared at was the monster from the woods. My knees weakened, breaths ragged and harsh.
Krampus!
The bag on its back shifted about. Whatever was inside kicked and cried out in soft female whimpers I was all too familiar with. My heart dropped through me, hitting the ground.
“Britta!” I screamed and shoved past Jax, running to get to my sister. Tears choked my throat, blurring my vision, but anger twisted around my chest, and fury drove me to move faster.
My sister.
He had her.
I darted, each step feeling slow and sluggish in the snow, yet the monster seemed miles away. Except it stood there and dropped the sack. Britta’s cry shattered me. It reminded me of the times she’d sob when my dad would beat me, and despite my pain, hearing her agony killed me.
The bastard lifted its chains and twirled them in a hand, facing me. “Give yourself willingly, and she lives,” it growled, sounding like a wild animal snarling the words.
The men behind me swooshed past, and their momentum bathed me in a rushed wind. Snatching up the sack with Britta, the monster ran out of the clearing with the speed of lightning.
“Stop!” I yelled, chasing after them, but he was too fast, the sack bouncing across his back. I would never catch up.
They had vanished into the woods, and while the men pursued him, I dropped to my knees, tears falling and my world splintered into a million pieces. There was a part of me that refused to believe what I’d witnessed, that Britta would be in her bed, fast asleep. That she’d laugh at me when I burst into her room.
I lifted my head and I was alone in the yard. I kept thinking I’d imagined the whole incident, so I scrambled to my feet and darted into the house. Upstairs, I ran into Britta’s room.Please be there. Please.
Her bed lay empty and disheveled.
“Britta?” I yelled, darting from room to room, back downstairs, not finding her. With each movement, my stomach hardened. The growing grief surged with each rushed breath. This couldn’t be happening to me.
“What’s going on?” Jana stepped out of the bathroom, still in her nightgown, her silvery hair falling over her shoulders.
“Britta,” was the only word I managed between sobs and tears crowding my eyes.
Jana’s face blanched and she rushed upstairs, but she wouldn’t find anything. Her loud cry sank through me, and I collapsed onto a chair at the dining table, my world darkening. What the fuck had I just seen outside?
When I glanced out the kitchen window, Jax, Tatum, and Leven were marching out of the woods and toward the house, their heads low, their postures defeated.
No. Britta!
I curled into my seat, and I covered my face, crying into my hands.
Fuck.Everything they’d said was real. And Krampus had just kidnapped my sister because of me.
