Page 86 of Bride of Choice

Not quite ready to call it a night yet, I opened the curtains to stare out and watch the snow fall and made myself a hot drink. Scooting all the way back on the bed, propped up against the wall, I sipped on tea and nibbled on a small piece of bread as the window was blasted with fat snowflakes.

I hoped Kooky, Tokre, and Celuk and all the rest were okay out there. This felt like the chilliest night since I’d gotten here.

It was so warm and toasty in here now, I felt myself staring off at the fire rocks drowsily.

At some point I fell asleep, bread crumbs and my empty cup in my lap.

A weird snuffling noise woke me. Thinking I might have been making it in my sleep, I lifted my head from its neck-aching slump, got one look at a wicked, bright yellow-green gaze dipped in red eyeing me from the back window, face pressing closer to the glass as it spied me watching it, and I screamed my fool head off.

Before common sense had kicked in to tell me I was being a flailing dumb ass, I nabbed my purse, hopped up, and ran right out the front door.

Unsure where I was headed, just far, far away from those scary Krampus eyes as my legs could carry me, I plowed right into a tall, thick figure lumbering through the snow.

Before I could scream, No! Bum-bum rumbled out tightly, “Too snowies. Why outs?”

“Th-th-the thing! Window! GRR. Scary!” I babbled like an idiot.

Bum-bum grunted, staring down at me with a sharp, unreadable look.

“Krampus! In the window!” I garbled out finally, thank god. “It found me!”

That word had the Lo denaii popping into action. Scooping me up, because according to him I’m too slow and my feet are naiked-ed despite my socks, a fact I begrudgingly pointed out because I wasn’t keen on running to keep up with his long stride on frozen feet, to a dirty look that shut me right up from the male, took off.

Bum-bum, despite how big and lumbering the fella was, could haul ass in a jiff.

“Where are we going?” My teeth chattered as I spoke. My jacket was still hanging over the chair at Bia’s. “Are we heading to gather the-”

“Jo stays safe. Bum-bum go,” he rumbled out, all large and in charge, and I was shaken enough I simply nodded.

Walking right up to his place, the big male didn’t hesitate as he unlocked his door and slipped inside.

I’d admit, my curious ass had always wondered about Bum-bum’s secret lair.

This place was a freaking Tardis, way bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside.

Rows and rows of shelves lined his walls. Several chests ranging from enormous to itty bitty peeked from a small back room. A huge bed big enough to fit him dominated the left wall of the main room, a mismatched, patchwork pelt quilt covering the bed, those customary stacks of large pelts neatly piled at the foot of that monstrosity. Chests lined one wall, shelves, a small side table and enormous, hide upholstered chair, complete with horns coming from the top and fat tree branches fashioned into the arms and legs, was strategically placed right before the hearth.

Glancing around, he decided to plop me into the chair. With a warned, “No touchies,” he shoved a woven blanket over my lap that’d been dangling over the arm of the chair, the thing swallowing me up in it, and took off. Relief swept through me when I heard his door lock behind him.

“This was so not how I’d imagined getting in here to have a peek,” I muttered as I rubbed my hands together vigorously and snuggled down in the woven blanket.

Giving his chair a small sniff, even if I felt a little weird about it, I smiled. It smelled like him. This whole place did. Lo denaii had a unique scent to them. I’d heard many call it a sort of musk, and each Lo denaii carried their own unique… bouquet, layered over that.

Bum-bum made me think of sunshine after a big snow, a hint of that weird, crushed flowers and tree bark mix tingeing his home that gave me the warm and fuzzies.

Tucking the blanket around my feet, noting that those were not in fact large rocks used for his mantle but what appeared to be skulls. Very oddly shaped, large skulls. Yikes.

No touchies, he’d said.

Joanie don’t wanna touchie nothin’ if the skulls of his enemies are his main decor choice.

And Rosa thought I had weird taste?

Pfft.

I was content to sit here until he came back with good news, hopefully, hoping the tremors overtaking me subsided, when my shaking fingers knocked the lid off the short wooden crate in front of his small tray to my left.

A soft gasp left me as the lid fell, exposing a set of horribly familiar horns.

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