Page 47 of Bride of Choice

My eyes were already heavy and closing, the world slipping into blessed silence as the broth took over.

This whole time, I’d been with my Mystery Mate.

???

This loud, awful sound was the next thing I could clearly recall. Coming to in an unfamiliar place was my least favorite pastime. Wherever I found myself, it was busy, bustling with noise and that wide awake energy.

Sitting up with a grunt, clearing my throat and smacking my lips with that cotton feeling in my mouth, I stared at the thick white pelt laid out over me. I knew this pelt. My Mystery Mate.

“Oh my god,” I blurted. I’d met him. I mean, like, I knew him.

I did now, I mean.

Okay, I didn’t know him, but now I knew him.

Kinda…

He’d be hard to pick out of a lineup unless he was the only one with snow stuck fur and pretty dark, blue-grey eyes but… that was him. My Mystery mate guy. A small, semi hysterical laugh left me. He’d said he had a mate. Had that asshole been meaning me?! The whole time? God, or did he mean someone else? What the frick?! He had to have meant me, right? I had the pelt and everything to prove it. What a dick! More laughter spilled free. “That turdlet!”

“Eh! Jo. Needs… go?” One of Dorothy’s mates popped their head into the doorway of the room I’d woken up in to ask. This guy I knew, blinking stupidly up at him in stunned surprise.

“Do I need to… go?” My brain wasn’t quite runnin’ on all cylinders at the mo’. “Go where?”

“Go poops,” the male stated bluntly. Dorothy had a lot of damned mates. It was hard for me to keep up with all of them, I’d admit. I wasn’t particularly chummy with any of them either.

“What made you think I needed to-” And then it hit me. Turdlet. I’d said turdlet.

It started off small, and I’d blame the mickeyed broth to get me here in the first place if it ever came up, but soon I was holding my gut, busting with laughter.

Swiping at my eyes, realizing two things quickly at once, Aunty had arrived, and the fact my life was an even bigger mess than before I’d come to Yetidom, those laughing tears and soft chuckles turned into a weird torrent of poorly muffled sobbing.

“Rothy!” her male leaned out to bark, but rushed in all the same to helplessly give my back these weird, I wanna comfort you but I’m so not touching you there-there pats.

“What’s happened? Is she awake? What’s the matter? Oh my god! Mosoau! What did you say to her, you big moose?!” Dorothy came rushing in, wiping her hands on a towel. One look at me and she ordered her mate out, who was shaking his head wildly and waving his hands frantically.

“Mosoau not say no thing,” he grumbled, though his lips were still twitching with barely suppressed humor at her calling him a moose.

Closing the door, she grabbed a few things from a dresser on the far wall and sat on the edge of the bed. “Hey. Hey now…”

When I swiped at my eyes, nodded, then quickly shook my head because who the hell was I kidding, I squeezed my eyes shut tight and forced myself to take a few deep breaths.

Taking my hands in hers, pulling them away from my face, she started to gently dab at my face. “Are you- Did- I heard about the Krampus and the-”

“I fell, got lost in the- in the snow,” I blurted out, talking around everything. I tried to say more but I couldn’t. Frankly, I didn’t really want to.

“That’s okay. No need to say another word on it. When you were brought in last night, you looked a fright.” One glance down at my hip and she asked, “It troubling you right now? The paste wore off? I hope you don’t mind I tended to you but one peek and all I saw was black and blue! I couldn’t just leave you like that.” Nodding, she continued, “I gave you decency, as much as I could. I was quick about it. Made them all leave when I had to remove your pants. If I’d have left it, I doubt you’d be sitting up without passing out right now, it was that awful looking. You were pretty roughed up, and that’s saying something comin’ from me.”

“I’m, uh, no. It’s fine. Thank you. I- I’m just, you know- I, uh- Uhm, I’m emotional,” I settled on.

Nodding in understanding, she handed me some fresh clothes. “We’re trying to keep the Krampus hunt quiet so it doesn’t scare the others. I can’t even imagine- Seeing them up close.” Dorothy gave a mock shudder. “Came across one on the hunt years ago when I first got here. Nearly scared me to death. Still can barely talk about it now,” she went on sympathetically, misunderstanding my upset.

I let it lie.

“This room has a private bathroom,” she told me as she pat my back comfortingly. “We try and save it for guests and such. Has some lady things in there, sweet smelling soaps, should you want use of ‘em. If you want, I’ve got a spare pair of pants and a warm shirt you could try out, keep them if they’ll fit? And I’ll go and wash what all you’ve got on now and get them back to you?”

Sniffling, sucking it up like a good little buttercup, I stood with her assistance, and made my way over to the bathroom. I felt so helpless, exposed. It was on the tip of my tongue to start peppering her with questions.

“Impossible to avoid getting paste on them and try and keep your decency.” A grimace stole over her face. “Be a shame if they stained,” she tutted, admiring the intricate beadwork along the trim. “Fine work. You make these ones yourself? Rosie says you’re a veritable needle witch. Can’t say I’ve taken to sewing as good as I’d like but Griever, he’s happy to do the mending with me, and by do the mending with me I mean take over,” she added with a soft chuckle. “I’ll do my best to get your things good as new.”

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