Page 23 of Christmas Heat
As the sun turns golden in the late afternoon and more snow falls outside, they finally finish decorating the tree. Well, Luke does, with Eden seated on the couch between Tenor and Julius with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her shoulders, directing him exactly where she wanted everything.
She's achy and that makes her irritable, but not as much as she was before her heat, so the tree does eventually get fully laden with the garlands, ornaments, and lights.
When Luke finally places a polaroid photograph of her at the top of the tree–since she was their star, he claimed, making her blush a bright red–she feels the warmth in her chest eclipse the ache in her belly.
When they tuck her into bed later, after feeding her a few cups of broth and some toast, the only thing she can imagine keeping down after the days of fasting during her heat, she can't keep her eyes off the tree. The colours blend together as her eyes drift shut, red and green and blue lights twinkling against the silver tinsel.
She's going to have to change the pad again soon, but she can't resist the heavy pull of her eyelids. She burrows between her pack, their arms draped over her, their legs tangled together. Outside, snow continues to drift down, muffling and cocooning them from the rest of the world in this safe little bubble.
Even as she continues to bleed, even as she notices Tenor is walking with a limp, probably from an overexerted muscle, and even as Julius is covered in bite marks and Luke looks exhausted, it all seems perfect.
Sleep welcomes her like an old friend.
Two Days Until Christmas
Tenor
Eden was up all through the night getting up to change her pad, and Tenor doesn't fucking know how beta women live like this. He cannot imagine doing this every month because he's already exhausted and he wasn't even the one getting up. Especially after none of them got any good rest during her heat, they're definitely feeling a nap today.
His mate was currently snuggled in with Julius on the couch looking at something on his phone, but he thinks she'll probably get on board with his nap idea if she has a warm bath to get her all boneless and sleepy.
He drops one of the Lush bath bombs into the filling tub and the scent of gingerbread fills the room. This successfully gets Eden's attention, who looks at him like he's a conquering hero back from a military campaign in the provinces.
She quickly agrees to his bath plan and everything is on track as he starts to undress her. He only palms her tits a little bit as he pulls the flannel pajamas over her head and tugs her pants down over her lush hips.
They've gotten so skillful at getting her undressed without ripping her clothes because she always gets so fussy when they do."That was a handknit Noah's Ark themed sweater from the 80's! I found it at a garage sale years ago! It was literally one of a kind!"
He might not agree with his mate about what clothing constitutes a treasure, but he's not stupid enough to say that to her, and he doesn't like it when his mate gets shrill, so they got real good real quick at undressing her in a civilized manner.
And he knows he just spent like three days straight fucking her, but fuck he can't help ogling her again now. His girl was thicker than a bowl of oatmeal and it's threatening to make his aching cock hard again.
He carries her to the bathroom and is about to ease her into the water when she pauses him. "Would you get in with me? I mean–only if you want to. I know it's weird that I'm bleeding."
"It's not weird that you're bleeding, it's totally natural and it doesn't bother any of us."
Sure, he's going to smell like a gingerbread cookie for the rest of the day, but that's definitely a worthwhile price to pay to hold his girl in his arms in some steaming hot water while Luke and Julius have to go shovel again.
One Day Until Christmas
Eden
There's frost starting to form on the cottage's windows and Tenor keeps grumbling about how they should replace them in the spring to new energy efficient ones, but it means that they have to keep the fire going round the clock to keep the cottage warm.
The crackle of it is soothing, and between the tree twinkling in the corner of the room, the scent of her mates and a roasting honey ham all around her, and her fully stocked Kindle in her hands, it's probably the best Christmas Eve she's ever had.
The snowfall has lessened into a light dusting rather than a full onslaught so it adds to the ambiance without meaning one of them has to constantly be out there shovelling. Fuzzy reindeer socks had appeared in her drawer that morning, which now peek out from under her blanket where she's snuggled with her mates on the couch.
They keep trying to peek over at what she's reading, and no amount of grumbling is ever going to make them stop. Not that she wants them to. But it really isn't their business if she wants to read about an omega getting abducted by aliens and bonding with a pack of extraterrestrials.
Tenor is the one to break the silence of the afternoon while Luke is in the kitchen carving up the ham ready for dinner. "Alright, everyone," he announces. "It's time for the Acosta family tradition of openingonepresent early on Christmas Eve."
"Fuck," Luke breathes from the kitchen. "You said that was just a myth, man."
"It wasn't a myth when my mom wanted us to behave for her Christmas Eve party, and it's not a myth now that I'm tired of reading about ribbed alien dick," Tenor says.
"Aw, fuck yeah!" Luke hoots and punches the air, completely forgetting about the ham. "I got just the thing!"
He launches himself into the bathroom and she has no idea where he could've possibly hidden those in there, but he comes back with four shiny red gift bags that he sets on each of their laps and then claps his hands together in excitement. "Let's fucking go," he says in a voice that's just on the cusp of being too loud.
