The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,35
Shnikel of before.
“Ssssafe,” he said slowly, then scowled harder as if that was the understatement of the millenia. “Sssafe withhh Sssshnikel,” he compromised on.
It was then I noted we were in fact in another cell, the bars to my left making me want to cringe and then climb up them screaming for help. Farther about the space, my gaze spanned, noting the keys Bels’d had near us, our cell locking us in to protect us from the crowd of Krampus looming near a large cavern opening.
Safe with him. For sure.
Starting to count the sets of horns and white furred bodies, I stopped at twenty. “There’s so many of them,” I whispered. Glancing from Shnikel, the Krampus gathered to check out the newbs who’d locked themselves in a cage, and back to Shnikel again, my eyes widened in wonder and a pinch of horror.
“Saffffe with Shnikel, Loo-me,” Shnikel insisted.
“Thank you,” I whispered, absently reaching out to pat him.
Aches and pains came to the fore, my breasts among them. Grimacing, the chill of the floor on my back starting to really seep in, I smiled up at him sheepishly.
“You, uh, wouldn’t be hungry by any chance, now, would ya?”
Shnikel’s grin was feral. Leaning in, he shocked the figgy pudding right out of me when he leaned in, cautious of his horns, and rubbed our foreheads in some weird beast friends with benefits head hug. And then he was on to better things, like offering me a sip of piping hot freehanded-pocket-pool-demonstrating man meat and taking a crack at emptying the jugs.
By the time he’d finished with me and we lay cuddled up on our sides, the beasts at our door literally grunting and growling their dismay we were out of reach as we tended our needs and then screwed like bunnies, were just background noise. I had no idea where things were supposed to go from here, what the hell I was supposed to do next. I promised myself that first night I’d be taking this one day at a time, one thankful moment to be alive and whole, like my miracle neck healing and Shnikel’s much easier going demeanor, and hope for the best.
Chapter 12
The best I could hope for, watching Shnikel fight off yet another Krampus for the meat from the beast he’d killed and dragged here, some kind of caramel corn reeking giant of an ox looking creature with horns on its head like a triceratops, spikes down its spine like a stegosaurus, and a thick, fluffy, cream and mustardy colored coat like someone had just murdered a pack of shaggy-haired baby seals. Snuggled up in the first pelt he’d cured and brought to me, using all kinds of the animal’s bodily fluids and a few of his own and we weren’t going to talk about it, I knew he was doing all he did for me.
Tossing a hank of cooked meat my way, snarling viciously with pride when I caught it and held it up to show him, he wrestled the pelt free and gave up the rest as yet another loss.
Female Krampus began to crowd him as he strode toward me, hissing and flicking their long tongues, trying to rub up on him enticingly. She devil beast ladies were hoochies. By the time he reached me, he’d thrown several off of him, and had to snarl threateningly at the lot to get them to back off.
Opening the door to the cage, letting him in to quickly lock it behind him, I dutifully handed the keys off to him. The second he set down his burden, taking the meat from me to toss it on the coals in our little space, he was scooping me up to nuzzle his forehead along mine. My lips found his and he groaned.
His teeth were sharp but not as sharp as they had been, just a few of his teeth before and after his canines sporting points. His horns had fat new points like he was getting back to his old Elkfen self. I’d never tell him, but the more he became his old self, the more I worried how well he’d be able to fend off the more vicious, adamant anti-Christmas-y beasties we shared space with.
“Almost didn’t get it this time,” he muttered, a worried frown marring his tan eyebrow fuzz covered dark brown brow. Shnikel was speaking full sentences, his voice deep but not gruffly so like before, and while he was large, strapping and muscular, going back to his