to smash his mouth into mine and begin pistoning into me hard enough my butt was going to be bruised come morning.
“Harder,” I whispered, egging him on.
“Mine,” he muttered, shoving his face into my nape to bury it in the side of my throat. “Mine-mine-mine.” He muttered his mantra as I came hard on his cock, creaming all over that fat thickness until he burst along with me several punishing thrusts later.
“I love you, too,” I said finally, breathlessly.
I felt him grin against my skin, and then he kissed the mark he’d made on my shoulder when he was a Krampus.
The moment was bittersweet. Though sadness filled me at the thought of losing him, I hugged him to me close and urged him to make love to me again. He said he was leaving tonight, he didn't necessarily say when tonight exactly.
After we’d exhausted ourselves, he set up the fire in our cell again and denned down with me as we did every night. Falling asleep wrapped around each other, I hoped he decided to change his mind.
My head said he might, just maybe, but my heart knew better.
Chapter 14
He was gone. I felt the absence of his presence as if he’d taken a piece of me along with him, a longing emptiness left in its place.
Frowning, a funny, sweet smell in the air, I woke up to find while Shnik was gone I was not alone. The cell door was open and a Krampus I’d never seen before stood hunched over me. Dead eyes stared back at me, an odd, hungry look to him. Grunting, glancing at something to my left, he snatched up whatever was laid out around me and stuffed it into his mouth. As his cheek puffed and crumbs fell, I realized it was fruitcake. There was something so oddly familiar about him. I couldn’t put my finger on it but... My gaze lifted to his horns, the one with the crack in the end of one of his left antler points.
“Ded?” I blurt.
Sharp eyes snapped towards me.
He growled, very un-Ded like. The Ded I knew was sweet, if a bit odd and insta-crush creepy. Krampus Ded had me freezing, waiting, hoping he was only half feral.
My gaze met his once more and our eyes locked. We stared for so long his eyes were starting to look glazed, but there was a spark of something there, or so I was inclined to believe.
As we stared, a piece of fruitcake clump caught my eye. Spotting me glancing at it, Ded snatched it up and made to pop it into his mouth. Hesitating at the last moment, he paused, pulling it away from his lips with no small amount of reluctance. Dark eyes darted from the clump of fruitcake to me. He kept this up, his gaze ping-ponging between the two, until eventually, slowly, he held it out to me in offering.
Reluctantly, hand shaking as I reached out, I took it. His dark eyes gleamed with an unholy light as I took a nibble of it, and then he rushed me. A horn scraped my forehead as we collided. I cried out, throwing my arm up reflexively. The action blocked him, but he got his hooves dug in and began snapping his jaws, snarling viciously. Before I realized what was happening, he was sinking his teeth into my forearm. A scream tore from my throat. Clawed hands scrabbled for purchase, tearing at the pelt covering me, digging into the fat of my underarms.
Thrashing, screaming, tears streaming down my cheeks, I tried to call out for Shnikel but it was pointless. Settling down, as it only seemed to incite his anger, a muffled shriek then left me as he renewed his grip. I assumed he was going to tear a chunk from me—he was acting stark raving mad. He was not Ded anymore. Ded was gone.
My arms screamed painfully, a burning throb that wouldn’t let up. Compared to a Krampus’ bite, the bite was a bee sting that let up, his claws marking up my flesh akin to being jabbed repeatedly with a hot poker.
Pinned beneath him, he panted heavily atop me, his natural animalesque aroma pungent this close up. Calling out for Shnikel again, my voice barely above a croak, I didn’t understand why I even bothered. I had no doubt he was long gone by now but I wanted him in this moment, wanted him more than ever.
The teeth buried in my flesh dug in harder and