Married to Krampus - Marina Simcoe Page 0,74

do, too.” I rushed down the stairs. “This is just...”

“It’s going to be like having two Victory Days in a year!” Olvar exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air.

“One is warm! And one is with a big, pretty tree!” his brother added with delight.

Hands in his pockets, Grevar shifted his weight from hoof to hoof.

“So, you like it?” he asked as I came closer.

“Do I?” I choked up, thinking about the effort he’d gone through to make Christmas happen for me in Voran. My chest flooded with gratitude, and my face flushed from pleasure.

“You’re blushing again,” he said, tentatively. “It can mean so many things with you.”

“I love it!” I jumped into his arms, hugging his neck. “Thank you so much.” I kissed his face.

He laughed, spinning me through the room in his arms.

“The best is yet to come.” He set me down. “This is going to be a great day. I promise.”

I glanced up at the gigantic tree.

“Oh. Wait a moment!” I dashed back up the stairs. Grabbing the small purse off my night table, I ran back down again.

“Here.” I took out Grandma’s ornament and hung it on the highest tree branch I could reach. I stepped back, admiring the way the red-and-gold ornament from Earth glistened prettily among the lime-green needles of the tree from Neron. “It belongs here.”

Grevar hugged me from behind.

“And you belong right here, Daisy.” He kissed my temple. “In my arms.”

“With us!” The boys jumped around, nudging me with their cute, little horns. “Us, too!”

This was now my home.

Better than I could have ever dreamed of.

EPILOGUE

TWO YEARS LATER

“Time to get up.” Grevar’s furry, muscular arm circled me.

“Already?” I stretched, rolling to my back, as he nuzzled the side of my face then sat on the bed.

“Mhm. We’ll be leaving straight after breakfast.” His hand splayed on my rounded belly, he asked as he’d been asking me daily for the past five months now, “How are you feeling?”

I blinked my eyes open, met his gaze, and smiled.

“Well, good, I guess. I haven’t thrown up yet, today.”

“And how is my baby girl?” His voice softened as he gently patted my stomach.

The baby in my belly didn’t have a drop of Voranian blood. She had been conceived by artificial insemination using the human sperm Grevar and I had ordered from Earth, after selecting an anonymous donor together.

Yet from the moment we’d heard her heartbeat from the monitor in the doctor’s office, Grevar acted as any expectant father would—maybe even a little bit crazier than most.

He had her in-womb images framed. He sang lullabies to my belly. And he crossed out days on the paper calendar he’d ordered specifically for that purpose, impatiently waiting for her due date.

“She is quiet.” I rubbed the side of my belly where she often kicked me when awake. “Probably sleeping still since there is no one to wake her up in there.” I swung one of my legs his way, playfully nudging him in the shoulder with my foot.

He caught it with his hand.

“We need to hurry up.” He said. “You’d be really sorry if you miss my surprise.”

Somehow, he’d learned about humans keeping presents a secret until a special day, and he never failed to torture me with anticipation.

“Can’t you tell me what it is and put me out of my misery?” I begged.

“It won’t be a surprise then if I tell, would it?”

“Please?” I batted my eyelashes at him.

“Nope.”

“You are insufferable.” I swung my other leg at him, and he caught my foot before it touched his arm.

A flash of heat sparked in his eyes as he held both my feet at his shoulders, facing me.

“Well, if you insist on staying in bed...” He rubbed his chin against the side of my sole.

I giggled at the tickling of his beard and struggled to free my foot from his grip, but he held it firmly.

“We can skip the surprise.” He gently bit down on my toe, sending a rush of a very different type of anticipation through me.

“Tempting...” Spending an entire day in bed with my husband always seemed like a good idea. “But it’s Christmas Day—”

“Exactly. Up!” He jumped out of bed, scooping me up and setting me down on the floor in one fluid movement. “We have a few hours before we need to pick up the kids.”

Christmas didn’t fall on a weekend this year. Grevar had arranged with the Academy to get the boys after their morning lessons and bring them back to the school tomorrow