At the bedroom, the boys let me pass through first. None of them say a word as I cross over the threshold and step into a beautiful display of dancing lights strung through every tree.
But it’s the fully decorated Christmas tree that has me hurrying forward.
“We realized you missed Christmas,” Vaelith says, moving out of the shadows and stopping a few feet away.
“It’s already Christmas?” I ask, turning my attention away from the stunning display. “It’s barely been twenty-four hours.”
“Here. In the human world, it’s been a few days.”
My heart sinks as I realize my parents are home right now, probably sitting in front of the tree, heartbroken over the news of my death. They would know by now.
“Are ... are my parents okay?”
Vaelith steps forward and gently takes me by the shoulders. “Your father is staying strong for your mother, and your mother is staying strong for your father. They are holding each other up.”
I can only nod, not sure what else to say when all I want is to beg him to let me see them. But later. I stow the request away, focusing on the lovely gift he’s given me.
“I love it,” I tell him, forcing a smile. “Thank you.”
He leans in and brushes a kiss to my brow. “That isn’t your gift. It’s just the decorations.”
My eyebrow lifts as I let him turn me to the bed.
My boys are out of their robes. The yards of fabric are tossed in a dark pile on the floor and they stand in all their beautiful glory. The symbol of my name blazes bright against the shadows of their bodies. Pulsing rhythmically with their anticipation. The sight of them hard and ready brings a grin to my lips as I peer up at Vaelith.
“For me?”
To my surprise, he shakes his head. “Not yet.”
His fingers find the zipper on my dress. His skin, warm through the fabric. The tongue is captured and drawn down the teeth in a slow, deliberate drag. The entire time, he peers into my eyes, taunting me with his lips hovering inches over mine. With the familiar scent of cloves filling my senses.
“How’d your meeting go?”
His low groan ripples across the inches of skin he’s baring. “Don’t remember any of it.”
I chuckle as he pulls the straps over my shoulders and lets the dress flutter down to pool at my ankles. “That can’t be good. Aren’t those meetings like super important?”
“They are very important,” he agrees, voice a husky tumble of amusement and annoyance.
Tentatively, I ghost my fingers across the hard interlocking roots expanding over his chest. “You should pay better attention.”
A hint of red fills the dark surface of his eyes. “Should have knotted you and made you sit on my cock when I called them back in. Bred you while we discussed politics.”
I offer a sassy little shrug. “Should have. Who knows what you agreed to when you were supposed to be focusing.”
I’m forced back hard against the trunk of the Christmas tree. The rough bark scratches my skin and pine needles sprinkle down on us, but I stare up into my monster’s glowing eyes with a grin on my face.
“Just for that tongue, I’m changing your gift.”
Feeling extra bold, I smirk. “You know I’m going to like it.”
There’s a hint of a grin before his vines snap down from the pine tree now hundreds of feet tall against the dark space above. They snap around my wrists and drag my arms up. I’m pulled two feet off the ground. The trunk comes up flush against my back a split second before roots break through the earth and shackle my ankles in a wide ...wideV.
I’m bound and tethered. Pulled taut enough that I feel the stretch, the slight burn of my muscles. In this position, I’m vulnerable and helpless, open and naked for the four men watching me with the same greedy hunger.
Vaelith curls his lips up in one corner with the first flood of my opening. His fangs gleam to mirror the twisted pleasure in his eyes.
“Any last words, my love?” he taunts, moving into my space.
