CHAPTER 12

HE SITS ON the throne as if he’s trapped in another time. Hand on his furrowed brow, his heavy head bowed, he looks like a king exhausted from a day of ruling. But on this mountain top on the edge of death, there is no one to command save for me walking across the floor.

I don’t know what I want.

An apology, an explanation, an excuse—all seem like a good start and all seem impossible from the monster pressing his back into the throne of antlers. As he shifts, low grumbles of pain erupt from his lips. The points must be pressing into him, maybe even breaking skin, but he sits, dull eyes directed to the floor just before his feet.

I nearly reach his line of sight. The air’s so still, my heartbeat pounds in my ears.

Death hangs heavier than the drapery in this room. I look to the sigil that revealed the children below. No small voices cry out for help. Even the stubborn ones have long gone home by now. It’s only the Krampus and his endless, eternal mountain castle.

“Once upon a time.”

The voice shocks me. He doesn’t sit up or lift his head. I’m not even sure if he knows I’m here. His pupils shine white like a cat caught in the dark.

“Many years ago, there lived a creature of punishment and justice in his castle on the mountain. People came from all around, curious about the monster they’d tell tales of around the fire. Some were terrified, but others…” His voice catches and he closes his eyes. “Others lingered, curious for more.”

I don’t know why, but I plop down onto my ass like it’s story time. As his voice echoes off the stone walls, the cracking baritone smooths, revealing a rich, glittering geode below. I’m enthralled at his first word and can’t look away.

“In time, a village grew around that old mountain lodge. The monster was no longer alone. To fit all these people, the lodge became a castle. They looked to him for advice, for devotion, for a promise of justice that their gods and lords couldn’t provide. So many voices echoing off of the bones of the mountain.” He lifts his head, his ears twitching as if they can hear the last gasps of old ghosts. “One by one, they faded…dust…”

A cough catches, his voice splintering. I’ve never heard him talk so much at once. Can his throat handle it?

Krampus lifts his hand, his claws unfurling. “Dust in the wind.”

I gulp, waiting for cremated ashes to fly off of his palm, but nothing does. Even the dust is gone. His hand tumbles back to the chair, claws pressing into the armrest as he glares through nothing.

He’s stopped telling it, but the story is far from over. I can see people once living here, working beside him, even befriending him. There’s far too much space for one man. But I’ve seen the kind of creature that lurks within him, and I know what humans are capable of at their worst.

My only question is who struck the first blow.

“What happened?”

He blinks rapidly, his shaggy head lifting. Melted snow’s transformed his mane into a pelt that plastered to his head. As he stares around the room of ghosts, his gaze lands on me. “You’re still here,” he whispers in shock.

“Despite your best efforts,” I mumble.

“Why didn’t you leave?”

His rage is gone. No, not gone, frozen in his heart. I can almost feel it flickering on the edge of his voice, but he’s drowning in sorrow and can’t break past the ice.

His question hangs in the air. It’s a good one, one I should be asking myself.

I push off of the ground, my stockings slipping under me as I do. “Because I… I need to know.”

“Know what?”

He’s never been in here, probably not for years. But after yelling at me, he sulks off to his throne and spins a fairytale about an abandoned castle. If it’s isolation he wants why did he wait so long to snap? There was no reason for him to keep me around. That first night he could have just tossed me through the door and called it a day. But no. He let me stay. Cooked me meals, made me clothes, cupped my feet in his hands to warm them, and told me tales of deer with gold antlers who fly across the moon at night.

Why would a man who prefers to be alone keep me around?

He sits like a deserted island floating above a sea. Peering just below the surface is the once great city that’s submerged into the sea save for the top of the lonely castle. He doesn’t crave solitude, he fears it.

I press my chest into the first stair and gaze up at him. “Why did you try to chase me off?”

“Try?” A flicker of life darts through his darkened visage.

That first night I was too freaked out about the kids under the floor to stop and think. Why would a castle with one occupant have a throne room? Thrones are for lording over people to make them feel small, but he only rules over dust mites. It doesn’t make any sense.

“What happened to the people who lived here?” I ask, my voice steady. “Did you kill them?”

He scoffs. “After all this time you still think of me as a monster?”

“You did tear the book out of my hands, threaten to hurl it into a fire, and screamed at me to leave.”

“And, despite you disobeying my every demand, you yet breathe.”

“Touché.” I’ll give him that, but there’s still time to correct his mistakes. “So… Tell me about the legendary Krampus, the kind of man or myth who’d sit on a throne of antlers until his blood stains them.”

He glances over his shoulder to the splattered red I’d noticed before. Did he not even feel them pricking his skin? Does he not care?

“Long ago, there was a village at the base of this mountain. People, as they are wont to do, took to exploring. Higher and higher they climbed until one young man, frozen and near death, stumbled through my doors. If I knew what my nursing him to health would lead to, I might have left him in the snowbank.”

I climb my way up the first step, much like that young man who survived thanks to the Krampus. “Did the people fear you?”

“Some, but others were intrigued, even excited about my existence. They came to my home, gathered. Built huts outside. As the weather’s rage tore their houses of sticks to splinters, I invited them in. Before I knew it, they had rooms. Homes. People became generations, became vassals under me. I had an entire court dedicated to keeping my home in order. It was…” He stands, a hand to the sky and his face turned as if chasing the sun.

Darkness creeps across his brow and he slumps back to his chair. “Conflicting. They needed a king, a lord to rule them—so they built a throne and this room. There were so many parties, dances. Not just for Christmas. I had no idea that humans celebrated outside of the winter solstice, arms swinging, drinks sloshing. The joy was never-ending.” He’s smiling wide, his hands outstretched as if he’s about to join in with a waltz.

A pang strikes my stomach. At first, I could only see a creature of claw and fur, but the Krampus on this throne is not difficult to picture in elegant finery. A crown of gold instead of horns, delighting in the antics of people who loved him. A prince who could have anything…anyone he wanted.

“And you had your pick of the ladies,” I say, a hundred percent not jealous. It was so long ago, why would I even care?

His hands drop. “My bed was not empty, no.”

Ha! I knew it. He’s fucked cute peasant girls with freckles and braids on the sides of their heads. Probably while they giggled and sucked his cock down like they were swallowing a garden hose and…

Okay, I might be a little jealous.

A chill wafts across the empty room like the last whisper of the long dead. “And then they turned on you,” I say.

“No. Nothing so dramatic. It began slowly. A bad crop one year, people moved back to the village. A summer without a sun, more died off in the elements. A storm without end cutting the food supply in half. Slowly, day by day, the voices grew softer, the bedrooms colder, and the throne room emptied. I didn’t even realize what was happening until only a handful of people remained. Loyal to me. Dedicated to a fault.”

Krampus sighs to his hooves. “That is the problem with you humans. Eventually, regardless of your vows to me or yourself, you leave. One day, I woke to find I was alone in my castle on the mountain and it would be ever so. The chair that’d once invited a warm kinship became cold as ice. I no longer had the strength to sit here.”

I climb up another step, my eyes landing around his legs so I have to tip my head back. It’s hard to see him under his drawn hood, but the shadows aren’t as sharp as before. Almost like cracks of light are showing through.

He was alone for who knows how long. It’s one thing to never know friendship but to revel in it for years, to have a heart filled with love to the point of bursting only for it to be torn away is another cruelty entirely. “What about the women?”

A small chuckle rolls off his tongue. “No, I do not have a room full of brides.” The lightness fades to a deep groan. “I’m sorry.”

I wince, not sure why I told him that. I mean, we were reading Dracula and I just made a passing comment. Fuck, if I’d known about his past, I’d have… I don’t know. How the hell do you help someone who’s been isolated for centuries?

No, not isolated. He’s trapped here, same as me.

Worse than me. I can leave at any time. I’ll lose him, but I’ll be free. All he has are snippets in the world of the living. A single Christmas Eve to linger near the joy of others and remember what he’s lost.

My heart aching, I climb another step. I’m nearly up these damn things when his head falls to his chest.

“I know why I tried to chase you away.”

“It’s what you did to the others you saved? To get them back home?”

“No. Most of them would leave upon waking.”

“Most isn’t all,” I point out, finally reaching the precipice only to realize I’m left standing next to his ten-foot-tall throne. My head comes up to his nipples.

Krampus places his fingers together in thought. “A few would…linger with me in the hot springs.”

Oh, there’s that green-eyed demon armed with chainsaws now. Who? Give me names. I’ll start tearing hair out and—

His red eyes swing down to me, his brow weighted with sorrow. “None of them remained past a day. None save for you, Amaya.”

I don’t know if I should feel special or shameful. “So…you want your peace back? That’s why you yelled at me to leave?”

He sits forward on his throne, his head straining down to my face. “I yelled at you because I want you gone before…” Krampus draws his palm down my arm and I’m frozen in place. Rage, fear, maybe both at once boil through me.

I knew he didn’t want me here. That I’m a burden. Except… I cling to his hand, pressing his claws into my skin. “Before what?” I ask, gritting my teeth as pain burns up my arm.

“Before it breaks my heart when you depart.”

I can hear a pin drop on the other side of the mountain. My face contorts through a dozen expressions until I pull an eyebrow muscle. The scary beast who chased me off now he wants me to stay? Or he wants me gone because he likes me too much?

In all my turmoil, I wind up with my chin nearly pressed to his thighs and a “Bwha?” look on my face.

“At first, it was a nice change to have you around. A disruption to my routine would only make me appreciate the mundanity more once you were gone. But you stayed. One night, then another. I went from counting down the days when I would have the bed to myself to…” His jaw twists and he cups a hand behind my head. “To counting down the moments I could hold you in slumber.”

His claws comb apart my hair, each tug a little massage over my scalp. I close my eyes and lean into his touch only for a warm palm to hold my cheek. Surprised, I stare up to find his nostrils flared, his lips tight to his teeth, and pain…no, grief, carved in his eyes. If I’m not staring at a man with hooves and horns, I would almost think he is about to cry.

“Krampus…”

In a flicker, the wound seals itself shut. His eyes harden, lips drop, and the wild animal returns. “You will leave, and I will do nothing to stop you.”

“Nothing?”

One second he’s all “don’t go, it’ll break my heart” and the next it’s “go and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Which is it?

He slumps back into the throne. Only a soft gasp erupts from him as he barrels into all of those antlers. The rest of the pain he swallows. “You will walk through that door. Perhaps today, perhaps in a week, or a month. And me… This time will vanish with you.”

“But you’ll remember.” It starts as an argument against his dour proclamation before the fullness hits me. Everyone who’s ever seen him, spoken to him, known him, wanted him…forgets. Only he remains, carrying those memories like ashes in crystal urns.

I never thought what this time would cost him. All I wanted was vengeance, to save those other girls and maybe string up Damien DeVere by his own handcuffs.

I never wanted to hurt him.

“I’m sorry.” I pull my hand away from his leg and try to catch a sob. “I didn’t mean to…I should. You want me gone. I should go.”

Swallowing my tears like shards of glass, I work my way to the steps. There wasn’t supposed to be any pain in this timeless vacation. There weren’t supposed to be feelings.

“Wait.” Fingers tighten around my ponytail. Krampus tugs, using my hair as a leash to yank me back. I yelp in shock, reaching up to pry his fingers away. But as he swings me around to look at him, my will melts and so do my silk panties.

His eyes blaze under the shadow of his brow. Gazing down at me nearly plastered against his knees, his lips rise into a smile or a snarl. Either leaves me quaking. Instead of letting go, he winds his fingers tighter in my hair and pulls. My head lifts until I can look only at him.

“It’s too late for you to leave.” His voice growls across every empty stone, striking back with a ferocious barrage in the echo.

Tears burn in my eyes until nearly spilling down my cheeks. He’s never going to let me go.

My clit throbs until I moan without a touch. He’s never going to let mego .

“Even if you walk through the door tonight, tomorrow, or in ten years' time—my heart would shatter. Do not go out of fear of breaking me.” His fingers fall off of my ponytail. The lack of pressure causes me to gasp as he roves his palm down my back. “You’ve bound the Krampus tighter than any chains could.”

Claws scrape down my ass, only the leather protecting my skin. As he reaches under my cheeks, he tugs up my skirt. “This leaves one question.”

Warm fingers knead into my bare skin and the silk panties. Krampus sits higher even as he teases back the edge of my underwear with his claws. A whimper slips out as the tip of a claw traces dangerously close to my labia.

“Do you put your prey out of his misery, or leave him to dangle in futile hope?”

“Shit!” I squeal as he glides his smooth claw through my arousal. Then he places the tip right over my clit. One wrong move and it could puncture right through. One right move, and I could drench his hand.

His robe’s fallen apart, the belt loosened from his cock straining through the gap. The gold ring sways with its every pulse, teasing me to suck on it. To roll that hoop in my mouth until he grunts and drowns me in his creamy nog.

All I have to do is say the word, and he’ll let me go. Back to the real world of bills and shitty parents refusing to pay me. Of broken heaters and scummy landlords. Of cold beds and long nights without the aurora borealis to dazzle me to sleep.

“You only have one throne,” I say. His claw slips off of me and he jerks back. I hop onto my tiptoes and glide my knee up his thigh. “You’ll have to fix that.”

Krampus helps me into his lap, one hand behind my head and the other drifting toward my ass. He spreads his thighs so I land on my knees between them with my legs pressed tight together. The friction rubs against my clit, and I bite my lip.

Just as I place my hand on his upper abs, he asks, “I will? Why?”

“Don’t you know?” Digging my nails in, I scrape down his flesh until my fingers vanish into the fur circling his cock. He’s panting, his eyes laser-focused on my movement. One by one, I drop my fingers to his cock, and lean forward.

“Every king needs a queen,” I whisper, lock around his shaft, and jerk the flesh upward.

The hand holding my ass clenches. Claws tear apart the panties he made me, but he doesn’t care. As I tease up to the crown and his gold ring, he fingers me carefully. With just the tip, he rounds up and down over my pearl. The pressure is instant and so much. I start to yelp, but he takes my left tit in his hand and massages it.

He reaches for my nipple, and I roll his hoop.

A roar rattles the windows. He pumps his hips, daring me to take him on. It wouldn’t be hard for me to bend over and suck him off. Or keep toying with my hand while he slowly slices off my dress with his bare claws.

Then an idea hits me. “Your other lovers…?”

Krampus moans. He’s spreading my thighs, trying to work his finger inside of me while I twist the skin around his shaft clockwise then counter. A heavy pant turns into a snort and he shakes through to focus on me. “What…what of them?”

“There were a lot.”

“Enough,” he says cagily.

I rise up as high as I can go on my knees. His fingers fall out of my panties, but the damage is done. They’re torn apart from bow to stern. I release his cock and place both of my palms on his chest. Craning my head up, I stare into his eyes. The red is nearly gone, eclipsed by the black pupils.

Smiling, I ask, “Have any of them ever fucked you on your throne?”

“No,” Krampus declares.

Taking his cock in my hand, I line the head up to my slick pussy. He digs his claws into the armrest, his eyes widening as he watches. Rather than hop onto it, I roll the crown through my lips, coating it in my arousal. His hoop does laps over my clit. I moan. The cool metal against my burning flesh…

Fuck, this is so good. Just a little more…

Splinters strike my cheeks. I open my eyes to find his fingers buried into the chair. He’s torn apart the armrests just from me using him on my clit. Feeling wicked, I glide just the tip inside, then pull out. His slicked cock pulses with an air of rage.

I do it again, taking nearly a full inch before I release him into the wild. It’s become a fun game of balance and teasing. My attention’s on his cock shifting to an angry purple the longer I play. Smiling, I grip the base for another go and part my lips.

A roar hits my face. “Are you—!” He grits his jaw. Every sinew in his neck flexes. More splinters fly off of the chair as he bends lower to me. Just as his eyes peer into mine, he snarls, “—torturing the Krampus?”

Tension snaps around us, the air whirling like a tornado. As he peers down my exposed neck, a thigh-clenching growl erupts from his lips. He takes in my hand, scrutinizing every movement. I curl my palm over his crown and tug the hoop and up and down. His growl cuts off to a heavy pant. Slipping my hand down his shaft, always giving a quick jerk or two up before I go, causes his lips to fully drop from the snarl.

I half expect him to pant a, “Good girl” in my ear, just as I reach the base. Hanging tight, I defiantly stare into his eyes. Pulling his cock back, I spread my thighs wider and slip the whole crown inside. He grabs onto his horns and wrenches his head back. I swing my hips back and forth, savoring the throb of his cock’s widening head right at my entrance. The cool metal hoop nips at the tender skin of my clit.

Sighing, I sit higher, and the ring slips fully inside of me. Krampus curls a palm over my back, pinning me up, then he opens his eyes.

With a smirk, I laugh. “Maybe.” I start to pull him out again.

“No!” he bellows. Hands slam onto my thighs, claws curl inside, and he pries my legs apart.

“Fuck,” I moan, falling onto him. The air knocks out of my lungs. It’s too tight. I can’t do this. He’s like a brick—a pulsing, radiating, smooth-sided brick.

So, not much like a brick aside from being as wide and hard as one.

“I can’t. You’re too much…” I gasp, shocked at how fast I want to retreat even as my body relaxes enough to take on another half inch.

A single claw hooks under my chin, lifting my head. I blink, shocked at the tears stinging in my eyes. Sweat glistens down his chest. He holds me tight while tracing my lips that harden with the strain. “You can , my doe. One more inch.”

One more. I slide my knees across his lap, still nowhere close to reaching the edge. Pressure mounts as his fist-sized cock splays me wider than I’ve ever been. Krampus draws his claw off of my chin and down my neck. Five little razor edges dart to my décolletage, and I stare into his face.

“Yes,” he moans and tweaks my nipple. His other hand slides down my ass, spreading my cheeks as he searches for the other bundle of explosions behind. “You’re doing well. Just a little more.”

A little more? I swear, his cock is backed up into my throat. I’m skewered on him and he wants more of me?

I start to shake my head, knowing my limits. He bends in half. His forehead presses to the top of mine as he pants. “Seeing my cock spearing you apart, your juices gushing down to my balls, your thighs quaking to keep you upright…” He circles his tongue in my ear, then trails the tip down to the hollow below. “I’ve never been so hard.”

All common sense flies out of the window. I fling my legs apart, my body hungering to pull every centimeter of his cock into me. I’m damn near doing the splits across his lap. My knees strike the sides of the chair. He holds the small of my back, then—with his eyes closed—thrusts into me.

“Holy fucking night!” I cry out, landing on the base with a soft thud. The fur around his cock cushions me, the hairs brushing over my clit like a luxurious coat. Every millimeter of my vagina is crammed with his cock. There’s no room to take any more of him even if I want to.

God help me, I want to.

Krampus hooks onto my ponytail, raising my chin. Staring into my eyes, he smiles. “Good girl,” he whispers and rolls his hips. The sleigh bells I can never find twinkle through the room as he thrusts.

At first, I hang on for the ride, bracing myself for the sharp pain of cock meeting cervix. But it doesn’t come.

As he rolls through every pleading inch of my vagina, my arousal lubes him up to the point I know I can do this. Assuring myself I won’t shatter my pussy, I start to close my legs.

His howls shake the entire castle. I slip off of the nest of fur but can get better leverage fucking him myself. Dropping my ass—thrusts steady and hard—I focus on the man no longer lonely on his throne. He’s gripping his horn then running his hand up and down the curve the way my vagina does his shaft. He keeps biting his lip while jerking up to meet me.

I start to sway, my balance shaky. Not wanting to lose this, I dig into his chest fur. Krampus groans and I switch my position. Lifting my ass slightly, I take him in at a new angle.

“Oh fuck, that was…” The very bad idea becomes very good as I roll my clit over his fluffy then hard mound. “Fuck!” I moan. My pussy’s on overload. It’s leaped so far past pleasure, I’m afraid if I stop my heart will explode. Suck his cock in, swerve about the top half, then drop all the way down while his lower abs rumble over my clit. I try to keep this steady rhythm forever.

But my thighs are not team players.

They’re shaking, they’re cramping. I can’t do this anymore.

I have to…

Hot pokers touch my wrists. I cry out, not in pleasure but the worst kind of pain. His moan stops short, and he looks at me. In a heartbeat, he releases his fingers off of my wrists before he pulls them past my chest. Whimpering, I hold them tight over my breasts and don’t meet his eye.

“They still hurt? After all this time?”

“Yes,” I mutter, massaging the invisible welts blistering below my skin.

A grunt of exasperation bursts over my head, then he holds my hips with the lightest touch. “Let yourself go,” he commands.

What? I drop my hands to find him peering down at me.

“I have you,” he says. Using his might, he thrusts my whole body onto him. I shiver and cry out as he resumes the rhythm, then picks it up.

Faster and harder, he rams me onto him. I scramble to catch my breath and collapse. My cheek tumbles into the blanket of his chest fur. Without thinking, I breathe him in. That musk that sets my mind on fire buffets off of him in heavy plumes. With one deep whiff, my rational side vanishes.

Panting, screaming, howling to the winds, I fuck him. I drag my nails down him. I bite him. My voice cries out until my throat goes raw. None of it matters beyond the rush of his cock plowing me to pieces.

“Amaya?”

The sound finds its way through my feral brain. I recognize those noises but I don’t know why. Rabid, I stare up, expecting him to be in as wild of a state. Intelligence streams from his gaze as he holds my head. “My queen,” he whispers. Bending over, he throws me back and kisses me.

I smell the cum spurting into my arousal. His cock trembles inside my vise, shaking with joy. I drag myself higher, hanging on with dear life to the euphoria pumping through me. Inches of him slide out, but it doesn’t matter. He’s still inside, filling me to the top.

The mixture of him and me smears into his black fur and up his stomach. I hook onto his horns, my breasts spilling out of the top of my dress. Just as he lifts his face to me, I extend my neck. Krampus draws his nose over the thin skin. A muffled moan rises from his lips.

I gasp at the hot kisses trailing over my throat.

He bites down.

“My king!” I scream as I come in a shower of fury and lust.