Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

ALVA

M y entire body shuddered at the sight of those bloodied footprints. I leaned into the wind, searching for any sign of Nick. “Come on,” I urged the dogs, my voice trembling as much from panic as the cold. The forest was a cyclone of white and shadow, the storm growing more ferocious with every passing minute.

Branches snapped overhead, adding to the cacophony of nature’s rage. My knuckles burned from gripping the reins, but I refused to slow down. Then I saw it. Tracks. Large paw prints mingled with a faint trail of blood. My breath hitched. “Please, Odin, no.”

A dark shape emerged in the distance, slumped against a tree. My chest constricted, and I leapt from the sleigh, stumbling through the snow. “Nick!” I called, my voice breaking as I dropped to my knees beside him.

He was barely conscious, his face pale, his lips tinged blue. Blood stained the snow around him, seeping from vicious wounds across his chest and arms. His breathing was shallow, each exhale a faint mist in the frigid air .

“Nick,” I whispered, shaking his shoulder gently. His eyes fluttered open, glazed and unfocused. “Stay with me. Please.”

His lips moved, but no sound came out. I pressed my hand against his wounds, trying to stem the bleeding, but the blood was everywhere. My hands trembled. I wasn’t strong enough to carry him back to the sleigh, and the storm was too fierce for help to reach us. Then I remembered the vial Helka had given us. My fingers fumbled at my cloak until I found it. There were only a few precious drops left. “Please let this work.” I uncorked the vial and tilted it to his lips. He was too weak to drink, so I held his jaw, forcing the liquid into his mouth. “Come on, Nick,” I begged. “Swallow.”

He coughed weakly, the liquid dribbling from the corner of his mouth, but he managed to take it. His eyes rolled back, and his head slumped forward, unconscious. My pulse thundered in my ears. “Please, Odin,” I prayed, tears freezing on my cheeks. “Don’t take him… not like this.”

A shadow moved in the storm. My head snapped up, my heart leaping into my throat. A figure emerged from the snow, tall and lean, his pale skin shimmering like frozen dew in the weak light. His hair was like icicles, his eyes a piercing glacial blue. He radiated an otherworldly chill, and my breath caught.

“Who are you?” I demanded, grabbing Nick’s fallen sword and rising to shield his body.

“I mean no harm,” the figure said, his voice as smooth as the surface of an icy lake. “I am known by many names, but you can call me Jokullson.”

Son of ice…

I stiffened. The Frost Queen’s son, Jack Frost. I swallowed hard and pointed the heavy sword at his chest. “Why are you here?”

He tilted his head, his expression unreadable. “To help. Your prince will die if we leave him here.”

I hesitated, my instincts screaming not to trust him. But the sight of Nick’s blood soaking into the snow forced my hand. I lowered the weapon and nodded.

Jack stepped forward and, without effort, lifted Nick’s limp form over his shoulder. “Follow me.”

I grabbed the reins of the dogs and followed Jack through the storm. He led us to a small cave, its entrance hidden beneath a thick curtain of ice. Inside, the air was marginally warmer, shielded from the storm’s wrath. Jack laid Nick on a fur blanket I pulled from the sleigh. “This storm won’t pass quickly,” he said. “Stay here. Ride it out.”

“Why are you helping us?”

He met my gaze, his blue eyes betraying no emotion. “My mother’s path is not mine. She would see the world plunged into eternal darkness, but I… I desire something different.”

“Why tell me this?” I pressed.

“Because you will need to be ready.” His gaze flicked to Nick. “She plans to attack on the solstice. From the south, where your defenses are weakest.”

Before I could respond, he disappeared into the blizzard.

I stared after him for a moment, then returned my attention back to Nick. His face was still so pale, his breathing labored. I found a stack of firewood in the corner of the cave, along with a flint starter in the sleigh’s satchel. My hands shook as I worked, but soon a small fire crackled to life, casting flickering shadows across the stone walls.

Knowing he desperately needed warmth, I undressed the both of us until we were only in our undergarments, and I lay beside him, wrapping us in a second fur blanket to give him as much of my body heat as possible. It seemed the Gods were amused by our predicament and kept putting us in these awkward situations. But as aware as I was about our near nakedness, my mind couldn’t focus on anything other than the fact he was still unconscious, though the small drops of potion seemed to be working. The clawed gashes across his arms and chest were stitching themselves closed and the bleeding had at least stopped.

Hours passed as I kept watch, the storm raging outside. His breathing was steady but shallow, his face still too pale. I brushed a strand of blood-matted hair from his forehead, my heart aching at the sight of him. He looked so broken.

Please wake up soon, Nick.

If Jack Frost was being truthful and his mother was planning an attack on solstice, we only had a day to alert his father. The journey to the south border was long, and I wasn’t sure that, even with the sleigh, we could make it in time to warn him.

If only his father had allowed Nick to go in search of the Heart, we might at least have a chance at defeating the queen. But Santa had outright refused, ordering Nick to stay at the castle and continue to work on finding his bride. Which apparently hadn’t been going so well, either. Rumor had spread of Nick’s lack of interest in any of the suitresses. He’d grown distant, not being his usual flirt. The selfish part of me smiled internally. The news had ebbed my jealousy, but if Nick didn’t pick someone by solstice, I was afraid his father would follow through with his threat and banish him from the realm.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, but when I finally woke up, my head was on his chest, the rising and falling of each breath a soothing lullaby. He was okay. Thank the Gods.

The fire had been reduced to smoldering embers, but it seemed at least the snowstorm had ceased, and morning had arrived. Sunlight shone through the ice wall covering the entrance of the cave, illuminating the inside with a bluish and silvery winter glow.

Sitting up, relief wove through me when I noticed the wounds were completely healed and color had returned to his skin. “Nick,” I whispered, caressing his strong jaw. “Wake up, prince. ”

Nick’s eyes fluttered open. At first, his gaze seemed lost, but when he finally came fully awake, his eyes widened. “Alva?” He looked around the cave, brows furrowing. “What happened? Where are we?”

“Seems you were attacked by the Frost Queen’s leopards. You managed to survive the attack, but they left you mortally wounded. Thank goodness I decided to defy your mother’s lockdown orders and took a dog sled instead. If I hadn’t come looking for you… Luckily, I still had the vial Helka gave us. The drops of that potion plus Jack Frost showing up?—”

Nick sprung up. “Jack Frost? What did he want? Did he hurt you?”

I placed a hand on his chest and eased him back down. He’d just woken up from being brutally attacked. He didn’t need to be riled up. “It’s okay. He helped carry you to this cave. It if hadn’t been for him, we would’ve perished in that snowstorm last night.”

“Why did he help us?”

“He mentioned something about his mother’s plan not being his. That she planned to attack on the south border on solstice.”

Nick sat up again, and this time I knew there was no way I’d be able to convince him to lie back down and rest. “The realm is unprotected there. The southlands are mostly unpopulated. She’ll have little to no resistance when entering the realm. I need to alert my father.”

“Nick, solstice is tomorrow. Even with the sleigh and the dogs at full speed, we’ll never reach your father in time.”

“Then I have no other choice but to go after the Heart of Yule. Ice Mountain is only a half day’s ride from here. I’ll find Icebreaker, he was spooked during the leopard attack, but he took off into the woods. I’m sure he’s wandering around, looking for me. You take the dogs back to the village?—”

“No. If you’re going after the Heart, then I’m coming with you. There could be more beasts out there. And who’s to say the queen doesn’t have her own people looking for the artifact, too?”

He parted his lips to protest, but then seemed to change his mind. Extending his arm, he cupped my cheek, his eyes melting into something warm and inviting. “And that’s what I love about you, Alva. That sheer determination, that drive.” He leaned in for a kiss, but I pulled away, lowering my gaze.

“Nick, solstice is tomorrow. Even if we manage to recover the Heart, there’s still the matter of your father’s decree. If you don’t choose a bride by tomorrow…”

He tipped my chin up with his finger. “I’m not interested in choosing any of those suitresses because the female who’s already won my heart is sitting right before me.”

I took his hand in mine. “We both know your parents would never agree to the Christmas Prince choosing an elf as his bride.”

“To Hel with what my parents think, Alva. If they can’t accept you, then maybe I don’t want to be Santa. Let my brother pick up the mantle. I’m not marrying anyone who’s not you.”

I met his simmering gaze, the golden flecks in his eyes alight with longing and something more, something deeper. “Nick, are you asking me to be…”

“Yes, Alva Brightwinter. I’m asking you to be my wife. From the moment I first met you, I knew you were a force to be reckoned with. It was part of the reason you frightened me so much. You reminded me of everything I wasn’t. What I realized after we were thrust into this mess was that what you truly did was remind me of everything I wanted to be. You inspired me to become a better male, a better prince for my people. There is no one more qualified to be the next Mrs. Claus than you, and my family would be foolish not to recognize that.”

I looked deep in his smoldering eyes. “You’d sacrifice your family, your legacy for me? ”

He took my face in both his hands, pinning me with an unwavering stare. “For you, little elf, I’d sacrifice the whole world.”

He closed the distance between us and claimed my lips in a kiss that was both fire and ice. There was no time to process what was happening between us; my body simply reacted to his demand, to Nick’s need for me. I climbed over his lap, straddling him as he continued to devour me with his lips.

Our bodies were already practically naked, and I felt him harden between my legs, his length pressing on my center with sweet torture. I moaned as he ripped off the fabric covering my breasts, leaving me completely bare for him. I could never tire of the way he used his tongue on my nipples. It was enough to drive me mad with need.

I moved my hips over his lap, the delicious friction of his cock rubbing against my clit making me soaking wet.

“Eager little thing…” He smiled. “I’m going to make you come so hard, your screams will make the mountains rumble. You might even cause an avalanche,” he joked, that rakish side of him making an appearance.

I didn’t hate it. Not anymore. Maybe I never had.

Without losing eye contact, he pulled my undergarment to the side, exposing my already wet center. He licked his thumb and pressed it to my clit, slowly swirling my slick arousal all over my slit. I nearly melted in his arms. “You like that?” he asked, licking his thumb, then returning it to my center.

All I could do was moan my approval as he so expertly began to summon a release from me. “I love watching you come, Alva. I love the way your body responds to my touch. Love every sound you make…”

“I want you inside me as you make me come, prince.”

Quickly shimming off his undercovering, he held me close for a heartbeat before allowing me to lower myself over his hard length. Our faces were so close, our ragged breaths became one as we slowly connected. My body shuddered at the feel of his size, my inner walls burning, trying to accommodate him, but it was the sort of burn that hurt so good it released an unconscionable amount of pleasure.

“Am I hurting you?” he asked, his voice rough.

Circling my hips over his erection, my body finally sank to the hilt, the both of us releasing a moan, though Nick’s sounded more like a growl. “Not in the slightest,” I said. “You feel unreal. Better than anything I could’ve ever imagined…”

“You’ve imagined this, huh?”

“Of course I have. I’ve fantasized about you since you walked in on my meeting with your father when I first got the job. You and your swagger, that smirk that spoke of only sinful desires… You were such a jerk that day. Not caring that I was a nervous wreck, not caring that I was in the middle of one of the most important days of my life. You waltzed in for some frivolous reason I can’t even recall, but what I do remember is wanting to hate you for being such a privileged prick, but not being able to because I couldn’t keep my body from reacting to yours. Honeyed warmth had pooled between my legs even then, you scoundrel.”

He grabbed my ass and pushed me harder into him, making his cock rub against that secret spot inside me.

“Holy Hel, Nick…” My body felt like it would combust; I swore the icicles inside the cave had begun to melt.

Nick flipped me over, laying my back on the fur blanket. Bracing his hands on either side of my face, he hovered above me, a twinkle of wickedness in his eyes. “Would it make you feel any better if I told you that I can’t remember why I barged in on that meeting either because I couldn’t stop picturing you bent over my father’s desk, your stockings at your ankles, your legs spread wide, and my tongue buried deep inside you.”

He shimmied down until he positioned his face between my legs and slid his tongue right between my cleft. “Gods, Alva. I love how silky and wet you get. I’ve been dreaming of tasting this delicious, pink pussy since that day I first saw you, little elf. And now, I get to feast on you whenever the fuck I want.” He began a slow and steady rhythm, his tongue dipping in and out, his evil game of getting me ready to erupt, only to start the torture all over again, driving me utterly wild.

When he spread my folds wide, exposing my clit, and he simply stared at it, letting his hot breath brush over my engorged nub, I nearly lost my mind. My pussy throbbed, a need unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

“Nick, please. Taste me.”

“Patience, little elf. I’m simply admiring what belongs to me.” Finally, he gave me exactly what I needed, relieving the intense ache building between my legs, and transforming it into an addiction I’d never be able to stave off. Not when his tongue could summon this level of dizzying pleasure. I hooked my arms under my knees and spread myself so indecently wide, it only made the moment that more euphoric, especially when he began to use two fingers in tandem.

Fuck…

He pumped harder and harder while his tongue swirled over my clit. Gods, I could do this forever and ever, just let him devour me like the realm would collapse if he didn’t. This male owned me. Not just my body, no. My entire spirit. My heart.

The pressure that built in my abdomen and raced to my center was more than I could handle, and I erupted on his tongue like never before, a flood of my release coating his lips. He hadn’t been wrong, my screams reverberated through the cave, and I swore I heard the mountain rumble.

Once he’d had his fill, he knelt beside my face and fed me his cock. I blinked up at him as he thrust gently into my mouth, his eyes brimming with so much lust, I nearly came again just seeing how much pleasure he was getting out of putting his length between my lips. I moaned and moaned, needing him to know how much I enjoyed having him fill my mouth until it hurt the back of my throat.

“Fuck, Alva… you do that so well. You’re going to make me come inside that pretty mouth of yours again.”

I flicked the slit at the tip of the head, urging him to do just that, but he pulled away. “No, as badly as I enjoy filling your mouth with my cum, I want to come inside your pussy. Is that something you’re okay with?”

“Yes,” I hissed. “I’ve already taken precautions.”

It was all he needed to hear. He quickly settled himself between my legs and lowered himself over me, slowly driving himself deep inside. We groaned at the same time at the feel of our bodies joining once again. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck as he thrust and thrust, deeper and harder.

His grunts were feral as he reached for my hands and entwined his fingers through mine, the strength of his grip making me feel wholly his. The prince of Christmas rolled his hips in calculated, rhythmic waves as he claimed me, flesh and bone, heart and soul. I was his and he was mine, and now there was nothing that could stand between us. Not our families or our duty; not this looming threat that wanted to snuff the joy out of the world.

This… this growing love between us wasn’t what would keep us from fighting back against the evil of the Frost Queen, but what would make us fight harder to protect what was ours—our realm, our people, and the happiness brought to the world on Christmas.

With one final thrust, Nick gave himself to me, his lips claiming mine as he came in a crash of shuddering ecstasy, triggering my second orgasm. His hair was soaked in sweat as it fell over his brow, and he never looked more beautiful than in that moment, when he was completely spent and utterly drunk on me.

“I love you, Alva Brightwinter,” he whispered over my lips, sealing our fate with a kiss.