“The silent treatment? Really?” I crossed my arms, fighting a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold. “That’s your strategy? Blitz bakes cookies, Kip makes me skate, Don decorates, and you... what? Run up and down hills ignoring me?”
His ears flicked back, and I could have sworn a flicker of hurt crossed his reindeer features.
I closed the distance between us. Snow caked his antlers, dusting the impressive rack like powdered sugar. My hand reached up before my brain could intervene, fingers hovering beneath the lowest point of his left antler.
“You’re a mess,” I murmured, then brushed away the snow. My fingers trailed along the smoothcurve of his antler, mesmerized by the warmth beneath the cold exterior. It felt strangely intimate, like I was crossing some unspoken boundary.
He made a deep rumbling sound, somewhere between a warning and a groan. The sound traveled up my arm, settling somewhere behind my ribs.
His eyes darkened, pupils dilating until they nearly swallowed the gray. Before I could pull away, a shimmer of magic rippled across him, and my hand was no longer touching his antler.
Fingers wrapped around my wrist, holding me suspended in the space between us. Rudy towered over me, completely naked despite the biting cold, snowflakes melting against his skin. His breaths came in ragged pulls, and his face was taut with restraint.
“Don’t.” His voice was rough, like he hadn’t used it in days.
The cold had no effect on his bare chest. No goosebumps, no shivering, just smooth skin stretched over hard muscle. His dark hair was dusted with snow, making him look like some winter deity caught in the middle of transformation.
We stood frozen in a bubble of tension, his hand still wrapped gently around my wrist, my body painfully aware of his proximity and the power radiating from him.
“Don’t what?” I whispered, my eyes falling to his lips.
“Only mates can touch antlers.” His words hit me like a slap. Even naked and vulnerable in the snow, he was finding new ways to push me away.
I yanked my arm free from his grasp, stepping back so quickly I nearly stumbled. “Right. Sorry for the breach of reindeer etiquette.”
My chest burned with fresh humiliation. Everyone else had welcomed me with open arms, while this man couldn’t even bear my touch on his precious antlers. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? Afraid I might accidentally become your mate by petting your head?”
His expression hardened. “Neve…”
“Forget it.” I turned away, blinking back the sting in myeyes. “I get it. You didn’t sign up for Santa’s amnesiac daughter.”
I stomped back toward the house, trying my hardest not to let my angry tears fall. Why did I care so much, anyway? I had eight other men who were clearly obsessed with me.
Behind me, I heard his heavy steps following. “Fuck, Neve, wait.”
The raw desperation in his voice almost made me turn. Almost. Instead, I threw up my hand in dismissal, the universal “leave me alone” gesture.
The air crackled, and I gasped, looking over my shoulder right as a wall of ice shot up from the ground between us. I froze, staring at the translucent barrier I’d somehow conjured with nothing but a flick of my wrist.
Through the wavy distortion of the ice, I could see Rudy’s blurred figure. He hadn’t even flinched. Unlike me, he wasn’t shocked by my impromptu ice architecture.
Yet another thing everyone knew about me that I didn’t.
I turned and ran, my boots kicking up snow as I fled toward the house, leaving Rudy and my ice wall behind.
Chapter 18
Luminescence Winter Wonderfrost
Istared at the sleigh, its polished wood gleaming in the pathway lights hanging overhead. It was smaller than expected and was only big enough to fit two people. One reindeer could easily pull it, and I found myself a little disappointed.
Don stood beside it, his presence doing nothing to calm the chaos brewing inside me. Blitz was already shifting, his human form melting into something massive and antlered with an ease that still made my stomach twist. Pierce and Vix lingered nearby, waiting for me to make the first move.
When they’d asked me if I wanted to get out for a while and go to Reinberg, I hadn’t considered how we’d get there. Silly me.
“Do I have to?” I dug the toe of a boot into the snow. “Can’t we drive? Like normal people?”
Vix grinned, throwing an arm around my shoulders and guiding me toward the sleigh. “Where’s the fun in that? Besides, normal is overrated.”
