As the woman tugged him toward the door, he glanced over his shoulder and gave his tiny nemesis a smirk. His stomach knotted, though, when he caught her eye—the woman called Piper looked like she was about to rip his ears right off. But his savior didn’t see, pulling him over the threshold and into the warmth of the kitchen.
Well, that was one way to get into the house.
4
Forewarned ‘Bout Birds
Oh, Piper, Mom’s going to bethrilledyou’re finally seeing someone!” Aunt Deb pulled the tall stranger into the kind of hug that might have made Piper jealous if he really were her boyfriend, and he stood stiffly under it. “I can’t believe Jim didn’t tell us about this.”
“Dad doesn’t know,” Piper sputtered, voice shaking from the lie, but what else could she say? He wasin the house.
“Really?” The fire behind her aunt’s eyes blazed as she released the man—elf—whatever, and grabbed onto either side of Piper’s face. “Pleaselet me break the news to my brother, as a gift, to me, forChristmas.”
With her cheeks dangerously close to being impaled under her aunt’s nails, a stranger who wasn’t a figment of her exhausted imagination poking around the pots on the stove, and a very squirmy dog trying to escape her arms, Piper let the defeat win. “Yeah, okay.”
Deb shrieked in that thrilled way of hers and snatched her half-full wine glass from the counter. “Everyone’s in the basement digging out decorations. I’ll be back!”
As she disappeared, all the air compressed out of Piper’s lungs. “Ask them to bring up the Christmas village,” she whispered, but Deb was already gone.
Doc finally scrambled free, sliding to the floor and into the puddle forming around her mud boots. He darted out of the kitchen, wet paw prints left in his wake. Piper tripped over herself as she kicked the boots off and grabbed a towel to clean up the snowy mess until she spied the other set of boots headed for the depths of the house.
“Absolutelynot!” Piper lunged for the asshole’s collar—because regardless of species, anyone could be an asshole, and that’s exactly what he was.
When he turned, icy blue eyes found hers, and it was just like being out in the forest again facing down someone—something—terrifying and alluring all at once. Aunt Deb wasn’t exaggerating, he was…attractive, but in a way that set Piper’s teeth on edge. There was something wrong about him, but he’d made things that shouldn’t move at all reach for her like a scene from some campy holiday horror movie, so of course there was something wrong! He did that—the asshole elf looming in the doorway to her kitchen, glaring down at her with narrowed, black brows—he threatened her withmagic.
“You…you can’t be here,” she said, throat thick as it wobbled, and she released his jacket.
“Why not?” Blue eyes gave her a dismissive look up and down. “Is your real boyfriend going to show up?”
Piper’s whole body flushed, fear quickly replaced with indignation that left her speechless, and she wished she could disappear into the knit of her old sweater.
“Didn’t think so.” The asshole—no,elfhole—smirked, which was quite a bit less frightening but quite a bit more enraging. “Now, where’s my tree?”
“Mytree,” she snarled. “And don’t track snow in on my clean floors.”
“You want me to take my boots off? So that’s an invitation to stay?” He ducked down before she could think to swing at him.
As he unlaced his boots, Piper’s heartbeat quickened, eyes darting to the hall where the basement door would be. If she ran downstairs and declared there was a deranged intruder in the kitchen, she was sure her uncle and cousins would be thrilled to throw him out into the snow, but her aunt would probably be equally argumentative—oh, just let him stay, Pippy, fake boyfriend or not, he’s hot and god knows you need to get laid. But he’d threatened them—all of them—and she had no idea what he was capable of.
Plus, up until only a few moments prior, she was sure she was imagining the whole thing, and all the little Christmas elves in the toyshop of her brain hadn’t quite made it back to the assembly line yet, so any reason that would have brought this plot to a screeching halt went right out the window.
She crossed her arms and glared down at the beanie hiding the pointed ears she’d only got a quick glimpse of in the darkened forest. From this angle, everything about him was simply human, and she could take care of one, disgruntled human herself—that was how she handled everything else anyway. “What exactly is your plan here? Infiltrate my family and convince them to help you carry the tree back into the national forest? Believe me, they wouldn’t do that for someone who actually belongs here, so they’re not going to go out of their way for an outsider like you.”
His head tipped up slowly but fingers didn’t pause on his laces. For a brief moment, something passed over his features, ones that had been twisted up in a frustrated rage since they’d met, and it was oddly solemn. She faltered at the softness of his mouth as he frowned, but once he stood, all that was swallowed up by disdain once again. Piper knocked into the wall as she backed away from his looming form.
He threw her another painfully flippant look up and down as if she weren’t even worth threatening this time and turned away. Out into the house’s main hall he went, but at least his boots were off.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She hurried after him and darted around the far side of the ascending staircase to swing back down the hall from its other end and cut him off. “I said, you have to leave.”
He faltered momentarily at her sudden appearance then reverted right back to glowering. “If you keep that tree, magic shit’s going to happen—badmagic shit. Do you understand? You’re gonna getbirds.”
“Birds?” Piper held her hands up but continued to back down the hall.
“And you’ll probably kill it.”
“Uh,”—Piper swallowed—“we didn’t exactly dig it up with the roots intact.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s magic, dummy, it can still be replanted.”
