My horns twist impossibly tight. Kissing me, letting me touch her… She’s been handling me from the start, using sex to distract and keep me from discovering her involvement.
I mean nothing to her.
My sholani, the female the gods fated for me, will never want me. She will never trust or think like me.
I’ve already lost her to the Brotherhood.
CHAPTER NINE
NOELLE
“Where’s your blue hottie?” Donna asks as we stand on the wharf of Washington’s Landing, handing out presents in our elf costumes in between telling the kids that Santa had to rush back to the North Pole to retrieve toys accidentally left behind.
“Gone, I guess.”
“Maybe he’ll be back soon.”
“Four days, Donna.” I look at the children who arrived wearing frowns but now joyfully run back to their parents or grandparents to show them the red and green wrapped presents Santa left for them. The Santa who repaired—and improved—many of those toys truly cares about them. And I scared him off.
“Here, sweetie,” I bend down to hand an eight-year-old girl a doll. “Santa made this especially for you.”
“Where’s my gift?” a deep voice says behind her, one hand on the little girl’s coat and another in his pocket.
The hairs on the back of my neck shoot up and I’m praying this asshole hasn’t kidnapped someone’s child, not that using hisown child is any better. Guilt quickly takes over as I realize I’m endangering children with this operation.
“Gifts are only for the children. Besides, isn’t the best gift a parent can have is seeing his child smile?”
A smile doesn’t dare cross that pock-marked face. “Tiny Tim sent me.”
Shit. I reach into my Santa sack and withdraw a candy-cane wrapped gift the size of my forearm. “From Santa.”
“What else is in that sack?”
“Toys for the children. You got the last special present. Now, take your daughter home before someone gets hurt.”
“Did Santa get hurt?” the little girl asks.
“No, sweetie, but the snow’s making the area slippery. Be careful walking, okay?”
The male stares at my sack as the girl heads to a woman in the distance. They leave without the man. As I suspected, he was using the little girl.
“Let’s get out of here, Donna,” I say after we hand out the last few presents. I swear I feel someone watching us the entire walk to the bus, but no one boards after us. I wish Nikkov were here. Not because I’d feel safer with him, I can handle myself. But seeing his dedication to his mission, hell, that would make it easier to stay focused on my own goals, especially when I’m endangering kids.
Fuck, I’d never fully thought this through, but I have to continue. My cause is just and my methods are warranted.
That’s what I’ll keep telling myself until this is over.
Right now, I wish I could curl up in a certain blue alien and let his warmth soak into me, hear him call melittle elfone more time. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel like such a cold-hearted bastard.
CHAPTER TEN
NIKKOV
For three days, I’ve followed Noel, watched her every move, noted the people she’s talked to both at the toy drop-offs and when she returns to her home at night. She’d given me the impression she had very little credits and struggled to pay for food and other necessities. What I’ve seen is a female who lives in a new building with plenty of credits to buy what she needs... and more.
When she’s not working at the toy drive, she spends time with friends eating and drinking in local establishments. And her clothing… vekk, she’s gorgeous no matter what she wears, but the clothing is pristine, custom-made on a world where most people struggle to pay for necessities. She doesn’t wear the simple sweaters and clingy pants I’ve seen at the warehouse, but short dresses, thick warm coats, and shoes with tiny soles that this world associates with wealth.
She has an abundance of credits… from selling blasters for the Brotherhood.
