Hunted in Holly

Chapter 11

I slept in after a long night of fending off creatures of the night. Apparently, my Sweet Noel was incredibly attractive to the monsters who guarded my forests. Though that shouldn’t surprise me. They had exquisite taste.

But still, it had been exhausting. I lazily enjoyed a full and proper breakfast, figuring I’d give Caroline plenty of time to wake up and prepare herself for the day to come.

I had my chef wrap a sandwich for my little dove. She wouldn’t eat it willingly, whether she needed it or not, but I didn’t mind having to force her to take care of her needs. Considering how quickly she came on my fingers, she’d clearly been deprived of every need in the past, and I was planning to remedy that. I secured the libations in my satchel, then I threw on my red coat, and headed into the forest.

The wind was whipping about wildly today. I welcomed the sting against my cheeks, feeling alive for the first time in ages as I set out to chase down my bride-to-be.

I moved swiftly through the pine trees, searching for the first traces of cloves and dainty footprints. She’d abandoned her shelter, though not without writing “Catch me if you can, asshole” in the snow first. For someone pretending to be so inconvenienced by the game, she was certainly having fun with it.

The worsening weather had helped hide her trail much better today, but there were still traces of her scent on every tree branch that brushed against her. She’d been sloppy in her escape. Much sloppier than yesterday.

I weaved my way deeper into the woods until I came upon Sugar Cookie Lake. Her footprints stopped at the edge of the water, switching to small, narrow ruts from ice skates that cut along the surface of the frosted ice layer.

I moistened my lips as I lifted my attention to the beautiful image of a woman dressed in green, spinning on skates constructed by polar magic. She was as graceful as the wind itself, as she glided over the ice in sweeping circles, and danced to a melody all her own.

Even as I arrived, she remained completely unbothered. We locked eyes, and she didn’t so much as falter in her playful routine.

Was my Sweet Noel laying a trap for me? Oh, I hope so. Water seemed like a perfect weapon for someone who’d only mastered winter magic.

I took a step onto the hardened layer. It was about three inches thick, only covered about half of the lake, and it cracked and swayed atop the water as I mounted the rigid but slick surface. The speed and lightness of her movements were the only reason she was able to navigate such a volatile ground for as long as she had.

“You skate beautifully, Sweet Noel.” I called to her as I approached. My boots were already equipped with skates of my own that surfaced whenever they might be needed. I glided across the natural rink to meet my queen .

“And you skate like you were born on the Equator.” She teased, as she landed a full triple axel with impressive ease.

A challenge? I’d gladly oblige.

I joined her in her spins and figure eights, first just following her sweeping lines, as she neared ever closer to the dangerous edge of the ice sheet. She ran from me, and I loved giving chase in this playful design.

I could outrun her easily in the snow, but on this natural ice rink, she was a force to be reckoned with.

“How long do you think you can evade me?” My grin was sly as I changed my path and swiped to catch her. She reacted immediately, using her momentum and dipping into a spin that put her at my back.

“Until I have your head on a pike, Saint.” She purred with a catlike grin. My cock twitched at the threat spoken in her honeyed voice.

“Then I’ll delight in our eternal waltz.” I met her elegance with speed and power, increasing the tempo of our icy tango. She weaved with an adept precision over the surface, even when the thin ice cracked or the fractured sheet separated, and she had to patch her path with her energy in real time. A smile painted her face, and I knew she was enjoying our time together as much as I was. I couldn’t resist that perfect joy for another second.

I broke the rhythm just as she’d started to match and trust my movements, then I hooked an arm around her waist before she could slip away. I swept her into my arms, and I twirled her in the air above my head, her jade coat billowing with the wind and the movement. Snowflakes clung to her locks and her long eyelashes, shimmering and sparkling like stars in her darkness, while her body, her weight, her soft warmth, her everything all felt so perfect in my hands.

I immediately caught the shift in her body language as she switched from romance to violence, being a set of emotions I was very well versed in. Before she could turn our magical moment into murder, I returned her feet to the ground, and spun her tight against me. I held my queen in a cocoon of my arms for long enough to drink in the growing hate in her eyes, then I released her and returned to our separate but synchronized skating.

Her expression was of a woman rattled, more by a blush than rage, but she continued to carve the ice like she was still the one in control.

She was, whether she knew it or not. I would follow this woman anywhere.

We clashed and separated again and again in an aggressive play of affection and offense, and I was addicted to the building tension on every pass. When I caught her again, I held her close, and I dipped her low, so she had to hold onto me to stay upright. I teased her with a quick peck on the tip of her nose, before I righted and released her again. The small reminders that she couldn’t escape me mixed with hints of desire was the most genuine expression of my type of love that I knew how to show her.

“Cute.” She said with a scoff, while she started skating circles around me to break the rhythm of our connection.

“Don’t forget who created the game, Dove. Even if I do enjoy your little rebellion, it’s still entirely and only of my allowance that you’re running free. The moment I want you, I’ll have you.” I skidded to a stop as she rounded me once more .

“You think so?” She began, another circle completed. “Because I think you’re a brute with no finesse.” A curt smile graced those cold reddened lips. “And out here, on this beautiful white Christmas, it’s going to take strategy if you want to keep me.”

“Is that so—” I barely got out the words before she threw the small trapping net I’d given her onto my boots, instantly freezing the netting to cage in my feet. Then she stamped down hard with her bladed heel, and severed the ice around me in the same shape as her flight path. She used her skate to push my frozen platform away, creating a few feet of open water between us.

“It is.” She said, offering a curtsy with her long green coat. Icy tendrils climbed from the frosted slab, securing and reinforcing the small net, until both of my boots were completely bound. “The winter belongs to the South Pole. We just let you borrow it, Nicholas .”

The way she said my name, so teasing yet seductive, made my heart skip every beat. The water around my platform started to freeze in small pieces, and the whole panel began tilting to one side.

My eyes widened as my body tensed in an instinctive attempt to maintain balance.

This woman was about to flip me under.

Clever, clever Caroline.

“Your traps are as elegant as you are, My Queen.” I took a bow, a fraction of a second before the platform hit ninety degrees, then I caught her eye with one last smirk before physics took me under. The ice slapped the water hard, but I barely heard the splash as the frigid lake engulfed my entire being. Sub-freezing temperatures saturated my coat and my pants, while liquid pressed at my nostrils, threatening to fill my lungs on my first misstep.

I acted quickly, dropping to a low squat to untie the laces of my boots. I slipped one foot from the first boot, then started on the other in a race to free myself before hypothermia could rob my body of its strength. Though neither drowning nor freezing could kill me, she was wise to know this could temporarily paralyze me, at least for long enough for her to claim victory.

My fingers went numb as I fumbled with my high-laced, shin-length boots, and I switched to brute force to loosen the ankle enough to tug myself free. No longer locked into the platform, I left my boots behind, and I shot for the surface. I burst through the numbing drink, where I met the deep and widening emerald eyes of my trophy, staring into the water with the foolish hope that her trap had succeeded.

I didn’t give her another second to retreat or react before I grabbed hold of her ankle, and pulled her in with me. She shrieked the second before we both plunged into the cold depths.

Caroline thrashed against me, while I restrained her beneath the ice. She kicked me with her bladed boots, slicing along my thigh with enough force to make the water bloom with red between us. The mix of blood and frost obscured my vision.

I shook my head only enough to express my disapproval, then I spun her around with a jerk of her shoulder, so her back was against my chest. I hugged her against me with uncompromising pressure, while staying under the very ice sheet she’d tipped over.

Being, this time, I had been prepared to dive and she’d not been at all, I would easily out last her in a contest of holding our breath. Not the least of which because her flailing and struggling and tiny punches would only wear her out faster.

Her resistance started to weaken as predicted. She choked out bubbles once she reached the limits of her lungs, and I waited until her whole body went limp in my arms. On the last of my air, I navigated back to the surface, then I pulled myself from the water with my Sweet Noel in tow. We splashed onto the ice, where I had to thrash to stop myself from slipping back into the lake’s frosty mouth, and a loud crack punctuated the impact.

Inconvenient.

The already too thin ice sheet shattered beneath us, and I didn’t have any time left to think things through if I wanted any chance of getting her back to shore.