A Very Alpha Christmas

by Anthology

“You know, technically, it was your money that paid for this place,” Diana said, needing to at least get that much out.

  “And much of it was to be yours. Part of the trade for our marriage.”

  “Right. People got money for marrying other people back then.” Which seemed strange to her. She would never understand dowries.

  “And so, this is your house.”

  “Our house,” Diana said. She didn’t want Azoth to think this place was not for him too, that he was just a guest here for something, because that wasn’t right either.

  Azoth didn’t fight her on that. He just nodded, which worked out great for her, since she didn’t want to argue with him anyway.

  And then Azoth bent down and scooped his hands under Diana’s knees, lifting her into the air with one easy motion.

  Diana let out a yell of surprise, her arms immediately curling around Azoth’s neck. “What are you doing?”

  Azoth was already walking. “My wife is having low spirits and requires her love, and affection. I intend to give it to her.”

  Warmth filled her body. She knew what that meant, and she shivered with the anticipation.

  “All right,” she said, and then pressed a kiss to Azoth’s neck as he pushed his way into their bedroom, setting Diana down onto their bed.

  His eyes remained on her the entire time he stripped out of his belt and pants. He was already shirtless, and Diana struggled without any grace at all to get out of her sweater and pants.

  4

  5:00 P.M.

  The heat of their bodies, so scorching hot that it outdid anything the fireplace could produce, was Diana’s favorite part.

  This wasn’t fucking, but it wasn’t completely lovemaking either. This time it was a little bit of both. It was frantic, but slow and gentle where it needed to be.

  That was another favorite. It was the way Azoth held her close, so they were chest to chest. It was also the way he kissed her. Even as she was on his lap, moving back and forth to the rhythm they were creating, he almost always kissed her like this, a lovemaking sort of kiss.

  Like she’d just gotten off the plane after a long trip. Like she’d been away for a week and he was only just now seeing her again. Like he was welcoming her home.

  It was easy to come to her pleasure, thinking of it like that, and feeling his touches just like that as well. Azoth put one heavy hand behind Diana’s head and kissed her when she came, swallowing her moan.

  That was fine. Diana liked that too, and she rode out her pleasure, holding Azoth just as tightly as she felt his warmth spurting inside of her.

  Diana slumped in Azoth’s arms, but as strong as he was, he couldn’t hold her forever. He fell over sideways onto their bed. Their bodies were angled wrong, but that was all right. Everything was perfectly all right.

  “I think I needed that.”

  “As did I, princess,” Azoth said, lifting her hand to press a kiss to it.

  One good thing about Azoth not being a part of the modern world was he could kiss her hand and call her princess. That always made her giddy. She was trying to introduce him to the modern world, but she didn't want to correct this behavior.

  Even if she wasn’t a real princess, not in the human world, it was nice to be treated like one by her chivalrous dragon lord.

  Then Diana looked up to the window, without even really knowing why, and saw the snow. Wet, fat flakes fell quickly to the ground.

  She sat up immediately and rushed to the window. “Azoth, it’s snowing!”

  Azoth turned his head, and a brief smile spread across his lips before it vanished. “Ah, it’s raining now.”

  “No, it was just snowing! What the hell happened?”

  Diana couldn’t believe it. She should’ve known better than to hope for any snow at all, especially considering the weather reports, but the constant teasing of snow was really starting to get to her.

  “Dammit!”

  “Why does this bother you so?” Azoth asked.

  Diana turned to see Azoth just sitting there on the bed, naked, his cock still hard from what they’d done, and looking thoroughly amused.

  That was another thing about having a husband who was so old fashioned. He had no modesty problems when it came to being naked around Diana, which reminded her she was pretty naked right then too.

  Now that the sex was over, her need to cover up flared full force back to life. Diana rushed back to the bed and tried to grab onto the sheets, but Azoth also grabbed them, a big smile on his face as he refused to let her have them.

  “Azoth!”

  He shook his head. “No, princess, you must tell me why you want the snow to come so badly. I only just finished with the roof.”

  “I’ll tell you, but after I cover up,” Diana said.

  Azoth shook his head again. “I think I prefer you like this,” he said.

  “I don’t!” Diana snapped, then realized she still had clothes in the room. She made a dive for her discarded clothes on the floor.

  So did Azoth, and he was much faster than she was as he scooped up her clothes and held them above her head. “Not until I have an answer from you, sakkra.”

  Diana wasn’t feeling so loved at that moment. She rushed over to the closet where she definitely had some more sweats and pants hanging up, but once again, Azoth stopped her. He put his hand on the sliding door, preventing her from opening it.

  Diana was furious. The sudden shyness left her for anger, and she slapped at Azoth’s chest. She didn’t like hitting people, especially men. It seemed kind of sleazy to hit a guy and hide behind the safety that he couldn’t hit back because men weren’t supposed to do that, but she was just so damned furious right now.

  Of course, no matter what Diana thought on the issue, Azoth was a powerful dragon prince, and her little slaps bounded off his chest and shoulders like they were nothing at all.

  They probably were nothing to him.

  And all the while, he continued to give her that expectant smile, still waiting, still patient and hopeful he would get what he wanted.

  And Diana found herself so furious that she started to laugh. “I really hate you right now.”

  “It’s a holiday season. You told me you cannot hate anyone at this time,” Azoth said, still looking oh so proud of himself as he held the door shut on Diana’s clothes.

  Part of her wanted to put her hands over her boobs and her vagina just to keep him from seeing, but she just knew the second she did something like that, it would be almost like a victory for him.

  He was constantly strutting around naked in front of her, preening and showing off his body, like a man back in the days of the fae would have done when he wanted the attention of his wife. He just wanted her to do the same thing.

  But he wasn’t so dead set on it that he couldn’t enjoy it when she suffered a little from his teasing either, which meant he would definitely win if she covered herself.

  That was not about to happen.

  “All right! I wanted it to snow because I wanted you to see it.”

  Azoth blinked, the smile melting from his face, as though he hadn’t expected that response. “I see the snow. All the time,” he said.

  “But not this kind of snow,” Diana said, looking forlornly to the window.

  When she looked back at Azoth, there was a look on his face that she couldn’t really place. He was smiling at her, and his eyes were soft, softer than they usually were.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Diana looked down at herself, searching for whatever it was that he was looking at. Then she touched her face. “There’s not something on me, is there?”

  Azoth chuckled, then shook his head. “No. I only want to take you again.”

  “Take me—” Diana felt like a dummy for not putting it together sooner, not until Azoth’s hands were on her hips, pulling her closer.

  “Oh,” she said.

  Azoth cupped her breast as he kissed her throat and mouth. Diana melted against him, letting him do whatever he
wanted to her. Things always felt so much better when he took charge.

  5

  7:30 P.M.

  Azoth rocked her world a second time, and when he finished, Diana felt so boneless and weak she couldn’t even leave the bed.

  Azoth, however, had the energy and stamina of, well, a dragon. He kissed her and pulled the covers over her body before leaving the bed. She couldn’t help but doze for a little while.

  Her tired body, coupled with the fact it got dark incredibly early now, meant it was easy for her to fall asleep.

  Waking with a start, she checked the clock, and then sighed with relief. Not midnight, yet.

  She hadn’t missed it.

  That had been frightening, though. Diana got up and dressed. She debated having a shower, but decided she was feeling in the mood for sharing a shower.

  But Azoth was nowhere to be seen.

  Made sense. She didn’t exactly expect him to be sitting around, waiting for her to wake up. Azoth was an old-fashioned type of guy, and he didn’t understand the supposed craze women had with being watched while they slept, having their hair played with, or being stalked, at least in romance novels.

  Diana had tried to explain the Fifty Shades of Grey books to him when he’d spotted her reading them one day, and then, at his look of horror, had to explain it was just a fiction book and some women liked reading about that. They thought it was romantic.

  Azoth had stared at her like she’d lost her damned mind.

  He hadn’t been such a prude when she’d suggested the idea of being tied up during sex. That was apparently something Azoth could definitely get on board with.

  He was a dragon prince from the old days, after all. Stalking a woman and watching her sleep might creep him out, but he had no problems with throwing Diana over his shoulder from time to time and carting her off like only a caveman could.

  Fitting, since he’d spent a thousand years in a cave.

  Diana went looking for him, wanting that shower together, but he wasn’t in the sitting room, or the kitchen, or the second bedroom where they kept their art supplies.

  She decided to check the garage.

  Diana opened the door to check, and the moment she did, Azoth scrambled. He was sitting at the wooden workbench where he kept his tools. Almost nothing that required a power supply, of course, but there were papers on the desk and a few small metal things that Diana had no clue what they were or what they were used for.

  Azoth pulled it all together like he was trying to hide the evidence of something he’d done wrong.

  Diana leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms. She couldn’t help but smile. “What’s going on?”

  She’d never seen Azoth so flustered before; technically, she still hadn’t since he refused to turn his face to look at her. He barely glanced over his shoulder. “Nothing, Sakkra. Were you not still resting?”

  Diana shrugged. “I just woke up. Wanted to know if you wanted to have a shower with me?”

  “Nay, I am well. I think you should do that on your own.”

  Okay, now Diana was confused. “Really? You don’t want to have a hot shower with me?”

  When they’d first purchased this cottage, within two days of getting out of that cave, Diana had taken great pleasure of having a real shower again. She'd only been trapped in that strange space with Azoth for a short amount of time, but it had felt like too long.

  And she'd also liked showing it off to Azoth, who had never before had a shower, and was used to bathing in the hot spring. He’d at first put his hand under the spray, completely in awe at the hot rain, as he’d called it, and then taken so much pleasure in stepping in and bathing with Diana.

  He’d stated in his gruff almost English, almost Scottish—but not quite either—accent that bathing with Diana had always been pleasant, but now with the both of them standing, with nothing but soap suds between them, he could get a good and proper look at her body as he took her.

  Diana had then experienced for the first time in her life the joys of having a handsome prince go down on her when she was in the shower.

  And ever since then, showers had been one of their fun pastimes. And why wouldn’t they be? As romantic as hot baths sounded, no one liked sitting in a tub full of their own dirty water and dead skin cells, never mind trying to do it with a lover and make it all romantic at the same time.

  No. Showers were the way to go. It was even why Diana had driven down to the local Home Hardware store to pick up one of those dual shower heads. Those things were amazing.

  And now Azoth was telling her he didn’t want to go in with her. That he was good without.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Azoth nodded, his long red hair shining in the light from the overhead bulb. Still not looking at her. “Very sure, sakkra. Go on without me.”

  Even though he was using the dragon word for love, it was still abundantly clear he was trying to get rid of her, and Diana really felt the pain in her chest.

  “Okay,” she said, and then turned around to go.

  What else could she say? What else was there for her to do but go on?

  Well, maybe she was making too big of a deal out of this. Azoth wasn’t going to want her company all the time. A man had to have time to himself. The same was true for Diana. Even she had to have her me time now and again when she wanted to do her paintings.

  So why was this bothering her so damned much? It didn’t make any sense.

  Actually, it did make sense. She knew what this was. It was that fear she had coming back to haunt her. The fear that just because she and Azoth had a fairy-tale start—a very grim and bloody fairy-tale start—that it didn’t mean they were above the monotony of normal relationships.

  She just couldn’t picture Azoth sitting on the couch, stuffing potato chips into his mouth while he watched whatever sport interested him for ten hours straight, getting a beer belly and becoming bored with his wife, while she in turn became bored of him and longed for the what could have beens.

  And what about Diana? What if she was doomed to be the sort of women who would always wonder what could have been, and then have a midlife crisis by going off and trying to find a romance that was even greater than this one?

  This couldn’t be the start of that happening, could it? Wasn’t she creating what she feared by even thinking too hard about this?

  Either way, now it was in her head, and Diana couldn’t get it out.

  6

  8:00 P.M.

  When Diana left the shower, she felt a little better. Standing under the hot water for several minutes longer than she probably should have gave her a lot of time to think, and she knew she was just being paranoid.

  She and Azoth had a history together. Normally, she wouldn't have thought of that alone as being the excuse to use as to why everything was all right, but it was what was in their history that did it.

  He'd loved her, despite being forced to marry her, and when he'd thought she'd been killed by his own hands, he'd been devastated. Hell, Diana had a scar on her cheek because of it.

  She’d thought she’d gotten the scar from falling off her bike as a child, but now she couldn’t even be sure if that was a real memory or not.

  And then he'd waited for her for a thousand years. That wasn't something any man could just turn off. She doubted even her dragon prince could do something like that.

  No. They were all right. Azoth was just...messing around with his tools.

  He liked building and making things, and Diana was starting to wonder if, maybe, whatever it was he was hiding from her had something to do with the promise he wanted to make at midnight tonight.

  And even if it wasn't, her curiosity was getting the better of her. She had to know what he was doing.

  Diana tiptoed her way back to the garage. She didn't want to give herself away, and if there was some sort of surprise for her, then she had to know what it was.

  She felt like a little girl trying to sneak into the clo
set to see what her Christmas presents were going to be.

  She still didn't know if that memory was real or not, but she definitely knew the feeling.

  She opened the door as quietly as she possibly could, peeking in through the crack to catch a glimpse of her husband.

  Only to find he wasn't there.

  Azoth was gone. His back wasn't facing her as he bent over his workbench as she’d expected, and he was just gone.

  Diana opened the door a little wider, this time not minding it so much when the hinges creaked. They needed to be oiled later, but right now she was only concerned with where her husband had snuck off to.

  Diana wrapped her robe a little tighter around herself as she approached the bench. Even his tools and papers were gone. Whatever it was that he'd been working on, he didn't want her to see it.

  Shit. How the hell was she supposed to know what she was competing against if she didn't know what he wanted to give to her? So not fair.

  Diana looked around the workspace, opening a couple of drawers, trying to find whatever it was that Azoth was hiding from her.

  "Come on, come on," she said, sifting through his papers where he'd drawn the layouts for the additions to the house that he wanted to make when it wasn't so cold and wet anymore.

  There was nothing she hadn't already seen for herself, and she was starting to get nervous.

  Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Azoth was working on a surprise for her, and knowing him, it was probably a good one, and meanwhile, Diana had nothing to give to him when midnight came.

  Shit. They were just supposed to kiss each other when the clock struck midnight and make a promise for the new year, Diana totally wasn't supposed to be feeling like she needed to give the better present.

  So not fair.

  She paced around the garage a little, biting on her thumbnail, when she finally got an idea.

  Diana totally felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner, but she was still getting used to the whole fairy princess married to her dragon Prince Charming thing. She couldn't be expected to have her thoughts in order all the time.