Married to Krampus (My Holiday Tails)

by Marina Simcoe

  “Well, you’ve failed at that.”

  The scorn in his voice made me wish I could just fall through the floor and hide in whatever room was on the level below.

  I refused to meet his frightening eyes.

  “Maybe, I should just call it a night. I’m still rather tired, with the long flight and stuff...” I let my voice trail off.

  My appetite was completely gone. All I wanted was to get out of this room and away from the Colonel.

  “Omni will show you the way to the bedroom,” he muttered, shoving his chair away from the table.

  Chapter 4

  THE DINNER HAD GONE badly. Horribly. Much, much worse than I could have expected. With a gruff, grumpy man like the Colonel, one could’ve suspected things might not go smoothly. The dinner disaster, however, was all my fault. Wasn’t it?

  The wise thing to do when coming to a stranger’s house—especially, the one located on a different planet—would be to stay quiet, listen, and observe first, learn the new culture as I had fully intended to do.

  Nope, I had to open my big mouth and spew my freaking opinions left, right, and center...without being asked for any of them. The wellbeing of children had always been a sore topic for me, and I just couldn’t stay quiet.

  Now, the already awkward situation had become that much more difficult.

  Distraught, I wasn’t paying much attention where I was going, following the Omni drone up the wide, winding staircase.

  When the set of opaque white double doors opened into a huge round room topped with a glass hemisphere, I stopped in my tracks, frozen in awe once again.

  “Is this...”

  “Your bedroom.” Another screen on a stick rolled my way.

  Streaked with the fading colors of the dying sunset, the sky above us was already studded with stars on the darkening edge. A large round bed stood in the middle of the room. Supported by two ornate poles that rose from the floor, a lattice canopy hovered over it draped in live flower garlands. The same light fragrance drifted through the air, filling the room, which appeared to be created by fairies.

  “This is just... Omni, this place is simply magical,” I admitted.

  “Oh, thank you, Madam Kyradus.”

  The sound of the Colonel’s name made me wince.

  “Could you call me Daisy, please?”

  “Absolutely. I can call you any name you wish. Please, let Colonel Kyradus know that you would like me reprogrammed.”

  “So, you can’t call me Daisy just like that? Without his permission?”

  “No. I have been specifically programmed to address you as Madam Kyradus.”

  The Colonel must like hearing his name a lot.

  “Alright then. Madam it is, but just for tonight.” I made a mental note to talk about this with both the Colonel and the Liaison Committee. It made no sense for me to be called and treated as his wife if we weren’t even in a relationship.

  I didn’t want to give up after just one dinner, as disastrous as it’d been. A first impression was important, but it wasn’t everything. Maybe tomorrow we could find a way to work on this together?

  Except that the Colonel hadn’t shown any intentions to work on anything with me. I hadn’t caught a hint of any romantic feelings from him, not a trace of a desire to build some understanding between us. Of course, my judgy rhetoric didn’t help the matter, either.

  The way things were going, I didn’t think any kind of a relationship would ever be possible between us, not even that of an employee and an employer. And with the children not being here, I had no idea what my true purpose in this house could be.

  The thoughts pounding in my skull made my head spin. Worry proved exhausting. I stifled a yawn. It wasn’t that late in the night yet, but I felt tired.

  “You said you’ve unpacked my things?” I asked Omni.

  “Yes. This way please.”

  The robot rolled behind a planter with a tall lattice covered in vines. It served as a screen, hiding an arched entryway into a large room, which I recognized as a humongous closet.

  “Your bathroom is this way.” An arrow pointing to the right appeared on Omni’s screen. “I’ve added your clothes to the rest.”

  “The rest?” I stared at the rows upon rows of hangers lining the walls from the floor to the rounded skylight in the ceiling.

  A white, round couch stood in the middle of the colorful rug on the floor. Shelves of shoes, all shaped for human feet, surrounded it.

  “Whose clothes are these?” I asked, admiring the bright fabrics that shimmered under the strings of lights intertwined with flower garlands under the ceiling.

  “Yours,” Omni replied. “The Colonel ordered them as soon as your sizes had been confirmed.”

  “So, he didn’t bother to write a single word to me, but he made sure to obtain my dress size?”

  “And shoe size, too,” Omni added, matter-of-factly. “As the head of the Voranian Army, the Colonel attends a number of high-profile public events and social functions. As his wife, you will be accompanying him. It is important you’re dressed appropriately.”

  “Right. The Colonel is pretty high up in the ranks, isn’t he?”

  I slid my hand along the soft, glistening material of the clothes on the hangers. Maybe that was the purpose of my being here? The Colonel needed a female escort to formal galas and such. If so, he’d made a huge mistake by choosing me. Mingling with high society was not one of my strengths. He would have known that had he read that letter I wrote.

  “Colonel Kyradus currently holds the highest rank in the Voranian Army. He was promoted just over a year ago, after successfully leading the operation that ended the fescods’ invasion in Voran.”

  “Fescods?”

  “The semi-intelligent species from the planet Tragul. They had almost entirely occupied their planet, then invaded Neron by landing in Voran eleven years and three months ago. The Colonel’s actions on Tragul weakened the fescod forces enough to withdraw from Neron entirely.”

  An image of the space blob, identical to those attacking the Colonel in the video he’d sent to me, appeared on Omni’s screen.

  “Fescods,” Omni said in a somber voice. “They caused a long and devastating war in Voran. The Colonel’s heroic actions last year ultimately led to our victory.”

  “Wow,” I gasped softly, rather impressed. “The Colonel is not just the Army Commander but also a war hero. So many details were not included in the information package I received from the Committee.”

  “The Committee shared only the basic facts. However, when your request for more information was received, the Colonel ordered me to send the recording of his moment of glory. Not sure if the video reached you, as we were told you had already left for Neron by then.”

  “It did reach me.” I sat down on the round couch in the middle of the closet room. “I watched it on the spaceship, shortly before my arrival here.”

  The video that terrified me was apparently that of the Colonel’s “moment of glory.” It must be his way of telling me more about himself, not to intentionally scare me away. Though, a brief message to accompany the video would’ve been very useful at that time.

  My headache had only intensified after all of this.

  “I’ll think about all of it tomorrow, Omni. I really would love to go to sleep, right now.”

  “Absolutely.” Omni’s agreeable voice flowed smoothly. “Good night and pleasant dreams, Madam Kyradus. I’m shutting off this unit now, but if you need anything at all, just say my name.”

  The stick rolled to the charging base by the wall, then the screen went black.

  GREVAR

  Fully unbuttoning his uniform coat, he leaned back in his chair, gesturing to the drone for another drink. He rarely drank hard liquor on a week night, but today warranted it.

  The privilege of being the first to acquire a human wife had been bestowed upon him by the Governor of Voran. Deep inside, Grevar suspected that Governor Ashir Kaeya Drustan had wished to marr
y him off simply to keep his attention away from his own wife, Shula. Not that there was anything to worry about. Ever since Shula had chosen Ashir over Grevar, they had been nothing more than friends.

  In public opinion, as the decorated war hero and the newly promoted Colonel, he was a logical choice to be the first Voranian to marry a human. It was a great honor he could not refuse.

  Not that he wanted to refuse it, of course.

  Having a wife was a rare thing in Voran. Artificial insemination allowed a man to have his own family. However, many would be delighted to have a wife in addition to children if given a chance.

  That said, Grevar hadn’t exactly burst with delight when he’d been informed about the honor bestowed on him. His wife would be a foreigner, an odd-looking alien from a newly discovered planet. There’d be cultural and other differences to overcome. Despite that, he had been looking forward to her arrival.

  From the moment he had accepted this marriage, nothing could be changed. Instead of trying to contact his new bride, he’d chosen to wait until he saw her in person. So much could be lost in translation during communication by mail or video feed.

  He had chosen Daisy from a stack of pictures dumped on his desk at work one fine morning. There was not enough time in his busy life to even try to go through all of them, not to mention to give any careful consideration to each of them.

  All the women in the pictures seemed very much the same to him. Their skin shades varied from beige to dark brown, and their hair colors ranged from pale yellow to black, but those were the only differences, and they meant little to him. None of his potential brides had any horns or fur. And all had looked equally strange with their dull human eyes—alien.

  He had expected some complications. Everything about tonight, however, had proven challenging and overwhelming.

  Heaving a long breath, he took a big swig from his freshly refilled glass.

  Unfortunately, it hadn’t been possible to tell from the picture alone how much of a chatterbox his new wife would turn out to be. His head pounded with the ache from her blabbering.

  Of course, having anyone at all around here would be a challenge. The most noise he usually had to endure in his home had been the subtle dripping of the irrigation system watering the plants or the whirring of the numerous Omni devices, or the noise of the entertainment system every now and then when he watched the news. That was about it.

  Having a chatty woman living under the same roof with him would be an adjustment. Though, maybe not necessarily an entirely unpleasant one.

  He liked the expression of delight on her face when she had first entered his home. It reminded him of that happy smile she had in her application picture—bright and full of wonder.

  Her voice, melodious and pleasant, wouldn’t be too hard to get used to, either. Even if she continued to talk as much as she did, he could see himself being able to tune her out, let her voice blend with the trickling of the irrigation system in the background. As long as she didn’t expect him to reply to her every statement, they should be fine.

  Hopefully, she’d also try harder not to say the insulting things she’d said tonight. He had a thick enough skin and wasn’t easily insulted. However, criticism about his children and the way he was raising them was not something he took lightly. Thankfully, she truly seemed sorry when she realized she’d said too much.

  This was a new world for her, after all. How well she’d do in it would largely depend on her ability to learn.

  The image of her rose in his mind again.

  Looking straight at her face had been the most difficult. The lack of horns disturbed him. Staring at her smooth forehead, he couldn’t even pretend that she’d suffered some accident resulting in the loss of her horns.

  Thankfully, the rest of her didn’t seem so bad. There even were some things he really enjoyed about her.

  She left a cloud of flowery fragrance wherever she went, a little strong but not unpleasant.

  He liked her bright orange-yellow hair. Its sunshine color reminded him of a summer morning. There was also cheerful energy in the way her thick curls bounced when she tossed her head.

  Her taste in clothes appealed to him, too. He liked how well the pretty dress she wore hugged the curves of her body.

  And he absolutely, positively liked her curves.

  The memory of the rounded tops of her breasts swelling above the deep neckline of her dress sent a wave of heat to his groin. He didn’t even mind that she had not a shred of fur on her chest.

  In fact, he wished to see more of her, without that dress.

  That was encouraging. As her husband, he had to bed his wife—it was his duty. Having physical attraction for her made things much easier.

  He finished his drink in one gulp and shrugged his army coat off. Standing up, he stretched his back, letting the desire roll through him. His cock pushed urgently against his pants, his skin prickled with anticipation under his fur.

  It’d been years since he’d held a woman in his arms. Back then, he’d let her into his heart and his bed, but she’d ended up choosing another man over him.

  Now, he was lucky enough to have another woman waiting for him in his bed. Warm excitement coursed through his veins at the thought that she was his already—his wife.

  It was time to go to bed.

  I FOUND MY COTTON EYELET nightshirt hanging on the rack with the garments I’d first mistaken for evening gowns. Taking one off the hanger, I realized this must be a night dress. A pretty scandalous one, too. Without any lining, the sheer material would leave nothing to the imagination.

  The silky, shimmering fabric reminded me of dragonfly wings. I slid my hand down the marvelous garment, wondering how it would feel to wear it.

  There was no harm in trying it, was there?

  Getting out of my dress and underwear, I put the gorgeous nightgown on. Held only by a pair of hair-thin shoulder straps, it draped all the way to the floor.

  Logic told me that there must be a mirror in the closet somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. I remembered, however, seeing a wide dresser with a large, round mirror over it in the bedroom.

  Kicking my shoes off, I padded out of the closet.

  My own reflection in the dresser’s mirror took my breath away. It looked as if my body was wrapped in a magical shimmer—for that was all this fabric was. Not a solid material but simply a reflection of light. It streamed down my curves like a waterfall, making my rather ordinary body appear as something out of this world.

  “This is too fine to just wear to bed,” I murmured, twirling in front of a mirror.

  The diaphanous skirt fluttered around my hips like a kaleidoscope of butterflies...or night faeries with iridescent wings...

  Suddenly, the doors to the bedroom slid wide open, and the Colonel barged in.

  His gray uniform coat was gone, and he was unbuttoning his white shirt as he entered. He stopped in his tracks, glaring at me.

  I squeaked in shock, trying to cover all my naughty bits at once, which wasn’t easy because of the size of my breasts. Each needed an entire hand to be somewhat concealed. Being extremely flustered and therefore painfully uncoordinated didn’t help. Never before had I felt so completely naked when wearing a floor-length garment.

  The Colonel’s eyes appeared to catch on fire at the sight of me. Lowering his head, he ripped his shirt off and stomped my way.

  “Oh, no...” I whimpered, retreating until my backside hit the dresser.

  The atmosphere in the cheerful, flowery room changed, as if the storm had moved into a sunny meadow. The Colonel took over the space and all my senses at once. Like a huge cloud coming over the sun, his mere presence had altered the world.

  “Yessss,” he exhaled, pressing himself to me.

  His scent, strong and spicy, descended over me. Huge arms encircled me in a vise. His hot breath hit my skin as he buried his face in the side of my neck, his beard tickling me.

  “Um, Colonel...” I pressed my hands into his
chest. My fingers sank into his long fur, pushing against the hard muscles underneath.

  “Call me Grevar,” he rasped, his hands roaming over my body. “Fuck. You feel so good...” He kissed my neck and palmed my breast through the thin material of the scandalous garment.

  “Please...” I arched my back, leaning all the way to the mirror behind me, to get away from his insolent hands and his brazen mouth. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m bedding my wife...” He rocked his hips against me, grinding his frighteningly huge erection against my lower belly.

  “No.” I flexed my arms, shoving at his chest in a futile attempt to get him off me.

  He didn’t move an inch, his chest a wide wall of muscle and fur against my efforts. At least a foot taller than me and infinitely stronger, the Colonel was about to have his way with me, and I could do nothing to stop him.

  Dread slithered down my spine, chilling my insides.

  “What’s the worst that can happen?” I’d asked myself when agreeing to come here tonight.

  It appeared I was about to find out the answer.

  Somehow freeing my arms from his embrace, I grabbed his horns and yanked his head back.

  “Stop it,” I said loud and clear, staring straight into his eyes. Ruby-red with vertical slits for black pupils in the middle, they looked scarier than ever. “The only way you can have me tonight, Colonel, is if you force yourself on me.”

  It seemed to take a moment for my words to register with him. Eventually, the blazing storm in his eyes quieted down, and focus returned to his unhinged expression.

  “Why force?” he asked, confusion spreading on his face. “Are you saying you don’t want it?”

  “No.”

  “Then why...” He glanced down my body.

  My face heated when his eyes paused on my nipples. I felt them harden under his gaze until they poked shamelessly against the barely-there material of the nightgown. Hot tingles spread down my skin where his fur had brushed it, and my inner muscles unexpectedly clenched with need.

  The sudden reaction of my body to him was extremely inconvenient. I leaned harder on the dresser for support, as my knees buckled.