His Christmas Mate

Chapter 16

_Aria's POV_

I locked the door and slid the bolt home. Then I moved to the windows and latched them all, one by one, fingers trembling as I pressed the catches into place. The screaming outside did not stop. It only grew louder. It was a wild mix of human shouts and animal cries that shook the panes. I pressed my forehead to the cold glass and watched the yard below. Figures ran back and forth in the snow. Fires burned in small piles. Shadows moved like a crowd that had come to fight something bigger than any of us.

I could not make sense of it. Men shouted orders. Women cried. Wolves answered back with low, rolling howls that set my teeth on edge. The clear line between man and beast blurred in the dark. I had expected the mansion to feel like a fortress. Now it felt like a house cupped in a storm.

A hard knock split the noise. It hammered the wood like a fist. Someone outside was shouting my name in a voice that sounded too loud to be patient.

“I know that you are hiding in there, human girl! Open up. Don’t make this harder.”

I started to panic. I looked frantically around the room for anything heavy I could use. The dresser was too big for me to move easily but I dragged the small dressing table across the floor with every ounce of strength I had. It scraped and bumped and made my shoulder burn, but it slid into place against the door. I pushed a chair behind it, stacked a few books on top and shoved the waste basket in front as best I could. It would not hold a very determined man but maybe it would slow someone down.

The knocking turned into a series of kicks. The wood groaned. The voice outside laughed. “You cannot hide forever. You will scream for us, little one. We will make you talk.”

I pressed my back to the wall and tried to make myself small. My hands would not stop shaking. I whispered a string of prayers I did not believe in. My breath came fast.

Then the pounding stopped. For a moment, I held onto the silence like a fragile thread. I thought perhaps he had moved on. Maybe someone else had called him away. Maybe the worst was over.

That relief lasted only one slow heartbeat.

Glass shattered. The sound was close and terrible. A rush of cold air stabbed my face. I flinched back and felt tiny slivers of cold hit my skin from the broken pane.

Something filled the hole in the window. A large black shape pushed through the frame and landed with a soft thud on the rug. It moved like liquid muscle and smelled like night and wild things. Red eyes caught the little lamp light and held it. They were hungry and bright.

The wolf stared at me with hunger. It padded forward and sniffed the air. My legs turned to wood. I could not step back. I could not breathe.

Then, as if the world itself was shifting, the wolf twisted and changed. Fur rippled and fell away. Bones folded inward. Arms formed into shoulders. The wolf became a man. He was tall and wet with snow. He had a beard and dark hair stuck to his face. His eyes were black and fierce.

He smiled as he walked toward me. It was a slow smile that had no warmth. “Where are you going to run now, little one?” he said. His voice was a low rumble that smelled of the forest. “You are mine.”

Something in the way he said it made the room spin. He stepped closer and I stumbled back. There was nowhere to go. The dresser behind the door was a poor shield. I felt trapped as if the walls themselves had closed in.

The man grabbed my shoulders and tried to pull me toward him. He forced me against the bed. I fought. I kicked and twisted and hit out with everything I had but his hands were strong, clamping like iron. He pulled at my clothes. He leaned down. His breath was hot in my ear. Fear rose so high in me that it drowned thought. I screamed. It was a raw sound that found its way out despite my terror.

“Stop! Please...” I cried.

He laughed and leaned closer as if the sound of my voice only fed him. “Such tender things,” he said. “Such soft skin.”

I clawed at his arms. I hit him with my fist. I tried to shove him off. My nails scraped his sleeve. The world narrowed to the press of his body, the heat of his breath. I could taste metal in my mouth. My chest hurt from the panic.

Then, the door exploded inward.

It was not a gentle opening. The dresser that I had stacked like a weak barricade flew aside as if a giant hand tossed it like a toy. The man who had been on me let out a startled cry. There was a thunder of paws and the air smelled like cold and thunder.

Lucien filled the doorway.

He moved quickly. One moment he was a man in a long coat; the next his shoulders hunched, his spine arched and a dark, great wolf appeared in the center of the doorway. The other man; he shifted too. The two animals collided with a sound like breaking trees.

I slid from under the attacker and crawled backward, my hands scraping on the floor. I watched the fight. Wolves tumbled and rolled. Teeth flashed. Snow and dust and a spray of fur filled the doorway as the struggle pushed toward the shattered window.

The other wolf howled and lunged. Lucien turned like lightning and then, the other wolf was flung out through the broken glass. It crashed into the snow and disappeared into the dark.

Lucien shifted back. His clothes were dusted with snow and glass. He was breathing hard and his eyes blazed like coals. He looked at me, and for a second his face was only the shadow of a wolf—sharp, dangerous and fierce.

He crossed the room and wrapped a thick blanket around my shoulders.

“You are safe now." He knelt in front of me and I could see the worry carved into his face. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry this happened. I am...”

“You saved me,” I said, though the truth was more complicated. He had come when things were already breaking. He had fought for me. My chest felt as if it might split with something like gratitude and something like fear.

He gathered me into his arms as if afraid I would vanish. His body pressed around me like a shield. “You will not be harmed here,” he whispered. “Not while I breathe.”

My breath came in short bursts. I tried to calm the trembling that made my hands shake but the shaking was deep. I had been close to something terrible. I had felt helpless, small and weak.

“Did he hurt you?” Lucien asked, his voice hard.

I swallowed the hot taste in my mouth. “He tried,” I said. “He tried to force himself. He...” The sentence broke. I could not say more. The memory flickered and could have swallowed me whole if I let it.

Lucien's jaw knotted. His eyes turned dark like thunder. He was quiet for a beat and then said, “He will not hurt you again.”

He helped me to my feet and wrapped the blanket tighter. His hands were careful as if I were glass. My limbs felt weak but real at the same time. I leaned against him because my legs would not hold me alone.

Outside the sounds of the fight continued. Boots, the bark of orders, the low replies of wolves. It felt like the whole world had tilted. I clung to Lucien, aware of how close we were, aware of his heartbeat under the blanket and the slow war in his eyes between wolf and man.

“Was he alone?” I asked in a whisper. I knew the answer would matter. If he had been part of a group then the danger was not over.

Lucien's mouth twitched in a hard line. He did not look surprised. “No,” he said. “There are more of them. They came with intent. This was not random.”

My stomach dropped. “Who are they?”

He did not answer immediately. He set his jaw and looked away for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. “Rogues and men paid to serve them. People who hunt and people who mean harm. We will find them. We will deal with it.”

He guided me to the chair by the window and sat close so I would not feel alone. His hands did not leave mine. He kept my shoulders wrapped in the blanket. The knowledge of his strength was a warm and dangerous thing. It made my breath hitch.

“I am sorry,” he said again, softer. “I will keep you safe. I will not let them harm you.”

I wanted to hate how much that promise meant to me. I wanted to refuse the comfort it brought. But when I looked at him, tired and raw, I felt something shift inside my chest. It was not the full trust he wanted from me. It was not a surrender. It was a small and trembling place that allowed relief to bloom.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Okay. Please… stay.”

He nodded and tightened his hold on me.