Queen Arabella Anderson

I woke up with my head pounding, after the final party of the week ending in complete chaos. There was some kind of crazy person who spiked all of the drinks with vampire liquor (I wonder who that could be... of course either Remus or Strix, on Remus' orders). We all got completely trashed, including Nicholas, who was speaking gibberish for the entire night, and wouldn't let me leave his arms for a second. If I did, he would genuinely start crying like a baby who had its sweets stolen or something. I really wish I got a video of it.

"It's Christmas!" yelled Madison, jumping onto our bed, completely alerting me, and waking Nicholas up from his deep slumber. "I'm going to see what Santa got me," she squealed, running out of the door she came in.

"Remind me why we're here," grumbled Nick, throwing his head into the pillow. For Christmas, we decided it would be nice to all go to the holiday castle located a short distance away from the Kingdom of wolves, so that we would all be together, and in close proximity. He was clearly regretting it already.

"Come on big boy," I shook his shoulders, "let's get you in the bath."

It seemed like Madison had woken up the entire rest of the castle, as in the kitchen sat everyone, all looking just as hungover, practically chugging coffee. "Oh, I'm gunna need four of those," Nick said, taking the nearest seat and collapsing in it.

"Come on guys, where is the Christmas spirit?" I tried to cheer everyone up form this gloomy, half-dead thing that was going on right now.

"How are you so awake? We just drank vampire liquor!" groaned Amber, putting her head on the table.

"I've drank a lot of that stuff," I laughed, "and I know the best hangover cure for it." I quickly gathered the ingredients and started to make the breakfast that Remus cooked for me after my first hangover on vampire liquor, adding the special secret ingredients, and presenting it to everyone. It was finished in seconds, greedy wolf people, but like a switch you could see them suddenly perking up.

"I'm going to need some more of that," Christopher rubbed his sore head.

"You get what you're given," growled Nicholas, "thank my wife," he demanded.

"Um, thank you Arabella," Chris said quickly, looking quite scared, as would many people on the wrong side of Nick, he was just grumpy this morning though, because we didn't have sex last night or this morning, and since we first had sex he hasn't wanted to stop. I haven't wanted to stop either to be honest, but I'm also more sensible than him, he is an Alpha male, and a King at that, and his instincts to mate me at the moment, and put a baby in me, are far higher than to be actually be an alpha. We've both agreed we aren't having kids yet though, much to his annoyance, although I can feel I'm going to be on my heat sometime soon.

After everyone had eaten their food, which was a little different to the 'Christmas breakfast' that was originally planned, by whoever was planning this Christmas day, we all went to our respective rooms and got ready for the day. It was Nick's idea that we all cook Christmas dinner ourselves, so we all piled into the kitchen and awaited our roles. Even though Nick made us do this, he was the most useless, giving the head chef position to literally anybody else who would take it.

In the end, it was Elena, the ex-Queen of Werewolves, who stepped up, ordering us all around the kitchen. "Right, Owen and Skye, you two are on the starter, the recipe is over there, ingredients are around. William, dear, you're on the dessert with Christopher and Noah, there's three that we are going to do, you only need to do the first couple of steps though, I'll direct you," Elena pointed at that lot, and they went off to another part of the kitchen starting their various tasks.

"Right, we are on the mains. I'll do the turkey, Jason and Logan, vegetables and potatoes, Chase and Amber you're on pigs in blankets, Obi you can take the sauces. Jason and Arabella, darling, you guys can do the stuffing. Let's go!"

We were handed two recipes for the stuffing, one for an 'Apricot and Pistachio stuffing', and one for a 'Sage, onion and sausage stuffing', so we decided to take one each. In the end I had to do most of the work, not because Nick was a useless chef (he was actually decent), but because he wasn't trying, he was too busy grabbing my butt, holding my waist, sticking his face in my neck and giving me little lovebites. I would have been done quicker if I didn't have to spend half of the time pushing him off me and telling him off.

Eventually everything that needed to be in the oven was in there, and the started was almost ready, so with Madison's help, Amber and I set the table, using all of the various decorations that the maids had left out for us, until it was a gorgeous Christmas setting. After the starter, and we had all thrown everything together for the main, we finally sat down at the table to eat the turkey.

"I just want to say a couple of words," Nick said, grabbing his glass of wine and standing up. We all put our knives and forks down and picked up our own glasses, turning our heads to face him to see what he has to say. "This has been a crazy year, a lot of ups and downs. Last Christmas it was just us guys, and this Christmas we have two new arrivals. If you told me last year that one day we would have the Dimitri Twins around for Christmas dinner, I would have laughed in your face, yet things have a funny way of turning out, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today I am the happiest man alive, surrounded by my friends, my family, my wife, and my pack are doing better than ever, and it wouldn't be without all of you. Thank you for everything you do for me each and every day. To us," he lifted his wine glass, and we all repeated, 'to us', lifting our own glasses, before taking a sip.

"That was a beautiful speech," Elena spoke softly from across the table.

"A bit lame," laughed Chris under his breath, followed by Noah's chuckles, and Nick throwing a fork straight at Chris so that it landed in his arm. "Man, I liked this shirt," he complained, pulling the fork out of his arm, revealing the four tiny holes in his shirt; his wound had already closed up.

"You'll be exactly like him when you find your mates," William said, putting a hand on his wife's knee and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I hope not," mumbled Chris.

"Trust me, you will," laughed Logan. I loved seeing the carefree side of all my friends, and Nick, not worrying about pack business, or putting up a scary front for all their pack members, or simply being angry in training, no, this was them around the people they love, without a care in the world, apart from Christmas dinner.

"I'm with you, Chris," Obi said, who also hadn't yet found his mate.

"When will I find my mate?" Princess Madison innocently asked.

"When you're older darling," Elena said, stroking her hair lightly.

Conversation soon turned onto politics, which I kind of tuned out a little bit, and decided to converse with Skye, who was sat on the other side of me.

Dessert was served soon after that, and after the disaster that Chris, Noah and William had in the kitchen trying to put it together, including ingredients going everywhere, it was surprisingly tasty. Then it was time for presents.

The main Christmas tree was in the main lounge of the holiday castle we were in, and was heaving with ornaments and lights. It was located in the big bay window, with multi-coloured presents piled up underneath it and a bright, shiny star right on top. There were a number of royalty blue sofas, with golden accents and tasteful throw pillows and furs, atop the cream coloured carpet. In the middle of the sofas was an oak coffee table, which was in front of a giant marble fireplace, that was currently roaring with flames, making that beautiful crackling sound.

Madison became the chief 'present-giver-outer', taking a present from the pile and handing it to the respectful person. Jason and I barely celebrated Christmas, when we were younger our parents gave us little tiny gifts, that were loved, but never anything big, then after they died we didn't really celebrate, sometimes we were invited to Christmas with the Rouge Alpha and Damien, which was a homely affair, but other than that nothing massive. So compared to this it was crazy. I was receiving presents from people I didn't even know, and I kind of felt bad because I hadn't got them anything. "Don't worry," Nick whispered in my ear, as if sensing what I was already thinking; I mean I guess we are mates, "the palace sends presents to all the Alphas, Lunas, Betas etc of every pack, no one's been missed out." That relieved me slightly. "This," he pulled out a small box, neatly wrapped in flowery paper and tied up with a silver ribbon, "is from me."

I opened it up hungrily, tearing at the paper. It was a jewellery box I think, confirmed when I flipped it open. Contained in it were various different charms for a charm bracelet, all to do with different cities in different countries. "I know you wanted to travel the world before settling down," he started, "and I know your adventure got cut kind of short. So, I've organised a Royal Tour of the world, we're going all over, seeing different packs who will host us, we can do some work, international relations, and then sightsee."

"This is the best gift I've ever received," I beamed up at him, throwing my arms around his neck and giving him the tightest hug I could muster. I almost started crying, it was such a thoughtful gift, I didn't really have the right words to describe how happy I felt; it was unreal.

"This is the another one," he pulled out a small envelope. I opened that carefully and looked inside, to see a picture of a turtle.

"He is adorable," I smiled.

"He is also yours. Jason mentioned you wanted a turtle called Gerome," chuckled Nick, "I got you him. We pick him up next week." That earnt him another massive hug. He then continued to shower me in gifts, designer clothes, jewellery, tiaras and crowns, handbags and shoes, as well as various chocolates, adding to the piles of other jewels and clothes and things I had received from everyone else.

My gifts for Nick in comparison seemed subpar. I got him some cool gadgets that I thought he would like, a new wallet and a painting that I had seen in the market the other day and loved, I also found some nice cufflinks. "I feel like my gifts are so much worse," I grumbled, sitting on his lap with his arms wrapped around me as we watched Madison work her way through her endless pile of gifts.

"I love each and every one of them baby," he tried to reassure me.

"You're just saying that," I rolled my eyes.

"You're my mate, you can tell when I'm lying." He got me there, I decided to be quiet from then on.

Once all the presents were opened, we had watched all of the Christmas movies we wanted to watch, ate dinner, made smores, played family games, we all retired to our own bedrooms. Nick's presents weren't over just yet though. As he was downstairs getting me a hot chocolate, at my request, I was in our room, pulling on some sexy lingerie, which consisted of a lacy red bra and thong, a garter belt and stockings, and some silky, red ribbon which I tied around my stomach, so I kind of looked like a present. I threw on my dressing gown when I heard him coming up the stairs and went into the bathroom. When he came in through the door to the bedroom, I left the bathroom. We both froze there, staring at eachother, his gaze only moving downwards to look at my outfit when I took off my dressing gown. "Fuck," he breathed out.

"This is your last present," I said, trying to be seductive, which based on the hungry look in Nick's eye, I think was working.

"Fuck," is all he said again, taking quick strides over to me. I had planned to be all sensual about it, maybe give him a massage, give him a nice blowjob and then have sex with him. He had completely different plans though, as my new lingerie was ripped into pieces, and I was currently writing underneath him as he pounded into me animalistically, adorning my body with love bites, kisses and claims, re-claiming me yet again, and making me scream out his name. Thank fuck these walls are sound proof.