“Endre, I think we need to talk.” Wruin came to me late in the night, after the others had gone to bed, and sat down at the table where I was reading a book.

Thyra was still asleep and I didn’t want to wake her so I was reading in the kitchen. I put the book down at his serious look and waited. He plunked down two cups of ale and the bottle they came from.

“I know what I did was wrong, and I want to apologize. Riever did have a good life though. I promise you that. Astrid did too, they were never apart. They had each other until the day they died.” He stopped, wiping at his hard jaw with his hand.

“Alright.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say to him.

“I don’t have any other way to tell you this, except to just come out with it. Thyra is a descendent of Riever.” He looked at me, his eyes full of sorrow but also hope that we could truly reconcile.

“How?” I asked, my brain exploding with the possibilities. She wasn’t, fuck no, she couldn’t be descended from me could she? I wanted to run out into the freezing night now, how the hell was this supposed to help me?

“Chill out man, it’s cool. She isn’t yours. They met a man after you left, a few years later, and asked him to give them a child.” He paused again, trying to work something out in his mind. “The child was half-shifter, so I suppose, in a way, Thyra may have inherited some of the magic, maybe that’s why you mated with a non-magical. Deep down she has a little bit of it left in her genes.”

“Maybe so.” I replied, calm once again. “So they were happy, Astrid and Riever?” It was all I’d wanted for them. Even if it meant I had to leave them both.

“They were. They didn’t want for anything, I made sure of it. They were together until the end. Riever went first, then Astrid followed soon after. On the same day. Riever died in her sleep an old woman. I think Astrid just couldn’t face life without her and willed herself to die.” His face was sad but full of the awe of their love.

It had been an incredible thing to witness, the way they bonded. Humans didn’t have the mating bond that we had but their love came close to it. I’d intruded on that for a little while, but now, I was almost glad I’d left them to their life.

“Good then. That’s all I wanted for them.” I sighed and took a gulp of the cold ale. Everything was cold here, except for the food if we ate it straight from the stove.

Thyra had bathed earlier in a large tub I brought her, but she’d only been able to relax in it for a short time before the water cooled.

“Right, well, I just wanted you to know.” Wruin stood, heading for his tent I had to presume.

“What will we do about Airitech?” I asked, needing an answer.

“We’ll go after him as soon as Fern finds him. She’s hunting him now.”

“Okay. I can’t leave him alive, you know that?” I looked at him, both of our gazes steady as we looked at each other.

“I know, Endre. I can’t either. Abigail, well, she never knew him. We’re questioning her sister now. It will be over soon, I promise, all of this. I’ll take the refugees to my land, they’ll be warmer there, and you can have your solitude back. Only…” He stopped to give me a grin I remembered from long ago. “I guess you won’t be so alone anymore, will you?”

“No, I don’t think I will be. Thyra isn’t leaving me. We’re mated.” I found peace in saying it. She could still be taken from me, and I’d die from the loss, but for now, we had a future at least.

“Good. I’m happy for you, brother. Good night.” He waved as he left and I wished him the same.

Going into the room I shared with my mate now, I sank down to the bed, touching her softly so as not to wake her. I just needed to know she was well. She was warm and sleepy, sweet in her slumber, and I wanted to kiss her awake. Even in her sleep she sought me out, moved close to my side, and threw her right leg over that aching part of me.

“Oh, Thyra, you can’t keep doing this to me, my heart.” I used a hand to scan over her body, looking for aching spots. I eased the ache in each one as I found them, and healed the bruises she’d picked up throughout the day. Never again would she go to sleep with a hurt, not as far as I was concerned.

I could take her pain away and would do so gladly.

I whispered into her hair as she slowly came awake, a light snoring turned into a snort that delighted me, before her lips sank down against my neck to make me shiver.

“I love you, Thyra. I have for a very long time now. I’ve watched you from your dreams. You had such a struggle to be yourself, to find yourself, and you started that on your own when you left your husband and found that boat. I’d like to be on the rest of that journey with you. Will you be my wife, Thyra?” I waited for her answer as she came awake more fully now, her body going still

“You mean stay here? With you? Forever?” She couldn’t stop thinking about a future where I was on my own. I saw it in her thoughts.

“Thyra, we’ll sync up with our ages after a while, and we’ll age the same. You have a very long life ahead of you if you stay with me.” I didn’t want to tell her I’d die slowly without her, much faster than I would have. I didn’t want that to be the reason she stayed.

“You could go off and find another lover that takes you from me. I don’t think you’d be as happy with them though. There’s nobody that can replace you for me, though. Not a soul.” I ran my fingers through her silky hair and waited, not in a rush, but worried now that she hadn’t answered straight away.

She didn’t want another lover, only me. I heard it in my head as she thought it.

“I suppose that’s possible but I can’t imagine it.” She answered me, at last.

“We never know what the future holds for us, even us in the magical world. I knew you were coming to me but you didn’t. You thought I was only a dream. I think you’re committed to me though. I’m committed to you for the rest of my life; nothing can change that for me.”

“Do we have to stay here in the cold forever though?” She sounded very sad about that and I had to chuckle.

“No, my heart. We can fill in the rest of those spaces on your hips, only they’ll be with the coins of the magical world.”

“Oh that sounds interesting.” She sat up a little to look at me as she thought about it. “And I wouldn’t have to get on an airplane?”

Her left eyebrow crooked and I grinned again.

“You’re afraid to fly?” I really was shocked; she’d crossed the Atlantic alone, but hated flying?

“Terrified.” She spoke without shame, her body shuddering as she thought about it. “I can do it, but I hate it.”

“Fine, no flying. Unless I’m the pilot. And the “plane”.” I made air quotes and she relaxed on my chest again. “We will always have to talk about what is going to happen with us, Thyra, communication is so important. As long as we talk, define our boundaries, and compromise, we’ll be fine. ”

“Oh, and what about Airitech?” She asked me, her mind worried once more. I didn’t want her to be afraid, but I wouldn’t lie to her either.

“He has to be dealt with and will be soon. For now I’ll probably be greedy and keep you to myself for as long as I can. At least until we find him.” She snuggled down into me more closely before she changed her mind and straddled my naked body.

“I like the sound of that, the keeping me to yourself part.” I felt a smile stretch my lips. I smiled so much now, so very much and it was all because of her.

We laughed quietly as we tumbled over the bed, our delight in each other obvious and for a moment we were like very young lovers, playing and tickling each other until we were almost screaming with laughter. I’ve never been so carefree while in so much danger. That was Thyra’s influence.

I stared up at her in wonder as she straddled me once more, her hands clamping down on my shoulders.

Thyra was beautiful and all mine, now. For as long as I wanted her. Mine.

Even Wruin couldn’t take her from me. It was against our laws to break up mated souls. It was a death sentence.

My face was starting to ache I was so happy and couldn’t stop smiling.

“Is that a yes, then, Thyra?” I couldn’t stand waiting to know anymore; though it was obvious she meant to stay.

“Of course, I’ll be your wife, Endre! I don’t want anything else but you for the rest of my life!”

She stroked a long finger over my nipple and was delighted to watch it tighten at her touch.

Her hands stroked me softly and I shifted beneath her, wrapping my hands around her slim waist to hold her still.

“I love you.” She said the words suddenly, as if she had to say them or perish. My eyes went straight to hers, looking for doubt. “I do. I really do love you, Endre.”

“I love you, Thyra.” There was no doubt there, only certainty.

“You’re the reason for all of this. Without you to save me I’d be dead or even looking for that one thing that was missing in my life. I should have known those dreams meant something, I just had no idea. You’re what I needed. I saw that when Airitech took me away.”

“Then all we need is each other, isn’t it?” I ran my hands up her ribcage, pulling her down to knead at her breasts before I popped a kiss on her lips. “Let me taste you, my heart.”

Her eyes went wide before she moved to offer me her breasts. I sucked at her nipples until she moaned; flicking them until her hips started to wind with the pleasure of it. I groaned with my own pleasure at feeling her silky flesh in my mouth.

I felt fingers brushing my thigh and knew they were hers, she was eager to touch me.

“You don’t get to do this on your own, you know.” She chuckled as her hand slid between my thighs to brush against my cock.

“You’d better sit up then, Thyra.” I urged her to bring her hips over my face, her thighs on each side of my head.

She hesitated but then grinned and did as I suggested, her thighs closing off my ears.

For a moment her thoughts shifted, to the man she’d divorced. He’d never been a good lover to her, he was far too selfish for that, and he’d never given her pleasure. I knew she was going to take every bit of it I offered her now. Where she might have felt bashful so long ago, she now knew there was more to life than refusing to do something I asked for. I wanted it so I could give her something. She wanted what I had to give. I felt pride as she decided to take what was offered.

I focused on her pussy as she bent down to my cock and the world disappeared the moment her mouth slid over me.

There could have been people in the room talking but I wouldn’t know it or care. I was too busy enjoying Thyra’s pussy and the sensation of her mouth stroking over me.

I was looking forward to several lifetimes of this, my lover, with a lot of love and a lot of pleasuring each other, but right now, only this moment mattered.

I followed the rhythm Thyra set for us and copied it with my tongue on her clit. She slowly circled her hips, pressing down into my face as her sweet pussy began to flood my mouth with her taste.

I inhaled deeply of her scent, sucking at her folds between teasing her clit, tasting and breathing my lover as her mouth fucked me.

My only lover, my one and only mate. Later, we’d talk more about the future, but I knew she knew what I knew about it all. She knew my thoughts. For now I was happy beneath her, making her world spin as she did the same for me.

She moved her mouth on me, my cock opening her mouth wide, spreading the muscles of her throat, until she couldn’t take anymore. I had to fight to control my hips, to stop my upward thrust, but I didn’t want to hurt her, so I held back. Her breasts pressed into my stomach as she leaned down further, trying to take more of me.

“Thyra, baby, don’t hurt yourself,” I said to her, before I went back to attacking her pussy. Her lips clamped around me, and we both gasped.

We merged once more, our thoughts and feelings combined as the world exploded around us. We only needed each other in this bleak, soon to be very dark place. Soon the sun would set and it wouldn’t come back up for months.

I’d lived in this dark place for a very long time so I knew that, just as the sun would rise again, Thyra would change my life and bring me out of the darkness.

That’s all that mattered for now.

We had a lifetime ahead of us. We just had to deal with Airitech to ensure that, and soon, he would no longer be a problem. Wruin and I would see to it.