I waited for her answer. Outwardly, I supposed I appeared as self-possessed as ever, but inwardly I was discomposed and rattled.
"No, Lucian. Not beyond redemption," she assured me at last, her smile as radiant as a child's. It was all I could do to keep myself from falling prostrate at her feet. What a tame little pet you have become, I jeered at myself.
I had, since coming to care for the lass, metamorphosed into a malleable and adoring greyhound, taking whatever scraps she was willing to offer me. The thought both displeased and amused me.
"In sooth," she continued, "I know it was not your will to keep... your family curse from me. I understand you completely now."
I disagreed entirely, but kept that to myself. She had only an inkling of what she was embroiled in. She placed her hands on either side of my neck as she seemed to plumb the very depth of my eyes.
"I love you," she said again. It affected me now as much as the first time she had uttered it — wholly and completely.
What a drastic turn of events! I could scarce believe her change of heart, although she was now perhaps mercurial due to her fecund state, but whatever the reason, I had resisted my impulses long enough! Her declaration inflamed me — it was a balm and yet also incited me instantly to passionate fervor — so utterly that I practically lunged at her and brought my lips savagely down onto hers.
When I released her, a few moments later, I noticed at once how ragged her breathing had become and nearly smiled, but my response to her was perhaps twofold as powerful as the effect I wreaked over her body.
"How long have you known that it was I that defended you in Niflheim?" I asked in amazement, addressing her earlier statement. She had been saturated with my pheromones when I had awakened beside her in the subterranean atrium of what we affectionately called, The Underworld — our killing tunnels. 'Twas both mine and Fendrel's scent that had clung adamantly to her skin.
"I think I have always known," she said with a faraway look, "from the moment I awakened to see your face covered in blood."
By some miracle, my alter self — that part of me that was beyond reason — had recognized its mate, and protected her throughout the long hours ere the moon released me from my delirium. Mayhap Aria had sensed my presence beside her on some atavistic level? Could she have somehow, in that most primal of planes, recognized me? As if reading my thoughts, she smiled.
"I have known it here," she confirmed as she lifted my hand, still pressed against her abdomen, and held it to her racing heart.
"Well, you have it aright," I confirmed at last, withal it was a redundant statement. "It was me that guarded you in that great chamber whilst you lay bleeding."
I had no memory of it, just an impression like a shadow moving in a fog. I knew that it was I that stayed close and precluded further attack from my kin. It was I that awoke curled protectively around her. The recollection of stirring to life beside her and then becoming dreadfully aware of her bleeding, broken form... I shuddered as I thought about how close I had come to losing her.
It was then that I had realized how deeply I had come to care for her. But love? That was neither terrifying nor liberating, but certainly a powerful combination of both. Did I love her? Could I trust her not to defect from me again.
"You cleaned my wound after you fought the ghost off," she recalled, unaware of my inner turmoil.
"Fendrel," I pronounced. "I do not know how that is possible?"
"That you overpowered him?" She asked, her frown crinkling adorably. I dipped my head in affirmation.
She understood, as I had explained weeks ago, that Fendrel was — had been — the head of our family; its absolute overlord. That I had had the innate ability to subdue him was tantamount to David's insuperable vanquishment of Goliath. Unbelievable! I still could not credit it, but the truth now sat beside me in the shape of the raven-haired sorceress that had bewitched me into a lapdog. She was as hale and salubrious as the day I met her, save for the devastation to her leg.
"Either the Blood Bond is extremely strong..." Or I am the Greyback heir. The alpha. But before we continued, I resolved that I would see to her comfort first.
The cold was decidedly concentrated so far from the fireplace, and it would not do to keep her shivering atop the counterpane. I lifted her up and conveyed her forthwith to the hearth, whither she would find perhaps a modicum of warmth by the newly stoked fire that had not had the chance yet to augment its heat throughout the chamber. I sat cross-legged and tucked her carefully onto my lap afore enveloping her in what warmth I could offer.
"You fought Fendrel off because of the Blood Bond?" she asked.
"That is why there is a Blood Bond, so that you are protected from even myself. But I had no notion of its being strong enough to defend a life mate from the Greyback Heir."
"The Greyback Heir?"
"The alpha. But I cannot usurp his place without killing him, and he has the king's favor, so I shall continue to hope he does not wish to ... further investigate what lies between he and I. Death is inevitably the result of power struggles between heirs."
"Ay, leave it be!" Her brow became marred with worry. "Let him keep his precious title, so that I may keep you."
"I wish it were that easy," I replied, nonetheless feeling incredibly touched by her vehement sentiment. "And now he has something more to fear."
"What is that?"
"You carry my child, and should it prove to be male, which it is, he too will be a threat to Fendrel's legacy." I could not resist touching the plane of her abdomen. "And, for that reason, I have much to fear from Fendrel in return." I thought about about my son and his mother, and how she had ensconced herself securely within my heart; how she was now fixed within my blood — a bond that transcended even the Blood Bond.
"Do not fear for us, my love. We have the very best protectors, my child and I: the princes of Nørrdragor will never allow harm to come to us; least of all the younger and stronger Greyback Heir."
Smiling, I took her palm and pressed it to the organ she possessed so completely — my heart. In sooth, I thought as I ran my fingers over the scars I had dealt her through the bars of Niflheim when first she had seen a valdyr, she had marked me more completely than I had done to her. "You have ensconced yourself within my heart, you cunning woman," I chided gently. "You did so when I wasn't looking." This seemed to delight her for she laughed, unconcerned by my empty rebuke.
"When did you know? When was my place won here?" She traced her fingers across my chest.
"The day I saw you covered in mud."
My confession caused an overawed gleam to light her gaze and she chuckled warmly.
"I came home expecting to find a spoiled, beautiful woman-"
"You thought I'd be beautiful?" Her mouth hung open in bemusement.
"Aye, even as I child you were promising, but it had been my experience that the fairest women at court were often the most rotten inside — duplicitous, vain, and deceitful creatures that were far from lovely within."
I had thought myself in love with just one such artful witch. The woman who had stolen my innocence and then cast me aside callously, as soon as it suited her, had utterly embittered my youthful naiveté. She had been the worst of them and I had still been filled with resentment when I had returned home to find that my father had as good as married me off in my absence. It was wrong to have judged Aria then, but I had almost wished her to be plain.
Instead, I had come home after a period of five years' avoidance to find that she was not at all what I had expected. She was unpolished, gauche, and thoroughly beguiling in her innocence. The moment I had seen her enter the hall that same day of my return, I had watched her carefully for any sign that she was anything like the vipers at court. She had surprised me; and I was not often made to feel that way.
"You could not have been more angelic to me — as covered in filth as you were that first day," I murmured, and then grinned when I saw that she was not altogether sure whether or not I had just insulted her. "It taught me to have faith."
"I liked you not at all, Lucian. I thought you a boor, despite your pretty face."
"It is fortunate then, that you like my pretty face well enough now."
"I do not." She winked mischievously at me before she said, "I love it. I love every inch of your vexing self!" Aria planted a myriad of enthusiastic, playful kisses all over my face and neck before finally pressing her lips to mine for a deep one.
When she had pulled away to catch her breath, I ran my eyes along every inch of her as my hands willingly followed suit.
"No matter what the state of my body or mind, in whatever form that mind may dwell," said I bringing my lips within inches of hers again, "I will safeguard you always and the... other half of me recognizes that just as plainly. In truth, I believe it knew before even I did — what you mean to me." I ran my fingers slowly up along her spine, into her thick tresses, and then, gently grabbing the base of her skull, I slanted her head just so: the better to kiss her. But not just yet. Aria growled in frustration when I leaned in no further. My smile was cunning.
"Even in the depths of the deranged mind of a valdyr, I still felt it sharply — this need to..."
"To what?" she asked impatiently, breathless withal. I could feel my lip quirk at the corner for I was suddenly of a mind to bedevil her.
"Be inside you..."
She slapped my arm with mock censure. "That was not what I expected to hear!" she laughed as I rubbed my arm with a chuckle.
I had scarce drawn another breath when she pulled me fiercely to her. All too soon she broke the kiss, just as my prurience was rising to the fore!
"Wait!" said she. I barely managed to check my growl of frustration, but she seemed excited and in desperate need to impart her news, so I leashed the passion raging just below the surface... for now. "Something strange transpired ere I climbed into the maze! I forgot to tell you withal the excitement that soon followed after I awoke, but — now that I think on it — the sensation was almost exactly the same as last night's malady."
"Describe it to me!" I demanded. She had piqued my interest completely.
"This feeling was unlike any other I had experience heretofore! 'Twas an impression of bones slowly bending — distorting grotesquely — and skin rending as though a conflagration had erupted throughout my brain; all I could conceive of was white hot pain, the likes of which I hope never to suffer again!"
My mind was reeling, but I becalmed my features so as not to worry her overmuch. "You describe my transformation exactly!" I sat up straighter. Was it possible that she could sense my change somehow? Both her episodes had been coincident with my change; and her description of the process seemed equally concurrent. Could she be a different breed altogether? But that was unlikely.
"Is it the Blood Bond, Lucian?" I watched as the color drained from her face. "Can that be why I am susceptible to Valdyr lunacy?
"I do not believe so," I said skeptically. "It is impossible for a female to change." I had no definitive answer other than that which I now gave her. "Perchance, the explanation lies with my mother."
"With Anne?" She was understandable perturbed. I nodded, thinking back to my earlier conversation with Nørrdragor's matriarch, while Aria had still been insensate.
"Mother?!" I entered the chamber carefully, not wishing to wake Aria, but on seeing my mother beside my wife's inert form, I instantly felt the dread coagulate within my spine and sprinted to the bedside.
"She is fine, Lucian; merely sleeping."
"What happened here!" I demanded, ripping the blankets off to find nothing amiss. When I had mollified myself sufficiently and ascertained no injuries, I looked to my mother in confused anger.
She sighed and eased over to make room for me. "I heard her screaming in the corridor last eventide, and rushed out of my chambers. I did not find her at first, not until Astrid called to me from the bottom of the stairs." She took another deep breath. "After I'd summoned Gerald and lit a lamp, we carried her back up here." Mother turned her head to look once more over her patient.
"So she screamed when she fell?" There was something awry here.
"No, I'm certain she cried out before she fell, for it carried from this chamber initially and not from the stairs," she insisted.
"She must have wandered in her sleep," I mused aloud, studying Aria's unconscious face.
"I don't think so..."
I turned to Mother with a cocked brow and waning fortitude. "Speak, woman!"
"Calm down!" she snapped. "Tis not as if you have anything better to do right now! Dawn hasn't even lit the countryside yet!"
I waved my hand brusquely. "What is wrong with Aria!"
My mother pinched her lips together in affront and with slitted eyes she said, "Nothing! But only Aria can confirm for certain whether or not her afflictions are the same as mine were."
"Yours?"
"Aye," she said with a sigh of frustration. "Do you remember what your father told you when you were very young?" I rolled my eyes in vexation, for this story was lengthening into an epic tale and I simply wanted answers. "About my pregnancy..." she raised one brow pointedly. And suddenly I understood her.
"Yes, of course!" I said in comprehension. "It must be the babe! There could now be no doubt as to the child's sex."
"Although, perhaps I am wrong. I never reacted this intensely until the later stages of-"
"No, this seems the only plausible reason!" I argued. "Otherwise none of this makes any sense. Did you call the surgeon?" Yet my mother avoided the latter question and continued mulling over the former topic.
"But not to this degree, Lucian! It was never this acute!" She looked disturbed suddenly, but I cared now only to see to Aria's health. I could see no marks, but what if her wounds lay within. What of the child?! My relief turned quickly to anger for I was irked anew, inasmuch as she had not summoned a doctor yet.
"You tell me now that you did not summon the physician?"
The cracking of the fire, as it licked across the wood, snapped me from my reverie. I was convinced now that Aria's heightened sensitivity was due to her prolific condition.
My father had told me long ago what to expect from a breeding wife. He had explained that my mother, during both her pregnancies, had sensed the selenic forces building within her core — an awful pain that had been concentrated mostly in her abdomen, where her offspring was reacting to the weight of the moon. Ergo, 'twas feasible that Aria's subsequent perceptions and reactions were thus provoked by the child's own elemental response and not her own, as we had initially thought.
It had to be that. But was the situation comparable? Was this the solution to Aria's strange and physical presentiment — her curious manifestation of my transformation. My mother had misgivings, but I was not wont to examine those now.
"Lucian?" Aria was still waiting for a response to her elucidation.
"I shall think on it a little more. For now, let it trouble you no more." I was avoiding the subject, I knew it, but I needed to mull this some more afore I divulged aught to Aria.
I lowered my gaze and fixed it to her belly, my brows also dropping as we continued to sit in pensive silence. I would discuss this later with my father. In the meantime, I needed to reaffirm life in the most basic and primitive way possible...
However, before I took my pleasure I would first see to her leg which I had not seen since that night, although I knew it had healed fast for I had not smelled blood on her the last time we had spoken all those weeks ago.
I reached for her hem and began lifting her gown and skirts. She, suspicious of my prurient intentions, made to brush my hands away. I raised a stern brow that convinced her to the fruitlessness of her endeavors and she desisted forthwith. I knew exactly which of my expression would wreak whatever outcome I desired, but I would never confess as much to her. For the moment, she was subdued by my sever countenance.
Once I had removed her hose, we both looked on with interest, her's somewhat more stupefied than my own.
"Lucian!" she gasped.
"I know." My smile was positively self-satisfied, I was sure.
There, where her wound should have been, was now only a smudge of light, pink skin and she touched it tentatively to test the resilience of her flesh. Even after a month, it should not have looked as inconspicuous as it did.
"But..." she paused. "It is all but gone! How is that possible?"
"My healing kiss," I smirked and she narrowed her eyes at me dubiously. My saliva, or the beast's come to that, had been all over her when I had come to my senses. 'Twas in effect his — or my — curative slaver that had wrought such impossible changes. "But did you never look at it till now?" I asked curiously. "Surely when you bathed."
"No, I mean I have; and therein lies the issue." She was still staring wide eyed at her leg. "It has almost vanished now, but yesterday it did not look half so good as this!"
"What of it?" I shrugged nonchalantly and she shot me a disgusted look.
"Verily, it was still covered in scabs yestereve!" She continued to marvel at her flesh. "Extraordinary!" she cried.
This was plausibly the only boon she had accrued — or would — from her parturiency. I should, of course, explain this all to her now, and I would... but later on. For the nonce, there was something else that needed seeing to.
Without further ado, I began tugging impatiently at the ties that laced her gown. They thwarted me vexingly and I finally ripped them off in my haste. Her nervous giggle erupted as a strangled sound of surprise, so I once again reigned in my ardor.
She watched me keenly with her malachite intensity and I returned her stare as my heart raced harshly in its den. I could hear how hers matched the beat of mine. I could smell her excitement — how it fed her ardor — they were equally stimulating and heady.
Now that I had unfettered her gown I lifted it smoothly from her, her chemise and hose soon following that heavy garment. I was deliberate and effortless in my lustful objective, perhaps even ruthless, but finally I bared her to my long-starved gaze.
She was exquisite. A tall and graceful Valkyrie with skin as pale as moon beams and hair as black as midnight. I ran a reverent finger slowly from the hollow of her neck, down over her chest and finally to the soft skin of her taut belly, where my child lay in its incipient slumber. Her skin puckered as I moved my hand back up to cup the fullness of her pert breast while the fingers of my other hand pressed into the nape of her neck, firmly holding her in place as I lowered my lips to hers.
She was so responsive and warm that I soon lost myself in her mouth. She, in turn, tugged and ripped mercilessly at my clothes till I was as naked as she. I pressed her into the fur of the bear pelt that was spread before the fire. Before long, we were merely a tangled mess of intwined limbs and clutching hands as I devoured her mouth again, her body arching eagerly toward me. I was completely within her thrall and could withstand my hunger no longer! With a brutal thrust I filled her completely, pinning her thoroughly to the rug.
Her nails were deeply embedded in my back as I moved with implacable force within her, slaking my appetite as she writhed and undulated beneath me. As the elusive sphere swelled and intensified within the focal point of my body, I brought my canines flush against the pulsing column of her fragrant neck. Espying the beads of ecstasy that gathered on her skin, I closed my mouth readily over the spot at the base of her throat and pulled at the supple flesh with my tongue.
She moaned beautifully as I branded her alabaster shoulders with frenzied teeth, the tenuous thread of my rapture straining as I moved closer toward the edge of that euphoric height. At last, I felt her stiffen and relax in shuddering waves. I too could resist the debilitating tension no longer and flew headlong into that beatific void, that most fundamental of pulsing rhythms that blinded and numbed me utterly.
As she cradled my head fiercely to her breast, the aftermath of passion drenching our skin, I heard not one, but three heart beats.
Three? I thought in bafflement as I abruptly withdrew from her.
She grimaced as I left her, but I had no intension of moving away. I repositioned myself so that I lay with my ear pressed to her womb.
There it was again! The soft fluttering of two faint and impossibly rapid little heart beats. They were nestled deep within the protective nexus of her belly, but I heard them unmistakably and distinguished them easily from Aria's comparatively slow and steady rhythm. I lifted my head from her and she instantly caught my gaze in hers.
"What is it, my love?" Her whisper was fraught with dread and I smoothed my brow lest I worry her further.
"Twins!" said I with stunned amazement.
🌟As a reminder, I am updating this book almost every day as I prepare it for the rewrite. If you find inconsistencies and confusing sections that seem to pop out of nowhere, please understand that I may have updated a previous chapter that you'd already read before changing one you hadn't. Bring it to my attention anyway, if you want :) Hopefully I can fill in the blanks for you 😘 If you don't know anything about the Blood Bond, then reread the hand-fasting scene and the wedding night just before they ... do the beast with two backs ;) that should explain this chapter better.🌟