Wregen
Chapter twenty-nine
In the Sun
You shall join her in the sun, rider . The turnip beast shoves themself into my thoughts with the most ridiculous statement I’ve ever heard. So I ignore them, focusing on my skjaldmaer’s soft eyes, the dip of her lips as her brows draw together, telling me she’s furious at my words.
I could feed on her emotions for eternity. Food and water can’t sustain me. This is all I need.
The Norns have spoken, the dragon blathers on, trying to drag my attention away from Finaan. You and your beast will join my draikana and me in the sun. We’ll fight for the new world the fates weave.
Go away, I urge, trying my damnedest to ignore the beast.
I will not, they snipe, tenacious creature that they are.
“What are you and Ruxi arguing about?” Finaan’s anger has turned to confusion, her lips pursing into the most charming little bow I’ve ever seen as her eyebrows shift enough to display the change in her moods.
I think I might miss this the most. My mate can be so stoic, a true skjaldmaer, but she can’t hide from me. I can read her like a book. And play her body like a fiddle, but that’s another matter entirely.
“They’re being difficult,” I grunt, “trying to tell me things I don’t need to hear.” Dropping one of my hands onto Finaan’s ass, I tug her toward me, but she pushes back, spinning to look at the beast.
“Let’s finish cleaning off and talk,” she says as she lays her palms on my chest and tries to shove me away.
I don’t move, but I reluctantly take my hand off her ass.
“Panta expended a lot of energy to tell me that you need to speak with Ruxi,” my stubborn skjaldmaer continues.
“We’ve delayed long enough. They’ve got information we need. You have to talk to your dragon.”
“It’s not my dragon,” I complain for the tenth or twentieth time. “Wrath won’t tolerate it.”
“I don’t care,” she cries as she spreads her arms out to her sides, pushing those tits up exactly the way I like.
“You don’t need to claim them. Talk. Find out what they know.
” She smiles, her gaze catching and holding mine, and takes a step closer.
“Please,” she whispers as her hands land on my chest again, thumbs grazing my nipples. “For me.”
Sneaky, cunning female. The corners of my lips lift of their own accord. The fates chose well. She’s everything I need in a mate, all I could ever want. “What will you give me,” I purr, “if I grant you this boon?”
“This is for all of us, Wregen,” Finaan insists, but she’s caressing the muscles beneath her palms. “You should do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
“You asked, though,” I point out, “and said it would be for you. If I’m to do you this favor, you should do something for me.”
She shakes her head, but she’s fighting a smile. One side of her lips tilts up a touch, her dark eyes as bright as a sunny day. She’s so fucking beautiful, and it kills me to know she’ll despise me soon.
“What would you like, mate?” She gives into the grin that transforms her face, eyes crinkling with a lightness my fierce warrior doesn’t display as much as I’d like.
“I don’t hear that often enough,” I tell her.
“It pleases me to know you’ve accepted the fates’ choice for our lives.
” I watch her for a moment, committing every line of her face to memory.
I’ll need it to sustain me if I can’t do what I need when we reach the dragons.
I’ll be suspended over the pit for a very long time if Hel’s able to drag me back to Helheim.
“Ask me to kiss you,” I murmur, reaching out to tug on her bottom lip.
She catches her breath, chest rising and falling slowly as the world narrows down to the two of us. And then she steps closer, lifts her hands to my cheeks, and whispers, “Kiss me, Wregen.”
I am unleashed. My lips land on hers and I plunge my tongue into her mouth, licking and sucking and nibbling every piece of her she’s offered.
Waves of desire spiral through me, unlike anything I’ve known before, my entire body responding to my mate opening herself to me willingly.
Even Wrath stirs, pushing himself from Hel’s trap to join me in this moment.
His grumble of satisfaction adds to the chaotic mix of desire thrumming through me.
Finaan’s emotions wash across my skin, a warm bath on a cold day.
She’s more open to me than she’s ever been, craving my touch nearly as much as I crave hers, and I relax into this thing between us.
Well, not entirely. My cock isn’t relaxed.
It’s as far from relaxed as any cock could be, responding exactly as I’d expect.
But this is not about a quick fuck. It’s not about any kind of fuck.
Even if she wanted it—although I think she’d stop herself before giving in to this need we both have—I wouldn’t let her.
My impulse to push her away when she reached for the bond is an iron shackle, unbreakable.
And it shocks the fuck out of me, because I’ve wanted nothing more since the moment I realized she’s mine.
I won’t cause her that kind of pain, though.
She’ll suffer when my life ends, but not nearly as much as she would if we cement our bond.
My kiss slows, the desperation to claim her spilling away, replaced by a calm, steady … love.
Fuck me.
I love her.
I didn’t think I was capable, didn’t know such a pure emotion could ever live in my corrupted heart.
Hel’s discipline stripped me bare, exposing a soul I thought burned to ashes long ago.
My former mistress unleashed a devotion to my skjaldmaer far more fervent and durable than the shallow pledge I once made to that evil bitch.
Dragging my lips away from Finaan’s, I inhale three of her breaths and the sigh she offers me as she opens her eyes.
We stand there, still as a summer’s dawn, wrapped around each other and not yet ready to let go.
Perhaps she realizes too that there will be no more kisses between us again. This moment is the best we’ll have.
But it’s time to let it go.
I lean toward her, touching my lips to her forehead, and then step back. I don’t break the connection between us yet. Her hands haven’t moved, and I’ll let myself enjoy this touch as long as she lets herself take it.
“Consider your payment made,” I murmur. “Let’s not have this conversation here. We’re still too close to Garmr, and I don’t trust him to stay trapped. We’ll clean ourselves and then find a cave far away to talk about what the dragons know or believe. Why they think I’m to be involved.”
My beautiful, stubborn skjaldmaer nods and releases the cheeks she’s still holding, stepping away from me.
“Thank you,” she tells me with the saddest smile I’ve ever seen.
She’s grieving for me and what I plan to do already, even if she doesn’t know exactly what I intend.
She’ll survive my death, though. That’s the only thing that matters.
We finish quickly, an urgency capturing us as everyone recalls what Hel’s hound is capable of. And then I turn to the purple dragon, who’s been much more patient with me than I deserve.
I don’t even recognize myself any longer, and I can’t be upset about it. I’ve been a prick for a very long time. Now, I’m a little bit less of a prick.
Will you carry us?
You would ride me? Their expression is passive, but I hear confusion and surprise in the words. Your beast would allow it?
Wrath is trapped too deeply to object. He’ll be angry when Hel unleashes him … if Hel unleashes him … but that’s between him and me. We need to travel more quickly than we can on foot to put space between us and the mutt. Will you carry us?
Now their expression shifts, the corners of their lips lifting as the edges of their eyes soften. Nothing would please me more, they tell me.
Why? I ask, unable to help myself. Why would you put up with an asshole like me? Bond or not, I’d have rejected you long ago if you treated me the way I’ve treated you.
Ruxi doesn’t answer right away, watching me as if they’re considering their response.
I’ve known you for a very long time, rider.
I’ve captured traces of the conflict that rages inside you, the need that has driven your beast as long as he’s lived.
When we fought, I felt him, could sense his control of your body. It’s you I most vividly recall, though.
You couldn’t have felt me, I dismiss. When Wrath claimed our body, he buried me so deeply, no part could escape. Whatever you think you know of me is wrong.
It’s you who’s wrong, rider. Your soul called to mine. I felt your frustration, but more than that, I felt your need. He was killing you, slowly and inexorably destroying every good part of the male you were born to be. And it broke my heart. I’ve been grieving for you ever since.
You’ve been mourning someone who never existed, I insist. I don’t know what you felt, but I know as surely as I know my name that I was nothing, lower than the lowest beast, before Finaan unearthed the only good part of me that ever existed. I was never a good male.
Perhaps that is what you now believe, after so long in Hel’s clutches. But I know who you are, rider. The fates did not err when they bound us. I have never regretted our pairing.
Even when I bound you to Hel with the other dragons? I scoff. They know what I did, how much all of the beasts have suffered because of me.
Even then, they claim.
I watch the dragon the fates chose for me, searching for the lie in their expression, the emotions I can catch hints of, despite my rejection of our bond. I don’t find it, but I still don’t believe them. It doesn’t matter, I declare. Forget I asked. We’ll fly with you. Can the wyrm keep up?
Glow is ours now. She will stay with us.
I don’t know what the fuck that means, and I don’t care. They’ll all be leaving without me soon anyway.