Chapter 24
MY HAMSTER GROWLS LOUDER THAN THAT
Andrik POV-
I wake like a beast dredged from the deep. Slow, disoriented, limbs heavy from the exhaustion that branded its name into my bones long before sleep claimed me.
I scent her before I even open my eyes—honeysuckle, soft and alive. Kai’velvorin. Kai’sael?n. Etra’morin.
Her hand is still buried in my hair.
My breath catches. I don’t move. The fire is little more than embers now, glowing orange in the hearth. Snow still drifts past the windows. The storm hasn’t stopped, but it’s gentler—like it knows we’ve both had enough.
She’s asleep. Really asleep this time. No fever, no twitching. Her body curled around mine like she’s trying to protect me. One arm draped over my shoulders, the other forgotten in my hair.
I swallow hard. I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve her.
I keep my head on her lap, but my gaze lifts gradually—just enough to watch the slow rise and fall of her chest. My mark still shimmers faintly in the dim light, delicate and divine, like frost lit from within.
My jaw tightens. A dozen thoughts crawl through me—self-loathing, guilt, obsession, fear—but one rises louder than the rest:
She stayed.
I press my forehead to her ribs, just beneath her heart, where her warmth feels strongest.
“I’ll make it right, Sael?n,” I whisper, voice so low it’s barely a sound at all. “Whatever comes. Whatever’s left of me—I’ll give it all.”
I stay wrapped in her, and for the first time since being brought into this frozen, haunted world, I let myself truly believe I might not be alone in it.
It begins as a whisper, like the first curl of smoke from a sleeping fire.
Tiny spikes of estrous blooming in her scent.
The change drags hunger to the surface. Heat prickles along my spine.
I’m hyperaware of her body pressed flush against mine.
The hitch of her breath with every movement—We’re getting closer to a bond-induced heat, and on top of that.
.. her ovulation. Fertility bleeds from her skin like a summons. And Thal?n, I want to answer.
Three days.
Thrahk ves’veylr?n. Nash kai’orin.
I won’t be able to hold back—neither of us will.
The bond pulls tight in my chest, taut and impatient. It remembers how close we came, but I won’t let it win until she’s safe.
My thoughts are pulled elsewhere... him.
No name. No scent. Moving through my forest without tripping my awareness—that has never happened before.
The trees didn’t whisper. The Gods didn’t intervene, and that terrifies me more than anything.
I can’t leave her, but I have to find him. The bond won’t wait much longer, and when her heat and human cycle align—
Kael’thurin ves thal?n.
I press a kiss to the spot just beneath her ribs, at the center of my mark.
“Kair?n esh velorin. Esh Sael?n. Nash ves’torin skar.” (She is my salvation. My soul bond. I will not let the dark touch her again.)
Lumi—
I wake up slowly.
I feel safe, but it takes me a second to remember where I am, what happened, and why my chest feels so heavy.
I blink a few times before my eyes focus on Andrik.
He’s curled over my body like a protective wall of fur and muscle, face half-buried against my stomach, eyes locked on mine.
“Uh... hi,” I rasp.
“Good morning, l?venkae,” He murmurs, his voice thick with sleep.
“How are you feeling?” I yawn.
“Better now that I know you’re safe, and don’t want to leave.” His gaze drops slightly, like he’s still bracing for rejection.
“I don’t want to leave, Andrik,” I reach for his face. “I want to be here... with you.”
He exhales slowly and presses his face a little deeper into my belly.
How something so big and inhuman can still long for acceptance shocks me. I guess it doesn’t matter what species you are; we all crave to belong somewhere.
I run a hand over the thick fur on his shoulder, then scratch at the coarsest patch with my nails. His eyes roll back.
“Does that feel good?” I ask.
“Have you ever seen those videos of lions scratching their backs against tree bark?”
The mental image of Andrik watching lion videos on a tiny phone makes me snort.
“I can’t say that’s part of my daily YouTube lineup,” I tease. “But yeah, I know what you’re talking about.”
“It feels so good, please don’t stop.” He groans.
Straight. To. My. Vagina.
I start on his other shoulder, scratching both sides at once. His head falls back, and his legs begin shifting.
He lets out a low whine.
“No one’s ever done this for me,” he murmurs. “I’ve never let anyone close enough to touch me.”
My heart cracks. But then…
“Wait, Andrik. Are you saying no one's ever touched you? Like... anywhere?”
He blinks slowly, like a sleepy snow-panther.
“Are you asking if I’ve had sex, Lumi?” he asks, in the most smug voice ever.
Before I can answer, he interrupts, “You will be the first and only woman I ever give myself to.”
My hands still in his fur.
I don’t even know what to say to that.
Thank you for waiting thousands of years for my hoo-ha?
His nostrils flare, and his eyes trail lazily over my body
Another perk of being soul-bonded to an ice monster: he can scent when I’m horny.
I wonder if I clip a Glade plugin to the front of my pants if it would throw him off?
Picture this: “Winter woods, with notes of balsam fir, cinnamon, and clementine— to throw off the monster in your life”
Tell me I’m not onto something?
Before I can spiral further, his claws press into my thighs. He’s not blinking at all, just staring intensely into my eyes. His claws grip me tighter, and his head falls to my lap.
Is he sniffing me?
“Lumi,” he rasps, “Your scent has changed.”
“Oh. Yeah, sorry about that,” I mumble, cheeks flushing. “I can go take a shower—”
His head snaps up. “No, you won’t.”
Well, damn, forest daddy.
“I need your scent all over me, Sael?n.” His voice is no more than a growl now, eyes glowing brighter than ever before.
He rips the blanket from my lap, and suddenly I am very, very aware that I am completely naked.
He glances down, then back up to my eyes. My thighs squeeze together instinctively.
His hand slides down to my knee and eases it open.
“Pretty sure last time we tried this, I almost died.” I joke.
He’s not blinking... or laughing.
He grabs the underside of the knee he just forced open and pins it to the bed. Then pries the other open.
I am officially spread like a Thanksgiving turkey.
“Andrik? What the hell is going on?”
His head dips, but he doesn’t lick me; he just rubs the fur of his cheek against me. Back and forth, over and over.
His claws tighten around my knees.
“Stay just like this,” He grits out.
“Yeah, kinda can’t go anywhere, big guy.”
“I won’t touch you, Lumi.” He rasps. “But I need to stay right here. Zae’torin veskae, Sael?n.”
This is totally normal. All the monsters truss their soulmates up these days.
His head drops to my thigh.
“How long do you need to do... whatever it is that you’re doing?”
“Until I’m done. Zai’nar ves virae.”
I kick my leg free and jerk away.
He slowly raises his head, eyes locked with mine. I drop my gaze, and he exhales a soft huff in satisfaction.
“You don’t scare me, Andrik. Chuff all you want.”
A slight growl rumbles in his chest, and I push at his shoulder with my foot.
“Oh, please, Andrik. My hamster growls louder than that.”