in our bathing tub, our skin pressed together. I spread my fingers wide over his chest, felt his strong heartbeat underneath my palm. Steady and slow.
I didn’t ask him if he was alright. Of course he wasn’t. I couldn’t make the pain go away. Time would help heal it, but it would always be there, like a scar. A reminder.
And I was doing my best to comfort him, but I worried that it wasn’t enough.
His eyes opened and he looked at me. He caught my hands and brought them up to his lips, before he slid his own hands down my body, to rest against my belly.
“I don’t even know what to say this night,” I confessed, licking my bottom lip, the cut stinging.
His eyes met mine. “Tell me that you love me,” he said, his voice guttural, deep.
“I love you, Arokan,” I whispered into his ear. Words just for him. Though my shoulder was still healing, I brought my arms up to rest on his shoulders, wrapping my hands around the nape of his neck, holding him close.
“Tell me that you will be with me always,” he murmured.
“I will be with you always,” I said softly, “until my last breath.”
“Tell me that…” he trailed off, meeting my gaze. “Tell me that you forgive me, for taking you from your village the way I did.”
My brow furrowed. I’d never known that he’d had doubts about that, about how we’d been brought together.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” I told him truthfully, the water trickling as I shifted over his lap. “I didn’t understand it at the time, Arokan, but I realize now that it was blessing. You were a blessing. You gave me a more complete life. You help me enrich it every single day.”
His shoulders loosened. His gaze softened. It was a look just for me.
My heart fluttered in my chest. Leaning forward, I kissed him, slow and soft, memorizing him though I knew I had no need.
And I knew, right then, that our future would be bright. That day, the past couple days, had been bittersweet. They had been difficult, emotionally, physically, for both of us, for all of us. I knew that there would be more difficult days ahead. With the uncertainty of the Ghertun threat, with the challenges of horde life, with the cold season approaching, the days ahead would be unpredictable.
But I knew, without a doubt, that as long as Arokan was at my side, as long as I was at his, we could face anything. Together.
When the baby came, when I brought our son or daughter into this world, we would be even stronger.
“Although,” I said, pulling back slightly from his lips to tease him, wanting to made him smile, “I’m not sure I forgive you for that time you tried to force feed me bveri meat.”
He made a surprised sound in the back of his throat and I was satisfied when I got a hint of a grin from him. “Stubborn kalles,” he murmured. “You fought me at every turn.”
“You liked it,” I whispered.
He gazed at me, brushing his fingers over my lips. His expression was serious when he said, “I would not have had you any other way, rei Morakkari.”
Epilogue
Two moon cycles later…
My hands fisted into the furs, crying out when Arokan slammed deep into me, shaking my whole body, chattering my teeth together.
I moaned, “More!”
His fingers flexed at my hips, pleased.
I was on my hands and knees before my horde king. I’d woken him that morning by slipping between his thighs and gently sucking on the head of his cock. Not a moment later, he’d flipped me over, ready to give me what I’d so nicely asked for.
Beneath me, my growing breasts bobbed with every thrust and I felt one of Arokan’s hands cup them, felt him tweak my nipples in a way that made me groan.
So good.
My horde king knew every place to touch me, knew how much pressure to use, how to angle his hips just right to hit that perfect, sublime spot inside me. He knew when I was ready to cum, he knew when to hold me on the edge or just let me fall. He read me as easily as I read him. He knew when I needed soft and slow and he knew when I just needed to be fucked and he happily gave me whatever I wanted.
“I love you I love you I love you,” I breathed, gasping, beyond thoughts and almost beyond words. I was