“Spiiine,” she corrected, heat gathering fast in her center as he explored his way down her back.

“Spyyyn. This?”

“So the spine actually goes on pretty far down, and it should end in a tail.Ifthere is one. I promise nothing.”

“All this is thespyn?” He slid his hand up and down her back.

“You have the same thing yourself, huldr-man.”

“Of course. We’re very similar. This is only language learning, nothing else.” His finger slid down to the base of her spine. “This?”

“That’s actually the tailbone, I think. Is there a tail?”

His hands slid down and stroked her bare butt. “There is. A very beautiful and alluring one. And invisible.”

“Then I guess I’m a huldr.”

One finger slid in between her legs and teased the wetness there. “Of course you are. This confirms it.”

He laid down atop her, along her whole length, his face by her ear. “I love my huldr wife.”

“And I love my warrior husband,” Josie said hoarsely, so turned on she could barely think.

The tip of his cock was at her entrance and his weight was holding her down without feeling heavy. She felt completely protected and safe, and also helplessly pinned down in the most arousing way. She loved his strength and his weight and his size, and the furs under her middle rubbed against exactly the right spots.

“Take me,” she urged, delirious with arousal and knowing that she would be coming fast.

“I already did,” the Viking raider growled and pushed into her.

EPILOGUE

- Josie -

Josie pointed. “That has to be it.”

Bragr steered the shortship towards the shadow in the middle of the frozen lake. “It is.”

He set the flying sled down and jumped out.

Josie followed and pushed the snow off the dragon’s head. “Doesn’t look like the dfergir ruined it.”

Bragr went in close, put his arms around theKraken’s bow, and pulled. Slowly the half metal, half wood bow came up from the snow. He relaxed, took a deep breath, and pulled it halfway out. “It’s heavy.”

Josie got to the other side of it and grabbed hold of the upper part of the dragon’s head. “On three? One, two, three!”

They pulled together and managed to get the whole bow out of the snow. Josie felt the neural lace kicking in and helping with the lift, although Bragr lifted a good nine tenths of the weight all by himself.

“What will we do with this thing, anyway?” Josie asked.

“We will bring it to the shipwrights and see if they can build a ship out of it. Most of the keel is gone, and the stern too. But maybe they know some tricks.”

“If this part survived the fall through the air, won’t those other parts also have made it? They’re made from the same stuff, right?”

Bragr shrugged. “The keel and the stern are probably somewhere in this forest. Do you want to search for them? Or for the mast and the sails?”

“Not really. It would take years.”

“It would, for a single searcher. But I will send out search parties. This is the time, before the snow melts. Those parts will be easier to find where they fell. Any longship is the most special craft in the galaxy, and it’s worth almost any effort to gather as many pieces as possible to hopefully make a new one.”