Page 98 of The Wolf

It was therefore to his surprise when Scarlet yanked open the door, stared pointedly at Brine, her blue and green dress flowing around her bare feet.

He swallowed thickly and stared at his mate, waiting for him to send him away.

“Come in, then,” she murmured, stepping aside to let him in. Brine could hardly believe his luck. He knew that if he questioned Scarlet’s hospitality then she would simply tell him to leave, so he stumbled over the threshold into the cottage, reveling in the warmth on his face from a roaring fire in the small living room. Scarlet closed the door behind them and gestured for him to sit down.

Once settled by the fire, Brine thought Scarlet was sure to say something. Instead she was resolutely silent. Brine had never been one to begin a conversation. An awkward quiet stretched out between them, punctuated only by the crackling of the fire. Scarlet was glaring at him, but Brine didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world but here. She leaned against an old wooden table. His mate was luminous, even with a frown on her face, her swollen belly reminding him of everything that he wanted and so dearly hoped he hadn’t lost.

“I’m happy here,” Scarlet finally said, cleaving the silence in two as if she had shouted when in reality her voice had been barely more than a whisper. “I can’t go back to my old life—not even for the side of good. I understand what you’re doing with the Dark Court now, I really do, but even they have to make sacrifices that I can’t stomach any longer. So I want to be here. This is my home now. Here, with our child. But if you want to—and if you’re willing to put in the effort—I’ll let you see them. I don’t…” Scarlet’s gaze fell to her hands fidgeting restlessly in her lap: the one sign that she was nervous about Brine’s thoughts on what she was about to say. But then she gulped, steadied her hands, and brought her eyes back up to lock on his. “I don’t want our baby to grow up without a father, though that’s exactly whatwillhappen if you prove to be anything less than the most doting parent a child could hope for.”

Brine couldn’t believe his ears. He got to his feet, the wooden chair he’d been sitting on scratching against the surface of the floor as he did so. “Please tell me that every word you just spoke is true,” he said, closing the distance between them to stand in front of the woman he loved more than anything. “Tell me I am not hallucinating right now, Scarlet. Tell me that you are not lying.”

Scarlet continued to glare at him so Brine took a step back. Her hands curved protectively over her belly. “I wouldn’t lie about this, Brine. But it doesn’t mean we have to be together. I understand why you couldn’t trust me before, and that our past may make it difficult for you to trust me now. You can think what you like about me. But when it comes to our child … I will always be true. I hope you can believe that.”

He did.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Scarlet,” Brine said, wasting no time in gathering Scarlet against his chest. She gasped in surprise. How had Brine resisted this for so long? So many precious seconds, minutes, days and weeks and years wasted not being with the woman his heart cried out for with his every waking moment—and most of his sleeping ones too. “Idotrust you, Scarlet. I want to be with you. The child …ourchild … is an added gift I never expected to be granted in this life. I never thought I’d be a father. You don’t understand how precious all of this is to me. How important.”

She was giving him everything he’d been looking for his whole life.

Against his chest, Brine heard Scarlet stifle a sob.

“Do you—do you mean that?” she asked, her voice unmistakably wet. She glanced up at Brine when he bent his head low to take her in, her lashes thick with tears. “Tell me you’re not the one lying now, Brine. I don’t think my heart can take it if you are.”

He held Scarlet’s face between his hands, tenderly stroking her cheeks. Scarlet closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, her previous sob turning happy. “If this is your home now, Scarlet, then it’s my home too,” he said, meaning every word of it. “My home—my heart—is wherever you are. So if you’ll let me … and I hope you’ll let me … I’ll happily spend the rest of my life here in this house, with you and our child. Pirates be damned.”

“You would truly leave Betraz behind?” she asked again.

“I would,” he said seriously, searching her eyes. “But my love, are you ready to leave Betraz behind? To leave your people behind?”

Her gaze wavered. “I’ve given so much.”

“You have. I’m not asking you to give more. I’m asking you if you truly want to give up your province.”

“I… don’t know.”

He cupped her cheeks. “You don’t have to make a choice now. I’ve already put Bright in charge. He is working with Prey and Damien to weed out those who were loyal to Arwen. Chesh is taking care of her fleet of ships. It will take time but soon, Betraz will be a place of peace and equality for all.”

“You want me to go back.”

“No.” He shook his head fiercely. “I want you to have everything you want. I don’t want you to have regrets. You deserve everything and more.”

“Can I think about it?”

“Your wish is my command, my love.” And he meant it.

Scarlet let out a laugh—the most beautiful sound Brine had ever heard—and crept up on her tiptoes. He thought he imagined the touch of her lips against his at first. The soft and fluttering kiss was practically a ghost. But then Brine yielded against her lips, and Scarlet against his, and Brine deepened the kiss into something firmer. Resolute.

A promise between the two of them that they were both here, together, and that was all they wanted.

“I love you, Scarlet,” Brine whispered into her mouth long minutes later, when they finally parted from their kiss for a moment, breathless and entwined.

Her lips twisted into a smile beneath his. “I love you too.”

He lifted her upon the table and knelt on the floor lifting her foot. Brine pressed a kiss on her left ankle reverntly.

Once upon a time, Brine would have wanted nothing more than to live in this moment forever. Now all he could see was the future: his life beyond this moment.

For the first time in his life, he couldn’t wait to live it out.

---