Page 109 of Untethering Dark

Muscles relaxed. Cares fell away. Aches and pains dulled.

Gudariks’s hands smoothed over her tired body. Washed away the blood of their enemies. The stubborn traces of blue paint that survived everything following the final hag ritual. The toils and hardships they endured. The people they almost lost. And the ones they did.

Hands gentle and trembling, he lingered over her throat and the circular scar that now marked her chest. No words passed between them. None needed to be said. She clasped her hands over his and squeezed her eyes shut as tears rolled down her cheeks. Their shared grief burned fiercely, and Astrid thought that maybe it always would, when they looked back and remembered how close they came to never having a future. Fracture points forever etched on their hearts.

But they survived. And they were here. Together.

Astrid unstopped the tub, leaving it all behind.

Gudariks helped her out, helped her towel off. Doing all the things she was too tired to do alone. Near death, the transformation, all the new magic she expended in such a short period of time... Powerful didn’t mean invincible. She knew that now. And it wasn’t the disappointment it might’ve once been.

All things had their limits. Seasons came and went. Storms blew hard and fast. Night gave way to day. Winter didn’t last forever, but it always cycled back around.

When she was dry, Gudariks pulled her into an embrace, holding her as tightly as their tired, aching bodies allowed.She pressed her cheek to his warm fur, scented sweetly of night blooms and soap, and inhaled deeply, comforted by their mingled scents. This creature was hers, and she was his for however long they had. Today. Tomorrow. Until the end of time.

Cradling Astrid to his chest with one arm, Gudariks climbed the ladder to her loft and laid her on her bed. He felt the weariness in his limbs, the toll of their ordeal straining even his few limits. Muscles so used to easy grace and strength, quivered. Perchta’s brew was doing wonders, but he needed rest. They both did.

In other times he might have retreated into the depths of the forest, burrowed inside his den, and slept for an age. Let oblivion soften the edges of grief and memory. Not now. Not without her. He wouldn’t waste a single moment of the ages to come, ages almost lost to old hate.

What happened today and two thousand years ago would always haunt him. As much as he wished it wouldn’t claim a second more of his peace, memory didn’t work that way. But the difference this time was it didn’t have to rule him. It didn’t have to steal his happiness or the joys of living.

He wasn’t alone anymore.

Gathering what remained of his usual grace, he climbed onto the bed, taking care not to crush the beautiful creature beneath him. Astrid pulled him into her arms, and between her thighs, tethering him to the present.

With her, the endless days ahead seemed more like a gift than a curse. He wanted to live every single second of them.

Astrid gazed up at him with half-lidded eyes, a strange tension welling within. Fear he knew, pain as well. In her eyes he found both, but it took such a tender, intimate form. She placed a hand on his chest just beneath an angry red gouge—where that cursed, twice-dead Wiedergänger had cruelly flayed his skin. He would love to see his ferocious little witch rip out the man’s heart again. Watch it stutter one last beat in her hand.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

A stronger, deeper emotion clogged his throat. “Shh, it’s done,” he soothed, threading his arms beneath her, holding her close.

She buried her face in his fur and clung to him with desperate strength. “I know, I just... I’m reminding myself that this is real. That you’re safe.” Hearing her short, gasping breaths as her body shook clawed his heart apart.

“I’m here. I’m safe.”

You saved me.

Gudariks held her until her breath evened, and the awareness of her body against his shifted. Her breasts pressed to his chest. Her thighs tight over his hips.

Never mind that his body ached in an entirely different way, he felt himself hardening between them. “Liebe, I’m sorry. I...”

Astrid placed a claw over his bony muzzle. “I think we both need this.”

Deft fingers guided him between her legs. Already warm. Already wet. Internal heat remained, mercifully unclaimed by Winter’s cold touch. She eased him inside, and he let out a guttural moan as he sank into her embrace.

“The past is best left there.” She placed her hands on his hips, tugging him closer, sliding him in deeper still. A soft gasp escaped her lips. “Move forward with me.”

They clung to each other, hips rolling in tandem. Striving, yearning, pleading.

Her hands gripped his backside, claws digging, but not piercing, his flesh. Pulling him deeper, harder. Her quiet gasps and moans drove him wild. And the way she clenched around his cock, like her body wanted to keep him right there...

Stars above, she was getting wetter. Their combined breath grew ragged, their flesh slapping as the pace quickened. This began as a need for comfort, but now he wanted more.

He needed to rut.

“Liebe,” he growled. “Let me fuck you.”

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