their feathered caps and I looked up at him and nodded mutely.
He grinned at me and turned to Tyr.
“Stay with Finnie,” he ordered, Tyr’s strong, sleek jaw rose up and he whinnied softly.
Frey moved into the clearing and directly to a male elf who gave Frey the elfin salute of chin bent to the side of his neck. Once he lifted his head, they started talking quietly so I couldn’t hear what they were saying and the flashes and sparks stopped coming. I counted nine elves and none except the male talking to Frey was looking at Frey. They were all looking at me.
I smiled and waved.
When I did, there seemed to be a low, cheerful twitter that filled the air although none of them spoke nor did their lips move. They looked amongst each other and then back at me. That was when I got smiles.
Through this, Frey continued to speak with the male elf and I saw that the discussion was intense but I wasn’t reading bad vibes from Frey. This reading proved accurate when suddenly they stopped speaking and both Frey and the elf turned to look at me.
And when they did Frey smiled, broad and white and my heart stuttered at the sight.
My husband didn’t hide his smiles from me but I’d never seen one like that. Never like that.
Ever.
It was gorgeous.
He tipped his chin at me and gave me a flick of his hand which told me I could approach. Without delay, I did, quickly, making it to his side with Tyr at mine in a second.
When I arrived, Frey’s arm curled round my waist and he pulled me close to his side before he said softly, “My wee Finnie, it is my honor to present you to Nillen, Speaker of the Elves.”
I looked from Frey to Nillen, who was my height, and I smiled before whispering, “And it is my honor to meet you, Nillen, Speaker of the Elves.”
Nillen smiled back and replied, “The honor is mine, Seoafin of the other world, bride of our Frey.”
I inclined my head like Mother would and told him softly, “Thank you for allowing me to come.”
“It was our pleasure, Seoafin, Ice Bride,” he returned just as softly and went on. “And we do hope you are present when there are future joyful messages we will share with our lord Frey.”
Joyful messages.
Cool.
It was good news. This pleased me. With all that was going on, we could use good news.
“I do too,” I agreed not knowing what the message was but not caring. Anything that made Frey smile like that was totally okay with me.
He inclined his head to me then looked to Frey and stated, “We return to our realm now in order that you can celebrate with your Ice Bride.”
Celebrate?
Apparently whatever the news was, it was joyful.
Awesome.
“Of course,” Frey murmured, Nillen gave him another elfin salute, Frey lifted his chin to him then looked around at the other elves all of whom gave him a salute then they all smiled happily at me then they all slowly drifted back to the tree, bent low to touch its bark where it met the earth and then disappeared with an ice blue flash and a white spark.
When the last disappeared, I stared at the glowing tree and whispered, “That is so cool.”
Then I suddenly moved and it wasn’t me who moved me. One of Frey’s strong arms came tight around my waist dragging me up his body just like he did during our wedding kiss but this time higher so I was head and shoulders over him, his other arm closing around my thighs just below my bottom. Automatically, I grabbed onto his shoulders and looked down as he twirled us around twice, his head back, his eyes on mine, that broad, gorgeous smile on his face.
“Frey,” I said softly, mesmerized by that smile, I moved one hand to his cheek, “what on –?”
But I didn’t get the rest out. His arm at my thighs disappeared, he dropped me down a foot and his hand cupped the back of my head, pulling it toward him, crushing my mouth to his and he kissed me, hard, deep, wet, long and, last but oh so not least… wonderful.
When he was done, he moved my head to shove my face in his neck and held me against him, feet dangling in the air, arms tight and he did this for awhile.
My arms had curled around his shoulders, my heart was still beating hard from the kiss, my breath coming harder but I turned my head so my lips were at his ear and I asked, “Frey, what’s going on?”
His head turned too so his mouth was at my ear and he answered, “The message of the elves, my winter bride, is that you carry my child.”
I blinked at his neck as I felt my belly drop.
What?
“What?” I whispered.
The pressure of his hand at my head lightened, I lifted it up and looked at him to see he was still smiling that beautiful, joyous smile.
“You carry my child, Finnie,” he whispered back, pressing my head to his again for a soft touch of lips then he slid me down his body to my feet but he didn’t remove his arms. In fact, they squeezed me hard as I saw by the glow of the adela tree his eyes were warm, soft and lit with a blissful light that, no other way to put it, was utterly enthralling. “You carry my child and the elves did not tell me but I know down to my blood that if he is boy, we will teach him to be a strong, fair ruler and if she is girl, she has no hope to have anything other than the tremendous beauty of her mother.”
At his words, my belly did a somersault then melted.
Okay, well. Shit.
A lot was happening here. A lot.
One was that it was coming to me that I hadn’t had a period since Hawkvale and, until that moment, I hadn’t even noticed. Now, obviously, I did. So, weirdly, elfin pregnancy detection, it would seem, was accurate.
Two was that powder the girls had given me wasn’t as full proof as they said it was. That was now abundantly clear.
Three was that I did not want to have a baby, not now. Yes, I wanted to have Frey’s child, absolutely, in fact, I wanted us to have more than one. But I also wanted to wait awhile, say, after I knew that my future in Lunwyn was secured, I’d travelled back to take care of business at home and after I’d had a few adventures with Frey and his boys.
Obviously this wasn’t going to happen.
Four was, equally obviously, Frey was freaking ecstatic about this news. This meant that he not only loved me, he was happy as all get out I was carrying his child and he couldn’t possibly wish to let me go in six months. No way.
Which meant I was staying.
I already knew this, what with him loving me, and the way he did, but it was way nice having this confirmed.
Which led me to five and that was that if this made Frey this happy, even though it was too early for me; I couldn’t help but share his joy.
So we were going to start a family early. Who cared? We were going to start a family, I hadn’t had a family in fifteen years and now I had one and not only that, it was apparently getting bigger.
And I was staying. It was clear that I was going nowhere and if I’d thought about it logically, I knew that already not only with the way Frey was with me but also Aurora and Atticus. The decision had been made by The Drakkar, this was my family, this was my life, my world and looking up at my husband’s handsome, ecstatically happy face, I knew I’d shot passed bliss and was exploring new heights on that end of the happy scale.
I slid a hand around his neck to his jaw where I glided a thumb out to touch his smiling lips as my eyes watched.
Then I moved my gaze to his and I whispered, “I’ve never seen you this happy.”
Instantly, Frey whispered back, “This is because I’ve never been this happy.”
My body melted into his and I kept whispering. “Really?”
