I curled into him, my body fitting perfectly against his like two puzzle pieces that had finally found each other after being lost for years, and within minutes I felt myself drifting off. He held me as I fell toward sleep, stroking my hair gently, his fingers tracing through the strands, as I listened to the storm rage outside. The wind howled, snow pelting the canvas in angry bursts, but inside, wrapped around each other, we were safe. Protected. Together.
And somewhere in that hazy space between waking and sleeping, a thought settled into my mind with absolute certainty. Rickon was different. Special. After all these years of loneliness, of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, of living inthe constant glare of public attention, he made me feel like just Ellie. Just a woman. Just myself.
And I didn't have the faintest idea what to do about it.
Chapter 12
Rickon
Ellie was my mate.
Among the Gudari, there was no mystical bond that snapped into place, no sudden rush of recognition. My people fell in love the way humans did—slowly, carefully, with all the uncertainty and hope that came with opening one's heart to another. There were no marks that appeared on the skin like brands, no inexplicable pull that made rational thought impossible and turned grown warriors into fools. Just a tingle of the wings to draw one's attention. Just feeling. Just knowing, deep in the soul where truth lived beyond words, when someone was meant to be yours.
My wings had fluttered the moment I first laid eyes on Ellie. The indication of physical attraction for my kind. The body's announcement before the mind could catch up. Now, it seemed they possessed a will of their own, trembling and shifting with each breath she took, each movement of her hand, each time those remarkable eyes met mine.
And I knew.
It wasn't just attraction, though the goddess knew I felt that too. I felt it like fire in my veins, like lightning dancing across my skin. It was something deeper, something that resonated in the very core of my being, in that place wheremy first mate had once lived and breathed. Where her and our daughter's memory still dwelled like a candle flame that never went out, flickering but eternal.
I had never thought the goddess would bless me again. After Iloyane and Akiatela were taken by disease, after I'd held them both as their light faded, I'd been certain that my allotment of love for one lifetime died with them. That I'd used up whatever grace the universe had set aside for a warrior like me.
But now there was Ellie, and my treacherous wings wouldn't stop announcing my attraction to anyone with eyes to see. Combined with the certainty singing through my veins, and the way my heart seemed to beat in time with hers, I knew what this meant. Knew it with the same bone-deep conviction that had guided me through battles and kept me alive when others had fallen.
She was my mate. My second chance. My unexpected grace.
And she accepted me. The real me, not the façade generated by the cuddwisg. In fact, she'd asked me to keep the cuddwisg turned off, claiming to prefer my real skin.
The wind currents carried us northwest, steady and chilled against my wings. Ellie was secured against my chest in the harness, her warmth seeping into my skin. She'd fallen silent an hour ago, and I could tell from her even breathing that she dozed. My heart squeezed with the knowledge that she felt so safe in my arms.
But the air was changing.
I felt it in the subtle resistance against my wing strokes, the way the currents grew sluggish and heavy. The temperature had dropped steadily over the last half hour, with a density to the atmosphere that made my instincts flare with warning. I'd been flying long enough to read the sky like text on a page.
A storm was building. A bad one.
Not the squall we'd weathered earlier, with its brief fury and quick passage. This would be different. Sustained. Vicious. The kind of storm that could rip wings from sockets and freeze you solid.
I'd flown through many storms in my years as a warrior, had learned to navigate conditions that would ground younger, less experienced flyers. But Ellie? Precious, fragile human Ellie, with her soft skin and inability to regulate her own body temperature? She wouldn't last.
And the tent. It wouldn't hold against winds like these. The gales would shred the canvas and snap the poles like kindling.
I scanned the horizon. Dawn was perhaps two hours away, maybe three. Not enough time to outrun what was coming. We needed shelter. Real shelter. Stone, a cave, or something that would shield us from the worst of the wind and snow.
My wings beat harder as I adjusted our trajectory, searching.
I felt her body tense against mine, a small shiver running through her frame.
"You're awake," I said, pitching my voice low so it wouldn't be lost to the wind.
Another shiver, this one stronger. "Yeah. Hard to sleep when you're turning into a popsicle." Her attempt at humor couldn't quite mask the tremor in her voice.
"Where do you think we are?" I asked, hoping her knowledge of geography might lead us to shelter.
Ellie twisted her head, gazing down at the landscape below. Endless stretches of forest broken here and there by flickers of light, the occasional lonely road cutting through the darkness. "Western Minnesota, maybe? We could've crossed into North Dakota already. It's hard to tell in the dark.Everything looks the same from up here." A pause. "It's definitely getting colder, though."
"A storm is coming." I tightened my hold on her fractionally. "A serious one. We need to find shelter before it hits."
"How serious?" The worry in her voice squeezed my heart.
