“What can I do?” My hand shook as I stroked her hair back from her face.
“Focus on the bond, lad. Pour everything you feel for her into that connection and anchor her to you. In this tentative state, that’s all we can do. Give her something to follow back.”
I shifted into the chair he brought, never releasing her hand, and did exactly as he said. I poured everything I felt down that whisper of a bond. Everything I’d held back. Everything I’d denied.
I didn’t know how long I sat there, sending my feelings into that bond. Feeling the thread strengthen was the only thing that could quell my terror. Freya came by several times, urging me to take a break and let her spell me. But there was no way I was leaving my princess. Ever. Finn sat in a chair on her other side, quietly shifting through books and occasionally making the scratching sound with his quill. He didn’t try talking to me, even through our connection. I think he knew better. Something had shifted irrevocably between us while she had been gone. But now was not the time to sort through that.
I had no idea how much time had passed, how long we had been there, when her eyes fluttered beneath the eyelids.
“Princess?” I whispered, unable to believe what I was seeing.
Her eyes opened.
Knee-wobbling relief swept through me as those beautiful turquoise eyes focused on me.
“I heard you. I think I heard everything you said. It brought me back to you,” I whispered to him, a few tears leaking out. He caught them before they rolled down my face, and kissed their tracks.
“When did you know we were mates?” I asked, my fingers threaded with his.
He kissed behind my ear. “I felt it the minute you looked at me for the first time. Then, when you stepped into my arms that first day, it flowed through me so strongly I was shocked you didn’t feel it. All I could think was ‘mine.’”
“I did feel it. Or felt my own something. Warm golden light, spreading throughout me. A golden thread searching for something. Someone.” I shook my head and laughed a little. “But there were so many things happening I dismissed it. I didn’t know what it was.”
“I knew,” he whispered, kissing my brow. “I knew from the rightness that came when you were there. But I didn’t let myself accept it. Because how could you be mine? And then you were gone. I knew for certain I had fucked up. I’d had this precious thing in my life and it had just disappeared. I hadn’t claimed you as mine. I hadn’t even told you.”
“I’m sorry.”
He tilted my face toward his. “No more sorry. I know why you did it. And it brought us here. But I’ll be damned if I’m letting you go now.”
I spun in his arms and climbed into his lap, straddling him. He groaned as he rubbed against me. And then my stomach betrayed me, growling.
Stopping his assault of kisses on my neck, he raised his head. “Was that you?”
I grinned sheepishly. “I may be a bit hungry.”
“We can’t have that.” He pushed the covers back and tried to settle me next to him, but I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on. “Princess,” he said in warning as my stomach growled again. I refused to move, so he picked me up. “I can’t have you fainting and going into stasis again.”
“Are you hungry?”
He eyed me. “Ravenous.” He dropped his head to take my nipple into his mouth. My hand cupped the back of hishead, fingers digging into his skull, holding him there. He sucked long and hard before he shook his head free of my grasp and kissed me quickly. He unlatched my feet from around his waist with one hand, the other arm still clasping me to him. He groaned as I slowly shimmied down his body until my feet touched the floor.
“But I’ll have to wait. You need food.” He quickly pulled his pants on but forewent a shirt. “Get dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
I admired the view from behind, the muscles bunching in his back, until he disappeared. Sighing, I viewed my leathers. I really didn’t want to wear those right now. Investigating the drawers turned up nothing so I turned to the wardrobe. It was full of clothes, both men’s and women’s, and somehow everything was precisely our sizes. I sorted through them until I found one that made me grin.
This was perfect. And I wasn’t going to question where this, or any of the clothes, came from. Just more magic associated with this cottage.
As I came down the stairs, I took time now to notice the interior of the cottage. It was just as cozy on the inside as it had appeared on the outside. The stairs ended in a main room with a couch and a fireplace, a kitchen just beyond it. The warm honey tones of the wood gave everything a cheery glow.
I made my way slowly to the kitchen, sore from all the old places and some new ones.
He looked over at me from the pantry as I came in and froze. “Fuck.”
“What?” I asked innocently, running my hands over my hips.
He just blinked, dumbfounded. Maybe the nightgown was doing its job. There was a slip of black silk over my nipples but the rest of the bodice was black lace that draped in a deep vee almost to my navel, the thinnest of straps holding it up over my shoulders. The black silk swathed my hips and fell to the floor, lace running along the sides of the nightgown. There was a slit up one side that came almost to my hip, and as I moved, the silk slipped over my curves and clung to my ass.
In two seconds, he had dropped what he was holding and yanked my hips against him. “It’s already hard enough to keep my hands off you, and then this?” His reaction pressed into my stomach.
