Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

In his land, wolves who were not able to return to their human forms were sent to the woods to live as the animals they could not escape. But Chloe had bid him to accept their youngest son into their home as he was. “He will never be a man,” she’d told him, but he will always be our son. God loves all his children, and we should, too.”

For his Chloe, Fenris had broken with custom. And now he could only rejoice at his decision to bid their village to join her in giving praise to her one sky god. For if he had sent Olafr away, he might never have known this male standing before him.

Fenris had told his youngest son this oft since he and FJ had arrived by boat to the gathering shore. But tonight Fenris did not clap Olafr upon his shoulder or once again give voice to his joy. In fact, none of them uttered any words at all. They merely turned as three toward the woods and walked in the same direction.

It was the strangest feeling. As if Fenris knew both exactly where to go and nothing at all. And when they found Odin himself, sitting upon a rock in a small clearing, that strange feeling amplified.

He had never seen the All father himself, but every North Man, wolf and human knew of him by tale. And his aunt Bera, a sorceress of great renown, had often been visited by him in visions. She had told Fenris of his giant frame and single red glowing eye.

So Fenris knew exactly who he was as he and his sons approached the rock. Yet he could not bring his tongue to speak in greeting or even express his surprise.

“There is no need to talk,” Odin said inside his mind, though they shared no mate bond. Odin must have made himself heard to FJ and Olafr as well. For they too stood at rapt attention.

“I have called you here to tell you how you might win your battle with the serpents.”

That night Odin instructed them to walk west with their troops to a place where they would find all the serpents who had attacked the North Wolf settlements gathered. The All father also told them the areas on the serpents’ bodies to aim for so that their attack might yield true death. FJ had hit one by accident when he pierced one of the serpents with his sword. But Odin informed FJ that many of the serpents he thought he and his warriors had killed in that battle had only been given debilitating wounds… which had healed within hours of them leaving their bodies to rot.

The next morning Fenris and his troops followed Odin’s instructions and won the last battle after much combat filled with swords and glory. However, the morning after their victory celebration, Fenris found FJ and Olafr once again waiting for him outside the tent he shared with their mother.

“Father, we must go.” FJ spoke for the both of them still, even though Olafr was no longer wolf bound.

Then he told Fenris of the other things Odin had spoken into his and Olafr’s minds. If his sons truly wished to return to their mother’s future land to reunite with their fated mate, they must travel to the farthest east. There they would find a gate he had created himself and a sorceress waiting for them with the spell they would need to return to the mate they had left behind.

Many answers to their announcement had stormed into their fenrir father’s mind that fateful morn. He’d thought to rage at FJ and demand that he stay here to take his rightful position as the North Wolves’ fenrir next. He thought to guilt Olafr. Had his mother not broken with custom to treat him the same as she would have a non-wolf-bound son nearly his entire life? Olafr owed Chloe more, so much more than leaving before she had the opportunity to properly enjoy the reward for her tender kindness.

But Fenris already knew what their answer to all his protests would be.

They were fated mates, just as he had been before their births. When his Chloe had been torn from him, he’d vowed to chant the spell that would bring him back to her-to die chanting it if that was what it took.

“There was a timeline where you did die,” she’d pointed out the night they were reunited. “In some version of our story you died and your sword ended up in a museum and his sacrifice was the only reason we’re together now.” Chloe had looked up at her mate with tears in her eyes. “You’re my happy ending. And you’re my hero. And I can’t believe you did that for me.”

Yea, Fenris understood better than any other fenrir just how far a male would go to return to his fated mate’s side. He knew also that there would be no keeping his sons in this land, in this time, no matter what he said.