Rafes does not look happy as more introductions get made. But he dutifully walks forward when Myrna calls out to him to come meet her parents.
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me who you are. You look exactly the same as you did when you were a boy. So serious,” Grandma Chloe says when Rafes tries to introduce himself. “And now you’re married to my daughter? Won’t the Lord do it?”
Meanwhile, Grandpa Fenris assures him in Old Norse that he always knew he’d become a great fenrir.
Rafes is total grumpy face emoji that his confrontation has completely fallen apart. But he more than anyone should know: Time Travelling Vikings stay ruining the best laid plans.
“I give you welcome to our family,” Grandpa Fenris declares, clapping Rafes on the shoulder.
Then he looks at me and says, “I assume you to be our other twin granddaughter. Isn’t it strange that you look so little like your sister?”
No, I don’t look anything like Fensa. Other than our taller than average height and brickhouse dimensions, we don’t have much in common appearance-wise. But that’s not what has me confused about his question…
“How do you know what Fensa looks like?” I ask him.
And that’s when the second surprise of the century happens.
Fensa comes running out of the house with Xenon, Eos, and their twin daughters close behind her.
“Sorry,” she calls as she runs past Max. “I know Damianos wanted to do this in dramatic stages, but I couldn’t hold myself back.”
Okay, I was already on the verge of tears when my dads and aunt finally reunited with their parents.
But when I see Fensa. My one and only twin…
Did I say I wasn’t a crying-ass bitch?
Thug Queen down. My vision blurs as I run blindly toward my sister like we’re in a holo reboot of The Color Purple.
She’s crying, too. But somehow we find each other, crashing into each other’s arms.
I hug her and hug her and hug her some more. Then I hug the nieces and nephew I haven’t seen in far too long. (Seriously, Eos looks like a grown-ass man now). Then we all hug the grandparents we never thought we’d meet. Then we hug and pet Bazzi, who’s yipping excitedly and hovering in the air.
By the time we all disentangle, everybody’s crying. Even Knud’s hard ass.
But then the sounds of weapons powering up all over again kill all those warm feelings on the spot.
And we all look up from our extended group hug to find Damianos now standing at the top of the steps in a well-tailored suit.
“Damianos…” I step away from my people to look up at him.
“Ola…”
Ignoring all the little red dots reflecting off nearly every point of his body, including his head, the dragon comes down the stairs. His hands down and spread at his sides. His soft gaze holding mine.
His side of our mate bond fully open.
As he approaches me, I can feel all of his emotions. The pride, the anger, the bittersweet. And the love…so much love.
More even than the other timeline Damianos.
And you know what? I.D.G.A.F.
I repeat: I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.
I slap him. So hard, the loud smack reverberates across the happy family reunion. So hard, his face actually moves a centimeter or two.
“What the hell, Triple D?” I yell at him.
“Ola…” Damianos starts to say. His voice has a placating tone, probably because he can feel all the anger emanating from my side of our mate bond.
My family murmurs behind me and I can hear the soldiers requesting orders from Rafes over the biocomm, but I don’t care.
I slap the hell out of him again. Then I demand, “Why did you disappear on me? Why did you leave me that damn note, instead of telling me what you were trying to do?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he answers with a Eurodragon shrug. “A pleasant one.”
I jut out my chin. “You broke my heart and made me believe you deserted me to surprise me?”
Then I raise my hand to slap his overly chiseled face again.
But this time he catches the wrist of my slapping hand. “No, Reverence,” he answers, his voice harsh. “I broke your heart and made you believe I had deserted you, just in case my plan did not work.”
The arm muscles I was planning to use to slap him even harder than the first two times soften instead. “What?”
“Perhapsss, I can exxxplain,” Xenon says, coming to stand next to Damianos.
“I too want to help tell story,” Grandpa Fenris says in halting English.
Okay, storytime. Everyone gathers around, as Damianos with a few assists from Xenon and Grandpa Fenris explain why Damianos did things the way he did.
He hadn’t known for certain that he would be able to return to the Viking Age, using one of the artifacts he’d been able to acquire back when his original plan had been to slaughter our entire family…in this time period and now.