Chapter Text
5 years later
Bryce rolled her eyes as Syrinx wended through her legs with his incessant yowling. More food, please.
“Absolutely not, you gluttonous little monster” she tsked, refusing to give him the satisfaction of her full attention as she scrubbed at the pan she’d used to cook breakfast with earlier.
“Mommy, what’s glutternus?” a sweet little voice asked from the dining table, where her four-year-old daughter sat, in her black leather jacket and spiked combat boots- which she refused to take off (yes, even when it was bedtime)- with an array of colored pens, markers, and pencils splayed around the various canvases she had spread across the entirety of the table.
“Glutt-uh-nus, Dani” her mother corrected with a wry smile. “And it means he’s greedy.” She still couldn’t believe that perfect little girl was hers. With her mischievous honey brown eyes and perpetually present lupine smirk. Those were all Ithan. Bryce also saw him in the slope of that adorable little nose. And the sheer athleticism that was packed into that tiny body. But her pin-straight bloodred hair? Those pointed ears? The attitude, that nearly made every bedtime an all-out metaphorical brawl? That was 100% Bryce. Her obsession with all things punk/metal bands and black clothing had somehow been passed down through the person she got her name from. Danika Fendyr. Despite the fact that she never got the chance to meet Bryce’s best friend who had died so tragically years before she was born, Bryce just got the strangest sense that a part of Danika’s soul had found a way to latch itself to this brilliant child of hers.
Dani giggled as Syrinx bounded over to her and leapt onto her lap, no doubt hoping she would be an ally in defiance against Bryce. It was certainly smart, as her daughter could be an utter rebellious hellion. Something she had likely also gotten from her mother, if she felt like being honest.
But never with her daddy. Gods, the kid was an absolute saint for her father. She loved him more than Bryce had ever been capable of loving anyone. She had such a big heart and a capacity to love that was at times far beyond even Bryce’s comprehension. And she was so in tune with her own emotions and those of the people around her. And for her daddy? She would move worlds. She had taught Bryce so much about how to love, how to live with grace and patience.
Bryce thought about that day all those years ago, when Ithan had finally professed his love to her and told her that they were mates, nearly every day. After the mind-blowing sex, then the lovemaking, she’d taken the tonic to be sure they didn’t conceive. And she had taken a daily preventative pill in the days that followed, when he had fucked her on every surface of the apartment. But by the third week? She’d stopped taking anything. Had fallen so disgustingly in love with that man that she hadn't cared about the consequences. Had welcomed them, even, as he had.
At the time it might have seemed abrupt, how quickly they had happened. But it was entirely the opposite. He had loved her over half a decade. And she…she had denied feelings for him that she realized had been growing gradually day by day since she had first met him in that dorm on the first day of college. It was in the little moments that came together to form such a clear picture that she couldn’t believe she had overlooked it for so long. It was in the way he’d pick her up on drunken nights and hold her hair back while she’d release the entirety of the contents in her stomach. In the way he’d stroke her hair while she cuddled into him on the couch on those nights when the pack was out on patrol and he’d come over to keep her company and watch romcoms. In the way she’d sometimes catch him staring at her, searching her face with such infatuation and longing.
And in that moment when he showed up at her door, dripping blood onto the carpet in the hallways, marred with bruises and cuts across his absurdly muscled frame and handsome face, and he’d grinned at her…Fucking grinned like an absolute lunatic. She’d known. Deep down, she had known. She had seen his interview on the news earlier that day, where he’d verbally ripped Sabine to shreds. And she’d known exactly why he’d done it. Her mate. Her beautiful mate who had lost everything, his parents as a child, then his older brother who doubled as a father and a bestfriend, the only group of friends he’d ever had at that point, and even Bryce in some ways, all in one night. He had lost absolutely everything he had ever loved. And still, he loved her so relentlessly. Still he had never given up on her. Had never made a single complaint, not even a tensed jaw, all those times she’d brag about her sexcapades over the years, totally oblivious to how he felt and what he was to her.
And the way he believed in her rivaled even her own parents, her brothers. It had been him that had lovingly encouraged and motivated her to leave Jesiba’s and to start her own gallery, housing otherwise unattainable rare antiques and art pieces from around Midgard. Strangely, Jesiba had only smiled, in that terrifying way she did, when Bryce had told her she was leaving. As if she was proud. As if she had known all along what Bryce was capable of.
She’d done it, and had never felt more powerful or competent because of it. And when she’d found out a couple months after that special night that she had been pregnant with Dani, Ithan had wrapped her into his arms and spun her around, silver lining those soft brown eyes, and had murmured how much he loved her into her ear. Her room had become their room, and they had converted the guest room into a nursery for the baby. He’d taken her on a “babymoon”, it was all the rage now in Midgard, shortly after Dani’s birth. They flew to a tropical island off the coast of the Kalatian sea, where he’d asked her to marry him with an insanely romantic and well thought out proposal.
Between the wealth they’d acquired across both their careers, Ithan and Bryce had purchased her parents a massive house in their little mountain town, overlooking the sea. It had been there that they had their romatically intimate wedding, in the forest behind her parent’s home, with a canopy of tealights strung between the trees, and white rose petals sprinkled along the walkway up to the altar. It was perfect and simple and beautiful.
And the home they’d purchased Ember and Randall had also been for her younger brother, Emile. Emile had been the son of human rebels, whose parents and sister were mercilessly slaughtered during the war the humans waged against the Asteri many years ago. Emile had escaped Pangera after his sister Sophie’s death, hunted both by the rebels and the Asteri alike. Bryce had found him first, though, had made sure he was given a new identity, and had taken him to her parent’s small little town, far from the Pangeran wars. A docile human town, where no one would ever come looking for a boy like him. He had been thirteen then, thin and gangly. Now, he was a seventeen year old giant, who was the town’s star Sunball player. He looked up to Ithan and hoped to play on the famed Valbarran league himself after college.
And now, Emile no longer needed to hide. He could roam wherever he wanted in Midgard, and use his real name if he’d wanted to, since the Asteri had been eliminated by Bryce and Ruhn, with the help of Flynn, Dec, Ithan, Fury, Baxian, Isaiah, and even Jesiba, who’d rained down a vicious kind of fire upon those terrifying stars made flesh. But it had been Bryce’s older brother Ruhn, who the oracle had whispered to so many years ago, “The royal bloodline will end with you,” who had made the killing blow to each of those weakened stars, with his shadows that had snuffed them out like wisps of flame on a candle. They had learned once they cut off the supply of power that the Asteri had been siphoning off every Vanir citizen in the entirety of Midgard, that each of their powers strengthened to incomprehensible levels. They had become what they might’ve been if the Asteri never existed. And Ruhn was a maelstrom, a fierce storm of razor-sharp shadows. And he had no mercy as he indeed ended that royal bloodline, of the Asteri, with one massive tidal wave of night-dark energy. And endless night sky to suffocate and strangle those stars.
Bryce had known they were taking a risk when her and Ithan had dropped Dani off at her parent’s house before they ventured to the eternal city in hopes to end the Asteri’s rule, but she knew that her daughter’s life would have always had a threat hanging over it if they didn’t try. She also knew that Nidaros was the safest place for her if they were to be unsuccessful, as it had been for Emile. But it had worked. By some grace of the gods, they had won. And humans and Vanir had been picking up the pieces since. There had been no more wars. No more sparks of rebellion. Only a hollow grief for what had been done to their world, and a rebuilding. A hope of what they could all become together.
Syrinx cocked his ears then and Bryce’s heartbeat began to pick up when she sensed him just outside the door. She grinned, counting down from three in her head. A countdown to Dani’s inevitable emotional outburst when he walked through that door.
And….one. Sure enough, the door pushed open and Bryce was immediately enveloped in her mate’s rain and pine scent.
“DADDYYYYYYY!!!!!” Dani shrieked, nearly knocking her chair back as she leapt from it and sprinted across the pale wood floors, right into his waiting open arms.
“Hey, baby” he smiled warmly, picking her up and propping her on his hip with one arm, pressing kisses all over her cheeks. “Are you being good for mommy?”
Bryce snorted as Dani singsonged, “I’ve been an angel!”
But her daughter missed nothing, scrunching her little face in an adorable rendition of a scowl as she whipped her head back to Bryce.
“That’s my girl” Ithan said proudly, smirking over her wine-red hair at Bryce and winking.
Gods, seeing him hold their daughter like that, it did nothing good for those raging hormones currently annihilating her body.
“Hi, Princess” he said to his wife as he carried their daughter over toward her and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips.
“Hi” Bryce murmured, only a little dazed, as she tilted her head back to look at him.
“Daddy!” It was Dani’s favorite word, and the meaning changed with the inflection of her voice. This one had said, Gross, no more kissing mommy.
He chuckled and set her back down on her feet. “Can you go pack a bag, sweetheart? Grandma and grandpa are coming to pick you up soon.”
“Yay!” She squealed, suddenly distracted by her weekend trip to Nidaros she would be taking with Bryce’s parents. Bryce refrained from rolling her eyes at the fact that if it had been her who’d reminded their daughter about it, she would’ve started whining and stomping her feet.
She began running down the hall to her room when Bryce called out, “Danika Ember Holstrom!”
“Yes, mommy?” she called innocently over a shoulder.
“No running, my love, remember?”
“Okay!” she promised, even though that was still those thumping little feet against the wood floors that Bryce heard seconds later.
“She’s going to be the death of me” Bryce sighed as Ithan came up behind her, chuckling again as he wrapped his arms around her swelling belly. He rested his chin on her shoulder and inhaled deeply before brushing his lips against her neck.
“How’s my son?” He asked, stroking those strong calloused hands in light circles along her very pregnant belly.
“He’s been sassy too” she huffed. “He kicked my ribs all night. He always does that when you’re not in the bed with us” she added, sending a pout over a shoulder at him.
“I hate not being in the bed with you” he replied, capturing her mouth in a drugging kiss. “I told coach that I can’t go on anymore away games for the rest of the season.”
She smiled at that. He’d been on a three-day trip for a big game they’d just won over the weekend. But now with the baby coming soon, he’d apparently wanted to be there full-time for those last few months.
“Thank you.”
“Why would you thank me? It’s entirely selfish” he murmured between more gentle kisses along her neck and shoulder. He swept a curtain of her hair over to her other side to free up more space for his lips to roam. “I’d rather be right here with my girls.”
Bryce dropped that damn pan right into the sink with a loud clatter, along with the soapy sponge. Ithan laughed and leaned around her to turn the faucet off. He then turned her to face him with strong hands wrapping around her waist.
“I missed you” he said, thumbs brushing up and down her ribs. Bryce’s chest swelled with so many emotions but she just smirked up at him.
“I know.”
His gaze darkened like he might punish her for that sass, when Dani came bounding back out with a comically overstuffed pack weighing her down.
Her timing was impeccable, as that was Bryce’s father, Randall’s, telltale swift knocks against the front door at that same moment. Dani bounced back and forth on her feet in impatient excitement as Ithan went to let in Bryce’s parents.
Ember swept in first, her long dark hair a waterfall over her back as she strolled toward her granddaughter. Who had already begun clunking her way over to get a bear hug from grandma.
“Look at my girl, you’re getting so big” Ember exclaimed in awe down at her.
When she again stood to greet Ithan and Bryce, Dani had already begun tugging on the sleeve of her flowing black cardigan. “I’m all ready to go! Bye, mama, by daddy!”
Randall chuckled as she raced over to embrace his leg.
“Hey, slow your roll, little wolf” Bryce chided in amusement. “Come here.”
Dani huffed but obeyed, walking back over to her mother who was now kneeling at eye level with her mercurial four-year-old. Bryce pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I love you, always.”
Dani then wrapped her chubby little fingers around Bryce’s cheeks and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Love you, forever, mommy.”
Bryce glowed then, letting her starlight shine along her skin.
“Light it up, baby.”
Dani unfurled that small kernel of starlight within her own soul, let herself glow bright with it too. “Light it up, mama” she beamed like a ray of sun.
Twenty minutes later, and exactly fourteen questions later- about Bryce, the health of the baby, how Ithan’s shoulder was doing since the game-from Ember, Ithan had shut the door behind Bryce’s parents and Dani as they left. They heard her little voice recounting all the cool things she had done at camp over the summer, all the way down the hall and into the elevator.
It had only taken but a few moments after the sounds of their daughter had faded for his gaze to again turn to silken onyx as he stalked toward Bryce from across the room. A wolf closing in on it’s prey. Her stomach flipped in anticipation, and a million fluttering fireflies burst free, leaping up to her chest. Ithan wasted no time, sliding his fingers across her jaw and into her hair, tilting her head back into a possessive claiming of her mouth. He hummed in delight, sweeping that utterly adept tongue in past her parting lips. His fingers tightened their grip in her hair as she tugged on his lower lip, sucking it into her mouth.
Ithan withdrew just as Bryce had begun whimpering at the strokes of his tongue. He took a moment to really assess her, now that the chaos of their home had subsided. His gaze traveled from her half-up/half-down hairstyle she’d done, exposing her delicate ears– she knew that was his favorite. Had done it on purpose to bait him– to the soft makeup she’d worn, and down to that pale blue, form-fitting, long sleeved dress that hugged every inch of her curves, her absurdly large breasts, that sweeping belly, and the hem of which rode to just mid-thigh. Her thighs that Ithan was now shamelessly ogling. She’d known he was coming home today, and she had been prepared.
“Are you trying to torture me, Bryce?” he asked, his voice full of gravel and barely masked desire.
“Maybe” she replied huskily, meeting his gaze.
She squealed as he leaned down without warning and picked her up, wrapping her legs around him, carefully with her belly in mind, and began carrying her over to the kitchen counter.
“Ithan” she warned as he nipped at her earlobe.
“Hmm?”
“We have to leave soon…Juniper’s show” she mustered through her aching arousal.
He pulled back as he set her on the counter, the cool marble biting into her heated bare skin. “It’s opening night” he muttered distractedly as he slowly slid the hem of that dress up, inch by inch, over her thighs.
“So?” her voice was pathetically breathless.
“So…” he met her gaze. “That means it’s the first night of many. Meaning we can always go tomorrow. And” he added, noticing the protest forming on her lips, “I know my wife. How temperamental she can be when I haven’t given her an orgasm for a few days. Are you going to let me take care of my very horny, very needy, very pregnant wife, Bryce?”
She released another helpless whimper at the intensity in his gaze, at the finger that he had begun trailing circles with along the apex of her thighs. “You want to be good for me, don’t you, Princess?” he murmured, leaning in to kiss her collarbone. She dropped her head back, exposing more of her neck and chest to him, and he hummed in appreciation.
She bit back a moan, that still found it’s way out of her, and his responding grin was feral. He knew what her answer had been, then. “That’s my good girl” he purred, gently wrapping his hands around both of her ankles and bringing them up to the edge of the counter, her knees bent, legs pulled open wide. She was so utterly exposed to him now. And he released a low hiss at what was laid bare to him.
Ithan shook his head slowly as if she was indeed in trouble. “Bryce. Adelaide. Holstrom” he swallowed thickly. “What were you thinking when you didn’t put on any panties under that tight dress this morning, hmm?” His lethal gaze again met hers. “Did you want all the patrons at the ballet to see that sweet little cunt, the way it drips for me when I look at you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Hmmm” he mused again. “And what if you had begun leaking your need for me all over those thighs, darling? What would you have done in front of all those people?”
“Y-you would’ve cleaned it up for me. With your hands, your…mouth” her gaze dropped to that gorgeous mouth, those plush lips that he’d used nightly to make her cream on his tongue.
“I see” he said darkly, rising and stepping back, leaning against the kitchen island a few feet away.
Bryce squirmed there, forcing herself to stay still as Ithan’s chest rose and fell, as his heated gaze remained trained on her pussy, which was indeed making a mess on that counter now.
“Show me what I would have done with my hands. Show me what you’ve done every night since I’ve been gone. All alone in that bed, with only thoughts of my fingers, my tongue, my cock, to keep you company.”
It was a cruel game. One she supposed she’d deserved for tricking him into staying home tonight, despite the plans they’d had. Of course, it had been her scheme all along. She’d known as she’d pulled on that dress this morning, and had foregone anything beneath it, that this would end no other way than with him between her thighs.
Bryce felt absolutely filthy for doing it, but she slid one hand down to that spread sex of hers and began brushing light fingers up and down her slick lips.
“Rub your clit” he demanded.
And Bryce obeyed, head falling back as she swirled those fingers around and around her swollen button.
“No. Look at me.”
She gasped, bringing her gaze back to his as she kept playing with herself. She forced herself to hold his stare, that dark unrelenting stare, that set jaw, those blazing brown eyes. She’d nearly come just from him looking at her. He was so fucking beautiful. So fucking perfect.
Deciding that he’d had enough of torturing her, apparently, Ithan slid to his knees before her and clamped his hand down on those spread ankles of hers, making sure that there would be no wriggling free as he claimed her.
He’d met her gaze with one last taunting smirk before he’d leaned in and dragged his tongue along that silken line of her entrance. He did it again, but this time he’d spread her with gentle fingers, exposing that throbbing little bud at her apex and wrapping his lips around it, sucking it into his mouth with grating softness.
Bryce’s hips twitched, her legs already trembling from restraint, from being held in place. She reached out to dive her fingers into his hair, to grind herself further into his face, but he merely said “Ah, ah” against her sensitive lips. “Hands on the counter, baby” he instructed.
She cried in protest as he sucked her whole pussy into his mouth and her fingernails dug into the marble beneath her, had almost cracked the surface with the strength of it. Her stomach began contracting as he flicked his tongue roughly, expertly, against her clit. Again and again. He was relentless, pulling cries and groans from her like it was the easiest thing he’d ever done. He continued his devouring of her clit as he slid two fingers inside of her, parting her entrance and spreading her tight cunt around the thickness of them. His hands were so much bigger than hers, felt so much better than when she’d touched herself. He then suctioned his lips around her, slurping and sucking, as he stroked into her deeply.
Bryce’s hips bucked and bowed, and she was sobbing then, at the intensity of the pleasure. At the frustration that she couldn’t fuck his face at this angle and that he wouldn’t allow her to amend that.
As if he understood the meaning of her cries, he reached to those hands that had been gripping the edges of the counter like her life depended on it, and placed them both into the softness of his hair in silent permission.
Bryce moaned then as he replaced his fingers with his tongue and curled it right against that spot that had her seeing stars. Her fingers gripped into the soft brown strands of his hair and she indeed pushed herself further onto his tongue, swiveling her hips around it and garnering a wet groan from him.
The sounds they were making were so utterly depraved. Bryce thanked the gods in that moment that Syrinx had insisted on going to Nidaros for the weekend with her family. He had yowled and yowled until she had agreed to let him tag along. Now, it was only the empty apartment that greeted those raw and dirty noises she was making. The smacking noises Ithan’s lips made against her. It was almost shameful, almost.
Bryce began trembling, her inner walls contracting around Ithan’s tongue, when he murmured, “That’s it, Princess. Let go for me.” And with a cacophony of breathy moans and broken screams, she did just that.
Ithan had figured out pretty early on in their relationship how to make her squirt while she came. And he’d used that weapon in that exact moment, flicking his tongue just beneath that sensitive spot of her clit, that had her gushing into his mouth and all over the counter. Ruining her pretty dress.
But he kept her there, kissing softly up and down every inch of her sex while she squirmed and whimpered at the sensitivity of it all.
“Look at my wife, so fucking gorgeous and falling apart for me” he crooned, before picking her back up and leading her over to the floor to ceiling wall of windows across the room. He set her down on weak legs and began pulling that dress over her head.
She was beyond words, beyond any thoughts as he marveled at her naked body before him. “Unbelievable” he murmured, shaking his head in disbelief at how madly in love he was with her. She’d seen that expression enough times to know.
He palmed her heavy breasts, massaging the soreness out of them as a shudder ran through him. But he quickly turned her around, her hands splaying out against the glass in front of her. “Since you wanted to give everyone a show” he murmured darkly into her back, where he pressed gentle kisses.
“Ithan” she faked her protest, ignoring how obscenely hot and thrilling she found it to be fucked right up against this window, where angels or witches or any other manner of winged creature might fly by and see what he did to her.
But he merely knocked her thighs open gently with a leg, and sheathed himself inside her without warning, in one long thrust. Bryce cracked apart, light splaying out from all corners of her body. Her eyes screwed shut as he slid into her again and again, her ass rebounding off his hips each time they met. Her lip might have been bleeding from the way she was biting into it. She began pushing herself back onto his cock, earning a hissed groan from her husband, and when her eyes pulled open again, she secretly delighted in watching how her breasts bounced in the reflection of that glass, watching how he fucked her, rolling his hips and pushing his cock further with each stroke.
She realized it wasn’t so secret as his silken taunting laugh rumbled from him. “You’re fucking filthy, Bryce.” It was dark appreciation that laced the words.
Ithan wrapped that thick hair of hers around a fist and gently tugged her head back. He was so tall that he could lean over her and capture her mouth if he’d wanted. And apparently, he’d wanted. His tongue plunged into her, tasting her primal grunts and cries. He brought his other hand around to squeeze and knead her breast, which caused her core to tighten around him.
“Fuck, Bryce” he pounded into her, his balls slapping against her apex. “Fuck” he nearly shouted.
And she couldn’t stop the second orgasm that tingled along her spine, that gathered in her veins like a roaring fire, that combusted right as that hand slid up and clamped around her throat. Her scream was broken by his tightly wrapped fingers. And moments later, his deep grunt sounded as he eased his come into her. Seconds later, he lifted her up straight against his body with that hand still softly cradling her throat and pressed loving kisses against her cheek, her temple.
Ithan had carried Bryce to their room and made love to her a second time, soft and sweet, looking into her eyes and reminding her again and again how deeply he loved her.
She’d cuddled into his side after, as much as their growing son in her stomach would allow, and laid her head on his chest.
After long moments of catching their breath and coming back down to earth from their spiraling high, Ithan stroking her belly lovingly, Bryce finally spoke.
“Your daughter hates me” she groaned into the side of his neck.
His responding laugh echoed into that place between her thighs. Fucking Urd, he was like synth for Bryce. The dangerous and highly addictive street drug. But Ithan, with his masculine scent, the way his tan skin caressed yards and yards of thick muscle. That pro athlete’s body, honed by years of training and discipline, Gods he was irresistible. Every girl who owned a television or had access to social media knew it too. And the boys. It was safe to say most beings in general.
“ Our daughter” he amended wryly, drifting his fingers up and down her back, “loves you more than anyone on this planet.”
Bryce snorted. “Have you seen the way she melts for you?”
Ithan’s hands drifted again to her thumping belly. He soothed it over the curve where their son currently had his treacherous feet pressing against her skin. And even that eased for him, as if her son knew that it was his daddy and would settle only for him. She was going to be utterly outnumbered and without allies in this damn apartment soon enough.
“She likes to wolf out with me and play. I’m just ‘fun dad’. But you? She wants to be just like you, Bryce. That’s why she gives you such a hard time. She’s trying to prove to you that she’s independent and fierce, brave and headstrong. Just like mommy.”
He emphasized that last word with a sweet kiss to her lips. She didn’t know why, and blamed it on the pregnancy hormones in the moment, but tears had sprung to her eyes.
Two weeks later
Ithan had his hands wrapped around Bryce’s eyes as he slowly guided her to wherever this surprise he’d spoken of was. Apparently, Dani was in on the surprise as she excitedly walked beside them, with full access to her eyesight, unlike her mother.
“Are you ready?” Ithan whispered into her ear, and she couldn’t fight the ensuing shivers down her spine in response. But she nodded her head around them.
Ithan lifted his hands and Bryce’s heart almost stopped. There, in front of her, sat a sprawling estate, right on the edge of the sparkling Istros river. It was massive and luxurious, with it’s pine green door and grand ivory columns, the wraparound porch. Dani jumped up and down, gaze trained on Bryce’s reaction.
“Do you love it, mommy?” She squealed, Bryce’s heart tightening at that sweet little smile staring up at her.
“Yeah, what do you think, mommy?” Ithan echoed, pulling her back against his chest and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
Bryce peered back at him. “When did you buy this?”
Ithan had opened his mouth to respond but their impatient little girl chimed in before he got the chance. “He didn’t buy it, he built it for us, mama!”
Bryce’s hand flew to her mouth. Tears lining her eyes as she again looked to the house, and then back to her mate in question.
He nodded, smiling broadly. “For you, my love.”
Every loss Bryce had ever experienced, every heart shattering moment, every mistake she’d ever made, it had all been worth it. For him. Her mate. For Ithan she would live and thrive and let herself finally be happy. Be free.