Now that the moon had shed his veil of clouds, Brenna was caught beneath both his silvery glare and that of the compelling man before her. She watched as Renic's eyes dropped to her mouth, and she thought she detected something ... sensual glimmer in those fathomless depths. She felt her body hum with the preeminence of this stirring moment, and she flattered herself that he could feel it to.

Predominantly, though, his features were as unforthcoming as they had always been. She could not read him. Not even that slight frown hovering at his brow communicated a hint of the thoughts that lay behind it.

"Tell me," she said, "has a Greyback woman managed to conquer your heart whilst you were abroad?" Easily had she comprehended the need that had kept him isolated far away, but the defection of his loyalty to a clan other than that of his birth was something that Brenna felt was unlike Renic. Or perhaps she didn't know him nearly as well as she thought she did. "Is that why you have adopted a new clan?"

"No." An impalpable twitch pressed at one corner of his mouth, only an inkling of a smile. But it vanished so swiftly that she bethought herself she'd imagined it into existence, for he was instantly solemn again. "I want no wife," said he, "to condemn to this life."

She was intrigued by the wry snort that had shortly followed his asseveration. "You find that ironic?" she asked.

"Tis nothing. Only, I have been in Odin's company far too long; and he is quite fond of versifying."

He pulled her fingers gently away from his face. She, however, relented only in dropping her hand to his bared forearm to maintain the contact, the flesh there as hot as his cheek had been, as if that would somehow inspire him to confide in her all that lay heavy in his heart.

"Yes, your mother touched upon that too — your alliance with ... the Allfather." But it was not of the eccentricities of gods and goddesses she wished to speak of just now. "Help me understand your need to leave us." It appeared that he had been wrong after all, words were certainly required between them.

"I cannot stay here any longer, Brenna. I am too much changed; and so is Roth. There is much I understand about myself now, and about him, that I failed to see when I lived within his shadow."

It was true, Roth had always been the more unrestrained of the two. Despite that he could at times be taciturn, Roth had always been a social creature, for the most part, whereas his brother was — or had been — eremitic and quiescent by nature.

"I see for myself that he has become a chieftain worthy of his mother's legacy," Renic went on, "and I am proud of him. But whilst I lived amongst you all, we, both my brother and I, had less identity than we have now. We relied too much on each other; I realize that now. And, in sooth, I have every belief that had I not stayed away, one of us would be dead now."

"What do you mean?" She felt her bones become chilled with dread. "He would have killed you?!"

"Or I might have killed him. Not purposefully, mind; yet who but the Nornir are able to see what could have been had circumstances transpired differently. The repercussions were such that not even Loki had prevised them — the world is too small for monsters such as we, and neither Roth nor myself are submissive by nature.

"Our valdyrer, whether we accept the truth of it or not, are merely echoes of our inner selves. Ironically — despite that I sometimes felt we were two halves of the same beast — we, neither of us, were born to follow the other."

"I see." Even in nature, she admitted, there was no place for two dominant wolves in one pack. In every scenario, one would always be forced to seek out its own clan. "As much as your family and I will bewail the fact, I admit that I see no other recourse but that which you have chosen for yourself. You are no longer Blackmane, for good and all."

But even though he sat at the head of his own jarldom, Renic seemed lonely. He clung so adamantly to it that she feared for him. Even Roth, with his scars and his anger, had allowed himself to love a woman — the woman he had loved since childhood. As she had always loved Renic.

"There is something I have always wanted to know, Renic. A question only you can answer. Till now, I have never felt ... bold enough to ask it of you." Then she smiled, nudging him playfully, before she added, "And you are being so forthcoming tonight..."

"I am always forthcoming." He seemed honestly confused by her intimation that he should be otherwise.

She forestalled laughing outright — certain that he would not appreciate it — and, instead, took a moment to swallow the sudden mirth he'd inspired with his naiveté. "No," she said, shaking her head, "your features are as impenetrable as the mountains, and of your thoughts you speak but rarely. In fact, you said earlier that no words were ever needed with me. What did you mean by that?" For she certainly did not feel that way in his company. Not yet, at any rate.

"I take it this is not the original question you meant to ask?"

"No, that I will ask next," she promised, still smiling.

He discharged a heavy suspire that soughed wearily through his parted teeth. Teeth that, for all she knew they were sharp, she yearned to have pressed tantalizingly against her flesh.

"Since that night in the woods, when I hurt you" — At the mention of the wound he'd dealt her shoulder, his face flushed with anger and his mouth compressed with momentary grimness — "I have always felt your steadfastness to be unfailing. My mind was never troubled by the fact that you might betray my awful secret. And in so doing, betray Roth his ... crimes, for I know you bear my brother no great love. You understood me then as you have clearly shown you understand me still. We have a kinship, you and I. Do we not?"

"I should like to think so." But you never came back for me. You've never held me. You've never kissed me.

He inclined his brows in a way that implied he had no more explanation than that to offer her.

"Then I am like a sister to you?" she asked, carefully, hopeful of his denial. For her part, she knew that not to be the case, for he'd never treated her like he treated Heida. Disconcerting though it was, she was at once envious and thankful for that.

"No," he replied, the furrow at his brow deepening. "Something more than a sister."

"That leads me now to the question that I have long sought answered." And for the sake of his answering it to her satisfaction, and without interruptions, she would endeavor not to be sidetracked by other lesser queries again.

"And what question is that?" The skin about his eyes tightened warily as he angled his head slightly away. Almost as though he was questing the area for an escape.

"Be easy, I am not going to ask you anything sinister," she assured him. "Only this: if you were free to love a woman — if there was no valdyr curse preventing you from it — would you have taken a wife by now?"

The tension thereat left his shoulders and he faced her fully. "Yes, Brenna. I would have."

"And what would she be like, pray?"

His beautiful, uncanny eyes drifted deliberately over her face before he answered, "I would have chosen a woman of sense and learning."

She inclined her head slightly with a knowing look. "Hmm, like Beyla." Tallak's sister knew well nigh as many runes as the elders did; as Brenna did.

"Moreover, I would have sought intuition and wisdom in a wife."

"Just like Katla." The daughter of the cunning woman in the village was pretty well as skillful a healer as Brenna was. But, like Brenna, she was not a noblewoman.

Moving on from Katla without so much as a comment, he said, "A wife of mine would also have to be spirited and strong."

"Like Thora." Ragnar's daughter was as much a shield-maiden as Heida and Aila were; a bold woman unafraid of challenging a man's pride. "And she is fair of face into the bargain." It was a match that Ragnar and Eydís had long coveted. No doubt they would pursue the notion again now that he was ... alive and hale.

"And, what is more," Renic continued itemizing, clearly disinterested in Thora's virtues, "My wife would need to be compassionate and estimable. Patient too."

"Like our Heida." Heida was all that was virtuous and courageous; but, unlike the others, her heart was already spoken for.

"Like Heida," he agreed, "and like you, Brenna. You are all these things to me and more: quick-witted, insightful, vibrant, and noble. You have always been the touchstone by which I compare all woman. I would have chosen you if you would have had me." But there was a touch of regret in his voice that pained her even as his stunning revelation thrilled her.

"And I would have answered you then what I would answer now and always — yes."

Renic shook his head, becoming guarded again. "Forgive me, Brenna. We should not speak of things that are not poss—"

"If not now then when?!" Her hand cleaved despairingly to his forearm, when he made to leave, urging him not to turn away from her. Thankfully, by the the grace of Freyja, he kept still to listen. "There will never be a better time than now! And what you speak of is possible," she went on, holding his gaze. "You utter the words of a lover, and yet you eschew love. You offer a glimpse of your heart and yet you will not let me touch it. But I defy you, Renic!" She felt an awesome power whelming in her chest, swelling through her blood like the molten fires in the heart of the mountains. "I will love you no matter what you say and—"

Suddenly, as though lightning had actuated him into motion, he was kissing her! Translating her passion anew. All she could do was hold on as he drove his lips perfervidly against hers in a kiss that could not have stunned her more had Thor himself hurled a thunder bolt to knock her from her feet and scorch her flesh.

This was no kiss to seduce — it seemed too desperate for that — but one borne of corybantic passion that she was powerless to resist. Her fingers she thrust urgently into his hair, just as Renic's hands were fisted into hers. She felt more than heard the animalistic purr that gathered deep in his chest. It precipitated an answering moan that spilled from her lips and brushed like silk against the sultry warmth of his.

But the kiss ended just as precipitously as it had been conceived. With the force of a panicked beast, Renic ripped himself away so abruptly that the cold night rushed in forcibly to replace his heat, seeming to hold her back when she would have closed the distance he'd thrust between them.

From beneath dark brows his horrified gaze stabbed out at her. "Did I hurt you?" His voice was no more than flint against granite, coarse with agitation.

"No," said she, her own voice husky. Although her lips were tender from the onslaught, they were deliciously so.

He seemed confused a moment. "But you cried out. I thought I hurt you."

It was her turn now to be confused. "It was with pleasure, Renic, if I made any sound at all. I was not even aware that I had cried out." And then something occurred to her that she had not considered before. Yet it made perfect sense if it should turn out to be true. "Have you ... have you never been with a woman before?" she asked him.

"No," he replied almost coldly. "Roth may choose to sow his seeds carelessly, but not I."

This she had not expected, but she should have. Of course it was natural that he should have abstained his whole life. He that had hated most what he was. "Roth has not been as careless as you might think." Good goddess, Freyja, am I really defending Roth?! Nor was this the first time she'd done so. "There are ways and means to prevent ... unwanted pregnancies." And Roth would have learnt from one of his uncles, likely Ragnar — whose appetite for women was superseded by none — how not to spill his seed heedlessly.

Having bastards spread throughout the land was not something that Roth could, thankfully, be accused of. There was not a world in the cosmos that was ready for valdyrer to proliferate unchecked. That was for certain.

It was during this elucidation that Renic averted his gaze from her, evidently flustered. That he, the fearsome Greyback chieftain, should be perturbed by such talk was, frankly, comical. Later she would consider that perhaps it was as a result of his feelings for her rather than the conversation itself that discomforted him, but in this moment she did not consider that. Instead, she found herself amused by his reaction, which naturally occasioned a wicked little smile to betide her unawares, pulling tenaciously at the corners of her mouth.

Seeing that she was amused by him, Renic's lips, by contrast, tightened even further. "This cannot happen again," he muttered, getting hastily to his feet.

"But nothing happened," she reasoned, feeling bereft suddenly.

"Well, you clearly know more about such things than I." Taking her elbow gently, he helped her up from the bench-like root. "So I shall defer to your better judgment on the matter. For now, it is too late and too cold for you to stay out any longer."

Although the walk back, and the hush between them, was stilted, Brenna durst say nothing more. Evidently, he was done with talking, and she was of a mood to let him be ... for now. At any rate, she was far too preoccupied herself with finding her footing in the darkness. Fortunately, though, with Renic's solicitous aid, she did not trip even once.

"Good night," he said at last, once they'd reached her cottage, and then he turned to leave, heedless of the towering wolfsbane, in their midnight colors, that seemed to glare at him as he passed them by.

As she watched the brooding giant disappear from the flickering lamplight by her door, his dark head bent in thought, she felt the smile she'd thought she'd lost creep back into place. Tonight she had made him lose control of himself; the part of him that was all man. He knew it just as well as she did. It was why he was so disquieted. And a man — even one who practiced restraint in all things, as Renic did — would not easily lose himself in a passion unless a woman had managed to get herself more than just skin deep.

And she now knew that she was in his blood just as he was in hers.

🌙A/N🌙

The picture I used is supposed to be of Persephone and Hades, but I thought it suited Renic and Brenna in their scene under the yew tree. I don't know who the artist is :( sorry

FYI, I made some changes to Loki's chapter in XXXIV (34) and added a small paragraph to Epona's very first chapter 👉🏼 VI (6). Epona, before she was taken, actually had a vision of The Cursed Ones. It's somewhere in the first few paragraphs of her first chapter (that used to be the prologue). And in Loki's chapter (34) I made some big changes regarding Aila's pending immortality. Basically it explains that she actually can die. She'd not quite immortal yet. Because, if you remember, she did not eat the apple seeds. Loki kept them, therefore, she still has to eat them for her 'transformation' to be complete. I suggest rereading it before the next chapter uploads, if only to see for yourself that Loki isn't quite the arsehole he first appeared to be in that chapter's original edit. But you won't be lost without it if you don't reread, to be honest. Aila (in the next chapter) does explain a little, so I don't think it's imperative that you reread the changes. Just wanted to warn you. And yeah, next chapter is Brenna's. It's also a VERY important one. Revelations are coming your way. I'll upload it Monday for you.

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