Stavanger Bay everyone, step aside; this is the last warning

A low, pleased chuckle spilled from Szymon’s jaws as Doe covered his face in kisses; the warm, bubbling feeling within his breast was still so new — and yet there was a comforting familiarity in it, as though this strange wolf, affectionate and eloquent, tender and doting, was who he was meant to be. He was reassured by the knowledge that the wolves of Donnelaith had not been cruel to his Chosen One, and the steel of his spine relaxed once more as he bent his head to her and allowed her to groom his tattered ears. “Yes,” he affirmed in a guttural, proud growl. He and Skellige would protect her — and the emphasis that he, more than the other warhounds and perhaps more than Skellige himself, was foremost in her mind soothed his restless, wanting soul. “Always, my Doe,” he mumbled, perhaps a little delirious with the riptide of joy and protectiveness he felt.

“Tell me about your family,” she said, and he probably should have expected it, but he hesitated all the same. There was so much to tell, and he did not want her to pity him. In his first fledgling attempts at fulfilling her request, he gave the bare bones facts: he was the youngest and smallest of his eight siblings. He offered names and physical descriptions. Then, hesitantly, he told her of their roles within the family, and he talked of Ksenia — the pale bitch who had stolen Skellige’s chance at the throne and surely would again, in these wilds, if she could. Toward the end of his telling, past those facts he found important and midway between an anecdote about Skellige, he looked down to see that his Chosen One’s eyes had closed. Her head, still pillowed in his lap, was canted inward toward his breast — and he felt a great tenderness overwhelm him with a shuddering sigh. Arranging his foreleg to pillow her head in a manner that would not give her a terrible cricked neck when she awoke, he watched her sleep until she shifted her position naturally and he could curl his body around her with a contented rumble of pleasure.