Life was good. He and Sovereign had settled well into Swiftcurrent and their place in the pack seemed secure. He had no worries that the pack may fragment or fall apart as so many others had before it. And even if it did...
He had Sovereign. To whom he had made a promise. And there was Arlette too, all but a family member to her. The man who had popped up inside their borders was still a bit of a puzzle, but he fit in there somewhere.

For once, the Duskfire was not troubled. He was content and at peace. 

Lounging on his belly, legs tucked in neatly, he overlooked the distant river. A glimmer of cold silver, cutting through his home. Somewhere overhead, a golden eagle soared. As it's shadow swept over him, he closed his eyes and sighed. Thinking pleasantly of how far he had come.

Sovereign had woken that day in fire. 
An unrelenting burn between her thighs that screamed for relief...

And so she stayed well away from everyone, even though instinct bid her to do otherwise.
For a few hours anyway, this is what she did.

But it felt like she fucking blinked in her den, and was suddenly set walking for the form of Ensio not even a few yards off from her now when she blinked again. 
She knew she didn't teleport. 
So what the fuck was she doing?!

What the fuck am I doing?! 

Sovereign was panting from what felt like fever as she stopped a few feet from Ensio. 
"I think I'm sick..." She exhaled, breathing heavier now, "I feel so hot and it burns and I don't know what's happening!" She felt her breath hitch as she caught his scent with a slight buffet of wind, and she knew she wanted more of him, but how? 

"Should I talk to Arlette? I think I should talk to Arlette. M-maybe she has something for whatever this is-" The princess stammered in an attempt to keep herself logical, for one, but also as an excuse to try and leave; Because the longer she stayed in Ensio's presence the more she was feeling things she had never felt before and having thoughts she hadn't considered before. 

She wanted him there, then, immediately as in yesterday, holy shit-

Sovereign shook her head sharply as if that would make it all go away, but, nope. 

Fuck.

Behind him, he heard her coming. There was no mistaking the sound of her footsteps. No missing her scent, one that he knew well.

But today, it had changed. It was different. Powerful. Searing into his conscious and making even the simplest of thoughts, such a challenge.

The skin under his granite and ice fur shuddered. Out of desire or restraint...or maybe both.

Sovereign sounded almost panicked. Confusion riddling her voice. What she described to him in those few words, confirmed what he already knew. Her season had arrived. An inevitability for every woman.

Unlike her, Ensio knew exactly what this was all about. A year ago, during his brief run with the Greatwater Lake wolves, specifically Zharille, he had been placed in a similar situation. The agouti female had invited him as a potential suitor, but he turned a blind eye. He was younger then. Perhaps too young enough to sire children. Besides, his priorities had been different. Even way back then, Sovereign came first.

A year had come and gone. The present found both wolves fully mature. Closer. More aware of their growing attraction towards one another. New possibilities lay open before them. 

Tightly, he dug his paws down against the soil, forcing himself to stay rooted. For he knew if he moved, he may not be able to control himself around her. But he did glance at her fondly out of the corner of his eye.

"You are not sick, Sov. I've seen this before and there is a simple explanation." His voice was tense, but not cold. "You are in heat."

Arlette...

"I'm not sure if there is anything she will be able to do. I'm no expert about this sort of thing..."

Sovereign paused as Ensio's voice came to her ears. 
Not sick, but in Heat.

Oh.

The term found itself rooted in her instincts and her voice quivered slightly with want and unsurety as her own voice came out. 

"Is being in heat why I feel so hot, and why all I can think about is...is you?" She said the last word with more want for him than she thought she could ever muster, and she found herself digging her own claws into the earth and snow, willing herself to stay rooted to the spot. 

She would not - could not - force him. 

But her eyes upon his face practically thundered that she wanted him, more than just in the moment, but forever.

"Yes." He replied hoarsely, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. He licked his lips to moisten them. "It is the call every woman's body will experience." He opened his mouth to elaborate further, but a single word she had uttered, struck him now. It was as if his ability to register it had been delayed, his brain sluggish from the intoxicating effects of her scent.

Him. He haunted her thoughts. 

Beneath him, all around them, the world dropped and faded away. She was a pure image of stark white in an endless void of darkness. But then, hadn't she always been in their shared lives together? Now, her physical meaning was so much more real. So much more significant. 

His usually sharp, harsh glacial eyes allowed themselves to dim with a certain softness, edged with their ever lingering intensity. The lone, sole surviving Duskfire heir now looked on Sovereign in a completely different light. It had always been there before, this feeling. Nothing more than a spark, tickling at the back of his mind. Now it flared to life. In her he saw so much more than he had during his teenage years. And so much, so like him. He glimpsed the future, with her embedded in it, closer than ever. More than a friend or a youthful crush.

His legs felt like lead as he came towards her, one step at a time. Taking in the lines of her face, the vibrancy of her eyes. Or the strong curves of her matured frame, the luster to her coat. Her scent, how it reeled him in so. He reached to touch her on the cheek, in a soft, fevered kiss. Wrapping a leg possessively around her shoulder. "Say you be mine, Sov. Not only now, but tomorrow, until our dying day. I need you."

It is the call every woman's body will experience. 
well, that's fucked. 

She felt her breath hitch as Ensio seemed to register what she said. 
She swore she felt it in the very air around them. 
But his eyes did not grow harsh upon her, instead, they seemed to soften...
And as he drew closer, Sovereign felt herself trying to get closer as well, though it felt like the distance between them was closed far quicker than she thought it would, while she was taking in his strong, muscled frame, his handsome face...
Not that she was complaining, especially as Ensio reached for her cheek in a tender kiss.

Sovereign pressed softly into him, into his touch, and was in the middle of wrapping him into herself with her muzzle as he uttered words for her - 


Say you'll be mine, Sov. Not only now, but tomorrow, until our dying day. I need you.

She felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, but out of overflowing joy instead of anything else; And his forearm over her shoulder gave this moment all the more meaning to her beaten and battered heart. 
But as she spoke, she felt truth intertwined like threads in cloth as the words left her:

"I am yours, Ensio. Not just now, or tomorrow, but for as long as life flows through me; And even after." She vowed, pressing herself further into him, with genuine romantic want that fought to overpower the heat her body felt while she was in season.

She did not feel she needed to ask him if he felt the same.

His affection...his pledge, was returned, tenfold. All that he felt, reflected so perfectly in her. Open and vulnerable, accepting of him. Of needing him, of having him in her life and beyond. 

Something surged deep in his veins then. Like glacial meltwater being broken away, melted by the warmth of the sun. He felt some broken part of him become solidified once again. 

Crooning in a low, husky voice that he hadn't known he was capable of, he wrapped his other arm around her. Pulling her in to a tender hug. Where he held her, where she would feel his warmth and protection. "I told you I would never leave your side, Sov." His voice was playful, humored. 

In those days, long ago, he had never thought it would have led up to this. But he was glad it had. That their friendship had grown and morphed into true love. They had been through hell and back, their families tossed to the wayside, with only each other to depend on.

Running his teeth gently through the fur on her crown, he kissed her down to her jaw line. Getting drunk and high off her scent. Of just being close to her. She was driving him mad, making his own skin prickle and feel flushed with warmth. His instincts told him what he wanted, but he cherished her too much to move without her consent. 

He looked into her golden eyes. Wanting. Willing. With barely contained restraint.

The girl, now to become a woman, wrapped herself in Ensio's embrace as he pulled her into a tender hug.
I told you I would never leave your side, Sov
He said it playfully, and she tittered in return, nuzzling into his cheek, "I vowed the same, didn't I?" She returned the playfulness, locking eyes with him.

Both; Wanting, willing, and as if perhaps on cue, Sovereign's fire flared to life further, making her move herself into position for Ensio instinctually. 

She looked at him over her shoulder, with love and desire.

She felt this was all the consent he would need. 

--- Fade ? ---

In this moment, it was just the two of them. Just her. Nothing else mattered. Not the past, or what the future would bring. A shift in their lives as the result of their actions this day. He wanted only to hold her. To love her and keep her secure in his arms, tucked close.

His heart was ice melt as she burned her gaze onto him. It was all the coaxing he needed. Drawn to the flame, to her, they began their lives anew.

-Fade-