Stone Circle Willful darling, please listen.

The shock stills her tongue but rapidly she blinks and so too follows her tail with an anxious waver. Whatever preconceived ideas that brought Gunnar to her today had never included this. Her- a Nornir? The girl with an abrasive tongue and clumsy bearing? No hunter’s grace or warrior’s noble heart.

Bjarna had set upon herself to nurse the world. The only thing Tauris would nurse is a powerful grudge.

There’s a gripping sensation around her neck and the need to flee. She offers nothing in the way of leader to a pack. She cannot be what he wants.

“Faðir, that you would think of me, I’m honored, truly I am,” she forces words together but they carry rough over a throat gone dry. “But-” … But she’d made a promise, hadn’t she? To the wolves of Kvarsheim. Who’d taken her in when she needed help. Now it is Gunnar who needs help, to secure the future of their clan. He will not be here forever. Will she run from this? She cannot bring herself to. Even if every bone of her sinuous body wars against it.

“Yes,” She breathes, “I will uphold the promise I’ve made to you, and to Kvarsheim.”