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JASH
It felt like my knee would soon carve itself through to the other side of Nirn. Hircine’s silence was threatening my very sanity. I had not set out on this hunt with the certainty of victory, that would both make me a poor hunter and failure in my Prince’s eyes.
It was only him and Alex that my soul yearned for. But if he would not take my proposal than either Elisif or Sissel would make fine brides.
The people of Skyrim would find my marriage to the High Queen a perfect conclusion to her story. She was a grieving widow who had turned the province from a servant of the Empire to a willing ally in the war against the Thalmor.
Sissel of Rorikstead would be a good counter to my darkness and help me keep the balance that continually threatened to collapse. The dryskin had turned from someone who was only to be noticed for her talents to a beauty that could outshine the Divines as she had aged.
“Why is a Daedric Prince as mighty as yourself kneeling to another?” Hircine snapped and I immediately stood up.
What was the look in his eyes? Was he disappointed about me kneeling to him? Would that mean I had failed in my task of marrying him?
“You are a loyal one, Jash.” Hircine began. “There are not many like you that know the true beauty of the hunt. In your acts and deeds you have always revered that most precious of things. But even I could never have seen your loyalty being so unbreakable that you became a hybrid. If you weren’t given dragon blood by Akatosh, you would have remained a mortal.”
And in being loyal to him I had lost my connection to him. I couldn’t even regain my werewolf form underneath the two moons. When the various packs hunted I couldn’t join in as one of them.
“I know the depth of your pain.” Hircine continued. “A pain that has grown ever since your soul left my grasp. I have felt your pain every time you watch the packs of my faithful hunt under the light of the two moons. Each time you have howled in your hybrid form I have had to turn away as I am not strong enough.”
He heard all of that? He had shared my pain just like a lover?
“Jash, your loyalty to me extends beyond anything I’ve ever known.” Hircine said and his look of happiness reflected my own. “It is due to that loyalty, and that devotion alone, that I will agree to your marriage proposal.”
With an otherworldly howl from his mouth he disappeared, though I doubted he went far.
“It’s over!” J’zargo yelled. “This one thinks you are crazy, Jash, but you did it!”
Alan and Saga looked briefly at each other with a look that could only be described as relief. They were fighters but hunting in Skyrim’s wilderness was much different than doing so in one of their cities or even Bright Falls. That small town was more remote but the taint of Earth’s air was still thick there.
Without giving myself a moment to think, I turned and embraced Alex. A year’s worth of emotions went through his eyes and I tasted them all on his lips. He was jealous that he wouldn’t be one of my husbands, grateful that I wouldn’t be alone, and a sense of loss as the one he had longed for was pushing him away.
He must think himself unworthy of any devotion.
I couldn’t leave him feeling like that.
“If it was ours to ravage you here, I would.” I whispered in his ear as our kiss ended. “Tonight I will show you how much I love you in such a way that the memory will never fade.”
Alex put his arms around my neck and we reignited our kiss.
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