If she had thought for a moment that hearing those amazing words actually come from his mouth was the highlight of her existence; she was immediately proved wrong. A great smile broke over her features as his relieved sigh puffed into the night air. He had understood her; and even more charming, he had thought that perhaps she would deny him. It could not have been more opposite. All at once his head came down to embrace her fully; and the touch went right to the woman's bones. The security of his force; the way it matched her own conviction threatened to tear her heart from its confines. Perhaps she had embraced Aeus once upon a time in the rain, but this was that feeling to the  extreme. 

There was so much more between them; so much more connection and intimacy and meaning and love. This was a man that long ago could not have uttered the word, much less felt and understood it fully – at least not in her imagination. He had changed alongside her; and there was a connection born of that shared experience. It was only they that had been witness to the way each other had grown to finally reach this beautiful, vulnerable moment under the stars. In those few seconds Raela dreamt of never having to take a step back; never having to part with his endless comfort. He was everything she had ever wanted in all the universe; security, joy and peace. Everything fell into place; everything was whole. 

When she finally did feel the nagging want to pull herself back, it was only gradual. Her muscles relaxed, easing the intensity of her hug. Then their fur untangled, and the frigid air swooped in to remind her just how cold it was going to be without Gent's body there. Her golden eyes found their way up, locking onto his familiar ice blue. Just seeing his face after this caused an intense reaction. The already excessive levels of joy within her rib cage surged without warning – pure energy shot into her limbs and she twisted; bouncing back while it burst from her throat in a shrill bark. Her forelegs danced into the air and came smacking down into the powdery snow. Raela's tawny tail raced back and forth behind her, eyes landing on the black King once more. 

Her body overflowed with this feeling, and in the blink of an eye she was moving again; skipping to the side and kicking up the frozen flakes in her exuberant display. Her scent had to be absolutely everywhere by now; dispersed and spread around by the movement. More excited yowling followed and she bounded; darting to his other side and slapping his iridescent shoulders with her paws. The Queen's pink tongue lolled out between widely grinning teeth. She wanted to celebrate. In the next heartbeat she was dashing; whirling from him and streaking wildly across the mesa. Her feet lashed at the virgin snow with abandon. The joyous run beneath the Aurora from before was nothing compared to this. This was something immeasurable, and it was the greatest thing she'd ever felt.

Gent's tail continued to thump joyously behind him as the moment pressed on, and he found himself at last thankful for the slowing of time. Willing to stay just like this for as long as she would allow it, a subtle sense of disappointment attempted and failed to quell the happiness within him as she pulled away. His pale eyes opened once more, tinged with hopeful curiosity, and the emotion she showed was infectious enough to tug at the corners of his mouth. Still, he wasn't expecting the explosion that suddenly took her, that beautiful silence shattered by her vocal excitement. Once more his ears fell back against his head in surprise, but it took only a moment's beat for him to catch up to her again.

There was no possible way to see Raela so mirthful and not be overcome with his own uncontainable happiness. That this was all about them only made it all the more irresistible. Abandoning the composure he always maintained, the king allowed himself to break loose and act purely on his impulses. Her first bound was met with a playful slap of his forelimbs into the thick snow, barrel chest pressed down into the cold as his wolfish brows lowered and a wry smirk overtook his muzzle. The next instant he was up again, meeting her touch with an affectionate pass of his teeth through the glossy fur at her throat, and when she took off like a shot, he matched every single step.

As they raced and tangoed and rejoiced together, he felt the world opening up around them once more. Their snowy, aurora-lit dance floor seemed endless, and everything they were, the joy and the love and the unspoken promises, felt indomitable. The best of it was, he knew that this, above all else, would never be lost.