Vayko had smelled it first, the changes in her and for the first time he had felt some measure of feeling towards that smell. Where he had once referred to the women as floozies and failed to understand where his cousin was coming from when he had acted upon it all… now he merely understood. He knew what would cause a man to step forward. So much had happened. They mourned Seraphina’s death… that part scared him, the idea of becoming a father and opening himself up to experiencing that kind of loss.

He saw how the loss of those he loved had fundamentally changed Viorel… did he want to feel that? Did he want that kind of loss to slowly creep into his life and consume him? He wasn’t sure, and yet still, he sought her out by her intoxicating scent, letting it guide him to her. “Clo?: He would call out, almost nervous in his stature… they had spoken briefly about it… but to have this coming out between them? That was something else entirely.

He could handle the crisis of whether or not he would be a good father later… it was a road for him to walk down a different day. She would move forward, and he would feel the heat flush through his features when he caught that intoxicating scent, and when her body pressed against his. In that moment, he was both relieved and regretful of his return… perhaps if he had stayed gone, all of the bad in their lives might not have happened… and yet he didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world at this moment other than by her side.

“I’ll always be here for you.” No more extended trips outside of the territory; no more wandering off or throwing fits about whether or not he should be a leader. There was her, and right now there was only her.

The hardest pill there was to swallow was this: he hadn’t returned for the Backwater. He hadn’t even returned for Vi or his children… nor his father nor aunts or uncles or sister… no, he had returned for her. He had come back to her… no one else. He might never admit it out loud, but deep in his heart he knew it to be true.

He meant every word that he said. He would be there for her; it would take an act of fate or god to pull him from her side. He had made that decision the moment he had chosen to cease his search and return home… home, it was truly where the heart was. And in that moment, and for quite some time, his heart had been with her.

She pulled back to meet his eye, a soft smile on his features as he offered a comforting nuzzle. “I promise. I will be here every step of the way.” He hoped to be a good father; he hoped that his children would like him, that he would not be too harsh or too strict, or the opposite… but only time would turn tell.

He could not resist the smirk on his features as she darted backwards, lowing his front half as he prepared for a playful pounce in return. They had come so far from when they first met… largely due to the angelic grace she had faced the entire situation of the Backwater’s first year… and he was relieved that their lives had taken them down this path. He would gladly close the distance.

Fade