He could feel it in his bones.


It was a familiar sensation, but this year something was different.


Slipping through the grasses as easily as a snake might slither, the silver dusted man approached the knoll with not but a few things on his mind. What a turn life had taken, and although things were not as he'd really imagined them to be, he faced each day with new found peace and patience. Her unexpected reappearance was the spark that had lit the fuse, and the chain of events that followed had sewn a seed that he knew would blossom into a bright future - one he'd been searching and waiting for all his life.


A gentle wind rustled the ebony coat of the wolf who, by all means, had nearly everything he had ever wanted. It whispered to him the end of a deathly winter and the dawning of a new season; its tone seeped with hope, and it washed over him as a lullaby washes over a weary child.


There is a certain resolution in his achromatic stare as it meets the falling gleam of a vast sea of stars, each so bright that they collectively outshone the sliver of a crescent moon. From atop the quaint hill he felt as though he could be one of them, hoisted into the night sky by something divine, to be a light for the world instead of a shadow upon it. Quietly he would remain at their mercy, captivated, savoring the nature of the effect their primordial power had over him as midnight took hold of the world.

Had it not been for the fact that he knew she would be waiting for him now, he would have braved the evening alone here in this place. It wasn't just the stars or the sway they held over him. No, there was something else afoot that he couldn't place, as though he should...stay. He knew he should be getting along, at least making his way home's direction, but it wouldn't hurt to stay a little while longer. Would it? Where he was poised to stand and make a move, instead he merely shifted his weight, extending a hind leg and aimlessly wriggling his toes until the blades of grass slid inbetween.


His eyes closed the sound of her pad fall against the rustling of the spring grasses, and he readily soaked up her earthen redolence as she approached. Heat followed her touch up the length of his back like wildfire, and despite how flushed he felt he simply shivered. His demeanor became delightfully childlike, but he attempted to mask it as her voice broke the forever quiet. "What an evening, isn't it, my love?" As breathtaking as the evening was, it was she who truly was stunning.


"It's perfect, now," he replied softly, eyeing Ava as she came to stop before him. It never mattered how dark the world was, her feminine, golden eyes glowed as if there was some light inside of her illuminating them. Reaching for her, he placed a tender kiss upon her cheek in greeting, bumping her chin affectionately as he pulled away.


The sweet essence of the blackberry blooms enveloped the pair as they connected upon the grassy knoll. Behind her figure tiny flashes of light erupted here and there, and the fireflies' presence brought him back to that first night on the lake shore. He stood before her soaking wet, less of a king than his once-title purported, and in light of the wretched turns his life had taken then her warm stare made him feel special. Looking into those same eyes now, he felt special still, though she'd become much more than he'd ever dreamed then.


Smoothly he slipped to his feet without lifting a eye from her, the words slipping from a wry grin with ease. "Does your boyfriend know you're out here all alone?" Immediately he felt rather silly, and it had been an eternity since he'd even attempted to play for anyone, but tonight he couldn't help himself, and Ava was ravishing.

The electricity between them was profound. He read the look in her eyes as only he could, and he did want every inch of her now. Leaning into the little space that was between them, he soaked up her words as a red hot sensation radiated from his head to his toes. Resisting her felt like the hardest thing he'd ever done, like a battle waged against the pull of her own desires, and one he wasn't sure he would win. He didn't want to. The thud of his heart drumming in his chest was heavy; each of his senses were heightened, and the pulsing of blood throughout his body left him feeling weak. A soft growl resonated somewhere deep down and his silver eyes locked onto her golden ones. In an instant he could have taken her, unleashed everything he was feeling upon the one who was only his to have...



Instead, he held her gaze with sovereignty until the world faded to next to nothing in the wake of everything Ava was to him. It was only then that he would slowly step away, circling her upon the quiet hilltop beneath the beautiful, deadened branches of the solitary tree without tearing his gaze away for a single second. From her back side, the silver tips of his ebony coat brushed against her shoulder as he drew nearer, his breath hot against her neck as he slid his muzzle to her ear. "I'll make it a night you'll never forget." Though his words were but a tender murmur meant only for a lover's ear, the tone behind them was unmistakably sober.

As intoxicating as the whole of this spectacle was the bold fact that he knew they were playing with fire. The rules were clear and he knew them all too well, and was willing to abide by them. Hadn't he always? Had he not been loyal, nearly to a fault? Loyal to the point that he had forfeit a life of his own? In his heart he knew that what he had with Ava was not some commonplace, everyday fling. This love was timeless, and honest, and stung him to the core. It would be everlasting, and he had known long ago that it would change his life. It already had. There was no looking back now, and he wouldn't.


Ava's last words would unhinge him completely. A vision of his sons quarreling, a daughter dancing along the banks of a dark river...the vision of a bright-eyed Queen at his side, to face each day together. The thought of becoming old and grey and how peace would feel as his last breaths slipped away...All were only dreams, but they did not have to be so anymore. He would give her this and all he had to offer. But not before they had one last dance.


"...In a kingdom that will endure all of time," he whispered, so close that the gentle breeze that rustled their dark coats couldn't slip in between.


And with the gentlest nip of her cheek he simply disappeared into the night, the sway of the grasses in his wake the only sign that he'd been there at all. Wind whipped his face and tears streamed from the corners of his eyes as his strides sucked up the vast expanse of the blackberry meadow. He didn't look back - he didn't have to; she would be there, on his heels, he was counting on it.

"Let's follow the fireflies. I trust them..." And he did without much thought, nipping playfully at her chest. Bounding away from Luna Hill and through the darkness was like jetting through the atmosphere, where the tiny, glowing dots that hovered just above the ground were equivalent to the stars themselves. It felt like flying, this high of love and hope. His pace was smooth and care free, his strides something like those of a fawn as he dodged between and leaped over the spread of blackberry plants, pausing here and there to look for Ava before swallowing up even more space. The wind cut through his silver-speckled coat, cold and indifferent, howling in his ears as he ran faster and faster. The field could have gone on forever, the lightning bugs infinite in number, and he would have chased them into eternity if she were on his heels. In the far distance, however, he could make out the silhouette of the treeline, and it reminded him that the space was not truly as vast as it seemed tonight. He could have led her there, into the privacy of the thicket, but he didn't. Out in the open for all the world to see, beneath the glimmering starlight and crescent moon, he waited for her...