-A long time after the war when everyone's happy and ALIVE and Aelin is finally queen, her and Rowan find out that she's pregnant. Her pregnancy is hard, made even harder by the fact that Aelin is having twins.
-Eventually she gives birth to two babies, a little girl who they call Nehemia (Mia for short) and a little boy who they call Sam. Mia is the older twin by a few minutes and will someday be queen.
-Mia looks exactly like her mother and Sam looks exactly like Rowan except he also has ashryver eyes.
-Mia has raw magic and as she gets older she decides that she wants to be a healer and so uses the water magic inherited from her mother's bloodline as her main magic.
-Of course as she is Aelin and Rowans daughter she is a skilled warrior and could kill a man in less than 10 seconds but she decides that she would rather be a healer.
-Mia and Sam grow up in the castle alongside Aedion and Lysandra's children and Elide and Lorcan's children.
-Lorcan, Gavriel and Fenrys are a part of Aelin's court aswell as Connall and Vaughn.
-Mia grows up with the cadre teaching and protecting her and she sees them all as uncle figures until she gets a bit older and starts to see them as friends.
-She has always had a teensy crush on Fenrys.
-So one day Lorcan, Fenrys, a few other trained soldiers and Mia head to Orynth's border to dispatch a group of rebels. (Mia had to BEG her dad to let her go, he eventually did and threatened Lorcan and Fenrys' lives should Mia come back harmed).
-They split up to scout the rebel base, Fenrys with Mia and a handful of soldiers and Lorcan with the remaining soldiers.
-After watching the rebel's movements for half an hour Fenrys decides that it's time to move and he tells Mia to stay close to him. He would never tell her to stay behind, he knows she's more than capable of looking after herself but he worries about her anyway.
-They stealthily enter the base, taking out rebels as quietly as they can so as not to attract attention.
-At one point Mia is distracted and doesn't notice the rebel with an arrow pointing straight at her head from an alcove, but Fenrys does.
-Instead of throwing up a shield, he winnows directly in front of her and shields her from the rebels arrow with his body. As he's so tall the arrow goes straight through his shoulder (Rowaelin parallel anyone) where it would have gone through Mia's skull.
-A soldier takes out the rebel whilst Fenrys protects Mia.
-When the arrow hits Fenrys' shoulder Mia literally feels it in her own shoulder and she lets out a scream of pain. She looks at Fenrys seconds later and feels the mating bond snap into place deep within her.
-Fenrys is in pain but has shock written across his face and Mia knows that he just felt the bond snap too.
-As she's a healer she ignores it and gets to work healing him as best as she can without her supplies.
-The other soldiers carry Fenrys away from the rebel base as Fenrys is too weak to winnow. Mia stays with Fenrys while the other soldiers go back and finish the job. Mia gives Fenrys a tonic to make him sleep so that his body can heal and also so that she doesn't have to talk to him, she needs time to process what happened.
-They travel back to the castle once the rebels have all been dispatched, Aelin and Rowan meeting them on their arrival. Rowan is furious that Mia nearly got hurt but is also grateful to Fenrys for saving his daughters life.
-Mia makes an excuse that as she is a healer she should go and oversee Fenrys' treatment and so she goes to the healers quarter to help.
-When she gets there she is told that they have done all that they can for him, that he will be fine, but her assistance is not required, so she brings a chair up to Fenrys' bed and sits next to him.
-She sits there for hours while he sleeps, thinking about what happened and how they're mates and how the hell everyone is going to react.
-Eventually Fenrys wakes up and they just look at each other for what feels like forever until Mia just bursts into tears and buries her head in Fenrys' side.
-He tries to sit up and comfort her but she gets annoyed, mostly with herself for crumbling when she needs to be strong and tells him to "lay back down!".
-He does lay back down and when Mia lifts her head to look at him again he just wipes away her tears with his thumb and says "Is us being mates really that awful?" in a jokey way and this makes Mia laugh and cry harder at the same time because no, being mates with Fenrys isn't an awful thing at all.
-She dries her tears and decides that they need to talk about it, but only when he's fully healed and so she leaves him to rest.
-Fenrys stays in the healers quarters for another day until his energy levels are back to normal and he feels well again. The first thing he does is try to find Mia. He needs to tell her everything that he's thinking and get some things off his chest.
-He finds Mia in the library reading in her usual spot and he sits down next to her and they talk for hours about them being mates, what it felt like for them when they realised and what it means for the future.
-She tells him that he's always been her favourite in the castle and that she's always had a crush on him.
-He tells her that he's always absolutely adored her and known that she brings out the best in him. He tells her how he started seeing her differently when she settled and he cursed himself for it, thinking that it was inappropriate, not knowing that it was some intrinsic part of him realising what it wanted.
-Mia says that she doesn't want to act on the mating bond, that she wants to go on as normal and see what happens. They decide not to tell anyone and keep things friendly.
-They slowly become closer over the next few months, Mia always asking to go with Fenrys whenever he has a task to carry out outside of the castle. Sparring together, reading in the library together, going for walks in the woods where Fenrys shifts into his wolf form and Mia plays chase with him.
-Mia works in the healers quarters most of the time and Fenrys takes any chance he can get to go and see her at work, so he turns up with a 'scratch' and a 'bruise'. There's literally nothing there and Mia knows this and finds it hilarious and ever so slightly cute that he wants to see her all the time.
-Their feelings for each other deepen and things start to get a bit more intense. They'll brush hands and Mia would blush and fight the urge to reach for his face and just kiss him.
-Fenrys would touch her protectively should another male get too close. They would look at each other at the dining table and touch legs under the table.
-One day they're reading next to each other in the library on a stack of cushions and Mia reaches over and takes Fenrys' hand and intertwines their fingers, Fenrys just looks at her, smiles, kisses their joined hands and rests it on his thigh. He doesn't even care that reading a book with one hand is near impossible.
-Another time, Mia is spending time with Connall who she gets on with like a house on fire. They're in her room sat in front of the fire playing cards on a sofa. Mia gets tired and rests her head on Connalls lap and dozes off.
-Fenrys walks in as he's looking for Mia and stands in the doorway looking at the two most important people in his life. He loves that Mia gets on with Connall as well as she does.
-Fenrys walks over, thanks Connall for looking after her, scoops her up and carries her over to her bed and tucks her in. By this point Connall has left and it's just the two of them. He turns to leave her but she grabs his hand and asks him to stay.
-So he climbs in behind her and wraps one hand under her neck and the other around her waist and pulls her impossibly close. They stay like that for the whole night.
-A few weeks later and it's Mia's birthday and Aelin has insisted that she have a party. Everyone in the castle is invited and it's an excuse for everyone to get dressed up and get drunk.
-Aelin also insists that Mia wear a gorgeous dress that she had specially made for her, a full length, low cut (much to Rowan's dismay), silver dress. Mia looks stunning and Fenrys thinks so too as he's speechless when he sees her.
-Mia spends the majority of the party mingling and talking to so many different people she loses count, but as the party is starting to die down she finds Fenrys and asks him to come with her.
-When Aelin and Rowan see the two of them sneaking off to a balcony together, neither of them are surprised, they've known that there was something between them for a while now; their scents have merged slightly and people have been noticing.
-While Rowan isn't completely thrilled, Aelin stops him from knocking Fenrys to his ass and talks some sense into him.
-Out on the balcony Fenrys has asked Mia if she will dance with him to which she replies yes. They're dancing for what feels like forever, both of them happy and content.
-Mia looks up at Fenrys and asks him straight up what he would think if she wanted to accept the mating bond.
-Fenrys doesn't looked shocked, almost as if he was about to ask that question himself. He just quietly asks her, "is that what you want?" To which Mia replies, yes that's what she wants, she's never been happier than she is in that moment and she's never been more sure that she wants Fenrys. That she loves him. She asks him, "what is it that you want?" and Fenrys just leans down and kisses her, his answer painfully obvious.
-The kiss is gentle and light and sweet, Mia's hands reaching up to Fenrys' neck and Fenrys' hands on Mia's hips pulling her as close to him as she can get.
-It quickly turns deeper and more intense, the months of tension between them suddenly coming to a head.
-Fenrys is the one to pull away, albeit reluctantly. He tells her that they should tell everyone before they accept the bond and that he would like to get her dads permission.
-They plan to tell everyone the next day, but when they walk back inside, a few of Aelin's court are there waiting for them. Aedion is wolf whistling (no pun intended) and Aelin and Lysandra are beaming. Rowan looks less than thrilled but deep down he knows what the mating bond means and he knows that Fenrys loves his daughter and that he will look after her.
-Mia walks to her mother who looks like she could cry at any minute and says, "you know? You're okay with it?" to which Aelin replies "Of course I'm okay with it, I've seen how happy he makes you and that's all I've ever wanted for you, for you to be happy." They hug and Mia is beyond relieved that her mother has taken it well. She looks over to Fenrys and her father who are talking. Rowan is no doubt whispering threats to Fenrys about how he will chop off Fenrys' favourite body part should he hurt Mia in any way.
-The next day Mia decides she's going to bake a pie to give to Fenrys to accept the bond. She takes it up to his room, knocks on his door and is surprised to see him packing a bag. Immediately she thinks the worst, he thinks he's made a mistake, he's running away. He sees the look on her face and comes up to her and says, "you made that pie for me?" with a cocky grin on his face. He leans down to kiss her and takes the pie from her in one swift motion and places it on the side. She must still look confused because Fenrys takes his hands and cradles her face. He softly kisses her and says "When we accept the bond I don't want to be in this castle. I want to be away from everybody and be alone with you for a while. Are you okay with that?"
-And of course she's okay with that, that's all she's ever wanted. She can't believe she thought he would be running away.
-They say goodbye to everyone and leave the castle to stay in a small cottage just outside Perranth which is used by Aelin's court as a getaway.
-They both know what's going to happen when they get there, they've talked about it during their nights sleeping next to each other.
-Mia knows that Fenrys is scarred after his time serving Maeve in the bedroom for centuries. She knows what it means for him to be able to open up to her about that, to trust her with his deepest feelings and she loves him for it.
-Fenrys also knows that Mia is a virgin, she has no experience whereas he has a lot. He knows that they'll need to take it slow for both of their sakes but they will get through it together.
-They spend just under two weeks in the cottage altogether, neither of them wanting it to end but knowing they can't stay there forever.
-As a couple they compliment each other perfectly, where Fenrys is loud and arrogant and brash, Mia is more reserved and actually thinks before she speaks. She brings out the tender side in him and he brings out a wicked side of her.