Little Red
Part 4
Jane had been devastated when Loki had left her there at her grandmother's cabin that night. To think the hidden man with the strange yellow eyes she'd been dreaming of and the intelligent, charming man she'd found herself unexplainable drawn to were one and the same! She'd never been an impulsive girl, but she'd known as soon as he'd posed the question, she'd wanted to be his wife. The fact that he considered himself a beast didn't change that, though she knew it should. Now, she just had to convince him of that.
So it was with a glad heart that Jane left for the village two days later, when her grandmother had assured her she was well enough to tend to herself. "Won't you come stay with us," she'd asked out of a sense of love and duty, but was happy when the old woman politely refused. After all, she reasoned, sneaking out to see Loki when only Sif was present was much easier than sneaking out when Sif and her grandmother were there. Of course, she stopped by the Odinson house on her way home, but as she'd suspected, Loki wasn't anywhere to be found.
"He was very kind going out of his way for my grandmother," she smiled to Frigga Odinson. "I just wanted to repay him in some way. If you could tell him I'd like to see him at his earliest convince?"
A knowing glint had entered the woman's eyes as she'd listened to Jane, but her soft smile had never wavered, and had therefore not caused Jane any alarm. The full three days she'd been home without so much as a glimpse of her wolf-man, however, distressed her to no end. Was he purposely avoiding her or had he left Snow Heaven all together?
Jane had all but ordered her sister to go home a bit early that night "to rest". "After all," she had reasoned, "you've managed the house and the bakery all by yourself for over a fortnight while I was tending to grandmother. You've earned it," she added with a warm smile when Sif had finally relented and left her to clean the bakery alone. Jane had decided either Loki was going to see her (which he wouldn't do with her sister around) or she was going to see him. "If you're in Snow Heaven," she mumbled to herself, "this foolishness ends tonight!"
After two hours of preparing dough for the next day and cleaning up the store, Loki still hadn't appeared. Squaring her shoulders, Jane packed a basket of assorted breads and sweet rolls left over from the day (the rest would be sold at half price the following morning), and headed towards the Odinson's home. Her tentative knock was answered by not Loki, but Thor, his inquisitive expression changing to a pleased one upon seeing her.
"Jane," his voice boomed loudly as he ushered her inside. "A bit late for a social call," he teased as he lead her towards were the family was gathered in front of the fireplace.
"Well, as your mother knows," she started, sending a smile towards Frigga, "your cousin was quite a help to my grandmother for the past few weeks while she was ill. I'd hoped to thank him properly –"
"Hasn't he been to see you," Frigga interrupted, a frown marring her gentle features. "I told him you came to call days ago."
"I'm afraid not," she held her smile, though her confidence honestly felt more than a little deflated, "that's why I've come. I've only just closed up shop, you see, and thought I'd at least bring something for him." Jane motioned towards her basket, which Frigga had Thor place on the table behind them.
"You're more than welcome to stay," she offered kindly. "He shouldn't be much longer."
"Besides there's something I've been wanting to discuss with you," Thor cut in with a wide grin.
"Yes, I've heard."
"Have you," he laughed warmly.
"Yes, and I don't think I can accept," she told him directly, hating herself a little as Thor's joyful face fell into a mixture of confusion and pain. "Please understand that my sister loves you," she explained gently. "I couldn't be so cruel as to not only marry before her, but to the man she loves far more than I ever could. You're a good man, Thor," she added softly, "but unless it's to Sif, you'll not be wedding a Foster."
The blond was silent for a long while, then suddenly turned and headed for the front door. "Come father," he called, "I'm in need of a witness."
"Oh," the old man called out, a slight smirk on his face as he stood, kissing his wife's cheek as he did so.
Thor nod, his jaw set in determination. "I have a Foster to propose to," he replied, sending Jane a tentative smile as he left.
Frigga laughed good-naturedly, shaking her head as the men left before turning her eyes on the girl before her. "You love him," she stated firmly, "you love my nephew."
Jane blushed and looked away. "Is it that obvious?"
"Only to me," she assured softly. "Men tend to be a bit dense about these things. My own son didn't recognize his feels for your sister until you just revealed hers to him," she pointed out. "Loki, like his father, can be stubborn and hard headed. If I were you, I'd talk to him soon, before the news of an Odinson-Foster wedding reaches his ears and he draws the wrong conclusion."
"I wouldn't know where to look," she sighed out in disappear.
"Why don't you try the woods?"
Jane's brown eyes widened at that, her breath caught in her throat. Frigga knew, she realized, the woman knew and hadn't told a soul out of love for her kin, her nephew. "Alright," she agreed with a nod, turning on her feet as quickly as she could.
Loki laid upon his back on the forest floor staring at the moon, his heart too despondent to even allow his beastly transformation. He closed his steely eyes, and lost himself again in the memories of his brief moments of bliss with his mate. He'd almost had her, he recalled. He could have rutted with her and made her his all the days of her life, but he hadn't. For the first time he could remember, Loki Laufeyson had done the honorable thing by revealing his true nature before binding himself to Jane, and look at what it had gotten him!
A high pitched whine left his throat as his broken heart squeezed within his chest. He'd forced himself to stay until the hunting party had returned, and was planning on leaving within the next few days. He knew Jane wouldn't be returning to the village until her grandmother was well, but he hadn't planned for that to be two days after revealing his true nature to her. He wasn't ready for the look of disgust he'd see on her face, wasn't ready to feel the sting of hate-filled words as they left her lovely mouth, and Loki seriously doubted he ever would be. He'd taken shelter in the woods during the day, under the pretense of gathering enough lumber to last the family through the quickly approaching winter. For nearly a week now he'd done so, forcing himself to work harder after Frigga had mentioned that Jane had come a calling.
"Best not to get one's hopes up," he muttered to himself, reminding himself that now that Thor had returned home with the rest of the hunting party, Jane and the oaf were bound to be busy planning their nuptials.
'And I'll be damned if I stay here for that!'
"Loki," a voice called from just a few paces away. A soft, feminine voice he'd recognize anywhere.
"If it isn't my cousin-to-be," he answered, pushing himself up off the ground. "What can I do for you?"
"Loki," she sighed out, as if she thought he were being difficult – and perhaps he was.
"What are you doing here," he growled out a bit harsher, his eyes still refusing to look at her as he righted his clothes and slapped the dirt away gently.
"Why are you avoiding me," she countered, and he could hear her feet drawing her closer to him.
Loki steeled his resolve enough to send her a quick glare. "I'm not having this discussion with my cousin's fiancée," he snapped out.
"No," she spat out just as heatedly, "you're having it with yours!"
Yours.
His eyes closed at the sound of that word from her mouth. It wrapped around him teasingly, tempting the most primal pieces of himself until realization brought him back to himself. "Mine," he questioned, lifted a black eyebrow.
Jane nodded her head stiffly. "You asked me to marry you. I accepted," she stated in a way that sounded more like a challenge.
"And then you realized what a monster I am and the mighty hunter came home for you to cozy up to," he snarled out in self-loathing.
"No," she argued softly. "I don't think you're a monster, Loki."
"I saw the way you looked at me that night! I saw how you reacted to my eyes," he bellowed, his grey orbs hardening as he continued to watch her closely.
"I was in shock!"
"So you admit it," he cried out, his heart breaking even as a victorious gleam entered his eyes. He may be losing his mate, but he took a form of perverse delight in winning the argument.
"I admit to being surprised," Jane shouted out. "I'd just discovered I'd been dreaming about you for weeks!"
"You…you what," he sputtered, words failing him as he fought back the hope that was filling his chest.
"Loki," she said his name softly, and he found himself stepping towards her cautiously, much like the wounded animal he was. "I'd been having dreams of a man with no face and yellow eyes," she explained. "In the dreams, he would make me like him-"
"How?"
She swallowed, a blush filling her face. "He'd take me… carnally, and then he'd-"
"Bite you," he finished for her, taking a deep breath at her whispered 'yes'. "You were having the mating dreams," he told her, his hands reaching out for her. "Do you… do you truly not find me repulsive?"
"I would have let you take me that day," she admitted with a timid smile, "yellow eyes and all."
The wolf howled at that, the man cried out as he drew her into his arms and against his chest, his mouth seeking hers desperately. He was afraid she'd pull away in disgust, but his Jane used her own hands to draw him in closer. He reveled in the soft, mewing noises that came from her, and in the sweet scent of her growing desire. "Mine," he murmured a few times, his passion growing every time she rushed to agree with him.
Their mutual need for each other grew so quickly, Loki honestly couldn't say when they'd been divested of their clothing or how he'd come to be leaning over his Jane, the forest floor beneath her naked body, with his erect member rubbing teasingly against her dripping wetness. "Ye gods, Jane," he gasped out, pulling his mouth from hers long enough to catch his breath.
"Don't think," she cooed to him softly, her desire darkened eyes causing a drunk and heady feeling to fill him, "just be with me."
He swallowed thickly, his breath coming out in deep, labored pants, and then he surged his hips forward, stilling himself once his member was fully sheathed inside Jane's heat. "I'm sorry," he whispered at her pain-filled cry from losing her maidenhead. She consoled him that she'd be fine, and after a few moments of stillness, she did eventually begin to roll her hips against him.
"Minx," he hissed out, losing himself in their bodies' primal dance. Loki loved the way his Jane moved against him, her arms and legs constantly seeking ways to pull them closer together, as if she were attempting to merge their very flesh together.
"Please," she begged him as she grew close to her peak, back arched with her breasts pressed against his own chest and her head tilted to expose her neck to him. "Please," she whispered again. "I love you."
The beast within him roared fiercely and leaned forward to sink his teeth into her neck's flesh. Jane cried out in pleasure, her sex clenching around his own, milking every bit of seed from him. He removed his mouth from her, licking her wound a few times until it healed, long before she'd come down from her joyous high. "Loki," she moaned huskily when she had returned to herself, "will you stay with me?"
"Forever," he promised, rolling off of her and pulling her sweat-laced body against his own. "I will have to return to Blithe soon," he cautioned, relaxing when he felt Jane's lips pull into a smile against his bare chest.
"Wait until after the wedding, and I'll happily go with you."
"Wedding," he questioned, feeling his mate nod her head.
"I confronted Thor before I came out here," she told him. "He's asked for Sif's hand."
"Did he now," Loki teased, already feeling his member hardening again with his naked mate near him. "So he wouldn't mind if I took you again."
"You can take me as many times as you'd like," Jane replied cheekily, "as I don't honestly see it's anyone's business but our own."
"Spoken like a true Laufeyson, which you will be before we reach Blithe."
"Promises, promises," she jested, before they lost themselves once again in more pleasurable activities.
The Odinson-Foster wedding was a quick affair, taking place just shy of a month after the hunting party had returned to the village. Sif was ecstatic as much about Jane's wedding news as she was for her own. Erik Foster, however, wasn't nearly as pleased that his youngest daughter would be leaving Snow Heaven. He held his tongue only out of his love for her, and from the knowledge that Jane had always craved a city life. "Take care of her, Laufeyson," he growled out as threateningly as he could.
Loki nodded in acknowledgement, one hand circling around Jane's waist to pull her against him. "Always, sir." And he'd meant it.
They'd headed off a few days before the first snow fall, and found themselves having to take refuge in a town close to Blithe until the weather cleared. It was there they were wed, if for no other reason than to protect Jane's honor as a lady. To say Laufey was happy once they finally reached Blithe would be an understatement. The news Loki whispered to him that night, however, was easily the best present the old wolf-man could ever ask for.
"Are you certain, my son," he'd asked, his lupine eyes glowing with glee.
"I am," he assured, his happiness every bit as palpable as his father's. "I've kept quiet for a few days to make certain. There has definitely been a change in her scent," he grinned. "I'm going to be a father."
Laufey watched as his son went off to his mate's side, scooping her into his arms and smiled to himself. This was all he'd ever wanted for his child, to see him as happy as Laufey had been with the boy's mother. Soon, he chuckled to himself, his house would once again be filled with the foot falls of little ones rushing about. Just as soon, he'd need to step down from the position of pack alpha, passing the reign on to Loki – just as Loki would one day pass it down to his son. Their pack was safe, it would continue.
"Bless you, Jane Foster," he murmured to himself, smiling at the way her eyes stared adoringly at his son. "Bless you."