Chapter Four: Confessions
With meticulous movements, he knocked the arrow back in place and aimed at one of the harassers. The bolt whistled, ripping the air, and reached its target. The man dropped dead. Abandoning the bow on the frozen ground, Draco unhooked his axe from his belt and threw it at a second man that had taken advantage of Hermione's distraction to approach her. He, too, fell lifeless in a matter of seconds before he could touch her. The third warrior had spotted the newcomer and was running in his direction, sword firmly in his hand. Draco drew his own steel from his back holster.
Hermione followed the man, her body still shaking from the fatigue and the fear that her mind had been swimming in. In a gasp of surprise, she recognised her saviour. Draco was running towards the fiend, face scrunched in concentration, and she froze.
"You can't stop our pack. The Wolven clan will conquer all Norse territories," the man yelled while he took a swing at Draco, his eyes wide and mad, driven by euphoria.
Draco swerved sideways, easily moving his body from the sword path, and landed a blow on the man's side. Infuriated by the sudden pain, he growled and grabbed his axe with his free hand. Draco stepped closer, avoiding the enemy's axe that was coming for his head. Draco didn't see the other weapon coming for him.
Hermione assisted at the whole thing with a lump in her throat, fearing for Draco's life. Panic running through her veins, her body snapped out of stillness as she begun to run brandishing her hatchet.
The sword tip penetrated Draco's thigh, blurring his vision for a split second. Inhaling sharply, nostril flaring for the pain and frustration, he focussed on the weapon in his hand. He wielded it forward, using all his body weight. The tip sunk into the man's stomach. Eyes wide in surprise, the enemy stumbled backwards, slipping on the frozen ground and falling on his back, Draco's steel still deep in his guts.
Hermione was at her saviour's side now; she knew that she should offer Draco a shoulder to lean on, but she was drawn to the man that was slowly bleeding out on the cold earth.
"We can't be stopped. Even if you kill us, more will follow. The wolves will eat the Sun and the Moon. All will be ours." The man was delirious, but something clicked deep inside Hermione's mind where her Sight absorbed its magic from.
"You, fool." Draco hopped away, his leg pulsing in rhythm with his accelerated heartbeat and the blood warming and staining his trousers. Approaching the body he had struck with his axe, he extracted the blade, dislodging it from flesh and bones with a sloshy sound.
"Fenrir the Wolf will find you." The dying man's voice was feeble and raspy now. Hermione kneeled down next to him, searching his features for something she couldn't quite put her mind on.
Draco shook his head, dragging his feet back to him and purposely avoiding Hermione's stare that had settled on him. He ignored her voice when she pleaded, "Don't kil-"
"May Hel take you," Draco hissed, towering over his enemy. His axe descended on the man's throat, putting an end to his nonsense.
"Why did you kill him? He was about to reveal something meaningful." Hermione shook her head, the memory of a dream she was yet to have lingering in her sight.
Wiping some blood from his face with the back of his hand, Draco turned to face her. "Whatever your reason for being so far from home, Christian, I hope you have healing supplies in that huge satchel of yours," he said, his timbre gruffed and strained and his breath still catching up from the fight.
Hermione opened her mouth twice to protest, glaring at him. Her eyes found Draco's leg at last as she noticed the dilating crimson stain on his leather trousers. Her hand darted to her side, where her satchel was still there - on an afterthought she should have dropped it to better fight those men - rummaging in it to find a cloth or something she could clamp the haemorrhaging wound with.
"Let's go back to my hut. You have some explaining to do, woman," Draco hissed once she was done with her improvised bandage. He extracted the sword from the man's belly and used it as a walking cane.
Limping beside Hermione, because he was too proud to accept her offer to help him walk, he guided her through the treacherous forest ground. Draco was curious what brought Hermione so far from their home but first, he needed to patch his leg back up.
Hermione kept glancing sideways at the wounded warrior, worried that he might collapse any moment, his bow swaying on her back where she slipped it on. When they finally reached the hut, she immediately started a fire as she needed to boil some water to clean him. Her heart had never stopped fluttering in her chest since she saw him, a myriad of questions twirling in the back of her mind.
As she organized her healing supplies on the bench, she nodded once with her head to the table, ordering Draco to lie on it.
A corner of Draco's lips rose while he took his trousers off, a grunt of pain soon wiping the smirk off his face as he slumped on the hard wood.
Keeping her eyes from wandering to his nudity, Hermione cleaned his wound and stitched it with a needle that had been carved from bone. Draco's thigh was hard and warm against her hand, and she could do nothing against the shivers that touching him sent through her. She hated herself for that.
In an attempt to keep his mind off the pain, Draco kept his gaze locked on the girl beside him. She looked tired, purple bruises staining the contour of her eyes, and her cheekbones were more pronounced than the plump ones he remembered. A groan escaped his mouth when she started tightly wrapping clean cloth strips around his leg.
Hermione moved her eyes on him, staring into his grey irises. "Sorry." Going back to her task, her gaze fell on his cock and her cheeks tinged red. He chuckled, fighting the heat in his groin.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here. When did you leave, Draco?" Hermione asked, securing the bandages with a hairpin. She wondered if he came looking for her after she left, the thought warming her heart a little.
Draco froze, his eyebrows pinched together in confusion. "You didn't leave the village to look for me? What are you doing here, then?"
She shook her head, her heart sinking in between her ribs for her wrong assumption. A sense of irritation radiated from her chest. Chin lifting up and unleashing her bossiness, she said, "I just left. I wasn't expecting to find you. My reasons are not your concern." She had tried to remain calm but the last words thundered out of her mouth. His posture, his smug grin, everything about him had always drawn out the worst of her.
"Do you expect me to just believe we met by fate?" he clipped.
His haughtiness started to get on Hermione's nerves. It was best to postpone this conversation after a good sleep. She was exhausted, her body struggling as she stood from the bench. "You need some rest. Go. Now."
She felt him shift on the table, her gaze purposely low and far from his naked lower body. As his muscular legs appeared in her side vision when he dangled them off the side, she began cleaning up. Her petite fingers worked their way to the bloody cloths on the tables, but a strong, firm hand stalled them.
"Look at me." Draco yanked her close to him when she stubbornly refused him eye contact. With a gasp, she fell forward, her knees buckling against the corner of the bench. Her waist folded over, and Draco trapped her with his legs. Her body felt good on him, soft and warm, but he buried his desire in the back of his mind, the need to establish his authority stronger.
Her hands pushed on his chest, one still in his grasp. He was solid and hot, his whole body vibrating with anger.
"You have no power over me, Christian. I'm not your pet weasel," he hissed, memories of their endless arguments filling his mind. He had always hated her overbearing nature.
As his breath hit her face, she pulled back, trying to keep from succumbing to his pull. She didn't want her nose to join her hands on his chest, his scent already overwhelming her senses. Fuelled by a similar rage, she drew her body back, still not able to free her hand. Her eyes belatedly darted to him, two burning embers boring into his soul. "Release me and go lie down!"
"Or what, Seeress?" Draco slid off the table, pushing her back with him. Winching for the pain, he loosened his grip on her hand.
Hermione jumped back, her eyes quickly locating a shield on the ground. She grabbed it, holding it between them. "If you don't stay back, I'll-I'll..." She was stalling, his haunting eyes were making her belly all warm and melty. She hated the way her body reacted to him, the pull had been too much to resist many times before.
Draco rose an eyebrow at the shield separating them, a smirk pulling at his lips as he ran a hand through his hair. They had argued like this before, fuelled by a facade of hate that could hardly conceal their desire, and he had always found a way to win her over. "Do you wish to fight me? I just took a blade to save your damn life!"
"So? I saved yours many times before!" Hermione watched him walk towards her, her feet dragging backwards and her mind going blank.
Draco chuckled, watching her acting like a young girl but continued to tease her because he loved the way she got cross. "The Gods saved my life by sending you visions. And they saved you too, by sending my father to fetch you. The Christians would have called you a witch and burnt you."
Glowering at him, she remembered how Lucius had taken her from her village when she was barely eleven. "Oh, it's the Gods now? I thought I was always going to be a Christian in your eyes. And Lucius kidnapped me!"
Draco scoffed, walking the last couple of steps to Hermione. He smiled when her eyes widened as she realized that she was trapped, her back hitting the wooden wall. "Why did you leave, Hermione?" Draco hissed, putting a hand on the round shield and forcing her to lower it.
Hermione's heart picked up the pace from its already accelerated beats. They did this dance before - in the spring while the village was loading the longboats for the raids and many times before. Draco had come to say goodbye to her. They had a heated argument, and he had kissed her and...she closed her eyes, breathing calmly, trying to erase the image of an infuriated Draco leaving her hut on the cliff after she almost let him take her maidenhood. "I couldn't stay. I can't marry you," she breathed out.
"I left. I thought that made it clear that we wouldn't marry." Draco took the shield from her hands and tossed it on the side. His eyes were molten silver. He wanted her so intensly, but knew that he shouldn't get too close lest he lost control before he got his answer. Moreover, he didn't believe that they found each other by chance.
"I didn't know you left as well! I left the morning after the feast!"
Draco's gaze lost itself somewhere in his memories, and Hermione slipped away from him. She wasn't fast enough, even if his wounded leg slowed his movements. Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her back to him, the scent of her hair tickling his nose as he buried it into her wild curls. "Of course you know. You followed me..." he breathed in her ear, smiling when she shuddered in his arms.
As much as she loathed Draco and the hell she put her through growing up, her body had other plans. His low husky voice sent thrills right to her core. "I had no idea. There's no reason for you to stay here now. Go back," she somehow managed to say while her back arched onto him by its own volition, her behind finding his hard cock.
"I won't." He bucked his erection against her, humming in pleasure. His mind was completely taken over by his arousal, and all he wanted was her.
"Because you are a coward," she clipped, and with the last bit of self control that she could summon, she wiggled out of his hold, quickly running behind the table to put an obstacle between their wanting bodies.
Draco growled, both from not having her in his grasp anymore and from her words. "Shut it, Christian!"
"Oh, now it's Christian again. Go back. I'll stay. My vision...we can't marry." Being away from his body didn't do much for her lack of words about her vision.
Draco rounded the table, slowly backing her up again. With calculated steps, he directed her towards his sleeping pelts. "Because you don't like me…" He ignored the sharp stings in his leg as he leapt forward, tripping Hermione onto his bed. His mouth crashed onto hers, teeth grazing and biting her plump lips.
Won by the heady sensation of his hard body, Hermione parted her lips for him. He was warm and heavy on her as his hands explored her breasts and waist. She sighed when he reached her legs, yanking her tunic upward to access her core. Arching her back, she met his fingers as they found her centre.
She was wet and ready for him, and his pulsing cock couldn't wait much longer. While his fingers still played with her, he smirked as she moaned in his mouth. When she opened her legs for him, he positioned himself at her entrance ready to slide right into her slick warmth.
A raven crowed in the distance, spreading the will of the Gods as Odin's pet. and Hermione panicked, pushing Draco from her with all her strength while her Sight flashed images of an empty beach in her mind.
He rolled over, sighing in frustration. His cock screaming at him to just take her. Seeing the way she recoiled on his pelt, her eyes not seeing anything or anyone, tiny pupils fixed on something he could not see, he passed a hand on his face and imposed some calmness to his arousal. "Make up your damn mind, woman! I'm sick of this. We fight, you let me touch you, but then you push me away just as we are about to seal the deal."
Hermione couldn't be with him. After the vision she had about the dragon just disappearing, she couldn't risk being with him and not being able to see him any longer; even if laying with him was not a permanent bond such as marriage.
Draco saw the light tremor to her lip, the pink on her cheek fading into a colourless shade. Wrapping a dark curl around his finger, he scooted closer to her and knelt in front of her. "Tell me what you saw," he demanded.
Hermione sighed, her chest heavy with a miserable knowledge. "It's what I didn't see Draco."
He cupped her face in his big palms, gently lifting her to him. "You saw something. I can read right through you, love. What have you seen in our future that it's so bad?"
Shivering, she met his eyes and repeated. "It's what I can't see, Draco. I can't see my future. If we are bonded I won't be able to see yours as well, and it scares me."
Draco's heart soared in his chest as she continued. Her words confessing something deeper than what they meant. "If we marry, if we...I won't see you again. I know it. I can't bear not knowing what lies in front of you."
"I love you," Draco couldn't contain a confession of his own. Leaning forward, he kissed her, very gently, his fingers stroking her cheeks and getting lost in that hair that drove him wild.
Hermione never knew that under his harshness of a merciless warrior, he hid a gentle lover. Even if his lips felt like heaven, she interrupted their contact, eager to find out the reason he had left if it was not because he didn't wish to marry her. "Why did you leave?"
"I dread becoming chieftain. I want to fight and go to Valhalla." His eyes turned into hard steel.
Her chest tightened as she thought about him dying, but his grey irises were fierce and determined. They were the eyes of a warrior. "Fight you will." She took a deep breath before she confessed her suspicions. "What the man said in the woods triggered my gift, Draco. There's a battle in our future."
Anticipating the adrenaline of fighting, Draco smiled. "I trust you, Hermione. I always did, even if I was a tosser. Do you trust me?"
Tormenting her lower lip, she nodded. "I loved you since you first called my hair a crow's nest." They both chuckled as he pulled her in his lap, strong arms warm around her waist. Caressing her back, Draco buried his nose in her curls, creating sweet shivers on her skin. The promise he whispered to her soothed her agitated mind.
"We will face whatever the fates throw at us together."
AN: All my gratitude to my alpha/beta, RooOJoy. She is precious.
I love all of you (reviewers, followers, whoever put me into their favourites, and silent readers). Some of you left a guest review. I can't thank you personally so I'll do it here: Thank you for reading and reviewing!