"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

~Plato

Aaline watched as the last box was carried out of what used to be her front door. She surveyed the space that was her living room and felt significantly smaller than she had a moment before. The high ceilings seemed darker now that her paintings and pillows were gone.

She had been living in the penthouse suite since she'd moved home from Oxford two years ago. It was a graduation gift from her father. He'd built the apartment complex four years before and used the penthouse as a coming home gift as well as a way to make amends for the things he hadn't been around for. She'd had the freedom to decorate how she wanted and she used rich reds and yellows to paint the walls.

He still owned the building. Well, technically she owned it now. It was just yesterday that she met with her father to sign over the company. Hvitserk had accompanied her as the legal representation for Ragnar and her father had his own attorney present. He had tried to speak to her about matters outside of their business deal but she pointedly ignored him. Hvitserk tried to move everything along quickly but her father must've spoken to his lawyer before the meeting because he made things as tedious as possible.

They finally concluded their business after nearly three hours of discussion. Everything that was once owned by her father was now in her name. His shares, his buildings, his accounts, his company. Everything belonged to her. He was a member of the board in name only. He had no power over the company and any decisions that were made in its name. She agreed to give him a monthly stipend of twenty thousand dollars, five thousand a week, which was more than enough to support him. What he did with that money was his business. She would give him no more, no less. That was the only contact they would have for the rest of his life.

He tried to speak to her as they left but Hvitserk must've picked up on her mood and politely stepped between them as she made her way out. Ives Jensen was not easily deterred and managed to make the elevator. Hvitserk gave her an apologetic look but she ignored him. "Aaline, would you please say something?" She didn't acknowledge him and instead watched the numbers change as they descended.

"How many times must I apologize?" Hvitserk snorted and tried to cover it up with a cough. Aaline rolled her eyes and sighed. "You're my only child. I was trying to protect you." Aaline brought her gaze down to the reflective silver doors and looked at her father. She watched him until she heard the ding that announced their arrival. The doors were opening when she finally spoke. "You didn't do this for me." She didn't wait to see it Hvitserk was following her.

She had gone back to her apartment knowing that Ragnar's private moving company would be there in the morning to take her personal possessions back to the estate.

She had decided to leave the basic furniture in the apartment and just take her personal items. Lagertha had told her that she could stay in one of the guest rooms until the wedding. It went unspoken that she and Ivar wouldn't be made to share a room following their wedding ceremony. She would be moving into one of the guest rooms close to Ivar's room. She ignored the reasons for that.

The moving company arrived at eight am that morning and was surprised by the number of things she wasn't taking with her. She told them she was renting the penthouse out so she was leaving the furniture behind. They didn't ask any questions and began moving boxes. Torvi, Sibylle, and Thora arrived shortly after and Ubbe dropped Margrethe off on his way to work. The four women were there mainly for moral support but Aaline could see them whispering together when they thought she wasn't looking.

It was almost ten and the movers had taken her last box. She stood with her hands on her hips as she surveyed the apartment. It felt cold now that she couldn't see her presence in the walls anymore.

She startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and smiled at Sibylle. "The truck is loaded and ready to go. There's a car here for us if you'd like to get brunch with us?" She phrased it as a question like she thought Aaline would say no.

Aaline had never had a lot of friends growing up but she needed to find someone to latch on to during this process. The next several months weren't going to be easy for her and this group of women had more knowledge of this organization than she would ever hope for. She needed them not only as a line of information but as friends.

She figured out a long time ago that she didn't do well on her own. When left to her own devices, people got hurt. She didn't like the person that she was when she was alone. She needed people to care about, people to love. She needed a reason behind her anger and she felt that these women could be that for her. She could love them. Maybe it would lessen the blow of a loveless marriage.

She smiled and nodded, letting Sibylle lead her out the door. Aaline balked when she saw that they were riding in a limousine. "A limo?" She questioned. Sibylle laughed and opened the door. Torvi poked her head out of the door and smiled. "Come on you two! I'm starved!" Aaline sighed and followed Sibylle inside the car.

Thora had already opened a bottle of champagne and handed a flute to Aaline. She smiled and took a tentative sip. She saw Torvi glance at the other women before turning her body to face Aaline. She turned her eyes to the older woman and waited. She clearly had something on her mind.

"Aaline, we know this can't be easy for you but, the four of us, we wanted you to know that we're here for you. Whatever you need." Aaline felt her throat get tight and swallowed several times. "I appreciate that." She nodded and took a bigger sip of her champagne. The bubbles burned her throat but she sniffed and blinked the tears away. Torvi placed a gentle hand on her knew and Aaline had to tamp down her reflexes to pull away.

Thora leaned forward then and waited for Aaline to meet her eyes. "We know how this family can be and we've all struggled with something at one time or another. It's normal to be overwhelmed in this family." Aaline snorted and shook her head. The car was silent for several minutes. Aaline knew they were expecting her to speak but she didn't know where to start. She swallowed thickly and opened her mouth.

"I spent most of my childhood alone. I still had the cliche dream of marrying someone that I love and having this perfect wedding. As I got older I thought about it less and less but I always thought I'd marry someone for love." She finished her champagne and laughed humorlessly. "I guess that's one more dream I can give up on." The other women gave her looks of confusion but didn't say anything.

"This might not be the best time but…" Thora started rifling through her purse and Aaline tensed when she saw a black box emerge from its depths. She looked up at Aaline and blushed at her incredulous look. She passed the velvet box to Torvi. "I know this is supposed to come from Ivar but...to say he hasn't been receptive is an understatement so...we," she gestured to the other women around her. Aaline looked apprehensively at the box resting in Torvi's hands. "Decided that maybe we could do this for you. We wanted to find something elegant and simple but also stunning."

Aaline took the box with shaky fingers and pulled it open. Inside there were two rings nestled together. One was a row of seven small teardrop diamonds arching in a clean line. The second ring was a large oval diamond on a simple gold band.

"The larger stone is the wedding ring that Iv...that you'll get on the day of. The small stones will be your engagement ring. We figured you could wear it to all the appointments." Thora wrung her hands together nervously as she watched Aaline stare at the rings. Aaline gently pulled the first ring out of the box and, with shaking fingers, slipped it on her ring finger. She took a deep breath and looked at it on her hand. She could almost believe that she was happy.

She closed the box on the other ring and smiled tightly at the other women. "Thank you. It's beautiful." Torvi smiled and rested her hand on Aaline's knee. "We just want to make this transition easier for you. Ivar is difficult but he's not all bad." Margrethe snorted into her champagne flute and Aaline turned accusing eyes towards her. The other women didn't seem to think too much of the outburst either. "Margrethe." Sibylle scolded. Margrethe just tilted her head and kept her mouth shut.

Aaline may have had her own opinions about Ivar but for someone else to blatantly insult him when he wasn't there rankled her.

One of her biggest irritants was people who talked badly about others behind their backs. She felt that honesty was the best way to go through life and for Margrethe to overtly display her dislike for Ivar in front of Aaline was bold.

Sibylle turned back to Aaline. "Ivar is a complicated man. There are many layers to him." Aaline nodded and looked out the window. She watched as the buildings passed by.

Everything was a blur. She prided herself on her ability to get through tough situations. This situation, however, had no end in sight. She was going to have to spend the rest of her life with Ivar Lothbrok. At least the rest of her father's life. She couldn't imagine Ragnar would take to kindly to her divorcing his son during her father's lifetime. Probably ever, if she was honest with herself.

She drew her eyebrows together when they passed the exit for the estate. She turned to look at the other women and none of them would meet her eyes. Sibylle looked guilty and Aaline felt a ball of dread grow in her stomach. "We passed the exit for the house." She said. Torvi glanced at her sisters and, when none of them made a move to speak, she cleared her throat.

"Ragnar's men know what to do. Lagertha is going to make sure everything gets where it needs to go. We need to start wedding preparations." Aaline never wished more for a mother. She would have a confidant who could field these situations. Someone she knew that she could lean on right now.

The Lothbrok women were wonderful. They'd been very welcoming and were working hard to make things easy on her but, in the end, she didn't know them. They were strangers who were loyal to their husbands. They had no ties to her other than the fact that she would one day be a part of their family. They owed her nothing.

Aaline sighed heavily and looked up at Torvi. She'd pulled out an iPad and was scrolling through it. She looked up when she heard Aaline sigh. She smiled and it was filled with pity. Aaline felt the irritation rising in her chest but she held her tongue. Of course, Torvi would pity her. She was marrying her brother-in-law whose reputation was widely regarded as difficult and violent. Anyone would pity her.

She took a deep breath and tried to smile. She was sure it looked more like a grimace. "What's first?"

.

The gun jerked in his hands and he lowered it when he knew the clip was empty. He narrowed his eyes when the target came towards him. He tugged the headphones from his ears and draped them around his neck. He smiled when he saw the holes spaced close together at the head and chest. He tugged it down and set it aside, putting up another target. He shoved a fresh clip into his gun and took aim.

He lowered his hands when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and sneered at Ubbe. His brother simply smiled and jerked his head over to the side. Ivar cleared his chamber and engaged the safety, slipping the piece back into its holster at the small of his back. He followed Ubbe towards the rest of his brothers at the entrance of the range.

Björn was finishing his conversation on the phone while Hvitserk and Sigurd spoke in hushed voices nearby. Hvitserk nodded to them as they approached and Ivar heard Björn say goodbye and hang up. He turned and looked up at them, sighing heavily. His shoulders were tense and Ivar could see the lines of tension by his mouth and eyes. He gestured his brothers closer and they huddled in a tight circle.

"That was Lagertha. They discovered which dock was hit." Bjorn took a deep breath like he was bracing himself. "It was Kattegat."

Ivar sucked in a sharp breath. Kattegat was their busiest, legal shipping dock. Both foreign and domestic trade come out of the dock. The hit this would bring to their organization, both legal and illegal, would be great.

The night that Ivar and Aaline met, the damage to the dock was what pulled Ragnar away from the meeting. Ragnar had gotten a call that there was smoke coming from one of the warehouses that was on the dock. By the time Ragnar and Lagertha had arrived, dozens of shipping containers were burning and billows of smoke were rising up over the dock.

"The damage has been tallied and we lost three million dollars worth of foreign goods and, roughly, two million worth of domestic product." Ubbe cursed and Ivar watched Björn rub at his temples. "Do we know who's responsible?" Hvitserk asked. Björn looked up and nodded, taking a deep breath through his nose. "Aelle, the head of the Northumbria chapter of The Saxons." Ivar tensed and felt the heat rise up in his face.

Ever since his mother died the relationship between The Northmen and The Saxon's had been shaky at best. Ecbert and Aelle claimed they knew nothing of Aslaug's death but Ivar didn't trust a Saxon as far as he could throw them. Aelle and Ecbert had made a deal with Ragnar before Aslaug's death and the grounds it stood on had been precarious from the start. As soon as Aslaug died, any trust or deals between the two groups disintegrated and any hope of them finding new common ground died with Aslaug.

"How do we know it was Aelle?" Ubbe asked. Björn opened his phone and scrolled through it. Ivar saw him open up his pictures and pull up the most recent shot. He turned it around and showed his brothers. Ivar felt his blood rush and his fingers tingle. The adrenaline that raced through his veins was intoxicating. A vindictive smile graced his face and he moved the phone closer to his face.

It was of a man. An older man with dark hair and a dark beard. He was sitting on the ground with his hands behind his back. His eyes were filled with a scornful fire and his upper lip was pulled up in a snarl. There was blood and dirt on his face and neck and Ivar could see other dead Saxon's strewn behind him. He had the same eyes as Aelle.

"Aethelwulf?" Hvitserk asked as he took the phone from Björn and held it between him and Sigurd. "Did he organize it?" Björn snorted and shook his head, taking his phone back. "Of course not. Aelle's the brains behind everything. This was his idea. Aethelwulf has always done his brother's bidding. He reaps the benefits without any of the fallout."

Ivar licked his lips. "Now he's ours." Bjorn nodded and put his hands in his pockets. "We're holding him at Hedeby until Ragnar decides what to do with him." Bjorn jerked his head towards Ivar. "We need to talk about your wedding." Ivar scowled and pulled his headphones back over his ears. He turned towards the range but jerked back when someone pulled his headphones from his head.

"Don't touch me." He snarled. Ubbe held his hands up, Ivar's headphones clenched in his first. "It's unavoidable, Ivar. There are things we need to discuss." Björn continued. Ivar turned his back on his oldest brother and pulled his gun from its holster. "There's nothing to discuss, brother."

He turned to face Björn, his gun aimed at the target. "The women are handling it. I'll be there on the day of, like the good son I am." He sneered and fired one shot. "Then, I'll take her, like the good husband that I am." He fired another shot, never breaking eye contact with Björn. "Whether she's alive the next morning, well…" He shrugged and turned back to the target, emptying his clip.

Björn scoffed and stalked up to Ivar. He stood in front of him, chest to chest, and spoke. "You won't kill her. Do you know why? Because father has arranged this deal with her father. We benefit greatly from this deal. We get money, property, shares, and land. That's more than what we would've gotten had Ragnar just killed her father and been done with it.

"As much as this pisses you off, you know as much I as I do that this is a good arrangement. You have her file. Why don't you read it? Maybe you'll learn something about her that you actually like." Ivar glared up at his oldest brother.

Ivar loved all his brothers, he did, but he hardly ever liked them. Björn was the golden boy. He did everything Ragnar ever wanted or expected him to do. He figured it came with being the oldest and losing his sister at a young age. Björn never wanted to disappoint Ragnar and made it is own personal mission that the rest of them didn't either.

Ivar had no plans to kill his future wife. He liked the color it brought to Björn's face when he threatened to but he knew how important this business deal was for his father. He would marry her, like the dutiful son he was, no matter how angry this lack of free will made him. They would be married in name only. If Ragnar wanted grandchildren, he would have to look to the other four sons that the gods had gifted him for a blessing like that.

"I don't think you're nearly as angry about this as she is," Hvitserk interjected. Ivar and Björn both turned to look at him.

Hvitserk smiled and shrugged. "Out of all of us, I've spent the most time with her thus far. I had to spend three hours in a room with her and her father to legalize the transfer of all of his assets in her name. She wouldn't even look at him."

Ivar quirked an eyebrow. He could admit to himself that he was angry with his father but they had a relationship built on much more than their business ventures. Ragnar loved all of his sons and always tried to do what was best for them. He had never been wrong and Ivar, begrudgingly, admitted to himself that Ragnar was probably right in his assumption that this marriage would be good for them.

He had spent very little time with his fiance to know her true feelings on the subject.

Hvitserk continued. "His lawyer kept trying to extend the meeting to include some rather ridiculous clauses and legal options but she was having none of it. Her father managed to slip onto the same elevator as us and kept trying to talk to her. The only thing she ever said to him was a response to his plea that he was trying to protect her." Hvitserk snorted and shook his head. "She said, 'You didn't do this for me.' and then walked out."

Ivar digested that information. He may not have been happy with the arrangement but at least he knew that Ragnar would never put himself before his children. Ragnar had always made sure to tell his sons that he would die for them and nearly had on more than one occasion. In the case of his fiance, however, it looked like her father was willing to throw her to the proverbial wolves to keep his head on his shoulders.