I wake up to find myself a complete mess, even worse than when I fingered myself for an entire night. My hair is out everywhere, I have a number of scratches, blood spots across my body, several bites on my neck, I can't feel my lower half of my body while the rest is incredibly sore, and Keaton is lying next to me, arm pulling me closer.

I never felt better. "H-hey, Keaton." I say and he murmurs something, "It's morning. Come on, get up!"

"Hm?" He picks his head up and curses at the lights. "I'm awake, I'm awake." He looks me over and growls again.

"We'll be leaving in the hour, maybe even less."

"That's enough time." He starts climbing on top of me.

My breath shortens and I start flushing, "Seriously? All right, but if Jakob comes in here and pulls you off, don't start complaining." I am completely defenseless here, I couldn't stop him even if I want to. 'Mate, claim .' I don't want to stop him… I'm his mate.

"No one else is here." His hands hold me down, not that I can move anyway and he approaches my entrance.

"For now…" I whimper as I feel his member entering me.

"Mine…"

He is panting and I'm taking in deep breaths, "You know… you're going to… have to carry me, right? Get my armor, mate." I have a small smile on my face.

He raises an eyebrow at my command, but does it regardless, "How do you even get this thing on?" He looks it over, then sniffs it.

"Oh right, well, that's isn't something I can show off right now." He places the armor on the bed before putting his own clothes on first.

I hear someone sigh at the door, "If you two are done frolicking, then would you please exit the room?" It's Jakob.

"Jakob! Come put my armor on me!" Keaton snickers. "I can't feel my anything."

"As you command." He enters and surprisingly manages to keep his face from flushing. He crinkles his nose before going straight to his task. "Surely you will consider placing Silencing Wards before engaging with him, yes?" He deftly moves me around and gets the buckles on with minimal trouble.

"I thought the house was empty."

"You thought correctly." He nods.

"Music to my ears." The Wolfskin comments.

"At the cost of nearly everyone else's sleep." Jakob is holding ire towards my mate. "Your poor little sister took the brunt of it, you know. She was the one who casted the Silencing Ward." He gives me a critical gaze, "She stayed redder than a cherry for hours." He steps away once his work is finished. "Anything else, Lady Yasei?"

"You're the best butler ever…" I have a lazy smile on me.

"Thank you, Lady Yasei." He leaves with a huff.

I turn my head towards Keaton, "Keaton… Carry me." I would stretch my arms towards him if I could. He scoops me up and walks me out the door and the house. I notice Yato is being carried by Elise, all the blood has been cleaned off. "Hii Elise." I am so out of it right now.

She turns to face me, her face burning brightly, "Jakob cleaned Yato. Um, here?"

"My arms don't work, little sister. Nothing does, really. I suppose you can strap it to your horse or something."

Her horse neighs in disapproval. Others are staring at us with weird looks, except Niles, he smirks when he sees the bite marks. "Lady Yasei." The archer bows with a flourish, "The entire area has been scoured and all the gold and valuable weapons are stored in the Convoy, per Lady Elise's instructions."

"The agents of darkness has blessed us with weapons brought straight from the void!" Odin Dark says with that ridiculous stance. "However, some were deemed to be too powerful and their essences have ripped apart their users, rendering them to be too dangerous for even I to wield!"

"Odin…" I start, "I saw your spells last night, you are an incredibly talented mage, and I am certain that you will become a highly valuable unit in the army…"

"Praises from the embodiment of the Dragon herself? The specters…"

"But I doubt I ever will be ever to wade through whatever theatricals drop out of your mouth, so save it for talking to other people, not me." He flinches, okay, maybe that is a bit too harsh. Keaton chuckles and the vibrations from it ripple across me.

"...Yes, Lady Yasei." He bows his head.

"We checked the bodies." Niles clarifies, "Well, all the bodies that were still… intact."

"Thank you, Niles." I glance over at my mate, "How are you for food?"

"Well enough, it won't be as bad now that the blizzard is gone…" He leans in closer to whisper, "and now that I don't have to use so much willpower to not pounce you."

I giggle, "If everyone else is ready, then we're off."

The trip back across the snowy lands is significantly easier with the blizzard absent, though I cannot really say much about difficulty since I am in Keaton's arms. 'Thank the gods I am smaller than average . ' I blink my eyes, huh, that's the first time in recent memory I actually thought well of my body. I squirm a little so I can get closer to my mate's chest and I manage to move my arms, the right arm goes under me and the left is stroking his chest fur. He growls and I shiver. "Careful there." I can see the feral glint in his eyes, I blush and look away.

"You aren't getting tired of carrying me?" It must have been at least an hour by now.

"Nah, you're too light for that to be a concern." He smirks again, "you don't know how to harness some of your dragon power in your human form, do you?"

"I… do, actually." I bite my lip and pause, "It only happened once, before my first transformation, weirdly enough." I can sense the curiosity on him, "This dastard named Hans broke a section of the bridge in the Bottomless Canyon and caused a close friend and mentor of mine, Gunter, to fall." A tear falls down, "I… formed this spear thing and then a maw that shot this ball of energy."

"Perhaps we should pay Hans a visit?" He licks his lips. That sounds very tempting, I can see the ex-prisoner right now, impaled and crushed. 'Death . '

"But, there's a problem, with that, he's under the protection of Father, I can't do anything about it without incurring his wrath."

"Accidents happen…" He shrugs and I choose to end the conversation there. "Finally, I was getting sick of this snow."

"Hm?" I turn my head and see the dried out grassland that precedes the snow "Good, now we only got about a week to get back."

"That's a relief, that snow was doing a number on my armor." Effie speaks, "Lady Yasei, could we stop a moment so I can get my plate cleaned properly? I hate for it to rust."

"Yea, we'll stop for an hour. We still have quite a bit of daylight left." It is only slightly pass noon. "Food?" I ask Keaton.

He flashes his teeth, "Sounds good to me. I'll fetch something right quick."

"I think I can walk just fine now." He sets me down and I stand up, "See? Not a… woah!" I fall over the second I take a step.

"My word, Lady Yasei." Jakob chides me. He is over and helping me up before Keaton could even bend over. "Let me get you something to seat on." He stands by my side for a moment to make sure I don't fall over before leaving.

Keaton gives me a satisfied look, "Yeah yeah," I sigh, "Mark my words, one day I will get you in this same situation and I will laugh."

He approaches me, "You'll have to get on top, first." Another shiver, gods, the effect he has on me is… so wonderful. "I won't be long." He leaves and I am left standing with a burning desire running through me.

Jakob returns with a small tree trunk as a makeshift stool, "Terribly sorry, Lady Yasei, but this is the best I can find."

"It'll do." I flop onto the wood. "Hey, Elise!" I call out from across the short-term camp.

She skips over from grooming her horse, carrying Yato in its sheath. "Here you go!" She offers and I grab it, "Watcha need, sis?"

"How were things back home before you left?"

"Well…" She takes a seat next to me, the log isn't exactly big enough for two so she ends up on my lap, her legs crossed and arm over my shoulder. If we did this a few months ago, I would find this cute, right now though… even after choosing to be Keaton's mate, I am still picturing things that I would rather not. "Where should I start…?" She taps her chin.

Elise goes over the most recent important events, the biggest one is Father mobilizing the army to strike against Hoshido. "So, what's been going on with you?"

"You've been here for most of it, Elise." I point out.

"No, I mean what's going on with you." She pokes me for emphasis, "It seems like you changed overnight on me." Sorrow and worry rear their heads, "And I'm not sure I really like it. The blood, the yelling, it's not all 'Big Sister' things."

I frown, "I don't understand most of it either, honestly… but Keaton has been helping me through it." And I trust Keaton. "And a lot of the changes I just… didn't tell you about earlier. I mean, how am I supposed to bring up I want raw meat? That I have this huge urge for…" I stop myself. "I'm sorry, little sister, but it's scary being this confused. What would you do if you woke up and look like this? Like a freak…" I feel like crying now.

"You are not a freak!" She tuts and pointedly avoids my question, "I'm just worried, that's all. Let me know if anything else changes, all right? Don't let me find out after it has already happened. It was so scary when you came back bloody…"

I smile weakly, "Will do." I pause and sniff the air, "Oh, uh… speaking of bloody… excuse me," I plant a kiss on her forehead and get up. My legs are feeling much better already. I strap Yato to my back. "Love you, sis."

"I love you too, Big Sis!" We hug for a second and I walk off towards Keaton, who has hauled in a stag.

A shame that bear went to waste. "Large animals are too few out here." The stag slides across the ground and he shifts back, "I hope this is the last time we go out here." He rips into it immediately.

"It should be, the Ice Tribe is the only noteworthy thing out here…" I pause, "was the only noteworthy thing." Gods, how is Felicia going to take this news? Her sister bled out and her father are both dead because of me. 'Them, they committed treason . '

"Mate, eat." He snaps me out of my thoughts. I nod and take a bite, it still tastes so good. I doubt I will ever want anything else again… well, maybe some fruit. The next few minutes go on in silence. "Returning to the castle, right?"

"Castle Krakenburg, yes. And as much as I dislike saying this, that place is royal territory, I'm going to have to be in charge." He stiffens.

"Yea, I know. Still getting used to the rules the humans have."

' The humans, not you humans.' My heart skips a beat. Gods, it feels so good for him to see only my dragon side. "Then we can go and visit your pack."

"No need."

I choke on some blood from my last bite, "Huh? But I promised you…"

"That was before I claimed you." It still sends shivers when he reminds me of his ownership of me. "Actually… I have more freedom then the rest."

"How so?"

"I am… was the alpha of the pack. I didn't actually get lost, either." He looks away.

"Why did you leave?"

"A group of poachers came by and raided my territory. Two of them carried Beast Killers. The older one killed my last mate." He growls, "We manage to drive them out, but the damage was already done. Half the pack, just gone, a few cowards snuck in during the fight and dragged the dead ones away, most likely to get skinned and their Beaststones sold."

'Gods…' "What did you do then?"

"They still looked up to me, even though we lost so much, the fight cemented my status as Alpha. The next thing would have been to pick another mate," he scoffs, "there were plenty, but they didn't come close to my first one… and she doesn't even hold a candle to you. You are like the pack molded into one, you are the type that the males would fight to death to gain your favor."

"I see…" We sit in silence, "You really think I am that strong? An entire pack of Wolfskin? If you are anything to go by…"

"Bah, I was uncontested for Alpha. I could hold back at least four of the ones in the pack." He rips off another chunk out of the stag, the beast is nearly devoid of meat. I get another before it is all gone. "So, when this war ends, I'll be able to claim a spot and that will be our territory."

"Oh, you overheard that from Elise?"

"Yea, and I'd ravage all of their royalty if it means the war ends now. I would tear through Hoshido if it guarantees another lifetime with you." His voice is growing husky again.

My own breath shortens, I am not even in heat right now and I just feel like… "You can take all the kills you want, but the royal family is mine." Especially Takumi. 'Rip, tear, rend . ' I want him now again, but we got a march to finish.

"I suppose I could let you spoil yourself. As long as you get to them first." He looks over my shoulder and he sighs, "Looks like it is time to move again." He helps me up… then surprises me with a bite on my neck, my legs nearly give out on the spot. "Mine."

"If we weren't on a timed schedule… I would want you to take me right now." I frown, "But we are and it would be a terrible idea to incur a King's ire."