I watch Aria move around the kitchen preparing our picnic basket. With the winter officially over, the trees are starting to bloom, and spring is here. Aria has been telling me she wants us to spend more time out and she wants to see more of the forest.

Today we are spending most of the day outside but first we will have lunch at the hill. Even though the hill isn't that high where you see most of the beauty of this endless green, but it offers a breathtaking view of the river and part of the gorge where the river joins the other river up south. We have completely settled in our little nest and life is the best.

"I can't wait for mangoes." She says as she places washed blueberries and raspberries in a container.

"They should be here in a few weeks." I say.

"Oh, and fresh corn. The bread is so much better with it."

I smile. "I am going to be going to the farm every day, aren't I?"

"Not just every day, orc. Twice a day."

"People are going to find me out if you keep sending me out so much."

She looks at me with pursed lips. "I know my kind is a bunch of imbeciles, but I wish you could walk in the daylight, Igor. You don't deserve to be hidden. I don't like it."

I grab her hand as she walks past me, and I pull her to me. She pouts as she looks at me and I hold her waist. "I know but it isn't safe. Your kind is unpredictable and unkind and like you said, they would never accept me like you do."

She holds my face with both her tiny hands. Sadness for me in her beautiful eyes and I don't like it there. I have everything I need here with her. This is all I want. Me and her enjoying our peaceful life, away from everyone.

"I'm sorry, my love." She says and she kisses me. I let her have my softness, softness that is only for her. Only she has access to this side of me. I feel something wet on her skin, and I pull away.

"Aria, what's wrong?" My brows pull together.

She shakes her head.

"Dove, talk to me."

She sniffles. "Nothing. I just hate it; the fact that we can never walk in the street hand in hand. I want to walk with you in the street and for everyone to know I belong to you. Why can't we have it, Igor?"

My face falls. I wipe her tears, feeling what she's saying but also getting a little confused. I didn't think it was something that could make her cry. I know she hates it, but I didn't know she was this sad about it.

"Aria, don't be sad, okay. We have a good life here, just the two of us. We don't need anyone else's validation. I don't care about the opinions or eyes of your kind. I am content with how our life is. I have more than I could wish."

She leans in and links our heads together and closes her eyes. "I know you don't care but I just hate that they all think I belong to him and not you. That is not the legacy I want, Igor. I want the history books to be accurate. I belonged to you."

"Do you want more?"

She shakes her head. Then I pepper her skin with kisses until she grins, and she is back to being herself. It leaves me a little worried though. What if she isn't happy? What if she isn't satisfied with the simple life that we have?

She was queen of an entire kingdom, living in a castle, what if she wants more? More than this? And more than me.

"Okay, let me finish packing our things or we will not make it out of here and it will be like 2 days ago again." She smiles with an eye roll, and I grin at her. Two days she had been packing for the picnic and she bent down to pick a spoon that fell. She was wearing that shorter dress I love that goes midthigh and I lost my mind.

"Orc, let me loose." She quips her brow. I fix my eyes at her in challenge, getting harder at the thought of being inside her again.

"Say please, little human."

She chuckles. Then she sighs, defeated. "Igor, come on. We have to make it to this picnic, its almost noon."

"I don't hear please." I tease.

"No." She crosses her arms.

"Are you saying no?" I tilt my head at her and lick my tusks as I get ready to pounce.

"If you don't let me go then I won't do that underwater thing I've been saying I'm going to do to you in the river."

That takes all my attention and I want to take her on this very floor.

"If I let you go, will you do that thing for me today if the water isn't cold?" I ask in anticipation I can't hide.

"Hm," she turns with a smug pout.

"Aria, if you don't say yes then we are not leaving this house and you will be limping tomorrow."

She giggles. "Is that your threat?"

"Yes." I say with a straight face.

She sighs. "Fine, I will do it if the water is getting warm."

I show all my teeth and tusks. She grabs my tusks with her hands. And she pulls me to her playfully and kisses my nose. I let her go and she closes the basket.

I get up to take the picnic sheet we will sit on, and I see Wolfie sitting on top of the big rock outside that's become her place whenever she comes here.

I may still have one eye open to the wolf, but I can admit Aria was right. The thing isn't here to harm her. Even though it infuriated me at first, I have gotten used to seeing her around. We still aren't buddies, but she understands Aria is mine and she honestly doesn't bother us.

I still don't know where the wolf lives or where it goes but I don't hate it anymore. I take the sheet and I meet Aria outside with Wolfie.

"Me and Igor are going to have a picnic. Wanna join?" she asks. The wolf looks my way with boredom before she makes a noise. I want to laugh because I think that was 'I'd rather kill myself, Aria,' face.

This wolf has a personality, and she isn't impressed by a lot. She likes her freedom and being left alone. She shows up here and leaves in her own time too. Weird creature.

"You know. I'm starting to really like you, Wolfie." I say as I stand behind Aria who is giving me the evil eye.

"We will see you when we come back, okay? Or tomorrow if you are gone by then, okay girl?" she runs her hands on her fur and the wolf makes a pleased purr.

We leave after and we head up the hill. We set everything up and I pull her to sit on me as we take in the scenery. Today is a really warm day.

The forest is getting its luscious green back and I know it will be full in a matter of weeks. The summer fruits and vegetables are about to sprout. I hate the summer weather and the heat, but the food is the best.

"You know, my mother and father when she was still around, they would take me and my brother on boat rides to the Idun islands every year for the festival of Taha. We would pass that very gorge on the other side and I always wondered what lays beyond the gorge. It always seemed so...foreboding and mysterious but also alluring and curious." She says as her body is melted in my arms, and I caress her.

"Maybe you were feeling destiny whispering your name." I say before I near her skin and she moves her neck for me.

"And to think how much I used to hate my life. But everything that happened brought me here. If my mother hadn't left, leaving my father with no choice but to remarry then I would have never married Shepherd and I would have never ended up on the water."

I halt my explorations. I don't like remembering that incident that almost unalived her. And I hate her former husband.

I hope I never see his face in this life because I don't know what I'd do to him for everything he put her through, the scum.

"it's the past. I hate everything that happened to you, but I am glad you ended up here with me. You never have to feel less than, or unloved, or unseen or unprotected ever again. I swear on my life."

"I know, honey." She kisses the side of my mouth, over my tusks. Then she looks at me with the look I am now too familiar with. She pulls her dress up her legs, revealing her mouthwatering thighs.

"Lie down, orc."

I groan because this woman always knows where to find me, what to say, she knows exactly where to push me to undo me. I lay myself down.

She turns and she straddles me. She doesn't speak and neither do I. She unzips my pants and frees my impossibly hard length. She moves her under garments to the side and I hold them for her then she directs my cock to her, and it slides in.

We both exhale as her walls tighten around me, choking all sanity out of me, and I close my eyes briefly, relishing her.

Home.

I pull her closer and she starts moving at a maddeningly slow pace. I let her take all the pleasure she wants; she is doing her thing and I steady her as we gaze at each other with linked heads.

She moans low, breathy moans that cancel the whole world around us, and I see and feel only her. She continues moving her derrière on my cock and she cruises us in love making.

I start thrusting upwards meeting the rhythm she's set. She looks like she is drunk in lust and in pleasure. Her eyes are half open.

Right here in my arms, in this hill I have my piece of heaven. I feel her starting to clench around me in that way I know she is close, and I keep my pace.

"You are everything to me, Igor." She breathes out before she closes her eyes, and her orgasm takes hold of her body. I let go as well and I still and I give her everything that I am, all that is only hers.

"How did I get so lucky?" I pant slowly, holding her to me.

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After chapter thoughts?