"Let's not talk of death, Nikolai."
Another grazing of lips, his gaze growing darker.
She touched her fingers to the wolf pendant at her throat, cherishing him more than he could know. "Take me inside and show me life."
And so he did, sweeping her into his arms where he preferred her to be. He shut the door on the cold world and the danger, the future peril, the battles yet to come. He held her close in their bed, beneath him, and as he drove inside her body showing her the sweetest part of life, she saw in the spark of his blue-fire eyes the promise of a future wedding in a lovely chapel at midnight. With that promise in her heart, she could face anything. With Nikolai, she finally found the right path, the only path. The one where she walked at his side.