Page 70 of Ironling
Mate,roared his beast.
He wanted her for his mate, needed it with a sharpness that blurred everything else.
The mate-bond was already forming—had been since the first time she walked into his forge. Every day brought him closer to her, every day proved she was the one for him. Her brilliance, her kindness, her spirit of iron, all of it drew him inexorably to her.
Her kiss lingered on his lips as night fell around the garden, and Hakon was loath to move for fear of losing it. He held hope, so much hope, inside him, and he was determined that it wasn’t to be the last of her kisses he claimed.
He needed a plan.
His old one meant nothing now. Things had changed.
She feels it, too.
That’s all he needed to know.
What mattered now were just two things—firstly, that she was his mate. The one his beast and his soul cried out for. He’d long since known she was everything he could ever want in a woman. It wasn’t fair to himself or to anyone else to try finding it in another when all he wanted was her.
He also wouldn’t let the little fact that he was a halfling blacksmith stop him from claiming her.
For the second thing that mattered was this: the life of heiress and eventually Liege Darrow could bring her only misery.
Seeing her like that, crumpled in the grass and beating at her breast as she wailed, nearly broke him.Nothingshould beallowed to make her feel so low, so broken. Hakon wouldn’t stand for it any longer.
He would fill her life with only goodness and pleasure. He would make her happy, give her a life that would make her smile. She deserved nothing less.
He’d build her whatever life she wanted on that land—free of duties and tears.
What had to be done, then?
He had to convince her. Woo her. Pursue her as he’d forbidden himself from before.
Hakon would show her what a mate he could be. He’d claim her in every way he could, support her and please her and encourage any affection she already had for him. He’d spend his days proving himself to her, that the life they could build would be so much better than her life as Liege Darrow.
And then, with a little luck, she would choose him over being heiress.
Just as his mother had chosen his father. Just as his grandfather had followed his grandmother. Hakon’s mate would choose him.
He’d accept nothing less.
16
The wedding was as beautiful as she’d hoped and sweet enough to cause a toothache. Aislinn arrived early in the day on her chaise to help with Sorcha’s preparations, her father following with their small retinue a few hours later.
Sorcha was all nervous chatter, her fingers finding different ways to fidget as Aislinn braided her hair with flowers and her sisters twirled in their dresses and her mother shoved biscuits and tea down her throat.
“It won’t do to faint from hunger,” Aoife reminded her daughter sagely.
Men were barred from the house, although more than one of Sorcha’s brothers attempted to sneak inside to see her. Aislinn intercepted each one and sent them away.
“Not a chance,” she told Niall, wagging a finger under his nose, “we know you’re doing reconnaissance.”
“Have you seen the size of the groom? You try telling him no!”
“Try harder,” Aislinn laughed as she shut the door in Niall’s face.
In truth, it pleased her to know Orek was so anxious to beholdhis bride. It had her thinking of her own halfling.
Perhaps some of her joy and giddiness wasn’t just for her friend’s wedding.
