That night comes back to here in flashes that often catch her off-guard and causes her heart to leap in to her throat. She had never expected to experience that in her lifetime, it had never been a dream of aspiration of hers to be loved. The possibility of someone loving her had been a long foregone conclusion, and looking back it still seemed as if a dream. Fuzzy around the edges with soft touches and whispered words that wound around them and escalated to heights she could never have imagined. To be honest she may have still thought it nothing more than a dream brought on by their new relationship, save for the changes she now felt occurring within her body like the steady creep of fog in the morning. She had tried to ignore it, aware that what she and Zaphkiel had done did not always create…results but she could only ignore it so much.

Despite her trepidation at her newfound closeness with her mate she was glad he was here, even if it didn’t always seem that way. She smiled softly at his words, all too familiar with his penchant for chasing down danger no matter the cost for the sake of glory, and for the first time she feared he would not be pleased with the latest development in their lives. A chill runs through her body that has nothing to do with the cold. Would he be willing to concede his life of adventure and gallivanting about for one of more domestic means? Perhaps this would all be over before it truly started. She sighs, the hot breath vaporizing on the winter winds before they carried it away, knowing it is a moot point now; she must tell him regardless of the consequences.

They stand outside her den and as Zaphkiel surveys the area her eyes rise to the oak towering ahead, her eyes closing momentarily to breathe in the predominately musty scents of earth and pine that all labeled this place as home. Her azure and golden gaze snaps back to him as his words, while lackadaisical, resonate within the trees and within her chest. She studies him for a moment, checking for signs that he is making fun of her before speaking. “I can make no promises of that,” she says, trying for nonchalance but unable to ignore the tightening in her heart and thinking they may need even more room within shortly. “You will either learn quickly or have many cold nights, I will not give you all the answers. What fun is there in that?” He liked games, after all.

She inhales, veritably ignoring his last comment and steeling herself and searching for the best way to say words she had never imagined uttering. “We’ll have to try and expand it quite a bit before spring,” she mutters, the words as quiet as the falling snow and wholly unlike her. Finally she turns her two-toned eyes on him, the gaze steely as she looks deeply in to his deep golden depths. “I...We…I’m pregnant.” The words are out quick, flat and hard as the truth must be, as she always is. Astrid, unlike her love, had never been one for games, for beating around the bush and dodging the point. She laid it out there in the open for him to do what he may.

Never had she wanted a family beyond herself and her brother, never imagined carrying life beyond her own. Yet here she finds herself without her brother but on the cusp of something even greater. She would love their children, this much she knew for she is a being of extremes and instincts and in this she would not fail.