Closer and closer yet, the monstrous beast of a stallion approached. Oswin was not only much shorter than Tyr, but of a far lighter build than him as well. He dwarfed her, blanketed her in his shadow. Still, she did not waiver. His warm, familiar breath brushed across her pale face as he spoke so closely to her. Oswin’s blue eyes hardened, her own white ears flicking back and pinning to her neck.

“I am not here on behalf of the Peak,” she spoke low through clenched teeth, though her jaw tightened even more somehow at the faint pain that lanced through her chest. It might’ve even rippled across her face, a brief flash of anguish, before it was buried back under the mask of indignant anger once more. “I’m here because…” She meant to say she was here because Vadim requested her, but that wasn’t exactly why she was standing here now, her gold and white coat dimmed beneath his shadow.

“I’m here because I love you, Tyr,” she said, her voice sounding almost exhausted to the extent at which she did. “I am here because despite everything, I believe you. I believe in you.” Her ears had already flicked off her neck, no longer pinned, though turning out somewhat in anguish. Oswin’s dark eyes searched across his face. Her heart was racing in her chest, a flush of emotions pushing up inside her as she finally released the floodgate that’d been holding them at bay.

“The roan mare told me you had killed her mate,” she said quietly, “and I didn’t believe her.”

That was the moment Oswin had realized the path her heart had chosen. She had been so desperate trying to chase the past, she’d nearly missed what was lying right in front of her.

“I was distrusted by my sisters for how much I believed in you, to the point I stepped away as Prime Minister.” She paused only briefly before admitting, “To the point that I no longer feel as though I belong there, or have for some time.”

Her eyes had fallen down his wide, muscular chest, but they picked back up to look into his face again. “Your son came to me and told me you were going to kill the new Lagoon Boss.” In truth, Oswin did not particularly care if the new leader of the bachelors was dead, but for Tyr to kill… what would that shatter inside the former boss? What would it welcome him back to? It wasn’t for the other stallion she was here. It wasn’t for anyone else she was here but Tyr. “I know that’s not who you are or who you want to be.”

“I believe in you, Tyr.” She repeated the words firmly, still standing her ground as she had been from the start. But then her tone softened, as did the hard glint in her dark blue eyes. “So stop trying to scare me away, I’m too hard-headed for that to work.”

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.