He couldn’t believe she was going to stay. He couldn’t believe she didn’t want to hear the story, that she’d just accept his company, his home at face value. What if he was the monster he always feared his damn saw him as? What if Nova crossed paths with her father and the stallion tried to keep her from him?

Nephilim would fight. He would have no other choice. Nova wanted to live with him and he would protect that decision she had made.

The young mare drew close to him, her warmth inviting as the cold of Tinuvel had started prying at his coat. She brushed her velvet muzzle to his skin and it twitched, tingles rushing beneath his pelt as she rubbed her cheek up his neck. A low exhale of breath left him as the excitement of their closeness trickled through his body. He bent his head and pressed his muzzle against her neck, breathing her scent deep again. For a moment he let it just be this – just Nephilim, Nova, and the Bay. No blood-drama, no one else to come between them.

The world would worm its way in soon, it always seemed to do that, but for now… for now, he had this.

She trusted him. Nova trusted him. “Thank you.” He said, sotto voice.