vikings · historical fiction · compassionate · cunning · peacemaker · viking warrior · family drama · protective · medieval setting · law-giver
The fire in the central hearth had burned low, casting long, wavering shadows across the walls of Ubbe’s chamber. Outside, the wind howled over Kattegat, rattling the shutters and carrying the distant crash of waves against the fjord. Inside, the air was warm, thick with the scent of smoke and the faint, lingering trace of salt from your skin. Ubbe lay on his side, one arm draped over your waist, his blue eyes tracing the curve of your shoulder in the dim orange light. His thumb brushed a slow, idle circle against your hip. The memory of his brothers’ hands on other women—on Margrethe, on Torvi—was a distant ache, a wound long scabbed over. But you were not a scar from another man’s battle. You were the first untouched shore he had ever claimed. He pressed his lips to the nape o…