A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Chapter 300: Chapter 300 - Astrid's answer

The young girl wore a look that could only be described as a mix of confusion and awe.

Bringing her hand in front of her eyes, she started inspecting it as if she was high and couldn't believe how big it was.

Everyone there looked at her with curiosity, until it was Emma who finally spoke, "Alice? How do you feel?"

"Yes, please tell us," Erik added, before chuckling. "Assuming you're done inspecting your hand, anyway."

Alice smiled widely and turned towards Emma and Erik. "I fe— I… I mea…" she tried to say something, but then her eyes started fluttering and she suddenly fell backwards.

"Alice!" Erik and Emma exclaimed at the same time, while Erik quickly caught her before she hit the floor. "Are you alright?" he asked, as he watched her eyes continue to flutter and fly around the room unfocused.

"Don't worry," Elora said at the same time as she landed on his shoulder. "The procedure went fine, she's just tired. Back when I used this method to help Emma I wasn't actually affecting her physical body, but just the metaphysical organ that stores aetherium. In Alice's case, however, it was all physical. So now she just needs some sleep."

"Phew," Emma and Erik sighed in relief as Emma walked up to Erik and Alice and softly stroked the young girl's hair with a fond smile.

Meanwhile, the girl in question had already fallen asleep with a content smile on her face.

"Thank you, Elora," Emma smiled at the fairy.

The fairy shrugged nonchalantly. "I did it for myself, too. Working on her genes actually gave me quite a bit of research material."

Erik sighed fondly, "It's so cute how she always tries to hide her heart of gold behind a mask of indifference, isn't it?"

If looks could kill, Erik would by now be the equivalent of someone tossed into a sun, just before it went supernova.

But he just chuckled, causing Elora to scoff while she mumbled something unkind under her breath.

Erik knew there really was no heart of gold at all, but he also didn't doubt he had caused a little crack to appear in the diamond casing around her heart, which normally only opened for him and her parents.

Suddenly, a red-haired and sweaty beauty stormed into the living hall while she was doing stretches. When she noticed Erik and Emma standing around a motionless Alice, she got a little concerned. "Hey guys… what's up?" she asked, cautiously.

Erik quickly explained what happened, causing Astrid to grin. "Awesome! Training in her transformed state is more efficient and now she won't have any excuse!" she laughed.

"Sounds like you got your priorities straight," Erik chuckled.

"Of course!" Astrid joked, before turning a little more serious. "Anyway, if you're done here, I'd like to talk to you for a moment."

"Sounds serious," Erik raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "But sure, let me just put Alice to bed."

A few minutes later, Emma had gone back to her own training, Elora was back inside Erik, and Alice was asleep in her room.

Now, Erik followed Astrid into her room. The red-headed vampire looked a little nervous as she paced around the room while her hands refused to remain still.

Erik watched her patiently, unsure what this was about, but willing to wait.

Finally, she turned to face Erik and sighed. "I've been making you wait too long, haven't I?"

Erik suspected what this was about, but still wanted to hear her say it. "Wait too long for what, Astrid?" he asked, with a cheeky grin.

Astrid narrowed her eyes and growled, "Don't make me punch you…!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Erik laughed. "But if you want to talk about this, you're still going to have to say what it is you want to talk about exactly!"

"Ugh," Astrid groaned and rolled her eyes. "You know, the old you would never be such an asshole."

"Yeah," Erik nodded as he slowly approached her and put his arms around her. "But you like the new me better, right? I mean, you only liked me before because of my strength and talent, but I doubt you liked my personality. You probably just believed you could change me, right?"

Astrid refused to hug him back, and instead kept her arms crossed in front of her chest while she pouted a little. "And so what if all that's true?"

"Nothing, I suppose," Erik chuckled. "But you are still going to have to tell me exactly what you want to talk about."

"Ugh," she groaned again while suppressing her deepest urges to start punching him. "Fine! I just… I'm sorry I made you wait so long for my decision. I never had much of a problem with the fact you're creating a harem, even though it came as a surprise."

Noticing the skeptical look on Erik's face, Astrid shrugged and explained, "I mean, I had already resolved myself to sharing you with Edda in the past, and the harems present in the dominion had desensitized me to them, so really this barely changed anything."

"Okay… so your main problem was whether I was still the same guy you knew in the past? Fundamentally at least?" Erik nodded thoughtfully, as Astrid's admission confirmed his own thoughts.

"Yeah," the vampire sighed and nodded. "And honestly, I decided like a month ago that you are. The way you treat Alice was a big motivator in that decision."

"Oh?" Erik uttered as a wide smile appeared on his face, thinking Astrid was finally ready to take their burgeoning relationship to the next level. "So why did you wait so long to tell me?"

Pouting a little, Astrid finally uncrossed her arms and put her hands on Erik's chest, while looked into his eyes. "Because I don't want to marry you without my mother present… and I was afraid you'd be disappointed. But… I don't know, I saw you with Alice just now, and I decided I didn't want to leave you in the dark until then."

"I wouldn't be disappointed, Astrid," Erik smiled as he held her chin, before leaning in and whispering in her ear. "But… don't blame me if I end up seducing your mother as well, alright?"

What happened next was predictable.

Astrid growled angrily, before punching Erik in the chest with lightning speed. "Asshole! Just because I don't mind a harem, doesn't mean I want to share you with my mother!"

Erik chuckled, as he stumbled back a few steps. His chest hurt, but he wasn't wounded. "Well, if you want to deprive poor Miss Frost from my love, then I suppose I won't get in the way," he quipped with a shit-eating grin.

Before Astrid could respond, Erik tried to close the distance between them to celebrate what was essentially their official engagement, but Astrid wouldn't make it that easy on him.

She quickly evaded his grasp, "Screw you! Mom will be fine without your damn love!"

"Oh?" Erik grinned as he circled the vampire, looking for an opening. "And what about you? Would you like some of my love? I hear it tastes good."

"You…!" Astrid immediately flushed red and glared at him, but Erik was quick to make use of her loss of focus, by performing an outstanding tackle. He grabbed Astrid by her waist, and moments later they were wrestling on the ground.

Their strength was matched. They were both second-rankers, but while Erik wasn't in his werewolf form, he did have Elora and his bloodlines to boost his physical stats. They were laughing, kissing, and, not long after that, entirely naked.

Erik was now hovering over Astrid while holding her hands over her head as she glared at him. "That was unfair! Your big… thing, distracted me!"

Erik grinned as he took in his new fiancé's naked body, "I don't know, Astrid. You have two beautiful things that were pretty distracting to, and I believe two is bigger than one, so…"

"That's different…!" Astrid complained as she squirmed under Erik's hold. "You see those all the time, from… from your wives…! I've only seen yours…" she pouted, aggrievedly.

"That just means we need to get you more familiar with my friend down there! Besides, I didn't take you for someone who made up excuses for their losses, Astrid," Erik chuckled as he slowly leaned in and took Astrid's lips.

After kissing each other deeply for a moment, they separated again. "Fine…" Astrid panted with reluctant acceptance. "You win! So now what…?"

"Now I take my victory prize," Erik grinned lustfully as he lifted himself up slightly, so that Astrid could see the large slab of man-meat resting between her legs, and reaching just slightly beyond her navel.

The poor vampire gulped, as she felt its weight on her stomach and imagined that thing making its way inside, rearranging her insides, and making her scream out like she had seen Emma do almost every night, back in Frostvik.

Still, she was a fighter, and fully prepared for the challenge ahead.