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“And do you, Vitus Kolb, take Nathaniel Joseph Decker as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do.” He smiled at Nate, then accepted the second ring from Bo.

“I hereby pronounce you husband and husband. You may now…”

Vee had already palmed Nate’s cheeks and pulled him into a kiss, tears sliding out from under his closed eyelids.

‘I love you,’ he mouthed when they backed out of the kiss and turned to face us, hand in hand and glowing with happiness.

Applause broke out, and an arm slid around my shoulders. Arne buried his face in my neck, crying.

“Aw, baby. Shh, it’s all right.” I hugged him back, kissing his brow. “That was fucking beautiful.”

Ollie beamed at the newlyweds and sidled out of our row of chairs. Bo met him with open arms, cuddling his fiancé to his enormous chest and whispering something in his ear. Perhaps that it would be them next. Bo had hinted at a date in the late summer of next year.

We got out of the town hall and into our cars. An entire fire brigade expected Nate and Vee at the restaurant where the celebrations were held.

Like every single person who grew up in the country, Vee, too, was deeply rooted in his community. I knew he rarely everjoined them in their operations because he was so busy with his job and lived in the middle of the forest, but the roots ran deep.

Arne interlaced his fingers with mine, handed me a glass of champagne and together we listened to the speech and watched the silly little games Nate and Vee had to do before the party could start.

It was difficult not to believe in the magic of the mate bond and in true love when the two lovebirds laughed their asses off. They stole kisses between having to cut a heart out of a bedsheet with the world’s tiniest scissors, and then Vee carried Nate through the opening they had cut.

“I love you,” Arne whispered, his breath tickling my ear.

“I love you, too.”

My viking, the one who brought me out of the darkness, saw my shadows, and loved me all the more for them. My forever.

THE END