Ægir's Wife Ch. 06

Roz sighed and nodded at the other woman as she squeezed Kirsty's hand, "We'll try, I promise."

Kirsty squeezed her friend's hand even tighter, regretting that she had allowed the woman to pressure her into this position. Them actually. She knew how hard this must be for Roz. She was beginning to suspect how her friend had come to know the other woman.

As if to confirm that assessment, Roz smiled weakly, "I trust her," she squeezed Kirsty's hand tighter though the smile did not reach her remarkable cat like eyes.

***

Bjorn shifted nervously from foot to foot as the train jostled along. Even though the carriage was practically empty this time of day, he had chosen to stand. He was too full of nervous energy to sit.

The message from Roz had been cryptic, 'Get your sweet buns home NOW.' Though he had sent a dozen or more texts during the ten-minute walk from his office to the station, there had been no reply. Perhaps there would be one waiting when he got off at the next stop.

But even that seemed to be taking longer than usual. Damn, why did he have to work so far from their flat? He could not call it home...it would never be that.

Then again any place that she was should have been all he needed. Except...sometimes it felt like all of this was crashing in on him. Stifling and choking the life from him. He had barely been able to concentrate during the meeting this morning...and had gotten his ass chewed out for it. One mistake? One fucking mistake and he got screamed and yelled at.

The train came to a stop and he was out the door before it even fully opened. He took the stairs two at a time, not even bothering to wait for the elevator. He was slightly winded by the time he climbed the three or four flights. What was happening to him? Too much time sitting at a desk. The only exercise he got was the occasional trip to the park with Monika.

That did not fucking matter now though. He checked the phone again but there were no texts from Roz or Kirsty. Just three from work. He shook his head, let someone else deal with it. The damned company had managed before he started working there and they would when he... When he what? Went home?

He debated calling Roz or Kirsty, but the apartment was only a five-minute walk from the station. So he turned in that direction determined to make it in three.

No, if his wife was pregnant, then going home was not an option.

His mind was awash in all the worst case scenarios that could have prompted Roz's text. Had something happened to Kirsty? Was something wrong with the baby? If there even was a baby...though he was almost certain there was.

He increased his pace from a power walk to an actual jog. Only the stares of those passing him on the busy street kept him from breaking into a sprint as his fears grew in proportion in his fertile imagination.

When he reached their building, he did run up the stairs two and three at a time. He was so nervous that he fumbled a bit getting his key into the lock, but it finally gave way and he opened the door to be hit squarely upside the head.

"Consent! You arrogant, pompous sons of bitches. C-O-N-S-E-N-T! Safe! Sane! Consensual!" Their friend screamed as she kept beating him about the head with her open hands. "No one ever teach you assholes that?"

She stepped back as he put up his hands, "You fucking kidnapped her! Kidnapped! I should call the god damned police."

Bjorn's shoulders slumped at Roz's words. Maybe they deserved everything that had happened to them? Could prison really be all that worse?

Yeah, yeah, it could. Any place without her would be living hell. He felt the tightness in his chest as he remembered that was exactly what Mikael was enduring. Not just their wife, but his child as well. How had it come to this?

"Is she okay? That's all that matters," he replied and he meant it. Prison...even if something had happened to their baby...none of it mattered except that his wife was all right. He tried to push past Roz but her short, curvy form blocked his path to the bedroom. "Kirsty?" he called out.

"Shhh, you asswipe. She just fell asleep a couple of minutes ago. After crying her eyes out for over an hour about how much she missed Mikael...and this Sven jackass. I want an hour alone with that bastard with my floggers and whips," her words revealing that his wife had finally come totally clean about their situation.

He could empathize with her about getting his oldest brother on the end of his floggers...but not for fun. More than once he had thought about stripping the skin from his back. He would certainly love to see Roz have a go at Sven.

He shook his head. Kirsty was all that mattered. "Is she okay?" he asked again with a heavy sigh as he collapsed on the couch.

"If you mean physically? Then yes. Considering she is almost six months pregnant with twin girls that she does not who fathered, she is better than to be expected."

"Wait. What did you say?" he stammered in confusion.

"Let me draw you a picture, boy genius," she said with a dark scowl and her hands planted firmly on her wide hips that blocked his path to the one thing on this earth that mattered most to him. "Your wife was pregnant when you brought her back here. Those little girls could be any of the three of yours. And for some fucking insane reason that is as much a relief to her as it is a big problem."

Bjorn dropped back against the couch so hard that he actually felt the wood beneath the layers of padding. Twins? Little girls? Pregnant before they left the Holding? It all swam inside his mind.

He did not even give a damn as he felt the tears coursing down his cheeks. Crying in front of the woman was the least of his problems. "What the fuck are we going to doing now?"

***

Kirsty swallowed back more tears as she opened her eyes. She looked about their tiny bedroom with disappointment. It was not like she actually expected to find herself back in her room at the Holding. Safely cocooned between Bjorn and Sven with Mikael smiling down at her in love.

Her hand went to her tummy as she chuckled. She supposed it could be worse, if not for Bjorn she could have ended up on that stupid reality television show about women who did not know they were pregnant until they went into labor.

As if to confirm her thoughts one of the girls fluttered a bit. What she had assumed for the past few days was gas, she had learned was actually her babies' first movements.

She had to admit it all still seemed surreal. The one thing she had wanted most...a baby. Times two. And as problematic as it might or might not be, she really was happy that these little girls were theirs. And that was how she thought of it. Though biologically she knew that was not possibly, more importantly in her heart and mind, they were.

She sighed heavily, which brought her back to one thing, "We will go home. I will take you back there."

"Of course, we will," Bjorn filled the doorway. "I thought I heard you moving about a bit. Roz and I called Georgia to pick Monika up from school. They are all at the park now."

His smile was forced as he continued, "I just hope that Roz tones things down enough not to scare the poor girl to death. The big mouthed Domme meets the wide-eyed innocent virgin may sounds like a hot porn, but... "

She chuckled as she held out her hand to him, remembering her own first encounter with Roz's brash and completely unfiltered truth. But her friend as well as that popular book that made the headlines had been her first exposure to the lifestyle...and her own submissive nature. Though the casual nature of both had never appealed to her as much as Raquel Graffen's stories did.

He took her hand and brought it to his soft lips, "I'm sorry." He shook his head and his hair that he had released from the ponytail at the back of his neck fluttered about his masculine features, taking her breath away as he sat on the bed next to her.

His other hand slipped beneath the duvet to move slowly over her tummy through the thin layer of cotton that was his shirt. He shook his head, "Guess I was not imagining it."

"Imagining what?" she asked with a frown, realising for the first time that perhaps this husband, the one who had chosen her, her first ally there, would not be as happy to learn that he must share paternity of their baby...babies...with his brothers.

"Last night, when you were on the cross and I ran my hands over your tummy, I would have sworn I felt the baby move," he whispered without taking his eyes off her stomach.

She chuckled, "Yeah, I have been feeling tiny flutters for a few days now." She blushed, "I thought it was gas."

He laughed but it was incredibly tight and forced. "Are you okay? I mean really."

She reached out and squeezed his hand on her tummy, "The doctor says everything is perfect with them and me, Bjorn. So relax."

He nodded his head, "But still, twins? Wow." He frowned, "I promise you, Kirsty, we will take the girls home. You have my word on that, even if I have to take both Mikael and Sven to the fighting fields. I don't want any of them growing up all cooped up here in the city."

He chuckled, "As a little boy, I used to hate going into town because of all the taunting, but I swear one time on the playground here and I realized how idyllic my childhood really was. These princesses will have full run of the Holding just like I did when I was little. Monika misses it, you know," he sighed as he looked down.

"But Kirsty, not right away. After they are born. I can't take that risk with them or especially you. I know you said the doctor assured you that everything was fine, but still there are no guarantees, especially with something as complicated as twins."

He looked up at last, his eyes glistened with moisture as he pleaded, "Please, I need you here with the best medical care available. Not over a hundred of kilometers from the nearest hospital and hundreds more from the specialist care that you and they need."

She sighed as she shook her head. She had known this was coming. She remembered the irrational and self-imposed guilt that he had felt when he learned of his mother's difficulties with his own birth. But even knowing that, she felt torn.

Staying here for the next four and a half months denied Mikael and Sven the opportunity to bond with these babies...to watch them grow, feel them kick, be part of the whole process.

"And what about Mikael? Sven?" she whispered.

His face tightened instantly, "Sven can go to Helveti. He does not deserve to be part of their lives at all."

She squeezed his hand and gently brushed hair back from his face, "He has made mistakes, but so have we all. And to deny him access to our babies is not fair, Bjorn. You know that."

He nodded reluctantly, "And Mikael has been through so much already. Missing not just you but Monika." He looked just like that little boy must have as he brought her hand back to his lips and pressed it tightly, "I know that, but he was there with Greta when she was pregnant with Monika. Maybe he can visit more, be here when the babies are born? But I need you safe. Please understand, Kirsty, please."

She nodded her head reluctantly, though she was not ready to accede this point to him. Still, all of this was new to them. Going from the possibility that she might be pregnant at long last by her 'husband' to being almost half way through her pregnancy with twin girls by her husbands...all in the space of a single day was a bit...overwhelming.

"Oh my sweet Freyja, we have to tell them," she whispered as she looked up at him.

He nodded his head slowly, "Mikael. I'll tell him tonight when we speak."

She chuckled as she reached for her tablet, "So that is who you talk to every night after I go to bed. I was worried you had some cyber slut on the side." She powered it up and opened the messaging app. "But then I guess we have both been keeping our secrets since coming here, haven't we?"

The screen popped up almost instantly, as his image and voice filled the small space. "I wasn't sure if you had forgiven me yet, elskling." Mikael's smile broadened as he sighed, "I am so glad that you did."

She shook her head and scowled, "Oh, don't think you are getting off that easy, Sir. I owe you big time for this one. And your brat is making plans already."

He chuckled, "I would expect nothing less from her."

She turned the tablet that had been Sven's Christmas present to her so that Mikael could see Bjorn as well, he frowned, "Hey, little brother, what are you doing home this time of day?"

"Don't worry. I did enough of that on the way home," Bjorn chuckled. "It is just that we have some news to share with you."

Mikael's smile was incredibly tight and forced, "I think I know what it is. And congratulations to you both. I am happy for you."

Kirsty shook her head, "Well, you have half of it right. Yes, I am pregnant, Mikael. Eighteen or nineteen weeks along."

She giggled as she watched him trying to do the math in his head, "Yes, that means I was pregnant already when we left."

He heard his quick intake of breath, "So the baby could be..."

"The babies," she corrected. "Twins. Little girls."

"That means they could be any of ours?" he asked.

"A bit more complicated even than that. They are fraternal, not identical, which means that they could have different fathers," she explained.

He shook his head, "Is that really possible? I mean I thought...well," he stammered.

Bjorn chuckled at his brother's sudden discomfort. "Yes, usually, when an egg is fertilized it immediately puts up a force field of sorts. But in this case, Kirsty produced two eggs. And if you remember, dear brother, there was ample opportunity at least once for all three of our sperms to be present in her body within a rather short period of time."

Kirsty could not stifle the girlish giggle at how red Mikael's face turned at the reminder of their one night of complete unity. "Oh," was his only reply for a long moment before he shook his head, "So what do we do now? I, for one, do not want my children growing up without me."

"Our children," Kirsty firmly injected, staring from one husband to the other. "This silly game of guessing and claiming ends with these little girls. These babies are our babies." She inhaled and girded herself for the battle that she knew she was about to wage, "All of our babies."

Mikael frowned but nodded reluctantly. Bjorn on the other hand shook his head violently, "No, I told you, he gave up all claims to these children when he attacked you. Again. Sven will have no part in their lives or ours from here on out, I mean it."

She placed her hand on his shoulder, "It does not work that way. This is family. Our family. Our babies. Or do I need to cut you both off again?" she chuckled at the reminder of the time when their little girl's had most likely been conceived.

Just her luck to have ovulated so close to the one time that she had enjoyed all three of their attentions in the space of a few hours. Her own jaw had dropped wide open when the doctor had after carefully examining her dates and the ultrasound given her a window for conception.

And right in the middle of that was that night...and she knew in her heart when her daughters had been made...in love. The one moment in her whole fucking life when she felt most loved, wanted and complete.

Damn it, she was a daughter of Freyja, the goddess of not only love, sex and fertility but of war. And she was going to fight to have that again...with all of them. Though she had no idea how.

She sighed and shook her head, perhaps if the babies or even one of them had been his coveted son, she could have used that like bait with Sven. She pushed that thought aside too.

That was another thing that was about to change...primogeniture did not even rule her countries monarchy anymore. It sure as hell was not going to determine her children's futures...any of them.

The sea was as much her girls' inheritance as it were any sons she might have one day. After all, they worshipped the goddess Ran right alongside Njord. So it was only right that her daughters have the choice to fish alongside their brothers...or not.

But one fight at a time, "So how do we tell him?" she asked the question that hung like the proverbial pink elephant in the room.

***

Sven felt the stabbing pain in his chest as he stood frozen outside the crew cabin. He had used a minor note in the log book as an excuse to seek Mikael out. Seek out his brother at the time when he knew he would be online with her. Stupidly, he had hoped to overhear even a few words of her sweet voice.

But this was not what he expected.

Not only was she really pregnant, but with twins. And there was every possibility that one or both were his.

He closed his eyes as if he could actually conjure that afternoon up again. The way she had touched him, tasted, moved on him. He was hard and throbbing instantly just remembering it. The very idea that in that moment he had given her life was enough to almost make him cum inside his jeans.

He smiled, maybe the fact that they were little girls and not the hoped for sons should have taken some of the joy from this moment. But it did not. He could almost picture them. Adorable little things with strawberry blond hair, blue eyes and their mother's freckles. His girls...

And her body was already ripening and burgeoning with new life. When did babies start to move anyway? The idea that he would not get to watch her body change and grow with life, feel his babies move inside her, be part of this was more punishment than even he deserved.

He heard their mumbled good-byes and promises to talk again soon. To figure out how to handle him.

He would settle that one now as he stepped without knocking into the room. He saw Mikael's shocked gaze as he looked up from the tablet. He did not wait for the question, "I heard," was all he said.

Mikael nodded his head and opened his mouth as if to say something, but he was not giving them that chance either, "I will finish Niflheimr when we get back. Then we will bring them home."

Mikael shook his head, "Bjorn wants to wait until the babies are born. Wants her near the best medical care."

Sven frowned, of course it made sense. "Are there problems? With her? The babies?"

He began to breathe again when Mikael shook his head, "No, the doctor says they are perfectly healthy."

"Then they come home. We can stay in Oslow or Helsinki those last couple of weeks...as you did with Greta." He knew he was pushing things, knew that Mikael had every right to hate him for these past few months...especially now. "I need you on my side on this one," he admitted reluctantly.

The silence was deafening as he waited for his brother to speak. What he would do if Mikael sided with Bjorn again he was not certain? Perhaps their mother could talk some sense into his baby brother, but he was not sure. A unified front would be much stronger.

At last, Mikael nodded his head, "All right, but only because I know it is what she wants. I still have not forgiven you."

"Me either honestly. But right now the only thing that is important is bringing our girls home...all of them. Even if we have to fucking capture them again. They will come home to the Holding where they belong."

***

Sven sat atop the roof of Niflheimr. They had been back two days and he had barely stopped long enough to eat a bit of the food that his mother brought him each evening. It was late now. The light at its weakest. He should probably get down and grab some sleep, start fresh in the morning. He was just so incredibly close to finishing. A few more shingles and it would be secure enough to be habitable.

Then they could go after them. Bring her home. Bring them home. He had sworn Mikael to secrecy. She and Bjorn still did not know that he was aware of her pregnancy...of its implications. He wanted to keep it that way until he showed up at their apartment.