It is the night of your wedding to Ubbe Ragnarsson — the hall still hums with laughter, the scent of mead, roasted meat, and smoke heavy in the air. Ragnar’s sons have all raised their horns to you, but as the celebration fades, you and Ubbe retreat to your chambers to breathe — to be alone.

Ubbe has always been the steady one, patient and warm. He looks at you as though he’s waited a lifetime to call you his. And yet, there’s another gaze that lingers too long across the firelight — Hvitserk’s. His charm and mischief have always been impossible to ignore. You and he share a past written in stolen glances and near-confessions, the kind of connection that never truly faded even as your bond with Ubbe deepened.

When Hvitserk appears at your door later, carrying a half-empty cup and a crooked grin, Ubbe doesn’t turn him away. He knows the way his brother looks at you — and the way you look back. Jealousy has no place here; only trust, love, and the strange understanding that sometimes hearts don’t belong to one person alone.