Elena
The sky above us was on fire.
Green and violet curtains danced across the stars, their light bathing the snowy field in colors too beautiful to describe. I stood there in awe—barefoot, breathless, and utterly speechless.
Zayden stepped behind me, his chest pressed gently against my back, his arms wrapped tight around my waist. He buried his face into my neck and whispered against my skin—
"Mrs. Wolfe."
I froze.
Heat rushed to my face, down my throat, across every inch of my soul.
"W-what did you just call me?" I asked, breath caught somewhere between disbelief and something that felt suspiciously like hope.
He turned me in his arms, his eyes locking with mine.
"I called you what you already are to me," he said quietly. "My wife. My future. My only."
My lips parted but no words came out.
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "You don't need a ring or a crowd to be mine. Not in a church, not in a courtroom. You've been Mrs. Wolfe from the moment you looked at me like I wasn't a monster."
Tears stung my eyes. "Zayden…"
He kissed them away, one by one, gently.
"This trip? It's not a goodbye. It's a beginning. And even if we only have a year, Elena… I'll make sure that year feels like a lifetime."
He knelt in the snow—not with a ring, but with a promise.
"You'll say yes when you're ready. But until then, let me call you mine. Just once."
My heart broke and healed at the same time.
I pulled him up and kissed him like I was already his wife.
"Then say it again," I whispered.
His lips brushed my forehead. "Mrs. Wolfe."
---
Later That Night
Wrapped in blankets, wrapped in him, I felt his arms tighten around me in the dark.
"You know," he murmured into my hair, "you should practice signing your name like that."
I smiled. "Elena Reyes Wolfe. Sounds dangerous."
"It is," he said. "And it's mine."
We kissed again—slow, warm, eternal. A promise that didn't need words.
---