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Hemming and Calder returned to the house and the small smoking fire, the flames still barely high enough to reach the meat.

Calder still had a light flush, though Hemming had mostly calmed since his orgasm. Hemming has offered to do the same to Calder, but the younger denied it only because he had still retained some self-conscious thoughts about his body.

Even though he had stripped in front of the pack once before, he had either been in the thrall of the sea and did not remember most of what happened after he had first seen the ocean and before he had joined the pack once more the same night; or he had quickly exited the house so that no one could see him.

Hemming did not seem to notice the reason for his hesitation and only nodded, saying they should check on the meat to make sure the fire did not go out.

The meat was fine, of course, so Calder told Hemming that he should go rinse himself off so that Halina would not be able to smell the leftover arousal.

Hemming stilled seemed wary, though Calder believed it was more because of his fear of the ocean more than anything.

Calder tended to the fire silently, reflecting over what his life had become. He had accepted weeks ago that this was his life, but now he was concerned for the future.

Even if Lagina managed to bring back a mate from their trip, Calder highly doubted she would have children; and with how fast Hemming and him were moving, he doubted that Halina would even have time to find a mate and bear children.

There were many possibilities on just what a prophecy could mean, but Calder was sure that this one was very clearly stating he would be the one to birth Loki.

Calder had no qualms with that, or at least not many, as he was unsure how the pregnancy would affect him as a man.

It would be a large decision to welcome another child into the pack; Eira was already a lot of work to keep fed and clean and happy. Calder would not want to force Halina to feed another babe when she had been continuously doing so for the whole beginning of spring.

Calder at least wanted to finish his and Hemmings courting before having a child. He did not know if they would be married or not, seeing as they were both men. Calder could not find himself to care either way; whether or not they were married, they would still be together.

"Calder."

Calder whipped around with a confused look. That was not Hemming's voice, nor any of the packs.

He nearly fell on his ass when he saw who had spoke.

It was a middle aged man, with blonde hair and a strong physique. Absolutely normal, besides the strip of leather across his right eye.

Calder inhaled sharply as he felt the same odd familiarity that he had with Eira. It was clear this man was a god, and it was clear this man was Odin.

"Oh, fuck. Uh, Hail Odin." Calder stuttered out, rising from where he was sitting in front of the fire.

The man chuckled and crossed his arms, causing the muscle beneath his sleeves to tighten the cloth a tad.

"Do not worry about formalities, my boy. I was raised as a man, just the same as you." Odin said with a deep voice that had Calder nodding just so that it did not raise. "It is good to see you through my own eyes- well, eye- rather than through Huginn and Muninns. I was rather shocked when Njörd told me he had a son that was not Freyr."

"A shock to us both then." Calder remarked, grinning as he looked towards the ocean, trying to see if Hemming had noticed the visitor.

Hemming had his back turned and was scrubbing soap through his hair, his body glistening along with the water in the sun.

"Your mate will not see us nor hear us. Neither will the female wolf in the house. The babe will, but Frigg is not old enough to understand. I only wanted to speak with you before returning to Valhalla." Odin explained, stepping forward so that he was closer to the fire, but still a few feet away from Calder.

Calder frowned and glanced up at the god, trying not to seem intimidated by how tall he was or who he was.

"I thought you would return once Loki was born? At least, that is what my father said; was he wrong?" Calder questioned with furrowed brows.

"No, that was originally what we had planned. But, I miss home, and I am confident that the prophecy will remain true. I trust that Loki will be born soon, and will be safe under you and this packs care. Contrary to what he believed in our final days, I do love him. I only hope that you will raise him better than I ever did." Odin grimaced slightly, his face entirely too human for what Calder had always believed about him.

"I believe I am the one that will birth him... but I do not know all that will entail, or how it will happen." Calder swallowed and glanced to the ground awkwardly.

"You have your mothers Seidr, but you are still a man. You will have to sacrifice something in order to grow a womb and bear a child. A ritual in both your own name and Freya's, for fertility. When the time comes to have the child, you will have to have him removed by surgery, since there will be no birth canal from him to exit." Odin explained, a mischievous smile on his face. "Planting the seed, so to speak, will be the same. Just include your mate in the ritual and fuck afterwards."

Calder blushed lightly and huffed a laugh. Having Odin speak about him fucking his mate was by far the strangest thing to happen.

"Should I- Should me and Hemming get married? Is it important to have Loki be born from a marriage?"

"It is not important, no. But if you wish to get married that is your choice. I am sure your mother would love to be the one to do it. Spring is a wonderful time for a wedding; and I am sure I am strong enough to allow a few choice gods or goddesses to come to Midgard and witness it." Odin smiled.

Calder smiled also and nodded, happy that he would perhaps get to meet his real mother.

"For now though, finish your courting and talk with your mate. I expect in these coming days you might be visited by more gods; as a way for them to see their new brother. Luckily, Baldr has moved past the events that led to his death, but I imagine he will also want to see who is bearing his enemy if Ragnarök is not prevented."

Calder frowned slightly at that, but was also thinking of how many gods would actually visit, and if they would try and hurt any of the pack.

"I will take my leave now. Valhalla has been waiting for me to return, and even Asgard might be missing their King as of late." Odin began, a small smile gracing his features. "I am glad to have met you, Calder, and although your mother and father were not married at the time of your birth, you are still a god."

"Thank you. I had not thought I would get a chance to meet you, but I am also glad I did. I appreciate the knowledge; my father only told me so much before he had to break the connection."

Odin chuckled and nodded, uncrossing his arms.

"Goodbye, Calder. Oh, but if you wish to keep the past alive; Loki was born in the winter."

Calder nodded once more and tried to ignore the flutter in his stomach at becoming pregnant so soon.

Odin didn't seem to notice the younger gods reaction and instead nodded once to Calder.

"Goodbye, Odin." Calder waved slightly and watched as the god walked off back into the woods again, leaving Calder to the slowly crackling fire and barely cooked meat.

When he was sure Odin left, he sighed quietly and sat back down in front of the flames.

He switched a couple of the skewers to be lower and closer to the fire, barely doing anything before he spotted Hemming returning from the ocean with wet hair and fresh clothes.

Calder almost regretted the impromptu meeting of Odin. He had just thought to continue the comb he was working on before the Allfather interrupted.

"How is the meat?" Hemming questioned as soon as he was only a few feet from Calder.

"Cooking, slowly." Calder remarked, poking a strip with a stick.

"Is something wrong? Your heart is beating quicker than normal."

Calder shot an incredulous look to his mate, leaning back on his palms and furrowing his brows.

"You can hear my heartbeat?"

"Of course I can, it's part of being a wolf. Though, I am sure that even a human could hear yours right now, with how loud it is." Hemming huffed softly and made to sit but Calder stopped him.

"Tsk, don't sit on the ground, you just bathed." He said and swatted gently at Hemming's thigh.

"Calder, what is wrong?" Hemming frowned and exhaled sharply.

"Nothing is wrong, I just had a bit of an encounter. It made me a tad anxious, is all." Calder sighed and stood, throwing one last stick into the fire before looking away.

"With what? There should be no predators nearby; they would have smelled the scent of wolves." Hemming said and crossed his arms. Calder found himself thinking about how even though the man was a god, Hemming had far better muscles.

"With who." Calder corrected gently. "Odin came by. He wanted to visit me before returning to Valhalla and Asgard."

Hemming did not respond at first to the new information. He only stood with a contemplative look and occasionally furrowed his brows in a cute way that Calder liked.

"Odin? He visited? For what reason?" Hemming eventually got out.

"Just to talk, I believe. The original plan was for him to return to Valhalla once Loki was born, but he said he missed home and wanted to talk before leaving." Calder explained, giving one last look to the meat before walking away with a nod for Hemming to follow.

"What did you talk about?"

Hemming followed next to Calder as the latter walked to the hide being stretched across the clearing.

"How to bear children; or rather what I needed to do in order for my body to change to be able to carry a child." Calder informed and picked up the small knife Lagina had left for Calder to trim the edges; she wanted to allow him to be the one to pick what he wanted to keep or not.

"Change in what way?" Hemming asked nervously, as if he thought Calder would change into a woman just to bear a child.

"Growing a womb. I won't be able to birth Loki though, I will likely have to have Padma cut him out."

"Cut him out? What, you would lose too much blood. You would die if they cut you open." Hemming sputtered, standing next to Calder with a shocked look.

"Maybe, or maybe not. I am a god, and have survived a fair bit of blood loss before. Either way, Loki needs to be born, and I need to raise him. If the prophecy is true, then I don't believe I will die." Calder shrugged and pulled a lip of hide taught to slice it away from the main pelt.

"Gods, Calder." Hemming sighed, Calder resisted the urge to make a quip at the use of 'Gods'. "Is there anything else I should worry about?"

Calder frowned, feeling bad that Hemming would have to worry about him.

"Odin said other gods might visit, to see me and meet a new god. We also discussed marriage... and how my mother would like to marry us, if we wanted." Calder paused in his slicing to throw a careful look to Hemming.

"You and Odin?"

Calder paused and looked to Hemming, finding a confused and a sad look on his mates face.

"Hemming... me and you. My mother would marry me and you if you wanted." Calder huffed, a small smile on his face at the others assumption.

"Oh... well, yes that sounds great. I suppose that makes more sense than you and Odin getting married." Hemming nodded, his own shy and small smile pulling his beard.

Calder chuckled and leaned forward to place a kiss to his mates lips.

"When the pack comes back, I would like to have the wedding. There is no need to wait if we know what needs to happen."

Hemming smiled wide and grabbed Calder by the waist, bringing the other male back towards his body and close enough for their chests and stomach to touch completely.

"What about this ritual for having Loki? Do we need to wait for that till after we're married?" Hemming questioned with a grin as he placed a large hand onto Calders ass; this was something that happened often when the two would sneak off to the woods to kiss.

"No, actually. Odin said that Loki was born in the winter originally, and I suppose if we wanted to keep true to this fact, spring would be the perfect time to become parturient." Calder chuckled and laced his arms around Hemming's neck.

"I think... perhaps we should convince Halina to take Eira on a small trip to the woods for a night. A bonding night for them both." Hemming shrugged, his sly smirk still ever present on his face.

"She would do so?" Calder asked and shot a quick glance to where he knew the woman was in the house.

"If she does not want to hear you get fucked into the furs, then yes, I believe she would."

Calder blushed and nodded, attempting to ignore the heat pooling down in his gut; he had not taken care of himself after he had sucked Hemming off, so he still had that very specific fire in his veins.

"Tonight or tomorrow night?" Calder asked softly, though he was excited for what Hemming would make sure is a pleasurable time.

"Tomorrow night. It will give you time to prepare the ritual, and Halina time to prepare for hers and Eira's excursion." Hemming stated calmly even as his palm pressed further into Calder's asscheek.

"Good, I look forward to it; and will be very disappointed if I can still walk after we are finished."

"Oh, I promise you, you will not be able to stand, my sweet."

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