Boelik Read Online Free PDF Page A

she
replied, coming over and leaning against his left side, putting his
clawed arm over her shoulder.
    “ I’m glad you aren’t afraid
of me,” he mumbled. He pressed his face to the top of her head and
closed his eyes as he breathed her scent.
    “ Why would I be afraid of
the man I love?” she said softly, burying her face in his fur in
turn.
    Helena gazed upon them quietly, a small smile
on her face. She came over to Bo and whispered a proposal in his
other ear. He looked at her and nodded, a sparkle in his hazel
eyes. He turned his eyes back to the exhausted Olea beside him and
gave a soft smile.
    Bo whispered back to the witch, “We will do
it by my creek,” and gave her directions. “Olea?” Bo asked then,
turning to his friend.
    “ Yes, Bo?” she said, her
voice muffled through his fur. She turned her face so that one of
her warm brown eyes was visible.
    “ Would you like to stay
with me, at least for the night?”
    Olea nodded. Then, “Bo?”
    “ Yes?”
    “ Your things are about
where you entered the forest in the chase.”
    “ All right.”
    Olea stifled a yawn as she glanced over to
Helena. “Thank you.”
    Helena nodded once, a smile on her face.
    “ Let’s get you home,” Bo
said, sweeping Olea off of her feet, startling her to full
wakefulness.
    “ I can walk,” she
protested. “And what about Helena?”
    “ Already home,” Helena
said, disappearing before them in an instant, only an echo of her
voice remaining to vouch for her existence.
    “ All right,” Olea
relented.
    As Bo carried her to his home, he hummed a
lullaby to her to put her to sleep. He was careful not to jostle
her too much as he walked. Her hair cascaded over his arm as he
cradled her head, and he found that for the first time in a long
time, he felt like he belonged where he was.
    When Bo finally put her in his bed, she was
deeply asleep. He smiled and went to fetch his things from where
Olea said they were, returning quickly and putting the wolf fur
over her as a blanket. He pulled a separate deer hide from the shed
and put it on the floor to sleep on that beside her.
    In the morning, Bo was up at dawn and found
the wolf fur draped over him and Olea sitting up in bed. “Up so
early? You seemed exhausted,” he yawned.
    “ I was. But light shone
onto my face from a crack.”
    “ Oh, that’s right. I’m
sorry; I usually use that to rouse me so I can make the most of the
day.” Bo sat up and stretched from the hide. Looking out toward the
leaks of sun from the walls, he asked, “Would you like to come with
me on a walk?”
    “ Yes,” Olea replied. The
two got up, and Bo put on his cloak with the fox clasp over his
left arm as usual. Olea stared at him, one eyebrow raised. He
looked himself up and down before giving her a quizzical scowl in
return. She rolled her eyes and adjusted the navy cloak so that it
was even on both sides.
    Outside, the two walked to the creek, where
Olea took a seat and Bo sat next to her. She was on his left.
“Would you marry me?” he asked, his heart full of unfounded
fear.
    “ Of course,” Olea replied,
leaning against him without the slightest hesitation.
    He grinned, his heart now lighter than air,
and shouted to the woods as he wrapped his arms around her. “She
said she would!”
    “ Bo!” she laughed.
Suddenly, Helena appeared before them, emerging from behind a large
oak. “Helena!”
    “ Hello, dear. So, you said
yes, did you?”
    Olea grinned at Bo, who beamed back. “I
did.”
    “ Well, would you like to
take your vows?”
    “ Oh, yes, please!” Olea
said.
    The pair stood and took their vows with
Helena as their priestess, the birds singing in the branches as the
light of the sun cascaded through the trees. They kissed to tie
their bonds, and as Olea leaned back, she grinned with sparkling
eyes as she looked into Bo’s. “And they lived…”
    Bo grinned. “…happily ever after.”
     
    ***
     
    Olea sat at the table Bo had crafted for the
new cottage he