“Rumours?” Daenerys raised a brow, eyeing Ivar Ragnarsson sceptically. “Mm, this should be interesting — go on then. What do they say about me? That I am as mad as my father?”
Ivar smirked. “Yes, they do say that.” He admitted. “But that is not what I had in mind.”
“No?” She quipped.
“No.” He breathed. “They say you are the most beautiful woman to walk this earth, and I have to admit I didn’t believe it.” Ivar shrugged, then gazed back at her for a moment. “But now I can see for myself that they were telling the truth.”
Summary: Ivar the Boneless finds a Princess during one of his raids on Mercia, a sign from the Gods he decides. She is a Christian and he is a Viking, a forbidden romance on both sides of the sea. But Ivar does not care what others think, and he won’t start now.
Story Rating: Mature — 18+
MASTERLIST
CHAPTER TWO --- TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
The great wooden Viking long ship creaked and swayed violently against the battering swell of deep blue waves, and the bitterly cold water accompanied with white froth lapped up the sides of the hull, a terrifying sight for Freya who had never experienced the wrath of the North Sea. The young Mercian princess huddled herself into the stern of the ship, pulling her knees up into her chest and holding them there with trembling arms as the weather took a turn for the worse. She was freezing, colder than she believed she had ever been before, and she had experienced many terrible winters back home. She remembered them well, vast blankets of white snow as deep as her knees and whistling winds that could freeze her stiff if she stayed out in them too long. But there had always been firewood to keep her warm, out here in the middle of the sea there was nothing but the clothes on her back.
A great crack of thunder tore through the sky above, startling her from her memories. The sound made everyone on board flinch in surprise and Freya for a moment thought the heavens had split open. Commands were shouted between the Vikings in a language she couldn’t speak or understand, but she watched their faces and seen for herself the fear in their features. This was not good.
We are going to die out here, Lord please save our souls.
She thought, trying to quell the rising panic in her chest along with the horrific sea sickness that swirled inside her belly by closing her eyes and pretending everything was fine.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Opening her eyes at the sound of the familiar voice, she found Ivar looking back at her from where he sat opposite her. She could have sworn he hadn’t been there before, or was her mind playing tricks on her? It didn’t matter. She was terrified, and no amount of reassurance from the very man who had stolen her from her land would make her feel at ease.
“I’m not.” She lied through chattering teeth, not convincing even herself of her own attempt to seem fine but she carried on with the act anyway, glowering back at him to let him know she could handle herself. “How long until we get there?” The question left her lips as more of a plea, but she hoped she didn’t sound desperate.
The corner of Ivar’s lips curved into the subtlest of smirks and his deep piercing blue eyes narrowed just enough to make her doubt herself, he was good at that, too good. It was if he was silently mocking her, scheming some devious plan in that wicked mind of his.
He knows I am afraid, and he likes it.
“Three days if we are quick.” He told her, never once looking phased by the chaos of the sea around him. There was a small pause before he continued, furrowing his brow. “Is this your first time on a ship?”
“Yes.” She breathed, lowering her eyes to her gloved hands to avoid his gaze. “I hate it, I hate the s-sea.” She stuttered, feeling colder by the second.
“You’ll grow used to it.” He sighed breezily and rolled his broad shoulders into a shrug. “You may even start to like it, in fact I’m sure of it.”
“I doubt it.” She murmured, shifting her weight until she turned herself away from him. Laying herself down onto the hard deck, Freya curled herself into a ball and closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep until they arrived to where they were going.
Ivar remained seated, not moving to join her but instead keeping a watchful eye on her instead.
❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅❅
Some time later, Freya started awake. Her entire body trembled from the freezing rain that pummelled down onto the ship from the grey clouds above. Groaning, she pulled herself up into a sitting position and winced at the dull ache in her neck from the position she had been sleeping in. How long was I out for? She thought. With teeth clinched, she tried to stop her jaw from rattling but she was freezing. She couldn’t feel her fingers or toes anymore, and her chest was so tense that she could no longer breathe in without hurting. Her ribs were tender, as if she had been punched a few times.
“I’m dying…” She whispered, tears pricking her soft eyes. She believed she wouldn’t survive this perilous journey to Norway and maybe that was a good thing. Just then as she gave into the deep depression that washed over her, Freya heard a dragging noise sound coming from her side.
Ivar.
Her stomach lurched in surprise when she saw the Viking crawl up the deck and into the space next to her, his strong arms carrying the bulk of his weight on calloused hands that were bound with black leather wraps. She supposed crawling was how he got to one place to another when he didn’t have the support of his cane. It was unsettling to witness, almost snake-like.
“…I…” She attempted to speak up, tried to muster enough strength to tell him she was ‘fine’ and to tell him to get away from her but her mouth seized shut involuntarily with the chills. She didn’t want his company, she would much rather freeze to death alone than have him anywhere near her. He was the sole cause of her misery.
“Sssh, don’t talk.” Ivar hushed away her futile attempts to protest and pulled himself up to sit by her side. She leaned away from him, not wanting him to witness her vulnerability and mock her for being weak, but as much as she expected him to bite at her with some sarcastic comment, he didn’t. Instead he began untying the tassels that held his black fur cloak in place around his broad shoulders. “I promise you that things won’t always be this way, we will be home soon.”
His voice was smooth as he tugged the cloak from his back and wrapped it tightly around her shivering frame. Freya didn’t know how to process the gentle way he handled her, she truly wanted to run from his foreign touch, but she had nowhere to run to. Feeling herself sink into his chest in defeat, sadness swelled in her chest as he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in close to him to keep her warm.
“You took everything from me…” She whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks and onto his black armoured chest. “I have nothing, I have nobody.”
Ivar’s eyes softened at the sound of her pitiful voice, and he let his nose dip into her hair as he stroked her back. He was fully aware of the fact that she hated him, it was to be expected but in time she would see things from his perspective.
“I took from you what needed to be taken.” He told her lowly, allowing his lips to linger against the top of her head. “Your life back in Mercia would have amounted to nothing if I had not have saved you, princess. Your pig of a father was willing to let you be raped and die in exchange for his own life. He gave this ‘evil Viking’ his permission to do with you whatever I wanted, so if it had not been me to raid your town and some other raider had got there first --- you may not have been so lucky. Remember this when you try and convince yourself I am some monster dragging you into the dark!”
“He never would have done that to me.” Freya lifted her head then and glared at the Viking who held her gaze. “You’re lying.”
Pressing his tongue against the back of his teeth, Ivar raised his brow and leaned in towards her, his nose brushing against hers. “You think so?”
Freya tensed as Ivar challenged her with that look, the kind that buried itself deep in her soul. “He told me you were tucked away inside the chapel with your bishop when I nailed him to his cross.” He continued. “He told me you were beautiful with eyes as green as emeralds and hair as gold as the sun, and he wasn’t wrong. You truly are beautiful.”
“Stop.” She whispered, pulling her teary eyed gaze from his face. “Please, just stop. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
Her voice broke then and she slumped into herself, defeated by heartbreak. “The truth hurts sometimes, but it needs to be heard. There must be part of you that believes the Gods have plans for us.” He told her bluntly.
Freya didn’t know if she believed in anything anymore. She was at a loss. Ivar the Boneless was the grim reaper, wherever he went death followed along with a murder of crows. And yet as much as she thought him to be a monster, she leaned into his solid chest and listened to his heart thump steadily against her ear. A monster doesn’t have a heartbeat. She thought to herself. A monster would never be as warm as he feels to me now. Breathing in the fur cloak that had his scent all over it – a mixture of the sea, soil, musk and firewood, Freya decided he didn’t smell all that much of a monster either. Closing her eyes, the Mercian princess felt herself drift.
“I think your Gods brought you to the wrong Freya.” She broke her silence. “I am a Christian, you are a Viking --- we are not the same.”
“They are never wrong.” He told her. “It is true, you are a Christian and I am a Viking. I don’t understand it myself but I have faith things will become clearer in time.”
Freya was asleep before he finished his sentence, exhaustion taking over. Leaning his head of dark braids back against the wooden stern, Ivar sighed as he let the princess sleep against him. His fleet of ships continued their perilous path towards Kattegat.
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“The danger is I'm dangerous and I might just tear you apart.”
A vampire Ivar & human Daenerys concept.
“For a thousand years I have walked this earth and never have I met someone quite like you.” Ivar dragged a calloused thumb along the quickening pulse within her neck, feeling her blood call to him like a siren’s song. “I cannot let you go now that I have you.”
There’s no reason for any of this, is there? It just didn’t make sense, why Ivar wanted Athelstan to father the son he’d left behind, the son he never knew he had until word reached Kattegat of the bastard king on the throne in Wessex. He’d loved Judith for a time, but he had loved Ragnar more -- and he meant to keep the promise he’d made for a lifetime. But Ivar didn’t force him to break this promise, now did he? Instead, he put Athelstan in a strange predicament where he’s forced to do what feels unnatural, what he’d never prepared himself for. “I don’t know where to start,” he pleads, hoping Ivar will find some sympathy to release him from this burden. Athelstan feared that seeing his son, now a captive, would invoke feelings he never knew he had. Is it possible to love someone you’ve only just met? To him, it isn’t worth the risk. “Maybe you can help me understand why. Will that not make it easier?”
❝ look, i know you love me. but you shouldn’t. ❞ Vanessa / ivar
It sounds like an excuse, something one says to avoid taking on responsibility, to deflect and push away because they're not man enough to do what needs to be done, to change. To be who she needs him to be. But how's he expected to know that about her when she can't decide for herself? And she wonders if things will be different were she to walk away. Perhaps leaving him is the better choice. The right choice. Even he knows that she can't. Despite what he says or does, he knows that she just... can't. Telling her not to love him is futile. Maybe he just wants what's remained unspoken between them for some time. This is merely a yearning to hear her say what he wants her to say. For her to object and deny, to insist that this is where she wants to be. Isn't it? "It's your fault." If he's going to put the blame on her then she might as well do the same thing to him. "You could change, but you don't want to."
“Just always be waiting for me.” (Ivar / Vanessa lmao
And where else can she go? To whom can she turn in this frenzy of darkness? They have their kingdom of ruination built upon the creatures of the night, but it's just the two of them now. He knows this. It's why he says it, taunting her with the reminder that they are together and forever alone. "You leave me with no choice," she counters, bitterly. "There's no one else but you."
