Thank you to Butterfly on the Wind, FlameLight5518, 11celle, katiebug700, eschscholzia, Likarian, gginsc, angel897, Ram-Z Malfoy, dearreader, EvelynElizabeth214 and Just4Me for your amazing reviews.

Author's Note: This will be the last multi-chapter story from the AV universe. All further stories will be one-shots or drabbles. I truly hope you enjoy this chapter and my sincere apologies for the long wait in updating.

Thorin awoke, and wished he hadn't. The painful stab of a pounding headache vibrated through his body, from his toes to the ends of his hair. He groaned. Had his head been used as a battering ram?

He shifted his hand down, needing to wipe his face. The lack of movement, the feel of tethering rubbing his skin made him look up. Flax rope, thrice braided, secured his wrists. He yanked, and the double-looped knot cinched tight, scoring a redness into his skin.

Relaxing his arm loosened the rope's grip. He knew this type of binding, knew only one dwarf who would tie anyone this way. The only question in his thumping head now, why would Dwalin need to tie him down?

He inched his head up, finding the room empty. The golden flicker of scented candles, half melted, dotted the room. Their cloying perfume twitched his nostrils. The cool breeze of approaching dawn wafted over him, prickling his skin; coarse hair rose along his naked body. His sensitivity warned him of his bound ankles.

Dwalin knew how to secure a prisoner, and these knots were his best. Escaping would not happen soon, if at all.

The tap of the wooden latch and the door opened allowing a small figure, wrapped in black, to glide through the slender gap. A large silver ewer held in her hands, his wife made his way to a table holding a small china basin.

The tinkle and splash of falling water as she filled the bowl then slid the metal jug on the table. His wife paid him no heed, dropping a square cloth into the water, she swirled it around and wrung it between delicate hands. Shana wiped her face, her moves slow, deliberate.

"Am I to wait for an explanation?" he asked.

Rather than answer, Shana plucked at the black dress she wore. Thorin swallowed, unsure of her mood. He should be angry right now, but watching her hands gather the material in her hands, slide it up her legs to her thighs, higher. His mouth fell open, breaths heavy. She revealed her body bit by bit, the top of her thighs, her cleft. His mouth dried at the sight of the thin strip of hair that led to her sweetness.

Her stomach, up and up, to the swell of her breasts. He lost sight of her face as she pulled the dress off and dropped it beside her. A subtle shift of her body presented him with one full breast, tipped by her pointed nipple, an uninterrupted view up her inner thigh, the curve of her lower lips.

He licked his lips a thirst on him for something other than water. To quench himself on her, in her. To suckle her lush ripeness. All this sensation too much for his frazzled mind.

Thorin tugged brutally at his bindings, red sores blooming, the pulsing in his head moved to his lower half, his cock shot up, his balls heavy as stones. Nothing could deter him from breaking free.

Shana picked up her wet cloth and drizzled it over her chest. Thorin froze, his eyes followed the droplets racing down her breasts, clinging to stiffened nipples, before splashing to the floor.

Some fell to her belly and tracked wet trails over the gentle curve to her centre glistening like diamonds, moistening her. Others spattered her thighs and rolled to her knees.

He could taste her scent in the air, sweet with a bite of spice. He gritted his teeth, pulled back his lips in a feral growl.

"Shana," he snarled. "Wife!" His imagination reminded him of how she felt surrounding him.

"Husband." Her gentle voice calmed the beast inside, but nothing could contain the fire spreading through his limbs. She climbed atop him, her hands spread over his chest, up to his neck, his face. She became the balm dousing the flames. A tremble took up in his body. She smoothed her fingers over his lips.

"Shhh," she soothed.

She rose up, dragged her nails down his ribs, the small sting of pain left him on edge. She moved back settling on his thighs, her hands traced down to his shaft, circling it with her delicate fingers.

He clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, growling every breath. Her touch akin to fire as her fingers tightened. One hand dropped away and he had little time for mercy before she began fondling his sac. His balls heavy and swollen as his urge to climax gathered at the base of his spine, sweat trickled down his brow.

She mapped him slowly. Learning every part of his hardness, running short nails over every ridge and vein. Circling the head and brushing a thumb over the sensitive slit. She wiped his slickness over his shaft, cinched tight around him and slid her hand down. All the time she rolled his balls in her hand, weighing them, sliding a finger up between his sac and shaft massaging him.

It was too much, and he threw back his head growling her name. He needed to finish, but he wanted to be inside her. He needed to see her soft, radiant look once more. Wanted it burned into his memory so that he would see it every time he closed his eyes.

Her movements stopped, and sanity returned to him. Shana observed his body before glancing at him. A slow blink of her eyes and a fine smirk of her lips told Thorin what was coming next.

He shook his head. No, this would be a torture he could not endure while tied to this damnable bed.

Shana bent over him, and her lips parted. Thorin smashed his head back and stared at the ceiling, eyes wide and praying for his ropes to magically disappear.

The first hot, wet, touch of her mouth and his hips tried to buck. His legs, tied as they were, gave him no leverage to control what she did. She slowed her descent on him. Her breath teased him, one hand rubbing him, the other clenching his balls.

He could feel his cock swelling and only gained a little control when she pulled up. Only for her to begin his punishment anew. This time, the flat of her tongue slipping around the head, stopping on the underside to swipe at a sensitive area she'd discovered, before licking down the thick vein to his sac.

He begged and pleaded with mindless growls and moans. His body was out of his control and under hers. Every time he reached his near pinnacle, she would stop and pull away. His wrists felt the pinch of the ropes, his ankles the same, somehow the burn magnified his pleasure. It zinged through each limb meeting in his lower back, doubling back and rushing to every part of his body.

Thorin shook his head, his words meaningless growls. Her hand gripped his shaft and slid it over her juncture coating him with her wetness. She rubbed her slickness over his cock. Barely, she sheathed the head of him inside her. He clenched his eyes shut, his passion for her spawned a frenzy in his soul.

"No," he cried. His control hung by a frayed thread. He feared what his lust could do to her in her delicate condition.

"Trust me, husband." The tranquil lilt offered such innocence to him. He could not accept, though, not while she carried such treasure within her.

"Shana… there is…"

"Our child is safe."

His eyes burst open staring into hers. Guilt jostled his crowded emotions, the war within spiking a derision for his bad choices.

"Trust me," she implored. "Trust us. He is strong, like his father."

The blur of his tears gave her face a misty shimmer. Her hand reached up wiping them away.

"We make our own choices, husband. Alone we are broken. Together, we are unbreakable."

He threw his head back letting out the shattering fury that had invaded him the day before.

Slick heat surrounded him as her body joined to his. Their union unhurried, his control shored as they became one. Shana rose up, her hands pressed to his chest, nails digging in. Her hips circled lazily, sinking she took all of him while her eyes remained on his.

So deep he resided in her, Thorin was sure he touched the tenderness of her spirit. Her mewl of pleasure and gasping breath, her quivering breasts and trembling hands, enflamed him to greater heights. Their love-making had never been this complex, yet this simple. She was everything to him. Without her, there would only ever be darkness.

His cock throbbed inside her. "Faster," he begged.

She thrust down, and he watched her inch back up, his shaft drenched in her creamy juices. Soon the sight became too much; coupled with the sting of hands and ankles bitten by ropes, his body came apart in delicious rapture. His bellow merged with her scream.

He should care that she collapsed on top of him, her heavy breaths moist against his throat, and he unable to lock her in his arms.

He should care that she'd had him tied to bedposts and likely stripped naked by Dwalin.

He should care about many things, but they were all trivial and forgivable. After all, had he not committed more grievous errors than she?

"I suppose this means you know everything."

Her laugh vibrated through his ribs; he cursed the slight stirring in a sore part of his body that wasn't a limb.

Shana shifted, pulling herself up his body using his wide shoulders as leverage, to reach his wrists.

"I was afraid of your reaction to these," she confessed as her fingers teased the knots undone.

"I would never harm you." One hand free, he shook out the lingering stiffness and teased her hair behind one pert ear. The urge to nibble and suck her lobe forced him to look elsewhere.

His other hand free, Thorin helped his wife to slide to his side, he sat up with a groan and started work on his ankles. The red sores made him smile. They would take a few days to fade, but they served as a pleasant reminder for now.

"I'm sorry," his wife apologised. A finger tracked the bruising.

Thorin could have made more of her guilt if he wanted. "Don't be," he replied. "They are symbols of my love for you."

"How?" Her frown wrinkled her perfect forehead, and he smoothed his fingers over the lines.

"They remind me I am forever tied to you." His glance dropped to her stomach. "I should have told you."

"Don't." Shana's fingers stalled his lips. "My anger was never truly for you. The elf and the wizard had no right in forcing you into a decision you did not agree with. I could sense the breaking of your spirit."

"I take it this was your way of fighting for me?" he smiled.

"I will let no one tear us apart, Thorin. Together, we will greet our people at Erebor and reclaim our home."

He liked that very much. Our people. Our home. They were united. His warrior wife had the right of it. Together they were unbreakable.

"Thorin, this is foolishness."

"Enough," he snapped. Thorin paid no mind to the grumpy look the old wizard wore. The elf lord showed no emotion, but his gaze had been wary when it landed on Shana. He'd ask her for the story later.

"You have your choice, Gandalf. I will continue on this quest even if you should choose not to."

"My lady—"

"You will have no better luck there, wizard," Thorin cautioned.

The wizard harrumphed and stomped away. A smirking Lord Elrond, who bowed low to his wife, followed at a serene pace.

Thorin spotted his nephews over by the fountain. Shana squeezed his hand, and he knew he had amends to make.

"I'll be back shortly." He kissed her temple.

The brothers perched on the low wall, dark patches of water spray decorated their shoulders; drops glinted in their hair. Kíli stared at the floor, his face miserable like he'd been told off by his mother.

Fíli seemed more approachable, and Thorin opened the conversation with him.

"Fíli, I'm —"

"I'm staying with my brother."

Thorin snapped his mouth closed. Fili's anguish sharpened his tone, the young dwarf fidgeted, and Thorin knew his eldest nephew would hear nothing else.

"Perhaps, I should start with an apology," Thorin explained. "It would seem my actions have wounded many."

Kíli launched from the wall and marched pass. Thorin snagged his shoulder, the muscles beneath his fingers tightened. Kíli fisted his hands, his body stiff and unmovable.

"Allow me to explain," Thorin whispered.

"Unless you're telling us we aren't to stay in Rivendell. I have nothing to say to you, Uncle."

His voice, that of a young dwarf, barely of age and still clinging to his childhood showed Thorin how deep his nephew's hurt rooted in him.

"Aye, you're not staying." Thorin tugged Kíli around to face him, surprised at the effort it took. "Last night was not one of my better moments."

"So, who will guard our queen?" Fíli asked, sidling up to Thorin's other side.

Their queen. How had he not seen this building loyalty to her? Foolish of him not to notice, when his loyalty worshipped at her feet. Should it dismay him that others loved his wife as much as he did?

"No one, Fíli," he answered, watching Kíli's reaction. "Our queen will not be staying either," Thorin added quickly, the thinning lips and reddening cheeks of his youngest nephew warning him of the rage bubbling beneath the surface.

Like water dousing a flame, Kíli's fury extinguished and tensed muscles slackened; his body shifted closer to his uncle. No matter his age, and knowing because no one from the company would see, Thorin wrapped an arm around Kíli and brought him closer.

The lad had always been more tactile than his brother. Dís always sought the young one out for a hug, despite ardent false-protests in front of his friends, Kíli favoured closeness.

"Forgive me, Kíli?" he whispered. "I'm a fool, in love with my wife." He turned to encompass both dwarves in his long reach. Unsure how his next words would be taken, he tightened his grip.

"My wife is with child."

Both jerked with surprise, and Thorin bowed his head hoping the news would not cause another breach between them. Two young dwarves surrounded him, arms hugging him, as each whispered their congratulations. Though Kíli commented he was surprised it hadn't happened sooner. Thorin raised a brow; it seemed his nightly activities on the journey didn't go as unnoticed as he'd hoped.

"My husband."

All three turned to their queen, her radiant face brighter than the morning sun.

"Gandalf, he says that tonight you must seek Lord Elrond's counsel and that we are to be ready."

He nodded, then opened his arms and beckoned her over. The three dwarves enveloped Shana between them, each praising her for the life within her.

A glance at Fíli showed his utter happiness, his smile wide and crooked hiding nothing. He should have come to them all first. He should have taken counsel from his family. After all, they were the ones that truly mattered. This quest was for them. The search for a better life for all.

Thorin would take Shana to his room soon, but for now, he stayed in this haphazard pile soaking in their love and warmth.