Chapter Fifteen
Sonya
The pale yellow light of dawn had only started to cast its glow over the forest as I put my earbuds in, turned my music on, and started down the path. Dew heightened the scents of sweet pine needles and rich earth, making me long for the deep breaths of hard running. Tightening my ponytail, I picked up my pace. The joy of running had come back full force and now I made a point to do it every morning. Ty had agreed to let me jog on my own after I had insisted I needed a bit of “me” time.
Not that I didn’t want Ty time. Oh how I did. That was the problem though; all I wanted was Ty time. Something existed between us, that was for sure. But we couldn’t give in to it completely, not yet. Focus was vital more than ever. Now I had another reason not to go mad and be put down. Whatever might be between Ty and me was worth fighting for. I drew on the strict thinking and dedication that had gotten me through all these years of medical school so far. It helped. A little.
Anger management training was going well, according to him at least. I wasn’t so convinced. The heat and vibrations had become easier to control already, but my fangs still extended every time I got pissed. Part of the reason for the progress, I feared, was that I couldn’t bring myself to get angry with Ty. Though he fought hard and pushed me harder, he never tried to hurt me or humiliate me like a lot of guys would when sparring with a woman. What I had a harder time controlling was my growing desire for him. Hence the need for me time.
Miles down the evergreen-lined trail, just as I reached my running happy place, I sucked in a few scents that brought me to a skidding halt. The somewhat tangy mixture of fresh air and asphalt mingled with leather and wolf in a way that was both appealing and alarming. A figure stepped out from the trees ahead of me. Black leather chaps and jacket hugged a frame that was too short and narrow to be Ty. And of course I hadn’t seen a motorcycle jacket hanging in his closet. I tore the earbuds from my ears. Deep in my gut the sensation of familiarity stirred. Not because I knew this person, but because part of me knew they were a varúlfur. Hands held up, he approached me. At first the dark hair stirred my anger, but a closer glance at the neatly trimmed beard and deep-set eyes proved this wasn’t Raul. Something about him tugged at my memory. Then it hit me. He had been the guy back at the restaurant, one of Raul’s pack. I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved he was from the Reinhard pack and not the Arnoddr pack. Both wanted me for reasons that had little to do with my welfare.
“What do you want?” I demanded as I casually turned my side to him. I didn’t want to run, but I wasn’t sure I could beat this guy in a fight if it came to it.
Like a smart wolf, he stopped a little more than five feet away. “Only to talk. I come in peace.”
Though I kept my eyes on him, I tried to reach out with my other senses to make sure he was the only one. The heady scent of greenery warming in the sun overlaid a more distant smell of stagnant water and a warm engine. Birds chirped and rustled through the trees while frogs croaked down by the lake a little less than half a mile away. It freaked me out a bit that I could hear the frogs and knew how far away they were, but I’d have to process that later. The important thing was that this guy seemed to be the only one around.
“Then talk, but make it quick,” I warned.
“Raul wanted to be here for you. He wanted to be the one to help you through the verða. If Ty hadn’t chased him off, Raul would have been there for you.”
A sharp bark of laughter escaped me. “I wouldn’t be going through the damn verða if it weren’t for him. The bastard should have thought to ask me if I even wanted this.”
The man stammered several times before he got his next words out. “He says you are the one for him, that he knew from the moment he saw you how special you were.”
I laughed and put my hands on my hips. Clearly this idiot wasn’t going to attack me. “Special? Really? That’s his excuse? The bastard took my life from me. It may not have been much, but it was mine and he had no right.” With each word of the last sentence I took a step closer to the man, poking him in the chest with a finger upon the final word.
His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed, and he leaned back. To his credit, he didn’t step away. “You are destined to be together. He felt that, and surely you do, too,” he said in a voice that shook a bit too much for my liking.
The sound of it, meek and docile, stirred something inside me, something that wanted to throw him to the ground and put my teeth to his throat. Some badass biker he was. My fangs extended. Whoa. Shaking my head, I took a step back and turned to walk away. Eyes closing, I concentrated on my breathing while trying to appear casual. What reason would stir such a reaction in me, I couldn’t figure. Then it occurred to me that wolves have reasons too. This man’s submissive attitude is what elicited such a reaction in the wolfy part of me. The realization gave me the control I needed to retract my fangs and turn back around and face him.
“That’s disgusting. By biting me, Raul virtually turned me into his sister, or daughter, or whatever. I don’t know how the hell that works. But I can assure you, we will definitely never be ‘together’ in the way he wants, ever.” Pride swelled through me over the fact that I managed to keep my fangs retracted through the rant.
The man’s brown eyes widened and he swallowed hard, again. “Ty has brainwashed you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? The only thing Ty has done is help me.”
He tilted his head, one eyebrow rising slightly higher than the other. “So he’s told you all about why he was kicked out of his pack, why he left the AVV?”
I pulled back a little, and he moved in as if he scented prey. The instinct to run reared its ugly head, but I forced it down.
“Of course he hasn’t. Ty knows nothing about the importance of family because he has no pack. Don’t let him brainwash you into being the same way. You have a family, our family. Raul wants you to come home and be with us; we all want you to.”
Not caring that it made me seem submissive, I took several steps back. A new family that wanted me was almost as disturbing as the old one that didn’t want me. More so, in this case. Thankfully, he took a step back instead of forward.
“Ask Ty what happened, why he was banished. You deserve to know the truth about your kennari,” he said, taking a step back for every few words.
Each step he took forced me to fight the desire to follow, not because I wanted to go with him, but because the wolf in me wanted to chase him. From within my chest a rumbling began. It sounded so inhuman it took me a moment to realize it was a growl. Fangs grew and my skin started to heat up. Reason, I had to think of the reason. Since I was little I had been told I had a type-A personality. Now I understood it for what it was: dominant. And this man was submissive. I had no need to prove I was stronger or better than him (which was good because I wasn’t), and certainly no need to chase him as he wasn’t anything close to food. Those thoughts helped me retract my fangs and cool my skin.
The man shrugged. “Maybe he isn’t an entirely bad teacher.”
With that, he turned and jogged away. My muscles tensed with the desire to give chase, but I resisted easily enough. He wasn’t the problem right now. The problem was that Ty was keeping things from me and I’d had it with secrets, especially from someone I had begun to trust and thought I might actually be interested in. If he didn’t come clean right now, my ass was getting in my Jeep and I was going to drive to Hemlock Hollow, verða be damned.
…
The sweet scents of maple sausage and pancakes wrapped around me as I stepped into the house. For someone so fit, Ty had a ridiculous craving for pancakes. During the week I had been here he had already fixed them for breakfast three times. But, he had told me a varúlfur’s metabolism was so fast it burned up carbs practically like they were air. The memory along with the scents almost banished my anger, until I shut them down. This was one time I wanted to be mad. I needed it, it would be my armor, an armor I regretted ever shedding. I didn’t try to fight it when my fangs extended.
Before he even turned around Ty’s body went stiff, the spatula in his hand freezing above the frying pan. “What is wrong?” he asked as he turned around.
I strode up to the bar and slammed my hands down onto the marble top so hard I heard the wood supporting it groan. The sound made me realize I was overreacting—a lot—but my anger had pulled hard on that little rein I had given it and stretched it dangerously thin. “What’s wrong is that you’re keeping secrets from me, something you promised never to do, if you remember,” I snapped.
His brow wrinkled up into deep furrows. “What are you talking about?”
I knew he didn’t mean the promise.
“You being banished from your pack, having belonged to the AVV.”
The spatula in his hand clattered to the countertop. His face went smooth as glass, the brittle kind that threatened to explode into millions of shards that would cut you to ribbons. A chill washed over me, taking some of my anger with it.
“Are they still here?” he asked in a voice as chilly as I imagined the winds of Iceland would be.
The question threw me for a loop. “Who?”
“Raul’s pack member. Is the bastard still on my land?” he demanded through a deep growl.
Lips curling back from his fangs, he stalked around the bar in a manner that made the hair on my arms stand up. Disturbing as the sight of him was, it was a bit more disturbing how much I was getting used to seeing a man with four sets of fangs. Part of me thought I should be afraid of the tall mountain of muscle descending on me, but I was too pissed. Craning my neck back to keep eye contact, I stood my ground.
“Hard to say. He ran off,” I said.
Scalding gaze traveling right over me, he stormed toward the door.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me to go piss on some man’s boots,” I nearly yelled.
A slight hum began beneath my skin, but it didn’t burn so I didn’t worry overly much. Ty spun back around to face me, his fists clenched so tight the muscles of his arms stood out in hard cords. Fangs bared at me, he stood there and stared through me with his icy eyes. The look finally broke me down. In the wake of reason, my anger faded. I wanted it back, wanted to wrap myself in the comfortable yet cold feel of its armor. But I couldn’t, thanks to his teachings. I knew the reason for it and that negated it. I felt betrayed.
“You promised not to keep secrets from me,” I all but whispered.
The vulnerability in my voice made me cringe. The cold look in Ty’s eyes melted and his fangs retracted. Blond hair fell down across his brow as he shook his head.
“My past is irrelevant; it has nothing to do with your training. And it would only be a secret if you had asked and I did not tell you.” Like a switch being flicked, the fury was gone from his voice. And just as quickly, it fled me as well.
His gaze flitted back to the door, but he didn’t move toward it. Though I knew it could be stirring the wolf in him back awake, I touched his arm. His words moved me in such a way that I had to risk it.
“It isn’t irrelevant to me. You are the first person I’ve started to trust in a long time. Your past is a part of you and you are relevant to me,” I told him. Damn, that had sounded less vulnerable in my head.
I pulled my hand away, but he captured it in his own. The warmth, the rough calluses, they distracted me in the most delicious way. “It is not a good story. You might change your mind about trusting me.”
Hardening my heart against the charms of his touch, I looked up into his eyes. “I will definitely change my mind about trusting you if you don’t tell me, because I’m asking now.” It was a bit low, but I had to say it. I had to know who I was putting my trust in.
He let go of me and ran his hand through his hair. With a sigh, he sat down on the barstool closest to me. Eyes fixing somewhere on the wall behind me, he began to talk in a carefully guarded tone.
“For eight years I was a verndari for the Alpha of the Draupnir pack.”
As he paused to gather himself, I took a guess at the word. “Guardian?”
One corner of his mouth almost turned up. “Yes. They are to the Alpha what knights are to a king. While I was a verndari, I also belonged to the AVV, many of my pack did. My uncle was the Alpha, and while he was a good one, he was old and clung to the old ways. There were those that opposed him because of it.” He stopped and swallowed hard.
A slight shine to his eyes suggested the depth of his pain, but the stoic expression in them assured me that tears wouldn’t fall. Enthralled though I was by the story, guilt tugged at me for causing him such pain. As he fell silent for a moment, I got two beers from the fridge and removed the food from the stovetop. With the same ease he had shown a week ago, I popped off the tops of the non-pop-top beers, and set one before him. Already my strength had increased that much.
Sure, it was early for beer, but I had a feeling we were going to need them. Giving me a grateful look, he lifted it to his lips, tipped it back, and emptied half of it. I sipped at mine as I sat on the stool beside him, wishing the drink were something stronger.
“I should have seen it coming; it was my job as a verndari to see it coming. But I did not. One of his rivals, his own brother Bain, moved his pawns into place and challenged him.”
“Pawns?” I asked.
Though his eyes met mine, I knew they didn’t see me. “Those who would support Bain’s challenge. My girlfriend at the time, Morene, was one of them. I never saw that coming. You think you know a person…”
The image of the uptight woman from the park flashed across my memory like a cold breeze. I wanted to bring down all kinds of hurt on that woman now. With a great effort, I pushed that desire aside. As I touched his hand, his eyes finally focused on me, but only long enough to give a sort of half shrug. After downing another long drink of his beer, he went on.
“Bain did not just defeat him. He used my uncle’s own beliefs against him, challenging him by the ancient Viking rule, the one that allowed a fight to the death.”
The way his fingers began to turn white around his beer bottle started to worry me. Gently, I extricated it from his grip before he could break it and end up like I had a week ago.
“He killed him? His own brother?” I asked.
Throat working to swallow something lodged in it, Ty nodded.
“Why would he do that?”
Head sinking down into one of his hands, Ty made a sort of groaning noise that tugged at me. “Because it is the only way to keep an Alpha’s verndari from challenging the challenger. The new laws allow an Alpha’s verndari to stand in for their Alpha, or fight the challenger even if he defeats their Alpha. Either way, if they are able to defeat the challenger, the Alpha maintains his standing. The old laws determine the victor final, with no further challenges allowed by the defeated one’s verndari unless they want to take over as Alpha.”
“I knew there was something about that bitch I didn’t like,” I said more to myself.
He remained silent for so long that I had to prompt him, but this time I was gentle. “What happened after that?”
“The old Alpha’s verndari were given the choice of submitting to the new Alpha, or being banished from the pack. Since I was not allowed to kill the bastard without taking over, I chose banishment. And the banished cannot belong to even an umbrella pack, so I am no longer an AVV member, either,” he said in a smooth, emotionless tone.
But I could feel his emotions boiling below the surface, like a kettle about to scream. It hit me with a sudden clarity that he had felt my emotions in much the same way when I had stormed into the room. That was how he had known I was behind him, and pissed, before he even turned around. Another varúlfur perk, no doubt.
“You don’t want to be Alpha?”
Clouds of anger moved across his blue eyes. “No. I have no interest in leading and playing politics. Politics are a noose that makes a wolf weak.”
“How can you stand going back to that town?” I asked.
Pain shone in his eyes when they met mine. “My parents live there, when they are not in Iceland. I still have friends there. The Council sees me as an asset they cannot part with, so they made me a kennari to keep me connected. Since I was never defeated in battle, according to the Viking way, I have not lost face, so it was allowed.”
“Why would you do anything for those people?”
Sighing, he picked his beer back up. “Because I still care about what happens to our kind. And something more than one Alpha being challenged is going on there, I can feel it. I just do not know what it is yet. But now I have a feeling it has something to do with you.”
The thoughts that stirred made me take a long drink of my beer before answering. “So I’m likely walking into a viper’s nest in two weeks. You think Raul didn’t just bite me in to keep from marrying.”
Eyes narrowing, he looked at me hard, not with anger, but with a look that suggested deep thought. “Exactly. Raul is not the type to think much beyond his own desires. But that does not mean he is not a pawn for someone else.”
Head already buzzing from lack of food, and not caring, I downed the rest of my beer. “In that case, we’d best eat and get to training,” I said.
A shadow of a smile worked its way back onto his face, giving him a wistfully handsome look that made something deep in me ache. The smile infected me, turning my own lips upward. I quickly found the bottle of beer in my hand interesting. Picking up his empty bottle, Ty rose and walked back around to the stove. He put the pan back on the burner and picked up the spatula.
With his back still to me, he said, “You are relevant to me too, you know.”
It took several hard swallows before I could answer. “Thank you.”
Gaze glued to his strong back as he flipped pancakes and bacon, I began to question the wisdom of where this training was leading me. Better control of my anger was most certainly developing. Desire was something altogether different, though. Already it had built coals too hot to touch. And touch them I would have to, if I was ever going to master my control of it. With Ty becoming more interesting by the day, I wasn’t sure how I was going to fare at that lesson.