Tracking the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 1) by Jasmine B. Waters (2)

It was frustrating, being unable to communicate. I wished I could speak, but the bear’s register wasn’t made to vocalize a human voice. The woman smiled brightly at me.

“Ah yes, this form is quite the effective muzzle, isn’t it? I do so hate interruptions.”

I eyed her with mounting dislike. She was a tall, shapely woman with champagne hair, tied loosely in a braid down her back. Her eyes were a flat bottle-green and they were fixed on me with an equal amount of venom.

“I thought this place would be apropos, as I need to impart valuable knowledge to you. If I allow you to shift back to your human form, you will remain silent until I give you leave to speak. If you cannot follow that mandate, I will shift you back into your bear form until I am finished. Do I make myself clear?”

I dipped my head once, an acknowledgment of her terms. She lifted one hand, clad in a white lace glove, and waved lazily in my direction. The vice that had clamped down on my brain and that had made breathing difficult in the car finally lifted. I focused and was finally able to push the spirit of my bear aside, resuming my human form. Of course, my clothes were completely ruined. I was forced to sit bare-assed on the cold flat surface of one of the desks facing the goddess.

She gave me a cursory once over and a smirk, clearly liking what she saw. That might have been flattering in any other circumstance, but I was a mated bear now, and I knew that she had more in mind for me than a florid sexual escapade.

“Good.” She slid off the teacher’s desk and picked up a piece of chalk. “Now, you pay attention. If I ask you a question, you may answer. Do you know who I am?”

“Not a damned clue,” I muttered. My voice still retained the throaty rasp of my bear’s tone. I cleared my throat. “But you’re not a Native American spirit, I can tell that much. I’ve tangled with one. I know the difference.”

She rolled her eyes as if that was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “Of course, I’m not. Do I look like I originated from this country?”

“No,” I admitted. Underneath the debutante façade she hid behind, there was definitely the feel of an old-world power. I wasn’t sure what pantheon she came from but she was old, far older than the little wisp of a body she was wearing appeared.

“I am Frigg,” she said, writing the name on the board. As if it wasn’t a name I’d heard a thousand times in prayers at home in lessons about our heritage. I was glad she’d turned away from me, so she couldn’t see me mouthing wordlessly at her back. I wasn’t sure if that broke her vague rules and I didn’t want to be forced back into animal form again.

She turned back to me, hands on her hips. I kept my mouth shut, hoping she’d continue and would tell me what had possessed the chief goddess of the Norse pantheon to step down from on high and force my change in the middle of the freeway.

“Do you recall the details of the Aesir and Vanir war?” she asked, tapping her foot. I nodded slowly.

“The Aesir tried three times to burn Gullveig alive. The Vanir, offended by the rude treatment of one of their own, prepared for war. The Vanir had magic, but the Aesir had might. Both sides eventually wearied of the war and discussed a peace treaty. They traded hostages. The Aesir adopted Freyr and his twin sister, Freya, into the fold, and the Vanir took in Hoenir and Mimir, killing the latter in the last violent act of the war.”

She nodded. “You know your history. Though you did leave off the part where they sent Mimir’s head to Odin in an act of petty vengeance.”

I shrugged. She hadn’t asked a question, so I didn’t dare reply. She smiled tightly and nodded her approval. “You’re learning. I’m sure you’re wondering why that’s relevant.”

I nodded again. What was the point in dragging me out here to drudge up ancient history? I doubted my oldest were-bear ancestor had even been alive when that particular conflict had occurred.

“It’s happening again,” she muttered, pacing back and forth in front of the desk. “The war has broken out a second time. Freya is dead. Idun is missing, and Freyr is on the warpath.”

My eyes widened as I continued to stare after her. She was agitated, pacing back and forth. Idunn, the keeper of the apples that allowed the Norse Gods to live for eternity, was gone. The Gods were mortal, or soon would be.

“I don’t understand,” I blurted. “How? Why? What does any of this have to do with me?”

Frigg fixed me with an icy stare. “What did I say about speaking out of turn?”

I snapped my wayward mouth shut, swallowing hard. Right. I’d been ordered not to talk or she’d turn me into a bear. After another minute of frosty silence, she resumed pacing.

“We don’t know what possessed Freya to steal Idun away. We don’t know why she tried to damn us all to mortal life. We’d hoped that some time with the dwarves would loosen her tongue, but even after months, she told us nothing. Thor killed her in a fit of anger and here we are, embroiled in a war yet again. The foolish, impulsive boy…”

She trailed off muttering obscenities. When she finally regained her composure, she continued.

“She’s put obstacles in our way. Whatever she was involved in, she had time to prepare for the fallout. I can barely scry, and what images I do get are fragmented, unclear.” She rounded on me again, and I flinched back, sliding a few inches on the wooden desk.

“That is where you come in. Heimdall’s vision was similarly obscured, but he could tell me the details of your mission.”

I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. If I was right, this mission was about to go from bad to worse, thanks to Frigg’s interference.

“You will track him down,” she said putting her hands on either side of the desk I sat on. She leaned her face so close to mine I could have kissed her, if I were so inclined. “And you will kill him.”

“I can’t,” I blurted, and then clapped a hand to my mouth. She gave me a chilly smile.

“You can and you will. Because if you do not, I will be forced to, ah...properly motivate you. Your mate, she is human, yes?”

“Yes,” I ground out. My bear surged forward, even without her interference, and I could feel it pushing just beneath my skin. The urge to take my more powerful shape and attack the goddess was overwhelming. No one threatened Lucy.

“That can be changed,” she purred. “My husband has several Ulfhednar on retainer. I’m sure one could be persuaded to exchange blood with your lady love and where would that leave you? Wolves do not run with bears.”

I couldn’t help it. I lunged for her, a red haze obscuring my vision. Lucy was my mate. Mine. No wolf was ever going to lay a paw on her. Frigg skipped back a step, a bubbling laugh escaping her lips. The force of her will slammed into me once more and I choked. I eventually fell to my knees, too dizzy to do anything more. Then, and only then, did she let me up.

“It does not have to come to that,” she said brightly. “Your directions are simple. Kill Luke Elmsong. Deliver the swift justice that he deserves and return home. We will not trouble you again. In fact, the Aesir will owe you a debt. You may collect it at any time.”

“If I do it, you can repay me by staying the fuck away from Lucy.”

She laughed, a high mirthless sound. “If that is your wish, we will comply.”

“Can I go now?” I growled. “You’ve made your point.”

“Yes,” she said, crossing her arms across her ample chest. “Just keep in mind that if you do not kill Luke Elmsong, I will send Ulfhednar after her. And turning her will be the kindest thing they do to her.”

I whirled around, ready to charge her again, no matter how fruitless it would be. But she was nowhere to be seen. The only evidence she’d been there at all was the name written in impeccable script on the blackboard and the piece of chalk that lay broken on the floor where she’d stood.

I walked out of the schoolhouse and started the long journey back up the hill. The climb was treacherous, and it didn’t help matters that my feet suddenly felt made of lead.

I had little choice in how to proceed. If I killed him, it would break something within Lucy. She would probably never forgive me. On the other hand, she was fragile and human. She would not be able to defend herself against the Ulfhednar, the ancient pack of werewolves that Odin kept in his halls in Asgard. With her nearly crippled leg, she would barely be able to run.

Wolves do not run with bears.

Frigg had been right about one thing. If Lucy were attacked and transformed into a werewolf, she would never be able to escape. She wouldn’t be able to stand living a solitary life in the mountains. She would always feel a pull toward her pack, would feel the urge to mate with her Alpha. She would never be able to stand a life with me.

I set my jaw, digging my human fingers into the side of the embankment, hauling myself back toward the top. Back to Lucy, back toward the only thing that made any goddamned sense in my life. Slowly, I began to formulate a plan on how to proceed.

Frigg’s threats still rang in my ears. I couldn’t leave her in a cabin alone, an easy target for werewolves. I’d take her along with me on the hunt for her brother. We’d travel slowly. I’d use my spirit to range out during the night and if I located him before the full moon, I’d track him down quietly and slit his throat.

I wouldn’t risk her life, even if she hated me for it. I’d do what had to be done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Nine

Lucy

Chance had returned to the Firebird bare-assed and even more stoic than usual. He remained silent the rest of the way to the Blue Ridge Mountain range after giving me the briefest of explanations on why he’d suddenly transformed into a massive grizzly bear and thrown himself off down a steep embankment.

I didn’t for one second believe it was just a bear thing, as he’d claimed. I hadn’t known Chance for long, but I did know a few things. I knew that if what had happened was a normal occurrence, he wouldn’t have risked driving down the freeway impaired. He was something approaching a policeman in were-bear society, or so I’d gathered. There was no way he would have put that many lives in jeopardy if he was in danger of spazzing out on the drive over. 

I was staring out the window most of the drive. I needed to puzzle his odd behavior out and I couldn’t do it while I stared at his bare chest. The more I stared at him, the more I convinced myself that his reasons didn’t matter and that I was just happy he had returned safe and whole.

We’d passed so many street signs on the journey that it took me a few minutes to realize that we’d breezed right past the exit for the lodge he’d intended to drop me at.

“Chance, you missed the turn.”

“We’re not stopping,” he muttered, taking us up a winding mountain road. The sign ahead announced we were nearing a trailhead. I turned to stare at him, in all of his semi-nude glory. He didn’t turn his head and I had a hard time reading his expression from his profile alone.

“So you’re saying that I’m allowed to go with you?” I ventured, wondering if I was hearing right. I’d been prepared to stowaway in his trunk if I needed to.

“Yes.”

We reached the trailhead in another half mile and Chance pulled into the small space allotted for parking. There were three other vehicles parked in the space, and several men and one woman seated around a picnic table, apparently playing cards.

Chance climbed out as soon as he cut the engine and I scrambled out of the car. I had no clue what had prompted this sudden change, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. He handed me the keys and made his way toward the picnic table, calling over his shoulder as he went.

“Go ahead and unload. I’m going to talk with Darren Oberlander. He’s the lead enforcer in this area.”

I figured that it would be better to not mess with whatever good fortune had led Chance to bring me along. So I opened the trunk and began to unload the gear. I was struggling with the camp stove when I heard raised voices.

“You can’t bring her out here,” the man, presumably Darren, shouted. He tried to loom over Chance, though it was a difficult prospect, considering that Chance was a head taller than any of the were-bears present.

“She’s coming with,” Chance argued, folding his arms over his bare chest. I was glad we’d been able to scavenge more jeans from his suitcase in the back. I’m not sure if I’d have been able to keep my hands off of him if he’d been completely nude during the whole Alpha shtick.

“She’s human. We offered your branch this mission out of courtesy but if you’re just going to make this more difficult-”

 

scoffed. “I’m one of the best at long range tracking in my spirit form, and you know it. That’s why you extended the invitation. If you want to see how difficult this mission will be without my assistance, I’ll turn around and go back to Mississippi. It’s no fur off my back.”

I paused, setting the camp stove on the ground carefully. It may not trouble Chance to leave, but I couldn’t just abandon Luke. I debated running into the woods, forcing their hand. I scrapped that idea quickly. My leg made it difficult to walk, and damn near impossible to run. It would only take one were-bear to chase me down and drag me back, and there were a half dozen of them.

As if he’d sensed my intention, the youngest man at the table stood, and strode past the bickering males toward me. He couldn’t have been much over eighteen. He was clearly afflicted with a bad case of baby face, and the dimples that appeared when he smiled at me didn’t help matters. His bright red hair gave me a momentary pang for Millie, back home. What was she up to now? Surely, my car had been towed by now. Was she worried about me? Where did she think I’d disappeared to?

The young man stopped a few paces short of where I stood. “Do you need some help?” he asked, gesturing toward the two large packs that I had yet to unload.

“I’m not entirely sure Chance will win the argument,” I muttered. “We could be packing all this stuff up in a few minutes.”

“You won’t be,” he said confidently. “Darren can be pig-headed sometimes. It’s a quality I admire, even if it can get a bit tedious.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I have a way with people,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll talk to him in a few minutes. You’re needed on this mission, Miss Elmsong, now more than ever.”

I stiffened. I was almost certain that Chance hadn’t told them my last name. That would be a strike against my participation that he didn’t need. “How do you know my last name?”

He gave me another dazzling smile. “Ah yes, where are my manners? I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m Adrien. Adrien Frey.”

My mouth popped open. “You’re-”

He put a finger to my lips gently. “Shh. Not here. Walk with me, and we can discuss it further.”

He walked several hundred yards down the road, away from the rest of the were-bears. Adrien, or Freyr, as I suspected, didn’t look back at me as he spoke.

“There. We should be far enough away they can’t eavesdrop. You were saying, Miss Elmsong?”

“Adrien Frey?” I repeated incredulously. “Isn’t that a touch obvious?”

He chuckled. “Perhaps, but none of them will remember me once I leave this place. I’m merely here to ensure that you are able to participate. You’re the only one that can stand in his way.”

“I don’t see what you think I can accomplish,” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration. “He’s stronger than me. Faster, too.”

“Yes,” he said simply. “He is that. But you swore an oath to me. You must stop him. Your brother will save many lives.”

“You sent a creepy puddle monster after me. What was I supposed to say? I think I’m getting the raw end of this deal. I didn’t sign up to be a part of your supernatural army.”

“Your mate is frightened for your life,” he informed me, turning fully toward me for the first time since we’d started walking. “I don’t blame him. I didn’t believe that the Aesir would be able to locate him this quickly, or I would have come to you earlier.”

“The Aesir?” I echoed. What was with all the funny words? I didn’t know what the hell people were talking about half the time. I really had to brush up on my Norse mythology.

“Odin and his ilk. Surely you’ve heard of Odin? At the very least you’ve heard of his son, Thor. He’s been getting an obnoxious amount of attention in human media in the last century.”

I would have laughed, if the situation weren’t so serious. It wasn’t every day you saw a god sulking over his lack of publicity. I nodded, covering my mouth to hide the sudden smile on my face.

“So, Thor threatened to kill me?” I checked.

“The scent of honeysuckle and wheat lingered on his skin, so it was either Frigg or Sif.”

I bristled at the mention of another woman anywhere near Chance. Frigg or Sif would keep her hands off of Chance, if she wanted to keep said hands.

Freyr turned and began walking back up the hill. It was more difficult going up the hill than down it, especially since I hadn’t taken any pain medication since leaving the hotel in the morning. I limped after him, fuming. I didn’t like any of this. I didn’t like that Chance was keeping secrets from me. I didn’t like that I’d been strong-armed into helping Freyr accomplish whatever his agenda was. And most of all, I didn’t like the odds stacked against me. I couldn’t stop Chance. He was bigger and stronger than I was. Even if my leg was whole, I couldn’t outrun him.

I had the sinking feeling that I was going to fail miserably. Why not? I wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of success. I’d always fallen short of expectations. Poised on the edge of attending Notre Dame with a full ride sports scholarship, I’d apparently gotten “drunk” and crashed my brother’s car. Instead of attending community college, I’d spent the following five years working as a waitress.

What was it that Uncle Mack had said before I’d left? Ah, right. You’ve got a lot of quit in you.

Freyr cocked his head to one side and considered me as we ascended the hill. “Do you?” he asked.

“Do I what?” I muttered, rubbing at my eyes before tears could fall.

“Do you have a lot of quit in you?”

I jumped. “You never said you could read minds. Butt out.”

“I can’t help that you’re practically screaming it right now. But the question still stands. Do you?”

“No,” I growled, finally reaching the top. My leg hurt like hell, but that didn’t matter. I was going to hike into the woods whether Chance followed me or not. “I don’t.”

“Good.” He flashed me a wicked grin that looked wildly out of place on his young, innocent face. “That’s my girl. I’m going to sort the boys out. Be ready when I send my gift to you. I won’t send it twice.”

“Gift? What gift?” I hissed as he sauntered toward the squabbling group of were-bears.

“You’ll know it when you see it. Good luck, Lucy Elmsong.”

***

Nearly two weeks out and I still had no clue what Freyr had been talking about. I whacked another low hanging branch out of my way in frustration. Behind me, I heard the branch hit, and then Chance swore loudly. He’d been doing that a lot in the mornings. I couldn’t get consistent sleep and it made me cranky.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“Another bad one?” he guessed, coming level with me on the hiking trail.

“Yeah.”

“What’s keeping you up at night?”

What wasn’t keeping me up at night? The strange, impossible mission from Freyr was top priority in my worries, but there were other things I dwelled on, as the trail wound further into the mountains. Chance always knew where we were going next, and wasn’t sharing exactly how he knew that information. He still wouldn’t explain to me what had happened in the forty minutes he’d gone berserk on the freeway, though my conversation with Freyr had conjured up some nasty images to fuel my nightmares.

Add to all of that, the fact that we’d scaled a few of the smaller mountains in an effort to get closer to the goal. My leg had gotten so bad that we were forced to make camp and stay put for a whole day and a half after each jaunt. I was sure my gimpy pace was slowing him down considerably. And on top of it all, I was stealing his clothes.

It had become clear after one night on the mountaintop that I’d packed for the wrong type of weather. Spring was turning slowly to summer in Tennessee, and it was perfectly acceptable to go out in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt on nice days. I’d packed some long sleeves in preparation for slightly colder weather in Ohio, but I hadn’t packed anything close to sufficient for camping on top of a mountain.

So after listening to my teeth chatter for two hours as I clutched the light jacket I’d packed to me desperately, he’d given me one of his thermal shirts, a pair of thick socks and had beckoned me to sleep beside him in his sleeping bag. I hadn’t complained. He was warm, and temptingly close.

Strangely enough, he hadn’t made another move on me. I was beginning to dread that the night in the hotel had been a fluke. He’d said he loved me. He hadn’t even kissed me since we’d arrived.

He reached over and gently smoothed the crease between by brows with his finger. “You’re worrying. Why?”

I decided to give him the simplest and least pressing answer. “If I’m your mate like you say, why aren’t we having sex?”

His head tilted to one side and an easy smile curved his full lips. “That’s what you’ve stayed up worrying about? That I don’t want you?”

I nodded mutely.

“You’re silly,” he said, shaking his head. He offered me a hand as a particularly gnarled root jutted from the ground ahead of us. I was prone to tripping over them if he didn’t assist me, and I knew he couldn’t afford the delay of a broken leg.

“It’s not silly. We’ve been sharing the same sleeping bag for two weeks and you haven’t even tried to kiss me.”

He pecked me quickly on the cheek. The contact sent a shock of sensation through me. It felt like being exposed to a livewire after weeks of no contact. I turned my face eagerly for a proper kiss. He didn’t oblige me though, backing away from me with a laugh when we’d climbed over the root.

“If I kiss you know, we’ll have to make camp, and we can put a few more miles behind us before sundown. Soon, I promise.”

“You’d better,” I grumbled, trudging after him. “So, what was the last topic of conversation we left off with? And was it my turn or yours?”

“Well, I found out you’re a blasphemer. I can’t in good conscience kiss someone who hates Star Wars.”

“I don’t hate Star Wars. I just like Star Trek better.”

“Bah. The pain meds are making you delirious. You’re not talking sense.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure it’s my turn to ask the questions. You said you had sisters. What do they do?”

“Rita and Amber. Rita is a nurse, and Amber is a UFC fighter in their paranormal division.”

“Really? She does mixed-martial arts?”

“She’s the only person I’ve met in the last ten years who can kick my ass,” he confirmed.

I laughed. “I’ll have to get her to give me pointers sometime.”

We settled down to make camp when the sun sank beneath the horizon and we couldn’t move safely forward. It amused me to no end that he hung our food every night to keep it away from bears.

“Afraid you’ll be tempted to grab a midnight snack?” I teased.

“Don’t you ever get tired of all the bear jokes?”

“Never,” I replied solemnly. “Bear puns will follow you for the rest of your days.”

“Ugh. That will be unbearable,” he said, and crawled into the tent, joining me in the sleeping bag.

I beamed. “See, you like it!”

“Barely.”

“Oh, come on. Quit that. You’re going to ace me in the pun department, and I can’t have that.”

“You can’t bear it?” he said, leaning in to kiss me on the lips. I raised a hand to cup the back of his neck. He pressed me down onto the hard packed earth at the mouth of the tent and I giggled despite myself.

“Something like that.” It was hard to think around the distracting things his hands were doing to my breasts, but I forced myself to. There was something off about the night sky, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.

“I need you to stay in the tent tonight,” he whispered. “At least until I’ve put up some defensive countermeasures, alright?”

“Alright.”

He climbed off of me with palpable reluctance and began digging in the pack that I’d never seen him touch before. He pulled out what at first looked like another, larger tent. But when I peered inside, there was no fabric, only tent poles, hammers and a book.

“What’s this?”

“Our countermeasure,” he replied, pulling the large bundles of poles out of the bag. They gleamed in the moonlight. Moonlight. That’s what I’d hadn’t been able to place. It seemed impossible that I’d missed it. I’d been tracking the ever-waxing moon as it made its progression toward full. Every day was a day closer to Luke’s transformation into a wild, unstoppable bear.

I studied the poles. They looked flimsy, and certainly not enough to keep out a bear. “What is it supposed to do?”

Chance pulled on a pair of gloves and began to fit the segmented poles together. After weeks of practice assembling the tent at night and collapsing it in the morning, I knew how this worked. I grabbed the second bundle and began assembling it as well.

“These poles are made of enchanted steel,” he explained. “It’s one of the few substances that can hurt or kill us if we’re exposed to it.”

“So silver doesn’t hurt you?”

“No, not really.”

He grabbed a stake from inside the bag and fixed the pole to the ground on the other side of our existing tent, hammering it into place with a mallet. He repeated the process on the other side, bending the pole so it formed a gleaming metal arch above our heads. I slotted the last piece into place on mine and handed it to him as well.

“No offense, but I don’t think this is going to stand up to a grizzly bear.”

“Most of the bears in the region where he was infected are actually black bears, not grizzly.”

“Alright, I don’t think this will stand up to a bear, period,” I said, glancing nervously up at the moon. “There’s all the empty space between these poles.”

“That’s where the runes come in,” he muttered. He traced his finger over one of the segments and a sigil of some kind glowed red-orange for a moment. As I watched, the light dimmed and the pole returned to normal.

“What will they do?” I asked.

“Spirits and spiritual beings cannot enter into a place of faith.”

“I don’t follow.” I traced my thumb over another of the segments, and nothing happened.

“I’m a spiritual being. You’re not.”

“Pardon me,” I scoffed. “I go to church every Sunday with my Aunt Carol. Or at least I did before this little road trip started.”

He laughed and stopped to hammer the first side of my pole into place. “That’s not what I meant. I mean my bear is a spirit and while I take a bear form, I can’t enter a place of faith. It’s like a physical barrier. That’s what I’m counting on to keep your brother out.”

“So…if we pray hard enough, this thing will repel bears?” It sounded even more ridiculous when I said it out loud.

He let out a rumbling basso laugh, and the warm sound brushed across my skin like the touch of velvet. I wanted to wrap myself in the happy sound and never let it go.

“Those are written in the language of my faith, so if I pray, yes, it should keep Luke and any other were-creature. The catch is that once it’s activated, it also keeps me inside during the full moon.”

I glanced nervously at our tiny tent. I didn’t think it could survive his violent transformation into a six-hundred-pound grizzly bear if what had happened last time was any indication.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, taking my face between my hands. He peered earnestly down at me, and his eyes looked almost black in the darkness. It was probably a trick of the shadows, but they looked closer to the eyes of his bear form than before.

“How long do you have?” I asked. Sex was definitely out of the equation until the lunar cycle was over. I sighed. I had been looking forward to doing that tonight.

“A half hour, if I’m lucky. I can feel it coming on.” As I watched, the skin of his arms rippled. His muscles bunched and he dropped his hands from my face quickly. “I need to get the last pole before I shift.”

“I’ve got it,” I said, and took a step back, out of the protective barrier of the poles. I searched the ground for the mallet and the remaining stake. I’d just rounded the final edge of the tent when I heard his shirt tear. Much less than a half hour, it appeared. I knelt on the ground, positioning the stake. It slipped from my hand when I heard Chance’s bear form let out an enormous bellow.

Hands, two pairs of them, wrenched me backward by my jacket and hair. I screamed as a fistful of my hair came out by the roots.

“Shut her up!” A gravelly male voice hissed from behind me. “The bear has already scented us. We have to do it quickly!”

I swung the mallet wildly and got lucky. It crunched on impact, and I would have bet good money that I’d broken someone’s nose. The hands that had been restraining me fell away, and I pushed myself into an upright position. I stumbled away from my attackers, catching sight of two hairy, misshapen men. The one whose nose I’d broken was still upright, but his partner continued to contort, accompanied by the disconcerting sound of grinding bone.  It finally landed on all fours, and it had a distinctly lupine shape in the light of the full moon.

Chance roared again, and I turned my head in time to see his massive grizzly form rear onto two legs and issue another bellow of challenge. Spittle flew from its mouth, and it bared razor sharp teeth at the men behind me. There was nothing human left in his eyes, no hint of the man I knew. This was a bear. A pissed off, predatory bear. I did the only thing I could think of, with a bear advancing toward me, and wolves waiting at my back.

I ran.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Ten

Chance

Protect or attack? My bear was torn and I, usually the more level-headed of us, wasn’t sure what to do either. I didn’t believe for one second that Frigg had only sent two Ulfhednar after Lucy. The smallest pack of werewolves I’d ever seen had been composed of five. She could have placed dozens of them in the surrounding woods.

But I couldn’t guarantee her safety behind my back, either. They could creep up and flank me easily, and then Lucy would be lost. I needed to deal with the two in front of me quickly and locate Lucy. They were faster than I was, even in this form, and far faster than Lucy with her bad leg. They’d catch her easily, if she continued to crash through the woods noisily as she was.

Attack it was, then.

I charged the first wolf. He hadn’t fully transformed, and I exploited the vulnerable half-state. One swipe of my paw sent him flying back into the nearest pine tree. The force of the impact shook the pine and sent needles raining down on top of the dazed Ulfhednar. The second, which had been poised to run after Lucy into the woods scrabbled back, letting loose a howl. I slammed down on top of the wolf and rolled. It wasn’t a particularly graceful or smart move, but it was effective. Six hundred pounds of adult male grizzly bear was enough to crush the air temporarily from his lungs. If I was lucky, I might have snapped a few of his bones as well.

I pelted into the woods after Lucy. Her panicked flight had sent her in the wrong direction. She was headed toward the base of the mountain. The pine trees would be difficult if not impossible for her to climb. Her limp had become even more pronounced after the last mountain we’d been forced to scale, and she was making a great deal of noise. The wolves would catch her soon, if they hadn’t already.

Lucy shrieked in fear and I heard a wolf’s yelp of pain. Somewhere in the back of my mind that small fact surprised me. What was she doing? The rest of my body tensed in anticipation of the coming fight. There were wolves ahead, and blood in the air. Human blood.

Lucy!

I caught a flash of her hair, a splash of sunshine in the night. As I watched she pitched forward, a jutting tree root sending her sprawling into the bracken on the forest floor. The wind carried the musky scent of wolves and I whipped my head this way and that, trying to spot them.

Four Ulfhednar slid from the shadows, darting quickly and silently toward Lucy’s prone body. She let out a whimper of pain, scrambling to her feet. Her knees and palms had been scraped raw, and I wondered just how many times she’d fallen already. This was bad. The blood would be a shining beacon for any predator in the area.

The wolves circled her, snarling in warning any time she tried to run. Still more wolves entered from the periphery, and I let out a bellow of frustration, batting at the nearest. It skittered away with teeth bared. If the long gashes in its stomach troubled it, it didn’t show.

Wolves almost never attacked grizzly bears. It was instinctual. Bears had superior strength and superior reach. The strength of the wolf was in its speed and agility, and that was what the Ulfhednar employed against me. The wolves took turns, darting in, biting at my ankles, my flank, my snout. No matter how many I injured, there was another there to take its place, biting, tearing at flesh and sinew.

“Chance!” Lucy screamed, staggering forward, arms outstretched toward me. The dozen yards between us might as well have been miles. I drew bloody tracks across the nearest wolf’s snout and it fell back.

The largest of the wolves surrounding Lucy stood on its hind legs and began to shift. The change rippled up his body, animal features ceding to his human form. It took maybe five seconds until the Ulfhednar stood fully human. It was the smoothest transition I’d seen in any were-animal, and something I could never accomplish even if I’d had centuries to practice it.

He was tall, probably as tall as I was in human form. He was nude and very well-built with muscle everywhere from his calves to his bulging, barely there neck. He wasn’t attractive in any traditional sense. He had a heavy brow and a jutting, square jaw. He looked like he’d stepped out of an exhibit on the Cro-Magnon era.

Lucy had paused in her latest bid for freedom, seeming nearly as taken aback by the cave-wolf as I was. No one had mentioned that the Ulfhednar predated the wheel. Or maybe she was distracted by the massive erection he was sporting. I swiped viciously at the wolf nearest me. It flew several feet before landing in a quivering heap.

The Alpha wolf was scarred. Nearly every inch of tanned skin was covered in crisscrossed in faded white scar tissue. I almost expected him to grunt at Lucy, but when he opened his mouth, perfectly intelligible if slightly accented English poured out.

“Do not be afraid, human female. I offer you a gift.”

“A gift?” Lucy repeated uncertainly. She examined the ring of wolves that continued to circle her. Every so often her gaze would flicker up to me, and then she’d quickly avert her eyes with a wince. I must have looked worse than I thought.

“Yes. A gift from Odin. He extends an offer of strength, of power.” The Alpha raised his beefy forearm to his mouth and bit into it deeply with his dull semi-human teeth. He left a bloody crescent in his wake. He held the arm out toward her. Blood streamed from his wound onto the earth below.

“Allow my blood to flow through you,” he coaxed. “Don’t you wish to run again? I can help you reclaim all that you lost. Is it truly too high a price?”

Lucy swallowed thickly, and I could see the thoughts clearly on her face. She wanted her life back. She wanted every experience she’d been denied because of her brother’s thoughtless mistakes. She wanted to be stronger. Her eyes flicked to me again. Her jaw set, and steely resolve flashed in her eyes.

“No thanks,” she said, and her voice carried even over the snapping and snarling of the wolves nearest me. “I’m not really a dog person.”

If I’d been human, I’d have cheered the brave stab of humor. But I wasn’t, and I couldn’t afford to be any time soon. I could detect the distant sound of paws hitting the ground. There must be more Ulfhednar on the way.

The Alpha bared his teeth at Lucy in a fierce grin. “I thought you might say something to that effect. In that case, my brethren will tear your bear to pieces. And when he is dead, and the spirit of the wolf slides beneath your skin, I will take you on top of his bloody corpse.”

I bellowed a warning when she rushed the wolf line, astonishingly kicking the nearest in the jaw. Its whine was probably more from shock than pain. She threw herself at Conan the Wolfman, clawing at his eyes. He caught her flailing arms with a chuckle and drew her flush with his body.

“Such fire! You will make an excellent addition to the pack.”

“You’ll never get away with this!” she shouted. “Chance will kill all of you. He won’t let you hurt me.”

“He cannot stop us.” He spun her quickly, so she faced out toward the assembled pack. The ring of wolves had stopped circling and stared at the Alpha solemnly. “This is but a small sample. We are over a thousand strong. I need only call, and more will come to our aid.”

He buried his face in her neck, with a feral smile. “Not that we need it.”

He bared his teeth, a flash of deadly white in the moonlight and sank his teeth into her throat. Lucy convulsed in his arms and she screamed, her face contorting in sudden agony.

I stood on my hind legs and batted at every lupine head in reach. There were yelps of pain and surprise and it was enough to clear a few feet. I charged and plowed over the only wolf that was stupid enough to stand in my way.

The Alpha released his hold on Lucy and she slumped to the ground, clutching at her neck. A pitiful moan escaped her lips. In another fluid motion he’d dropped to all fours, rapidly morphing into the enormous shaggy grey wolf he’d been before.

I was going to rip his throat out. I didn’t care that bites were the least effective vector for lycanthropy. If even a trace of his blood had seeped into her wound, she could change. She wouldn’t be my Lucy anymore. She’d be a lupa, a she-wolf. She’d be forever lost to me.

It didn’t matter that he was the largest wolf there. There was a reason wolves never fucked with bears one on one. He was two hundred pounds of muscle, tops, and he had no weapons readily available but his teeth. I, on the other hand, was over twice his weight, had ten razor sharp claws that I was ready and willing to use, and I was fucking pissed.

I rolled him, the same as I had in the clearing when Lucy and I had made camp. He was smart enough to avoid exposing his stomach, which was the only reason I wasn’t able to disembowel him for tearing into my mate.

I gouged deep furrows into his flank and he writhed beneath me. I was beyond caring about the wolves that had launched themselves at me, tearing into my back. This wolf was going to die for what he’d done.

“Get the fuck off him!” Lucy had apparently regained her feet, and the mallet she’d been using before the ambush whistled through the air, colliding with a wolf’s skull with a dull thunk.

The Alpha tried to regain his feet, but with six hundred pounds of enraged grizzly on top of him he wasn’t having much luck. I lunged for his throat, and fresh pain exploded across my face when his claws raked at my snout.

The heavy footfalls were close, and with an icy surge of realization, I knew I’d made a fatal miscalculation. The wolf managed to squirm out from beneath me and he and his fellows retreated into the woods.

I turned toward Lucy, who still held her makeshift weapon aloft. Sweet, brave Lucy who stood alongside me facing almost certain death armed only with a small rubber mallet. Fragile, human Lucy, who would stand no chance against what was coming.

I lumbered forward, putting myself between my mate and what was coming. I was injured, and some of the wounds were deep enough they would remain even after I shifted back to human. Her small, warm hands wound into my fur and she pressed her face into my side. I felt tears soak into my fur.

“You’re hurt.” She sniffed. “It’s my fault. I should have been faster. I should have stayed in the tent…”

A gigantic black bear crested the top of the nearest slope. Behind me, Lucy drew in a shuddering breath.

“Luke. Oh God no…”

There was nothing human in Luke Elmsong. His eyes were inky black in the moonlight, and filled with the sort of madness I normally saw in rabid animals. His fur bristled and his ears flattened to his skull as he took in the sight of me, crouched protectively over the only prey in the vicinity.

He let out a bellow of challenge that shook the trees around us. The message was clear. Move away or die.

Not fucking likely.

He began to circle the ridge, attempting to get behind me and nearer to Lucy. I adjusted my position, shielding her from view. Luke’s lips pulled away from his teeth. They were already coated in a sheen of dark blood. I just hoped to God it wasn’t human.

“Chance,” Lucy muttered. “Chance, you can’t kill him.”

Now? She wanted me to show him mercy now, when every indication said he’d kill her, if he got the chance? I blew out a breath, ruffling her hair. She made a face.

“I know, I know. But he’s important, Chance. Not just to me.”

He was important to everyone, apparently. I had no idea why Frigg and the Aesir wanted him dead, but they’d made their point pretty damn clear. On the other side of things, the Vanir must want Luke alive. All the clues that I’d been unable to make sense of earlier suddenly clicked into place. Lucy’s lies about Freyr in the bathtub, her insistence in keeping her history with Luke quiet. She didn’t just want to save his life, she had to. She’d been compelled, the same as I had been.

What consequences lay in store for her if she failed the Vanir? What more could they take from Lucy?

Luke Elmsong made his way slowly down the slope, sizing me up. A low rumble began in his throat, as he approached me. I was bigger than he was, though not by much and the spirit of the berserker who possessed his body would not care about the pain. He had a singular focus. Kill the enemy and acquire the prey.

Before I could stop her, or even process what she was doing, Lucy ran out in front of me, right into the path of the oncoming bear.

No!

Luke charged, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. In only a few loping steps, he’d be on her. In one savage strike of teeth, he could tear out her throat. And then, like Keith Page, she’d fall and her brain would have twenty seconds to process the pain, the fear, and the fact that she was dying.

Luke skidded to a stop only a few feet away from Lucy, as an orb of silver-white light materialized in the air between them. Even I skidded to a halt, digging furrows in the ground beneath me. What was this? More Aesir interference? Was Frigg so set on Luke Elmsong’s death that she was prepared to do it herself?

The light coalesced into a four-legged shape. It was huge, and easily dwarfed Lucy. Its fur was white, though it looked grey in the light of the full moon. It turned slowly to face her, its phantom back toward the suddenly cautious form of Luke’s bear. It lowered its ursine head to nudge Lucy’s shoulder.

Lucy stretched out a shaking hand to touch the polar bear’s snout. To my surprise, her hand did not phase through the conjured beast, and she stroked shaking fingers over its face gently.

“A gift,” she whispered. “This is your gift to me. Thank you, Freyr.”

And she stepped forward, into her bear. The she-bear split into a dozen tiny stars that drifted slowly down over Lucy, landing in her hair, on her cute upturned nose, and her still outstretched hands. The soft silver glow seeped into her skin, and she seemed to radiate light.

Then the glow dissipated and she collapsed, sprawling on the ground between us. Luke was still closer to her than I was, and I forced my frozen limbs to move forward.

He still reached her first, and my heart constricted painfully, waiting for the blow that would end her life. The enormous black bear had been shaken by the sudden appearance of another, and didn’t seem to know what to make of the prone form on the ground before him. He nosed once at her hair, snuffling along her throat. It licked the injured flesh curiously and sneezed.

Luke took his sister’s jacket hood between his teeth and began to drag her away, shuffling back up the slope the way he had come. I followed. Despite his sudden change in demeanor, I couldn’t risk leaving her alone with him. He was a killer, and nowhere close to having control of his bear.

Another hot slash of pain caught my attention and I turned halfway around to see the cause. There was another damned wolf biting my ankle. I snarled and slashed at the air between us, hoping it would let me go. Every second I wasted, allowed Luke to drag his sister another few feet away from me.

The first wolf was joined by another, and then another until I had to turn completely around to face them. Wolves were pests, cowards who normally attacked from behind. They wouldn’t like their odds if they faced me head on.

The Alpha wolf was in the clearing once again, and human. It took my human brain several crucial seconds to realize what my bear brain had not. The human shape was weaker, nearly useless in a fight, but it had several advantages over animal form. Opposable thumbs, for instance.

In his hand, the Alpha wolf balanced a sizable slab of rock. He bared his teeth in a fierce grin of triumph.

“Odin sends his regards.”

The step backwards I managed before the rock hit me was the only thing that stopped the blow from caving in my skull. As it was, it clipped me hard on its way past and I stumbled onto my side. My vision swam. My pulse slammed through my veins, and I couldn’t hear the wolf’s approach.

The wolf knelt by my head. “Your woman is as good as dead.”

No. No, no, no. My thoughts were jumbled, tripping over one another in the chaos of my head. No. She’s gone. He has her. He has her and they’re going to hunt them both down. Get up! Get up, you worthless son of a bitch!

But I couldn’t force my legs to move. The Alpha wolf drew a back a meaty fist and hit me hard on the opposite temple. The blackness stole over me, silencing even the screaming panic of my thoughts.

 

Chapter Eleven

Lucy

The sky was empty above me, and the ground far, far below was barren. I hung somewhere between heaven and what lay at the bottom. The only thing I could see in the gloom was the impossibly huge tree. Its branches extended far above my head, disappearing into the inky blackness that was the night sky in this strange place.

The tree might have been an enormous ash tree at one point. Rot had crept beneath the bark, and insects swarmed over its surface.

“Yggdrasil is dying.”

I flinched away from the new voice. Experience was quickly leading me to believe that the life of a hermit would be best. Most of the people I’d met in the last few weeks hated me, or had tried to kill me. Sometimes both.

A gentle hand clasped my shoulder and I turned my head to catch sight of the speaker.

At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I thought she was beautiful. She wasn’t the idea I’d measured myself against all through my child and young adulthood. She wasn’t especially tall or leggy. She wasn’t slim like Brandi or Millie, either.

She was nearly as voluptuous as me, with pleasantly rounded hips and a bust that strained at the thin linen dress she wore. Her fiery hair was piled atop her head in a loose bun. Her eyes examined the tree, instead of me, which was the only reason I was daring to breathe.

My most recent encounter with Freyr was still fresh in my mind. That, along with the histories and myths that Chance had shared during our long days of hiking, made me almost certain of the woman’s identity. But it wasn’t possible, was it? She was dead. Which meant I was talking to a ghost. Regular old ghosts were bad enough. What would the ghost of a goddess do if I pissed her off?

“Um…what?” I finally managed. She turned her head slightly and I caught the briefest glimpse of an amused smile on her full, perfect lips. The sudden urge to kiss her seized me. I hadn’t ever felt such fierce desire before meeting Chance, and even then, it was reserved only for him. It was weird, since I’d never had that particular urge before. But the longer I looked at her soft countenance, I realized why.

I doubted anyone who looked at her could help but love her. She was love. Freya, from all the accounts that Chance had given me, was supposed to be a Goddess of Love. I’d seen Greek mythology in movies and on television, and thought that maybe she was the contemporary of Eros or Aphrodite. But it wasn’t just sexual love that the sight of Freya inspired.

A dizzying barrage of pictures flitted through my mind. Images of family and friends. Lazy afternoons on the porch with Luke and Millie, talking and waiting for the sun tea to steep. Mom and Dad curled up on the sofa, watching the morning news while Aunt Carol, single then, braided my hair before school. The embraces of my teammates after a hard game. Millie assuring me I was alright. Millie driving me home.

And on top of all that, warmth unfurled like a flower in my belly. My hand dropped to my stomach, and I swore I could feel the phantom kick of a child.

“Was that a baby?” I gasped, pressing my hand harder against my stomach. It felt as flat as ever.

“It could be.” Freya shrugged. “It is a possibility. A faint maybe. If you both survive, there will be children in your future.”

“What is this place?” I wondered aloud. “It looks creepy as hell. Why is the world tree dying?”

Freya pursed her lips. “Because I decided to kill it.”

“What? Why?”

She shook her lovely head, as if that were the wrong question to ask. Geez, I could see how she and Freyr were related. They were both vague and extremely unhelpful.

“Without Idun’s apples to sustain them, the Aesir and the Vanir will both die. The dark and light elves will fight for control of their respective remains, if the frost giants don’t get to them first.”

“You wanted a war?” I said, taken aback. “Why would the Norse Goddess of Love want war?”

“I do not want war. It is the fallout of my choice, but I did not want it to come to that.”

“If you don’t want war, then come back with me,” I urged. Maybe if I brought his sister back, Freyr would forget this stupid war. I could go back to being myself, with my shitty life. Well, less so because I now had Chance to return to.

“I cannot,” she said simply, her gaze flicking to the distant branches above us. “Even if I wished to, there is no way for me to return.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered. “There’s got to be a way.”

“Thor’s strike threw me from Asgard but I did not land in any of the nine worlds on Yggdrasil’s branches. In short, I’m in a sort of limbo. I faded from Heimdall’s sight because I am essentially nowhere.”

Fear slid like a shard of ice into my stomach, chasing away the warm maternal feelings I’d had only minutes before. “If this is limbo, then how am I here with you?”

She smiled wanly. “Because my clever brother has earned himself a favor or two from half-born Hel. He sent the spirit of a shield maiden to you. She trekked through here, on her way to you. Her spirit alone allows me to speak to you. When you wake, I will be beyond reach once again.”

“Don’t you have any sentiments you’d like to pass on then?”

She nodded gravely, drifting over to the trunk of the tree. Its gargantuan size made even the goddess seem like a mere insect in comparison. She brushed her fingers gently over the rotted wood.

“Death to Asgard,” she whispered. “Death to the Vanir. Death to us all. I will never return Idun to them. The twilight of the gods has begun.”

The tree shook and whatever force had held me aloft shook as well. I wobbled, trying to keep my balance. Freya leaned over me with a smile and gave me a very gentle shove. She slipped something small into my palm as I teetered backward and fell over the edge.

“Wake, Lucy Elmsong,” she called as I fell screaming to the ground miles below. “Wake. You must still survive the day.”

***

I bolted upright, or at least tried to. A heavy weight pressed down on top of me. In the first dizzy moments of consciousness, I thought I’d had a nightmare. Maybe I’d dreamed the whole debacle with the wolves. Maybe I’d fallen asleep in Chance’s arms as I had been for the last few weeks.

Then I spotted the shaggy blonde mop of hair that the huge muscular lump was calling a haircut these days. Ugh. Why was he trying to rock surfer hair? It always looked best short and he knew it. Mom had told him so enough times before she’d died.

I shoved and shimmied my way out from under his bulk. He rolled off me and landed with a thump on the stone floor. Luke’s bear had apparently taken us both higher into the mountains and had made a home in the cave.

An awful smell hung in the air, and I soon located the source. A shredded deer carcass was tucked into one corner of the cave, away from the pair of us. I assumed most of the blood on Luke and the cave floor had come from that.

I smoothed his hair back from his face, wishing I had a towel or even a little water. Poor Luke. These last few weeks must have been a nightmare for him. While I’d been stewing in Fairchild, or fighting or fucking or doing whatever I damned well pleased with Chance, he’d been wandering the woods without supplies or even a clear goal in mind.

While neither of us had been shut-ins, he’d always been more social than I was. I couldn’t think of a time in recent memory where I’d seen him alone. He studied with his girlfriend of the month in high school. Before he’d left for college, he’d spent most nights out in the living room with Aunt Carol and Uncle Mack, watching the news or whatever war movie Uncle Mack had dragged out of his collection. I couldn’t imagine how lonely his self-imposed isolation must be. He had nothing and no one.

But that wasn’t true anymore, was it? He had me. And if I could find him again, I was sure I could get Chance to spare him. Chance had said Luke wasn’t in his right mind when he’d attacked Keith Page. So didn’t it follow that he couldn’t have been directly responsible for what had happened? The least they could do is reduce his sentence.

I propped his head up and wormed my arm beneath his shoulder. We’d slept like this for years, refusing to use the bunk beds our parents had bought for us. We’d shared a womb once upon a time. A bed was nothing to that.

Luke’s eyes fluttered open a few minutes later. For a moment his expression was one of contentment, and he leaned harder against my shoulder. Then reality seemed to hit, and I saw a veritable kaleidoscope of emotions cross his face.

Panic struck first. He jerked upright and away from me, scrambling to the other side of the cave. Disgust quickly followed when he backed too far into the corner and came into contact with the deer’s entrails. Finally he settled on fear, as he realized what he was touching and that he had blood on his hands. Again.

“It’s not human,” I whispered. Luke flinched, as if I’d been screaming the words at him.

“Lucy…how…why?”

“You didn’t think I’d let you run off, did you? You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

The uncertainty in his eyes disappeared, replaced instead by cold fury. His hands balled into his fists and he jumped to his feet, looming over me as he had when we were children and he wanted to intimidate me.

“I told you to stay away.” A hint of his bear’s growl slipped into his tone, adding extra menace to the words.

Suddenly, I could feel it. The beautiful bear that had come to my rescue was inside of me. Her fur glided just beneath my skin and I was suddenly itching to free her. I knew that it could be that easy. If I just let her through my flimsy human skin, I could change. She’d protect us. She was strong enough for that.

Though I knew his statement was more of his usual bluster, my bear didn’t. She bristled at the tone of challenge in his tone.

I pushed to my feet, ready to get into his face if I needed to. I didn’t get that far. My leg hurt. It really, really hurt. All of it. If my leg wasn’t achy, crampy or on fire with pain, it tingled or went numb in places, which was its own hell.

The nerve damage was healing. One night as a bear, and I had already progressed further than medical science said I realistically should expect for recovery. But all the wonder in the world wasn’t going to keep me on my feet.

“Ow, fuck!” I blurted. My knees wobbled dangerously and I fell backward.

Luke caught me before I could land in an ungainly heap on the cave floor. We stood awkwardly for a few seconds, trying to figure out exactly how to arrange ourselves. Finally, he helped me lean against the cave wall for support and took a step back so we could look each other in the eye.

“I know what you said,” I panted. “But I’m still not letting you leave like that.”

He folded his arms over his bare chest. He’d had the decency to put something on while I’d caught by breath. It was the remainder of one of his old t-shirts. To be fair, the loincloth look wasn’t entirely a bad one, considering his physique, but it wasn’t something I really wanted to see. He fixed me with a glare. He was getting angrier, and I had the feeling if I didn’t look so pathetic, he might have been tempted to shove me.

“I killed someone, Lucy,” he said quietly. “I mean it. I’m dangerous. You shouldn’t be here.”

“This isn’t the end of the world,” I said. “Come back with me. I’m sure a case can be made.”

He turned to glare out of the cave entrance. “It was the end of Keith’s world,” he whispered.

I wanted to cross the space between us and wrap by arms around his middle. I hated the sadness in his voice. I hated that he was right, and that there was nothing that could be done to right that particular wrong.

“You can’t just sulk in a cave,” I argued.

“Why the hell not?” he snapped. “It’s better that way.”

I slid to the ground and tried to give a brief explanation of what had happened in the weeks immediately after the attack. I left out the part about Sylvia, the possible new were-bear he’d created. I told him instead about Chance. Chance showing up at the diner. Chance rescuing me from the side of the road. Chance and the lies, Chance at the hotel. And finally about Freyr’s warning, that I was the only one who could stop him.

“Why, though?” he muttered. The tension had finally eased out of his shoulders, even though he wouldn’t look at me. “Why would you stop him? I deserve it.”

“No, you don’t,” I snapped. “Quit saying that. You didn’t do that on purpose.”

“I’m not good, Lucy. Don’t you get that? I’m not the guy these Vanir people want. I’m not a hero.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” I said, staring at his back. “You are a good guy. A bit impulsive and childish sometimes, but you’re good.”

He turned back toward me, staring pointedly at my bad leg. “Oh, and if I’m such a saint, exactly how did that happen?”

“It was an accident.”

“Just like Keith’s death was an accident,” he sneered. “Boy, I sure am misunderstood.”

I tossed a small rock at him. It bounced off his abs. Damned show off. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Can’t change nature,” he muttered bitterly. “I’m not the hero they need, Luce. I’ll just make things worse.”

“So you’re just going to what, lay down and die?”

“Maybe I should,” he snapped.

I stared at him for a long time. Where was this suddenly coming from? He ducked his head, shamefaced and refused to look at me.

“No matter what you’ve done, you don’t deserve to die,” I whispered. I reached out toward him. He jerked his arm away.

“How the fuck do you know what I deserve, huh?” He rounded on me, the icy blue of his eyes, so like my own, fading to a rich brown. It was unsettling, seeing his bear peering out of me in his otherwise human face.

He shoved at my shoulder and I was forced to put my full weight on my injured leg. I wobbled dangerously for several seconds. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood, determined not to shout or curse. At least I hadn’t fallen on my ass.

“See? That right there,” he said, jabbing a finger at me. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t understand,” I gritted out.

“Of course, you don’t,” he said, and he fixed me a look that I was all too familiar with. It was the one I’d always gotten in high school, when he thought I was being particularly dim about something.

“Explain to me, then,” I snapped. My leg felt like it had been dipped in a deep fryer. I didn’t think the pain had lessened any, but I was less wobbly. Maybe I was just becoming more accustomed to it.

“This whole martyr thing you’ve got going on. It all started when Mom and Dad passed. I’m only three minutes younger than you, Lucy; you didn’t have to mother me to death!”

My mouth popped open. A swell of fury rose and with it came my bear. My hands tightened into fists, and cool metal bit into my palm. I hadn’t realized until that moment that I’d been clutching something in my right hand. I was too angry to look down and see what it was. I glared at Luke, and he glared right back at me.

“I did no such thing.”

“Oh, really? Who made excuses for my bad grades? Who covered my ass when I broke curfew?”

“Don’t you think I would have told you not to do those things if I was being motherly?”

“But that’s the point!” he said, exasperated. “You never let me take responsibility when I fucked up Lucy! And I majorly fucked up. You know I did.”

“If you’re talking about the party, you’re wrong. You just made a-”

“A mistake?” he finished sourly. “A mistake, is that what we’re calling it? Still? I was supposed to pick you up from your game, and I blew it off. I got stupid drunk, and by the time I remembered I had to pick you up, I was in no state to drive. I did it, anyway.”

“I drank that night, too,” I reminded him.

“Yeah. You chugged the six pack that I had in the backseat before the cops and the ambulance arrived so they wouldn’t call you on the lie. But you didn’t drive that car, Lucy, I did.”

“But-”

“Get mad at me!” he yelled. The sound echoed off the cave walls and bounced back to us.

“What do you want me to say?” I said wearily. I wanted nothing more than to sink down and bury my face in my hands. I didn’t want to have this conversation now. Not with Chance missing. Not with a pack of werewolves chasing us.

“I want you to yell at me. Hit me, do something other than this. I wrecked your life. I can feel how much you hate me every time I come home. I thought your anger would hurt, but your silence is worse. Just talk to me. I don’t care if you have to scream it.”

I didn’t want to yell. I wanted to cry. So, he hadn’t been as selfish or ignorant as I’d assumed. He’d known I was angry. He’d known I was jealous of the perfect life he had, the one I thought I’d wanted. The things I thought I’d needed to have a happy, productive life.

“Why didn’t you just apologize?” I asked quietly. “That was all I wanted.”

He flinched. “Brandi didn’t want me to tell.”

“And she was close to having her juvenile record sealed, so she didn’t want to have anything to do with it.” That at least made a little sense. Luke could be a bit slow when it came to women, but he wasn’t a bad guy. Of course, he’d want to protect Brandi.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I hadn’t realized how large a weight I’d been lugging around until it suddenly fell off my shoulders. I reached out and this time he let me rest a hand on his shoulder. He was shaking.

“Do you still want me to get mad?” I asked.

“Please.” His voice quavered a little.

I took a deep breath and the words just seemed to flow out of me. All the things I’d wanted to say for years, but hadn’t dared to in front of Aunt Carol and Uncle Mack came spilling out.

“How could you just leave me behind like that?” I asked, not expecting an answer. It felt good to voice it all the same. “I was just barely out of traction, and you just left! You didn’t even take a semester off to see me after I saved your reputation.”

“I know,” he said, shaking his head. “I should have.”

“Damned right,” I said, slapping his arm lightly. “You left me here in Fairchild. Why wouldn’t I be angry?”

He was silent for a few moments that seemed to stretch a small eternity. Was he angry with me in return? Was he going to morph into a giant bear and attack me? I  could feel my own bear, but I wasn’t sure if I could control her just yet. And I was fairly sure I had to wait until the next lunar cycle to let her out to play.

Then, he let out a loud laugh. He always sounded like a braying donkey when he laughed, and it usually made me giggle even if I didn’t find what he’d said particularly funny. This time, I couldn’t stop myself. This whole situation was simply ludicrous. We were on the run from bears and wolves alike, and I was still miffed he’d left me in Fairchild? It really was laughable.

Our mirth petered out a short time later and he helped me to sit on the floor.

“I’m sorry about your leg,” he muttered. “Did I hurt you?”

“A few scratches, that’s all,” I said, waving airily. “I’m not even convinced you made half of these. I tripped a lot when I ran last night.”

“Why’d you run?” he asked. “It sounded like you would have been safe at that campsite. If you’d crawled underneath the barrier and prayed a little bit.”

I nearly smacked myself. He was right. If I’d been thinking, I could have gotten inside the tent. I probably could have dragged Chance in with me, and we would have both been safe.

“I panicked,” I admitted. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“They have him,” he said. “I’d bet good money on that.”

“That’s a sucker’s bet,” I said. Icy fear shot into my veins. Freyr said that the Aesir had threatened him. They’d been willing to use me against him. The head werewolf had been pretty set on turning me into one of his lackeys. I was pretty sure that the blackmail would work both ways. They couldn’t get to me, so they’d hold him, hoping to lure me, and hopefully Luke into the open.

“What can we do?” he wondered aloud. “There were dozens of wolves, Lucy. I’m not sure I could take them on as a bear. I definitely can’t manage it human.”

“And if the goddess is there again, she can make you transform,” I muttered. “She did it to Chance on the freeway. He nearly crashed. It was like he didn’t have will of his own.”

Luke shuddered. “It already feels like that for me, Luce. I feel it coming on when the moon is full, and then suddenly it’s there, in my head and I can’t see or feel anything else. I just need to kill something, or I’m going to go insane.”

My hands balled into fists again. I wasn’t going to leave him to her mercy. But what could we do? Luke couldn’t get near her. I realized with mounting terror that if she couldn’t control me already, she would be able to soon. I had a bear. In a month or less, she could force me to shift. She could force me to kill.

The metal something bit into my palm again and I relaxed my grip, peering down at the object in my hand. There was a necklace in my palm. It didn’t look like much. It was a simple gold chain attached to a small teardrop pearl. It looked like something I could buy at Walmart for prom. I remembered Freya slipping something into my palm as I fell. Surely, this wasn’t the only thing she’d given me to survive.

Luke glanced down at it and gave me the ghost of a smile.

“You know gold isn’t my color, Lucy,” he teased.

“No.” A voice agreed from the mouth of the cave. The red haired boy from the trail head was walking toward us. He looked more careworn than I remembered him a few weeks ago. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked paler under all the freckles. “No, but it was my sister’s.”

I raised the necklace up to the light for him to examine. “Are you saying this is Freya’s? Why would she give it to me?”

“I assume she charmed it in preparation for just such an occasion,” he muttered, smiling wryly. “She certainly had plans, my sister. I just wish I could puzzle out what those plans were.”

I glanced at the necklace. The pearl shone innocently in the light filtering into the cave.

“Is it a weapon?” I asked hopefully. He shook his head.

“Defensive charms only. It’s meant to prevent magical interference. It’s the same sort of instrument the Aesir wore to fend off our magic in the first war. Of course, that was when they had considerably less magic than they do now. I suppose it was a reasonable precaution now that they are equipped with both magic and weaponry.”

My shoulders slumped. I’d been hoping it would be simple. I wanted an easy solution, some sort of cosmic gun I could shoot to take the bitch down.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to help us at all?” I asked testily. I was getting tired of his fortune cookie bullshit. If he was just going to pop in and out of my life at will, the least he could do was be helpful.

“I already have,” he said, fixing me with a stare. “That bear saved your life.”

“Thank you.” I huffed. “But now it’s Chance who’s in danger. I can’t just abandon him. Don’t you have anything useful to add?”

He scratched his chin. He had a beard coming in. His facial hair wasn’t as impressive or sexy as Chance’s in my opinion.

 “I’m limited in what I can do,” he said. “Without Idun’s apples, our reserves our limited. Up to this point, I’ve bartered favors to accomplish what I have. I need to ration my power in order to prepare for battle. Frigg has already strained her abilities by forcing Kaswell’s change.”

“Could we use that against her?” I asked. I thought back to the wolf attacks the night before. They had been smaller than Chance, but they’d kept him still, harassing him, tiring him, slowing him down. Maybe I could achieve similar results.

“Perhaps,” he said, arching a brow. “What did you have in mind?”

I stood, latching Freya’s necklace around my neck. Almost at once, the pain in my leg became distant. I breathed a sigh of relief. Without the pain clouding my thoughts, I could actually plan. Freyr watched me expectantly.

I bent and picked up a rock from the cave floor. With the sharp tip, I drew a very wobbly picture of what I wanted on the cave wall. Hey, I’d been an athlete, not an artist.

“How much power would it take to give me something like this?” I asked, gesturing at the wall.

“You can’t be serious,” he said, looking simultaneously irritated and amused. “That will never work.”

“Just trust me,” I said. “I know this better than anything else. How much power would it take?”

“It could be doable,” he finally admitted.

“Will you do it?”

“This is still insane,” he grumbled. “But I don’t see we have much choice. Frigg won’t stop until Luke is dead. And you’re quite right, you’re the only one who can face off against her.”

Freyr pressed his large palm over my pathetic drawing, and the section of wall began to glow with the same silver light of as my bear. I just hoped that the actual weapon would turn out better than my crappy drawing had looked.

When he finally drew his hand away, he held my weapon in one hand. He offered it to me, looking skeptical. “This will only work short term. I can’t channel this much power infinitely. Not without Idun’s apples. You have two hours, no more.”

I took it from him. The power buzzed between my hands, and I nodded solemnly.

“I only need one.”

Chapter Twelve

Chance

Being forced to remain in animal form well after the moon had disappeared was one of the worst pains a were-creature could suffer.

I’d heard stories about it as a child. Bjorn the Terrible had been tricked by his lover into entering a mirror on the way back to his body.  His soul lived permanently on in that mirror, while his body continued to roam, searching for but not finding him. The stories said he’d lived in agony for the remainder of his life, until someone merciful had smashed the mirror in to free him.

And as an adult, I’d seen actual proof that it had been used before. Trapping someone as a bear after the moon had once been a common punishment for lesser crimes. It had finally been ruled inhumane in the 1990s and was banned in the United States.

Even my brief experience with Frigg weeks before hadn’t prepared me for what I was experiencing. It was four in the afternoon. I’d been in bear form for fourteen hours, twelve of which I’d been conscious for.

At first, it had merely been uncomfortable. During the night I was naturally inclined to stay in my more capable form. But as dawn had approached, I’d tried to resume human shape. I’d met immediate resistance. And that was when the pain had started.

Frigg was all but crushing me with her power. If I’d been human, I might have been able to remain pliant. I could have watched and waited until the time was right for me to strike. But I wasn’t human. The berserker’s spirit that had wound itself so inexorably into the bear’s mind until they became one couldn’t remain still and do nothing under such an onslaught. We were being attacked, held down with our face literally and figuratively smeared into the mud. Pitting itself against Frigg was ultimately useless, but it still tried.

It felt like crawling naked over glass. My bear tore at me from within, and Frigg’s power pushed me down onto the spikes. She paced a few feet away, looking as lovely as she had the last time I’d seen her. If it weren’t for the slight sheen of sweat on her forehead and the tremor in her fingers, I would have thought she was entirely unruffled by the whole affair.

“How can you have lost them?” she snapped. “He’s one bear, carrying a human girl. It shouldn’t be so difficult.”

“Something was masking their scent.” Cave wolf, whose name I’d learned was Calder, scowled at the mud at Frigg’s feet.

“Something like what?” she snapped. “You’re wolves, for Odin’s sake. What could possibly throw you off the scent?”

“After the apparition appeared we could smell naught but magic, my queen. It was as you warned. The Vanir know of our plans.”

Frigg froze mid-stride, turning slowly to face Calder. To his credit, the wolf didn’t immediately grovel at the look she gave him. It promised murder. I struggled even harder, hoping the lapse would break her concentration and allow me to shift back, or hell, just move away.

Frigg fixed me with an icy stare and her hand clenched ever so slowly into a fist by her side. A strangled sound escaped my throat. Phantom hands squeezed my intestines shut. Nausea boiled in my gut and my body heaved, trying to expel whatever had caused me such agony. I only managed to turn my head in time to keep the vomit from covering my front.

The pain lessened a few minutes later, when her wrath seemed to have been sated. The nausea and muscle cramps remained however.

My thoughts spun out wildly. This wasn’t right. The tales I’d been raised on had always painted Loki or Thor as the vicious ones.

Mother Frigg was supposed to embody love, kindness and self-sacrifice. She was what most Nordic shapeshifter females aspired to. She was what the Proverb 31 woman was to Christians, or Gaea was to Neo-pagans.

Had the legends always been false? Were the Gods as prone to selfishness and short-sightedness as the rest of us? Or had the loss of her beloved son, Balder, turned her into this hardened shell of a woman?

I panted, but didn’t attempt to move further. She was back to pacing like a caged panther, and I didn’t want to draw her ire.

“Send out more wolves,” she snapped at Calder.

“That isn’t wise,” Calder murmured. “I’ve sent out thirty-five already. The humans may be slow, but if we go out in numbers they will take notice.”

Frigg had her back turned to me, so I couldn’t see her face. It must have been a sight to behold though, because Calder the Cro-Magnon werewolf went skittering back a few steps, an unconscious whine slipping from between his teeth.

“Find Luke Elmsong and bring him to me,” she hissed. “Before dark. I can barely restrain this one. I cannot force his cooperation if he takes bear form.”

She couldn’t? That was news to me. Her hold felt pretty damn inescapable. A plan slowly congealed in my brain. Maybe, if I could keep her occupied until sundown, Luke could assume his bear form. It was sad really, that allowing the insane killing machine to rampage all over the campsite would actually be the lesser of the two evils.

After a few moments of thought, I had an idea. Gods and Goddesses had to communicate with followers somehow. Most major religions posited that prayer was the way to open a dialogue with a higher power. So, I tried it.

“Dear Mother Frigg, you are the bitchiest Goddess I think I’ve prayed to all week.”

For a few seconds, nothing happened. She was still in conversation with Calder, still pacing a path from the constructed tent poles to me and back again. She paused halfway through a threat and tilted her head, as if listening to a distant sound.

She turned half toward me, so I could see her profile. Despite the insult, she looked pleased. “Smart bear, figuring that out so quickly. But if you want to talk to me, you don’t have to preface every sentence with a prayer. I can hear you, if I listen.”

Good to know. It would probably make the conversation less profane, in any case. There was only so much obsequious groveling I could take before I got snarky.

“You won’t get away with this, you know.” It didn’t sound as cavalier as I’d hoped.

She turned fully to face me then, and I was relieved to see that I hadn’t imagined it. She really did seem amused rather than put out. She’d dialed back the Stepford smile, at least. Calder was watching the one sided conversation with a bemused frown on his face.

“Has the pain addled your brain that badly? Or are we really speaking in clichés now? I suppose this is where I say, but I already have?”

“If you want to ride the witty banter train, I’m game. But I warn you, I’ve never been beaten.”

Frigg flashed me a smile. An honest-to-Gods smile. She really was enjoying this. I tried to ignore the positive swell of emotion that came with the expression. It was difficult, like trying to scowl on a perfect summer’s day.

“Oh, but you are funny. It’s a shame I have to kill you.”

“What?” Calder’s head jerked around and he stared at her in alarm. “The All-Father said there would be only one kill. Elmsong has to die, but the girl would become pack.”

“Well, that’s changed, hasn’t it?” Frigg said, bitterness creeping into her voice. “She’s a bear, thanks to that twice damned fool, Freyr, isn’t she?”

Calder shuffled from foot to foot. “But he is right, my lady, if he said what I believe he did. He is no ordinary bear. He is a lawman. He will be missed.”

“He will die,” Frigg said with a shrug. “They will appear to have been killed by the quarry they sought. Very tragic.”

“You really think they’ll buy that?” I mentally scoffed. “A medical examiner will be able to tell it was done by wolves.”

Her answering smile was so saccharine, I’d probably developed diabetes from being in the vicinity of it. “By the time your bodies are found, it will be impossible to tell.”

Unfortunately, that was probably true. Even in high traffic areas, it could take days or even weeks for bodies to be found. In an area as remote as this mountaintop, it could be months, possibly years before we were found.

She clucked her tongue. “No snappy retort? I thought you didn’t lose, Mr. Kassower?”

“Why?” I thought desperately. “Lucy has nothing to do with this.”

“No?” She raised a brow at me. “Did you know she’s been enlisted by the Vanir? I didn’t. But now that I do, I can’t simply let a Vanir challenger go. No matter how insignificant a pawn, I can’t allow her to disrupt our plans at this point.”

“Pawn?”

A lance of panic shot through me as a familiar voice carried to us. I struggled against Frigg’s power, which had suddenly doubled in intensity.

Lucy crested the hill. Despite the pain and the panic, I couldn’t help but stare. Her hair shimmered in the mid-afternoon sun like spun gold. Her eyes were like shards of ice in her perfect face. She was covered in mud, dried blood, and the deep circles beneath her eyes said she’d had about as much sleep as I had. She was so beautiful, I might have wept at the sight of her if I’d been human. My love, my mate. She was here. And insanely, her presence did make the press of Frigg’s power less painful.

Frigg’s hand clenched into a fist at her side. “Yes. You’re a pawn. Did you truly believe you were special somehow? Freyr is nearly as slippery as Loki. You’re foolish if you think you’re anything more than a means to an end.”

“I’m the means to end you.” And she let the object tucked beneath her arm fall. A black and white soccer ball tumbled end over end toward the ground. Just before it could touch the earth, Lucy pulled back one shapely leg and kicked the ball directly at Frigg’s head.

The Goddess sidestepped the attack, looking unfazed…until the ball grazed her champagne-colored hair and singed half off it off.

Frigg raised one shaking hand to feel the extent of the damage. “You’re going to pay for that, you little bitch,” she seethed.

The pressure on me abruptly disappeared as the Goddess gave Lucy her full attention. I wasn’t sure if Frigg had forgotten me in her fury, or if she assumed that I was in too much pain to move.

The latter was nearly true. Nausea still rose to choke me. I felt like I’d suffered a bad bout of the flu. All of my muscles ached, and it was an effort to roll onto my stomach. I had to resume human shape. If I did, the pain would lessen and I could help Lucy.

“I hope that little trick amused you,” Frigg said, advancing on Lucy. “Because your little toy is gone, and there’s nothing stopping me from snapping you like a twig.”

“Wrong.” The male voice that issued from the opposite side of the clearing was unfamiliar. Frigg spun to face the speaker. He was tall and broad, and even with his shaggy hair and beard, I recognized him from the pictures Lucy had shown me. Frigg only just spotted the soccer ball as it sailed toward her once more.

This time, the powerful kick landed a blow directly in Frigg’s middle. She doubled over, frantically batting the ball away from her stomach. It bounced away from her, back toward Lucy. There was a perfectly circular burn on the front of her dress.

Her flesh bubbled like grease in a pan and I got a sickening glimpse of her innards before her powers healed the worst of the damage.

Lucy caught the ball easily with the side of her foot. I waited for another sizzle, or maybe the smell of charred meat as the ball melted her flesh. Nothing happened. Lucy positioned herself for another shot and pelted toward Frigg.

The goddess stumbled back. Lucy hit her again, catching a glancing blow on her side. Time after time, Lucy ducked and dodged the goddess’s blasts of retaliation. Lances of power that tore furrows in the surrounding earth either seemed to glance off of her or miss her entirely. Meanwhile, she lined up shot after shot, burning holes in the goddess.

I thought I finally understood her goal. It wasn’t necessarily to kill Frigg. She’d made herself and her brother targets to draw Frigg’s fire. They were slowing her down. With every injury, she grew weaker. When she finally fell to the ground with a smoking hole in one calf, the siren call that had been her influence was faint enough I could shake it off easily.

Lucy bounced the ball from one foot to the other, watching Frigg warily. The goddess sprawled on the ground, clutching her injured leg. Her face was twisted up in pain, and she looked small and vulnerable, hunched over her leg. She looked like the picture of a beaten woman. But Lucy seemed to know instinctively what it had taken me years and several hard lessons to learn. The prey is at its most dangerous when it is cornered and in pain.

Frigg drew in her power, and it crackled like a golden halo around her head. A ball of golden light coalesced in her hands. Lucy’s eyes narrowed, and she aimed a kick at Frigg’s head.

Calder, who seemed to have been struck dumb by the first blitz attack, threw himself in front of the attack, taking the blow for his mistress. The werewolf stared dully at the hole in his middle. Maybe he’d underestimated the power of Lucy’s weapon. Maybe he really was that willing to die for his mistress. No one would ever know. The ball bored straight through his thick hide, like a hot knife through butter.

He mouthed wordlessly for a few seconds before he fell to the ground before the kneeling goddess.

I struggled to my feet, trying to bully my brain into completing the shift back to human. Slowly, painfully, the fur began to recede. My bones ground as they reshaped each other. It wasn’t painful, though most physiologists said it should be. Not too long after that, I was slumping boneless to the ground at the relief. I still felt sick, and I was exhausted after the ordeal I’d been through, but I was at least human again. Most of the pain had gone with the retreat of my bear.

Lucy stared at the corpse of the wolf, looking stricken. I didn’t see it as much of a loss. He’d bitten and threatened to rape her. But Lucy’s heart was tender. She felt deeply, and it was one of the many things that I loved about her. The fact that she’d hit anything but her intended target with a deadly weapon horrified her.

“Lucy, watch out!” Luke cried.

Lucy and I both turned in time to see Frigg seize the ball from the ground. Her hands burned even as she touched it, but she had a grin of triumph on her face as she raised it above her head. Her eyes burned with hate as they fell upon Luke, standing only a few feet away.

“Die,” she snarled, and prepared the hurl the ball at his face.

I lunged forward and, with all the strength left in my body, caught her in a flying tackle that sent us both flying over the edge of the cliff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirteen

Lucy

“No!” The shout tore its way from my throat before I could think. I was on my feet again, running. My leg hurt from overuse and I didn’t care. Chance disappeared over the edge and as he did, I felt the power that had been inside the ball flicker out. It didn’t matter. I knew that my time had been limited. It was why I’d decided to blitz her, rather than wait for an opportune time to set up a headshot.

It had taken longer than we’d hoped to navigate our way back. First, because Luke had no idea where his bear had dragged us, and secondly, because the wolves had been everywhere in the woods. Alerting even one of them would have brought an entire pack down on us.

So we’d arrived at the clearing with only half an hour to spare. Luke had to physically restrain me, or I would have thrown caution to the wind and marched right up to the goddess and her lackey and botched the whole plan.

I had seen my fair share of animals in pain over the years, given where I’d grown up. Pigs and cows not immediately killed by a bolt. Messy kills made on hunting trips with my extended family. The tortured sounds that Chance had made were worse. His pain, suffered on my behalf, cut me to the heart. I’d wanted to kill her, right then and there.

But not this way. Chance disappeared over the edge of the cliff and my skin physically rippled as my bear responded to my distress. After all we’d suffered, it couldn’t end like this. He was our mate. No one was taking him away from us.

“Let me go!” I protested, struggling against Luke’s grip. While he’d been no weakling before, his body had seemed to double in size since he’d acquired the spirit of the bear. So despite the strength that thrummed through my body, he managed to keep me still.

“Promise me,” he snapped. “Promise me that no matter what you see, you’re not jumping after him.”

That thought hadn’t even occurred to me. Once it had, it held an odd sort of appeal. I understood what he’d meant now, about not seeing other women. I thought that he’d exaggerated, trying to soothe my doubts. But it was true. I hadn’t really considered other men that way. Not since I’d seen him.

What would it have been like for me, if he’d left Fairchild? I could picture all too clearly my sad little life in the backwater town. What if he’d died on the way, and I’d never gotten the chance to know him?

The emptiness of that life stretched before me in horrifying clarity. I knew for certain that if Chance died, I would never find a love as vital or sharp as what I felt for that man, that bear.

“I promise.”

He let me go reluctantly and I ran forward. I fell to my knees at the cliff’s edge and peered over the side. I let out a half sob of relief when I saw his face, a few feet away from mine. He’d clung to a protruding rock shelf for dear life. His knuckles where white and his arms were shaking with the strain of holding his body weight. Frigg was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re okay!”

“If I can get back up, the worst thing damaged is my pride,” he panted. “A little help?”

Together, Luke and I managed to haul him up to the cliff’s edge. He lay on the ground, limp and boneless for several long minutes.

Luke peered over the side as well. “I can’t see her. It’s like she just disappeared.”

“They tend to do that,” I muttered, thinking back to the sudden appearance and abrupt disappearance of Freyr’s messenger. I patted Chance down, looking for injuries. Aside from a few fading bite barks, he looked fine.

“Thank God,” I breathed.

“I wouldn’t thank anyone just yet.” Chance sat up, grimacing at the pair of us. “I’ve located the fugitive. So I’m supposed to call in, so the others can stop the search.”

“But that’s not fair!” I protested. “He just saved your life. Don’t you owe him a debt or something?”

“I do. That’s why I’m not attacking.”

“That, and you’re too exhausted to fight me,” Luke muttered. Chance glowered up at him.

“I can’t let him go, Lucy. He’s got two nights in the lunar cycle left. He’s dangerous if he’s left alone in that state. And more than that, if he’s caught out in the full moon, he will be killed, not merely held captive.”

I bristled at that. Yes, Chance was the love of my life. I couldn’t imagine the future without him. But Luke was my brother. If this ended badly for him, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forgive Chance.

Luke laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. “It’s alright, Luce. This is the way it’s got to be.”

“Bullshit!” I cried. “There has to be another way.”

Chance climbed to his feet, drawing himself up to his full and considerable height. He glanced up at the sky and grimaced. “We’ll only have a few hours to get things set up. The wolves ate most of our food, and absolutely trashed our tent. I might be able to salvage the poles, but it looks like you and I will be sleeping on the ground tonight.”

He managed to find his phone amongst the wreckage and walked away from us, looking for a place with signal. Luke and I began to sort through what was left of the campsite.

“So, that’s your guy?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“My man,” I corrected. He smiled faintly.

“He’s a bit of an asshole, but I suppose you could do worse.”

I began to sort through the tent poles, sorting the ones carved with runes from the rest of the pile. I knew them when I touched them now, because the latent power in them tingled against my palms.

“At his point, I don’t see how I could have done any better.”

***

I’m sure that in any other circumstance the night would have been miserable. The earth was hard packed and cold. I didn’t even have the long flannel shirts that Chance had allowed me to borrow. They weren’t more than scrap now. We’d been able to salvage most of the tent poles that had been charmed, and they’d done their job in keeping Luke caged.

His snarls continued unabated, and I burrowed deeper into Chance’s fur. He curled his big body around mine. His fur helped to keep the night chill away. And now, with my bear spirit, I could hear and understand him better than I had before.

“Will I be like that?” I asked, flinching away from another vicious roar of sound.

“At first. I will teach you. And if he survives the trial tomorrow, I will teach him as well.”

I stroked his soft fur to calm myself. I needed to sleep. I wasn’t going to miss the trail because I’d overslept. The bear spirit kept me alert enough, I didn’t need to add anxiety on top of that. “How likely is that?”

He didn’t answer for a long time, and I was afraid he’d dozed off.

“I’d give it even odds,” he decided. “It was manslaughter. But the death was very public, and has brought even greater scrutiny upon our communities. The judges of the Thing may be less sympathetic as a result.”

I still didn’t get the Norse justice system. I hadn’t really been a straight A student in history or government, so I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but it seemed like the idea of a separate legal system that operated outside of the jurisdiction of the state wasn’t kosher. Especially since they had the power to dispense capital punishment without supervision.

I gazed up at the moon. Next month, I was going to transform into a beast capable of enormous violence. How would this have played out, if I’d been the one to receive the botched medical procedure? Would the Thing be as eager to put me down, if I’d killed a bunch of small town yokels, instead of a high-profile college athlete? Somehow, I doubted it.

Chance’s companions would arrive in the morning, and we’d have members of the Thing casting their vote and passing sentence via Skype. Damned information age. If they’d had to get off their lazy asses and travel to us, maybe we’d actually have time to think of a defense.

“Sleep, Lucy,” Chance said softly. “I’ll brief you on procedure in the morning. We’ll think of something.”

I let my eyes flutter closed, but an imprint of the moon continued to burn brightly on the inside of my eyelids. I was still limited, still human for now and as unable to affect the outcome of tomorrow’s trial.

Freyr had said I could stop Chance from killing Luke. But that hadn’t been the way it had played out. In the end, I’d stopped Luke and Frigg. So what had that meant? Had Freyr been woefully wrong?

Or was my fight still to come?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Fourteen

Chance

Darren was passing out doughnuts and coffee to the assembled lawmen. None of us looked good. After three weeks of travel and roughing in the mountains, we all looked worse for wear. I’d sustained the most scars, though not many of the other lawmen seemed to believe me when I’d told them that I’d been attacked by Ulfhednar.

Of all the bears assembled, Luke Elmsong was definitely the worse for wear. He looked like he’d just gotten over a severe bout of flu. The circles underneath his eyes were huge, and he looked exhausted. Lucy, standing beside him, looked almost as pale and wan.

She’d slept fitfully all night, waking often, my name always on her lips. That, at least, was comforting. She needed me as much as I needed her. And somehow, I didn’t think it was just the bear that had driven that home.

Lucy slipped her coffee cup to him discreetly, while Darren was busy setting up the generator that would allow the computers to work at all. The signal would probably be awful, and the picture delayed, but it was the best we could do. The Thing had promised speedy justice to the public, and that’s what they were going to deliver.

A half hour later, and all members of the Thing had been assembled. The lawmen stood by, mostly as a security precaution, in case Luke Elmsong attempted to run.

“The Thing for the Tri-State area of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio is called to order.” Joseph, a portly were-bear in his late seventies, was presiding. Times had certainly changed. Originally seats on the Thing were reserved for the Alpha male, and those who delegated. But of course, this man looked a lot safer than someone like Darren or I, so he was the face we showed to the public.

“We come here to decide the fate of one Luke Elmsong.” All eyes fell on Luke, who set the coffee cup on the ground. His face was unreadable. I wasn’t sure if he was too brave or too stupid to fear the outcome of the trail.

“You stand accused of murder. How do you plead?”

“Manslaughter,” Lucy protested. “Involuntary manslaughter at that. He had no idea what was happening. He’s not responsible-”

“Silence!” Joseph thundered. The picture didn’t match his words, and it took a few seconds before he looked as properly outraged. “You are not the accused, Ms. Elmsong. You will refrain from comment until the verdict has been reached.”

Lucy’s mouth snapped shut, and I could hear her teeth grinding from across the clearing where I stood with the other lawmen. She wasn’t doing him any favors by interrupting.

“Mr. Elmsong, did you kill Keith Page, yes or no?”

“Yes,” Luke said, swallowing thickly. “I killed him. I didn’t know what I was doing, but that’s no excuse. He’s still dead.”

The members of the Thing muttered amongst themselves.

After another long pause, Joseph addressed us again. “Are you dangerous, Mr. Elmsong?” Joseph asked a trifle too innocently. I resisted the urge to grind my own teeth. Joseph was a bureaucrat first, and a were-bear second. He was leading the trial with the assumption of guilt. He needed a justified killing to appease the press.

“On the nights of the full moon, I suppose,” Luke said, glancing around. “But whatever Mr. Kassower set up last night kept me caged. I haven’t killed a human being since.”

“We have been told you attacked your own sister,” Joseph continued as if Luke hadn’t spoken. “Your kin. Your fraternal twin, we’re told. Do you really believe you deserve to live? Be honest, Mr. Elmsong. Do you think someone who would have killed their own blood is safe, cage or no?”

Luke’s shoulders slumped, and Lucy’s hand tightened around his shoulder until her knuckles turned white. She was biting her lip, presumably to keep herself from hurling insults at the screen. No matter how this turned out, Lucy was going to have a hate on for Joseph Fenn.

“No,” he muttered.

More murmurs from the assembled Thing. The lawmen around me shifted restlessly. Even Darren, who’d been willing to kill Luke the moment he’d arrived, looked disquieted. None of us wanted to believe our justice system had been corrupted by human politicking.

Joseph clapped his hands together. It was a jarringly merry sound, given the circumstances. “Very well, then. I believe we have our answer, given from his own lips. Shall it be done with a blade, or a gun?”

“Wait just a minute!” Lucy protested, striding forward. If Joseph Fenn had been physically present, I was sure she would have marched right up to him and jabbed a bony finger into his chest the way she’d done to me more than once on the journey. Her face was flushed with anger, and her blue eyes flashed dangerously. “What kind of sham trial is this, huh?”

She put her face right up next to the screen and pointed the finger at it instead.

“I was told a lawbreaker was entitled to a fair trial.”

“He has been given one. By his own confession, he is guilty of taking human life.”

“You aren’t taking the circumstances into account!” she cried. “It’s not like he meant to do it. It was an accident.”

“Steel or gun, Mr. Oberlander?” Joseph asked coolly.

“No,” Lucy said firmly, taking a step back from the screens. She put her hands on her hips and did her best to stare down each member of the Thing. “No, I’m not letting you do this. The law says he’s entitled to a fair trial. To that end, I challenge his accuser to a trial by combat.”

Everyone in the clearing stared at her. I couldn’t blame her. She was easily dwarfed by all the men in attendance, including her brother. She was curvy and soft, not a hardened warrior like the rest of us. Even with her bear, how did she expect to win?

“You can’t,” Joseph finally sputtered. “You’re not entitled to that right. You’re not one of us.”

Lucy flashed him a fierce smile. “Oh yes, I am. Since you’ve decided not to be here in person, you can’t smell it, but I’m one hundred percent were-bear.”

“Is it true?” he demanded of Darren, who was still shifting awkwardly at my side. Darren stood a little straighter and strode over to Lucy. I bristled as he bent close to her, skimming his nose across her throat. It was for show, and I knew that. I still didn’t like having him that close to my female.

“She’s a bear,” he confirmed. “Though I have no idea where she came into contact with that breed.”

I’d noticed that too, when she’d been nestled in my fur the night before. Added to her natural scent was a hint of brine and the cool crispness of the north wind. If I hadn’t seen it happen myself, I would have never have believed that she’d come into contact with a polar bear. There weren’t enough of them left.

“Satisfied?” Lucy glared at the screens again.

A slow smirk crossed Joseph Fenn’s face, and I had a sinking feeling that Lucy had just jumped in way over her head.

“Yes, Ms. Elmsong. You’ve made your point. You may act as proxy for your brother’s trial, if you wish.”

“I do,” she said, ignoring Luke’s protest. I didn’t blame her. Lucy wasn’t likely to win against any of us, but Luke would be slaughtered in his current state.

“Would the arresting lawman please step forward? You have been issued a challenge.”

It took my brain a few sluggish minutes to realize that he meant me. I had made the arrest. I was the bear she’d be facing. Oh shit. I couldn’t do it. Not to her.

I forced my legs to carry me forward until I stood only a few feet away from her. She didn’t look taken aback or even frightened. She trusted me not to hurt her. Or maybe she didn’t care if I did. Either way, she was being foolish. This would end badly.

“She can’t shift yet,” I said, desperately trying to forestall the inevitable confrontation. “She’s new. If she forces it, we don’t have enough manpower to contain her.”

“Then you will fight as humans,” Joseph said with a shrug. “You know the rules. The fight goes on until one of you yields. No throwing the fight.”

He steepled his fingers and leaned over to get a better view. “Begin.”

I was still reeling, unsure of how exactly I’d been put in this horrid position when Lucy ran at me. Her form was terrible, and she was telegraphing so blatantly I could have put a kibosh on her plan right then and there if I’d been thinking straight.

Fortunately for her, I wasn’t. And while I was still horrified by the idea of taking a swing at her, she had no such qualms with attacking me. She hit me hard, ramming her shoulders into my stomach. I hadn’t even had the chance to shift into a ready stance, and the combined force of her charge and the newfound strength in her limbs sent us toppling to the ground.

Despite everything, I was more than a little proud that she’d managed to get me on the ground. She scrambled onto my chest, pinning me. Her legs twined around mine, limiting the movement of my hips. I couldn’t roll to dislodge her. Smart. She’d apparently taken at least one self-defense course.

My common sense finally kicked in. I had to fight, no matter how abhorrent it seemed to me. The Thing would dismiss the trial by combat if I yielded without a fight. Not only that, I hadn’t yet proved myself to her bear. It would cause problems later if her spirit found me lacking.

She had leverage, but even with her new strength, she couldn’t beat my reach. She couldn’t pin my wrists in the way she truly needed to and also keep my lower half on the ground. I strained against her hold, pushing my hands several inches from the ground. She gritted her teeth in frustration, but rather than expend more strength than she ought to, she surprised me again.

She bashed her head against mine. My head thunked against the hard-packed ground and I let out a pained grunt. She let out a similar sound and her grip slackened. I wrestled my hands free and was finally able to turn my torso. I rolled her quickly to the ground beneath me.

It shouldn’t have been sexy. We were both in pain. She was struggling vigorously and clearly trying her hardest to push me off. But she was so warm, so near. She was mine. And I no longer had to be careful of my teeth or blood around her. I could lay my teeth into her throat and erase the mark that mangy wolf had left on her.

She got her knees under my chest and kicked me off of her. I was once again knocked breathless and landed in the dirt. My head thumped painfully against a rock. Again. I groaned. She ran at me again, ready to try the whole damned song and dance again.

I swept her legs out from beneath her. She went down with a startled sound, and this time I was able to pin her legs successfully.

“Yield.”

She shook her head. “No! I can’t! I have to-”

“Yield,” I growled. “I can’t kill you Lucy. So please, just yield.”

Her body sagged beneath mine, boneless. A choked sound escaped her. She knew I was right. It would kill me to hurt her more than I already had. I smelled salt and knew she was crying.

“Trust me,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her ear so only she would hear. She whimpered. I waited, heart thundering in my chest.

“I yield.”

I climbed off her the instant the words were out of her mouth. I tasted blood in my mouth and realized I must have bitten my tongue when she’d pulled the stupid head-butt. I spat it on the ground. First blood had been Lucy’s, but victory had been mine. I turned to face the screens.

“His life is mine.”

“Choose steel or a gun, Mr. Kassower,” Joseph instructed calmly.

“I choose neither,” I said, and pointed at Luke. He’d rushed to his sister’s aid the moment I’d released her. Lucy was rubbing her forehead with a grimace. “This man, this bear, saved my life. I owe him a debt of honor. I vote that he be outcast.”

A murmur of ascent ran through the assembled lawmen. When human, Luke had been very cooperative. He’d killed no other humans and he had even helped to save my life. No one save Joseph Fenn seemed to have a cause to want him dead. If he could be contained and controlled, why shouldn’t he live? And as an outcast to bear society, he could be hunted if anyone so wished.

“We will put it to a vote,” Joseph said sourly.

He conferred with his fellow members of the Thing, and the vote went in favor of my plan. I glanced back at Luke and Lucy. She had a lump on her forehead and it turned my stomach to see the bruises on her fair skin. Bruises I knew I’d caused.

Never again, I promised myself. Never again would I let harm befall her, by my hand or anyone else’s.

“He is outcast,” Joseph pronounced finally. “No bear outside of his family may have dealings with him. We do not acknowledge or protect him as one of our own. He will live or die by his own power.”

I helped Luke get Lucy into an upright position and together we limped away from the campsite.

“What does that mean?” Lucy grumbled. “They weren’t acknowledging him before now.”

I sighed. “It was the best I could do. What it means is that if someone decides to hunt Luke down, I’m powerless to stop them while operating as an enforcer. He’s outcast now.”

“It’s fine,” he muttered, when Lucy looked about to argue. “They said I could still see family. I’ll have you, at least.”

She stood on tiptoe so she could get her arms around his shoulder. She held the other out to me, inviting me into the embrace. I stepped into her arms. It was odd being pressed so close to another man, and Luke and I exchanged an awkward hug before letting go of one another.

“Yes. Of course you’ll have me. You’ll have us both.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I thought he wasn’t supposed to associate with me. Family only.”

“He will be,” she said confidently. She glanced up at me nervously. “Right?”

“Of course,” I said, squeezing her lightly. “You’re mine, remember?”

“And I’m yours.”

“Promise?”

“If you can stay human long enough, I’ll prove it tonight.”

Luke gagged. “I think that’s my cue to leave. I think I’m going to go find a nice cave to throw up in.”

“I’m not sure sex is advisable with a head injury.”

“Excuses, excuses,” she said breezily. “I think maybe you just don’t want to sleep with me.”

I pulled her to the ground, careful not to jostle her too badly. She giggled as I levered myself over her. “Now that is where you’re wrong,” I said, and I nipped her throat lightly.

“Prove it,” she taunted, her blue eyes sparkling merrily.

It didn’t matter to me that the lawmen were probably nearby, and that Luke was not further on than that. I had my mate. She was warm, and willing, and mine

And so I shredded what was left of her jeans and did exactly that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Epilogue

Lucy

“Ooh,” I moaned. “Right there. Keep doing that.”

Chance chuckled and continue to rub at my instep. “I should give you foot rubs more often if that’s the sound you’re going to make.”

I was leaning back in the recliner in our new home. I’d insisted we be closer to Luke. Chance was still getting used to his job as an enforcer in the new territory that composed West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland.

While the move had been good for me, I hadn’t realized how much I’d been leaving behind until I’d gotten the influx of calls from home. Millie had been equal parts relieved and irate when I’d finally returned her calls. Uncle Mack and Aunt Caroline had apologized and had even invited me back home. Chance and I planned to put in an appearance at Thanksgiving, as long as nothing disastrous happened.

And there was a better than average chance of that, according to Freyr. The God popped into our lives periodically, usually when we least expected it. The most recent encounter he’d looked older and more haggard. Chance said that until Idun’s apples were returned to the Gods, both sides were going to age and could possibly die.

It had made me wonder about Frigg. Had my attack killed her for good, or was she out there biding her time, waiting to get revenge on my happy little family?

Well, Chance and I were happy. Luke was still trapped in the Blue Ridge Mountains, afraid to venture back into society lest he lose control. While Chance was working with us both on it, he was having a harder time controlling it than I was. Or perhaps the ease of the transformation was due to a different factor, one that Luke couldn’t replicate.

“You owe me,” I groaned as his long nimble fingers worked magic on my sore feet. “You could have warned me that you’re especially virile.”

He smiled and his free hand came up to press against my huge pregnant belly. The babies inside always seemed to know when he was touching me, because they always kicked at his hands.

“Do you regret it?”

“No,” I sighed, and I glanced out the open French windows. The sky was overcast. It would rain tonight. “I’m worried. Freyr said Thor was on the move. He said the battles would be harder from here on out. I don’t want to drag the twins into it.”

Chance followed my gaze, regarding the storm front gravely. “We agreed we’d do our part. We’ll face it when it comes.”

“Together,” I agreed.

Thunder rolled ominously in the distance.