Running Ember: Wolf Shifters of Norse Lore

Chapter Nine

The story about thered wolf in America hadn’t been an all-nighter or one of Elakdon’s long stories, but it had fired Hati up. A Bitch was the legendary Vargr of the new world? And she was a descendant of High Alpha Bjárr’s V?lsung pups?

It stood clearer to him just how important the V?lsung were in the grand scheme of things, and he wondered when the Vargr had forgotten such an important detail. Historically, it looked like Vargr had turned their backs on the guardians of their Kingdom and just lived life like...Karls would when not at war. By then, Earls would rise and earn respect like the Alphas of all did through their embers’ burn. The four were like Rigr, then.

They’d rise to take upon themselves the heaviest responsibility and rise to Earls.

The Earl, The Karl, and the Thrall. They kept coming up, yet something was off with the equation when translating them to Alpha, Beta, and Omega. What really set it aside was that Marisol kept telling them to burn the Thralls.

What did that mean? Who were the Thralls? What set them apart?

However much Hati wanted to contemplate the possible rise of a blood-red Alpha Bitch in the States, he had more pressing matters to deal with. Like figuring out what the Draugr had done to four Rigr and...and to Steffen. It had also done something to Tristan, but nothing bad. Steffen’s ember, though, was confused.

And what did all that have to do with Navidon?

Hati still stayed away from him, yet he was happy to at least know that the sour-feeding Incubus had no interest in Rasmus. He’d asked about that after the story, just to know whether his limited resources needed to be used on worrying about his mate’s lover.

Worry for the State packs kept nagging, though. Could that have been what Sk?ll rose to secure over there? Was that why a Vargr from the States rose to be one of the four Alphas of all?

The question of how difficult it would have been to get to his mate with a big pond between them provoked Hati’s ember, and he didn’t want to call Sk?ll to him now, considering he was doing Warlord stuff, so he tried to focus on anything but and went for a walk to find someone to distract him.

They hadn’t run that day because of the Draugr problem, and the idle day messed with Hati’s head. Maybe he should go meditate on his vision for Vargr packs’ future. Yeah, that would be best—especially since they’d decided not to run that day to keep an eye on Steffen and the humans—so he headed toward the edge of the gathered group of Vargr, V?lsung, and Sleipnir, which had grown by an additional almost one thousand members. He wanted to have a clear vision and hoped it would speak to the blood-red Bitch if or when she rose, and he went there to aid her and the Vargr packs in the US.

As he neared the edge, he saw Rasmus sitting with a sketch pad and drawing. Suddenly, the Beta got up and ran to an Alpha, who he punched in the face. The Alpha staggered back, but he recovered quickly and punched Rasmus, who took a tumble. Hati’s ember flared alive and called for Sk?ll, but the Alpha apparently noticed quickly that something was missing.

“Holy shit, stop, Beta, stop! Let’s talk.” The Alpha held up his hands as Rasmus got to his feet and wiped at his bloody nose, scowling at the Alpha. More Alphas gathered around, also trying to calm Rasmus enough to talk, considering the angry Beta didn’t look done.

Klaes and Torben arrived moments later with Freki, whom Rasmus shared a strong pup bond with.

“You went at an Alpha?” Freki asked, looking at Rasmus with surprise.

“He said Steffen’s an asshole,” Rasmus growled.

“Wow! You’re a Beta to be proud of,” the Alpha who’d earned himself Rasmus’ anger said.

“What’s this about my Pack Alpha being an asshole?” Torben asked, stepping up to Rasmus’ side.

“Yeah, I’m Steffen’s first Alpha, so I’d really like to know, too.” Klaes stepped up behind his sons and draped his arms over Rasmus and Torben’s shoulders. “Especially if this son of mine starts swinging.”

“He’s been snapping at everybody and saying pretty arrogant shit,” the Alpha said. “I asked if he’d bring an extra seating blanket. He didn’t respond but looked at me, then came back with one and sat down, telling me I have legs, too.”

“He what?” Klaes asked incredulously.

“His ember is off,” Freki said. “Since yesterday. The sick Rigr aren’t the only reason we’ve decided to stay an extra day here. We fear the Draugr curse that hit the humans can hit a Vargr, too, and Steffen was the only Vargr on that rescue mission.”

“Who else?” the Alpha asked.

“Sleipnir weren’t hit,” Freki said. “Geri had a chat with Isbait about it. V?lsung’s most known personality trait makes it difficult to discern whether they can. But, apparently not because even the Feral-born of the High Alpha’s bloodline is not hit.”

“Whatever compromised them made Tristan’s ember burn hotter and purer.” Warlord Sk?ll and Thorleif made it through the circle of gathered Alphas to join Hati. “I felt Steffen’s ember have problems just after we got them out of that valley, and it seems to be getting worse.”

“If Vargr can be swayed by ghosts, but me and the Feral-born with V?lsung eyes cannot, then there’s a good reason for Vargr not to be trusted by Wolf to see behind the shade,” Thorleif said

“Do you think that’s a factor?” Freki asked.

“Yes. It’s corruptibility.”

Sk?ll looked off in thought. “The traitor is someone who got corrupted? And Navidon feels hunger toward what’s...corrupted?”

“I know too little.” Thorleif walked off.

Sk?ll growled. “My Pack Alpha, Steffen, is usually a fair-minded, kind, and helpful guy who’ll go out of his way to lift others up. That’s the reputation my lover defends. Please forgive him for not knowing what’s been going on, considering he’s Beta and thus can’t feel an ember the way we can. Especially when not running with the Alpha bond.”

“And especially the four of us feel all of you stronger,” Freki said. “I grew up under Pack Alpha Steffen, too, and this is not him.”

“Is he getting a pass because you know him?” someone asked.

Freki sneered and turned to face that way. “No! And you know why? Because that’s not what he taught us! He taught us to know facts before we act, and we’re not running today because we’re doing just that!”

The Alpha with a shiner nodded and looked at Rasmus, then held out his hand and conceded. “I know too little of the man I spoke ill of. If he earned that level of loyalty from a Beta in his pack, I’ll reserve judgment. And wish him better.”

Rasmus shook the Alpha’s hand, and the Alpha left. Most others did, too.

Freki went to Rasmus, smiling. He put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Good punch.” Freki walked off.

Rasmus smiled and got a one-armed hug from Torben, too.

“But seriously,” Torben said. “How about we stay closer to Stef now?”

“I know I will,” Klaes growled and walked off with Silas.

Torben followed, but Rasmus stayed behind and went to Sk?ll, who seemed lost in thought.

“What’s going on with him?” Rasmus whispered.

“We’re not sure how it works, which is why we’re taking a day. We’ll reach a Cubi House at our next run, and Elakdon fears the two humans can poison his people. Today, he’s letting Navidon work on getting closer to the woman. And we keep an eye on Steffen. He’s getting a fever, too, but not as much as the humans. He could barely keep up yesterday.”

Rasmus nodded, looking worried. “Was I wrong in hitting the Alpha?”

“Considering he conceded?” Hati shook his head, smiling. “No, you proved an important point. Unity means we support each other when struggling. Because that’s what pack does.”

Sk?ll shifted to Vargr form and stood up on his hind legs to drape an arm over Rasmus’ shoulder. He booped his nose against Rasmus’ cheek, getting a smile in return.

“I’ll just get my drawing stuff. I want to go sit with Stef, too.”

Sk?ll looked at Hati. “With how things line up, I think we need to get closer to Navidon. Something’s up, and he’s a key. Did you notice that Marisol stays close to him?”

“Yeah, she even fucked him,” Hati said.

Sk?ll apparently hadn’t seen that because he looked surprised. He nodded. “I need to talk to Ela.”

Rasmus joined them with his papers and a small roll of drawing equipment, and they went to find the old King. Tristan was usually not far from his fathers, and as they neared Elakdon and Randr, Hati spotted Tristan, Steffen, Klaes, Silas, and Torben about thirty feet away.

Sk?ll went to Elakdon and leaned in to whisper. “When we run Fyn, we’ve planned to rest at your home, correct?”

“Yes?”

“Let Sir Navidon see Eric. Find out if he hungers for him, too.”

Elakdon turned to look at Sk?ll, puzzled. “Share your theory, my friend.”

“Marisol said Draugr have ugly souls. Like a corrupted ember?”

“If you think that, then say it to my fucking face!”

They looked over to where Steffen turned and stood, much to Tristan’s surprise it seemed, but he got up, too, looking around as if he hadn’t paid attention at all to what his mate suddenly responded so angrily toward. Steffen’s ember was certainly angry, yet Hati felt Tristan’s flutter in confusion.

But it was a challenge, and the V?lsung in Sk?ll pushed forward and took over.

His Pack Alpha’s ember, so close to Hati’s, sparked all over the place again, crying out for help, but it also felt like it wanted to stand fast on a moral ground that definitely didn’t mesh with Hati’s.

What had influenced Steffen? It frightened Hati and made his ember cry out for his Warlord mate to aid in securing their pack against the selfishness Hati felt boil in his Pack Alpha.

“Well, I fucking will.” Freki stepped out from the sideline somewhere halfway between where Sk?ll had turned to face off against Steffen.

Tristan looked conflicted, and his ember struggled. To be fair. He bowed out of a confrontation with Freki, yet his ember cried out for support. The support of first bond and Alphas of all to help his mate.

“Let it burn,” Marisol mumbled. “Burn, burn, burn the Thrall.”

Thorleif stalked closer to stand with Sk?ll. “Our objective here, Warlord?”

“Freki tests our ranks.”

“Alpha of all, sure.” Steffen looked at Freki, and something darkened in his eyes. “But still my pup.”

“With your Bite, yes, so I feel that struggle.” Freki pointed to Steffen’s chest. “But I know one thing for sure...” Freki’s human nose wrinkled in a sneer. “You’ve always been better than this!” Steffen’s ember sparked as he sneered back, leaving confusion to be shared through their bond. Then anger, regret, and a slew of other emotions tore through Steffen, and the darkness in his eyes got pushed aside by a pained expression.

Klaes, Thyra, and Alexander came closer, watching from the sideline.

“Whatever the fuck that Draugr did to you, you better get it the fuck under control,” Freki stated. “I will have no qualms about kicking your ass the way you’re acting now.”

More struggle in Steffen, who began to sweat. “I want to be angry with you!”

“Do you really?” Tristan asked.

“Don’t give me that self-righteous bullshit.” Steffen’s expression scrunched up as if he was suddenly in pain, and he screamed in anger and held his head. Anguish tore at Hati through the bond, and he hurt at watching an Alpha, whom he’d respected since the day they’d met, struggle so. “No! I’m sorry...” Steffen heaved for breath.

“Let it burn,” Marisol urged.

“It does burn,” Steffen whispered almost in a whimper, pushing his hand to his ember.

Hati remembered that feeling being described to him by Finn. When his actions hadn’t aligned with what the ember wanted from him, yet he couldn’t understand it because he hadn’t risen. Hati’s ember had never burned that way. Not as bad.

“Embers burn us when we’re off course,” Sk?ll told her. “If he lets it burn—”

“It’s the smoke that teases him. Like a log yet to catch flame and burn pure will fill the air with smoke until no one can see clearly. The wolf must run. Only the wolf. The wolf must be whole because the ember belongs to the wolf.”

“The weak human can be corrupted. Wolf cannot,” Thorleif said. “Shift to feral.”

“I’m sick and tired of your tone, you know!” Steffen pointed at the huge Warlord and sneered. “You’re not better than humans.”

“You’re never this unnuanced.” Freki stomped three steps closer. “Now take fucking responsibility and control over your anger and work with it! You sound like a petulant pup!”

“Says the most petulant of them all!” Steffen responded, then pressed his palm against his chest again, winching.

“Let’s try this.” Freki ran at Steffen before the ember had stopped burning the Pack Alpha and swung a fist. Steffen almost managed to block and stumbled back.

Tristan held his head and went to Thyra and Klaes, while Alexander stayed back, watching in disbelief. Tristan’s ember battled his instinct to aid his mate, but it also cried out in need for his mate to join him and to stay fair, while Freki went at Steffen again. Tristan and Steffen’s embers were so out of sync, yet Tristan’s kept calling for Steffen’s, while it also pulled at Sk?ll to come support first bond heartache. Sk?ll’s, in turn, tugged at Hati to help aid in prosperity, and Hati’s focus was to pull at what was good and strong in Steffen to support that in winning whatever battle was being fought in his heart. Or ember. Hati hated not knowing the adversary that Draugr turned out to be.

Freki took at least as many hits as he gave, and his raised ember, soon clashing with Hati’s, Sk?ll’s, and Geri’s, only provoked Steffen’s to spark even more confused.

When Steffen’s body set in on a shift to Vargr form, Sk?ll intervened and toppled their Pack Alpha, roaring. “Shift to feral! Shift!” He struggled to get Steffen onto his stomach to have the upper hand and sank his teeth into Steffen’s shoulder. Maybe he was hoping some V?lsung spittle could help strengthen the wolf and its ember to combat the Draugr’s curse. Steffen kept fighting and roaring, yet Sk?ll’s bigger form finally managed to pin him down by lying down on Steffen.

“Shift to feral, Steffen!” Freki demanded.

“Shift, Dad!” Alexander shouted, a plea breaking his tone.

Sk?ll released the bite as the body under him morphed. Hati hurried there and smelled Steffen. His fever had gone up.

“Stay in feral form from now on,” Sk?ll said. “Let the ember burn this away like Marisol said. Stay in this form with your mate until your ember burns pure.” Sk?ll stepped back, and Hati discovered that the struggle meant that Sk?ll had scratched a gash in Steffen’s flank.

Tristan came over in his feral form and laid down with Steffen, curling up around him, whimpering. He raised his ember, yet Steffen’s felt so confused and as it tried to sync, sometimes managing, but mainly struggling, burning, and misfiring.

Thyra came over in her V?lsung form and nodded Sk?ll off. Hati put his hand on his mate and urged him to follow. It was best left to the one Steffen loved as a mother to tend to the V?lsung claw wounds.

Elakdon and Randr stood close by, concerned and clutching at each other, staring at Tristan and Steffen, who were quickly joined by Alexander and his mate. Elakdon’s eyes shimmered. “And this was why you postponed the run today?” He looked at Sk?ll. “What did you know?”

“Nothing. I had a hunch.” Sk?ll continued past and to the fire, plopped down on the ground, and shifted to his Vargr form. Geri, Freki, and Rasmus followed Hati there, and they piled around Sk?ll, while Elakdon and Randr found their spots, too.

“Share that hunch, please,” Hati said.

“In reality, we know very little, and what we’ve just learned about V?lsung and Fenrir means we have to look at everything in a new light. Human history doesn’t really help us if they think the oldest civilization is but a few thousand years old, yet Fenrir ruled for ten thousand years until a few thousand years ago?”

“Which is around the time humans really began to keep records,” Geri said.

“There are older records,” Elakdon said. “The Kish tablet is estimated to be from three thousand five hundred BCE. Poems from China are even older.”

“Wait, the Kings list from ancient Sumer.” Sk?ll looked off in thought. “Anti-diluvian names were marked down to rule for up to twenty-eight and a half thousand years.”

Hati snorted.

“Yes.” Elakdon sent Hati a cheeky grin. “I’ve only reigned for a thousand years. I’m a baby compared to some of those. But the fun thing about that list?”

“The span of time they reigned lowered at the same time as people in the Bible suddenly no longer lived for so long,” Sk?ll said.

Elakdon nodded. “Common denominator, yes.”

Hati paid attention. “So, they’re...some of us?”

“Maybe.”

“The deluge is a huge part of our past,” someone said.

They looked up as Bothild joined them and made herself comfortable next to Navidon. The human hiker woman, who Hati had learned was named Jane, sat closer to him, and Navidon put an arm around her.

“Please share, mother of Thorleif,” Elakdon urged.

“We were bred mere thousands of years ago, after the taking of our territory. We were Vargr then, but the V?lsung pack never strayed far from Fenrir. We were the pack of the half prince. A Fenrir prince. He cut himself in half to make an offering for peace.”

Hati got a strange mental image and grimaced.

“Literally?” Sk?ll asked.

“No more than people going to church ritualistically cannibalize some guy after killing him on a cross.”

Elakdon chuckled. “The eucharist, yeah, I see. The outside eyes see something very different than those who understand the meaning behind a ritual.”

“That’s still a strange ritual,” Sk?ll mumbled. “So, the half prince is also...Mani? The first twins where one killed the other to create mankind?”

“Or Vargr or V?lsung,” Bothild said.

“And used his entrails to bind Loki?” Freki asked.

Again, Bothild nodded. “But time goes back further. That’s where the puzzle pieces are.”

Elakdon sighed. “And none of us really know where to find them.”

“Only the whispers of them,” Marisol said.

“Does it whisper to you now?”

Marisol shook her head. “But eagles circle Rigr and a confused wolf.” She pointed into the sky. Hati looked, but he saw nothing. “Two ravens follow an old King.” She looked at Elakdon.

“Huginn and Muninn,” Sk?ll said.

“Thought and Memory,” Elakdon added.

The bond to Steffen sometimes pulled at Hati, and he glanced to where Steffen had been bundled up by Tristan’s huge being. Thyra lay on the other side in her V?lsung form, looking watchful, and Klaes sat nearby, looking grumpy with Torben sulking next to him. Alexander was consoled by his mate, and he sat with red-eyes and stared at his shivering dad.

“Hey?” Sk?ll poked Hati, so he looked at him. “What can I do?”

“Nothing, I think.” Hati looked at Steffen again. Or what little he could see. Hind legs and tail, and a paw twitched once in a while.

Sk?ll sighed. “Can’t do anything for Tris or Klaes, either.”

“I’ll go check on Steffen.” Hati got up and went to them, advancing slowly to make sure he wouldn’t intrude. Thyra smiled at him, so he stood behind her. Then, he could see Steffen. He was panting and shivering.

“The fever has risen,” Thyra said. “What do we do tomorrow?”

“I’ll go figure that out. For now, just be with him.”

Thyra nodded and looked back at the shivering wolf.

Hati returned to the others. “I’m thinking we somehow transport Stef with the other Rigr. Can we?”

“I’ll ask Sleipnir.” Geri got up and left them.

“Why do only some humans get sick from it?” Jane asked.

“We don’t know,” Elakdon said. “How do you feel?”

She shrugged. “Kinda confused.” She looked at Navidon, who smiled and stroked her lower arm.

Elakdon said something in Cubi that made Navidon shrink a bit and lower his head as he glanced to the side.

Hati turned his head to see the last hiker approaching—the one Navidon’s blood hungered for, meaning sour energy. “Freki, did you get to know him?”

Freki turned to see. “Yeah.” He got up and went to intercept the guy, then urged him to follow somewhere else.

“Let the Thrall burn,” Sk?ll mumbled. He looked at Marisol. “Is the Thrall a Draugr’s curse?”

“Uh!” Elakdon stared wide-eyed at Sk?ll.

Hati plopped down, hoping Marisol had an answer.

She sighed and shrugged. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. But I see colors when I try to focus on the Thralls.”

“Which colors?” Elakdon asked.

“All the colors of the Cubi eyes. And then it all turns...black. Maybe I’m not allowed to see?”

“Knowing the questions we need answers to makes it easier, right?” Hati asked.

Sk?ll nodded. “At least if they’re the right questions, yes.”

“Write that down,” Hati mumbled. He hadn’t meant for it to be a command, but Rasmus fished out his stuff and did.

Man, things were not getting easier. Instead of being able to focus on the run, so many little things were teasing them, and new stuff to figure out kept piling up.

And tomorrow, they had a huge meeting with Beaudon at a Cubi House.