13. Bjorn
Bjorn
Bjorn and Dennis were cooperating to produce breakfast for all three of them the next morning when someone knocked loudly on the front door. “I’ve got this,” Dennis told Bjorn, waving him away from the stove, where Bjorn had been cooking eggs. “Go get the door.”
He glanced through the door’s peephole and…yup, not anyone he wanted to see. He sighed again and pulled the door open. “Good morning, Mother.”
“Bjorn!” She pushed past him without another word, dragging another man behind her who looked somewhat wide-eyed and hunted. He was smaller than Bjorn, and slighter as well. Reasonably good-looking, with blond hair and blue eyes, his nose pointed in an elfin manner. But…who was he?
Bjorn’s mother stopped short just past the threshold, nose wiggling. “What is that smell?”
“Uh, eggs?” He knew the woman had smelled eggs before.
She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No, it’s…oh.” A deep sigh. “It’s that human of yours. They smell so odd.”
Bjorn bristled almost automatically. “Dennis doesn’t smell odd! He smells…” Warm. Comforting. Like happiness but with a residual bit of anger just for flavor. “Good.”
Rowena sniffed haughtily. “Doubtful. But anyway. I brought you a mate.”
She…what? Bjorn was genuinely speechless at that, and he stared at the stranger, who stared back at him in apparent alarm.
“Uh, Miz Rowena,” the man began tentatively, “I said I’d meet -”
“Nonsense.” She gave his arm a yank, putting him between her and Bjorn.
He stumbled at the sudden motion and Bjorn had to catch him to keep him from faceplanting into Bjorn’s chest. “You’re a perfect match.
Certainly better than my boy and a human who runs a bar.
” She looked at where Bjorn’s hands were still on the man’s arms and smiled in satisfaction.
“Kevin is twenty-five and helps in the den kitchens. He’d be a perfect mate for a busy den beta. ”
Bjorn gritted his teeth, trying to resist the urge to yell something obscene, as he drew his hands away from the other man, who had regained his footing.
Poor Kevin clearly hadn’t signed up for this any more than Bjorn had, and he looked terrified now, though whether of Bjorn or his mother, Bjorn wasn’t sure.
“Mother,” he said slowly, teeth still clenched, “I already have a mate. A fated one. I’m sure Kevin is very nice, but -”
“Nice?!” she exclaimed. “He’s perfect! Fated mates are a silly myth, anyway. Now. As I said, Kevin is young, but he’s ready for cubs, and since he works in the kitchen -”
“Uh, ma’am?”
“Hm?” She leaned forward to look at Kevin, who was now looking like he regretted every life choice that had led him to this point.
“Ma’am, I…I don’t actually want kids?” It came out sounding more like a question than a statement. “And a kitchen is actually a really dangerous place for children. So many hot things and sharp things, you know?”
Rowena seized his shoulder and spun him around to face her. “Your father told me you wanted cubs, and soon!”
Kevin sighed heavily, as if this was a topic he’d debated umpteen times before.
“My father wants grandcubs. That’s not the same thing as me wanting cubs.
Believe me, we’ve argued about this. If you’d mentioned that you were looking for someone to raise children with your son when you asked me to meet him, I would have told you that I didn’t want them, but you grabbed me and brought me over here so fast that… ” He shrugged. “Sorry.”
Bjorn couldn’t decide whether to laugh, cry, or rage at his mother. He settled for giving Kevin a sympathetic look. “Sorry about this. My mother is…”
Rowena’s lips tightened.
“…forceful,” Bjorn forced himself to finish diplomatically.
“Mother, as I’ve already told you, I have my mate.
If – and it is an if at this point – I have children, it will be with him.
If he renounces me, I'll be stuck as a bear, anyway, and wouldn't be any kind of mate. Kevin, I’m sure you’re really cool -” Kevin shrugged self-consciously “- but I’m not in the market for another mate. ”
“What the fuck is going on out here?”
All three of them spun to find Dennis standing in the kitchen doorway, a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. He looked decidedly unhappy, and Bjorn wondered how much he’d overhead of their conversation.
Rowena rolled her eyes. “Go back to cooking, human. This is den business.”
“This is not ‘business’ at all!” Bjorn burst out, exasperated.
“My mother brought Kevin, here, to meet me as an alternate mate.” There was no use trying to lie about it; he knew his mother was going to blabber all over everyone if he tried to cover her purpose up.
“I was just telling her I wasn’t interested, and as it turns out, Kevin isn’t either.
Oh, Kevin,” he added, “this is my fated mate, Dennis.”
Kevin waved weakly. “Uh, hi.”
Dennis blinked and looked from Bjorn to Kevin and then to Rowena.
“Ok…” he said slowly. “Well, as Bjorn said, he’s already got a mate, and I didn’t make enough eggs to feed two more, so y’all can get going.
” By the time he got to the end of the sentence, his words and face had both firmed up.
He turned to Bjorn then. “Food’s ready.” He didn’t add So get them out of here, but Bjorn got his meaning loud and clear.
“Time to go, Mother.” He took her arm and started towing her toward the front door, Kevin trailing behind them. “Thanks for visiting; don’t do it again.”
“Well, I never – !”
Bjorn got the door opened and gave his mother a gentle push through it, then turned to Kevin. “Nice meeting you, Kevin. You seem cool; you’re just not for me.”
“No, I get it,” Kevin said quickly. “I had no idea you already had a mate, believe me. Please tell him I’m sorry.”
“They’re not mates!” Rowena snapped. “There’s no claiming bite. He can’t even shift! He’s human!”
Bjorn was at the end of his patience. He bent down to put his face near his mother’s and snarled. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not asking you to mate him, huh? I, however, can make my own mating decisions. Now, leave. I need to get Gran her breakfast.”
Kevin shot a quick look at Rowena, who didn’t look like she was going to give up, and apparently decided flight was his best option, because he gave Bjorn a quick salute and hightailed it into the brush.
“Now look what you’ve done!” his mother screeched, pointing at the fleeing man. “There aren’t that many young men available in this den, and you’ve driven off one of the few -”
“Enough!” Dennis’s voice boomed from just behind him, and Bjorn spun unsteadily to see his mate standing in the foyer, eyes bright with…
something he couldn’t read. “Bjorn has already told you he’s not interested.
If he’s going to mate anyone, it’s going to be me.
So take your interfering ass out of here -” he pointed away from the house “- and find a new hobby.”
Rowena gasped and put a hand to her chest. “Well, I never!” she gasped yet again. “How dare you speak to me like that?”
Dennis continued glaring, but before he could get out a retort, Bjorn jumped in.
“He dares because he speaks with my voice, mother. That’s what mates do.
So here, let me tell you the same thing: get out of here, and find someone else to bother, because I’m not going to be taking your orders anymore. ”
She sputtered something angry-sounding, but couldn’t seem to muster actual words. Her eyes burned with fury, though, and Bjorn knew he’d be hearing about this for the rest of his life, and not just from his mother. One did not simply tell Rowena Karlsson no or to go away.
“The fuck?” came another voice from the direction Kevin had just exited in.
“Rowena? What’s going on here?” Alpha Escalus strode into the clearing, barefoot and wearing only a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips.
“Why did I just see Kevin Lukes running away from here like his ass was on fire?”
“Oh, Alpha,” she simpered, attitude switching on a dime, “Kevin and I were just visiting my son to say hello and introduce them to each other! As I’m sure you’d agree, a proper mate is very important in life, and -” She began rambling about the value of mates without mentioning that she’d been trying to pair off her own son.
Escalus cut her off with a low growl. “Get to the point.”
Bjorn was tired of this. “She wanted me to replace Dennis with Kevin,” he said shortly. He wasn’t entirely sure where his alpha fell on the question of whether it was ok to mate a human, but he wasn’t going to try to cover for his mother, either way.
Escalus turned to look at him. “Replace Dennis? Your mate?” he asked incredulously.
Bjorn nodded as Dennis came up next to him and leaned, arms crossed belligerently, against the door jamb.
“Your mother,” Escalus said slowly, “brought Kevin over here…to get you to drop your fated mate?”
“Ayup,” Dennis drawled before Bjorn could speak. “And she wasn’t particularly nice about it to either of them. Or me, for that matter.”
“Alpha,” Rowena said pleadingly, “you must know that a man of Bjorn’s stature can’t mate some random human. He doesn’t even live around here!”
“Neither do I!” Bjorn exclaimed, exasperated.
“And as I’ve already told you, that’s not going to change.
I’m not moving back to the den, I’m not taking over for Papa, and I’m not mating some random kid you dragged in here.
Now,” he added, “as I said, I really need to get breakfast to Gran. Alpha, do you need anything else from me this morning?”
Escalus was growling continuously, low in his throat, but shook his head. When the growl finally cut off, he looked at Bjorn’s mother. “Rowena. Come.”
“Alpha…” she began weakly.
“Come.” And with that, he turned and walked away.
She squeaked and scrambled after him.
Bjorn and Dennis stood in the door and watched until the two figures had disappeared down the path, then looked at each other. “I’m so sorry,” Bjorn started. “I wouldn’t…I’d never…” He gulped at the dark look on his mate’s face.
Dennis said nothing, only stalked into the kitchen and picked up the plate of eggs and bacon he’d apparently prepared while Bjorn was talking to their visitors. Then he stalked back out of the kitchen and into Gran’s bedroom. “Breakfast, Ginevra.”
Bjorn followed him into Gran’s bedroom in time to hear her asking, “…that yelling I heard?”
“Your son’s wife came calling,” Dennis said calmly. “It didn’t go well.”
“Oh, that bitch. What did she do?” she said casually, and both Dennis and Bjorn stared at her, open-mouthed. “What?” she asked.
“Well,” Bjorn said tentatively, “it’s just that you don’t usually, you know, cuss much. Except at Healer.”
Gran rolled her eyes. “I cuss plenty, believe me. Now, what did my idiot daughter-in-law do this time?”
Before Bjorn could think of a good way to answer, Dennis did: “She brought over my replacement.”
“Your…what?” Gran coughed out, thumping a fist on her chest.
Dennis nodded grimly. “A guy named Kevin who’d apparently make a great father for her grandkids.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then looked to Bjorn as if she were hoping he’d tell her that had been a joke. Bjorn just shrugged helplessly.
“Right…” Gran said slowly. “Well.” She paused to take a delicate bite of her bacon, chew, and swallow. “You two are going to have to complete the bond sooner rather than later if you want her off your backs.”
Dennis stiffened, and Bjorn sighed. “Gran…”
“What?” she shot back. “You can’t say I’m wrong.”
“We’re taking this at Dennis’s pace,” he reminded her.
“And I’m not going to let my mother force him into something he isn’t sure of.
” Dennis made a small noise, the meaning of which Bjorn couldn’t ascertain.
“Besides,” he forged on when Dennis didn’t add anything else after a second, “we’re only here for a few more days and then I can go back to not answering her phone calls. ”
Gran snorted. “Wouldn’t be surprised if she turns up at your door even after you go home.”
Oh. Oh, no. That hadn’t even occurred to him. Bjorn winced and glanced at his mate, who was looking a little wide-eyed himself. As he watched, Dennis steeled himself and drew himself up. “We’ll fend her off,” he said staunchly.
We? Bjorn thought. They didn’t even live in the same state, let alone the same house. How could ‘we’ do anything? Maybe Dennis had been envisioning them together, after all? He opened his mouth to ask what Dennis had meant, but before he could, Dennis went on.
“Besides, when – if – we do mate, I’m hopeful that Bjorn might move in with me, since I can’t really move my bar. We wouldn’t even have to tell his mother where we lived.”
Hold the front door, what? Dennis really had thought about this to the point of thinking Bjorn would move in with him? Surely that indicated some kind of intention, right?
Dennis reached out and used one finger to close Bjorn’s hanging jaw with a wry smile. “I’m not saying we’re doing it today or anything,” he said, “but, well, it’s worth considering as an aspect of everything.”
Gran chortled and clapped her hands. “Oh, I like you, Dennis. You have my blessing to mate my boy.”
What the absolute fuck was even going on right now? “You’re…thinking about it?” he ventured tentatively, trying not to look too much like he was pleading.
Dennis nodded solemnly. “I’m thinking about it. Someone’s gotta protect you from your family, after all. And…” He shrugged. “You’re pretty cool.”
“I am?”
“And you’re not bad to look at,” Dennis added, a note of teasing in his voice. “And god knows I’ve been having no luck dating other people. So, you know.” He shrugged again. “It’s an option.”
Bjorn had no idea what to say to that. Luckily, at that moment, he turned into a bear.