Chapter 9
Linnea was crouched by the kitchen counter with the meat plate in front of her and a god-wolf staring at her like she had personally insulted his ancestors.
"It is venison," she pointed out. "You ate like two kilos of it when we got here. There is nothing wrong with it."
Fenris's wolf sat at attention, refusing to eat.
He wants it from your hand again, dummy, her wolf said, in the smug little voice it used when it was about to ruin her day. He's being polite. Don't make him ask.
He ate eggs from a plate!
He was a man, her wolf pointed out, like it was obvious.
Linnea sat back on her heels and looked at the great black wolf who, until twenty minutes ago, had been a big, tall man god, and who was now doing an impression of a Labrador holding out for steak.
"You're going to milk this innocent wolf pup act, aren't you?" she asked, leaning her hip against the counter.
The wolf's ear twitched, and his tongue lolled out.
"Your man side would be embarrassed by you behaving like this, I'm sure."
The wolf sat up and begged.
"Oh my gods, you are ridiculous, and I'm going to tell him all about this." She picked up a piece of venison off the plate and held it out. "Here, Your Highness."
He took it with the gentlest possible closing of teeth, his tongue brushing between her fingers. Linnea's wolf wagged its tail hard, and Linnea tried to ignore the tingling butterflies in her belly. Stupid wolves.
"You're a menace," she informed him and picked up the next piece.
By the fifth piece, her wolf was making a sound that was entirely too pleased with itself, and Linnea had stopped pretending she was annoyed.
He was being so careful. The enormous warm head was bumping gently against her wrist between bites, looking for a scratch.
Linnea, who had been raised by úlfheenar and was supposed to know better, scratched him behind his ears anyway.
The wolf made a low rumbling sound that started up in his throat and only stopped when she stopped scratching.
"Right. I'm sure that's totally normal," she said briskly.
Excellent. Wonderful. We are going to die at Von's tonight if he decides that he's tired of being a human and becomes a wolf wanting an ear rub.
It probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing that happened in Ritual on an average night if she really thought about it.
The sun was past its weak winter peak when they finally locked the front door and got into the car again.
Fenris shifted in the passenger seat as she pulled out onto the road, and his clothes came with him. It was probably a good thing not to sporadically become naked. Good for her anyway. She had enough to worry about as it was, and Fenris made her brain short-circuit just sitting beside her.
Fenris buckled the seatbelt without being shown and said nothing about spending the last thirty minutes licking her fingers. If he could be cool about it, so could she.
Totally, totally cool, Linnea told herself firmly and started the Land Rover.
Fenris's pale blue eye and his half-gray eye took in everything as the road unwound.
The tarmac. The painted lines. The reflective markers along the verge.
The trucks. The signs. The man on the side of the road in a high-vis vest with a STOP/SLOW lollipop, doing roadworks.
The little screen on her dashboard that showed their speed.
"You okay?" she asked, after twenty minutes of his silent observation.
"Yes."
"Because Oslo is going to be a lot to take in. There will be cars, buildings, lights, and people. I'm not sure how much of that you are really going to like."
"I'm not afraid, little singer. I'm curious."
"You are also talking a lot more. What's up with that?" she asked, because she had barely gotten a word out of him until Havi and Freya had visited.
"I'm getting used to the new language sounds. The more I hear it, the easier it will get." He tipped his head against the headrest and looked out the side window, where the pines were giving way to a stretch of farmland. "What is that thing in the field?"
"That's a tractor."
"What does it do?"
"Digs, tows, depends? Listen, tell me what you want to know first. Family or technology, because you are about to encounter a lot of both," she said, not taking her eyes off the road.
"I want to know about your family."
She breathed out because she had been hoping he would say that.
"Right. Well, my mother left when I was young, and I don't know if she's even still alive, so we aren't going to talk about her.
My father is dead, and we are not going to talk about him either.
My oldest brother is Tor. You'll meet him at Ritual tonight.
He's the úlfheenar alpha for our region but will deny it if you ask," she began, not worrying about babbling.
"He's mated to Ciara. She's an Ironwood. They’re a family of monster hunters.
Most of the wolves are shit scared of her.
My other brother is Arne. He's not my real brother, but we grew up together.
He's the prince of the light elves, and his mother, Aunty Alruna, is the queen and has kind of been like my adopted mom.
Arne lives in the apartment next door to Tor in Oslo, and you can bet your ass he will be at Ritual tonight with his mate, Layla Ironwood. "
"Alruna, the queen, is Arne's mother, so who is his father?" Fenris asked. "Is there a king?"
"Ah, that would be Vili. As in, Havi's brother." Linnea blew out a long breath. "And boy, do they have some messed-up history. You probably missed all of it, but Havi or Arne can tell you because it's their family stuff. And I suppose your family because Vili is..."
"Vili is my uncle." He smiled. "He used to bring me apples when my father was in trouble with the others. He and Tyr were always nice to me."
Linnea drove for a moment without saying anything.
"I should warn you, Vili has done some fucked up things to Alruna and Arne, and no one really knows why exactly." After a moment, she added, "Vili and Alruna are also mates."
"It sounds like a lot to keep up with," Fenris replied.
Linnea laughed. "Oh boy, we have only gotten to the direct family members who you are going to probably meet soon."
"There are more?" Fenris asked, and she just laughed harder.
She drove on and rambled the rest of the way about the fae returning, then their legendary god uncles, the Greatdrakes, the battles with other gods, Arawan and Imogen, and how Gwyn ap Nudd liked to turn up whenever with the whole of the Wild Hunt.
She was hoarse by the time she reached Elise, being so pregnant she could barely walk properly.
Shit, I really need to check how she is, Linnea thought, guilt twisting her stomach. Tor hadn't mentioned anything about Elise, but he was a guy and had been too concerned with the wolf god that had suddenly woken up.
Fenris took it all in with a steady silence, as if he were filing away names so he wouldn't forget.
"You have a great deal of family," he said, somewhere outside of Hamar.
"Too much to keep track of some days," she admitted.
"How many of them will try to fight me?"
Linnea thought about it. "At a minimum, I'd say four. They are all a bit overprotective."
"Only four? An easy day for me," Fenris replied with a nod, making her laugh again. He was an alpha, too, so really, she shouldn't be surprised.
The light was almost gone by the time they came down into Oslo proper. Fenris went tense and alert beside her, not relaxing until they pulled into Tor's underground parking garage.
"This is the building where we are staying. You aren't going to comment on Tor's boring décor because he thinks it's cool, and we have all agreed to let him believe that," she said, turning off the engine. "I stay with him a lot, so I'm going to shower, and we can head out to Ritual."
Fenris didn't like the elevator but didn't complain either. Really, he was taking in the modern world better than she would have in his place. In the hall outside of Tor's door, he inhaled, slowly, the way a wolf scented a new territory. His head turned a quarter inch toward Arne's apartment.
"The elves you're smelling? That's Arne and Alruna. Don't worry."
He nodded. "I see."
She opened the door to the apartment and tossed her keys in a bowl on a small side table. "I'm going to go shower and find something to wear that is club-appropriate. Tor's wardrobe is the second door on the left. He's huge, but you're huge too. See if anything fits."
"I don't need his clothes."
She paused at the hallway door. "You can't go naked. It would cause a riot."
"You misunderstand me." Fenris stood in the middle of the lounge room, and the air around his hands stirred. Pale blue-tinged smoke curled up between his fingers.
Linnea bit down a small gasp as his magic washed over her. She had felt gods use their power before, but this was something primal and raw and unpolished. There was a flicker of something in it that screamed of danger, like sharp fangs lightly scraping down her throat…
Oh, her wolf said.
Fuck, Linnea said, before she could stop herself. Her own magic was burning in her veins, responding like it wanted to reach out and touch his.
The magic rolled up and over Fenris's wide shoulders, and his clothes shifted to black jeans and a black button-up shirt.
He shook out his hands and began to roll up his sleeves. "Better?"
Linnea didn't trust what would come out of her mouth if she opened it. She nodded once, turned on her heel, and walked very quickly down the hall to her room. She shut the door behind her, pressed her forehead against the wood, and swore in three languages.
She had been worried about how Von would react, knowing that Fenris himself was in his club. Now she was more worried about what the entire club would do when he walked in looking like that.
I'll tear out their eyes if they look at him, her wolf declared. I'll rip at their throats and their soft, weak bellies and…
"Oh, shut up," Linnea muttered and headed for her bathroom.