Chapter 13
Linnea got up off the couch with Ciara and Layla flanking her as they went to get the next round of drinks. As the warmth of her moved away from Fenris, his wolf tried to make him follow her.
Stop it. She's coming back, he complained, watching her move to the bar with the other women.
Tor smiled at him, and it wasn't friendly. "I'm so glad we have a moment to get to know one another."
"So am I," he replied politely.
Von, on his throne, watched the two of them across the low table with his chin in his palm, eyes shining, mouth twitching, but not interrupting.
The shaman was enjoying the show too much.
Arne was wearing a smile the same as Tor's, and Fenris knew they were going to give him an overprotective brother talk.
Tor didn't raise his voice, growl, or strut around like a younger wolf would have. He only said, very calmly, "If you hurt her, god or not, we will end you. We have other gods in this family who will help with a smile on their face, and you won't be able to fight us all."
"I have no intention of ever hurting Linnea," Fenris replied, keeping his posture relaxed. "I respect you are her brothers, but she is a grown woman and can make her own decisions."
Tor exhaled hard, showing the worry beneath the threat.
He rubbed a hand down his beard. "Gods, don't I know it.
I'm allowed to be concerned that her scent is all over you.
Look, I don't mean to act like a prick, but she's been treated badly by wolves, and she hasn't let an úlfheenar near her since she came back to Ulfheim. "
"The men who hurt her in my prison are all dead," Fenris said, his voice coming out low with the wolf's growl in his throat.
"They were only the last ones who did." Tor didn't flinch. "They only got to her because Ulfheim had already failed her."
Fenris's grip on the wolf strained, his half-gray eye warmed in his skull, and the taste of iron filled his mouth. "Who else hurt her?"
Across the table, Arne went still, and Von's smile slipped.
"My father," Tor said quietly, his eyes flicking to make sure the women weren't coming back yet. "Skari used to beat the shit out of her because she couldn't shift. I killed him in a holmgang when I could officially challenge him, so I could protect her, and to free Ulfheim from his rule."
"Lucky for him that he is already dead, or I'd really make him suffer," Fenris said when he got his rage under control.
"I wouldn't say that he didn't," Arne replied, magic burning in his amber eyes.
Fenris looked at his cousin, who had been quiet through Tor's telling. "He didn't die fast?"
"No," Tor said bluntly.
"Good."
"She still can't shift, in case she hasn't told you," Tor went on, dragging the conversation back to the present.
"But she has strong magic and is safe back in Ulfheim, even though she doesn't really trust any of them.
I can't help but wonder why she would let you, the biggest wolf of them all, get close enough for you to carry her scent. "
The wolf in Fenris pressed up against the back of his sternum. Tell him.
No. She doesn't know yet.
Tell him enough, or he will stand in the way. He has the right to.
Fenris really wanted another drink, but he plunged on because he needed them to trust him with Linnea, or they would get nowhere.
"Why do you think I woke for her blood when it was spilled?" he asked them. "Why do you think it was her song that soothed me when I was bound by powerful magic?"
Across the table, Tor's face went through three expressions in the space of one breath.
"You are mates," Arne whispered, eyes widening.
Fenris inclined his head a fraction. "Yes."
"Holy fuck," Tor said, very quietly.
"Please don't tell her," Fenris replied. "Everything is too complicated as it is. She gets to find this out herself, when she is ready, in her own time. Not from her brothers."
He didn't add, 'I'm scared that the moment she belongs to me, my enemies will have a new target, and because I've already had to deal with one human woman who hated what I was and couldn't bear to be with me anymore, I'm not in any hurry to find out whether this one stays.
"I don't understand," Tor said, frowning. "She has magic, yes, but she can't shift, and you are…well, a wolf god."
"Her wolf isn't gone," Fenris replied, shaking his head. "Her wolf is locked behind a wall of her own making. When her father beat her for not shifting, she might have protected her wolf by locking it down further, where he couldn't reach it."
"Fuck," Tor whispered. "That would explain so much."
"It would explain everything," Arne murmured. "Skari needed her to shift so he could marry her off to whoever he wanted. While she didn't, she was robbing him of that."
"What a fucker," Fenris growled.
"Understatement, cousin," Arne replied. "Why don't you want her to know what she is to you?"
"To keep her safe," he said simply. From his enemies. From himself. It amounted to the same thing.
"Oh, looks like the ladies need an extra hand, so you better wrap this up before I get back," Von warned them, going to join the women.
"She knows how to fight, and she won't back down from one," Tor said quickly. "Please don't put her in a position where she will get killed to try and save you."
"I promise. Besides, you are all coming with us, so she'll have plenty of people who care about her well-being around her," Fenris replied, and really hoped it was a promise he could keep. "We aren't going into battle. We just need to find my father."
"Very well. Welcome to the family," Tor said, and he and Arne exchanged grins. "We won't tell Linnea, but you're in for an interesting time with the mating urges. Trust us."
Fenris huffed out a laugh. "Try not to gloat too hard about it."
"We aren't agreeing to that," Arne said.
Linnea's laughter had them all going quiet as she and the other women came back over to the couches. She set a glass down in front of Fenris. "Should I be worried that you guys are getting along right now?"
"Not at all," Tor said with a wide smile. "I think we all understand each other perfectly well, little sister."
"Just boy chit chat," Arne added with a little wave of his hand. "You know, guy stuff."
Linnea rolled her eyes. "Men. If you decide to fight it out, do it outside. Don't upset Von because we need him."
"I won't do anything to upset Von. I like him," Fenris replied honestly.
Von, who had been crossing back from the bar with a fresh decanter in one hand, paused beside Fenris to tickle him under the ear. "I like you too, darling."
Linnea batted Von's hand away. "Stop that."
"I'm being friendly."
"You are being annoying."
"I'm being friendly and annoying. Multitasking. Excellent for the brain."
Von dropped into his throne, cackling at her glare, and Linnea sat down beside Fenris again.
The hem of her dress had ridden up a fraction, but she didn't seem to notice.
Fenris noticed. The wolf in him noticed harder.
The man bit his tongue and turned away to drain the contents of his glass. The wolf in him didn't stop preening.
Mine, the wolf said softly. Ours.
Stop. We haven't claimed her. We have barely touched her.
I know, the wolf said petulantly.
Fenris had thought that finding his father would be the hardest part of all this. Watching Linnea laugh brightly over some joke Layla had told her, he knew just how wrong he had been. At this rate, not claiming her was going to kill him long before Ragnarok had the chance.