These are clever beasts indeed. Fenrisson curses them silently as his eyes frantically search the meadow-turned-battlefield for his sister’s wolf—or even worse—her body.#p#分页标题#e#
Please not her body. He sends a prayer up to the old gods and the new one his mother convinced his father to worship, praying Myrna is still among the living.
The Gotar King’s sword in his hand feels heavier than it ever has before as he scans the meadow. Aside from a handful of his wolves, he sees no sign of his sister.
The sound of running footsteps startles him and he raises his sword expecting another attack. However his eyes narrow when he spies not a warrior garbed in a leather jerkin and pants, but a naked man—one of the serpent warriors— sprinting towards him from across the field with nothing but a large quiver of arrows across his back. It is one of the archers, he soon realizes, likely responsible for helping in the slaughter of his wolves.
Fenrisson once again raises his sword, but then he sees the soldier is not headed for him at all, but toward the forest behind him. In fact, the man’s face is filled with panic as he flees…
Fenrisson’s eyes widen when he spots a smaller red wolf at the soldier’s heels, but he cannot help but smile. It is Myrna! Instead of continuing to fight once the arrows started flying, she chose to look for the source. And apparently, she found it.
Myrna leaps at the naked archer’s back and takes him down before he can find hidden refuge among the trees. And though he and Myrna share no special bond as he and Olafr do, Fenrisson does still feel her triumphant satisfaction as if it is his own when the serpent-turned-man falls. He watches with his own teeth bared as Myrna ends the archer’s life in a fierce cacophony of furious growling and ripping.
For a brief moment, hope surges within his chest. Perhaps he sent Olafr away too hastily.
But his hope instantly drops like a stone when he looks in the direction from whence Myrna and the archer came. There are five more naked archers sprinting towards them, and one has an arrow notched and aimed at his sister.
“Myrna!” he yells.
But it is too late. Her wolf lets out a sharp yelp as the silver-tipped arrow grazes hard over her back, only just missing her head before lodging with an audible thunk in the semi-frozen ground below.
Fenrisson has no time to feel relief. He can smell the scent of his sister’s burnt flesh, and he knows her pain is great when she lets out cry and shifts before his eyes, her human mouth rimmed with the enemy’s blood.
“Myrna!”
“FJ?” Her voice is hoarse with pain.
Fenrisson peers beyond his sister to track the archers only to find one of the beasts upon the field is no longer fighting. Not simply because the wolves have withdrawn, but also because he now seems more interested in Myrna and Fenrisson than spraying more flame upon the fleeing Vikings.
The serpent’s size is great and he is dark blue with golden eyes, much like the one Fenrisson did slay. A father or a brother perhaps?
Fenrisson does not realize the accuracy of his guess until the beast is fully turned around and headed toward he and his sister along with the archers. But at a much faster killing speed.
He picks his sister up, cradling her in his arms. And then he runs for cover into the nearby trees. It seems a cowardly act for sure. Especially for Fenrisson, who like most Vikings, wished to die either of old age or in battle.
But he must run now. In order to keep his vow to his brother, he must survive. And as little as he has ever wanted a mate, much less a fated one, he knows now he must locate the she-wolf with whom he’ll spend the rest of his life.
For he can see clearly that his Aunt Bera was correct. The future of his North Wolves depends upon it.
Part 1- WOLF LAKE
7#p#分页标题#e#
“Good, you’re finally here. We need to talk, Tee.”
I just about jump out of my skin when I walk into the darkened kitchen in the wee hours of New Year’s morning to find Janelle and Alisha waiting for me at the table. And I do mean that literally. I barely stop myself from shifting when Alisha unexpectedly calls to me.
“What in the hell!?” I whisper-shout at them, clutching my chest. “I nearly went wolf!”
“Oh I am sorry, Tee,” Janelle says, her voice sincere with apology. She reaches over to the nearby wall and flips on a few more overhead lights.
I nod, waiting for my pulse to slow down to a comfortable trot.
“Okay, but why are you two sitting here in the dark? And wait, how did you even know I’d be down here tonight, anyway?”
Alisha waves my questions away with a quick swish of her hand. “Look, Tee. This is the only time Janelle and I can really talk to you without worrying about Mama eavesdropping. And we figured you’d eventually come down to steal more of Daddy’s junk food stash.”