Page 10

Chapter 10

Bjorn

T he warmth in my chest when I wake feels so good it almost aches. When I open my eyes, late morning sun spills through the window and I blink in surprise. I slept late, better than I have in as long as I can remember.

A memory of Penelope coming apart in my arms last night forces me to acknowledge the source of the warmth and the peaceful sleep. My Beast took my skin and claimed our mate. He didn’t only take her to bed, he sealed us together with his mate mark, branding her neck and infusing her with our venom. For our mates, it doesn’t hurt; it’s a shot of pleasure. The injection changes a human’s body, making them compatible for the sea and for mating with a shifter. But it also means she is tied to my magic now. And my heart.

My kraken gives a smug grunt, his presence in my mind larger than the day before, stronger. I push against the veil, but the boundary marker is all but gone. The Beast doesn’t budge, and I know he won’t be locked in a cage again.

Part of me is glad that he took control. It’s done. That should make it easy to give in fully to the urge to love and protect Penelope, to get to know this woman with the brave heart. I can’t run from her now, and there’s a comfort in surrendering to the inevitability of us.

But the bond doesn’t change our circumstances. Penelope’s questions have already risked my exposure. My mistreatment of her means she may hate me, and I would deserve it. There is also the reality of her job and her human life.

My hand rubs along my old brand near my heart and my gut tightens. Thora. The one I made vows to. The one I have forsaken.

I turn in the sheets, and for a moment, I swear I see Thora out of the corner of my eye, her long straw-colored braid flashing in the sunlight from the window. My heart trips and I jerk up, searching for her.

The bed is empty. There is no one. Not a ghost and not my new mate. Jumping from bed, I go in search of Penelope.

Did she run after the reality of seeing me as part man and part beast? Frantically, I check the house, half stumbling as I pull on clothes and stuff my feet in boots. I check the bathroom, kitchen, and the lighthouse tower, but she’s gone.

I stumble into the yard, eyes wild. Her car is parked in the same spot as yesterday. Did she leave it, fleeing on foot?

Darting to the cliff trail, I scan the rocky inlet. Nothing.

My Beast nudges me, and I give up some of my control, calling on him to track her. I partially shift, my eyesight changing and my feelers sprouting. They taste the air and scan our territory.

She is here.

I take off through the yard and into the forest after her. My legs carry me at inhuman speeds, darting through the pines. Animals skitter at my presence, but otherwise I’m alone in the forest.

When I find her, she’s at the edge of an overlook on a cliff deep within the preserve. She’s wearing my clothes again, her eyes closed and face thrust into the wind. Her inky hair whips and curls around her delicate neck, drawing my eyes to the red skin where my mate brand marks her throat.

She’s otherworldly, so beautiful. I don’t understand how, but she’s meant to be mine.

“Are you all right? What happened?” I call, scanning her for any injury or signs that she’s fearful of me. I’m not sure if she will welcome me if I go to her, but the need to have her in my arms pounds like a drum.

She turns to look at me over her shoulder and her eyes light up. “I hoped you’d let me see you again today.”

“What?” Of all the things I thought she might say after my kraken claimed her without ceremony, that isn’t it.

She bites her bottom lip, eyes nervously darting from my gaze. “Last night that wasn’t you. You lost control?”

I nod but refuse to look away even though my cheeks burn at the shameful admission. My treatment of her so far has shown her the worst of me.

“I thought you might keep that side of yourself hidden today, that you’d be angry about what happened.”

“When I first met you, I was furious?—”

Penelope’s face falls and she takes a stuttering breath, looking back at the sea. I want more of her curious and insistent questions, not the unsure woman in front of me. But I’ve only got myself to blame.

“That’s not your fault or how I feel now.”

She faces the cliff, silent and waiting.

“I’ve been acting like a crazy asshole since you met me. I have reasons, but they don’t excuse how I’ve treated you. I’m sorry.”

I do what I should have when I arrived and go to her. Tugging on her elbow, I spin her to me, hands finding the curve of her hip. Her mouth opens in an O of surprise, and she steadies herself with a palm to my chest. The movement crushes a bundle of flowers to me, and I tense at the sight of the violet crocus amid the white daisies.

“Where did you get those?” My words come out as a strangled whisper as I stumble away from her.

It can’t be.

Not those specific flowers.

“What?” she splutters.

The sight of those flowers flays me wide open.

“Where? Those don’t grow here.” The crocus isn’t native to the area, and I’ve never seen it here in my preserve.

“I found them on the trail. I woke up early, buzzing with energy”—she fidgets nervously—“and I knew we needed to talk, but I wanted to think first. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

She looks gutted, but I don’t know how to hold her pain and mine, how to be Thora’s mate and Penelope’s. How do I give myself over to my new bond when the ghost of my first mate haunts me? How can I ever take care of Penelope, keep her safe, when I couldn’t save my family before I was broken?

Penelope rocks forward, hesitant. “Bjorn? Are you all right?”

My chest shakes and my cheeks are wet. When did I start crying?

She caresses my cheek. “Bjorn?”

Without thought, my feelers curl up and wrap around her hand. “You found them?”

Her eyes, the same vibrant shade as the flowers she holds in her other hand, question me. “Yes. It was only these, growing in a patch near a clearing.”

My chest heaves in pain and in hope. These flowers are a sign.

“Why are they important? I want to know you. Help me understand why it feels like my own heart is breaking.” Tears fill her eyes and spill down her round cheeks.

“My wife and child.” The words hurt to say out loud.

She backs away, stumbling over her words. “But last night? Please tell me… we didn’t?—”

“They’re… gone.”

Penelope sucks in a sharp breath.

My hands fist at my sides. I look away from her horrified stare. “They’re dead because I didn’t protect my family, and now, I’ve claimed you as my mate when I don’t have a right to such a gift. I’m sorry?—”

“Woah. Slow down. One thing at a time. You had a family?” she asks softly.

It feels as if my innards are ripped out, my throat expelling the shameful truth. “Yes. I couldn’t save them?—”

Gentle arms hold me, her anchor the only thing keeping me from breaking into a thousand tiny pieces and scattering on the breeze. “What happened?”

Penelope deserves to know what kind of broken mate fate has saddled her with. I gather my courage and take a deep breath, opening the torrent of my memories. The gruesome images twist my insides, but I force myself to remember. “The Crusaders came for our village just as our ships were returning. We made it into our bay only to watch our home burn.

“They slaughtered our families, and the remaining warriors. We took to our Beasts and swam. But it was already too late. By the time we made it to shore, more knights spilled from the forest. I fell like my brothers, wounded by one of their blades, but I fled to the water.

“Instead of the honorable death I should have had on the battlefield, I woke again days later, washed up on a distant shore. I’m a coward, the gates of Valhalla closed to me. I shouldn’t have survived.”

“Oh, Bjorn. That loss. No one should have to face it, especially alone.” Penelope hangs on tightly, her fingers digging into my back.

Even if I don’t deserve it, I take her comfort and let it dull the pain. It’s the first time I’ve spoken of my home and my family since the Shifter Wars. Admitting my deepest shame felt like expelling poison, but it’s out now.

“And the flowers? They remind you of your family?” she whispers.

My heart aches as the words spill out of my mouth. “Thora used to say ‘hope returns’ each time I came home after a long voyage at sea. I always brought a bundle of crocus for her and daisies for my daughter to weave in her braids. It can’t be a coincidence that you found those today.”

She pulls back from our embrace, her face bunching in confusion and her brow furrowing. “What do you think it means?”

I stare into those beautiful eyes, the same color as the flowers. “Hope. Penelope, you’re my hope. I was fighting the connection between us because I didn’t want to betray my family, but I think maybe this was a sign that it’s okay to hope.”

Her lips part and I can’t resist her any longer. I don’t even want to. I pull her mouth to mine and surrender to my mate. The kiss is soft at first, bittersweet with sorrow and compassion, but before long, the heat between us ignites.

Penelope pushes against my chest, sucking in air and stumbling from my arms. I’ve been the one resisting the pull between us, but I think this time my mate has hit a wall with all this new information.

She holds out her hand to stop me, pacing and gesturing wildly. “So let me see if I have this straight. You’re a Viking. Like an actual Viking? And a shifter? Is that what you’re called?”

She pauses in her pacing to turn to me, an expectant look on her face. I nod.

“I’m your mate.” Her voice rises, a sort of hysterical sound full of disbelief.

She’s from the modern world, where magic isn’t real and the gods do not intervene so freely in people’s lives. I’ve told her too much too fast, but I don’t know any other way.

“I know I sound insane. But I’m from a world that was ruled by magic. Dragons lorded over the skies, wolves reigned in the forest, and our krakens had dominion in the sea. You see my Beast. You know what I say is true, even if it doesn’t sound possible,” I plead with her, begging her to believe me. Part of me wishes she wouldn’t, that she would do the smart thing and flee. But that possibility vanished when my kraken branded her. She is mine now, our souls forever tied.

“And you’ve claimed me? The pull between us is real. What does that mean?”

My head lowers in shame. She asked my kraken to take her, but she didn’t understand the meaning of her request. “My Beast tethered your soul to mine, bound you to our magic.”

Her palm traces the branded circles on her neck, her voice frantic. “What does that mean? To be bound to your magic?”

“When you met my Beast in the water, you awakened the bond, but he sealed the magic with his claim last night. That’s more than a mark.” I point at her neck. “It means my kraken has claimed you. You’re not only human any longer, but something different. You’ll stop aging so rapidly. You can breathe underwater. You can have my young and take my knot easier. You can?—”

“What?”

“You’re my mate, made for me in every way. You are a gift sent by the gods and the sea. Though why they have chosen me after I’ve failed, I don’t understand. I promise though, I will do everything in my power to prove worthy of you and atone for the way I have treated you since our meeting.”

“Stop.” Penelope holds out her hand and shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure you just told me I’m gonna turn into a mermaid and have fish babies. I think I need a drink before you tell me any more.”