Page 2

Anders

“Don’t you dare say it,” I growl, glaring at my twin.

Lyall sighs. “I told you so.”

Snarling, I slump back onto my bedroll. Beyond the window of my cabin, the distant chatter of the village reaches my ears.

The fisherman calls out about today’s catch.

Children laugh as they run through the streets.

Wolves howl in the forest as they prepare to hunt.

The little girl who sells her flowers will just be getting ready to go home.

I wonder if anyone bought her flowers. Normally I do, but I’ve been confined to my home.

Who will buy them after I am gone?

“Damn it!” Jaw tight in a rare display of frustration, Lyall paces the bedroom. “I cannot fathom how in Odin’s name you thought challenging Wulfric for his position would end any other way!”

Shame burns the back of my neck. My actions, justified as they may have felt at the time, have brought my twin pain.

That is not something I ever wanted. “What was I supposed to do, pray tell? Let Wulfric and that filthy human mate of his change our way of life? Humans are the enemy, in case you have forgotten, brother!”

Whether they’re trying to slaughter us and christen our corpses, conquer us and force us to give up our god Fenrir, or invade my pack’s village, humans have been nothing but trouble.

“Not Kieran!” Lyall snaps.

I normally respect my twin, and we’ve had a good relationship most of our lives. Today, though, my temper rises at his words. Somehow, he is just as blind as my worthless little brother Wulfric.

“Do not presume to know his intentions! Or any human’s. They slaughtered our father. Tortured me. How can you forgive them so easily?”

With a bitter laugh, Lyall sweeps his golden hair back from his face. “You’ve let your hatred blind you. This isn’t about Wulfric’s mate, just admit it! This is about your childish feud with Wulfric!”

My mouth falls open. “Childish? We both know if I had been Alpha instead of that runt, I could have protected our pack!” Instead, my father was murdered, most of my pack was slaughtered, and Wulfric packed us up and moved us to an island we came to call Ulfheim.

And yet, after all the pain humans have caused us, there came a day when Wulfric brought a human into our pack when he should have simply killed the foul creature.

Kieran Grove. A human from the future, who’d somehow wound up in our timeline.

Worse yet, the human was Wulfric’s mate .

He’d claimed the gods had chosen a damned human as his mate, after all the harm they’d caused our kind.

My brother had lost his mind ever since the human came to our shores. Not only had he accepted the human as his mate, but he’d dared to give him the furs of a wolf and make him one of us! How could my brother so easily forgive their crimes against our kind?

Wringing his hands together with a frustrated sigh, Lyall says, “The past is the past! Tyr’s beard, brother, you have got to let this go! Isn’t it enough you’ve divided our family?”

My mouth falls open. How dare he! “ I’ve divided our family? It’s Wulfric who—”

“Enough!” Lyall’s voice fills the cabin.

The birds outside stop twittering, and in my shock, I have been silenced as well.

Lips trembling, Lyall takes in a breath, then another.

As his eyes dampen, my anger cools. “Father and Mother would be ashamed. Their sons, fighting like children. They would have wanted us to stick together as a pack. Instead, you… you’re leaving.

” Voice thickening, he ducks his head and conceals his face behind a curtain of hair.

Oh gods. I truly wasn’t thinking. I wanted to hurt Wulfric, it’s true, but I never wanted to hurt Lyall. I let my anger and my own personal lust for vengeance cloud my vision. “Lyall—”

“Don’t!” he snaps, finally looking at me, eyes bright with anger and swimming with tears. Sniffling, he dashes them away. He always was the softest of us, but seeing him so upset makes my throat tighten.

“I didn’t know this would upset you.”

“You had Kieran beaten bloody! Of course it fucking upset me!” Even the human’s language is rubbing off on us. It makes my skin prickle. “If you had a problem, you should have taken it up with Wulfric! You’re a gods damned coward! What would Father—”

“Stop.” I snarl the word but fail to hide my plea.

I know exactly what Father would say. By beating Kieran to hurt Wulfric, I disgraced my family name. No matter how justified they may have been, my actions were not honorable. They were the actions of a craven, not the son of an Alpha. If he could see me now…

There’s a quiet knock on the door. One of the thralls pokes her head in, face streaked with dirt. “Pardon. The Alpha is ready for you.” Her words hang heavy in the air as she departs.

My time in this world has come to an end. I have been exiled, and it’s time to face my punishment. Wordlessly, I rise and hold my head high as I shoulder past Lyall. “Wait.” A firm hand to my chest makes me freeze. Lyall’s voice wavers when he says, “Your sword. I must take it from you.”

Wolf’s Tooth. The blade I’ve had since I was a lad. It hangs heavy at my side. There’s an unexpected ache in my chest at the realization that I will never feel its cool grip in my palm again. “Go ahead.”

Lyall removes the sword from my belt and sets it on the table. What will become of it? “Give it to someone worthy.” I hate the softness in my voice, but Lyall doesn’t mock me for it.

“I shall, brother.”

This may be the last time I see my twin, hear his voice. I should apologize for hurting him, for not being the brother he deserves… but the words just won’t come because that would mean acknowledging how inadequate I really am.

Tearing my gaze away from him, I step out into the chill of the evening.

The thrall hands me a sack of apples and salted meat and a flask of water for my journey.

On the horizon, Sol, goddess of the sun, guides her chariot beyond the ocean.

Her fading light deepens the shadows and colors the skies in vibrant hues.

Somehow, the coming darkness fills me with despair.

It feels like I will never see her light again.

Forcing my head up high, I walk in the direction of the beach. Though I can sense Lyall following me, I keep my eyes fixed on the horizon. I shouldn’t have expected him to understand. There is no animosity between him and precious Alpha Wulfric.

As we leave the village behind, my brother Gunnar comes into view. I return his glare. “I’m so pleased you’ve dragged yourself from the woods long enough to say goodbye.”

Gunnar grabs my arm hard and tugs. “Shut up.”

There’s a wild gleam to his eyes, likely his berserker tugging at him. If I ever see him again, he’ll be on all fours as a savage beast. It’s what he gets for being foolish enough to open his heart to love, only to lose it.

Love always ends in tragedy, after all.

“How long are you going to wait to find and claim the mate the gods have chosen for you?”

“Not your concern,” he bites out, sounding more wolf than man. It… scares me, I admit. He’s going to lose himself unless he finds his mate, yet he won’t even bother looking.

“Would you listen to me? You’ve got to move on. Leif wasn’t even your fated—”

“Enough!” Gunnar snarls, eyes flashing as he draws back a fist.

“Stop this, both of you!” Lyall shoves me back, simultaneously seizing Gunnar’s fist. “Gods, can we have one day without throwing punches?”

“Not my fault our brother is a fool,” I huff.

They await us on the shore. My skin prickles, and anger burns me up from the inside as I meet Wulfric’s steely gray gaze.

Expression unreadable, he turns away and walks toward the rowboat moored on the shore.

He stole so much from me: first, my father’s love and adoration, and now, he steals me from my home and my pack.

He will pay dearly for this. I don’t even bother looking at Kieran.

As the waves crash upon the shore, I approach the boat and try to ignore my aunt Helga’s tear-streaked face.

To avoid seeing the pain I’ve caused those I love written all over their faces.

Why can’t they see things as I do? I only wanted to keep them all safe.

I have already lost my father to humans.

I won’t let my brother’s foolishness threaten our pack.

No matter what, I must find a way to return and end the threat Kieran poses.

Lyall’s hand trembles at my back as he pushes me down into the boat. Through our bonds, he whispers, “Goodbye, brother.”

Wulfric keeps his eyes on the horizon as he says, “Farewell, brother. May the Father Wolf guide your path.” Then he pushes the boat out into the water, and the waves pull it the rest of the way into the sea.

Aunt Helga starts to chant, and her voice carries over the ocean. The icy wind freezes the tears I hadn’t realized were on my cheeks. Ahead of me, a portal bursts into being, and I look back over my shoulder at my twin.

“Lyall. I’m afraid. Please, I—”

My boat flies through the portal in a burst of water, propelling me high into the air.

My cry of alarm echoes into the night sky.

The bag of provisions goes flying out of the boat and disappears as some strange-looking bird flies up to me and squawks in fright.

For a moment, I’m transfixed by the view laid out before me.

Wherever I am, this world looks nothing like my own.

The buildings are as tall as the highest mountains, if not taller.

Though it is nightfall here, everything is so bright.

Everywhere I look, lights sparkle in the darkness like stars.

I could spend an age taking in the sights of this strange new world…

but then the boat hurtles back toward the ground.