Page 1 of Wulver’s Flame (Knotty #2)

Vargr

Skoll lunged for my father’s neck, but instead his claws raked across my face.

With one swipe, I was thrown against the tree.

His Alpha command no longer controlled my actions.

Skoll wanted more. We were Alpha and would never bow to any wolf or mortal.

We lay dazed, but that was all the time they needed.

The iron chains were around my neck, and the etched runes on the collar and chain links burned my flesh. The seeress had painstakingly crafted my prison well. The volva who once foresaw my fate must have smiled in triumph.

Three suns rose and fell as they kept me chained in the longhouse.

I heard the whispers and knew what my inner beast, Skoll, had done—a massacre of teeth, blood and bone.

Not a mortal man, woman, or child was spared.

I was bound to the beast through body and mind. He was a blessing and a curse to me.

When judgment came, it was útlagr—outlawed and exiled.

Never to set foot on my homeland again. To see my kin. To breathe the same air as them. My father never met my eye as they carried me to the longship. My mother silently wept. The voyage would take me to the Hjaltland. I was no longer their problem.

We don't need them. Skoll snarled, but I didn't respond.

The damage was done. My feral beast’s bloodlust never let up. The burning rage was a constant flame within me until I did not know if it was his or mine.

Odin, help the Picts.

We were coming to their shores.