Page 12 of Wulver’s Flame (Knotty #2)
Vargr
Ibit my lip, trying not to moan at the scent of her heat approaching.
She was the first mortal to succumb to a beast like me.
Loki was teasing us both. Her chest rose and fell more rapidly.
She placed her hand on her chest as if trying to calm herself.
I moved to get the key for her chains. If the bond was successful, she would get her wish.
“Where are you going? Get back here!” she said, her voice high-pitched and trembling.
She looked at me with wide eyes.
“What am ah sayin’?” she muttered to herself, shaking her head.
I opened the chest and retrieved the key.
Skoll was bursting for us to mate with her.
She sat in the middle of the bed panting.
“I do not feel well,” she mewled.
“Hush, I’m going to take the chains off. I need to bring a few things in,” I murmured to her as she clung to my hand, rubbing it on her burning cheek.
“You feel so cool…mmmm. Why do you smell like honey cakes?” she asked, squirming on the bed.
She suddenly gripped her belly and groaned into the pelt.
“Did yae poison me?”
A fine sheen of sweat was on her brow.
“No, elska. Your body is preparing to welcome me,” I said softly, washing the chain off her neck.
She rolled on the bed, back and forth, gripping her lower belly.
“You did poison me,” she wailed. “It feels like daggers stabbing me from the inside.”
I stood, unlocked the chain from the roof beam, and tossed it into the corner. Skoll rumbled his approval. He hated seeing her restrained—when what we really wanted was her submission.
“What did yae do to me?” she cried, eyes wild.
I sat beside her and pulled her into my lap, her sweat-drenched dress clinging to every trembling curve. I kissed her burning brow.
“I did what I had to. You’re a gift from the Gods, darling. Tonight, you’ll take my knot.”
She gasped, but I didn’t stop.
“My seed, my bite, my bond. You’ll carry it all.”
“No. You demon—”
Another cramp cut her off. She folded in on herself, whimpering like she could hold back the heat clawing through her womb.
“I need to bring water. Food. Nesting clothes. I won’t be long,” I said, easing her down as I rose from the bed.
“No! No, come back. No, stay away. You demon. You’re going to curse me with your beast!”
She clutched the pelts like they were armour, her cries tangled with confusion and dread.
I turned to the door, her sobbing, broken voice trailing behind me, and smiled.
There would be no denying my claim now.
She would admit to me that she was mine.
OURS! Skoll snapped.
I rolled my eyes and rushed to gather everything we needed.
?
?
?
Her resistance was strong, but it wouldn't last. She lay huddled in the corner of the bed as if to protect herself from me. I was the only cure for her ailment. She would learn. I rubbed my beard, worried about her maidenhead. Her heat came faster than I’d prepared for.
A faint sting of regret settled in my chest. Too late now. Her body had already begun to turn for me.
The piles of my clothing lay untouched on the bed. Skoll growled that our mate wasn't building the nest from our offerings. Her head turned, and from between her wild curls, blue eyes peered through them. I remain seated on the chest.
“Don’t look at me like that. I've told you what will take the pain away,” I said, lifting my hands in the air.
“I will kill you. Slit your throat from ear to ear,” she spat, voice raw.
Her spirit made my chest swell with pride—my flamehearted warrior. Fierce enough to join me in the afterlife, I cared not if it was in Odin’s hall or Freyja’s field.
Then I froze.
Whispers.
Faint. Unfamiliar. All around me.
I stood slowly, hand reaching for the sword in the chest. But before I could fully draw it, a voice—too near and soft—spoke beside my ear.
By the wolves of Fenrir, no other soul shall taste her fire.
She is yours, bound by blood and fate.
Yours to claim in every life.
The wolf and the flame.
Skoll lunged against my skin, snarling. He felt it too—something was too close to her, too near our mate.
And then, silence.
The whispers stopped.
But their words seared themselves into my mind, branding my soul.
By the wolves of Fenrir, no other soul shall taste her fire.
She is yours, bound by blood and fate.
Yours to claim in every life.
The wolf and the flame.
I repeated them over and over, like a rune etched into bone. A vow. A warning. A truth older than time.
Skoll. The exile. The scent trail that led us to her. The treaty. The chains. The heat. None of it was chance.
It was ordained by him.
I hadn’t spoken Fenrir’s name since the exile.
Hadn’t dared.
Now it pressed against the walls of my mind, like a god knocking from within. He hadn’t forsaken us. He’d guided us.
And he wanted her, too.
Skoll snarled, pushing against my skin, desperate to return to her. To keep her safe. To take her fully.
Because now I knew.
She wasn’t just mine by scent or bond.
She was mine by prophecy.
By blood.
By fate.