Page 18 of Wulver’s Flame (Knotty #2)

Vargr

Her mortal teeth remained in my flesh, and blood dripped into my hair.

I gently stroked my mate’s wild curls and back, soothing her trembling body.

Our prophecy was complete. We were bound by fate, marked with blood and bonded through eternity.

I didn't know how the bond would unfold for a mortal. My body was created for such a bond.

Skoll purred for her—a low, primal lull to soothe our mate. She softened, turning limp against my chest, her warm mounds pressed sweetly to my skin.

My flame-haired warrior didn't release my neck.

I reached down, past her spine to cup her arse cheeks, holding her in place while I dug my knot deeper until she fluttered around me. I sealed my seed into her womb. The heat would ease, and her senses would return.

She sighed, her teeth loosened, but she didn't release me.

Skoll didn't like the thought of her heat ending. He purred louder until the thunderous rumbling vibrated to her. She sniffed my neck and tangled her hands through my hair.

She didn’t release my neck until sleep took her. Only then did her teeth slide free.

When I was marked, mated, and she was bred.

?

?

?

She slept like the dead from the morning sun until night-watching.

Skoll paced beneath my skin. We checked on her breathing often, only leaving her side when we had to. We needed to see the rise and fall of her chest like it was our next breath, but she didn't awaken.

Her nest was beyond ruined, but the beautiful scent of our mating remained.

I found myself touching the spot she marked again and again, in astonishment at the depth of her ferocious bite.

Her blunt little teeth did that, yet she still bit like a predator. Gods only knew what her wolf would become. I wondered what kind of wolf would emerge from Liùsaidh Flamehair.

Skoll sat up with a surge of excitement.

Mate. The word purred in my mind.

A soft moan interrupted us.

She stirred.

I approached the bed, hesitating as her eyelashes fluttered. The dazed look was not from heat, but confusion. I pried into our bond as she fully awakened.

“What happened?” she croaked.

Beneath the confusion, I could feel her mortal senses return. She leaned on her elbow and touched the scar on her neck.

Her revulsion struck so deep I nearly stepped back. But the prophecy pulled me forward, like a leash.

Skoll’s happiness filtered into the background as caution crept in. Her hand moved to her chest, feeling my presence—our bond.

“You cursed me with your demon magic,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “This does not feel pleasant. What did you do?”

Skoll snarled inside me, and a low growl rumbled in my chest. Liùsaidh’s eyes locked onto mine.

“Your eyes, I remember,” she said, but trailed off. “By the Gods. What did you do to me? I lay with you.”

Horror flooded our bond. I tried to calm her through the bond, but her panic grew. She rubbed her chest.

“What is this? What is inside me?” she cried.

“That is our bond. The Gods willed this through fate and blood. This bond can never be broken, Liùsaidh. Not by me or you,” I said, barely restraining my rising ire.

“No. I am not a beast. I reject this curse and I reject you,” she said, sitting up.

“And what about our child in your belly? Will you reject it too?” I snarled as my words ripped into Skoll’s soul.

Before either of us could talk any further, Skoll’s growl increased. I couldn't stop him. The thought of our mate rejecting his pups made him want to kill. He ripped out of me, tearing through my clothes. I dropped to the floor as bones cracked, flesh rippled, and sharp claws lengthened.

Liùsaidh’s terror burned us so deep through the bond that we halted. We heard her scream like needles in our ears. Yet it was nothing compared to the pain in our chest, through the bond. Skoll lifted his head slowly, watching Liùsaidh before his lips bared and he growled at our mate.

Long, low and threatening.

I felt his mind unravel, and I only remembered all too well what had taken place last time. I reached into him, reminding him she was promised to us by Fenrir himself—that she was our mate.

He snarled at me, drool dripping out of his mouth. The long trails, falling over teeth and fur to the floor. He bared his fangs and leapt onto the bed, looming over her trembling form. Her screams continued, but now tears streamed down her face.

SHE IS CARRYING OUR PUP. I screamed at Skoll.

His low growl continued.

Do not injure her. LEAVE. NOW! The thought of him harming Liùsaidh made me feel ill. Not this time.

I tried to shift back, but it was no use. He wouldn't allow it.

The sharp twist of rejection after the heat, after the knot, after everything. It broke him.

He bolted.

Launched from the bed, claws raking the wood, crashing through the longhouse like a wounded beast. He barely missed a thrall carrying water. Snapped the air near her wrist before turning away, teeth clashing, and breath ragged.

He ran through the doorway. Through the icy winds.

When he reached the cliff’s edge, he threw his head back and howled.

A raw, shattering sound—ripped from the hollow pit of his heart. I remained silent.

We ran.

Skoll needed it—no, we needed it. A long, bitter run around the island’s edge. He tore through the brush, paws bloodied from stone and root, eyes wild. We circled again and again until the pain dulled, until our legs gave out.

Only then did we collapse in the dark woods. The sea hissed beyond the trees, and the stars blinked above like distant watchers who could offer no comfort.

In that silence, the whines came.

Low. Shaking and barely formed.

The kind of sound a beast makes when it remembers it once had a pack—kin.

Then he had found her. His. Our mate. A pup. A bloodline.

Now she rejected us. Our seed. Our pup.

Skoll curled into himself, tail tucked, ears flattened. His chest rose and fell with shallow breath. His soul ached in a way I had no words for.

No one heard those soft, broken cries but me.

Not even the Gods.