4. ALL SORTS OF UNEXPECTED

4

ALL SORTS OF UNEXPECTED

I floated in and out of sleep while my body caught up to the healing that Eir had given me. Eir being the one with the wings and the pale skin and hair. She was a Valkyrie, and one of the only healers around capable of dealing with supernatural type wounds. At least that's what I picked up from the stilted back and forth between her and my brothers.

She was not a goddess, just a minor…something. A healer, and she didn't like Jor, not one bit which of course left her to be suspicious of us. She'd followed him only because he'd begged her not to let me die, and apparently, he never begged anyone.

"Are we seriously going to Alaska?" Bebe whispered the question. "I mean, I wondered if it was just to throw everyone off the scent. You know, seeing as we are dealing with wolves and the whole tracking business."

"I know Alaska, Grant is there, and he might be able to help," I said quietly, thinking of all the old books Grant kept in the backroom of the store. "And it's as good a place as any to figure this out."

"Figure what out?" Richard asked as he sat next to me. "What are you figuring?"

I grimaced and slid my legs to the side of the bed I was laying on. Was I still weak? You bet, but I also knew that every minute counted. And I hadn't told them yet that I was Tyr's daughter.

I mean, how did you just say to someone, hey, I'm the daughter of a god? No, it wasn't going to be that easy. Maybe I didn't need to tell them? Maybe I could just float under the radar while I absorbed the news myself.

"Is there any way we could charter a flight? I'd like to get my feet off the ground and stop leaving scent trails everywhere," I said.

Richard's eyebrows shot up. "You have a mate bond to Han, correct?"

I reluctantly nodded.

My brother pointed a finger at me. "He can find you anywhere."

Berek leaned against the one wall, Claire silent beside him. "I suspect that you have a similar connection now to Havoc—maybe not a mate bond, but perhaps a pack bond? Which of course he was trying to create prior to all this mess."

Of course he had been, and I had suspected it too. Every time he'd fucked me, the bond between us had strengthened.

I knew that. And I'd let it happen. Because a part of me had thought maybe, maybe he was better than…well anyone else I'd let myself get tangled up with. That he wasn't a bad guy after all.

"Yeah, there is something between us." I rubbed at the back of my head.

I won't deny there was an uncomfortable shot of pain that I wanted to attribute to the spear wound but was in fact a little higher in my torso. A little closer to my heart. I didn't want to be the girl who thought she could change the violent red flags that a man presented, I didn't want to be the girl who let her fantasy get in the way of reality. Yet here I was, doing exactly that, feeling like maybe Havoc wasn't all bad. That maybe I could convince him not to kill me.

As if love was strong enough to make him…better.

"Cin?" Ship was the one who broke through my musing. "What's going through your head, you look sad?"

I nodded, focusing on the problem in front of me, and not the Havoc that was rippling through my tattered heart. "Berek, are you and Claire still connected to Havoc? Still part of his pack? I mean I assume so, but I have to ask."

Richard and Ship looked at each other and then to me. "We cut him out already. Soon as we left," Richard said.

I'd almost forgotten that they'd been building ties to Havoc too. As if Havoc and I were both their alphas. I gave them a nod. That was good. Even if it stung something in me, I didn't want to look too closely at.

I could have checked the bonds myself, but I was tired. Exhausted, and I needed all my strength to try and smother those bonds I had to Havoc. To block him as best I could.

Claire nodded. "We are. You think he might track us? To find you?"

That was exactly what I was thinking, or maybe hoping was a better word. "You should go, head east, get a plane, keep flying. See if you can draw him away."

Berek was already shaking his head. "Won't work."

"Why not?"

"Because even though he knows we are with you, it's not us he's tracking. He'd use us for confirmation or if he can't find the bond. That's the only way he'd look to us instead of to you." Berek ran a hand over his hair. "That's what I'd do, and he's a better strategist than me."

"Let me check the bonds; it might take a minute." Also, I didn't know what I'd find .

The others filtered out of the room, leaving me alone.

I forced myself to look inward, to the different bonds that were tied to me. My mother was gone. Richard and Ship's connections to me were solid, a warm presence. Bebe was there, woven through my heart, strong and fierce, such an unexpected bond that I was grateful for daily.

Han…was still my mate, by whatever power Loki had created the connection with…I couldn't help but touch the brand on my neck. The bond was there, and I couldn't break it, no matter how I'd tried. My mother knew how to steal mate bonds, but I had no idea if it was possible to actually remove them.

Havoc was another issue altogether. I could see that bond clearly, and it was stronger than the last time I'd looked at it. Golden and black, it pulsed with its own heartbeat, woven tightly together, braided over and over.

Calling to me to reach out and touch it. To bring my chosen mate to me, to let him find me. I itched to do just that, to let him find me as stupid as it was, I couldn't deny that I wanted him close. That I felt safer with him through all I'd faced.

I swallowed hard and reached for the bond between us and realized that it was awake.

And he was thinking dirty, dirty thoughts. He was thinking about us in the church. The last time we'd fucked.

I dropped my head, pressing my lips to the soft underside of her jaw and working my way along her neck. She tasted of sweetness and spice, and I let myself savor her flavor.

She arched her back, silently begging, her muscles quivering. A low, throaty rumble slid out of me as I pressed my body down onto the bed and slid down her body, branding her with nips and sharp sucks on her bare skin, leaving tiny marks.

Mine.

The word echoed between us.

My wolf knew what I didn't want to admit.

She was mine. The bond between us was stronger than anything I'd ever felt which was why I was fighting it. But everything Cin was…was everything I wanted. Everything I thought I'd never have.

Mine.

I could feel her fighting it too. We both knew it was fucking stupid to even try. But neither of us could stay away from each other.

A smile ghosted my lips as I worked my way back up her body. My mouth latched onto one of her nipples, sucking it in deep, rolling the nub and then growling as I drew it out, feeling her shake under me. I knew what my magic did to her.

I fucking loved it .

She gasped as I let go and slid further down her body, biting, marking her skin up as I went.

Possession.

Mate. She was my mate and when this was over…no. No I couldn't do that again, I couldn't risk the pain that came with losing someone you loved…

Mine.

She dug her nails into my shoulders, drawing scores across my back, the push of pleasure and pain had my cock throbbing.

One more time, just this one last time I'd fuck her and I'd get her out of my system.

Just one more time.

Even I knew it was a lie as I settled at the apex of her thighs, unable to stop marking her.

Unable to stop touching her, to make sure she was really here. That she was with me.

I sucked her clit into my mouth, rolling my tongue over it. Sweet and spice.

She was all I could have wanted and nothing I could ever have. Life for me never went that way. There was no happy ending. No hero's welcome.

There was this moment, and that was all.

I gasped as I fell to the floor, his memory of us together so poignantly sweet that I could barely breathe.

Love. He'd said the L word, the fucker.

Run, Goldie. The command was sudden and sharp, his thought rippled down the line between us, and it was as if he'd reached out and touched me. I couldn't stop the shiver that slid down my spine and pooled in my belly. Damn. There was something wrong with me, for sure. 100% I should not be feeling lusty when I knew that Havoc was on a hunt to kill me. That he would literally cut my head from my body given the chance.

That's what he'd been spelled to do, no matter what he felt.

But that tiny voice that said maybe I could be the one to make him better was stupid, and persistent. Love , that little voice whispered. He said it.

I wanted to drop kick that voice to the moon.

There was no room for love. Not when the world was on the cusp of blowing up.

I called the others back inside. "I can sense Havoc. He's a long way off, feels like he might still be in Grayling, and not moving." I sure as shit wasn't going to tell them that I'd gotten a piece of his memories.

"Maybe the spell isn't working?" Bebe offered. "Maybe he won't hunt you?"

Richard shook his head. "We can't bank on the spell not working."

"And we don't know what Han will do now," Berek said. "We don't know if he has a spell on him too, or if he's just a psychotic killer that will hunt you regardless. "

Another valid point. I changed the subject.

"Richard, can you sense a bond to Mars?" I scrunched up my face in the bright light. "You said he thought he could reach Kieran." Which meant Mars could very well be in danger.

Richard shook his head. "Nothing. The bond to him is there, but faint. He's worried, but not hurt. Like Havoc, I think he's still near Grayling if I had to guess."

I didn't like that I couldn't reach Mars too. That there was no bond between us, there hadn't been time to reinstate it by the looks of things. I opened my mouth to suggest maybe we try to get him back, maybe send Ship for him.

"We have to keep going," Richard said, his eyes on my face. "We can't go back for him, Cin, you know that and so does Mars."

Ship's face fell, and he lowered his head to his chin.

"Where does that leave us?" Claire asked. "Do we just keep driving?"

"I still think flying would be better," I said. "Get our feet off the ground, quit leaving tracks, and putting a large distance between us and them. That would give us the most time."

Berek nodded. "I agree. The more time and distance we can place between you and Havoc, the better."

Nope, I didn't like how my heart twisted up at that, or how my wolf and my golden both drooped .

We spent the next hour searching for flights. The nearest airport was six hours south, and the first flight that could carry more than one person would leave two days from then.

"And that's assuming any of us could get on a flight," Ship said. "None of us have any ID on us."

Eir circled through the room twice, checking on my wound, the tips of her wings brushing all the bits and bobs hanging from the ceiling. "Healing well."

"Thank you." I bent my head toward her. I didn't know if I should bow or what, but she'd saved my life. No matter what she said about me making a choice to come back from the edge of death.

Her eyes roved my face. "You have a bit of his look, you know."

Oh, shit.

I swallowed hard. "My father?"

Her smile was there and gone. "Yes. I fought at his side in several battles. He saved my life twice."

"Really?" I leaned toward her. "Is he?—"

"He is just, and fair. And he is an exceptional warrior, though the legends don't speak of him much." Eir touched a finger to one of the globes hanging from the ceiling, spinning it. "There is a storm coming. Even if you were able to get a plane, it would be grounded."

I stared at her. "You have something in mind?"

She shrugged. "It is a last resort. But this place you go to, there is a vampire who rules, isn't there? "

How the hell did she know that?

Before I could even ask, she waved her hand at me. "I've been listening to you all for the last few days. The things you've all said. How you hid from your brothers for so long, how you thought the bonds were gone. A vampire's home ground is often hidden, and all those closest to him would fall under that hiding."

"Fucking Grant!" I whispered.

She arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps best not to fuck him, since you are already bonded to two wolves?"

I shook my head. "Manner of speaking. That's why I was safe for so long there?"

Eir leaned closer and lowered her voice. "It's not a well-known trait of vampires, but it's how they keep their feed supply away from any who might be looking for them. Family members and the like."

Grant…he'd helped hide me. Had he known that he was hiding me? "Do they have to bite you?"

"No, he does not. This is very interesting. He must hold you in high regard." Eir slipped out of the room.

Bebe was at my feet. "I heard all that. Bonus for us, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded. All the more reason to get back to Skagway as fast as we could. Maybe I couldn't hide forever, but I could hide for a little while. Long enough to find some answers.

Richard was flipping through his phone when I looked over at him. "Eir is right. There is a big storm coming. Everything is going into lockdown."

A waft of cool air flowed in as Eir stepped back into the room and she snapped her fingers, drawing all our eyes to her. "I have secured a flight for you. Very small, and…unusual in its engines…but it will carry you all to the place you need to go. I think it is best you leave soon." She paused and gave me a serious look. "I do not want either Han nor Havoc on my doorstep."

Richard stepped between me and Eir. "Why are you helping us?"

I pushed him aside. "Don't be Dick. She knew…she knew my father."

There. I said it. Out loud even.

Eir dipped her head in my direction. "Her father saved me. I repay him by helping his daughter in a time of need."

"Thank you, Eir." I got to my feet, testing out how wobbly I was. Not too bad. I had no doubt I'd sleep on the plane seeing as the healing fatigue was tugging at me still. But that was a minor price to pay for staying on this side of the dirt.

"I will have them prep the plane." Eir said then turned and left us once more.

Bebe danced along at my side. "Any strippers in Alaska? I mean thinking about it, it would make sense that there would only be girly strippers. Because the guys…I mean the cold and all that shrinkage. What a waste!"

Richard choked on a laugh. "Oh my gods."

No one else heard her of course. I sighed. "I am quite sure we could find at least one male stripper. Maybe we could light a fire for him."

"I could light him on fire," Bebe muttered as she sashayed along with us.

Richard was on my left as we exited the small cottage with all the strange dangling rocks and floating flower petals—and stepped out onto a plateau that overlooked a valley far below. Thunder rumbled in the distance, turning me right around.

Black clouds boiled toward us, flashes of lighting ripping through them far too often for my liking.

"It is time to make haste. The storm will be on us before long." Eir motioned for us to follow her.

We hurried down a path that wove along the edge of the plateau. "Lots of birds here?" Ship asked. "I keep hearing wing beats."

I tipped my head. He was right, I heard them too. The steady thump of wings pumping through the air. Not small wings either, they sounded big with a heavy percussion.

As we rounded a corner, skirting a huge pile of boulders, the wings came into view.

A half a dozen women with wings like Eir's, spread wide and catching the updrafts. No single woman looked alike— they were all different skin tones and hair colors, from light to dark, and everything in between. Two had skin with silvery tones, like they'd been metallicized, one had skin that looked marbleized, white with black lines running across her muscles.

And muscles…damn there were a lot of those. Their muscles rippled as they tread air with ease, adjusting their wings to catch all the currents. Weapons—mostly swords—were strapped to their sides, and there were a few that carried longer weapons on their back, the handles sticking up between their shoulder blades.

The next thing that I noticed, was that each of the women wore a thick strapped harness that was padded through the shoulders. From each of their harnesses was a long cargo strap that was then attached to a pile of metal below them.

Eir pointed to a pile of metal strapped together with…no…that could not be what she meant for us to use.

"That's the plane?" The words came out in a high-pitched rush as I pointed to the metal pieces.

I use the term plane in this context: there were wings, and a basic structure with straps and belts, that would make you think ‘plane'. But there were no walls. No seats. No engine. No propellor.

I stared at the contraption and then up to the woman treading air above it. "This is not a good idea; those straps are far from?—"

"Hurry up, they don't have all day, and neither do you." Eir put a hand to the middle of my back and gently pushed me forward. "Your father…well, this will not cover what I owe him, but it is a start. Go. Before the storm hits and makes take off impossible." She gave me another shove, this one less gentle, for good measure.

"Are you sure you aren't trying to kill her?" Ship said. He wasn't big on heights. He'd do it because there were others there watching, but he'd be sweating buckets.

"I agree with him," Bebe said. "I don't see like a cat harness, and I'm guessing we are going to be super high up, and going super-fast and I am super fucking sure I don't like this idea."

"Afraid of heights?" Richard asked.

"Afraid of falling from heights!" Bebe snapped back. "This is a terrible, stupid, awful idea!"

I looked at Eir, and thought about the fact that being near Grant would help hide us all. She gave me a subtle nod. I trusted her despite how short a time I'd known her. "You're sure?"

Her smile was tight. "I…this is the way you must take. The path you must fly."

There was something about her voice that made me think of Suvenia, the spirit of the tree of life. That was the deciding factor. Whatever we had to face, this was a part of it.

"We go. Now." I put a little weight into the words, using my alpha strength to get everyone moving.

And that's how we ended up strapped into the bare bones plane, as if we were on some mushroom induced high. It didn't seem real. I mean…who would have believed it if we'd tried to explain to them how we traversed the last distance between northern Alberta and Alaska?

No one, that's the answer in case you weren't sure.

I clutched the straps that were above my head. The five-point harness was a great touch, the straps under my legs nice and snug, but as Bebe was repeatedly pointing out, it meant nothing if we fell. There were no parachutes attached to us, no back up plan.

"Bebe, stop squirming!" Richard yelped as her claws dug into him. She twisted her head around to look back me. She'd decided to go with Richard, pointing out that if she was the backup carrier of the sun, we needed to be separate. In case one of us fell a billion feet to her death, the other had to be willing to take the sun on. Her words, not mine.

I chose not to point out that we'd have to be touching in order to pass the sun back and forth, but she was obviously panicking. And I couldn't blame her, this was going to be…not fun.

All in all, we'd settled on stuffing her down the front of Richard's shirt just prior to the harness going on. The reality was if one of us went down, we were all going down.

"I can't help it when I'm nervous!" She yowled. "This is…I don't like this!"

Above us one of the Valkyries spoke, as if she were an airline attendant. "Valkyrie flight 101 preparing for take-off. Please keep your hands and feet inside the plane at all times?—"

"It's not a plane, it's a fucking joke of an amusement park ride and I hate it!" Bebe snapped.

"Please remain seated for the entirety of the flight, and ensure that your seatbelt remains on at all times?—"

"Like we have a choice," Ship muttered. He was to my left, his face nearly as pale as Eir's, though his skin had a bit more of a green tinge to it.

"And do be sure to leave us a review on Google, we appreciate your patronage. Have a good flight!"

Before anyone else could bitch, moan or otherwise complain, the skeleton of a plane lurched straight up, so our feet dangled a solid four feet above the ground.

Straight up and then it wobbled side to side. My belly rolled and I swallowed hard. "Bebe."

"Yeah?"

"You were right, this was a terrible idea."