Chapter 6

6

N icola didn't know how long she slept amongst the soft blankets and furs. She hadn't felt safe since her father had died. Her mother had died when she was a baby. She had no one else in the world.

How different would her life have been if she had been born a boy? She would've challenged the right to inherit the pack, no matter how strong of an alpha she was. But she had been born a woman and taught to serve. It grated on her for her entire life. Her father was traditional, and she was allowed only so much freedom.

After he passed, she was still above any suspicion. No one suspected when she was making quiet inquiries on Kaleb and the pack's movements.

Being the old alpha's daughter had still carried weight with non-wolves as well because they didn't realize that, politically, she was now closest to the lowest of the low.

That would have changed if she had agreed to mate with Kaleb. She had thought about it before she had learned the truth of what he was doing, but she couldn't bring herself to accept him. He was a good-looking guy and proof that something rotten could wear the face of an angel.

Nicola couldn't bear the thought of him touching her, no matter how good of a political match. Whenever they had been around him, her skin had constantly crawled, and her wolf was uneasy.

It was a wonder that she didn't feel the same with Thor. He was meant to be the monster in the night. It had been hammered into her that the wargs were abominations, no matter that they traded with them and did what they could to keep the peace. The fact they were also vampires made them scum to wolves. And yet, they had been kind to her. Thor didn't frighten her in the slightest. In fact, she wanted to curl up to him and bask in the unseen power that radiated from him.

Nicola stretched out her fingers against the furs, letting their softness soothe her. She was recovered enough to smell a very masculine, pine-drenched scent on them along with something that smelled like berries.

She had also noticed that the adjoining bathroom had men's aftershaves and body washes in it. One was pine and cloudberry scented, which smelled the same as the bed. The toothbrush had been moved and replaced with a fresh one for her use. She was sleeping in his quarters.

The wolf inside of her made a happy growl. Mate .

Nicola smiled sleepily and then realized what it had said. It was like an electric shock through her whole body, and she went bolt upright. What do you mean by mate?

The wolf sent her a series of impressions. Mate. Find mate. Safe . Nicola had a hazy memory of snow and nuzzling the giant Viking in the forest. Safe .

"Fuck. That can't possibly..." Nicola whispered, clutching her hair. She had been dying, and her survival instincts had driven her every step of the way. She had felt a sensation of something at the party Thor was at but didn't have time to figure out what it meant. If she knew, did that mean Thor knew? She couldn't be sure of that because wargs were created into wolves by magic. He wasn't born one.

She flopped backward onto the pile of pillows. Her situation had become infinitely more complicated. Her physical attraction and her need to curl up into him suddenly made sense. Her wolf had been trying to tell her something, and she was too wounded to listen.

There was a brisk knock on the door, and a woman with long golden braids came in.

Astrid , Nicola remembered. The one who kept feeding her until she almost popped.

"Okay, princess, it's time to get up. We got wolves coming," a woman said, putting a pile of clothes on the end of the bed.

"Shit. How long have I been sleeping?" Nicola asked, reaching for the clothes.

"About three days. It shows that a weak pup is leading the pack. Three days is a long time to summon your courage." Astrid snorted. "I had to guess what size you were, but we can get you something more suitable soon. We just need you dressed so that when Thor lets these Pateras Pack emissaries into the territory, they can see you are unharmed."

"They never gave a fuck about me being harmed before," Nicola said bitterly.

"No time to pout, princess. You have twenty minutes to shower and make yourself presentable. I will wait," Astrid said and sat on the chair Thor had been in the previous day.

Nicola took the clothes into the bathroom and showered in record time. She wanted to linger under the steam and have a good cry, but Astrid was right. There was no time to pout. She needed to show that she was there of her own free will, otherwise, Kaleb could say Thor kidnapped her. He could take the matter to the Blood Lords and say that it was a breach of the treaty. It would give him the excuse he needed to start the war he was so desperately trying to orchestrate.

Fuck him. Nicola would destroy him and his fucked up plans even if it killed her.

The clothes were simple jeans and a red, long-sleeved Henley with snap buttons down the front. The color suited her, which was good because she had no makeup to make her look any better. She still had dark marks under her eyes from her imprisonment, but the rest of her body was recovering. Wolves had rapid healing, and all the food and sleep the previous days, as well as Thor's blood, had helped her gain back some of the weight she had lost.

"Sit, and I'll braid your hair back," Astrid said and pointed to the bed.

"I didn't have time to wash it," Nicola tried to say, but Astrid just waved her words away. She got a brush from the bathroom and made quick work of Nicola's hair despite its length and thickness. It was her one feature that she found truly beautiful, so she was vain about it and had always kept it long enough to touch her waist.

Astrid pulled out some lip balm and, with a few swipes of it across Nicola's lips, declared, "I suppose you will do."

"Do you know what I'm expected to do? Or is it a shut-up-and-look-pretty situation?" Nicola asked, straightening her shoulders.

Astrid's gray eyes studied her. "Thor's never been much interested in anyone playing shut up and look pretty . You know wolf politics better than any of us. Following Thor's lead and doing what you think is best is always good advice."

Nicola frowned. "Really? That's it?"

"Yes. Unless you want to take an ax and kill them? Because I have a spare ax, and I think Thor would like that too. I've not seen him this angry in a hundred years," Astrid said with a wicked grin. It made the scar on her lip tug in a way that made it a little wilder.

Nicola sighed. "As much as I would like to, it would cause more problems. Kaleb wants a war. I don't want to give it to him."

"So why did you come here then?"

"My wolf brought me here," Nicola said, and Astrid's smile went impish.

"Ah, that explains things. Let's go," was all she said as she opened the door to the bedroom.

Nicola followed her out of the room and into a small hallway.

"Put your war face on, wolf. This is going to be interesting," Astrid said and pushed her through another door.