by J. E. Taylor
“You aren’t just saying that to make me back off, are you?” she asked once she seemed to recover from the shock.
“No. I can handle myself where the man-beast is concerned. But I can’t handle him while I’m trying to protect someone else. We both know how bad I am at multitasking like that.”
My gentle reminder set all her fight on pause. She gave me a nod and turned to leave. “Just promise you will be careful,” she said from the doorway.
“I will.” As soon as the door closed, I collapsed on the couch. I needed to go through the papers the senate had delivered this morning, but I wasn’t in the mood to get more aggravated.
I closed my eyes. His face appeared on the back of my eyelids, and I growled, shooting to my feet. I needed to shake this fixation. I stomped over to my desk, took a seat, and started shuffling through the mundane paperwork.
The senate wanted to restrict where people emptied their chamber pots. I scribbled my name on that new law without delving into the pages of facts that accompanied the cover page. I could get on board with cleaning up the streets. It might be a pain to dig a hole for the waste, but it certainly was better than the free-flowing rivers of sludge that carved canals on each side of the road.
The next one perplexed me. They wanted to put a law in place that stated that the males of Bryggen starting at the age of sixteen must go out and pillage nearby countries every five years. That one I read at least three times before I tore the paper in two. I would not condone that sort of act under my rule.
The last rule actually pulled a snorting laugh from my nose. They wanted me to sign a law that if a man challenges another to a fist fight to the death, he must accept or pay a penalty of four deer to the challenger. I sighed and closed my eyes. This was what men came up with when closed in a room for twelve hours at a clip. But at least this one gave the person challenged a way out of a fight to the death. I scrawled my name on the paper and set that aside.
The rest of the papers were updates on population statistics, tax collection values, and kingdom budget shortfalls and excesses. I scoured over each one. When I leaned back and rubbed my eyes, I felt more focused than when I’d started.
Unfortunately, he was still there gnawing at the back of my mind.
My gaze pulled to the window and the snowy peak beyond.
“Damn it,” I muttered and finished my daily sovereign duties.
Chapter 4
The next morning, I woke before the sun rose and snuck from the palace. If I had waited until the sun broke the horizon, Anna would have been tailing me despite our conversation yesterday. I quickly slipped from the kingdom without notice from any of the dozing guards.
My journey to the mountain peak was quicker than it had been the other day, my purpose two-fold. I climbed the steps, but instead of entering the ice palace, I turned and stared over the valley just as the sun poked from the horizon, dousing the land in its honey-colored hue. With the beauty of the sunrise tempering my aggravation, I turned and marched into my ice castle.
The white fur in the corner set off another tirade of irritation.
“I thought I told you to be gone by the time I returned.” My voice echoed, vibrating on the ice.
The bear gave me a cursory glance before turning away with a huff.
I took a step towards him.
“Don’t.”
The voice came from the stairwell, not the direction of the bear. I stopped short and turned. Kyle stood with bloody bandages in his hands. My eyes widened, and I scanned his form for the source of the wound.
“A hunter shot him,” he said, nodding toward the bear in the corner.
A million questions fluttered in my head, and I blinked, turning back toward the bear. Was he one of them? Had he been here yesterday? Was he as good-looking as Kyle? The last question riled my feathers. I glanced back at the man who put the sizzle in my blood.
“Before you get that pretty little mind of yours in a tizzy at someone else squatting in your castle, he is injured and confused and will likely take off your head if you get any closer.”
“Is he one of you?” I nearly spat out the words.
Kyle laughed. “No. I’m the only one left like me. No others survived.” Bitterness crept into his voice. He turned and continued up the stairs with the bloodied bandages.
I stared at the bear and then scurried up the steps to find Kyle in my bedroom, where he stepped out onto the balcony and dropped the bloodied rags into the ravine. He turned, and his eyes narrowed at me.
“Are you here to make another sad attempt to kick me out?” He crossed his arms, smearing blood on his shirt.
I tore my eyes away from those crimson swaths and met his gaze. “I told you to be gone by the time I returned.” I adopted the same stance as him, jutting my chin out with authority.
He crossed the distance and glared down his nose at me.
When he cocked his eyebrow, I opened my palms with the intention of blasting him into the ravine. Before I had a chance to let my power loose, he had my wrists plastered to the wall far enough away from me that nothing I conjured would hit him. His body pressed against mine in a way that didn’t afford me the opportunity to use my knee like I had yesterday.
He stared down at me, and the corner of his lip turned up. Fire blazed in his gaze.
“I see you have not come to terms with the arrangement.” His voice was soft, and yet it held an edge that sent a shiver down my spine.
“I built this palace,” I snarled up at him.
“You are quite the engineer. But it is mine now.”
I let out a guttural roar and tried to break his grip on me. He pressed his full weight against me.
“Are you trying to summon the bear?” A growl crept into his voice.
I continued struggling against his iron grip.
He leaned close to my ear. “I would heed my warning. The bear is hungry, and once he comes forth, I will not be able to stop him from ripping out your tender throat.”
I stilled, wondering whether he was just saying that to get me to calm down or if he really was straining to hold the beast inside him.
He pulled away from my ear, meeting my gaze. His eyes were on the verge of wild and his jaw clenched as he held me in place. The pressure of his chest on mine increased with each deep breath of his.
His form molded to mine in a way that brought heat to my cheeks, as well as other places. I tried to shift under his weight to still the pounding in my chest. My heartbeat had traveled into the frenzied zone, and I wasn’t sure if it was just from the anger biting at my skin.
I shook my head to get rid of the unwanted thoughts, and dimples appeared in his cheeks, despite the clench of his jaw.
“Have you gotten control over the mangy beast yet?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed, and his dimples disappeared. “What if I said I just like being this close to you?”
He had the audacity to press his hips closer, making me hyperaware of his body. The hardness of it felt divine against me and made me wonder what it would be like to have him inside me instead of trapping me against a wall.
I clenched my teeth and forced my wrists to bend far enough to send a blast of ice towards his head. I missed, but just the action made his face turn red and his lips press into a line that made them nonexistent.
His chest rumbled with a growl and before my eyes, he shifted. The polar bear’s weight pressed the air from my lungs, and his paws nearly crushed my wrists. I couldn’t air the scream trapped in my lungs until he leaned back enough to aim his fanged mouth at my throat.
The bear bellowed and spun away from me. I crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath, and stared at the arrow sticking out from the creature’s backside as he charged towards the bedroom door.
A glimpse of a figure with long brown hair dodging him set my heart back into overdrive. Without thinking, I shot my palms at the bear and captured him in a wall of ice.
Anna stood just beyond him with a bow, trying to thread
the arrow into it with hands that shook too much. If I hadn’t made Kyle into an icicle, she would be dead. She ran to me, dropping the bow and arrow on the floor before throwing her arms around my neck.
The crack of ice caused me to push Anna behind me. Kyle shattered the cube and roared at us.
I aimed my palms at him again. “I will knock you clear into the ravine if you so much as take a step in this direction.” With Anna here, my voice sounded just as fierce as the bear’s roar had.
He must have seen my intent reflected in my eyes because he huffed and shifted back into a man.
“That wench shot me,” he snarled and reached behind him, grasping at the arrow embedded in his ass.
“She is most certainly not a wench,” I growled back.
His face contorted into a grimace as he tried to pull the arrow out. He didn’t have the dexterity to do it without causing more harm. It was like watching a puppy chase his own tail.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” I said, curling my hands into tight fists. I marched behind him, slapped his hand away, and yanked the arrow out.
He howled and spun on me.
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Perhaps if you hadn’t acted like such an ass, you wouldn’t have been shot in your backside.” I turned away and nodded for Anna to join me at the door.
I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Kyle rip his shirt off and press it into the bloody wound on his well-formed butt cheek.
I blinked at the sight of his marred skin, slowing to a stop. His body had whip marks traversed across his back and arms as if someone had taken a belt to him and hadn’t stopped until he was within inches of his life.
My stomach plummeted at the thought.
Anna tugged my arm. “Elsa,” she whispered.
I turned away from Kyle, conflicted.
I stepped onto the landing and glanced down the stairs at the fur ball in the corner. The steady rise and fall of its back told me what I needed. The bear on the first floor was asleep.
“Don’t wake the bear downstairs on your way out,” I whispered.
She balked and waved her hand in Kyle’s direction.
“I promise I will be okay,” I said. “I will be along as soon as I help him tend to his wound.”
She pressed her lips together, and I shooed her away.
As soon as she was out the front door, I turned back to Kyle. His back was to me, and he held the shirt in place with his head dipped low. I studied the patterns on his back, and they tugged at my heartstrings. This was a man who knew nothing about mercy or kindness.
“Let me help,” I said when Anna was at a safe distance from the palace.
He stiffened and glanced over his shoulder. “I thought you and that wench had left.”
I crossed my arms. “You knew I was still here.”
His lips pressed together in a smirk and he shrugged. “You know, if she was aiming for my heart, she’s a terrible shot,” he muttered and turned towards me.
“She wasn’t aiming to kill. Anna doesn’t have that in her.” I crossed and took the shirt from him, studying the amount of blood on the fabric before folding it over. I pressed it back in place.
“But you do.” He eyed me warily.
I nodded. “Just as you do,” I replied, meeting his stare. I pulled the fabric away a second time. There was a new patch of fresh blood soaking into the fabric. “I think you may need me to stitch you up.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “With the arrow out, I can just shift, and the bear will take care of the healing.”
“Then why don’t you?”
He was quiet as he glanced down at me with a crooked smile. “It’s been a while since a woman held my ass.”
“Oh, for the love of...” I threw his shirt at him and stormed out of the room, leaving him to deal with his wound himself.
Chapter 5
By the time I got back to the castle, I was ready to give Anna a piece of my mind. Her running up there was just too dangerous, especially since she had two children to tend to.
I stepped into my chambers to find Anna sitting on my couch, waiting for me to come back.
“What were you thinking?” I snarled.
“I was thinking about saving you. That bear was ready to tear your head off.”
“He is all roar,” I said, but even I heard the absence of truth in my statement.
She leveled a look at me that always made me fidget. It was the same one I had given her in the past and gotten the same results. It was the ‘you are so full of bullshit and you know it’ gaze.
“He wouldn’t have killed me,” I said. Maimed me for sure, but I’d like to think he would have stopped short of draining my life away, especially with that mischievous grin he’d given me just before I left.
“Who are you trying to fool? That bear was seconds away from attacking, and you know it.” Anna’s anger filled the room and echoed in her voice.
Heat filled my cheeks, and I glanced away. I hadn’t heeded his words of warning. I poked the bear and nearly lost my head in the process. Anna was right. I wasn’t trying to convince her. I was trying to convince myself.
I crossed to the window and glanced up at the snowy peak. The ice glinted in the sun, and my mind clouded over with the feel of him pressing against me. If only he wasn’t such a genuine ass. I sighed and turned back to Anna.
Her eyes narrowed. “You have a thing for that heathen.” She waved towards the window.
I opened my mouth to disagree.
“Don’t even try to deny it. I can see it in the color of your cheeks and that dreamy look you get whenever you look in that direction.”
My eyebrows rose. “What dreamy look?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s the same look you’ve given me grief over when Kris is working in the yard and I’m watching him. I happened to catch a glance in the mirror once and you were right. It is the goofiest expression.”
I pressed my lips against the smile. “Maybe I’m just dreaming of having my ice castle back,” I said to defer the conversation. But she had struck a hidden nerve. It was as if I was compelled to look his way, and that bloomed the heat of aggravation under the surface of my skin.
My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t had anything to eat. Anna’s features softened at the grumbling.
“You haven’t eaten anything, either?” she asked.
“No. And I better eat soon, or otherwise my trip to the senate will be a different kind of mess.” I crossed to my desk and stuffed the papers I’d signed yesterday into my satchel, resigned to an afternoon of boredom within the senate today.
But not before Anna and I raided the kitchen. The castle cook, Buster to all who wandered these dark hallways, was more than willing to serve us up scrumptious delights. He glowed as radiant as his white chef hat when we raved about the delectable selections he offered.
Neither Anna nor I had cornered him in the kitchen since our parents died, so this was a rare occasion for all of us. We reminisced about our younger years with Buster, laughing as he continued to recount our fearless feats.
It was well past the time of the opening of the senate floor by the time I took my leave, but I had signed bills to deliver and a warning to issue regarding the plunder law they’d thrown together. As I walked through the door, I heard voices arguing from the senate floor. I stopped to listen to the lively conversation on poaching. It wasn’t until a smooth baritone voice rose above the others that a chill ran down my spine.
I threw the door open and stepped inside before the knight guards could announce that the queen had arrived. From across the floor, our eyes met.
A blaze of anger flushed through me, and I clenched my fists.
He broke my gaze first. “Ah, the voice of reason has arrived.” He waved towards where I stood, silencing the senate. Then he turned and took a knee in a bow so formal that I nearly laughed.
Kyle Bryggen was quite the actor. If the senate knew he was one of the bear shifters of old, they would be quakin
g in their boots.
“And what is it that I am deemed so reasonable about?” I said, projecting my voice as I made my way down the steps to the floor. Keeping my distance, I crossed the floor and handed the secretary the papers I’d signed yesterday. When I finally returned my attention to Kyle, he was back on his feet with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Poaching,” he said. “Shooting bears for their fur.”
I crossed my arms. “A bear hide is especially warm when winter falls, Mr...” I rolled my hand to make him finish my sentence.
“Bergeron.” His eyes blazed.
I narrowed my gaze. He used an alias in the senate house, and I wondered why, especially since he had been so full of piss and vinegar up in the ice castle.
“Well, Mr. Bergeron. What is your beef with Bryggen’s hunters?”
“I think it is a sick practice and should be stopped immediately. Especially since I was walking in the woods and was nearly clipped in the ass with an arrow.”
I cocked my eyebrow. So that’s what he was going with. “Well, sir, you were probably somewhere where you shouldn’t be.”
His face reddened.
I turned towards Arron Brax. “Senator Brax, what do you think of Mr. Bergeron’s proposal?”
Senator Brax was studying the dynamics between Kyle and me with a sharp eye. “I’m not so sure I’m against this man’s proposal. He is talking about hunting for sport as opposed to hunting for survival.”
I actually laughed. “And you sanctioned a law that directs our young men to go out and plunder nearby countries?”
Kyle raised an eyebrow.
“That was the only law that passed my desk that I ripped to shreds. I happen to agree that hunting or plundering for sport is wrong, as well,” I said and leveled my best challenging stare at the good senator.
He shifted in his seat.
I turned towards Kyle. “I will see to it that this is voted on today, sir.”
The edge of his lip curved up and he gave me another deep bow. “Thank you, My Queen.”
