by Sonja Bair
FREYA’S FOUNDING
Books by Sonja Bair
Freya’s Inferno
Freya’s Founding
Freya’s Founding
Winging It Series: Book 2
Sonja Bair
Freya’s Inferno
Copyright © 2017 Sonja Bair
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9980536-1-5
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.
Cover by Xavier Comas
For M and N— because I’m a better person around you.
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him”
-David Brinkley
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 1
The crowd of passengers getting off the still-rumbling train had thickened from a trickle into a mob and then thinned back to a trickle, but there was still no sight of anyone matching Regina Romano’s description. The train sounded its two-minute-departure warning bell. I looked up at David, and he shrugged back. I checked my phone. Yes, I wasn’t going crazy. There was the text I got a few hours ago, saying she was on the train. Then looking back up from my phone, I jumped slightly. She was standing right in front of us.
It had to be her. She matched the given description of a seventeen-year-old girl with shoulder-length dark hair but moreover, she fit the report of a sulky teenager with authority problems. Standing in front of David and me, she tapped her fingers on her crossed arms and curled her lip into a sneer. I took a quick glance at her luggage, relieved to see no sledgehammer or other house demolition tools.
We are mixing ancient legends that were never supposed to be mixed, whispered the logical part of my brain. Here I was—a vertically challenged, Scandinavian-pale teacher who happened to be able to grow wings and fly—standing next to a tall, mocha-colored businessman—who himself happened to be able to turn into a really big wolf and tear whatever got in his way to pieces. And now, together as co-Alphas, we were standing in front of our new responsibility. This freshly acquired packmate was not only another werewolf but also a potentially psychotic kid who got kicked out of her own pack. Why? Because she destroyed most of her family’s home with a sledgehammer. And to top it off, for the foreseeable future, she was also going to be living in my house.
The logical voice might be right, agreed the rest of my brain. What possible good could come from this mix-up of mythos?
Shifting my feet slightly, I waited for David to say something first, as he was the only other werewolf here. And although Gina waited for him to speak first, her jaw jutted forward and she glared resentfully at him without breaking eye contact. In the next few moments, while David silently studied her, Gina’s glare wavered and then fell from his face down to the pavement, where she stared, shoulders tightly drawn, at her ratty tennis shoes. My gaze bounced from Gina to David and back. A palpable sense of power was coming off David, and it was thick enough that even bystanders were stealing cautious glances his way. Although she had broken off eye contact, the vibe coming off Gina reeked of displeasure. And me? The vibe coming off me was straight-up bafflement. I had no idea what to do with this entire situation. I was so out of my league being an Alpha of a werewolf pack.
I still hadn’t gotten the training manual on all the things I should know re: werewolves. Probably because there wasn’t a training manual—I was the only non-werewolf to have ever become Alpha in known history. So instead of a lifetime of experience, I was going to have to wing the co-Alpha thing. And I was raised to be polite. Feeling like David’s power play had gone on long enough, I stuck out my hand to Gina in greeting.
“Hi, I’m Freya Holm. And this is David Waterstone. I take it you are Gina?” I said.
Gina haltingly shifted her gaze away from her shoes and startled slightly, as if this were the first time she had actually observed me. My hand remained empty, hanging in the air.
“So welcome to San Luis Obispo, Happiest City in America,” I continued like there was nothing weird going on. “You’ll be staying with me for the time being. David’s house is already full of werewolves.”
Gina continued to look at me, eyes wide. The pieces finally clicked together in my brain. “So, right now I’m guessing that I’m not what you expected, right?” I said to Gina while looking askance at David, more than a little bit ticked off at him. “He forgot to mention to your pack that I’m not a traditional Alpha, didn’t he?” I asked her.
David looked down at me and instead of looking embarrassed or even defensive, he smiled at me, a big, bright smile that crinkled the corners of his bright green eyes. “Nope. I didn’t tell them. First of all, it’s none of their business and second of all, some things are best explained in person.” He looked away from me and recaptured Gina’s glance. “Regina Romano. Welcome to your new pack.” His smile carried over from me to her, and the air, previously heavy from whatever power David was emitting, lightened significantly. He held out his hand. “We do things a little different around here.”
Gina shook his hand and then shook mine as well. Her eyes were still big.
“So is this all your luggage?” I motioned to her bags. “It’s not a lot.”
Gina still hadn’t said a word during this entire exchange. My question must have broken her out of her trance.
“They are so going to kill you,” she said in a hushed voice.
Her words didn’t surprise me—it had been a rough few months. I sighed. “Unfortunately, that’s something I have been hearing a lot lately. Fortunately, I’ve managed to stay alive so far.”
I picked up a small-sized duffel bag and shooed Gina down the train station platform. “Let’s talk about this at my house. There are too many people here to explain details.”
David picked up Gina’s other, larger bag as if it were packed with feathers, and followed me to my car. Normally, I would have walked home from
the train station since I lived so close, but I was anticipating a teenager’s worth of luggage and so we had driven my car. I was surprised at how little Gina had packed.
“So, Gina, these bags are the only luggage you have? Are your parents sending more stuff through the mail?” I asked.
“My parents threw away most of my stuff to try to teach me a lesson. These are all the things I have left,” Gina said in a casual tone, like she didn’t care about the loss of her stuff, but in the stiffening of her shoulders, I saw the underlying pain.
“Okay. Well, if you ever need to borrow anything, let me know,” I responded in an equally casual tone.
We drove the few blocks to my rental house, which was tucked behind a larger house. My place was more like a cottage, and in fact had been the guest cottage for the front house for decades before I moved in. It was going to be a tight squeeze for Gina and me to share it, but we’d make do. Neither of us had a choice.
I plopped her duffle bag down in the front living room. It was only a one-bedroom house, but the living room had pocket doors which could be pulled closed to create a makeshift bedroom. This was going to be Gina’s room for the foreseeable future. David placed the large bag next to the duffle and turned to Gina and me.
“Gina, please have a seat. We need to discuss the situation,” David said, his face turning stern and controlled again as he sat down on my slightly saggy, worn-out sofa. I had learned that David had a strong sense of humor and a playful side, but his default mannerism, especially in new situations, was deadly serious and more than a little intimidating. Add to the formidable expression about six feet and two inches of solid build, and he could stare down his share of monsters by his mere presence. Being about five foot and almost no inches, I can’t do intimidating easily. I sat on the arm of the sofa, perhaps subconsciously trying to maintain height. Gina sat in the caned rocking chair I inherited from my grandmother and looked between David and me. I wasn’t surprised that she still didn’t seem completely intimidated by David. From the stories of her home pack, forced authority didn’t work well on her.
David cleared his throat and started the conversation. “First of all, Gina, we want to welcome you to San Luis Obispo and to your new pack. You are starting life with a clean slate here. Freya and I only heard one side of the story from your Alphas and we assume that there is more to it than what they said. But we are not going to ask you to explain right now, nor will we in the future. If you feel like sharing with us later, we will listen with an open mind and try to help if we can. Understand?” He paused and looked at Gina. She nodded cautiously, no new emotion registering on her face. “We are now as close to family as you have. But, as you are now part of our family, there are certain rules and behaviors we would expect from all family.”
Feeling like we needed to provide reassurance to a kid who recently lost everything, I interrupted. “And there are rules, behaviors, and support you can expect from us as your family.” I looked at David for his confirmation. He nodded and I continued. “So what the three of us are going to do right now is to draw up a contract of expectations, responsibilities, and rules that all of us can depend on. If everyone follows the contract, there is no need for overly strict rules or harsh punishment from us.”
Besides being a non-werewolf leader of a werewolf pack, I am a high school science teacher. I have used this particular contract of behavior before with troubled students, and it had worked well. Getting student input created a lot more buy-in and participation. I had suggested the idea earlier to David, and he agreed with me.
Gina continued her strategy of not saying anything, and merely looked between the two of us. She rocked her chair back and forth. The wood in the chair squeaked softly. She looked strangely old, sitting as she was. Gritting my teeth at her long silence, I decided it was her move next and I would wait as long as required. After a couple of minutes, she focused on me and spoke.
“They are so going to kill you.” Her voice was steady and sure, but thankfully she didn’t seem pleased about my supposed death sentence.
I sighed and sat back toward the wall. “Gina, this really isn’t about me right now. It’s about you and your new living situation.”
She snorted. “But you’re wrong. They are going to kill you and probably him,” she waved at David, “and then I’m going to be out of a place to go, again. This totally sucks.”
David rolled forward, placed his elbows on his knees, leaned toward her, and spoke so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “Gina. Your attitude right now is bullshit. If you think you are in a bad spot right now, you should think again. You were in a lot more trouble at home. What was your sentence before I called and worked out our arrangement? Do you know?” A long pause hung in the air. David continued. “You weren’t going to see your eighteenth birthday.”
The rocking chair stopped squeaking and Gina’s face paled to sheet white. I turned to David, shocked. They were going to kill her? They were going to kill their own daughter and packmate?
David’s voice was again oh, so quiet. “So, Gina, let’s try this introduction again. We saved your life. You moved here, like it or not. So are you going to choose to do things the easy way and cooperate with us, or the hard way and cause trouble? Make your choice now so Freya and I don’t waste our time trying to figure it out.”
The air sunk down on us, heavy again. Somehow in his few words, David had completely changed the whole discussion. It was as if he had sucked all the energy out of the room and controlled it through his voice alone. It was like what he did at the train station, but more. We were all beholden to him at the moment. I wasn’t sure if it was a supernatural power or just a very effective and scary leadership tactic. I looked away from David and over to Gina. She seemed to have shrunken down to half her size, but a spark of her earlier anger still remained in her eyes. I watched the inner battle of wholesale rebellion against authority and the realization that she had run up against a force bigger than herself. Authority, or at least common sense, won the battle. The spark of anger went out of her eyes. I inwardly gave a sigh of relief. She was going to play nice for now.
“Okay, I’ll do your contract thing. But can I ask one question?” Gina spoke in a quiet voice.
David nodded.
“I don’t get why Freya is an Alpha when she isn’t even a werewolf.”
David looked at me and smiled. I gave a half-smile back. “I didn’t have a choice,” I replied. Unlike mythology, the werewolf gene was only passed down as a hereditary trait. Well, most of the time it was. “I was hanging out around David and I somehow got drawn into the pack. It was as much of a surprise to me as anyone. But no, I can’t turn into a werewolf, and I certainly never asked for the role.” I blew out a puff of air in frustration. “In fact, I tried desperately to get out of it for a while, but David and the others explained how shirking my duties was hurting everyone. And so I guess I’m Alpha for the time being. However,” I paused and looked at David, “I am hoping to be absolved of the duties sometime in the future. I don’t plan on holding this job long-term.”
“Huh,” said Gina and started to rock her chair again. “Weird, but I’ll buy it. Here’s another question. What kind of supernatural are you, then? I don’t recognize the scent.”
Supernaturals live in plain sight of the naturals. Most of the time we blend in well, but supernaturals can recognize each other by a unique scent signature possessed by each species.
“I’m an Alva. We are a supernatural group originally from Sweden. Most Alva still live there, but my parents immigrated to the US. All Alva have the gift of flight. We can produce wings from our back, but most of the time we look completely normal. Some of us also have some mental or emotional influence over people. But I have made a promise to myself and others to only use that skill in dire need.”
“You can fly? Sweet. I’ve always wanted to fly. All I can do is turn into a furry, tail-wagging dog,” Gina said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Her defensive walls were slipping bi
t by bit and a smile was threatening to emerge. I breathed an inner sigh of relief. Call me crazy, but I didn’t want to share my place with a psychopathic home destroyer.
“I have seen David as a werewolf, and you waaaay underestimate yourself if you call yourself a dog,” I laughed. He was a gorgeous and massive werewolf, never to be mistaken for a mere dog.
Gina turned to David. “Okay, I get why you didn’t tell Colorado about Freya, but what’s the plan? You have to know how they will react, and you don’t seem like the type of guy to not have a plan.”
I pivoted to look at David. I really had no idea what Gina was talking about. David had many wonderful qualities, but he often didn’t tell me the negative consequences of being attached to a werewolf pack. My guess is that he did this to spare my feelings, but it left me in the dark about some things I should really have known. And it irritated me to no end. “Yes, David. Tell Gina all about the plan,” I said.
David met my glance. His emerald eyes were full of remorse. “Gina is right, Freya. When Colorado hears about you being a non-werewolf Alpha, they will take it as an offense against the werewolf nature. They will not tolerate what they see as an abomination. They will probably try to kill you. And I assume that Maria will tell them as soon as she arrives in Colorado.” He paused for a half a second. “And she should be arriving right about now.”
Rolling my shoulders back, I slid off the sofa arm. “Alright, David.” I said tightly. “Sounds like you and me need to take a walk. Gina,” I said, motioning to the corner of the room where a rolling clothes rack and a previously hideous old dresser, transformed by my artist sister Elin to shabby chic, both stood. “It isn’t four-star accommodations by any stretch of the imagination, but make yourself at home. We’ll figure out dinner and life when I get back. David, let’s go.” I jerked the front door open and walked out without looking behind me.
