Bjorn sighed and looked at Sean. “You have been kind. Me and my kin are thankful.”
Sean shook his hand and nodded. “Anytime, man. She’s a good woman.”
Bjorn narrowed his eyes when he caught the wink Samantha shot Sean. Damn woman. His eyes traveled over her as she laughed, danced and drank. Damn beautiful woman.
“How fare you, Cousin?” Tait said, joining him as Sean headed for the kitchen. “By the looks of you, I’d say better than usual.”
Bjorn shrugged. “All is well enough.” His eyes went to Sven who sat halfway up the stairs going to the second floor. He looked moodier than ever and ready to kill anyone who came too close. “Thank you for keeping an eye on my son.”
“Of course,” Tait said. His eyes slid to Lauren, who sat primly on the couch near the fire, so stiff she looked like she was going to snap in half. “It’s given me a good chance to—”
Before Tait could finish his sentence, which Bjorn knew had to do with Samantha’s sister, he narrowed his eyes and cut him off. “You have stayed in contact with Sven without me knowing. That is not good, Cousin.”
“Do not get mad at Uncle because he did what you could not,” Sven said into Bjorn’s mind.
When his eyes snapped to his son, Sven’s gaze was narrowed on him. Sven might not have shifted yet, but he was comfortable enough with his other half. The sense of confidence it gave him. Bjorn frowned and pushed down emotion when it flared. Sven should have already shifted by now, and his father should have been the one to help him, to walk him through it. To be there when he spread his wings for the first time.
“I’m sorry, Bjorn,” Tait murmured. “Sven needed someone. He needed family. I did not do it to hurt you.”
Though she spun and laughed, this time when Samantha’s eyes met Bjorn’s there was nothing but compassion in them. And strength. For him. For everything he was feeling. And that helped more than she knew. Because though he felt fury at Tait for going behind his back, he had also never been more thankful. His cousin had seen to his son. He had made sure he connected with kin when Bjorn was unable to offer as much.
Now he wondered. Why had he truly kept his distance from Sven? Samantha’s word, safe, kept flickering through his mind. Safe for who? Him? Sven? Both of them? For so long, he had been convinced he did his son a favor by not getting too close. By respecting his decision to turn from his father. By letting him find his own way. But now he wasn’t so sure. Had he, in some small way, given into the enemy though his tribe had defeated them? Had he done so by not trying harder to keep Sven in his life?
He just didn’t know.
All these years he had tried to help those suffering in their rival kingdom while he watched his son from afar. He had lent aid to the people when his son needed just as much attention. Now, if nothing else was true, Sven was bitter, lonely and angry at the past. He was becoming his father.
He was becoming Bjorn.
When his eyes met his son’s, Bjorn didn’t have to wonder. Sven had heard his thoughts. He was his offspring. His only child. And their dragons were connecting in a whole new way now that they were together again. Things were changing whether or not Sven liked it.
Bjorn was about to share as much with Tait only to find him standing in front of the fire, eying Lauren with appreciation. Meanwhile, Samantha’s sister had sidled halfway down the couch, casting a nervous eye between him and his cousin. He got the sense she wanted to cross to the opposite sofa but was terrified she might be accosted by one of them if she did.
“Stop watching her so closely,” he said into Tait’s mind. “She is afraid of us.”
“More like disgusted by us.” Tait chuckled and sat on the couch beside her.
Lauren shot up as if a sword had been driven through her lower back. Eyes wide on his cousin, she tried to walk away but only ended up tripping. Before she hit the floor, Tait was there, a wide grin on his face as he caught her. In a split second, so fast his eyes barely caught it, she was shaking a shoe with a long, sharp point in his face, screeching, “Get away from me, you…you…you backwoods roughneck!”
“Ah, at last, the celebration finally gets started,” Svala declared with triumph from the kitchen as the music lowered.
Horrified, Lauren’s eyes only widened further on Tait before the last thing Bjorn expected happened. Sven fell on one knee in front of Lauren and lowered his head. His voice soft and polite, he said, “Forgive my uncle, woman. He only meant to save you not upset you.”
Lauren blinked at him, completely baffled, before Samantha carefully peeled the shoe out of her sister’s grip and grinned. “Wow, sis…” She waved a hand in front of Lauren’s face. “You might wanna say no problem…maybe thank you?”
Finally gathering her wits, the small blond tore her eyes from Sven, snagged her shoe and braced herself against Samantha as she put it on and resumed glaring at Tait. “I will do no such thing.” Her eyes swung back to Sven. “He should be studying for school not dressed like…” Lauren inhaled deeply. “I am so sorry you ended up with these men. I will call social services first thing in the morning. You deserve better.”
“Social services?” Samantha mouthed at Mema Angie with a smirk as Lauren stormed off, wobbling on her shoe because it wasn’t on quite right.
Not fazed in the least, Tait chuckled. His eyes never left Lauren until she vanished upstairs. When Sven stood and shook his head at his uncle, Tait only shrugged and said, “She might not thank me now but she will after I’ve bedded her.”
“You truly will lay with any woman, won’t you, Cousin?” Svala called out before she took a swig of ale, wiped a hand across her mouth and eyed Sean. “At this point, I might too. A man that is…”
“Don’t look at me.” Sean snorted, shook his head and grabbed an ale. “Not interested.”
“Of course, you are,” Svala declared as she crossed her legs and showed too much cleavage. “All men are.”
“Not me, sweetheart. Sorry.” He didn’t spare her a second glance but waved over his shoulder as he headed out of the room. “Hitting the garage to catch up on work. See everyone in the morning.”
“Hugs and love, sweetie,” Samantha called before she turned up the music, grabbed Megan’s hand and insisted she resume dancing with her and Mema Angie. Bjorn nodded his thanks to Tait when he handed him an ale. After that, he kept an eye on both his son and his woman.
Sven had gone back to brooding on the stairs. Yet now he knew. His son was a truly admirable man. Somehow, raised under the shadow of several monsters, he had found a moral character that filled Bjorn with great pride. Sven was not a boy anymore. He was a man.
A remarkable man.
And Samantha? Well, she only continued to enchant. The more her hair dried, the fuller it became. A wild mass that suited her perfectly. As the evening wore on, she kept the celebration going. Mema Angie would make the drinks, but Samantha kept the light alive in everyone’s eyes. If his mother grew tired and needed a break, she would get Tait dancing. Then she would try to get Bjorn but had no luck. He didn’t dance. Period. But he would drink. So she would move onto Sven. Though he outright refused the first few times, she finally succeeded.
Tait and Bjorn eyed him knowingly. He had gotten a good eyeful of Samantha nude, and though still young, he was of an age to appreciate women. So Bjorn watched them dance, and Sven enjoy himself.
Bjorn was unaware his mother had joined him until she murmured, “I haven’t seen you smile like this in a long time, Bjorn. It does my heart good.”
“I am impressed by Sven,” he said softly.
“And you’re impressed by her,” his mother added.
“Yes,” he murmured. “Very impressed by her.”
His mother said nothing as Samantha continued dancing with both Tait and Sven. Naturally, Svala refused to join them.
“Sam is magnetic, beautiful and likable,” his mother said. “Yet you don’t feel a shred of jealousy when she dances with Tait. When he tries to get closer to her like
that.”
Bjorn frowned, caught unaware by his mother’s assessment. Mainly because it was true…and made no sense considering how possessive he felt of her.
“You trust her, Son,” his mother said, her voice soft and knowing. “That is why you are not threatened. You trust her not to hurt you.”
Was that true? If so, when had it happened? Yet as he watched her, Bjorn realized there wasn’t any specific moment. No set time.
“Yet I tried to kill her former husband,” he reminded.
“Because he was cruel to her,” his mother reminded. “Not because you thought she wanted him…not in those last moments. Because she made it clear, did she not?”
She did.
She had.
And he’d reveled in it since. Samantha wanted Bjorn as much as he wanted her. While the details of how to get her to stay with him remained unclear, he refused to lose faith.
“The seers warned us that if we found love, it would put our people at great risk,” he said. “That our love is forbidden.”
His mother shook her head and sighed. “As it is in all the best and worst of love stories.” Her eyes met his and she put a hand to his chest, over his heart. “Follow this, Bjorn, your heart, and you can’t go wrong. From my experience, love is never the bad guy. No, the enemy lies in anyone and anything that tries to stop it.”
He kept that thought in mind later on when it was time to rest.
When Samantha brought him to her bed and slowly undressed him.
Did he love her? Better yet, did she love him? He had no idea. What he did know was that this was new for him. Wholly different than what he had shared with Katla. But then he was now with the woman who had haunted his dreams. The woman his former wife always felt she competed with. Not only that but he was with a fellow dragon.
One who had shifted for the first time to defend him.
Bjorn wasn’t sure if any of those or all of those factors led to what he felt now. This overwhelming need to keep Samantha close. To be inside her as often as possible. While some of it was certainly his dragon, there was another part, the man, who felt just as strongly.
Just as desperate.
Yet all his speculations, all his concerns, faded away when their flesh met. When she was beneath him then over him then in his arms as he moved within her. It didn’t matter if they were in a cave, an ocean or lost in the softness of her blankets, she welcomed him and piece by piece, made him feel whole again.
They didn’t sleep. Not a wink. Not that he knew of.
He stroked her.
She stroked him.
He tasted her.
She tasted him.
It was endless and more passionate than anything he had ever felt. Sweat-slicked, burning up, their mutual need to get closer, to feel more, made everything explosive. And with a woman like Samantha, that meant everyone heard it. Not only here but likely clear back a thousand years ago in his homeland.
But he liked that. Immensely. Because she was letting go. Even as he held her when the sun crested the horizon and her eyelids finally slid shut in blissful exhaustion, he felt renewed pride. Not in his ability to pleasure her all night but in the way she was breaking free from the binds of her past. While she had done it with her career and no doubt given people excellent council, now she was truly taking her own advice. He felt it in all the thoughts that swirled with his.
She was finally finding the happiness she tried so hard to give others.
Relaxed, stroking her hair, Bjorn was suddenly ensnared by the picture hanging at the end of her bed. He knew that Cybil had taken it. That she took several of them. Yet this one ended up in Samantha’s room. He found it curious considering it was an image of his dragon.
It was him.
“I hung it myself,” came a soft voice from the doorway. “Stunning there, isn’t it?”
His eyes narrowed on Mema Angie. “You wanted us together, didn’t you?”
“No, you wanted to be with her,” she whispered. “So you told me to hang it there.”
Bjorn frowned in confusion and was about to respond, but the picture seized his attention again. More so what was happening within. It had life. Energy. And his dragon was flying.
Calling out to him.
Calling out for vengeance.
Caught by its pull, by the half of him that had been repressed, he couldn’t look away if he tried. He missed it too much. Needed it more than anything. Or so he thought. Because as the world went bright white and completely silent, it wasn’t his dragon he reached out for but Samantha.
Yet she was gone.
Everything had vanished.
Then suddenly a loud roar filled his ears before everything reappeared. He was in his dragon. He was his dragon. Bjorn flapped his wings and sailed over the sea, beyond happy to have bonded with his beast again. Yet soon enough he realized where he was. Not in the twenty-first century anymore but returned home to his time. Normally, that would make him happy but not now. Because one thing became very certain.
Samantha was not with him.
Nowhere near him.
Her dragon had simply ceased to exist or so it felt based on the crushing heaviness in his chest. The stinging pain in his soul.
That’s when he knew for certain and roared with heartache.
His mate was gone.
And yet again, over a thousand years separated them.
Chapter Fourteen
SAMANTHA SHOT UPRIGHT, her eyes wide and focused on the picture at the end of the bed. For several moments she simply stared at it, confused as to why it awoke her so abruptly. Had she been dreaming about it? She didn’t think so. Yet she was shaking and filled with a feeling of desperation and horrible sadness.
Seeking comfort, her hand went to where Bjorn should be only to find him missing. Her sense of dread only increased as her eyes swept around the room. He wasn’t here, but the Gungnir still was. Maybe he was downstairs. But somehow she sensed as she threw on clothes then headed down to the living room that she wasn’t going to find him.
Sam had no sooner hit the bottom floor when Tait and Sven came inside from the deck. She knew the minute her eyes met Tait’s that they felt his absence too. She shook her head and called out for him mentally over and over, but got no response.
“I cannot sense Bjorn at all,” Tait said, troubled. “He is no longer in this century.”
“I don’t understand.” Sam shook her head, completely baffled. “How is he…”
Her words were cut off by Lauren’s piercing scream. She was standing on the balcony overlooking the living room as she stared outside. Samantha raced upstairs as Sean and Svala flew out of different bedrooms.
“What is it, Lauren?” Sam cried, stopping beside her.
Her sister blinked several times. “I thought I saw…” She shook her head. “I could have sworn…”
“What did you see?” Sam said. Maybe it had to do with Bjorn. “Please tell me.”
“No.” Lauren shook her head and stood up straighter, in flat out denial. “I saw nothing.”
“But you did,” Tait murmured from below, his troubled eyes trained on the backyard. “You saw a Nidstang.”
Lauren frowned at him, back to being her prudish self. “Rest assured, I saw nothing. It was a long night, and I am overtired.”
When Tait’s hard eyes met Lauren’s, there was no flirtation to be found. “You saw a horse’s head impaled on a pole, did you not?”
Sam covered her mouth. Oh, dear God. What? Yet she saw nothing like that outside. Nobody did. Except, apparently, Lauren and Tait based on her sister’s reaction.
“How could you…” Lauren went pale as she stared at Tait. “It was only there for an instant.”
Sam shook her head, more and more upset. “What does that even mean? Why the hell would you two see something so terrible?”
“Because they have been cursed,” Sven said softly. “It can be no other way.”
Concerned, Samantha tried to put an arm around La
uren’s shoulders, but she shrugged her off, then made sure her clothes were tidy. “That is ridiculous. All of this.” Her eyes went to Sam. “It is clear based on all the lewd sounds coming from your bedroom last night that you no longer need me.” Before Samantha could get a word in edgewise, Lauren held up a hand and shook her head sharply, still talking as she headed downstairs. “You have taken up with a bad crowd, Samantha, and I want nothing to do with it.”
“I seriously don’t have time for this bullshit,” Sam muttered as she followed Lauren down, her words directed at Tait. “So you’re sure the Nidstang had nothing to do with Bjorn?”
Tait shook his head, his expression uncharacteristically dark as he eyed Lauren. “No, it is only directed at those who can see it.”
Fantastic. Sam scowled as she trailed after Lauren. “Sis, this is serious. You need to stop.”
“This is the furthest thing from serious.” Lauren shrugged into her wool coat. “This is alarming and preposterous, and as I said before, I want nothing to do with it.” Her eyes went from Tait to Svala. “I want nothing to do with any of these people.”
“I don’t think you’re gonna have much choice.” Sam followed Lauren down the hallway. “Megan told me that you know everything that’s happened, Lauren. That these guys are genuine Vikings from the tenth-century. That Cybil is still back there with the man she was destined for and that you, me and our sisters are meant for a Sigdir. Now I’ve found mine. Don’t think you won’t find yours as well.”
The only thing Lauren had not been told was that they were all half dragon.
Megan figured one thing at a time.
“Yes, she told me all that. And I don’t believe a word of it.” Lauren frowned heavily as she picked up a suitcase. “Do you want to know what I think? I think Megan has been covering for you while you sowed your oats. I can only hope Rick will take you back after all this.” She shook her head and pushed open the door. “Though I highly doubt…”
When her words trailed off, and she tried to step forward, Sam knew something was wrong. “What’s the matter, Lauren?”
“I can’t seem to…” Lauren kept trying to step forward, her tone baffled. “I cannot walk out the door.” She stepped back. That wasn’t a problem at all. So she tried heading out the door again only to hit an unseen barrier.
Vengeance of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 2) Page 20
