by Lucy Monroe
"How can you be sure that is the case?"
Haakon explained his reasoning and added, "I do not think Dìonach would have noticed it otherwise."
Neilina's beautiful, strong features were creased with confusion. "But slag is not poisonous."
"The slag of certain metals can be very poisonous if water, or another liquid is used to draw out that poison. Ingested, it can cause a wasting disease that cannot be treated and will ultimately lead to a long drawn out and painful death."
Horror dawned in Neilina's emerald gaze. "As would happen if it was dumped into the underground river."
"It would take time. Weeks, even months, but no one would be the wiser while the poison leached into the water supply. Not even the superior senses of the wolf would smell the change in the water."
"And because the water is used for growing too, the food would be contaminated. The evil of such a plan is beyond my comprehension. None would be spared from babe to grandfather, to the animals that drink from the streams."
"Ja," he agreed grimly.
"We have to find that cave." Fear and urgency infused Neilina's tone.
Haakon pulled her body to his with one arm and cupped her cheek with his other hand so their gazes met. "We will find it. We will stop this evil. Together, none, not even the treachery of the Fearghall can stand against us."
She nodded.
Nothing more, but she believed and that was all Haakon needed from her.
Dìonach led them to an entrance into the earth a distance from the sacred caves used for Chrechte rituals. The bear shook her head toward the opening, clearly not wanting to return inside this particular cave.
"Stand guard while we are inside," Neilina instructed her large companion.
Dìonach settled to one side of the cave and Neilina led the way inside.
The passage was narrow at first and dark. "I'm surprised your bear came inside the first time," Haakon opined.
"We are bonded. The spirit that sends me visions probably compelled her, but she certainly wasn't coming back inside this time," Neilina added wryly.
Torches, that indicated others had visited the cave before them, lay on the ground, the smell of tallow strong to Haakon's sensitive nose. He dug in his pack and came up with his flint rock, making quick work of lighting two of the torches and handing one to Neilina.
"Have you always gotten visions?" Haakon asked her as they started out again.
"I used to have really intense dreams, before I lost my clan, but they stopped for many years. Then I saw Dìonach in the forest, wounded. I found her upon waking. She was just a cub, her mother killed by hunters. I bonded her to me once she was grown. Until I started having visions of the catastrophe we are trying to avoid, the only other one I had was about Freya."
"Always you are given the insights you need to save."
"But not when it came to saving my clan. I did not have any visions before the Slayer came."
"And our Seer did not know my father's first mate would desert him and take his child away to mate and marry a wolf, thus beginning an avalanche of events that led to death and much grief among our people. We are not responsible for what we do not know."
She stopped, as if stunned by the idea. "You don't think I was too weak to see, too young?"
"The kelle, celi di, and Seer have no control over the wisdom they are gifted with."
"Only what we do with that wisdom."
"Ja. And how can you ever be responsible for being too young? You do not ordain the day of your birth."
"Or death."
"Not for yourself, or those you protect."
"I wish I'd let you in before."
He kissed her. How could he help it? He wanted to. She needed the connection, even if she didn't know it. And despite their need to hunt, she let herself melt into him for timeless moments. But then they both pulled back and began their search in earnest.
It would have gone faster in his beast form, but Haakon scented the air for that which did not belong. The scent of man or wolf.
Neilina caught it first and he followed her through winding tunnels that split off into different directions until they came into a low cavern. And against one wall was a big pile of slag.
The scent of water said that the source of the island's wells and streams was near. Haakon made his way to an opening in the other side of the chamber and struggled through the tight space to come into a giant cavern with stalactites dripping form the ceiling and a fresh, crystalline lake even bigger than the one above ground near the keep.
"It's beautiful," Neilina said from beside him, her voice tinged with awe.
Light came from cracks in the ceiling above, one spot sending a shaft of sunlight glinting off the water.
"Ja. Too beautiful to be used for such nefarious purposes."
"Why haven't they dumped the slag in already?" Neilina asked out loud, not really expecting her mate to have an answer. "Or have they?"
"Nei. The ground around the lake is undisturbed." Haakon waved his torch in both directions, making his point. "There are marks where we have stepped, but that is all." He frowned, looking more forbidding than she'd ever seen him. "As to why not yet, I think the would-be murderers are still on the island and do not want to risk their own deaths."
The righteous anger of her conriocht protector nature filled Neilina. "Good."
"Ja. We will track them and bring them to justice."
Or kill them. Whichever felt right at the time, but Neilina did not say that. Haakon's expression said he'd thought the same thing.
They returned to the small cave and her mate leaned down and sniffed the large pile of slag, his frown turning to a feral smile. "They left their scent on the slag. Three distinct scents, all strong enough to track."
"They are here in the cave as well." It was those three scents she had tracked to lead them to the pile of slag. They had been faint, and she hadn't been sure of the number of scents mixed, but now she could distinguish between them.
"Your ability to track scent is stronger in your human body than mine is," he admitted freely.
And she kind of adored that about her super confident warrior mate, even when she'd been a distrustful harridan, he had not ever held back from acknowledging her strengths.
She nodded her agreement but leant down to inhale deeply of the scents around the slag. She wanted no chance of losing their tracks by missing something. "Now, we hunt."
His expression was deadly. "Ja. Now we hunt."
She started stripping, but he did not follow suit.
"What are you waiting for?" She wasn't relying on her human senses for this hunt. It was too important.
"Nothing."
"But you can't shift with your weapons on. They will hinder your beast, not help it." He knew this, so why she had to point it out, Neilina did not know.
"I will not shift."
"But your sense of smell will be stronger in your asmundr form." Again, he knew this.
"I will not shift into my giant cat in front of you."
"You would withhold your beast from me?" she demanded, affronted. "We are mates." His beast belonged to her as surely as Haakon did.
"For your own sake."
Understanding dawned and with it came a powerful surge of emotion. Haakon always put her first, if she had but realized that a long time ago. "Your father never shifted in front of me. He destroyed my conriocht without ever taking his beast form."
Haakon did not look surprised.
"You knew," she marveled. "That in your human form, the asmundr has the strength of a fully shifted conriocht."
"In blood lust, yes, we do. It is the Berserker form. Our eyes shift, our muscles become bigger, but we do not take on our beast."
"I do not fear your beast," she assured him, was positive she would not even fear his Berserker form. "He is my mate."
She did not expect the kiss that came with that admission, but she fell into it with all the enthusiasm of a woman who had discovered how muc
h she enjoyed physical intimacy. And his kisses made the world seem a better place.
When he stepped back, Haakon made quick work of his weapons and clothing.
Naked and proud, he stood before her. "Are you sure?"
"Aye. More than." She was no weakling and finally she accepted that for the absolute truth it was. "Show me your beast."
His shift was as fast as any she had ever performed. Much, much faster than other Chrechte.
She stood in awe at the sight before her. He was like the tigers her mentors had told her about, but so much bigger. She was tall for a woman, but still on all fours his giant head, with its fangs as long as her forearm, was at the same level as her own.
Haakon made no sound. He did not move. But she could feel his beast reaching out to her.
She stepped forward and touched his head with both of her hands. "I am filled with awe, mate, but no fear. Scent the air. You know I tell the truth."
Then instinct told her to rub her head against his and she did. The purr that sounded from him went through her like a wash of the tenderest emotion.
Her shift came over her without thought. First to the wolf and she wended her way through his legs, under his belly, marking him with her scent, taking his scent into her own fur. They tussled until she lay on top of his giant back and shifted to her conriocht form.
"You are amazing, and my beast adores yours."
Haakon just purred in reply, but then she heard, My beast will always protect you. In her head.
We share a soul bond.
We knew that.
But I was fighting that truth.
You fight it no longer?
Nay. You are mine in every form and at every level.
The purring of the big cat grew louder, but she forced herself to climb off and to stand there in all her conriocht glory. "It is time to hunt the betrayers of our kind, asmundr."
He surged up and roared in agreement, then they left the cave in one accord, moving so fast no other Chrechte would have been able to keep up with them.
They caught the scents they searched for in a group of village huts an hour's walk from the keep. Slowing down, they both stalked the scents, she followed one trail while he followed another.
Screams sounded from near one of the huts, but Neilina ignored the fear of those who were innocent. She only sought the guilty. Children ran from her beast form, seeking sanctuary with mothers and fathers who had run in from the fields at the first cries.
The scent trail Neilina followed led to the farthest hut and inside an old Chrechte man, sitting in a chair, whittling like he had not a care in the world. When his own actions would cause the death of the entire family that shared this home with him. And he was clearly unconcerned by the cries of others who lived near him.
Neilina threw her head back and howled in fury and condemnation.
His head jerked up, fear filling his expression along with knowledge. He knew he'd been found out.
He jumped to his feet. "You'll not take me, demon!"
Neilina moved too fast for the other wolf to track and smacked the knife he wielded away from him. The sound of a bone snapped came just before he screamed and cradled his wrist to his chest.
"Da?" A young Chrechte woman stood in the doorway, her expression filled with horror. "Conriocht? Why are you here? What have you done to my father?"
Neilina lifted the old man by the neck so his feet dangled above the floor. "Betrayer. Murderer."
"Nay," the woman wailed, dropping to her knees in grief, her fist going to her mouth to stifle instant sobs.
"You would have killed your own family." Neilina shook the old man and dropped him.
"She mated a human. She betrayed her race. My grandchildren are nothing but half breeds, weak with his human blood."
The woman's sobs grew louder.
Neilina dragged the old man out of the hut by the scruff of his neck, the sound of a prehistoric tiger's roars coming from another hut.
She threw the old man on the ground. "Run and I will catch you and gut you where you stand. You will not die quickly and your agony will be great." Her words were guttural and hard to understand because of her elongated muzzle, but his fear said he knew just what she'd promised.
Other Chrechte and people had come out of the huts, the scents of fear, curiosity and grief permeating the air around them.
She motioned to one of the women. "Go to his daughter. She needs comfort."
The woman nodded with a jerky movement and skirted widely around Neilina before rushing inside the structure Neilina had just left.
Neilina followed the scent of her mate and found him menacing, not one, but two Chrechte, with his giant beast, his fangs dripping saliva, his roars bone chilling.
She tilted her head to take in the scent and confirmed that the man and woman were the other scents from the cave.
"Betrayers. Murderers," she condemned for a second time, as was her right as conriocht to the very people they would have destroyed.
The woman leapt for the asmundr, her hand coming up with sword in it. She drew his blood before he tossed her with his powerful head.
The scent of her mate's blood sent fury unlike anything she'd ever known, even when her clan was under attack, through Neilina.
She leaped across the floor, landing in front of the offender and grabbed the woman from the floor. "You will die."
"Nay," the man yelled.
But it was her mate's head butting into her back that brought Neilina back from the brink. She is no threat to us, my princess. We will take them both before their council to face judgment.
The woman's mate shifted and ran, but it took very little effort to run him down and Haakon carried him to the keep like a naughty cub in his giant maw. Neilina shepherded the older man and the woman with a clawed hand tight on each of their napes.
By the time they reached the keep, there were dozens of clansmen both human and Chrechte alike following them at a distance. Word must have reached Talorc, Lachlan and Eirik, because all three stood waiting for them with stony expressions that said nothing good about the three guilty Chrechte's futures.
Neilina and Haakon dropped their prisoners in front of the two lairds and the dragon ri.
The clan kept their distance, casting wary glances at Haakon's beast and Neilina's conriocht form.
Allowing the shift to come over her, Neilina waited to speak until she could do so without hindrance. "Here are your betrayers."
Freya walked up with a cloak. "Cover yourself, mother. I think the men in the clan are as in awe of your beautiful body as they are of your conriocht."
The sound of Haakon's laughter from behind her said he had shifted as well. "I think our daughter is right."
Neilina turned her head. "The women don't need to be looking at what belongs to me either," she informed him.
And in a very timely fashion, Ciara arrived just then with one of the Ean's leather kilts. Haakon winked at Neilina before putting it on.
"How do you know these three are the betrayers?" Lachlan asked, grief making his gaze dark. "Their family has been in our pack for many generations."
Haakon remained silent, allowing Neilina to explain about her vision and finding the slag in the cave.
The lairds looked surprised when she shared Dìonach's part in finding the cave, but Eirik's did not. She'd noted before that the Éan seemed to have more memory of the ancient ways than the Faol.
"I think you have much to teach us about the ways of the Chrechte we have lost," Talorc said, confirming Neilina's thoughts.
"It will be both my and my mate's honor to do so," she assured him.
"So, you've accepted your mating then?" Freya asked with clear delight, grinning between Neilina and Haakon.
Despite the very serious tone of the situation, Neilina allowed herself to smile at her adopted daughter. "I have."
"Our ancestors have blessed the mating," Haakon announced. "But there will be no place among them for the likes of thes
e." He spat on the ground by where the three betrayers huddled.
The woman yelled invective at them, but neither Neilina nor Haakon paid the femwolf any heed. Her hatred blackened her own heart but could not touch them.
Lachlan gave instructions for the slag to be removed from the cave and for a new regime of guard duty to take over protecting the island's water supply.
"Take them to the prison tower. They will face the council and sentencing tomorrow."
"He must be interrogated by the drogon ri," Neilina indicated the old man Chrechte. "He knows far more about the Fearghall than he will pretend."
She did not know how she was so certain of that truth, but Neilina knew she was right.
"I submit to no demon!" the old man yelled.
"I will not ask for your submission, old man, but I will demand your truths," Eirik said in a tone of otherworldly power that sent shivers cascading over Neilina.
"Come, we will return to our cave. Our dreki kongr does not need us to get the betrayer to speak." Haakon put his hand out to Neilina.
And for the first time, Neilina did not hesitate to take it.
"I think I'll stay here in the keep and give you two some privacy," Freya said.
But Haakon shook his head. "It is time your mother and I discussed what the future holds for us and you are part of that future, daughter."
Freya's smile was brilliant, her beauty undimmed by the scar on her face.
They returned to the cave, joined by Dìonach, and told Freya about their mating's blessing by Neilina's clan.
"I wish I'd been here to meet them all, but maybe I wouldn't have seen them." She wrinkled her nose. "And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been comfortable being here while you two were bonding, even if my back was turned."
Neilina felt a wholly unaccustomed blush steal up her cheeks
But Haakon just laughed. "I'm sure you are right, daughter, but I believe once you have had your time with the stones, you will be gifted to see the place of other."
"But I've already had my ceremony and I'm just human."
"There is no just about human," Neilina reminded her daughter.
