Viking's Pride

by Holley Trent

  The Afótama Legacy, Norseton Wolves, and Hearth Motel series timelines all intertwine. Although there is character overlap, each series stands on its own. You’ll have a fuller reading experience if you read them all on the prescribed timeline, however.

  Reading Order:

  The Viking Queen’s Men (The Afótama Legacy #1)

  The Chieftain’s Daughter (The Afótama Legacy #2)

  Prince in Leather (Hearth Motel #1)

  Unwrapping Mr. Roth (Hearth Motel #1.5)

  Viking’s Pride (The Afótama Legacy #2.5)

  Viking Flame (The Afótama Legacy #3)

  Knight in Leather (Hearth Motel #2)

  Surrendering Saul (Hearth Motel #3)

  The Viking’s Witch (The Afótama Legacy #4)

  Norseton Wolves

  Beast

  Loner

  Idler

  Scion

  Maker

  Elder

  Scout

  Seer

  Angel

  ***The Norseton Wolves novellas are set further along in the world’s timeline, but you can read them at any point after The Chieftain’s Daughter.***

  Turn the page for a sneak peek of Viking Flame, but before you do, make sure you’re subscribed to my paranormal romance newsletter so you don’t miss hearing about future stories set in the Afótama world.

  VIKING FLAME

  Acting as an emissary for her pregnant cousin Tess, Nadia Hall’s mission is to locate a missing member of her clan’s royalty. She sets up a temporary base in Florida expecting Tess to send backup, but Nadia doesn’t expect it to show up in the form of one of the two men she’s been aggressively avoiding for months. And when man number two arrives out of the blue, her crippling anxiety about connecting to her fated makes the usually assertive woman run and hide.

  To complicate matters, her mates Thom Vaughn and Jeff Alstrup butt heads in a way only a sexually frustrated fairy and a fire-wielding modern Viking can manage. It seems the men don’t have a problem sharing Nadia—the issue is the men don’t know if they can share each other.

  If the powerful trio can’t strike an accord, not only will Nadia’s mission potentially get derailed, but the three will be unable to compensate for the changes in their magic that their union has sparked. With Nadia being psychically linked to the rest of the Afótama clan, she can’t afford to lose control. None of them can.

  ___

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Who am I to question the fuckin’ Fates?” Nadia Hall muttered and widened her stance against the forceful April wind. She cursed her cousin Jody’s phone connection for breaking up and her battery for dying when she’d tried to call him back.

  He was on the way toward the rental house she was standing on the porch of, and she didn’t think he was coming alone. That was what worried her.

  Descended from Vikings on both sides, she was made of sturdy stock. She had the constitution of a shield maiden atop of what some folks might have said was the disposition of a Greek Fury. She could walk into a bar brawl swinging without fear of pain or consequence and come out the victor. She could sink a knife deep into the gut of an attacker without flinching and still be able to sleep like a baby that night.

  But those things didn’t matter.

  When it came to physical threats to herself or to the queen of her clan—whom she was primary aide to—how tough she was didn’t matter. Sure, she’d fight. But to actually reveal herself?

  Not so much.

  Being hard as nails didn’t make her any less chickenshit in regards to certain interpersonal relationships. Beating men up was easier than letting them love her, yet somehow, the Fates had seen fit to give her two matches.

  Seemed a bit like overkill for a woman who’d never been with a man.

  The hostile North Florida wind blew some dust into her eyes, and she growled. She’d had nothing but frustration since arriving. She would go inside the house, but she needed to be on the porch. Her approaching companions didn’t know which unit in the long row of empty rental houses they would be making their base of operations for the next several days or even weeks.

  They were on the hunt for her cousin Keith—Jody’s older bother—and being her cousin meant he had power and that he was a kind of royalty. Nadia didn’t like to think of herself as that given her farm-girl upbringing, but she couldn’t deny her heritage. She was a direct descendent of the queens and chieftains of the Afótama clan, and had dodged the bullet of ever having to be queen herself by being born to her grandmother’s son and not her daughter.

  Not being high up in the line of succession suited Nadia fine. Her cousin Tess was the current queen, and Nadia didn’t envy her the headaches. Tess may have been one of the most powerful psychics in their generation and a witch of nearly unparalleled ability, but she was tasked with using her skills in the service of the clan. And sometimes the clan was a pain in the ass. Especially when members went missing and Tess had to find them…or send her emissaries out to find them. Heavily pregnant, Tess was back in their New Mexico home base—Norseton—probably grumbling with a heating pad on her back. Normally, being her aide, Nadia was never far from her side, but Nadia’s task was important.

  Keith was important.

  The best they could discern with the collective power of the Afótama clan’s inner circle, he was somewhere in the region—or perhaps south of it—and he needed rescue.

  Brushing her wind-whipped hair out of her face, Nadia squinted at the SUV approaching from the end of the lane.

  Who’d he bring with him? Please not them.

  She knew better than to hope. There was no one else Tess could have sent if not one of Nadia’s long-neglected fated matches.

  Jody didn’t look like he was alone.

  She tossed her phone from hand to hand and took several deep breaths.

  As much as they could, the Afótama inner circle tried to keep their family business out of clan common knowledge, so there were a limited number of people they could tap for assistance. Tess would have been there herself if she hadn’t been full of baby and banned from traveling by her chieftains. That, and there was political bullshit to smooth over back in New Mexico. Tess and their grandmother Muriel were rooting out some quasi-anarchists who, a little over twenty years ago, had gone behind Nan’s back and stoked tensions with their distant relatives out in Fallon, Nevada. Tess and Nan were trying to quietly untangle the mess without rousing the suspicions of the people who’d committed the acts. The work was slow going.

  Tess. Call Tess.

  Nadia just needed the tiniest reality check. Tess had a way of dispensing those in the way her cousin so badly needed.

  Hoping the three percent she’d charged her phone to would suffice for the call, Nadia hit the speed dial sequence as the SUV honked and then slowed in front of the driveway.

  Answer. Answer.

  Jeff Alstrup was riding shotgun beside Jody. He was one of them.

  Fuck. Answer.

  “What’s wrong?” Tess said in lieu of hello. “I’m reading some psychic agita from you, and if your angst isn’t getting filtered out before it reaches me, that means you’re well and truly frightened.”

  Nadia turned her back to the parking vehicle and whispered, “He brought Jeff.”

  “Didn’t know who else to send. We’re short on personnel. You had to know either he or Thom would show up, and Thom isn’t accessible right now.”

  Thank the gods for that.

  “Knowing that doesn’t make the situation any easier,” Nadia said. “I was hoping for a miracle, I guess.”

  “Who said the situation was supposed to be easy?”

  “I can’t just lock myself into a room whenever he’s around. They’re going to start thinking there’s something wrong with me.”

  “There is something wrong with you, at least in my opinion. You’ve got two men any straight woman would give up her pinky toes to get, and you’re doing everything in your power to stay away from them.”

>   “Well, maybe that’s the problem. I’m not what you’d call straight.” Nadia held her breath.

  She’d lit the fire on what should have been a touché moment. She’d never explicitly shared that tidbit with her cousin, but instead of shock, Nadia sensed the psychic equivalent of an eye roll from Tess. That meant that Tess had either suspected Nadia’s proclivities already, or that she was at the point in her reign that very little surprised her. Probably the latter.

  “Well, that answers a couple of questions,” Tess said.

  Nadia started at the sound of a door slamming behind her. She turned to see both Jody and Jeff waving and then making their ways to the back of the SUV.

  Oh, gods.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. Suddenly, she felt very nauseated.

  “If I were in grabbing distance of the three of you right now,” Tess said, “I’d lock you in a room until you worked your mess out. Nan said she’d never heard of anyone having a fated match—two matches in our cases—and being able to stay away from them for long.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Nadia said though clenched teeth, “the drive is there. I just…”

  “Don’t know how?”

  “This is humiliating.”

  “For whom?”

  “I—” Nadia halted her own rebuttal with a firm press of her lips. For whom? She didn’t know whom. Probably, Tess was the only person who had a handle on how uncomfortable being around Jeff and Thom made Nadia. Others wouldn’t have been able to discern the cause of her angst. If anything, they’d just think she was being plain-old, cranky-ass Nadia.

  “Listen,” Tess said softly. “I know you have to go, so just hear this. Neither Jeff nor Thom are Afótama, so they’re not going to be able to get into your head the way a clansperson might be able to. Jeff, being Fallonite, is close enough to Afótama that he might be able to sense some turmoil from you, but he can’t clearly read your thoughts unless you let him, and the reverse pretty much holds true, too. Thom, on the other hand, is completely in the dark.”

  “Impenetrable fairy brain,” Nadia muttered.

  “Yeah, there are some benefits and detriments to him being Fae. Ollie thinks that with Sídhe being as unflinchingly sexual as they are, if Thom has been holding back for as long as he has, there’s a reason.”

  Tess’s chieftain Ollie would certainly know, being a half-fairy himself.

  Nadia sighed. “Good reason or bad reason?”

  “Dunno. You could just ask him. That’s what you’d do if he were anyone else.”

  “True. But he’s not, is he?”

  “Hey. If you get uncomfortable, just call me.”

  “I may be taking you up on that offer frequently. I wish you were here.”

  “I know,” Tess said softly. “I can’t be everywhere at once, though, and…this is your job. When you’re not watching my back, you’re acting as my emissary.”

  “But we haven’t had to do that up to now.” Nadia turned her back again as the SUV’s rear gate slammed shut.

  “I know that, too. Listen, if you think me being there is really crucial, I’ll come down. The traveling will be a bear, but if you get a good handle on Keith, I’m going to come anyway.”

  “Why is that kid of yours so freakin’ huge?”

  “Ollie’s fault, probably. Both of his boys were ten-pounders. This little girl isn’t going to be any different. On that note, I gotta go pee.”

  Nadia sighed. “Rub your belly for me.”

  “Yep. Call me later. If you need to, give me a telepathic ping. I’d rather not waste the mental energy on psychic discourse, though. Given the distance, even the shortest conversation will probably result in a migraine.”

  “Love you. Bye.” Nadia ended the call and turned to face the two men as they climbed onto the porch steps.

  “I heard you saying your phone was dying, but so was mine,” Jody said. “I think I left my charger in the airport in Albuquerque and Jeff’s isn’t compatible.”

  “Old-ass phone. I’ll get with the times one of these days.” Jeff shrugged, and Nadia nodded along with the movement.

  He’d shaven.

  Weird. Weird. Weird.

  She was so used to seeing him with a full blond beard and unkempt mustache, but he’d apparently shorn both off in the two days since Nadia had left Norseton.

  Jeff was around Ollie’s age—tiptoeing closer to forty by the day—but with the facial hair gone, he didn’t look his age anymore. He was practically unrecognizable.

  Jody leaned a bit sideways and got into her field of vision. “You okay, cuz?”

  “Hmm?” She cut her gaze leftward, toward Jody and his concerned expression.

  “You all right? Were you in the middle of a telepathic conference or something?”

  She gave her head a shake. “No, I’m just…tired. Been running around all morning. Took me two hours to chase down the realtor when I got in yesterday, and I’ve barely had a chance to sit down. I’ve been following up on leads.”

  “Anything shake out of them?”

  She shrugged again. “Maybe. Maybe not. Some might be dead ends, and some might just be false alarms.”

  “But if Tess is sending you psychic pings about folks in their area, there’s gotta be a reason they’re on her radar, right?” Jeff asked, and Nadia stood entranced by his moving lips—so visible with all the hair gone.

  Why’d he shave?

  He brought a hand to his jaw and rubbed, as if he knew the naked skin was the cause of her turmoil at the moment.

  “Is Tess sending you leads, Nadia?” Jody asked.

  She swallowed and nodded. “Uh-huh.”

  Tess was a finder. That was part of her job as queen. She was supposed to keep their people close and pull them back into the fold when they left. All people of Afótama lineage were connected by a psychic web, at which Tess was in the middle. Having only had access to her magic for the better part of a year, she was still in the learning curve of using it. Tess had the power to do awe-inspiring things, but she simply hadn’t had the practice.

  At the moment, Tess was using Nadia as a sort of psychic thermometer. If Nadia got close to one of their people, Tess would know. As far as which specific person in a crowd or neighborhood was setting off the alarm—that had been impossible to discern.

  “Is everything turned on in there?” Jody asked.

  Nadia nodded once more. “Mm-hmm. I got everything all set up, except there’s no food in the fridge and my bed is the only one with sheets. I could only find one set of linens. I called the rental company twice today, but they didn’t get back to me.”

  “Well, it’s Sunday.” Jody eased around her with his bags and pulled the screen door open. “We’ll just buy what we need and leave the stuff behind for the next folks.”

  “Perk of being richie-riches,” Jeff said with a laugh.

  Jody snorted. “I wish. Nan is rich. Tess has access to the Afótama funds. Me? All I’ve got is a corporate credit card and a trust fund I can’t touch until I’m thirty-five.”

  “Okay, so you’ll be rich in two years.”

  Jody rolled his eyes in that way that was so Tess—or maybe Tess’s way was so Jody being that he was older—and backed into the house.

  Jeff turned to Nadia and shifted the strap of his duffel bag on his shoulder. He gave her a long look, smirking all the while, and she wanted to fall right through the porch floor and straight to hell.

  What’s he thinking? Nah, don’t want to know. Yes, I do. Is he thinking about the weird, fated lover shit?

  “Can you get the cat out of the truck?” he asked.

  She needed a moment for the words to settle into her brain. “The cat…”

  “I brought Destructo,” he said. “Didn’t know how long I’d be gone, and he acts up when I’m away from Norseton for longer than a few days. Wouldn’t do to have him clawing up baseboards in the mansion.”

  “Destructo…” My little wing-cat saving the day.

  Without an
other word to the cat’s owner, she moved to the SUV, feeling lighter and blessedly relieved. She and Destructo got along just fine. They’d bonded when the furball had been just a wee kitten. He sometimes slept in Nadia’s suite. He had a litter box there and his own bed.

  Jeff didn’t need to know that, though. She didn’t particularly want to him to know where to go looking for the critter when he escaped.

  She briskly moved to the SUV and pulled the right passenger door open.

  Destructo let out a plaintive meow from his carrier on the floor.

  “Hey, lil’ killer.”

  He pawed at the door and chirped at her.

  “There’s my boy. You stick with me, kitty.”

  The screen door of the house slammed, and she looked up to find the porch empty.

  Good.

  “That’s right.” She lifted the carrier, and smiled all the way back to the porch.

  Just what she needed. If she paid attention to the cat, she could ignore his human.

  At least for a while.

  Viking Flame is available now.

  COPYRIGHT

  VIKING’S PRIDE is a work of fiction. Names, places, entities, and scenarios in this book are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  First Edition

  Copyright 2015 by Holley Trent

  Excerpt from Viking Flame copyright 2016 by Holley Trent

  For more information, please visit www.holleytrent.com.

  Cover stock images: copyright Wollwerth Imagery via DollarPhotoClub.com and Connor Evans via DollarPhotoClub.com