A thrill that had nothing to do with the weather raced through her. “Rokar?”
Almost the moment she sensed him, he vanished from her mind yet still lingered in an unexplainable way. As if part of him belonged there. Had always been there.
Thunder cracked, and lightning splintered across the sky. Murky grayish green clouds rolled overhead, and wind gusted. Ava was right. The weather was way off because this squall couldn’t have possibly traveled so quickly. She throttled down but not in time. A deluge of rain hit.
“Sonofafuckinbitch,” she muttered when her bike started hydroplaning then everything morphed around her.
The world sharpened, lightning turned fiery white, and the rain shimmered blazing silver before the blasted bike vanished right out from under her, and she went flying. She instinctually shifted into her dragon moments before her surroundings changed once again, dimming back to normal. Not only was she somewhere else entirely, but she managed to get in an accident anyway.
She slammed head first into a silver dragon twice her size.
Chapter Two
Scandinavia
932 A.D.
ROKAR’S DRAGON ROARED in rage when his opponent vanished, and another far smaller black dragon appeared out of nowhere and slammed into him. She came in so fast, her wings back at an aerodynamic angle, that the force of her hitting him made him stumble back a few steps, trip then fall.
When she reared up and bared her teeth from above him, he flipped her, pinned her neck down, and narrowed his eyes in warning. “Breathe fire at me and die, dragon.”
She snapped at him, growling, her rich cedar gaze flaring in fury before she seemed to realize something, stilled and narrowed her eyes back at him. “Rokar? Is that you?”
He paused, caught by the familiar voice. More so, how she sounded in dragon form. “Tess?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” she murmured, her voice suddenly different as she peered up at him with womanly interest. And hell, if his dragon didn’t stare right back, equally curious...equally aroused.
“Loki’s cock,” he muttered. He stepped away from her, nearly tripping on his own blasted serpentine very erect cock and scanned the forest for signs of his enemy.
The red monster had slipped his grasp once again.
“Loki’s cock is right.” She eyed his erection with appreciation while clearly focusing on two things at once. “My poor bike. I hope it didn’t get totaled.”
She worried about a bike right now? Truly?
Switching back to his clothed human self without much thought, he couldn’t help but eye her when she did the same. Though her expression had been distressed over the state of her bike, it turned to curiosity and approval when their eyes met.
He had hoped since he’d first heard her voice within his mind that she wouldn’t look half as good as she sounded, but unfortunately, she looked far better. Her skin was smooth, and her hair a shiny, luxurious black. Thickly lashed, her eyes were the same rich cedar as her dragon’s, her features delicate and feminine, her lips wide and full.
Too full.
Far too tempting as she bit her lower lip and resumed eying his groin with avid appreciation.
Scowling, he cursed his stubborn erection and scanned the forest again but not before he discreetly took in the rest of her then gestured for her to follow him. Though slight in stature, her curves were ample from her lush breasts, slim waist to the flair of her hips and well-rounded backside. Worse yet, she held herself in a sensual way that lured men. A way that surely drew them to her even as they tried to stay away.
Not him, though. He had sworn since the moment she so effortlessly made her way into his mind, that he would fight this thing. That he would honor his dead wife by never loving another. By not putting someone in the position he had put Helga in ...by not letting someone down to that degree ever again.
“Well, aren’t you gonna say hello, handsome?” Tess drawled, catching up with him. “Warning me to stay away doesn't count.” She winked. “Thanks for that by the way.”
“I didn't warn you to stay away.” Though he would have.
“Sure, you did.” She waved it off, flirtatious as ever. “Anyway, I think a hello is in order after the way you spoke to me across time when Kenzie was on her adventure, don't you?” Her eyes dropped to his groin once again, and she licked her lips. “Not to mention how mightily your dragon just greeted mine.”
He frowned but didn’t spare her a glance. His dragon had nothing to do with this. And how had he spoken to her on Kenzie's adventure? What was she talking about?
“Hey!” He stopped short when she cut him off, planted her hands on her hips, and smirked at him. “Seriously, what’re you all about?” She cocked her head. “Why so cold all of a sudden?”
As if he had ever been warm to her?
“I am the way I have always been, woman,” he stated bluntly before he stepped around her and continued on. “We need to get back to the Fortress or at least somewhere safe.”
“Agreed.” She caught up and cut him off once again. This time she placed a hand on his chest and peered up at him from beneath her lashes. “But first, let’s chat about this, us, whatever’s going on with your three-hundred and sixty degree personality change.” She shifted a little closer. Enough to make him tense...and far too aware of her. “Because I thought based on the mental chit-chat we shared across time that, well,” the corner of her mouth shot up, “that us finally meeting might go a little differently.”
Scowl firmly in place, he looked from the hand on his chest to her eyes. “We spoke briefly, woman and while I’m grateful you seemed to help us fight off the enemy, you and I did not share...whatever you think it is we shared.”
“Say what?” She stayed alongside him this time when he walked around her and kept going. “Are you telling me you didn’t flirt? That you weren’t seriously hitting on me from almost the second we started communicating?”
“That is exactly what I’m saying.” Why would she think such a thing? “If you remember, you first reached out to me when you thought Kenzie was in trouble. Why would I flirt with you at such a time?”
“Beats me.” She shrugged. “I thought it was a little strange, but shit, all of this has been strange. So why would a medieval Viking dragon who might be my fated mate flirting with me throw me?”
“I am not your fated mate,” he growled, knowing full well he likely was. But what to make of it? He had no desire to be unfaithful to his wife’s memory.
“Okay.” She shrugged. “You’re not my fated mate then. No biggie.” Her eyes slid his way. “Just so you know, I’m not big on the idea either, but hell, it’s looking pretty clear that it’s gonna happen to us whether it’s with each other or the other two.”
He offered no reply because she was right. If Níðhöggr’s prophecy continued to have its way, he would mate with Tess or Ava. That didn’t mean he had to like it. What did he know of mating anyway? Nothing other than it was a commitment. One that did not require love. So maybe it would be tolerable after all. Especially if it empowered him enough to finally destroy his nemesis.
“So that was the bad guy you were fighting, eh?” she said.
He sighed, knowing with uncanny certainty that she’d just caught the last part of his thoughts. So that was it then. She must be his mate. But then had he not suspected that from the get go? Had she not based on her accepting behavior?
“Yes, that was our nemesis.”
“Our?”
“Yes.” He didn’t glance her way. “Our.”
That simple declaration seemed to render her speechless before she came right out with it. “We’re that connected then?”
“Seems so.”
Silence fell for a moment before she continued. “Gotta say, while I sort of liked the idea of it before.” She shook her head. “Not so much now.”
“Why?”
“Because it turns out you’re a dick.”
Having been raised by a mother and grandmother from
the twenty-first century, he understood her meaning. Rather than respond, he kept walking, content enough in letting her think poorly of him.
“How can you be so different now.” She frowned at him. “Seriously, what’s your deal? Why so hot then so cold?”
Though he would just as soon not answer because as a rule up until the past few days, he kept to himself, somehow she drew him out. Or maybe she had been drawing him out subliminally since she first burst into his mind uninvited.
“I am the way I have always been,” he stated. “It has not changed, woman.”
“Tess.”
“Woman.”
“Alrighty then,” she said under her breath, bypassing her name to focus on what apparently irritated her more. “So you’re telling me you’ve been dick-like since the moment we talked telepathically across time?” She shook her head. “No flirting, no light-hearted nature, no internal laughing?”
“I do not flirt.” But he knew someone who did. “Perhaps some of the time you were actually speaking with Soren.”
“Yeah, maybe...” She considered it before she shook her head no. “But I don’t think so.” Her eyes went to him. “It was you. Your voice the whole time.”
“Our voices can sound different telepathically,” he reminded.
“Not yours,” she replied. “Yours is very distinctly you.”
“Distinctly?”
“Yeah, you sound and feel like you.”
Though tempted to argue, he remained silent mainly because he understood what she meant since he'd so recently felt the same about her. Tess's inner dragon had a unique, distinct essence that was all her.
“Our enemy seems to be trapped in Helheim for the moment.” He moved the conversation away from the two of them and on to things he felt worth addressing. “We will not be able to make it back to the Fortress, so we’ll seek shelter in my lair.”
“Your lair?” She chuckled. “That sounds so medieval.”
“Your medieval is my present,” he bit back a little sharper than intended. Typically, he was good at keeping quiet, never mind even tempered when he spoke, but something about her tore at his reserved nature.
“I guess your present is my medieval,” she conceded. “Sorry, I meant no offense, sweetie. So where is this lair of yours and when should we expect Big Red to return?”
“Big Red?”
“The nasty ass dragon you were fighting before I arrived.” She arched a brow at him. “Our enemy, right?”
“You saw him then?”
“Yeah, of course,” she started then trailed off, seemingly confused for a moment. “At least I think I did.”
“You think?” He stopped and turned on her, not liking the sound of this. “He vanished before you appeared. You couldn’t have caught sight of him.”
“But I did.” She narrowed her eyes at something unseen. Or in this case, something very much seen, far too fast. “He was right there in front of me, I wanted to rip his throat out then, poof, he was gone.” She blinked several times, snapping out of wherever she had been before her eyes met his. “But that’s impossible...isn’t it...I couldn’t have seen him or felt that?”
“No,” he grumbled. “Not unless it is already too late...”
Chapter Three
“TOO LATE?” TESS said slowly, alarmed by Rokar’s furious scowl. What was too late? Rather than respond, he continued tromping along without a backward glance.
What was with this guy? Sure, he might be hot as hell, but that didn’t make his attitude any easier to swallow. So she caught up again and stopped him. This time she refrained from touching his chest and getting turned on. Or so she hoped. Because God knows, with a man this good looking, her body didn’t much care if she touched him or not. It didn’t even care if he was moody and despondent.
Tall, broad-shouldered and well-muscled like his brethren, he was clad head to toe in black leather, from his jerkin to his heavy boots. The only thing non-leather on him was his long black fur cloak and the multiple weapons he carried. His features were strong and masculine, his ruggedly handsome looks downright made for a motorcycle. In fact, he appeared custom made just for her with his short dark brown hair, goatee with two small braids and the sort of stormy, intense eyes that could get her off with one smoldering look.
“They remind me of something,” she murmured, resting her hand on his chest while she tried to figure out why his eyes looked so familiar. “Why is that when I know damn well I’ve never seen them before?”
His scowl only deepened. He shook his head and stepped around her once again.
“No.” She instinctually grabbed his wrist before he could get too far. When his eyes met hers and his pupils flared, she finally understood why they seemed so familiar. “No shit, it’s the storm!”
When he narrowed his eyes in confusion, she went on.
“The storm that overtook me on my bike in Maine,” she explained. “Its colors are all right there in your eyes...the clouds were the same unusual grayish green and the lightning silver just like the little silver flecks cutting through your eyes.” She blinked, caught by a thought she knew had belonged to Kenzie. “Like a mid-summer storm. The sort you feel in the air before it arrives. Brooding and turbulent, simmering before it explodes and wreaks havoc.”
A flash of recognition lit his gaze before he shook his head and pulled away. “I don’t know what to tell you, woman. My eyes have been this color since birth.”
“What was that?” she asked, walking alongside him again through the dense forest.
“What was what?”
“You just got a look,” she said. “As if describing your eyes like a storm meant something.”
“It means nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You do not have to.”
Hell, this guy really was the polar opposite of the one she had spoken with telepathically. Something they were going to need to get to the bottom of eventually. But first, she wanted to know what he was talking about.
“When I said I saw Big Red you implied it was already too late,” she reminded. “Too late for what?”
“It does not matter.”
“Damn straight, it does.” She frowned. “What did you mean, Rokar? Why did I feel like I wanted to rip his throat out?” When he remained silent, she prompted him along, “C’mon, man, give me something here.” She shook her head. “I know you’re not into us hooking up, but I need to understand what’s going on.” Images of the grotesque badly scarred red dragon flashed in her mind. “Why I felt so strongly about a dragon I’ve never met.” She flinched. “Outside of the obvious, that is.”
He sighed and didn’t answer for another minute before he finally came clean. “I suspect you saw and felt what you did not only because you came to Kenzie’s telepathic aid when he attempted to kill her and Dagr but also because you looked through my mind’s eye just now before you traveled back in time.”
She never saw the dragon that tried to kill them so that only left the second option.
“That’s impossible.” She met his frown. “We hadn’t even met yet.”
“Not physically.” They started down a dirt path between a large cluster of pines. “But we had telepathically.”
“Still,” she said. “I’m tight with my sisters, and we can’t even look through each others mind’s eye without permission.”
“That is how it’s supposed to be,” he muttered. “But you have a way of doing things you should not be able to do.”
“Right,” she murmured, recalling her dreams of him with vivid clarity. Erotic dreams where she never saw his face but could clearly see everything else. Hard flesh, rigid muscles, killer tats. “Like connecting with you, Shea and Kenz across time.”
“At the very least,” he grumbled as if she had done more than that.
“So I’m catching your thoughts and seeing through your mind’s eye.” She was well aware she had caught snippets of his thoughts a few minutes ago, no matter how fleeting. �
��Now here I am flung back in time to you, not Soren.”
“Yet you were with Soren first,” he reminded.
“How do you know?” Because he hadn’t been there.
“He told me telepathically.”
“He did?” When she stopped in surprise, but he kept going, she scooted after him. “What else did he tell you? Because I don’t remember anything after Kenz and Eirik went to fight their enemy. Are they okay? Everything still on track?”
“Yes, they defeated their enemy, and all is well.” He hesitated ever-so-briefly before he went on. “As we eventually discovered, the red dragon is their enemy’s brother and mine to battle now, it seems.”
“What was that hesitation?”
“What hesitation?”
“Just a sec ago before you mentioned Big Red.” She leapt in front of him again and made him stop. “I heard a hesitation.” She tilted her head in question, sure she was right. “What aren’t you telling me? What else happened?”
She knew by his discomfort that he wished he were anywhere but here. “It is for your sister to share.”
“My sister?” Oh shit, what happened? “Which sister? I have three of ‘em here in Scandinavia.”
When he started shaking his head, she stepped close and hovered her hand over his chest. “If you don’t come clean, I’ll touch you again, and we both know you don’t want that.”
“Kenzie,” he grunted.
“Kenzie what?” she prompted, trying to keep her cool. “She better be all right or so help me—”
“She has a new son,” he interrupted. “And a daughter.”
“Holy fuck.” She widened her eyes, baffled. “I know time goes by differently between the past and future.” She shook her head. “But seriously, how long was I in the future for?”
“Her son is Eirik’s,” he corrected. “And her daughter is yet to be born.”
When her mouth dropped open, he finally got around to explaining what she had missed. It seemed Eirik’s son Dagr who was born of Goddess Hel, had been Eirik and Kenzie’s in their previous life on Múspellsheimr. Long story short, Dagr now lived with Eirik and Kenzie at the Sigdir Fortress, and Kenzie was pregnant with another child.
Viking's Conquest Page 2
