but first I need to slow down this beast.
My heartbeat bangs loudly in my ears.
I dart at lightning speed and throw myself into a forward roll, skewing to the left to miss the bear. Air buffets across my back from the creature’s paw slicing through the air.
I leap to my feet and pivot back around, then hurl myself onto its back. We’ve taken down bears so many times back home. The beasts come down from the mountains when they run out of food.
I scramble up the creature’s back, the blade between my teeth, my hands clutching at fur to reach its head.
Sudden movement snags my attention from my right, and I half expect it to be Crius. Instead, a savage swipe of a large paw crashes into me so unexpectedly, there’s no time to duck. Claws scrape the side of my face, and I’m thrust off the bear’s back. I slam to the ground, my blade flings away, and my body rolls from the momentum until I crash into a tree.
I groan from the impact, a sharp pain cramping my back, searing pain from the claws, while my head spins. But I don’t have time to rest. I shove myself off the ground, the woods tilting around me, my face burning from the bear’s scratch.
My gaze settles on the animal who’s not paying me any attention anymore.
It’s facing someone else… someone that has my stomach dropping.
“Hel?” I call out, staring incredulously at my sister standing in the small clearing. A tremble curls under my heart. The last time I saw her, tears streamed down her cheeks as Father’s men dragged her out of our home in exchange for Nikos.
My gut twists in on itself, and an invisible hand grabs my heart, ripping it apart. Memories gouge my mind, and the past resurfaces.
“Send me instead,” I shout from across the room to Father, the sting of anger piercing through my chest.
He stands with his back to me, peering out the window at the field outside, in the direction the Balor Wolves took Hel. He’s a large man, bigger than me. I’ve only seen one person stand up to him, and they didn’t live to see the next day.
“Say something,” I bellow, my hands curling into fists, loathing the cold-hearted bastard. Mother’s cries echo from the hallway, and my heart thunders.
Father turns to me and looks at me with hurt-filled resignation in his eyes.
Rage fills every inch of me, and not even his regretful agony can dampen my need to shove my fist into someone’s face.
“Ragnar, son,” he begins, but I’ve had enough and march up to him.
“Did you not hear me? I’ll take her place. Bring her back.”
I expect him to react, to grab my throat, to strike. Anything but lower his head and turn back to the window.
“We are outnumbered by them, you know this.” The edge of his voice carries a warning.
“So what? Hel pays the cost? She’s the sacrifice for all our lives?” Heat tears through me like a storm.
“If I could, I’d send you in a heartbeat,” he admits, his words despondent, and I realize then he means it. He’d get rid of me without hesitation. “But it’s not you they want,” he mutters. “The Alpha came to me with a deal. He wants to claim Hel, and that buys us our safety.”
I growl. “You sold her to that fucking old pig?”
His arms fall by his sides, but he doesn’t respond or even pay me any attention. My gaze tumbles to the ring on his finger, dark and blood-stained, worn by his father and grandfather, all Alphas of the Ulv pack before him. But what good is being a powerful Alpha if you let others rip the soul out of your chest?
I wrench my gaze back to reality, from Hel to the other men who are fighting something I can’t see… what the fuck is going on? I look back quickly to find Narah behind a tree, her expression one of horror.
“Bear got your tongue, brother?” Hel teases. “Will you fight alongside me, or have you lost your spine in the Romanian lands?” She cuts me a hard stare, her blue eyes sparkling in the light, and she wears the mischievous grin she always did when she challenged me during our battle training.
I shake my head to clear my vision, convinced I’m hallucinating.
Long brown hair hangs down her back, untouched by the wind beating into me. She’s in her battle gear: leather pants, heavy boots, and a