“Are you going to talk the whole time? Or do you plan on being quiet long enough to learn something?” I asked finally.
Makenna quirked a brow in challenge. Seemed I’d struck a nerve.
“Probably. Might be something you should get used to now,” she retorted.
“I forgot how stubborn and headstrong your kind could be,” I groaned and rolled my eyes toward the heavens.
“My kind? You mean humans?” she asked, unable to hide her laughter.
“No, not humans. Women,” I answered, staring at her from the corner of my eyes.
An unbridled burst of giggles erupted from Makenna as she shook her head. Her crown of dark waves danced in the light with the movement. The sound was practically musical.
“Well, if you’ve had your fun, I’d like to see whether your aim is as sharp as your wit,” I urged, surprising even myself when I realized I was looking forward to getting my hands on her.
Calm the fuck down, Ivar. Keep it together, man.
I understood now why Kristopher and Jaxxen had taken to the land so easily. Mates- they got their hooks in you and reeled you in and just like the little fish, we were hopeless to resist the pull. The ferocity with which I wanted this woman, this stranger I barely knew, stole my breath away.
“You don’t have a very strong sense of humor, do you?” Makenna asked, squinting at me suspiciously.
Stony-faced, I decided to fuck with her, make her squirm a little. I had a sense of humor alright, it just wasn’t comprised of dad jokes and self-deprecatory comments about my cock size. I had no shortcomings or insecurities in that department. Kristopher had once said my humor ran deep into morbid territory. It suited me. The only beings who’d seen more death than I were Gods and Valkyries.
“No,” I said, holding my hand out with a silent request for the axe.
She handed it back to me and listened intently for me to continue. When I said nothing further, the chatterbox decided to change the subject.
“Did you know that it doesn’t take a sharp axe to cleave a man in two? A dull one will do in a pinch. You just have to strike the right spot with enough force and he’ll split in two like a melon. When you’re precise, you don’t tire out as quickly. You conserve your energy and that energy can save your life,” I mused, admiring the sharpness of the blade.
Unphased by my rhetoric, I continued my lesson. Stepping closer until we were no more than a few inches apart, my fingers danced down her forearm to her hand and I pushed the handle of the axe into her palm. I was guiding her as I closed her grip around the smooth axe handle and made sure her grip was mostly higher in her hand. The perfect release came from the fingers.
I moved to stand behind her, my fingers never left her body as I went. My hand came to rest on her hip and I noticed a change in her breathing. Together, we moved until we stood square to the target. Her back arched a little, pressing her ass into my groin and my palm flattened low against her belly almost in encouragement.
“Throwing an axe is not at all like throwing a ball, so try to remember that first and foremost. It requires a smooth and straight path to the target, that’s how your arm must move,” I whispered, leaning my face lower, closer to her ear. I spoke slowly, so my breath would heat her skin and bring it to life. I tried to continue my lesson like there was nothing wrong by bringing her arm up with the axe over her shoulder as I showed her manually what I meant. “Try not to move your elbow around, it’s just I quick bend. A snap. As your arm extends like it would to point at your target, you release. If you palm the handle, you’ll lose accuracy. Step forward as your throw, your power will come from your legs. Now, go ahead.”
Letting go of her, I stepped back several feet and tried to discretely adjust my aching cock like she wasn’t affecting me. Makenna flinched with my sudden withdrawal, but she needed to focus. Although, I imagined it could be fun to distract her…I’d file that idea away for another day when I had a clearer head and a sharper picture of what I wanted from this. For the time being, I was still on the fence and I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever this was with Makenna was a betrayal to the family I’d had before. Fidelity hadn’t even been highly valued among our people. No one would’ve blinked if I would’ve taken another woman to bear me sons, but that hadn’t been what I’d wanted.
Setting her feet, Makenna readied herself to throw, but she was flustered and not concentrating. She wouldn’t quit fidgeting around and her elbow was nowhere near being in a straight line with the rest of her arm. With a powerful step, Makenna threw the axe toward the target. It tumbled end over end before bouncing back off the wooden plank and clattering to the ground.
“Shit,” she huffed.
“I did mention that an axe isn’t a baseball,” I pointed out, tutting as I retrieved the blade.
Makenna shot me an angry glare lifted her chin defiantly. There was a fire in her, fire to prove me wrong, to push herself harder…it was a heady cocktail to a man like me.
I didn’t miss the hurt that flashed in her eyes before she covered it with a hopeful smile. Makenna was resilient too, it seemed.
“Do you think you can remember that when you throw the axe, your elbow only acts to extend your arm? You don’t need to be twisting and wobbling your elbow around, no rotating either. Keep a line,” I reiterated, keeping my distance this time.
“Not like a baseball,” she murmured, throwing her voice to mock me. I don’t think she intended that I hear it either.
“Not like a baseball,” I replied, lifting a brow in challenge.
Setting her feet, Makenna gave me her back and brought the axe up above her shoulder. This time, her form was much better from the start and if I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought she was trying to prove a point. With hearty grunt, Makenna stepped forward and with almost perfect form, threw the axe end over end toward the target. The handle smacked the target and the axe clattered to the dirt, unfortunate, but it happened.
“That happens sometimes, yet your form was almost as good as mine,” I teased, feeling the corner of my lip curl with a grin.
It was a foreign feeling- smiling. Especially with Makenna.
“Are you always this smug?” she tossed back at me over her shoulder as she retrieved the axe to try again.
“It’s not arrogance. It’s confidence and knowing your capabilities. Now, throw again,” I urged.
Her ass swayed sensually; my mate was putting on a show. I wouldn’t take the bait, but I wasn’t going to pass up on the show either. It had been too long since I’d indulged in the pleasures of the flesh. Bending down slowly, she grabbed the axe and snapped back upright. Makenna did an about face and caught me staring unashamedly. I didn’t bother trying to hide it. Sexual attraction was nothing to be embarrassed by. Considering this was my mate, I felt I was pretty fucking restrained, all things considered.
Makenna sauntered toward me, her big eyes were locked on my own the whole way. She said nothing as she came toward me and stopped where she’d thrown from before and turned around to take her position again. Like the time before, she smoothly and precisely threw the axe. This time, it landed with a secure thud, albeit nearly a foot away from the center of the target, but it was commendable progress.
“Well, look at that. You catch on quick.”
She beamed from ear to ear, but she didn’t jump up and down and celebrate her achievement. Instead, she gave me a proud nod and headed off to fetch the axe to do it all over. Over the course of the afternoon, we settled into a comfortable routine, taking turns throwing and eventually, we began to talk about ourselves. Well, she talked about herself. That was what I was most interested in. She shared that she was the middle daughter, with two brothers and divorced parents who still lived in Maine. Makenna told me about growing up in the United States and splitting time between parents who were able to remain good friends and co-parent effectively.
She’d played sports and had friends but didn’t have a direction she wanted to take her life, so
she’d joined the military to help heal wounded soldiers. A combat medic, that’s what she’d called herself. However, when the topic had turned to her time in the lands she’d called Syria, she hadn’t gone further than to mention she’d been there. It was the tell-tale mark of a warrior who’d seen the horrors of battle and been forever changed. I knew the signs. I’d dealt with them myself and my heart ached for her. Makenna was a good woman, a healer through and through. I didn’t have to ask to know she’d taken every loss she’d encountered personally, as a failure on her end. It couldn’t be further from the truth, but sometimes, it was harder to convince the brain of that.
Time slipped by without us even realizing until the sun had crept below the tree tops, casting the yard in long dark shadows. Makenna was staring at the blisters which had begun to form on her palms and fingers. Her shoulders drooped with the exertion and I knew her muscles probably ached would be sore in the morning. I would be too, but it was diverting. Instead of taking to the bar and drinking myself into oblivion, I’d had the most conversation I’d had in centuries. No one was more surprised than myself that I had managed to even enjoy myself. Every tidbit Makenna would impart to me was as precious as those damnable blue gems we’d found at the bottom of the lake those many centuries ago. I committed every one of them to memory.
“So, what about you? What was your childhood like? I imagine it was more than just a little different than mine,” she asked, with a light-hearted chuckle.
The question was so benign I wanted to answer it. Makenna had no idea she was picking at a festering wound. Some memories were too painful to revisit, but I was hopeless to refuse her this simple request.
“I grew up in a small village situated at the mouth of a great fjord. My father was the second in command to the clan chieftain, a strong fighter and a man most respected. From him, I had two sisters and five brothers. Most of them lacked the skill to be a fighter and they took to fishing. I was taught how to sail and navigation, how to fight and kill a man. To show mercy to an enemy was aa weakness my father wouldn’t tolerate. Perhaps, I am more like him than I had believed,” I realized with a small reminiscent grin. My father was a hard man, larger than life when I was small.
“What about your mother? I haven’t heard you mention her,” Makenna inquired, pointing out the dark spot in my family.
“It’s complicated and you’d probably think the whole thing barbaric, and you’d be right, but before I tell you, I need you to understand it was a different time, a different world. Men did things then that they’d be killed for now. My family was no different,” I warned. When she nodded her understanding and waited patiently for me to continue, I finished the tragic tale of my family’s creation. “My father was a warrior and we were a raiding people. Sometimes we took gold and gems. Other times it would be food. Most every time though, we would take women,” I admitted the sad, cruel fact and waited for her to digest. The disgusted expression she struggled to conceal confirmed what I already knew to be true. “My mother was taken as a slave from a village of Danes. As the Jarls’ second, my father had a premium pick of the crop and my mother had a feisty spirit and hair like spun gold. The great Bjorn Thorgard promised to kill any man who dared to so much as look at her. Then, he took her for his own. She bore him two living sons and a daughter in her servitude. Eventually, his attentions turned to another and my mother was freed in gratitude for his children. She took the opportunity to go home to her people. I was twelve the last I saw her.”
“Holy shit,” Makenna sighed, staring hard at the grass earth.
It was a lot to take in, especially for one who’d lived in a time where the horrors you hear about in the news were a rarity and not your everyday existence. The insects were beginning to buzz and come to life as the darkness descended on Aurora Falls.
“Now you understand why they might not be the best topic of polite conversation,” I added.
“Is that what this is? Just polite conversation? Sort of thought were beyond that now,” Makenna mentioned, a well-manicured brow rose pointedly. “Either way, everyone carries baggage and families are complicated. Everyone has their shit they deal they with. So, I’m not here to judge.”
Her sympathy was palpable and unable to take the tension of the moment, she turned her attention to the skies. Lifting her arm, she pointed to a cluster of clouds above the trees.
“Wow, look at that,” she said, shifting the direction of the moment like a trained professional.
Scanning the sky, I tried to riddle out what I was supposed to be looking at. It was the sky. Same as most nights.
“The sky,” Makenna answered, crossing her arms over her chest. “The colors are really pretty tonight. Oranges and pinks that fade into mauve and purple…then, it all disappears, and everything is black once again.”
Wherever Makenna was, it wasn’t there with me in Aurora Falls. She was lost in her memories of something, that far off stare and fond smile…I wondered if it was for another man- one who was worthy of her. Jealousy and possessiveness reared its ugly head within me, a sick feeling churned in my gut when it had no right to.
The last of the sun’s rays cast Makenna’s profile in light, making her look like she was glowing from the inside out. She was so beautiful she was almost painful to behold. An image of my family became clearer in my head. Makenna’s belly swollen with my child and a raven-haired girl no more than three beside her. It wasn’t the family I’d known and loved, yet I wanted it just as fiercely. Torn with the overwhelming desire to make that vision a reality and my anchors to the past, I turned away from her to say what I had to.
“It’s getting late. I have some fish I can cook for you, but I will ask that you stay here tonight. You can take my bedroom and I’ll stay on the couch,” I said.
“Why? I don’t want to put you out at all. The place I’m staying is right in town, I can just come by tomorrow morning,” she offered, shifting around.
“You saw the curse. My time on land is limited. It would put my mind to ease to know that you’re here with me, under this roof and safe. If you were to leave, I might have to find you and that could be dangerous,” I replied.
“Dangerous? Wait, I only saw that you get three days on land during the full moon. What’s dangerous about that?”
“Tomorrow, the full moon will end, and I’ll have to return to the lake again. If I don’t return to the lake in time, I’ll be just like a fish out of water. Having seen what happens when we resist the moon’s pull firsthand, I know it’s a horrible death,” I said, trying to rid myself of the memories.
Shaking hands clasped over her mouth as she realized what that could mean for me if I didn’t return to Sapphire Lake before the full moon’s end. Makenna nodded without hesitation.
“I’ll stay,” she said, giving me the first hope that maybe underneath all that strong, sassy demeanor was a woman who could do as she was asked without putting up a fight- something I knew wouldn’t last long.
5
Makenna
True to his word, Ivar had cooked dinner for me. Of all the things I’d been expecting, culinary talents weren’t among those I would’ve thought the man possessed, but he’d made a crusted lake trout that could’ve won a Michelin star. If I would’ve been able to form a coherent sentence instead of my taste buds having an orgasm every bite, I would’ve asked him how he’d learned to cook like that. Instead, I’d been too busy stuff my face like I would never see food again. I made a mental note to ask him about it the next day while I really prayed he was cooking breakfast too. There was just something about breakfast food that had always soothed my soul and if Ivar could lay down some bacon and eggs like he had the trout, I might’ve strongly considered asking him about completing our bond.
I was still iffy on the specifics of how exactly a true love could break their curse. Love wasn’t even in the equation between the two of us yet…was it?
As I laid in Ivar’s bed with the covers pulled up to my chest, I stared at the ceilin
g and tried to make heads or tails of what was going on inside my head. We had chemistry and that carnal raw attraction, but he was walled up tighter than the Bastille fortress and seemed dead set against taking a mate at all. The fact that I was even entertaining the wild notion of mating a thousand-year-old merman should’ve sent me straight to the nearest asylum. However, I’d witnessed the curse just as Ivar and his people had lived through it. He’d fished me out of that lake when I’d fallen in and he hadn’t had to do that. But he had done it.
I didn’t know what other reason I could have for believing such things. I certainly wasn’t that creative on my own. I needed him to know that I was open to whatever this could be. Now. Before I fell asleep and forgot or confused myself again. Throwing the covers back, I got up from the bed and listened for any sign of Ivar. Trying to keep my weight on my toes and stay as silent as possible, I crept to the door, but it was hopeless. The cabin’s aged floorboards groaned every time weight was applied, making a quiet retreat from the bedroom impossible. As it turned out, the whole endeavor had it in for me. I shuffled toward the door, stubbing my pinky toe on the unmovable, wooden bed leg and instantly sending me into a fit of hissed cursing.
As soon as the damn stub quit throbbing, I hobbled out the door, wincing as I glanced around the empty living room. The spot on the couch where Ivar was supposed to be was empty. In fact, it looked like it hadn’t been used at all. My eyes shot to the other bedroom where the door stood open and the bed was well within view and likewise untouched. The cabin was almost silent, save for the sound of the crickets chirping outside. Immediately, I assumed the worst.
Ivar had gone back to the lake. He’d left without so much as a goodbye or without bothering to give us a chance. A tight ball of nerves and panic swelled within my gut and threatened to eject the contents of my stomach. I shuffled forward, my body was numb as I took each step toward the back door which faced the copse of trees between the dwelling and Sapphire Lake. The moon’s bright glow cast light down on the whole of Aurora Falls. It was so bright that you would’ve thought it was early morning, just before the sun was coming up. Everything could be seen clearly, save for the long dark shadows cast by the trees. My fingers closed around the cool door knob and with a soft, metallic click, the door swung in. I stepped out onto the deck, but instantly, I felt his presence.
Warrior’s Kiss- Mountain Mermaids Page 4