by Ava Walsh
He yanked hard on the steering wheel, slamming on the brakes at the same time. They swung in a circle, just avoiding being rammed by the truck. The hunters shot past him. Stephen didn't wait to see if they would slow down or come back for them. He leaped from the car and ran at them, howling as fury poured through his veins.
The familiar sensation of his Wolf surfacing spread through his body. His skin prickled, sight sharpened. He could see the blue eyes of the man with the gun widen as the Wolf made one tremendous leap. The human shouted. The truck swerved.
Stephen landed with all four paws on the bed of the truck. His howl was cut short as he seized the first man by the leg and yanked hard. The human yelled, his rifle slipping from his hands. Another of the hunters aimed but Stephen rolled, snarling as his body stretched over the first man. The second hunter pulled back.
The Wolf rolled again, shifting as he did so. He grabbed the gun, swinging around to point it at the other hunters. The one he had brought down lashed out. A fist slammed Stephen's face. The Wolf swung the gun blindly, grinning when it connected with flesh. But his triumph didn’t last long. The hunter that had hit him grabbed him by the throat. His teeth were bared in a savage snarl, gray eyes burning with hatred. The human all but threw Stephen off the truck.
The ground tore at his arms and shoulders as Stephen rolled on impact. The rifle was still clutched in his hands. He struggled to draw in breath as he aimed for the truck and let off a wild shot. The sound of a slug hitting the truck echoed between the trees. Tires squealed as the hunters fled. Stephen scrambled to his feet, firing the gun again and again, not even realizing when he ran out of bullets until the truck was no longer in sight.
"Crap," he muttered, collapsing to one knee. His shoulder burned and blood ran down his torso. He checked himself for bullet wounds and found only road rash.
Iduna was another matter. Stephen struggled to his feet and rushed back to the car. He was well aware that he was stark naked, but there wasn't anything he could do about that yet. Besides, they were both Shifters. Some degree of nudity just happened in their communities.
Not to mention the fact that they had nearly been killed. Really, his nakedness was the least of his concerns.
The Bear was still in the backseat, eyes closed. Had he gotten her killed? He yanked the door open, horror pounding through his body.
"Iduna!" he grasped her wrist. Her eyes flew open. Her pulse beat steady and strong. Stephen let out a gasp of relief and withdrew. "I'm sorry. I thought I was protecting you and I only put you in danger."
"I was already in danger. We don't know that you put me in more danger."
"Are you hurt?"
Iduna shivered. "My arm."
Stephen helped her sit. Blood coursed down her arm. A bullet was lodged in her flesh.
"We need a doctor to take that out. Where's the hospital?"
"It was shut down not long ago. The community has brought a lawsuit against the province for it, but right now we have to go to the human city for anything that won't heal by itself." Iduna flinched as she inspected her arm. "If the bullet isn't removed, then my muscle will regrow around it, perhaps causing an abscess. We need to go to the hospital."
"Yeah. And I need to dress."
Iduna nodded. "Do you have spare clothing?"
"Yes. I always keep an extra outfit in the trunk."
Stephen stroked her cheek before withdrawing sharply. What was he doing? They didn't know each other, he couldn’t just start touching her. Clearing his throat, he returned to the driver's seat. Right, hospital. And then he was going to find out what was going on. No one could just ride through a Shifter settlement with guns and starting fires.
Something was most definitely wrong here.
Chapter Three – Iduna
Iduna tried to avoid moving her arm. When she did, fiery bolts of pain shot through her. Even when she kept it still, it throbbed. It was only through sheer force of will that she didn't pass out. Her face was slick with perspiration and her vision swam in and out of focus. Shock. This couldn’t be good for the baby. She rested her good hand on her stomach, relieved to feel the baby moving around still.
"Stress can cause a woman to go into early labor, you know."
The car swerved as Stephen twisted in his seat, turning to look at her with wide eyes. "Are you going into labor?"
"The road!"
Stephen turned back to avoid going into the ditch as they rounded a corner. Iduna braced herself with her good arm, shaking her head. She never said she was going into labor. The way people jumped to conclusions like that confused her.
"Are you in labor?" Stephen's voice was pitched with stress, and Iduna could hear the whine of his Wolf in it.
Her own Bear responded with soothing grunts, and she froze, eyes widening. "When did you come back?"
Stephen gave her a startled glance in the rearview mirror.
"My Bear. She hasn't been around much since I got pregnant. Thinking about it now, maybe I subconsciously suppressed her. After all, the baby is half-wolf. Maybe I knew that on some level and made her leave. Or maybe she could sense it and left on her own accord, so she wouldn’t accidently hurt the baby. That's probably why I haven't been able to shift since I got pregnant. Psychology is fascinating, isn't it? The way the mind works."
The car slowed.
"Why are we stopping?"
"Are you in labor?"
"No. I didn't say I was."
Stephen let out a sigh of relief. He began speeding up again. "You need to put your seatbelt on."
Iduna jumped in surprise, hissing when pain shot through her. Even though she knew that having her life in danger was as good an excuse to forget about a seatbelt as any, she kicked herself for doing it. She tried to buckle herself in one-handed, but the exercise was futile. Stephen pulled to the shoulder of the road and got out.
"Let me help you with that." Stephen opened her door and grasped the seatbelt. "Your shoulder will be healed by the time we get to the city anyway. I have a blanket in the trunk, I'll get it for you. You're supposed to stay warm after a traumatic event."
"Yes. Keeping a person warm helps to keep the blood in the vital organs, which is extremely important in staying alive. When someone goes into shock, their blood naturally goes to these places because of the body's reaction to stress and danger, and it expands extreme energy to get the blood back to the extremities when it's…" Iduna bit her lips together and nodded. "A blanket would be good. Do you have two? You should keep warm as well."
Stephen leaned around her to do up the seatbelt. "I only have one."
He disappeared briefly and returned with a blanket, which he tucked around her with gentle ease. Iduna leaned forward, breathing in his scent. He noticed and stopped. A smile crinkled his eyes. She could see herself reflected in them.
And her desire was echoed back just the same.
"Sometimes high adrenaline levels will also produce other hormones," she blurted out, then ducked her head and shied away from him.
It was just pregnancy hormones, mixed with the life-and-death situation, and it probably had something to do with Stephen being the father of her child, too. She had already decided that she wasn't going to have a mate, and even if she hadn’t, Stephen was a Wolf. There was bad blood between Wolves and Bears, with a long history of killing on both sides.
In fact, she didn't know if her mother's warning that Stephen was too old to be her mate was more of a warning that he was too Wolf to be her mate. Her parents could be very overprotective.
Her parents. Iduna's eyes widened in horror. "My parents! We just left without telling them where I was going. They're going to be so worried. They're going to think you kidnapped me."
"Your parents. Right." Stephen dug into his pocket and handed her his cellphone. Iduna quickly dialed her father's number.
"Pick up, pick up," she pled quietly, the low-lying levels of adrenaline that were still in her system kicking back into full force. Her heart pounded. No matt
er how much she told her the chances that either of her parents had been killed was remote, she couldn't suppress images of them laying on the road shot through by those hunting rifles.
Hunting rifles. As if they were nothing more than animals. As if they didn't have as much human as Bear in them.
Her father's voice broke her from her musings. Iduna couldn’t stop a small cry of relieve. "Daddy!"
"Iduna! Where are you?"
"I'm with Stephen. We tried to drive away but they shot us. At us." She glanced at her shoulder. The flesh had almost stitched itself over the bullet. No use worrying her parents until they could see she was fine with their own eyes. "We're going to the hospital to make sure the baby's okay."
"Are you okay?" Tyson's voice pitched lower, the way it did when he thought she was lying.
Or knew she was lying. "I had a fright but I'm okay. But the stress isn't good for the baby."
"Okay. Go to our campsite when you're done with the hospital, baby, just to be safe. Who knows when the hunters will come back. Your mother and I are fine. Don't worry about us."
Iduna nodded, relieved to hear father's reassurances. "Okay. I'll go to the camp. I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, too, sweetheart."
She hung up and handed the phone back to Stephen. "They're fine."
Stephen stroked her cheek gently. He snatched his hand away like he had only a little while ago. Clearly, he was feeling the same draw to her as she was feeling towards him, but was reluctant to act on it. Because she was a Bear and he was a Wolf, or because of their age difference?
She opened her mouth to ask him but thought better of it. This was probably one of those topics that some people found uncomfortable. Besides, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. Not yet, at least.
"We should go," she said instead.
Stephen nodded and returned to the driver's seat. "I should sweep up that glass."
"It's okay." Iduna glanced at the remains of the back window scattered over the seat. She shivered and arranged the blanket higher on her shoulders, wincing as she did so. Those hunters had been trying to kill them.
Stephen started the car and they were on their way again. "Well, since we're here, we might as well talk, right?" Stephen's voice sounded stressed, but he attempted to make it more upbeat. Iduna appreciated that. "Your name. How did your parents decide on it?"
"Iduna? It's a derivative of Idunn. Well, that's the anglicized version of it, anyway. She was a Norse deity, responsible for caring for the golden apples of Asgard that kept the Aesir and Vanir, those were the races of gods, young. There is one story in which Loki–who was Odin's blood brother, the movies have it really wrong, but I suppose you can't look for correct representation from Hollywood–anyway, he stole Idunn and all the gods started to age rapidly and—"
She cut herself off. She was being, as her classmates growing up often told her, a know-it-all. He asked a simple question, and she went off on a tangent of information that he didn't want to know. She ducked her head. For some reason, tears pricked her eyes, although she really had nothing to cry over.
It was just that she really hated being so different from everybody else. She wanted to be able to share what she knew and wanted to hear what other people knew. It was just that knowledge was so exciting, and if she had to keep it all bottled up, how was she supposed to learn anything new?
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Stephen glanced in the mirror. "For what?"
"Babbling about useless information. People always tell me I'm a know-it-all."
"I don't think you're babbling. I think it's fascinating." Stephen smiled at her. "Did you learn this in university?"
Iduna's shoulders slumped. The one with the bullet twanged, but it had healed enough that it wasn't so bad anymore. "No. Just from reading. I want to go to university, but…"
"But what?"
Iduna stared out the window. "I don't really like people. And university is full of people. I couldn’t handle it. Besides, I don't really need it. My parents have a thriving nursery, and these days I pretty much run it, anyway. I'm happy with what I have. All I wanted was to have a child of my own, and now I'm going to have that, too. My life is good. There's nothing else I want."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing." Nothing except someone who she could talk to about whatever she wanted to without being told that she was babbling. Iduna looked out the window. "Nothing."
Chapter Four – Stephen
Stephen was amazed at how calm Iduna was as the doctors cut open her shoulder and removed the bullet. Although he thought that he should go to a store or something and pick up new clothes for her so she didn't have to wear her blood-soaked things, he couldn't bear to leave her side. He winced more than she did during the operation.
He knew it was silly. She was a grown woman, after all. There wasn't any reason why she couldn't take care of herself. And it wasn't that he thought he should take care of her, per se, but his Wolf was still growling protectively whenever anybody came near her. He just had to stay by her side. He had been searching for his mate for decades and had started to lose hope that he had a mate out here.
Could it be that he had found her now? Was Iduna the one he was meant to give himself to, heart, body and soul? Or was it just because she carried his child, and his Wolf was reading too much into it?
While the doctor checked the baby and they waited for Iduna's shoulder to heal, a couple of police officers came to take their statements. Stephen relayed everything he could remember about the attack on the Bear community, and the police promised to look into it. He would have pressed more, but Iduna told him she wanted to go find her parents. Stephen couldn't say no to her when he looked into her eyes.
She really was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"My parents are going to be so worried," Iduna sighed as they got into the car. "Should we get this back window fixed?"
"I think we'll be fine." Stephen squeezed her hand. "You're worried about your parents. The car can wait."
Iduna opened her mouth, then closed it and nodded. "Thank you."
***
They drove until it was well past sunset, heading into the forest. Stephen didn't like losing his cellphone signal, but Iduna assured him that her parents would be waiting at their destination. When they finally stopped, they were deep in the dark chill of the pine and fir trees. A truck sat in a small clearing, but there was nobody else around.
"Well, we might as well get some rest. Are you good putting your seat back or do you—"
"I'm cold. Can we be in the backseat and share body heat?" Iduna's teeth were chattering.
"Of course."
Stephen swept up the glass on the back seat the best he could before settling down beside Iduna. She leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder.
His Wolf sang.
It was all Stephen could do not to sing with it. His heart beat a furiously happy tattoo in his chest. He looked down at the beautiful woman curled up against him and knew there would never be anybody else for him. She was it. His mate. His forever. She took his breath away.
Her hand slipped out from under the blanket and caressed his face. He didn't move. Didn't dare to break this moment. Iduna's breath was warm on his lips, and then she was there. Her lips were soft as she pressed a chaste kiss to his mouth. Stephen smiled, kissing her back. It didn't last long, but the Wolf didn't try to prolong the contact. He was satisfied with Iduna's pace.
With a sigh, his mate settled back next to him. "Do you know what 'star-crossed lovers' really means?"
"When two people are meant to be together but have to fight external forces that want to keep them apart."
Iduna shook her head. "That's what people often take it to mean, but it's not. Shakespeare used 'star-crossed' to describe Romeo and Juliet–I don't know if the term originated with the play or if it was an earlier turn of phrase. That's something I should find out. I wonder if Google Scholar will have articles on tha
t."
Stephen smiled. He loved the way she talked, sharing whatever facts were in her head. He had never done well in school, never had gone to university, but he liked to learn things. He could listen to Iduna forever.
"Anyway," she continued. "Romeo and Juliet were not 'star-crossed' because they were so in love, or because they were meant to be together. They only knew each other for a weekend. Seriously. They met and got married, and Juliet was thirteen years old. The play isn't a romance, it's a social commentary about how the rigid dogma of older generations steals the future of their children. Well, that's one part of it… what was I talking about?"
"Star-crossed lovers."
"Right." Iduna melted against him, yawning. "Shakespeare referred to them as 'star-crossed' because they were doomed. Something to do with astrology. It was the stars that meant that their love was doomed from the start, and he outright states it right at the beginning of the play. People of the time would have known that from the prologue."
Stephen ran his fingers over her curls. "What made you think of that?"
Iduna shrugged. "Feuding families. I know there haven't been any incidents between Wolves and Bears for a long time up here, but that doesn't mean that they get along."
It was true. Stephen felt the happiness at finally being with his mate fade a little. He could never ask her to leave her community, but would they accept him if he decided to live with her? And whether he was a Wolf or just too old, her father had made it very clear that he didn't like having Stephen around. He probably thought that the Wolf was taking advantage of Iduna.
And was he? She was twenty-five years old. He was forty-three. That was eighteen years difference. Iduna was an intelligent young woman, but the way she acted… she did seem very naïve, despite her intelligence.
Stephen cleared his throat. "Iduna… if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to go with AI with an anonymous donor? There must have been a lot of young men that would be happy to help you get pregnant."