Astrid shot him a look. How had she known?
Harald was talking, but Luke hadn’t heard a word. He’d been too busy picturing Astrid out of her dress. They must be nearing the end of the ceremony because Leif had Naya’s hand in his and was sliding a ring onto her finger.
“This ring is a token of my undying devotion and affection,” he said. “Like the circle of this ring, my love for you will never end. You are my wife, my queen, my everything.”
Naya repeated the words about the circle as she placed a ring on Leif’s finger. She clasped his hand in hers and lifted her face. “You are my king, my husband, my world.”
A rush of wind bore down on the glen. The branches on the tall ash rustled furiously. It swept through the clearing and whipped Naya’s veil around her face. Leif’s long hair was caught in the same breeze. He tilted his head back, his whole face lit up in bliss. A deep growl escaped from his throat.
Something clicked deep inside Luke’s chest and his senses sharpened. The scent of the roses became stronger. The wind touching his skin ignited every nerve ending. The sounds of the wedding guests amplified. He heard their murmur as clearly as if they stood right next to him. Their clothing rustled so loud it hurt his ears.
He hyperventilated. Was he having a panic attack? He loosened his tie and collar.
The weird sensations left as quickly as they had come over him. He watched as Harald spoke over the couple’s intertwined hands but couldn’t concentrate on the words. He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his chest. Everyone else appeared completely unfazed. Was he the only one who had noticed the wind?
Astrid stared at him. Okay? she mouthed. He nodded in response.
Pekka shot him a concerned look. “You’re sweating. Drink your beer.”
Luke took a long pull from his now lukewarm draft, trying to collect his jumbled thoughts.
Harald declared the couple husband and wife, and Leif planted another deep kiss on his bride’s lips. She didn’t seem to mind. Neither did the guests, judging by the loud cheering. They didn’t wait for the couple to walk back down the aisle, instead joining them up front. The old guy who earlier had made fun of Ulf slapped Leif’s back.
The kiss finally ended. Leif released Naya with another smile. She headed for her bridesmaids, and the three women hugged.
“Am I allowed to get up now?” Luke asked Pekka sarcastically.
“Sure. Just stay out of Ulf’s way.”
“As long as he keeps away from Astrid, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Luke strode up to his fiancée. She frowned as he got closer.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You looked like you were going to pass out.”
His heart rate had finally slowed down. “I’m fine. Maybe it was the beer.” He held up his empty mug.
“I need a drink,” Astrid said. “And food. I’m starving.”
Luke grabbed her hand, and they sidestepped the crowd to walk over to the food tent. He could feel Ulf’s eyes following them, but ignored him. “Pekka’s been telling me a little bit about your background,” he said when they reached the keg inside the tent.
Astrid stilled. “What did he tell you?”
He kept his eyes focused on her face as he repeated Pekka’s tale. A part of him desperately looked for any sign of this being one big joke. A setup to make fun of the new boyfriend. Another part knew that Pekka had told the truth. The wolverines, the mansion that couldn’t be found via GPS, the feral nature inside Astrid, they all fit.
Astrid poured herself a glass from a pitcher filled with deep golden liquid. She drank a large swallow. “Yes,” she said. “That is who I am.”
“Who you are?” Luke frowned, but she wouldn’t look at him. He nudged her chin until her green eyes gazed into his. “Pekka told me how you ended up here and what your job is. That’s not who you are, which is what I want to know.”
Astrid nodded slowly, as if she’d made a decision. “Okay, let’s grab a plate of food and find somewhere more private.”
He grinned. Interesting things happened whenever they found themselves in “more private” places.
“To talk,” she said firmly. “Somewhere private to talk.”
As he moved down the buffet, Luke loaded up on pickled herring, eggs, paté, and ham. He filled his mug with more beer and then followed Astrid into the trees, where she sat down on a felled log. Luke sat on the ground in front of her so he could see her face. She took another sip of her drink before putting it down on the log.
She looked at him, her eyes serious and a little apprehensive. “I was born to a thrall, a slave, so my mother’s master became my master. He wasn’t always kind, but he was decent to us. We were his property, so he protected his investment. He clothed us and fed us. We didn’t have an actual home—he didn’t think we needed one since we worked all day—but he made sure we had shelter for the night.”
Luke grabbed her hand. “Astrid, I had no idea. When you said a man had been in control of your life, I thought—”
“I know what you thought. I wasn’t ready to tell you the whole story then.” She pulled her hand away. “If you touch me, I’ll have a hard time telling it now.” A sad smile graced her lips.
Life in the lab had sometimes made him feel like someone’s property, but at least he’d had his own room. He’d shared it with Donovan, and since they’d never known anything different, they thought of it as home. “I understand,” he told Astrid. “Go on.”
She took a deep breath and continued. “My mother died when I was ten, and my master didn’t want to raise an orphan. He sold me on the auction block, and I was lucky to get another owner who treated his thralls well. As long as I obeyed orders and kept in line, I received food, clothes, and shelter.”
“Was there a time when you didn’t obey?” Luke asked. Christ, he couldn’t imagine Astrid following anyone’s orders but her own.
“I only talked back once. And I got the whip for it,” she said. “After that, I was a very obedient child. I taught myself to read and write runes, and that’s how I spent my time whenever I wasn’t working. I scratched symbols in the yard.” She smiled at the memory, and his heart ached for the lonely little girl she must have been. “When I hit puberty, things changed.” She looked away.
Luke’s jaw clenched. He reached out for her again, but she shook her head. Resigned, he sat back down.
“The master never touched me, but his men would often grope me as I walked by and some tried to get me alone. One night, one of the worst offenders caught me alone in the stable.”
Luke’s fists trembled from the effort not to touch her.
Astrid seemed to withdraw into herself. Her voice became distant. “It could have ended badly, but I fought him. When I bit his arm, he let me go.”
Luke wanted to kill the bastard.
As if she could read his thoughts, she looked up and smiled. “He’s been dead many, many years now. In a way, it was a good experience.”
“How could attempted rape be good?” Luke growled.
“It showed me that I needed to learn to fight. I talked the master of arms into teaching me, and it turned out I had an affinity for swords. When I was old enough, I became a shield maiden—a female warrior—and eventually earned enough loot to buy my freedom.”
He forced himself to keep still. He wanted to crush her to him and tell her that he’d take care of her. Tell her that nothing bad would ever happen to her again, but he wasn’t in a position to promise that.
The strength within Astrid floored him. Every day she’d shown him courage, but nothing like what she did now by telling him her story. “What you had to overcome is nothing short of amazing.” He felt like complete scum for not telling her his story. But he couldn’t. Too much depended on him keeping his secret, including Whalert’s life. “How did you die? Pekka said that the men and women who end up in Valhalla die an honorable
death.”
Astrid smirked. “Honorable by old Norse standards. I died in battle, of course. I was a wizard with the sword, but an arrow got me in the end.” She rubbed her chest as if she could still feel the wound.
“Was Irja a shield maiden too? Did she die in battle?” He could see Leif’s brawny male warriors getting their heads bashed in on the battlefield, but the doctor seemed too gentle.
“Irja is very secretive. She hasn’t shared many details about her life before or after Valhalla. We were all surprised when Naya found Irja’s twin brother in the—”
Luke frowned. “Where did she find Pekka?” His instincts tingled.
Astrid hesitated. “It’s not exactly a secret, and you already know how weird we all are.” Luke felt even lower for manipulating her this way, but he needed to know everything. For Donovan’s sake.
She sunk down on her knees in the grass next to him. “Naya and Scott were raised in a genetic lab.” Luke held his breath. “They were taken from their parents and then genetically manipulated into becoming super soldiers. Their dad had been a first generation of the same kind of soldier, but he escaped and then met their mother. The parents were both killed when the lab scientists caught up with them again. In the lab, the treatments worked on Naya but made Scott weak. She escaped the lab and later rescued her brother.” Astrid rubbed her forehead. “That’s the short version. You’ll have to ask Naya for any other specifics.”
Luke had a million questions but forced himself to appear calm. “What happened to the lab? Where is it?” Some of his urgency must have reflected in his voice.
Astrid gave him a worried look. “The lab was in North Dakota. Naya killed the lead scientist when she broke in to find an antidote for her brother’s condition. Scott was in a vegetative state by then. That’s also when she found Pekka. He was a prisoner in the lab.”
Luke forced himself to calm down. That’s why the North Dakota lab was abandoned. And Pekka was somehow involved. He’d been sitting next to the person who might know everything he wanted about the lab’s operation. “How long was Pekka there?”
“He doesn’t know, but he doesn’t think it was long. He was knocked out and woke up in a cage, where they kept him for the duration of his time there.” Shit, that ruined his plan of pumping Pekka for information.
“You seem awfully interested in the lab.” She cocked her head and studied him.
He shrugged. “Just wondering how it’s related to the wolverines and the kidnapped girls.”
Astrid picked up her glass and drank. “Why don’t you tell me something about you? I know you’ve served in the military, but what about your childhood?”
“I’m an orphan too. I never knew my parents, but I had a twin brother.” He smiled. “Donovan and I never felt alone since we had each other. After a bad foster home, we spent a lot of time living on the streets. Donovan died when we were just teenagers. I got my life together after that. I studied and took the GED so I could join the military. When I got out, I started the nightclub.” He splayed out his arms. “My life story in a nutshell.”
“There are so many parts missing from that story.” She watched him carefully. “You’re going to tell me the rest, but first I’ll say I’m sorry about your brother.”
His chest ached. Donovan would have loved Astrid. An overwhelming longing for his brother swept over him.
Astrid gasped, all color leaking out of her face.
“What’s wrong?” He put his arm around his shoulders.
“I’m fine,” she said, catching her breath. “I just felt dizzy for a bit.”
He tightened his hold. “Let’s go find Irja so she can check you out.”
Astrid pushed away from him. “No, I’m fine now. I don’t want to take Irja away from the party. She so rarely allows herself any fun.” She stood. “We should join in too. It’s not every day there’s a royal wedding.” She must have caught Luke’s clueless look. “Leif is our king, ordained by Odin. Ever since Naya became his själsfrände, she’s been our queen.”
Luke wasn’t sure how much more crazy sauce he could digest. He decided to ignore the whole king-and-queen thing for now and concentrate on what he’d wondered earlier. “Are we supposed to have a handfasting ceremony?”
Astrid looked away. “I don’t think it’s required. We had one for Naya and Leif since she became our queen and as part of her Valkyrie initiation.”
Luke wasn’t buying her casual tone. Before he could say anything, his pocket buzzed. He fished out his phone and found a text message in code on the screen. Whalert.
“I have to go.” He hated the disappointed look on Astrid’s face. “I’m sorry, but this can’t wait. It could determine my…the club’s future.”
Astrid waved him on. “Go. I’ll be fine. You’ll miss the best bonfire ever, but that’s your loss.”
He leaned in for a kiss, and she briefly touched her lips to his. He hesitated but didn’t know what to say, so he just walked off to find Pekka. He wanted the guns and the switchblade back. At the tree line, he realized he’d need a ride back into town and turned back to ask Astrid.
Her eyes were closed as she reclined against the log, her legs curled up under her. Sipping her drink, she looked achingly beautiful and very alone. He was about to go back to her, but the phone buzzed again. Luke clenched his jaw. He had to make good on his promise to Donovan.
If he went back to Astrid, he’d want to stay with her. He’d ask Pekka for a ride.
Chapter 22
Astrid leaned back on the game room’s oversize couch. Her feet ached from dancing around the bonfire like a maniac. Her head was a little foggy from too much mead, and still she couldn’t sleep. She kept mulling over the conversation with Luke. There was something off about it. He’d extracted a lot of information from her without giving much in return. Why was he so interested in the North Dakota lab? After hours of staring at the ceiling and not coming to any conclusions, she’d given up and gone to the game room in search of something to read.
Her old favorite, The Lord of the Rings, lay open on her lap, but she couldn’t concentrate on Frodo’s adventures. She was still pissed about Luke leaving. Like Henri, Luke put his work first. She wished he’d been a little more reluctant to leave. Maybe she hadn’t properly explained how much the wedding meant to her and how important it was for him to be there. Maybe he wasn’t interested in her outside of the bedroom.
She closed the book and abandoned the needy thoughts. She should concentrate on things she could control instead. The fertility lab had to be shut down before the wolverines ordered another load of abducted women. Since when did Loki’s creatures have the intelligence to plan something like kidnapping and taking the victims across international borders? Someone else must be the brain behind the operation. Loki himself wasn’t allowed in the mortal realm—the Norse gods’ council forbid it. If the half god had gone against their rules, Odin and Freya would have noticed and told Leif. Wouldn’t they? She rubbed her forehead.
The king had called a meeting for eight a.m. to discuss the plan for destroying the lab. She felt bad about Leif and Naya not getting more than a few hours of a wedding night. It seemed duty trumped everything. But that was their function. They’d had their regular lives as humans a long time ago. Now they were warriors on a mission from the gods. Things like vacations and honeymoons were not for them. How did Naya feel about giving up a normal human life without the reward of immortality? How would Luke?
Although he worked all the time now anyway.
The door to the computer room opened, and Ulf stepped out. Astrid bristled. She still had unfinished business with him. He stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide, when he noticed her on the couch.
“I thought everyone had gone to bed.” He looked around as if hunting for an escape.
“You thought wrong.”
He gave a half smile. “Great wedding, ri
ght?”
Oh no. They were not doing small talk. “I think you have something to say to me.”
He ran a hand across his shorn hair. “Look, I didn’t touch Holden. We may have had words, but—”
She held up her hand. “That’s not what I’m talking about. You abandoned me on a mission.”
His face twisted. “That was a shit move, I know. I’m sorry.”
“Why did you?” She splayed out her hands. “I know we’ve never been close, and we’ve had this crazy rivalry for as long as I can remember, but are you now out to get me?”
“No, of course not.” He sat down beside her. “I don’t know what I was doing. I’ve had this idea you and I could…” He scowled. “Forget it.”
“Could what?” she insisted.
“That we could be more than friends.” He watched her intently.
Astrid looked down at the book in her lap. “I had no idea you felt that way.”
“It was a stupid idea. One of the others mentioned that you and I bickered like an old couple. My mind extrapolated from there.” A corner of his mouth lifted. “I was obviously way off the mark.”
“Obviously, or I wouldn’t have bonded with Luke.”
Ulf’s face clouded. “I’ve been digging on the Darknet all evening for chatter about the lab and the women we rescued. I found some disturbing information about Holden.”
Astrid’s heart beat faster, but she kept her poker face. “And?”
“There is this guy named Kraus. A really bad guy from Germany who’s popped up in Pine Rapids. He’s into everything: drugs, weapons, money laundering, and human cargo.”
Alarm bells started tingling at the back of Astrid’s mind. She knew that name from somewhere.
Ulf brushed something invisible off his knee. “Holden seem to be in business with this guy. They’ve met several times.”
No, no, no. This couldn’t be true. Luke wouldn’t be in business with anyone who was involved in human trafficking. She knew his business touched the gray areas of what was strictly legal, but he wouldn’t make money from human trade. Would he?
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