Frigga
Whisper pressed the phone to her ear, listening to the rhythmic ringing, before the other end picked up. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for the deep warm voice she had been missing so much.
“You found her yet?” Came the sharp grunt of Les on the other end. The tension was evident even through the phone. Desperation on his lips through the speaker. “I told you not to fucking call me until she was fucking safe. No more of your ‘the time will come’ shit, got me?”
“I found him,” Whisper said, warmth bleeding through her chest as she spoke. “I’m coming home.”
“Good girl,” our friend purred. The hard edges that he used on everyone but Cherry and us bled away the second he heard our voice. “How did you get out? Where have you been?”
Words poured out of Whisper. From the beginning to the end. She told Les about everything. Every torture, every time they shoved needles into our veins. Then she told him about Scar. About the mate she wasn’t sure she wanted. About his scent, and the way her stomach flipped over when he was close, but also the blind terror that his touch brought back.
“It’s time for you to heal, little bear,” Les soothed through the phone, and I could feel the tense muscles of our back starting to loosen. “But I want to meet this mate, you hear?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Frigga wants him.” That sentence pulled me right to the front. Shoving me into the driver’s seat of the human body that we were still clinging to. “Of course I want him,” I growled. “He’s our mate. The goddess has given us this Beast, we should grab that with our claws and never fucking let go.”
“Healing takes time, Alpha,” Les told us sagely. “The kind of trauma that Whisper has been through, the kind of trauma you have witnessed, that takes time to clear. It’ll never go away, you understand that, don’t you?”
“I protected her,” I bit out, annoyed with Les. He hadn’t been there. He may have brought us out of the hell we had been wallowing in, but he hadn’t seen it, lived it.
“Would you like to talk to Cherry, bear?” he asked, I could see the fucking smug smile on his face.
Cherry was my weakness. If I could have picked a mate from anyone, I would have chosen Cherry, that was before Scar, of course. 'Cause he was perfect. She was sweet and tart, sarcastic and smart, and she smelled like sunshine. Sadly, she was already claimed before we met her, and fate hadn’t worked out that way. Les came in at a close second. His scent was soothing, and he never touched without asking. Les also knew how much I cared for Cherry, broken like my Whisper, but so strong. Whisper saw them as her family. Big brother and sister. She enjoyed curling up with them in the night, but wanted nothing more than clan from them. Warm safe touches.
Grizzlies mated for life, so there was never even a chance with either of them, but that was fine. Now Whisper and I had Theron. We had our Beast, and those feelings of infatuation paled in comparison with the ardor that drew us both to Scar. The sticky wetness between our thighs since we first scented him, since we first touched him, hadn’t gone away. Even in Whisper’s terror, our body knew.
“That won't be necessary,” I huffed, turning up my nose, even though he couldn't see it. “We have Scar now, you don’t need to wave your mate in front of me.”
“I meant to talk about trauma, Frigga.” The eye roll from the otherside of the phone was palpable. “I wouldn’t wave her in front of you like that.”
“She does it,” I said with a shrug.
“When you won't let Whisper out,” Les said before there was a shuffling, and the buzz of a tattoo machine. The sound pulled Whisper back. She loved her art. Loved the gentle hum of the needle, the scent of green soap, and the colors she painted into people’s skin.
“Whisper,” Cherry cooed. “We’ve been searching for you, love.”
“How is everyone?” Whisper asked.
I let their voices fade into the distance. I had a mate to claim. And I had to figure out a way to get Whisper on board. Because I wasn’t going to sit around for a mark that might never come, if my human didn’t want him. I needed that mark. I needed to belong. Ironwood might have been my clan, but I wanted to be taken care of, I wanted a mate to hold some of this burden that I had been carrying around for decades.
* * *
Listening to the rumble of voices from below, I let Whisper burrow further into the guest room of Rocco’s home. The room smelled of lavender and lemon, filled to the bursting with colorful cushions and blankets. It was clearly meant to be a place for someone who struggling to find solace. And we were.
My human hummed as she pushed pillows into place and covered them with thick, soft blankets, before burrowing under them and closing her eyes.
Sadly, sleep didn’t fall over us. As much as we needed to wander the lands of Morpheus, the images of the day assaulted us behind closed lids. The guards and soldiers with their weapons pointed, my animal rampaging through the streets, cameras clicking.
“We’re going to be found,” my human whispered as she cuddled down further, looking for that mythical perfect spot where sleep would come. “Broken Oath will find us. They’ll come for LOKI.” The shiver that went through our body riled me.
They can try, I soothed. LOKI can take care of some useless polar bears, and won't let them take you, take us. They have no idea the power that they will be coming after.
“I’m scared.” Whisper tucked us down under the blankets, snuggling into the warm smelling pillows, and screwed her eyes shut tight. “We’re in so much trouble.”
Only if we let ourselves be. I ran my fingers through her hair and rumbled. We are only in trouble if we don’t hold our head high, my love.
“The Council will come.” Her voice started to give that sleep sound, the rough deep growl of inevitable sleep. “They’ll demand we answer for what I did.”
The Council will have far better things to do than track down a single grizzly.
“The grizzly who gave up the game?” Whisper’s eyes fluttered, but our body was relaxed, pliable. Magic that Rocco had most certainly woven through every inch of the little sanctuary working on us inch by inch. “The one who told the world of magic?”
Let me deal with the Council, little one, I purred, my paws running up and down her back as she went still. Let me deal with the bad guys, for that is what I was made for.
My Whisper didn’t say a thing. Her soft breathing and swimming dreams did all the talking for her. It was time that I took over, at least until she could find her steady again.
For the years on the streets and the ones that followed at Tooth and Claw, I was in charge. Healing at Ironwood, Whisper got to have a taste of what the world should be. But with the eyes of an entire planet on us, I had to protect my sweet human, and her delicate mind. Damned the consequences of holding her skin for too long. I had to take charge, unless she could push her fear aside and accept our mate.
* * *
Wandering back down to the kitchen, I could smell the sharp bite of magic in the air. Rocco was concocting something. My mate sat grumpy in the corner, arms crossed over his impressive and still bare chest, but the edges of his lips tipped up as he saw me coming down the corridor.
“Feeling better, mate?” he asked, pushing himself off the wall and coming to me. He didn’t reach out, which I appreciated. He was learning Whisper and her needs. “Rocco is getting things ready for us.”
I sauntered over to him, and let my hands wander up his warm chest. But he caught them before they wandered too far. “Hey.”
“I know that look in your eyes, little one. I’m not fooled.” He held our hands in one of his and kissed the tips of my fingers. “I told you, not until you beg for it, this game of hot and cold is growing tiresome.”
“But I so like to play,” I purred, pulling my hands back from him. “You’re a griffin, right? If the myths are true, you have to mate me before spring.” I raised a brow at him and waited, but he just nodded and sagged back against the wall. “I like to read about the monsters. There are all kinds of things in the old archives about the beasts that came before us. The creatures that humans think are just myths, well more myths than shifters and magic. And griffins go into a mating frenzy in the spring. You’re half big cat. Your rut will come, and you’ll need to be tethered to me before then.”
“That is true.” Scar nodded his head, but looked us directly in the eye. “Did your studies also tell you that the older we were, the more controle we had?”
“And you’re what, thirty something?” I tipped my chin up, less than impressed. “I bet your control won't be that good, not with the scent of your fated mate on your nose.”
“We’ll just both have to see,” he said with a shrug. “But I’m sticking to my guns on this, little bear. I won't mate you until you beg for it, until you’re done playing games. I want you desperate for my bite, mate, pleading for it.”
“You will see. I can be very persuasive.” I turned in a huff and looked over at Rocco, who had been watching the entire exchange with interest. “Take a picture, fuzzball, it’ll last longer.”
“I’m not fuzzy,” Rocco said, pulling out a sachet from one of the many hidden drawers around the room. He began filling it with herbs and stones, humming to himself the entire time. “You both are in a heap of trouble.” He put the bag down and grabbed another one, stirring a pot as he went. “I can almost hear the Council at the doors, seeking answers.”
“Almost, or do you see something?” Whisper piped up, pushing me back. Rocco was a mage, but he was also something more. And we were almost positive that we knew what that other thing was, now that Scar had given us a hint. “What do you see, Firebird?”
“Ah, that’s better.” He gave us a manic grin and cast a flame into the air from the palm of his hand. “Yes. Much better.” He shook himself, as if sloughing off a skin that didn’t quite fit right anymore. “To answer your question, no. I don’t see anything at the moment. But with the amount of visibility that the two of you have managed, the Council has already convened and spoken.”
“But they won’t turn that eye to you?” Whisper leaned in, sniffing. He smelled a bit like a smoldering campfire, and a lot like cinnamon spices. “A witch and a shifter? Isn’t that illegal?”
“Not if the Council doesn’t believe you exist, and not if you’ve been around longer than the illustrious Council has existed. Fucking upstarts.” He dropped the second sachet on the counter that was already covered in more bits and bobs than I could count. “Phoenixes died out centuries ago, didn’t you know that, little bear?”
“So did griffins, but here we are.”
“The interesting thing about the creatures of myth is, we don’t just have two forms, mate.” Scar stood up to his full height, towering over us at a massive six five or more. The top of our head barely reached his chest, let alone his shoulder. Whisper found it intimidating, but I couldn't wait until he broke down and threw us over his shoulder. I wanted to be carried back to his den and covered by this creature. I wanted his claws in our back, and his teeth in our neck. My thighs were sticky with my need for him. But Whisper pulled away, wrenching me from the light and taking over.
“I want to go home,” she whispered, turning to Rocco. “Les and Cherry are waiting for me.” I hated the tremble in her voice, the fear she had for our mate when he wanted to show us his power, the power he would use to protect us. I might have been the biggest beast in the room, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be all the time. “Please, send us home. We need glamours, and tickets.”
“I can’t send you the way I sent Becca, little one.” Rocco almost sounded sad. He dropped another bag on the bench and sat down. “Glamours are meant to hide from just a few people looking on. You, my dear, have the entire world watching for you. I send you on a plane with a little hex bag filled with don’t-look-at-me and you’re going to find yourself in a brand new cell before the day is up.”
“What?” Whisper dropped to one of the stools around the table, tears burning our eyes. I tried to pull myself back to the front, but she was determined to stay there. “Then how?”
“Same way LOKI travels everywhere,” Rocco said with a flourish. The curtains parted, and out back was a shiny new Harley, black and chrome gleaming in the sunlight. “You ride back. A glamour will help ease the passage, and back roads will keep too many eyes off of you.”
“It's nearly a full day ride from here by highway, it’ll be at least two on the back roads,” Whisper sighed. “Where are we going to stay? We can’t just drop into a hotel, not if what you said was true.”
“Nope, you’ll stay with Lords along the way.” He pulled out a map, pointing at the Lords of Khaos chapters that were between Missouri and Vermont. There were a fair few, but I knew as well as Whisper that not all of them were friendly. Looking at the little circles, some of them crossed out, Rocco knew the skinny, too. “There’s a chapter in Ohio that came out to help search for you. That’ll be your first stop. And there’s another chapter in upstate New York if you need a second stop, but I figure that close to home, you might just ride through.”
“You know how to ride, Beast?” Whisper asked our mate, who had been busy poring over the map Rocco had handed him.
“Well enough.”
“Nope.” She grabbed the map out of his hand and shoved it back at Rocco. “Well enough isn’t going to cut it.” She pulled out Rocco’s phone and started dialing. “Les will just have to come get us.”
“Woah.” Rocco hit end on the call before it even started to go through. “Your mate is fucking with you. He rides just fine. And you two need to get out of this city before dawn. 'Cause someone is going to see through my spell on this house sooner rather than later, and I know someone had to have seen you come in. There are too many eyes in this city looking specifically for you and Scar. They know both of your forms, too, Whisp. You have to fucking go.”
“You crash, and I’ll take it out of your hide,” I growled, finally pulling control back. I puffed up my chest and pressed it against my mate’s, a snarl on my lips. “Riding on the back of someone’s bike means something in my world, so you best step up.”
“I’ve been riding since I was old enough to get my license, mate,” Scar purred, his fingers trailing down the side of my face in a teasing almost touch. “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing. Having my mate on the back of my bike means something to me too. Means you’re taken, and that I intend on claiming you. Just as soon as you’re good and ready.”
I clenched my thighs together, feeling the slick between them. I was more than ready, but the little voice of my human whimpered at the thought. Sex had never been for pleasure. It had never been warm and loving. It had been stolen from us, and then altered in exchange for the money that kept us alive and off the streets. There was a long road before Whisper would see sex as anything but stealing bits of her soul.