Claimed by Her Viking Wolf Page 6

  Richard frowned and Kim paled when Asger spun her around and into the hallway where he proceeded to crowd her against the wall. His wolf all but salivated, having her curves molded against his body like this. Kim was all softness against the hard planes of his body. They fit together perfectly. All, he’d have to do was grab her ass cheeks to lift her up a few inches, and they would be in the perfect position to fuck.

  Mindful of their audience, however, Asger pulled back slightly. He studied an outraged looking Kimberly.

  “You’re mine, kona. You will have no relations with other men, not unless you want me to kill them.”

  Kim growled at him. That feminine, deep throated sound shot straight to his balls. Asger dipped his head and licked a path along her neck, before he bit down to leave a mark—just enough for Kim to groan, for the scent of her feminine musk to lace the air between them. He doubted the human watching their interaction with a certain amount of quiet amusement would be able to smell it, but his wolf yipped his satisfaction at his mate’s reaction to his show of dominance. Her body responded to him even if her mind still struggled with the reality of their situation as she tried to push him away.

  “Let me go, you oaf. Of all the chauvinistic things to say. I’m not, nor will I ever be, yours, you damn infuriating man. Let. Me. Go.”

  She punctuated each growled word with another attempted shove against his chest. Asger eventually let her go with a smirk.

  Richard cleared his throat and laughed, which made Kim spin around and glare at her boss, too.

  “This isn’t funny, Rich,” she said. The human male sobered.

  “Of course not, sweetheart. Under the circumstances I must insist that you come back to my place…” Asger’s wolf growled his displeasure, and the human held his hands up in a defensive move. “You’re invited too, Viking. For starters, my wife would have my hide if I didn’t introduce you to her. She’s a historian with a particular interest in the Northmen’s lives and how they impacted and shaped ancient Britain, so she’ll be tickled pink to meet a real life one, as incongruous as that idea sounds.” He paused when Kim huffed her annoyance, and smiled.

  “Besides, if you think I let the girl I think of as my daughter be alone with you, after what I have just witnessed…” His smile deepened when Asger’s wolf rumbled a warning. Kim rolled her eyes, and put her hands on her hips.

  “Really, I don’t need your protection. This whole thing is ridiculous. We’re not in the freaking dark ages, so—”

  “Humor an old man, girl.” Richard’s amused response took the wind out her sails, while Asger’s respect for the other man grew. “You said yourself it’s been too long since you’ve visited. Susan will want to see you. She might even be able to help you two solve the mystery of how this Viking of yours came to be in our time.”

  “He’s not my Viking,” she said. Kim blanched when Asger turned his attention back to her.

  “Oh fine, have it your way. With a bit of luck Susan will hit you both over the head with a frying pan, and that will knock some sense into you. And besides, I am hungry. It’s been a long day.”

  “Good, that’s settled then. Grab what you need. We’ll meet you by the car.”

  Kim looked uncertain, but turned tail. Asger took the hint and followed the other man out into the open.

  “So, you’re really a wolf, who can’t shift, and she’s your mate?” he asked. Asger nodded.

  “I am, and I can shift, just not in this time frame. Once I get back home to my village things will be different.”

  Richard leaned against his car, and stroked the stubble on his chin.

  “What about Kim?” he asked. “You can’t take her with you, and leaving her here will break her heart. If you do that, I’ll hunt you down and shoot you myself.”

  The man’s quiet voice held an edge of steel. Asger could taste his protectiveness toward Kim in the air. It soothed his agitated beast. His wolf did not appreciate being questioned like this.

  “You would have to catch me first. I’m not that easy to kill, Richard, boss of minn kona.”

  The other man gave a short, humorless laugh and punched his shoulder.

  “No, I dare say you aren’t, but I’d give it a damn good try. Do not hurt her, Viking. I mean it. I know Kim. She already cares far too much for you. Now, I’m going to choose to believe that you mean it when you say she’s your mate. It would certainly explain how you ended up here, I guess. It’s not every day some Viking drops by these parts. I know it happens. There are plenty of local fables surrounding that issue. My wife has been looking into them for some time now. It’s how she became interested in the Vikings, just never thought they would actually become real.”

  Richard shook his head. He nodded toward the house, where Kim was now locking the front door.

  “Keep your hands off of her until we figure this out.”

  Asger grunted his acknowledgement, and caught the ledger Kim threw at him with a grunt. He’d found the answer to his return in there earlier today. At least he thought he had. It would be interesting to see what this Susan had to say about it.

  Chapter Seven

  Several hours later, Kimberly was just about ready to scream in frustration. If she’d thought help would be forthcoming from Aunt Susan, she’d been sorely disappointed. Once Susan had recovered from her shock at seeing Asger, and had accepted that he really was a displaced Viking, she’d practically been eating out of his hand. Kim should have been expecting this, she supposed. After all, Susan had a keen interest in all things supernatural.

  For his part Asger, too, had shown a side of him that Kimberly found utterly unable to resist. He was positively charming, and had regaled them all with tales of his life back home, that had them all in stitches of laughter on the one hand and in awe on the other. Susan had lapped up all the information. In truth, Kim, too, had hung onto his every word.

  While the life he described so enthusiastically was clearly hard and fraught with danger, it also had a wonderful simplicity to it, which made Kim yearn to experience it first-hand. That need had caught her off guard, so she’d excused herself with the need for some fresh air. Wrapping her arms around herself she now sat on the bench at the bottom of the garden and stared up the cloudless sky. The stars were out in full force, and she smiled at Susan when the older woman approached and offered her a shawl.

  “Here, it’s getting cold. Your wolf is chomping at the bit with worry over you.”

  Kim had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

  “Not you, too. He’s not mine, dammit.”

  Susan shrugged her shoulders and smiled, while Kim groaned.

  “He’s not. He can’t be. How would we ever work? He’s not from this time for starters. You’ve seen how he talks about his village. Asger needs to go back there, and I … well, it’s not as though as I could go back with him, or would want to.”

  There, she almost convinced herself with that vehement little speech, until Susan grasped her hand. Turning it over, Susan looked at her palm. She traced the lines with one long finger, and a tingle of foreboding went up Kim’s spine.

  “Don’t, you know I don’t believe in that.” Kim winced at the croakiness in her voice, and Susan let her go.

  “You don’t have to believe in it for it to be true. After all, time travel ought not to be possible, yet here you are with Asger. We all have a soulmate, the one person or persons we’re meant to be with. Love transcends time and reason, it—”

  Kim stood up, effectively cutting off the other woman’s speech.

  “I don’t love him and he doesn’t love me, so this whole thing is pointless,” Kim said. She frowned when the other woman’s smile deepened.

  “All great love affairs start with a healthy dose of lust, you know. If you’re lucky that side doesn’t wane, just grows stronger through the years. I’ve seen the way you react to him on a subconscious level. That man eats you alive with his eyes whenever he looks at you. You might not love him yet, but you’re half
way there already. If you just gave in instead of fighting this attraction…” She let her words trail off, and Kim was all too aware that she was doing goldfish impressions.

  “Are you seriously telling me to just go and have what would in effect be a one night stand?” When Susan shrugged her shoulders, Kim sat back down again with an inelegant thud.

  “I don’t believe you,” she murmured.

  “Kimberly, my lovely, sometimes we have to take risks. Besides, having sex with your Viking is the only way to get him back to his time.”

  Kim couldn’t have heard that right.

  “What?”

  Susan nodded and grasped her hand again.

  “You heard me. It’s there, plain to see in the texts he’s been studying. What’s more the local folklore confirms it.”

  “But that’s just stories. They’re not real.” Kim somehow managed to get the words past the lump in her throat. “What do you mean it’s in the text? He knows this and yet…” She couldn’t quite bring herself to finish that sentence, as the truth dawned on her.

  “Yes, he knows. He’d suspected it for some time. I had to agree with him that the texts confirm it.”

  “So why didn’t he? I mean … oh shit.” Heat rose in Kim’s cheeks, and Susan laughed.

  “Yes, finally you’re asking the right questions, my lovely. I’m sure he could have coerced you on more than occasion. Forced himself on you, for that matter, but that’s not who Asger is. The fact that he hasn’t done any of those things should tell you something. That man, wolf, Viking, whatever you want to call him, cares about you a great deal. All you have to do is accept that, and trust that this will all work out somehow.”

  Kim knew in her heart that Susan was right, but she shook her head in denial.

  “So we have sex, and he goes back and then what?” she asked. Susan pulled her in for a hug.

  “Well, you’ll probably go back in time with him, but if you love him that won’t matter, will it?” Susan got up and patted her arm.

  “You have a lot to think about, and it’s getting late. We’ve all been drinking, so I’m going to make up the bed in the spare room for you and your Viking.” She laughed when Kim reared back in surprise and shook her head.

  “After what you just told me, you can’t expect me to share a bed with him?” The mere thought sent a rush of heated arousal into her knickers and a wave of longing so intense she could scarce breathe.

  “That’s exactly what I expect you to do. Besides Asger has given his word to Richard that he will not touch you while under our roof, so you will be quite safe. What you two get up to when you make it back to your place is, of course entirely up to you, but I’ll promise I keep your place tidy and looked after, should you follow him back in time.”

  Susan smiled and shut Kim’s open mouth with her index finger.

  “If that happens I won’t be coming back, so there hardly seems any point in that. I can’t just disappear. I have a life here, dammit.”

  “Ah, who’s to say you can’t come back. The stories are manifold and diverse, and you don’t have to look too far from home to see that they’re true, my dear.” At Kim’s confused expression, Susan gave Kim her most enigmatic smile yet.

  “You probably will not remember your great Aunt Violet, will you?” she asked. Kim frowned and nodded.

  “Actually I do. She was Mum’s aunt. There used to be an old photo of her on the piano when I was growing up. I asked about her once. Mum just said, ‘she was a woman of loose morals’.” She mimed quotation marks, as she said that, and Susan laughed.

  “Yes, that was the official version. The unofficial version was somewhat different. You see your great aunt used to disappear for months at a time and then reappear as though nothing had been amiss. What’s more she didn’t age like other folks did. When that became far too noticeable, she disappeared for the last time. I found the story utterly fascinating, so I did some research on it for my citation. Did you know the first time she disappeared was out of her bedroom in the middle of the night? The windows and doors were locked, so there is no way she should have been able to get out of there. She was only sixteen at the time. The only thing that was left behind was an old ledger that no one could read.”

  Kim gasped at that, and Susan nodded.

  “Not your ledger I hasten to add, but something very similar, which leads me to believe that good old Great Aunt Violet was a time traveler. So, you see, if she managed to come and go, I can see no reason to believe, why you couldn’t do that, too, especially if we look after those texts. They seem to be some sort of porthole, catalyst, whatever you want to call it, and didn’t you say you were drawn to them when you found them in that shop?”

  “Yes, I was, but…” Kim hugged herself and shook her head in wonder. “It can’t be that simple, though, can it?” she asked. Susan sighed.

  “Nothing about love is ever simple, my dear. Anyway, like I said, you have a lot to think about. Here comes your man now. I’m surprised he’s stayed away as long as he has.”

  Sure enough, when Kim looked up it was to see the formidable presence of Asger strolling down the path toward them. With his face hidden in the shadows created by his long hair, she couldn’t read his expression, but judging by the white knuckled fists by his side and the tight set of his shoulders, he was worried.

  Susan met him halfway, and stopped to talk to him. Kim couldn’t catch the murmured words, but whatever Susan had said relaxed Asger. Kim’s stomach fluttered in delicious anticipation when he looked across to her. Asger smiled, while tying his long hair back behind his nape. The action lit up his harsh features. Everything in Kim tightened as she watched his long limbed walk toward her. The man looked simply good enough to eat. She hastily dropped her gaze and scooted to the side to enable him to sit next to her. Even though she had given him space his presence filled the small bench. It made her skin tingle where his thigh brushed hers. Even through the combined layers of their clothing, his heat and scent branded her, called her to taste, to just give into the overwhelming chemistry between them.

  ****

  Asger filled his lungs with the scent of his mate. The action calmed his agitated wolf. If he’d had any doubt at all that this kona was his mate the almost physical ache in his guts when he was forced to be apart from her for any length of time confirmed it. The slight touch of their thighs helped, but it wasn’t enough, not by a long shot. He needed to claim her, to make her his, but he couldn’t do that here and now. Not after he’d given his word.

  The soft touch of her fingers on his made him uncurl the fists he hadn’t been aware of clenching. Asger looked at her.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, making him sigh. “Tell me, please.”

  She tightened her hold on his fingers, and he squeezed back.

  “I’d have thought you want to go back as quickly as you could, and to hell with what you’d have to do to get there.” Heat rose in her cheeks when she said that. Kim didn’t seem to be able to look at him. A rush of affection and protectiveness swamped him. Letting go of her hand he framed her face in his palms and tilted her head until she had no choice but to look at him.

  “Contrary to popular belief, where I’m from it is not customary to force oneself on unwilling women.” He smiled at her sharp intake of breath, as he sensed the inner struggle in her. She bit her lips, and her heart rate kicked up as she mumbled the next words.

  “I don’t think I would have been unwilling.” The softly spoken words were music to his ears and soothed the leftover ache in his guts.

  “Maybe not, but there is more at stake here than sinking my cock into a willing cunt.”

  Kimberly frowned and pulled away from him. While every fiber in his body screamed at him to keep hold of her, he let her go.

  “There is no need to be so crude.” Kim hugged her arms around herself in a move he recognized well by now.

  “I didn’t mean any offence, minn kona. My point is I want more from you than mere sex.�
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  When her expressive eyes sought his, he smiled and nodded.

  “You’re my mate, but I’m also aware that you have a life here. A family who loves you. I couldn’t take you away from all of that. Not without your full consent. I sensed you weren’t really that close to your sister, but…” He paused and smiled at her when she glanced at him. The fact that she didn’t contradict him spoke volumes. Hope flared in his chest and made breathing difficult.

  “Lisa and I are complicated. We want different things from life. Always have done. I do love her. She’s my sister, but I don’t like her very much. I guess, I wouldn’t miss her overly much if I didn’t see her again. I very rarely see her now, to be honest. That makes me sound careless, right? Especially having heard how you talked about your sister. You must be desperate to get back to her.”

  Kim glanced his way. When he patted the seat next to him, she sat back down again.

  “Yes, of course I miss her, and I worry.” He paused to swallow down that very real lump of fear that always lodged itself in the back of his throat when he thought of Guta. “She was very heavy with child when I was pulled into your time, and the birth of our young is always a dangerous time for a female.” He smiled grimly at her sharp intake of breath, glancing her way.

  She was still too stiff and worried for his liking, as though she would run for the hills if he touched her. So he crossed his arms over his chest and forced himself to wait for her to process what he’d just said. His wolf whined at the worry he sensed in his mate. Worry not directed at him, but at a woman she’d never met. A testament to her kind and caring nature. As his mate she would need to embrace all aspects of his life, his clan, village, and family. That tendril of hope that had started to blossom ever since Susan’s open acceptance of his circumstances, coupled with the other woman’s conviction that Kimberly was more than up to the task ahead of her, took firm root and spread through his veins like wildfire.