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In The Beginning: Part Five

Jakkon

Feelings of such contentment belonged only to those at peace, not male's like him. Jakkon didn't deserve the satisfaction humming from his chest, nor the knowledge of what it felt like to be caressed by a female like Signy.

"Tell me," his female whispered into his ear.

"Alpha Sol has asked me to join the hunt."

She grinned, green eyes dancing in the firelight. "Tell me again."

Jakkon chuckled, reaching up to cup her cheek, his head resting on her lap so when she looked down, her hair spun a golden veil around them. "How many more times will please you?"

"Until you yourself believe it," she replied, tracing the bridge of his nose and along his cheekbone where a faded bruise yellowed his skin. "Until you feel the pride I feel for you."

If only he could feel pride and not the anticipatory dread settling into his bones. Each step he took up the ladder of the hierarchy did indeed fill him with strength and determination, but it also brought eyes his way, eyes that glinted with the wolf and promised claws would come next.

After bringing back a stag that should have killed him, presenting its crown to Signy and her parents, Ola's words became all too true. The young high-ranked were stalking him.

"Alpha Sol asked me to join the hunt," he repeated, instilling that fact into him, driving it deep.

The Alpha had asked him; not out of pity, not because Signy or her mother had spoken for him, but because he had proved himself, or he was beginning to.

"Your Alpha sees growth in you, Jakkon." Signy leaned down to press an upside-down kiss to his lips.

The purr tumbling from his chest turned to a growl. His hand slid around the back of her neck to keep her lips on his, teeth seeking out plump flesh. She tasted sweet, always, as if she'd just eaten berries. He could never get enough once she offered him a taste. But that was all she ever offered; a taste. The first time they had kissed, hidden from the pack behind a waterfall, she had told him she would not lie with any male but her mate, and she had kept that vow no matter how Jakkon tried to entice her. His attempts were halfhearted at best anyway. He respected her wish.

"Stay tonight," he implored.

Signy hummed, closing her eyes. He liked to think she was imagining spending the night wrapped up in his arms.

"Be mine," he begged as he always did when he sensed she was ready to part with him and return to her parent's den.

"I am yours."

He shook his head, chasing her when she pulled away, hands on her hips to drag her body beneath his, trapping her under his weight. Instincts drove him wild when her legs came up around his waist, making him suddenly unsure whether he had the upper hand after all.

"Jakkon." Signy squirmed beneath him, a tantalising attempt at escape, if escape was truly the smiling female's intent.

Jakkon knew better. The cinnamon spice of her arousal taunted his every ragged breath. How could she smell so good? What goddess had blessed this she-wolf?

As ever, Jakkon forced himself to peel his body away from hers, turning his nose towards the fire to breathe in burning smoke instead of the scent that made his manhood stand hard to attention. Signy's delighted laughter didn't help. It took all his control not to move when she rose to her feet, lithe body glowing in the firelight, catching shades of sun gold in her hair. Hair she had allowed him to unbraid himself. One day, he hoped to do that act for all the pack to see. If she'd let him.

He watched in awe and disappointment as she donned her dress and strapped her belt around her waist. A small growl vibrated in the air as she repositioned her knife.

"You are Freyja reborn."

Signy laughed. "That is blasphemy, Jakkon, but I have learnt from her lessons, and I follow in her path as a seeress." Emerald eyes narrowed at Jakkon's disbelief. "I will prove it to you one day."

"I have never denied that you are an intuitive female." He didn't finish the rest in fear of her ire, but Jakkon didn't believe in seers anymore than he believed in Madda's stories of dwarves living in the mountains that surrounded their winter ground.

Still, she must have seen it in his expression, for he found himself having to dodge out of the way to avoid clawed fingers. Standing swiftly, he caught her wrist and pulled so she flew against his naked chest. She nuzzled into his chest.

"I need to go."

"I will walk you back."

"No." She pressed a kiss over his heart and breathed in deeply. "No, I would like some time with my own thoughts. I will dream of you."

"As I will dream of you, my female."

***

Signy

Signy shut the door to Jakkon's den with a smile, feeling the warmth of his love filling her up. Cool air helped diminish the ache between her legs, and the tingling of her skin where Jakkon had touched her. It had been hard to deny him tonight. She had almost withered, submitted, let him take her in whichever way would gift her with the the sound of his claiming growl.

She tilted her face up to bask in the glow of a pale moon as she made her way towards her parents' den. It would be full tomorrow night, then in one more cycle, it would be time for Jakkon to prove his worth in the hunt. She would have to as well. In fact, she had aspirations of she and Jakkon side by side, taking down a great beast together to show the pack what they had to offer if they bowed down to them as their Alpha Pair, when the time came. Such things were within their grasp but still she sensed a seed of doubt in Jakkon. It had withered somewhat in the last few weeks, helped by her father hanging the skull left from Jakkon's kill above the doorway, as Signy had directed when he'd asked her where she would like it. He had done so, grudgingly, and certainly in a way that told the whole pack that he would rather have tossed it into the river. Signy imagined her mother had most likely calmed him. He had finally accepted Jakkon as her intended mate.

A gentle breeze sweet with the scent of spring carried her past her den, grass turning to pebbles pebbles beneath her feet as it guided her to the river, glittering silver under a starry sky. For a moment, she closed her eyes and tried to hear the whispers floating through branches and ushering forth from the water as it trickled over stone. These were the best hours to call forth a vision from Freyja, but when a voice did speak to her, it was not that of any god.

"Signy, you should be sleeping at this hour. The stars do not hold the answers you seek, nor do you in all your wisdom have the ability to move others as you wish."

She stiffened at the voice of her Alpha, amazed as ever by the way he managed to creep up on her. Even the river hid his reflection from view, as if they had some deal with each other. Turning to bow her head, her eyes scanned the length of him. He stood tall, hands at ease behind him, but the glint of the moon shone in his eyes. Signy almost laughed. Did he think she would challenge him now?

"I am not scared of you, Signy," he said, as if reading her thoughts.

"I am glad. I would never want you to be scared of me, Alpha." She lowered her gaze. "Jakkon told me you invited him to join the hunt, have you forgiven him for Cyne's death?"

Sol, like Jakkon, was one of the few wolves not to falter at her bluntness. His face creased as he smiled, turning his face to the moon just as she was covered by a few stray streaks of cloud. "I never blamed him, he was barely a pup grown, and my mate would have had it no other way. If she had not saved him, his death would have weighed heavy on her soul." His shoulders moved with a deep breath as he opened his eyes to look at her again. "It is not my forgiveness he needs. While he does need to gain something from the pack, it is not their forgiveness either. Jakkon must absolve himself."

"He will."

He laughed, crossing the distance between them to reach out for her shoulder. "One day you will see you can not prepare for everything, nor can you bend fate to your will. I have given Jakkon a chance, it is not up to you nor I whether he takes it or not."

Signy said nothing. Accepting her Alpha's cheek, she nuzzled into the male who held a space in her heart. His face was the first thing she could remember from being a pup, her oldest memory. Not the face of the wolf she called mother, nor the one the one she called father, but her Alpha's.

"Return to your parent's den and sleep," he commanded gently.

Before he could step away, she brought up what had plagued her so much in the last few months. "That question I asked you when I came of age."

He stopped as if something suddenly stood in his way.

"Your answer was 'they raised you' do you remember?" she continued.

"I remember, and I stand by it as well."

"And yet, when I asked if I looked like my mother, you said yes."

"I did."

"Do I still look like her?"

Sol glanced over his shoulder, his lips turned up at the corners though Signy wouldn't call it a smile. She could see him trying to outwit her, so she was surprised when he answered simply, "More with each passing day."

Signy pressed her lips together and nodded slowly, returning her gaze to the river. Jakkon needed to know everything about himself to step up, so Signy needed to know everything about herself.

"I've spent my life looking for the face of the she-wolf who birthed me in the females of our pack," she admitted. "Will you ever tell me what happened to her?"

"You are not as far away from blood as you think you are. However, I am not who you should be asking as you well know. Perhaps, instead of worrying about Jakkon, you should find it in your heart to forgive as well. You can not stay angry at Sigar and Torin forever. As your Alpha, Sigarsdóttir, I command you stop using your intended mate to get under your father's skin." He paused on a chuckle. "For both their sakes"

Was she angry at them? Signy wasn't sure. How could she be angry about something she didn't know about, had pieced together but was still left with too many gaps to make sense of?

She knew she had to ask them one day.

She would admit to nobody that speaking to her parents about her birth was the one thing that terrified her. She feared their answers were the one thing with the power to knock her from the path she'd set herself on.