Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Chapter 29: I Will Find You

Wild and raging, I lunge at my former brethren, nostrils flaring and saliva foaming around my blood-soaked lips. My predator self wants to eat them all. I want to vanquish every last one of them in a cascade of blood and screams. Because such are the desires of a bear starved through months of hibernation.

I lash out. I snarl. I roar.

I stop, frozen among blood running over bluebells.

A cry, innocent and pure as untrodden snow, cuts through the red fog of madness, bringing my human senses back for a moment.

Signy. Even in the intense rush of anger, I remember her. The child still lays wrapped in a wool cloth upon the flat rock, now tainted by my father's blood. But Signy is free from blood, her delicate skin pale as snow. She's so small, so new, so fragile. One move of my paw would end her burgeoning life.

But I don't move my sharp paws. I just stand there for a moment, gazing at my daughter who lies exposes to all the violent elements of Greenland's shores.

I need to save her. Not just now but forever. I need to save her from every danger of the world, because that is the task of a father, even if my own turn out to be the worst danger of them all.

My blood-soaked nose nudge against the small body, wanting to soothe her. But how can a monster like I console such a small and delicate being?

Little hands, with even smaller fingers, grab at the air. Wispy strawberry blonde hair sway in the wind. Blue eyes gaze upon me without fear. Because how would she even know to be scared of me? Everything and nothing is scary to this little creature.

Other sounds become clear behind me as the flaring rage inside me subsides. Screams of panic and skittering feet. Everyone is fleeing in fear of me. They holler about fetching their swords and bows, to slay the beast who just slayed their chief.

I am the beast, but I have just slain a worse beast. I have freed them from his terror.

I turn my head to gaze upon my father's body, making sure he's actually gone. He's so still, the only movement being the blood that pours out of his flayed chest, from which ribs protrude like broken twigs.

Empty eyes, pale blue with a dark circle around the iris--just like my own eyes and just like my daughter's eyes--stare into nothing. He's not there anymore. The suffocating hold of his reign is broken. We're all free now.

Well, everyone except me. But my sacrifice is worth it if my daughter can live a life in the sun.

"Björn?" a voice that is familiar even to my perked ears calls for me. I turn toward red curls hanging over blue runes.

Without fear for my jagged teeth, she reaches in front of me to pick up Signy in her arms, rocking the baby back and forth to calm her. The shrill cry from the child's lungs soon turns into a light whimper.

Standing mere feet from my monstrous presence, Gudrun doesn't run. Instead, she looks me straight in the eyes, unwavering and unafraid.

She knows it's me. Somehow, she knows. Despite the coat I wear and the blood dripping from my teeth. Gudrun still recognizes me.

I look toward my love, with my breath heaving as I quench every urge to maul. She reaches out her hand toward my head, patting white fur with soft fingers.

Gudrun isn't scared of me, not even after what I've done. Not even when she's faced with the brutal reality of what I've become: a feral monster who can crush bone with its teeth and rip through limbs with its claws. I still hunger stirring right underneath the surface, soon I won't be able to hold back any longer.