Wolves of War

8

  Winter had not yet ended, but the sun was spending more time out from behind its shroud of clouds. Some of the snow had receded but the ground was a slushy mess. Snow still piled in shady areas. Eska was too heavy with pups to hunt now. Valo provided for her; often he went out late at night to check on her.

One evening he returned just ahead of a torrential rainstorm. As soon as he was inside the house the rain started. Bjornolf was already there, drinking and watching the rain clouds build through the windows. Before he could speak, Iona came out of the bedchamber. Her dress was wrinkled and her hair a mess. It wasn't like her to look so messy. She stared at him blankly.

"Iona--?" Valo asked, tilting his head slightly. His white braid seemed to glow in the dim light coming through the window behind him. "What is it?"

"You have pups with a wolf bitch. I followed you. Who is she?" She demanded. She looked like she had been crying and would start again at any moment.

"You followed me? Iona, I made it clear that we were not committed to a relationship." Valo was unusually calm with his answer. He plucked an apple from the table and bit into it. "Eska and I met in the woods some time back when it was still snowy. Her heat was upon her. What was I to do as an alpha male?"

Bjornolf scoffed and then chuckled before reigning in his mirth.

"Will you be so loving of our own child?" Iona asked in a shaky voice that threatened to break like fragile glass. Thunder rolled outside.

"Are you with child-- mine?" Valo asked, his eyes softening slightly. He had never intended to impregnate her. As a human there was no telling what sort of infant she would bear with a wolf like himself. The thought distressed him slightly, he wondered if she had thought of that.

Iona nodded, "It will be here in summer."

"Have you considered what sort of child you might have? I am not human. Not only am I a wolf, Odin has ordained me a God." Valo moved closer to take hold of her arms. "Eska will bear wolf pups because we are both just that. You are a human. You could bear a pup, a human, some sort of deformed monster. Look at the strange things Loki has produced with his unconventional lovers."

"Sleipner is the strangest thing I have ever seen. I cannot imagine how that even worked, nor do I want to." Bjornolf shuddered and held his cup out for a refill from Jorunn.

"I have thought about it." Iona nuzzled into his chest. "And I do not care. It is my child and I will love it regardless."

Valo nodded above her, "I understand. I will provide as I always have. Go, have a hot bath and relax. Perhaps a meal. Jorunn?"

Jorunn took Iona from the room to prepare a bath. Valo sat across from Bjornolf. "Things are not going as planned. The weather is about to break and we will be warring with the village to the North."

"You damn right we will. I want the bastards who did this." Bjornolf traced the scar on his neck. "If I have to go alone."

"You will not be going alone." Valo pulled the pitcher closer and poured more ale. "We will take an army. The Amarok's will fight with us as well. Lundar is a pretty sloppy town, their leader is old now. We should not worry much."

It wasn't the leader that worried Bjornolf. The people of the town hated him for being different. They had turned on him the first time in battle when he had slipped into his Ulfenhednar form and battled naked in the snow.

Lundar had won the battle. Yet, they regarded him as a demon. He had been killed in his sleep by three of his comrades at only twenty years old. Valo did not know the whole story behind Bjornolf's death, but he did need to know one thing.