Page 17 of Polar Destiny

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“I need to stand for this. Finn, can you hold me up?” Damn this stupid ankle. The shifter steps behind me and pulls me to my feet. For a moment, I wish I could stay in his arms until I’m warm again. But there isn’t time. I bend down, wrap my fingers around Ràn’s lower arm and take a deepbreath.

"Ready?"

He nods, his teeth already grinding down on the piece of wood Húnn has givenhim.

I slowly pull while twisting the arm. Ràn howls, but doesn’t struggle like I expected. I pull more, then release. With a satisfying crunch, his shoulder snaps back into place. Ràn roars in pain, but manages not to struggle. I run my fingers over his shoulder, gently probing whether everything is as it should be. I slump back, sighing in relief. It worked. And I didn't geteaten.

Ràn spits out the wood. "Better," he rasps. Andshifts.

Maybe I expected the injuries to magically disappear after he shifted. They don't. Ràn is staying on the ground, panting heavily. The bandages I put on his back are lying uselessly on the ground. Blood is slowly seeping through his fur. I quickly kneel down to put them back inplace.

"Isn't he supposed to heal?" My voice comes out as a high-pitched squeak.Oops.

Arms wrap around me from behind. I'm pulled up to my feet. "It'll take a while," Torben's hoarse voice whispers into my ear. "Maybe an hour or two. But without you, it would have taken a lot longer." I am turned around until his blue eyes are looking straight into mine. “We’re in your debt, little human.I’min yourdebt.”

He carries me away from the others until we’re standing in the mouth of the cave, looking into the stormydarkness.

“You saved me. The debt is mine.” I expect the god of tearjerkers to appear any momentnow.

“No.Youare mine.” His smouldering eyes are coming closer, and so is the rest of his face. Including his mouth. His gorgeous lips. He hesitates just a breath away, then closes in. His lips press against mine, his tongue nudging me to open my mouth. I comply and the bear enters myheart.

We only break our kiss when Finn clears his throat behind us. I feel guilty about being caught, but Torben just puts an arm around my shoulders, staking his claim. Finn bows his head, accepting that I am now his alpha’s… what exactly? Woman? Girlfriend? One night stand? I really need to talk to him about this. I don't know anything about bears and their... ehm... mating behaviour. Do they stay with someone for life? Wow, I hope not. I just ran from a marriage and I'm in no hurry to end up in another. Not that I'm someone to sleep around. Hell, I'm a virgin. My uncle has never let anyone get close to me. Except for Marcus. He was very happy to give me tohim.

"I just wanted to ask where we're going to sleep tonight," Finn asks, clearly uncomfortable. "We no longer have the house, and this cave is not really the best place tostay."

Torben sighs but keeps his arm around my shoulders. "We have no choice but to stay here for now. Once the storm dies down, we can see what's salvageable from the hut. Wasn't there another cottage on the other side of theisland?"

"Yeah, but it was in pretty bad condition last time I checked. And now after this storm.... we can check, but we shouldn't get our hopesup."

Torben nods and my heart sinks at the thought of spending a night in this dark, wet cave. I miss my little attic roomalready.

"Maybe it's time to leave this island," Torben mutters, more to himself than to us. "We've been here longenough."

"The sea ice was back last time I was at the beach," Finn says. "I guess it would be nicer to walk over ice than to swim. But we'd have to be fast, we don't want to be caught out in the middle of the ocean when the icemelts."

"Good point." Torben nods and Finn's face lights up. I hadn't realised before how much Torben's praise means to the others. I'm beginning to understand that while the polar bear is one of them, he's also in charge. The alpha. "Let's wait until morning, by then Ràn should be fully healed. Isla can take turns riding on us. We only take the essentials, whatever we can find in the rubble of the old hut. Hopefully we'll have more luck on anotherisland."

"Which one are we going to?" I ask, rummaging in my head for my limited geographical knowledge. There aren't any proper maps of the islands that were once the Scottish Highlands, but my uncle had a few hand-drawn ones in his office. Not that I could even say which one we're on. I didn't really care what direction I went to when I fled myhome.

"There's one to the West which looks similar to this one. Maybe that's the real Inchbrach, the Island of Bears. Or maybe it's not, who knows. But we won't find any answers here, so the chances are better everywhereelse."

He sounds resigned. I'm sure they've had that conversation many times before. Their search can't be easy. They're not even from this country - although they'd probably disagree. But they weren't born here, and didn't experience the Drowning here either. I have few memories of the time before the world sank, but those are mostly good ones. When my parents were still alive. When I still had afamily.

"Let's go back inside. It's getting cold." Wow, he’s finally noticed. Bears seem to deal with the cold much better than little humanme.

Torben once again sweeps me off my feet (in more ways than one) and carries me into the cave. Finn winks at me as he follows us. We must look rather funny. The Viking carrying home hisprize.

Ràn has changed back into his human form and is curled up on the ground. His wounds have almost disappeared and he seems to be sleeping peacefully. His brother is by his side, watching the small fire in the centre of thecave.

"How is he?" Torben asks and Húnn looks up, his face hidden inshadows.

"Well enough, I guess," he says quietly. "He'll be alright again bytomorrow."

"Good. We're leaving as soon as the sun rises," Torben announces. "Spring is coming and we've got a long journey ahead ofus."

* * *

I’m lyingacross the laps of four bear shifters. They couldn’t decide who was going to cuddle me. Now they’re all laying claim on me. At least they’re wearing trousers. Luckyme.