Page 48 of Alien Viking's Plunder

“All the ships belong to my huskarls and have Hjalmarheim as their home port.”

That sounded pretty promising to Josie, and she felt her mood improve. The girls and she would get together and… what? Plot their escape to Earth?

The thought left her strangely cold. Getting back toUnity, the daily grind in the sterile station with its stale air, the lonely little cabin at night, everything made of paper-thin plastic, knowing she’d be there until she retired… right now, it wasn’t that tempting.

She put the plate down, and Bragr tossed her uniform to her. “It’s cold outside. Better wear something.” He must have guessed her most urgent need right now. “And bring your spear. Holy runes can’t keepeverydanger away.”

She pulled it on, noting that the Viking turned his back and didn’t peek. Not that she had that many more secrets from him, but still the considerate gesture reassured her. Whatever else he was, he sure wasn’t a creep. In fact she would have liked him to be alittlemore creepy than this.

“The door is open now,” she said in English as she pulled her top on. “We are being sexual. And I want more of it.”

Bragr nodded thoughtfully, clearly not understanding a word but playing along. “I have something for you.” He handed her a strip of braided leather, tied in a circle.

“Thank you,” Josie said, confused. “It’s very nice.”

“For your hair,” Bragr rumbled. “To keep it in place.”

“Oh!” Josie gathered her hair in the back and used the leather hair tie to fasten the ponytail. “I needed that.”

“I noticed.”

Josie crawled out into the day, slowly because her muscles ached with every little movement. The moment she got out in the sunlight, an inner warmth filled her, tingles ran up her spine, and she felt strong and invincible. The light from the pulsar was blinding, and the snow reflected it with trillions of little facets that flickered like stars. The deep marks of last night’s rolling around in the snow were still there, making her smile with the memories.

She turned her back to the hut and located a suitable bush, not particularly wanting to look at that sun. Those two streams of pure energy beaming out of it at opposite sides were beautiful, but absolutely deadly. And if Aretha was right and they did contain tachyons, particles going faster than light, then that might explain a lot of things. This pulsar was unusual anyway, in that it only rotated very slowly. Most pulsars that could be detected on Earth spun around several times per second. One of those streams looked like it was getting pretty close to planet Gardr.

Oh well, Aretha would figure it out. She was incredibly smart.

The forest felt less threatening today, for some reason. The air was fresh and dry, and the hut felt like a sanctuary. From a short distance it was just a bump in the landscape, its top covered by snowy moss, and you had to get pretty close before you could see that it had to have been built by someone.

Bragr’s old tracks led off into the woods and back, so that must be where he’d found the well.

Despite the bright day, she wanted to get back inside. Becausehewas there.

She took a deep breath of cool air, hoping to clear her mind. She was obviously falling for this guy. Or rather, shehadfallen for him. As if it was possible not to. He was an alien, an abductor, and a pirate. But he was also a protector, a carer, and aViking. And he made her feel good about herself.

This was an alien planet, and she should be scared out of her mind. The fact that she wasn’t, that she wasn’t feeling more out of place here than onUnity, was all because of him. Had he seen that she needed a different life than on that station? A different life than a job she’d had no choice in accepting, and where she was contractually obligated to stay for her entire career because of the lace?

He had even eaten her out like a champ. And he had seemed to enjoy it, to enjoy exploring her body and her reactions. There had been something uncontrolled about him, as if he were feasting on her.

“That was crazy,” she muttered to herself, noticing the tingles that ran down her body whenever she thought about it. Well, perhaps that didn’t have to be the last time—

Josie jerked. There was movement in among the trees.

Clutching her spear, she slowly backed towards the hut. If there was to be a fight, she wanted to be as close to Bragr as possible.

Suddenly a small head stuck out from behind another tree. Josie saw yellow eyes and pitch black fur that shone like polished piano wood.

She stopped. She’d seen that before. Yesterday.

The whole animal jumped eight feet into the air, all six legs flexing as it landed. Then it stood on the snow and looked at her, tilting its head.

Josie smiled. That had to be the young wolf-like predator that had tried to play with her. A fenr pup, Bragr had called it.

Again, there was nothing threatening in the young fenr’s behavior. It snuck closer, pretending to be sneaking up on her, despite her staring right at it.

It came to within ten feet, looking at her as if asking her to play. When Josie made a small movement, the pup jumped back, pretending to be startled.

“You’re a little cutie, aren’t you?” she said, conscious to not let the thing get too close yet. Alien wolves with six legs might not work the same way as dogs on Earth, and this whole cute spielcouldbe some kind of ruse. “The chocolate I gave you doesn’t seem to have harmed you.»

---