Page 51 of The Viking in the Vault
20
RAGNAR
Ihave no idea how people wear these infernal devices.
The translator hums against my skull, an obnoxious pressure that seems to resonate in my ear. It’s been hours since Thorne helped me fit it, but I still can’t stop myself from rolling my shoulders, trying to shake off the sensation.
It’s unnatural.
I don’t like it.
It leads me to have even fewer regrets about smashing Elena’s translator when I first met her.
“Stop fidgeting,” Thorne mutters, not looking up from the datapad he’s scrolling through.
I scowl. “It’s irritating.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
I grunt, shifting in my seat. I don’t want to get used to it. I want it gone. But I also know that without it, I’ll never be able to talk to Elena…or at least not for a few years.
We need to speak sooner than that.
Right away, if possible.
“Where has your mate taken my fenvarra?” I grumble. “It’s been too long.”
“You’re going to have to get used to it,” Thorne says, glancing up at me with a long-suffering sigh. “Mates don’t spend every waking hour together these days, and females have far more freedom now than they did in your day. Sometimes she’ll want to be apart from you…and you’re going to have to accept that.”
I grunt. “My Elena will want to spend all her time with me.”
“Right,” Thorne says. “Of course she will.”
Thorne’s smirk is insufferable. I clench my jaw, glaring at him. “You don’t know?—”
I don’t get a chance to finish my sentence—because the doors open.
All my irritation vanishes.
Elena steps inside, her cheeks flushed from the cold, a pink coat wrapped around her small frame. She brushes a few dark curls away from her face, locking eyes with me as if she’s entirely forgotten that Page and Thorne exist…and then?—
“Is it working?”
Her words…they translate through the device in my ear, and it’s suddenly not annoying at all, but a blessing. My breath catches as I jolt to my feet, extending my hand to her.
“Elena,” I murmur. “I understand.”
The weight of it crashes over me, so sudden and consuming that I can hardly breathe. The relief I feel is palpable, far greater than I thought it would be. I didn’t realize how painful it was for our language to separate us, and now…
Thorne, damn him, clears his throat. “Well—I guess my job here is done. We’ll leave you to it.”
He and Page exchange a look, something smug and knowing in the way they glance between us. Then, with far too much amusement for my liking, they slip out of the room, leaving us alone.
The room is silent.
Elena shifts, stepping closer, her eyes darting from the translator to my eyes as she tries to gauge my reaction. Her tongue flicks out over her lips, and the sight of it sends heat racing through me.
“I don’t know what to say,” she says slowly.
