Page 2 of Hungry Like a Wolf
And that streak in his nature had cost him a lot in his life. Luckily, Siggy had seen past it, to the person beneath his hard exterior. But no one else ever had.
Everyone else saw him as brittle, brackish, ambitious, and dogmatic. A man who decided on a goal and went for it, knocking everyone out of the way to get there.
Haakon’s face still hovered in his mind. An image from the moment when he’d been on the ground, beaten, with Ravn’s dagger aimed at his chest and ready to drive into his heart.
His eyes had flashed with sadness—sadness that the brother with whom he’d shared a womb had been about to take the life they’d started out on together.
Remorse tore through Ravn. He’d been so determined to be king, his ambition a real living creature inside of him, that he’d been ready to take the life of the one person who had always had his back. The brother he could rely on for anything. A man who had morals and love in his core and didn’t deserve to die.
Thank goodness their father, Urd, had stopped him from carrying out the murder he’d been about to commit all in the name of a crown.
He opened his eyes, walked to the table, and poured more mead. A sudden pang hit him. He missed his brother.
He missed Astrid and Orm, too, even though they were annoying and whimsical in that order.
They were his kin. And he didn’t even know where they were.
After taking a few big gulps of his drink, he walked to a carving on the wall. It was of a longboat with a great curled bow in the shape of a snake’s head. Oars stuck from the sides, dipping into neat, semicircle waves. A line of shields ran the length of the boat and a sail puffed out above. It reminded him of the new boat Tyr had recently completed. A fine vessel that had yet to make its maiden voyage.
A noise to his right caught his attention. He frowned. What was it?
And then he saw that one of the apples he’d laid out for Thor had rolled clean off the wooden plinth and onto the floor, where it had stopped beside a table holding his sun-shadow board. Inherited from his father, it was a device for navigating the high seas.
His breath caught in his throat and he set down his drink. Was this a sign from the gods? From Thor himself?
A sign that he should travel on the very boat he was thinking of to find his siblings?
His heart rate picked up and with it, a spark of hope, a nugget of ambition again. Did Thor want him to set out on a quest to find Haakon and heal the rifts he’d gorged so deep? Was there a space for Astrid and Orm in his life again?
“Thor. Wise one.” He walked to the monument and rested his hands on the cool stone. “I believe you have told me what I must do. And I will do it. I will right my wrongs so that the gods put me back on the true path of my destiny. In your name, and in the name of the All Father, I will succeed. I will atone.” Hiswords were clipped and determined and he could almost smell the ocean and feel the rock of the boat beneath his feet.
Whatever it took, however far he must travel, whatever battles he must brave, it was time to move his life on and face the future as a man, a king, and a brother.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The gentle sound on the door wasn’t the wind and Ravn turned to it. “Enter.” He glanced at the sleeping child in the cot.
Thormod didn’t stir.
The door opened and Helga slipped in with her hood pulled up tight and snow covering her boots. She stamped on the straw covered floor and pushed back her hood. “Your Grace. I have come to check on Thormod.”
“Come. Come.” He gestured to his friend, who had now become his child’s caretaker. “Sit. I wish to speak with you.”
She stepped into the warmth, pushing her hood from her head and letting her long, blonde hair tumble free.
“I have made a decision,” he told her.
“You have, Your Grace?” Her eyes widened.
“Ja. And at the morrow, I will set my new plan in motion.”
She sat on the chair next to his and held her palms to the fire. “And what is this grand plan? You appear excited about it.”
He poured a horn of mead and passed it to her. “I am.”
She sipped her drink and raised her eyebrows. “So? What is it?”
“Ah.” He tapped the side of his nose and grinned. “That is for me to know and you must wait to find out.”
