Bear Naked (11 page)

His hand smoothed over my thick braids, his gaze searching my face. “I won’t leave you.”

I exhaled in relief and hugged him close, just as the door to the cabin flew open.

Mikkel stepped inside first, an apology written on his features. He was bundled up for the storm, and his scanning eyes lit on me. I watched his nostrils flare, no doubt smelling our thick scents - and the aftermath of my heat - in the small cabin. “Good, you’re here. Both of you. Everything…okay?”

I gave him a silent thumbs up. “My father?”

“About two minutes behind me, with Jokkum.” Mikkel grimaced and rubbed his jaw. “I’m sorry, Niko. I tried, I really did. But they’re the elders. I couldn’t refuse them when they said they were coming after you. They made me tell where you were.”

“It’s okay,” I said softly, still clinging to my new mate. “Everything turned out fine.”

“I see that,” Mikkel said, and his gaze moved over Leif. “You found him after all. Look, I think I should tell you—“

“Daughter,” my father roared from a distance. “Daughter, come out here!”

I winced, pulling out of Leif’s arms. “That would be me.”

To my surprise, Leif put his arm around my waist. “We’ll confront him together.”

I shot him a look of gratitude and offered him my hand. He took it, and we headed out of the cabin, Mikkel trailing behind us with an unhappy look on his face.

My father stood some distance away, snow up to his knees. Behind him stood Jokkum, and both men were heavily bundled. They watched me with frowns on their faces, assessing me. I wondered if they were staying distant because they were worried I was still in heat, but that didn’t explain why Mikkel had come in.

Leif’s hand tightened on mine.

I raised my free hand to shield my eyes from the sun glinting hard on the snow. “Hello, Father. You came a long way to find me.”

“Yes,” my father said in a displeased voice. “And I’m very unhappy with you. Come here.” When both Leif and I stepped forward, he raised a hand. “
Just
my daughter.”

I frowned and looked over at Leif. He was unshaven this morning, and his hair was messy from sleep, but it was much better than before. He no longer looked like a wild man. His clothes were a bit ridiculous, but they were just clothes. Why was my father treating him so coldly? “Father, Leif is my mate now.”

“No,” said my father succinctly. “He is not.”

I heard Mikkel sigh unhappily behind me. “I tried to tell you,” he muttered in a low voice.

My stomach clenched with worry. “What do you mean, Leif isn’t my mate?” I moved one of my braids aside, showing my mate mark. “He’s claimed me. I’m going to have his baby. He—“

“He’s exiled,” my father said flatly. “Just like Ramsey.”

I sucked in a breath and looked over at Leif. He’d never said. The glare in his blue eyes as he stared at my father was cold with anger. “What? Exiled? Why?”

“I would have told you if I’d have known of this ridiculous scheme of yours,” my father said in a cold voice. “But you ran away before I had the chance.”

“What was I supposed to do?” I cried. “I didn’t have many options.”

Leif’s hand tightened on mine. He pulled it to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “It’s all right, Lina.”

“It’s not all right,” I said, upset. Why was this happening? “I don’t understand.”

“Leif abandoned the bear clan sixteen years ago, so he was exiled,” Jokkum said, finally speaking up.

At my side, Leif gave a wry snort of derision, and hearing that actually made me feel better. So he hadn’t known he was exiled when we’d come together? The absurdity of the rule struck me. “Wait. He
left
and so you decided to exile him after the fact?”

“If he wants to come back, he’ll have to petition the elders,” Jokkum said.

“I’m not leaving ‘Lina’s side,” Leif said quietly. “I don’t care what the two of you think.”

“You will have to formally petition the elders,” my father said sternly. “Once you have, we will meet and decide your fate.”

“His fate?” My voice rose a hysterical note. How had things gone from so perfect to so wrong so quickly?

“Come, Niko,” my father said, and gestured for me to come to his side. “You can’t stay here.”

I looked at Leif, utter terror in my eyes. I’d just found him and now I was losing him again? This couldn’t be happening.

Leif saw the panic on my face, and he cupped my cheeks in his warm, callused fingers. “It’s all right, ‘Lina,” he told me softly. “Your father is right — you can’t stay here. There’s nothing on this island but penguins and snow.”

“There’s you,” I choked out.

He smiled, and his smile was beautiful. “I’m coming with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Wherever you go, I’ll go,” Leif told me, and his blue eyes were warm. “I won’t leave your side.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, and pressed my cheek to his chest. His arms wrapped around me in a comforting hug.

“Come,” my father said again, clearly impatient.

So we went. Together.

Chapter Five

Once we were back on the small ship that had brought me to the Antarctic, my father insisted on talking to me alone. I gave Leif a worried look, but he nodded that it was okay. Leif didn’t plan on going anywhere, it was clear, and he took the bag of my remaining supplies. “I’ll get
our
cabin set up.”

I liked how he stressed
our
. My father noticed it, too, and frowned. His hand clamped down on my shoulder and he steered me down to the galley of the ship, where we could talk privately.

Once we’d both sat down, he lashed into me. “What were you thinking, Nikolina? Running away like that at such a crucial time? Do you have any idea of the chaos you’ve caused?”

“I couldn’t stay, Father.” I crossed my arms over my chest, hugging myself. “You know I couldn’t. I was going into heat.”

“We had a plan for that—“

“I heard your plan,” I said bitterly. “Give me to
Jokkum
? Let one of the married men ‘take one for the team?’ Maybe ask Ramsey to forget his wolf mate and make a ‘donation?'”

He looked surprised at my words. “So you were listening in?”

“I should have been in the meeting,” I told him. “It’s my body. My life. My choices.”

“The elders would decide the best plan for you,” he said stiffly. “We have the clan’s best interests at heart.”

But what about
my
best interests? I wanted to ask. “Well, I didn’t want to be anyone’s charity fuck —“ It made me feel good to see him wince at my words — “So I took matters into my own hands.”

“Leif is exiled,” he reminded me.

“Leif didn’t know that.”

“We have to protect the clan. There was no other option than to exile him. It’s the way we keep control.” My father shook his head. “And now, because of your impulsive actions, any child of your union might not be accepted by the clan.”

I sucked in a breath, surprised at how much his words hurt. To think that I’d come after Leif because I’d been so tired of feeling like a lonely outcast in my own clan…and I was going to do it to my own child. It didn’t seem fair. Was there no way for me to be happy?

“You’ve been selfish, daughter.”

“Me?” I choked on the word.

“There are men in the clan who are married, but they would have gladly taken the chance at fathering another child. Good men, who would make a worthy, strong baby. You’ve robbed them of that opportunity.”

I robbed
them
? My lips curled in displeasure.

Before I could reply to that, he continued. “You do realize Leif didn’t want you?”

His words hit me like a brick. All the air left my body. “What…what do you mean?”

“He left the clan because he didn’t want to be part of it any longer. Then, you show up, waving your…
heat
under his nose. He had no choice but to respond. Any man would respond to that. Why do you think Mikkel agreed to disobey the clan and bring you here?” He slammed a hand down on the small galley table. “Because it is impossible to refuse a female in heat. You manipulated him, and you manipulated Leif. Selfish!”

I wanted to protest…but he was right. I’d cheerfully trodden on several rules just to get my way. And hadn’t I known that Leif wouldn’t have a choice? But I’d still come after him because it was what I’d wanted. Abashed, I remained silent.

“The only reason you have not been exiled like him,” my father said in a low, dangerous voice, “is because you now carry a bear-child in your womb. When we get home, you will go in front of the elders and apologize for the trouble you’ve made. You will agree to abide by any decisions they make in regards to your welfare, and you will accept it all with a smile. Do you understand me? If not, you threaten not only your own place, but your child’s.”

A knot had formed in my throat, and I swallowed hard, then nodded. I’d do what he asked. “And Leif?”

“Leif will have to beg his way back into the clan’s forgiveness,” my father said in a hard voice. “And right now, I am not in a forgiving mood.”

“I see,” I said softly. I wanted to weep, but I knew my father hated tears. They were weak. So swallowed hard. “Can I go now? I need to…reflect on my errors.”

“Go,” he said with a flick of his hand. His face was so stern that it hurt to look upon. “And know that the only reason we’re allowing that exile to stay in your cabin is because the ship isn’t big enough to separate the two of you.”

He wanted to separate us? A low, dull ache started in my chest. I nodded and jerked to my feet, then moved to hug my father. He was family, after all, and I wanted comforting.

But my father didn’t put an arm around me. Didn’t pat my back like he normally did. In his eyes, I was a disobedient clan daughter, and he was a clan leader. I’d shamed him, and there’d be no affection from him until I was back in the clan’s good graces.

I made it out of the galley before I started to weep, at least. By the time I made it back to the cabin I shared with Leif, though, I was sobbing.

“‘Lina?” Leif came to meet me as I stumbled through the door, and his arms wrapped around me. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, unable to stop crying. Everything was going so wrong. So terribly wrong. “My father… he says our child might not be accepted by the clan if you’re still exiled. I…he…” I choked on my sobs. I wanted Leif. I wanted the clan’s acceptance. What was I going to do?

“Don’t cry, love,” he said, and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “It’s going to be all right. Really.”

I let him enfold me in his arms, burying my face against his neck. “How?”

“Whatever they need me to do, I’ll do it.”

I lifted my head and looked up at him in surprise. “You will?”

“For you, I will.” Leif’s blue-eyed gaze held mine. “We’re together. No matter what.”

I kissed him fervently, filled with emotion. “Thank you.”

He hugged me close and pulled me to the small cabin bed, and held me while I wept, emotional. Even as he did, I kept thinking of my father’s hateful words.

You do realize Leif didn’t want you?

Even now, was I manipulating him with my tears and our baby? God, I was the worst mate ever.

By the time we returned home, I was existing in a fever-pitch of anxiety.

My father’s coldness toward me was only compounded by the fact that he completely ignored Leif. Jokkum took his cues from my father and did the same—not that I cared about him. Poor Mikkel clearly wanted to talk with me and Leif, but he had to go by what the elders decreed, and as a result, he ignored us.

On the ship, we were treated as pariahs. I’d known we would be, but it still hurt. I hid in my cabin with Leif to pass the time, but even then, I couldn’t relax. Leif was just as tense as I was, and the walls of the cabin were so flimsy that they’d make sex impossible. We existed in a state of tension, made all the worse by enforced chastity.

I was never so glad as when we left the ship to head to the airport and take a thirteen-hour flight home. I just wanted all of this over with, so things could go back to normal.