White Stag (PERMAFROST #1)

Chapter Sixteen: Mother of Wolves

The wind picked up around me, swirling and piercing through my thick clothes with its freezing chill. The sound grew louder and louder, until the force of the wind became the howling of wolves. I opened my eyes as the goddess materialized from ice and snow, the wind becoming the pure-white strands that was her hair.

She stood seven feet tall, her cold grey eyes narrowed as she gazed down at me. Despite her regal looks a bow was slung across her back and an axe against her hips. Her silver hair whipped around her like dozens of ribbons in the wind. She swept her gaze beyond me, to Soren, then Seppo. Her eyes darkened as she narrowed her brows.

"You," she said. Her voice shook the mountains, the raw power seeping out of her forced my words from my mouth to the pit of my belly. "You dare show your face here again, mongrel? You dare come back while your tribesmen leaves a debt unpaid and my wolves still die?"

I stood, swallowing. At least now we knew whatever was killing the wolves was still out there. "I summoned you, my lady." I wasn't exactly sure how to address a goddess, but I didn't think adding honorifics would hurt. "It was I who summoned you, who woke you from your sleep. It is I who begs for your aid."
The goddess turned her cold, hard gaze to me. Her eyes softened. "You, child. I've not heard your voice in a long time."

I cast my eyes to the ground. "The will to pray was lost from my own human weakness."

She made a sound in the back of her throat. "Not so weak, from where you stand now. I feel the power of the lindworm on you, the power of goblins, and the Permafrost beating in your heart. You have done well. But that does not excuse why he is in my sight." She hissed the last word, rage in her eyes. "He and his cur asked for my wisdom and tricked me. Now my family lays dying and I can hear their mournful yelps from sundown to sunset."

Seppo fell to his knees, head bent so low it brushed against the earth. "Honorable Skadi; from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. I truly believed the man who deceived you had killed the creature that terrorized your family. I no longer align myself to this deceitful man and come in peace. In the respect of your dead brethren, I will pay you any favor you wish so long as it doesn't hurt the ones I loved."

I snorted. Seppo made a good speech when he wanted to, that was for sure.

"As you should be," Skadi said. "But I hear the honor in your words and I accept your proposal. I will think of a fitting favor for my brethren and the blood will be washed from your hands."

"But you," she pointed a finger at Soren, "didn't I tell you to never come back here? Not while you had another person in your—" she paused, looked closer at me, then smiled pleasantly. "Ah, I see our quarrel has come to an end, then."

A strangled sound came from my throat as I turned to Soren, eyes wide. He avoided my gaze and gave a small shrug. Oh, we're definitely discussing whatever this was about if we live past this.

"Girl!" I snapped back to attention. "You want something, so ask. The mountains are no place for a human, even one such as yourself, and they aren't as forgiving as the ground below."

I heard the threat laced so gracefully in those words. I raised my chin to look her as closely in the eye as I could. There was something about her, the set of her shoulders, the tilt of her head that made me want to cower in fear. This woman was a wolf in human form, a regal predator taking the time to deal with the rabbits at her feet.

"We need to stop Lydian," I said. "The goblin who disgraced you before, who asked for your knowledge about the Stag."

She nodded. "And?"