Free Claimed by Her Viking Wolf by Doris O'Connor

the bench at the bottom of the garden and
stared up the cloudless sky. The stars were out in full force, and she smiled
at Susan when the older woman approached and offered her a shawl.
    “ Here,
it’s getting cold. Your wolf is chomping at the bit with worry over you.”
Kim had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.
    “ Not
you, too. He’s not mine, dammit.”
    Susan shrugged her shoulders and smiled, while Kim
groaned.
    “ He’s
not. He can’t be. How would we ever work? He’s not from this time for starters.
You’ve seen how he talks about his village. Asger needs to go back there, and I … well, it’s not as though as I could go back
with him, or would want to.”
    There, she almost convinced herself with that
vehement little speech, until Susan grasped her hand. Turning it over, Susan
looked at her palm. She traced the lines with one long finger, and a tingle of
foreboding went up Kim’s spine.
    “ Don’t,
you know I don’t believe in that.” Kim winced at the croakiness in her voice,
and Susan let her go.
    “ You
don’t have to believe in it for it to be true. After all, time travel ought not
to be possible, yet here you are with Asger . We all
have a soulmate, the one person or persons we’re meant to be with. Love
transcends time and reason, it—”
    Kim stood up, effectively cutting off the other
woman’s speech.
    “ I
don’t love him and he doesn’t love me, so this whole thing is pointless,” Kim
said. She frowned when the other woman’s smile deepened.
    “ All
great love affairs start with a healthy dose of lust, you know. If you’re lucky
that side doesn’t wane, just grows stronger through the years. I’ve seen the
way you react to him on a subconscious level. That man eats you alive with his
eyes whenever he looks at you. You might not love him yet, but you’re halfway
there already. If you just gave in instead of fighting this attraction…” She
let her words trail off, and Kim was all too aware that she was doing goldfish
impressions.
    “ Are
you seriously telling me to just go and have what would in effect be a one
night stand?” When Susan shrugged her shoulders, Kim sat back down again with
an inelegant thud.
    “ I
don’t believe you,” she murmured.
    “ Kimberly,
my lovely, sometimes we have to take risks. Besides, having sex with your
Viking is the only way to get him back to his time.”
    Kim couldn’t have heard that right.
    “ What?”
    Susan nodded and grasped her hand again.
    “ You
heard me. It’s there, plain to see in the texts he’s been studying. What’s more
the local folklore confirms it.”
    “ But
that’s just stories. They’re not real.” Kim somehow managed to get the words
past the lump in her throat. “What do you mean it’s in the text? He knows this
and yet…” She couldn’t quite bring herself to finish that sentence, as the
truth dawned on her.
    “ Yes,
he knows. He’d suspected it for some time. I had to agree with him that the
texts confirm it.”
    “ So
why didn’t he? I mean … oh shit.” Heat rose in Kim’s cheeks, and Susan laughed.
    “ Yes,
finally you’re asking the right questions, my lovely. I’m sure he could have coerced
you on more than occasion. Forced himself on you, for that matter, but that’s
not who Asger is. The fact that he hasn’t done any of
those things should tell you something. That man, wolf, Viking, whatever you
want to call him, cares about you a great deal. All you have to do is accept
that, and trust that this will all work out somehow.”
    Kim knew in her heart that Susan was right, but she
shook her head in denial.
    “ So
we have sex, and he goes back and then what?” she asked. Susan pulled her in
for a hug.
    “Well, you’ll probably go back in time with him,
but if you love him that won’t matter, will it?” Susan got up and patted her
arm .
    “ You
have a lot to think about, and it’s getting late. We’ve all been drinking, so
I’m going to make up the bed in the spare room