The Siberian's Winter (FUC Academy) Page 9

  “I gave him reason to doubt me.” But not anymore. She only hoped it was where she’d left it. “I’m going to swear you to secrecy. Give me your hand.” She extended her own.

  “This is childish.”

  “Maybe, but it’s the only way I know you won’t tell. Now repeat after me. I, Wren, fourth child of Devol…”

  “I Wren, blah blah.”

  Good enough. “Solemnly swear to never reveal.”

  “Solemnly swear to never reveal.”

  “Now say it again, without the eye roll.”

  He repeated it, the right way this time, and she went on. “To never reveal Winter’s hiding spot, on penalty of swimming with the seals.” As a child, Wren had once been bitten and couldn’t stomach the animals. If he took this oath, he meant business.

  He finished echoing what she’d told him, and then she dragged him to her closet, where she found all her old clothes. “Sheesh, didn’t anyone doubt I’d be back here?” It was a little disheartening to think they all thought she’d fail.

  “You aren’t the same person you were when you left. Did you forget?”

  “Still…” She held her breath and pushed on her secret panel. “Yes.” She punched the air. Inside, just where she’d left it, was her spare SD. “Here.” She handed it to Wren and got to her feet.

  Wren looked at what humans would think was nothing more than the face of an Apple watch. “You know I can’t use this. The moment I power it up, they can track it.”

  “Not this one. I disabled the GPS.” As she’d done with the one Aubin torched in the fire.

  Wren looked impressed and, dare she say it, proud. “We underestimated you. Didn’t we?”

  “Big time.”

  “What do you mean, he’s gone looking for her?” Wren didn’t know how much time he had. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe his sister, but their window of opportunity to come here had been quite small.

  “He said he knew where she was. You’re her brother?” the female who’d introduced herself as Mia asked. “Do you know where she is?”

  “I do, and it’s no place this Sirius will be able to find her.”

  And before he knew what was happening, he was flattened to a tree, a blade adorning his neck.

  “Where did you take her?”

  “I didn’t. That was Aubin.”

  “Did you hurt her?” she asked, not listening.

  “She’s my sister. I love her.”

  “She told me her siblings were cruel assholes. So, cruel asshole”—she drove the tip into his flesh—“where is she?”

  One had to admire these shifters. “I’m glad my sister found such a loyal friend. But I assure you, Winter is safe.” Maybe not happy, but safe. “I’ll have her get word to you the moment she is able. Now if you don’t mind…” He glanced down at the knife.

  “Funny thing, I do mind. How do I know you’re not lying?”

  “Winter told me to tell you she may not be back for your wedding, and I quote, ‘I really hope that fuckwad is good to you.’”

  Mia slowly withdrew her blade, not looking happy about it. “Sirius is beside himself. He thinks he failed her.”

  “I’m sorry for that, but there was little good he could do. There is no stopping my brother when he puts his mind to something.”

  “The same can be said about Siberians.”

  “I’m sure, but in this case, your friend is wrong.” The one thing he did know about Siberians, they were a stubborn breed.

  “Look, I may not know what the hell is going on here, but I know a Siberian when he’s imprinted on someone. If Sirius said he could find her, then he’ll find her.”

  Imprinted? He thought only birds did that. “I’m not doubting his determination. There’s simply no way for him to track her. Now if you just tell me which way he went, I can give him Winter’s message and return home with them none the wiser.”

  “Unless you have wings, my telling which way they headed isn’t going to help.”

  “What do you mean?” He wasn’t liking the sound of this.

  “Nothing stops a Siberian once he’s mated. Loki is flying them to, get this, the South Pole.”

  “Thanks for doing this.” Winter had been right. Who needed family when he had Loki? They were brothers in every way that counted.

  “I still don’t get it. Why take her to, what, a glacier?”

  “The South Pole has land.” Not a lot of it, but it wasn’t just a chunk of ice.

  “Not land anyone wants to live on. And you just can’t decide you want to vacation at the South Pole. It’s monitored.”

  “Loki, she disappeared right before my eyes. Do you doubt anyone with that kind of technology can’t shield themselves?”

  It had taken some convincing for Loki to believe Winter had vanished in the blink of an eye. Shit, he hadn’t believed it. At first, they’d considered it had been some kind of cloaking device, something he knew the army was working on, but her scent had disappeared as fast as she had. And then something happened. It went beyond instinct and was as simple as finding your missing keys. He knew where she was.

  “It’s crazy. Then again, if anyone had told me a deranged squirrel would experiment on shifters, to alter his own DNA in order to take over the world, I’d have called them crazy.”

  “She’s down there.” Sirius pointed out the window, to the barren land of ice below.

  “This is so fucked up.”

  “If you’re talking about my falling for Winter, I don’t want to hear it.” Yes, he’d fallen in love with her. She was his mate. “She isn’t like the others.”

  “Yeah, you didn’t mate to the others.”

  He knew? Or was Loki being his usual shithead self?

  “What?” Loki said after a long moment of silence. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

  “To be honest, I don’t understand why it took me so long to figure it out.” Everything had started to make sense, and it happened that first night. What would Loki say about that? “I just expected more of a lecture from you.”

  “On what, finding a mate? That shit is real. You can’t fuck with that.”

  Not all Siberians found a mate. Some hooked up just because. But for those lucky enough, the bond was unbreakable. He’d once told Mia some shifters needed to listen for the call. He’d been wrong. He’d come to learn it was different for everyone and wasn’t always auditory. Loki and Mia could communicate telepathically. Some could sense the other’s emotions or, really extreme, suffered discomfort if parted. For Sirius, he was grateful to figure out he could track her scent, even to the South Pole. It was like having a built-in GPS. He would know where she was, always.

  “Thank you for having my back.” Especially since he hadn’t had Loki’s when it counted.

  “Always.”

  “I wish I knew why he kidnapped her. But it can’t be good. Loki, he tried to kill her.” Winter had been right; family was toxic. Her vile brother’s last words haunted him. You have to be dead for that to happen.

  “We’ll get her back. Have faith.”

  Yes, but would they get her back alive?

  “What do you mean he’s looking for me?”

  “The exact question I asked.”

  She was starting to lose patience with Wren. “And what answer did you get?”

  When Wren hesitated, she did the only thing she could; she backhanded him.

  “Ow. Holy shit, Winter. Is that what kind of queen you’re going to be?” he said, rubbing his head.

  “In a few hours, you’ll find out exactly what kind of queen I’m going to be, and if you don’t cough up some answers, you’re not going to like it.”

  “Fine, it’s just weird, my telling you this.”

  She let out a low growl. “Don’t make me shift.” Unlike true shifters, who carried two beings within themselves, her kind had more like two sides. The one that appeared human, the other, their warrior. It had taken Winter working for FUC to go from a child’s cute creation to someth
ing her brother should be very afraid of.

  “Mia, your friend, claims Sirius is your mate.”

  Not what she’d been expecting to hear. She’d have landed on her ass if Wren hadn’t caught her.

  “The gown, remember?”

  She looked down at herself. The shocking news had made her forgot about the ridiculous coronation costume. Needing air, she headed to the balcony of what would become her throne room, the far too many crystals adorning the dress sounding like a thousand annoying wind chimes as she walked. Superman’s ice palace had nothing on her. She looked down to the turquoise river of their underground city. How many times had she wished she could swim away?

  “Are you sure that’s what she said?” While her kind didn’t have mates, they loved fiercely. And the ache in her belly intensified with each moment she wasn’t with Sirius. Did he love her? Or had he convinced himself of something that wasn’t true? Was his need to save her similar to the others he’d run to rescue?

  “Her exact words were ‘nothing stops a Siberian once he’s mated,’ but there’s more,” he said. “He’s coming here.”

  She turned so fast the dangling crystals caught the stone bannister, making Wren wince. “If you break one of those, Mother will have your head. You may be queen, but that gown is thousands of years old.”

  “Yeah, yeah, passed down from generation to generation. Do you mean he’s coming here, here? How? Why? Does he know I’m here? How?” she repeated, unsure if she should be confused, excited…or terrified.

  “He can track your scent.”

  “And? I knew that already. You mean to tell me he tracked me to the South Pole? How the hell is that possible?”

  “How should I know? He’s a Siberian. Maybe this is part of their mating. And before you come at me with more questions I can’t answer, you’d better figure out what to do about it. We don’t allow outsiders in the city. Aubin was only one. How will your dog fair against an army?”

  She wasn’t going to find out. Out of respect for her people, she grabbed Wren’s hand and dragged him back inside and to her room next door.

  “You know, for a woman, you have a strong grip,” he all but whined.

  Given they’d trained her to be strong… “For a man, you’re such a pussy. Now, undo me.” She gave him her back.

  “Not a chance. Aubin will kill me if I let you out of here.”

  “Fair enough. But if you don’t help me, I’ll kill you or,” she said just in case her brother was dumb enough not to fear her, “I’ll shift and destroy this gown in the process. Then you can explain that to Mother.”

  She could see his rusty wheels turning, trying to assess which would be worse. Wisely, he chose option one and undid her dress.

  Careful not to break a single crystal, she slipped out of the family heirloom and hung it up. Her mother may not be a warrior, but her temper could make a grown man cry. She ran to her closet and changed into the jeans she’d sadly had to leave behind the first time she’d left. Denim was a luxury in her world and hard to come by. But like any human city, they too had a black market. She rummaged for a shirt and flat boots she could run in.

  Then she returned to Wren and stuck out her hand. “Hand it over.”

  He pretended not to know what she was talking about.

  “Hand it over,” she said, poking him hard enough in the chest to leave a bruise.

  “Winter, I love you. I would do anything for you. But Aubin is right. You need to take your throne. Or would you rather be responsible for war? Olon’s council will demand he take power. Those shifters you’ve come to care about will get caught in the crossfire, the humans and their world too.”

  “Hey, Shakespeare called, he wants his drama back.” She thrust her hand at him. “It’s for Sirius.”

  He withdrew the SD from his pocket and tentatively handed it to her. She knew she was fucked. Her life was here now, but no way in hell was Sirius going to suffer because her people were stuck in the prehistoric age.

  “If he has this, he’ll be able to return. If you care for the dog—”

  “Stop,” she said, shoving her face in his, “calling him dog. He’s a Siberian. If you recall your history lesson, Siberians and our people once worked together.” It was a part of their past few were taught. But given her family was royalty, their education had included ancient tombs.

  “That was ten thousand years ago. Clearly, it hadn’t worked out, as that collaboration ended.”

  “Maybe a brother picked a fight with his sister and she fed him to the Siberians,” she countered.

  “Maybe that brother was only looking out for his sister’s best interest and she was too naive to see it.”

  “I hate you sometimes.”

  “I hate you more. Now, for all that is holy, do right by that dog. You have to crush any chance he thinks he has with you. Our people will never accept him. If you give him hope—”

  “He’ll keep coming back. I know. Sirius is a reasonable person. I’ll explain the situation”—no matter how shitty—“and he’ll understand.” Right?

  “As you keep reminding me, he’s a Siberian, one who believes you are his mate.”

  The door to her room opened with a loud bang. Aubin, flanked by two armed guards, marched inside, like the regal prick he was.

  “Something wrong with your hands that you don’t knock?” And had he heard their conversation?

  Her shitty brother had the gall to smirk. She’d opened her mouth to tell him what she’d do with that arrogant grin when she was officially queen when he waved the guards forward. If he hadn’t seen enough of her fighting skills, she was prepared to show him her darker side. But when two more guards walked in, she realized she’d misread the situation. With them was Sirius.

  9

  Sirius refrained from taking Winter into his arms. Aubin had derived great pleasure in telling him he was interrupting a coronation—Winter’s. She seemed relieved to see him, but at the same time, she was standoffish. And if he hadn’t seen Aubin’s transformation, the freaky blue eyes, the lips, the iridescent skin, he may have been taken aback by her appearance. He’d once compared her to a goddess, a mermaid even, but now… She was the sun, moon and stars, a celestial…queen.

  “He was at the hatch,” Aubin said “threatening an army if we didn’t open it.” He tossed a sneer Sirius’s way. “As killing him might bring down more shifters, I thought it best to let him see you.”

  Sirius laughed. “You want to see who’d be killing who? Bring it on.”

  “You think your dog can take on my warrior?” Aubin scoffed.

  “Shall we find out?” People underestimated Siberians, often confusing them with huskies. He was no one’s pet.

  “Back off, Aubin. Or you’ll see my warrior.”

  Damn it was good to hear her voice, even if was to put her asshole brother in his place. He couldn’t help but smile.

  “As you can see, dog, my sister is well and healthy. Go back to where you came from, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget you were ever here.”

  “I’m only going if Winter tells me to.” And not a moment sooner. Clearly, she had the upper hand in this situation. But he wasn’t the fool Loki so often accused him of being. Whatever her reasons for staying, he would have to leave his mate behind. This was her world, and he wasn’t welcome in it. He was used to that, and yet this time, he was certain it would kill him.

  “Everyone out,” Winter ordered, in a voice he wasn’t used to.

  She’d changed. At the Academy she was assertive and she spoke her mind, yes, but here, here she was in command and a woman not to be trifled with. His mate had turned into a queen. His heart swelled with pride, right before it broke.

  All but one filed out. He looked older than Winter, but considering she was giving the snow queen from children’s books a run for her money, perhaps his judgment was skewed. The man, who by the family resemblance, had to be another brother, thrust out his hand.

  “Wren.”
r />   “Sirius,” he said, shaking hands.

  “My sister’s life is very…complicated. Try not to make it more so.”

  Meaning, say goodbye and go home. “I’ll try not to.” He wouldn’t tell her she was his mate. It would serve no purpose and only hurt him more when she would inevitably reject him.

  “Goodbye, Wren.”

  Unlike with Aubin, Sirius could see Winter loved this brother.

  When they were alone, Winter took a seat at the edge of her bed. “How did you get down here?”

  “Loki flew us. He’s waiting…for me…at one of the science stations.” In his heart, he knew she wouldn’t be returning with him. “He had FUC clear us to land.”

  “Guess I was wrong. That dog is useful for something.” She patted the spot next her.

  When he hesitated, she said, “I don’t have a lot of time. My coronation is in a couple of hours, and they’ll want me dressed and ready to go soon.”

  As much as he wanted to touch her, he couldn’t. It would break him. “I came to make sure you were all right and to take you back with me…if that’s what you wanted. But I can see that’s not in the cards.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be here. But it’s not only my life I have to consider. The consequences of my not taking the crown could be dire. And as much as I hate to say it, I was born to be queen. I fled here as a stubborn girl, tired, nah, exhausted by my training. But that girl grew up. And she found herself…because of you. I’m going to be a better queen because of you.”

  “Me? How?”

  “My entire life I prepared for this role, but nothing I did was ever good enough. I was too slow, too fast, too this, too that. I thought, what’s the point of their trying to kill me, if I can never measure up? And I had to measure up. My people depended on me…and I was a failure. So I left. I left, and after a weird encounter with Chase, a very ornery bear, I signed up for FUC. It wasn’t easy. They didn’t believe I was a shifter,” she said.

  “You’re not,” he pointed out, still wondering what they hell she was, because human she wasn’t.