Are we bound now like I am with Torben?"
I'm wrapped around him, my head on his chest. I'm tired but happy.
Húnn smiles. "Would you like to be?"
I run my hands over his smooth abs and resist the temptation to lick his skin. Think like a human, Isla, not like a bear.
"I think so. I want to be bound to all of you, not just one. You're my sleuth… although we really need to find a prettier word for that."
He chuckles in amusement. "Got any good ideas?"
"Not yet. I'll let you know if I think of something. But are we bound now or not?"
His smile turns a little more serious. "I don't think so. I believe we need to exchange blood to make it a proper bond. But we can always do that the next time if you're sure."
I like how he's already thinking of the next time. My nipples harden at the thought, but the sensible part of my brain is telling me we should really join the others to find out more about that strange book.
"I'd like that. Next time."
I get up with a sigh, missing his touch already. I walk to the wardrobe and laugh as I remember that this was why I came to the bedroom in the first place. To put on clothes, not to stay naked with Húnn.
I quickly put on a simple shirt and linen trousers – as I no longer feel the cold as I used to, I can wear whatever I want now despite the icy temperatures – and follow a now dressed Húnn downstairs into the living room. Finn is sitting by the fire, reading.
"Where are the others?" I ask, taking a seat next to him.
"Ràn's still over at Bertie and Arnold's place and Torben is outside hacking firewood." He grins surreptitiously. "Did you two have a good time?"
I blush and smile at Húnn who clears his throat. Is he embarrassed as well? I still need to get used to the idea of being with all four of them and none of them being jealous of each other.
"We did. What are you reading?"
Now it's his turn to blush. He hands me the book and I have to laugh.
"Pride and Prejudice?"
"There's not much choice in this house, I think only women lived here. It's a paradise for any Mills and Boon fan. Nothing but romance."
He shudders in mock horror. "But shall we go over and take a look at a much more interesting book? Maybe Ràn has finished by now."
Bertie has made tea already when the three of us arrive at his home.
"I was just about to get you. He's finished."
Ràn is sitting in front of a stack of papers, looking exhausted and elated at the same time. I plop on the sofa next to him, totally excited. If they're all making such a fuss about this book, it has to be important. Maybe it will get us a step further in our quest. Not that we've managed to take a lot of steps so far. We found Inchbrach, but that's about it. If there was a big secret hidden here, Arnold and Bertie would have known. They've had years to explore the island in their search for resources to trade. Maybe it's fate that this little book made its way to us. Or one of the Fates.
We all sit down with our cups of tea and look at Ràn in expectation.
"I've corrected most of the grammar," he begins hesitantly, "but I haven't changed any of the content. First though, Isla, can you ask Alis if she knows what happened to her son?"
Alis, did you hear that?
Silence.
Alis?
He's dead.
I'm sorry. How did he die?
Hera. When she learned that her husband Zeus had fathered a son with me, she went to find him. She's a jealous woman, she couldn't bear the thought that Zeus hadn't been faithful to her. She killed a lot of women and their children over the years. But Zeus kept taking lovers, not caring for their fate. She killed Arcas only a few years after my own death. By then he had become King of Arcadia and had both a wife and children, the ancestors of all the bear shifters today.
He was running as a bear and she had a hunter kill him. She didn't even do the deed herself. Zeus was actually quite shocked by his son's death and decided to build him a permanent memorial. If you look up at the night sky, you'll see him there. Ursa Minor, the little bear. Thinking that I was dead as well, he added Ursa Major in my honour. That bastard.
I wait for her to continue her story, but when she doesn't, I relay it to the others.
"I'll never look at the stars in the same way ever again," Torben mutters and the others nod.
"He's not dead," Ràn suddenly says and we all stare at him in surprise. "At least, not completely."
"Is he like Alis? A spirit?"
I'm not a spirit, she protests but I ignore her.
"The book isn't exactly detailed on that, but I believe he could be similar." Ràn flips through some of the pages. "It's very flowery language, talking about a 'memory being called back to Earth'. To me it sounds as if someone – they don't mention his name – called on the 'Small Bear' when he was in trouble and the 'bear came from the heavens'."
What happened? Alis almost screams in my head.
Patience, he's going to tell us in a moment, I'm sure.
"Turns out, the man wasn't actually in trouble but just wanted the power of the bear. He became violent and tyrannical, wanting to dominate humans and make them his slaves. He had to play a slow game though as one bear shifter wasn't enough. He started impregnating as many human women as he could, trying to create enough shifters to set his plans into motion. Somehow, he was stopped – the book doesn't say how – and they use it as a warning to never think to use our superior strength to rule others. It's like the moral at the end of a fable."
"That all sounds like a load of humbug," Húnn mutters. "Zeus creating stars? Someone becoming a bear shifter by asking a long-dead bear to come to him? Sorry but I think that's just a fairy tale, nothing more."
"I would have thought so too until I saw the note in the back." Ràn shows us the last page in the book which is covered in tiny handwriting. It's written in biro, so it must be fairly recent. "It's got yesterday's date on it."
"What?" Arnold asks in astonishment. "How is that possible?"
Bertie motions for Ràn to hand him the book. "One of the people on the trading ship must have written it. But that would mean…"
"One of them is a shifter. Exactly. Or at least someone who knows a lot about us," Ràn confirms. "And they know that we are bears, too. Otherwise, they wouldn't have risked writing this."
"What does it say?" Torben asks Bertie who is now studying the page.
He clears his throat and begins to read. "He cut his thread. The Ladies couldn't touch him, so they had to stop him from passing on his seed. They couldn't differentiate between bears. No more offspring. Now they need someone to reattach the thread. Meet at the beach at sunset."
"Even more bollocks. This is getting too silly for me. Could we return to real life, please?" Húnn crosses his arms in front of his chest. I'd like to agree with him, but after talking to Alis and seeing her memories, I've come to believe that anything can be true. I mean, I can shift into a bear. I'm hardly the right person to judge whether something could be real or not.
"There's a lot of beaches on this island. Couldn't they have specified it a little more?" Torben complains.
"I assume it's where we met the traders this morning," Arnold replies. "Do you think we should go there? Sunset is in less than an hour."
Torben shrugs. "If nobody turns up, we won't be off any better or worse than we are now. And if they mean us harm – well, there's seven of us. I'd say the odds are in our favour."
Húnn shakes his head in frustration. "You're not seriously believing all of this? We should be focussing on the real world, not some mythical bear spirit and the Fates."
Alis growls and I'm on my feet before I even notice.
"Isla, your claws," Finn warns and I look down at my hands. Damn it, I thought I had my claws under control by now.
Alis is furious within my head and I'm having trouble reining her in.
Tell him to apologise, she seethes.
"She wants you to apologise," I explain. "She feels that you insulted her son."
Húnn holds up his hands in deference. "No insult intended. Until a moment ago, she believed him to be dead. And if the story is true, then she should probably be grateful for that. I don't think being called back from the dead to serve some evil guy is a nice thing."
Alis goes quiet. Then despair, bottomless despair seeps through our bond and I feel tears pooling in my eyes. I don't think I've ever felt such sadness. I sink to the ground, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. The border between Alis and me is getting blurred, her emotions become mine.
Her son. Our son. Suffering.
I want to comfort her, but her pain is my pain. I don't have any comfort to give. I'm so sad. Breathing is becoming harder. Living is hard. Existence is pain. I've lived for so long and it's been nothing but sadness.
"Isla, you need to shut her out."
A voice close to my ear. Torben. He puts a hand on my shoulder and through the haze and sobs, I can feel the bond between us. It's like a light in the darkness, beckoning to me. I use it as a rope to drag myself out of Alis's despair and back into my own mind. As soon as I feel the distance between Alis and me, I slam up my barriers, shutting her out as much as I can.
I get up on my knees sink into Torben's arms.
"She's so sad," I whisper. "But there's nothing I can say to make it better."
He gently rubs my back and I welcome the comfort he gives me. The others are quiet, giving us some space. Slowly, my feelings return back to normal. I'm still sad for Alis, but it's my own sadness, not hers.
When I leave Torben's embrace, I notice that Húnn is no longer in the room.
"Where did he go?"
"He was worried he might set Alis off further so he decided to leave. Want me to call him back in?"
I nod. All Húnn did was state how sceptical he is about it all. Which I would have done too had I not seen some of Alis's strange memories.
I sit back down on the sofa next to Ràn who hesitantly puts an arm around my shoulders. I lean against him, smelling his scent. Even before I turned to bear, I recognised each of their individual scents, but now it's even stronger. I can smell them from another room – not in a bad way. They don't stink. I smile. What would they say if they knew that I'm thinking about their scents?
Húnn returns, giving me a small smile.
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," I tell him and pat the sofa next to me, inviting him to take a seat there. I like sitting between the two brothers. It makes my ovaries happy.
"I'll try and keep an open mind," is all he says and I'm okay with that. He puts an arm around my waist and everything is okay again. Except for the low wails in my head. Alis is still crying. I shut it out, it's not helping.
"So everyone agrees that we should go to the beach and see what happens?" I ask and everybody nods. Even Húnn.
I hesitate before I voice my suspicion. "That girl who was there with the traders this morning. She was strange, she didn't seem to fit in with them. And her eyes… I don't know, I found her creepy."
"The redhead?" Finn asks and I nod. "I didn't notice anything special about her, except that her hair was amazing."
I growl.
"Not as amazing as yours, of course," he hastens to add.
"Besides her hair, did any of you get a strange feeling from her?" I ask but it seems I'm the only one with that premonition. "Well, I think it might be her meeting us."
"A girl? She didn't seem older than fifteen perhaps?" Bertie is sceptical.
"I know but her eyes… they were older. Much older. I don't know how to describe it… anyway, my bets are on her."
"We'll see in a moment. It's sunset in less than twenty minutes, we should leave," Arnold says with a glance at his watch.
As much as I hate leaving the warmth of the two bears sitting on either side of me, I'm also excited about what's going to happen. Time to go and find out.