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“Stop!”

Snapping awake, I realized I had dozed off and that the voice I’d heard was Astrid’s despite the distance between us. If that weren’t startling enough, Knud bursting into my cottage moments later, completely naked with his axe and shield at the ready, certainly was.

His pale gray eyes locked on me in relief before his wild gaze swept around my cottage, looking for trouble. “Where is it?” He took up a stance in front of me, ready to battle. “Where did it go?”

Doing my best not to gawk at his magnificent muscular form and an impressive cock even when flaccid, I tried to take stock of my surroundings. Preferring to sleep in the nude when I wasn’t too exhausted to remove my clothing, I pulled my fur blanket over my breasts, but suspected Knud had gotten an eyeful regardless. Or mayhap not, given his distress.

“Where did what go?” I grabbed the dagger from beneath my pillow and scanned my surroundings again, seeing nothing but a fire down to embers and my quiet lodgings. “There’s nothing here.”

Breathing heavily as if he’d raced over, Knud white-knuckled his blade and shield. “Yet there was,” he ground out vehemently, eyeing the dark shadows of my cottage. “I woke to find it peering in my door, then I pursued it here where it crashed through your door and…and…”

“And what?” I whispered. Ignoring my nudity in the face of danger, I scrambled out of bed, grabbed my shield off the wall, took up arms beside him, and continued eyeing the room. “What are we looking for, Knud?”

“’Twas a polar bear,” he swore through clenched teeth, his tone deadly serious. “A big one, too.”

“Nay,” I admonished, shaking my head. “There are none on this isle and—”

“I know what I saw,” he ground out, seeming convinced. His gaze darted around my lodge. “I saw its breath hit the cold air. Its impressive teeth when it growled at me. Heard its mighty roar when I pursued and it crashed inside your cottage.”

“Yet my door isn’t splintered and broken as it surely should be if a sizeable bear entered that way,” I pointed out, a chill racing up my spine regardless. While it was one thing to face off with the spirit of a polar bear watching over you, it was another thing entirely to come face to face with the living, breathing beast. “Are you sure that you—”

“What is it?” Helga exclaimed, appearing at my door with her weapon drawn. Her gaze shot around my dwelling before she locked on us with a frown. “What the hell is going on?”

“’Twas a…’tis a…” Knud stuttered, for the first time since I’d known him sounding unsure. “A polar. I saw it…him.”

“And you decided to fight like that, did you?” Her gaze swept over the cottage again, and she entered, shutting the door behind her when voices of curiosity resounded outside. “There is nothing in here, friend.” She shook her head. “Nor is there anything outside, given polar bears don’t dwell on this Isle.” Sounding sure of it, she sheathed her blade and eyed us with amusement. “As odd as this outcome, might it be you two had one too many ales, and finally—”

“Nay,” Knud cut her off, shaking his head. “I saw what I saw, and we did no such thing.”

“We did not,” I agreed, struggling to gather my wits. I handed Knud a fur blanket from my bed and struggled to keep my eyes off him. While I had seen his impressive, broad-shouldered, tattooed torso before while battling, I had never seen his lower half and wondered if any other man would ever measure up.

Others often referred to him as a beast in battle, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was the same in bed, given all the gods had favored him with. While a man was best judged beneath the furs on how he moved rather than on the size of his arousal, based on how well Knud moved when fighting, I suspected he excelled in that area too. Which made me wonder, given how women tended to gossip, why I’d heard nothing of it.

Confident that no bear stalked my cottage, I set aside my weapons, wrapped a blanket around me, and tossed another log on the embers. “Helga, if you could retrieve Knud some clothes, ’twould be most appreciated.”

“Why, when ’twould be great fun to watch him walk back, amid all the curiosity he’s stirred up?” Helga teased. She chuckled and smirked at Knud, who had wrapped the fur around his waist. “’Tis not as if people haven’t long expected to see you leaving Tove’s cottage in the early hours, nude or otherwise.”

Had they really?

“Just do as I asked, Helga.” I went to my trunk to dress, shooting Knud a look when his gaze lingered on me, to let him know that his attention best be elsewhere, while rather hoping it wasn’t. Yet again, the last thing I should be thinking.

When he looked away, I pulled on clothing, not bothering to see if he peeked, knowing I would have if our situations were reversed. Point in fact, it was hard enough keeping my eyes off his body when I joined him at the fire afterward.

“What was that truly, Tove?” The corners of his mouth slanted down when he looked at me. “Because as real as it seemed, ’twas not, was it?” He narrowed his eyes. “And now that my fear for you has passed, I realize that bear bore a striking resemblance to the one I found in the woodland with you when we were children.” He shook his head. “But that would be impossible…ja?”

“’Twould be for most but not for us Helvigs,” I said, sensing it was finally time for him to know what had happened the night he’d saved me years ago. To this day, I remained uncertain what it meant for the two of us, only that it meant something. Based on my talisman warming in a whole new way right now, it had tethered us in a fashion we would, sadly enough, have no choice but to ignore in the end.

“Nor would seeing what I believe was the spirit of the polar bear be impossible for those such as you,” I continued, giving him a pointed look. He had defended both my father and me against a living, breathing polar bear, so he had some kind of tie to the beast. “Someone who has become part of our tribe in more ways than you might imagine.”

When he cocked his head in curiosity, I went on.

“As you know, I’ve long spoken to the bear in my dreams, never recalling our conversations in their entirety, only that they lend me strength,” I said. “And as you also know, that night when but a child I must have walked in my sleep, and the spirit became real…or at least led me to a place and bear that was supposed to become part of our destinies.”

“Go on,” he said roughly when I hesitated, a strange look in his eyes now, as if my words made sense to him. Perhaps, even, that he had heard them before.

“What you don’t recall of that night was how you truly got this.” I couldn’t help but run my finger along the lightning bolt scar at his temple, struggling to breathe at just how much that meager contact affected me. “You have long believed ’twas from a swipe of one of its claws.” I shook my head slowly. “But ’twas not the case.”

Swallowing hard at the fear I had felt for his life back then, I tried to go on, but the words were lost to me, just like I thought he was going to be that night.