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“I was born in the year 836 in what is now called Norway.”
Alex let her gaze wander over him from his big feet, to his big hands, to all the big parts in between. “You were a Viking?”
“To be correct, Viking was a verb. To go a Viking.”
“The act of conquering wherever, whatever, and whomever you wished.”
“Technically, yes.”
“How did you become furry?”
“Have you ever heard the Norse legend of the berserker?”
“No,” she lied. She wanted to hear his version.
Barlow lifted his brows, surprised. “Aren’t all Jäger-Suchers supposed to learn as much as they can about as many different types of shape-shifters as possible?”
“Where did you hear that?” He appeared to know more about the Jäger-Suchers than they knew about him.
“I have my sources.”
Edward had said every agent he’d sent after Barlow had never returned, so Alex could surmise just who those sources had been. She wondered how long they’d lasted under Barlow’s torture before they’d told him everything.
She didn’t plan to.
“A berserker,” Barlow continued, “is a Norse warrior who, in the heat of battle, becomes an animal.”
“Poof, he’s a zebra?”
Barlow’s lips twisted as if he wanted to laugh but would never allow it. At least not around her. “Legend said that there were Norse warriors who wore the skin of a wolf; then they became one.”
“How?” she asked.
“No idea.”
“Yet you’re one of those who became?”
“As far as I know, I’m the only one.”
“Say what?”
“I’m the only one who actually became a wolf. Others wore the skin, fought with trance-like fury, became known as berserkers—”
“Hold on,” she interrupted. “You’re telling me you were the legend?”
“Could be.”
“Did you ever hear the legend before you shape-shifted?”
“No. But it wasn’t as if we had cell phones back then. We barely had books.”
“Did you ever hear it on your travels? Before your story spread to the masses?”
He peered at the ceiling, considering, before he said, “No.”
“Fantastic,” she muttered. “You can’t just be a regular werewolf, you have to be a magical legend with anger management issues.”
“Go figure,” he said.
