Page 22 of The Fanged One

Fenris inclined his head to Layla the way he had to Freya in Havi's lounge. "My lady, your tattoos are as beautiful as you are."

Layla made a noise like she had been hit gently in the diaphragm with a cushion. "Oh, no. He's polite and princely. Tor, fix it. It's unnatural in wolves."

"How am I supposed to fix it?" Tor asked.

"I don't know, but he is going to ruin our standards."

Linnea looked at Von, who had sat on his throne through all of this with his eyes shining like he was watching a Yuletide pageant put on by gods.

"Now that we are all acquainted, we can all be on our good behavior and talk like adults," Von said with a smirk. "The alcohol situation, however, is dire. Boys, let's leave the ladies to catch up while we get them some drinks. Most importantly, get me some drinks because I'm going to need something strong to get over Loki's son being in my club." Von clapped his hands once, gold and black rings flashing. "Come here, Fenris. I need assistance getting up again."

Linnea made a choked sound, but Fenris didn't seem to care as he offered Von a hand out of his throne.

"Be still, my beating heart," Von said, shooting Linnea a wink as he passed.

Fenris looked at Linnea one heartbeat longer than he needed to, and his fingertips brushed the back of her wrist as he passed.

Marking us so everyone knows he wants to…

Linnea shoved her wolf down and found Ciara and Layla both watching her with identical expressions. She sat down on the couch beside them, careful of her skirt not riding up too high.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Ciara said.

"Absolutely nothing," Layla agreed.

"You two are the worst."

Layla pulled Linnea into a hug, and Ciara joined a heartbeat later. The three of them pressed into a knot.

"You had us worried, little sister," Ciara said.

"And you're lucky Imogen and Arawan decided not to come, or you would have been in real trouble. They were looking for you too," Layla murmured into her temple.

Linnea face-palmed without releasing the hug. "I left a note."

"A dramatic one," Ciara said.

"It was everything I dared to put down on paper."

"It said I have gone to hunt the wolf. It has started."

"You all know where he was, so technically you knew where I went," Linnea argued.

"Yeah, you went to hunt for a fucking wolf god without knowing how unstable he was. What's there to worry about? Asshole," Layla replied, tickling her side as they let go of each other. "You should have waited for us."

"I knew you were going to Italy to see Cosimo's new mate," Linnea said and smiled. "How did that all go?"

"Vidar, Uncle Taranis's knight, is actually the Vidar as in Havi's son, and Elise went into labor after we told them all you were missing," Ciara replied.

"What?" Linnea didn't know what to be more shocked about. "Start with Elise!"

"The baby popped out this morning. We have been trying to call you, remember?"

Linnea pressed her hand to her mouth. "Oh, my gods. Is she okay? What about the baby?"

"Both are fine," Layla reassured her. "The castle had some incredible tremors during the birth because Kian was so nervous. Look."