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Elsa sat up and leaned against the headboard. A week had passed since she'd last had the nightmare. Seeing Howard turn into a beast must have kicked her subconscious back into action.
"Were you dreaming about berserkers?" Ula asked as she opened a bottle of water.
"Yes." One berserker in particular, although Elsa didn't want to admit that. Why had the dream come back? Was she simply freaked out over Howard's ability to shift into a grizzly? Who wouldn't freak out over that? Or was her subconscious trying to force her to accept a truth she'd been avoiding? That Howard could be dangerous.
He could betray her and kill her. Just like the berserker who killed the original Guardian of the Forest.
She shuddered. How could she be so attracted to Howard, when he was a beast? How could she fall for a real-life berserker who might kill her?
Even her subconscious had succumbed to the attraction. At the beginning of the dream, when the man was making love to her, she writhed beneath his powerful body, hungry for his touch. And in her mind, she knew who he was. Howard. Huge, handsome Howard. When his hands cupped her br**sts, she arched up to him, begging him to suckle her. When his hands stroked her legs, she opened her thighs for him. She was dying for him. Hot Howard.
She'd actually enjoyed the dream until he'd started choking her. Horror-show Howard.
"Here." Ula offered her a glass of water.
"Thanks." She took a sip.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Ula asked.
"Not really." She set the glass on the bedside table. "Can you tell me about my grandmother?"
"Of course." Ula perched on the side of her bed. Her face softened with a smile as she remembered. "Birgit was a beautiful woman, much like you. She grew up knowing about the curse, but she never feared it. She loved being the Guardian of the Forest. I tried to keep her with me on the island, where she would be safe, but she never stayed for long. She had a cabin deep in the woods, and she would go there often to be with the animals. They were her dearest friends."
Elsa recalled how she had apparently communicated with the deer earlier that day. "My grandmother could talk to the animals?"
"Yes. As her powers grew, she was able to do even more. One time, I saw her heal a deer with a broken leg simply by touching it."
Elsa's breath caught. Would she actually develop powers like that? "That's amazing."
"Birgit was amazing. The animals would gather around her, wildcats sitting alongside rabbits without harming them. They were at peace with her. They were devoted to her." Ula sighed. "Some of them died trying to save her."
A chill skittered down Elsa's back. "How . . . how did she die?"
"We're not sure. No one was there to witness it, but she was mauled to death by a wild animal. There was a herd of deer scattered around her, also mauled to death. They'd tried to protect her."
Goose bumps prickled Elsa's arms. Mauled to death by a wild animal? It would have to be a big and ferocious animal to take out a herd of deer. Ferocious enough to kill a herd of feral pigs?
She swallowed hard. "You think the animal was a berserker?"
"Yes." Ula nodded. "Birgit had met someone a few weeks earlier who made her birthmark burn. According to family legend, only a berserker can make it burn. And the murder happens soon after that."
"But you don't have actual proof that it's a berserker who commits the murders?"
"Who else could it be?" Ula asked. "The guardian and berserker are forever linked together in a cruel dance that has repeated itself over and over through the centuries. The guardian made the berserkers, dooming those men to roam the earth as beasts. And they, in turn, are doomed to seek out their creator and destroy her."
Elsa grimaced. So she was doomed to die?
She rubbed her brow. Surely they weren't robots preprogrammed for disaster. They had free will. Couldn't they choose a different destiny? What if they loved each other? Wouldn't that break the curse? Howard had suggested that on the voice mail he'd left her.
But Howard was a berserker, a bear. If the bear's instinct was to kill her, could he stop it?
If she continued to see Howard, wasn't that akin to playing Russian roulette? What if he couldn't always control the bear?
A momentary lapse could mean her death.
Howard knew something was wrong when Elsa didn't answer his text message the next morning. He'd asked her to meet him during her break, but she never responded.
He'd half expected this. She had a lot to adjust to, and she'd said she needed time. But time might allow her fear to grow to the point that she rejected him.
He sat at his desk in the security office at Dragon Nest, contemplating his next move. What he needed was a new strategy that would convince her he could be trusted. The bear inside him wanted to haul her off to his nearby cabin and ravish her until she surrendered herself completely.
Howard snorted. The bear tended to think only in physical terms, and while it was true that he was dying to make love to Elsa, her surrender was the last thing he wanted. He wanted her to choose him. He wanted her to love him and come to him of her own free will.
For it wasn't just her body and beautiful face that attracted him. It was her bold spirit, her bright intelligence, her wry sense of humor, her creativity, bravery, generosity, vulnerability - everything that made Elsa who she was. The more he got to know her, the more he craved her.
He wanted to hold her, kiss her, make her moan with pleasure, and watch her shudder with release. He wanted to make her laugh. Wanted to wake her every morning with a kiss. Wanted to cheer her on when she crafted beautiful cabinets and woodwork. He wanted her to succeed. Be happy.
He thought back to the wish he'd made in the park. To love without regret. He wanted his love to bring Elsa joy.
Face it. You're in love with her.
The thought didn't alarm him. Deep in his soul, he'd known he was falling in love with her, and he'd never been tempted to stop it. It felt right. They felt right.
The only problem was the fear generated by his being a berserker. Any woman in her right mind would be afraid to date a man who could turn into a beast. And Elsa had it even worse, for she was descended from a long line of women who were apparently killed by berserkers.
Somehow he had to convince her she was safe with him. That she could trust him. He recalled what she said that night in the park. She'd wished that he could be trusted.
That meant that deep inside, she wanted to trust him, wanted to fall for him. He just needed to tap into that and give her what she truly desired. He wasn't going to give up. He wouldn't even wait.
He would press forward.
Later that afternoon, Elsa was alone, working in the kitchen. The other guys were in the front parlor and dining room, where they were lowering the ceiling by two feet to make room for plumbing and wiring. Madge and her crew had returned from New York City to record their efforts.
Elsa was avoiding the guys today. Yesterday, they had found the flowers and Howard's card on the counter, and now they were having fun teasing her.
She busied herself in the kitchen, removing the cabinet doors. Her plan was to sand and refinish the existing cabinets before building new ones that matched. But first the cabinets needed to be thoroughly cleaned, inside and out.
She was grateful for the hard work. It kept her mind occupied, kept her from thinking about the nightmare with Howard. Or the sexy lovemaking at the beginning of the dream.
She snorted. How foolish could she be? She wanted to think about him fondling her br**sts, when his hands eventually grabbed hold of her neck?
Tired of being on her knees with her head inside a cabinet, she straightened and stretched. This was hot, miserable work for July. She pulled off her work gloves, then used some bottled water to wash her hands in the sink and splash some water on her face.
Her cell phone made a dinging noise, signaling a text message.
It was Howard. She groaned. How was she going to tell him she never wanted to see him again? Just the thought brought a pang to her chest. It was going to hurt him. It was already hurting her. And it was too cruel to reject him in a text message. But if she saw him, she didn't know if she could resist him. Huge, handsome Howard.
She read the message.
Look out the window.
She peered out the kitchen window, and her heart swelled. There he was, standing near the woods. How long had he waited there to catch a glimpse of her through the window?
He concentrated on the phone in his hands, and soon her phone dinged again.
