“No, he’s still not awake,” Chloe said.
The doctor screwed his up his craggy face. “What do you mean? He’s wide awake.”
They whipped their heads around to see the maybe-Viking lying there with his eyes wide open and staring at them. Hard.
Doc Fischer went to his bed-side and Rafe joined him. However, Chloe chose that moment to get out of the doctor’s way, repositioning herself on the opposite side of the room from the reluctant patient. As much as she had enjoyed meeting the werewolves who came through the gate in the past, she figured it was largely because they were she-wolves from different cultures or points in history—but blood-thirsty werewolves with swords? Nah, she wasn’t so into that.
This guy had come very close to killing her best friend. And somehow his prone position and the fact that he was handcuffed to the bed by both hands didn’t make him seem any less deadly. For whatever reason, Chloe was having trouble staying calm now that he was awake. Something about him caused her insides to go all skittery. It was similar to how she felt when Rafe tried to talk to her about their heat night, but with a side dish of electric fear that made her nerves tingle.
And she only became more unsettled when his intense gaze followed her in her attempt to put space between them.
“We figure he’s a criminal and got cast out of his pack. Maybe he challenged the alpha and this was his punishment,” Rafe told Doc Fisher, after the old man finished examining the maybe-Viking’s eyes with a pen-light.
The doctor frowned. “Hmm, you say he came through the gate un-shifted? Usually a gate banishment is done on a diseased wolf or in desperation and toward the apex of a fight. He doesn’t have any wounds, except some bruising where his head hit that rock.”
Rafe shrugged. “Maybe he had a trial and was found guilty. There were a few packs that used the trial system, right?”
“Actually, I just consulted on this case with a friend of mine at UC Denver who specializes in history and literature from the Viking period. He said Norway and Iceland were known for their strict legal system during the Viking Age, which is why he doesn’t think this is a gate banishment. According to him, they had a fairly thorough punishment system in place, no need to go wild with the gates.”
“Then maybe he’s not a Viking. He could be from some other place and time and we just didn’t recognize whatever language he’s speaking.”
The doctor shook his head. “I don’t think so. I sent a picture of that sword of his to my professor friend and he recognized it, because of the wolf on the hilt. He even sent me a picture. It’s on display at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. They don’t have a firm history on it. But it definitely dates back to the Viking Age.”
Doc Fischer re-pocketed his pen-light. “I think we might need to apply Occam’s razor here.”
A bad feeling began to brew in Chloe’s stomach.
“What do you mean?” Rafe asked.
“You know, ‘the simplest explanation is probably the most likely one?’” The doctor clasped his hands in front of him like a lawyer about to put forth his case. “He came through the gate un-shifted with no visible wounds. You said he tried to kill you but stopped because Chloe told him not to.”
“Not because I told him not to,” Chloe said. “It was more like I took him by surprise.”
Doc Fischer gave her skeptical look. “Plus, he hasn’t taken his eyes off of you, despite the fact that he’s handcuffed down to a bed in a time period clearly not his own. I’m thinking the logical conclusion here is this Viking has come forward in time for his fated mate.”
Both Chloe and Rafe gaped at him.
“And it’s Chloe,” the doctor added, just in case they weren’t getting his original meaning.
“No,” Chloe and Rafe said at the same time.
Doc Fischer turned his no-nonsense gaze on Chloe. “Chloe is there something you want to tell us?”
“No,” answered Chloe, her eyes going wide with indignation.
The doctor picked up the maybe-Viking’s chart and started making notes. “So you don’t feel anything at all right now for this wolf? No increased heart rate, heightened arousal, anything like that?”
“No! I don’t feel anything for him.” Chloe looked to the red-haired man who was still quite openly staring at her but then she quickly had to cut her eyes away, because she wasn’t lying, but she wasn’t exactly telling the truth either. While she was definitely not aroused when she looked at him, the weird skittery feeling did get worse.
“Look, we’re all thinking he’s probably a Viking, right?” she said. “The last time I checked, there weren’t a ton of black people in Norway back then. For all we know, this guy has never seen a black girl, and that’s why he’s staring at me.”
She turned to Rafe, hoping he’d back her up as he did in most things.
But Rafe didn’t agree. In fact his eyes burned with suspicion as he came to stand in front of her. He slowly and deliberately sniffed the air around her, and only then did he visibly calm down. “I don’t smell any arousal on her,” he said, his voice angry with the declaration. He swung his gaze back to the doctor. “I don’t like what you’re insinuating, Doc.”
The doctor held his hands up. “Don’t kill the messenger. I’m only checking off all the possibilities.”
Rafe glared at him. “I won’t let you insult her like that. She’s my mate.”
“Not yet, she isn’t. Not officially.” The doctor shook his head. “And it’s not an insult. I’m older than both of you, and I know you two love each other, but . . .” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “These things happen. More often then you think. Especially among wolves. There’s a reason all of our legends involve either great alpha fights or tragic love stories. North American wolves have only strayed away from the tradition of fated mates spells in the last two hundred years, which is relatively recent if you think about it in terms of world history. You need to realize it can still be quite powerful when one is cast.”
“Well, that’s not what’s happening here,” Rafe informed him. “He’s a criminal, and even if he’s not shifted, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t banished for something.”
Chloe was having a hard time figuring out how she should be reacting to this conversation. Though she was happy Rafe decided to come to her defense—eventually—the longer he discussed this topic with Doc Fischer, the more nervous and on edge she felt. Plus, she could still feel the maybe-Viking’s eyes burning hot on her, which made her feel even more awkward.