His thoughtful actions stunned Raven and he surprised her even more when he sat close enough for their sides to touch and for his leg to lean against hers under the table, sharing his heat with her as he did each night in bed.
“It is good you care for your wife. Marriage is much better when you care for each other,” Lars said.
Raven was surprised when her husband smiled.
“My wife does have very strong feelings for me,” Wolf said and turned a wide grin on her.
She grinned back at him. “I certainly do have strong feelings for my husband.”
“Wonderful. Your father thought for sure one of you would kill the other before you were wed for a full moon cycle.” Lars shook his head. “Not so your mother. She insisted you would make a good husband and you would treat your wife well.” He laughed. “She’s proved your father wrong again.”
Raven hugged the tankard of hot cider Ida had brought, warming her hands, and wondering how his mother could think that when she knew Raven had reason to hate her son. Or did his mother know something she didn’t?
“What message do you bring from my father, Lars?” Wolf asked to turn the subject away from how he and Raven felt toward each other. It was a thorn in both their sides, one he feared might prove impossible to remove.
Lars rested his beefy arms on the edge of the table. “Brynjar is seeking a union with Eria.”
Raven felt her husband’s anger surge, his arm muscles growing taut against her.
“Her family can’t be serious to agree to such a dreadful union,” Wolf said, trying to keep hold on his anger. “Eria wouldn’t last but a day with the brutal man.” He shook his head. “Brynjar doesn’t care about a union with her tribe. He does this to see what I’ll do.”
“Eria’s family asked that she be sent here to you, fearing he’ll abduct her, leaving them no choice but to yield,” Lars said.
“That’s exactly what Brynjar wants,” Raven said. “The perfect excuse to return here and finish what he started.” She looked at her husband. “He wants his revenge on you. Maybe his men are already here and it’s one of them who pierced my arm with an arrow. It did have a Northmen symbol carved in it.”
Lars eyes spread wide at the news. “Someone attempted to kill you?”
“She was too fast for him, the arrow caught the flesh of her arm,” Wolf said. “I sent trackers but whatever men the culprit met up with had dispersed in different directions, leaving it difficult to follow from there. The men continue to search to see if anything can be found.”
“Well it certainly was no Northman from our tribe,” Lars said and gave a nod to Raven. “You’re safe with us.”
She liked to believe she’d eventually be able to stop looking over her shoulder, but she wasn’t sure about that.
“Since Brynjar expects you to bring Eria here, she’ll stay where she is,” Lars said.
“No!” Wolf and Raven said in unison.
Lars smiled. “You think alike. That is good, means less arguing between you both.”
Wolf doubted that and from the way his wife rolled her eyes, he knew she thought the same.
“It would be easier to battle Brynjar on land unfamiliar to him,” Raven said.
Lars asked what Wolf had been thinking. “You are familiar with Brynjar?” Lars’ fingers disappeared into his thick beard, giving his chin a good scratch as his eyes settled on her in question.
“All foreigners on my home soil are suspect to me,” she said, glaring at Lars.
Lars smiled and looked to Wolf. “I like your wife.”
Wolf ignored Lars’s remark and turned a scowl of his own on his wife. “Brynjar is not only a dangerous man but an evil one. If he should show himself here again you will keep your distance.”
“What do you mean if?” Raven challenged. “You know he will come after Eria, though that will be just an excuse and do you not also use it as an excuse for him to come here, so you may finish what was started between you both?”
Lars saluted her with his tankard. “A quick mind as well, and she’s right. It must be finished between you and Brynjar. His evil ways disturb the peace in our homeland. He needs to die.”
“So where did you leave Eria?” Raven asked and shook her finger at him. “And don’t look at me like you don’t know what I mean. All knew Wolf wouldn’t hesitate to protect the woman he was to wed. And his father would send the man he would trust the most to bring her safely here. So where is she?”
Lars shook his head. “Your wife’s mind works far too quickly. There’ll be no secrets between you two.”
“There better not be,” Raven said.
“That works both ways,” Wolf warned, leaning his head down so their faces almost touched. “That means later you will tell me the actual reason you were in the woods.” He lifted his head and gave a quick nod to Lars. “Where is she?”