Her Alpha Warlord

Episode 6

Dust rose in hails accompanying the sound of thundering hoofs as the five Vikings rode down to their clan and straight to the palace.

Sensing a familiar unease in himself, Cahir slowly brought his stallion to a halt. His men, seeing his actions, followed suit like the well trained soldiers that they were and awaiting their Warlord's instruction.

"Milo, Skarde, Arne, you may return to your homes for the night, I'm sure your wives have got some really hot meal waiting for you. And who knows, maybe you might get fortunate tonight too." Cahir joked in the way that only his most trusted men ever got to see. "Tomorrow seems to be a big day."

The four men, including Vlod, all laughed heartily partly from amusement and partly from the joys of being able to touch their wives after been on errands for days.

"Tomorrow is a big day indeed." Arne exclaimed "And seems like you too would soon have a constant body to warm your bed and a lassie to nag your ears off for as long as she can tolerate you, Alpha."

The men all laughed again except Vlod who noticed the uneasiness that crossed Cahir's expression before he masked it with a laugh.

"I say you sow your seeds now while you can before having a fair-skinned wife who is forever breathing down your neck."

"Exactly, I heard the English believe in forever, till death do them part." Skarde joined in the joke and they all laughed again. "Seems like the Alpha is never getting out of this one."

Cahir forced a smile, even as the uneasiness in him increased. His eyes subconsciously sought the horizon where the sun was sinking behind the mountains. It would soon be totally dark and given the circumstance, it was about time.

Vlod, noticing Cahir's distracted expressions and his growing discomfort subtly displayed in his riding stance, he dismissed the men for the night.

"Are you okay?" Vlod asked Cahir as the soldiers left still joking amongst themselves.

Cahir shook his head lightly, "Do you feel up to a run, tonight?"

"Sure, let's do it." Vlod replied.

It took them a few minutes to continue the rest of the way down to the palace, ditch their horses and furred Jerkins in the capable care of the stablehands and race for the woods in the dark of the night.

Cahir felt his senses sharpen as Ulf, his wolf took over his body. His eyes could see clearly in the dark as though it was day. Of course it was dark all around but, everything was so prominent and clear and every movement was defined that it might as well have been day.

His nose picked up every scent of animals, plants and even nature, with ease. His ears were attuned to every sound the forest made and he could feel the cool night air against the bare skin of his upper body.

Cahir did not change totally like Vlod did, but only certain parts of himself, a special ability that was limited to only Jarls (Viking nobility). Tonight he only morphed his feet for more speed and his eyes which were now glowing red

"Last to the fall is a dragi (slowpoke)." Cahir heard in his head. He turned around in his friend's direction to see the light brown wolf raise it's ears and tail in a challenge before dashing off deeper into the woods.

Smirking at the head start his General and best friend had claimed. "Let's go easy on our dear friends shall we." Ulf said to his host.

Cahir willed his claws out and leapt on the nearest tree.

The two friends raced for the waterfall in the depths of the forest at breakneck speed, one with paws eating dust while the other leapt from tree to rock.

They both got to their destination at the same time panting and thirsty. The quickly got a drink of water from the river.

Feeling pumped and energised from the run, Ulf took it further by catching fishes that he ate on the spot and some he shared with the wolf.

Cahir missed times like these when he could just take up **only** the simple mind of a wolf and dwell in it for some time. He didn't have to deal with human problems as a wolf.

It made him forget that he was to married the next day to a complete stranger. An English lass!

This was Cahir's comfort zone that he rarely indulged in and Vlod was the only one he was comfortable to be this vulnerable with....

Because as unbelievable as it may sound, the heart of the Alpha wolf, Ulf, was lighter than that of the Viking Warlord, Cahir Willulf.

*****

"Bjørn, did you win in spear throw practice today?" Cahir asked his six year old son as a way of filling the odd silence that fell on the family dinner since he announced his impending marriage.

You could say that the relationship between father and son was not all that wholesome, what with the father being a dictator and the son being raised practically single-handedly by his aunt.

Despite being just six years of age, he was already way over four foot tall just like his father had been at his age, however he had the messy brown curls of his mother as well as her brown eyes.

The six year old paused in between bites, surprised to hear his father address him. He glanced nervously at his aunty, Revna, who nodded once at him to encourage him to reply his father's question.

Bjørn looked up at his father, he dropped the wheat bread in his hand before shaking his head lightly. "I'm s-sorry, Baba."

Cahir scowled to hear the low tone and stutter the boy used to express his mistakes.

It dampened his mood to see the exchange between his older sister and his son before the boy could muster the courage to talk to him.

Bjørn waited for the disappointment he was would follow. He could already see the frown on his father's face.

"Who won then?" Cahir said trying to filter his emotions from his voice, as a result, the question ended up more like a command.

"Åge." Bjørn muttered completely incoherently.

"Louder!" Cahir commanded, his raised voice making the little boy flinch.

"Åge, Baba!" This time the boy shouted trying to control his own emotions for completely different reasons.

"Åge? Isn't that General Arne's son? He won the arm wrestle last week too." Cahir added as an afterthought. Seemed like the young teenager was talented. Maybe he should ask one of the other generals to start training him.

With that thought in mind, Cahir continued eating, not saying anything more on his son's loss to show that he wasn't really bothered by the news.

Bjørn saw the action with a different meaning, one that was slowly ingrained into his brain.

'Once again, he had disappointed his father.'

Since Bjørn and Cahir usually saw very little of each other each day, what with Cahir's irrational fear of handling babies scared of somehow breaking them and the fear of being a bad father like his own father which inadvertently made him afraid of even trying, this has lead to mountains of lack of communication, fear from both sides and loads and loads of awkwardness.

Bjørn on his hand believed that his father would only be proud of him if he was a good fighter since that was the only he saw his father do all day, and had hoped to one day be strong enough so his father would be proud of him.

So instead of drawing in sands and going swimming like children his age, Bjørn asked through his aunt that his father enrolled him for training instead.

The other kids were way older than he was but Bjørn had been told by their teacher, Old Bo that his father had gotten an early start just like he was doing.

Bjørn had been happy to hear that and had gone all in with positive spirits. It had taken only two weeks for that positivity to be beaten and mocked out of him by the other kids ....especially Åge.

Åge was a twelve year old who was taller and bigger than Bjørn. He was overall better too, as far as Bjørn was concerned.

The older boy who was an all-rounder usually left the little boy alone, thinking that he wasn't really worth his efforts to tease, and he was right, just the fact that he was the name Bjørn had to mention to his father each night at their only time together, dinner time, was enough to make him the most horrible person in the world to the little six year old.

Tears well up in Bjørn's eyes at those thoughts but he stopped them from overflowing remembering how all the older boys his father made him practice with would tease him and call him 'meyla' which meant a little girl whenever he cried.

He was already a disappointment to his father and crying would only make things worse, he believed, so he should never cry in front of his father.

Ever!

Cahir's brows knitted at the sound of full on sobbing coming from his son. He was at loss as to what could have caused it.

"They are all older than you." Revna mentioned in a way to make the little boy feel better. "It is okay to fai..."

Seriously? That was what was making the boy cry?

"Revna!" Cahir cut in the older woman's speech. " I would not have you encourage failure in front of my son."

Turning his attention back to Bjørn, Cahir continued "Excuses are only given by men who cannot take responsibility for their own actions. You are an alpha, Åge is but a beta. You are to be the king after me and someone who beats you in combats isn't going to bow to you merely because you have royal blood running through your veins. Respect and loyalty is not given, it's earned. Do you understand?"

"Yes, baba." Bjørn answered as clearly and loudly as he could manage while wiping his face of the tears under his father's scrutiny.

"Good! I'll be at the tavern tonight." Cahir announced as he finished his food before storming out of the house.

Bjørn quickly excused him from his aunt and went up to his room to cry himself to sleep.

A/N: What do you think of Cahir and Bjørn?