“Wonderful, my life is complete,” Inga moaned. “Yes, I did the thing we’ve always known not to do since we were little kids. In my defense, it wasn’t my knots. I tied it to a bush that pulled out by the roots.”
“Excuses, excuses,” Tor declared cheerfully, ruffling her hair, which she tried and failed to avoid. “Come on in and eat, if you can manage to find the house without losing that too.”
“I hate you so much.”
Bernie, still groaningly pregnant, greeted them at the door with the suggestion that they eat outside while the weather was nice enough. Inga followed Tor into the kitchen, and they divided an entire picnic’s worth of sandwich supplies between the two of them. The fridge was stuffed.
“I don’t know, I’m not sure if you have enough food,” Inga asked wryly, trying to pull out a package of cheese without causing an avalanche. “I think I see a tiny empty corner there with nothing in it.”
“Bernie and the cub aren’t going to run out of food on my watch.”
Out the kitchen window, Inga saw that Luke was helping Bernie move a white patio table and chairs out to the lawn.Rogue sniffed around, poking his nose into holes in the crumbled stone wall along the edge of the garden, probably smelling cat.
“So, this Luke guy,” Tor said in an incredibly unconvincing casual tone.
“Uh huh, be more subtle. Are we taking this pie?”
“The cherry one or the apple one? Just pick whichever looks better. Bernie likes both.”
“Seriously, Tor, are you feeding a pregnant woman or a college hockey team?”
“They eat about the same. The plates are over there. And you know I know it’s none of my business, Inga,” Tor added, as Inga carefully balanced a stack of plates with the pie on top. “You’re a grown woman, not a little girl. You can have boyfriends if you want.”
“Funny how people keep making it their business anyway.”
Tor shot his gaze sideways out the window and lowered his voice. “Is he your?—”
“I don’t know! I don’t know, okay? Dad asked me the same. Whatever it is that made you and Eren so positive about your mates, whatever mate-dar we’re supposed to have, doesn’t seem to be working for me. I’m not sure why.”
Hands too full to do anything else, Tor nudged her with his shoulder. “Humans figure it out somehow, right? It must work for them.”
They had a pleasant lunch of sandwiches and pie. Inga ate lightly after their midmorning pastry snack, but she enjoyed watching Luke warm up to Bernie and Tor. He seemed to get along well with all of her family.
“So how’d you two meet?” Bernie asked.
Inga started to tell the same story she’d told their dad and Nita, of meeting Luke while he was hiking. Then she hesitated and looked at him. Inga didn’t know if there was a shifter-related explanation for the almost telepathic sense that they were thinking the same thing, or if it was just the kind of thing that happened when two people knew each other well. But Luke gave her a little smile and said, “She helped me out when I really needed it. She found me on the shore, unconscious.”
Then he went ahead and told them a short version of what had happened to him, similar to the way he had related it to Mace. By now he seemed to be getting a little more comfortable talking about it. Tor and Bernie were riveted and sympathetic.
“Are these the same people that Eren had to deal with?” Bernie asked Tor quietly.
“It seems likely.” Tor scowled thunderously. “We all thought they weren’t a problem anymore. That’s the helicopter that’s been flying around, eh?”
“We think so,” Inga said. She pointed out to sea, where the ship was just visible, with the backdrop of dark clouds rolling up behind it. “We’re guessing that’s their base of operations. How long has it been there?”
“Just a couple of days,” Tor said. “What I heard around town is that it’s a marine research ship of some sort. I hadn’t thought too much about it. Figured they were studying whales out there or whatever.”
“Honestly,” Inga said, “one reason why we came over was because I was hoping either you or Eren and Lucy, if they’re expected back soon, would be able to run out there and look at it up close, just to figure out what we’re dealing with.”
“Oh hell yeah, we can do it right now,” Tor said. He pushed back his plate, empty but for a few crumbs. “In fact, if we’re going to do it, we’d better do it now, before that storm gets here.”
“Now wait,” Luke protested. “Inga said she was going to ask you, and I can’t stop either of you, but I need you both to understand that these people are ruthless. I don’t want anyonein danger because of me, and if you get on their radar, you may very well be a target.”
“From what you’ve said, they need to be stopped,” Bernie said. She reached across the table to squeeze Tor’s hand. “Go get ‘em, sweetheart.”
“Golook at them,” Inga emphasized. “I don’t want anyone in danger either.”
They borrowed rain slickers, Inga wearing one of Bernie’s, and Luke tucking himself into a floppy blue poncho belonging to Tor. The clouds were now obscuring the sun, and Inga hoped they weren’t making a mistake by heading out with the storm so close.
