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Frozen

Noreen and Gunnar are destined mates, prophesized to save their planet, a small mining ice ball far from Earth.  Five hundred years in the future, Noreen does her best to beat the prophecy, but once Gunnar has her in his arms, he’ll do anything to keep her there.  Their courtship is anything but frozen.  

~*~ Excerpt ~*~

“Nory?” Gunnar spoke softly.

“Hmmm?” she moaned, luxurious eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks.

“Nory, time to wake up, älskling.”

“Cory?” she murmured.

Cory?  Who was Cory?  Coreen?

“Nory, time to wake up.  Dinner is ready.”

“Doan wanna eat.  G’way, Cory,” she muttered and turned her head away.

He put a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.

“Dritt, Cory, g’way.  Just like you to wake me up when I haven’t slept in days, rot op, teef.”

Gunnar straightened and stared down at the woman now blinking her eyes in an attempt to wake up.  Did she just tell the Crown Princess to drop dead… and call her a bitch?

“Noreen?”  He tried again, this time using a deep authoritative voice.  “Time to wake up.”

“Blow it out your ear, Bjorn,” she giggled.  “Oops, I mean Fader, your majesty.”  She giggled some more and then her eyes popped open.

Gunnar felt his jaw drop as he watched her eyes widen in horror.  If he understood correctly, she’d just cussed out the two top members of the royal family… as if they were… her family.

“Who are you?” he asked more harshly than intended.

“What is it to you?”  She pushed her hood back irritably.  “What’s burning?”

“Dritt!” he cursed and stepped behind her seat.  “Lean forward!” he told her.  “You just pushed your hood into the stew.”

“Wha?”

It took him a minute to clean up the mess and stir the stew again.  Needing a moment, he turned the burner on low then sat down with his cup of wine.  He nodded to hers in the holder and watched as she lifted it and inhaled before tasting.

“Very nice,” she said quietly.

“Now, let’s try this again.  Exactly, for the record, who are you?”  He pinned her with his hardest stare and she didn’t look away.

“My name is Noreen Tibbetts.”

“I might believe Noreen, but I don’t buy Tibbetts.  Try again.  Where is your family from, and this time I want the name of a planet.”

“Noreen Elke Josephina Angelica Tibbetts…Audelhuk.”  Her eyes widened even further as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just said.

“Audelhuk?  As in the daughter of Bjorn Audelhuk, His Royal Majesty, the King of Nordia?”  Gunnar narrowed his eyes further as he gazed into hers, now wide open in her pale face as her chin trembled.

Slowly she nodded as if fighting to keep from doing it.  “What… are you doing to me?” 

She tore her gaze from him to glance at the wine for just a bare moment before looking back at him as if compelled.

Well, she was.  One of his more subtle features, eyes that encouraged people to not lie to him.  Useful when it came to protecting the monarchy.

“There’s nothing unusual in the wine,” he spoke soothingly to cover his shock.  “Are you the missing twin?”

Again she slowly nodded.  “How did you know?”

“I’ve heard rumors for years.  Especially the first summer I came to court.  Ten years ago.  I stumbled over many whispered conversations in the halls of the palace.”

“I left that summer… ten years ago…” she spoke slowly.

“Why?  Why is your name never spoken?  Why are you coming back now?  And in disguise?”  He fired the questions at her and bit back more when she shook her head slowly.

“Release me,” she ordered him, speaking slowly and deliberately. 

She was fighting his compulsion!  And winning!  He sat back feeling stunned.

With a decided snap, she closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. 

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” she growled.

“I’m responsible for security and intelligence about any possible threat to the royal family.  If you don’t give me some answers, I’ll use whatever means necessary to get them.”

Fascinated, Gunnar watched as without opening her eyes, she pursed her lips, set down the wine then pulled off her mittens and tucked them into her parka pockets.  No one had ever shaken off his compulsion before.  Yet, as he watched, she held her hands apart then brought the flattened palms together in a clap before her face.  The sound he heard wasn’t the slap of flesh he expected.  The sound rocked the small transport and sounded like… a steel hammer of immense size landing on an anvil of equally immense size.  Just like the sound he’d heard this morning, only louder.  Much louder.

He clapped his hands over his ears, his eyes squeezing closed as if they could shut out the ringing sound that shook his very bones.

A full minute later he lowered his hands from his ears and stared at the woman in front of him. 

“What the hell was that?” he demanded as his communications center lit up with lights and beeps.

Noreen’s face relaxed into a smile as she reached for her wine.  She smiled more as she sipped and looked mighty pleased with herself.

“You didn’t recognize it?” she asked sweetly.

“Thor’s Hammer, woman!” he snarled out the common curse and turned to the console. 

“Exactly,” she replied calmly.

His hand holding the communications handset froze half way to his mouth.  It couldn’t be… the loud squawk of his communicator made him shake his head.

“Duke Nordenskiold?”  He heard the voice of Wilton Leebrick, his convoy commander, come from the small speaker.  “You okay, Zaren?”

“Yeah, Wil, yeah, we’re fine.  Did we upset the connection?”  He ran a hand through his hair.  It was long and needed cutting.  Right after he figured out why this woman could call on Thor’s Hammer with her little hands.  Only Bjorn, the King, and Coreen… no, the Crown… Princess… the communicator squawked, jolting him again as Wil’s voice came over the speaker.

“No, the connections are fine.  That was some kinda rocking going on.  Sounded like you got hit with a bolt of lightning but no one saw any.”

“Must have been a stray bolt.  Freak storm.  Keep an eye on the weather monitors,” he snapped into the mic then disconnected and turned back to the woman with impossibly red hair and brown eyes.  “I’m going to ask again, just who in the hell are you?”

“I told you, I’m Noreen Tibbetts.”

“No,” he shook his head.  “How do you fit into the royal family?”

“Oh, that.  I’m the soon to be ex-Crown Princess.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

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