Chapter Three - Surprises and Truths

Kari's POV

“Pappa?” Were the first words that came out of my mouth when I walked into the house and saw the man stood in front of me. I shook my head, because that was impossible. He didn’t look a day older than the day he left. “I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from. The man chuckled and held his hand out to me, I took it and shook it.

“Doctor Larson, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” He said, his voice smooth, he even sounded like what I remembered of my father. “Did I remind you of someone?”

“Please call me Kari, and yes, sorry but that would be impossible.” I responded with a wary smile.

“Kari, my name is Henrik Pederson. I am the CEO of Nordic Research.” He said. He waved his arm at the pregnant woman stood next to him, “And this is my wife Ingrid.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you both, thank you for the chance to work with you, I looked into your company on my way here, you have a good research background.” I responded.

“Why don’t you come in, I will make some tea and we can get to know one another.” The woman called Ingrid said. She was a beautiful short woman, with light brown hair which fell loosely over her shoulders. Her Green eyes sparkled like Sapphires.

“Oh no, let me.” I said putting my hand bag down. “You look like you should be resting!”

“Oh nonsense!” She said with a smile. “This is my second pregnancy, and I hate resting.”

“How about I do it.” Ralf said with a smile. I was led into the lounge of the house and we sat down whilst Ralf walked into the kitchen.

“How was your journey?” Ingrid asked me as she placed a hand on her husbands lap.

“First time I have ever flown, so it was definitely an experience.” I replied with a smile. I turned to Henrik, still can’t get over the fact he looked like my father. “Ralf briefly explained what he expected of me, and I hope to get started tomorrow. I appreciate the experience, but this is my first time away and I’m a little edgy to be away. Mostly because I have left two Grad students in charge of two very important projects I am working on. So I would like to get the work done as soon as I can so I can get back. I also don’t want to be a burden on you longer than necessary. You have provided more than is needed for my stay, and I don’t doubt that it is going to cost your company more than I am worth.

Henrik stiffened, I don’t know what part of my speech to, but something I said he obviously didn’t agree with.

“Don’t worry about the cost, I promise we have wanted to headhunt you for a while, I was hoping to offer you a position with our company, but I wanted you to settle in before I asked that.”

“As much as that would be good, as there is a possibility I might have family out here, but I like my job back in England, and I work well with the boss I have.” I explained as Ralf walked back in with the tea and biscuits. I gasped. “Oh my God, Butter biscuits, I love these, my father used to make these when I was little. They were my favourites.”

“Help yourself. My father makes them.” Henrik said with a smile. I took one and they were as good as I remembered them being. We talked a little longer, they seemed like a very nice couple, not the sort of person I expected to be the CEO of a company such as Nordic Research. After they left I changed into a pair of leggings, a sports bra and a zip up hoodie before pulling on my running shoes and I walked out of the house. There was a beautiful forest at the back of the house and I wanted to have a look. Putting my head phones in and pulling my hood up I started my run.

I got so far into my run when I heard a growl loud enough I could hear it over my music. I stopped and took my headphones out and looked around, I didn’t hear anything other than the generic animal noises you heard in a forest, I shrugged and put my headphones back in and as I started to run, I saw a sudden ball of fur launch into me, bowling me to the floor and pain seared through my arm and I screamed.

Henrik's POV

After our meeting with Kari, I was a little disheartened at the fact she wanted to leave as soon as she could, it looked like we were going to have to speed things up.

I was once again sitting in my office. With me was my father, My Beta Ralf, My Luna, My Gamma Josh and my Head Warrior Josiah,

We were having a brief meeting about an upcoming visit from the new Alpha of the Northan Pack, who wanted an alliance with us, when a mindlink from one of my warriors on patrol told me there was a trespasser on the land. I frowned.

'What Scent do they have?' I returned through the link.

'It's a strange one, it smells a mix of human and rouge, but a bit of something else.' Came the Reply. 'Elliott has just taken her down.'

'STOP!' I screamed through the link as I stood up making everyone in the room look at me. I had a feeling I knew who it was. 'DON'T HURT HER!'

I motioned for the others to follow and as soon as I was out of the packhouse, I shifted into Thor and ran. Thor is a massive ebony black wolf with white on his paws and deep blue eyes which shone under the moon's light. Ralf's sandy brown wolf was by me in seconds. My father's black wolf ran along the other side of me. Josiah and my Gamma Josh were behind me. We went towards a clearing to see Kari with her back up against a tree shaking like a leaf whilst she was surrounded by four of my warriors in wolf form. The jacket on her right arm was shredded and she had blood running down it, there was a stick in her left hand that she held up as a weapon as she looked at the wolves. I shifted before I went through the trees, as did Ralf and Josiah. Josh and my father stayed in wolf form.

"Kari?" I said gently as I approached her slowly.

"Faen! your naked" She said covering her eyes. And I chuckled. Ralf threw me some shorts and I pulled them on. I motioned for the wolves to back off and stepped towards her with my hands up.

"You can look now. She lowered her arm that she was covering her eyes with. She looked around and noticed the wolves had backed off. Josiah came forward and smiled at her. I noticed she had relaxed a little. "Let me have a look at your arm, Kari." He said, approaching her.

"I...It's OK, I...I will sort it out when I return to the house." She stuttered and she sounded just like Dad. I saw out of the corner of my eye Odin, my father's wolf, lie down and put his head on his paws and whimper at the thought of her in pain and wanting to go.

"If that is a claw mark you might need stitches, let me at least take you to our clinic to get it checked and properly cleaned so that it doesn't get infected."

"I...I can stitch it myself, done it before." She muttered, which made me raise an eye. Why did she need to stitch her own wound before?

"Kari, please, it is the least we can do." Ralf said as he slowly took a step forward, the warriors that surrounded her backed off further. "Kari?"

She looked at him as he held a hand out to her to take. She looked at his hand, and with a shaky hand she took hold of his, but before she could take a step, I watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and Ralf lept the rest of the way forward and caught her in his arms, lifting her. I went towards him to take her, but my father was quicker as he took her into his arms and sniffed her, tears running down his face as he turned and ran with her to the clinic with everyone behind him. The warriors looked on in shock, wondering what was going on.

We got her to the clinic in quick-time. My father laid her on the bed in an empty room. The doctor I had mindlinked to let know we were coming came in. Ralf handed my father a pair of joggers to pull on and he did, so we stepped back and let the doctor and nurse work on her. The doctor cut the sleeve of her jacket to look at the wounds on her arm whilst the nurse cut the other side so that she could insert a line for fluids and attach a heart monitor and the sound of her steady heart rhythm filled the room.

"What happened?" The doctor asked. As he got to work on cleaning her wounds

"One of the patrols attacked her. I told them to stand down before they did anything worse." I explained. "She passed out just before we brought her here."

"She smells rouge." He said, scrunching his nose up as he pushed a syringe of liquid into her arm by the wounds before he started to stitch the wounds up.

"She is my daughter." My father roared at the doctor, letting out his aura. I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"I am sorry, Alpha Anders, I didn't know." The doctor responded, submitting to my father by baring his neck. Just then, we heard a groan and turned to see Kari start to wake up. She looked around the room at everyone, her eyes stopping on Father.

"Pappa?" She muttered.

"Oh my little girl." He sobbed.

"I must be either dead or dreaming." She muttered to herself.

"Kari, you are not dreaming," I said, moving to stand at the side of the bed. "We have been looking for you for a while."

"What do you want with me?" She muttered as the doctor finished what he was doing and left. "Why have you been looking for me? And what the hell was it with the wolves?"

"Kari," I started, pulling a chair and sitting next to her.

"And why the hell are you here?" She said to our father before i could say anything. He opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, unsure of what to say.

"Why don't the two of you sod off, men really are useless at this stuff." Came my mate's voice. I looked up at her and sighed in relief. I looked up to see Ingrid and my mother stood at the door. I stood kissing them both on the cheek before pulling my father out of the room. He fell heavily into a chair.

"She hates me." He siad.

"It will take time, father, but we will manage it." I said with a sad smile as I sat next to him to wait for our mates to come out.

'I spoke to her wolf.' Came Thor's voice in my head.