Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Sixty Eight

Emily

Once I let go and ironically, started to stop worrying about things I couldn't change, it was actually quite fun. Ferdinand had taken me to a few slopes and each one was just as challenging as the last. "Keep up!" He shouted as he flawlessly made his way through the snow again. "It's hard to keep up on a sport I've learnt about just today!" I yelled down to him laughing.

In all honesty, I was terribly at skiing. I thought I was bad at many things, but this probably blew all of the others out of the water. We had spent half a day here already and the time had flown by. It took a lot of the niggling feelings to ruin the enjoyment of the day, but they still found their way back. They were nothing but persistent. I was sitting on a wooden bench outside one of the ski lodges when my mind started to do what it was best at, over thinking.

Ferdinand was getting us some food and a drink, but my mind only wanted to know one thing, where Dom was and what he was doing. I know I'd insisted that he send some time with the moon goddess, but part of me had hoped that he would fight me more, knowing me, I wouldn't have given up anyway. I didn't know what I wanted. I just wanted Dom.

"Here you go," Ferdinand announced proudly, "meatballs and lingonsylt." He placed the tray down on the table in front of me, "Lingon- what?" He tried to find his smile behind his hand, but I knew he was laughing at me regardless. "It's lingonberry, we grow them here in Sweden and we make them into jam. Lingonsylt is lingonberry jam." These people have jam and meat? What kind of a combination was that? "Where I'm from, we put jam on toast, we don't use jam as a sauce."

Ferdinand picked up the fork that was next to my dish and impaled one of the meatballs. Next, he lowered it down over the bright pinky red sauce and dipped it slightly. His eyes met mine, I was looking at him like he was an absolute monster. This only made him laugh more. "Honestly, it's delicious. We have it with pretty much anything here. You have sweet jams, well this is a savoury one." He lifted the fork and hovered up in front of my mouth, "try it, you'll love it."

I scrunched my nose up and closed my eyes. With a deep breath, I opened my mouth wide so that he could pop it straight in. When the jam hit my tongue it was sweet, but it had a refreshing underlining taste too. It seemed to balance the salt form the meat perfectly. My eyes widened and I took the fork from Ferdinand, "why have you guys been keeping this a secret?" He laughed a heartwarming sound, "we definitely don't keep it a secret, you can find it online if you ever wanted to make it yourself."

Maybe I would have to give it a go, it tasted so good with the meatballs, I could only imagine how good it could taste with other savoury dishes too. I finished it in no time, not even chewing down what was in my mouth properly before swallowing. It was divine. "Do you fancy some more skiing before we head back?" I nodded, happy to heave my mind distracted again.

We were on the top of the slope, Ferdinand was taking me though the steps for the one hundredth time today, and he didn't seem to mind. "What is it about Swedish people?" I asked him, looking up at his fall frame. He stopped his demonstration and placed his hands on his hips, "what about Swedish people?" I adjusted the skis like he had shown me and watched his confusion turn into amusement as I slipped and landed face first in the snow.

I shoved my hair out of my face and wiped at my frosty eyes, "how can you always seem so positive? So happy?" He sighed and looked off into the distance, "that's not exactly strictly true, but I suppose it just comes from our way of life.

We're simple people and we take pleasure in life's simplicity. We cook with friends instead of ordering take-out, and personally, every person that I have met loves board games as much as I do."

That really did already seem like such a different world. "What do you do when you go out?" He slid over to the edge and started to ready himself, pulling down his goggles from his helmet, "well unless you go to a bar, we have to get our alcohol early because they stop selling it after a certain time. I don't know many people that like to drink too excessively though." I suppose that made sense, when you enjoyed the company of others and made time for one another, why would you need anything else?"

"Don't get me wrong," he started to explain, "we enjoy drinking, but most of us just don't see it in the same way as other people do." It seemed like a lovely way to live actually. "I can see why someone would be very happy here." I told him truthfully. My mind wondered back to Dom, he was always putting everyone else first, always going out of his way to make sure others were okay. Maybe he had a little more of that ancestry than we originally thought.

My shoulder was knocked back slightly as Ferdinand shoved against me, "cheer up, you're alive and you're here with an incredibly good looking Swede, enjoy it." I snorted and laughed, it felt good to laugh. "You know that swede is the term that we use for turnips back home?" Ferdinand held up his hand in mock horror, "are you suggesting that I look like a turnip?" I burst out laughing and kicked off from the edge, this time I'd taken in what he had said and kept my legs straight with my butt poking out from behind in a slight squat.

I was doing it! I was actually doing it! I smiled to myself and felt as the ice cold winds whipped against my cheeks, so this was what freedom felt like? I made it all the way down without slipping up or falling over once. Yes I was slow, yes I was still wobbly, but for once I had actually made it on my own.