“Anyway, we’re lucky that Indiana’s family has a cabin close to ours that’s large enough to host all of us, even though we’ll have to sleep in shared rooms.”
“That’s fine. It’ll be like when we sleep in tents.”
“Can I be in a girl’s room this time?” Celeste asked Freya and Aubri. “I know it’s usually Belle who joins you, but with my pregnancy, I don’t get much sleep to begin with and the last thing I need is one of the men to keep me up with their snoring.”
“Women snore too,” Thor pointed out. “I’ve learned that from sleeping in the same tent as quite a few.”
Freya dipped her head. “That’s fine, Celeste. The rooms are double rooms, but you can sleep with either Aubri or me. You know the Motlanders won’t like it if Belle sleeps with us again. They think we’re playing favorites and that our always sleeping together contradicts the idea of bonding with everyone in the group.”
“There’s the cabin.” Thor pointed ahead to a clearing in the millions of pine trees. By the edge of an ice-covered lake was a cute log cabin with smoke rising from a chimney.
“Finally!” Celeste held a hand to her stomach. “My bladder is about to explode.”
When we landed, Thor jumped out and held up a hand to support Celeste out of the drone. Two small steps folded out from underneath the drone and as she walked down, the wind lifted her short blond hair.
“Come on, I’ll show you to the bathroom.” Aubri didn’t use the steps but jumped and took Celeste’s hand to lead her.
Once out of the drone, I opened the luggage area to pick up my bag. We were staying here for three days and I’d brought all the warm clothes I had.
“Here, let me.” My right hand was on my bag when I heard Mason behind me.
Ever since our talk last night, I had avoided him, but now I turned to meet his gaze. Mason had a bag strapped over his shoulder and two in one of his hands while he was holding out his other hand toward me.
“Don’t be stupid. You have enough to carry and I can take my own bag.”
With one eyebrow arched up, he spoke slowly. “Give me your bag, Belle.”
Running my tongue over the rim of my teeth, I thought for a second before tightening my hold on my bag. There had been a time when I loved how Mason, Thor, and Indiana always went out of their way to make sure we women were comfortable. Things they did naturally, such as giving us a hand when we were stepping down from a drone, carrying our luggage, making sure we could see in a crowd of people, and offering up their jackets when it was cold had always impressed me. But after Mason made it sound like I was a fragile child last night, I wanted none of his help.
“No thank you. I’m used to carrying heavy babies and this bag is nothing.”
He didn’t say a word as we walked to the cabin where all the others were gathering. Like Mason, Indiana and Thor were carrying more than their own bags and set them down in the large dining room where we all stood around.
“Welcome to the Boulders’ family cabin,” Thor said and walked to the table. “First things first. There are five double rooms upstairs and two on this floor. Let’s figure out who’s sleeping where. We’ll each have a sleeping partner and one person will be sleeping alone on a fold-out bed in the living room.”
“Can I have the fold-out bed?” Victor asked.
“Maybe. It depends what you draw. In this bowl there’s a note with each of our names. Obviously Aubri and Freya will be sleeping with other women as always, so let’s get that out of the way first.”
Raising a hand, Celeste called out, “I already said that I want to sleep with one of them.”
“You can sleep with me,” Aubri said.
“Then maybe I can sleep with Freya?” Holly asked.
“Okay, so then we’ll draw names for the other rooms. You know the rules that you won’t be sleeping with someone from your own delegation, as this week is about bonding across borders,” Thor informed us.
Please not Mason, please not Mason, I begged in my head.
Thor drew the first names and coupled people together so that Simon was with Oliver, Thor with Doreen, Lachlan with Isaac, and Indiana with Harper. For every name drawn I felt my blood rush faster and when it was just Mason, Victor, and me left, I dreaded the outcome and held my breath.
“Mason and…” Thor picked up the folded note. “Victor.”
A deep groan sounded from Mason and Victor exclaimed, “Belle and I will swap. I want the couch.”
“Nooo…” I objected right away but Victor acted like he always did and bulldozed over me, picking up his bag and walking toward the living room.
“Don’t take it personally, Mason, I’m sure it’s not because they don’t like you,” Holly offered in a soft tone of sympathy.
“How about I take the couch and then you two sleep together,” Mason offered with an annoyed glare in my direction.
Using my most resolute tone, I said, “No! I’m sleeping on the couch and that’s that.”
Victor swung a hand through the air. “As the leader of our delegation, I’m making the decision that Belle sleeps with Mason, while I take the couch.”
“Go shit out a pine tree and stop ordering Belle around. You’re not her boss,” Mason told Victor.
It was predictable that the Motlanders scattered at the least sign of a conflict, all going to their rooms.
Before I knew it, Victor, Mason, Thor, and I were the only ones left.
“May I remind you that my authority comes with my role as the leader of our delegation. Belle will do as I say.”
“No, she won’t.”
Fed up with the two men talking over my head, I walked over to the sofa and sat down as a way of making a statement.
Victor stared at me. “Don’t be difficult. You’ve always been flexible so why can’t you do this small thing for me? Is it because Mason said he’d split you in two?”
“He said what?” Thor sputtered out.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Mason assured him.
Thor’s tone was annoyed. “Enough of this nonsense. I know you two butt heads, but this is ridiculous. I drew your names and you’ll share a room. You’ll just sleep in there so stop acting like children.”
Even though I kept my face pointing straight ahead, I still felt the glares from Victor and Mason burning into my neck. All my life, I’d had people ordering me around, but I had just turned twenty-four and was fed up. At home I worked ten-hour shifts each day caring for the babies that I loved so much. There were too many to form lasting bonds with and since I was with the three-to-six-months old babies, I had a constant flow of little ones coming in and out of my life.
Our society was built on selfless contribution to the community and lately I’d felt like an ant destined to work, work, work, when all I wanted to do was paint and express myself through art.
I was alone in the living room for about ten minutes until the others came back and plans were shared for outside activities.
As the future ruler of the Northlands, Thor was the one taking charge but it was clear that his sister Freya was behind a lot of the things he explained to us, because once and again he’d turn to her as if to confirm that he had the details right.