"Even here, in the wilderness, amongst werewolves, people would rather stare their phones, I see." It was said lightly, joking. Amanda looked up to see Haltir regarding her. She sat at the edge of the camp, reading on her phone.

Haltir laughed. "Now that is the kind of sour look I was taught to expect from the bear clan."

"I'm reading."

"It was only a jest," he said. "To relieve my discomfort, perhaps." He made a gesture, asking permission to sit.

She nodded and moved aside for him. "If you are uncomfortable, then perhaps you should sit somewhere else."

"Don't run from discomfort, Amanda, understand it. What are you reading?"

"The Eddas," she said. "I have a print copy back at..." she broke off, not wanting to say 'home.' "I didn't bring it, so I downloaded a copy."

"Then I apologize for my early comments," he said. "Technology is an amazing thing, but too often put to pedestrian use. A tool for great uses, and terrible."

"I thought the Sons of Garm lived wild, didn't depend on human inventions."

"Depend, no. But use? Technology is quite useful. Loki never saw that. But Fenrir, Lukas, a few of the others, they do."

Amanda snorted. "And I've seen the use they put it to. Sex trafficking."

Haltir shrugged and looked away. "Great uses, and terrible," he repeated. "I didn't come here to quarrel."

She sat the phone in her lap and looked at him. "Why did you come here, then?"

He turned and faced her, his face open and genuinely confused. "Why don't I hate you?"

The question startled her.

"You are the sworn enemy of my tribe," he went on. "Bear clan. I was taught from my youth to hate you. And yet I don't. Do you hate me?"

She swallowed but found she couldn't answer.

"You hate Fenrir, that is clear. You hated my brother, Loki."

"He killed my uncle. My parents."

"Yes," Haltir agreed.

"Why?"

Haltir looked away. "Nadja's father, Fenrir's uncle in law. I know not what that makes him to me. He was the lead hunter before Loki. Your father and uncle killed him."

"And why did they do that?"

"I suppose because he killed their cousin. And so it goes, back to the most ancient times. Ask Fenrir if you have the stomach for the answer. He can name the names back ten generations, Sons of Garm killed, vengeance wrought."

"And so this war has been going on for centuries? Why?"

"Because it must."

"That's no answer," she snapped. "If you stopped killing bears, they would leave you in peace."

"They would not," Haltir said. "They would want one more act of vengeance. And we would have our one more act of vengeance in return."

"It doesn't have to be that way," she insisted.

"Would you put aside your hatred of Fenrir?"

Amanda stewed, not wanting to answer. Robert had asked her this, too. For Hunter. "If...if they agreed to leave my family in peace, for ever more."

"Then perhaps its too bad that Fenrir will never make such an offer. I for one would see the axe buried for good. There are better things to do in the twenty first century then to kill each other over centuries old prophecies."

"The Lokasenna?" She'd been reading that very book, trying to figure out that puzzle.

"My mother was a modern woman," Haltir said. "She understood the old ways as a spiritual path, not a literal truth. Father had a different opinion. For him this was the truth, the way it is. We will be enemies at the end. The bears will stand with the Vanir at Ragnarok, we with Loki. And we will war until the last is dead. This can not be changed." He rose clumsily with his cane. "And you can guess which one had the raising of Fenrir and how he leans. Now, I should be going on. I don't think your mate cares for me talking to you."

Amanda startled and looked around. Connor was at the edge of their camp, watching the two of them. Amanda blushed.

Haltir started back towards his camp.

"Haltir," she called after him. He stopped and turned back towards her. "I don't hate you."

He gave her a sad smile. "That is good, I guess."