by Nora Ash
A sense of urgency pushed me across the stony beach, stumbling for every step. That boat was my only hope!
Power knocked against my back, sending me forward with a scream. My knees knocked into jagged rocks, pain lancing through my kneecaps and palms, skin splitting. I bit my lip to try and contain the agony, focusing on the rowing boat once more. Crawling on bleeding hands and knees, I pushed forward, knowing I had to get to it. Had to.
Another wave of power, this time grabbing me around the waist, flipped me to my back, pressing me into the ground until I was pinned, immobile.
Above me a man with hair like powdered charcoal strode forward until he stopped by my feet. His pitch-black locks hid his features for a moment, but it didn’t matter. I’d seen him a hundred times before, exactly like this.
He lifted his head, the long hair hiding his face whipping back, revealing ice-pale skin and mismatched eyes wild with fury.
Grim’s face was drawn up in rage, teeth bared as he snarled, “There’s no point in fighting me. You’re already dead.”
Adrenaline spiked my heart-rate from the dead of sleep, propelling me up like a spring-assisted knife. I gasped for air as the darkness around me washed away the memory of the bleak beach, leaving only a woolen vision of Grim’s furious face.
“Annabel?” My name rumbled from the darkness, two voices pulling me further into reality. Thickly muscled arms closed around my midriff as a hand clasped my shoulder, both making me aware of how chilled the air was in the small enclosure I’d woken up in.
Modi and Bjarni.
My stuttering heart eased its frantic pace the second my brain caught up. I was with two of my mates. I was safe.
“Sorry,” I groaned, rubbing my face with both hands. “It was just a nightmare. Sorry.”
“You sure? Not a vision?” Bjarni rumbled. His arms around me constricted for a moment.
I cracked a half-smile and patted his thigh on top of the furs, grateful despite myself for his ironclad belief in my newly found powers. “Yeah. I… I’ve had this one since I was a kid. Go back to sleep. Both of you.”
Modi grunted behind me and slid one hand down my side, the gesture sweetly calming even if Bjarni was the one to pull me back down with him, nestling my head on his chest.
Modi was asleep again moments later, his deep breaths warm against the back of my skull, arm loose around my waist.
“Tell me about this nightmare,” Bjarni rumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.
“There’s not much to tell,” I murmured, frowning as I tried to recall the details. Only Grim’s face and that horrid sense of urgency lingered. Distractedly, I drew my fingers through his soft chest hair, pulling a hum of pleasure from the alpha in response. “I can never remember the details. Just your brother’s face. He’s always so… angry.”
“You dream of Saga?” Bjarni asked.
“No. Grim.” I sighed. “Seeing him the first time in the flesh was such a shock. But these dreams are nothing like the visions I’ve had since… since my magic was awakened.”
“Hmm. I’m no scholar, but once we’ve reunited with my brothers, perhaps you should mention this to Grim. He’s the expert when it comes to magical phenomena. If you’ve dreamed of him since you were a child, he should be interested. Might even give him the ego boost he needs to stop sulking about having to claim you,” he rumbled, amusement blending through his deep voice. “Give it a magical twist. That should warm his cold blood.”
“Perhaps,” I agreed, though the thought caused the lingering anxiety from the nightmare to clutch at my gut. Even non-nightmare Grim wasn’t the most approachable guy to begin with. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to tell him all about how he terrified me in my sleep.
“He’d never harm you, sweetie,” Bjarni assured me, undoubtedly in response to the flicker of unease in our bond. With a deep sigh he sat back up again, easing my head into the bend of Modi’s arm as he did.
“Right. I guess someone should go keep watch, and that useless mate of yours doesn’t seem to be waking up anytime soon.” Despite the bite in his words, there was no venom in them. “Your pussy’s dangerous for a man’s constitution, woman. There isn’t much in the world that can bring two gods to their knees as efficiently as that sweet little snatch.”
I huffed at his crudeness, but didn’t deign to answer. It wasn’t like I’d be running around doing cartwheels after last night.
Bjarni chuckled and patted my head before he slipped out from underneath the covers. “Sleep well, my little mate.”
I didn’t. Even with the heat from Modi’s naked body wrapped around my back, the lack of Bjarni sandwiching me from the other side meant my teeth were clattering for most of the night.
When the darkness in the tent finally shifted to dull gray, I gave up and tried to wrestle free of Modi’s grasp—something that proved pretty difficult.
“Stay,” the redhead mumbled, tightening his arms around me.
“Modi, I need to pee,” I protested, squirming uselessly against him. “Let go.”
He didn’t answer, and when I managed to twist around so I was facing him, it became obvious that he was still fast asleep.
“Modi,” I hissed, pushing at his pecs—the only movement I could manage, trapped as I was. “Modi!”
A rumbling grunt passed his full lips, one of his arms loosening its grip on me, and I thought I’d managed to wake him. Until that same hand traveled down to my ass and around, its goal becoming crystal clear the next second.
I jolted when he brushed against my pussy, fingers rubbing leisurely against my labia until they connected with my clit.
“Nope! No, absolutely not!” I squirmed harder, crossing my legs tightly. There was exactly no chance I was letting my horny octopus of a mate molest me while I was freezing my tits off in the middle of what had to be approaching zero degrees—and especially not with how sore I already was from his and Bjarni’s joined efforts over the past few days.
And dammit, I really did have to pee!
My refusal was not received well. Modi’s sleepy grunt turned to a threatening growl, his knee moving up to force my legs apart so he could continue his questing, still asleep.
“Dammit!” I growled when his cock swelled against me, jutting up against my labia in search of entry. “Why are all you alphas such rapey bastards, even in your sleep?”
Modi rumbled a soothing noise, his subconscious probably picking up on my reluctance, and slid his hand from my clit to my thigh, lining himself up.
I did the only thing I could think of to stop him, save from calling out to Bjarni—and to be frank, after last night I wasn’t entirely sure which of us my blond mate would help in this particular situation—I reached down and grabbed his cock, diverting its trajectory.
Modi jolted hard, his eyes flying open with a hiss of expelled breath.
“Hel’s tits!” He quickly released his grip on my body so he could wrest my hands free from his member. “Your fingers are pure ice!”
I let out a disbelieving snort. “Don’t try and mount me in your sleep and maybe I won’t have to ice your dick.”
He frowned, eyes darting down our entangled bodies as if he hadn’t picked up on what exactly was going on before now. Some of the indignation died in the blue depths. “Oh. I am… sorry.”
An apology from a rapey alpha? Color me shocked.
“S’okay,” I mumbled, pulling away. Somewhat more reluctantly this time, because the second I wasn’t plastered against Modi’s warm skin, my body temperature truly plummeted. “God, why is it so fucking cold?”
“It is the Fimbulwinter,” Modi said as if speaking to a particularly slow child. He reached for me and pulled me back against his chest, capturing my hands in one of his palms this time. “Go back to sleep—it is still early, and we have a long day ahead.”
I sighed, half-irritated at being manhandled into position against my will and half-tempted to obey. At least this way, half of me would be warm. “I have to pee.”
>
Modi—eyes already closed again—made a noise of displeasure but released me without a fight.
I got into the clothes gifted to me by Verdandi as quickly as possible and sighed with relief as I exited the tent. Sure, it was still colder than an icebox, but the feathery garments held up against the howling blizzard much better than any human polar expedition outfit would have.
Bjarni was sitting by the small fire, his looming figure hunched on a log of tree as flurries of snow tumbled down around him. If it hadn’t been for the hooting wind, he’d have made an idyllic picture. Viking before Sunrise.
I didn’t see any sign of Loki, but I assumed since Bjarni was calm as could be that he was still around somewhere.
I hurried behind a tree, emptying my bladder as swiftly as possible before incurring any frostbites to tender parts, and then walked back to the fire.
“Morning,” I told my blond mate as he turned toward me.
A small frown creased his forehead. “It’s early still. You should try for some more sleep, sweetie.”
I grimaced. “Eh, it’s too cold. Whichever side of me isn’t plastered against one of you two walking furnaces gets frosty. Besides, Modi’s handsy in his sleep and I’m not in the mood.”
Bjarni cracked a small grin and wrapped me in his arms. It was warm and comfortable, and I didn’t resist as he dragged me onto his lap. “I’m sure it’d warm you up.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “What happened to you barely tolerating him? If I remember right, you weren’t best pleased the last time you found us together, and now here you are, trying to whore me out to him every chance you get.”
“It’s not really whoring when the man in your bed is your mate,” he said calmly, not biting at my provocation. “Guy’s got issues. Your pussy seems to calm him down, at least for a little bit.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And why do you care if he’s calm or not?”
“’Cause I feel him too, through you. All his anger and uncertainty. Can’t really do anything about that, so the next best thing is to get him to calm down and realize what a lucky bastard he is for getting to call you his.” Bjarni gave me a smoldering look.
“Flattery will get you nothing,” I teased, leaning in to kiss his cheek. He turned his head last moment, catching my lips with his.
The unexpected kiss heated my body from the inside, and I moaned softly into his mouth, clutching my fingers in his long, blond hair until he finally pulled away, leaving me panting.
“I promised I would help you find peace, Annabel,” he said softly. “The only way to do that is to help your other idiot mate get his head out of his own ass. I might not be thrilled about Magni, but at least he’s not such a ball of angst about all this, hmm?”
“I’m not sure there’s any helping Modi,” I said softly. “He doesn’t want this, and I don’t think anything can ever make him want it.”
Bjarni scoffed. “Please. You think Fate forced him to put a claiming mark on you? That was all him, sweetie. He’s just a bit thick. He’ll come around once he gets over his fancy Asgardian upbringing and realizes he couldn’t handle you on his own anyway.”
“His fancy Asgardian upbringing?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“You saw his dad’s reaction to the news of Magni claiming a human girl, and sharing her with us filthy Jotunns, no less. And Magni’s the bastard son—of Jotunn heritage himself. Thor’s gonna birth a ram when he realizes his pure born’s gotten himself entangled with the same human, and Modi knows it.
“He’s been raised to be the noble, obedient son, always living up to expectations. Asgard’s golden child. Pretty sure all that angst you can feel in your bond to him is him coming to grips with what he’s been raised to be is nothing like what he actually is. There’s no human mate for Thor’s perfect son, no mercy for his enemies, and most especially no trading of glory on the battlefield for a place next to a woman who might just end up being more powerful than he.
“It’ll take him a minute to learn to listen to his heart, not his father’s voice at the back of his thick skull telling him who he’s supposed to be.”
“You seem to be getting a lot more from our bond than I am,” I said, sighing at the thought of the agony I knew awaited once Modi woke up again and returned to his usual loathing of our connection.
“It’s not so much the bond as it’s experience with asshole gods who like to dominate their offspring,” he said mildly, giving my nose a peck. “You hungry? I can start breakfast early.”
“Sure. Thank you.” I brushed my fingers through his beard and climbed off his lap, sad to lose his warmth, but thankful for his care and the words he’d shared. True or not, the possibility that maybe the pain in Modi’s and my bond wouldn’t be forever gave me just a smidgen of hope. And soon we’d be back in Asgard. Back with Magni and Saga.
“Speaking of asshole fathers—where’s Loki?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see if I could spot him.
“Over there.” Bjarni nodded in the direction of a large snowdrift.
I turned and squinted. “What? Where? I don’t see—”
Reality struck like a bolt of lightning, and I squeaked and ran through the snow toward the drift. Frantically I dug at the white mass, shifting as much as I could with my hands.
“What did you do? Oh my god, what the fuck?!”
“I didn’t do a thing,” Bjarni drawled as he rummaged in the large rucksack for what he needed to make breakfast. “That was all Modi.”
“And you’ve just sat here for how many hours?” I hissed as black hair finally emerged. I scraped at the snow, digging the God of Mischief’s head free so I could turn him over. His face was blue and unmoving, purple bruising around his nose and cheekbone indicating broken bones.
“He’s dead! We were meant to bring him back alive!”
“He’s not,” Bjarni rumbled. “He’s a god—it takes a lot more than a bit of frostbite to kill one off. He’ll thaw out if we leave him by the fire for an hour before we move on.”
I stared down at what very much looked like a frozen corpse, right down to the frost in his black eyelashes. The temptation to leave him be danced at the back of my mind. This was the man who’d hurt my mate, who’d abandoned his own sons to their fate. Who’d killed innocent birds just to punish Bjarni. Who'd quite possibly brought about the end of the world.
But he was also our captive, and under our care. I got that Viking gods probably didn’t care much about the Geneva Convention, but despite everything I still had too much humanity left to torture the bastard.
I reached inside myself, finding my magic glowing and plentiful. It came easily when I beckoned and wrapped around Loki’s frozen form like a warm blanket.
“You shouldn’t waste your energy on him,” Bjarni said. “He’s not worth a drop of your essence.”
“We’re better than this,” I replied, voice not unlike my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, who could make you sit straight and keep quiet with nothing more than a look. “He might be a prick, but we’re not. And we will treat our prisoner with some dignity.”
Bjarni grunted, sounding very much like he didn’t think he was better than this, but at least he didn’t argue.
I refocused on Loki, whose features were slowly turning white rather than blue. I tightened my magic around him, infusing his limbs with warmth until finally, his eyelids fluttered, and he drew in a raspy breath.
“Welcome back,” I said.
He only winced in response and I sighed at the sight of the damages to his face. Now that his blood was circulating again, both his nose and cheekbone looked extra terrible.
“If you promise to watch your mouth, I’ll try to heal that for you. But if you’re only gonna provoke Modi and Bjarni again, I’m not going to bother. It’s a lot of effort.”
The trickster god didn’t respond, but the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut rolled toward me, measuring me.
I pushed down the shiver of unease at his attention and reached for my magic
once more. I was no expert on how to use it, but I remembered how Saga had guided me when I'd healed Magni. I did the same now, Loki’s injuries much more compliant than the infection that’d nearly taken my mate.
It didn’t take long before his skin only showed the faintest yellow marks, as if his injuries were weeks old.
Pleased with myself, I rocked back on my heels and smiled down at him. “There you are, almost as good as new.”
“Thank you,” he said, his voice free from snark for the first time so far. “Now if you might also consider redoing my ties to a more dignified position…?
I snorted. “Sure. But just a word of warning—if you make an escape attempt because you think I’m some bleeding heart omega, you’re going to be very disappointed. You’ll spend the trip back to Asgard dragged face-down in the snow, and I’m not going to raise a finger to help you.”
“I’m starting to understand that you’re not a helpless little omega, human,” he said, arching an eyebrow at me. “It seems I made a better bargain with your ancestors than I realized at the time.”
“Hmm.” I wasn’t sure if it was flattery or not and decided it didn’t matter either way. Careful to keep my full focus on him, I undid the hogtie Modi had strung him up with, only to redo his binds with his wrists tied snugly in front of him, the golden glow from the rope I’d infused the prior day making me feel pretty safe. I’d never been a Girl Scout, but my magic hummed when I tested the fibers, reassuring me of its strength.
“Is there enough breakfast to feed him too?” I asked over my shoulder.
“He doesn’t need to eat,” Bjarni growled.
I sighed. I understood why my mate was so angry with his father, but starving him wasn’t going to make what he’d done any easier to cope with.
“Bjarni. Please. Feed him.”
The blond giant shot me a glare, but a few moments later he stomped over and dropped a wooden plate of fried bacon and beans by my side.
“Your breakfast is by the fire, once you’re done with him,” he said, turning away without so much as another look.