Falling for Gods: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (Their Dark Valkyire Book 3)

by Eva Chase

  Thor looked at me so intently that the temperature in the room seemed to rise by a few degrees. “Is that so?” he said, his already low voice even huskier than before.

  I touched the side of his face, and he bent down to kiss me. His hot breath mingled with mine, with a twitch of his tongue against my lips that sent an electric tingle through me. Oh, yes, that’d been a good talk, but I was ready for more now.

  I murmured encouragingly, gripping the front of his shirt. Thor kissed me again and again with more hunger each time. His hands started to trail up and down my sides. Each brush of his fingertips, even through the thin fabric of my tank top, sent a fresh burst of quivers over my skin.

  When he slid his palm around to cup my breast, I pressed into his touch, kissing him harder. His thumb swiveled over the swell of flesh, and a spark danced over the tip. I whimpered as my nipple hardened in an instant.

  He teased it for a minute longer through my top before moving his sizzling torture to the other side. Then he eased his hand under my shirt to caress me without interference. His fingers stroked and flicked, each point of pressure like a tiny jolt of lightning. I yanked him closer to me, moaning.

  His hand dipped lower, to my jeans. A tremble of need ran through me as he tugged open my fly. He slid his fingers right inside my panties, his breath catching when he felt the dampness already gathered there. A zap of pleasure jolted over my clit, and my hips jerked. I gasped.

  “Oh, God.” Just like that, I was already so close to release. I groped down his body to pay him back in kind, but Thor eased back and caught my wrist. His other hand stayed between my thighs, his thumb slicking from my clit to my folds and back again.

  “I want to watch you,” he said thickly. His brown eyes smoldered with longing. “I want to see just how good I can make you feel, no distractions.”

  I swallowed hard, my chest tightening with emotion. So much emotion, swelling inside me, that I didn’t know what to do with.

  I’d said I loved Hod’s darkness. What could I say about Thor? I loved his strength. I loved his compassion—and his passion too. I could have said that, but it didn’t feel like enough to encompass even half of the feelings surging through me.

  Thor’s fingers twitched with another electric tingle, and every other feeling was overwhelmed but the pleasure racing through me. I tipped my head back, bucking to meet his hand, giving myself over to everything he wanted to give me.

  19

  Aria

  I might have slept a little longer that morning if an enormous but joyful bellow hadn’t shaken the floor beneath my bed.

  “Tyr!”

  If Thor was that happy, whatever was going on couldn’t be a bad thing. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and went to see what the fuss was about.

  Asgard’s other current inhabitants were also gathering in the courtyard the shout had rung out from. At first I couldn’t see anything except Thor’s broad form. Then he stepped back from his embrace to reveal a lanky man with bronze-brown hair that fell to his shoulders. The new arrival looked older than my gods and younger than Odin, maybe late thirties or early forties if I could have judged by human standards, the corners of his eyes slightly crinkled. His face held the same divine attractiveness as every god I’d met so far.

  He was also missing a hand. The base of his right arm, just before where his wrist should have been, ended in a smooth stump, the edges only faintly rippled with scar tissue.

  “Quite the welcoming party,” he said in a warm bass voice. “Maybe I should have come back sooner.”

  “It’s good to see you,” Baldur said. “Where have you been?”

  “Oh, mostly rambling around southern and eastern Europe,” Tyr said. “All sorts of interesting developments in those areas recently.”

  “Tyr’s domains are law and combat,” Thor said, catching my eye. “And it’s been at least a couple centuries since we last saw him.” He clapped the other god on the back.

  Another war god? I guessed between this guy, Odin, and Freya, they covered all the possible angles.

  “Although interestingly, neither domain explains how he lost his hand,” Loki said, his tone managing to sound both light and caustic at the same time. “It’s such a shame it wasn’t reborn with the rest of you, isn’t it?”

  Tyr gave the trickster a wary glance and seemed to decide to ignore him. “I gathered Asgard was in need,” he said, turning back to Thor. “Although the message I came across was rather vague.”

  “Hmm,” Odin said. I flinched—I hadn’t heard the king of the gods approaching behind me. “There is a certain strength in numbers. Welcome home.”

  “Come,” Thor said. “We’ll explain everything we know so far. The most important part is that Surt has reappeared, and he means to make good on every threat he made in the past and more.”

  He motioned Tyr toward his hall. Baldur, Hod, and Freya moved to join them. Loki wavered, his jaw tight. Before I could decide whether to follow the others or go to him and find out what was bothering him, Odin’s hand closed over my shoulder.

  “Valkyrie,” he said, the word holding no admiration when he said it. “I think we need to have a talk of our own.”

  Loki’s gaze darted our way. “What business could you have with her?” he said, his eyes much darker than the mild curiosity in his voice warranted.

  “Oh, it seems we have a great deal to discuss,” Odin said. He tipped his head in the direction the other gods had gone. “Don’t let that keep you from staying abreast of the plans being made.”

  They stared each other down for a moment, king and trickster, the tension prickling over my skin. Loki lifted one narrow shoulder in a careless shrug. “I’ll see if there’s anything I can add to Tyr’s education,” he said, and strode off. My stomach tightened as he passed out of view, leaving Odin and me alone.

  Odin nudged me in the opposite direction toward his hall, and I went, my heart thumping uneasily. “What’s this about?” I said.

  “All in good time,” the Allfather said in a tone that didn’t offer any room for argument.

  My back itched, my wings eager to break free and carry me away from Odin and his foreboding presence. It was hard to think this conversation was going to be an enjoyable one, even if I didn’t have any idea what he wanted to talk about. But running away hadn’t been a very successful strategy when it came to the gods. It wasn’t as if I could avoid ever coming back.

  Maybe he just wanted to check in and see how I was doing after looking in on Petey the other day. A little regal concern toward his subjects. Ha ha ha.

  When we reached his hall, Odin stepped into the fore-room where the group of us had always met him before. I hesitated in the middle of the thick soft rug as he settled into his throne-like chair. There was nowhere for me to sit in here unless I wanted to grab one of the pillows along the wall. I was pretty sure he expected me to stay standing while he peered down at me like he was doing right now. My hackles rose at his grim expression before he even started to speak.

  “I’ve gathered that you’ve been diverting my gods from the course of action we decided on,” he said. “As the sudden appearance of Tyr lends proof to.”

  “Your gods?” I repeated. “I’m pretty sure they belong to themselves. We’re the ones who’ve been doing all the fighting while you’ve sat around back here making your plans.”

  “My plans that will ensure both our realm and your former one remain safe. Unless you’ve decided you no longer care about that cause.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “How exactly does finding more gods to join the fight hurt the cause?” Or finding out what was driving the dark elves, although if Odin didn’t already know Hod had ventured into their realm, I wasn’t going to spill the beans. “And why are you talking to me about this? We’re all working together. I don’t exactly call the shots.”

  He gave me a baleful look. “Do you truly believe it could have escaped me how much influence you’ve managed to gain over them? You’ve earned thei
r loyalty through honest means, from what I’ve gathered. Let us not switch to dishonesty now.”

  How much had he seen, with all the spying he did from his high seat? I couldn’t tell whether this was a bluff or he knew for sure I’d been the one to suggest we go searching for the other gods. He couldn’t see through walls. How much had we discussed it outside?

  “I’m not lying about anything,” I said, which was technically true. Omissions didn’t count, right? “I honestly believe that having more manpower makes it easier to win a war. I’d have thought that was common sense.”

  “This isn’t a common war,” Odin said, his voice rising to a rumble as he leaned forward in his chair. He glowered down at me for a moment, a fierce light in his brown eye, enough power emanating from his body that it took all my willpower not to cower. My arms went rigid at my sides.

  “Fine,” I said. “Nothing about this situation is normal to me. You want me to stop coming up with new plans? Tell me what the hell yours really is. Because you can’t think that the six of us charging at Surt’s fortress alone is going to win that war.”

  Odin leaned back in his chair slowly. He turned his head toward the window across from us, his gaze going distant.

  “I see things, you know,” he said. “Not just from my high seat. Not just with my eye.” He tapped the scarred patch above his other cheek. “I gave this one up for knowledge beyond what we can grasp in front of us. It comes to me in whispers and fragments… but it comes.”

  A shiver ran down my back. “And you’ve seen something about the battle with Surt?”

  His gaze returned to me. “I know this much: No matter how many reinforcements you summon, our victory comes down to you five and the power you hold between you. That is what we must depend on. That is where we must build our strength. The rest may not matter at all.”

  You five and the power you hold. The chill that had touched me a second ago tickled deeper. “What exactly did you ‘see’?” I asked. “What are we going to do?”

  Nothing shifted in his eyes, which were flatly dull now. “I know only the wisdom that reaches me. That is what I must use to guide me. But if the answer is the five of you, then the five of you must focus on your strengths. Build on your power. This running around across the realms only weakens us.”

  “So, that really is your whole plan?” I said. “We charge in there at Surt and hope that we manage to destroy him and his army?”

  “How much you’re able to destroy will be up to you,” Odin said. “When you’re ready, I hope it will be enough to cripple him. Perhaps you will have to give your all to see the battle through, but that would be a worthy sacrifice.”

  “Give our all?” I stared at him. “You mean you think we’re going to go down in the fight. I guess it’d be hard not to, if it all comes down to the five of us trying to wreck everything we can reach. And you really think because of some ‘whispers and fragments’ that’s the best way to go? You’re fine sending your sons and your blood-brother off to be slaughtered?” I didn’t expect him to care at all about me, but the others… My jaw clenched. They deserved better than this.

  “Perhaps any that fall will be reborn again as they were before,” Odin said evenly.

  “And maybe they won’t. You admitted yourself you don’t know if that’s a guarantee.”

  “It is a chance they’ll willingly take to save our realm.” His eyes narrowed. “Will you?”

  How could I answer that? If I could die knowing Petey would be safe for the rest of his life, the rest of the realms would be a bonus. But I couldn’t believe that was the only way, not when there was so much Odin was refusing to consider or even admit to.

  I could feel, standing there before him, that he wasn’t going to budge, not this morning. Possibly not ever. I raised my chin.

  “I’ll fight for Asgard, and I’ll fight for Midgard, wherever that takes me, whatever the risks,” I said, meaning it. I kept the rest of my thoughts to myself. I’d also keep looking for other ways to fight, no matter what Odin thought about that. If he wanted to stop us, let him go ahead and try. So far he’d been a lot of talk and not a whole lot of action.

  “Good,” Odin said. “Then you know where to aim your focus. Make me glad to have a valkyrie in Asgard again, Aria.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said, and the weird part was, I meant that too. Just not in the way he’d have wanted.

  I fled Odin’s hall as quickly as I could manage without totally embarrassing myself. The other gods were standing far down the road outside Thor’s hall in a cluster of conversation. I guessed they hadn’t made it all the way inside before Tyr had insisted on getting some answers.

  No head of pale-flame hair stood out among them, though. I frowned, scanning the buildings around us, but Loki appeared to have vanished. Remembering how he’d spoken to Tyr and then Odin, the queasy feeling I’d had since he lied to me yesterday bubbled up again.

  The trickster god was one of the five of us. Odin couldn’t get mad at me for going looking for him, right?

  I slipped away into the forest behind Odin’s hall where Loki had found me the other day. No sign of him there, or in the orchard beyond it. I paused, listening, wishing that the bond between us that allowed him to track me worked both ways. If he’d been close, I could have sensed his presence like I’d found each of the gods in Muninn’s prison, but he wasn’t anywhere near here.

  It’d be easier to track him down from above. I unfurled my wings and pushed off the ground. The air rushed over me as I swept myself higher and higher, until it seemed almost all of Asgard sprawled out beneath me. I soared over it, searching for a speck of red against the green landscape.

  My gaze slid to the blue-gray line of the sea in the distance, almost the same stormy color as Petey’s eyes. As I turned toward it, the faintest hint of salt met my tongue on the breeze. Like on the beach Loki had taken me to when he’d talked about his slaughtered children.

  I flew toward the rocky span of shoreline. I didn’t know how many miles I’d crossed before I made out a tall pale form standing there.

  The flaps of my wings slowed. I glided closer, holding my breath. Would Loki want to be interrupted? I was thinking probably not, given that he’d gone this far to get away from the rest of us. What was he even doing out here?

  Not much, from the looks of things. He was standing next to a large boulder. No, not standing—leaning against it with his forearms braced against it and his head bowed.

  There was something so anguished in his posture that I hesitated, hovering, torn between going to him and giving him the solitude he’d obviously been looking for.

  What was that rock? Why here? I hugged myself, the certainty I’d felt when I’d faced down Odin faltering.

  I could stand up to the Allfather. I could encourage my gods to make other plans, try other strategies. But watching Loki slumped against that rock right now, it couldn’t have been more clear that our problems ran deeper than that. And I didn’t have a clue how to solve this one.

  20

  Thor

  The costume I’d assembled wasn’t half as ridiculous as the one I’d once worn to trick the giants. But then, it would have been hard to top a wedding dress. I was lucky Freya had ever forgiven me for that coarse impersonation.

  Today I wasn’t attempting to look like anyone in particular. I just needed to not look like myself.

  “What do you think?” I asked Baldur. He was the only one of my companions I’d mentioned my intentions too. It would be a lot more satisfying to return victorious and show them the results than to listen to their doubts ahead of time—if I even got a word in edgewise—and a lot less embarrassing if nothing came of this gamble.

  My younger brother looked me over with his head tipped to one side. “You can’t do much to hide your size,” he said. “But bulk isn’t that unusual in giants anyway. I’m not sure I’d recognize you without your usual ten-day shadow if I hadn’t been here to watch you shave it off.”

  I m
ock-glowered at him. “Be glad it’ll grow back. Does the glamour look natural enough?”

  He nodded. “It just lightens your usual color, in your hair and your face, not adding anything. And it should hold until you return.”

  He’d used his powers to wash out my appearance. My normally dark reddish-brown hair was now so pale it looked almost blond; my ruddy skin had turned peachy. Between that, going clean-shaven, and the fact that I hadn’t adventured in Jotunheim in quite a while, I didn’t think anyone would peg me for the Thunderer unless I gave myself away.

  “You’re leaving the hammer, I assume,” Baldur added.

  My hand dropped to Mjolnir where it hung from my belt. The thought of walking into giant territory without my greatest weapon, not even knowing I was going to retrieve it there, made my skin tighten. But that hammer would be more of a tip-off to my true identity than anything else.

  I detached it and set it by Valhalla’s wall. Amid the swords and spears mounted there, I spotted an axe. “This will do. A suitably giant-ish weapon.”

  I smiled as I removed it. Its handle was thick enough to fit on my belt exactly where I usually hung Mjolnir. I brushed my hands over the plain tunic and pants I’d chosen, dragging in a breath. “I suppose I’m ready to go, then.”

  “Are you sure it’s wise for you to go alone?” Baldur asked. “I could join you—as Father said, there’s strength in numbers.”

  I shook my head. “I couldn’t ask you—or any of the others. You’re full-blooded Aesir. I at least have the giant heritage in my blood.” Loki could pass, of course, and could shift himself into an even better disguise than I could ever manage, but this once, I wanted to make my way without the trickster smoothing the way. Let him see that I had some brains to go with my brawn.

  “Good luck, then,” Baldur said, squeezing my arm. “If you haven’t returned by tomorrow, I’ll have to sound the alarm.”