by Marie Harte
Avarr stared at her, his eyes so dark they looked black. “Little Snow, is there something you wanted?”
“Eira, I’m hungry. Are you coming or not?” Lowe griped. The elfin valkyrie was just visiting before she returned to Midgard, where she normally lived with her mother’s people among the humans. The girl’s blood sugar had been a popular topic of conversation of late. When Lowe grew hungry, she turned bitchy. Then heads rolled, bodies crumpled, and wars started.
As much as Eira loved her warmongering buddy, Avarr’s tone warranted further discussion. She scowled and ignored Lowe’s urging to join the others in the feast hall.
“Fine. I’m going without you.” Lowe left Eira alone with the brutes.
Finally.
“What did you call me?” Eira asked and stomped to within arm’s reach of them. This close, they made her feel small, an odd feeling for a valkyrie to have. She’d been bred of Odin’s lightning and Freya’s will but born to mortal parents. The heart of gods, the flesh of humans. And now in her prime, she was a warrior strong and true with the muscle and battle sense to take on even these beasts. Her heart raced at the thought, wondering if—how—she’d defeat them if they chose to fully engage.
“I called you by your name,” Avarr rumbled. Eira meant snow in Old Norse. “And you’re little. Little. Snow.” Avarr leaned closer, and she swore he inhaled her and purred.
No. Avarr didn’t do things like that. He had to be teasing her. Another first. Except she found it annoying. She wasn’t little, by any stretch of the imagination.
Hall sighed and crossed his arms over his broad chest, bringing attention to his thick forearms.
“What? Nothing to say, Hall?” she snapped. Her stupid white hair had been responsible for Eira. She’d loved her human parents, but really? Snow? Thank the gods she hadn’t been born with buckteeth. They might have called her Bucky for an eternity.
“What is there for him to say?” Avarr asked. “It’s your name, is it not?”
“Have we caused offense? It wasn’t our intention,” Hall apologized.
As usual, the mere scent of a fight was enough to pull them back from a confrontation. So disappointing.
“Ech. I’ve better things to do than waste my time on beasts of burden.” She sneered then turned on her heel and left, wishing they’d stop her. Yell at her. Fight her. Something.
As usual, they did nothing of the kind.
She joined her friends in the feast hall, no longer pleased over their earlier victory on the battlefield, and wondered if any of the falcons would object to her using them as target practice for entertainment later. Probably. Birds could be such pussies about losing a limb.
Avarr clenched his fists. “I can’t continue like this anymore. I’m through.”
Hall caught his shoulder and stopped him when Avarr would have followed Eira inside. “Not yet.”
“Always not yet. It’s been fifty years already. I’m not getting any younger.”
Hall snorted. “You’re not getting any older either.”
Though not brothers, they shared a common beast. Freya’s children all possessed god-like abilities, and she’d gifted them with the eternal ability to shift form. While many boars, falcons, and eagles filled her halls, few battle-cats roamed the lands. Used as guides to pull her chariot and entrusted with Freya’s safety, he and Avarr had a special place of honor among all in the Norse pantheon. Try telling that to the sexy hothead who had the incessant need to wield an actual weapon. Like her friends, she disdained his lack of a sword. Apparently the ability to crush an opponent’s skull between his teeth meant little to her and the other braggart warriors needing axes and bows to do damage.
“This is intolerable. Her insults, her scathing looks.” Avarr’s eyes lit with battle lust. Not a good thing with so many provocative shifters in residence for the afternoon meal. “We end this. Right the fuck now.” He gave Hall a mean smile. “And I do mean the fuck now.”
“We’re close. Bear with it just a bit more.”
Avarr seethed, and Hall couldn’t blame him. Ever since they’d laid eyes on Eira, they’d been in a constant state of lust and frustration. While both men had often shared women before, Eira was different than the tame females they’d pleasured. Mighty, full of life, gorgeous. She possessed a silken fall of long white hair, violet eyes framed by a forest of dark lashes, and a full, provocative mouth. Her attitude got him hard every time. It was a constant exercise in restraint not to take her over his shoulder and carry her away to his den. To be his and Avarr’s forever.
Freya demanded they wait until they’d fulfilled their duty. Until they were “ready.” She’d promised them eternal riches and rewarded them constantly with overeager maids and the occasional male intent on pleasing them. Yet Eira the goddess held in the distance, their prize…when the time was right.
“Yes, Avarr. Just a bit longer,” Freya said as she materialized behind them.
“Damn it. I hate when you do that,” Avarr snarled.
Hall elbowed him in the gut. “Your apologies, Freya. You caught us unaware.”
Avarr bowed his head. “Goddess,” he muttered, no doubt choking on his rage. How he went day after day muting his emotions still baffled Hall, because the moment they had any privacy, Avarr exploded.
Freya laughed at them. “You’re both so very cute.” No one but Freya ever called them such. Ferocious. Brutal. Monstrous. Cute? Not so much. “So close, yet still the answer eludes you,” she mused.
“Answer?” Hall frowned. “You said we had to be ready. Nothing about questions needing answers.”
“And that’s part of your problem. You aren’t open. But you will be.”
She kept him in a state of hope. Hall was constantly trying to find the answer to getting Eira into his arms. For good. “Yes, Freya.”
“Don’t be glum, sweetness. You’re in luck. I’m feeling particularly joyful this day. We’re about to play the games again!”
“The games?”
“It’s been five hundred years. Ah, but it seems like just yesterday.”
“Uh, Freya, we’re only three hundred and eleven years old.” Yet he knew what she meant. Ludos Deorum—Games of the Gods. He’d heard about them for years, and now they’d play them again. He wondered if the stories the falcons and valkyries liked to tell were true…
In her excited enthusiasm, Freya glowed. Literally. Beaming with a soft blue nimbus that highlighted her golden hair, bountiful breasts, and lush hips, their goddess of fertility, war, and sex aroused passions like no other—with the exception of Eira. The only woman to ever turn Hall’s attention from his goddess. That had to mean something.
“Three hundred, three thousand. It all runs together without something meaty to sink our teeth into, eh?”
Avarr grunted.
“Yes. Avarr knows too well, hmm?” She winked at him, her blue eyes fathomless and frothing with power. “Now come with me, my lovely pets. I have need of you in Sessrumnir.” Her grand hall, set apart in Folkvang.
They followed her through a labyrinth of splendor. Vines and plant life in bold splashes of color edged into every aspect of Freya’s legendary palace. As the goddess of fertility, her reach extended beyond people and animals into crops and land. Mistress of procreation, of the earth itself.
As she passed, the vegetation grew thicker. Flowers bloomed, in grace and thanks to Freya’s love.
All in all, Hall was glad to worship this particular goddess. He’d heard Thor could be an asshole, and Frigg was too temperamental. No doubt dealing with Odin’s many infidelities took its toll on poor Frigg. A god could do worse than cheat though. Hall didn’t even want to think about what life with the trickster Loki must be like. His goddess, a creature entrusted with the nine worlds’ fertility, took it upon herself to heal with a carnal touch.
So why couldn’t she see how much he needed Eira?
She reached behind her and patted his arm. “My advice w
as not just for Avarr, dear.”
He flushed and worked harder to shield his thoughts.
They arrived in her special meeting room soon enough, but to his surprise, several gods and goddesses already filled it. Deities from multiple pantheons sat drinking, eating, and talking with good cheer around the raised dais. A cornucopia of meat, cheeses, fruits, and mead sat along the banquet, a feast fit for the most powerful of the divine.
He and Avarr exchanged a wary glance. When gods and goddesses from alternate realms put aside their differences to laugh together, an apocalypse had been known to follow. There was nothing more the gods loved to share than the fun to be had with the total annihilation of one human tribe or another.
Freya sat with a flourish in her throne made of rose petals infused with gold. Then Avarr and Hall took positions on either side of her. Their presence let the others know that to fuck with their goddess would bring serious wrath down on their heads. In Folkvang, Freya’s immense power extended to her guardians as well.
She smiled with beneficence. “Oh good. You’re all here.”
“Of course we’re here.” Mercury grinned back. “It’s time for the games to begin.”
Hall groaned to himself as he noted the deities in attendance. Athena and Mercury weren’t too bad until they started harping on which of their worshippers were better, Greeks or Romans. Even in the present day, when most humans worshipped money, Hall would have told them neither. The Norse still ruled, but he didn’t think they’d appreciate his feedback.
Horus he liked, even though the Egyptian god’s insistence on keeping the head of a falcon and body of a man kind of freaked Hall out.
Lugh annoyed him as only Celts could with their ceaseless love of fighting.
Mithra made his eyes hurt. The Persian sun god shone too brightly, all the time.
Sedna was a particular favorite, since the Inuit goddess loved animals, though she favored marine life. She gifted Hall and Avarr with a large smile before turning her attention back to Izanagi, a Japanese deity with manic-depressive issues. Deserved, in Hall’s opinion, since Izanagi had abandoned his wife in hell to rot with demons.
Cagn and Raven, both trickster gods, he trusted as much as he trusted Loki. Not at all. But Quetzalcoatl… The big bastard loved a blood sacrifice as if the Aztecs still ruled their section of Midgard—or Mesoamerica, as the humans referred to it. If not for that, Hall would have pegged Q as his favorite. The guy loved sports and played a killer game of lacrosse.
Freya clapped once, and a loud boom settled everyone into their seats and into silence.
“I know we’re missing a few of you, but we have the major players, so we’ll get started. I’m so excited to be emceeing this year,” Freya gushed.
The others showed their appreciation with fireworks and sweet-song from birds that appeared and disappeared in seconds.
“Thank you. As you know, we don’t get to play often, so we need to take advantage of this decade’s games. Otherwise, it might be half a millennium before our next opportunity. There’s been much speculation as to where we’ll be playing. As you know, we played in Rome last time. And before that, Atlantis.”
“And we all know how that turned out.” Sedna shook her head.
“Yes, well. We’ll have to be more careful that we don’t sink any islands if we lose, now won’t we?” The look she directed at Athena had her flushing.
“Hey, that was my uncle. I know Poseidon can be a little hotheaded.”
“A little.” Mercury snorted.
Hall silently agreed.
“In any case,” Freya interrupted before an argument could start, “we’ve come to a consensus among your primaries. We’re going to be holding the next Ludos Deorum in Midgard.”
Raven blinked. “Uh, we kind of knew that already, Freya. Where exactly?”
Freya frowned. “Well, technically we could have held the games in Asgard or Niflheim. So, really, Midgard is a bit more specific.”
Hall bit back a grin. None of the gods like playing in their own heavens and hells. Midgard—the middle realm, the human realm—was an obvious choice. His goddess loved stringing them along.
“Oh, get to it, Freya. I have an earthquake to get back to,” Izanagi snapped.
Mithra rolled his eyes. “I have a drought. Whatever. I’m in no hurry to rush back to a lack of worshippers and too much work to do.”
“What he said,” Cagn agreed.
Freya held out a hand, and a puff of rose petals fluttered over the gathering. “And our next location for the Games of the Gods is…the United States!”
Raven beamed. His home turf. “Outstanding.”
Q frowned. “We couldn’t stretch that south at all?”
“I’m sorry, Q. Maybe next time.”
“Damn.”
Hall felt for the guy. But from what he’d heard, once the games started, things could get bloody. Q had a tendency to forget it was a game and go all-out Armageddon.
“Who’s refereeing this one?” Athena asked.
“Viracocha.” A creator god out of the Andes. That seemed to mollify Q somewhat. “Now, let’s eat, drink, and be merry. And place bets of course.” Freya turned to wink up at Hall. “My money’s on our team. I’m taking the first challenge.”
The pantheons had different gods in charge of each round. Freya apparently had round one. He could only imagine who’d be assigned round two. Loki, if he had to make a guess. Best to get the trickster out front and out of the way before he started on grand notions of world domination…again. Once the pantheons had chosen their representatives, those representatives in turn would select their human pawns. Then the fun really started.
He and Avarr remained by Freya’s side in Sessrumnir for a few hours before she left the festivities.
She stopped in the hallway bridging the party from the rest of the palace. “Thank you, my pets. You’ve been wonderful, as usual.” She kissed Hall’s cheek then Avarr’s. Heat strummed from her touch to Hall’s groin, making it impossible not to think of sex. Of Eira.
“Almost. You’re so very, very close.” She gave him and Avarr a look he didn’t understand. And then, in a blink, she vanished.
“I really hate the pop-out. As much as the pop-in.” Avarr cupped himself. “Fuck, I’m hard. Let’s get out of here.”
Hall agreed wholeheartedly. “You said it.”
They left the hall and took a few side stairs to the warriors’ wing. Mostly falcons and eagles were in residence, but they passed a trio of battle-cats as well. Good men, fighters who knew how to hold their instincts in check, to hunt when needed, and how to embrace their felines and seriously nap when the mood struck.
He and Avarr entered their chamber, and Hall finally relaxed. Though still half-hard, the walk had pretty much cured his erection. Even as thoughts of Eira brought it back.
“This wait is killing me. She’d better be worth it.” He tore off his shirt, suddenly overheated, and flung himself back on his bed, a handsome construct big enough to fit three of him.
“Hmm.” He heard Avarr moving around the room. “I think I know what’s been holding us back.”
Exhausted after being on constant guard all day, Hall mumbled, “Oh?” before letting himself drift in a relaxing haze.
“Yeah, but I’m going to fix it.”
The bed dipped, and Hall blinked up into dark eyes as Avarr descended. “Avarr?”
When his friend’s lips touched his, Hall froze. Though they’d engaged in sex together with others, they normally didn’t touch each other all that much. Not like this. But the contact turned him rock hard, and he was kissing his best friend back.
Then Avarr’s hand snaked between them, and Hall forgot everything but how fucking good it felt to be in the arms of someone he loved.
Find out more in Beasts of Burden
www.FatedDesires.com
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From USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan’s Montgomery Ink Series
Ink Inspired
Shepard Montgomery loves the feel of a needle in his hands, the ink that he lays on another, and the thrill he gets when his art is finished, appreciated, and loved. At least that’s the way it used to be. Now he’s struggling to figure out why he’s a tattoo artist at all as he wades through the college frat boys and tourists who just want a thrill, not a permanent reminder of their trip. Once he sees the Ice Princess walk through Midnight Ink’s doors though, he knows he might just have found the inspiration he needs.
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www.FatedDesires.com
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From Heather Long’s Martini Sisterhood series
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