The redheaded god stared at him. “Loki,” he whispered, his voice low and angry.
“Mostly,” Bjarni agreed. “Idunn has a weakness for flattery.”
“Idunn?” I croaked I remembered some of the more obscure texts I’d read on Norse mythology. “The goddess of youth? You gave me one of her apples? Am I… immortal?”
“Well, you shouldn’t age, so long as you eat an apple once a year,” Bjarni said. “Idunn wasn’t sure about the effects on a human. Made me swear I’d never offer one to a human to find out. Of course, I didn’t give it to you specifically to find out what would happen.”
He looked very pleased with himself, but I was still too busy processing having just eaten a fruit that would potentially keep me alive for eternity to praise him for his wit.
Besides, if we didn’t manage to stop Ragnarök, no one was going to live for that much longer. Not even the gods.
Eventually even the concept of immortality drifted to the back of my mind as exhaustion and the rocking motion of Modi’s gait lulled me to sleep.
Ten
Modi
My kidneys still ached as we made our way off Bifrost and into Midgard, high on a windswept mountainside in the land I knew as Norge.
Bjarni insisted we call it Norway, reminding me how Annabel spoke English and so should we when we were around her. I didn’t care enough to argue, even if a spiteful part of me wanted to take every opportunity to make the feral little omega as uncomfortable as possible.
She wasn’t particularly strong, but during her tantrum as she hung over my shoulder screaming like a banshee, she’d had impeccable aim. I grimaced and shifted the sleeping girl in my arms, momentarily considering placing her back over my shoulder so I could rub my back where bruises from her tiny fists were undoubtedly blooming. But that would mean placing her sweetly perfumed nethers within scenting range once more.
“Want me to take her?” Bjarni asked. “You’ve carried her for hours, and the trek down this mountain isn’t gonna be easy with this storm.”
I glanced from the howling snowstorm around us to his bearded face already covered in flakes of snow, entertaining an errant thought that I should have let mine grow too.
“No. You’re carrying our supplies. I’ll carry the human—at least until we find civilization.”
Under normal circumstances I’d have suggested we make camp and wait out the storm, but this was Ragnarök. There would be no respite until the world had ended.
For a moment the blond man’s eyes narrowed, his face growing taut as if he were going to protest. Surprisingly anger rose in my gut, making me clutch the woman in my arms tighter without meaning to.
We stood in silence for a long, drawn-out breath, until finally my brain kicked back into gear as I realized what the Hel I was doing.
Idiot!
I practically thrust the sleeping female at Bjarni, ripping his weighty backpack off his shoulders in the same movement. She mumbled at the rough pass, moving weakly in protest, but the other alpha cooed and cuddled her in his arms as if she were an oversized baby until she settled down again.
“Pass me one of the blankets,” he said, not looking up from her sleeping face. “I don’t want her to get cold while we descend.”
This—this right here was why I’d never taken a mate.
I dug out the blanket from the backpack and tossed it at Annabel, letting him figure out how to wrap her up himself.
Weak and demanding as omegas were, the real problem with them was how they affected otherwise sane, battle-hardened warriors. I’d fought Bjarni more than once, and he was a formidable foe, powerful, strong, and commanding. Yet now he was fucking swaddling a grown-ass woman, doing his very best not to disturb her sleep, purring like some absurdly overgrown cat tending to his kitten.
Not to mention how my own brother had lowered himself to mate a human and share her with our sworn enemies, all because of that sweet call from her cunt.
Sure, he’d claimed it was about some noble quest to save our family, but the moment he introduced her, I knew the truth. She might be human, but her scent was ensnaring on a level unlike any omega I’d experienced before. I was as much an alpha as my stupid brother—I knew exactly what had drawn him to her, despite the ridiculousness of such a low match. I felt it tug on me too, that delicious urge to give in to primitive instincts interwoven with my very DNA.
That was the danger of omegas—they could take a loyal, dedicated, honorable man and twist him until he was nothing but a slave to her cunt.
I’d seen firsthand what damage a honeyed snatch could do, and I was still young when I swore I’d never answer an omega’s call.
I’d stuck to that oath right up until Magni needed me to protect his ill-gotten mate, and I would continue once I ensured she was safely by his side once more.
Regardless of how much my muscles twitched at how Bjarni embraced her.
It was only natural, I assured myself. She was my brother’s mate, and it was my task to protect her. Seeing her fondled by another alpha was bound to aggravate every defensive instinct in my body.
“Doesn’t it bother you?” I asked as I began our descent, my voice more acrid than I’d planned. “Doting on a woman who doesn’t carry your mark?”
“I’ll mark her soon enough,” Bjarni said with a shrug as he followed, his steps more careful now he was carrying the omega. “I’ve waited for her for a thousand years. She’s here now—why would I not care for her just because my claim has yet to mark her neck? She was mine from the moment she was born.”
He sounded so completely at ease, as if there was nothing wrong with this entire, insane prophecy they were all yammering about. As if sharing a mate with his brothers—and my brother—wasn’t a problem at all.
“And the fact that she already carries two mate claims is just fine and dandy? Or that on top of the alphas who’ve already taken her, she’ll happily welcome you and that cold brother of yours between her thighs, and who knows how many more?”
I continued as I ducked under a fir branch laden with snow, holding it aside for him so he could pass without dropping Annabel. “It doesn’t strike you as a strange idea that Ragnarök itself, which was foretold before either of us were in existence, can be averted by a little human girl—so long as she ties five gods to her side? Not to mention no one has heard of this prophecy before now. Why are you blindly okay with this insanity?”
He was quiet for a little while, and I wasn’t entirely sure if he was trying to control his temper or considering his answer.
Finally, he said, “I don’t know why you’re happy to believe our entire world and everyone we love is doomed, but not that there might be a way to stop it. You felt her magic when you guided her to Freya. Have you met many mortals with such power? I’ve been in Midgard for centuries. I have met no one like Annabel.
“I love my brothers more than life itself. I would die for them. Why would it be odd that I’d share my woman with them too? Magni I could have done without, but who am I to argue with a Norn?
"Fates or no, from the first moment I smelled this omega, I knew she was mine. What I don’t get is why it bothers you this fucking much. If you don’t feel the pull, then regardless of what Magni wants, you’re not her fifth. Once we’ve freed our brothers from Valhalla, you can return to fight the Jotunn army with your beloved daddy and leave Mimir’s prophecy to us.”