“But nothing.” Betrayal stabbed through as I swung around to glare at my mate. She had seen me. Back in Oslo, she had forced her way into my innermost, and yet she thought for even a second that Loki’s words might be anything other than poison spewed to sow suspicion between us?
“You dare question my father’s loyalties? You dare question my loyalties? You?”
“Calm down.” Bjarni moved fluidly, his shoulders widening as he stepped between Annabel and me, though he kept his pose nonthreatening. “No one’s taking his word for anything. But you’ve got to admit—it’s odd that Thor didn’t come for us when you called on him, no?”
“Thor has served Asgard for eternity. You will not smear his name in my presence,” I hissed, leveling my glare at him.
When Annabel came to stand by his side, her hand on his bicep as she looked at me with her brows locked in a matching frown to his, I narrowed my eyes further. Just look at them! They were so completely in sync. The picture-perfect pairing. They looked so at ease together, so… right. If it was not for Fate, Annabel would likely still have let him claim her and to Hel with the rest of us.
To Hel with me.
She thought I was sired by a man capable of bringing around the end of the worlds. She thought I was capable of betraying her.
I turned around before my temper got the better of me, stomping into the fog. This time, the chilly dampness of it clinging to my skin was a blessing against the pounding of blood in my temples.
“Modi!” Annabel called after me.
I ignored her, lengthening my strides as I disappeared into the mist.
They let me cool off for the better part of an hour before they came for me.
I knew they had found me before I heard their steps. That aching in my chest from my bond to Annabel eased incrementally the closer she came, and through her, I sensed Bjarni’s presence.
“Not smart to leave Loki unattended in the midst of Niflheim,” I said, not bothering to rise from the fallen log of tree I had been sitting on for the past half hour.
“Not smart to storm off into the fog on your own,” Annabel countered.
I looked over my shoulder at her just in time to see the outline of Bjarni’s hulking figure retreating back into the mist, leaving her in my care.
“I am a god. I can take care of myself."
“I know.” She hesitated for a moment, then stepped closer, stopping just a few feet from me.
I turned back to stare into the nothingness.
“Modi…” Her hesitation was present in her voice too. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Neither of us did.”
I closed my eyes as the throbbing in my blood threatened to return. “You did not mean to upset me, human? Did you not hear me? I am a god.”
I got to my feet and strode past the tree trunk, invading her personal space. She was small, an omega of stature if not of temperament, and I loomed over her. It felt good.
“Fate or no, you do not possess the ability to upset me.”
She rolled her eyes. Rolled. Her. Eyes. “Yeah. Sure. You’re a fountain of Zen—the embodiment of divine calm. Can we cut the bullshit for just a moment? Please? This is important. Can you think of any plausible reason for Thor to ignore your call?”
This again. I bared my teeth at her. “I am warning you, omega, do not repeat Loki’s poison again.”
Annabel huffed, frustration playing across her pretty features. “Modi… I know it’s going to be tough to consider, but… we know there’s a traitor in Asgard.”
“Yes. It is Loki,” I said, eyes narrowed to slits. “Which is why we have got him trussed up and are dragging him all the way back to Asgard.”
“No,” she said. “The traitor is in Asgard, and Loki hasn’t been for a very long time. I’m not saying he’s a saint, but he isn’t the traitor we’re looking for. I think it’s someone else.”
“Someone like my father?”
Annabel grimaced. “I don’t know. But I saw you when he didn’t respond to your call. You know something’s not right about it. I’m not saying we charge in and accuse the god of thunder of anything, but Modi… you gotta be prepared to at least consider the possibility. And… and if he is… the traitor… I need you to tell me you won’t turn on us.”
And there it was. She thought I was capable of turning on her. She had no concept of how profoundly she had changed my very DNA, my every waken thought and connection I had ever had—no idea how tightly I was bound to her.
Because she did not feel the same. Her innermost was split between four alphas, and I… I was the one she would have chosen to deny, had Fate let her.
Rage descended on me, a scalding counterpoint to the frosty mist clinging to my skin. I snarled, only losing myself further to the embrace of violence when she shrank back in the face of my anger.
“You think I will hurt you, omega?” My voice was twisted, unrecognizable, but I did not care. There was nothing but the fury. The betrayal.
Instincts.
“You think I, Modi the Brave, son of Thor, will hurt you? I suppose you do. If you think my father capable of betraying all nine worlds, you must think me capable of every horrible thing your little human mind can conjure up.
“There is only one thing I can do to you, omega. One single thing I can force upon you. You think I am a piece of shit? No better than Loki the Betrayer? By the Allfather—I will show you exactly what I am!”
She yipped when I grabbed for her, her hands reflexively coming up to stop me. It was easy to ignore her human weakness—but the look in her wide eyes proved much more difficult. For one agonizing heartbeat, she stared at me with genuine fear—and every ounce of strength in my body crumbled into a pile of ash.
But then, as if she saw something in my eyes too, her look of terror faded, leaving vulnerability and understanding behind.
Pity. She pities you.
I bared my teeth, anger rising again. She did not fight me when I yanked her toward me this time, and it only angered me more. Toothless. She knew I was not going to force her, not truly. She knew I was incapable. She was allowing me to act her alpha, pretending to surrender.
I tossed her over the barrel of the tree trunk I had sat on, my focus mercifully shifting at the sight of her ass thrust up and out in her tight leathers. This. This was the easy part.
I yanked her trousers down, pulling them over her boots so I could step in between her legs.
She twisted her neck to look at me over her shoulder, her lips parted in soft pants. “Modi,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”
“I do not need your permission!” I growled, though we both knew I was lying.
I pressed my palm up between her thighs, reveling in the full-body shiver that transferred from her soft flesh into mine. She was not as dry as I had expected, but she was not wet enough for me either. Another day I might have knelt behind her and sucked her clit into my mouth until her pussy gushed for me—but not today.
“You ask if I will betray you,” I rasped, rubbing my palm against her lower lips with enough force to catch her still-hidden clit. “Maybe I will. Maybe the Norns have woven it into their vile net. It will not be my fault then, will it? We are all just caught up in Fate’s game, no free will of our own. That is why you and I are tied together in the first place, little omega. Why fight what Fate has decided?”