by Nora Ash
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.”
I gritted my teeth against a particularly vicious gust of freezing wind, the chill in the air doing much to cool the heat rising in my cheeks. I wanted to snarl at him that my brother’s fate was very much my concern, that none of them had felt any more fucking pull to the human girl than they would any other omega—
But I didn’t. He was right. And what did I care? Magni had already mated her. There was no coming back from that.
I loved my brother, and I too would die for him like Bjarni would for his blood, but he’d chosen how he’d live his last days: hunting down a crackpot prophecy, chained to a woman who welcomed his enemies into her snatch.
I didn’t answer. There really wasn’t anything to say. My only job was to bring Loki back to Odin and ensure Magni’s mate didn’t die in the process. That was all I needed to care about.
Eleven
Annabel
It wasn’t until we got to Oslo, Norway’s bustling capital, that it dawned on me we had an unexpected problem on our hands.
And not before some kid stopped in the waist-high snow along the pavement we were walking down and pointed at us, eyes alight with wonder as he chirped happily at his less-enthusiastic looking mother.
Up until then it’d been too bitterly cold for me to give much thought to the hows of our plan, my sole focus being on getting on a plane to Seattle ASAP.
“Uh… guys?” I said, ducking into a narrow alley to shield us from the relentless wind digging into every exposed part of my skin. Both alphas followed, Modi with an irritated scowl. If he wasn’t careful, his face would permanently lock up in that expression.
“We’ve got to change outfits,” I said once they boxed me in from both sides, shielding me from any stray winds blowing into the alley.
“You want to go shopping?” It was a credit to Bjarni’s mild temperament that he only sounded gently puzzled at what he clearly saw as some sort of womanly desire for pretties in the midst of our life-and-death quest.
I rolled my eyes nonetheless. “No, I don’t want to go shopping, but in case you haven’t noticed, we all look like we just stepped out of a Viking reenactment. There is no way any sane airline is gonna let us board a plane like this—especially not when they realize your weapons aren’t made of Styrofoam. Also, we need money for the tickets. And for passports! Oh, lord, what on earth are we gonna do about passports?”
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about that part. If one was to travel without magic portals and transdimensional rainbows, one needed traveling documents.
And a credit card. Mine were still back in Iceland, and I had a fairly good idea that neither god had thought of such mundane necessities either.
“Oh my god, what are we gonna do?” I hid my face in my hands, trying my best not to let hopelessness overwhelm me. If we ended up failing Saga and Magni over something as ridiculous as this…
“What is she talking about?” Modi rumbled from somewhere above me.
“Travel papers,” Bjarni said, his voice as calm as ever as he pulled me into his body and rubbed my back. “And coin for clothes that’ll let us blend in, plus the fare.”
“Humans,” Modi muttered, and something about his tone made me pretty sure he had a good eye-roll. I lowered my hands to glare up at him.
“I’ve got coin,” he said, touching a hand to the leather purse on his belt. “Enough to buy us any papers and clothes we may need.”
“Yeah? Is that Norwegian Krona, or American dollars?” I bit.
“It’s gold,” he said, an arrogant eyebrow creeping up on his forehead at my lip. “I’ve yet to see a human turn down gold coins.”
I stared at him for a long moment. Then I turned to look at Bjarni. “How long has it been since this guy was on Earth?”
The blond alpha chuckled and lifted his chin at Modi. “Things have changed a bit down here. Regular traders don’t accept silver or gold. We need access to the local currency, and travel papers take a long time to procure. Unless you have a little völve handy, of course.” His gaze shifted back down to me as he gave me a wink.
“A what now?”
“A witch. Or a human girl touched by Fate and blessed with magic so strong she can stop the end of the world,” he said, his voice pitching lower as his gaze turned heated. “With a little help, of course.”
I stared at him. “I’m sorry, are you suggesting I somehow pull three passports and several grand out of my ass?”
“Well. Not your ass,” he said, a wicked grin spreading on his annoyingly handsome face. “I’m sure Modi can guide your magic, should you need it. And I’m more than happy to provide any top-up of power you may require.”
Echoes of what it’d been like the last time he helped me reenergize flickered before my mind’s eye, and my mate-bonds ached as the memory of the hopelessness I’d felt afterward set in. I opened my mouth to tell him exactly where he could stick his top-up, but Modi interrupted before I could even get a word in.
“We didn’t just drag you over Bifrost and down the mountains to listen to you complain. How is your strength? Can you provide these travel documents, or do you need another rutting?”
The redhead’s voice was harsh, but he did have a point. With a final stare at him, I closed my eyes and called on the golden magic within. It rose willingly enough—not as powerfully as right after Bjarni had tended to me, but it still filled me with a strength that seemed to hum through my bones.
I released my grip on it and let it settle back into the depths of my being. “I’m fine. But I don’t know how to whip up passports and money out of the blue.”
“I’ll guide you. But we need some paper,” Modi said, looking around the alley. “Ah, that should do.”
I raised an eyebrow as he walked to the nearest dumpster and pulled out some scraps of what looked like burger wrappings without flinching. When he handed them to me, I did my best not to grimace. If Asgard’s mighty son of Thor could handle a little dumpster diving without whining, so could I.
Once I’d accepted the trash, Modi rubbed his palms together before wrapping one hand around the back of my neck. “Call your magic. Envision what we need.”
“I… don’t know how exactly a passport looks,” I said, frowning. “The gist of it, sure, but there are so many details—”
“You don’t need anything but a general idea,” Modi snapped. He dug his fingers into my tendons a little tighter. “Focus.”
“Well, excuse me for checking,” I grumbled before I closed my eyes to once again call on my magic.
Modi’s presence was like electricity sparking in every cell of my bloodstream, but it was gentler than last time. He pushed me forward at a calmer speed this time, wrapping golden ribbons around the image of a passport with my face I conjured. His presence tugged on mine, swathing me in a warmth that made even the chill of the Fimbulwinter fade from my consciousness.
“Like this.” It was a low rumble, more of a sensation than a sound, but it had Modi’s trademark impatience layered within. “You’ve got to connect closer with your magic.”
I tried my best to do as he instructed, but I didn’t understand what he meant by closer. As a result, the golden light
within me rose in a sharp wave, the careful threads Modi had pulled from it washed away in an instant.
“Odin’s beard!” Impatience turned to frustration. “Like this!”
The heat around me intensified, and suddenly red light wrapped around the gold and I felt him.
I’d felt him before too—his presence; his impatience; his strength as he'd guided me; but not like this. This was… intimate. This was his essence inside of me, his innermost core opened for me.
Curious, I followed the flow of red magic back to its source, and there he was. Warmth glowed against me as bright as the sun and as gentle as the softest caress. It radiated all around me, swept me up, and hugged me close in the most tender of embraces. And finally, I understood.
It was him. Modi’s very spirit.
“What in Hel’s name are you doing?” The not-a-voice echoed with anger, and something shoved at me, pushing me away from the light and back into myself.
It was such a shock my eyes snapped open, taking me back to the alley in Oslo between the alphas, one of whom was breathing rapidly, his chest heaving as if he’d just come off a battlefield.
“W-What was that?” I croaked, staring wide-eyed at Modi’s furious face. “Was that… Did I see… you?”
“Don’t ever do that again!” he snarled, teeth bared and eyes wild. “Ever!”
“What happened?” Bjarni’s voice was calm, but he placed a warning hand on Modi’s shoulder, bracing him.
If Modi registered his enemy’s touch, he didn’t show it. He only stared down at me, and in the depths of his blue eyes I saw the pure shock he was hiding behind his anger. He hadn’t known that could happen. If he had, I was absolutely certain he’d have never bared his innermost self, least of all to me.
“Nothing,” I said without taking my eyes off Modi, the overbearing alpha with a core as soft and gentle as a summer breeze. “I had a little... hiccup. Let’s try again. For Magni.”
He didn’t move for a long breath. But then he wrapped his hand back around my neck, and I closed my eyes just as his magic barreled through my veins.
I gritted my teeth as he forced my power to obey his command, no longer showing me what to do. It was still unbearably intimate, his presence inside of me, his aggression forcing my innermost to submit, but I didn’t fight him. I’d glimpsed something that, should the world know what I’d seen, he’d be done for. There was no room for softness in Asgard, least of all for the thunder god’s son. And right now, he had to assert his dominance over me to ensure I knew my place.
Had he been any other alpha, he’d have pushed me to my knees and fucked me until I begged for mercy, so a little magical ravaging? I’d take it, and be grateful too.
It was as if he sensed my submission, because at my lack of fight his presence in me became less painful. The red light bending my golden magic exerted less pressure, its roughness easing with every passing breath.
By the end he eased out of me almost gently, the sensation as his presence withdrew almost one of loss.
He released the back of my neck and I opened my eyes once more.
Three blue passports and a credit card lay in my hands where the junk food wrappers had been before.
“You okay, sweetie?” Bjarni rumbled behind me, the press of his strong body comforting as he supported my weight. Only then did I feel my lightheadedness and weakened knees. “You’re shaking.”
“Her magic is low,” Modi answered for me, drawing my attention back to his face. “I won’t deny she is powerful, but she burns out fast. Too fast.”
“Luckily we know how to fix that,” Bjarni said, unconcerned with the tension in the air between me and Modi. He brushed his lips against the top of my head, and once again I thought how easy my life could have been if he’d been the only alpha woven with my own life thread.
Staring up at Modi, I wondered what it would be like if he truly was my fifth like Magni seemed to take for granted.
There was gentleness in both Saga and Magni, that much I knew from the tender connection we shared, but I also understood that it was reserved for me. To the rest of the world they were your typical alphas—rough, domineering, and ruthless.
Modi… Modi was different. The anger still flickering in his blue eyes as he glared down at me ran deep, and it wasn’t grounded in run-of-the-mill sexism as I’d first assumed. What kind of damage had been done to him before he built his shield of arrogance and fury around that soft core?
I pressed in closer against Bjarni, closing my eyes to steady my mind as much as my weakened body. For now, it didn’t matter—only Saga and Magni’s lives did.
“Let’s get moving,” I said, straightening with a determined breath. “We’ve got to get some appropriate clothes and then get on that plane.”
Twelve
Modi
Human garments had changed a lot since I last visited Earth.
I hadn’t noticed how the humans had stared at us when we entered the large settlement of Oslo; my focus had been on shielding the omega from the harsh weather and not getting run over by the metal carriages that seemed to be everywhere.
It was only when we entered an establishment carrying articles of clothing and the female shopkeeper stared open-mouthed at the three of us that I begrudgingly had to agree with Annabel’s point. We needed new garments in order to blend in.
I glanced at my brother’s mate out the corner of my eye and scowled at the way my gut clenched. I could still feel the shiver of sensation in the very core of my magic from where she’d touched me in her uninvited explorations. She’d violated my most inner self, watched me laid completely bare, and the knowledge that she might have seen all my secrets, all my shameful weaknesses, filled me with rage. I didn’t know how much she’d observed, how much she’d understood, but that look in her eyes after…
A shiver traveled up my spine, and I gritted my teeth against the gentlest brush of pleasure in it.
No. Nothing about it had felt good!
Not even after, when she submitted so beautifully to my fury it had my dick throbbing as I forced her magic to bend for my will.
“Hi there!” Annabel’s chirpy voice drew my attention from my once-again rising cock as she approached the girl behind the counter.
“Sorry for the crazy outfits—we were doing some Viking LARPing at a meet outside of town, and someone apparently thought it was funny to steal our clothes. Long story short, do you have anything that can fit those two?” She indicated me and Bjarni with a jut of her chin.
The shopkeeper smiled, a friendly expression crossing her features. “Americans?” she said, slipping into English with very little hesitation. “Yes, we have a good selection of alpha clothes, and something for you too. I’m sorry someone stole from you. That’s not how we usually like to treat visitors.”
“I’m sure it’s just someone taking a prank a bit too far,” Annabel said with a wave of her hand as she made her way to the racks of garments. “But with the weather as it is, it’d be nice not to miss our plane. Who knows when they’re shutting down the airports? They haven’t yet, right? We’ve been without Wi-Fi for a few days.”
“Not yet, but they’re talking about it. It’s crazy—we never get such bad snowstorms so late in the season,” the shopkeeper said before she turned her attention to me and Bjarni. “Do you two need some assistance?”
“Yes,” I said, because it was becoming quite obvious I had no idea what was appropriate for this age. I barely understood half the words Annabel had used, but I got the gist that she was asking about how the weather might affect our travels.
I set my jaw, not looking forward to the roughened seas. At least I’d been assured the journey to the New World would be faster than the months it’d taken back when the humans first crossed.
The girl pulled several garments from the metal racks, eyeballing me as she picked each piece. Eventually she handed me a large pile. “Here. That should get you started.”
“Thank you,” I grunted, reaching fo
r my belt instead of taking the clothes from her. When I dropped my leather trousers and stepped out of them, the shop girl turned beet-red, a choking noise coming from her throat.
“S-Sir—”
“Oh my God, you barbarian!” Annabel practically leapt in front of me from wherever she’d been looking for her own garments, shielding my legs from the other girl as she grabbed the clothes from her arms. “I’m so sorry! You—come here!”
The last bit was clearly directed at me, and I narrowed my eyes at being commanded by an omega, of all things. Before I could voice a reprimand, she’d grabbed me by the arm and was tugging me toward the back of the shop.
“What is wrong with you? You can’t just drop your pants in front of a stranger!” Annabel hissed as she did her best to shove me into a small enclosure shielded by a curtain.
“It’s her job to dress people,” I said, reflexively closing my arms around the clothes she shoved at me before she ripped the curtain shut between us. “She’s seen men in stages of undress before.”
The omega muttered something that sounded like a curse. “Look, times have changed, okay? These days, you’re expected to be a big boy and manage your own clothes shopping. And you’re certainly not supposed to flash some poor girl working minimum wage! Just… try on what she got and let me know if you need a different size of anything. I think it’s best if you don’t try to talk to her again.”
I scoffed at how ridiculous she was being over my bare legs, but whatever. She was more used to this era than I was.
I tried on multiple pieces of the foreign garments, eventually settling for a tight-fitting gray tunic with buttons all the way down the front, and some equally tight, stiff trousers in a blue fabric. There was a mirror in the enclosure, and as far as I could tell, I looked like a person with clothes.
“This will do,” I said, ripping the curtain back open before grabbing for my sword I’d propped against one of the walls. “Go pick something out for yourself so we can board a ship.”
