Ever After

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Avarr laughed. “It’s all good, Hall. Just think. We can finally stalk and hunt down our prey. We’re ready. Time to melt our Little Snow.”

  ****

  Eira spent the next few days keeping a wary eye on the visitors Freya allowed to roam Folkvang. She didn’t like it and neither did her sister valkyries, though the birds and battle-cats seemed to handle them well enough. Everything in Eira demanded she deal with the smug centaurs and sneering gorgons plaguing the feast hall. But Freya had demanded everyone play nice.

  Eira hated nice.

  As much as she hated being spied on.

  “What do you want?” she yelled and whirled around, only to find herself face-to-face with…no one. But she knew someone had been watching her, as they’d been since the visitors arrived.

  Itching to fight and relieve her frustration, she stomped away from the palace and met with Lowe and the others for a round of training in the field beyond the snow forest. Sun and warmth covered most of Asgard, but Freya liked to keep her pets happy, and many of them loved the cold.

  While falcons and ravens fought overhead in massive air skirmishes, Eira took her bow and arrows and spear and hiked through the snow forest. She passed a few frost giants—the only giant friends the gods had—as well as polar bears, ice owls, and snow leopards. Beautiful cats, they smartly kept their distance. Eira might smell human, but she also resonated energy.

  An odd contrast, her frail flesh, soft and supple, over taut muscle, god-power, and strength. She could die, but it took an awful lot to kill her. What would instantly end a mortal did nothing but tickle her. She’d take a day or two to heal then be back to full strength. Only a full-on beheading could sever her tie to her goddess.

  Once through the snow forest, she found her friends messing around. After a few hours beating on Lowe and a few falcons brave enough to challenge valkyries, she waved at her friends and walked away, hoping for a little peace and quiet.

  Now that she’d sated her battle lust, she wanted to go deep into herself and fix her internal vulnerabilities. A valkyrie prided herself on her ability to harness all her strength. Cunning, speed, agility—Eira had it all. So why did she constantly feel disquiet from deep inside herself?

  She wished she knew. Leaving behind the training fields, she took herself off into the golden sway of the Sea of Grass and found a large, clear lake by Thor’s mountains. Since the god and most of his people had been spending more time in Midgard lately, she didn’t worry about encroaching on his territory. Besides, he liked Freya’s warriors. A little too much, rumor had it.

  She smirked, amused at the apparent weakness in men. Gods, giants, human, or other, men the worlds over were often led by their dicks it seemed.

  Not all men.

  Her smile faded. Hall and Avarr didn’t seem to be led by much of anything, only duty.

  “And what’s wrong with duty?” she asked herself as she stripped down to nothing and plunged into the cold water of the lake.

  Swimming and letting the soothing water surround her, she concentrated on why that particular pair of battle-cats bothered her so much. They’d never been offensive. Far from it. She’d never seen them fight, so she wouldn’t call them terrifying. For some reason, everyone seemed to respect their supposed prowess. Battle-cats by nature were an aggressive species. Yet Hall and Avarr never acted like anything but gentlemen.

  She wrinkled her nose and continued to float. Bah. Gentlemen. That was her problem. She wanted berserkers, battle-hungry monsters, death dealers. She couldn’t help it. A valkyrie could only be satisfied with strength. Not just the appearance of it, but an actual show of fortitude. For all that Hall and Avarr held prominence in Freya’s court, they had yet to show Eira that they deserved it.

  If Freya knew Eira had doubts about her pets, she’d throw a hissy. Eira sighed and tamped down her frustration. It wasn’t the goddess’s fault Eira wondered about them. Hel’s bones, Eira questioned everything. She blamed it on Odin’s intelligence and Freya’s stubbornness—both gifts attributed to her, courtesy of her otherworldly parents.

  In an attempt to find peace, she pushed all the negative thoughts from her and floated, taking respite from her nerves and letting her mind wander. Inevitably, fantasies of bloody battles turned into images of Hall and Avarr naked and grappling. With each other then with her.

  She sighed and would have immersed herself in another fantasy of a rip-roaring three-way when her senses told her she was no longer alone. Calmly pushing herself to the edge of the lake, she rose from the water and picked up her spear, not at all concerned with her nudity.

  Then she saw them. Three pushy centaurs and two randy fauns.

  “Ah, look, Hero. A snack.” One of the centaurs laughed.

  “I bet she tastes good. I’m hungry.” Another reared back, showing an impossibly large phallus that was getting nowhere near her.

  “I hear the lightning makes them crackle when they come,” one of the fauns mused. Horny bastard. “Let’s find out.”

  She smiled, more than ready to take care of these morons. Then two minotaurs arrived. Odd, because she hadn’t realized Athena and Mercury had brought any with them. They made decent enough opponents, she supposed. With the head of a bull and the body of a man, the minotaur frightened most with its size and strength. But nothing scared Eira. She thrilled at the chance to fight against overwhelming odds.

  The battle would be anything but easy. The Greeks and Romans had apparently allied themselves together, for whatever reason. No matter. She readied to handle them.

  Until a handful of mummies and wadjets—giant venomous snakes—arrived behind their priest, who smiled widely. The Egyptians, too? What the Frigg? Since when did other pantheons invade her goddess’s lands and attack her people without permission?

  Uneasy as to what this might mean for Freya, Eira gripped her spear tight. Then all thought left as one of the minotaurs launched himself at her, and the fight was on.

  Chapter Three

  Granted, valkyries kicked serious ass, but even Eira admitted she was tiring. A four-on-one fight might be fair in Asgard, especially since her power tripled near her goddess. In its own right, her power could normally crush lesser beings. But against three centaurs, two fauns, two minotaurs, four mummies, and two wadjets, not to mention the cheerleading priest, she wasn’t faring well.

  They came at her in pairs when one minotaur was enough to give pause.

  She had an assortment of scratches and bruises, but she’d severed the legs of the fauns and taken out the eyes of one centaur. The other one that she’d nearly gelded refused to re-engage. The asshole.

  “You fight well for a female,” the priest said, sounding surprised. “And especially well for a weak-willed Nordic peasant.”

  She’d been using her spear, but now she rolled closer to her bow and arrows. She ducked the centaur standing over them and rolled under him then sliced into his belly. He screamed and reared back, and she grabbed her weapons, now able to strike more enemies with speed. She let fly two arrows, piercing the priest in the throat and one of the wadjets through its opened mouth. Then the minotaurs teamed up and grabbed her in their big, fat, hairy hands.

  “Time to see how well you stand up to getting gored, little pretty.” One of them leered at her while the other dragged his sharp-ass horn across her chest. Hel’s bones, it hurt.

  But she’d been trained to handle worse, and she refused to cry out.

  She didn’t have to, apparently, because someone did it for her. Though it wasn’t so much a cry as a loud roar. The minotaurs dropped her like a hot coal and turned to confront something coming very, very fast. She heard the rush of heavy feet and the crackle of trees falling. Trees falling? Something big then.

  A minotaur went flying. Then the other landed hard into the lake.

  She blinked up to see a black battle-cat clawing through a mummy while the remaining centaur tried to creep up on him. A second battle-cat, also black, suddenly lost all its color. It di
sappeared and reappeared in an instant to tear into the centaur, scattering horse legs one way and a human torso another.

  She had no idea if the centaurs could regenerate or not, but she didn’t want to get on Freya’s shit list. She’d been maiming, not killing. These cats… She gaped, sensing a familiar energy about the pair. “Avarr? Hall?” One of them glanced down at her and snarled, and she hastily scooted back on the ground.

  It was Avarr, and he looked plenty enraged. No wonder everyone gave them such respect. He turned to confront the mummies and wadjet remaining, in addition to the shrieking priest trying to weave a spell while blood poured out his throat. She watched as what had to be eight hundred pounds of wild battle-cat crunched and batted through his enemies. Hall joined him, making short work of their opponents. They didn’t stop at those on their feet. The fauns and wounded centaurs also received no mercy.

  As the fight wound down, she crept back to her bow and arrows and notched one.

  From out of the ground in front of the priest, a dark hole appeared. She had no use for mages and let the arrow fly, notching it in his throat, hoping to stop his spell. He tried to pull it free, so she sent another next to it, lodging it in his neck. He toppled over, dark blood seeping from his wounds.

  But the dark hole remained until a giant scarab crawled out of it. Bright red with neon blue pinchers and a venomous bile it could project at will, the scarab had been used with real effectiveness during many an Egyptian encounter. It was the juggernaut of the Egyptian pantheon’s arsenal, and three times the size of one battle-cat.

  Not sure if she’d need to get help, because her arrows would do it no damage, she watched Hall and Avarr circle the thing, the great cats eyeing it like hapless prey.

  “Guys? This thing is lethal. We should probably get help.” Valkyries were mighty in battle. But more, they were smart. Unlike berserkers, who threw themselves into a fight with brute strength and little thought but plowing everything down, a valkyrie survived by her wits as much as her weapons. Tacticians of the highest order, she and her sisters had Odin’s grit and Freya’s love of battle ingrained into their bones.

  Hall turned to snort at her, and the anger in his face stunned her. How she could tell him apart from Avarr she didn’t know, but she could. Despite looking identical, Hall seemed to have a thinner pattern of black stripes over his already dark fur, while Avarr’s pattern was broader. Even in their feline forms, they stood a head taller than her and looked to be the size of two grizzlies in length.

  For the first time since she’d met them, she wondered if she’d be able to withstand the pair should they decide to come after her. Not sure how to feel about that—chagrined, aroused, unnerved—she watched them try to take down a scarab all by themselves. Wanting to help but not sure how, she waited while they seemed to toy with the colossal war machine.

  Both took a few hits of bile, singing their fur, but Hall struck between the scarab’s heavy armor at a chink between his back plates. Then Avarr leapt onto its back and dug faster. The scarab danced and shifted, skittering warnings as it knocked down more trees, decimating the forest.

  Man, Freya was going to be so mad about this. Eira hoped the goddess would keep in mind that she hadn’t started any of it. Not really. Finding her clothing, Eira put her battle skirt and tunic on, ignoring her bleeding wounds. They weren’t healing fast, no doubt due to that nasty toxin fauns and centaurs liked to use on their weapons.

  But she felt better being covered. Around the enemy she hadn’t cared. Around Hall and Avarr she felt…vulnerable. And she didn’t like it. Seeing them damage an enemy that should have taken half the valkyries in residence to subdue didn’t sit right.

  They finished off the scarab, amazingly little the worse for wear, and then turned to her.

  Uh oh.

  Hall licked his lips, managing to swallow his grimace. The scarab tasted like burnt offal. Along with Avarr, he remained in his feline form and approached Eira. Their valkyrie was covered in blood and scratches, yet she glowed like the purest snow. He smelled her blood, her power, and wanted to lick her up.

  The wary study she gave him and Avarr felt so damn good. For years they’d been dying to show her their true selves. Not the “gentle kitties” she’d often accused them of being, but battle-hardened warriors who could and did fight with ease. Though he loved his goddess, her mandated constraints when dealing with Eira had frustrated him to no end. But no longer.

  He cocked his head at Avarr and signaled they should surround her. In their beastly shapes, they didn’t communicate with words, but with body language. The slightest shift of a whisker often said more than words could.

  Avarr nodded and hissed, and Eira stiffened. She gripped her spear tight, her bow now over her shoulder along with her quiver of arrows. She made a fetching sight in her battle gear—the short skirt and sleeveless tunic that showed off her muscle. Yet it was the confused look in her eyes that held him—lust, bewilderment, and caution—and made him want to pounce.

  “Hold.” She lifted her spear, and Avarr growled. “Back off. I want to talk to you. Shift back.”

  Avarr curled his lip, as did Hall. It was past time Eira learned she wasn’t in charge.

  They were.

  Avarr pounced, but the spry valkyrie managed to avoid being flattened. She rolled away and came to her feet in one swift movement. That she had yet to throw her spear told Hall she had no intention of hurting them. No. Their Little Snow wanted them. He could scent her need. The mix of passion and power pulled him, as it did Avarr.

  He chirped, and Avarr moved, ready to take her down.

  Eira surprised them both. The blasted woman threw her spear. He easily batted it away…and watched her turn on her heel and run like lightning into the woods still standing beyond the lake. Time to give chase. Finally. He grinned.

  Avarr nodded. He’d been waiting an eternity to chase down this particular prey. He and Hall exchanged a glance, and then he bounded after her in pursuit while Hall rounded the hill to close in on her from the other side. Unfortunately, as large as he was in his feline form, he had trouble following her through the many twists and turns she made in the thick forest.

  Pleased with her cleverness, he shifted on the move, turning back into a man while retaining his olfactory senses. He’d smelled the woman’s lust under the delicious call of power she wore like a perfume. He opened his mouth and tasted her on the wind, and his erection grew uncomfortable. Running while hard had never been a problem before, but the battle lust rode him thanks to one stubborn valkyrie.

  He’d tasted blood, but he wanted something sweeter. Like that cream between Eira’s thighs.

  He hastened his step and concentrated on the chase, keeping his arousal at bay. He heard her ahead of him on the right and followed. But a slight shift in the wind made him pause, and an arrow whizzed by his shoulder.

  He heard her faint swear and grinned, wanting to laugh.

  “Damn it.” A pause, then, “Ow. Loki’s teeth. Get off me!” She swore some more, and he came upon her and Hall tussling on the ground. More like Hall gently holding her down while she tried to lift his heavy paw off her chest. Hall’s paw covered her torso entirely, he noted with amusement.

  “Nice catch.”

  Hall nodded and grinned at him. He cocked his head and twitched his nose.

  “A bath first, yes. I agree.”

  Hall didn’t let go until Avarr knelt to hold the wild woman down.

  Her injuries had yet to slow her, and Avarr couldn’t wait to have all that energy under him.

  “You son of a sow. Get off.”

  When his hand pressed against her chest, she bucked and gasped, not in delight, but in pain.

  Hall shifted back into his man’s form and frowned. “Let’s take her back to the lake.”

  Avarr shook his head. “I’d rather take her to the springs in the snow forest.”

  “Oh, good idea. It’s much closer.” Hall slapped him on the back. “You carry her. I’ll f
ollow.” He picked up her weapons while Avarr hefted Eira into his arms.

  Not a light woman, but still, to him, she felt like a downy pillow. All soft and comfortable, and something he wanted to bury his face in. He sniffed her shoulder and licked her scratch, taking the taste of her blood into his mouth and savoring it.

  “Ew. Cut it out.”

  He noticed she didn’t struggle too hard. “Do you deny we won right of you by fair means?”

  “I had them where I wanted them,” she muttered and crossed her arms over her breasts.

  “Oh? A minotaur on either side of you while they shoved those dirty horns through your chest?” Hall asked pleasantly.

  Avarr knew his lover was anything but amused. Seeing Eira surrounded and bloodied had sent them into a berserker’s rage. An odd happenstance for mated battle-cats, considering neither of them had been in danger of dying. Yet he accepted their fear for her as more proof that she belonged to them.

  Eira said nothing, and they continued in silence through the land to the snow forest. He walked the familiar steps to the hot springs that he and Hall liked to use after a rough day of training. The springs in the snow forest had healing properties as well, and he knew Hall wanted their Little Snow free from pain before they showed her just where she belonged.

  Hard again, Avarr gently jostled Eira in his arms, feeling the heat everywhere they made contact.

  “Easy there.” She frowned up at him, and he lost himself in the frost-blue of her eyes.

  He ached, needing to possess her. He felt Hall behind him, his lover’s hand on his shoulder, and the bond passed between them into Eira.

  “Oh my goddess,” she rasped, still looking into his gaze. “What is that?”