Ragnarök Rising Page 7

  “I didn’t say that,” I snapped, stepping over a massive tree root half-concealed in snow. “And it beats Bjarni’s idea by a country mile.”

  Bjarni shrugged. “I still think you should’ve said something to her in the car on the way over.”

  I snorted. “Like what, pray tell? That she’s destined for our dicks? That we’re the outcast spawn of Loki himself? Oh, and that by the way, the Norse myths are true—gods do exist. Welcome to Iceland! Or should I just have stopped with offering her a front-row seat to Armageddon?”

  “There was no easy way to break it to her,” Grim muttered. I side-eyed him; we so rarely agreed. “Still, I’m sure we can agree chasing her through a snowstorm isn’t the best—”

  A wail carried on the back of the wind sliced through me to the bone. Grim halted, head cocked, listening. Bjarni sniffed, then glanced at me.

  I waited. It could have been another bluster from the mountains, but it had sounded so… human. Like a woman in pain.

  Like our woman.

  It came again, a high-pitched keening that had me bursting through the foliage without waiting for further confirmation. That was Annabel. I knew it, could feel it in my bones. And regardless of what a problem she was turning out to be, I couldn’t let any harm come to her. We needed her.

  Not far ahead, partially obscured by half-frozen trees, a cave mouth came into view. A million possibilities came to mind—that the girl had pissed off a stray polar bear, or perhaps she’d fallen and broken an ankle.....

  “That’s Draugr,” Grim breathed, indicating the black horse shaking snow from its mane near the entrance.

  Another shriek, and I crossed the distance to the cave, prepared to take on anything, save for what I actually saw.

  Oh, Annabel was there, all right. Naked, and hardly alone. In fact, she was on her hands and knees beneath a demi-god, that redheaded bastard Magni. Thor’s illegitimate son.

  The only sign of an injury on Annabel was the fierce bite mark marring one side of her nape. Heat flared in my chest, rising into my throat and face. Not only had Magni been fucking our omega, but he’d put a goddamn claiming mark on her as well.

  “For fuck’s sakes,” Bjarni murmured beside me.

  Magni glanced up, cocking a russet brow. His bloody lips tilted in an insufferable grin. “A bit late, aren’t you? Then again, you lot were always slow on the uptake.”

  “What did you do?” Annabel wailed before I could wring his neck. She touched her nape, winced, and stared at the blood on her fingers. The speed with which she whipped around to face him almost gave me secondhand whiplash. “How could you?”

  “I claimed you,” Magni said coolly. Though he’d clearly filled her with his seed already, he rocked his hips, grinding his knot against her g-spot in a move I knew far too well. “Don’t look at me like that. These assholes were going to do the same thing, only now I’ve ensured you’ll bear the children of proper gods and not these…” A vague gesture in our direction. “…trolls.”

  “Trolls?” Bjarni growled, at the same time as Annabel snarled, “Gods? How full of yourself are you?”

  “And this from the bastard offspring of a Jotunn whore and a god too dumb to drown the miserable result at birth,” Grim said, suddenly appearing behind me. Though he’d barely shown an interest in the girl, both shades of his eyes had darkened in instinctive fury. “If we are trolls, does that make your father a troll-fucker?”

  Despite the anger sparking in Magni’s green eyes at Grim’s taunt, he flashed his teeth in a grin. “Doesn’t matter, does it? Jotunn-fucker or not, thanks to me his bloodline will survive. Not Loki’s. The omega belongs to me now, and there’s nothing you can do to—”

  His voice was drowned out by a loud thud when Annabel kicked back, hitting him across the knee.

  “I don’t belong to anyone, you sick bastard! Get the fuck off me!” she hissed, trying to scramble away from him. Only she was still stuck on his knot, so all she managed to do was hurt herself as the thick swelling pulled savagely on her flushed opening. She stilled with a cry, legs shaking. “Get off me!” It was more of a whimper this time.

  Magni worked his jaw, rubbing the flushed part of his face where she’d smacked him. From the flush of his skin, she got him good. Anger flashed in his eyes again, and I tensed, ready to stop him if he tried to retaliate. But when he grabbed her hips, it was with surprising gentleness.

  “Stop struggling—you’ll hurt yourself,” he growled. “We’re alphas. And you’re an omega. We were meant to breed. I’m guessing those imbeciles didn’t tell you why they were planning on gangbanging you, but the Fimbulwinter is here. And after that, Ragnarök will be upon us. And you—you’re the only way I can save my bloodline. They were gonna keep you for themselves, they were gonna let every god die, save their cursed father. This is your destiny, Annabel. I am your destiny. I will fill your sweet little cunt with my seed, and you will bear me sons who will see us prevail.”

  “You’re insane!” Annabel sobbed. She was shaking underneath him, and it took everything I had not to launch myself at that redheaded twat who thought he could claim our woman and fill her head with lies. But he was still stuck inside her, and if we attacked while they were tied, she would get hurt, too.

  I clenched my fists as I glared at our rival. “She was never meant to be yours, mongrel. Her family has sworn her to us, a millennium ago, when the Norns first foresaw her birth. If your precious fucking dad had half a brain he’d have gotten in on her before Loki did, but he didn’t. And she belongs to us. So get your cock out of our omega and prepare to pay for your trespassing!”

  “Fucking finally,” Bjarni muttered by my side, cracking his knuckles as he stared at Magni. He’d never been one for talk when a fight could solve an issue.

  Magni’s lip pulled up in a silent snarl at the threat. He might be a superior asshole thanks to his ill-gotten pedigree, but he’d inherited his father’s infamous temper and zest for battle all the same. He reached down between himself and Annabel, wrapped his hand around the part of his cock and knot still sticking out of her, and squeezed. It only took a moment for his knot to shrink sufficiently, possibly in thanks to the presence of three enemies.

  He pulled his still-swollen but visibly softer knot from Annabel’s straining lips, ripping a hoarse cry from her throat as his glistening wet cock slid out of her gaping pussy. She was flushed and swollen, and a stream of white semen trickled out of her puffy entrance.

  The sight of a rival alpha’s seed in my omega made a red haze of fury cloud my vision. He’d not only claimed her—he’d done his best to breed her.

  “You are going to die for this, son of Thor,” Grim hissed.

  Bjarni was the first in, colliding with the redheaded bastard just as he got to his feet.

  Annabel squealed and scrambled away just as Grim and I joined the fray.

  Magni put up a good fight, his fists, elbows, knees, and feet falling like hammers. But, Thor’s son or not, he was outnumbered. This wasn’t going to end well for him—I’d make sure of it. Too long we’d been shunned by the other gods, living as outcasts, banished to the human world for accusations leveled against our father. And now this half-breed came to our territory, to claim our omega? Oh, he was going to regret the day he slid from his mother’s cunt.

  Bjarni grabbed Magni’s face, using it to turn the bastard around and away from Annabel. Magni snarled and swung at my brother, but Grim blocked his attack and kicked him in the gut, sending him flying out the cave opening.

  I was just about to follow my brothers after him, when movement out the corner of my eye grabbed my attention. Annabel was huddled up in a corner of the cave, her trembling hands pressed against her abdomen. A wave of worry cooled my battle lust, and I turned fully toward her.

  “Annabel—” My question died on my tongue when she groaned hoarsely, pretty face scrunching up as if she were in pain. But I recognized that groan on an instinctive level, and it had little to do with hurt.

&n
bsp; My entire focus shifted toward the little omega huddled and naked in the corner, the sounds of fighting muting to nothing as my senses bloomed for her and her alone. Every small whimper she made, every gasped breath panged down my spine and straight to my cock. She was still in heat.

  Magni may have knotted and seeded her, even claimed her, but she wasn’t sated yet. She still needed an alpha to care for her.

  She needed me.

  “Annabel,” I cooed, crossing the floor so I could crouch down in front of her and push the strands of hair clinging to her sweaty forehead away. “It’s all right, sweetling. I’ll take care of you now.”

  “Back the fuck off!” she hissed, flashing her teeth at me.

  I arched an eyebrow at her combativeness. She smelled as ripe as a peach, even the scent of Magni’s seed dripping from her swollen opening not potent enough to dampen the ache in my cock every breath caused me. But Annabel wasn’t the gentlest of women at the best of times—and right now she was undoubtedly confused, angry, and scared at what’d happened to her. What we’d let happen to her. Fucking Grim—if he hadn’t told us to wait, we’d have fucked her when the first signs of her heat showed, instead of sending her off to bed to suffer alone until it broke fully. If we’d taken her then, despite her protests, none of this would have happened, and she’d have been home safe on the farm where she belonged. Without Magni’s cursed mark brandished on her slender neck. But I could save this—she was still in heat, which meant I had a shot at claiming her.

  “You don’t want me to back off,” I purred, unable to fight back a smirk when her eyelids fluttered at the sound and a wanton moan escaped her pink lips. “You want my cock inside you—and I’m gonna give it to you.”

  “No,” she whispered, but she leaned toward me when I dipped my mouth to hover just above hers. “Saga, please… I don’t….”

  I swallowed her protest in a searing kiss, groaning with her as our tongues danced. She pawed at my shoulders, maybe to push me away at first, but when I deepened our kiss she clutched at my clothes. Surrendering like the perfect little omega I’d known her to be since our first meeting, despite all the independent beta facade she’d been hiding behind.

  She was everything I’d thought she’d be, and so much more. I’d fucked omegas before, rare as they may be, but the scent of Annabel’s heat, her desperate whimpers as I forced her on her back—nothing I’d experienced could ever compare. She sang to me, her very essence calling to the core of my being, bringing out every alpha instinct as if she were playing me like a fiddle.

  I kissed her fervently, biting her throat, her shoulder, her breasts as I made my way down her body. For every brush of my lips over her molten skin, for every breathy moan she gasped into the cool air surrounding us, I lost more and more of myself to the rut.

  When I finally reached her pussy and flicked my tongue over her clit, we groaned together. I shuddered in an eager breath, scenting my omega deeply. And was hit with the potent smell of my enemy’s seed still dripping from her swollen opening.

  Fiery rage flicked a switch in my brain and rushed through my veins, fueling my need for her to heights I hadn’t known possible. He’d been in her, he’d taken what was mine.

  My omega, the girl who’d been promised to my father’s lineage for a thousand years, taken and soiled by Thor’s bastard son.

  I pulled back far enough to undo my pants and pull out my achingly hard cock, blind with yearning to replace his markings with my own.

  Annabel sucked in a sharp breath underneath me when I pressed the head of my cock up through her sodden folds, no doubt sore from her first mating, but I was far too deep in my rut to care. She’d welcomed my enemy into her body—she’d welcome me as well.

  I thrust in deep, her still-gaping cunt and Magni’s seed easing the slide all the way to her womb.

  My omega shrieked, her worn pussy clutching me tight as she clawed desperately at my chest, trying to get away even as her heat made her cant her hips up for more. “Saga! Fuck, y-you’re too big! Ow—Oh, my God!”

  The fuck I was too big. “You were built to take me,” I hissed, giving her a hard thrust as punishment when she tried to push me away. “So take me!”

  That delicious little cunt of hers fluttered and clamped down hard, trying to simultaneously stop my assault on her most sacred depths and suck me in deeper.

  “Fuck!” she cried again, when my thick cock stretched her all the way to her cervix in another punishing thrust. Fury mixed with the pain and ecstasy already playing across her pretty features, and she raked her nails at my face, trying to get at my eyes.

  I snarled a warning to submit, but it was my own fucking fault—reluctant omegas got rutted on all fours for a reason. Hormones made them combative as fuck, and Annabel was already a feisty little thing. But I’d wanted to see her face when she took me, needed the visual of her inevitable submission more than I needed air. She’d let Magni rut her through the first part of her heat because we hadn’t been here to take care of her—but she belonged to us. And when I was done with her, she’d never question it again.

  Annabel swiped at me again, and I yanked her hips toward me, pulling her all the way down on my thick cock before I slung her legs over my arms and leaned forward, trapping her underneath me.

  She howled at the brutal penetration and struggled to simultaneously scratch at my arms through my clothes in retaliation and save her sweet little pussy from the painful stretch. But I had her exactly where I wanted her now—helpless on her back underneath me, and there was nothing she could do to stop me from staking my claim.

  “Fuck yes, take it just like that,” I groaned, when my cock barreled in to the hilt once more, and her tight, slick inners gripped me. Her walls fluttered around me, sucking me in deep in rhythmic pulses. She might not want me inside her, but her body did.

  “You fucking bastard,” she hissed, but the animosity was draining from her hoarse voice as hoarse need took over. “Don’t—don’t stop!”

  As if any force in the universe was great enough to stop me now, even if I’d wanted to.

  I put all my weight into the next thrust, and Annabel keened shrilly in response. But instead of fighting me, she tossed her head back in the furs, her dark hair fanning out like a matted crown around her. Displaying her vulnerable neck to me as she finally surrendered.

  Electric ecstasy crackled up my spine and down my thighs, my mind going blank as every last thought disappeared into nothingness. There was nothing but her, the omega I was going to take until her tight cunt had milked every last drop of semen from my balls.

  I fucked her with everything I had, pounding her squelching pussy rough, deep, and fast while she wailed and thrashed and came. She felt like nothing I’d ever experienced before, clamping down on my dick like a vise as she rode her climax out, shaking with the intensity of it.

  I never wanted to stop fucking her, wanting to feel her milk me until the day I drew my last breath, but the pleasure of her tight heat was too much to withstand.

  Before she came down from her climax, my knot swelled hard and fast.

  I gritted out a curse and pushed my hips forward, the swelling on my cock already too thick to enter her easily.

  Annabel’s beautiful eyes popped wide open, her face twisting from intense pleasure to agony. “Saga—! No! No, no, no!” Her whine of denial rose to a high-pitched shriek when I forced her all the way down on my cock. My already hard knot popped through her straining lips, and I seated it behind her pelvic bone with a groan of bone-shattering relief.

  The first thunderclap of ecstasy rolled through me with brilliant, blinding violence. I’d never come so hard or so much in all my life. I could just barely move my hips; she was stuck on me, and no amount of her thrashing now would matter as I pumped everything I had into her waiting channel. She scratched at my chest, dug her nails into my coat, howling with equal amounts pain and pleasure as my thick knot wrung another orgasm from her trembling body.

  I let her cl
aw me, because the bite of her nails through my clothes only underscored how completely her little pussy belonged to me now.

  And so would the rest of her.

  I picked her up, sitting back on my heels and hauling her onto the tops of my thighs. She squealed at the sudden change in position, but my knot held her fast as I shoved her hair away from the unmarked side of her neck, grasping a fistful by the roots to make her bare more of her flesh to me.

  A single world rippled through my throat in a growl beside her ear. “Mine.”

  And then I sank my teeth into her, curled around her to place my mark opposite Magni’s.

  Annabel let out a hollow sob, her nails finally stilling against my chest as I bit down on her neck. From the gasps against my skin and her pussy’s tight spasms on my knot I knew she was coming again, driven over the edge by my claim. The self-assured beta historian I’d picked up at the airport finally transformed to the knot-drunk little omega I’d known she was all along.

  “Goddamn you,” she moaned, panting through her climax. “Goddamn you, you bastard….”

  I chuckled, meaning to pull away and relish the look of reluctant acceptance I knew was painted all over her face, to revel in my triumph over her empty protests and Magni’s attempt to claim our future as his own. But all I could do, all I wanted to do, was hold her tight against my chest and breathe in the scent of our union and the blood trickling from her new claiming mark. My claiming mark.

  A rumble in my chest made me blink, the sound unbidden, the soothing effect it had on Annabel even more unexpected than its appearance. And yet as I held her in my arms, purring for her, clutching her tiny body against mine, I couldn’t stop making it. All I could think about was how perfectly she slotted into all the empty spaces of me, like a missing puzzle piece.

  How I never wanted to let her go.

  8

  Magni

  My face was definitely not a fan of Bjarni’s fist. Loki may not have been a god of war, but the biggest of his sons sure had hands like one.