Our body shifts again, wings sucking into our back as the scales on our hide shimmer and fold in on themselves. Our snake-like form becomes elven again.
Within seconds, I’m a male, naked but for the blood that covers every inch of exposed skin. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so satisfied or complete. My beast is calm, my stomach full, and my trembling mate awaits my attention.
“What was that, Wregen?” Finaan’s shaky voice asks as I turn toward her.
“That’s what will happen to anyone who dares lay hands on you,” I promise as I hold her gaze, making sure she sees the fierceness of my resolve. Then I stride toward the remaining male, my cock growing. Reaching down, I grasp it tight, twisting the tip. And I savor the anticipation of the kill Wrath left for me, along with the ecstasy of knowing Finaan soon will realize how much blood Wrath and I would spill to keep what’s ours.
Chapter ten
Finaan
What About You?
“Andwhataboutyou?”I ask, my mind still flipping through the hazy images my eyes could capture during the last few minutes. It’s dark in here, but the jötnar carried something that sparked to life when they attacked us, casting a dim glow around them. I saw the monster Wregen became, his torture of those males as he ate them—the last two very, very slowly.
“You’re the most dangerous creature here,” I remind him. “And you expect me to go with you willingly.”
Wregen’s smile is cold. The flare that had been in his eyes when he swore his foul oath to me blinks out with my words. “Have you learned nothing, my mate?” he murmurs, throwing his voice to belch in my ear. “You’re mine. Nobody touches what’s mine.” He pauses, smirking as he adds, “Except me.”
“I’ve seen what you are. Do you think I’ll ever let you touch me?” I can’t keep the rattle from my tone.
The fact that I’m mated to Wregen punches holes in my gut. And it is a fact, I realize now. I want to deny it, but I can’t. When the beast emerged, I knew. My soul recognized Wrath, even knew his name without being told. He belongs to us, justas Wregen does. Being mated to the most depraved male I’ve ever encounteredandthe beast that lives within him would tear my sanity to shreds if I let my mind linger on it.
The sole surviving male groans, stopping whatever Wregen might have said. I don’t need to hear it, though. His response is easy to predict—a claim that he’ll take my body and somehow force this bond, even if I refuse him. Fuck that. I’m not some wraith, desperate for a dollop of his indulgence. He doesn’t know shit about me if he thinks I’ll ever accept him.
Wregen stares at me for a few more seconds, the spark returning to his dark gaze, before he shakes his head and turns to his next victim. I’m not bothered by what he’s about to do. The male needs to die. But I won’t be part of it.
Standing, I give Wregen my back and start to stride in the direction we came from. I feel dirty. I need to clean myself, and there’ll be no better time than while Wregen wallows in another kill.
“You don’t want to watch what I do to him?” he asks, his tone as playful as I’ve ever heard it. “Join me, perhaps?”
He’s excited about this, the psychopath. I can think of nothing I want to see less than that disgusting bastard jerking off over the male he’s about to maim. Everyone in Helheim knows about his impulses, but I don’t need the reminder that the fates decided I was the perfect female for someone as sick and depraved as him.
Whatever my ancestors did must have seriously angered the gods. Nothing else could explain our family’s hamingja—theguardian who decides an elf’s luck and happiness—fucking me so thoroughly.
“I have to wash this stench off of me,” I mutter as I trudge away. It’s dark and I can’t see shit, but I don’t care. Nothing else will threaten me in these caves after that display.
“Is he sated?” Svend’s words drift toward me, barely reaching my ears, even in the silence of these caverns.
I turn my head to glance toward his voice but it doesn’t help. “Follow me,” I whisper, pity for this hapless fool softening my heart toward him for a moment. He’s the reason we’re here, and I should still be angry. But I’m numb. Even the rage I’ve felt since I realized what he did has faded away, lost to the apathy that’s rolling through me like a river.
Looking straight ahead again, hoping the light starts seeping into this tunnel soon, I plod forward. Within a few minutes, I can see enough to quicken my steps. We reach the open cavern where we emerged from the water not long after. I’ll ask Svend about Wregen soon—try to understand why he submits to the torture—but not now. I need to clean this body, even if it feels like my soul is perpetually stained.
“I’m going to bathe,” I mutter. “You’ll want to look someplace else, or maybe hide far enough in the cave to be safe. You know better than I do what Wregen will do if he suspects you’ve seen me naked.”
Svend whimpers and I hear him spin and scamper away. Tugging off my clothes, I drop them to the rock beneath me as I walk and then plod into the water. I don’t stop until I’m fully submerged. For a moment, I consider staying there, every partof me within the water’s embrace, until I float away. Probably back to Helheim—as a wraith this time—but you never know. Maybe Freyja would take pity on me.
I’m too stubborn to die, though.
Pushing up from the bottom, I breach the surface and breathe. It’s cleansing in a way the water couldn’t be. Sucking in the crisp air in the cavern, I pull up some of the emotions I’d shoved away as Wregen’s beast ate those males. And I let myself experience each one, desperate to come to terms with all of them.
Fear, because unholy Helheim, that was terrifying.
The rational side of me knows Wrath won’t hurt me. That its rage and destruction flowed from a need to protect what it views as a possession. When its gaze landed on me, I recognized more compassion that I ever saw in Wregen’s cruel face. Focusing on that, I let the knowledge become a feeling. Wrath protected me, erupting from Wregen because I was in danger. Even when it threw its fire toward the male holding me, I realized it was holding back. I was safer in its presence than I was with Wregen in the caves.
Not “it.” “He.” Wrath is a male and as devoted to me as Wregen.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m a little less afraid now.
