1. BUMPY ROADS FUCKING HURT

1

BUMPY ROADS FUCKING HURT

T he whole thing about facing down your past is that supposedly after you've done it you can move forward, healthier, happier, all that shit. But the truth isn't so clean and tidy. I'd faced my past, killed my mother (in case you've forgotten, yes, she deserved it) but in the process had taken a pretty good wound myself. Short story, I was most certainly bleeding out, all over the back seat of the SUV, on my way to dying.

Said SUV flew down the back roads of Montana, the bumps hitting hard, aggravating the edges of my wound as I bounced in the back seat, one arm around my middle.

"Cin, talk to me," Richard said from the driver's seat. I could see his fingers wrapped tight around the steering wheel, knuckles white. "Let me know you're still alive, Sis."

"You picked the worst, pothole filled road, didn't you?" I moaned as we hit another crevice that felt like we'd just launched through the Grand Canyon. "Just to see me puke? I won't do it."

He laughed, though there was a strained edge to it. "There you are. Okay, we're almost out to the main road. You sure about Alaska? That's where we need to go?"

I swallowed hard, trying to focus on his question, because it was loaded.

My best friend, Bebe, in all her cat glory lay quietly, glowing like a miniature star, the tips of her fur bright with the sun she held within her feline body.

Let's do a quick recap of how I'd found myself here.

I'd had to face my mother down on our old pack lands in Grayling, Montana, in large part because Han, my mate wanted me dead. And while I'd won the fight with her, my brother Kieran had ambushed me immediately after. He'd stuck a spear deep into my side. A spear that carried Norse magic and as such my natural healing abilities as a shifter didn't seem to be doing much in the way of keeping me alive.

Seeing as I carried the sun within me (energy, life force, whatever you want to call it, and also the reason why Han wanted me dead) and my life or death was tied to the end of the world, I'd done the only thing I could.

I'd given over the responsibility of carrying the sun to my small friend. Bebe had taken it willingly, which is how the transfer is made. It's how I'd ended up with it in the first place, offering to carry the burden, unknowingly of course.

By transferring the sun to Bebe…if I died, the world wouldn't crumble around us.

Basically, it was a stop gap for a desperate situation.

Never mind the fact that Havoc, the one man I'd come to depend on as a place of safety, was now hunting me. He himself had told me to run from him.

I had no doubt in my mind that he was a better hunter than his brother Han, and that should have terrified me. But in the state of near death, I didn't feel much but a numb mind and a blazing fire of pain in my body.

I didn't realize I'd closed my eyes. Bebe tapped a paw against one of them.

"Stay with us, girlfriend. Tell us about Alaska. Richard asked if you were sure." Her chartreuse eyes were locked on my face as I blinked down at her.

I laid a hand over Bebe, squeezing her to me. "Yeah, I'm sure, Alaska will be safe."

Was I sure? About as sure as I could be. The last few weeks I'd been running blind, trying to understand what I'd been thrown into—end of the world, legendary monsters, curses and Norse gods. Any one of those things on its own would have been enough to handle. All together…it was too much.

Assuming I survived the wound, I needed to get my footing. To be somewhere I could think through my next steps. Firstly, for me, there was no better footing than home ground. No better place than the one I'd run to the last time my world had been upended.

Secondly, the fact that Grant—my vampire friend— had more books than a university on old mythologies was a serious draw. He was a collector of sorts. He was also the oldest living person I knew and maybe…maybe he could talk to Theodore, the vampire I'd traded Han's journal to in Portland. There was a chance that Theodore could give us more information on just what I was dealing with.

That last fact alone was enough to take me back to my old apartment and hope I was right.

So Alaska it was.

Bebe was incredibly warm under my hand, and she was purring, the rumble of her tiny body soothing my heart at least. I wasn't alone.

I couldn't leave the curse with her, I would never do that to a friend. Which meant I had to survive this wound.

"She's still bleeding a lot," a voice said from behind us. My head was fuzzy, but it sounded like Berek. Berek was with us? "We need to stitch her up. Whatever that spear did, it's affecting her ability to heal."

There was a shuffling of bodies. "Here. I can do it. I've stitched up thousands of things. People. Animals. Mouths. Even a few assholes."

I frowned. My eyes were closed again, but maybe that was for the best. I didn't want to see the concern on anyone's face. I knew how bad it was—a hiss escaped me as I was shifted onto someone's lap.

"Hold still," he grumbled. "Can't believe I'm doing this for a coffee date."

Jor? How was Jor in the car? He was too big, and he didn't have hands so how was he going to stitch me up? With those needle-like snake teeth of his?

I cracked one eye open.

I was laying across the lap of a thickly built man, his torso easily taking up one and a half of the seats. His eyes were locked on my side as he used a needle and thread to stitch the sides of the wound together.

His eyes were shaped like a snake's, right down to the shape of the iris and the lack of lashes. Oh…fuck, this was unexpected.

"Jor? How are you…in here?"

As in J?rmungandr. The Midgard serpent had taken on…human form. I mean, as much as a snake could look like a human I supposed. He smiled down at me, his grin far wider than any human, almost touching the lobe of each of his ears, teeth so fucking sh arp they could have been needles indeed. He rolled his shoulders. "The skin suit is a bit tight, but that's life, and I wanted to see how it felt." He didn't stop smiling, only kept on showing row, upon row of teeth. "Also…I thought it would be good practice for our coffee dates this way. Less noticeable than a giant serpent slithering into a Starbucks."

He winked, which only unnerved me more, and went back to stitching me up.

I nodded and forced my eyes away from the mouth that looked so very wrong in so many ways. I drew a breath and let my nose identify everyone in the SUV. Richard. Berek. Jor. Bebe. Claire. Ship. My heart twanged on Ship. The youngest of my three brothers, we'd been thick as thieves growing up. But when our mother, Juniper, had infected the three boys with her darkness, and whatever demon she carried with her…he'd been the last to turn on me.

And now I had him back. Him and Richard.

"Ship?" I called for my other brother. He groaned from the front seat. He'd taken an injury too, though not as bad as mine.

"Present and accounted for."

I drew in another breath and Jor grumbled about me not moving. But I couldn't find the person I thought for sure would be here.

"Where's Dad?" I whispered.

"Mars…stayed behind. He's going to try to get th rough to Kieran I think," Richard said. In his voice though, I heard the doubt. Because getting through to Kieran was highly unlikely. I let out a low groan as we hit another hard bump.

A grunt from the far back. "Claire and I are here too."

Berek—was Havoc's second in command—and Claire. His new girlfriend. The woman who'd wanted Havoc for herself when I'd first met them all. I didn't hate her, but we weren't exactly close which was why it surprised me that she'd come along for the ride.

I didn't twist around to look at them, couldn't with the wound in my side. "Not complaining, but why are you here?"

"Because you need our help, and Havoc told us to protect you at all costs," Berek said. "Even from him. Maybe especially from him. He always said that if he'd been the one to try and take out those who carried the sun, that the world would have ended four hundred years ago."

"So sweet," Jor muttered. "I think I might just kill myself for the syrup of it. You might as well be Romeo and Juliet for how fucking sweet it is."

The needle caught a spot that was close to a nerve, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

"Sorry," Jor muttered.

"S'okay." I closed my eyes and focused on breathing shallowly so I didn't make it harder for Jor. His hands were steady but that didn't negate the fact that we were driving down a dirt road while he stitched me up.

Maybe everything had just been a bad dream, from Shipley walking into my bookstore in Alaska, to me trying to save my sister, then being caught and cursed by Petunia to become a golden retriever, finding my mate only to realize he was a violent psycho Norse prince, meeting Soleil--the girl who carried the sun before me…taking on a second curse that was never meant to come to me.

Shit show was an understatement.

But that would mean the good that had come from all that wouldn't have happened either. Meeting Bebe. Finding strength in myself I never knew was there. Reclaiming two of my brothers and finding my stepfather, Mars.

The moments with Havoc that were burned in my mind along with the feel of his mouth and skin against me. And if I was being real honest with myself, if from all of this I'd only gotten to meet Havoc….it would have been worth it.

Mine. The word whispered through me. Maybe it was my wolf. Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt it all the way to my bones. Havoc and I were…something more.

Jor chuckled, breaking through my thoughts. He lifted both of his arms and flexed, my blood on his fingers. "Look at us trying to save the fucking world as if we were the Avengers facing down an impossible task. Look at us!"

He shifted his legs under me as he tried flexing like fucking Schwarzenegger and pain lanced up my ribcage.

I groaned and Bebe glared up at him. "The impossible task is correct. Us as the Avengers…that's stretching it. Now stop fucking around and finish stitching her up!"

Jor lowered his arms. "You're a bit scary when I'm this size."

"Keep that in mind." Bebe flicked her ears flat to her head. "I have razor blades hidden in these cotton balls."

Jor did a double blink which was freaky as fuck in his snake face. "Point made."

He carefully went back to stitching me up, Bebe watching him from where she was now curled tight to my side.

My mind drifted as waves of pain rolled through me.

Christ on a donkey, this had been a lifetime crammed into a few short months. A shudder went through me, then again, it could have been the hard bounce as we went through a wash out, skidded sideways and barely stayed on the road, and the depth the needle went in with the bounce .

"Sorry," Richard said. "We're almost to the main road."

"You said that five minutes ago," I groaned.

Jor's hands left my side. "All I can do. I mean…if you died then I guess I'd be free to just exist in the world, but what's that to a bunch of coffee dates, am I right?"

No one said a word. The weight of what he was saying was enough to make us all stare at him. He didn't seem to care. Just kept on grinning.

I dragged myself off Jor's lap—not that I didn't trust him, per se, but right then I was feeling more than a little paranoid. Because Jor wasn't wrong. My death benefited some people—monsters, whatever—for sure.

Havoc was coming after me. The one person I had been certain would fight to keep me alive, was now hunting me. By all counts, he was the better hunter of the two brothers. Really, I hadn't needed Berek to say it out loud to know it. Han was…he was not a fighter—he'd let others do his dirty work since I'd met him.

Havoc was more than willing to get into the trenches and fight tooth and nail.

Jor sighed. "I mean, really, the downside--besides losing my coffee date—is that if you die while carrying the sun Ragnar?k won't happen. Which ruins my day. No coffee. No razing the world. "

The world was saved if the carrier of the sun died now.

Bebe locked eyes with me. Jor didn't realize we'd given her the sun. Not yet. She hopped down to the floor and crouched down, out of sight. Smart, very smart.

Then again…maybe I should take the sun back. Take it back and just…let Havoc catch me. If he was really hunting me now, and my death saved the world, wasn't that better?

"What's one life?" I grit the words out as I adjusted myself. "One life compared to the world?"

If I thought things had gotten quiet after Jor's suggestion that he would be free if I died, it was nothing to the dead silence at my suggestion.

"You sure about that?" Richard looked in the rearview mirror. "What if they've been lying all along? What if you dying now does end the world, and send us into Ragnar?k, or whatever apocalypse you are tied to?"

Jor hummed thoughtfully. "Your brother makes a point. Things have shifted—I mean, everyone seems to be trying to get their fingers into the pie."

Ship twisted around in his seat, a grimace on his face. "What are you saying?"

Jor rolled his wide shoulders, a ripple that made me think of snake coils adjusting. "Saying that even I don't know what might happen if Cin were to die now. She" —he pointed at me— "has thrown curve balls that I didn't know existed. Tyr offered her help. He never does that. Petunia and Freya showed up to the battle. And honestly the stink of my father is all over this. So who knows? It's a mystery."

Who knew indeed. How did I find out what was happening? Who could I go to for help?

I frowned.

"What's going on in there?" Bebe reached up from her spot on the floor and tapped my forehead with a paw. "I can just about see the smoke rolling out your ears."

I shifted in my seat and groaned as the stitches pulled, flesh tearing a little. My guts felt like they'd been stirred around and then shoved back inside my middle.

"It won't heal, not that one. You were right about that wolf number three," Jor said and Berek grunted. "You need a god to help you with that, since it was a god's weapon that made the wound."

Jor grinned at me and made a stabbing motion with two fingers towards my middle.

Richard spun the wheel on the SUV and we bounced out of the rough road—the move stole my breath and I just held it until we were up onto pavement. He looked in the rearview. "Wait, did you say we need a god to help her heal? "

I shook my head. "I'll just shift. That will speed things up."

Jor grimaced. "Actually, if you shifted now that could tear open the stitches that I was able put in place. I'm no god, much as I hate to admit it, my little coffee buddy, but I'm something more than, you know, a human doctor."

Bebe grumbled, "Then we need to find a god? Why not someone who's already helped? Tyr? Freya? Petunia? No, maybe not her. What about Loki?"

"You got a number for any of them?" Richard asked. He was one of the few who could hear Bebe, cursed as she was, her soul trapped inside that of a tabby cat. I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not. Because really, we'd found some weird shit when it came to the Norse pantheon.

Like Freya's Facebook page that led to her Instagram account, that led to her TikTok.

Petunia had cursed me. Freya had thrown us under the bus.

Loki…maybe? I lifted my hand to touch the brand on the side of my neck. Loki's snake brand. He'd not been honest either.

"We can't trust them," I breathed out, a shiver of pain cutting up my middle as I exhaled a little too deep. "They all have a stake in this, either to make Ragnar?k happen or to stop it. If we pick wrong…well th en, I'm dead. And until we know for sure what the outcome of my death would be, I need to stay alive."

"Even Tyr?" Bebe asked quietly as she climbed back up and onto my chest, her warmth sinking into me again.

I didn't know how to reach him. Sure, he'd helped me, but I'd mostly seen him in my dreams.

"Then we need one of them who wants to stop Ragnar?k from happening," Berek said, unaware of Bebe's suggestion.

"That could still mean her death, if her death would stop the end of the world," Jor said. "That's the problem. I just want a coffee date."

I frowned and tried to think past the pain throbbing through my middle. I hated that Jor seemed to be right, and that my body was not healing as it should. Being a shifter, my body should have been healing already and…well, it most certainly was not. My injuries from my mother—cracked jaw and crushed windpipe—were well on their way to being as if they never were. The wound from the weapon…that one was alternately burning hot and icy cold.

The flares of pain getting worse.

I closed my eyes. Tyr had helped me, he'd given me the spear, he'd stood on my side of the fight. But could I trust him any more than the others?

Bebe squirmed where she lay across my middle. I let my eyes drift to half mast, seeing the sun that she carried within her. The reason why Han and now Havoc wanted to kill me.

She'd taken it, willingly, when I'd been on death's door. Because she knew as I did that if I'd died before the night of the Dead Moon was over, while I carried the sun, the world would end.

But now, we were past the night of the Dead Moon. Which changed things. This was a choice I could make, and I could save those I loved.

"I will take it back, Bebe," I whispered.

"No," Richard said. "No, not until we're sure…that you will make it."

I smiled, tasting blood. "But if I die now, Richard, then Ragnar?k is undone. The spear was magic, right? Norse weapon and all."

Jor cleared his throat. "Well, what if you're wrong, Sunshine? And then what would happen? I would not get that caramel macchiato I've been dreaming about. So I think you should try to find someone to stitch you up. A minor Norse god would be acceptable, I think. If you still want to die once we're sure your death would save us all, I'm sure we could hand you off to Havoc."

My two brothers let out dual growls, and Bebe let out a low hiss. Jor lifted his hands in mock surrender. "I am not wrong."

He wasn't.

I groaned. "Where, Jor? Where do we find someone to heal me then. No games. "

"Extend our coffee dates." He smiled, too many teeth, his mouth gaping.

"An extra fifteen minutes," I said.

"Is that all your life is worth to you?" He pulled back, his smile turning into a frown of epic proportions. "Truly?"

"I am dying, Jor. If I die, no caramel macchiato at all, not one single coffee date." I made myself smile at him, tasting the blood as it coated my mouth. "Deal, or no deal?"

"Blast," he grumbled. "I tipped my hand, didn't I? Fine, an extra fifteen minutes each week."

A shot of pain sliced through me, all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. "Done. Now talk to me about something, so I don't pass out."

I closed my eyes as Jor gave directions to Richard. Somewhere north. We would cross the border into Canada and then…the words fuzzed

I did not fall asleep, I was in too much pain for that to happen. The best I could do was try not to writhe. Bebe's weight on my chest was warm, and she did not try to move away which was good. Her paws massaged along my collarbone, as if she could soothe away the pain.

"Hang in there, girlfriend," she whispered. "Just don't…don't die, okay?"

Her words and gentle presence helped my heart, but not my body .

Jor cleared his throat. "Something interesting? Hmm. Let's see. You know, I travel via waterways? Well, I can go to any water way, in any part of the world. It's quite the trip. Almost instantaneous."

His voice took on a note of educating us, explaining how he travelled.

"Salt, fresh, any size of water would do. I suppose I've never tried something small as say like a puddle but in theory it would apply. You see when I travel, all the options open up to me like a map, and I just pick one and poof, I'm there!"

Bebe's nose tucked under my chin and whispered to me,"This might be the worst we've had to deal with. But we can make it. We'll figure it out."

"Not wrong. On the worst part. I don't know about the rest," I whispered back. Because it wasn't just the pain in my middle cutting through me. There was something wrong in the region of my heart.

I had my connection to Han, which I had no choice over, but it was…less. And that bit of a disconnect didn't bother me. But I also had a connection to Havoc. That one was more, and the connection was battered, as if it had been thrashed against a rocky shore.

Havoc with his eyes so dark that it was like looking into an abyss. Scarred. Powerful. Deadly.

Mine. My wolf whispered and I shook my head. "Not anymore."

Mine !

I groaned. There would be no arguing with her, not right then.

My golden gave a soft woof and I was surprised to see her separate from my wolf. Inside my head I could see them…the wolf I'd known my whole life, the golden who'd been with me only a short time and a third option…the golden wolf who'd emerged as I'd fought my mother.

Three choices. Three paths.

I held up my hand and Jor stopped talking about how once he'd traveled from Europe all the way to the west coast of the United States using a large wishing well.

"Talk to me about why Havoc is…what happened? Why is he hunting me now?" I stared up at the ceiling of the SUV, noting the splatters of blood. Wondering if the blood was mine. Probably.

I didn't care who answered the question, but I was surprised when it was Claire who spoke.

"We think Sven did it. Berek and I think that it's a spell that Sven used. A spell to make him hunt you."

Somehow, that didn't surprise me and did make me feel a bit better. Havoc wasn't hunting me because he wanted to, but because he was being forced to. "But why? Why when Sven was helping Havoc to protect Soleil and the others, he's tried to protect in the past?"

Claire cleared her throat. "I don't know."

"We can only assume that Sven knows something we don't or has information that we don't and he's acting on that," Berek said. "In all the years I've known him, the woodland king has never changed his stance that he's helping Havoc."

"Could Havoc throw off this spell?" Ship asked.

It was the question I was asking myself.

We all kind of looked to Jor. He was the only one in the SUV that had knowledge of spells, magic, and Norse gods.

Jor shrugged and twisted in his seat. "I might have a theory. I mean, it's more of a coffee date subject though, if I'm being honest."

Jor didn't say anything else. Just looked out the window. As much as I wanted to yell at him and tell him to spill the fucking beans, I just didn't have it in me.

I bit back a moan as I adjusted my position, understanding clear. "Richard. I find myself craving a chai latte. Would you mind going to a drive through, and get us all something hot to drink? Maybe a caramel macchiato for Jor?"

My brother was not stupid, and he and I had worked marks together before. He picked up what I was putting down without breaking a beat. "I could use a shot of caffeine myself. It'll be a long haul to Alaska, and we still have to get across the border."

Shipley spluttered, as did Claire. But Berek was also quiet, as if he understood we were going to have to convince Jor to tell us what he knew.

We had to get him to help us one way or another.

Bebe bobbed her head. "Smart. I like it. Richie, get me a steamed milk with whipped cream."

Richard grunted. "The irony of a cat asking me for whipped cream on her milk is not lost."

"Get your head out of the gutter," I said.

Bebe tipped her head at me. "How was he in the gutter?"

Jor laughed. "Oh! A pussy asking for whipped cream? Damn, it even took me a second! And I'm usually pretty suave you know. Snake that I am." He gave a throaty chuckle that left me feeling dirty, and he really hadn't said anything all that bad.

Richard cleared his throat, his voice a bit strangled. "Anyway. On to the closest coffee shop that is on the way to…wherever it is we are going aside from north to Alaska."

"A friendly lady who likes to heal others, and she is on the way north, like I said." Jor tapped his fingers against his thick thigh. "I mean, she probably won't be all that happy to see me, of course, so before we get all the way there, I should probably do something about this form. Or probably just leave. That will be best."

A friendly lady. Who had attachments to the Norse pantheon and was a goddess of some sort .

I shivered and Bebe snuggled closer. "You're getting cold, Cin."

"I know." The warmth was leaching out of me, along with my blood. I lifted the blanket they'd wrapped me in to see the wound pulsing with a life of its own. If I'd been more with it, I might have been a little bit afraid.

Terrified. The wound seemed to be eating me alive, reaching out from the point of entry and working its way across my torso.

I wished…I wished that it was Havoc whose lap my head rested on, instead of the bare leather seat. That it was Havoc taking me to a healer.

All I did was close my eyes. Either my brothers and Jor would get me to a healer in time, or they would not.

I almost didn't care.

Almost.

Time slid by, I drifted in and out of consciousness as Jor chattered away about how he was one of the only ones who could travel like he did. Jumping from place to place. I regretted asking him to fill the silence. If I had to listen to him say how ‘I am incredibly important and special' in one form or another, I was going to shove him out of the car.

Richard found a coffee shop, and then everyone was ordering, and I just…I didn't even want the tea. I closed my eyes, my hands barely touching Bebe's back.

I knew this feeling too well. We weren't going to make it to the healer. The cold, the fog, the drifting in and out—I was dying.

Jor was saying something about the theory he had, about how Sven had turned the spell up on Havoc somehow, but the words were all garbled to me.

"Bebe, you'll be safe with them. Stick with Richard," I whispered as my arm slid off her, my body going limp. I knew the approach of death; I'd seen him come for me before and I'd barely dodged his claws the last few times.

When my brothers had shot me full of silver.

When I'd nearly drowned.

When I was beaten to a pulp.

But this time…this time I wasn't sure I'd be able to yank myself out of the depth I'd fallen into.

"Hey. Hey!" Someone was yelling as I slipped down the seat, as I fell into unconsciousness. The smell of coffee and cinnamon filled my nose as my spirit was whisked away.

It was as if the SUV had disappeared and I fell through the earth below, through the tarmac of the road, the world as I knew it gone.

My body tumbled over and over, wind tearing at my face until tears streamed, and then I was jerked to a hard stop just above the ground, so I was looking at the individual frozen blades of grass, then released. I landed in a puff of icy crystals until I lay flat on my belly in an embankment of snow. So cold, I was so fucking cold. Was I truly dead? I pushed to my feet and looked down at my side. My wound was open, the stitches gone, but I wasn't bleeding. The flesh gaped, and I couldn't help but touch it, poking at the bits of my insides I could see. Nope, couldn't feel a thing.

I supposed that was good.

"That's a nasty cut, little bitch."

Her voice…it couldn't be. Gods, no, this could not be happening.

I looked up to see my mother—Juniper—standing across from me in the snow. Her head hung at an off angle. Just like I'd left it.

"You're dead."

Her smile reminded me a little of Jor's with how wide it stretched, almost to her ears. "About as dead as you are about to be."

The snow didn't melt around me. There was no warmth coming off my skin. "You're dead," I repeated, as much for myself as for her.

Juniper shrugged. "I always knew you would kill me. One day. The same way I killed my mother. It is the way of an alpha female. To take the place of the one before her."

"So now you are my mother?" I laughed and my wound flexed along the torn edges of my muscles. "Funny to claim it now. "

"I gave birth to you. That makes us connected, alpha to alpha." Juniper didn't move toward me at least. She wore the clothes she died in. I was naked as the day I'd been born.

I threw my hands in the air. "You gave birth to me. I know Mars was not my father, but you're trying to say what…that you aren't my mother?"

"You were a means to an end. I needed to be pregnant with you, to get what I wanted. You were an unwanted child."

A means to an end?

I frowned and knew that if this had been any other time in my life, I would have been devastated by what she was saying. Not anymore. "What end was that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Power. What else is there?"

I laughed; I couldn't help it. The wound flapped and danced with my mirth as if it were clapping for my efforts. "Wait, you got pregnant with me for power?"

Her eyes rolled, weirdly, in opposite directions. "You are dying. What does it matter now?"

"Because it does," I said. "Because it's obvious that you got no power at all from this deal of yours. You got nothing but me, a daughter you hated."

It was a childish response; I knew it even as the words flew from my lips. As if she would deny hating me now? Not likely.

Her lips curled into a snarl. "I am aware that I was lied to. Suvenia said that if I were to give birth to the child of a Norse god, I would have more power than any other shifter in the world!"

I had no idea who Suvenia was…but she had obviously lied her face off to Juniper. Which didn't bother me in the least. The knowledge that I was a daughter of a Norse deity was a bit much. Juniper could be lying about that, but I kind of doubted it.

The one Norse god that had tried to truly help stood out in my mind. Dark hair. Short beard. He'd given me the spear to fight with against Juniper.

I struggled to swallow. "Why…why are you here?"

"I was sent to bring you to the other side."

"That's a shit deal for me." I spit the words at her. "Why not someone who actually loves me?"

Her pause was heavy as if she were weighing what she would say next. "They are all still alive."

Nothing could have stilled me more; nothing could have made me fight more than those five words. "Then I am not going with you."

"You don't have a choice."

Only I felt like maybe, just maybe I did. Perhaps I had more strength than even I knew. Time to test it out.

I took a step back, then another and another. "I won't go with you. I'm not done with living. Not yet."

She didn't follow me. She just shrugged.

"I will be here, when you are ready to die in truth." Her head bobbled side to side. "I can't force you to stay here. I can no longer force you to do anything."

"No. You can't."

I had my family. Chosen and blood. And I would not leave them. Not if I had anything to say about it.