Chapter Five Loki

W hen I came to, the first thing I noticed was the sunlight streaming down on my face. It was warm and soothing, something I wasn't sure I'd ever feel again. Falling down into a giant hole and snapping my leg in two definitely put a damper on my outlook for life. But I was alive. At least I was pretty sure I was. So that had to count for something.

I groaned and tried to sit up, my leg unmoving from the spot where I'd wedged it the night before. Considering the flash of pain that exploded through me, I was fairly certain I was alive. Unless the afterlife was playing some sort of cruel joke on me, I'd survived the fall and the night after setting my own tibia.

Forcing my eyes open, I looked up at the hole some forty feet above me, my arm coming up to shield my eyes. It must have opened up the moment Heimdall and I collided. I'd been warned about the mountains around Fenris multiple times. Natural caverns filled the entire area along with abandoned mines and who knew what else. Usually, I avoided crawling into any of them, even in wolf form. But I never expected one to open up right under my feet. The weight and force of our fight must have been just enough to crack the thin stone.

How the hell was I gonna get out?

I looked around, searching for something that would show me the way out. Of course, I was hoping for a rope, a ladder, or even a set of stairs even though I knew none of those would exist. Why would they? It wasn't like anyone knew where I was. Those that did wouldn't be there to rescue me. They'd be there to finish the job.

The rock walls were rough and looked like they might be climbable, which was a welcome sight. The only problem was that the ceiling was not only dotted with stalactites, but domed. Getting from the wall to the opening would require a leap of over ten feet and somehow upward at the same time. That meant that climbing out would be impossible unless I had outside help.

Suddenly, I remembered my phone. Reaching down into my pocket, I pulled it out. As I clicked the button on the side, the screen lit up although I could see the glass was cracked. Despite the spider webbing, it was still functional. It was a miracle it survived the fall. However, as I opened the contact list and tapped on Baldr's name, nothing happened. I tried again and again, but there was no ringing or anything. It wasn't until I glanced up at the reception bars at the top that I realized I had absolutely zero service.

It shouldn't have surprised me considering how far underground I was. But it pissed me off, nonetheless. For a moment I thought of throwing my phone across the cave. It was fucking useless anyway. But I forced myself to jam it back into my pocket. Maybe, if I could get high enough, I might be able to get enough service for an emergency call or something. That was if my leg ever healed enough so I could walk again.

I let my arms fall to my sides and let out a huff of frustration. A small bit of movement off to my left caught my eye, and I turned to face it. That's when I saw the hulking figure of Heimdall, my brain finally remembering that he'd survived the fall too. Memories flooded through the night before, tinted with the pain of my broken leg. I knew we'd exchanged words, none of them kind, and then I passed out. As far as I could tell, he hadn't moved from his spot. But now instead of the tall, proud Alpha he'd been the night before, I saw a man curled into a ball, his knees tight against his chest as he hugged them with one arm. His forehead rested against his knees as he slowly rocked back and forth.

Something was wrong. That or he was fucking crazy. Neither of those possibilities excited me. Then I heard him sniffle.

"Are… Are you crying ?" I croaked, my throat much drier than I thought it was.

"N-Nobody's coming back for us," he whimpered, still hugging his knees.

"That's no reason to go to pieces," I muttered. "I thought you were some tough guy Alpha, not a fucking crybaby."

"Fuck you!" he shouted, finally looking up at me.

His face was red and stained with tears. From what I could see, he'd been at it for a while. And judging by that fearful look in his eyes, something inside him was broken.

"I'm sure your piece of shit father will come back for you. Don't get all worked up. If anyone should be crying, it's me."

"He's not coming back," Heimdall replied. "It's been over twelve hours. Even if he had to crawl back to the pack, he'd have returned by now."

"Maybe Thor finally showed up and killed him."

I could tell from the sudden look of fear on his face that he hadn't thought of that. Whether it eased his pain or not was undetermined. Still, both options were equally grim. If Tyr really had abandoned his only son and the heir to the Skoll pack, that was pretty shitty. But if Thor and the Hati pack had finally killed Tyr, preventing him from getting help, then there was nobody in the world above us that knew we were in that hole.

Whatever the truth might be, it hardly mattered. The result was the same. We were stuck, and we were on our own.

"Look," I sighed, realizing the dark truth. "Nobody is coming back for us, so that means we need to find a way out on our own." He looked up at me, his lashes still wet with tears. "We can either look for a way out together and double our chances of survival, or we can kill one another now. What's it gonna be?"

Heimdall just stared at me. I could see the gears turning in his head. Although, from the looks of him, he didn't have many gears to begin with. The guy seemed the type to be all brawn and no brain. How could he have a brain at all since he followed all of Tyr's tyrannical nonsense? He'd probably been trained to be a giant mindless dope from a young age.

"I don't trust you," he said at last, his eyes still fixed on me.

"Good. I don't trust you either."

"But I don't want to die here."

"Same."

He took a deep breath, his shoulders heaving from the strain of his incoming answer. "Maybe… Maybe we should work together."

Huh. Perhaps he wasn't as dumb as I thought he was.

"A truce then? Until we get out of this place?"

He nodded. "A truce."

"Swear on it."

"I swear on my father's life that I won't attack you until we're free of this place and back to the surface."

I gave him a good once over before scoffing. "I'd swear on my father's life, but Tyr took it away from him." Slumping back onto the floor, I spread my arms out wide, taking in as much of the sunlight as I could. "But I'll help you out of here even if I think your father deserves the most disagreeable death I can think of."

He didn't retort or snap at me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his expression shift, but I couldn't see it well enough in the dark to make it out.

"My name is Heimdall," he said at last, filling the silence.

"I know who you are, Hamball ," I mocked. "And you know how I am. I don't care about pleasantries. Right now, I just want to rest and heal. So shut the fuck up and leave me alone."

"I thought this was a truce."

"It is a truce," I said, glaring up at him. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna be friends with you. I've sworn to kill your father for what he did to my family, and you put yourself between me and my revenge. That makes you the enemy too. Anyone who defends Tyr is just as disgusting as he is."

"We're not disgusting," Heimdall shot back. "Just because we choose to live differently than you do–"

"And kill anyone who disagrees," I added, cutting him off. "Funny how none of the Hati pack has ever tried to kill Skoll wolves just because they had different beliefs than us. And yet your father made it his business to not only force his beliefs on others, but to kill anyone who dared oppose him."

"Your father attacked him! It was an act of war! My father was just defending himself!"

I clicked my tongue, shaking my head as I turned my face back to the sun. "How convenient."

"If the Hait pack isn't preparing for war, then why did they clean out the werewolf hunter bunker under that old woman's house, huh?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but snapped it shut when I realized I didn't have an explanation for that. I hadn't stuck around long enough to see what became of Flynn and his family's belongings. My first thought was that Thor would want to keep those silver weapons out of the hands of Tyr. But where did they go? And would they be used against Tyr should he move against them?

"You're all subservient dogs to those humans," Heimdall spat. "No wolf should bow to a human! And no Alpha should be mated to a werewolf hunter."

"On that we can agree."

Heimdall acted like he wanted to keep arguing, but my words silenced him.

"I don't think any wolf should have to serve a human," I continued, looking him dead in the eye. "But I don't think wolves should kill other wolves either. And your father killed mine in cold blood. I don't care how much you've been lied to or convinced otherwise. I was there . I saw the wounds on my father's body and the lack on Tyr's. It was no fight. It was an ambush."

His gaze was still fixed on me, although he didn't reply.

"As much as I think my brother is making a mistake, he and my father are very much alike. The thing they both wanted more than anything was peace between our packs. Thor will never declare open war against Tyr."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because Thor, for all his muscle and his brawn, has no fight in him. He's a lover. That's why he's had his heart turned by that hunter . And, if he's not careful, that hunter will cut his throat one of these days in the middle of the night. I don't trust him. And because of that, Thor needs to step aside."

"You want to unseat your own brother?"

"I want to lead my pack to a future of peace and power," I growled. "Don't you want the same?"

Heimdall didn't reply, but in his eyes, I could see those gears turning once more. But I didn't want to talk with him. I didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

"Rest," I said, turning my face back toward the sun for the last time and closing my eyes. "Rest until the moon comes out. By then our bones will be healed enough to hold our weight. After that, we'll figure out how to get out of here and be rid of one another once and for all."