Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

S ten drove the Escalade faster than technically safe on the way to White Spruce's small municipal airport. He and Cassie slept in her old bed all night. She’d never woken up once he returned from the bathroom, so he’d just slipped in beside her and fallen into a slumber deeper than he’d known in a long time.

They’d woken up all tangled up in each other, and he’d been ready for another round of her wildness, but a loud banging on the door had them scrambling for their clothes. The tow truck driver had gotten Sten’s message and showed up at seven-thirty in the morning.

After that, everything happened quickly. He caught a ride to one mechanic in town, who just happened to have the right size tires in stock. Now he had two brand new front tires, and a used, but not punctured, tire as a spare. By the time he’d arranged for all of that, he had to haul his ass to get to the meeting on time.

At least they’d paved the country roads around the small municipal airport. Sten guided the car through the gates of the airport and across the tarmac to the hangar with the number the king had texted. As he steered the vehicle, he glimpsed something weird on the outside of his left wrist. A faded outline of a serpent’s tail graced his skin.

He froze and stomped on the brakes. When a berserker claimed their sj?lsfr?nde , their soulmarked fated mate, the Midgard Serpent’s tail showed up as a tattoo on their wrist. They had to complete the bond before that mark swirled up their arm and combined with the head and partial body that encircled every Norse warrior’s non-sword hand biceps. If they didn’t, they risked submitting to permanent battle fury and had to be sent back to Valhalla before they hurt their battle brothers and sisters—or themselves.

Fuck. Somehow, his berserker had claimed Cassie as their sj?lsfr?nde.

Mine, the beast smugly whispered in his mind.

Fuck. J?vla helvetes shit.

How could this have happened?

He shook his head. He couldn’t let this derail his mission. Time to focus on completing the deal the king had sent him to do. Cassie and he would have to discuss this later. Maybe they could arrange for some sort of long-distance thing. He definitely wasn’t ready to settle down. Was he?

Min sj?lsfr?nde, the berserker growled inside him. He told it to shut the fuck up. Slapping the steering wheel, he got his mind back on the job.

Two pickup trucks were parked outside the half-domed steel construction. Sten pulled up beside them and got out of the Escalade.

Brick Johnson, a middle-aged man with short grey hair, approached him. “Sorry about the delay. We had a minor hiccup with a supplier yesterday.” He held out his hand.

Sten shot a quick look at the younger, dark-haired man staying back. The pickup hid his lower body, and Sten couldn’t see his hands. Couldn’t see if he carried weapons. He tapped into the connection with his berserker again and told his inner warrior to be alert. “No worries.” He shook Johnson’s hand and lifted his chin toward the other guy. “Who’s that?”

Johnson didn’t turn around. “Ben, my security. He won’t bother you unless you bother us first.”

Sten nodded. He could kill both of them before the younger guy could draw his gun, but he saw no reason to freak out the mortals unless he had to. “Show me the wares.”

Johnson walked to the closest truck and lowered the tailgate. “As specified by your boss, I have six new Glocks and two Remington sniper rifles.”

Sten peered into the truck bed, where several gun cases lay open. He picked up each of the rifles and examined their sight and trigger mechanism. Per would drool big time when Sten showed him saw these back home. “Looks good,” he said.

“I brought ammunition as well.”

“Nah, don’t need that.” The warriors reloaded their own ammo. They did it to pass the time between patrols. Or they played video games or worked out. Plus, they didn’t use guns all that often. Gunshots attracted law enforcement, mortal men and women.

Loki’s minions didn’t hesitate to use regular humans as shields or hostages. The Norse warriors preferred to fight with blades and fists when they could. Plus, they lived in a state that required registration of gun ownership. Frey and Odin had included passports or social security numbers when they’d sent back the warriors to the human realm. They all had quality fake paperwork, but didn’t want to encourage law enforcement to scrutinize their records if unnecessary. Hence Sten traveling to Montana to purchase weapons. This state’s gun laws were more relaxed than Washington.

“Right.” Johnson started snapping the cases closed. “There is the small matter of payment, and then you can be on your way.”

Sten shot another quick look at the guy standing behind the other pickup. The man watched him intently, but didn’t seem like a threat. The berserker remained calm. “I’ll get the money,” Sten said and walked back to the Escalade. The Viking tribe had plenty of funds. Some warriors had walked Midgard for centuries. Even bad investment dividends added up after that long of a time.

He retrieved a duffle bag with cash, and after Johnson had counted the bundles, he and Sten loaded the weapons into the Escalade. The other guy remained calm and vigilant. They’d stashed the last case in the back—later on, Sten would transfer them to a hidden and locked compartment underneath the car—when a commotion behind them raised the hairs on Sten’s neck. His berserker went on instant alert and growled loudly.

Sten turned around and took a step forward while shoving Johnson behind him. The man gave him a puzzled look, but then inhaled sharply when he saw what Sten protected him from.

One of Loki’s wolverine creatures stood by the pickups.

Sten swore under his breath.

“What the fuck is that?” Johnson whispered, not even noticing that his trusted security had fainted and lay on the ground in a crumpled heap.

Sten didn’t blame him for passing out. Scientists sponsored by Loki created the wolverine-human hybrids in covert genetic labs. The creatures walked on two legs and had humanoid bodies, but they looked like clones of each other. Not even twins were that similar in gesture and speech, and they moved faster than a regular mortal.

But their eyes freaked out Sten the most. Their weird, dead eyes showed no irises or whiteness. Just orbs of complete blackness, like one giant pupil.

“Let the mortals go,” Sten demanded, taking a few steps forward.

The creature’s lips stretched into what was probably supposed to be a smile, but looked more like a feral snarl. “Why should I?”

“They have no stake in this fight.”

The wolverine chuckled, an odd grating sound that ended in a hiss. “They have more of a stake than they think. When my master figures out how to trigger Ragnar?k , all humans will perish.”

Preventing Ragnar?k counted as the Norse warriors’ primary mission. They could never allow it to happen.

The prophesied last battle of the gods would destroy all nine worlds of the Norse universe. Loki believed he’d be the only surviving deity and would, therefore, rule the whole universe. “Let’s just concentrate on what will happen now and here,” Sten told the creature. He wasn’t sure how the wolverine had found him, but lately, the fuckers had been showing up everywhere and in bigger numbers than before.

“What the fuck is going on?” Johnson’s voice sounded thin and panicky. His head swiveled in all directions and stopped when he noticed his companion. “What the fuck did you do to Ben?” He moved toward the wolverine.

Sten made a snap decision and side-clipped Johnson’s jaw. The man crumpled to the ground. He’d rather have him passed out than distract Sten during the fight. Or worse, getting himself killed by the wolverine.

The creature hissed, and its nails elongated into razor-sharp claws.

Sten shuddered.

It didn’t matter how many times he saw it happen, the nail-growing thing freaked him out every time. He crouched down and retrieved his knife from his ankle holster. As he deepened the mental connection with his berserker, the inner warrior howled.

The Vikings’ berserkers fed on the fever that rose on a battlefield. A hungry berserker was as dangerous as one who couldn’t complete the sj?lsfr?nde bond . If starved for too long, it could take over a warrior’s body and keep them in permanent battle fury. The warriors had almost lost King Leif this way, but their mortal queen had saved him. The two were now a sj?lsfr?nde bonded couple.

The wolverine in front of him slowly circled Sten. “I guess it’s true what they say about dumb blonds,” the creature hissed, showing its teeth in what was probably supposed to be a smile. “It was so easy to discover you’d be buying guns at this place and at this time. I didn’t even have to track your car. You basically told me where to find you.”

“How did you find out about this?” Sten asked.

“I had my ways. Technology is not as safe as you think it is.”

Sten ignored the creature’s smack-talk so he could concentrate on the fight. He widened his stance, making sure his boots had a good grip on the asphalt, and turned his body so he could easily keep track of Loki’s creature.

The berserker alerted him a split second before the wolverine charged. Sten ducked out of the arc of its slicing claws, avoiding being skewered by a hair’s breadth. He quickly crouched down and swept out with his foot to take out the wolverine’s legs.

The creature jumped out of reach and countered with an overhand swipe. Sharp claws graced Sten’s ribs before he rolled away and out of harm’s way. He quickly got back on his feet and hooked a knee strike to the side of the wolverine.

The freak leaned away at the last minute, but the impact was enough to knock it off balance.

Sten followed up with a fast uppercut to the creature’s chin and then sank his knife into its neck. Blood squirted in a wide arc as Sten severed the wolverine’s carotid artery. Working the knife back and forth, he kept widening the cut until the creature’s head almost separated from the body. It was gross and overkill, but lately, the fuckers healed unreasonably quickly, and Sten wanted to make sure this freak stayed truly dead.

He went to check on the weapons broker and his pal. Both of the mortals appeared well, with regular heart and breathing rates. Hopefully, they’d wake up later and think the monster was just a bad dream.

Sten locked them both in one truck with the window cracked open and the bag of money at their feet. He then dragged the wolverine carcass to the side of the hangar where the men wouldn’t see it. The creature would disintegrate quickly in the sun. These genetic mutant freaks always did. The Norse gods’ council currently battled some fierce in-fighting. According to their laws, they could not travel to other realms to serve their interests in that conflict. But somehow, Loki circumvented those laws by not traveling to Midgard, but by having humans build these wolverine-human hybrids that did his bidding.

Odin and Freya retaliated by sending the Vikings and Valkyries to protect the mortals of this realm.

As Sten stripped off the t-shirt covered in wolverine blood and gore, he wondered about the creature’s words about technology being unsafe. And why had the creature been alone? Usually, they showed up with at least one buddy. How had it known to find him here at the airport when Johnson changed the location at the last minute?

His berserker paced back and forth, growling out its need for more fighting. Sten used his connection with his inner warrior to scan the area. He noticed no further threats, so he clamped down on the mental barriers with the berserker as he dug around in his bag. He pulled out a clean shirt identical to the one he’d worn before and shrugged into it.

Someone must have told the wolverine about this deal. Did they have a traitor in the tribe? He shook his head. That was impossible. None of his battle brothers or sisters would betray another warrior. Their berserkers would alert them if one of them had lost their honor.

He scanned the airport area again. If there were more wolverines, he’d best protect the mortals by getting on the road back to Washington State and lead the wolverines away from White Spruce. Away from Cassie.

Cassie.

He stilled, thinking about how she’d dropped his phone in the diner. And she’d potentially been alone with it while he’d been in the bathroom after their love-making…after they’d fucked. Even if she didn’t have reception at her house, she could have read the messages he’d already received.

The berserker scoffed his disagreement. Not sj?lsfr?nde, it said.

Sten ignored the beast and slid into the SUV. He reached for his phone to report this fresh development to his king. But then he put it away again.

First, he’d deal with Cassie on his own.

She owed him some answers.