Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

O ne month later.

Cassie hurried across the Eastern Washington University campus toward her dorm, tugging her hat lower. It was the day before the Thanksgiving break, and the crisp November wind tried to find its way through her clothes, but her Montana winter coat kept her body nice and warm. Her hands were another matter. She’d forgotten her gloves when she dashed off to class that morning and was paying for it now.

She yanked open the door to her building and stomped the snow off her boots on the mat inside. Cutting through the common room, Cassie nodded to a few people she recognized and received greetings in return. As the oldest freshman in the dorm, she stood out, but the other students all treated her well, and she formed study groups with a few of them.

She started up the stairs to her floor, unbuttoned her coat, blew on her hands, and then jammed them under her arms to capture as much heat as possible. Eastern Washington State’s winters weren’t as bad as the ones in Montana, but forgetting her gloves was still a bonehead move.

Thinking about home made her miss her old house for a second.

After the wolverine massacre, and Sten had left. She’d packed up the house and hit the road early. Cassie kept only her grandmother’s photo album and a few other mementos, including the weird dagger from Freya. At some point, she’d dig into her grandmother supposedly being a Valkyrie and having conversations with the goddess in Valhalla. Her mind wasn’t ready to sort out all of that. Thinking about it hurt her brain. So she didn’t.

Instead, she’d sold the house and anything else she could and headed to college a little earlier than she’d planned. Miraculously, she’d even found a buyer for the truck. Some guy who collected and restored old vehicles.

She loved her new life, except she felt tired all the time. More exhausted than what could be explained by lack of sleep because of late-night study sessions and lack of sleep. As if she constantly battled a low-grade fever.

And something was missing. Something she needed to stop the constant ache deep inside her chest.

An image of a tall, blond, muscular Viking rose in her mind as something she needed, but she squelched it quickly. She did not need a man to feel complete.

Especially not a man who so easily believed she’d betrayed him.

Especially a man who was a thousand years old and immortal.

Especially a man she couldn’t stop thinking about.

Fuck.

As she jogged up the stairs to her dorm room, her hands finally warmed up. She strode down the hallway to her room, her steps slowing as she got closer. A tall blonde man slouched against the wall by her door. “Sten,” she whispered, a pang of longing expanding her chest. He looked up, and a broad smile stretched his lips.

“Cassie.” He moved toward her, but then stopped.

“You’re here,” she said, stating the obvious.

“I’m here,” he confirmed, his voice much deeper than she remembered.

“For me?” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. Even worse, her voice sounded way needy.

He took a step closer and touched her hair. “Always for you. I want you.”

Cassie wanted him, too. So, so badly. She wanted him in so many ways, and in so many positions. She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s better not to talk.” His accent sounded heavier than she remembered. She studied him closer. His eyes were the smoky gray, she remembered, but something wild and feral lurked behind them.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“No.” He pushed a shaky hand through his hair. “Can we go inside?”

She opened the door and invited him inside her small room. It had barely enough space for a single bed, a small desk, and a tiny wardrobe. A tall, muscular Viking overcrowded the space spectacularly.

He closed the door and engaged the lock.

She threw her coat on the chair by the desk, sat at the head of her bed, and gestured for him to take a seat at the foot. He took his own coat off and then sat down. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees. His head hung down. “I’m not sure I can properly keep it together to explain this,” he gritted out between clenched teeth and then growled.

She scooted closer. “Are you okay?”

Sten jerked back, his eyes wide and filled with panic. “Stay back.”

What the fuck? She did what he demanded. “Are you sick?” she asked.

He chuckled mirthlessly. “In a way. Remember when I told you we were sj?lsfr?nde , marked soulmates?”

She nodded. She’d thought about that often. Like, every day.

He sighed. “Every immortal Viking and Valkyrie has a berserker inside them, like an inner warrior spirit. Tapping into that beast makes us feel no pain on the battlefield. And when we fight together, we always know where our battle sisters and brothers are.”

Cassie could feel her eyes widening, but said nothing. She added this tale to her long list of Norse mythology stuff she eventually had to deal with.

Sten paused for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice had a deeper timbre and came out through clenched teeth. “If our berserker claims a sj?lsfr?nde and is physically separated from them, we lose control over the warrior spirit. We become unpredictable and might succumb to permanent battle fever, which makes us a danger to everyone around us.”

“Is that what’s happening to you right now?”

“Yes,” he growled. Something feral and wild peeked through his eyes again.

“Mine,” she heard in her mind, but Sten’s lips hadn’t moved.

“What can I do to help?” she whispered.

He leaned toward her and caressed her ear. His palm captured her chin. “You care about me,” he whispered, gripping her jaw.

“I don’t know you.” Her voice sounded breathless.

“You should get to know me.” He lowered his gaze to her lips while his hand glided to the back of her head. Gently, he pulled her closer. “I need you so badly. I don’t know how much longer I can maintain control over my berserker. It wants you. Now.”

When she felt his breath on her lips, a groan slipped past her lips. She felt his smile as his mouth met hers.

His grip on her jaw tightened, and his lips traced a featherlight outline of her mouth. The contrast between fierce and tender had moisture gather at the junction of her thighs. Cassie sighed.

Sten growled in the back of his throat. He moved his other hand to the back of her neck. She couldn’t move her head as he nibbled her lower lip, sucking it between his.

She knew she should break contact, but instead, her body leaned into his.

As soon as she’d relented, he deepened the kiss, increasing the pressure until she opened her mouth. His tongue found hers and enticed it to dance.

Cassie’s body burned. Every nerve ending focused on her mouth mating with his.

Sten groaned again. Hooking his other hand below her knees, he slid her onto his lap, tilting her back to nibble her jaw and then her throat with his lips.

His erection throbbed against her bottom through the double layers of cloth between them. His hardness, combined with his mouth finding the perfect spot between her neck and shoulder, crushed her resistance.

Cassie melted in his arms.

His hand now caressed her breast through her sweater. Her nipples hardened, and he pinched them lightly.

In the back of her mind, she knew this was dangerous. Sten’s berserker controlled him and she didn’t know what could happen. But the danger also turned her on.

His hands made her feel so good.

Those clever fingers found their way under her shirt. His calloused palms rasped deliciously against the tender skin of her stomach, her side, then just below her breasts. One of them snuck behind her back.

She heard someone panting loudly and realized it was her. A tug on her bra snap brought her back into her body. The garment wasn’t cooperating.

Lifting his head, Sten cursed.

Cassie’s enchantment broke. Swiftly, she scooted off his lap and stood as far away as she could in the small room. When she’d caught her breath, she said, “We should slow down.”

“Why? Didn’t you like it?” It came out in a growl. His beast still had control.

That should not turn her on. She swallowed.

“That’s not the point.” She searched her overheated brain for what the point was.

“I want you. You want me. We’re both consenting adults.” He stood and took the one step that brought him right next to her.

She held up her hand.

He stopped, frowning.

“I don’t know if I want you.” Liar, she wanted him badly. “I don’t know you,” she tried instead.

Sten chuckled. “But we are getting to know each other. I want to know you even better.” He took another step toward her.

She backed up. “That is not a good idea.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Nothing about us has been a good idea. And yet everything between is so good. So hot.”

“Yes. No.” Damn it. She couldn’t think when he was this close.

He stopped laughing and closed the gap between them. Tracing her jaw with his fingers, he pushed her hair behind one ear. “What else do you need to know about me?” he growled.

That gravelly voice should scare her. Instead, it heated her core.

“How did Freya give me a dagger in a dream?”

He frowned. “I don’t know how the gods work.”

“Okay, then, what are those freaky things we fought in my front yard?” She tried not to enjoy the closeness of him, the warmth of his body.

“They’re genetic wolverine-human hybrids created by Loki.” His hand was playing with her hair again.

“Who?” She refused to lean into his touch, even though every fiber of her body wanted to. She counted backward from ten to still her tingling hormones.

“Loki.”

“I don’t understand.”

He traced her neck and shoulder with the tip of his finger. “If I tell you more, will you kiss me again?”

She looked up. “One kiss. No touching,” she said, secretly thrilled to have an excuse to feel his lips again.

Sten smiled. “If that’s all you offer, I’ll take it.” He leaned in.

Cassie stepped back. “Tell me more about these wolverines and Loki first.”

He studied her for a moment. “I think you want me to kiss you now.”

She shook her head, hoping they would both believe the lie. “Tell first,” she croaked out.

His smirk was smug, but he nodded. “The gods and goddesses are fighting among themselves. They can’t take that conflict to the human realm, but Loki found a loophole. He has humans produce these genetic monsters.”

“So, your job is to fight these creatures. Like some kind of military unit?”

“My tribe and I are, in a way, like the military.”

“But not a branch of the actual military.” Cassie made it into a statement.

Sten shook his head, smiling. “I’ve answered enough questions for a kiss now.”

She swallowed loudly. A part of her couldn’t wait to taste his lips again.

Another part, the part that handled self-perseverance, told her to ask him to leave until her overheated libido calmed down and her brain worked again. Now.

But she felt so much better being close to him again. The fever had disappeared, and energy flooded her body.

And she needed to taste those lips again.

Wait, no. She shook her head to clear her mind.

A self-satisfied smirk played on Sten’s lips again, as if he knew her internal struggle.

She had never backed down from a challenge, though. “Okay. One kiss, but your hands stay where I can see them.”

He lifted one hand.

She stepped back, but there was no more space behind her, so she hit the wall. “I said no touching.”

“You said I should keep them where you can see them. You can see the front of your body.”

Her nipples tingled as he made a point of looking at her chest.

“No hands anywhere on my body.”

He sighed, but lowered his arm.

Before she could react, he’d grabbed her waist and hoisted her up on the small desk. She gasped as he plopped her bottom on top of her textbooks.

“I can reach you better here.” Sten leaned in, placing his hands on each side of her. He’d trapped her without touching. Clever Viking.

He leaned in, the warmth of his breath brushing against hers.

Cassie stopped breathing.

Slowly, he lowered his head toward hers. Pressing his lips against her mouth, he pushed her back until she was half reclining against the wall. And then he assaulted her mouth.

The kiss before had been gentle compared to this. Now, his mouth devoured hers relentlessly, offering no reprieve, almost punishing her.

She couldn’t catch her breath.

But she didn’t need to breathe. She just needed him. More of him.

Cassie moaned. Her skin sizzled, and she arched her body.

Wanting to feel him. Needing to feel him.

Sten raised his body out of reach but kept kissing her, licking her lips, nipping them with his teeth. He sucked her tongue into his mouth.

Her hips moved of their own accord, matching the rhythm he set as he sucked and plunged. The seam of her jeans hit just the right spot between her legs, rubbing her clit through her underwear. She moaned again.

Pressing his hands against the seam touching her clit, Sten rubbed her jeans, setting a steady rhythm.

Waves of pleasure assaulted her body until she couldn’t take anymore. She shook as a powerful orgasm shattered her.

He slowed down the pace, changing from sucking to gently nipping her lips before stopping altogether. “You okay?” he whispered against her mouth.

Cassie cleared her throat. “I’m fine.” Her voice was hoarse.

Sten stood and pulled her into a sitting position. “I’m sorry, but I’m not done. I need more of you.”

“I think we should take a break now,” Cassie said. “We should go get something to eat and talk. You know, in public.” Where she might control her libido better.

“No,” Sten said, moving in front of the door. “You can’t leave me,” he growled in that low voice again. The gesture and the words should terrify her, but instead, her traitorous body tingled all in anticipation of what he would do next.