Chapter 2

2

T horfinn Haldansson stood in the snow and longed for the wilds of Scandinavia. He wanted to go home. To run in the ancient woods, not the small forest he had built around his hall on the outskirts of the city. He had business there with the Blood Lords, or he would have left for his winter retreat already.

He didn't know what else they had to meet about. He had settled the almost feud with the wolves months ago. He had even done it without his ax. Fucking bureaucracy and a party that he had forced himself to endure as a Blood Lord representative. Thor and his pack of wargs made the wolves uneasy, and Thor liked it that way.

He breathed in the icy air and tried to forget the scent memory that had haunted him since that dumb fucking party. Amidst the smell of wolves and alcohol and stupid little canapés on trays, he had caught a hint of blackberries. Not just any kind. The way they had smelled when he was a child in the summer when he would forage for them in the forest.

He had tried to find the source of the scent but had impossibly lost it. It was gone so fast that he now wondered if it had just been his ancient mind playing tricks on him.

Thor's head whipped around as something crashed through his wards and into his forest. Blood had his fangs lowering right before a filthy tangle of arms and legs collided with him. It was a woman, or what was left of one. Dark hair was streaked with blood. He could smell life pouring out of her and into the snow. She whimpered in agony, her eyes flashing with the gold of the wolf inside of her. "Help." The noise barely reached his sensitive ears.

"I don't remember ordering dinner," he said with the barest of grins. He brushed the hair back from the woman's face. She had been beaten to hell, her hand a mess of broken fingers.

"Please," she whispered, the howls getting closer.

"Why should I?"

"Because he's going to try to destroy you," she rasped out before her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Who?" Thor said. He touched her shoulder and gave it a slight shake. The scent of her skin hit him, and he stilled. Under the blood and dirt and piss... blackberries.

Thor didn't have time to react before three wolves burst into the clearing, fangs bared in a snarl. The biggest black one turned back into his human form.

"Lord Thor, sorry for disturbing you this night. Give the wolf bitch to us, and we will be on our way," he said boldly.

"You are in the Blood Pack's territory, wolf. I don't have to give you a thing," Thor replied, scooping the woman out of the snow. Her back was wet with blood, the heat of it staining his hands and seeping into his clothes.

"This is wolf business and is no concern of yours, vampire. She belongs to us."

The two other shifters snarled in warning. Fucking stupid mutts.

There was the slightest rustle through the trees, and Bjorn appeared, shirtless and with a battle ax resting on one broad shoulder.

"Problem, Thor?" the bear warg asked cheerily.

The shifter snarled, "That wolf bitch is ours. She's committed crimes against our alpha, and you will give her to us."

Bjorn snorted and looked at his leader. "This scrap of a girl worth fighting over, Thor?"

Thor gave his second in command a steady look and said in Old Norse, "Blackberries."

Bjorn's eyes widened, knowing precisely what he was talking about. He had been at the party the night Thor had gone crazy trying to find the source of the scent.

"She's on the Blood Pack territory, which means she belongs to us. You know the rules," Bjorn told the wolves, waving them away. "Fuck off."

One of the wolves pounced for Thor. He moved slightly out of the way, grabbed the wolf mid-air by the ruff of its neck, and tossed it back the way it came. It crashed into a tree with a yelp.

"This isn't over, vampire," the shifter in charge snapped.

Thor looked back over his shoulder. "Get the fuck out of my territory before I skin your furs for my hall."

He cradled the half-dead woman closer to his chest and kept walking through the snow. He felt the second the wolves crossed back over his wards.

"You do know we have only just gotten over the last lot of bullshit with the wolves," Bjorn said.

Thor snarled low in his throat. "This is my land, and whatever’s on is mine. Mine ."

Bjorn took a careful step away from him. "This will mean war."

"I am a vikingr ," Thor said with a bitter laugh. "When has the threat of war ever stopped me from taking what I want?"