Chapter 8

8

T hor needed to stop staring at his mate. Nicola sat opposite him at the table and looked positively edible. He was a strong man; he had to be to live the life he had and remain jarl . He didn't think his self-control had ever been tested the way it had been that night.

It wasn't only dealing with the fucking wolves that had hurt her. It was the way she had claimed him in front of them all. She hadn't hesitated a moment. Hadn't been afraid to let him cradle her in his lap. She fit so neatly, her soft ass against his thighs, sending all kinds of wicked thoughts into his mind. She had declared him her mate, and he had become hard enough he had worried his knot would swell up. She was perfect. The fire in her had been battered but not beaten. She had been scared of the wolves who had hurt her, but she had still fought with them.

Thor would kill anyone who laid hands on her. It didn't matter how long he had to wait. He would be patient, and then one day, when he knew it wouldn't be led back to his Nicola, he would fucking murder them all.

"Where do you want me to start?" she said, bringing him out of his bloody thoughts.

Bjorn had put a large tray of food in front of them with mugs of mead and water. He had taken one look at the gleam in Thor's eyes and had made himself scarce. Bjorn was smart like that. He would make sure they weren't disturbed.

"I want you to eat," Thor said, taking his blood-laced mead and having a deep mouthful. He needed something to take the edge off. Every instinct he had was telling him to fight or to fuck. If he got any more turned on, his knot would flare up, and then he really would be fucked.

Nicola had declared that he was her mate, but she had no idea what she was getting into. The wargs were not built like other wolves, and the part of him that was vampire had a hunger all of its own.

Nicola selected fish and vegetables from the tray and placed them on the plate before her. "I feel like all I have done is eat and sleep for days."

"You needed to heal. I wasn't going to make demands on you until you were up to it. The wolves pushed the matter, or you would still be naked in my bed," Thor replied.

Nicola's cheeks turned a dusky pink under her golden skin. "I wondered whose bed I was in."

"I wasn't about to let you sleep where I couldn't guard you properly. It was the safest place," he explained. He wouldn't have been able to tolerate her in anyone else’s bed, that was for sure. Her scent was soaking into the sheets and mingling with his own. Just as it should be.

Nicola had a few more mouthfuls of food. "I really appreciate you taking me in. I didn't expect my wolf to bring me here of all places."

"She knows where her den is," Thor replied as casually as possible. He didn't want to scare her, but if he had his way, she would still be in his lap.

Nicola looked at her plate. "It is still dangerous for you. Under normal circumstances, we would be ostracised from both our peoples for accepting the bond. The wolves will see me as fair game if I ever step into their territory again. The last girl I knew who had a liaison with a vampire was killed by her pack leader."

Thor's hands balled into fists so his claws didn't spring free. "No one is going to harm you. Wolf or vampire. I'm already hated by both. Accepting the bond and becoming my mate will make you untouchable. That I can assure you."

Nicola looked up at him, her golden eyes wide. " If I accept?"

"I already told you I'm not going to force you into anything," Thor said, the words bitter on his tongue. "I'm not only a wolf or a vampire. I'm warg too. I'm all three, yet none of them. It's not a simple wolf mating or if a vampire took a bride. You need to understand that I'm not..."

Thor stopped speaking because he didn't sound like himself. He was babbling like a panicked maiden. He had never felt the need to explain himself in his whole damn life. The world had tried to crush him, so he had gotten up and crushed it back. He wasn't ashamed of what he was. It was the first time he actually cared if he was about to be rejected.

"I don't think you're an abomination," Nicola said, putting down her fork.

"You haven't seen my warg form."

Her full lips twitched. "Is it like the wargs from The Lord of the Rings ?"

Thor choked on his mead. "What? No. Gods, no."

"Then I suppose you will have to show me," Nicola replied. Her scent wasn't afraid. It was heady blackberry sweetness in his nose.

"How about you tell me why Kaleb wants to kill you, and in return, I will answer any questions you have about me?" Thor had never offered such information to anyone before. If she was to accept him as her mate, then she needed the truth from him. The whole truth.

"I used to run the accounting books for the pack when my father was leading it," Nicola began and sipped her water. "After he died, I was slowly removed from my position and the task given to someone less competent. I've grown up being aware of undercurrents in the pack. It was a part of my training, and I knew something was happening that most of the pack had no idea about. Kaleb and his loyal mutts were up to something. I got suspicious, and when I realized they had forgotten to remove my access to their accounting software, I began to dig. Whatever the alpha does has repercussions for the pack, and I wasn't about to sit back and watch Kaleb destroy the lifetime of work my father put into making it secure."

"And what did you find?" Thor asked, toying with a piece of bread.

Nicola bit the inside of her cheek, and then it came out in a rush. "Without going into precise details that only someone in finance would understand? Lots of shell companies had been set up. One was laundering money through a charity run by Volso."

"I know about that. It was shut down months ago, and the wolf was imprisoned, last I heard," Thor said, remembering the cleaning house Ares Volso did when he took over as head of the family.

Nicola huffed out a laugh. "That wolf was left to Pack Law. He was from one of the smaller packs that Kaleb was taking over. He's not in prison. He's in Cyprus overseeing Kaleb's operation there."

"What operation exactly?"

"At first, I thought it was drugs," Nicola said and stabbed at a piece of fish with her fork. "I was so mad at the thought he would sully my family's pack with fucking drugs of all things, but it was worse. He's buying and trading guns and other weapons. Stockpiling them because he wants to start a war with the vampires. The drug link I followed was to make a poison that kills vampires, as well as silver bullets and blades and shrapnel bombs. He's making a lot of it. He was trying to undermine Volso with the laundering, but it was also to get closer access to the higher-up vampires."

Thor snorted in disgust. "He's an idiot to think he can war with the vampires and win."

"Really? Because he had plans to take out the whole council. And don't try to say the dragons would stop it. Unless it really caused some kind of threat to them, they would let the wolves and vampires fight amongst themselves. They won't care unless the rest of the city is threatened."

Thor rubbed at his beard. He couldn't argue with that. It was hard to tell what would rouse the dragons enough to intervene. The wolves and vampires had been founders of the city too, but if they kept the warring in their own territories, then the other people and creatures would leave them be.

"I don't know how he could take out the whole council at once," Thor said eventually. "If a single Blood Lord died, the news would spread rapidly."

"I found plans of the vampire council building. I think they were going to take them out while they were locked in a session. I can't let them get away with it. They are extremists, and starting a war with vampires is insane. It will end up getting more innocents killed. The vampires used to keep wolves as pets and servants. We fought hard for independence, and these dumb fucks are going to give the vampires an excuse to bring us under their heels once more. I won't let my people get enslaved, not again," Nicola all but shouted, her passion rising hot. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, but the whole thing makes me so mad."

"You don't need to apologize. I understand your feelings deeper than you know. My family and I were slaves and experiments to vampires," Thor said, and the fire in her expression softened.

"I heard rumors," she replied. "I didn't know if there was any truth in them. Everything seems to be a rumor when it comes to you and your wargs."

"A lot of it is true. We just rarely specify which parts. Fear has always been a useful weapon to get people to leave us be," Thor admitted. He would get to him and the wargs. Right now, there was bigger issues. "I take it you have proof of these claims you are making? Because unless we have some real evidence, I don't know how we can act on it. It will be your word against Kaleb’s."

Nicola's smile turned smug. "Of course I have evidence. I'm not a complete idiot. I was trying to get to you the night of the party to tell you what Kaleb was planning. It was the closest I would ever get to a Blood Lord. He grabbed me before I could get it to you and give you the USB I had made. That wasn't the only copy I had, and it wasn't all the information I had on them."

Thor grinned. His mate was clever as well as beautiful. "Tell me where the other copy is, and I will have one of my people retrieve it."

"Yeah, that's going to be a problem," she said, shaking her head. "The place where I stored the files is locked with a ward."

"Astrid can break just about any security ward," Thor began.

"Not one that's keyed to my blood and was made by Galen Murphey."

"Dark gods, please tell me you don't owe that sorcerer any debts," Thor growled.

"Me? Not an idiot," Nicola said slowly, enunciating every word. "I paid him with some antiques he wanted that belonged to my father. The information is in one of his safes at his club, and only I can open it. The problem is, as soon as I leave your territory, Kaleb will try and take me again."

"He can try," Thor said, the thrill of the fight burning in his veins. He couldn't try for it tonight, though. He had other business to attend to. "I have to go to a council meeting in an hour. I'll mention Kaleb's plans to Claudius so he can at least tighten security on the building. We will get your information from the sorcerer tomorrow night."

Nicola nodded."You think Claudius will believe you?"

"He's paranoid like all old vampires. He will check into the claims. If nothing else, he will be furious that someone leaked the building plans to Kaleb in the first place."

Nicola looked up at him from under thick black lashes, and his dick throbbed. Gods, he would do so many fucked up things for a woman like her. Thor hadn't wanted someone so badly for centuries.

"Does that mean you have time to tell me about you and the wargs? I really do only have rumors in my head, and I know they have to be bullshit because you have all been so kind to me," she said, and Thor couldn't hold back his laugh.

"I don't think we have ever been accused of kindness before. You are my mate. Which means you are the warg's queen. They will treat you the way they treat me. Their loyalty to me demands it," Thor replied.

He owed her explanations, though. He barely knew her, but he liked what he saw. She was intelligent, strong, and beautiful. Everything his queen should be. He wanted her to accept him, and there was only one way to get that, and it was honesty. He filled his mead once more.

"Ask your questions, little wolf, and I will answer them."