Chapter Twelve Thor

I didn't have time to clean up. Grabbing a towel from the rack, I wiped myself off, tossed it into the hamper, and went back to the bedroom. My vision was already back to normal, but Flynn was still staring at me with a confused look on his face.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm fine. But I need to go."

"Did… Did I do something wrong?"

I stopped only for a moment, taking his face in my hands. "You did nothing wrong, I promise. But my brothers need me. Resort emergency."

"Oh…"

I saw him glance over at my phone that was still sitting on the bedside table. From his perspective, it looked like I was flat out lying to him. There was no way I could have gotten a message from anyone inside the bathroom.

"I promise it's nothing to worry about, okay?"

"If you say so…"

I leaned down and kissed him without a second thought, hoping it would reassure him. With one last nod, I slipped on a pair of shorts and headed for the door.

"What about your phone?"

"I won't need it. Don't wait up for me."

Before he could answer, I was out the door and heading for the stairs. Pushing through the exit door, I took the stairs three at a time, practically leaping from landing to landing. In a matter of moments, I was on the bottom floor and out the back door. There I quickly lifted my nose to the air. I could smell wolves on the wind. And blood.

Someone was hurt.

Tossing my shorts to the side, I called up the wolf as I leaped into the night. I hit the ground on four paws and took off like a shot, rounding the side of the mountain as I followed the scent of blood. It wasn't hard to track with the damp night breeze keeping everything so fresh. Within a matter of minutes, I was over the top of the mountain and heading down the other side, the scent growing stronger with every step.

But there was something new mixed in. I could pick out traces of fear, sweat, at least two of my own pack, and four or five strangers. However, the most prevalent smell belonged to him . The Skoll Alpha, Tyr, had been in my territory again. That fucking bastard.

I put on a burst of speed, crashing through the underbrush with little care as to who heard me. If Tyr was brave enough to kill my father, I had no doubt he'd take out my patrolling wolves. I didn't need any more deaths on my hands and tensions within the pack were already high enough. If someone was dead, which I couldn't determine just from the scent, then I would have an all-out war on my hands from both sides.

Thirty seconds later I burst out the other side of the woods into a clearing. My eyes immediately came to rest on a wolf lying on the ground covered in what I presumed was his own blood. There was a man leaning over him, muscular and completely nude, but covered in wounds. My gaze lifted and I saw the hind ends of at least four wolves running into the forest on the other end of the valley and disappearing into the night.

They got away.

The moment I broke through the brush, the man looked up and recognized me immediately.

"Alpha! I need your help!" he begged.

By the time I reached him, I was back in human form, my body drenched in sweat as I kneeled down beside him. A quick glance showed me that the wolf on the ground was in a bad way. His rear leg had been nearly torn off and was still bleeding freely. The rest of him was completely covered in lacerations and even his werewolf healing was having a hard time keeping up with the blood loss.

"Put your hand here," I said, grabbing the other man and forcing his hand onto the leg wound. "Keep pressure on it so he doesn't lose any more blood."

Lifting my forearm to my mouth, I let my wolf fangs extend, sinking them into my flesh. The pain shot through my body, but I pushed it aside. Alpha blood had the power to speed up the healing process. Grabbing the wolf by the scruff, I hefted him up into my lap. He let out a low whine.

"You're gonna be fine," I said, holding my bleeding arm to his lips. "Drink this. It'll help."

The wolf lapped at my arm weakly, but he managed to get enough to make a difference. Within a matter of seconds, I watched several of his wounds close up. He was still beat all to shit, but there was a very good chance he'd live. Somehow, I'd managed to get there just in time.

Pulling my arm away, I placed him gently back on the ground and turned to the other man. "What happened?"

"They snuck up on us," he trembled, his eyes wide with fear. "Tyr and his goons. They stayed upwind from us the entire time. We never knew they were coming!"

"Did they say anything? Demand anything?"

He shook his head. "No. They just attacked us… It was like they only wanted blood. Like they were feral or something…"

There was a snap in the bushes to my left and both of us looked up. I thought it might be one of the other patrol groups, but as my gaze came to rest on a figure, my heart skipped a beat. My eyes widened in fear and the hair on my neck stood on end.

It was him .

"Tyr…" I growled under my breath, getting to my feet.

"Me," he said with a cocky smile and a wave of his hand. "You know Thor, you're almost as easy to lure out here by yourself as your father was. All I have to do is hurt one of your little wolves and you come running."

"Unlike you, I'm an Alpha that cares for his pack," I spat, taking a step forward, the vein in my neck throbbing.

"I care for my wolves too, you know?" he replied. "But unlike you, I don't force them to become pathetic servant dogs to a bunch of humans to live."

"You're on Hati territory, Tyr," I snarled. "If you want to live, you'll get the fuck out of here."

He took another step forward. "Oh, I'll go when I'm ready. I wanted to have a little chat with you. Alpha to Alpha."

I put myself between my injured wolves and the monster standing in front of me. "Then speak."

"I feel just awful about this little tiff of ours," he sighed, feigning regret as he circled me. "I didn't want to kill your father, you know. But I had to."

"The fuck you did…"

"He was going to lift the law about telling humans what we were," he replied. "I couldn't let that happen. The Skoll and Hati packs might not see eye to eye on how to live in this world, but on that one thing we agree." He glanced up at me, his golden eyes shining. "It seems your father went and found himself a human lover after his witch died."

My eyebrows shot up and he laughed to himself, knowing he's surprised me.

"I've never seen an Alpha go through so many women. It makes you wonder if he killed them himself because he got bored ."

"Don't you talk about my father that way!"

"Either way," he said, waving a hand in dismissal to my outburst. "The simple fact is that I couldn't let him share his secret with the humans. That would be bad for all of us. I'm sure you can agree with that."

I opened my mouth to reply, but then I thought of Flynn. I had to wonder, was Tyr telling the truth? Nothing had ever been said to me about him taking a human love. Then again, since it was so taboo, I can't imagine he would've talked about it, even to me. But Tyr wasn't exactly trustworthy either. He might just be trying to smear my father's name.

And yet, I couldn't agree with him. Not when Flynn was back at the resort lying in my bed.

Suddenly, Tyr was right next to me, his nostrils flared as he breathed in deeply.

"Oh," he hummed in a sing-song voice. "So, you're just like him, aren't you?" He leaned closer, the heat of his body washing over me as he whispered in my ear. "You've taken a human mate. And a male one at that." He clicked his tongue. "How disappointing."

Tyr took a step back, his form swelling as he let the wolf begin to take over him. "Our packs may have split three generations ago, but we're still family," he snarled. "And I can't allow you to destroy our way of life and destroy our family name!"

I didn't try to argue. Instead, I forced the wolf out of me as fast as I could, the shift happening so quickly that I cried out in pain as all my bones snapped at the same time. I hit the ground in wolf form just in time to be tackled by Tyr, his jaws snapping at my white fur. He pinned me on my back, his golden eyes surrounded by midnight colored fur staring down at me. But I didn't give him a chance to bite. I kicked my back legs up into the soft part of his belly, launching him up and over me.

He landed on his feet, but I was on mine now too. His lips peeled back, a deep growl forming in his throat as he bared his teeth. I returned the expression, all the fur on my body standing high making me look twice as big as I was. I was larger, younger, and more muscular than Tyr. But he was cunning and quick. That's how he got the drop on my father. However, I wasn't going to let him do that to me.

Before either of us could attack, two more wolves came barreling out of the underbrush and skidded to a halt next to me. One of them was pitch black, like Tyr, and the other was a silver gray that seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. I could see both of their golden eyes glowing in the dark, the Alpha blood in them rising to the surface.

My brothers had come to my aid.

For a tense moment, the three of us stared Tyr down. However, I could see the quick calculation in his eyes. Although he might be able to take down one of us on our own, all three would be far too much for him to handle. After all, he wasn't as young as he used to be.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to do damage on his way out.

I expected him to come for me or Loki. However, I was completely caught by surprise when he dodged to the right and lashed out at Baldr.

And that, I learned, was a mistake.

Baldr didn't even try to dodge. Tyr's fangs wrapped around his shoulder, and he bit down hard . However, the moment his fangs made contact with Baldr's skin, there was an explosion of violet-colored magic. The metallic tang of it seemed to almost burn the inside of my nose and I had to turn away to shield my eyes. But when I turned back a moment later, Tyr was sailing through the air only to crash into the rocks thirty feet away. Baldr, to my surprise, was still standing there as if he'd never been touched.

As Tyr struggled to get himself to his feet, I watched Baldr shift next to me back into his human form. He stood tall; his pale skin gleaming in the moonlight as the bite marks on his shoulder faded away.

"You made a promise, Tyr," he called calmly. "That promise will bind you until the end of time. The magic cannot be broken."

He paused for a moment, staring down the black wolf that finally managed to get back to its feet. Tyr was bleeding profusely from his mouth. It looked like several of his teeth had been blown off along with a good chunk of his tongue. Most of it would grow back of course, but he'd be in pain for several days. Regrowing teeth was possible, but not easy.

"And if you ever attack my brother again," Baldr added. "The magic you tasted tonight will seem like nothing compared to what I do to you. I can unravel you piece by piece until not even the memory of you remains." He growled deep in his throat. "And you'll feel every fucking second of it."

Tyr didn't say anything, try to shift, or even growl. Instead, he just turned tail and limped as fast as he could down the mountain and across the valley.

Loki was the next to shift.

"Come on!" he snapped. "This is our chance to kill him once and for all! What are we waiting for?!"

I shifted back as well. "Leave him," I said, shaking my head. "He's broken for now. It'll give us time to figure out what our next move is."

"Killing him should be our next move!"

"LOKI!" I snarled. "DO AS YOUR ALPHA COMMANDS!"

He took a step back, his face falling into a fearful expression for a moment. Then, with a scoff, he turned away and headed back into the woods. I heard him shift again and the thunder of paws fade away into the woods.

"He's going to find out," Baldr said at last, keeping his voice low as he turned to me. "About father's human lover. And about yours."

"You knew?!"

He nodded. "He asked me to keep it a secret. Just like you did."

I took a deep breath, shaking my head. "What am I going to do, Baldr?"

"I don't know," he replied softly. "But you better figure it out quick because this pack and this family is going to fall apart if you don't." He placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on. Let's help the other wolves back to the resort. They need a place to heal and rest."

"Right…" I paused. "Baldr?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever tell Loki about father's human lover. Ever. Okay?"

He nodded. "I'll take it to my grave."

"Thanks."

My mind was far away even as I lifted the injured wolf onto my shoulders. Baldr helped the other and together we started back through the woods.

I had a feeling my brief moment of selfishness was already over. Maybe it was time for Flynn to get his own room. Or maybe he needed to go home.

Forever.