instead they sat me down and talked about what it’d been like for them when they Presented. How scared they’d been when they felt like they lost all control. They explained about the biology of it, about the urges, and how to sate them without going into a frenzy.
“After that, our bond became… different. Stronger. I have been by their sides ever since. Until you.”
“And… their mom?” I asked, not quite capable of getting that disturbing image out of my head. “How old were you when this happened? Did you all leave her home to come to Iceland then?”
“I was… thirteen, I believe. We stayed for four more years before we left to explore Jotunheim and beyond. We didn’t come to Iceland until centuries later.”
Thirteen. Thirteen, and his stepmom had let him…
“You stayed? What… How did that go? Did you all just pretend like it never happened?”
“Bjarni and Saga did,” he said, eyes finally flicking down, though he still avoided my gaze. “To them, it didn’t matter. It happened during my first rut, and their mother told them she was fine. It was just an unfortunate event no one was responsible for. I think they’ve genuinely mostly forgotten.”
“And with their mom?” I asked. “Were things… different?”
He paused, his throat bobbing once as if he was trying to hold the words back. But the magic in our oath forced him. “Yes. They were... different. The next week, she found me in the woods. She told me she wanted a child with the same magic that runs in my veins. It took me a moment to understand what she expected of me. My rut was over, and I informed her of how I’d rather fuck a mountain troll. She didn’t take that too kindly.
“So she told me that if I didn’t give her a child, she would make sure I never saw Bjarni and Saga again. She would poison their minds against me, and I would be returned to Niflheim.”
He breathed in, pushing off the tree trunk to roll his shoulders. “I never did give her a child. Stars be thanked she didn’t conceive during my first rut, or that time in the woods, and I made sure to put a mixture of belladonna and mandrake in her food every night after. It didn’t stop her from trying until I finally persuaded my brothers to leave.”
“Grim…” I’d had it so wrong. So, so wrong. He hadn’t assaulted her. She had used his love for his brothers to make him submit against his will.
Thirteen. I didn’t care if he’d been an alpha at the time, or the son of a god. He’d still been a child.
He finally looked at me, but there was nothing but cold indifference in his mismatched eyes. “Does your heart bleed for me, little omega?”
“Yes,” I whispered, ignoring the sting of his sarcasm. “Bjarni and Saga—they don’t know, do they?”
“Of course not,” he sneered. “They love the woman.”
And he would do anything to protect them, even from the horrible truth of their own mother.
I remembered how he’d stiffened at the prospect of stopping by her cabin, and how he had been reluctant to force a mating with me, going so far as to stop his brothers from taking me that first night in Iceland when my heat was about to break. I’d come to assume it was because he found the idea of bedding me repulsive, and I was sure that was at least part of the reason, but… perhaps there had been just an inkling of pity from a man who knew what it was like to be made to surrender his body.
“If you told Bjarni and Saga, they would believe you,” I said softly. “And they would be on your side.”
He scoffed. “Please. Unpleasant as it may have been, it was just sex—and it was a very, very long time ago. If I wanted them to know, I would have told them centuries past. Now, are you quite done—or are there still some deep, dark secrets you wish to pry from me?”
I had made my bargain in the hopes of finding a way to understand this dark alpha. And now… I did. He may keep an indifferent façade, but I wasn’t fooled. Not anymore. Mistborn or no, any man with his upbringing would have encased his heart in ice to get through it alive. But behind it… just maybe… there was still a fragment of a soul.
“Yeah. I’m done. For now.”
Hopefully by the time I had my