Weaving Fate - Nora Ash Page 0,27

bruises from her tiny fists were undoubtedly blooming. But that would mean placing her sweetly perfumed nethers within scenting range once more.

“Want me to take her?” Bjarni asked. “You’ve carried her for hours, and the trek down this mountain isn’t gonna be easy with this storm.”

I glanced from the howling snowstorm around us to his bearded face already covered in flakes of snow, entertaining an errant thought that I should have let mine grow too.

“No. You’re carrying our supplies. I’ll carry the human—at least until we find civilization.”

Under normal circumstances I’d have suggested we make camp and wait out the storm, but this was Ragnarök. There would be no respite until the world had ended.

For a moment the blond man’s eyes narrowed, his face growing taut as if he were going to protest. Surprisingly anger rose in my gut, making me clutch the woman in my arms tighter without meaning to.

We stood in silence for a long, drawn-out breath, until finally my brain kicked back into gear as I realized what the Hel I was doing.

Idiot!

I practically thrust the sleeping female at Bjarni, ripping his weighty backpack off his shoulders in the same movement. She mumbled at the rough pass, moving weakly in protest, but the other alpha cooed and cuddled her in his arms as if she were an oversized baby until she settled down again.

“Pass me one of the blankets,” he said, not looking up from her sleeping face. “I don’t want her to get cold while we descend.”

This—this right here was why I’d never taken a mate.

I dug out the blanket from the backpack and tossed it at Annabel, letting him figure out how to wrap her up himself.

Weak and demanding as omegas were, the real problem with them was how they affected otherwise sane, battle-hardened warriors. I’d fought Bjarni more than once, and he was a formidable foe, powerful, strong, and commanding. Yet now he was fucking swaddling a grown-ass woman, doing his very best not to disturb her sleep, purring like some absurdly overgrown cat tending to his kitten.

Not to mention how my own brother had lowered himself to mate a human and share her with our sworn enemies, all because of that sweet call from her cunt.

Sure, he’d claimed it was about some noble quest to save our family, but the moment he introduced her, I knew the truth. She might be human, but her scent was ensnaring on a level unlike any omega I’d experienced before. I was as much an alpha as my stupid brother—I knew exactly what had drawn him to her, despite the ridiculousness of such a low match. I felt it tug on me too, that delicious urge to give in to primitive instincts interwoven with my very DNA.

That was the danger of omegas—they could take a loyal, dedicated, honorable man and twist him until he was nothing but a slave to her cunt.

I’d seen firsthand what damage a honeyed snatch could do, and I was still young when I swore I’d never answer an omega’s call.

I’d stuck to that oath right up until Magni needed me to protect his ill-gotten mate, and I would continue once I ensured she was safely by his side once more.

Regardless of how much my muscles twitched at how Bjarni embraced her.

It was only natural, I assured myself. She was my brother’s mate, and it was my task to protect her. Seeing her fondled by another alpha was bound to aggravate every defensive instinct in my body.

“Doesn’t it bother you?” I asked as I began our descent, my voice more acrid than I’d planned. “Doting on a woman who doesn’t carry your mark?”

“I’ll mark her soon enough,” Bjarni said with a shrug as he followed, his steps more careful now he was carrying the omega. “I’ve waited for her for a thousand years. She’s here now—why would I not care for her just because my claim has yet to mark her neck? She was mine from the moment she was born.”

He sounded so completely at ease, as if there was nothing wrong with this entire, insane prophecy they were all yammering about. As if sharing a mate with his brothers—and my brother—wasn’t a problem at all.

“And the fact that she already carries two mate claims is just fine and dandy? Or that on top of the alphas who’ve already taken her, she’ll happily welcome you and that cold brother of yours between her thighs, and who knows how many more?”

I continued as I