Weaving Fate - Nora Ash Page 0,94

of giving her my heart would not fill me with gut-wrenching terror.

“How did they mend fences? Magni and Saga?” I asked, piercing the silence.

This time, the amused snort was Bjarni's. “You don’t want to know. Trust me.” He stretched and yawned. “Want first sleep?”

I darted a glance at the tent. The thought of pulling Annabel into me as sleep took me away was pleasant—and painful. A stab from where my bond hooked made me shake my head with a grimace. I wasn’t ready to face the stark contrast between our connectedness during sex and the gaping chasm between us the rest of the time.

“No. It is your turn.”

He nodded and threw another piece of scavenged wood on the fire before he got to his feet. “Night, then. Brother.”

Thirty-Two

Annabel

I awoke nestled in the crook of Bjarni’s arm. He was still fast asleep, sprawled out on his back as if the chill in the air didn’t bother him in the least. Which it probably didn’t, what with him being an alpha god and running at about a million degrees.

I curled up into him as tightly as I could, pressing my icy toes against his shins. Even though he’d clearly held me all night, my body temperature was still lower than ideal. Damn Fimbulwinter.

Bjarni groaned in protest, but obligingly rolled over so he could wrap me up in his grasp, enveloping me in all that delicious heat of his.

“Mmm. Thanks,” I mumbled, rubbing my nose against his blond chest hair as my feet climbed higher up his legs.

He clamped his knees together around them, stopping their ascent before grunting sleepily into my hair. “Is it dawn?”

“Hard to tell when it’s constantly gray outside,” I said. “But I feel moderately less exhausted than I did when I fell asleep, so I guess?”

He sighed. “Ah. Modi let me have the night, then. I’d be grateful, but if we’re passing Níðhöggr’s well today, I’d have preferred him to be at least semi-rested.”

Something heavy dropped in my gut, removing the pleasant vestiges of sleep from my mind. “Oh.”

“I know, sweetie,” he rumbled, patting my head. “He’s just… not that bright when it comes to his feelings for you. Give him time. He’ll get there in the end like the rest of us have.”

I grimaced. “I’m pretty sure he has no interest in feelings.” Apart from when he was fucking me. That was the only time there wasn’t any barrier between us, the only time being with him felt good. Right.

“Well, you’re not that bright about it, either,” Bjarni said, a good-natured smile in his voice. He dipped his head to brush a kiss to my lips before he rolled out from underneath the furs covering us.

“I’m gonna get breakfast started. If all goes well, we’ll be back in Asgard tonight. Once you’re reunited with Saga and Magni, I suspect you’re going to feel a whole lot better.”

A jolt of excitement burned away my gloom. Saga and Magni! I’d done my best to push down my intense longing for my two first mates, but it’d been there like a gnawing, aching wound for every second of every day. The thought of finally being with them again, knowing that I was only hours away from pressing myself into their arms, went a long way to lighten my mood.

It lasted until a little while later when Bjarni called to me to come get my breakfast.

I pushed out from the tent, eager to get started with the day—until my gaze fell on Modi.

My redheaded mate sat with his own bowl of porridge and salted meat, a grim expression on his handsome features. Upon my exit from the tent, his eyes darted from the fire to me for just a sliver of a second. It was long enough for the agony in our bond to flare, my heart giving a dull spasm in response.

Last night I’d gone to him to try and soothe his pain. It was obvious he wasn’t thrilled at the thought of his father betraying him—or the rest of the worlds. But I hadn’t managed to do that. All I’d accomplished was a moment’s respite. I’d allowed him to slake his anger between my thighs, but in the end, it changed nothing.

“Eat up, sweetie,” Bjarni said, his large hand landing on my shoulder as he thrust a bowl of breakfast at me with the other. “It’s going to be a long day. And challenging. We all need to keep our focus—passing Hvergelmir will require all of us to be