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.
Chapter Thirteen: Flynn
Thor never came back that night. I stayed up for a long time, waiting for him to return. But when the late night drifted well into the early hours of the morning, I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I fell asleep without realizing it.
But when I woke the next morning, my head was practically spinning before I was even aware of my surroundings. Had I done something wrong? Did I push Thor into something he wasn’t ready to do? Was I so attractive that I’d run him off? And what was the deal with his eyes? I thought for sure I saw them turn gold for just a moment.
Considering Thor was open to going much further than we did, I figured I wasn’t hideous to him. But that didn’t stop me from thinking that maybe I didn’t put out enough to please him. He came though, right? I mean, wasn’t that the goal?
Since I couldn’t make sense of that, his golden eyes were what I fixated on the most. Something about them made my skin tingle. I wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad feeling, but at the very least I found it fascinating. Logically I knew his eyes couldn’t spontaneously change color. It was probably just a trick of the light. But at the same time, that brief flash of gold reminded me of the wolf I’d seen after my fall. They were exactly the same.
I’d dreamed the wolf up though, hadn’t I? Pain had a funny way of making your brain misfire and I was definitely in a lot of pain that night. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That and Nana’s words echoing in my head about wolves on the mountain. Had I actually made it up or did I truly see what she’d been talking about? And why would I see that again in Thor’s eyes? None of it made any sense.
For a long time, I laid there in Thor’s bed, thinking myself into circles. No matter how much I tried to prove one thing or another, I always ended up back at the same place. Confused.
There was one thing I was sure of though. I was definitely attracted to Thor. That hadn’t gone away even when he sort of ran out on me. Then again, he ran a resort, so I figured emergencies probably came up now and then that he had to see to. But the fact that he never returned sort of put me off. And yet, even with all that going on, I found myself wanting more from him than just the physical. I just didn’t know why.
Was it wrong to say I felt a strange sort of pull toward him? It wasn’t something I could explain. Again, I barely knew the guy. We’d chatted a little bit here and there and now I’d seen his freaking massive cock. But other than that, I only knew that he seemed kind. I didn’t know anything about his family, his life, or what his dreams were. All those seemed like pretty important things to know about a person before you started getting butterflies in your stomach. And yet, the butterflies were already here. It made me feel silly and unbalanced, like I was some lovestruck teenager without reason.
I probably could have laid there all morning overthinking all of it, but I was starting to get a bit irritated with myself. So, instead of worrying, I got myself out of bed and took a shower. When I got out, I stole another t-shirt from Thor, found a pair of gym shorts I could live with, and headed out into the living room to get my bag so I could go sketch. Just as I was pulling it together, the front door opened and an exhausted-looking Thor stepped inside, his shoulders hanging limply at his sides.