Page 50 of Thor's Unexpected Mate

“My Nana has always lived at the bottom of the mountain. Her farm is the small one with the chickens and the extremely rude goats.”

Not a single person laughed. Tough crowd. I swallowed hard and gave up on comedy.

“About forty years ago, when my mother was only six years old, she was attacked by a wolf. My Nana and her husband heard it and came running into the yard. There, in broad daylight, they saw a black wolf trying to kill and eat my mother. My grandfather had a gun at the time, and he shot the wolf. The moment the gun went off, Nana had my mother in her arms, making sure she was alright. The wolf had managed to bite her more than once, but not do enough damage to be life threatening.

“However, after the wolf had been shot, it didn’t run off. In fact, it came toward my grandparents with a ravenous look in its eyes. Grandpa unloaded his rifle into the creature, and it wasn’t until the seventh bullet sank into its flesh that it finally started to grow tired of them. The wolf, finally admitting defeat, ran off toward the woods. However, that’s when it did something odd.” I took another breath. “My Nana says that it turned to face them once more and it shapeshifted into a naked man with golden eyes. Then he smiled and ran off into the woods toward the eastern mountain.”

Everyone was quietly looking at one another, clearly having a hard time believing the story.

“Nana has kept this story to herself for most of her life. And my mother was so traumatized that she doesn’t remember a thing. However, to this day Nana believes there are wolves on the mountain. It’s one of the reasons my family wanted to put her in a home. They thought she was crazy. But she’s right. And not only that, she knows they aren’t just ordinary wolves because she’s seen this man multiple times over the years. He’s snuck into her barns to kill her animals or shown up outside her house. He’s always nude, he always has those golden eyes, and she swears there are still scars from where he long-dead husband shot him long ago.”

Thor stepped forward, his hand still on my back. “We all know that Tyr rose into his leadership position after killing his own father around that time. We also know that he bares several circular scars across his chest and abdomen consistent with a bullet wound. And we know he is capable of such horrors. It’s very unlikely that he’s never attacked another human after this incident. In fact, after a quick call down to the local police department, there are a string of missing persons cases going back nearly fifty years. They chalked it up to people getting lost in the wilderness or just running away to start new lives. However, I think we can safely assume that many of them were picked off by Tyr and his pack.”

“But where’s the proof?” someone called from the crowd.

“The human could be lying!” another added.

“My Nana doesn’t lie,” I blurted out, defending her in her absence. “And this story was too difficult for her to tell for it to be made up! I’ve seen her conviction and I know she’s telling the truth.”

“I believe what he says,” Thor added.

“Me too,” said Baldr.

“I also believe him.”

The three of us turned to look as Loki got up from his seat, all of us shocked to hear his agreement.

“I don’t agree with this union any more than you do,” Loki said, calling out over the crowd. “Believe me, having a human in our pack is the last thing I want. But I can’t push away this new evidence against Tyr just because of my feelings. We all know what he’s capable of and humans are far easier to kill than wolves. If he can take down our Alpha, then picking off humans would be far too simple. That monster needs to be stopped once and for all!”

There were cries of agreement and fists raised in the air. Suddenly the room’s energy had shifted. No longer were they concerned with me. They wanted blood and revenge. And judging by the look on Thor’s face, he was desperately trying to figure out how to get them to see reason instead of blood.

Loki took his seat again looking rather pleased with himself. When I glanced his way, he shot me a glare before turning away. It seemed there was no way him and I were going to be friends. Meanwhile, Thor was shouting over the crowd, trying to get them to calm down. It took a minute or two before he could be heard over the group.

“Listen!” he called, his hands still high in the air. “I know you want revenge and I do too. However, if we march against the Skoll pack, several of you are going to die. Tyr and his wolves are ruthless, and they won’t spare a single one of you. In fact, they’ll try to take down as many as they can.”

“We need to do something!” one of the males near the back cried.

“He’s already trying to kill our patrollers! It’s just a matter of time until he succeeds!” another called. “My husband nearly died just the other night!”

“I know,” Thor replied, still trying to calm them. “And we’re going to do something about it.”

“What?”

“I’m going to reach out to Tyr and meet him face to face.”

“You can’t–” Baldr began. “He’ll tear you apart!”

“I can and I will,” Thor corrected, glaring at his brother. “Thanks to Baldr, Tyr is injured at the moment. Now that he’s seen a show of power himself, maybe he is also capable of seeing reason. I will send communication to him at once, setting up a time and place for us to meet Alpha to Alpha.” Thor glanced up at me, his eyes apologetic. “And… if he won’t see reason… I’ll challenge him for his control over the Skoll pack.”

Cheers rose up from the pack. I glanced over at Baldr.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means he’ll fight Tyr one on one. To the death.”

My heart sank as I looked back at Thor. I felt a sudden rush of fear and I wanted to cry out, telling him he couldn’t do that. He was strong, but Tyr had already killed so many. Thor was a big softie, and I could never imagine him killing anyone. So, the chances of him coming out of that fight alive were already low. But to do it alone with no help… that just seemed like suicide.

“Give me two days,” he asked the pack at large. “One to enjoy and one to prepare. After that I’ll take him on. I can’t allow my pack members to die for some stupid feud between our families. So, it should just be me.”

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