Page 58 of Thor's Unexpected Mate

I wanted to run upstairs, to tell Thor exactly what was going on. But I couldn’t. Not if I ever wanted to see my grandmother alive again. Tyr had already killed before, and I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. I couldn’t let him kill Nana.

But taking her place meant he would kill me.

I shook my head. There was no question about going to save her. Leaving her behind wasn’t an option, especially not after it was her that so easily accepted me, my life, and let me come live with her. She’d made my childhood special and no matter what she said, I couldn’t let her sacrifice herself for me. Besides, she wasn’t who Tyr was after. If I didn’t go, he’d just hunt me down, anyway. At least this way I could stop the killing before it started.

And I didn’t have to do it by myself anyway because there was something Tyr didn’t know. He thought I was just fucking Thor to get close to him. But he didn’t know we’d mated and that a nearly telepathic connection now existed between us. I had no doubt in my mind that the moment I left the resort, Thor would follow. In fact, I sat up in bed, closed my eyes, and tried to send the message to him mentally.

Tyr has Nana. I’m going to save her. He’ll kill her if he sees you coming, so stay hidden until the last possible moment.

The thoughts were stilted, but I figured the easier the message, the easier it would be to decode on the other side. Granted, I hadn’t felt much from Thor since this morning when he left, but I figured that was just because I was so tired. Pushing myself out of bed, I repeated the message over and over in my mind, willing it to find Thor. When I felt a small spark from his consciousness, I felt confident he’d gotten the message.

Throwing on my clothes, I grabbed my phone, the pocketknife Nana insisted I kept on me, and headed out the door. There was no time to wait or waste. It would take me nearly the entire hour to get back down the mountain and through the woods to her house. Thor would be right behind me, I was sure of it.

Still, I found myself wondering about what Tyr had said as I wound my way through the halls. My grandfather had been a werewolf hunter. That was news to me of course. And as far as I knew, the family trade hadn’t been passed down to my mother. I knew I sure as hell never got any training in the subject. But that explained why Nana was so adamant and why, when she told me her story, seemed so calm and collected about it. No doubt grandpa had shared quite a bit of his life with her. Hell, she might have even helped him hunt when they were young. I had no idea.

But why would she stay in a place full of werewolves if she knew they were here? She probably knew Tyr killed her husband. Had she been lying in wait all these years, hoping he’d come back so she could finish the job? I didn’t know much about her life before my mother was born. Could there be a side to her I knew absolutely nothing about?

Then I remembered the locked shed out behind the barn. The one that held all of grandpa’s old things. She’d wanted me to help her clean it out at some point, but she hadn’t been ready to do it quite yet.

Had she been preparing to tell me the truth? Was that what was holding her back?

I shook my head as I exited the front doors of the resort and headed toward the path down the mountain. I wasn’t sure what her intentions were, but I knew that if I stood any chance against Tyr, I’d need whatever was in that room. If my suspicions were correct, I had a feeling there was a lot of silver there, hidden away under decades of dust.

It was my only hope of defending myself until Thor found his moment to pounce. I reached my feelings out again, finding the connection between us almost nonexistent.

Hopefully he’d gotten the message because I couldn’t wait any longer.

Nana was running out of time.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Flynn

The further I got down the mountain, the less I felt the connection between myself and Thor. At first, I’d written it off as distance or newness. But the more I urged my thoughts and feelings towards his direction, the less I felt his presence. By the time I got to the bottom of the mountain where Nana lived, I wasn’t sure there was a connection to begin with.

“It’s okay,” I whispered to myself, hovering just behind the treeline. “He’s right behind me. I know it. He’s gotta know something is up.”

This morning when we woke up, Thor could practically read my mind. A similar sensation had filled the space between my ears as well, although I didn’t have time to really figure out how it worked before he ran off. I figured that was part of his plan though. He’d been concerned he wouldn’t make it back from his confrontation with Tyr, so he was just trying to protect me. But now it was me that needed help and I had no way to reach him. It seemed as if he was purposefully blocking me out and it made me wonder.

Did Thor know I had hunter heritage as well? Had he mated me just to win me over so he could have me killed? Maybe he and Tyr were working together, and he’d fed me a whole bunch of bullshit to throw me off the scent.

No.

The word was loud inside my mind. It came from somewhere deep inside me, but it was my own voice.

Thor wouldn’t never hurt me. Despite whatever my intrusive thoughts or my past trauma wanted to tell me, I knew Thor would never put me in harm's way. A man as sweet and gentle as him couldn’t do that. Besides, if he was a bad guy, he would’ve shown some signs at this point. But all he’d been was gentle, kind, loving, and easily one of the best people I’d ever met.

He was the perfect man, and I wouldn’t allow my anxiety to tell me otherwise. I shoved those thoughts aside, letting them die in the cold darkness of my mind.

He was on his way. He had to be.

But for now, I was alone.

I glanced down at my watch. I only had fifteen more minutes until the hour Tyr had given me ran out. That left me just enough time to get over to the shed and see if I could break inside. I reached down, feeling the pocketknife through the fabric of my shorts. Hopefully it would be enough to get me inside. The shed was old, but the lock was new. Considering I stood no chance of breaking through steel, maybe I could find another way in.

Getting there without being seen was the trick. It was still light outside and the animals were out in the barnyard. I glanced toward the house, noting that it was too dark inside for me to make much out. I could only see a small part of the living room because the front door was standing open. Besides that, I was blind.

However, if Tyr was holding Nana captive, he was most likely keeping her in the front of the house where the main rooms were. I crept through the woods until I could make out the backside of the house where the bedrooms were located. I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed the shades were still pulled in both of them. Nana always kept them closed during the day to keep the sunlight off her hand sewn quilts and to keep the house cool.

I glanced up, taking note of the barn and the small shed behind it. If I could sneak past the back of the house and up to the side of the barn, I could be out of sight as I tried to open it. However, all the chickens would see me and probably follow. Hopefully they would keep quiet because I was in no mood to get killed because of some walking drumsticks. The damn things were more hassle than they were worth.

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