Page 55 of Loki's Enemy Mate

“Of course,” Loki nodded. “I need to prove to you I’m trustworthy. And I have since I’m returning your son alive and intact.”

“Unfortunately,” Tyr said, glaring at me. “That won’t be enough to convince me.”

“What would you have me do then?”

“It’s simple.” He took a few steps forward, clasping his hands behind his back. “Help me attack the resort.”

Silence.

“Just because you’ve turned your back on your pack doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten its weak points. Thor and his mountain top resort is damn near impossible to sneak up on, much less get inside. If you help me and my men get into the resort and attack the Hati pack on their home turf, I’ll consider you a full member of the Skoll pack.”

With every word my father spoke, my heart beat faster and faster. By the time he’d finished speaking, it was pounding so loud I thought he could hear it. Cold fear flooded my system as I realized the tables had turned. Tyr, in an astounding move, had backed Loki into a corner. If he refused my father’s offer, it would expose us both as the liars we were. Chances are we wouldn’t escape the village with our lives. But the alternative was to ask Loki to hurt his own family, the very thing we’d set out to protect in the first place.

“Loki–” I whispered, squeezing his hand.

“I accept,” he said, cutting me off. “I’ll not only help you sneak up on the resort, but I’ll help you get inside too.”

“Oh good,” Tyr grinned, his expression full of a joy I hadn’t seen in years. “Because I just got a new shipment of explosives this week and I’mdyingto try them out.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Loki

“Do you think it’s a good idea to bring me out here?” I asked as we wound our way through the woods just outside the village. “Won’t your father be upset?”

“Why would he?” Heimdall shrugged. “He already knows that you know about Mistil. As far as he knows, you two met the same witch. She could’ve told you everything.”

“Are we going to be able to talk to him?”

“No. Only my father knows the incantation to get through the dome. I can show it to you, but that’s all.”

“I wish we could speak with him and maybe convince him not to help Tyr.”

“I don’t know if he’d listen to you,” Heimdall sighed. “Ten years of listening to my father spout off his ideals could mess with anyone’s head. I know it has mine.”

I reached out, lacing my fingers through his as we walked, trying to give him some comfort. In the past hour Heimdall had not only found out that his father thought he was dead, but that he didn’t even go back to check. He didn’t care that Heimdall was gone and had already replaced him with another wolf. Mymate was reeling from the realization that the father he once knew was gone and all that remained was a monster in his stead.

Our bond gave me enough information to know he was hurting, betrayed, and confused by the entire ordeal. But even so, I could feel him suppressing his emotions, trying to spare me from feeling the full force of them. I’d already tried to convince him to let it go, but I think, for his sake as much as mine, he needed to keep them hidden away. Tyr was systematically searching us both for weaknesses and giving in for even a moment in our solitude could make it impossible to dam the floodwaters again.

We had to be vigilant if all these lies were going to hold.

Meanwhile, I was formulating a plan of my own. Tyr’s request to prove myself didn’t come as a surprise, but the method of my proving did. I’d expected him to grill me for information. Instead, he asked me to do the one thing I was trying to avoid. I didn’t want to hurt my family. That was half the reason for all these lies in the first place. But, if this was going to work, I’d need to come up with some kind of plan. I had to get the Skoll pack into the resort, do enough damage to convince them I was on their side, and then get out without any loss of life if I could help it.

It felt like an impossible task.

“Here it is,” Heimdall said, jolting me from my thoughts.

I looked around, but there was nothing except forest surrounding us.

“Uh… where?”

“Give me your hand.”

I held it out and Heimdall took me by the wrist. Turning my palm toward the open air in front of us, he gently guided me until something pressed against my fingers. I cocked my head to the side, trying to spot the invisible thing I was touching. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t perceive it with myeyes. However, there was a slight buzzing sensation against my fingertips where they touched the invisible force.

“The dome is nearly a quarter mile wide,” Heimdall said. “It takes up most of the forest on the northern side of the village. Everyone knows it’s here because they’ve run into it at one point or another, but they don’t know what it’s for. Tyr just tells them it’s a secret and they believe him.”

“You called him by his first name.” I pulled my attention from the dome and looked up at him. “You haven’t done that before.”

Heimdall sighed, shaking his head. “It’s hard to call someone my father when I’m no longer a son in his eyes.”

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