Page 1 of Loki's Enemy Mate

Chapter One: Loki

It had been nearly two weeks since I’d walked away from the Hati pack and my brothers. No matter what way I tried to split it, I couldn’t stand by Thor and watch him put all of us in further danger with his human mate. Being at war with another pack was bad enough, but bringing in a human, and the descendent of werewolf hunters no less, was too far. I didn’t feel safe living under the same room as Flynn and his grandmother. Perhaps they’d sneak into our rooms one day and run us through with silver blades one by one. If Thor and Baldr wanted to risk their lives on the possibility, so be it. I, for one, wasn’t going to become a statistic.

But I knew my own limits. I wasn’t as strong as Thor, so taking over as Alpha wasn’t going to be an option. I'd never defeat him in a fight for leadership and because of that, the rest of the pack would never listen to me, no matter how much of a fuss I caused. So, leaving was my only choice. However, that choice afforded me more freedom than I’d had in my entire life, as I was no longer beholden to the Alpha of the pack.

And I wanted vengeance.

Thor had permanently disfigured Tyr in their last encounter by biting off his hand. But it wasn’t enough. I wantedhimdead. And, if I could help it, I wanted to make sure it was a long and painful death that made him feel every lastfuckingounce of my fury, grief, and pain he’d inflicted on me by taking my father away.

It still made me so angry to think of how both Thor and Baldr seemed to move on after our father died. One day we were all attending the funeral, and it seemed like the next, everything was back to normal. Business as usual for the Hati pack.

Meanwhile, I was expected to just pretend that everything was fine. My father was dead, his blood still staining my hands from when I’d helped carry him back home to the hot springs. Even now, when I looked down, my palms still seemed redder than I remembered. And my heart felt like there was a gaping hole in it. Losing my mother before I could even draw my first breath was hard enough. But losing father too… it was more than I could bear.

After that day, something inside me snapped. I lived in anger, every single day building upon my fury until I exploded. Most of the time I took it out on Thor, my brother, who had replaced father so easily. He ran the pack with timidity and fear. That wasn’t the sort of life I wanted to live. And now thishuman… It just proved that Thor, while being the first-born son, was never fit to lead. My father trained us both to take over the pack one day. While Thor got the brawn and the softheartedness of our mother, or so I was told, I was the one that got the cunning from them both.

It should’ve beenmeleading the Hati pack. Not him.

And now they were all in danger, with werewolf hunters walking amongst them asfriends.

It made me sick.

But now that I was free of them, I had a plan. Not only was I going to get my vengeance, but I would also turn the tide of thewar between the Hati and Skoll packs. As soon as Tyr was dead, his pack would bemine.

That's why I’d been stalking the Skoll pack for several days and finally I found myself on a high ridge just outside their little village. It was incredible that the humans had never found it. Maybe it was because there were no roads or because the houses made it look like an old ghost town. Whatever the reason, it was smaller than I expected and much less populated. Apparently, things hadn’t been going well for the Skoll pack for some time. Tyr made it sound like he had an army behind him. From what I saw, he had barely more than three dozen wolves.

To be honest, I’d hoped for more. Taking over the Skoll pack would be much easier with fewer wolves to challenge me. But there weren’t enough of them to oppose Thor. Not that I wanted an all-out war. That wasn’t my plan. I wanted unity between the two packs once more, like it had been before our grandfather’s time. But Thor had to be removed from power before I could make that happen. And I needed werewolves at my side to do that. Lots of them.

And that’s why I’d been stalking the Skoll pack for the past two weeks. It was easy to find them, but I’d yet to come up with a way to sneak inside their little village. I’d been hoping for a chance to get one of them alone and get a gauge for the kind of loyalty the others felt toward Tyr. However, that had proved to be all but impossible so far. From my vantage point, I could see that the pack rarely left their village. And those that did were almost always with Tyr.

There was only one that came and went with freedom, and that was Baldr. My brother had been in and out of Skoll territory many times in the past couple of weeks, his mother’s promise intact after Tyr had nearly gotten himself blown up for attempting to harm him. I had a feeling he was trying to find me, and he nearly did a couple of times. But so far, I’d been able toavoid him. Although I couldn’t figure out where he snuck off to sometimes.

More than once, I’d seen him step into Skoll territory, come into view for a moment, and then disappear into the mountain forest. Even when I attempted to track him, I lost his scent. It was like he disappeared completely. Then again, considering his mother was a witch of the highest degree and he had her blood running through his veins, maybe there was a more magical explanation for his disappearance. Neither Thor nor I ever knew the full extent of his powers. I knew he could see the future sometimes, but that was it. Now that I’d run off, I wouldn’t get the chance to ask him.

A twig snapped in the woods behind me, yanking me away from my thoughts. I glanced back, knowing the cliff I crouched on was far too high for the Skoll pack to have caught my scent. I was upwind of the village, anyway. But that meant that whatever was behind me had gotten close without my nose picking it up.

Getting close to the ground, I willed my breath to still, my sense of hearing sharpening to a point. In the distance, I could make out regular footfalls, like boots through the leaves. At first, I hoped it was just a couple of tourists out on a hike or some hill folk looking for wild ginseng to keep their family in food for the winter. However, the longer I listened, the more I realized whatever or whoever it was, they were headed right for me.

I wanted to shift, to dart out of there in wolf form and leave whoever it was behind in a flash. But with jeans and laced up boots on, I’d get too tangled in my clothing before I could get away. And there was no chance I’d strip them off without being found.

As the footsteps neared, I had a sobering thought. Flynn’s family were werewolf hunters, and they knew I was alone in the woods.

Suddenly, going off on my own seemed like a terrible idea. At least at the resort, I kept my enemies close, and I had the support of my pack. But out here in the wilderness, I had nobody and nothing to lean on. With a rush of embarrassment, I realized how much of afoolI’d been to run off.

But it was too late for regrets as a thin, ropey figure appeared some ten yards off amongst the trees. Silver hair caught the sunlight and gold eyes turned my way. My heart leapt in my chest, but not out of fear. I knew this man almost as well as I knew myself.

“You are not hard to find, brother,” Baldr called, heading my way with a knowing smile on his face.

“It took you two weeks to find me,” I scoffed, letting my hackles down. “Seems like I’m doing just fine,brother.”

“I was giving you time to think, nothing more,” he said, dismissing my pride with a wave. “I’ve seen you watching me, tracking my movements from your perch like a raven waiting to feast.”

“Enough of your poetry,” I growled. “What the hell do you want?”

He didn’t flinch. “Have you sulked long enough?”

“I’mnotsulking!”

“Then come home. We miss you.”

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