Page 5 of Reaper
“She’s banged up from the impact of the car when it hit the water, but you got her out just in time,” Makayla explains. “Sheand your babyare going to be just fine. And so are the others you dove back under to save.”
“But why me? Why did I have to die?”
“That’s just the way it has to be.”
He shifts his gaze from Makayla to us. “And… Are you…”
“We’re all dead, too,” I say.
“But it’s not so bad,” Demo states. “We’re royalty in Valhalla, and you can be, too.”
“If you get your head out of your ass and stop posing a threat to my woman,” Viking snaps.
Makayla turns to her husband and smiles softly. “Thank you, but I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?” he asks.
She looks from him to Dean. “Are we good?”
Dean stiffens. “I’d never hurt you. I’m just…”
“Scared?” I offer.
“If you’re going to survive Valhalla,” Inferno begins. “There’s no room for fear.”
“I got this,” Makayla repeats, moving closer to Viking. She kisses him passionately, and I glance away. “It’s all good. Go.”
“I love you,” he tells her.
“I love you, too.”
I might be able to look away, but I can still hear them, and an unfamiliar feeling settles in my chest…
Jealousy.
3
Odin
“How can you be so sure?”
I shift my gaze from the screens in my viewing room and narrow my eyes at Skuld, Reaper’s assigned Valkyrie.
“Are you questioning me?”
“No, Sir.”
“Reaper’s been in Valhalla for a while now,” I say unnecessarily. Skuld welcomed him to Valhalla and is keenly aware of how long he’s been a Warrior. “There’s never been any indication that he wants or needs more than he can get here, right?”
“Correct.”
“That changed earlier today,” I tell her.
“How so?”
I scowl at her. “Skuld, it is your job to know what’s going on with him. How do you not know what’s in his mind?”
“Sir, Reaper has a way of shutting everyone out. The Valhalla Rising MC brothers are the only ones able to get close to him.”
