Page 67 of Thorulf
“Ja, about that.” Vicar’s humor faded, and he clasped Thorulf’s shoulder. “You have my apologies, brother.” He looked at Jade. “Both of you.” He sighed and shook his head. “My Múspellsheimr side is getting harder and harder to control. The only thing it seems to respond to lately is Trinity.” He looked around expectantly, hopeful. “Where is she? I was looking forward to meeting her in person.”
“Not here.” Jade frowned and spoke to her aunt, awake enough now to be glad to hear from her.“Why did you reach out to me, Auntie? Is everything okay?”
“I didn’t reach out to you,”Aunt Elsie replied, confused.“I think you must have been looking for Trinity because you said her name. Something about Vicar and that she had to wait her turn.”
Meaning her turn to come together with her mate, she imagined. Assuming, of course, she was destined for Vicar.
“I did say that, didn’t I?”She filled Thorulf and Vicar in on her conversation with her aunt, then frowned at Thorulf’s brother. “Strange considering I knew it was you at the door, and you thought you heard Trinity.” She focused on her aunt again.“Is Trinity there?”She tried to connect with her sister but had no luck.“Was she reaching out to me?”
“Yes, she and Raven are here, but no, she wasn’t reaching out to you.”
“Can she reach out to me now?”she asked.“Or can she reach out to anyone else for that matter? Maya? Vicar?”She narrowed her eyes. “Better yet, has she already time-traveled here? And for the love of God, what's up with her possessing Maya and me? Tell her to stop it.”
“She says she’s tried reaching out to both you and your sister, but you're not responding,”her aunt replied.“As to having already time-traveled there or possessing you, she has no idea what you're talking about.”She paused as though talking to Trinity. “She wants to know why you thought she'd reach out to Vicar. Who is he again?”
Rather than respond, she filled the guys in and met Vicar’s frown. “You’re sure you heard her in here? It wasn’t just wishful thinking?”
“I heard her.” He grinned and shrugged a shoulder. “And even though she sounded sweet, I came anyway.”
Jade didn’t have to ask what he meant. Despite his rumblings about it before, he obviously enjoyed the more demanding side of Trinity. One Jade had no idea she possessed. “Right, you prefer Trinity 2.0, dominatrix style. And here I thought you liked to be the alpha.”
“Dominatrix,”Aunt Elsie exclaimed.“You can’t be talking about Trinity. You should see her face right now!”
“I’d really like to, actually.”Jade narrowed an eye as if peering forward in time a thousand years.“Is her expression surprised because I know she’s got a naughty side? Or, however hard to fathom, maybe a that’s-right-she’s-the-bitch expression?”She cocked her head and thought about it.“Or, I know!”She sat up a little straighter certain she was right.“I’ll bet she looks genuinely shocked and just a tad properly offended, yet she’s fiddling with her bracelet like she does when I might be on to her?”
“Door number three,”her aunt exclaimed, just as shocked before her voice snapped away along with any moreoh-no-she-didn’tTrinity truths were revealed.
“So much for the sweet sister.” Jade chuckled and grinned at the guys. “I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. I’m gonna havesomuch fun with her when she travels back.”
“Oh, she still has sweet in her,” Vicar murmured, giving it some thought, contradicting his earlier statement. “Or so I hope.”
“Ah, so you’re half alpha, half,” she smirked at him, “what would you call it? Omega? Beta? Lowest man on the totem pole?” She winked. “Or is that a spire?”
“I accept your apology, Vicar.” Clearly ready for the conversation to be over, Thorulf gestured at the door. “Now, we’d like to get back to what we were doing.” He glanced her way with a look that told her sore or not, he wasn’t done with her. “Or what we were about to do.”
“I’m sure.” Vicar noted Thorulf’s new tattoo and congratulated them before he shot Jade a crooked grin. “As to being the lowest man on the spire, I’m willing to try anything Trinity’s willing to—”
“Maybe your Sigdir side but never your inner Múspellsheimr.” Thorulf held the door open for him. “Now go.”
“Don’t be too long, brother.” Vicar clasped him on the shoulder again in passing. “We still need to figure out why Trinity’s haunting me.” He glanced back at Jade and chuckled. “And it would do you no harm to show our people the softer side of your Celtic fireballs.”
“Something tells me we’re not going to live that one down for a while.” She sighed. “But I suppose he’s right. We should go show them our inner Celt isn’t so bad.”
“We should.” Thorulf tossed aside his fur, giving away his real agenda. “Soon.” She fell back when he yanked her fur away, nudged her thighs apart, and came down over her. “But first, we need to wake up properly.”
“I like the way you think,” she murmured before his mouth closed over hers, and any ability to think further vanished for a few more hours.
She loved how insatiable he was. How he never tired. How he looked at her with more desire, the more he had her. She could safely say she understood the monogamy thing now. Maybe because they were officially mated or because she realized just how much she loved him. The idea of being with anyone else suddenly seemed preposterous. How would they ever measure up to him in bed? How would they ever love her as much as he did?
That was the oddest part of all this, and she said as much when they finally put themselves together and headed outside. “It’s like I can feel your love from the inside out.” She glanced at him. “Almost like it’s my love even though it’s not. No idea if that makes sense, but it’s intense. Impossible to describe.”
Feeling the same, he nodded in agreement and kept her close as they walked. Close like he never wanted her away from him again. They had crossed a divide last night. Pushed past a lot of inner angst. While she expected them to occasionally have mini-moments of anger and jealousy, talking had helped tremendously. Accepting they couldn’t change what had happened. That ithadexisted. It would always be part of them. Choosing to embrace their time apart rather than fight it had proven a good thing.
Now the problem, the shaded areas, lie in the details. How Evil manipulated them. How much influence it might still have over them. They didn’t kid themselves that it had gotten inside them both. Impacted them. Rather than looking at it as their weakness, though, they had decided to look at it as a strength. A means, hopefully, to better understand the enemy so they’d be better armed when the time came to face him.
“Come.” Tor waved them over from the door of the main lodge when thunder cracked and lightning flashed. “Join us for food before the rain comes.”
“I’m still trying to figure this one out,”she said into Thorulf’s mind, referring to Tor.“He’s the only one who doesn’t make sense.”