Valkyrie

Chapter 19

I was lounging on Trey's couch in one of his T-shirts and a pair of basketball shorts that hit me about midcalf, my belly finally full and my feet resting in his lap while he clicked away on a laptop perched on a table in front of him. Apparently, my clothes had been so covered in ichor and torn from my almost crash that Trey had thrown them out. He did save my boots. The laces were trashed but the boots themselves were in pretty good shape considering I'd almost been nothing more than a grease spot in the desert according to Loki. Trey was in those gray sweatpants again and nothing else, hair mussed and a content expression on his face. He wasn't making it easy for me to concentrate on anything other than all that bronze muscled flesh, the marks my teeth had made on his chest and shoulders still very visible. He could have healed them but I think he left them there on purpose.

"Don't you have to work or something?" I asked, flipping through the channels on his ridiculously humongous TV. I stopped it on some kind of British baking show which was probably a mistake because looking at the things they were baking was making me hungry again.

He shrugged a big shoulder. "I'm on vacation. I'd already had this planned." Must be nice to be able to take vacations. I'd called Odin to tell him what happened and explain why I'd no called, no showed to work but he'd already known because Loki has a big mouth that he can't keep shut and had gone bragging to everyone that would listen to him that he'd saved my life and I'd been marked by a shifter and word had gotten back to Odin like it always does. The old man had told me to take the week off to recover, without pay, then promptly started giving me a hard time about finally being tamed, howling with laughter until I'd hung up on him. I had almost smashed the phone but I remembered at the last moment it wasn't mine. Mine was still sitting in the pocket of my shredded leather jacket in my RV. Trey had contacted Alexi while I was dead to the world and let him know what happened already so I didn't have to worry about the overprotective vamp hunting me down and doing something stupid like trying to kill Trey. I wasn't sure who would survive that encounter now that I knew what Trey was.

"What did you promise him?" I asked Trey.

"Promise who?" The flickering light from the laptop screen reflected pale blue in his eyes as he stared at the screen and not at me. I don't know what he was doing and honestly, I didn't really care. I was still a little tired and sore. After we'd had amazing, angry, make-up sex that bordered on something you'd see in one of those nature documentaries with a lot of biting, clawing and snarling, we'd eaten probably the best reheated bacon and omelets I'd ever had and then crashed for about ten hours in Trey's bed, his big body wrapped around mine like he was afraid to let go. We had both fallen asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. How I could be tired after sleeping for two whole days, I had no idea but I had been. I think some of it was coming down the mating mark from Trey. I don't think he slept the whole time I was out.

"Don't play dumb." I pushed at his arm with my foot and he grabbed it, nipping at my toes and pulling a startled laugh from me before letting it go and going back to whatever he was doing on the laptop. "You know who. What did you promise him?" Like I said before, Loki never does something for nothing. I just hoped whatever promise he'd wrung out of Trey wasn't going to bite me on the ass, too.

"I don't know who or what you're talking about," he said, still staring at the computer. His jaw clenched than relaxed. He was avoiding me.

"Since you decided it would be a great idea to mark me and not just mate me, whatever you promised him will affect me, too. I need to know what to prepare for." I pulled my feet away from him and sat up, pulling my legs up and wrapping my arms around them.

He finally looked away from the computer and to me. "I didn't promise anyone anything, Han." His eyes went back to the computer.

I snorted. "Since you bound us together for all of eternity, whatever stupid choices you make will affect me, too. Forever. You do know that I'm basically immortal, right? So that means you are, too. You really want to be stuck with me for the rest of your really long life?"

"If I didn't want to be stuck with you, I wouldn't have marked you." He glanced over and flashed me a dimple. I glared at him and growled under my breath. He chuckled. "I swear to you, I didn't promise anyone anything." I could feel the truth of his words. Maybe Loki had saved me out of the goodness of his rotten black heart. I doubted it but I didn't want to argue anymore.

I relaxed and uncurled my legs and stretched back out on the couch. It was a nice, big comfy couch. Big enough that the tall shifter could lay out on it. Big enough for two to lay together if they got creative and we had been very creative. Trey closed the laptop and pushed the little table to the side of the couch. He scooted closer and put my feet in his lap, rubbing them. It felt really nice so I didn't stop him. I'd been away from my shifter family long enough to forget how touchy feely the wolf shifters are. It used to get annoying when I was younger. Now, I didn't seem to mind it so much. It felt good to have his hands on me even if it was just to rub my feet.

"I need to go home soon," I said as I stared at the TV. "I have a job to do."

"I'll help you find whoever did this to Mischa. He's a good kid. He didn't deserve what happened to him."

I looked over at him. "You don't have to do that."

He smiled down at me, his perfect silver eyes staring into my amber ones. "I do. You're mine now, Han, so that means Mischa is, too. I take care of what's mine."

He shifted, carefully moving over me, pushing my legs apart with his hips before he settled in and held his weight on his forearms, bracing them on either side of my head. I ran my hands up over his chest and down his arms. He felt so good. Solid and real. Warmth began to roll through me before it collected everywhere he was touching me, most of it gathering right where his hardening cock was pressed against my tenderest parts. He dropped a soft kiss on my nose.

"You're insane," I murmured as he kissed down the side of my face and to my neck. I angled my head to the side to give him easier access. Trey rolled his hips into me and I groaned, burying my fingers in his soft, soft hair.

"Nah," he said, his lips brushing against my skin as he spoke. "I just know a good thing when I see it and you are a good thing. My good thing and I'm never letting you go." I moaned as he nipped at my skin, one big hand sliding up under the borrowed shirt, skimming over my ribs before long, hot fingers brushed over a taut nipple. I sucked in a breath, my hands tightening in his hair as he pushed the shirt up out of his way. He was just dropping his head down to my breasts when someone knocked on the door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" I asked, a little breathless.

"No. Are you?"

"I don't even know where we are, so no."

"Just ignore them and they'll go away." He dropped his head and sucked a nipple into his mouth, teeth grazing the tender flesh as I arched my back with a small gasp. He rumbled in pleasure when I ran my nails down his back and wrapped my legs around him so I could press myself tighter to him. The knock came again and we ignored it. He moved back up and put his mouth on mine, our tongues tangling. He tasted like mint toothpaste and him, wild and dark and untamed. I dropped my legs and pushed against the back of the couch, rolling us off and onto the floor, me landing on top of him.

"You could have just told me you wanted to be on top," he said with a wicked smile, those spectacular silver eyes flashing in the light. "I would have let you."

"Like you could stop me," I said with my own wicked smile as I leaned down to kiss him some more. Kissing him had turned into one of my favorite things.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Gods damn it," I snarled. "I'll get rid of them." I surged off of Trey and stomped to the door, fighting the urge to manifest a sword so I could run it through whoever was interrupting as I straightened out the T-shirt.

I yanked the door open and froze when I saw who was on the other side. She stared at me with those painfully blue eyes, the scar running down the side of her face white against the golden tone of her skin. Other than those two things, it was like looking into a mirror. I let out a tired sigh. I knew this was going to happen eventually, I just didn't realize it would be so soon. With Loki flapping his damned lips to everyone about what happened and where I was, I knew it was bound to get back to her. She opened her mouth to speak but I held a hand out, stopping whatever she was going to say.

"We're not interested," I said before I slammed the door in my mother's face.