You didn’t think I wouldn’t give you a treat for the holiday, did you? Have some ‘Blood Wolf’ chapters to see you through.
But first! This is available in FULL on my Ream if you have to know what happens next.
If you are a pre-ordering person, here is a link, if not it will be live on Jan 7 and in KU.
Blurb
Abominations don’t get fated mates. And yet here she is, dying at his feet.
Feared by both wolves and vampires, the last thing Thor expected was to have a wolf fall at his feet and ask for help. He shouldn’t get involved in pack politics, and wargs shouldn’t have mates, but one hit of her scent, and every part of him knows that this she-wolf belongs to him.
Nicola was raised an Alpha’s daughter, but nothing since her father’s death has gone right. The new pack leader has kept her imprisoned, trying to force a mating bond with her so she won’t share the secret she uncovered: the wolves want to start a war with the vampires, and she will do everything she can to stop it.
When her inner wolf leads her to Lord Thor, Viking vampire and scariest bastard alive, she knows that with his help, she can take down her old pack before they tear Inferno apart. It’s taboo for wolves and vampires to mix, so the fact that Thor is her fated mate and makes every part of her burn is just something else the pack will want to kill her for.
The wolves are about to get a lesson in what happens if you mess with Thor and his wargs. You play Viking games, expect to win Viking prizes, and Thor isn’t going to stop until Nicola is safe and his forever.
Please Note: This novella contains violence, explicit language, and steamy sex scenes. If you are in the mood for an insta-love with a growly Viking fighting for his fated mate and their HEA, this is the one for you!
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OKAY on to the Chapters! I really loved writing this story. We all know my Viking heart sings whenever I write about Vikings in general hehe.
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Chapter One
Blood was running down her back in steaming rivulets. Her bare feet were filthy and bruised, matching the legs visible through the tatters of her dirty satin dress. She didn’t know how long she had been held in that basement room… She shook her head. Those thoughts could come later. She just had to keep running.
Left. Now, her wolf urged her. She didn’t have the strength to shift, but she couldn’t stop, and unlike her, the wolf’s mind was sane. Its survival instincts were sharper, so she followed the wolf’s guidance.
A bone-chilling howl resounded through the alleyway, and the echoing call came from all around her. They had caught on to her scent.
She’d hoped that she had a longer time to escape, but the guards must have changed their shifts. She had lost so much weight in her chained and captive state that she had managed to break the narrow basement window and just squeeze through. The glass and the wires had ripped her back to shreds, the blood leaving a trail for her monsters to follow.
“Nicola! Stop! Or it will be worse for you!” a woman’s voice shouted through the darkness.
How could it be any worse than being chained in silver and treated like less than an animal for months? She’d rather take her chances to evade them or die trying.
There was no other creature in Inferno that would harbor her and risk problems with the pack. In Inferno, creatures governed themselves. They would give her back to Kaleb and not lose any sleep over it. It would be the wolves’ business and not theirs. Kaleb was a fucking monster. She needed someone who wasn’t afraid of pissing him off.
Bigger monster. Take the next right, her wolf said, and Nicola slid on something wet and disgusting in the alley. She pulled herself back to her torn feet and kept running. She was delirious with a fever, her whole body burning, and she had no idea where she was in this part of the city’s underbelly.
She had been raised an alpha’s daughter. A princess. Much fucking good it had done her. She let her wolf instincts guide her. The same instincts that had broken her own hand into a throbbing mess to pull it free of the silver cuff that had kept her bound. An animal who was willing to chew their own foot off to get free of the trap.
Nicola ran, her adrenaline fading, but she couldn’t stop; her will to survive kept her going, the cold of winter pluming the air around her heavy breaths.
The buildings thinned out, and trees rose up like black sentinels ahead of her. Had she wandered into the fae district? She wasn’t sure where she was now, and it didn’t matter—a forest could be better cover.
Her bare feet crunched, and she realized the ground was covered in snow. It was rare to have it this thick, but she dismissed it. Maybe she was in the mage’s district instead, and they had been doing ice magic for fun.
The howls of the pack got louder, and she pushed through the snow. She sobbed, too dehydrated from her captivity to cry, just making a keening noise like a wounded pup.
She didn’t even see the man by the trees before she crashed into him, and she was sent tumbling to the ground. His hair and beard were as silver-white as the snow surrounding them. Pale blue eyes looked down at her, his face swimming as fever and blood loss finally started to take their toll. She didn’t have the strength to get up. She was finished, and the last thing she would see was this winter wraith. She struggled, rested her busted face on his boot, and whispered, “Help.”
Chapter Two
Thorfinn Haldansson stood in the snow and longed for the wilds of Scandinavia. He wanted to go home. To run in the ancient woods, not the small forest he had built around his hall on the outskirts of the city. He had business there with the Blood Lords, or he would have left for his winter retreat already.
He didn’t know what else they had to meet about. He had settled the almost feud with the wolves months ago. He had even done it without his ax. Fucking bureaucracy and a party that he had forced himself to endure as a Blood Lord representative. Thor and his pack of wargs made the wolves uneasy, and Thor liked it that way.
He breathed in the icy air and tried to forget the scent memory that had haunted him since that dumb fucking party. Amidst the smell of wolves and alcohol and stupid little canapés on trays, he had caught a hint of blackberries. Not just any kind. The way they had smelled when he was a child in the summer when he would forage for them in the forest.
He had tried to find the source of the scent but had impossibly lost it. It was gone so fast that he now wondered if it had just been his ancient mind playing tricks on him.
Thor’s head whipped around as something crashed through his wards and into his forest. Blood had his fangs lowering right before a filthy tangle of arms and legs collided with him. It was a woman, or what was left of one. Dark hair was streaked with blood. He could smell life pouring out of her and into the snow. She whimpered in agony, her eyes flashing with the gold of the wolf inside of her. “Help.” The noise barely reached his sensitive ears.
“I don’t remember ordering dinner,” he said with the barest of grins. He brushed the hair back from the woman’s face. She had been beaten to hell, her hand a mess of broken fingers.
“Please,” she whispered, the howls getting closer.
“Why should I?”
“Because he’s going to try to destroy you,” she rasped out before her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
“Who?” Thor said. He touched her shoulder and gave it a slight shake. The scent of her skin hit him, and he stilled. Under the blood and dirt and piss…blackberries.
Thor didn’t have time to react before three wolves burst into the clearing, fangs bared in a snarl. The biggest black one turned back into his human form.
“Lord Thor, sorry for disturbing you this night. Give the wolf bitch to us, and we will be on our way,” he said boldly.
“You are in the Blood Pack’s territory, wolf. I don’t have to give you a thing,” Thor replied, scooping the woman out of the snow. Her back was wet with blood, the heat of it staining his hands and seeping into his clothes.
“This is wolf business and is no concern of yours, vampire. She belongs to us.”
The two other shifters snarled in warning. Fucking stupid mutts.
There was the slightest rustle through the trees, and Bjorn appeared, shirtless and with a battle ax resting on one broad shoulder.
“Problem, Thor?” the bear warg asked cheerily.
The shifter snarled, “That wolf bitch is ours. She’s committed crimes against our alpha, and you will give her to us.”
Bjorn snorted and looked at his leader. “This scrap of a girl worth fighting over, Thor?”
Thor gave his second in command a steady look and said in Old Norse, “Blackberries.”
Bjorn’s eyes widened, knowing precisely what he was talking about. He had been at the party the night Thor had gone crazy trying to find the source of the scent.
“She’s on the Blood Pack territory, which means she belongs to us. You know the rules,” Bjorn told the wolves, waving them away. “Fuck off.”
One of the wolves pounced for Thor. He moved slightly out of the way, grabbed the wolf mid-air by the ruff of its neck, and tossed it back the way it came. It crashed into a tree with a yelp.
“This isn’t over, vampire,” the shifter in charge snapped.
Thor looked back over his shoulder. “Get the fuck out of my territory before I skin your furs for my hall.”
He cradled the half-dead woman closer to his chest and kept walking through the snow. He felt the second the wolves crossed back over his wards.
“You do know we have only just gotten over the last lot of bullshit with the wolves,” Bjorn said.
Thor snarled low in his throat. “This is my land, and whatever’s on is mine. Mine.”
Bjorn took a careful step away from him. “This will mean war.”
“I am a vikingr,” Thor said with a bitter laugh. “When has the threat of war ever stopped me from taking what I want?”
Chapter Three
The hall stood like a whale’s back amid the tall pines, the torches outside flickering on their posts and casting light against the dark of the night. Not that Thor or his wargs needed them, but sometimes the old things comforted them most. Like the hall itself, carved with the ancient designs and motifs of their home.
There were fifteen of them, and whether Thor liked it or not, he was still their jarl. Only a handful were still in Inferno; the rest had gone home to the north to prepare for winter there.
The heavy wooden doors were opened to greet them, golden light spilling out from the hearth fire, torches, and candles.
“I thought we were done with taking in strays,” Astrid said, putting down her ale mug. She lifted her nose and sniffed. “Wolf and mostly dead.”
“Come with me. I need your help with her,” Thor instructed, and despite her teasing, she got up to obey. Bjorn could fill the others in on what was happening.
Thor went through his quarters at the back of the hall to his large private bathroom. The outside of the hall might look traditional, but there were luxuries in the modern world they had all been happy to adopt.
“Who is she?” Astrid asked, following him in.
“Fill the tub. I need to get some of this muck off her to see her wounds,” Thor replied and cradled the wolf closer. “I don’t know who she is. She asked for help, and the wolves tracked her down here. They did this to her, and I want to know why.”
Astrid made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. “They usually take better care of their females, especially those of breeding age. Of all the places in Inferno, I wonder why she came here.” She gave him an expectant look. She had seidr magic and knew there had to be more to it.
“I do, too. She is the one I smelled all those months ago at that terrible party,” Thor admitted because lying to Astrid was pointless. She always knew the truth anyway.
“Blackberry girl? Your wyrds must really be crossed,” she replied and didn’t ask any further questions.
Together, they got off the remainder of her rags and got her into the tub. Thor sucked an annoyed breath through his teeth when he saw the jagged mess of her back. He didn’t know what they had used on her, but she was going to die before he found out any truth from her.
“She’s going to bleed out before we get a doctor or med-mage here,” Thor said, his chest tightening with long-forgotten emotion. Fear.
Astrid continued to wipe at the woman’s arms and took a better look at her mangled hand. “If you are thinking about what I think you are, I’m going to leave the room. I want plausible deniability.”
“Then go because I can’t lose her. I need to know the truth.”
Thor didn’t specify what truth—the mystery of the lure of her scent or the fact she had said that there was a direct threat to him. Astrid didn’t argue or hesitate. She left the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
“You might hate me for this, little wolf, but I can’t find it in my shriveled old heart to care,” he said and bit into his own wrist. He had healed his wargs on the battlefield in such a way many times, and he knew there was no other way to keep them alive without the power of his blood. He pulled her close and tipped her head back over one arm and put his bloody wrist to her mouth. Scarlet dripped down her chin and neck, but she didn’t wake.
“Swallow, damn you,” Thor growled, throwing the power of the alpha into the command. The wolf inside of her must still have been awake because she swallowed a mouthful and then another.
Thor pulled his wrist from her mouth. It had never taken more than a single mouthful of his potent blood to heal anyone. There was a sickening cracking sound as her broken wrist and fingers straightened and healed.
Thor tipped her forward, and the jagged gouges on her back closed, leaving only fresh pink scars. The tightening in his chest eased, leaving behind a bond he already suspected was there. Not now. It can’t be.
Thor pushed aside the sudden panic and called Astrid back in. He gave her orders and got to uneasy feet. His little wolf would need a lot of fresh meat when she woke, and then, after she had regained some strength, he would get all the answers he needed out of her, one way or another.
Right now, he needed to get back out into the cold snow and forest to calm the roaring in his blood.
The little wolf that the others wanted to kill was his mate, and any hopes of diplomacy he may have been convinced to have were gone. He would sharpen his ax and prepare for war because not even Odin himself would be able to convince him to give her up.
The only person who would be able to stop him now was the little wolf herself. Would she be able to accept all of him? He was an abomination to both vampires and wolves. He was a warg, an unnatural thing that had been turned by a vampire when no laws existed to prevent such a thing. He and his pack had fought for their survival every step of the way, and it was only fear and their hostility toward each other that kept both the vampires and wolves from joining together to wipe Thor and his kind out.
Could he subject a mate to that kind of danger? Or would she run in the opposite direction when she saw what really lingered under his skin?
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Thor was still out in the forest, brooding, when his sensitive hearing caught Bjorn shouting his name from afar. He bolted towards it and found the bear shifter near the hall.
“Has the pack decided to attack already?” Thor demanded.
Bjorn looked nervous as he mumbled. “Not exactly. It’s your wolf girl. She shifted while Astrid was watching over her. She bit her and jumped out of the window.”
“She’s probably disorientated and frightened. I will find her. You tend to Astrid,” Thor instructed, trying not to grin. She would have to be very fast to get the jump on Astrid like that.
Bjorn grunted. “You trying to get me bitten too? You know what she’s like when she’s hurt.”
Thor ignored his grumbling and lifted his nose to the air. The scent of blackberries and musky woman reached his nose, and he sprinted towards it. Her path was a zig-zag of footprints in the snow. She wasn’t sure where she was or what she was doing. A stab of pity went through him. What had the pack done to that poor woman?
Thor found the wolf in a small clearing of pine and birch trees. She was a brilliant gold, the kind of coloring he had never seen in a wolf before. His eyes drifted to her paws, and his heart tripped. Her front right foot was black. His front left foot was also black, but he was silver when he shifted. The deep feeling of rightness went through him.
There she is after all this time. Impossible.
“Easy, little one,” he said softly. She bared her teeth at him but didn’t try to run. “I know you’re frightened, but you came to me, remember?”
Thor let his alpha power fill the glade, and she stopped snarling. She cocked her head curiously at him and sniffed the air. Thor wasn’t sure if her wolf could sense the mating bond hanging between them, ready to be joined. He crouched down into the snow, and the wolf circled him, dancing on her feet closer and closer. He let her sniff him, and he tried his best not to reach for her.
“You know I’m not going to hurt you, little wolf. I will protect you and your human side if you let me. You know I can,” Thor said, keeping his voice calm and confident. She moved closer, avoiding eye contact, and gently pressed into his side. Wolves were affectionate creatures, and this one had been badly wounded. Thor ran his hand through the soft fur over her back. He could feel her ribs, but at least she had stopped bleeding.
“There we are. Good girl. I have you now,” he whispered.
The wolf sniffed at his neck, and he allowed it when he would allow no other that close. She rested her golden head on his shoulder, and he was forced to swallow a lump in his throat. Would the woman be as trusting as her wolf? He had to hope.
“Come home, little wolf. You need food and rest. No one will hurt you there,” Thor said into the soft ruff of her neck. “No one is going to hurt you ever again.”
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These two make my heart squish with happineess!
I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek and that you have a safe and stress free holiday period.
Alessa xx
alessathornauthor.com 