Outwitted

S

eeing Fenrir corporeal and in the Living World was like a punch in the gut.

Correction.

It was like a punch in the gut, combined with two flying kicks in the face.

Hatred burned in his turquoise eyes, white and crackling and searing. My insides shriveled at the intensity of his gaze, losing every drop of moisture until I felt like an unmoving husk.

“How are you corporeal again?” The words tumbled from my lips.

“No apology?” he roared.

A shudder skittered down my spine, and recent events flashed before my eyes. It started with being sacrificed to Fenrir, skipped over the part where I fell in love with him, and ended with fleeing from our handfasting in a furry wedding dress.

I could already picture my future.

First, he would tear my soul from my body—the way he had when I’d died.

Next, he would drag me back to the pocket of Hell, and through the fireplace, and into that cave.

Then it would be me spending an eternity tied to that rock with venom dripping in my eyes.

The wood-paneled walls of the hearing room closed in on me like the sides of a coffin. Even the air turned thick with the weight of his animosity. It snaked around my lungs, crushing them until I struggled for air. All sense of my surroundings imploded, and it was just me and Fenrir and his thirst for revenge.

Panic muffled my ears, blocking out the murmurs of the Supernatural Council, Mum’s shouts, and the chanting of Alpha Gundahar’s shamans—I couldn’t hear anything but my rasping breaths.

Fenrir tore his gaze away from mine, and the tight band of anxiety around my chest loosened. He turned to Alpha Gundahar’s prone body, pushed him onto his front, and knelt at his side.

“I, Fenrir of the Norsemen, take your magic, your pack and your authority,” he growled at the unmoving corpse.

My throat spasmed. Why would Fenrir declare himself as the Norse alpha, when he was already their god?

With one downward thrust of his hand, he delved into the dead alpha’s chest, cracking bones with the force of his blow, and ripped out his heart.

I clapped a hand over my chest and staggered away, my back hitting a solid wall of air.

Fenrir rose to his feet, holding the heart aloft with a triumphant roar. Blood poured from the organ’s thick arteries and splattered over Fenrir’s blond curls, his bare chest, and his animal-skin pants.

My breath stilled, and my fingers curled around the flesh over my heart. He was about to show everyone that he was the ultimate alpha.

Fenrir brought the bloody organ to his mouth and took a bite.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. This was what he had wanted me to do to Beowulf? Was this what he wanted to do to me?

I blinked over and over, bringing the rest of the hearing room into focus. All the monarchs had left their high podium to stand around the ward they’d erected for the alpha challenge.

My gaze locked with Mera, whose eyes glistened with tears. Her husband, the Vampire King, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. From the way an oversized white robe hung from her body, part of me wondered if she had burned her clothes trying to come to my rescue during the fight.

King Hades was the first to speak. “What’s happening?” he snapped at Fenrir. “Why have you interfered with Queen Lydia’s alpha battle?”

Curling his lip, Fenrir hurled the bloody heart at King Hades, only for it to splatter against the invisible ward. “You betrayed me to Hel.”

King Hades raised his brows and folded his arms across his broad chest. “Interesting choice of words,” he drawled. “Betrayal suggests camaraderie, but I keep dogs as pets, not allies.”

Fenrir slammed his bloody palm on his chest and roared, “I am the new Shifter King.”

I placed a hand over my mouth, wondering what the hell that declaration meant for me—the actual Shifter Queen. The same Shifter Queen who left Fenrir in a pocket dimension when he had revealed his plan to keep me forever trapped in Hell.

The Fae King tossed his silver hair and sniffed. “You’re mistaken, Norse Alpha. The only way to become the Shifter King of Logris is by defeating Queen Lydia.”

“What are you saying?” King Hades hissed at his colleague.

“Those are the rules.” The Fae King made a shooing motion in my direction. “Fenrir of the Norsemen, if you wish to be one of us, you must destroy the previous queen and sit through a tedious coronation.”

I clenched my teeth, my veins burning with hatred for the wretched faerie. He sounded like getting crowned was a worse fate than my murder. If I ever got the opportunity, I would tear off his butterfly wings with my teeth.

Fenrir turned to me with those smoldering eyes, his gaze roving up and down my body before lingering on my face. “A female alpha may concede to her mate.”

The Fae King turned to me, his brows raised. “Did you really mate with this individual?”

My breath stilled. A denial rose to my lips. Fenrir and I hadn’t once mated—we’d barely even kissed. My wolf struggled within her bonds, trying to break free from the enchantment the shamans had placed to stop her from helping me in the fight. Even with the magic around her muzzle, I could translate her low warning growls.

Play along with Fenrir, or else.

I nodded.