Sun's Tear (The Valkyrie's Passion Book 2): A Valkyrie/Shifter Romance
Read Sun's Tear (The Valkyrie's Passion Book 2): A Valkyrie/Shifter Romance Online
Authors: Renee Jordan
(A Valkyrie/Shifter Romance)
The Valkyrie's Passion Book 2
by
Renee Jordan
Copyright © 2016 by Renee Jordan
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Published in the United States of America, 2016
All characters depicted in this work of fiction are over the age of eighteen (18).
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Cover Art created by
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Naughty Ladies Publications
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Table of Contents
Sultry Excerpt from “Sun's Tear”
Hot Preview of “Night's Beauty (The Valkyrie's Passion 0)”
Hot Preview of “Howling Passion (Passion Moon 1)”
Raven's lips were on mine the moment we entered my apartment. She was on fire from training. It had taken all my self-control not to throw her down on the mats and take her in the training center. But the windows would have let the entire world see her beauty.
I was selfish. I wanted the beauty of the night all to myself.
Her mouth was hot and fierce. She had the passion of Boudica. Her body pressed tight to mine. She was a tall woman and bore the beauty of her Scandinavian heritage. Strong cheekbones, lush lips, and ice-blue eyes that could pierce the stoniest of hearts.
Raven always made me feel poetic.
My hands found the curves of her ass, squeezing her through her jeans and pulling her tight against my crotch. The desire I kept bridled in the training center could be unleashed in the privacy of my house. My lips drank in her wonderful taste.
Raven broke the kiss, her eyes dancing as her hands ripped up my t-shirt. She licked her lips as her hands ran up and down my body, tracing the scars from knives, gunshots and, most recently, a giant wolf.
Greedy hunger burned on her lips as she kissed. Her arms tightened about my neck as she did a small leap and wrapped her thighs about my waist. I held her easily, my hands cupping her ass. She seemed as light as a feather in my grip. Her legs were tight and her hips undulated as she ground against me. My cock was hard in my jeans, throbbing with need to be inside this wild woman.
“Magnus,” she panted when she broke the kiss, “do you know how sexy you were when swinging a weapon?”
“How?” I asked with a grin.
“Well...I...you just are,” Raven shuddered. “I'm not the poet here.”
“The face of all the world has changed, I think, since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul,” I quoted from Elizabeth Barret Browning's Sonnet 07.
Raven's eyes went wide. “How do you do that?” Her right hand slid down from around my neck to touch my heart. “How do you share what beats in here? I want to say the same, but the words get all tangled up. But...the face of the world has changed since I met you. And not just because of all the Valkyrie stuff.”
I nodded to her. Tears filled her liquid eyes. “I could stare into your depths until the end of days.”
Her mouth seized mine. It wasn't as fierce as before. She shuddered in my arms as her lips moved against mine. This woman had so much love beating in her heart. I tightened my hands on her rear as our kiss became salty with her tears.
The fire kindled hot between us. I carried her through my apartment and banged through the bathroom door. I set her on the countertop before ripping off the borrowed shirt she wore. Her breasts were naked beneath, her nipples dusky-pink and hard.
Her hands went to my belt. “I am going to scrub your back for those words,” she promised. “So hard.”
I grinned at her. “I need to quote more poetry to you.”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Or you can even make up one of your own. Which will I treasure more?”
My belt whisked through my belt loops before her fingers unsnapped my jeans. Her hand rubbed at my cock straining my boxers as my jeans slid down my thick thighs. She leaned down and kissed at my nipple, sending a strange tingle down to my cock.
I never had a woman do that before. It was...nice.
“Shower,” Raven moaned. “I need to scrub you clean. You are such a dirty wolf right now.”
To find out what happens next, read on!
Night's Beauty (The Valkyrie's Passion Prologue)
Love's Choice (The Valkyrie's Passion 1)
Howling Passion (Passion Moon 1)
Passion's Fire (Passion Moon 2)
Love's Protection (Passion Moon 3)
“What are we even doing here?” Talon growled, his left hand itching at the cast covering his right forearm. “Magnus hasn't been seen in Maple Valley in three days. We should be hitting the Black Wolves instead of standing out in the woods with our thumbs up our asses. Those fuckin' pups have been sniffing around our territory again.”
Griff—President of the Blood Eagles Motorcycle Club, Covington Chapter—turned on his vice president. Talon kept scratching at his cast, his arm broken by Magnus. As far as Griff was concerned, the idiot deserved to have his wrist broken for pulling a knife on Magnus in a fist fight. Talon was a brutal man, a great enforcer for Griff. He could count on Talon to make sure his will was carried out when he wasn't present.
But that didn't make the biker a genius, or even mildly intelligent.
“Things are changing in the world,” Griff said. “Those tornadoes that hit Seattle a few days ago were not natural.”
“What are you talkin' 'bout, boss?” Talon asked, stroking his thick beard.
“This...man showed me things,” Griff answered. He rubbed his hand across his waxed-smooth head. He kept it shaved to hide his premature balding, his one vanity. But he was as tough as any 1%, the thick scar running across his belly gave proof to that. “Those weren't tornadoes at all. Something wants the truth kept quiet. Modified all the footage.”
“You sound like Schmidt, claimin' the government puts fluoride in the water to keep everyone docile and shit like that, or that the moon landings were hoaxed.” Talon fixed hard eyes on Griff. “You ain't goin' section 8 on me, right? Not now. Not when we need to be hitting back at the Wolves.”
“We'll be hitting back,” grinned Griff. The Black Wolves Motorcycle Club, Maple Valley Chapter, had been carving into the Blood Eagles' territory and business for a few years. “That's why we're here. We'll skin those wolves.”
“Exactly,” growled a new voice.
Talon flinched and even Griff fought his revulsion as the Thief of the Brisingamen appeared in a thunderclap. He was a tall, disgusting thing, his skin gray and folded like a walrus, his body blubbery. A pair of dirty-white ivory tusks jutted from his grinning lips.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God,” Talon groaned, crossing himself. His hand then drifted down to the handgun holstered on his hip. “Boss?”
“Relax,” Griff said. He had to project complete calm. He couldn't let Talon or the Thief realize his bowels were liquid. When you were terrified, that was when you had to be in the most control. A predator could never show weakness.
If he did, he was prey. And prey was devoured.
“So you wish to accept my proposal,” growled the Thief, his arms folded beneath his blubbery neck.
“I do.”
~ ~ ~
Raven
I was still dancing on the romance and passion of last night. I had never made love underneath the stars. There were a lot of things I hadn't done before the last week, and it was mostly thanks to Magnus that I had experienced them.
That, and learning I was a Valkyrie.
It all started a week ago. I had left a dinner party at my best friend Haleigh's new house in nearby Covington. It was a foggy night, and I was driving back home to Seattle when a glowing man burst out of the mist and passed through my car. I blacked out as the spectral figure washed through me. When I woke up, my car was dead and had rolled off to the shoulder. There was no sign of the glowing man and nothing in my car had power, not even my cell phone and watch.
That's when I met Magnus. I didn't know his name then. He was just a dangerous, hunky, sexy, gorgeous man on a bike offering to help me out. But I had been scared. I was all alone, in the fog, with a man who was far too much of a bad boy for me to be comfortable.
I refused his help. That had been a mistake.
There was a bar nearby. I believed it would be safer—a public space—then trusting a lone biker. So I marched into the Bear and Eagle, a biker bar. There I met an asshole named Talon who tried to drag me upstairs to have his way with me. I tried to fight against him, and managed to claw up his face, but he was stronger than me.
I thought I was in real trouble.
Then Magnus appeared through the back door, swooping in to save me. He was so dashing and romantic when he smashed his fist into Talon's ugly face. Believe me, there was nothing sexier. Magnus stood there, his blond hair framing his chiseled face, his blue eyes intense. The man was strong, the embodiment of masculinity.
We were chased by the Blood Eagles, Talon's club and rivals to Magnus's own Black Wolves. The chase led to us finding a motel. I had never had a one night stand.
It. Was. Glorious.
Magnus put my two previous lovers to shame.
But I ran in the light of morning. I was scared of being with a biker.
I shouldn't have. Magnus was more than a wild, dangerous biker. He was a poet. A warrior-bard. His words always reached into my heart and sent flutters of warmth through me. Magnus tracked me down to my work and left behind a poem for me.
I teared up every time I remember those words.
Beauty of the night, she walks alone...
Then the monster came and killed Magnus. That was how I learned I was a Valkyrie. My powers awakened when I chose him to be my Einherjer, a warrior bound to protect his Valkyrie. I brought him back to life and gave him the power to transform into a werewolf.
Magnus was sexy even as a beast when he fought the monster beside me.
“What seas are your thoughts sailing on?” Magnus asked, startling me out of my reminiscence. I stood before his kitchen sink in his small apartment, the water running, soap suds covering my left hand. I had been washing our breakfast dishes.
“Just remembering the last few days,” I smiled as I rinsed the suds from my hand and turned off the water. I was wearing one of his shirts—for a band I had never heard of called Megadeath—the sleeves torn off. It was gray and fell down to my knees.
It was sexy wearing his shirt and nothing else.
Magnus wore a pair of blue jeans. No shirt and not his leather vest—his cut as he called it. His body was muscled and hard; not the over-developed physique of a bodybuilder, but the form of a man that worked for a living. A black dragon was tattooed on his chest clutching a woman, and a howling wolf adorned his right, upper arm. Scars covered his body. Some of them were new, gifts of Fenrir, the large wolf we killed four days ago in Seattle.
I had my own scars from the fight, three claw marks running across my left side and hip, proof I had avenged my parents and killed the beast Fenrir. They were faint, but there. Magnus found them sexy and spent part of last night kissing them as we made love beneath the stars on our first official date.
“Do you have any plans?” Magnus asked. He sat the large duffel bag he was carrying on his small dining table. It made a loud clatter and looked heavy.
“No,” I answered.
My life was in shambles. The coffee shop I worked in, the Boar Coffee and Cafe, had been destroyed in the fight with Fenrir. I wasn't sure I wanted to still work there. Discovering my bosses were the Norse god Freyr and his giantess wife Gerd had been a shock, coupled with learning that the kind, old vet that practically lived in the coffee shop was the one-eyed God Odin and my...true boss.
As a Valkyrie, I had to work for Odin.
The one-eyed god was a cold-hearted bastard, so different than the laughing vet I thought I knew. He sent Magnus to his death, and then threw the both of us into a terrible, winter version of Seattle called Utgard. Magnus and I had to fight our way out. We almost died.
Odin gave me no warning. My emotions were a tangled snarl. Freddie and Gerdie, as I knew my bosses, had known and didn't warn me. I didn't tell Magnus how Odin sent us to Utgard and sent the frost troll to attack us. He was very protective of me and becoming an Einherjer had given him a reckless rage when my safety was threatened. I feared he would try to attack Odin, to free me from my ancestor's oath of fealty to the god I had inherited or as revenge for putting me in such danger.
I feared he would lose.
“I really don't know what I'm doing with my life,” I answered. “Besides being a Valkyrie, and I really don't know what that will entail. Fighting monsters, I guess. But...I think I'm unemployed.”
“No interest in going back to Seattle and working in the coffee shop?” Magnus asked in surprise. “You seemed to be at home there.”
“It doesn't feel so homely after Fenrir tore it apart,” I answered. It was partly true. I really didn't want to lie to Magnus, but it was for his protection. “God, I have no idea how I can pay for rent. Do you know how much rent is in Seattle?”
“Five times more than out here in Maple Valley,” Magnus smiled. “You could rent a small house for what you pay for your apartment.”
“Are you suggesting I move out here?” I asked. “Do you have any
suggestions
for a place?”
Was I really trying to ask Magnus if I could move in with him? It seemed so soon. Yes, he made my heart race. And we loved each other, but was I ready for tending the den with my sexy wolf?
Was he ready?
“You should be free of the city,” Magnus answered. “There are only shackles on the soul found in Seattle.”
“I like Seattle,” I said, hands on my hips. I bit my lip. “I could move in with Haleigh. She lives just outside of Covington.” Covington was the slightly larger neighbor to Maple Valley.
“Blood Eagles territory.”
A flaming sword appeared in my hand. It was one of my Valkyrie powers. I could also summon a rather awesome suit of silvery armor and heal quickly from wounds. “I think I can handle Talon now. I'd like to see him try and claim me.”
Magnus's grin spread across his lips. “I would love to see that. But could you do it? Could you actually ram a yard of steel thorough a man's guts?”
My smile faded from my lips. “I don't know. I guess if I had to. If it was me or him, yes. Yes, I could.”
A chill ran across my skin. It wasn't bravado. I felt it in my core. I was a warrior. I wouldn't seek out a fight, but I would defend myself and I would win. My mother's words from my childhood whispered through my mind,
If you are ever in a fight, Raven, fight to win. Do what it takes. Chivalry, honor, code of conduct are all pretty words, but in a true fight, where it's your life or theirs, you cannot hesitate. Hit them until they stop moving. Make sure they are dead.
I glanced at the bag. In gold letters down the side was printed HEMA. “So what's in there?”
“My body armor and practice weapons.” Magnus's grin grew. “You have innate skill with your weapon, but your fighting technique is unrefined and you do not know how to stand properly.”
“You're going to teach me to sword fight?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yep. Interested?”
My parents sparred all the time when I was a child. Most of my memories where of them trading blows in the backyard, mother with her sword and father with his ax. My parents were over five hundred years old, a Valkyrie and her Einherjer finally retired from Odin's service. They had settled down to start their family.
Then Fenrir came along when I was five and killed my parents trying to get to me. I was important. Odin was trying to hide it from me, but the trickster Loki had told me the truth. I had a destiny. There was a prophecy about me. Odin sacrificed my parents to ensure that I lived.
I had a lot of reasons to hate the one-eyed god.
“Let's practice,” I answered. Maybe Magnus couldn't kill Odin, but the pair of us together could.
Maybe.