Free Ever After by Carrie Ann Ryan, Leia Shaw, Marie Harte, Rebecca Royce, Lia Davis

followed Eira inside. “Not yet.”
    “Always not yet. It’s been fifty years already. I’m not getting any younger.”
    Hall snorted. “You’re not getting any older either.”
    Though not brothers, they shared a common beast. Freya’s children all possessed god-like abilities, and she’d gifted them with the eternal ability to shift form. While many boars, falcons, and eagles filled her halls, few battle-cats roamed the lands. Used as guides to pull her chariot and entrusted with Freya’s safety, he and Avarr had a special place of honor among all in the Norse pantheon. Try telling that to the sexy hothead who had the incessant need to wield an actual weapon. Like her friends, she disdained his lack of a sword. Apparently the ability to crush an opponent’s skull between his teeth meant little to her and the other braggart warriors needing axes and bows to do damage.
    “This is intolerable. Her insults, her scathing looks.” Avarr’s eyes lit with battle lust. Not a good thing with so many provocative shifters in residence for the afternoon meal. “We end this. Right the fuck now.” He gave Hall a mean smile. “And I do mean the fuck now.”
    “We’re close. Bear with it just a bit more.”
    Avarr seethed, and Hall couldn’t blame him. Ever since they’d laid eyes on Eira, they’d been in a constant state of lust and frustration. While both men had often shared women before, Eira was different than the tame females they’d pleasured. Mighty, full of life, gorgeous. She possessed a silken fall of long white hair, violet eyes framed by a forest of dark lashes, and a full, provocative mouth. Her attitude got him hard every time. It was a constant exercise in restraint not to take her over his shoulder and carry her away to his den. To be his and Avarr’s forever. 
    Freya demanded they wait until they’d fulfilled their duty. Until they were “ready.” She’d promised them eternal riches and rewarded them constantly with overeager maids and the occasional male intent on pleasing them. Yet Eira the goddess held in the distance, their prize…when the time was right.
    “Yes, Avarr. Just a bit longer,” Freya said as she materialized behind them.
    “Damn it. I hate when you do that,” Avarr snarled.
    Hall elbowed him in the gut. “Your apologies, Freya. You caught us unaware.”
    Avarr bowed his head. “Goddess,” he muttered, no doubt choking on his rage. How he went day after day muting his emotions still baffled Hall, because the moment they had any privacy, Avarr exploded.
    Freya laughed at them. “You’re both so very cute.” No one but Freya ever called them such. Ferocious. Brutal. Monstrous. Cute? Not so much. “So close, yet still the answer eludes you,” she mused.
    “Answer?” Hall frowned. “You said we had to be ready. Nothing about questions needing answers.”
    “And that’s part of your problem. You aren’t open. But you will be.”
    She kept him in a state of hope. Hall was constantly trying to find the answer to getting Eira into his arms. For good. “Yes, Freya.”
    “Don’t be glum, sweetness. You’re in luck. I’m feeling particularly joyful this day. We’re about to play the games again!”
    “The games?”
    “It’s been five hundred years. Ah, but it seems like just yesterday.”
    “Uh, Freya, we’re only three hundred and eleven years old.” Yet he knew what she meant. Ludos Deorum —Games of the Gods. He’d heard about them for years, and now they’d play them again. He wondered if the stories the falcons and valkyries liked to tell were true…
    In her excited enthusiasm, Freya glowed. Literally. Beaming with a soft blue nimbus that highlighted her golden hair, bountiful breasts, and lush hips, their goddess of fertility, war, and sex aroused passions like no other—with the exception of Eira. The only woman to ever turn Hall’s attention from his goddess. That had to mean something.
    “Three hundred, three thousand. It all runs together