Thor's Hammer
By
Tianna Xander

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Grieving for the loss of not just her parents but nearly everyone she loves, Emma Thornton beseeches her pagan god Thor for help and receives no answer. Devastated by the events that put her brother into a coma, Emma renounces Thor on the graves of her parents. When a mysterious man shows up at her farm looking for work she has no idea just what she's getting into, nor does she realize that passion and love go hand in hand. When her world is shattered by betrayal, Emma must find the strength to go on.

The mighty Thunder God Thor has been given an ultimatum by his father: find a mate, or the lives of all the Norse gods will end. Thor is unwilling to settle for anything less than total love and commitment. When the swirling waters of the scrying bowl reveal the grief-stricken Emma Thornton, he is instantly smitten, desperate to have her love. He's devastated to learn it is he who has caused Emma's pain.

“The scrolls clearly state that if all of the Gods haven’t produced offspring by the tenth year of the new millennium, it will end life as we know it.”

Thor heaved a frustrated sigh. “If living this life is what I have to look forward to, I’m not sure that I want to continue being immortal.” The cold, demanding women of Asgard were not what he wanted. They were selfish lovers, demanding that he just have sex for sex’s sake. He didn’t want that. He wanted a connection with the mother of his children. A bond. Love. Was that so much to ask?

“You’re thinking only of yourself, boy,” Odin, father of all Norse Gods slammed his mug of mulled mead down on the golden table before him. “Think of others for a change. We do not want our lives to end. It will not only end your life, son. It will end the lives of all of us. There must be a balance. The universe has balance, without another of your blood soon the lack of stability in the Nine worlds will continue to collapse. Soon, there will be no way to reverse it.”

Thor stood straighter, willing his father to realize that he would not settle for less. “Then I will have a mate of my own choosing. One who not only demands my body as the Goddesses are so adept at, but one who is capable of accepting my love as well as loving me in return.”

His father stood quickly, his chair sliding out from beneath him to tip over onto the floor. “Then find this woman. You have been doing little more than existing since Siv refused you. Go, find yourself another. One who will love you as you say.”

Odin pushed him over to the scrying bowl on the table.

“Look in the bowl for your mate. The fates will lead you to her.”

Within moments, the waters began to churn. First, Thor heard a woman crying – heart wrenching sobs that tore straight through him, leaving a hole, a chasm, in the center of his chest.

As the ripples slowed to a gentle wake then grew still as a mountain lake on a windless spring morn, he looked into the scrying bowl. He saw the woman he intended to be his future consort kneeling beside a grave.

“I can’t do it without you, Dad. How can I raise Alex by myself?” She leaned against the headstone. Moist earth beneath freshly laid sod stained her dress as she sobbed at the graves of her parents. “How could you both leave me alone with a ten year old boy to raise? I can’t do it. I just can’t.”

Her sobs squeezed something deep in Thor’s chest he was sure died long ago. The place where his heart had been. How many people had asked for his help over the years? How many more would ask, his honor demanding that he help them because they had gone down on their knees and begged it of him?

Sobs wracked her body. A breeze ruffled her shining platinum hair and he longed to reach out and stroke it. To offer her comfort within the security of his arms. He clenched his hand into a fist when she looked up and cast a glance around her, as if making sure she was alone. When she raised her face to the sky, tear-filled eyes bored into his through time and space.

His stomach clenched as he realized he watched the past. He hadn’t been there for her then. Even when she’d asked, begged for his help.

“Please, Thor, please, help me.”

Her sobs nearly unmanned him and he staggered away from the bowl as precious years passed. Where was he when this girl had needed his help? Wallowing in his own grief, letting others cover for his loss of compassion? He returned to the bowl, looking down into the glassy depths, waiting to see where he could find her now.

She still knelt in the cemetery, older now, dressed in faded jeans and a soft pink blouse.

“As the Gods as my witness, I will never allow another human being into my heart. They all die. I will never love another. If Alex dies, I have no reason to go on living. No reason to fight.”

Again her tear-filled eyes seemed to stare straight into his. “I will never ask another favor from any of you. Prayers are for the weak and weak minded. There are no Gods. I wash my hands of you all.”

Her words belied the fact that she still wanted to believe in the Gods. She was just angry with them – angry at them all for ignoring her when she had needed their love the most.

While rage filled his mind, Thor swung his arm, his mighty hammer suddenly appearing in his hand. He hit the onyx scrying bowl, knocked it from the table and sent it flying across the room to smash against the wall. It fell to the floor in pieces.

Turning to his father, he knelt before him, his head bowed.

“I ask your permission to go back to Earth and right the wrongs I have wrought with this woman.”