Alpha’s Bane

by Renee Rose

  Despite myself, I cowered against the man who held me. A stranger I had never met, he was still a safer haven than my stepfather.

  “I only wish to make sure you are satisfied, milords. Do you want to sample her?” my stepfather asked in an evil tone. He wanted to see me torn apart.

  A growl rumbled under my ear and I lifted my head. Who were these men, these great warriors who had bought and paid for me? The arms around my body were strong and solid, inescapable, but the gold eyes looking down at me were kind. The warrior ran his thumb across the pad of my lips, and his fingers were gentle for such a large, violent looking warrior. Under the scent of blood, he smelled of snow and sharp cold, a clean scent.

  He pressed his face against my head, breathing in a deep breath.

  The blond was looking at us.

  “It’s her,” the black haired man growled, his voice so guttural. “This is the one.”

  One of his hands came to cover the side of my face and throat, holding my face to his chest in a protective gesture.

  I closed my eyes, relaxing in the solid warmth of the warrior’s body.

  A clink of gold, and the deed was done. I’d been sold.

  * * *

  Almost immediately, the warrior started pulling me away.

  I fought my rising panic, wishing that my stepfather’s was not the last familiar face I saw.

  “Goodbye, Brenna,” my stepfather smirked as the warriors streamed past him, following their blond leader into the forest.

  “Wait,” the blond stopped. Immediately the warriors grabbed my stepfather. “Her name is Brenna?”

  “Yes. But you bought her. Call her what you like.”

  The dark haired warrior tugged me on. I half followed, half staggered along beside him. My nails bit into my palms so I could keep myself from panicking. Fighting the giant beside me wasn’t an option. Neither was trying to outrun him.

  The blond joined us, and the two warriors pulled me into the dark grove. Terrible thoughts poured into my mind. I belonged to these men, and now they would rape me, sate themselves with my body, then cut my throat and leave me for the wolves.

  My eyes filled with tears, both angry and frightened.

  They stopped as one and drew me between them. I shut my eyes in defiance, and the tears leaked out.

  As I healed from the attack, I could make some noises, horrible, animal things, but they were so ugly, I stopped making any sounds at all. Sometimes, when alone, I’d sink into the river, open my mouth and try to scream. But no sound came out anymore. My throat had forgotten my voice.

  Now the only sound in the grove was my harsh breathing.

  I sensed the warriors on either side of me, their massive shapes towering over my fragile body. I was much smaller than them, tiny and petite beside their massive forms.

  Right now I tried to remember to breathe and submit to these men. One blow and they could kill me.

  My heart beat so hard it was painful. I was ready to die.

  But when they touched me they were gentle. A hand brushed back my hair, then stroked my jaw. One steadied me from behind as the other cupped my head and turned my head this way and that. The one behind me gathered my hair behind me. I held my breath as the two massive warriors handled me.

  I realized the smell of blood had fallen away, replaced by another scent, an animal musk that was much more pleasant.

  A finger ran over my neck, near the scar and I sucked in a breath. The hands dropped away.

  Their faces dipped close to mine, and I felt their breath on my skin as if they took deep scents of my hair.

  “So good,” one of them groaned.

  I didn’t understand. I was afraid of them taking me but I didn’t know why they weren’t.

  “It’s working,” one murmured to the other. “The witch was right.”

  As they dipped their heads and scented me, my heart beat faster in response to their proximity. Something stirred deep inside me. Desire. A few minutes alone with these men and I’d been more intimate with them than any other.

  As one they bent their heads to mine, nuzzling close to my neck a tingling spread over my skin.

  I felt it then, unbidden, a stirring in my loins. Ever since I had come into womanhood, my desires were strong. Every month I fought the pull to find a man and join with him. I was hideous and destined to be an outcast and alone. But each full moon my body came alive, beset by waves of roiling lust until I felt desperate enough to grab the nearest man and beg him to give me sons.

  The heat poured over me until I heard a gasp—one of the warriors jerked back and stepped away.

  “She’s ready,” one growled. Instead of frightening, the sound excited me.

  What was happening?

  “Not here, brother,” the blond rasped.

  Without answering, the dark-haired one pulled me on.

  For a while we walked, pushing through the forest and forded a stream. The heat in me faded as I followed, weak with hunger and fear, eventually stumbling on exhaustion numbed feet.

  The dark-haired warrior stopped, and I flinched, expecting him to bully me into continuing on.

  Instead, he guided me to face him. Again his hands came to me, stroking back my hair. I winced when I realized what he was doing: looking at my scar.

  Involuntarily my head jerked and he let my chin go, offering me water instead. He held the skin while I drank, and when I’d had my fill he offered me dried meat, feeding me from his hand. I stared into the strange golden eyes, unable to keep the questions off my face: Who are you? What are you going to do with me?

  When I was done, he lay a hand on his chest and uttered a guttural sound I didn’t understand. He repeated it twice, then lay his hand on my chest.

  “Brenna.” I could barely make out my name, but I nodded.

  A shadow of a smile curved his full lips. Shrugging off the gray pelt he wore, he wrapped it around my shoulders before pulling me back into the circle of his strong arms.

  My heart beat faster. The pelt’s warmth seeped into my tired body, and the big man held me steady. I still felt frightened, but waited obediently in the dark haired warrior’s embrace. I dared not struggle.

  The brush around us rippled and the warriors surrounded us. I shrank towards my black-haired captor, but he held me fast, turning me so I faced the warrior who seemed to be their leader.

  The blond was so huge, my neck had to tip back to see him. He moved forward and I couldn’t help trembling so hard I would’ve fallen if the dark haired warrior let me go. Every instinct in me screamed that this was a wild man, a beast a dangerous monster and I needed to run.

  He reached out and I flinched.

  His hand halted.

  He swallowed, as if trying to remember how to use his voice.

  “Brenna.” My name was no more than a soft growl. “We mean you no harm.”

  I studied him. As big as the warriors were, the blond was one of the largest. He walked lightly, muscles bulging. Long locks of blond hair brushed his broad shoulders. His face was rawboned and half covered in a beard, the defining feature his great gold eyebrows over those amazing eyes.

  When his gaze caught mine, his eyes glowed.

  His hands touched my face, a thumb stroking my lips. He tilted it to and fro. He pushed my hair away from my neck. I shut my eyes, knowing what he saw, the white weals and gnarled tissue, healed into a disfiguring scar that had taken my voice, and nearly taken my life.

  I barely remembered the attack: a large dark shape rushing at me from the shadows, then pain. Lots of pain. My mother told me I lay near death for days. No one thought I would survive, but I did.

  Some believed it would be better if I hadn’t. Even though I healed from the attack, the scars marked my face and my life. The boys used to chase me down the street, throwing things. I grew up learning to blend into the shadows. To move silently so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself. Later, when my mother married my stepfather, I learned to cower and hide.

  Her body is
pretty enough, my stepfather had said. Just put a bag over her head so you can stand it.

  Now my new owner tipped my head this way and that, studying the scar. He nodded, looking satisfied. “The mark of the wolf,” he rasped.

  A ripple went around the assembled men, and the other warriors pressed closer. The black haired man held me still, hefty arms around my body.

  I wished I could ask what the blond warrior meant.

  The men surrounded me, staring at my hideous scars.

  My blond captor released my jaw and I ducked my head down again in shame. His large, rough hands caught my head again, and raised it, but this time he cupped my face.

  I shut my eyes. I couldn’t even cry out. This man now owned me. I’d resigned myself to living life with a disfigured face, unwanted and unloved, but I’d never thought I’d become a slave.

  “Brenna,” The command came in that rasping growl. “Look at me.”

  Somehow I obeyed and met the leader’s steady gaze. Something in that golden glow mesmerized me, and I felt calmer.

  “Do not be afraid.” His throat worked for a moment, as if he was trying to remember how to speak. “Is it true you cannot speak?”

  I nodded.

  “Can you read or write?”

  I shook my head. This was the strangest conversation I’d had in my nineteen years.

  He looked frustrated, exchanging glances with the warrior who held me.

  A voice spoke at my ear, still rough and guttural, but a bit more clearly than before. “We would like to find a way to talk to ye.” The speaker turned me to face him, and I flinched as he brought his hand up, but he only examined the scars as the blond had.

  By the time he was done, all warriors but the blond had melted away. Dark hair touched my cheek and I winced, realizing there was a bruise on my face from when my stepfather struck me.

  The blond crowded closer, a sound rumbling in his great chest, not unlike a growl.

  “Brenna,” he said. “We will not hurt you. I swear it. No one will ever hurt you again.”

  The dark haired one took a few locks of my hair in his hand, gripping them lightly and raising them to his face. He breathed in my scent, then looked at me with glowing eyes and said in a clear voice.

  “Ye belong to us now.”

  * * *

  The rest of the night passed in a blur. We walked into the woods, the thick darkness, and went along a path. The warriors went behind and before, I was safe in the middle.

  Finally exhaustion took over and I stumbled. Instantly, the dark haired warrior swung me up in his arms, and the group’s pace increased. His hand came up, pressing my face to his neck.

  I must have slept, for when I woke again, the blond was carrying me. I lifted my head blinking in the starlight and cold night air. The warriors must have walked all night, and were still hiking, following a trail up a mountain. I roused a little and stared into the leaders golden eyes.

  “Sleep,” he grunted. “Almost home.”

  * * *

  I do not know how long I slept, but as I slept I dreamed. The starlight fell away into a deeper darkness. I was in a warm, safe place with two warriors leaning over me, large hands sifting through my hair. One of them pulled out a dirk and sliced away my gown, and then the hands began stroking down my body. Their touches fed my heated desire, and in my dream I longed to pull their bodies over mine, wordlessly begging them to fill me.

  Instead, I lay still as they touched me with reverent fingers. I heard them speak, but not out loud. They didn’t use words but somehow I understood them.

  “The witch was right. She calms the wolf.”

  A grunt of agreement, then a pause. “I can smell her heat.”

  “Patience, brother. We have waited this long.”

  They lay on either side of me, still touching me. In the darkness their eyes glowed.

  “Brother,” one said in a tone of awe. “The beast rests.”

  “As does mine.”

  “It has been so long.”

  “Too long. But the struggle is over. The beast will sleep again.”

  Sold to the Berserkers

  When Brenna’s father sells her to a band of passing warriors, her only thought is to survive. She doesn’t expect to be claimed by the two fearsome warriors who lead the Berserker clan. Kept in captivity, she is coddled and cared for, treated more like a savior than a slave. Can captivity lead to love? And when she discovers the truth behind the myth of the fearsome warriors, can she accept her place as the Berserkers’ true mate?

  * * *

  Author’s Note: Sold to the Berserkers is a standalone, short, MFM ménage romance starring two huge, dominant warriors who make it all about the woman. Read the whole best-selling Berserker saga to see what readers are raving about...

  The Berserker Saga

  Sold to the Berserkers

  Mated to the Berserkers

  Bred by the Berserkers (free novella available on leesavino.com)

  Taken by the Berserkers

  Given to the Berserkers

  Claimed by the Berserkers

  Rescued by the Berserkers - free on all sites, including Wattpad

  Captured by the Berserkers

  Kidnapped by the Berserkers

  Bonded to the Berserkers

  Berserker Babies

  Owned by the Berserkers

  Night of the Berserkers