The Bear Shifter's Second Chance

by Jasmine Wylder

  The women were being sold first, as they always were. The auctioneer showed images of each one while giving a brief overview of how the auction would work. Eirrick scrolled through his tablet, marking which ones he might wish to purchase.

  The first one put on sale was a human. Black-haired, doe-eyes. Thin as a wisp and a virgin. Certainly not what he was looking for. But as the cameras panned over her face, his breath caught in his throat. There was a look of steely determination in her eyes. A look of strength. Maybe she wasn't a fighter but that look was one that could wait out a siege or withstand a storm and pick up the pieces afterward.

  “Shall we open the bidding?” the auctioneer crooned. A flash over the woman’s head showed the highest offer as it was being made. Glancing at his tablet, Eirrick saw a small window in the corner, asking if he wanted to increase the bid. He tapped it. His number flashed over her head. A couple seconds later, a countering bid replaced his.

  Eirrick increased his bid. It sat at his number for some time and the audience tittered.

  “She might be human but she is lovely to look at." The auctioneer gestured for the human to turn around. "Shall we see?”

  He meant to strip her. It was a common tactic when the income for a slave wasn't as high as they wished. A well of anger rose in Eirrick as he thought of the men who would freeze frame an image of her naked form to pleasure themselves later to, but wouldn't bother to put a bid on her. He wasn't going to let that happen. As the auctioneer reached to undress the frail human, Eirrick typed in the first sum that came to mind–everything he had been given for the day.

  The gasps when his number flickered onto the screen were audible. The auctioneer stared for a long moment before quietly stepping back. There were no other bids and soon Eirrick found himself ushered to behind the stage to claim his prize.

  She was pretty. Small and delicate but pretty. She didn't flinch as he wrapped an arm around her to usher her away. But was she worth what he had just paid? Eirrick growled in his throat. He had been too impulsive. Mother was going to be furious.

  “I will never get back the money I spent on you,” he sighed. “I hope that you will prove yourself quickly or my brothers will never let me live it down.”

  She remained silent as she stepped into the transit pod that would take them back to his ship. She didn't look at him. Had he bought himself a defective woman?

  He opened his mouth to tell her to speak but she beat him to it. “Prove myself. You mean sexually. Am I to warm your bed or will you sell me to others?”

  She spoke in such a calm tone that it surprised him. He didn't answer. The thought of anybody else touching her soft skin, of any other dragon fertilizing her eggs, made his flames flicker and roar, sending the taste of ash to his mouth. It was an odd sensation. Why should he care if another man touched her? He shared his women with his brothers on the ship all the time, many of whom were more beautiful than this one.

  Perhaps this was just his desire for a wife speaking again. A woman who would live with him, whose children would be his as well. Yes, that was it. That was why his feelings were getting the best of him.

  Once on his clan’s ship, he took her by the hand and started to lead her to the harem. She would need time to adjust and the harem was a place for the women to tend to each other. They would ensure she knew what her life would be like. They hadn't gotten far before Lorro, one of his brothers, stopped them. Lorro slapped his back and laughed as he looked at his woman.

  “I heard you had overspent on a woman. Didn't know it was a human… she’s pretty but not that pretty.”

  Eirrick growled a warning that Lorro ignored.

  “And a virgin? Not just any virgin but from the Atlantic College. They don't even let their women touch a man. You’ll have your work cut out for you, showing her how it's done…" Lorro glanced down her figure. "Course, I’d be happy to help you teach her how to please a man.”

  Erick's fist flew. It hit Lorro hard in the stomach, making his brother double over with a whoosh of air. Smoke belched into the air and the human gasped, pressing both hands to her mouth.

  “She is my wife,” Eirrick hissed. “Or she will be soon. I’m not sharing this one.”

  Lorro straightened and laughed. “And what is this one’s name?”

  Eirrick realized he hadn't even asked. He turned to the woman with a raised brow, waiting for her answer. She swallowed hard.

  “Brighid.”

  “You’re going to marry her and you didn't think to ask her name?” Lorro shook his head. “I can’t believe you have been fasting from the harem for her. You do realize no other woman will warm your bed when you’re married, right?”

  Eirrick snorted and pulled Brighid away. Except for the gasp when he had hit Lorro and telling him her name, she hadn't made a sound. Now when she looked at him, though, there was a trace of fear in her eyes. He closed his hand on her wrist.

  “Nobody but I will touch you. Though you will be in the harem, you are mine. Remember that. If anybody tries anything, kick them between the knees and come to me.”

  Brighid didn't say a word. Nothing. He had never known any woman to be quiet when her fate and welfare was involved. What sort of place had she come from that she would be so meek? He had thought that the rumors of the Atlantica College were overstated, but now he had to wonder if it was really as bad as he had heard.

  Mother waited for him at the doors of the harem. She wore the scaly skin of a reptilian creature and her fierce expression was no more comforting than a mouth full of fangs. Eirrick bowed respectfully towards her.

  “I have brought a wife to be kept in your hold,” he said.

  Mother hummed and took Brighid gently by the arm. “She will be tended to.”

  They disappeared into the layers of curtains that hid the inner sanctum of the harem from prying eyes. Brighid glanced back once but she didn't speak. Soon Mother returned, her nostrils flared and smoke curling from her mouth. She didn't approve of his choice of buying a wife. While she wasn't technically his mother, nor were his brothers blood related to him, they were nonetheless family. He would not risk her wrath further.

  “Thank you,” he started.

  Mother held up her hand. “If you touch that girl before she has given clear, willing consent and is seen to be eager, I will have your parts burned off and your face flayed.”

  Eirrick smiled slightly. It was expected for Mother to be so protective of Brighid. He was grateful for it, in fact. It would ensure that Brighid wasn't pursued by men who would see her as a challenge. Her meekness made him think that she wouldn't protest even if she didn't want any of them. But he would need to reassure Mother as well.

  “Have you ever known me to mistreat one of the harem girls?”

  “No. But you have never claimed to own one, either.”

  Eirrick shrugged, unwilling to respond to that. So he had bought her. He might as well have been buying her freedom, right? It wasn't as though he was going to sling her over his shoulder and lock her in his room until she agreed to let him touch her. He was a warrior and a leader in the clan. He wouldn't permit that behavior from others and he certainly wouldn't do it himself.

  Mother surveyed him for a moment then shook her head. “When will your wedding be? I don't want that girl to wait in fear.”

  “Then explain to her what will happen.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him.

  Eirrick sighed. “Tonight. We will have the wedding tonight. Put her in something white and transparent. Flowing and sheer. I want all the men to look at her and wish that they were the one gaining the honor of her touch, to smell her on their pillows in the morning.”

  He smiled as she imagined what she would look like. She’d be in a bodysuit that would just hide her womanly parts from view. The gauze would cling to her legs and her arms would be bare. And when he took her back to his chambers she would smile shyly at him and turn her face to his. The kiss would be tentative at first but quickly grow more passionate.
<
br />   And then she would let him kneel before her and savor her taste as he worshipped her.

  “Put that away before you stab someone.” Mother pointed between his legs, where his pants were stretched to their limit. “Stop your imaginings because it isn't going to happen. That girl is never going to agree to be yours, Eirrick. She is too timid, like a little mouse. If she saw that she would faint from fright.”

  Eirrick draped his furs over his midsection to hide his arousal. “She can't be that shy. She just needs time. Remember what I said about her dress. I want them all to want her but know that she is mine."

  Mother snorted. “She is human. None of them are going to want her.”

  Chapter Three

  Brighid

  Meals at the college were quiet. The girls would bow their heads for prayer and keep them bowed as they ate their porridge or pea soup or whatever other bland, tasteless thing they were offered. On rare feast days they were permitted a little meat but then had to stay in the prayer hall for the whole night to ensure that they didn't act on the blood fired by the consumption of flesh.

  In contrast, a meal among the Viles might as well have been an orgy.

  The scents rising from the dishes laid out on a huge table were tantalizing. No porridge, no soup. Meat dishes of every kind. Vegetables dripping in butter and colored by spices Brighid didn't even know existed. It was enough to make her mouth water but she only ate a little, and then only enough to stop the rumbling in her stomach.

  It was enough to do as the priestesses at the college had warned her about firing blood, though. She couldn't stop herself from continually glancing over to where Eirrick sat beside her.

  She had known Viles were big, but not this big. His arms were the size of her waist and every muscle in his body flexed and rippled when he moved. It should have been terrifying but she found it was exactly the opposite. As he ripped me to the leg of some beast, she couldn't help but wonder what a man his size would be like with a virgin like her. They said that the first time was painful and that the bigger than mam was the more painful it would be. But there were whispers at night saying that after the pain came pleasure, enough to make a girl forget about her torn and bleeding parts and beg for more.

  If only it was cold in this room, the tightening of her nipples to sharp points that showed through her bodysuit would have an excuse. The flowing sheer… it wasn't a dress but it was a covering of some sort… showed off everything. The two little pebbles that her desire had created. It was blazing hot in the room, causing sweat to drip down her spine.

  Eirrick turned to her and offered her a greasy bite of food. She wondered if she was supposed to take it from his fingers with his mouth and suck the juices off, the way Jyah used to demand she feed him while he laid in his bed with bandages around his chest. She couldn't bring herself to do such a thing, though, and delicately plucked it from his grasp.

  “Are you not hungry?” he asked her, blue eyes intense on her face.

  She ducked her head to avoid meeting his gaze. They said that Viles could cast spells on a woman with their eyes. “I am well, my lord. The food here is just… different. My tongue isn't used to these flavors.”

  Eirrick nodded. “I see. Next meal I will have something prepared specially for you.”

  Brighid slipped the meat onto her tongue and gazed at her hands for a long moment. “My lord?”

  “Eirrick. We dragons do not have lords and ladies. Call me by my name.”

  She nodded. “Eirrick… is this our wedding feast?”

  He turned an amused smile on her. “Does it seem like a wedding feast?”

  “I am unfamiliar with your customs.”

  He shrugged. “Yes. This is the wedding feast. And we will host these feasts until you are with child or if I decide to put you aside.”

  A shiver ran down her spine. If he was paying for this feast, then he would want her to get with child as quickly as possible. That meant… It had been foolish to think that she would receive any sort of time to adjust to life here. Her hands began to shake. Even if she desired him, she had hoped for time to get to know him before being taken to his bed.

  Was it true that the Viles shared their women? She thought of Eirrick punching that other dragon. She would have to hope that proving her was his task alone.

  Eirrik's gaze was still on her as he raised a goblet of wine to his lips. Blue eyes. The bluest she had ever seen. Jyah's eyes were grey. Like the weathered hair on the priestess’ heads or the cold walls of the sinner’s cells. His nose was small, while Erick's was large and dignified. Jyah had lips the size and shape of a woman’s. Eirrick had a similar fullness but less of a bowed shape. His was a face she could at least stand to look at.

  He stood abruptly and everybody fell silent. With a wide smile, he spread his arm. “Feast! Get drunk! Find a partner or two and a private spot to couple with them. My little wife and I are retiring.”

  So abruptly? Brighid found herself wishing that she had eaten more of the spicy food. It would have at least helped to make her blood come to a boil for the coming coupling. She would just have to ignore her uncertainties. Close her eyes and think of something else, as she had been instructed.

  She took Erick's hand and let her gaze run down his body. There was a flicker of heat inside her, a tightening in her core she had rarely experienced before. As he pulled her into his side, she thought about his hands all over her body and the heat spread. She knew she couldn't show it but excitement started to course through her. The Viles must have some sort of strange magic indeed!

  One of the women from the harem slapped her bottom as she passed, earning a strangled yelp. “Remember that you are his wife and he is your stallion. In your rooms, he exists to give you pleasure and if he doesn’t, whip him like a master whips a disobedient horse.”

  Brighid’s mouth dropped. Raucous laughter followed after them. She was only too happy to follow Eirrick away from the crowing crowd. Her cheeks heated. When the sound cut out, she sighed in relief.

  He had brought her to a room, presumably his chambers. A fur covered bed was in the middle and not much else. A sofa was along one wall, a chest at the foot of the bed, a hearth and more furs on the floor. Erick's hand lingered on her waist for a moment before he stepped to the hearth. He flicked a switch and a fire flickered to life. Beside the hearth was a wooden bucket and he withdrew a bottle from it.

  “I have honeyed mead especially for our first night together.”

  She glanced at the bottle. “If you don’t mind, I would rather… not drink. Alcohol doesn't agree with me.”

  It was a lie. She had never drunk a drop before. Like meat and spice, it stirred up sinful thoughts and desires. She chewed on her lip as Eirrick focused on her. This time, though, she met his eye. She was his wife. It was her duty to do as he pleased.

  “You are afraid,” he said softly. “I see it in your eyes.”

  She sucked on her lip for a moment. “Not as afraid as I thought I would be.”

  “Hmm. Are you really a virgin?”

  Brighid nodded. “I’m an initiate at the College of Atlantica. We are all virgins. But I was about to be claimed by a priest as his bride… I didn't want him to claim me. I think I would be more frightened with him. But perhaps not. I don't know.” She pulled in a deep breath and shook her head. He didn't want to know about her past. “Do you wish me to undress for you to inspect your wares before you mount me?”

  Erick's brows shot straight up.

  “I only ask you go gently so I don't bleed too much.”

  “Bleed.” The Viles turned away, muttering under his breath. He shook his head and opened the bottle of mead. He downed a few swallows before turning back to her and shaking his head again. “Bleed! I have never known coupling to cause bloodshed. Not during the act at least.”

  Brighid blinked. What did he mean by that? A man like him, a Viles warrior, certainly he had his fair share of virgins. Didn't he? She watched him as she sat on the bed, uncertain if he
was angry with her. Did drink hit so hard that he was drunk already?

  Finally, he stopped his pacing. “You are mine, Brighid. But I am yours as well. Do you understand?”

  No. Her brow furrowed. He was hers?

  Eirrick sighed. “I will not touch you. I will not bed you. I will not kiss you. Not until you first touch, bed and kiss me. I don't know how your college prepared you to be in your priest’s bed, but here you are my wife. Not my slave.”

  Brighid stared at him uncertainly as he went to the couch. Her mind flashed over the possibilities of what might happen if she went to sleep but why not just be upfront about it? She glanced around. There was an extensive display of weapons on the wall. She went to the bed and sat on the edge. Until now she hadn't thought about the possibility of escape. But once he went to sleep… could she take the chance?

  She laid down but kept her eyes on Eirrick. The fear quickly vanished, though, leaving behind gratitude… and desire. Part of her wanted to ask him into the bed with her but she shied back from it. After all, it wasn't her place despite what he had said… right?

  Chapter Four

  Eirrick

  Brighid was quiet and demure at all times.

  All times.

  If he took her to the feasts she sat by his side with her hands folded in her lap and only nibbled at the food which he had prepared for her. If he took her to his chambers she would lie on the bed and watch him while he drank mead alone and eventually slept. Never once did she make any effort to touch him.

  The days of rest would soon be over, though, and once they were, he would be back on the raids and hunt to refill their ship’s stores. Then his time with his virgin bride would be over. She had shown no signs of softening towards him and he eventually turned to Mother and the harem girls for their advice.