by Lee Savino
“That’s right,” he said, squeezing my bottom cheek with a firm grip. “I’ve got more swats for you, if you don’t behave. You went against your word.”
I struggled, and he set me down, hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
“You will learn.” He wrapped the leather ties around my wrists again.
“Oh, please,” I blurted.
“Now you beg?” He bound my hands before me and looped a leather thong around my neck before fisting it tight in his hands. He gave it a tug.
“Please don’t do this.” My cheeks heated. Bound, humiliated, I felt excitement stirring in my loins. The moon rose in the deepening sky. My heat would soon be upon me. I had to get away. “I’ll be good.”
“Aye, you will. Leashed and collared at my side.” He drew me forward by the leather lead, handsome features sharp and stern. “I’ll train you to be at my beck and call, and thank me for the privilege.”
“I’ll go with you.” I caught the tether between us. “Please just tell me if my friends are safe.”
He blinked.
“Aye, lass,” he said. “They are safe. Do not worry. The pack will watch over them.”
I closed my eyes. “Then I will go with you and do as you say.” For now.
A pause, and I opened my eyes to find the warrior studying the tether around my neck. He took a silver arm ring from around his bicep, bent the metal to open it and again to close it around my throat. The silver cooled my skin, but the rest of me flushed, tingles running through me at his touch and attention.
“There.” He undid the lead and fixed it to the metal instead. A collar and a leash, like a dog. And my traitorous body grew excited.
My hands curled into fists, but even if I could best such a warrior, I couldn’t fight him and my desires at the same time.
Leif stepped back with a smirk.
My jaw clenched. “How long, then, am I to remain your captive?”
He drew me forward, though I dug in my heels. “Forever.” He cocked his head to the side.
I bit my lip. I would bide my time and plan my escape.
“Come, lass.”
As he led me forward, I glanced back but could not glimpse the abbey tower at all. Funny how often I’d dreamed of leaving, and now a warrior dragged me away.
“From one slavery to another,” I muttered.
“Mate, not slave,” Leif corrected. “Brokk wonders why my beast chose you, but it’s plain to me. You’re a courageous lass.”
I jerked my head no, and he grinned. “Sure you are. You’ve got enough fight to face us.” He dipped his head close to mine. “I like it when you fight.” He chucked me under the chin before stepping back and tugging on the lead. “Now. We march.”
I followed him. He stopped and started a few times, as if testing me. I thought about pulling away but remained, as obedient as I’d promised. I would wait for my opportunity to escape.
I licked my lips several times before daring to speak. “Where are you taking me?”
“Back to the pack home on the mountain,” he told me. “Though tonight we will spend on our own in the woods.”
Dark settled over us. The moon started its ascent.
“Why were you out alone in that shed?” he asked.
“Hiding from the nuns and the friar.” Before he could ask why, I continued. “What will you do with them?”
“The holy man and women?”
“Yes.”
“Some of the nuns are spaewives, also. The Berserkers will take them captive. The rest will be set free, unless they are found guilty of mistreating you and the others. If so, they will be punished. Perhaps even destroyed.”
I stumbled, and he caught my arm, holding it until I jerked away.
“And the friar?” He had mistreated many of us.
In the darkness, his eyes glowed. “We shall see.” His tone turned dark. “Are you worried about his fate?”
“I worry about mine,” I answered, “and the fate of my sister orphans.”
“Have no fear for them. They are safe now—forever.”
“As slaves.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned, towering over me. I took a step back.
“Mark my words, lass. They are safer now than they’ve ever been. They might be frightened, tonight, but the warriors who claim them will see to their every need.”
A prickle of heat curled through me. “How can you say that? You came in the night and took us from our home.”
“And yet I do not smell any fear,” he said. “Your scent cannot lie. It tells me you are…eager.”
I flushed, wishing I could hide from his intense gaze. Again, my body had betrayed me.
With a finger, he raised my chin. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, lass. You’re ready for your mates and want us. Soon, your heat will claim you.”
“How did you know?” I licked my lips, glancing again at the moon.
“How often does it come on you? The fever.”
“Once a month.”
“So you chain yourself in the shed.”
I nodded. “I have to. Another girl, she got free. The friar had to go into the village after her. He punished all of us, and we never saw her again.” Or Hazel, who disappeared soon after telling us the friar had done away with the lust-filled girl.
Brokk
She’s fighting it, Leif said into my mind. I raised my head. Darkness had fallen over the abbey; only one window held light. A few Berserkers lingered, checking for stray spaewives. They’d tied the remaining nuns up and would stand guard over them all night, setting them free in the morning. We had the night to get our mates back to the mountain.
She is already consumed by the mating heat, but it may take longer to convince her she’s ours.
We don’t have time for games. You think she’s our mate, you deal with her. You have a silver tongue, Leif. Use it.
Silence. The past few seasons, Leif and I had been more and more at odds, our beasts provoking us to anger. A mate would soothe both our tempers. She’d have to. If Leif’s beast or mine broke free, neither of us would survive.
We must return to the mountain. I tried reasoning with my warrior brother. The mage who gathered all the women here might be coming for them.
She is afraid. The holy man who watched over the spaewives punished them for going into heat. That’s why she hid.
Anger flared up in me. The holy man remains at the abbey. Rolf and Thorbjorn are still questioning him. Let me ask them if this is true.
Thorbjorn’s response came choked with rage.
It’s worse, I reported to Leif. The holy man mistreated some of his wards and used them then sold them to the Corpse King.
For a moment, we struggled to contain our raging beasts. Fur sprouted along my arms as I started to complete the Change.
Leif sent me a lingering impression—the woman Willow standing bound tight at his side. So small and brave, her chin up and back straight, she let Leif guide her through the darkening night.
We will protect her, Leif said. She is safe beside me. She will forget her fear as we train her to our touch.
My beast calmed. Though I still burned at the thought of any man putting his hands on our woman without her permission, I knew Leif would protect her.
The friar is close to breathing his last, I told Leif. Even now, I hear his shouts and pleas for mercy. Rolf and Thorbjorn will show him none.
A moment later, the cries stopped.
Brokk, a deep voice called to me.
Thorbjorn, I answered. Do you have them all out?
All but one small blonde slip of a girl. Her name is Sage. The warmth in his tone told me he was already smitten.
Be sure to claim her as yours before you return to the mountain. Grinning, I was trotting back to the woods when a rotten scent reached my nose.
I stopped in my tracks and went to the garden wall.
A faint mist crept up the road ahead of a hundred lurching shapes.
Draug
r. The Corpse King’s servants came for our women. I linked to the pack.
The enemy is coming. Get out now!
Willow
While the warrior worked to light a fire, I huddled next to him, arms bound and legs hobbled. Even though he’d tied me up, he had seen to my comfort, laying out a bedroll out for me to sit on and producing a few oatcakes from his pack, as well as a silky wolf pelt.
The chill had dissipated, leaving the night warm and fine, yet I shivered. Not with cold. The moon rose, and soon the fever would take me. I would be helpless in its clutches, my loins throbbing, sweat trickling down my brow as I moaned for relief…
“Easy, lass,” Leif said without looking up. “I can smell your excitement from here.”
Pressing my legs together, I let out a little whimper. “Will you not let me go?”
He met my eyes a moment. All hope died in me at the hunger burning there. I sagged in my bonds. Soon I would not be able to beg him to free me. The desire in my body would match his, taking over my mind, consuming my very soul. How many nights had I dreamt of a man like him come to sate me? He’d find me in the darkness, his touch gentle and strong. Everything about his hard-muscled form would satisfy. We’d lie together, each touch a secret promise too precious for our mouths to utter. Morning would find us twined together, me safe in his arms.
My sigh came out a little moan.
When I raised my head again, the warrior’s eyes burned gold.
“Keep it up, lass, and I’ll have you on your back in a second. See if I don’t. We made an oath not to touch you until you were ready, but there’s only so much a man can take.”
I tucked my head down, struggling to keep everything inside, even as a trickle of wetness ran down my leg.
“It’s not my fault,” I whispered. But the moon rose higher. When the heat came upon me, how would I explain?
“Brokk better get back soon,” the warrior muttered, and continued to feed the fire. He cut a handsome figure in the low light, the finest-looking man I’d ever seen. Long legs, broad shoulders, profile sharp and elegant.
I licked my lips. “You made an oath?”
“Aye.” A muscle jumped in his cheek. “We all did.”
He rose, and I noted the outline of his member straining against his breeches.
The warrior cleared his throat, and I forced my gaze up. “What do you want with me?”
Leif parted his lips as if to answer then snapped his head to the right. A second later, he leapt to his feet, kicking the fire out.
“Come, lass.” He slashed my bonds and drew me up.
“What is it?”
“The enemy.” Smoke plumed from the dying blaze, and the contents of his pack lay scattered about, but Leif did not stop. He pushed me ahead of him, plunging us both into the forest. I cried out as branches tore at my arms, but he didn’t slow.
“What enemy?”
Leif led me to the road. I heard it then—hissing. I wrinkled my nose at the stench of rotting flesh.
“The Corpse King.” Leif pulled me across the road at a run. “He is coming for you.”
Leif
They’re here, I sent to Brokk. The draugr. I sense them coming up the road.
Brokk cursed. They’re at my back, as well. We are surrounded.
I pulled the woman into a crouch behind a boulder. With our escape cut off, we had to find a place to hide. How did they get here so fast?
The area must be under watch. No matter. We must find a way to get Willow out.
Not going to fight me on whether or not she’s our mate? I joked, but Brokk responded, blunt and serious as usual.
Later. When there is time.
I did not argue. I shouldn’t be surprised Brokk put up resistance towards our newfound mate, even though it had been a long time since we’d had a woman.
“What—” Willow started, and I clamped a hand on her mouth.
“Silence. Something’s coming.”
The hiding place I’d chosen gave me a view of the road. Mist swept up the ancient path, strange for such a warm, fine night. I muttered a curse. The Corpse King had spells to control the weather.
I forced her head against my chest. “Be very quiet, lass. I know you don’t trust me, but there’s evil in this world beyond your ken, and I’ll do my best to shield you from it.”
Instead of resisting, she shuffled closer to me. She tucked her head down, and I stroked her hair to soothe her.
Another minute passed, and the fog on the road thickened. The hissing grew louder. Whatever came towards us seemed to fly past, faster than I’d known Grey Men to move.
Chills crawled up and down my skin.
“Down, lass.” I pushed Willow to the ground and covered her with my body. The air over my back grew cold. I choked on the thick, rotten stench. Above our heads, the trees creaked, straining under the tainted wind. The beast in me pushed to the fore, ready to fight against the evil sweeping over us.
I waited until the wind died and the forest stilled once more.
“All right. It’s passed.”
At my side, Willow panted, her heartbeat a frightened tattoo.
“What was that thing?”
“I do not know,” I told her. “The Corpse King has much power.”
“All right.” Her teeth clacked together in the sudden cold. I wished for the pelt to toss around her shoulders, but I’d left it in my haste to escape. How foolish to think us safe enough to stop for the night.
My hand brushed the woman’s hair back from her face. If I focused, I could almost sense the path of her blood through her body, running sweet and free as a river to the sea. If I put my mouth on her throat, her pulse would flutter under my tongue, inviting the prick of my fangs.
My spine tingled, my limbs prickling with the magic of the Change. Rage filled me, white hot and delicious, a flow of tainted power transforming me into a beast strong enough to rip apart the draugr—and more. I blinked, and my vision turned red. A new enemy in the grove with us—tearing and clawing to escape the cage of my mind.
Brokk. I reached to him. I need you. We’d spent over a century aiding each other in restraining our beasts. He knew what would happen if my beast took hold, and would not refuse me, even if we disagreed over taking a mate.
I’m coming, brother. I sensed him crashing through the forest, desperate to get to me in time. Hang on. Don’t lose control.
I dug my nails into my palms, feeling the prick as they turned into razor-like claws. Over a hundred years waiting for the woman who could lift the curse, and now that she sat here by my side, it may be too late.
Willow
“Stay here,” Leif growled and leapt to his feet. He tied my tether to a small tree. “And keep quiet, no matter what evil you see.”
“Wait,” I cried. Something changed. His form was hunched and rigid, every muscle tensed. “Are you going to fight them?”
He paused with his back to me. “Frightened for me, lass?” His rough guttural voice was tempered with a touch of teasing.
I hugged my knees to my chest. I should want to escape this warrior, but I did not want him to leave.
“Do not fear, little captive. I will scout the area and return. If you remain here, I can keep you safe.” He vanished into the forest.
Alone, I sat in a shroud of silence. The normal night sounds—the creaking of insects, the hoot of an owl—receded. Dread hung in the air.
Darkness pressing on me, I waited, huddled where the warrior had put me. I could escape if I undid the tether, but my instincts told me to stay still. Even if I ran, the warrior would track me down, and he seemed more dangerous than any other enemy, even the Corpse King he’d spoken of.
A shadow moved by my side. Jerking up, I screamed, but a hard hand slapped over my mouth, muffling the sound.
“Quiet,” a voice muttered in my ear. Brokk.
I sagged against him, almost sobbing with relief. His scent filled my lungs, fresh and tantalizing. Pressed against his hard chest, my
body remembered its arousal.
He dropped his pack on the ground and examined my tether.
“Leif is gone,” I whispered.
Undoing my lead from the tree, he hunkered down, pulling me with him under the shelter of a hemlock. I obeyed, holding my breath.
Unlike the redheaded warrior, Brokk offered no kind word, no reassuring touch. These men had captured me, yet I expected comfort from them. Leif made it clear I tempted him. Brokk didn’t seem to like me.
Still, I shifted close to him, feeling safer by his side.
“It’s so quiet,” I whispered after a few heavy minutes. “There are no birds.”
“They sense the presence of evil,” Brokk replied.
“Something came up the road,” I whimpered. “I couldn’t see because Leif covered me, but I felt it. He said it’s coming for me.” My voice died in a frightened squeak.
“I know, Willow.” His tone remained stern, but he tugged the lead, drawing me to a kneeling position at his side. I relaxed in the shelter of his great body.
“It’s after me?”
“Yes. Hush.”
We waited in silence until Leif slipped in beside us.
“You got the bedroll?” he rasped. His eyes glinted with an eldritch gold light.
“Everything. They still may track her scent.” Brokk nodded at me, and I felt ashamed. “We need to get back to the mountain.”
“Too late now,” Leif said. “I scouted, and there’s another force of draugr coming down the road. How did the Corpse King even know we’d raided the abbey?”
Brokk snorted. “The friar sent word, trying to save his wretched arse. Rolf and Thorbjorn chased him, but he locked himself in the scullery, and did a small spell to alert his master before they broke down the door. His workings didn’t save him.”
“He’s dead?” I blurted.
“Aye,” Brokk answered me. “Our fellow warriors did the deed.”
My breath left in a rush. The nightmare who’d haunted my days was gone. But Sage and my friends had fallen into the hands of these strange warriors.
