by Lee Savino
“There, that is not so hard,” he murmured. “It is easy to submit.”
I wanted his words to spoil the meat in my stomach, but my body would not obey. It was happy enough to sit in the big warrior’s lap and suck the juices off his fingers until Thorsteinn’s eyes flared with heat. Across the fire, Vik chuckled.
After the meal Thorsteinn wouldn’t let me up. He washed my hands and face with a wet cloth, then swung me out and set me over his knees.
“What is this?”
“Time for the punishment you earned,” Thorsteinn said, holding me down with a huge hand on my back. The other pulled down my breeches. I kicked, but it was no use.
“Vik told you there will be a reckoning every night.”
“Every night!”
“Yes,” he caressed my bottom thoughtfully. “Though I doubt you will complain about it.”
I cursed him, and he answered with a flurry of crisp smacks against my bare bottom. The sound echoed around the lodge, interspersed with Vik’s laughter.
“Tell me, Sorrel, do you yield?”
“Never,” I growled, and tried to bite Thorsteinn’s leg. The warrior shifted me off balance and continued spanking me.
“This is only a warm up,” he informed me. “Run from us again, and you’ll get much worse.”
Worse? My bottom throbbed. When he stopped to rub it, and it was hot as coals against his hand.
I stopped fighting and let my head hang down, my hair covering my face, which was as red as my behind. Especially when Thorsteinn moved his hand to check between my legs.
“See how wet she gets?” Vik murmured. “There’s some part of her that needs it.”
“Is that so?” Thorsteinn stroked his fingers over my sensitive nether lips lightly, then with more intent. “This is how we will tame you, Sorrel.” His fingers kept strumming. “Feeding you. Caring for you. Claiming you.”
My legs trembled as the sensation within me grew to a fever pitch.
“No,” I burst out. I threw myself off his lap and he let me, astonished.
“Do not touch me this way. Be cruel. Lock me away, but don’t touch me that way.”
Vik picked me up off the floor.
“Hush, Sorrel.” My insides throbbed, need filling every corner until I writhed in torment. “You’re safe with us. This is not punishment like the nuns gave you. Let your mates love you. Let us care for you.”
“I can’t,” My voice cracked. I did not cry. I could not. No matter how much I hurt, tears never fell. “I ruined everything.”
“No, little one—”
“You don’t know,” I burst out. “Rosalind lies dying because of me. Because of me.”
Vik rubbed my back, soothing me, telling me to let it out.
“It’s my fault. I dreamed of leaving the mountain, but not like that.”
“You told me things were strange,” Vik said, and repeated what I’d told him to Thorsteinn.
“There was mist the night we left,” I said. “And later, when…” I’d promised myself I’d tell them the truth of what happened with the Corpse King. But when I opened my mouth, it was like a hand around my throat, strangling me.
“Sorrel?” Vik’s hand stilled on my back. “Is something wrong.”
I swallowed. “I—” But again my words stuck in my throat, choking me. My hands flew to my neck and lips.
“Sorrel,” Thorsteinn crouched in front of me. His worried face filled my vision. “Be easy. Try to breathe.”
I gasped as Vik pounded on my back.
“What was that?” I finally asked.
“I’m beginning to wonder…” Thorsteinn began thoughtfully, “if someone laid a spell on you to prevent you from telling the truth.”
“A geas?” Vik demanded. “Like in the stories?”
I kept still, my hands at my throat. All this time, I had been afraid to speak because I didn’t want to name Rosalind a traitor. Or I’d thought no one would believe me. Could it all be magic?
“It makes sense,” Thorsteinn said, coming to me and tipping back my head to search my face. A low growl sounded in his chest the whole time. “I do not like this. Someone has meddled with our bond and our mate.” He jerked back and stalked to the end of the lodge, muttering, “I need an enemy I can see. This is not something I can fight.”
I felt so tired. After all I’d been through, the enemy was in my own mind. “So there’s no use in trying to save me?”
“Sorrel,” Vik started, and I wrenched myself out of his grasp.
“You should let me go,” I scrambled to my feet. “I am wicked and unruly and now cursed. You should choose another mate.” I staggered blindly to the door.
And found myself midair, flying to the bed of pelts. I landed on the soft pile, shocked. Vik was on me in an instant, pinning my arms and legs to the floor.
“No,” he ground out in a voice like thunder. “You belong to us, Sorrel, and we won’t let you go.”
Vik
I pinned our mate to the pelts, gripping her hair so she could not look away. “This is the geas talking,” I growled. Thorsteinn was right. We were used to an enemy we could see. We kept forgetting that Sorrel was not the one we should be fighting. “The enemy is in your mind, but we will do anything to break the curse. We will not rest until you are healed.”
From her prone position, our little fighter blinked up at me, very rapidly. She was holding back tears. Not once had we seen her cry. Not when we took her from the abbey. Not when we ran from the draugr. Not when her leg snapped and exposed the bone. Not when we stood before the Alphas and renounced her as mate.
She would cry now because we had shown her tenderness. A small crack in the wall she put up between us.
“You belong to us, Sorrel,” I repeated, shifting my weight off her while still keeping her pinned, “and we will care for you.”
“No.” She would fight. It was her only answer, when she felt weak. She would learn she didn’t have to defend herself from us. She could relax and simply be.
“Yes. This,” I grabbed a handful of her tight bottom and squeezed, “is ours. Ours to possess and claim. Ours to punish and to soothe.”
“I don’t—” her throat worked as if what she would say choked her.
“Tell me,” I ordered. We were nose to nose, face to face. She could not move. She had nowhere to run.
“I don’t want you to be kind to me,” she whispered, breaking my heart.
“It’s easier to fight?” I asked and she nodded, face creased in pain.
“Then fight us, Sorrel,” I rubbed my chin on the top of her head. “Fight all you want. We will spar with you, and when you are tired, we will hold you until you can fight again.”
“You must hate me,” she said.
“We do not hate you.”
“You do. Everyone does.”
“No, little warrior. No.”
“You should give me up. Throw me away. I—” she choked now, her eyes squeezing tight. I rolled off her and took her into my arms.
“It’s okay to cry,” I whispered into her hair. Thorsteinn was beside us now, rubbing her back.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I will break apart.”
“We will hold you together,” Thorsteinn said. “After, we will gather any missing pieces, and return them.”
Turning her head, she jammed her fist into her mouth. It could not stop her anguished cry.
“That’s it,” I murmured as she shook against me. “Cry for me, cry the tears.”
It came on her then like a summer gale that blows up quickly and drums fierce rain on the earth. Even at the heart of the storm the sun shone through the clouds.
I held and rocked her, wishing I could prize her heart apart, pick out the sharp rocks that burdened and cut her. I’d put it back together carefully and guard it until it healed.
It did not escape me or Thorsteinn that we were warriors and more comfortable with destruction than the work of holding women when they cried. But this wasn’t
any woman. This was Sorrel. The beast that ravaged our mind recognized her and laid down its weapons and its rage. In taming her, she tamed us.
Later, much later, I asked, “Feel better?”
She nodded.
I kissed her forehead. Her wet cheeks. Her lips. She sighed and leaned into my kiss.
“Here now,” I stripped and settled her on the pelts. “Lie back and let us see to you.” The beast within did not fight for control, but the scent and shape of her awakened another, deeper hunger.
“But—”
“No words.” I put two fingers at her lips and when she licked at them, I did not try to hide my grin. She felt the same hunger. “That’s the way. Let your masters pleasure you. I stroked her flared hips, her tiny waist, the breasts small and firm as new apples. Her muscles rippled under the skin, she trembled. “Shh...”
Thorsteinn lay on the other side of her, touching her, taking liberties. His hands stayed north while my strayed south. “You are beautiful,” he murmured. “Did you know?”
“No,” she whispered back. Sweet and compliant. I liked her tough and fighting, I liked her feisty, but soft and open to our touch? She destroyed me.
I knelt between her legs. I kissed her ankle, the inside of her knee until she gasped and pulled away. I grasped her leg more firmly and licked behind her knee until she laughed, a sweet clear sound like a brook in a meadow.
“That’s it,” Thorsteinn petted her hair, scratching her scalp and kneading her neck.
Her legs fell open and I pounced. My cock ached as I slid hands under her bottom and licked her folds, tasting her honey. She thrashed, her legs kicking over my shoulders and drumming on my back. Thorsteinn grasped her hands and held them over her head, stretching her between us, naked and vulnerable. I crawled over her, marking her with licks and bites and red marks where I fastened my mouth on her and sucked hard. I flipped her over and kissed down her spine, swirled my tongue between her cheeks, nipping her buttocks until she squealed. She writhed against the pelts, her leg cocked so she could rub her mound on one hump. I draped myself over her lower half, rubbing my cock between her cheeks, but did not enter her. This was for Sorrel, only Sorrel. She would forget her sorrow and her pain and remember only opening herself to us and receiving pleasure.
Cock dripping, I dove back between her bottom cheeks, feasting there until she ground frantically against the juice-slicked pelts.
“That’s it, rub yourself, take your pleasure,” I told her, and thrust my fingers into her sopping hole. As her climax broke, I fucked her gently, withdrawing my fingers only to probe her bottom. She shivered in the aftermath of pleasure. “Good girl,” Thorsteinn murmured and bit her ear. “You did well to obey.”
She did not even protest. Gleaming with sweat, she slumped onto the pelts. We wrung another climax or two from her sated body, this time with my fingers penetrating the tight circle of her ass.
“Soon we will claim you fully,” I told her, and watched in satisfaction as those simple words made her buck and break.
“But not tonight,” Thorsteinn said wistfully. We’d spilled our seed on the pelts beside her, surrounding her with our scent.
“Soon,” I promised. Sorrel made a small sound, her eyes heavy and mouth lax. She’d fight us again in the morning. It was in her nature. Any concession of hers was hard won, but worth it.
She gave one last shudder and fell asleep.
Sorrel
The next morning, I lay in bed as long as the warriors let me. Thorsteinn finally approached with a cloth and bucket of water and wiped me down. I squealed at the chilly touch of cloth.
“Should’ve woken when the water was warm,” he chided me. “We would see to you at night, but you fell straight asleep.”
I flushed at the memory of so much pleasure.
Vik chuckled knowingly. “Perhaps last night’s events will make you more amiable.”
“Not likely,” I muttered, but lay back and let Thorsteinn caress between my legs with the cloth.
Vik stood and excused himself. “I must ready for today’s training,” he said and wagged a finger at me before disappearing down the rope ladder. “Be good.”
“Good girls get rewards,” Thorsteinn promised, before tugging me up. To my dismay, he grasped my collar and guided me to kneel on a pelt near his usual seat.
“You said I could sit on your lap,” I whined.
“If I set you on my lap, I will not give you food. I will give you something else.” The front of his breeches was tented.
“Perhaps we could…”
He stopped my mouth with his fingers. “We told you we would claim you when you beg for us. Are you ready to beg?”
I jerked my chin back and forth, pouting.
“Come then. Time to eat.” His hand guided me to my knees. “We told you we’d make you our pet. Don’t tell me you do not enjoy it.” He plucked my nipples, which were hard as pebbles, and awakened a telltale prickle between my legs. I squirmed and refused the first bite. How could I be aroused by this?
“Come, Sorrel. Play the game, pet. Please?” Thorsteinn pressed his forehead against mine. When I nodded his head moved too and I laughed.
He stroked my hair as he fed me.
“I enjoy keeping you naked,” he murmured. “If you were truly our pet we would collar and cage you, and keep you undressed. Would you like that?”
I rolled my eyes and accepted more food from his hands.
“Nothing to worry about. Nothing to fear. You just let yourself become ours.” He tugged my hair gently, massaging my scalp until I felt half drunk.
“Your nipples stand to attention so prettily.” His left hand played with them as he fed me with his right.
Inspired, I curled my tongue around his fingers, lapping up every drop of honey until his eyes turned molten.
“Is that what you like?” he asked, his voice deep and dark.
I nodded. He wanted to play a game? I would win.
Eyes on mine, he scooted back on the stump he used as a seat. He opened his breeches and drew himself out. “There’s more for you to lick here, if you like.”
Heat flared in my cheeks, arcing through my body. He was changing the rules, but I was caught up in the game.
I scooted forward, accepting the pressure of his hand on the back of my neck. My tongue flicked at the turgid length. Thorsteinn hummed in pleasure.
“Won’t Vik be jealous?”
“If he is jealous, then he’s jealous,” Thorsteinn said, and tugged my hair so I licked up and down one side of his cock then the other. “Besides, he has taken liberties with you before.”
He showed me how to suck him, pinching my nipples to correct me, rolling them gently when I did well. I’d finally learned to take his length several inches into my mouth when he pulled me up. “Here. Straddle my leg.” I lay along his heavy thigh, my leaking center set right on his breeches. “You’re being such a good girl for me,” he crooned. “Rub yourself as you suckle me. Take your pleasure.”
I would’ve whimpered, but he guided my mouth back onto his cock, feeding his length into my mouth inch by inch. His free hand still caressed my breasts, building the fire in me to a raging inferno. Before I knew it, my hips rocked, seeking relief against his hard leg.
“That’s it. Obey your master.” Reaching down, he spanked my canting bottom. “Faster. Find relief.”
Pleasure flicked through me. I danced on its knife edge. The tug on my nipples, the slick patch on Thorsteinn’s breeches, the earth and salt taste of him filling my senses—it all combined into a roiling vortex that tossed and shook me.
I moaned around Thorsteinn’s cock, and he started spurting, drawing out to bathe my face with his seed. I blinked but met his pleased smile with one of my own.
“Such a good girl,” he stroked my hair back from my face. He helped me up and fetched a cloth to clean me. “As much as I love seeing you wear my essence, you can’t train with us like this. Too damn distracting.”
When he w
as done, he kissed me thoroughly. At last, reluctantly, he pulled away.
“Come. Vik waits for us.”
“What about—” I pointed to the stain I’d left on his clothes.
“If I had time, I’d make you lick it up. We are late, though, so.” He shrugged.
“Do you mean,” I swallowed. “You will wear them out today?”
“Oh yes, pet.” His amusement had a wicked edge. “With pride.”
Sorrel
“After yesterday, I thought you would not let me out again,” I said as we walked from Yggdrasil.
“You mean after the mist lured you away?” Vik asked. “That was our fault. We should be more vigilant.”
“I’m going to scout this area,” Thorsteinn grunted. “Stay close to Vik,” he ordered me and stalked off, face grim.
My face must have fallen, for Vik put an arm around my shoulders. “He doesn’t blame you, Sorrel. He blames himself. If it were up to him, he’d keep you in a stone tower and guard you day and night. He does not like the sneaky tricks of the enemy we fight.”
“The spell?” I whispered, as if mentioning it were dangerous.
“Yes. Do not worry, we have plans to break it.” He busied himself with laying out the weapons we would use today.
“How?” I wondered. “Is it possible to break such a spell?”
“The mating bond can. It has its own protective magic.”
That only filled me with despair. The elusive bond. “And what if it does not form?” I kicked a clod of dirt.
“It will,” Vik returned to my side. “Do not worry about that. There is already something between us, can’t you feel it?”
I shook my head. He grabbed my hand and pressed it to the bulge in his breeches, laughing when I tugged away.
“That is not bonding,” I muttered, flushing.
“Is it not?” Vik’s laugh was catching, and I smiled along with him.
“The bond is like water,” he said, coming at me slowly, as he would when he taught me to spar. “It flows into any empty spaces.” He raised his fist and I blocked the blow. He twisted and I dodged a kick. “And when you least expect it,” he feinted left, feinted right, and when I raised my arms to defend myself, he dropped and rolled, coming up beside me and capturing me in his arms. “You’re caught,” he breathed in my ear.
