by Brenna Lyons
“Can I get dried off?” Erin pleaded. “I’m freezing.”
Jayde moved toward Erin and guided her to the stairs without a hint of censure. “Come on before you end up with pneumonia,” she invited. “Are you coming, Hunter?” There was the censure.
“After I hear the explanation.”
His mother nodded and led Erin away.
Hunter met Curt’s eyes. “Do you need to dry off or can you talk?” he asked evenly.
“I can manage.”
“Good. Dad, call the Mahers in before they get any further.”
“Wait for me,” Talon ordered as he scooped up the radio and arranged for the other men to meet up at the training area and come back in as a group. That settled, he nodded to Hunter to continue.
“Now, what happened?”
“She went for a swim to clear her head,” Curt offered, pulling his boots off and revealing the soaked material beneath.
“Why? What did your brother say to her?”
The boy darkened. “He — um — mentioned something she didn’t want him to know. I didn’t tell him. I swear, I didn’t even know,” he finished miserably.
“Know what?” Hunter demanded.
“About Lorian playing that little game of seduction with her via coercion.”
“She told you about that?” Talon asked in surprise.
Curt nodded. “Yeah. She didn’t want to, but I think she needed to talk it out. She’s better with it now — I think. She seemed to be, anyway.”
“Better with what?” Hunter asked suspiciously.
Curt shuffled from foot to foot nervously and avoided their eyes. “You should discuss this with Erin,” he decided quietly.
“Erin won’t discuss it with us. She discussed it with you. Talk, Curt.”
He nodded and blushed deeper. “I had to explain that the...” He met Talon’s eyes for a moment and sighed. “The pleasure she experienced wasn’t her own. It had to be planted. She saw through his beautiful act first thing. Erin wouldn’t have touched him willingly — ever. She wanted Lorian touching her even less after the fact. The thought of it makes her physically ill. A simple illusion wouldn’t have changed that.
“Erin — wasn’t sure. She thought...” Curt shifted his weight again. “If the pleasure had been her own... I can’t do this,” he decided. “I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss this with you.”
Talon nodded grimly. “You did just fine, Curtis. She understands now?”
“I think so. She seemed — not even relieved but overjoyed when I explained the difference to her.”
Hunter smiled. “Good. I owe you some lessons that will knock Adam on his ass for years to come.”
Talon furrowed his brow. “But, how would Adam know anything about it?”
Curt cleared his throat. “Erin thought maybe you told Kord, and he let it slip.”
“No. This one stayed in-family until Erin told you.”
“It won’t go any further from me,” he promised.
“See that it doesn’t,” Hunter counseled.
The door opened again, and the rest of the Mahers tramped in, wiping mud off of their boots as they came. Bryant howled in laughter at the sight of his younger brother.
Curt scowled at him. “Go soak your head, Bryant. Preferably until you drown,” he added.
“What’d you do? Jump in the lake?” the young man inquired, poking at the dripping jeans in amusement.
Curt batted his hand away. “Yes. As a matter of fact, I did jump in the lake,” he growled.
Bryant sobered slightly. “Why?”
“Don’t ask. Hunter, Lord König — if you’re finished with me, I need to dry off before I freeze.”
“Go on,” Talon told him. “Jayde will not be amused if you get pneumonia for your trouble. That was good work tonight. We may have to give you an extra week’s worth of training in gratitude.”
“Thanks, but at this moment, I’d settle for hot coffee and dry clothes.” Curt nodded to Hunter and sprinted up the steps.
Kord watched him go in concern. Whether for Curt or for Erin was uncertain, but he was concerned. “How’s Erin?”
Talon shook his head. “Much calmer, but she’s freezing.”
“Did she go wading too?” He raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“No, she opted for a swim. I think Curtis was pulling her out. Notice his boots aren’t doused? Her shoes were, along with the rest of her.”
“Why?” Adam asked nervously. “All I did was apologize and offer my protection. I’m not lying. Honest.”
Hunter and Talon exchanged a weary look. “Tell us exactly what you did say,” Hunter decided.
Adam repeated it in halting tones, and the other men listened intently.
Talon nodded when he finished. “She misunderstood.” He sighed in relief. “She’ll be glad to hear that.”
Hunter nodded and pushed to his feet to climb the stairs. “You’re off the hook on this one, Adam.”
“But, I don’t understand,” Adam complained. “What did I say wrong? I don’t want to do it again.”
Hunter looked back at him and smiled sadly. “She’s not ready to discuss Lorian with you. Leave the subject alone.”
Kord looked at him uncertainly. “She’s been talking about him for days,” he noted.
“With me. With Curt. Leave it alone. I’ll explain the mistake to her. Just — don’t try to apologize to her again, okay?”
“Sure,” Adam replied half-heartedly.
Chapter Four
April 25, 2021
Erin sat outside the fenced area, watching Hunter warm up and casting nervous glances at Adam.
She wasn’t worried about Adam hurting Hunter. At only eight days since Lorian’s attack, her brother wasn’t at top form yet, but his joke that he hardly needed top form for Adam was dead-on accurate, and none of the Königs questioned it. If anything, it would be even more embarrassing for Adam to lose to a barely-healed opponent. No, Adam would be lucky to land a single punch on Hunter. In all honesty, she was worried about Adam’s state at the end of it all.
Erin was glad she hadn’t watched Bryant’s pummeling. She understood that Kord left him largely intact for Lewis. Lewis left him standing for Curt. Erin still couldn’t picture Curt taking his turn, but he did as he was ordered and did it well. Bryant had to be carried out of the training area to his bed.
She overheard Hunter musing to their parents that Curt’s words to his brother as he took the field were, “This isn’t for me. This is for Erin.”
Knowing that Bryant had been bedridden for two days and knowing that his broken bones were still knitting, Erin hadn’t been particularly happy with the idea of his injuries being inflicted in her name.
Now Adam was facing Hunter, and her brother would do as much to Adam as the others did to Bryant — or more — in her name. Worse, this time she couldn’t beg off. Like it or not, Erin had to watch while the man was taken apart.
This was what it would be like for any Warrior who crossed her, who pressured Erin or took pleasure with her before she earned her autonomy, or who went mad in printing. Corwyn warned Erin that she would be sought after until she felt she might go mad. Would her entire life be a parade of Warriors being beaten to a pulp or killed in her name while she watched?
She shivered at the thought. Erin decided one thing right then and there. Once she had her autonomy, she’d be fighting her own battles. At least then, she could decide when enough was enough.
Curt sank down beside her. “Are you ready for this?” he asked quietly.
“No,” she admitted.
“I thought not.”
“Think if I puke they’ll let me go back to the house and not watch?” she asked hopefully.
“Nope.”
Erin groaned, fighting the urge to puke anyway.
“Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out.”
“I hope so.”
Hunter stripped off his shirt and his weapons belt and tossed them over the fenc
e. Erin grimaced at the sight of the ragged pink lines of his healing scar tissue. Still, her brother was a good-looking man. She wondered if his scars would be a hindrance in finding a wife. She hoped not, especially since he got them in her defense.
Adam followed suit, stripping to his waist. He was taller, but he seemed to have less of a presence. He paled next to Hunter somehow. Erin was sure it wasn’t simply the fact that she liked Hunter better. It was more than that. It was something indefinable that Adam lacked. But, Hunter had it.
Erin looked at Curt out of the corner of her eye. Curt had it, whatever it was. She wondered for a moment what he would look like prepared to battle this way. She had seen Curt in a swimsuit, but there was something intense and — male about the Warriors in their boots and jeans, letting Blutjagd sweep them away for a challenge match or trial. Erin considered that she would know what Curt looked like if she had come to Bryant’s trial. She shifted her eyes back to the match, uncomfortable with the idea of just how male Curt would be out on the field.
Stripped to the waist and unarmed, the two Warriors circled each other. Far from being a comfort, the fact that they were unarmed meant that they could inflict much more pain on each other with the almost sure knowledge that they wouldn’t kill each other. However, they could do so much damage that one man — or both might wish to die before it was over or in the days after it was over.
Not surprisingly, Hunter landed the first blow. The solid punch to his ribs lifted Adam and dropped him to the dirt with a sickening thud that made Erin cringe.
Curt squeezed her hand. “He’ll be fine. Watch. He’s getting up.”
She nodded as Adam pushed to his feet. He was wincing already and slightly breathless. Hunter stood back and allowed him back to fighting readiness before he landed his next blow, adding insult to the very real injuries he was dealing out. He took Adam’s ribs again, this time with a roundhouse that threw the older man half the distance of the training circle.
Adam took longer to pick himself up that time. He staggered to his knees and looked at Hunter wearily as he pushed back to his feet.
Erin nodded. “I’ve been there before,” she mused.
Curt snapped a startled look at her. “You mean in the condition Adam’s in, don’t you?”
“Yes. After the last time I attacked Lorian. I forced myself up, determined to take him again if I had to and praying every second that I wouldn’t have to. I was done in, but I had to keep him from killing Hunter long enough to bleed him to ground. The first time I saw him stagger, I swear I almost cried.”
“You took him on with training weight weapons and still won,” Curt noted in awe as he turned back to the action.
Erin felt her face darken, and she looked back in time to see Adam go down again — a face shot this time. “Most of the time,” she admitted.
“What else did you fight him with?” he asked in interest, not taking his eyes off of the fight.
“My bare hands for the last run I made.”
Curt’s head snapped around, and something resembling fury burned in his eyes. “Are you insane? What kind of a brainless—” he hissed.
“I asked myself that same question. He certainly didn’t expect it.”
“I’ll bet! What could you possibly do with your bare hands?” he demanded, trying to keep his voice low despite his anger.
“Bounce him off the wall hard enough to hear the crack of some bone somewhere.”
“How? How could you, even with all your weight, pull that off?”
Erin flicked his amulet. “It’s an old trick my mother used on Veriel when he wanted to feed on my father.”
Curt shivered and swallowed slowly at the thought.
She traced his amulet slowly then drew her hand away, realizing what she was doing. Erin looked away from his chest abruptly and tried to sound matter of fact. “Your amulet is a powerful weapon. Use it as long as you have it. Your body becomes a battering ram. Of course, you get thrown too. Try to land softly.”
“You didn’t,” he guessed.
Erin shook her head. “No, I didn’t. Not when he hit me and not when I hit him.”
“So, what was your offense when he hit you?” he asked comically.
“That would be the time I planted my blade just a few inches east of his heart and dragged it out to bleed him.”
“Dragged?” Curt barked then lowered his voice again. “You stabbed instead of threw? Why?”
“Tactics. I had to get him at an unguarded moment. I couldn’t risk missing at that point. As it was, the one throw I made was way off. It bled him, but it was about as far from the heart as you can strike a blow and still hit the chest cavity,” she commented in annoyance. “Of course, I had just landed on my shoulder and—”
“Tactics?” he spat in disbelief, cutting her off. “What was your plan? How do you get a beast elder to drop his guard?”
She felt her cheeks burn and looked back at the battle. Adam was almost through. He wouldn’t be capable of standing much longer, she noted. “You don’t want to know.”
“No way. You started this. Tell me what your plan was. Now, Erin.” Curt was furious, shaking in his restraint — probably to keep from shaking her bodily.
Erin sighed and avoided meeting his eyes. “I made him think he’d won.”
“How?” His jaw was set tight as he ground his teeth, and he was growling out his words.
“I walked up to him and said I’d surrender my amulet.”
Curt sputtered and looked back at the battle. His hands fisted, and he seemed to have trouble breathing.
Adam was recovering from another blow, and blood ran freely from his split lip.
“Told you that you didn’t want to know,” she managed quietly.
“Do your parents know you did that?”
“They never asked. All they know is what Hunter was conscious for — in other words, not a damn thing except his coercion and him having me trapped. I think it’s probably better if they don’t know the rest. They haven’t asked, and I haven’t offered the information.”
“Why haven’t you told them?”
“Are you crazy? They’ll kill me.”
“Okay, so you walk up to an uninjured elder—”
“He was injured. I had already sliced his face open.”
“Do I want to know?” he asked in exhaustion.
“He lunged at me, and I hit the first thing that came my way and rolled away.”
“I didn’t want to know that. I know why Talon is going gray now.” Curt rubbed his eyes. “I may be gray before the end of this conversation. Okay, you walked up to a barely-injured elder and offered yourself up... I assume you did this to save Hunter.”
“I never intended on keeping that promise,” she countered hotly. “You know I didn’t.”
“Then why make it? To save Hunter? Do you have any idea what Lorian could have done to you for lying to him that way?”
“Do you have any idea what he was going to do if I didn’t lie to him that way? If I held firm or if I failed, the penalty was the same for Hunter and for me. Our only chance was what I did succeeding.” Erin looked at him miserably. “Boy, did I get lucky.”
“What could he do to you?” Curt shot at her. “You had your amulet.”
“Not if he took that sword to my arm above the bracer. That was his plan, and I didn’t happen to care for that plan. Neither did Hunter, actually.”
Curt looked at her in shock. “How did you get his guard down? How did you get a blade in him without him seeing it coming?”
“I — well, pretended is the wrong word. I was shaking so badly that I couldn’t undo the buckles, but I damn well would have faked it if I hadn’t been. I fumbled for awhile on purpose. That had his interest, but he was still guarded, and he was getting annoyed. So, I took out one of my weapons and started sawing through the first strap. I had no intention of going farther than that first one. If he was still guarded, I had a major problem on my hands. I made it — barely. He
put his guard down when the strap snapped.”
“I think you’re right. I think your parents would kill you,” he managed, looking pale.
She snuggled her chin onto her knees. “I know it.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” her father’s voice came from just over her shoulder.
Erin groaned.
Curt skittered further away as if he expected to take a blow for his part in the discussion. His eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between Erin and where her father had obviously unghosted behind her shoulder.
“Why?” she asked simply.
“Well, when you two were so engrossed you missed most of the battle including the fact that it was over... Your argument caught my attention, so I decided to find out what the problem was. Imagine my surprise.”
Erin glanced at him and found his face stony. “Are you furious?” she asked.
“I think furious would be a little harsh. You’re as devious as your mother and you have skills, but we really need to work on your tactics.”
“Well, I doubt that move would work a second time,” she admitted.
“I’m surprised it worked the first time.”
“What else was I supposed to do? What tactics would you have used?” she asked miserably.
Her father motioned for her to follow him. “I don’t know. Let’s ask your mother. This is her ball of wax.”
* * * *
Erin looked around at the room full of Warriors nervously. She was human and injured, so she wouldn’t face fist or blade, but this firing squad effect wasn’t any better on her nerves. She laced her fingers together tightly and locked most of her muscles to hide the worst of her shaking.
After Adam had been taken to bed and tended to medically, her father had called all of the other Warriors to the training room. Knowing instinctively that it was about to go badly for her, Erin sat at the far end of the room and awaited her father’s judgment.
Her mother tried to go to her, but Talon pulled her back.
“Not this time,” he growled dangerously.
Jayde flicked an uneasy glance between her husband and daughter before nodding to him and taking a seat next to Hunter. Erin’s heart sank. She would have no allies.
