by Lee Savino
“We’re not here to harm you,” Leif repeated.
I blinked at them. I sat trussed and gagged and trembling. A young maiden captured in the woods by two warriors. Limbs numb, skin covered in goose bumps. My light summer dress provided no protection from a chill in the air strange for a late summer night.
“You’ll want to know why we are here,” Leif interpreted. “Fear not. It’ll all be brought to light.”
A scream shattered the still air. It came from the abbey.
“Damn, damn.” Leif hauled me up.
“Go to the meeting place. I’ll catch up,” Brokk told him, and ran back to join the other warriors.
I dug my heels into the dirt, but Leif hauled me over his shoulder. His large hand smacked my bottom when I struggled again.
“None of that now,” he said. I went limp again, the fight truly gone out of me this time. Straining to raise my head, I could only watch as Brokk and his fearsome comrades advanced to attack my home.
LEIF CARRIED ME EASILY, striding in silence through the woods. His pace picked up to a trot when we came to a field. We traveled far beyond where I’d ever roamed. Sage and I had often talked about running away but had never gone much beyond the shack we’d made our hiding place.
The last light glimmered through the trees when the warrior set me down again. I watched him through the screen of my hair.
“Water?” He offered me a little waterskin tied to his belt.
I shook my head.
“More for me.” He drained the skin, his beautiful throat working as he swallowed.
When he moved to touch me, I flung myself back with enough violence to leave furrows on the ground.
“Shh, shh,” he soothed. “I’ll untie the gag.” He held his hands up as if trying to coax a wild creature. “Do I have your word you will not scream?”
I stared at him. His words grazed my overwrought brain. I was captive and bound several miles from my home, and at this warrior’s mercy.
Leif knelt in front of me.
“You will not scream,” he told me. “If you do, there will be consequences. I might like the consequences, but I promise you will not. Besides”—his tone gentled—“even if you do cry out, there is no one around to hear you. And no one will take you from me.” For a moment, his gaze darkened. I wanted to huddle into a tight ball.
Instead, I let him take off the gag then I spat in his face. He drew back, blinking in surprise.
“You coward,” I said. “Do you like kidnapping innocent girls?”
He wiped at his speckled cheek.
“Oh, aye,” he said with a grin. He didn’t seem upset, more amused by my anger.
“Let me go,” I ground out, struggling against my bonds. I had to do something. This warrior loomed over me, three times my size, and all of it muscle. He’d promised not to hurt me, but I’d have to be a fool to trust him—wouldn’t I?
“I’ll free you,” he went on, “when I can be sure you will not run.”
I turned my head away for a moment. I wasn’t afraid, not of him. My cheeks flushed, my body heated from his closeness. Under the thin fabric of my shift, my breasts felt heavy and swollen, and I wished I could bare them to the night air.
When I met the warrior’s gaze, a jolt went through me. I closed my eyes, but too late to hide the hunger in them.
This time, when he brushed the hair from my face, I did not fight.
“What do you want with me?” Even to me my voice sounded low and husky.
His golden eyes drank me in. His thumb rubbed my lower lip. “Everything,” he murmured. “I want everything you have to give, and more.”
LEIF
My little captive glared up at me, a furrow on her brow. Her frown did nothing to mar her beauty. Her dark hair framed her lovely face, her limbs and curved body smooth and pleasing, but her temper had me hard as a rock.
“Everything you have to give,” I told her. She could not know what I meant, of course. But I couldn’t help speak the truth. Her journey to full surrender had begun the moment she came into our possession. The sooner she understood, the easier it would be.
Our friend Knut had briefed Brokk and me on what it would be like when we took a mate.
“You need to woo her,” the gruff warrior told us. “Say soft, sweet things. Be gentle.”
But, in the heat of the rescue, the beast had surged forth, our baser nature battling to assert itself and claim her. Even now, I struggled to keep from throwing her to the ground and burying my cock inside her. The beast wanted to mark our woman, to bond her to us before we brought her back to the pack home. If she didn’t bond to us before then, the Alphas might not allow us to keep her…
Steady, brother. Brokk linked to my mind. You must keep control.
I bit back my retort. Brokk was right. His stern grip on the beast kept me sane all these years.
Are you so sure she is the one for us? he asked, the tinge of hopefulness in his tone keeping me from snarling my answer.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the scene before him. Brokk lingered near the shed where we had found our precious captive, watching the Berserkers carry off their chosen women. Some of the females came quietly, tucked into their captors’ arms. Others wept as the Berserkers led them away. A rare few fought, their struggles quickly overcome by the massive warriors.
There are many women to choose from, Brokk observed.
You know as well as I her scent called to us. And her courage, hiding under the false meekness. This girl is strong.
Find out more about her. Brokk severed our connection before I could answer. I didn’t let his rudeness ruffle me. My warrior brother and I had disagreed many times over the years, and most of the arguments I had won. Soon, he would share my confidence Willow belonged to us. Always careful, he wanted to be sure we’d found the right mate.
Mates are for life, he reminded me. We must be sure we choose the right one.
And we want a strong one. One able to bear sons, I told him. Sons, and a few red-haired daughters to make me gray.
His grudging chuckle echoed in the bond between our minds, satisfying me.
The girl still sat on the forest floor, her head cocked to the side as she watched me.
I drew my knife, and she blanched.
“Easy, lass.” I fell into the Highlander lilt. Brokk and I and most of the Berserkers hailed from the North Lands, but after we’d settled on the island, I’d found I preferred the speech pattern of the mountain men. Once I cut the leather ties we used to bind her, Willow relaxed. I took her arms and chafed her wrists, clucking over the red marks.
“If ye had not fought, we would not have tied ye.” I turned her hand and placed a quick kiss over her pulse. “Of course, if ye had not fought, I’d have a harder time convincing Brokk to choose ye.”
“Choose me?”
“Aye,” I said. “To be our mate.”
She shrank in on herself, paling under her freckles. I did not like her terrified expression.
“Do not fear,” I soothed, even as my beast fought for dominance, surging to the fore to protect the frightened woman. “Brokk and I will care for you. Even now, he’s wondering what makes me so sure we can bond…but I know you have the strength to be our bride.”
I held out the waterskin, a peace offering. When she took it, my fingers touched hers. The air filled with her scent.
“Brokk will tease me for making camp so soon, but I want to get some food into you and give you a chance to know us better before we continue our journey. Something in you calls to us. You feel it, too, aye?”
She pressed her lips together.
“Stubborn. No need for you to talk. I can smell the truth.”
Ducking her head, she tried to hide her blush.
She’s almost in heat, I observed to Brokk. I wonder if she knows it.
Ask her.
I opened my mouth and got hit in the face with the waterskin. By the time I’d scrambled to my feet, my little captive had found hers and raced
into the thick woods.
WILLOW
Heartbeat pounding in my ears, I crashed through the forest. Behind me, the redheaded warrior snarled, and I darted into the thick brush, barefoot. The friar didn’t like to spend money on things for the orphans, and my feet became calloused from going without shoes every summer. I’d longed to run these woods. A few months before Hazel disappeared, she and Sage and I had started racing one another, practicing for the day we would escape.
“Bad idea, lass,” the warrior growled down my neck. I shrieked and dodged around a tree, ducking under brambles. I heard Leif cursing and the rending of fabric. I’d better get away, for, now, the punishment he promised me would be more severe.
My course zigzagged through the forest until I burst out onto a wagon road. My feet pounded down the path, stopping short when I came to a crossroads. One way would take me to the abbey. I could go back and warn my friends before being captured again. Or I could continue and see how long I could remain free.
I hesitated.
“Got you now.” The warrior pounced. We tussled. He took me to the ground then tossed me over his shoulder once again.
Frantic, I bit him until I tasted blood.
“Stop.” He gave my bottom a jarring slap that reverberated all the way through me. I shrieked, and the place between my legs pulsed.
“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 t
hen 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.
Draugr. 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…
