by Lee Savino
As I roused, Maddox rose from his place at the fire, and came to my side. Without speaking, he pulled off my fur blanket. His gaze hardened when he saw I was naked.
“Did he-?”
“No. He barely touched me.” My hand went to my throat. I didn’t know why I was trembling.
Maddox saw the tremor and pulled me into his arms. I clung to him, and the fear I’d swallowed last night cracked and spilled out of me in a rush.
“You thought...he might have--”
“No. I didn’t...I wouldn’t let you alone if I’d thought he would do that.” His hand cradled the back of my head. “I didn’t bring you here to put you in danger.” His voice rumbled deep in his chest, grounding me.
“I know.”
“Never again. Never again,” Maddox ground out. “I won’t let anyone get close enough to hurt you ever again.”
The night was over. I’d survived. Last night Ragnvald had crossed a threshold, moving from beast to man, madness into healing. But I had changed also, accepted what Maddox called my destiny. A new day was here, but what did it mean? What would it hold?
Suddenly I had no future, only this moment, and this virile man before me.
With hesitant fingers, I traced his features, traced the sharp jaw, stroked the hollow cheeks. Maddox held still, until I reached his lips. He nipped my fingers, and he might as well have laid his mouth straight on my mons for the way heat flooded through me.
I could only breathe his name.
“Maddox.”
His mouth fell on mine. We kissed, and he moved, taking over, the pressure on my mouth driving me backwards. I fell back on the pelts under him, whimpering as one of his tattooed hands dragged down my naked body. My hips rose to his touch. He palmed my center and glanced at my face in question, but I didn’t speak, didn’t break the spell, just waited until his fingers brushed my lower lips and excited me. I writhed shamelessly on the pelts.
It was happening so fast, but I needed it. I had been on edge for so long I needed the warmth of another human body next to mine, even if it was my captor. I pressed myself against him, my skin desperate for his warmth like a flower for the sun. Strong fingers stroked between my legs, then hooked into my wet hole. I hitched my leg up, eyes closing, and everything in me held its breath. This was the touch I’d longed for every month, when the full moon turned my desires into a raging inferno, set on driving me to madness.
“Sabine,” Maddox breathed as his fingers fucked my wet heat.
My eyes snapped open.
We were almost to a full moon. Heat. I was in heat.
I shoved Maddox away. He responded instantly, moving up and back, but instead of jumping on him, as he probably expected, I retreated.
“No,” I muttered over and over. “No.” Hands over my face, I huddled on the edge of the bed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and wished I hadn’t when he took it as an invite to move closer. Belatedly, I remembered I was naked, and dragged a pelt around my shoulders. Risking a glance, I winced at the hurt in his eyes.
“Sabine, you have nothing to fear from me.” But when he laid his hand on the pelt covering me, I flinched, and tucked myself into a smaller ball. His great form dwarfed mine. If he wanted to force me, I had no doubt who would win.
Of course, once the heat took over and my desire took over, it wouldn’t even be force. I wasn’t afraid of him. I was afraid of me.
“Please.”
He tugged the edge of the pelt once, but not hard enough to pull it off . I gripped it tighter, and made a small sound, a plea. A shadow fell across his face and he left me.
As I’d been up most of the night, I crawled back into the pelt’s warm embrace. I must have slept, legs clamped tightly together, because when I woke Maddox was gone, but another man sat on the edge the bed, facing the fire.
As I roused he turned and smiled. My breath caught. Golden hair down to his shoulders, carven cheeks, noble brow, this was Ragnvald, but not as I first saw him. The blond warrior looked as hale as Maddox. The transformation went deeper than clean limbs and shining hair. He’d lost the shadows in the hollows of his eyes, the wan tint to his skin, and he held himself with confidence, not the hesitant movement of a wild animal on the edge of a road, observing civilization, but not a part of it. This man was every inch the ruler I’d guessed him to be.
“Good morrow, Sabine,” he said in a voice not as deep as Maddox, but rich and smooth, almost kingly.
“You can speak.”
His smile “I couldn’t for a long time. But it seems I have remembered how.”
A measured tread interrupted us. Maddox could move as quietly as a wolf stalking a rabbit, so I knew he wanted us to hear his approach. He ignored us as he built up the fire, a surly expression on his face. I didn’t know if he was angry with Ragnvald or me.
After a moment watching Maddox move stiffly around the fire, Ragnvald turned and winked at me. The gentle amusement on his face shocked me.
“How did you sleep?”
“Well, my lord. And you?”
“Never better.”
Shifting on the bed, he beckoned me closer. I hesitated. This man--sometimes monster--had touched me the night before, but I still felt wary around him.
With a chuckle, Ragnvald dropped his hand. “You see, brother? She rejects me too.”
Maddox didn’t say anything but he stopped stomping around the fire. After a moment Ragnvald joined him, and I noticed the blond’s chain was gone.
“My lord,” I called. Both men turned, but I focused on Ragnvald. “You’re feeling better?”
“Yes. Healthy enough I no longer need the chain.” The shackle lay near one of my sage bundles. Unlike mine, it had runes stamped on its surface.
“So what now? Have I earned my freedom?”
Ragnvald grimaced. “Afraid not, little vala. My body heals quickly, but only time will strengthen my mind. Your help is necessary.” His voice deepened. ”I am grateful.”
I dropped my eyes as my body quickened, responding to his intimate murmur. I couldn’t bear to look at the two warriors, one dark, one light, but I felt their gaze on my body like the pull of a tide. As the moon grew round the desire in me would only grow worse. During the heat, I’d have to sequester myself, or sate it.
If they kept me captive here, would I be able to keep from losing myself to desire?
Maddox came to me and knelt.
“Run if you like, little witch.” With his bare hands he snapped the shackle and freed my leg. He raised his head and gave me a mocking smile. “We will enjoy chasing you.”
My heart pounded and I inclined my head. “I will not run. My sisters are still with your men.”
Maddox caught a blonde curl in his hand. “Is that all that keeps you here?”
“It’s not the comfort of this cave,” I snapped and they both laughed. “I hope you keep my sisters in better lodgings.”
Smile gone, Maddox moved away. “They are safe and provided for. I give you my word.”
After a grudging nod, I waited until they turned away to dress and wash my face. The men busied themselves with roasting an entire wild boar, and my stomach growled as the scent filled the cave.
Ragnvald stood and held out his hand.
“Come dine with us,” he invited, as if they were knights of honor and I was their lady. The way their attention rested on me during the meal, I fluttered my hands and brushed my hair back more than necessary and told myself it was the effect of the heat in my blood.
If they noticed my flushed cheeks, they didn’t comment. We spoke of benign things, such as how Maddox hunted the meat, to what herbs I’d used to make last night’s stew.
“I will need to gather more,” I remarked, hoping for a reprieve from the cave.
Maddox and Ragnvald exchanged glances with a pause long enough to have a conversation, though they said nothing out loud.
“We will allow you to go into the forest, as long as one of us is close,” Ragnvald ruled.
I let that pass without argument. One day I would be free again, and in the meantime, I would focus on the wellbeing of my patient. Any attention I paid Ragnvald had the pleasant result of annoying Maddox. I practically fluttered my eyelashes at the blond as I asked, “What brought you to this island?”
“Fortune,” Ragnvald said after a pause, as if looking for the words. “We were mercenaries, in service to a king.”
“Harald Fairhair?” I remembered from Maddox’s story.
“No. He was long dead by the time the pack sailed here.”
I frowned. “You are stronger than most men, yes?”
“All men,” Ragnvald corrected. “And most monsters.”
“Then why do you not rule this island? You have the strength and forces to do it.”
“How can a man rule a country when he cannot rule himself? No, vala. This wilderness is the extent of my lands.”
I grew quiet at that. Outcast, Maddox had once called himself. The price of their cursed power.
“Once I might have wanted a kingdom, but after years of battle, I only hope for a peaceful future that I can share with a mate. ” Ragnvald said, and Maddox nodded. I decided to avoid the subject of their future mate. No matter how their looks stirred my blood, as soon as this was done, I was going home.
“You are Viking, but Maddox is not. How did you two meet?”
“I saved Maddox’s life.”
Maddox snorted, looking younger and more jovial than I’d ever seen. The transformation made me catch my breath. For a moment he looked as beautiful as Ragnvald.
“That is not how I remember it, brother.”
Ragnvald inclined his head. “You tell it, then.”
Maddox took on what I recognized as his bard’s voice. “There was a king--”
“A buffoon,” Ragnvald broke in.
“A parasite with a kingdom,” Maddox smiled like it was an old joke. “He slit his brothers’ throats and took their inheritances so he had money to pay you.”
“After we fought for Harald, we came to this island and became soldiers of fortune,” Ragnvald explained. “We didn’t care who we fought for, so we fought for that maggot and conquered a few more territories.”
“Until a well spoken and devastatingly handsome--”
It was Ragnvald’s turn to snort.
“--mercenary strode into your camp.” Maddox waggled his eyebrows.
“You stank of peat and old blood. But you had no fear. I knew you were one of us. Berserker.”
“I convinced them to fight for the opposite side. Not for money, for a lark. It was a pleasure to put that parasite’s head on a pike.”
“Maddox was part of the pack ever since.”
“Where is the pack, now?” I asked, and wished I hadn’t when all laughter fled from their faces.
“Ten leagues west,” Maddox supplied quietly. His brow creased, and again I wondered if Ragnvald and he had a secret language that they used in these long pauses.
The blond raised a hand.
“Out loud, brother. She may as well know.”
Maddox turned to me. “Less than half are left. I keep them camped on the cliffs over the sea. When the madness takes them we drive them off to meet their fates on the rocks. The beast can survive many things, but eventually they drown.”
The meat turned to ash in my mouth. These warriors were brothers in every way but blood. To live so long only to watch the curse pick them off, one by one, would be a living hell. No wonder Maddox sought to save his friend, and through him, the pack.
“Can they be helped?” I asked. “I mean...can I help them?”
“You already have. Saving the Alpha,” Maddox nodded towards Ragnvald, “binds the pack together, makes it stronger.”
I nodded and flushed under the warriors’ regard. I’d spoken without thought about what it would take to heal an entire pack of these broken men, but Maddox was right. I was a healer and withholding my gift from those who were suffering betrayed my oath.
Ragnvald rose first. Stooping, he kissed my forehead. “Thank you, little vala.”
“Vala?” he’d called me that before.
“‘Witch.’ Maddox is right. You have magic.”
I opened my mouth to protest and his finger barred my lips. “Not as a sorceress or as most witches do. Their power requires sacrifice--human or animal. Your power is a deeper magic, natural and of the earth.”
“It still requires sacrifice,” said Maddox. “But a different sort.”
“What sort?”
“Self sacrifice. And that is the most powerful magic of all.”
Ragnvald straightened. The shadows under his eyes had returned when we spoke of the pack, and still hadn’t fled. “I must bid you two farewell for the moment. I won’t go far.”
With slow, old steps, he retreated back into the cave.
“Forgive me,” I whispered.
“There is nothing to forgive,” Maddox answered. “He had to hear of the pack sooner or later. I kept him apart to protect the pack from him, but it may have made things worse.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Why did he leave just now?”
“He seeks the comfort of his wolf, and he does not wish you to see him Change into wolf form. But he will return, if only to remain close to you. You soothe the beast.” Maddox seated himself near me. “You have questions. Ask, Sabine.”
“If Ragnvald had turned, what would you have done?”
“I would’ve tried to kill him. The shackle would’ve helped weaken him, but there was still a chance he would defeat me. If I knew the shackle would hold, I would’ve left him to die. Isolation from the pack decays our minds faster. A lone wolf is a dead wolf.’
I remembered the lone wolf on the path from the village, who’d stopped me in my tracks on my way home.
“Maddox, how did you know of me?”
“The witch who stamped the spells on the shackle told us of a race of women with healing powers. ‘Spaewives’, she called them. Hedge witches. No power to work spells in the traditional way, but they still have a gift.”
I picked at the meat left on my plate. “And how did you know I had this gift?”
“Two reasons. We asked the witch who gave us the shackle for Ragnvald, and she told us of a family of spaewife women. Your grandmother was one, but she was destroyed, burned at the stake. We arrived too late, after your mother had taken you and your sisters and fled to the village you call home. It took some years to find you, after that. Your mother had very little power, and so the trail ran cold.” He gave me a sudden, heated look. “Until, that is, you came of age. Then your scent was easy to follow.”
I cleared my throat. “And once you found me? How did you know that I had the power to even attempt to heal your pack?”
“Because I watched you, Sabine. For a long, long time.”
*
I stayed awake long after Maddox made his bed on the cave floor, watching his painted chest rise and fall in sleep. I knew now why the tattooed warrior barely spoke to me at first. When the beast had hold of them, it was difficult for them to remember human speech. Now that we could talk freely, one question begat seven more.
Movement from the back of the cave made me jump, but it was only Ragnvald, ambling towards the fire as if he were a lord in his hall, not barefoot in the wild. He looked heartier.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked.
I shrugged.
“Moon’s out. Tomorrow it will be full.”
I hugged my knees tighter to my chest.
Ragnvald paused at the end of my bed and he brushed a hand over the pelts. “May I?”
I nodded. The bed was large enough to fit five men; it wouldn’t hurt to share a corner of it with this tall warrior. I wondered, if we lay face to face, whether I’d feel his equal, or if his muscled body would dwarf mine as easily as it did when we were both standing.
With kingly grace, the blo
nd warrior sat as I allowed, and regarded me.
“I heard you and Maddox talking.”
“How far back does the cave go?” I peered into the gloom.
“Not far. There are tunnels that extend farther, but they are dangerous.” I knew he mentioned the danger so I would not be tempted to explore, so I nodded. “But I overheard in a different way. Our minds are linked, you see. With each other, and with the pack.”
The pauses between Maddox and Ragnvald made more sense.
“He’s a good man, Sabine,” Ragnvald spoke abruptly. “He never abandoned me, even when he should have. We did all we could, but I only grew worse. In a moment of sanity, I submitted to the shackle. We hoped the runes would help, but the decline continued...I would’ve died. I was content to die.” He paused, and his silence held a lifetime of suffering.
“I know he had acted against you--taking your from your home, holding your sisters hostage. Maddox would never wrong you without purpose. I think you know this.” We both regarded the tattooed warrior prone on the ground, his face softened with sleep. I wondered if I’d met Maddox under different circumstances, what we would be.
“I do.”
Ragnvald rose and walked to my side of the bed.
“He cares for you, Sabine. We both do.”
Unbidden, the image of Ragnvald naked in the bath came to my mind. Only this time, Maddox was there with us.
The blond warrior lay his hand on my neck, and I covered it with mine, startled out of my reverie. My heart tripped faster but he only pulled the fur more tightly around me.
“You have nothing to fear, Sabine. Not from us.” He picked up a pelt to make his own bed on the floor. As he retreated, he added, “And no one can stand against us. You have nothing to fear, ever again.”
He lay down and was soon asleep in his place. I sat awake between two warriors, fore and aft, between me and the back of the cave, and me and the great wild. Their still, strong forms ready to protect and fight for me, even in slumber.
If I ducked my head low enough, I could see the pregnant moon winking at me from her bed in the sky beyond the wide mouth of the cave. One more day, and the heat would be upon me in full force.
