by Lee Savino
“Ladies,” Ragnvald started to approach us. “Back to your tent. Your new guards arrive soon, and we need to get Sabine home before dusk.”
“Yes, my lord,” my sisters murmured, and hugged me goodbye. With worried looks when I didn’t respond, they slipped away.
Teeth clenched, I marched to the cage and examined it. The Berserkers had fashioned the cage from stripped saplings and tree branches.
“You kept them in a cage?” I ground out, unwilling to face them.
“It was necessary,” Maddox said at my back.
“We need to go,” Ragnvald murmured. “It’s been a long day, and my control…”
When Maddox took my arm, I wrenched it away.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me again.”
“Sabine, you heard your sister. It was for your sisters’ protection.”
“Protection they needed because of you!”
“We moved them to the tent after a night or two…” Again Maddox reached for my arm and I finally whirled to slap his hand away.
His hand shot out and shackled my wrist.
“Did you just strike me?”
“You kept my sisters in a cage!” I tried to slap him with my free hand, and ended up struggling face to face with an enraged warrior.
Ragnvald sighed, but kept his distance. I felt his control fraying even as he said in a low voice, “You forget your place, little one.”
“Punish me then,” I snapped.
“Oh we shall.” Maddox tossed me over his shoulder and slammed the breath from my lungs. Marching on past the cage and the stream, he broke into a trot that kept me hanging on to his belt for the brisk journey. Ragnvald did not follow right away. I wondered if he stayed away to regain his control.
Maddox did not swing me down until we were close to home. I felt the anger coming of him, a tense heat. Judging by the glow of his golden eyes, his beast was close to the surface.
“You are lucky we were not near the pack. You would already be strung up before them. Some might ask to take turns wielding the whip.”
I struggled but Maddox easily overpowered and bound me, stretching my arms over my head by a rope hung from the branch of a tree. He laid his hands on my collar and with one move tore the beautiful overdress from my body.
“No,” I cried, too late. He tossed the pieces into the woods.
“Yes. You’ll be lucky if we allow you clothes for a sennight. We should keep you tied and docile in our bed, until you remember your place.”
My curses rang out in the cool afternoon air.
“You think you are strong now. Wait until you’ve tasted the snake’s bite.”
He unwound a long strip of wide leather, cut thin with a point at the end. My lip curled even as I shivered in my thin shift.
“Do your worst.”
Mouth set, he held the end of the whip in one hand and the handle in the other. He popped it at my back, to the right of my spine, near my shoulder blade.
I gasped and twisted as if I could get away. The snap did nothing to warn me of the force of the leather and how one spot would burn like fire. The breath left my lungs and my mind filled with pain. My body jerked with the next stroke, and the next, and I almost lost my footing.
“No, please,” I gasped. I could barely believe the pain in just a few strikes. I would not live through another.
“You want to beg now?” He lightly flogged my back through the shift. It didn’t hurt, but my skin grew warm. “You want mercy?”
“Please--” I danced on tiptoe until Maddox came close and caught me.
“We will not allow you to endanger yourself in any way.” There was no anger in his rawboned face, but no pity either. He moved back and I realized Ragnvald had caught up with us.
“We should just ban her from any more pack gatherings.” Ragnvald said.
Now my lungs seized. If they did that, I would not see Brenna.
“No.” I croaked. “Anything...I will submit to punishment.” I gripped the rope with my hands holding my arms taut. I could hold on. “I will obey. Please punish me as you will.”
With brisk hands, Maddox tucked my braid back over my shoulder. First he wielded a flogger made of braided strands ending in small rosebud knots. The blows warmed my back. As they grew heavier, I stifled my cries. When Maddox paused to rip off my shift, I let a sob of grief for losing the garment. Positioning my braid behind my back, Maddox painted my bare front pink. The strikes made me wince, but nothing like the brutal pain of the snake whip.
Ragnvald stayed at a distance while Maddox flowed in a dance of his own before me. His body tense as he concentrated on each blow. Watching the impressive muscles of his arm coil and strike with precision, I felt grateful that he wasn’t using his full strength.
At a pause in the beating, Ragnvald came and ran a hand down my marked flesh.
“If any one of the pack had seen you attack us--even your sisters--I would not allow Maddox to be so gentle,” Ragnvald said. “We would drag you back to the place of stones and string you up in front of the entire pack. And there would be no warm up. These first gentle lashes will allow Maddox to go longer, but you will feel less pain.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
His face remained impassive. “Continue,” he told Maddox, who now held only the snake-tongued whip.
“Stay still, Sabine, or this will harm and not just hurt you.”
The first pop made me gasp, the second choke. All the air rushed back into my lungs and I cried out in agony.
“Be still, Sabine.” He was at my back now, snapping the whip at my shoulders, upper back. Each blow hit like a tree branch slammed into a place the size of a thumbprint, and drove my breath out of my body.
She does well, taking all that pain.
I almost turned my head to hear who spoke before I realized it was in my head.
She will be rewarded. Somehow I knew the second voice was Ragnvald.
I breathed through the pop on my buttocks, but when the lash licked the sensitive skin of my thighs I began writhing again. Pain took me in its grip, and I lost myself to it, howling with tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Tell me, Sabine. Will you attack us again?”
“No, no,” I sobbed.
“Will you submit to our will?”
“Anything. Please.”
“A few more,” Maddox said. “Give yourself over to the pain.”
I shuddered as I nodded. I would try. I had no choice.
“One,” Maddox counted, popping the whip against my right shoulder. “Two.” The left.
I kept my place, pressing my face into my arms.
“Three.” My right buttock. “Four.” I bit into my own flesh and still cried out.
“Breathe, Sabine,” Ragnvald ordered. Maddox waited until I obeyed.
I focused on my sisters, jerking through the lashes on my right thigh and left. Sagging, I prayed Maddox was done.
“Four more,” he said, and it broke me. Chest heaving with hard sobs, I let myself hang in my bonds as he walked around to face me, a cold but not cruel expression on his face.
“Not her breasts, Maddox,” Ragnvald said. “Keep to her back, this time.”
Maddox acknowledged him with a bow. I tried to remember what they’d told me about punishment.
Ragnvald stayed across the clearing, watching me from there, and I realized this was for his benefit. I’d pushed the limits of his control, and without this ritual to put me in my place, he was unable to keep the beast from breaking free.
“Forgive me.” I didn’t realize I’d spoken until Maddox put his hand on my shoulder
“What was that?” Ragnvald asked, coming closer.
“Forgive me, Alpha. I was wrong. I didn’t think and I put you--all of us in danger.”
Ragnvald nodded to Maddox and he cut me down, catching me carefully. The tattooed warrior bathed my face with a wet cloth--remains of my shift, I thought ruefully.
“We don’t want to hurt you,”
Ragnvald said. His eyes were back to a light blue. “This, at least, you can heal from.”
“I understand,” I croaked.
“You must learn,” Maddox leaned in. “Or we cannot take you to the gathering.”
“I will learn, I promise.”
“Very well,” Ragnvald said.
Maddox carried me to the cave, lay me down and fussed over me. Ragnvald held my hand as my marks were treated with salve.
“If you needed greater punishment, we would not treat your wounds for a day. If at all.”
I brought his hand to my mouth and kissed his knuckles in gratitude.
“Sweet Sabine,” he murmured. “You did so well.”
“We will now give you a reward. A reminder of what lies in store when you behave,” Maddox parted my legs gently, and held them open when I tried to close them.
“No, please--” I gulped down my protest.
“Do you deny us your pleasure?”
“No, no, my lord.” I widened my legs, praying they would not punish me again.
“Calm yourself, Sabine. We are your masters. We may not give you what you want, but we will always give what you need.” His fingers thrummed between my legs, the slightest of touches.
“She’s already slick,” Maddox told Ragnvald.
“She’s ready for us, but we will not take her tonight. She has given enough.”
“Let us soothe you now.” Maddox played with my fore and bottom hole awhile before brushing his finger against the sweet spot. I cried out as the dull throbbing in my whipped back turned into a happy ache. Maddox’s fingers thrummed the right spot again and again, turning my body into a vessel of perfect agony. Pain was pleasure and pleasure was pain.
“Cum, Sabine,” Ragnvald ordered, and I broke into a thousand pieces, writhing and panting on the pelts.
Maddox and Ragnvald watched me, and their satisfied looks sated me as much as the orgasm had.
Sleep claimed me, and as I sank into the darkness, I felt the men’s contented presence, warm as a blanket where they lay at my side, and lay as shadows in my mind.
*
I woke groaning, my back on fire. Maddox stood over me in a second and I cringed away.
His hand soothed down my hip as he offered me a drink. “You have nothing to fear from me, Sabine. The beast desires your submission, nothing more.”
He reapplied salve to my body, but I moved slowly that morning. The warriors seemed distant, though they treated me with utmost care and respect. I remained quiet, acting with careful deference. The marks would take some time to heal, but I didn’t mind them so much as the thought that they would not bring me to see Brenna.
Later that day, Maddox brought me a blue gown to replace the one he’d torn.
“Should I wait to wear this? It is too fine a dress for everyday, but perhaps if we are going to the Thing.”
“Wear it, Sabine,” Maddox said. “We have trunkfuls of things coming for you and your sisters. And nothing is too fine for you.”
I bit my lip and dressed. The gown set off my skin and flaxen hair perfectly.
Maddox’s eyes lit when he saw me. He ran his finger along the collar of the gown and sent shivers all through me.
“Beautiful.”
I waited for him to do more, but he only turned and walked away. A lump rose in my throat.
Ragnvald also liked the gown, judging by the soft kiss he gave me, but treated me with the same aloofness Maddox had. The warmth I’d felt last night was gone. The warriors were withdrawing from me.
At the fire that night, I finally worked up my nerve to speak.
“When do we go to the Gathering?” I asked.
“Soon,” Ragnvald said. “We postponed it a few days.”
“Is it--” I could barely get the words out. “Did I delay it?”
“No.”
Yet the men continued to frown. After eating, Maddox left. Ragnvald stayed, staring into the fire. He hadn’t touched his food at all.
Real fear rose in me. I served Ragnvald a bowl of stew and then knelt before him.
“I will submit to any term,” I told him. “I will obey, I will wear the collar and chain and crawl if I must.”
“That is not necessary.”
“Please, just give me a command. I will prove I can obey.”
Setting aside the food, he drew me into his lap. “You accepted punishment. It’s over. You are forgiven. That is the way of the pack.”
“Then what is wrong?”
“Negotiations are delayed. Brenna’s pack does not trust us. The last time we had a Gathering, our pack attacked them. I was not fully in control, and neither was Maddox, though he led the raid. We were desperate men, desperate for anything that would save us.”
“What will be done?”
“They ask for a gesture of goodwill. A hostage. Someone to trade.”
“Who?”
“Me,” Maddox strode from the forest. “It is done, Alpha. Their emissary arrived and bore witness that Sabine’s twin sisters are being well treated. One of them will remain as their guard. The rest will take me and return to their mountain.”
I stood, ready to run from him, but the sight of a silent line of strange warriors emerging from the trees brought me up short. Forgetting the rules of the pack, I stared at them. They looked better fed and rested than Ragnvald’s men, but all were large and brutal looking. One warrior, a giant with a shaven head, bore a scar slashing across his face. He caught me staring, and I remembered to drop my eyes.
Maddox opened his arms and I stepped into their protection.
“Are they from Brenna’s pack?” I didn’t ask if she was with them. Booted and bearing arms, the warriors carried no packs, nothing beyond their blades.
“They wanted to see that you are healthy, Sabine. And I wanted to say goodbye.”
Ragnvald greeted the warriors while I clung to Maddox.
“How long will you be gone?” I spoke in a low voice, keeping our words between us.
“Until after the Gathering.” His finger stroked my lips. “Heed Ragnvald and be good.”
I couldn’t quite joke with him. So much was riding on the truce between the packs. “I will.” My lip trembled under his touch.
“Will you miss me, little witch?”
“No.” But my hands cupped his face, tracing the harsh lines of his jaw and cheekbones, memorizing the stark beauty I hadn’t seen there, not at first. “Will they be cruel to you?”
“Perhaps. I deserve it. I was cruel to you.”
“Not always. Sometimes you were kind.” Ragnvald and the other warriors had finished their business and were watching us.
I wanted to ask if there was a chance that he might not return.
“Those men...they look ready to spill blood.”
“There is danger,” Maddox said as if he read my thoughts. “but I will return to you.” He hugged me close. “I swear it.
“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered against his chest. “I don’t want you to.”
“Sometimes, we take a chance for the ones we love.”
He squeezed my hand and stepped away. My arm stretched after him as if his intent was to keep hold until the last.
Before he could let go, I gripped him hard and pulled him back. In the sight of all the enemy, I kissed Maddox, twining my hands in his dark hair. Tattooed arms rising to lock me against him, he took over, slanting my head back so he could plunder what already belonged to him.
A lifetime later--though it was but a moment, Ragnvald stood beside us clearing his throat. I let him draw me away while Maddox loped off, shooting a heated glance or two backwards before the strange warriors closed ranks behind him. They herded him off, the giant scarred one waiting to bring up the rear.
I didn’t bother to hide my glare in his direction. The scarred face almost broke into a smile before he too, turned and followed the others into the trees.
*
The waiting began. I tried to hide it but I was sick with w
orry. The grimness in Ragnvald’s mood didn’t lessen. He stayed close to me, unspeaking, hovering like a bodyguard. At times I caught him grimacing as if he was in pain. He hid it from me, and didn’t otherwise seem sick, so I didn’t mention the matter.
Ragnvald and I fucked every night, with quiet, desperate movements. Afterwards, I draped my body over his long one, and we lay entwined like that for long sleepless hours.
At last word came. With Maddox in their custody, Brenna’s Alphas agreed to set the Gathering a week hence.
Ragnvald wouldn’t allow me out of his sight, so I accompanied him on all pack business. I grew used to wearing the collar and chain, but before long, Ragnvald dispensed with the walk to the standing stones, and held his audiences at our cave. In the informal setting I was allowed to do my work, as long as the pack respected my space and I did not overtly challenge them.
I was browsing for herbs at the river bank, when I had a visitor of my own--a woman in a simple green gown, that somehow shimmered in the early morning light. “So this is the great Ragnvald’s consort,” she murmured, almost to herself.
Ragnvald’s voice still echoed through the trees; he was close enough to call in case of danger. The lady bore no weapon that I could see, though something about her haughty calm told me she wasn’t defenseless.
“Hello, little...what does he call you? Little witch?”
I realized I was stroking the torc around my neck and dropped my hand. “Maddox is the only one who calls me that.”
“And are you?”
“Am I what?”
“A witch?”
“No.” I gave up on courtesy. The woman had none. “Why? Are you?”
She smiled, and it was more frightening than friendly. “Yes.” The woman laughed at my expression.
I looked for Ragnvald and the warriors he’d been meeting with, but the bushes seemed to have grown up around us.
“Just us, dearie,” the woman purred. “But if you prefer…” She waved a hand and I heard voices wafting on the breeze. Ragnvald sounded as if he was only a few feet away.
“He isn’t far. And he trusts me.”
“Who are you?” I asked, jealously like acid in my belly. She was beautiful in a cold, otherworldly way. Like a storm in the distance, or an eagle to an ant. I did not like feeling that I was the ant.
