The Caveman's Reluctant Bride (Historical Erotica)
Page 2
Chira turned away, blinking. It felt like a blow to the stomach.
“Shh, child, it will be okay.” Chira’s mother slid an arm around her. “You were not joined yet, and there will be other men.”
Chira shook her head. There weren’t other men like Thorg, she was certain. “I’m fine, Mother.”
She’d known it was coming. Thorg had warned her, and he hadn’t looked surprised when Shamus drew the black stone. Chira played the names forward, recounting who had drawn white and who had drawn black. Every one of the families with black stones had spoken against Shamus at some time or another. Thorg really had been right.
***
The day of parting was worse than Chira imagined. For three days Thorg had been busy with his family’s preparations. Hunting with his father, packing with his mother, wishing his grandparents--too old to travel with the rest of the family--goodbye. The day of parting, though, Chira hoped she’d have some time with him.
Instead she found herself shadowed by her younger siblings. “Could you two find somewhere else to play for a while?” Chira asked.
“Nope.” Her brother flashed her a crooked-tooth smile. “You aren’t worth a thrashing, Chira. Momma said to stick close to you.”
Chira sighed. She just wanted a few moments alone with Thorg. Was that so much to ask?
It wasn’t like Thorg had much of an opportunity to spend time with her, either. His older brother’s family had him running back and forth between huts, loading ever more piles of fur into the pack he had to carry. Chira gathered some dried strips of meat and wrapped them into a packet of leaves along with a few stones from the stream. It wasn’t much, but it was something he could take with him to remember her.
In the end, she managed to exchange hugs with Thorg, though it lasted only a precious few seconds. She slipped him the leaf-wrapped meat and pecked him on the cheek. He whispered in her ear, promising to come back for her, but even as he said the words she knew they were hollow and wishful. It didn’t stop her from treasuring them, though.
“Move along then,” her mother said. “You’ve said your goodbyes.”
The departing villagers marched out, packs towering high with food and furs, spears clomping in the dust. Chira’s father rested a hand on her shoulder, holding her back from her wild desire to race after Thorg.
“I’m sorry,” he said as Thorg disappeared into the needle leaf trees. “Your mother will try to lift your spirits, but I know it’s hard for you to see him go.”
“See who go?” She tried to pretend it wasn’t a big deal. That the man of her dreams wasn’t walking out of her life forever.
“Don’t chase him, Chira. I know what you’re thinking. I was young once, too. He must go and make a new life for himself and his new tribe. Your place is here.”
Chira didn’t say anything. Slipping off in the night and running after Thorg had crossed her mind a time or two. And the half dozen packets of meat and berries she’d stashed inside her warmest blanket, well, those were just a coincidence.
***
The moon was low in the sky, soft light filtering through the crack between the skins that covered the front of the hut. Chira slipped out of her blanket, careful not to wake her sister, and collected her supplies. She crept out into the cool night air, leaving her family in the hut, snoring peacefully.
The village lay still around her, the fires all burned down to coals. Chira straightened her furs over her shoulders and set out in the direction Thorg had gone. It would be a long day of walking, but she felt confident that she could move faster than a group of families with more supplies and children in tow.
“Out for a starlight stroll?”
The voice about made Chira wet herself. “Sango?”
“Aye. What are you doing out at night, Chira?”
“I needed to make water.”
“On the edge of the village?”
“Better I should go against the side of your hut?”
He grunted at that. “Better you should stay home tonight, girl. No one is to follow the new tribe. Chief’s orders.”
“I just needed to pee, Sango. Sorry to get your hopes up.”
“Watch your tongue, Chira Stoneblade. You never know who might be your husband in a few months’ time.” He loomed over her, teeth flashing in the moonlight.
Chira balked. With Thorg gone, she really didn’t know who the village mothers would try to pair her with. And it could be Sango. A shiver went down her spine.
“Oh, I’d like a girl like you, Chira. So fair, so delicate. I’d break you like a suckling pig. You might not bear many babies, but it would be fun to try.” His laughter made the hair on her arms stand up.
Chira stepped back. “Good night, Sango.” She rushed back toward the hut, glancing back once to make sure he wasn’t following her.
Her family was still asleep when she entered the hut, though for a moment she thought she saw her father’s eyes snap shut as she climbed back into the blankets.
***
“Do I have to?” Chira asked her mother.
“It is decided child.” Chira’s mother worked a row of blue orchids into her hair.
Six days had passed since Thorg and the other villagers had left. Six miserable days. Sango had made a habit of turning up periodically, not ever to talk to her, just to watch her. To ogle her, really.
“But Mother, he’s a brute. Isn’t there anyone else in the village you could match me with?”
“Match you with him?” Her mother shook her head. “That is not yet decided. You must go eat with Sango and Shamus, that they can decide whether you are a proper match.”
“But the village mothers...”
Chira’s mother shook her head. “The mothers have input, Chira, but no more than that. The chief makes the final decisions, and if he chooses to unite you with Sango, it is to strengthen the tribe. This is no time for discord, not with the people still grumbling about the choosing of the stones.”
“Who’s grumbling, mother? Shamus sent away all those that would stand against him.”
Her mother clucked her tongue. “Speak not of such things, child. They are not for one your age.”
An hour later Chira found herself sitting outside Shamus’ hut. It was the same mud and stick and hide construction as Chira’s family’s hut, but with finer hides and fresher mud. The chief sat on one side of her, Sango on the other. Chira picked at her meat, nibbling at the parts that were actually cooked.
Shamus and Sango ate with abandon, grease covering their fingers, and bits of meat sticking in the beards. They weren’t picky eaters, either. Parts of the tree mouse were hardly cooked, but they stuffed them down like they were sweet berries. Shamus’ wife had died in childbirth two years past, and it was painfully obvious that both the chief and his brother had reverted to utter savagery.
“How long since your moon blood came in, child?” Shamus asked.
Chira nearly choked. “What?”
“How long have you been a woman? You have hair between your legs, aye?”
“Y-yes.” She couldn’t believe he was asking such questions.
“Don’t look so surprised, girl.” Shamus plucked a bit of meat from a bone. “I haven’t had a wife in many moons, and I don’t broker in the gossip of the village mothers.”
“I am a woman,” Chira said through gritted teeth. “If that’s what you wanted to know.”
“You look like a woman,” Sango said, leering at her chest.
Chira turned away from him, but Shamus looked upon her with eyes no less greedy.
“You’ll do then,” Shamus said. “Well chosen, Sango.”
The last bits of meat slipped from Chira’s hands. Her heart sank with them, and she wished she’d just run past Sango the night she’d snuck out of the house.
Shamus laughed at her discomfort. “She’ll make a fine bride. Probably not much of a mother, but a fine bed warmer, at least for a season or two.”
Sango chuckled with his brother, his
eyes never leaving Chira. Maybe a six day head start wasn’t too much, Chira decided. She could take a knife and a spear and some meat. She knew all the mushrooms and berries in the forest. Hunting wasn’t a job for a woman, but the sun knew she’d watched Thorg set enough traps that she could catch some tree mice if she needed.
Sango leaned close. “Don’t even think about running off into the woods.”
“Get on back home then, girl,” Shamus said. “We’ll have you back soon enough. And see to it that you clean up before you come back over here. Don’t want any stinky woman bits in our hut.”
Chira swallowed, but she didn’t need a second excuse to leave. “Good day.” She scuttled off across the village, eager to return home.
***
Her mother wouldn’t speak of the joining, other than to say she was sorry, and to tell Chira that she wouldn’t have long to wait.
“What’s that supposed to mean? A week? A month?” Chira stood with her hands on her hips, trying to channel her fear into anger.
“Tomorrow,” her mother whispered. “I’m sorry.”
It felt like someone clubbed her in the head. Chira’s legs felt like they were made of river water. “Tomorrow? I’m supposed to join with Sango tomorrow?”
“Sango?” Her mother frowned. “No, child. You are to join with Shamus tomorrow.”
The last thing Chira remember was the ground rushing up to slap her in the face.
***
“She’ll be fine.”
“She doesn’t look fine.”
“She’s a grown woman. She knows her duty.”
“She’s still my little girl.”
Chira recognized her parents’ voices, but she didn’t open her eyes. They chatted about her future, how her joining with Shamus would unite the village. It wasn’t anything she wanted to hear. It wasn’t anything she wanted to live. After a few more minutes of listening, Chira sat up.
“Feeling any better?” her mother asked.
“No.” Her stomach felt like she’d eaten the wrong kind of mushrooms.
“I’m sorry, Chira.” Her father came over and crouched beside her. “If there were any other way, I wouldn’t ask you to do this.”
“You didn’t ask me.”
Her father frowned. “No, I suppose you’re right. Our village teeters on the edge of a perilous cliff, and it will take only a little push to send us all plummeting to our destruction.”
“No.” The word slipped out without Chira even thinking about it, but once she spoke it, she didn’t feel obliged to take it back. “No. Sango would have been bad enough, but I can’t join with Shamus. I won’t.”
“Chira...” The kindness vanished from her father’s voice, replaced instead with granite hardness.
“Father, I would sooner run into the forest naked. I would sooner leap off your cliff. I would sooner die than join with a disgusting creature like Shamus Worldtree.”
“I’m taking you to him at dawn, child.” Her father rose. “Truly, I’m sorry about it, but it must be done. Enjoy your last night as a girl.” He stormed out of the hut, not looking back.
“And you, Mother?” Chira asked.
“We must all make sacrifices, child. Shamus will not live forever, and you are much younger than he is.”
“So I should lay with him meekly until he dies?” Chira dug in the furs, searching for her sharpest stone blade. Running into the forest alone and naked would be foolish, but she hadn’t ever planned to run away without preparation.
Her mother shook her head, but she didn’t leave. “Your father has taken your knife. And the meat you had hidden.”
***
Chira tossed and turned all night. Her brother and sister slept like babes, though her parents seemed no more capable of sleep than she was. The one time she slipped out to make water, Sango was lurking in the shadows, watching the hut.
Her mother rose before dawn and beckoned her to follow. Chira trudged along beside her, following her to the banks of the stream that ran alongside the village.
“It won’t be so bad, child.” Chira’s mother splashed her hands in the water and washed her face. “In the dark all men look the same.”
“Have you smelled Shamus? He reeks like a water buffalo.” Chira moistened her fingertips, but didn’t much care to make herself look prettier. Not for Shamus. Or his brother.
The only hope she had left was to wait a few days and flee in the night. The other villagers only had half a moon’s head start. If she took some meat and traveled fast, she could follow their trail and catch up in a few days. Probably. And if a lion found her, it would still be better than spending her life with Shamus and Sango.
“Come, child. The men await.”
***
The joining didn’t take long. A few words between Shamus and her father. The price of her body was only half a dozen deer pelts and a lion skin. And not even a male lion, just a simple lioness’s fur.
Shamus guided her toward his hut, a thick finger in her back. Chira’s heart pounded the whole way, and a boiling hatred filled her mind. When they were at the hut, out of sight of the villagers, Shamus caught her by the shoulder and shoved her inside.
“You’re mine now, girl.” He followed her inside and swept the skins closed behind her. The interior of the hut smelled worse than a lion’s breath, nearly making Chira gag. “On your back then.” Shamus hitched up his skins, revealing a pale piece of flesh that didn’t fit with his muscle-bound body. It was hardly bigger than Chira’s finger.
He leered at her. “Get a good look at it, girl. You’re going to get to know it every way imaginable.”
He must have seen the confusion on her face. “Oh yes, child. Every hole. Your tight little cunny, that sweet pucker, even that precious mouth of yours.”
Chira shuddered.
“I said lay down, girl.” Shamus took a step forward, one hand drawn back. “You’ve been bought and paid for.”
“As limp as that thing is, I don’t think you’re going to be able to do half of what you want.” She regretted the words as soon as the said them, and she regretted them more when Shamus pushed her knees open.
“Laugh it up, girl. If I can’t make you feel it, I’ll get Sango in here to help. He’s none too gentle, though.” Shamus slid his manhood between her legs, and shoved it into place.
The only saving grace was that he wasn’t big enough for it to hurt like it had with Thorg. Ah, Thorg. She closed her eyes and pretended it was Thorg making love to her. It didn’t take Shamus long to start grunting, and to fill her with his seed. Even with his youth, Thorg was a much better lover.
“You’ll get the rest later.” He levered himself up and strode out, leaving her alone in the hut.
Raised voices echoed outside, Shamus and Sango arguing over how else to defile her, probably. She sat in the corner, knees pulled up to her chin. She kept expecting Sango or Shamus to come back, but the voices receded.
She rose and peeked through the skins. Sango sat across from the hut, a club across his knees, either not realizing she was watching or not caring. Chira sat back down and waited. Maybe her mother was right. Maybe in the dark all men did look the same, and maybe if she pleased Shamus again, he wouldn’t try to hurt her too much. At least the first night. She didn’t plan to be around for a second night.
***
Chira’s sister came to visit her in midafternoon, bringing a gourd of water and a basket of berries. “Momma says you probably aren’t moving around too much today.”
A different guard sat across from the hut, watching them with a wary eye. Sango had wandered off in the morning, and Chira hadn’t been sad to see him leave.
“Thank you,” Chira said, taking the food. “May your future husband be more considerate than mine.”
“I’m sorry, Chira. I heard Momma and Poppa talking. Some of the exiled villagers came back this morning. Poppa and Shamus had to run them off with spears.”
Chira’s heart leapt. “Was Thorg with them?”
The very thought of Thorg hiding in the woods, waiting to sneak into the village for her, gave her an unreasonable amount of hope.
“Listen, if someone comes to the hut looking for me, you tell them I’ve been wed to Shamus.”
“Alright.” She grinned, and bounced off, leaving Chira alone with her guard and her food.
***
Shamus returned late in the day, after the sun had already set. “Did anyone touch you, girl?”
Chira shook her head.
“Good. I told Sango and his boys to keep their hands off unless I give them permission. Until you hear from me otherwise, if anyone so much as puts a finger in you, you tell ‘em I’ll have their hide.”
She nodded.
“Now lay down.”
Shamus crawled between her legs. The only saving grace was that he again didn’t follow through on his earlier threats, and only laid atop her for a furious few minutes until he heaved a sigh of exhaustion and rolled off, leaving her with another mess.
His last words before falling asleep were, “You rut like a corpse.”
Well, laying with him was a fate as bad as death, so she couldn’t really argue with him. Chira stayed beside him, listening to him breathe. It would be so easy to drag a skin over his face and hold it there, though even half suffocated he probably had more than enough strength to wring her foolish neck.
Chira slipped in and out of consciousness, afraid to fall completely asleep lest she wake with Shamus atop her again. After a few hours of restlessness, she pushed the skins at the front of the hut aside and peeked out.
She wasn’t sure where Sango was spending the night, and she didn’t really care as long as he wasn’t guarding the village. After watching over the hut most of the day, he had to be resting. She hoped.
Clouds scudded over the moon, casting the village in stippled shadows. Chira moved from hut to hut, staying near the walls and stopping in the darkness any time she heard a noise beyond snoring or rutting.