by Garnet Hart
“Kneel and treat her with respect. You’re in her territory.”
Lior was appalled of the idea. He couldn’t even kneel before the gods, except Odin of course, and now Garr would expect him to kneel before this human? This female mortal?
Suddenly, Garr hit the back of his knee. He fell to the floor on his knees.
“Bloody Hell!” He quickly pressed his palm over his wounded rib as it throbbed painfully from the impact of his fall. His fingers were itching to squeeze this bastard’s neck and watch his eyes pop out until he took his last desperate breath.
“What the hell did you hit me with?” he growled in between heavy gasps.
“Something that I’ve been working on.” Garr rubbed his chin while staring down at him. “So far so good. However, the materials I used are scarce in this region.”
“Are you creating a weapon to enable these humans to kill our race? Bloody fool!”
“What in the world are you two talking about?” the woman asked, silencing them both as they turned to look at her. When they did not answer, she continued. “Leave us, Garr. I need to talk with the prisoner privately.”
Garr nodded and leaned down to whisper in Lior’s ear. “I don’t know why you’re here, lord Lior, but I warn you, we have risked our lives to protect the Miss. Should you do anything to her, you will never make it back to Asgard.
Nothing could scare Lior, and he didn’t take well to threats, especially from a Lycan who used to serve him, but Garr’s words rang with real warning.
What had happened? Why should these Lycans risk their lives protecting this woman?
“You think I am capable of hurting a woman?”
Garr sneered. “I haven’t seen you in a long time. Who knows what filth the Asgardians have filled your head?” Garr stood straight and left.
Lior’s eyes followed him until he shut the door closed. When he looked back at woman, he found her holding back a smile while staring at him.
That smile. So alluring-
Damnation!
“That kilt suits you well,” she said. “You look better in it than my father does.”
Double damnation.
“But you look better without anything on.”
He was a god who had fucked his way to all corners of Asgard. He had no modesty with women. But her bold compliments made him warm all over. Her boldness surprised him. He stared at her. This woman knew how to flirt. “Should I say the same to you?”
She stood up and approached him. He started to rise, as well.
“Don’t move,” she interrupted. “Stay right there.”
His brows wrinkled. “What for?”
Slowly, she circled him, until the scent of her sweet perfume reached his nostrils.
He knew she was seducing him. He must remain unaffected, but to his dismay, his flesh was rising fast again. If this didn’t stop, he might eat his own words of refusing any intimate contact with a human. Just the thought of it chilled him with loathsomeness, yet at the same time stirred his Lycan blood like it did during full moon. He should just wring her lovely neck right now and be done with it.
“Garr said your name is Lior, and that you are a brave warrior.”
He looked up to her. He hated this position. He’d never looked up at a woman before. “I didn’t expect my former general to spread gossip. What else did he tell you?”
“Nothing more. That man speaks very few words.”
“So, what is it that you wanted to see me for?”
“I want to negotiate for your freedom.”
“Negotiate? You’re imprisoning me without due cause. You must release me at once.”
“No due cause? You were peeking at me.”
“I was there first to cleanse myself after I was attacked by wild boars. I hid when I heard you coming.”
She laughed. “There are no wild boars in Scotland, not even wolves. They had been hunted to extinction two hundred years ago.”
He did not know that. Such a shame that she caught him lying. “So what was it that attacked me?”
“Perhaps your own lies?”
He smirked. “You’ve seen my clothes ripped into pieces. Explain that.”
For a moment, she was quiet, thinking. “I am the Chief’s daughter. They’d believe whatever I would say. If I said you were peeking at me, then that’s the truth. So, whether you like it or not, you and I must come up with a deal to secure your freedom.”
Lior sighed. “What do you want?”
“It’s easy.” She smiled and leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Marry me.”
Did he hear that right? He stared at her.
“What?!” he barked when he’d recovered from his shock. Him? A god? Marry a human? Had the world gone mad? “You insult me, mortal. Why should a god marry a lowly human like you?”
She gasped. “You dare say no to me?!” she yelled.
He stood up, towering over her, his patience, at an end. “And you dare ask me to marry you!” He bored down on her in all his affronted godliness.
“It’s an order! You’re just a commoner. I am the heiress of Dunvegan. You should be honored. And don’t you stand up before me! Get back on your knees!”
“I am a god and I do not kneel before anybody, least of all a mere human like you.”
“God?!” she scorned. “You don’t even have your own clothes! That kilt you’re wearing is mine!”
“Is it?” He unfastened the skirt. “Here. Take it back. I’d rather be naked than humble myself in gratitude over a stupid skirt!”
She screamed and looked away as he pulled the kilt off his waist. “How dare you! Cover yourself! You’re in the presence of the future dame of Dunvegan!”
“I don’t care who you are and I don’t need this pesky skirt of yours!”
As though she had forgotten that he was naked, she returned his stare with greater outrage. But before she could argue, he threw the kilt over her face.
She threw it back at him. “Pompous prick! Cover yourself!”
“I refuse to do so.”
“If you’re even a bit of a gentleman, you will!”
He felt amused at the way she tried to avoid glancing at his manhood. He looked down and realized his cock had fully erected. “What about it? You’ve seen all of me.”
“I have not!” she denied vehemently.
“You touched my cock last night. Do not deny it.”
Horrified at his bluntness, she met his hard gaze. “You don’t talk to the Chief’s daughter that way!”
He smirked. “Did you?”
“I never even went to your cell,” she said stiffly.
“They saw you.”
“Big mouthed guards,” she murmured.
He picked up the skirt and wrapped it back around his waist. “You do not treat a god that way, future Dame of MacLeod. You must not touch me without my permission, especially that you are a human.”
“Where in hell do you think you come from? And call me Miss Asra, the heir apparent of MacLeod.”
Asra. So, that was her name.
“Whoever you are, I couldn’t care less. I don’t pay respect to humans.”
“Arrogant fool! I’ll make sure you rot in prison! No, not in prison! I will have you executed! I swear!”
“Just you try,” he dared.
She was breathing hard, her eyes flaring in anger. He wondered whether she’d slap him or burst into tears and scream just as how his lover, Var, would every time she couldn’t get what she wanted.
She chose the latter.
Holy gods! Her shrieks were breaking his ears as she ranted and threw him nasty words that humans used to insult. Goddesses and mortal women were alike in some ways. They could be as brats as they could be.
“Guards!” she screamed. “Arrest this man! Take him to the execution chamber and I’ll personally cut his head off!”
The door flew open. He was expecting to see Garr, but another man came in. He wore the same kilt as he had, and looking at the accessori
es wrapped around his shoulders and his waist, he knew this man held an authority over this castle. This could be the Chief—the MacLeod of clan MacLeod.
Chapter 4
The glaring brightness blinded him briefly.
The room was practically empty except for a bed at the corner.
He expected to find a conceited woman standing there with her chin up high like the spoiled arrogant princess she thought she still was. Instead, he found a figure sitting on the floor with feet tied and stretched forward and hands fastened together behind her back.
He could see only her profile from where he stood. Her head was bowed down and her hair was horribly disheveled like dried seaweeds around a small rock. Her long old fashioned dress that looked like the same dress she was wearing the last time he saw her, looked like rags around her now.
He could not see her face, but from the faint yellow color of her hair, he knew this was the Elf that he left in the Dark Elves encampment. The Elf that he had proposed marriage to so he could take her away from those Lycans guarding her.
A marriage that never took place.
“Leave me,” she said in that familiar haughty voice. “I don’t want to entertain visitors.”
Lior smiled. That was her, alright, the conceited daughter of the Chief of MacLeod.
Asra.
“I dinna come to visit you. I’ve come to take you.”
As she was unable to move or say a word, he knew that the mere sound of his voice stunned her.
He took a few steps forward and stopped about a meter away from her. He could see her deep cleavage peeking out of the torn bodice of her dress. Just a fraction of an inch more and her nipples would come out.
The sight stirred his blood and the stimulus went straight to his groin.
It was a lightning swift involuntary reaction that stunned the Alpha shit out of him.
Odin’s blood, not again!
It had been two centuries since he last saw her. He couldn’t still be feeling this toward her!
He had ended his two centuries celibacy last week with a marathon sex with an unusually athletic mortal. And now this human was wreaking havoc to his libido way faster than Olivia had. What the hell was happening to his body? It had been two hundred years since he last bedded this half Elf and yet, his body still remembered the incredible pleasure he had experienced with her like it only happened yesterday.
He was powerless to stop his physical response toward her.
Nothing had changed. As far as he was concerned, this Elf was still the bane of his self-control and he’d better be careful around her this second time around.
But even the dirty rags she wore could not hide the beauty that the gods had bestowed on her. Her pale skin still looked soft and smooth regardless of some patches of bruises on her arms and legs.
Images of her naked body flashed in his mind. All his to take and enjoy…
“I know you,” she suddenly rasped. “You are that bastard who promised to marry me yet abandoned me in the middle of that cursed forest.”
Lior didn’t answer. Even if he could not see her eyes, he could tell they must be burning with hatred now. Her low, chilly voice said it all.
But he could not blame her. He had betrayed her…for a reason.
“I did that to save your life,” he said softly. “My task was to kill you. I could no’, so I hid you instead. I never thought they’d find you.”
“I would’ve preferred to die. I had a great life, but you were a monster who came from hell to ruin my perfect life.”
He sighed. Had he done what he was asked to do a long time ago, he could have been married by now to Var, one of Odin’s favorite daughters. By virtue of that union, any offspring he could have had with Var would have had a direct line to the throne of Odin. He could have had a splendid temple around Midgar for humans to praise him, just as Odin promised. But somehow, staying in Midgar and living with the humans and other creatures of the dark changed his opinion about everything. He never thought that living peacefully in Skye with his cattle and his pack of Lycans would fill an empty space inside him, much more than all the glory of both humans’ and gods’ praises.
In Asgard, he had lived everyday trying to prove himself. He was always in a silent battle with the gods for being different. But here, he didn’t have to do that. It was in Midgar where he learned of the word ‘contentment’.
But ultimately, was contentment worth giving up his rank and reputation among Odin’s greatest warriors? And was seeing this Elf again, alive, worth the possible death of his brother? But he could not stay in Skye forever, he knew that. He had a goal for his people. And an opportunity to reach that goal had presented itself again. He should not let this opportunity go to waste a second time, for it may never come again.
“If I did it right the first time, you would no’ be here,” he said, anger replacing his longing for this wench. Did she even have any idea what he had given up for her? Or course not. She was as ignorant as the rest of her kind.
She did not speak. He knew she hated him even more for his answer.
Slowly, he sat on his haunches before her. Still, she kept her head low and her eyes closed. He was tempted to brush her hair aside so he could take a better look at her face but he restrained himself.
“Tell me, Elf—”
“I have a name,” she snapped. “And I do hope you still remember.”
“Miss Asra of clan MacLeod,” he said to let her know he remembered her name like his own. “My brother Roar took you from the Dark Elves to bring you to the land of the Light Elves. Did you know that?”
“Yes, your brother told me. Unlike you, he was direct with his intentions and did not have to resort to deceptions.”
He smiled sarcastically. Yes, that was his brother, a straightforward Lycan without regard for the consequences of his words or actions. “Were you also told that you will someday be a songstress and you will aid the Demons in conquering Asgard, which will eventually lead to Odin’s death?”
“Huh? That’s ridiculous.”
“But were you told of that?”
“Yes. Roar told me that as well, so I would understand why he had to bring me to Alfheim.”
“And have you understood?”
She did not answer.
He reached out to touch her chin with two fingers and lifted her face up. “Have you understood?”
“How can I understand something that I do not even believe? When I was studying in England, I tried to audition for the lead role of a play, but I didn’t get it because I could not sing. How could I be a songstress if I can’t even sing? Your gods must be mistaken.”
That came to him as a surprise, but the seers of Asgard were never wrong with their predictions. “I canna answer that, but as you already know, the world is full of mystery. You, yourself, is a proof of those mysteries.”
She tried to yank her head away from his grasp but he refused to let her go. “Get your filthy hands off me.”
“Your face is filthier than my hands. You have mud all over you, and your hair’s a mess.”
“I used to have servants to bathe and comb my hair had you not taken me away from my castle.”
“Forget your castle, princess. I’m sure Roar’s also told you that two hundred years have passed since the Dark Elves had frozen you to sleep.”
“That’s a lie!” she snarled. It looked like she had been told of this fact yet she refused to believe it.
“Have you no’ looked around you?”
“I don’t want to see anything, including you.”
“Is that why you dunna want to open your eyes?”
“Quiet.”
“You dunna say that before a god.”
“You’re not a god. You’re just an arrogant bastard pretending to be a god. Gods are good. They don’t deceive people.”
He smiled. “You’re mistaken. Gods are no’ only arrogant, but they can be as evil as the Dwarves and Demons. But that does no’ mean we are all the same
. Like humans, we’re different from one another.”
“Liar.”
He sighed. “I will no’ force you to believe me. But tell me, Elf… Who attacked my brother?”
She turned her face away but he gripped her chin harder and turned it back to him.
“Answer me.”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Garr disappeared from Skye years ago and has never returned. I know he’d been searching for you. So tell me where he is now.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him again.”
“Must I force you?”
“What will you do? Torture me?”
“Yes.”
“Go ahead. Kill me if it pleases you. If I have any information, you’ll have to bury it with my dead body.”
Defiant wench, as always. “Is that so?”
She pursed her lips.
He yanked at her rugged dress. The dirty but fine fabric gave way. Her breasts, firm, round, and soft, surfaced, topped with the most delectable red nipples he’d ever seen… and tasted.
He still remembered how they tasted as he’d sucked on them for hours all day and night when they both travelled from Dunvegan to the Dark Elves’ encampment. He had done so every opportunity he got in that that seven-day journey, and she had willingly surrendered her body to him. Despite the dirt covering her smooth, fair skin, her natural beauty stood out.
“Damn you! You dare molest me inside this sacred temple?!”
“Molest you? You used to like me doing that to you. Remember?”
“Never!”
“Admit it, Elf. You’d always enjoyed all those times I took your body.”
“Get out of here or I’ll have your head!” she spat. Her anger was now at boiling point. He could tell it everytime she uttered that phrase. Her breathing became short and heavy. Her ears had quickly protruded upward, ending in pointed tips. Normally, this woman looked nothing else but human, but whenever she’d get angry, her Elf part would awaken.
She was as brash and bold as he’d remembered, completely not intimidated by him. Gods and warriors alike revered his strength and courage in combat and would choose not to cross him for fear of losing their heads. But this little Elf always acted like his equal.
