by Savino, Lee
I forgot for a moment to fend off Thorsteinn and he pounced, lifting me by the back of my jerkin, like a kitten carried by the scruff of its neck. Nose to nose with Thorsteinn, I dangled in his hold. “You will do as we order,” he growled.
“I am not your pet.” My old angry litany was easy to repeat, but now I had to stifle a smile.
“Oh,” Thorsteinn pretended to fume, “but you are.”
“I see she is not quite tamed,” Jarl said.
“No. But it is better when they fight,” Vik drawled. “We enjoy it.”
Holding Thorsteinn’s gaze, I kicked. He twisted to avoid a blow to his sensitive parts, dropping me. I rolled to my feet and scampered off.
“Enough,” Thorsteinn thundered but I kept running, only to find my feet dancing in air as he snatched me back. “Enough,” he closed his teeth around my earlobe and bit gently. I went limp in his arms, only to stiffen as he carried me back to the group of warriors.
“I would think you might tire of such a troublesome mate,” Jarl was saying.
“No,” Thorsteinn plopped me down and gripped my shoulders to keep me in front of him. “We let her go once. Never again.”
“I have a message for her from a spaewife,” Jarl said.
I sucked in a breath but kept staring at my feet. If I looked up at Jarl, he might think I was challenging him. Thorsteinn and Vik would protect me, but they would not be pleased.
“What message?” Vik growled.
“Juliet sends her greetings,” Jarl said. I felt his gaze crawl over me. “And this: ‘Forgive me. It was my fault.’ Tell me, Sorrel,” Jarl squatted to make me face him. “Why would Juliet say such a thing?”
“That is not for Sorrel to answer,” Thorsteinn pulled me back against him. “Surely that is a question for Juliet.”
“Sorrel knows. She is keeping secrets,” Jarl pointed his finger at me like a spear.
“That is our concern, not yours.”
“Not if I go to the Alphas and demand that Sorrel be questioned.”
“You do that,” Vik warned, “And we will insist that Juliet be questioned as well.”
Jarl snarled at that. He cared for Juliet. “Juliet did nothing wrong. We will make Sorrel talk.”
“You’ll not lay a hand on her. She is ours to deal with,” Thorsteinn rumbled.
“And are you dealing with her? She is not cowed or contrite. I do not see signs of punishment.”
“Do you not? I will show you how we deal with her disobedience.” Thorsteinn turned me to face him, and our play acting began again. “You ran from me.”
I bared my teeth at him and growled like an animal. Vik ran a hand over his beard to hide his grin, but Thorsteinn remained stern.
Still holding me fast, he unbent an arm ring from his right bicep. “Time after time we give you a chance to prove your obedience, and time after time you defy our protection,” he intoned, “This mountain is full of warriors who want you dead. If you will not acknowledge us as your Masters, we will bind you and force you to obey until you do.”
“But—” I protested, and quieted when he shook me.
“You insist on behaving as a wild animal?” He held up the silver ring. “Very, well. We will treat you as one.” Wrenching the arm ring open, he curved it around my neck. “Now a chain.”
I opened my mouth to protest but Thorsteinn fixed me with a glare.
“Jarl,” Vik drawled, holding out his hand. I understood then. The Berserker had come to us with a chain to bind me with. Thorsteinn would be sure they used it—but only my warriors would touch me.
Jarl handed off a long length of iron links. Vik bent the last link open with his fingers and Thorsteinn took it and fastened it to the arm ring. When they stepped back, I wore the silver band around my neck attached to a chain. A collar and a leash.
Thorsteinn backed up. “Come,” he ordered, and tugged the leash. This was too far.
Trust us, Vik’s voice whispered.
I went to grab the chain and Vik collected my hands behind me. “Touch it and I will bind your hands behind your back.”
“I am not a dog to be led like this,” I hissed.
“No,” Vik murmured. “But you are our possession. And if you insist on acting like a wild wolf, we will make you our pet.”
Thorsteinn snapped his fingers. “Come.”
I had to admit the watching pack members looked impressed by my treatment. I fell into step behind Thorsteinn, hoping he would not lead me like this all the way home.
4
Sorrel
We headed home, Thorsteinn pulling me by the leash, Vik taking up the rear. When we reached the great tree, they set me right in the basket. Only when I was in the tree lodge did Thorsteinn unleash me. I waited for him to remove the silver ring from around my neck, but he left it, saying, “I want you wearing something of us.”
“But—”
Thorsteinn bent and kissed me. “You did well.” He rubbed his stubbled face against mine. “I know that was not easy.”
I let out a shaky sigh.
Vik rose from building the fire, dusting his hands. He went to the rope ladder and disappeared.
“He goes to collect our portion of the boar meat. The warriors we called took it away.”
“Will it always be like this?” I touched the ring around my neck, but he knew what I meant.
“For a time. But the pack will see you mated to us and forgive you.” He ruffled my hair. “One day, it will be all right.”
My shoulders slumped. Back at the cliff, I had vowed to tell them the truth, but even if I did who would believe me? The pack certainly wouldn’t. Vik and Thorsteinn could shout my innocence from the mountain, and they’d be reviled like me.
Vik and Thorsteinn didn’t deserve such a troublesome mate.
“You should send me away,” I told him.
“Never.” Thorsteinn tipped up my chin, eyes flashing. “Why do you think we would abandon you?”
“You already did, once.”
“We told you we would return. But I see,” the longer he looked at me the more his hand softened. “It was a long lonely winter. We did not know the spaewives would torment you. We thought there would be some comfort.” Leaning forward, he rubbed his stubbled cheek on mine. “Do you know why we stayed away so long?”
I shook my head.
“It takes everything in us to restrain the beast. And when we are with you, Sorrel,” his voice deepened, “I fear we are at the end of our control. There were days, whole moons we retained our monstrous shape.” The firelight glittered in his eyes, there was a sudden wind, that bore with it the scent of the air after a fierce storm. A moment later it died away.
“But we should have told you. We should’ve claimed you long before now.”
“Why didn’t you?” The regret in his voice made me brave. This softer, gentler Thorsteinn I did not have to fight.
“We thought we had,” he traced the mark on my right shoulder. The skin still bore the red scar of his bite. “When it became clear you were lost to us, distant, it was too late. We could not restrain the beast.” His hand dropped to rub my back, soothing.
“Ho,” Vik called as he appeared at the entrance with a pot. Thorsteinn went to help him. I joined them around the fire, reaching for my portion.
“No,” Thorsteinn pulled me into his lap. “I will feed you.”
I put up a token struggle until he snapped his fingers, his features growing stern. “You will take the food from my hands. Each meal will remind you who cares for you. You rely on us for every bite.”
“I am not your pet.”
“Are you not?” he asked, his voice deepening. “You are whatever we say you are. If we wish you to crawl and go about on all fours, we will order you.”
“Is that what you want? To see me humbled? Groveling? Begging for each bite?”
“Oh, you will beg,” Thorstein promised. “But not for food. We will train you to desire our touch. You will desire us above anything, an
d we will claim you thoroughly.”
My breath came unsteadily, but I raised my chin, my stubborn expression answering him.
We stared at each other.
Thorsteinn dipped his head close to mine. “You cannot win this battle of wills. You will accept food from my hand and sit either on my lap or on your knees at my side. Choose.”
“Lap,” I snapped, and crossed my arms to show my disapproval. When he brought my portion to my lips, I ate hungrily.
“There, that is not so hard,” he murmured. “It is easy to submit.”
I wanted his words to spoil the meat in my stomach, but my body would not obey. It was happy enough to sit in the big warrior’s lap and suck the juices off his fingers until Thorsteinn’s eyes flared with heat. Across the fire, Vik chuckled.
After the meal Thorsteinn wouldn’t let me up. He washed my hands and face with a wet cloth, then swung me out and set me over his knees.
“What is this?”
“Time for the punishment you earned,” Thorsteinn said, holding me down with a huge hand on my back. The other pulled down my breeches. I kicked, but it was no use.
“Vik told you there will be a reckoning every night.”
“Every night!”
“Yes,” he caressed my bottom thoughtfully. “Though I doubt you will complain about it.”
I cursed him, and he answered with a flurry of crisp smacks against my bare bottom. The sound echoed around the lodge, interspersed with Vik’s laughter.
“Tell me, Sorrel, do you yield?”
“Never,” I growled, and tried to bite Thorsteinn’s leg. The warrior shifted me off balance and continued spanking me.
“This is only a warm up,” he informed me. “Run from us again, and you’ll get much worse.”
Worse? My bottom throbbed. When he stopped to rub it, and it was hot as coals against his hand.
I stopped fighting and let my head hang down, my hair covering my face, which was as red as my behind. Especially when Thorsteinn moved his hand to check between my legs.
“See how wet she gets?” Vik murmured. “There’s some part of her that needs it.”
“Is that so?” Thorsteinn stroked his fingers over my sensitive nether lips lightly, then with more intent. “This is how we will tame you, Sorrel.” His fingers kept strumming. “Feeding you. Caring for you. Claiming you.”
My legs trembled as the sensation within me grew to a fever pitch.
“No,” I burst out. I threw myself off his lap and he let me, astonished.
“Do not touch me this way. Be cruel. Lock me away, but don’t touch me that way.”
Vik picked me up off the floor.
“Hush, Sorrel.” My insides throbbed, need filling every corner until I writhed in torment. “You’re safe with us. This is not punishment like the nuns gave you. Let your mates love you. Let us care for you.”
“I can’t,” My voice cracked. I did not cry. I could not. No matter how much I hurt, tears never fell. “I ruined everything.”
“No, little one—”
“You don’t know,” I burst out. “Rosalind lies dying because of me. Because of me.”
Vik rubbed my back, soothing me, telling me to let it out.
“It’s my fault. I dreamed of leaving the mountain, but not like that.”
“You told me things were strange,” Vik said, and repeated what I’d told him to Thorsteinn.
“There was mist the night we left,” I said. “And later, when…” I’d promised myself I’d tell them the truth of what happened with the Corpse King. But when I opened my mouth, it was like a hand around my throat, strangling me.
“Sorrel?” Vik’s hand stilled on my back. “I something wrong.”
I swallowed. “I—” But again my words stuck in my throat, choking me. My hands flew to my neck and lips.
“Sorrel,” Thorsteinn crouched in front of me. His worried face filled my vision. “Be easy. Try to breath.”
I gasped as Vik pounded on my back.
“What was that?” I finally asked.
“I’m beginning to wonder…” Thorsteinn began thoughtfully, “if someone laid a spell on you to prevent you from telling the truth.”
“A geas?” Vik demanded. “Like in the stories?”
I kept still, my hands at my throat. All this time, I had been afraid to speak because I didn’t want to name Rosalind a traitor. Or I’d thought no one would believe me. Could it all be magic?
“It makes sense,” Thorsteinn said, coming to me and tipping back my head to search my face. A low growl sounded in his chest the whole time. “I do not like this. Someone has meddled with our bond and our mate.” He jerked back and stalked to the end of the lodge, muttering, “I need an enemy I can see. This is not something I can fight.”
I felt so tired. After all I’d been through, the enemy was in my own mind. “So there’s no use in trying to save me?”
“Sorrel,” Vik started, and I wrenched myself out of his grasp.
“You should let me go,” I scrambled to my feet. “I am wicked and unruly and now cursed. You should choose another mate.” I staggered blindly to the door.
And found myself midair, flying to the bed of pelts. I landed on the soft pile, shocked. Vik was on me in an instant, pinning my arms and legs to the floor.
“No,” he ground out in a voice like thunder. “You belong to us, Sorrel, and we won’t let you go.”
* * *
Vik
I pinned our mate to the pelts, gripping her hair so she could not look away. “This is the geas talking,” I growled. Thorsteinn was right. We were used to an enemy we could see. We kept forgetting that Sorrel was not the one we should be fighting. “The enemy is in your mind, but we will do anything to break the curse. We will not rest until you are healed.”
From her prone position, our little fighter blinked up at me, very rapidly. She was holding back tears. Not once had we seen her cry. Not when we took her from the abbey. Not we ran from the draugr. Not when her leg snapped and exposed the bone. Not when we stood before the Alphas and renounced her as mate.
She would cry now because we had shown her tenderness. A small crack in the wall she put up between us.
“You belong to us, Sorrel,” I repeated, shifting my weight off her while still keeping her pinned, “and we will care for you.”
“No.” She would fight. It was her only answer, when she felt weak. She would learn she didn’t have to defend herself from us. She could relax and simply be.
“Yes. This,” I grabbed a handful of her tight bottom and squeezed, “is ours. Ours to possess and claim. Ours to punish and to soothe.”
“I don’t—” her throat worked as if what she would say choked her.
“Tell me,” I ordered. We were nose to nose, face to face. She could not move. She had nowhere to run.
“I don’t want you to be kind to me,” she whispered, breaking my heart.
“It’s easier to fight?” I asked and she nodded, face creased in pain.
“Then fight us, Sorrel,” I rubbed my chin on the top of her head. “Fight all you want. We will spar with you, and when you are tired, we will hold you until you can fight again.”
“You must hate me,” she said.
“We do not hate you.”
“You do. Everyone does.”
“No, little warrior. No.”
“You should give me up. Throw me away. I—” she choked now, her eyes squeezing tight. I rolled off her and took her into my arms.
“It’s okay to cry,” I whispered into her hair. Thorsteinn was beside us now, rubbing her back.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I will break apart.”
“We will hold you together,” Thorsteinn said. “After, we will gather any missing pieces, and return them.”
Turning her head, she jammed her fist into her mouth. It could not stop her anguished cry.
“That’s it,” I murmured as she shook against me. “Cry for me, cry the tears.”
It came on her then like a summer gale that blows up quickly and drums fierce rain on the earth. Even at the heart of the storm the sun shone through the clouds.
I held and rocked her, wishing I could prize her heart apart, pick out the sharp rocks that burdened and cut her. I’d put it back together carefully and guard it until it healed.
It did not escape me or Thorsteinn that we were warriors and more comfortable with destruction than the work of holding women when they cried. But this wasn’t any woman. This was Sorrel. The beast that ravaged our mind recognized her and laid down its weapons and its rage. In taming her, she tamed us.
Later, much later, I asked, “Feel better?”
She nodded.
I kissed her forehead. Her wet cheeks. Her lips. She sighed and leaned into my kiss.
“Here now,” I stripped and settled her on the pelts. “Lie back and let us see to you.” The beast within did not fight for control, but the scent and shape of her awakened another, deeper hunger.
“But—”
“No words.” I put two fingers at her lips and when she licked at them, I did not try to hide my grin. She felt the same hunger. “That’s the way. Let your masters pleasure you. I stroked her flared hips, her tiny waist, the breasts small and firm as new apples. Her muscles rippled under the skin, she trembled. “Shh...”
Thorstinn lay on the other side of her, touching her, taking liberties. His hands stayed north while my strayed south. “You are beautiful,” he murmured. “Did you know?”
“No,” she whispered back. Sweet and compliant. I liked her tough and fighting, I liked her feisty, but soft and open to our touch? She destroyed me.
I knelt between her legs. I kissed her ankle, the inside of her knee until she gasped and pulled away. I grasped her leg more firmly and licked behind her knee until she laughed, a sweet clear sound like a brook in a meadow.
“That’s it,” Thorsteinn petted her hair, scratching her scalp and kneading her neck.
Her legs fell open and I pounced. My cock ached as I slid hands under her bottom and licked her folds, tasting her honey. She thrashed, her legs kicking over my shoulders and drumming on my back. Thorsteinn grasped her hands and held them over her head, stretching her between us, naked and vulnerable. I crawled over her, marking her with licks and bites and red marks where I fastened my mouth on her and sucked hard. I flipped her over and kissed down her spine, swirled my tongue between her cheeks, nipping her buttocks until she squealed. She writhed against the pelts, her leg cocked so she could rub her mound on one hump. I draped myself over her lower half, rubbing my cock between her cheeks, but did not enter her. This was for Sorrel, only Sorrel. She would forget her sorrow and her pain and remember only opening herself to us and receiving pleasure.
