by Connie Mason
A look of horror crossed Thora’s face. “Can you do it?”
“With Freya’s help, I will try. Keep Olga calm while I do what is needed.”
Despite Olga’s lethargic state, she screamed like a banshee when Reyna used one hand to begin turning the babe into the correct position for birthing.
The curtain parted and Hagar poked his head inside. “What in Thor’s name is happening?” He glanced at Reyna and turned deathly pale when he saw her kneeling between Olga’s spread thighs, her hands bloody.
“Leave us, son,” Thora ordered. “Let Reyna do what must be done to save your wife and child.”
After casting an anguished look at his wife’s heaving body, Hagar withdrew.
Meanwhile, Reyna slowly but surely turned the babe, until he was in position. She withdrew her hand and washed thoroughly before returning to Olga.
“Olga, can you hear me?” Reyna asked.
Her head lolling, the other woman nodded.
“I want you to push with your next contraction. Can you do that? It will not be long now. Your babe is anxious to be born.”
Though Olga seemed to rally, she had little strength left to push. Reyna silently railed at Olga’s reluctance to summon her at the first sign of trouble. Now Olga was too weak to do what was required of her and she might still die.
An idea formed in Reyna’s mind. “Lady Thora, send for Hagar. He may be the only one who can help Olga.”
“Are you sure? Men do not belong in the birthing room.”
“We have no choice. Hurry, Olga is fading fast.”
Thora hurried off. Hagar couldn’t have been far, for she returned with him almost immediately.
“Tell me what to do, Reyna,” Hagar said. Though he appeared willing to do what ever it took to help his wife, his face had gone from pale to an odd shade of green.
“Sit at the head of the bed and support Olga’s back. At the next contraction, you must encourage her to push your babe into the world. Olga is exhausted from her long travail and needs support.”
Hagar obeyed instantly. When Reyna alerted him to the onset of the next contraction, he lovingly urged Olga to push, to gather her strength and bring forth their child. Two more strong contractions racked Olga’s body before the babe slid into Reyna’s hands. She quickly cut and tied off the cord and handed the babe to Thora. The new grandmother let out a cry of joy when the babe gasped and gave a lusty wail.
“You have a healthy son, Hagar,” Reyna said. “You did what you needed to do. Please wait in the hall while I finish up here. You will be summoned when Olga is clean and ready for visitors.”
“Thank you, Reyna, for my wife and son’s life,” Hagar replied with heartfelt honesty. “When I brought you home, I never knew how important you would become to us.”
Reyna was touched by Hagar’s words. Tears blurred her vision as she worked over Olga, delivering the afterbirth and stanching the bleeding. Once satisfied that Olga and the babe were out of danger, Reyna rose and stretched the kinks out of her back.
“My thralls and I will clean and dress Olga and tidy up the alcove,” Thora said. “Go now and take your ease. You have earned your rest as well as our eternal gratitude.”
Reyna nodded, washed her hands and arms with strong soap and stepped into the hall. Helga hurried over to her. “Come join us. The midday meal is on the table. You must be famished.”
Reyna joined Helga, Hagar, Wulf and Inga at the table. Olaf, Eric and Rannulf were conspicuously absent from the family group. Reyna subsided wearily onto a bench, almost too tired to eat.
Someone filled her plate and she ate without tasting a single morsel. Reyna had done something today she had never done before. She had known instinctively that the babe must be turned and had done it. If she had failed and Olga had died, Reyna would not have been able to face Hagar or Thora. Thank the gods that had not happened.
Reyna glanced at Wulf. He was staring at her strangely. A prickle of unease settled at the base of her neck. Their eyes met and held. Tremors of sensation ran down her spine. No one else seemed to notice the sizzling tension between them; it was as if they were the only two occupants in the room. Wulf was the first to look away.
Reyna returned her attention to her food, eating mechanically until her plate was empty. No one stirred until Thora appeared from behind the curtain. Hagar leapt up but Thora dashed his hopes of seeing Olga when she shook her head.
“Reyna, Olga wishes to speak with you.” She smiled at Hagar. “You will have to wait a few moments longer, Hagar.”
More than a little puzzled, Reyna rose and followed Thora into the alcove. Olga’s eyes were closed, the babe nestled in the crook of her arm. She appeared to be sleeping.
“Shall I come back later?”
Olga opened her eyes. “Nay, do not go.”
Reyna moved closer to the bed. “Can I do something for you?”
“Aye, you can accept my apology. I let jealousy poison me against you. When Hagar brought you home, all I could think about were all those days and nights you were aboard his dragonship, and what might have happened between you. I was wrong. You saved my life and that of my son. Please forgive me.”
“There is naught to forgive. Your condition made you distrustful of your husband. It happens. Think no more on it. Rest now, Olga. I will check on you later.” Reyna turned and went out through the curtain.
Hagar, who was pacing nearby, rushed into the sleeping alcove the moment Reyna left. Reyna smiled at his eagerness, imagining what Wulf would be like if she presented him with a baby. Would Wulf welcome a child by her? Would he care about her welfare as Hagar cared about Olga’s, or would he remain aloof about the whole pro cess?
Apparently Wulf had genuinely cared about Astrid and their unborn child. He must have loved his wife dearly for he had wreaked terrible vengeance in her name. Reyna and her family had been made to pay dearly for the sins of Dane raiders with whom they had no connection. It wasn’t right.
“Reyna.” Wulf’s voice jerked her back to the present.
Reyna was surprised to see that she and Wulf were alone at the table. “Where has everyone gone?”
“My sisters are with Olga and the babe.”
“Where are Olaf and Eric? Do they not want to see their new nephew?”
“They accompanied Rannulf to his farmstead yesterday. Rannulf wanted to help his father and their thralls prepare for the winter months and my brothers offered to go with him. They should return within a fortnight.”
Reyna suppressed a shudder. “Is Rannulf serious about courting Helga? Are you and Hagar going to allow it?”
“We are going to wait and see how the courtship progresses. In the end, it will be up to Helga. I know Rannulf hurt you, but he is a Norseman, and Norsemen raid and plunder. ’tis our way of life.”
“What about you, Wulf? Will you continue raiding and plundering?”
“No, I plan to become a trader like Hagar. We will sail to Byzantium next summer. Trading pig iron and amber for luxury items has made our family prosperous.”
“I am glad,” Reyna whispered.
“You should rest. You look worn out. I will stay here for a while in case I am needed.”
Reyna nodded, grabbed her cloak and headed out the door. She was halfway across the yard when a cold drizzle began to fall. Thralls scurried here and there to get out of the rain. She saw Uma duck into Hagar’s hall. Reyna had hoped to bathe in the volcanic pool, but now she would have to make do with a basin of water.
The hall was deserted when she entered. She shook out her wet cloak and hung it on a nail beside the door. Reyna walked to the hearth, pleased to see a kettle of water warming on the hearthstone. She picked the kettle up by the handle, carried it into her sleeping alcove and poured water into a crockery basin sitting on a small table. Then she replaced the kettle on the hearthstone and fetched a drying cloth, a washcloth and soap from a cupboard in the hall, bringing all the items back to her alcove. Grimacing at her bloodstained clothi
ng, Reyna quickly stripped and began to wash.
Wulf paced the length of the hall. He felt restless and strangely unsettled. He vividly recalled the day he had learned Astrid was expecting his babe and how happy he had been. He had given up raiding for Astrid’s sake and had been looking forward to being a father. A jolt of jealousy ripped through him. If Astrid hadn’t been slain, his child and Hagar’s would have been as close as siblings.
Wulf shook the morbid thoughts from his head. He had no child. He had no wife. He had naught but a Dane thrall who drove him mad with wanting.
A short time later Hagar joined Wulf. He carried his sleeping babe in the crook of his arm, waxing poetic about the boy, whom he had named Rollo after their father. Wulf voiced his admiration and chucked the lad under the chin like a doting uncle.
A sudden flow of thralls into the hall, all of them dripping water, alerted Wulf to the rain pounding outside. He rose, deciding it was time to return home. He briefly looked in on Olga before bidding Hagar and his new nephew good-bye and dashing out the door into the pouring rain.
As Wulf sprinted across the yard, his thoughts returned to Reyna. Would he find her asleep? he wondered. She certainly deserved a rest after her heroic deed today. Reyna had endeared herself to his entire family. What was he going to do with her? The gods were conspiring against him. If he had a shred of decency, he would return immediately to Hagar’s hall and leave Reyna in peace. He flashed a wicked grin and kept walking. Promises were made to be broken.
Wulf entered the hall and shook the water off himself like a large dog, sending droplets in every direction. All was silent. Was everyone sleeping? He strode to Reyna’s sleeping alcove. The devil inside him urged him to push aside the curtain and peek inside.
He froze when he saw a nude Reyna, bending over a small trunk, the round globes of her enticing bottom tempting him beyond endurance. His body went instantly hard, his rigid cock standing nearly upright. Wulf regarded the shape of her bottom like an artist studying a piece of priceless art. So white, so perfect, he couldn’t repress the groan that sounded in his throat. Reyna could tempt one of those statues made of stone he had seen in Byzantium, and he most definitely was not made of stone.
Wulf didn’t move, could scarcely breathe. His chest felt constricted; his blood surged hot and ravenous through his veins. His reaction was immediate and spontaneous. He was a Norseman; it wasn’t in his nature to deny himself when he wanted something as fiercely as he wanted Reyna.
Reyna must have heard him groan for she whipped around. Her lush lips fell open when she saw him standing just inside the curtain. She dove for the bed, pulling a wolf fur up to her chin.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“I wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“As you can see, I am fine.”
“More than fine,” Wulf said in a strangled voice. He moved closer to the bed, dripping water on the floor.
Reyna eyed him ner vous ly. “You are soaked. You should get out of those wet clothes before you catch your death.”
Wordlessly, Wulf began to remove his clothing, tossing the wet garments on the floor. He glanced at Reyna; she was biting her lip and frowning. Cool air hit his heated skin and he shivered, more from anticipation than from cold.
“Stop! Why are you undressing?” Reyna gasped.
“You advised me to get out of my wet clothes, and I am.”
“Not here! Go away. You promised you wouldn’t attempt to seduce me again.”
Wulf shrugged his shoulders. “I lied.”
Reyna found it impossible not to stare at Wulf. She tingled with the thrill of his nearness, and her resolve to resist faltered slightly, for he radiated soul-gripping power. He was breathtaking, tall and commanding and powerfully built from head to toe. The flowing swell of his chest muscles, the flat brown circles of his masculine nipples, the rippling tendons of his abdomen and trim waist mesmerized her. Not to mention the size of his sex; it grew and thickened as her wayward gaze settled on that part of his body.
“You want me, Reyna.”
Gripped by the compelling potency of his silver gaze, Reyna gulped hard and closed her eyes. “No, I do not want that to happen again. Go away. I do not trust myself, and I trust you even less.”
“Why are you deliberately denying us what we both want? Relax; I will not do anything you do not want me to do.”
Her eyes flew open. “I have heard that before, Wulf the Ruthless, from your own lips. You know how that ended.”
His fire and ice eyes gleamed with an unholy light. “Aye, I dream of it often.”
Reyna recognized his determination and struggled desperately to control her wayward body. She didn’t want to be Wulf’s slave, obliged to obey his commands. But she didn’t know how long she could keep on fighting. Right now she was so physically exhausted and so weary of fighting both Wulf and her own body’s desire that she could scarcely summon the strength to resist. So she decided to try a new approach.
She tossed the fur aside, baring her body, and went limp. “Go ahead, take what you want. What ever you do will be accomplished without my compliance. I will not respond, nor will I give you any pleasure.”
The possessive gleam in Wulf’s eyes should have warned her that she was doomed to failure. His voice had never sounded so confident. “I vow you will scream for me to take you, no matter what you say now.”
“I will hate you afterward.”
“You hate me now.”
Not true, Reyna wanted to shout, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a reply.
Reyna gasped as she realized he had moved and was kneeling between her legs. It had happened so swiftly, she didn’t have time to roll off the bed. “Stop,” she said, sounding weak and ineffectual even to her own ears. “Do not…”
But there was no stopping him. When Wulf leaned in and kissed her, she imagined flames shooting from the top of her head.
So much for resisting the ruthless Norseman, Reyna thought as she tasted Wulf’s tongue and explored his mouth with her own. Her resolve had been trampled beneath his fierce determination. Even as he kissed her, his hands were working magic on her body.
She could feel him parting her slick folds, sliding his fingers inside her, working them in and out. And then he scooted down and opened his warm, moist mouth over her, drawing her sensitive, swollen bud into an intimate kiss that made her world spin on its axis.
“Do you really want me to stop?”
“Aye. I will hate both of us if we continue. Why do you torment me like this when you know I cannot resist you?”
“Because you are mine, and I want you.”
His answer did not please her. Instead, it reminded her that she was Wulf’s slave. If they could change places, she would prove to him that belonging body and soul to another person was humiliating and demeaning.
Her thoughts scattered when she felt his tongue, pleasantly rough, delving deep inside her core, then rubbing over the most sensitive part of her, moving faster, deeper, even as his hands fondled her breasts and teased her nipples.
At this particular moment, hating Wulf was a dim memory. She felt an undeniable urge to raise her hips and wrap her legs around him. Abruptly Reyna recalled her vow to lie unmoving beneath him as a way to thwart his seduction. With Herculean effort, she relaxed her body, willing her mind anywhere but on Wulf’s ravaging mouth and agile hands.
It didn’t work. Wulf would have none of it. Even as his tongue worked its magic, he plunged two fingers deep inside her, sliding them in and out, raising her level of passion without a shred of shame on his part. When he began moving his tongue in tight circles around her swollen bud, the darkness behind her eyeballs exploded into sparkling white stars and she spiraled upward to touch them.
Wulf surged over her, impaling her on his rigid staff, pumping vigorously, again and again. He filled her in strong surges. He touched the deepest part of her, sending fire straight to her womb. She heard him groan in an agony of
need, of desperation, and then felt him shudder.
His groans escalated as he drove hard, pushed deep, filling her to bursting. Then she felt herself spiraling upward again, reaching higher and surrendering to another climax even more explosive than the first.
Holding her thighs in his big hands, lifting her, pounding inside her, he cried out as his staff jerked, riding her all the way to completion.
Silent tears rolled down Reyna’s cheeks. Wulf had done it again. Despite her vow to resist, despite her promise to lie woodenly beneath him, she had allowed him to carry her to Valhalla, that place of eternal bliss. A sob escaped her throat as she pushed him away. He pulled out willingly enough, but when his arm came around her to draw her against him, she lashed out at him.
“Leave me! You got what you wanted. You broke your promise, Wulf the Ruthless.”
Wulf sighed heavily. “I could not help myself. What can I do to make it up to you?”
“Free me! Let me return to my family.”
“Never!” Wulf growled with fierce determination.
“One day, Wulf the Ruthless, you are going to regret enslaving me. I wish…”
“What do you wish?”
“I wish our situations were reversed, that one day you will understand how it feels to be a slave.”
Laughing, Wulf rolled off the bed and snatched up his wet clothing. “Wish all you like, Reyna the Dane, for that will never happen.” Then he was gone.
Reyna stared at the curtain through which Wulf had disappeared. There were times when she truly hated the big Norseman, and this was one of them.
Chapter Nine
The rain continued for two days, a harbinger of the bleak winter days that Reyna dreaded. Being cooped up with Wulf in his hall during the long days and nights to come did not bode well for her peace of mind. Even more depressing, escape would be impossible with snow piled up to the roof, and rescue even less likely. Though Reyna held virtually no hope of escaping, to give up wasn’t in her nature. She had come a long way from Constantinople and was so close to home she could almost taste freedom.