by Sable Grey
“I thought I was allowed to move about as I pleased once my family was gone?” She lifted her voice but didn’t even look in his direction.
“Do not attempt to run,” Biel called and gave Uif a quick nod, who in turn stepped aside, reached back and pushed open the door for her.
“I wouldn’t think of doing so without slitting your throat first.” Cait stepped forward through the door before Biel could respond. Loegaire’s laughter filled the hall and Biel would have laughed himself if it were not the memory of her lifeless expression from the night before haunting him.
“You cannot tell me that she does not light your fire with that spine of hers, brother,” Loegaire accused as Biel stood set the ax aside. “If she were mine, I’d follow her wherever she was going and make her realize how much she wanted to be my bride.”
“She doesn’t want to be my bride, Loegaire. She was forced into this marriage by me and she shall continue to hate me for it.” Biel shook his head. “It matters not. We have prevented our enemies from moving closer to our families. That is all that matters.”
Loegaire’s gaze narrowed. “She is the reason your mood is so foul?”
“We should start building the new wall around this place. The one we nearly burned was inadequate and couldn’t keep sheep out of this place.” Biel headed for the door. “I want Blaidden so solid that our enemies wouldn’t dare cross that bay.”
“Biel,” Loegaire followed him into the sunlight. “You said she did not weep.”
“She did not.” Biel winced. “She just lay there glaring at me, telling me how much she hated me”
“Why didn’t you change her mind?”
Biel found Cait leading a horse from one of the stables— his horse. He watched her slide her hand down the horse’s mane gently and lean closer to speak to the animal. His own steed betrayed him by lowering his head to nuzzle the woman’s palm.
“She deserves her anger,” Biel murmured.
“Does she deserve to remain in a marriage that she resents or one that she might embrace?” Loegaire argued. “You know you could change her mind about you.”
Biel allowed himself to smile. “I do not know, brother. Her determination is nearly as intimidating as you are.” Cait smiled at the animal she was stroking but lifted her attention when Loegaire laughed. When she found Biel watching her, her smile disappeared and her expression hardened.
“She will try to run,” Loegaire warned.
“Yes.” Biel nodded.
“Shall I ready you a new horse for the chase since she thinks to steal yours?”
Biel watched Cait climb onto Odin’s back. “No.” When he looked at his brother he saw the look of surprise.
“I have never known you to let go of anything that was yours.”
Biel hadn’t thought about that. She was his now. He watched her ride the horse through what was left of the gates. No sooner was she through them, did she kick the horse into a full gallop.
“If she gets to the river, you might lose the trail,” Loegaire warned.
“Get me a damned horse,” Biel growled. Loegaire nodded and headed to the stables, leading back two readied horses.
“You are coming with me?” Biel watched his brother slide atop one of the horses.
“I like her spine, brother. I can’t wait to see her lash out at you again.” Loegaire’s beard bunched with his grin. Biel grunted in response as he mounted the mare and gave her nudge.
It took them fifteen minutes to catch up with her. She’d almost made it to the river when they rode upon her. She leaned further down on the horse, urging the animal to run faster but Biel rode alongside her, reached over, and grasped her around the waist. As he lifted her she hit at him and then kicked, knocking them both off balance.
Biel hit the ground first, her atop him. For a moment neither of them moved. Then she leapt away from him, scrambling to her feet. She backed away as he rose and he watched her gaze dart around and then rest on a broken limb. He smiled when she dove for it and then brandished it in front of her like a sword.
“I told you not to run.” He grunted at the pain in his shoulder from his fall and reached up to massage it as he rolled it forward.
“You got what you wanted. You don’t need me now.”
“And what of your cousin? With you gone, I have no reason to allow him to live.” He saw her eyes widened moments before she charged at him, her limb lifted. He caught it in mid swing and wrestled it away from her. She delivered an effective kick to his shin just as Loegaire returned with the horses.
“Do you need any help, brother?”
Biel slanted a glare at his brother moments before she kicked at him again. This time he ignored her strike and reached out to grasp her arm. Her nails dug into him, raking from shoulder to elbow. Growling a curse, he spun her and pulled her back to his chest, trapping her arms at her sides.
“Stop!” But his command went ignored as she jerked her head backwards and into his jaw. His hold on her loosened and she bolted away from him when he shook his head against the pain. Heat filled him. He couldn’t deny her fight was arousing.
It was apparent that he wouldn’t be able to muscle her into doing what he wished or he would end up hurting her and that thought had no appeal. “Your mother gave you up so easily that one would think you would be grateful.”
Her eyes widened. “She is not my mother and why should I be grateful! You came in and destroyed my home, took my family away from me.”
“Blaidden is mine but it is also yours now.” He shrugged. “If it were not for me everything your father owns would have gone to your cousin. And I give you a family. My brothers are now your brothers.”
“I don’t look at her like a sister,” Loegaire piped clearly ignoring Biel’s slicing glare. “She’s much better to look at than anyone in our family and I do not know any of our females that could best you as she has.”
“If you are not going to help, could you just leave us?” Biel growled.
Loegaire rolled his eyes and stepped forward towards Cait. Biel liked that she didn’t cringe or flinch. Instead she lifted her chin as if ready to turn her attacks on his brother if he meant to grab her.
“Come along now, bonny Cait. No need in wasting your time like this when you could be planning another escape. He is too stubborn to give in and will allow you to continue to beat upon him until you are too weary to stand. Then he will carry you back.” Loegaire held out a large hand. “Besides, you have many more weapons to use against him at Blaidden. I’ll give you the use of my own sword to run him through with if you’ll come back with me now.”
“I meant help me.” Biel frowned.
“You lie. I am not stupid.” Cait’s gaze narrowed on Loegaire.
“Nay you aren’t stupid. I wouldn’t like you so much if you were. Neither am I so I do not offer it to you now. I don’t want you to accidentally crack my head open instead of his.” Loegaire wiggled his fingers, hand still extended. “I’ll give you use of my sword and if he bests you anyway, I’ll teach you how to use it. Eventually you’ll wear him down if you are as willful as I think you are.”
“Why should you want me to kill your own brother?”
“I don’t think you’ll kill him, bonny Cait. He’s as tough as leather. But I wouldn’t mind you harming him a bit for not offering you more gentleness last night. He did you an injustice from what I understand.” Loegaire glanced over his shoulder at Biel. “He could have made it better for you.”
“Men do not care of a woman when they climb atop them.” Cait argued and Biel noticed that some of her fight was leaving her voice. Even her stance became more relaxed.
“Some do. He normally does. I imagine he was too ridden with guilt and am surprised he managed to even perform the basics.” Loegaire smiled when the corner of her lips lifted slightly. “Will you not come back with me? I am not as proud as he. I will get on my knees and plead for your return if you so wish it though I might need assistance getting back up. My fee
ble body has seen too many battles to move as agile as I would like.”
Biel’s frown deepened when he saw her softening. His brother was doing what he should have done, offered her kindness and seduced her with warmth. But she wasn’t looking at Loegaire as she’d glared at him the night before.
“You are no more feeble than I am…” she stopped, her eyes narrowing again.
Good, Biel thought to himself. She was at least intelligent enough to know what he was doing.
“You raided my home. You beat my cousin bloody. Why should I trust you would hand over your sword so easily?”
“I didn’t ask you to trust me, bonny Cait, just to entertain me with your attack on my brother. It amuses me and I shouldn’t be made to suffer his foul mood without some amusement at his expense.”
“If you were not my brother, I would hate you.” Biel snapped. “Enough of this. My patience is gone. You are coming back to Blaidden even if I have to drag you back by the hair of your head.”
Her icy eyes swung back to Biel and then with a mocking smile, lifted her hand and slid it into Loegaire’s. “If he does not give me his sword, I shall steal it and bury it tonight in your skull.”
Loegaire chuckled and closed his fingers over her hand. She offered no fight as he led her back to the horse he’d tied to his own. Biel felt like drawing his own sword on his brother as he watched him help Cait onto the horse. She didn’t even make an attempt to escape, instead stared defiantly at Biel while Loegaire mounted his own horse.
“Are you coming?” His brother grinned down at him.
Biel didn’t answer, pulling himself onto his horse. He turned and led them back to Blaidden. When they arrived his brother’s cheered but she walked past them back into the castle. The moment they were in the great hall, she turned and held out her hand.
“Your sword?”
Loegaire smiled at her as some of the others filed in behind them. After a moment, he unsheathed his sword and offered her the hilt. Her eyes widened as if surprised he had not lied.
“He is big, but he is fast,” Loegaire warned as she reached forward. The moment he released the weapon to her, the tip dipped and hit the floor. Biel watched her lift the weapon with both hands.
“I don’t have time for this. There is a wall to be built.” Biel started to turn.
“Perhaps something to entice him, bonny Cait,” Loegaire suggested. “You cut him, you are allowed to go free. If he can get the sword from you, you give him a kiss…one without teeth and claws.”
“Just one cut?”
Biel saw the look of hope flare to life in her eyes. It made him angry, mostly at himself. He faced her fully when she lifted the sword. Of course she would try to use it. As she advanced so did he. He intended to just take the weapon from her but then she surprised him.
The sword arched up and she shifted her weight. God’s blood! She knew how to use it. He stepped backwards as the sword came down and back again when she lunged, the point directed at his chest. Behind her Loegaire laughed and clapped his hands together, pleased with the discovery that she could use the weapon.
It was too heavy for her and while her movements were slowed, her swipes were deliberate. “Give her something lighter. She can barely lift that one.” One of his brothers stepped forward and held out a smaller sword. She traded it out while Biel retrieved his own weapon.
This time she moved much quicker but with his own sword he was able to block her strikes. “Use your weight to add force. When you swing, do with your whole body, not just your arm.”
She frowned. “You will tell me how to kill you now?”
“You will not kill me but I can see it is not the first time you’ve lifted a weapon.”
“My cousin taught me so he could practice.” She swung and then jabbed, nearly hitting his side. “And while I might not kill you, I will strike you so that I can leave this place.”
Biel sheathed his sword and waited for her to get close enough. She swung and he stepped closer quickly grasping the weapon with one hand, above hers, and with his other, wrapping his fingers around her arm. He jerked the weapon away and thrust it towards Loegaire.
Her hope fled, replaced at first with devastation, and then with anger. “And now you will take your kiss I suppose.”
“No.” He winced and softened his voice. “No, I will not take it. I believe the barter you made was that I was to receive a kiss from you.” He allowed his fingers to loosen on her arm and brought the other, when Loegaire retrieved the weapon, to her hand.
“It was my mistake in thinking I could strike you but your brother said he will show me how to use the weapon. It is a small price to pay so that I can be more successful the next time.” She jerked her fingers from his. “Please do not feign tenderness. It is too late for that. I’ve seen your true nature and it would be ridiculous to pretend you are otherwise now just to impress your brother.”
“Mayhap I want to impress you,” Biel suggested and then almost smiled when she snorted. “Very well, if you will not accept my civility then I shall do as you assume I will and take what is mine.”
She lifted her chin. “Nothing of me is yours. You think that climbing atop me you somehow laid claim to me?” Her laugh was mocking. “I allowed you to do that to save my sister from you. If it were not for that fact alone, Atherton would still belong to my father.”
He grunted, “A choice I allowed you. Do you not realize that everything you did was by choice granted to you by me? Were I less, I might have come in and forced myself upon you and your sister. The vicar could have married us while I was in you.” He didn’t expect her to slap him, though he should have. Her fingers left a sting on his cheek.
“And now you are my wife. You are mine. And I will do with you whatever I wish. I have shown patience and allowed you to fight back. But you do not mistake my patience for weakness. If it were my will I could have you and pass you around to my brothers.”
She poked her finger into his chest. “And is that your will? It would not surprise me and at least I might be offered some pleasure of my own from one of them.” Her words were her weapons now. “Men think sex gives them power over women, that they can break a will by violating a body. It is that stupidity that I am counting on for it will offer opportunity to run you through.”
Biel glared down at her, barely hearing the low warning that Loegaire murmured. Her fight aroused him. She had spine and refused to be intimidated. His brother had told him that she’d hit the vicar. Now, she glared at him, her gaze unwavering.
“I shall advise you that in the future if you wish to barter for your freedom that I am the one you should make your deals with. My brother offered you freedom that was not his to give. Even if you’d succeeded in harming me, you would have had to remain here.” He cocked his head to the side when her eyes widened.
“Yet you mean to claim a reward for my not harming you?” She whirled on her heel and stamped towards the stairs. She didn’t look back as she ascended and then disappeared from view.
“You should have just kissed her.”
“She makes it damnably hard to do that.” Biel growled at Loegaire. “And you don’t help matters at all.”
Chapter 2
Cait lay in bed and listened to her Viking husband enter the chamber. The hour was late. He’d spent most of the day helping his men start the construction of the new wall. She’d watched them from the window for hours. Once he’d looked up at her. She’d met his gaze with a glare and could have sworn he she saw a little smile on his lips when he turned away.
He did not light a candle but undressed in the dark. She held her breath when the bed gave way to his weight and gripped the blankets when he slid beneath them. She could feel the heat of his body even before he rolled towards her and draped a thick arm across her waist.
“Don’t touch me.”
For a moment he didn’t move, then his palm slid up between her breasts and laid flat. He pulled her backwards, sliding her to him. She tried to
scoot away but he held her where she was.
“You are filthy and disgust me,” she snapped.
“And you have the tongue of an asp.” But he chuckled and it infuriated her. She grasped his arm and turned her head, biting down into his skin. He sucked in his breath and jerked his hand away but a moment later he’d rolled her to her back and loomed above her. She stared wide eyed at his eyes, rooted with fear, unable to scream when they glowed yellow at her.
“Do you know how a man of the wolf claims his mate? His bite. Unless you wish me to mark you as mine, do not bite me again because every time you do it, all I can think of doing is climbing atop you.” His voice was deep, his breath hot against her face. Those eyes held her. He wasn’t man, she realized. He was some kind of devil, something evil.
“Please don’t kill me,” her own voice trembled.
He stared at her for a few minutes and his eyes dimmed and then returned to normal. Slowly he eased from atop her and settled next to her but she remained as she was, staring up into the darkness, her heart pounding. Man of the wolf, that is what he said. She felt ill. She’d allowed him to consummate their marriage the night before, a marriage that was not to just a man but to some kind of evil beast.
She suddenly leapt from beside him and away from the bed. In the darkness she saw his form rise to sit up. She backed away until she could press her back against the farthest wall.
“What are you doing?” His form stood and walked towards her but she closed her eyes, willing him to go away.
She listened to him draw closer and then jumped when his hand touched her cheek. She turned her head.
“I am man,” he said quietly. “I am of the wolf and can take on its form but I am still man.” His knuckles grazed her jaw and she whimpered. No man had yellow eyes like that.
“Don’t.” He grasped her jaw and forced her face forward. “Kick at me if you are afraid but do not cower.” She didn’t open her eyes, too afraid of what she might see. And then the next moment, his lips brushed against hers. She lifted her hands and shoved against his solid chest.