by Lee Savino
When Samuel finished, Yseult descended into the pack of wolves, her eyes alight with a primal hunger. She walked through the warriors until one stepped in her path. A wicked smile curved her lips. She spoke to Siebold. Then her hand flashed out and slapped him across the face.
No one breathed.
Siebold’s eyes glowed gold with the beast as he reached out and gripped her hair. He dragged her head back and kissed her.
Three other warriors closed around her, ripping the shift off her tall form. Siebold lifted and carried her to the ground, already rutting.
Yseult’s teeth found his neck and bit down. Blood flowed, and Siebold roared, pounding her into the ground with his hips as her nails raked down his back.
When she orgasmed, magic whipped through the pack. All the wolves howled. All but Samuel and I.
“Come, Brenna.” I started to turn away, sickened not by the display, but by my cock’s reaction to it. Brenna stopped me, tugging on my arm.
“What is it, lass?” My mouth dried as I saw the heat in our beloved’s eyes. She hooked an arm around my neck and brought me down into a searing kiss.
I almost staggered back when she let me go. “Really? Now?”
She nodded, her hand on my chest. I wasted no time throwing her up over my shoulder, and carrying her to our bed chambers.
*
Brenna trembled when I set her down on the dais.
“Are ye all right, lass?”
Yes. Her hands fluttered. Need. You. Now.
Samuel bounded into the chamber, looking younger and more carefree than I’d seen him in a long time.
“I can smell her,” he said, his eyes swimming with gold. His beast was close to the surface, I could smell it, but it did not seem angry.
“Brenna,” the big Alpha choked out. “You’re in heat.” He came to stand before her on the dais, running his hand down her breasts to her cunny. She pressed into his touch, her eyes fluttering.
“Your heat calls to us. It is intoxicating.” He pressed his face to her stomach through the gown, looking like a supplicant before a queen. “I will do whatever you ask.”
She looked thoughtful, then a wicked smile crossed her face and she pointed to the ground in front her.
“You want me to please you, little love? You want your Alpha on his knees?” He sank down before Brenna, his head coming to her knees as she stood on the dais. Pushing aside her gown, he lifted one foot, then the other, nibbling at her ankles and moving up. Grabbing his hair to steady herself, Brenna pulled him between her legs.
I bounded up onto the dais and raised her gown, pulling it over her head. Earlier that day, I’d shaved and plugged her. Her body was smooth and ready. I kissed her neck.
“You are the only one, Brenna. The only one we kneel for.”
I lifted her and Samuel draped her legs over his shoulders. Brenna sighed and writhed as he nibbled on her folds. I steadied her, freeing one hand to brush her breast. Her head fell back onto my shoulder, but she kept holding Samuel’s head to her cunny, even after her orgasm crested.
Samuel and I laid her down, stroking her pale skin as she recovered.
“So fragile. So delicate…and yet you are stronger than us all. Your frailty calls to our beast, turns our brutal beast into a protector.”
I drew in a deep breath, realizing it was true. The beast wasn’t stronger because we were losing our grip on it. It was stronger because she needed it, wanted it, accepted it.
Samuel put a finger to her lips. “You knew before we did.”
Brenna’s lips curved against his fingers as she smiled her secret smile. That was when I knew the runes had been right. This was the woman for us.
“Up,” I commanded, holding out my hands to help her to her knees. Reaching around her, I slid my hand over her bottom and seized the plug. “Here.”
Her eyes widened, but she allowed me to maneuver her to all fours.
We’d plugged her often, stretching her back hole for us. And now we would claim it.
“All of ye belongs to us.” I fucked her arse with the plug, sliding it in and out.
Samuel handed me the jar of oil. I pulled out the plug and rimmed her with a finger coated in oil. Brenna lay with her chest to the pelts and her arse waving in the air, ready for us.
“Don’t be afraid, lass.”
Samuel stepped forward, fisting his cock in readiness. First he pulled her to all fours and plunged into her cunny. I slid under her and lapped at her breasts until her breathing changed from forced to ragged.
Samuel pulled out and prised her arse cheeks apart. “Beautiful.”
I held her in my arms as Samuel set his cock against her pucker and started to press in.
Sweat appeared on her brow. She hid her face in my chest.
I stroked her hair.
“Focus on us. Focus on pleasing yer masters.” I whispered.
Without raising her head, she nodded.
“Breathe in. Then breathe out and bear down.”
Samuels’ grunt told me when he’d sheathed himself in her.
“So tight. So fucking tight.”
“There now, lass, ye did it. Now,” I scooted back so my cock waved in front of her face. “Suck on this.”
Her body moved back and forth between us.
We came in unison.
We hadn’t taken her cunny and arse together, but soon.
*
The next day, a few hours after dawn, I climbed the mountain to the overlook to take the first watch.
A wind wafted by my face, carrying the scent of snow and cold stone, a touch of death. Yseult.
“Did ye get what ye came for?”
“And more.” The woman practically purred. “You didn’t join in?” she ran a finger down my arm. I caught her hand, willing myself not to crush it.
“I’m spoken for.”
“I see that,” she laughed, and touched my shoulder, where I noticed marks from Brenna’s nails for the first time. “You survived her first mating heat.”
“That was—” I choked out. “It didn’t seem real. Or I thought it was a response to yer magic in the pack bonds.”
“That was her,” Yseult murmured. “The spaewife grows stronger every moon she spends in your care. Be careful, wolf,” She shook a finger in my face. “There are werewolves who will smell it too, and try to take her from you.”
“Let them come,” I growled. “There is none as strong as a Berserker.”
“Are you sure?” Her smile was beautiful and terrible at the same time. She walked away, hips swaying like a woman well fucked, until she vanished in a bolt of lightning that left my hair standing on end.
It struck me, then, that Yseult had smelled more powerful than before, more than just a boost she would get from spilling her bedmate’s blood. Had she eaten one of the pack? I thought through each member of the pack—all wolves were accounted for.
All but one.
I ran down the mountain. When I came to the place of the pit, I slowed and called out to Maddox.
He did not answer. I sniffed the air, but couldn’t make out his scent. I leaned over the pit to look for the body.
There was none.
*
Samuel didn’t look surprised when I delivered the news of the empty prison. I wondered if a part of him hoped Maddox had escaped.
“The witch could’ve found a way to consume Maddox and his power,” I reminded him. “She seems more powerful.”
“We are more powerful. Whatever magic Brenna has, it has strengthened us.”
I still worried about the beast taking hold. It responded to Brenna in a way I’d never seen before.
“We will keep taking precautions,” Samuel read my worry. “You will travel with a few of the pack to the gathering with the Red Pack. Listen and learn what you can of Ragnvald’s Berserkers. I will stay here and keep our mate safe.” He smiled, and once again I was struck by how much younger he looked. Like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “She is wai
ting for you in the bathing chamber.”
I spent a long while taking my leave. Brenna was especially feisty, slapping my hands away and asking over and over why I had to leave. I told her I was visiting a market to buy her pretty things, and she called me a liar. I told her I was going to say goodbye to the village whores, and she hit me and called me a rabbit. I couldn’t let that insult slide, so I stripped her, spanked her and fucked her on the stone floor.
Samuel found us like that, our hands running over each other as we spoke silently about our love.
“The pack is waiting,” he finally ordered. “It’s time.”
It wasn’t until the thick woods closed around us, blocking out the sight of our mountain, that my spirits fell. The dread that started with Yseult grew stronger with every step that took me from my beloved. Wulfgar noticed my serious silence.
“What can you tell us about the Red Pack?” he asked, seeking to divert my thoughts and focus me on the battle at hand.
“They’ve been here since the Romans, maybe before. A few of them ruled as lairds, and though the worship of the White Christ drove them into hiding, they think of themselves as civilized. They’re natural werewolves, and shift into wolves whenever they will.”
“What’s the difference between them and us?” Fergus asked. Samuel ordered the runt of the pack tag along to learn something of diplomacy.
“Most werewolves are natural born, by a female were. Berserkers are created with tainted magic.”
“But you weren’t Changed by a witch,” the young wolf insisted.
“Nay, lad. I was born to one. My mother was a witch, much like Yseult. Less powerful, though, which is why she bore me. Most witches are barren.” I paused for a moment, wondering if Brenna’s magic allowed her to bear children. It would be too much to hope for in this lifetime—a mate who could give us a family. “My mother fell in love with my father, and bore him a son. I can shift, aye, but the magic of my mother adds a taint that leads to the Berserker rage.”
“Witches and wolves don’t mix,” Wulfgar grunted. He’d kept away from Yseult, and made Fergus do the same. “No offense, Beta.”
“None taken. My mother’s first intent on snaring my father was to make him her slave. In the end, love made her his thrall, and caused her death.”
Fergus gulped. “He killed her?”
“No. His pack did.”
I picked up the pace and the warriors followed. We wore clothes made of deerskin and carried weapons. Most werewolves relied on teeth and claws; their human forms were more vulnerable. But we were Berserkers. We had been men once, and changed by tainted magic.
We traveled fast and avoided the places of men.
We arrived at the gathering site, a valley between a fringe of hills. The eerie plain was filled with mist, its center marred only by a circle of stones. As we descended, the air became hard to breathe, as if the veil between the worlds grew thin.
“Is that them?” Fergus asked when men appeared out of the mist. “They’re smaller than we are.”
I glanced down at him. The smallest of our pack was a head taller than most of these shapes slinking out of the mist. “They look like normal men.”
“Normal men, natural wolves,” I agreed. “They live in harmony with the earth, and hate witch’s magic.”
We stood on one side of the hill, waiting for the Red Pack to descend into the place of stones. They wore their clan colors, their hair wild and knives strapped against their boots.
The last time I faced these Highland wolves, they tried to kill me. Samuel had intervened, and fixed the bond between us forever.
“This was your pack, yes?” Wulfgar asked me quietly.
“Aye.” I started forward, and he held out a hand.
“Let me.”
I nodded and held back. Let them think Wulfgar was our leader until the right moment. If I had my way, we wouldn’t meet them as equals at all. As I watched Wulfgar and the others stride to the standing stones, I wished I was leading a sneak attack on the pack that had torn my family apart.
Samuel and I had discussed it. The Red Pack was weaker than us. We could defeat them and be done with it, but that would risk loosing the beast.
Wulfgar and the others met the Red Pack at the standing stones. I slunk closer, muting my power so they couldn’t sense me and the energy that would mark me as an Alpha.
Fergus was right. After years living with the Berserkers, the members of the Red Pack seemed shrunken, smaller. I studied the trio of leaders and didn’t bother to repress my cold killer sense. The ruddy wolf in the center was the largest. Tear off his head in an impressive show of strength, and the others would scatter.
It would be so easy, the darkest part of me whispered. Kill them all and take their women for the pack.
Ha. A nice fantasy. Female werewolves wanted nothing to do with Berserkers.
I kept my thoughts on our beloved, waiting for me in the bathing chamber, her body embraced by the steam rising off the water. The image kept my beast occupied until I heard Wulfgar answer one of the Red Pack Alphas.
“Samuel is not here. But there is one who speaks for him, one who Samuel claims as a brother. Their thoughts are one, their words are one.” Wulfgar stepped aside, and let the Red Pack see me stride out of the mists, into the chilling.
My eyes glowed gold; the beast was close to the surface as I faced the pack who killed my mother, drove out my father, and tried to stone me. I’d grown since then, the power of the Alpha making me stronger, faster, prouder. Or maybe it was the acceptance of my warrior brother and the pack that made me stand taller. And now I had a woman worth fighting for. I could face my one time tormentors.
I grew close enough to hear their worried murmurs.
“Half breed,” one of the Red Pack spat.
I growled a warning, echoed in the snarls of the Berserkers. The Red Pack recoiled. There were twice as many of them as us, they’d turned out in full force, trying to deter an attack. My lip curled. A thousand armies couldn’t stand before Berserkers, if we chose to fight.
“I taste yer fear, wolf,” I said. “Speak quickly, before we grow weary of yer posturing, and decide to gut ye.”
One of the Red Pack leaders drew himself up. “There is another pack, a threat to ye.”
“Ye mean they are a threat to you. Nothing threatens a Berserker.”
“A threat to both of us. After all, what’s to stop the Red Pack from allying with these new Berserkers to wipe ye out?”
“Ye like yer head attached to yer shoulders.”
“We have a way to keep the peace.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn’t going to like this.
“We know ye have a woman.”
I shrugged. “We often take whores for our amusement.”
“But you’ve claimed this one.” The Red Pack chief continued, “Word is she’s more than just a village trollop.”
I reached through the pack bonds, setting every wolf on alert.
How do they know? I asked Wulfgar. The big warrior shook his head, a subtle motion.
None of our warriors talked.
“What does this matter?” I feigned nonchalance.
“If there is a woman who…counteracts the taint…she is a rare commodity.”
“She is rare. Strong, beautiful, submissive. Willing to accept a Berserker cock—unlike your women,” I smiled at one of the female wolves. Her mates closed ranks around her, blocking her from my view.
“Am I to believe this wild tale? That the woman we keep has special powers? She’s a good fuck, aye, but she doesn’t have a magic cunt. Who told ye all this?”
“I did.”
I knew the voice even before I turned to look. There, on the rise, stood a man. He was leaner than I last saw him. The bones of his ribs protruded under the skin marked with blue tattoos.
Maddox.
He took a few steps down the hill, but didn’t come any closer. A few of his pack appeared behind him. Most were blond and burl
y, they could be brothers to Samuel or Siebold. Definitely Viking.
“I visited their mountain, and learned their secret. That is why they condemned me to die.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Good thing it isn’t easy to kill a Berserker.”
“We want to live in peace. If there is a woman who can heal the beast—”
I growled a denial.
“—Then you must share her.”
“Never. We’ve claimed her. She is ours.”
“Is she your true mate?” Maddox asked, cocking his head to the side. His words were an echo of Yseult’s. I wondered if she had something to do with this.
“She’s bonded to us,” I lied. “If she leaves us, she will die.”
“Impossible. No human can bond with a wolf,” said the Red Pack leader.
As he repeated what I had told myself for so long, I realized that it wasn’t true. Brenna was special. She was human, but had abilities we could only guess at. For the first time, I felt possibilities before me like an open road.
“If she has not mated with ye,” the Red Pack leader intoned, “she will survive a separation.”
I focused on the problems at hand. Then I felt the wind shift.
Daegan. Someone cried out for me. Not Samuel, not one of the pack, but a softer voice, one I didn’t recognize. I glanced at Maddox and his Berserker guards, and felt my dread increase.
“You will never take her from us,” I said, just as I heard the voice cry my name again, in panic.
Daegan!
Maddox smiled and I didn’t understand why. What had he done?
“She is ours. Find another to sate your needs,” I told him.
“It is not yers to decide,” said the Red Pack leader. “We put it to a vote. And yer vote will be outnumbered, Berserker.”
I snarled, and the warriors at my back did the same. I felt the beast grip me, and this time I welcomed it. Something was going on, something I couldn’t understand…yet. “Vote all you want. We’ll back our claim with teeth and claws. Do you really want to vote with your spilled blood?”
Maddox’s Berserkers also growled at us. The Red Pack members looked increasingly uneasy, trapped between two contingents of angry Berserkers.
“You want a fight? We’ll give you one,” Maddox snapped. “We’ll fight for our prize.”