by Lee Savino
You told them we weren’t mated, I wanted to scream. Why would you lie?
“Sorrel,” Vik started, but Thorsteinn raised a hand to silence him. “Not here.” Thorsteinn tugged on the rope binding my hands. “Come,” he said to me, but I planted my feet, glaring at him.
“Sorrel,” Thorsteinn’s tone when he said my name was nothing like Vik’s. The grey-eyed warrior matched my glare, his lips pressed together and heavy brows slanting down. “You will obey,” he growled.
No. I didn’t have to speak aloud for him to hear my answer. Power poured into Thorsteinn’s gimlet glare and calcified, turning his eyes gold. Beside us, Vik sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
There was a long pause. My stomach flip flopped but I held my ground. They knew how stubborn I was. It probably wasn’t wise to bait these warriors, but when had that ever stopped me?
Thorsteinn straightened. “Very well,” he ground out, his eyes glowing with uncanny light. “We do this the hard way.”
I stepped back as he crowded me, but didn’t get far before I was up, up, tossed over his shoulder with my stomach in my throat and hair in my face. Thorsteinn clapped a hand on my bottom and tightened his grip on my legs. I couldn’t kick and punching his back would do as much good as a pebble bouncing off a mountain face. I fisted my hands in his jerkin, hanging on as he strode down the path.
When I raised my head, Vik had a hand over his mouth as if smoothing his beard. His eyes crinkled as if he hid a smile. When he dropped his hand, his face was solemn, but he winked at me.
Thorsteinn picked up his pace. The dark settled over us as the warriors left the path and plunged into the forest, weaving through the trees.
I was tired and dizzy by the time Thorsteinn set me down at the base of the massive tree that held our home. Their home, I corrected myself. If I wasn’t their mate, I was no longer welcome.
I huddled on the ground as Vik climbed the footholds and tossed down the rope. Thorsteinn attached the rope to the basket I hadn’t seen since I first laid eyes on the tree.
Then
“What is this place?” I asked.
Vik grinned, flashing white teeth. “We call it ‘Yggdrasil’. The tree that holds the worlds.”
I squinted up at the giant ash. The canopy spread larger than the roof of any building I’d seen.
“He jests,” Thorsteinn shook his head. I was used to their rhythm. Vik joked, and Thorsteinn pretended to disapprove, keeping his smiles to himself. “The real ‘Yggdrasil’ is the tree of life, or the world tree. It holds the nine worlds, including Asgard, home of the gods.”
“There’s only one God,” I corrected automatically, and covered my mouth, horrified to hear the teachings of the nuns spilling out of my mouth.
“Really?” Vik cocked his head. “Is that what you believe?”
I gulped, but both Vik and Thorsteinn watched me closely, as if truly interested in what I had to say. It was stupid to argue with these warriors after all we’d been through, but I’d never been good at holding in my thoughts. I had the scars on my back to prove it.
“I don’t know what I believe.”
The warriors shrugged and went back to what they were doing, rigging some sort of rope system over one of the high branches. They’d nailed boards to the trunk, too. Thorsteinn climbed up and attached the rope to a basket hidden by the leaves.
The wind came and the tree tossed its green head, the canopy rustling like a thousand birds. High above us, nestled between the thickest branches, freshly hewn boards made a platform. When I backed up, the rest of the structure came into sight—a house, built from wood and thatch and lashed to the living tree.
When I thought of it, sawdust had littered the path leading to the ash.
“Did you build that?” I pointed.
Vik nodded. “Do you like it?” He took a handful of my hair and tugged playfully. “We thought you would, little squirrel.”
I swatted at him and he laughed. I shouldn’t be so comfortable with my captors, but Vik was easy to talk to, easy to like.
“I’m not a squirrel,” I mumbled.
“And yet you always seem to be climbing trees,” he said, amused.
Thorsteinn jumped down, holding the basket. It’s wide and deep, big enough to fit a small body. Like mine.
“Please,” I backed up, stopping when I run into Vik’s legs and looking up. “Do I have to ride in the basket? Can you teach me to climb instead?”
“You wish to climb?” Thorsteinn asked. Of the two warriors, he most intimidated me, but now his voice was gentle. He squatted before me, so tall our heads were almost level. For once, he’s looking up to me with his serious grey eyes.
I nodded.
“All right, little warrior. You may climb, if you go slowly and follow instruction. And—” he held out his hand and Vik passed him a free rope. “You must wear a harness. We’ve come too far and gone through too much to risk you falling now.”
I nodded again, resisting the urge to squirm or rub my leg. It was healed, the skin unscarred and unbroken, but I remembered the crack of bone, the blinding pain and bright blood slipping down my thigh.
Vik cleared his throat and I realized I had raised my hand to my shoulder, unconsciously rubbing the marked skin.
Thorsteinn’s brow furrowed as he lifted my makeshift jerkin to check the spot I rubbed. “Does it still hurt?”
The bite marks on my neck throbbed at the question, sensitive but not painful. Thorsteinn studied the mark, the skin smooth and healed, a red shiny weal the only evidence of the two warrior’s savagery. “No.”
Thorsteinn and Vik exchanged glances. There was a long pause while they seemed to communicate silently.
Finally, Thorsteinn rose.
“We’ll teach you to climb. First the rope.” He wrapped the long rope around me, looping it around my waist and over my shoulders and around my legs. I held still, breathless at his touch. When he was done his eyes were bright gold. He was affected too.
Vik joined us, running his hands over my body and testing the harness.
“You will follow our lead and do as we say,” Thorsteinn lectured me. He often gave the orders while Vik made the jokes.
Sure enough, as Thorsteinn frowned at his knots, Vik caught my eye and winked at me.
I hid a giggle as Thorsteinn straightened.
“Promise me, Sorrel.”
“I’ll be good. I promise.”
“Good girl.” The nerves in my belly lessened at his soft praise.
We faced the tree. Vik climbed the first rungs, pointing out the footholds as I watched. The bearded warrior was all seriousness.
Thorsteinn’s hands rested around my waist, holding me back until Vik finished his instruction.
“Ready?” his breath stirred my hair.
I swallowed. I’ve travelled with these warriors for days now. We’ve hiked and hidden from our enemies, ran and made camp in dark shelters. We’d gone through many perils and almost didn’t survive. They captured me and took me from my home but kept me safe.
Now we were safe in Berserker territory, and they showed no sign of letting me go. And a part of me didn’t want them too. With them, I had more freedom than I’d ever known. They were my captors, but treated me like an equal, a sister, a friend.
I didn’t understand how I felt about them.
“I’m ready.” I placed my hands on the holds above my head and waited for Thorsteinn to boost me up.
“Go slowly. Wait for Vik,” he went on ordering me.
“I will.” The less I argued, the more I obeyed, the more independence they allowed.
“Good girl.” He lifted me into place, and I clung to the tree trunk, pressing to the bark and gripping the holds like a squirrel.
“Sorrel,” Thorsteinn called and I twisted to meet his rare smile. For once he’d lost his stern look and his happy look did things to my insides I didn’t want to think about. “Welcome to your new home.”
Now
I
shook my head at Thorsteinn as he drew near with the basket. “I want to climb up as I did before.”
Thorsteinn studied me. “Do you promise to obey my commands? Do as we say from now on?”
In answer, I just glared at him. I should promise and be done with it, but if they renounced me, what life did we have together?
“Very well,” Thorsteinn growled, and tossed me in. I thrashed but as soon as I found my feet, I was already aloft.
So, I was not to be trusted with a climb I’d made many times before. I glared at the enclosure of woven rushes, wondering what they’d do if I wrenched myself up and threw myself to the ground. Probably leave me there for the night, broken bones and all.
So much had changed…
“Here we are,” Vik leaned over me, guiding the basket onto a sturdy wooden ledge. He’d climbed ahead as Thorsteinn had pulled me aloft. I peered over the side of the basket to the warrior far below, gripping the rope. Once the basket was secure high in the tree, Vik helped me out. “First things first.” His knife flashed and my bonds fell away.
I rubbed my sore wrists as Vik tossed the rope aside.
“Let me see,” He raised my wrist, grimacing at the chafed skin. “These should be healing.” The mating bond allowed me to share the Berserker healing power.
I stared at the raw wounds. First, they denied our bond, then they expected it to heal me.
As if understanding my thoughts, Vik tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “The bond worked, once.”
The spot between my shoulder and neck twinged, and I covered it with my hand.
“What bond?” I snapped. “You heard Thorsteinn. There is none.”
Vik frowned. “Thorsteinn said that for a reason.”
“What reason?”
“We’ll tell you,” Thorsteinn’s voice boomed through the tree lodge. He pulled himself onto the platform and drew up the rope ladder behind him. “But first you must answer our questions.”
He stalked towards me and my heart pounded faster. I wasn’t afraid of him—I’d never been afraid—but my body couldn’t help recoiling from him, falling into old roles. He the predator, me the prey.
“Why did you run, Sorrel?”
I pressed my lips together. Thorsteinn’s eyes sparked.
“Why would you leave the mountain? What reason could you possibly have?”
I looked to Vik for defense, but the bearded warrior stood back, face inscrutable, arms crossed over his chest as his warrior brother plowed on.
“Do you have any idea how it felt to learn you had run away?” In the darkness of what used to be our dwelling, I couldn’t make out Thorsteinn’s expression, but there was no mistaking the rage in his tone. “To know you were off the mountain, away from the boundaries that kept you safe. After all we had given you. After all we had done. Do you know how it feels,” he advanced on me, the floorboards shaking as he stomped to loom over me, “to know the woman you fought for, cared for, coddled and claimed had rejected your protection and run into the arms of the enemy?”
I should cower. I should be frightened. But I have never been frightened of these warriors—not from the first. And I would not start now.
“You left me,” I shouted, leaping to my feet. I stood a full head shorter, but I drew myself up to the last inch, clenched my fists and bawled into his face. “You returned me to the home of unmated spaewives.”
“We had a mission,” Thorsteinn snapped. “We sent you to where we knew you’d be safe. And then we get word that you had left the lodge. Left the mountain entirely! Snuck past patrols and run unchecked into the enemy's territory.” Thorsteinn ran a hand through his hair, gripping the base of his braid in a gesture I knew well. He tugged his braid often when he was frustrated with me. “How far were you going to run, Sorrel? How long before the enemy found and killed you?” His roar shook the walls. My hair flew back but I stood firm against the blast. “You could’ve died out there.” He raged, pacing back and forth. Behind him, Vik stroked his beard.
I scoffed. As if they were worried about me. “Don’t pretend you care about me. Not after you left me.”
“We care,” Vik put in. “We ran from our post scouting the enemy’s lair, all the way back here. Only to find you on trial and the pack calling for your blood.”
A lump formed in my throat. I knew they cared for me, but they’d taken a patrol deep in Corpse King’s territory. I begged to go with them, but they left me at the lodge with the unmated spaewives. At first, I thought they’d come back, but moons passed, and I finally realized they no longer wished to keep me as mate. Or so I thought—
“Months we spent at your side. Taking our time, teaching you to trust. And then you repay us by running. Tell me, Sorrel,” Thorsteinn fisted his hand in my short hair, drawing my head back. “Did you think you were fooling us? Biding your time, earning our trust... were you waiting all this time to run?”
Heat suffused my body, followed by chill. They didn’t believe me. No one did. But of all those who thought the worst of me, Thorsteinn and Vik’s distrust felt the worst. A betrayal.
I would never trust anyone again.
“Was it all to fool us?” Thorsteinn tightened his grip on my hair until the sting brought tears to my eyes. But I would never let them fall. “Answer me.”
“Let go of me,” I growled at him. The Berserkers aren’t the only ones who can growl. “You have nothing to say to me. You rejected me before the pack.” Made up awful stories. Portrayed me in the worst light.
“To save your life, lass,” Vik spoke up. “Part of our plan.”
“What do you mean?”
Thorsteinn raised a hand, cutting off Vik’s answers. “You do not get to ask questions. Not until you explain to us the real reason why you ran.”
“I told you, I followed Rosalind,” I said, knowing they would not believe me.
“How did you make it off the mountain?”
“I used the training you gave me. I tracked Rosalind. There were a few warriors on patrol, but it was easy to slip past them.”
“How did Rosalind get past them if she was not with you?”
“I don’t know.” I had a guess, but to speak of it would name Rosalind traitor. And I was not a traitor. Even when the nuns beat me, I had never told on my friends.
“Sorrel—” Thorsteinn growled.
“What’s it to you?” I blurted. “You already decided what happened. You told the Alphas I was plotting all along. You think I did this.”
“We had to tell them that—” Vik began, but Thorsteinn chopped his hand to silence him.
“We said what we had to say to save you,” Thorsteinn rasped.
“You should’ve let me be.” I glared at the floor.
“You’d rather we threw you to the mercy of the pack? There was no mercy for you. We were your only hope.”
I snorted even as my heart sank. It was true. The pack hated me. If the spaewives, my friends from the orphanage, heard what I had done to Rosalind, they would hate me. These warriors were all I had left.
And they’d thrown me to the wolves.
Vik and Thorsteinn left me crouched on the floor boards as they made a fire in a great carved stone they hoisted into the tree for this purpose. When smoke spiraled up from the small blaze, Thorsteinn squatted close.
“Because of the story we told the Alphas, they handed you into our care. We can protect you now.”
“You lied to them,” I whispered. “You said horrible things.”
“To save you,” he insisted. “You would not speak, so we had to say something.” His voice gentled. “If you tell us the truth, we will work to make things right.”
I stared into his glowing eyes.
Never our mate. I thought I owed them my life and safety. But after all I had given them, my heart and my trust, they had rejected me. I would never give an inch or a quarter. I would never give them anything willingly again.
Thorsteinn
Thorsteinn, stop, Vik said directly into my
head. She’s not listening. The more you shout, the more stubborn she gets.
I straightened. He was right. Sorrel stared at a point past my head, her brows knotted, and mouth pressed shut. The picture of a woman preparing for a brutal, endless battle.
For a moment, another face flashed in my memory. I remained frozen as Vik stepped around me.
“If you will not speak, you will eat,” he ordered. When Sorrel made no move to obey, he gripped her arm and drew her to the fireside.
I stood, frowning at everything and nothing as Vik coaxed Sorrel to accept some bread and dried meat. She barely took anything and after washing her face and hands, he sent her to bed.
She fell asleep before he covered her with a pelt, her brow still creased even as her mouth went slack with exhaustion.
Are you going to stand there all night? Vik asked.
She’s not Hildr.
I know, I returned. I pushed thoughts of Hildr away, but not in time for Vik to not see in my memories.
Sorrel will not share Hildr’s fate, Vik said.
“Not if I can help it,” I spoke aloud. At my feet, Sorrel twitched in her sleep. I will not let them kill her.
They will not. We will see to it. Vik joined me in gazing down at our sleeping woman. We will claim her. We will teach her to be ours.
I will go to the Alphas and plead her case. Watch over her, I said to Vik. Tell me when she wakes. We will not leave her alone, not once.
Never again, Vik agreed. He moved to sit close to her, and I stopped him with a hand on his arm.
No matter what the Alphas say, we must do what needs to be done.
Vik clasped my hand. We will. I’m with you brother.
We waited too long to make her ours, I continued. Now we must make her understand. It will be hard, because she does not trust us. But there is a way. Pleasure her when she obeys, punish her when she rebels.
Vik grinned. She is strong. She can take it.
I thumped his shoulder and left the lodge. Vik was still grinning, probably imagining all the punishments we could use to chastise our mate. To him this was a game, but I knew better. This was life or death. From now on, I make the rules. She will follow them or face the consequences. I will never let anyone in my care be hurt again.