by Savino, Lee
*
Time passed, and I knew not how long I stayed in the cave. It was more than a sennight, for my monthly bleeding came and went. The warriors doted on me during that time as they always did, bringing me food and taking me to bathe.
The pampering continued after my menses ended. I grew to enjoy the way they coddled and cared for me, though I wished I could communicate with them. Sometimes they lounged for hours on the dais, telling stories from their past. They loved to talk of their warrior exploits. They seemed to have battled enough for three lifetimes. At times they mentioned kings with foreign names, or kings who I had heard of, but who had died long ago.
If I could, I’d ask them about their past, and how they came to live on a mountain as a berserker clan. At times they returned from the hunt, smelling of blood, eye bright with that strange golden light. Something in their manner sent a prickle up my spine, like they were predators and I was prey. They’d eat and bathe and sleep, speaking broken phrases in harsh, guttural tones.
But mostly they fucked me.
Their hands and long, tickling hair wrought their desire on my skin, until I was trembling and ready. Then one would mount me or another.
I did not know it was morning or evening when I woke, cocooned between two large, warm bodies. Their long hair streamed over my body, mingling with mine. Holding my breath, I listened, but they were not awake. Usually they woke me, excited hands caressing me, positioning me, mouths finding my sensitive places until I panted, ready for them. Then they took turns rutting hard and fast between my legs.
They kept me naked and most of the time they also wore no clothes beyond a leather loincloth. They seemed always hard and ready for me.
I moved a little, and felt one hard length grow against my leg.
I felt the heat roll over me, claiming me, and for the first time in a moon, I was ready before they were.
Staring at Samuel’s beautiful sleeping face, my fingers sought his member and stroked it with the barest of movements. The shaft grew longer against me, I would not have thought it possible.
Behind me Daegan sighed and I reached behind me, seeking his thickness with a tentative finger.
My small hands encircled them, taking liberties
Another sigh behind me, and echoed by Samuel, and I looked up to see a little smile playing on the blonder man’s face.
“Someone’s awake,” he said. He opened his eyes and I blinked at the bright gold light.
“You think she’s ready for us?” Daegan breathed at my ear, and I heard his smile.
“Always.” Samuel came to hands and knees and rolled me under him.
When it was over, our bodies lay twined together on the pelts.
“To think how long we went without this,” Samuel said. His fingers traced my cheek. As time went on they’d stopped touching my scar, but I no longer minded as much. It had been so long since I’d left the mountain, the rest of my life seemed almost a dream.
While Daegan rose and fed the braziers, Samuel continued to stroke my face and hair. His gaze held a touch of melancholy. “So young and lovely. The beauty of a flower, meant to fade.”
My brow furrowed.
“It does no good to think on this, brother,” Daegan called.
“My brother has never taken a woman into his home, or his heart,” Samuel looked at me, but I could feel his annoyance at Daegan’s comment. “He came to be a Berserker a different way, and has never known any other life.”
“I am still witch born,” Daegan protested. “Unnatural.”
“A monster,” Samuel agreed. “Like me.”
I didn’t like this line of talk. Both my warriors seemed so sad, and, trapped here in the two rooms, they’d become my world. They did not seem monsters to me. Large and brutal, but also gentle and kind. At least, to me.
I thought back over all the stories they told. Some of them I assumed were tales of great heroes of old. But I had heard of Harald Fairhair, the king who united the Northern Way. He was of old, many kings before our own Red King. How could Samuel, once Sigmund have fought for a ruler who’d died so many centuries before? It didn’t make sense to me. How old were they? I couldn’t ask, but I searched for clues.
“Is it easier, little love, to be born a monster, or changed to one?”
“Ye chose the witch’s curse,” Daegan said.
“I wouldn’t if I knew the truth. I lived as something other than a monster. I had a family. You never did.”
“I have longed for one,” Daegan said, and I could tell he was irritated.
“My wolf brother doesn’t understand what I lost,” Samuel told me, and Daegan let out a little growl, prowling around the perimeter of the room.
I glanced back at the dark haired warrior, nervous.
Samuel frowned. “Calm, little love. We will not hurt you.”
“It is an old quarrel,” Daegan blew out a frustrated breath.
I still felt unsettled, and I didn’t like it. I put my hand on Samuel’s shoulder and squeezed. He captured my hand and kissed it. I reached out my other for Daegan and he came closer.
“Our little love doesn’t like seeing us fight,” Samuel remarked, but he didn’t sound upset. He held my hand in his own massive paws, rubbing and massaging, cradling carefully like it was a fragile bird.
“She knows the way to soothe us. Come, Brenna,” Daegan tugged my hand. “Let us teach you something new.” He lay a pelt before the dais and helped me kneel before Samuel.
“Whenever I anger my brother it’ll be up to you to settle him.”
With a small smile, Samuel shifted his loincloth and drew himself out.
“Touch him,” Daegan said into my ear. The dark haired warrior crouched behind me, coaching me as I took Samuel’s shaft in my hand and stroked him.
“Now yer mouth, wee one,” he instructed.
As my lips brushed his cock, Samuel closed his eyes. I took it as a good sign.
The truth was I liked finding ways to please them. On my knees before the great warrior, I felt content.
My tongue touched his thick flesh and his cock jumped. I circled around the pink crown, then, at Daegan’s insistence, pushed my head forward to swallow more. Samuel was too thick for me to take down very far, but I tried my best, backing off and working my mouth down again.
Daegan’s fingers sifted in my hair and he worked my head up and down in a rhythm until Samuel stiffened and came. Cum spilled from my mouth and down my chest.
Samuel sat up and fed it to me, smearing it over my lips and breasts before kissing me.
“You smell of my seed,” he growled happily. His golden eyes glowed.
“My turn.” Daegan took a handful of my hair and tugged gently to turn me to him. I rose up on tall knees and gave him the same service. With his dark hair and golden eyes, he looked like a wicked beast, feral. For all his gentle coaxing when I serviced his brother, Daegan was more forceful with me, gripping my head and moving it up and down the shaft. I gripped his thighs and breathed through my nose until he spent himself.
Samuel tugged me to my feet. He sat on the rock, his manhood sticking straight up. I thought he wanted me to lick him again, but he took my hips and lifted me onto his cock. We both sighed as I sank down his shaft. As always, his thickness stretched me to pleasure’s breaking point. His hand slipped between us and his thumb caught my pleasure nub, stroking until shockwaves radiated through me. I convulsed, my hands tearing at his hair. His mouth found my neck, licking and sucking the tender skin. His lips drifted to the thick scar tissue. I tolerated it for a few moments, before tugging his head away. A growl rumbled through his chest, but he moved on to my chest until I arched back, offering my breasts to him as he licked, teased and sucked the tender mounds.
Daegan came to prop me up and I leaned back against him, smiling as his head came down to claim my mouth. His warrior brother finished worshiping my breasts and pulled me against him. Samuel gripped my hips hard and lifted me up and down on his shaft.
&nb
sp; Pleasure claimed me again, vibrations starting deep, deep inside me and spreading outwards through my whole body. I gasped and clawed at Samuel’s arms and muscled shoulders. The big warrior roared and lay back, pulling me over him.
“Ride me,” he ordered, his eyes piercing mine.
I struggled to get my limbs together.
I felt Daegan’s hand smooth down my back, squeezing one butt cheek before smacking it. “Up and down, Brenna, there’s a good lass. Give my brother relief.”
Finding purchase on the rock, I straddled the big warrior and pushed myself up and down. My skin grew slick with sweat.
Daegan spanked me for a while to encourage me, then his fingers slipped in the crevice between my buttocks. I jerked up to escape the probing digit, and the dark haired warrior smacked my bottom again.
Samuel’s fingers tugged my nipples, drawing my attention. “Faster,” he grunted, and I obeyed, rocking over him as he pulled my nipples to control the pace. The pain made me clench down on the blond’s giant cock, and he grabbed my hips and pounded me from beneath until he came with a roar.
I’d barely recovered before Daegan gripped my hair and pulled me off Samuel’s cock.
“Lick him clean,” the dark-haired warrior ordered hoarsely, “While I take ye from behind.”
Bent over Samuel’s prone body, I obeyed. In the heat of arousal, Daegan’s usual joking manner disappeared, but I didn’t mind. They’d primed my body for fucking, and I reveled in the feel of the dark haired warrior’s hard thrusts while I worshiped Samuel’s turgid member.
Daegan pulled out before climaxing and painted my back with his seed. I’d grown used to our coupling ending with me covered in their cum, but this time I was well and truly covered. The warriors seemed so pleased, I was afraid they would not let me bathe.
At last Daegan led me to the heated springs. He left me while I splashed and bathed. I enjoyed getting clean, both using the oil and strigil and rinsing the oil off. I stood in the shallows stroking my skin and admiring my full breasts, narrow waist flaring into wide hips and a rounded bottom. My body felt full of desire and sated at the same time. I almost hummed with the thought of returning to the dais and taking the two warriors again.
Floating in the water, I closed my eyes and let my hands idly play over my body.
A thought struck me and I surged to my feet, languid mood gone. I was in heat. Again.
I covered my face with my hands.
Surely it could not be. A month had passed and I was still here. I had forgotten myself. I had forgotten my sisters helpless to my stepfather’s lechery. The warriors had chained me with bonds of care and kindness. They’d treated me so well, I’d forgotten my duty.
I’d even forgotten my hideous face.
The water rippled around my body, marring my reflection, mocking me. I had but to look and I could remember it all.
But it was too late--my womb cramped for my warrior lovers to take me. Even my body was my enemy.
I staggered back to the room and pulled a pelt around me. I had no boots or clothes, but I could not delay. For the first time since they’d brought me to the cavern, I entered the hall and moved towards the cold outside air, escape on my mind. Samuel had told me never to venture out by myself and the threat of danger had been enough to keep me. That and their caressing touches, so welcome after a lifetime of being an outcast. In the soft light of love, I was blind to my true ugly self. The witch had indeed chosen well.
Awash in bitter thoughts, I stepped out of the cave and onto the mountain ledge, blinking in the light. The sun hung low in the sky—evening or morning I did not know. A path lead from the lip of the cave down the mountain, and for a second it seemed I could escape.
Movement caught my eye and I startled as the shapes emerged from shadow, the mottled fur a natural camouflage against the stone.
Everywhere I looked, there were wolves.
Just like that, my dream of escape turned into a nightmare.
I backed away from the path off the mountain, one hand clutching the pelt, the other covering my scar. Pitiful protection from these beasts who now surrounded me, a few even cutting off my re-entrance into the cave. I was trapped on a mountain with a pack of wolves, my earliest tormentors.
My mouth opened and worked in a cry no one could hear.
A wolf had taken my voice, and changed my life forever. And now wolves would take my life.
There was one way open to me: the edge of the cliff. Tears now streaming down my face, I inched backwards.
A dark wolf darted out before the rest. He didn’t growl, just stood, alert, watching me.
That’s when I realized all the wolves had golden eyes.
My head started weaving back and forth. No, it could not be.
A golden wolf, larger than all the rest, ran out from the pack and drew abreast with the dark one, and I knew then beyond all doubt, here was Samuel and Daegan. The berserkers were not men given to rage like beasts. They were beasts. Wolves.
Mouth still stretched in a scream, I turned and ran. My feet pounded on the stone. I could not escape them, but the ledge ended a few feet from me. I could throw myself over and die.
A great blast behind me drove me to the ground. My hair blew as if tossed by the wind, but the air was still.
“No,” a snuffling growl came from behind me. “Brenna!”
I scrambled to my feet and whirled. The dark wolf only a foot away, its mouth open and tongue panting. Was there sorrow in its golden eyes?
I put my hands up in a gesture for it to stay away. Samuel crouched a few feet behind the wolf, bent over on hands and knees. He was naked but for a loincloth, as I had seen him many times. “Brenna,” he choked out, and then repeated in a clearer human voice, “Please.”
In my haste to escape, I misjudged how close I was to the edge. One tiny step backwards and I started falling. The wolf leapt.
Jaws snapped onto the pelt and jerked me forward. I clung to the fur robe as the wolf dragged me back onto the mountain ledge. For a second my feet kicked over the rock, in the empty air, but the thick pelt saved me. That, and the crushing jaws of a wolf.
Samuel leaned over me, worry scribed in every line of his face.
“Brenna.” His hands roved over my body, checking me. Beside the blond warrior, the dark wolf whined.
Samuel lifted and carried me to the room with the pelts. I stared into the golden eyes, piecing it all together. These were the berserkers of old. Over the centuries, they’d fought for kings and different countries, finally settling in the highlands, secluded and alone where no one would know they were wolves. They needed a slave to sate their lusts, and consulted a witch, who told them to find me. For who would miss such a hideous peasant woman, whose flesh already bore the scars of their kind.
I lay on the pelt, pain bubbling through me despite Samuel’s gentle ministrations. He lay beside me stroking my hair from my face and speaking to me in a soothing tone. “Brenna, I am sorry. I wish I could’ve told you another way. I’d do anything to take away your fear.”
His hand brushed my scar and I stiffened. Closing my eyes, I turned my back on him. Samuel settled one great arm around me, pulling me back to his front. His sigh blew through my hair.
“Please, little love. Do not fear us. I do not know what gave you those scars. A wolf or a normal dog, or one such as ourselves. We are witch born. The beast lives inside us, and it can be sated. Somehow you…” He paused to tip his head into my hair and take a deep breath, as the warrior did so often. “…you soothe the wolf.”
I scrunched my face, willing myself not to cry. It wasn’t fair. To have my destiny changed, twice, both times by beasts. It did not matter that I loved my warrior masters. A lifetime of suffering was enough to wipe the tender moments away.
A snuffling sound caught my attention. The dark wolf stood beside the dais, shaking its head this way and that as if it wore an invisible coat it wanted to claw off. I stiffened and started to scramble away, but Samuel held me, f
acing the wolf.
“That is Daegan. He is trying to change back into a man for you, so he can comfort you.”
The beast stopped and whined, a desperate, pathetic sound, even to my frightened ears.
“I called on pack magic to change quickly, so I might speak to you,” Samuel explained. “Each wolf gave me aid and it will be awhile before they recover. But Daegan is strong. His power is almost equal to mine. Even weakened, he may be able to shift.”
The wolf ducked its head again, and whined. Massive as it was, it did not seem as frightening as before.
“Look at him, Brenna. He suffers, because you are afraid of him. You returned our humanity to us. Please do not hate us, and take it away.”
Samuel and I watched the black beast struggle for a long while. Its body shook as if worried by a thousand tormenting bees. A part of me wanted to comfort it.
The blond warrior spoke again. “For years we have fed the beast with violence. Centuries of fighting and death. The killing rage is sweet, when it is upon us. But it leached us of all goodness, until we were hollow inside.” He rolled me to face him, but I still heard the wolf snuffling and fighting to shift behind me. “I did everything to cling to humanity. Sought out women, carried out good deeds. Even renounced the warrior way, took a vow of piety and changed my name to become a priest. But my prayers were not answered.”
His great hand covered my scars and for once I didn’t flinch away, held in thrall by his story and his eyes. “I became a scholar, and sought a witch. She told us to look for one who’d been marked by a wolf. Daegan passed through your village, saw you bathing in the stream, and knew.” His head bent again, pressing into the curve between my neck and shoulder. “Please, little love. Do not leave us for the darkness. We need you.”
I stared at the dark wolf, then touched my scars another wolf had made.
When I was a child a wolf marred me. Today one wolf saved me, but the wolves had saved me long before then. One moon ago.
They thought themselves monsters, these berserker wolves, but I knew worse monsters. My stepfather was one of them.