by Leann Ryans
“You will learn to obey me, Omega. You will do as you’re told, or you will suffer the consequences.”
Stopping next to a stump at the edge of the tree line, Raider turned to face her. Chest heaving from the panic and trying to keep up with his long stride, her shoulders hunched, and she ducked her head, not wanting to challenge him by meeting his dark gaze when he was already angry.
Taking a seat on the stump, he jerked her forward by the wrist he still held, so that she stumbled over his bent legs. Placing a heavy arm over her back, just below her bandage, Raider held her where she was, folded over his knees.
Leaning down to whisper in her ear, she felt his warm breath gust against her cheek as he said, “You’re lucky we are on the move, because if we were home, you would be punished with my knot instead of my hand.”
Feeling a shiver run down her spine, Lyric wasn’t expecting the hand that connected harshly with her bottom. Jolting forward, she let out a surprised squeak of pain before a second slap landed on her other cheek. Squawking in indignation, she began to try to wiggle from his lap, jolting her injured arm.
“You let me up this instant! What do you think you’re… ah!”
Yet another slap to her stinging bottom interrupted her angry hiss.
“Struggling will only cause you more pain and prolong your punishment. You will submit one way or another,” Raider said as he continued to rain down blows on her ass.
Though her pants afforded her protection from the sting that would come from flesh on flesh contact, she still felt her cheeks heating. Already sore from the morning ride, it didn’t take long before Lyric could feel her heartbeat throbbing in her upturned bottom. Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes, and she held her breath to stop the sobs that wanted to break free. She could feel his erection pressing into her side and was ashamed at the wetness she could feel gathering between her thighs. The embarrassment that came when she heard him scenting the air finally broke the dam in her throat.
The noise that came from Lyric was a mangled combination of a sob and a moan, and it caused Raider to pause. He rolled her body to the side, but she kept her face turned away from him to hide her tears. When he pulled her up to sit on his leg, she couldn’t fight the hand that gripped her chin and forced her to face him though.
Keeping her eyes lowered, Lyric struggled not to squirm or flinch away from his hold as he studied her face in silence. Brushing her hair back from where it had fallen out of her twist, Raider ran his thumb over her cheek and wiped away the wetness lingering there.
“There are times when your life will depend on doing what I say, and I need to know that I can rely on you to do as you’re told. Are you going to behave?”
His voice was a quiet rumble, and while she could still feel his hardness against her leg, he seemed much calmer than he had been when he found her, and not about to rut her on the forest floor. Still not meeting his eyes, Lyric gave him a small nod.
“Say it out loud.”
Raider pushed her chin up higher until blue eyes met his dark ones as she said, “I’ll behave.”
He held her gaze for a moment longer before releasing her chin and helping her stand from his lap. Glancing around, Lyric realized they were the center of attention, and she could feel her cheeks burning with a ferocity to match her bottom ones.
The watching alphas seemed to find something else to look at when Raider’s head swung around the clearing and he barked out a few harsh words. Grasping her small hand in his rough one, he took care to walk slower than they had in his rush to punish her, allowing Lyric to move at her own pace instead of dragging her along behind him.
Raider was more careful about placing her on his horse’s saddle this time, but Lyric’s buttocks still hurt when it met the hard leather. Easing himself behind her, he adjusted her until she rested more against him so that there wasn’t as much pressure on her bottom. Calling to the alpha that seemed to be his second in command, the men began to move out, the wagons creaking into motion as he called the Nicaavet.
As was his usual, Raider waited until all of the others had passed before he brought up the rear, making sure no one was lagging. Gritting her teeth, eventually Lyric’s buttocks became numb and she was able to ride more comfortably. The passing trees blurred together, and she began to nod off again from boredom, her shoulder a steady throb she tried to ignore.
A few of the men around them carried on conversations as they rode, but not knowing the language, she didn’t know what they were saying. No matter if she stayed with Raider or made a run for it, she would need to be able to speak with people to make her way home, and she decided she had nothing better to do as they rode.
Turning so she could look up at the man at her back, Lyric waited until his eyes lowered to hers before speaking.
“If I am to stay with you, will you teach me your language? Please?” she added meekly.
He stared at her for a few moments in silence before laying a hand on his chest.
“Bruegar.”
“That’s your name?” she asked as her eyebrows pinched together.
Shaking his head, he said, “Bruegar means leader, chief, first alpha.”
Eyes widening, Lyric realized she had heard the others referring to him by that but hadn’t been able to separate it from the other words used to realize it was a title.
“Dreena,” Raider said while laying his hand on her shoulder. “Omega.”
Nodding, she asked, “What is horse?”
“Hollar. Hollaro for stallion.”
He continued to teach her words as they rode, pointing to things as they passed. Lyric tried her best to remember them all but was sure she had already forgotten half of what they had gone over. Raider seemed happy that she wanted to learn but grew impatient when he would point to something multiple times and she couldn’t remember his word for it.
“As my mate, other omegas will look to you for how to act and may come to you with issues. How are you going to be of use if you can’t remember the most basic of words?” he said, throwing a hand in the air in frustration.
“We just started a few hours ago,” Lyric shot back. “You can’t expect me to learn your language in a day. It’s not my fault you attacked my village and kidnapped me when we don’t even speak the same language.”
“No, it’s your greedy father’s fault.”
Gasping she turned to look up at him again, pulling her body as far from him as she could get in the saddle.
“What do you mean by that? How do you know who my father is?”
10. Raider
Raider immediately regretted his outburst. He didn’t want to have this conversation with her at all, much less on the back of his horse after only knowing her for little more than a day. They had already started off on a bad foot with him shooting her in the shoulder, he couldn’t now call her father a power-hungry thief and expect her to be happy with him.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s no longer a concern.”
Growling, she attempted to turn and face him on the horse, almost falling off its side in the process. Pulling the horse to a stop to open up more distance between them and his men, Raider wrapped his arms around her and forced her to be still. Yelling in frustration, she struggled in his grip until he caught the scent of fresh blood.
“Stop!” he roared.
Freezing, her chest heaved for breath as he crushed her against him. He could still hear a low continuous growl coming from her though her body held perfectly still.
“Your father sent a group of his warriors to attack my village during the summer, to steal our omegas and the furs we collect, as well as some of my southern lands. His men killed or injured a good portion of the men in the village, kidnapping a few of our women as well. I had to drive his men from my land, and then I came as soon as I could to find my people, but with so many injured I had to seek help from my allies which slowed me down. I never would have attacked your village if he hadn’t done the same to me.”
“My father would do no such thing. He didn’t attack people to steal and kidnap others. You lie!”
Growling, Raider leaned down and bit into the nape of her neck, causing her body to stiffen before falling limp. He could smell the salt of her tears as her body shuddered against him with sobs. When he thought she wasn’t going to start struggling again, he released her skin.
“I am sorry to tell you that your father was not who you thought he was, but do not condemn me for committing the same actions he did against me.”
Sniffling, she hunched forward over the saddle horn, refusing to acknowledge him. Sighing, Raider tapped his heels against his horse to get him moving again, giving her time to come to terms with what he had told her. She wouldn’t believe him right away, but he hoped his actions would show her he was an honorable man. He didn’t like attacking others, but he wasn’t going to let his people remain in the hands of others or let the challenge go unanswered.
“As to how I knew you were his daughter, I have been to your village before, when you were younger. You don’t look much different than you did as a child.”
She still refused to respond, so he left her alone. Whether or not she chose to believe him wouldn’t matter in the end. He had already decided that she was his. Once she went into heat, she would no longer fight him, and after he bonded her, it would help her accept her new place in life.
They rode in silence for a while before he noticed the landmark he had been watching for. A large rocky outcrop rose above the trees to the north of them. Riding to the front of the line, he called out to his second.
“Bear, we will camp in the same spot as last time, at the base of those cliffs.”
“That’s what I figured. Any sign of them?”
“There’s a scout tagging along behind us. Picked him up by the river when we crossed over.”
Bear grunted, neither of them surprised that they were being watched. They would have had someone doing the same if they knew another clan was passing through their land.
The little omega remained silent even after Raider turned and went back to his spot at the end of the train, and he was beginning to worry that she would do something foolish during the night out of anger. He knew it wasn’t likely that she would forgive him and settle into life in his village without fighting it first.
Letting out a deep sigh, he continued to hold his tongue. If she still refused to acknowledge him by the time they retired to their tent, he would figure out something to force her to respond.
The sun was sinking below the treetops before they made it to the base of the cliffs where they planned to camp. Creating a semi-circle against the rocks with the wagons so they would have a more defensible position if needed, the men began to pitch their tents and prepare for nightfall. There was a small stream not far into the tree line where a group of men took the horses before picketing them in the area between the wagons and the trees.
Raider oversaw the set-up from the back of his horse with the omega still held before him. When everyone else had dismounted, she had attempted to slide off their horse as well, but he held tight to her and forced her to stay with him. Once everything seemed to be in position, he rode the horse into the center of the area inside the wagons where Bear had pitched his tent. His was no larger or more opulent than any of the others, but he had it all to himself, unlike most of the men. Or he had until now.
Dismounting, he pulled her down with him and maintained his grip on her hips even after she had her balance. Raider didn’t trust the meek way she held still and allowed him to move her where he wanted. He needed to talk with his men and check the camp, but he didn’t want to drag her around with him and didn’t trust her to stay put.
Pulling her towards the wagon with the other omegas, Raider debated putting her inside of it for the time being but decided it would be too difficult to get her back out if she chose not to listen to him. Grabbing a length of rope from the back of the supply wagon, he turned her to face him and backed her against the wooden slats that made up the bars of the cage.
“Since you have proven I cannot trust you to stay where you are put, I have no choice but to restrain you,” he said, looking down at her as he wrapped the rope around the wrist of her good arm.
Though her eyes flashed up to his, betraying her anger, she remained still and allowed him to pass the rope through the rings on the side of the wagon before wrapping it around her waist. He would have tied both hands to her waist, but he didn’t want to hurt her arm any more than it was, so he had to hope that she wouldn’t be able to get free in the time he was gone.
“I will be back shortly.”
Turning her head to the side, the omega continued to ignore him.
11. Lyric
Lyric was furious, but she wasn’t sure who to directed it at. Her father for not being the man she had thought he was, Raider for being justified in his vicious actions and bursting her illusions, or herself for being naive enough to have believed them.
She wanted to believe that Raider was lying about her father, but too many things pointed to his story being true. Warriors missing from the village in early summer and coming back with injuries. Whispers of new women in the village that spoke a different language. Talk she overheard of expanding to the north that ended after the warriors had returned.
There were other things she could remember over the years that pointed to this being something her father had done multiple times, not just to Raider. She hated to realize she had been so foolish as to not notice them before.
Lyric was lost in thought for most of the ride, trying to work through everything in her head. Though what Raider had done to her village was horrible, she could understand the reason for it and knew that if they were on opposite sides, she would have encouraged him to go find their people and take vengeance. That was the way of their world.
She perked up a little when Raider rode to the front of the line to speak with the man she thought was his second, but they talked so fast she had no chance of catching any of the words she had learned. Sighing, Lyric wished she could bring herself to lean back against Raider’s chest again. Her anger had kept her warm before, but now the cold wind was cutting its way through her causing the ache in her shoulder to deepen, and she was shivering as snowflakes started drifting through the treetops.
When they halted at the base of a small cliff, she was excited to get off of the horse and stretch her legs. Though his heat had helped her stay warm, having her legs spread around his wide chest for an entire day had muscles she hadn’t even been aware of aching, and she knew it was only going to get worse.
Trying to slide off, Raider stopped her by tightening his arm around her waist and gripping her hips with his thighs. She could feel the corded muscles squeezing her and was ashamed at the spark of excitement it caused in her. Praying he didn’t smell her arousal, she held herself stiff until he finally slid from the horse’s back, pulling her with him.
Keeping her held firmly in front of him, Lyric had to admit that she had earned the distrust, though it still irritated her. She tried to show that she wasn’t going to try anything by not resisting, but when he announced that he was going to restrain her, she couldn’t help the flair of anger that caused her to glare up at him. She forced herself to drop her eyes to the ground again, holding still as he tied her wrist to her waist before tying her to the wagon where the other omegas were being kept.
Watching him walk away, Lyric was torn between being upset that he distrusted her so much, and angry that he had tied her up. It startled her when one of the omegas in the wagon called out to her.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?”
Turning to face them, she said, “His village I suppose.”
Another of the omegas shook her head.
“If they were taking us to his village, they would have gone straight north. We have been heading more east, to the A
ndtay Clan territory. Half the men here are Andtay.”
“What are the other half?” Lyric asked. She was ashamed that as the leader’s daughter, she didn’t know any of the other clans in the area.
“The rest of the men and the Alpha that has been dragging you around are Tayueta,” the woman whispered back, eyes darting around like she expected punishment for speaking.
Looking around the clearing herself, Lyric could tell they were being watched by many of the men, but none were approaching them. She had a feeling that after what had happened earlier, Raider ordered them to keep their distance.
Sighing, she straightened and turned her back to the cage as she spotted Raider approaching through the sea of tents.
“When are they going to let us out? I need to go… you know,” she heard the youngest omega whisper behind her.
“I’ll find out,” she murmured back from the corner of her mouth, not taking her eyes off of Raider.
When he stopped in front of her, he stared down at her for a moment before reaching for the rope binding her to the wagon.
“Are they going to be let out?” she asked him.
Raising his eyebrow, he asked, “Why would they be?”
“To relieve themselves. To move around so their bodies don’t cramp. To eat.”
“We will feed them in the cage just like we did earlier. They can choose a corner to use for waste.”
Recoiling from his callous comment, Lyric curled her lip in disgust as she heard whimpers behind her.
“They are not animals. You cannot expect them to sit in their own filth!”
“Why not?” he asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
Trying to come up with something he would listen to, she blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“The smell! It will attract animals and leave a stronger trail for anyone to follow. It could make them sick as well if they have to sit in there with it for too long.”
Raider continued to stare down at her with an unreadable expression. After a minute, she could see a sly smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.