by Lee Savino
I could barely corral my thoughts.
Maddox reached down and pinched my nipple.
“How many, Sabine?”
“None. Only boys who wished they were men.”
“Hmm.” Ragnvald drew his loincloth aside and I drew in a ragged breath, both shocked and filled with wanting.
“You’re bigger than any of the others,” I choked out.
He did not smile, but I sensed his pleasure. A part of him was still man, and proud. “We will take you here,” he touched the petals of my sex, not quite brushing the sensitive nub. “And here.” His fingers slid to my bottom pucker, hovered over it. “But not tonight.”
“No, please. I need you inside me.”
“Like this?” Ragnvald dipped his fingers into my wet center, splaying the two of them to stretch me while his thumb ran along one plump lip and paused near my pleasure nub.
I whimpered as desire swelled in me, pressing against the inside of my mind. When he took his hand away, I cried out and kicked until Ragnvald weighted my legs down with his, keeping them apart.
“I love to hear her begging.” Maddox shifted me in his arms, clamping one tighter around my waist just under my breasts.
Ragnvald’s fingers returned to stroke me lightly. “Perhaps we should keep her like this until the next full moon. Aching, wet, chained to the bed.” He blinked. “She likes this thought. She spasmed against my hand.”
“We’ll make you beg for all you need, food and water, and release,” Maddox spun the tale.
“A fine game.”
“Hold her, brother,” Maddox offered me up to the Viking. “I have not gotten a taste yet.”
They switched positions, moving me like a sack of grain between them. Not grain--a treasure made of ivory and pearl, with hair spun from gold--but as Ragnvald cradled me in his lap and Maddox drew my legs apart, I felt the dominance in their touch. I was their treasure, their possession. They would do what they wanted with me, for as long as they liked.
“Very nice,” Maddox said. He sat between my legs, staring at my wet center. Ragnvald held me when I tried to wriggle away.
“Be still, Sabine.”
I turned my face away from Maddox’s intent look on my cunt. “Please, just take me.”
“Quiet,” Maddox murmured. He touched me, one finger rimming my lower lips, but did nothing else. “Look at me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Sabine. Do as I say.”
The fist was back around my heart, squeezing, making me want to hide. These men had traveled and had many women. How could they look at me like I was the only one on earth they wanted?
“Sabine, I will not tell you again.”
I obeyed.
“Keep your eyes on me,” he ordered. As he continued with his feather-light exploration of my most intimate place, I fought the urge to close my eyes, fold my legs, and wriggle away.
Ragnvald flexed corded arms around me, holding me tighter, reminding me that he could easily control my struggles.
Maddox’s hand fell on the center of my legs, slapping my cunt. I squealed and struggled, even as the slap made a wet sound.
“She likes it.” Maddox licked the taste of me from his hand.
“Here,” Ragnvald moved his legs to pin my quivering ones, moving them wider. “Do it again.”
Another slap, then tender dancing fingers. Pleasure hit me like a fist, then danced just out of reach.
“Please. No more.”
“Again,” Ragnvald commanded, and with a wicked grin, Maddox complied. I howled, cursing them and writhing madly against Ragnvald’s muscled frame. I wanted to fuck them, I wanted to kill them; desire made those acts one and the same.
“She likes it rough,” Maddox observed. “Let’s see how she likes this.” Bending, he stroked his tongue up and down my slit with the lightest touch. I stopped struggling and melted into Ragnvald’s hold. Maddox held my eyes. The sight of my pale legs framing his rawboned face was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
A moan broke from deep within me, long and loud as a wolf’s howl. Maddox never stopped driving me towards pleasure that would rival even that which Ragnvald had given me. My cunt throbbed like a wild thing. Eyes closed now, Maddox pressed his lips to my center in a worshipping kiss. His violence overpowered but his gentleness would undo me.
Maddox slid a finger into my bottom as he carried me to the precipice. I bucked when I realized how he’d invaded me, but between that and his mouth on my cunt, I was overcome. Pleasure took my mind, shaking me in its grip. It took me beyond the realm of words, stole my breath, turned my vision black.
When my eyesight returned, I saw Maddox before me, licking his lips.
“You satisfy Sabine.”
“You more than satisfy,” Ragnvald echoed. He slid away from me carefully, and laid me on the bed. Maddox went and wet a cloth, and returned to press it to my swollen, still throbbing flesh. Both men cleaned me and smoothed my hair, while I floated on the bed.
When they tucked the pelts around me and started to leave, I came awake.
“Wait, are you leaving? What about…” Their obvious arousal tented their clothes. “I can serve you. Please, I want to.”
Crouched on the bed, I knew I looked like a siren, blonde hair spilling down my back, nipples ruched and lips red from their kisses. I was willing, and aching. They hesitated, exchanging a glance.
“You are not ready, little witch.”
“My body aches for you. Please fill me.”
They looked torn.
They were not content with my desire. They had to own me.
“No, Sabine. You must be sure.”
“When you give yourself to us, there will be no hesitation, no retreat. We will claim your body. Every part of you will be ours. You will belong to us for all time.”
“And we will belong to you.”
*
As the moon climbed higher and disappeared beyond the cave roof, I lay on the bed, aching. The pleasure they’d given me had only whet my taste for more. But they refused to continue until they had my full surrender.
Raising my head, I met Maddox’s eyes. Neither of the warriors slept. The scent of my arousal hung so thick in the air, even I could smell it. It would be torture for these men who became wolves.
Finally I rolled to my side to face them.
“Why?”
“We would do you a dishonor, to take you in your altered state.”
I gripped the furs to keep from railing at them. I was supposed to be the strong one.
“When a wolf takes a mate, it is for life. They are bonded--connected with ties stronger than any pack or brother bond.
“I don’t want to mate,” I ground out. “I just want to fuck. Surely you can put aside your sense of honor for one night.” My throat felt raw with frustration, and from screaming my pleasure earlier.
Maddox looked away. Ragnvald shook his head.
“I hate you,” I snapped, and lay back down on the bed.
I could almost hear Maddox saying That’s good anger, little witch. Use it.
If there was a way to seduce these warriors, without tying myself to them forever, I would find it. Rolling over, I curled on my side with a sigh.
It would be a long night.
*
I sulked through the morning even though I was alone until noon. Maddox finally emerged from the wood. The tight look on his face told me he was at the end of his control.
When I asked, he told me, “Ragnvald is with the pack. If you pray, little witch, ask for peace to rule that meeting. His beast will not respond well to threats.”
‘If his control is so fragile, why did you let him go?”
“He needs to establish his place in the pack. The meeting will reaffirm the pack bonds, deepen them, give the pack the strength they need to control their beast.”
I huffed and went to and from the fire, heating water for cleaning..
Stripping the pelts to air them out.
> I felt him at my back and stilled. “Do not worry, little witch. He will return soon.”
“I do not care if he returns. I do not care to see either of you ever again.”
“I know you think we’re cruel.”
“Of course I do. You stole me away in the night. Chained me to bait a monster. Imprisoned my sisters to ensure my cooperation.” My cunt throbbed angrily, reminding me that none of these things mattered, I’d forgive Maddox, them and a world of sins if he’d just lay me down on the bed and fuck me. “And yet you won’t touch me when I ask. Why do you not just let me go?”
Blowing out a breath, he started to march away.
“You care nothing for me,” I muttered. As soon as he turned around, I knew I had made a mistake.
He walked past me without stopping, but snagged a fistful of hair to drag me back into the cave, beyond the clean, sandy floor where I made our home, into the dank, spiderwebbed recesses where darkness clawed at me. I gasped when things scuttled at my feet.
“Here,” Maddox snarled, pointing to a large rock with the link where Ragnvald had been chained. The runes had kept him from breaking the iron and prying it off. “This is where I kept my best friend, a brother who saved my life countless times--every day, if you consider how he held my beast at bay. He accepted the taint on himself. And he never complained.”
“You’re hurting me.” I cried.
“You are spoiled.” He spat. “You have never known a day’s worry--”
“I..?” I twisted and clawed at him until he let me go. “What would I give to be a man with one tenth your strength. I lived in fear, wolf. My mother married a man who beat her and raped my sister. He died before he could touch me, but not before he did away with my sister somehow. His death drove my mother to drink. I held the family together, and kept my sisters warm, sheltered, fed, all the while keeping the men of the village at bay. There has never been a day when I didn’t wonder if I could go on walking the fine line between food or hunger, safety or disgrace. I survived.” My fists curled at my sides. “I thrived. And then you took me and I will never be the same.”
My voice echoed hollowly in the cave. My words, when they reached my ears, did not seem my own.
I wanted to go home. But home was gone. Even my sisters would be shaken from their illusion of safety. How could I protect them from what lurked in the large world?
“You’ve vowed to never join yourself to a man because you are trying to protect yourself. Did you wonder about how it is harming you?”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “I need to go. Please, for just this afternoon, let me be.”
“Come,” he held out his hand. “I will take you to get herbs.”
*
Maddox chopped wood while I kept my head down and gathered herbs along the banks of a woodland stream. Working side by side felt natural and benign, but my body still rang with my frustration and his harsh words.
The times I’d laid with a village man, I’d enjoy myself. There were the usual whispered promises and fervent pledges, but they hadn’t meant anything beyond the heat of the moment.
My instincts told me these Berserkers would tie me to them, one way or another, and worse, I would forever long to be in their thrall.
Just watching Maddox wield his ax, tattoos snaking over mighty shoulders, cleaving a great oak with a force that sent wood chips flying, made me warm all over. If I dared think on last night, I would remember how my body felt like I’d waited my whole life for their touch.
They’d waited centuries for mine.
Turning my back to Maddox, I continued harvesting the succulents I needed. I was a healer, nothing more, nothing less. I could focus on my job, and find my place among these men before I lost myself.
After a few minutes I realized instead of the sound of an axe splitting a tree, there was only silence. Not the silence of a forest--full of insect noises and birdsong--but true silence, the sort that happens when a predator is about, and every prey animal holds its breath.
My hackles raised as I recognized a growling, snuffling sound in the brush. “Maddox?”
A shadow emerged from the trees, and I stumbled back before I remembered Maddox’s wolf shape. This creature was bigger than any natural wolf, with thick black fur mottled with brown and a hint of sharp canines. It did not bare its teeth immediately and I gulped down my fear.
“Maddox, is that you?”
No answer from the great, dark wolf. I held my ground as it cocked its head at me, but when it growled again I couldn’t keep myself from backing away. Tall enough to come almost to my shoulder, and half a length longer than me, the creature’s most disturbing feature was its eyes, glowing with an otherwordly light.
Dropping my herbs I fled. A second later, the wolf’s jaws snapped at my legs. I didn’t have time to scream as I ran flat out towards the cave, praying that Maddox’s beast would remember me.
I felt hot breath on my neck just as I swerved around a tree and came face to face with Maddox tearing across the clearing to save me.
“Get down,” he barked. I dropped and rolled, then hugged the ground as the wolf’s defeated snarl blended with Maddox’s angry roar. When I dared look, there was only a blur of black fur and tatooed muscle. Maddox had the wolf in his embrace.
I did scream then. Warrior though he was, Maddox would be no match for a great beast’s fangs.
But when Maddox and the wolf broke apart, the warrior didn’t look like a man any more. His body had grown, and his arms seemed longer, so as he hunched over they almost brushed the ground. Giant claws sprouted from his hands, and his canines flashed in his mouth.
My scream died in my throat.
“Sabine.” Ragnvald was at my side, lifting and carrying me into the relative shelter of the cave.
I gripped his jerkin. “You must help him.”
“He has the battle well in hand,” Ragnvald assured, though he looked grim.
I risked a glance back but the fight must have moved into the forest, leaving a few broken trees in its wake.
“Were you hurt?” He set me down and ran his hands over me.
“I--” My head jerked towards a dark shape emerging from the forest. Maddox. The tattooed man looked tired, but human, even if his canines were unnaturally long.
I raced to him and Ragnvald let me go. Maddox caught me, holding me close but a little away from his body. His arms and chest were unmarked, but the breeches he’d been wearing were ragged and torn.
“What was that? Are you alright?” I started to search for wounds and Maddox gripped my wrists gently.
After a moment, he worked out a guttural growl, “I’m fine.”
“You--you just ran at it...you didn’t stop.” I was gulping now, half way between a hiccup and a dry sob. I couldn’t get enough air.
Maddox dropped my hands and pulled me into his arms.
“Relax now,” his words rumbled under my ear as he cradled my head to his chest. “You’re safe. No harm done.”
“Breathe, Sabine.” Ragnvald ordered. I focused on pulling air into my lungs.
“What happened?” Maddox spoke to his Alpha over my head.
“One of the pack. He must have followed me and smelled her. It’s my fault--”
“No, it isn’t,” I pulled away from Maddox as far as his arms would let me. “I strayed too far--I was stupid--”
“Silence,” Ragnvald commanded, not unkindly. “You are here by our will, and we have pledged you protection. We are Berserkers. There is no place in the entire world that you should fear to walk. Least of all our territory.” He sighed and his kingly mien fell away. “That said, I’ll ask you to stay close to one of us until I am stronger. When I am at my full power I’ll be able to aid the weaker ones in their control. The blame lies with me, me alone.” He inclined his head and waited for me to nod and accept his apology.
While Ragnvald loped off to deal with the intruder, Maddox remained. He seemed loath to let me go.
I fluttered my han
ds in the small space between us. “I’m alright. It just startled me, that’s all.”
“Look at me, little witch.” A smile softened his features. My breath caught at the change. No longer just striking, his face looked handsome. “You seemed very worried about me.”
“Of course,” I rested my head back against him. “If you die, who will I hate?”
A chuckle vibrated under my cheek and I closed my eyes, finding peace in the perfect sound. Maddox just held me, and I let him stroke my hair back from my face.
The memory of his touch lingered when I finally drew away.
“There isn’t a member of the pack who can best me. Even Ragnvald and I are equals. You have no need to fear.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t fear.” When I tried to push away, he locked his arms around me.
“Do you have a kiss for your champion?”
“Let me go, Maddox. Or I’ll tell Ragnvald I want to see who is the better fighter of you two. I’ll stand back and pray that he rips out your tongue.”
“Such sweet words, Sabine. If you really hated me, you’d ask him to cut my throat.”
“Keep talking and I will.”
*
Ragnvald returned a short time later pretending to ignore Maddox while he grinned at me like a fool.
“It was Gunnr,” the Alpha reported. “I called for his warrior brothers to keep watch over him.”
“Is he all right?” I asked.
Ragnvald looked surprised that I’d ask after the wellbeing of my attacker.
I shrugged. “He is pack. If one of you is hurt, the rest feel it, yes?” I didn’t know how I knew that, but Ragnvald’s slow blink told me I was correct--and that I’d spoken a secret I shouldn’t know.
At last, Ragnvald inclined his head. “Berserkers heal fast. Maddox just did enough damage to drive him off.”
Maddox accepted the praise graciously. “No need to kill him. Gunnr scented Sabine and couldn’t resist. I know the feeling.”
“As do I. But this cannot stand,” Ragnvald said in a harder tone. “His warrior brothers will keep him in wolf form, and they will run apart from the pack for a few days as punishment, and a warning to the rest of them. He will learn better control, or next time we will cut him from the pack.”