by A. J. Adams
He was running his hands over my back as he smiled at me. “Like what, kisa?”
“Brave and beautiful.” Then, remembering. “And not a she-wolf, either!”
“Yes, you are.”
And then he was kissing me again. Lust, want, need, triumph, joy, and laughter, all chasing each, flickering fast and sweet. My knees went again and I was swept away. Love, delight and anticipation rolled over me in waves. Moaning, me or him, it didn’t matter. We were as one.
“Let me look at you.” He was sweeping my tunic over my head, his body hard and hot against mine, the seawater running off both of us still, soaking into the sand. But his hands were gentle on my skin.
When I stood naked before him, he drank me in with hungry eyes. Then he embraced me, his body shaking as he whispered, “I’ve been waiting for you all my life.”
Mine, she’s finally mine. Gratitude, love, and gentleness enveloped me. At that, all my fears melted away. His lips were on mine again. We’ll have perfect happiness. I surrendered and let his emotions wash through me, accepting them as my own.
We came together, body to body, kissing, touching, tongues and hands dancing together in perfect harmony. The hard muscles writhing against my skin. She’s so soft. My hands moving over the massive erection, feeling the soft tip while his shivers Odin’s balls, I’m going to blow racketed through me.
My momentary fear as he laid me down, gently, she’s afraid, passing away as he knelt over me, smiling, “Sweet kisa!” My arms cinching around the hard shoulders, my nails trailing down his back. His answering shiver of delight, yes, oh gods, yes, setting fire to me.
Another melting kiss, a momentary pressure and then, pleasure, bliss, sweet delight. His joy swept me away completely, tumbling me into perfect rapture. We melted into each other, his mind and body blending as one with mine. My nipping my shoulder resonated silvery sharp in my own flesh just as his rapid thrusting echoed in my wails of pleasure.
We bucked and arched in perfect rhythm, breaths turned ragged as we ground together.
“Mine!” Possession, need, love, and passion. “Mine!”
The heat was flooding me, pounding in my nipples, pulsing deep inside me, milking the swiftly thrusting, rock-hard shaft piercing me. His body, my passion, it all blended into one.
“More!” My voice, hoarse and demanding. “More!”
“Kisa!”
I lifted my hips, welcoming his thrusting body with frenzied writhing. We soared together, in mutual perfect passion, and then I was bucking and squealing, peaking into ecstasy as he exploded, pounding into me with shuddering gasps.
Elation, delight, deep fulfilment, and passion.
I was kissing his shoulders, my lips searing the hot flesh, softness and hardness all mixed together, softness and hardness all mixed together. “Hey, I was thinking that!”
For a second the blue eyes, so familiar and dear to me now, blinked. Fear, withdrawal, unnatural and dangerous. I was cradled in his arms, still feeling the hardness of his arousal softening inside me as the dark emotions surged.
For a moment the world stopped, and then he was hugging me, “Bliss!” He was laughing. “Loki’s warty prick, stop peeking at my evil thoughts!” Then he kissed me softly, “My sweet vala.”
He’d been telling the truth. The shock of being read was just a momentary instinct. After the ripple of cold rejection, the real feelings flowed back in, and they were all warm acceptance. There was even humour in it.
At the knowledge, that lingering fear inside me unclenched. I lay in his arms, floating in his love, laughing as aftershocks of pleasure undulated through us.
“Oh, oh!” Siv was laughing. “We’re in trouble.”
I looked over his shoulder and spotted Saga, Bygul and Trigul, all sitting in a row on the sand, giving us very disapproving looks.
Siv was laughing. “Too late! I’m claiming her! You’ll have to share her with me!”
The joy that flooded out of him was infectious. I was smiling with him as I stroked the short blond hair. It was curling as it dried. By summer it would turn white.
“Vala.” His voice was soft. “You haven’t judged me.”
“I won’t. Judging is for the gods.”
“Bliss, you’ll be mine?”
“How about you being mine?”
That got me a grin. “Difficult and contrary!” And a kiss. “I accept.”
He curled an arm around me, yawned and was asleep in seconds, curling around me in loose-limbed relaxation. I lay in his embrace, sublimely happy as the wash of our emotions reverberated through me.
I took in the lean face with the sharp bones. He was a hard man, so long driven by rage that it had become part of him. But at heart he longed for peace. I stroked the short hair, rejoicing in his tenderness that still washed through me.
As the sun went down, colouring the ocean red and pink, I felt a deep sense of peace. We would lean on each other, his strength and mine combining in an indestructible force. Together we’d leave the cruelty of the past behind. We would make a life, a peaceful one, built on a foundation of love.
I tried again to see Siv’s people, thinking of the Skraeling who’d gone west, but I got nothing. I invoked the goddess, “Lady, please! Would it kill you just to give me a teeny tiny sign?” But apparently it would. I was blind.
Saga curled up next to me, sticking her nose in my side. She was stiff and bruised still, but I felt happiness coming from her. She’d enjoyed her dinner, loved the beach, and was planning a nice long snooze. Bygul and Trigul were stalking each other, playing wild games. They would be busy half the night, enjoying themselves, and then they’d sleep all day long. It was their idea of perfection.
I lay looking at the stars, delighting in sweet dreams of a happy future as I quietly dozed off. I woke up as the sun was flooding pale yellow light over the horizon. There was a stiff breeze, but I was warm. Siv had woken in the night and wrapped me in a cloak.
“Bliss!” He was splashing in the shallows, yet another net full of fish in his hand, grinning as the cats looked on with mingled horror at all the water and desire for his catch. Me, I was panting along with Saga, both of us enjoying uncomplicated lust, although she was after the food, and I was after the man.
“Hey!” I got a wet hug and a kiss that set my heart racing. Grace and beauty. All mine. “Sleep well?”
“Hmmm. Yes. You?”
“Cold?”
He was throwing out heat, the Skraeling internal forge working overtime as usual.
“No. But come here and let me cuddle you.”
I was soaking in damp musk and laughter when a chamber draped in black cloth as if in mourning. Early morning sunlight shone over a big oak table, heaped with a side of roast beef and big jugs of ale and porter.
The duke was toying with a knife, his face lined and worried. “We are blind, Richard, and our enemies are gathering.”
His constable was looking morose, too. “Sire, we have lost our blessed sibyl but we have a hundred armed men who will die rather than surrender.”
“I fear it may not be enough,” the duke sighed. “Llanfaes threatens, as do our own noble factions.”
“Wherever the enemy springs from, we will be ready!” the constable snarled. “I swear it, sir!”
“You are a good friend, Richard.”
Before he could say more, the pair were jolted by cries from distant servants. Then a door was thrown open. The Patriarch was storming in, Courtney running behind him.
“Sir! Treachery!” The priest was muddied to the brow yet fiercely exultant with bad news. “Your charge, the Salvation woman, Bliss, has absconded with a Beast!”
“WHAT?!” The duke was on his feet and yelling. “She was kidnapped?”
“No, sir,” the Patriarch snapped. “She betrayed you. The witch betrayed us all!”
The duke was silent a moment, clearly thinking. Then he nodded sharply to the Patriarch, “Hold your insolent tongue!” The duke was turning to Courtney, “Sq
uire, what happened?”
Courtney looked miserable. “Sir, I fear the Patriarch is right. She was sheltering the Beast in her own home. I saw him myself.”
The duke squared his shoulders. “He held her hostage with threats, that is clear!” He addressed his constable. “Prepare my ship. We will go and put an end to this once and for all. We will destroy the Beasts.”
“But sir!” The Patriarch was roaring. “The woman went willingly!”
“Nonsense, man. Your fear has addled your wits.” The duke was stern. “The Beast abducted our sweet sibyl. We shall go in instant pursuit. Ullr grant we find her alive.”
I snapped back, sweat running down my back. “Ohmigod! He’s coming!”
“Okay, vala. Take a breath.” Siv sounded comforting, but his eyes were concerned. “Sit, love. Whatever it is, it can wait. Just breathe.”
I was frantic, tears running down my face. “No! You don’t understand! He’s coming to destroy you! And it’s all my fault!”
My dream of a loving future was shattered. I thought I’d escaped death in Salvation, but instead I’d brought death to the man I loved and ensured the annihilation of what remained of the Skraeling.
Chapter Fourteen: Siv
I’d always imagined valas as being calm, superior and kind of holy. Back when she’d seen the storm in a bowl of milk, Bliss had been concerned but perfectly together. This time, though she was a quivering, tearful wreck. “Ohmigod, they’re all going to die, and it’s my fault!”
“Who, Bliss? Who’s going to die?”
“Your people!”
I thought she’d seen my brothers dead, and for a moment I was frozen with fear. “You saw them die? How?”
“No! But the duke’s taking his ship, and he’s vowed vengeance and–” Bliss was shaking so much that she was barely coherent. “It’s all my fault! And the sibyl is dead, too!”
She was making no sense at all. This was clearly where I had to step in. I took hold of her, settled her on the sand and petted her. “Quiet now, Bliss. Just sit and breathe a minute.”
“But–!”
“No buts, vala. You’re no use to us if you fall apart.”
That calmed her. “Right. Sorry.”
I stroked the wild hair. “All right, sweeting. Slow and steady, tell me what you saw.”
“Right.” She took a deep breath. “First I saw the duke’s palace, shrouded in black.” She talked simply and concisely, ending with, “Siv, he has a hundred soldiers! And you say there are only fifty of you!”
“Yes, it’ll be a massacre.”
“It’s all my fault!” Bliss was hand wringing again. “You shouldn’t have rescued me!”
I swept her up in my arms, laughing. “You foolish witch! When I said massacre, I meant them!”
“This is not the moment for macho Skraeling posturing!”
“Listen love, we’re not helpless. Look into me.” I concentrated, showing her how we’d spent the winter. “Can you see?”
“Oh!” Bliss was leaning towards me, her eyes luminous. “Is that a musket?”
“Yes. We have two cart loads of them.”
Bliss just stared open mouthed. “That’s not possible,” she gasped. “There aren’t that many in all of Prydain!”
“Tut tut, vala! Am I a liar?”
I have to admit: I was smug. Muskets are the greatest, most devastating invention created ever. Unlike swords and knives, they kill at a distance. Worse, they can be wielded efficiently with almost no training or skill.
Of course the Brighthelme smiths created them. Nobody but the cowardly Prydain could have ever conceived of such a weapon! But abominable as they are, they’re going to revolutionise the battlefield.
Bliss was still open mouthed. “But Siv, the Guild restricts how many are made and sold! There can’t be more than two dozen muskets in all Prydain!”
“Wrong! When we razed Brighthelme, we raided their warehouses. We took the duke’s stock and the order they’d completed for Llanfaes, too.”
“Sweet Lady!” Bliss gasped. “A Brighthelme-Llanfaes alliance? With a hundred muskets! That would make them the most powerful dukes in Prydain!”
“Well, it’s us now.”
At that point, we both heard a happy growling. I turned to see Saga holding the net open with her paws while Bygul was pulling out a fish. Trigul was sitting by, waiting with quivering whiskers. It was her making the anticipatory sounds of joy.
I rescued our day’s catch, but when Saga looked up and gave me the best puppy look ever, I couldn’t help but laugh and toss them all a fish. “Not that you deserve it,” I told them. “You’re unprincipled thieves.”
To my immense relief, Bliss was giggling. “They’re dreadful. I was hoping you’d impose some Skraeling discipline.”
“I can’t resist pleading eyes.” I stirred the coals, filled the pots, and set it all cooking. Only then did I turn to Bliss. “We eat and then we sail. We’ll be there in a week. The duke will be a fortnight or more behind us.”
Bliss was hand-wringing again. “Maybe you should just leave me behind.”
“No way!” I was up and roaring, startling Saga so much that she jumped back and landed in the sea. “Are you out of your damn mind?”
Bliss was open-mouthed. “I guess you don’t like the idea?” she said faintly.
“It’s not happening!”
“Erm, Siv? I’m not deaf. And you’re scaring the girls.”
I was shaking at the thought of my girl being taken from me. “Don’t try and change the subject! You’re coming with me! I’ll kill any hrafnasueltir who tries and come between us, whether he has a hundred men or a thousand!”
Bliss was patting my arm, “Look, be reasonable. If you dump me on the coast, the duke will likely just stop, pick up me and go straight back home.”
“And he’ll have you in that cave, soaked in poppy, your mind rotting away!”
Bliss gulped and went pale with fear, but she shook her head. “I can persuade him I don’t need poppy.”
“Liar.” But I wasn’t mad at her. She stood there, a mere slip of a girl, trying to sacrifice herself for my brothers and me. My heart flowed over with love for her. I swept her up and held her close. “You’re a fool, Bliss.”
Her face was in my shoulder and her voice muffled. “I thought we weren’t calling each other names?”
So dear to me. Brave, loving and generous. My perfect girl.
“Oh!” She was clutching me, as if suddenly weak at the knees. “Siv!”
I ran my hand down her side, from the sweet curve of her waist to the rich swell of her hips. Memories of the night before flooded my mind. Soft, sweetness, yielding into fiery passion.
“Gah.”
This time there were no lingering kisses. We came together, ripping off shifts and leathers, falling onto the sand in hot, sweet embrace. At first it was me leading, my mind pulling my girl into my own lust. But then Bliss took over and used her inside scoop to play.
Feeling what I felt, she went about intensifying each tingle, each shiver–and she giggled as she went about it.
She was stroking my balls, murmuring, “Nice?”
“Aaaaah!”
Nails running lightly over my back as she licked my nipples, “And this?”
“Odin help me! I need you now!”
I was swamped with sensation. Soft skin, long limbs wrapped around me, hungry lips on mine and that forest perfume all around me. Touching, arching, thrusting–we danced in sweet loving passion, immersed in each other, rising to mutual cresting passion.
We exploded together, our bodies working as one. Our wails echoed in each other and then I was floating in bliss, joy coursing through me as I crushed her to me, gasping for air. My body was shimmering with release, but I didn’t feel drained. I was buoyant in an ocean of perfect delight.
I was jolted back to earth by a shower of seawater. The wolf was standing next to me and shaking herself dry. The look in her eye told me it was deliberate.<
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“Ew!” Bliss was hiding her face in my neck and laughing. “Saga! Soak Siv, not me!”
I mock growled at them both, but the moment was shattered. Bliss was shifting underneath me, back to worrying again. “Ohmigod, Siv! What are we doing?”
“We were fucking.” I kissed the anxious mouth. “Now you’re going to say something foolish.”
“I’m being practical! Look, you can’t fight all of Prydain!”
She was trying to push me off her, her mind taken up by her vision again.
I didn’t want to move. “Actually, we can. We always have done.”
“But this is different!”
Clearly there no talking to her. I’d never convince her that we’d been planning for this all winter, that Rune had some ideas about treaties that the duke would jump at. Bliss was too loaded with fear and prejudice to listen.
I got up, pulled my girl to her feet and gave her the bottom line. “If you think I’m sacrificing the love of my life, you’re crazy.”
“But Siv! Your people!”
“Bliss, you’re all upset about nothing. All you saw was the duke deciding to come after you. Nothing else.”
“He’s not paying a social call! He’s coming with armed men! And if I’m not there, the problem disappears!”
“You haven’t seen any problems.”
That shut her up. For a second. “I don’t need a vision to know his coming is trouble! And also, he said he’d kill you all!”
“What you need to do is to stop panicking. We can cope with a poxy Prydain duke.”
“Hey!”
I kissed her. “Sorry, slip of the tongue. I meant, we can cope with a poxy hrafnasueltir duke.” I picked up her tunic and pulled it over her head. “Get dressed, sweeting.”
“But–”
I shushed her again. “No more arguing, Bliss.”
“But–”
“Okay, if that’s how you want it, then this is an official abduction.”
The shield maiden gave me the evil eye. “Don’t be daft.”
She continued trying to convince me to abandon her while I got her and the girls into the boat, and she kept talking while I took us back to the current that would take us north. She was still at it while I put her hand on the tiller and put my arms around her.