Cyrus clamped a hand on his shoulder. “It’s ready, milord,” he shouted. “Walk toward the center. You should find yourself in the ship’s hold. You remember the map I drew?”
Dagr clenched his jaw and nodded, gripped his sword tightly in his fist, then stepped onto the platform and into the bright center of the portal. He didn’t look behind him. His warriors wouldn’t hesitate to follow.
Gritting his teeth, he raised his sword and stormed toward his destiny.
Birget’s jaw sagged as the warriors disappeared one by one, blinking out as they passed through the brightly lit portal. Not that she hadn’t witnessed teleportation before. The envoys who arrived to negotiate trade agreements beamed in and out. Shipments of containerized ore flickered and winked out as well.
But this was different—this was the Bifrost, a piece of her heritage. This glorious moment would be recorded in the clans’ annals and retold for generations.
The men around her were silent, stoic, their expressions never betraying their fear, although if they felt like she did, they were trembling inside. Meeting a foe in battle was one thing, but walking calmly toward an uncertain fate was quite another. She hung back to avoid detection and to give herself a few more moments to contemplate her plan.
From the early-morning briefing Dagr’s second-in-command, Frakki, had given aboard the multipassenger snow-eater, she knew they were going to commandeer a spacecraft, the Outlanders’ ship hovering above New Iceland’s atmosphere.
They’d used the crude radar Cyrus had assembled to detect the location of the ship, locked onto the target, and determined, according to everything the former cruiser captain remembered, the optimal point of entry.
Maps had been drawn of the route they would take to flood out of the ship’s hold at the tail end of the central fuselage and capture the crew.
When Frakki had finished the briefing, he’d eyed every one of the warriors. “Dagr will understand if you choose not to accompany us. We will meet an uncertain fate. We have plenty of volunteers.”
A younger warrior, a cousin to the king, clapped a fist against his shield. “That message is for me, isn’t it? Does the Black Wolf think I’m not ready?”
Frakki gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach his solemn eyes. “He would have you live to fight another battle, Grimvarr.”
None of the warriors had backed down from the challenge. They all stood, awaiting their turn to enter the arms of the artifact.
A shiver worked its way down Birget’s spine, and she ducked her head, afraid that at the last moment someone would recognize her.
In the early hours, she’d creaked open her door, and then stood to the side as Odvarr entered to investigate the noise. She’d shoved him inside, slammed the door closed, and took him in a series of moves the slow-moving giant couldn’t counter.
A swipe of her foot to the backs of his knees had forced him to the floor. Then she’d slammed the heavy end of a wooden bedpost she’d worked free against the back of his hard head. She’d paused only a moment to ensure she hadn’t killed him, then gathered his weapons and ran out the door. Stealthily, she’d combed the empty rooms around her, seeking weapons and clothing, disguising her form in bulky fur and wool, painting her face blue and black to mask her features.
When she strode boldly out of the keep and into the courtyard, she’d stood tall, slipping among the warriors gathered to march out the gate to the transport vehicles waiting at the bottom of the hill. No one had looked twice. She’d ridden a high, elated by her success, until she sat among the warriors inside the vehicle that took them back to the mine and at last learned the Black Wolf’s insane plan.
They’d hijack a ship, use it to take others, and, if necessary, make their way to the Outlanders’ home world to storm the planet and find the missing men.
Dagr’s plan was bold. Suicidal. And yet, out of all the men she knew, he was the only one who just might pull it off. Which was why she remained, awaiting her turn to step onto the rainbow bridge. With Freya’s hammered breastplate worn under her furs, Birget would represent her clan and ensure their honor was upheld in this courageous battle.
That, or die fused to the inner wall of an alien ship.
The men in front of her stepped forward, and she sank her chin toward her chest lest anyone gaze upon her features at the last moment and thrust her back. The steps at the base of the platform were steep, but she didn’t falter, didn’t slow. The intense light blinded her, and she reached out to grab the cloak of the man in front of her, but she touched nothing but air.
Heat embraced her, searing her in a suffocating instant, and then she was stepping into a cool, airless space. Or so it seemed for a moment because the air was thin compared to the rich atmosphere of her own world. The light was different too, tinged green from the overhead lights, and the air was filled with the incessant low hum of machinery. Around her, warriors sucked in deep breaths before moving out in different directions, clearing the floor of the cargo bay to make room for the others coming behind them.
She’d already been assigned a route and followed the column of soldiers toward the far end of the open bay and the narrow metal ladder that led to the upper level of the ship. Their mission was to take the bridge—a second wave to follow Dagr’s in case he met strong resistance.
She stuck an arm through the loop on the back of her shield, sheathed her sword, and started to climb.
Halfway up the rungs, an ear-shattering siren droned and overhead lights strobed.
“They know we’re here,” someone exclaimed, and then no one worried about stealth. The Vikings shouted and raced toward their destinations. “For the wolves!”
Birget’s heart tripped, then thundered, trying to keep apace of her excited breaths. Fear didn’t make her tremble. Her Valkyrja heart burst with pride, and her voice rose to join with the shouts that screamed throughout the vessel. Her fist beat her shield as she ran down the cramped corridor on the heels of another warrior. Battle sounds echoed from just ahead—swords thudded against bodies, clanged against the metal panels of the ship. Powerful explosions ripped through the air.
At last, they spilled onto the bridge where a fierce battle raged. The tight quarters held a dozen warriors fighting uniformed crewmen. The Vikings, though hampered by their huge size and the cramped confines, fought valiantly, repelling blasts of the crew members’ stun guns with treated shields while thumping heads with their fists and the flats of their blades.
Orders had been given to minimize loss of life, where possible. So far, blood flowed from noses and gashes on foreheads. Fighting hand to hand, the Vikings were beating the crew back against brightly lit consoles, the skinny aisles allowing no room for retreat.
She spotted Dagr in the center of the fight, moving in a surprisingly graceful dance against a large, dark opponent, who drove a fist beneath Dagr’s shield. The Outlander’s face was tinged red, his teeth pulled back in a feral grimace. His zeal surprised Birget, because she’d thought of all Outlanders as lacking in passion and courage.
Keeping Dagr in her sight, she targeted another Outlander who lifted a stunner in his hand and took aim at the Wolfskin leader’s back. She raised her sword and flew down the steps to plow into him, shoving him to the floor. Her helmet slipped, and then rolled away. Long hair spilled out and her opponent’s eyes widened.
Before he had a chance to think he might best her, she drove her knee between his legs and slammed the pommel of her sword into his nose. Blood splattered her, but she grinned as his body slumped. She drove up to her feet, blood heating with primal passion, and scanned the immediate area for her next opponent.
The Black Wolf’s daring plan appeared a stunning success. Who would have thought Outlanders would be so easy to conquer?
Four
Before the siren finished its first warning peal, Honora Turgay rolled to her feet from her bunk and slammed the comm switch on the wall with her palm. “Turk, tell me what’s happening.”
“Captain,
we’ve been boarded by Vikings!”
“Pirates?” Her heart stuttered, then pounded hard against her chest. Norse pirates were a scourge on civilian vessels, but hadn’t dared threaten Consortium ships. Her ship couldn’t be the first. She could already hear the scornful whispers: What more would you expect from the daughter of Ahn Turgay?
“Not sure,” Turk said, his voice tight with excitement. “They entered through the hold. No other ships appear in our quadrant.”
“How many?” she bit out, pulling up her deep-space skin-suit and locking the tab at her neck.
“A dozen—no, two! More coming! They’re huge!”
She ignored the edge of awe in his voice. “Keep them from the controls. I’m on my way.” Touching the comm patch on her collar to activate it, she decided against the additional seconds needed to don the outer layers of her uniform, opting to add only her boots. Time was of the essence. She had to get to the deck.
She slipped a stunner from its wall-mounted holster, then eased open her cabin door and glanced up and down the small private corridor in the left wing of the ship, leading from the officers’ quarters to the bridge.
Finding it empty, she hurried down the corridor to the end and up a narrow, ringed ladder to the hatch that opened directly onto the command deck.
“This can’t be happening,” she muttered under her breath. First the Viking cargo the bounty hunters had gathered, and now Vikings attacking her ship. Definitely not a coincidence.
A bad, bad feeling sat like a lump of the cook’s oatmeal at the bottom of her stomach. I am not my father. This moment will not define me.
Even before she shoved the door upward, she could hear angry shouts and the dull clang of metal. What the fuck kind of weapons were the pirates using?
Honora gripped her stunner tighter, slammed open the small round door, and climbed quickly through the hatch. All around her a pitched battle raged, and no one noticed her. She crouched behind the metal railing dividing the captain’s dais from the rest of the bridge, and edged toward her chair. If only she could get a message out to her command ...
But then she got a good look at the invaders, and her stomach dropped to her toes.
What could the Consortium do against warriors like these? The men who’d dared invade a Consortium ship fought like maddened animals with primitive weapons—and they wore animal skins! They bared their teeth in feral smiles. Their shouts and grunts filled the air with an awful noise that had to rattle the composure of even her most seasoned fighters.
She spotted Baraq Ata, her head of security, battling a black-haired giant with blue stripes painted diagonally across his face. Staring at the giant, she couldn’t hide her surprise, and her mouth dropped open. Turk hadn’t been exaggerating. The man was enormous. And Baraq was losing, if the sweat running in rivulets down his face and the whites of his widening eyes were any indication.
More invading Norsemen pushed through the doorway from the direction of the hold. In that moment, Honora conceded they’d have to surrender sooner or later.
She sank nearer the floor and crawled on her hands and knees toward her chair while keeping an eye on the battle around her.
The pirates fought with their fists and swords—heavy weapons needful of strong arms and close contact that should have hampered the invaders.
Her officers’ stunners were the latest technology—nonlethal but effective at dropping a man while preserving life and equipment as well as the ship’s delicate hull. But the crude-looking shields the pirates employed deflected the Proteus crew’s stun charges, bouncing them off their surfaces to crash with sharp pings against the walls. The shields must have been treated to repel the stuns. How had barbarians managed to get the know-how only Consortium labs possessed?
Still, all the technology in the galaxy wasn’t effective in a close fight, especially not when every painted, hairy barbarian on the bridge fought with fevered determination.
She ducked behind the navigator’s console and peeked around. Only the length of her body stood between her and her goal.
Honora’s gaze caught on one warrior more slender than the rest, clean-shaven, who took her first mate, Turk, to the ground, and then proceeded to pummel him to unconsciousness.
The warrior’s beaten metal helmet tumbled to the floor, and a long blond braid spilled down the warrior’s back. A woman?
The black-haired barbarian fighting Baraq caught sight of the woman, cursed, and crashed the pommel of his sword against Baraq’s temple, which sent her lieutenant sliding limply to the floor. Then the barbarian glared daggers at the woman, who had already leapt to the aid of another Viking.
The giant roared.
The guttural sound caused Honora to jump.
“Frakki!” he shouted, catching the attention of the man battling beside him. “Protect her!”
The female barbarian glanced back to the leader. Her eyebrows lowered. Her blue-and-black-painted face settled into a fierce scowl.
Honora wondered at the woman’s courage and sanity to face such a fearsome warrior with irritation rather than terror. A tremor ran through her body. Even the Viking’s fairer sex was a force to be reckoned with.
The giant, blond-haired, and bearded Frakki moved toward the female, shoving her behind him, and then faced outward to block a blow from one of Honora’s crewmen, a young ensign, who crumpled at his feet at the first clout from the warrior’s ham fist. The woman behind Frakki appeared to chomp at the bit as every time she tried to push past him to enter the fray, he or another of the Vikings battling nearby stepped in to block her.
Honora held her breath, waiting for the right moment to make her move when the leader’s back was turned. She considered shooting him, but knew that as soon as she did she’d lose any advantage because she’d be spotted. Right now, getting a message to high command was first priority.
She ducked her head and crept beside her console. Crouching next to the chair, she reached up and slid her hand into the grooves at the end of the armrest that fit every digit, and depressed the hollow beneath her forefinger to open a hailing frequency.
But a heavy hand closed around the back of her neck and jerked her away. She swung back her elbow, but it bounced off metal, jerky tingles running along her nerves. The man shook her until her teeth rattled before he dropped her. A foot stomped on the stunner, catching her fingers beneath it, and she slipped them free.
She fought her way to her feet, cradling her throbbing hand, and turned to face her attacker, ready to do battle if need be. No Consortium ship’s captain had ever surrendered to a pirate.
Her gaze rose to a broad chest covered in beaten metal, up to shoulders cloaked in thick animal fur. Even before she looked higher, she knew whom she faced and her heart pounded.
So much fur, leather, and face paint would have looked ridiculous on another man, but made the barbarian look like a demon. Her gaze snagged again on his wide, thickly muscled shoulders.
Had to be all that fur.
Sucking in a deep breath, she shuttered her expression, drawing on her courage and her knowledge that however humiliating this defeat might be, the pirates wouldn’t harm her or her crew. They were too valuable as hostages.
She met his hard-eyed gaze, staring into a face swept clean of all mercy. His features appeared cut from stone. His expression as sharp and lethal as the blade he held.
His glance swept down her body, his mouth crimping at the corners into a thin-lipped smile. When he speared her again with that ice-cold glare, she fought hard not to shiver. The thought of that hard, muscular frame cloaked in the trappings of a barbarian caused her to tremble—but this time not from fear. For the first time in her life, she felt dwarfed by a man. Supremely feminine. Not a reminder she needed at that precise moment. Completely inappropriate.
And still, she couldn’t stop herself from imagining what he looked like nude, wondering if the fur hid a belly but seriously doubting it by the hard edge of the j aw clamping tight as he returned her star
e. Arousal stirred deep in her belly. He’d be ripped—arms, abdomen, thighs. Gods, she loved a man with huge, muscled thighs and a hard ass—so perfectly honed to deliver deep, powerful thrusts ... She gave herself a mental shake and tried to dart away.
His arm shot out, grabbing her arm and turning her quickly to bring her back against his taut chest and belly.
She lifted a foot and stomped on his toes, then dug an elbow into his side. His embrace tightened. “Barbarian!” she gasped, and wriggled against him, but to no avail. His arm settled beneath her breasts and squeezed until she could barely breathe. Which was helpful. Her unwise attraction waned at the thought of the bruises his fierce grip would leave.
Cold steel tapped her neck, and she strained away from the wicked knife he held.
“Cease fighting!” he bellowed, the sound blasting her eardrums.
One by one, the Vikings quieted and straightened, their gazes still on their opponents, but their weapons easing back. Her own crew heaved deep breaths, turning to face the man who held her trapped against his body.
“I will know who your captain is,” he ground out in a rasping baritone.
Baraq’s black gaze locked with hers, and she gave him a subtle shake of her head. His jaw tightened, but he glanced around to warn the others not to speak.
“Warriors are fools to have women among them,” the giant whispered against her ear. “It makes them weak. Makes them hesitate.”
Although tempted, she didn’t dare ask him why he’d brought a woman along with him. Maybe he didn’t consider her female because she fought with all the skill and ferocity of any other Viking.
He shoved her forward and drew his sword, laid the blade against the side of her neck, and then swung back his arm.
Honora sucked in a deep breath.
Ravished by a Viking Page 5