Tamed by the Berserkers: A menage shifter romance Read online

  Tamed by the Berserkers

  A menage shifter romance

  Lee Savino

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

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  About the Author

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  Text copyright © 2018 Lee Savino

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  1

  Sorrel

  Firelight played in the bars of my cage, mottling my bare arms as I chafed them. The wind whispered and whined around the rocky heights, cutting through my jerkin and breeches and tugging at my hair like a band of mischievous demons. My cage swayed in the wind.

  Below, far below, down the path and away from the ledge, the warriors built a bonfire higher and higher. Huge logs were sacrificed to feed the fire. Dozens of warriors stood around it, drinking and eating meat and calling out encouragement to build the blaze higher and higher. They’d started the fire at the same time I’d been locked in the cage. A torture of light and heat too far away to feel.

  Two warriors emerged from the path and my heart leapt up, only to sink again. These were not my warriors. One waited while the other untied the rope and lowered my cage. With a smirk, he let go when the structure hovered a foot off the ground. The cage crashed down, jarring me. I gritted my teeth and kept my face blank. The guards would not see me cower.

  One of them kicked the cage bars with his boot. The warriors busied themselves with the straps to untie the door. Before they came, I’d loosened them myself, only to stop. Escape would’ve meant I’d had to jump from the height. Even if I hadn’t broken bones, I would’ve had to climb down this part of the rocky mountain, avoiding all the Berserkers who might harm me. According to the shouts drifting up from the bonfire, there were many warriors who did not want to follow the Alpha’s order to leave me unharmed until my trial. They wanted my blood.

  I was safer in the cage. When the door fell away and the warriors stepped back, I stayed where I was.

  One warrior squatted to glower at me.

  “Out,” he barked. I crawled out of the cage and forced my cramped limbs straight. Even standing, I wasn’t half the height of the warriors. They loomed over me, glaring.

  “Who gave her breeches?” the first asked.

  “It’s what she was wearing when we found her,” the second tipped his head to the side, studying me.

  “She dresses like a man. Unnatural,” the first muttered, and turned away.

  “Hands,” my second jailer ordered, and when I lifted them, he looped a noose around my wrists and pulled it tight, careful not to touch me. They led me from my cage on the ledge down the narrow mountain path towards the bonfire.

  A third warrior met us on the path before we stepped into the great clearing. He blocked my path, looming over me. I kept my gaze fixed on his bare chest, refusing to look in his face.

  “Ragnar,” one of my guards cautioned, but Ragnar waved a hand and they fell silent. Without seeing his face, I felt his rage and disgust, directed at me.

  “Rosalind has not woken. The healers say she may never wake.” The warrior’s voice dropped in pitch, becoming even more guttural. “Her sister mourns.”

  I closed my eyes and swayed on the path. In my mind’s eye, Rosalind lay on the grass, still as death. I didn’t need the warrior to tell me what I’d done. What I’d regret for the rest of my life, but did I have a choice?

  We stood there for some time, Ragnar blocking my path. The wind tore at my face and hair. Behind me, my guards breathed down my neck. If my guards decided I should die here, now, they could fling me off the ledge. I would be powerless to stop them.

  At last Ragnar straightened. “The Alphas are waiting,” he said in a clearer voice. “Hurry up.”

  The guards behind me prodded me forward with their weapons.

  As we moved down the path, my knees shook with relief I didn’t deserve. I almost wish I’d spoken up, goaded Ragnar until he pushed me to my death. The pain in my heart grew with every step.

  We entered the clearing and a thicket of warriors bristling with weapons. They growled as I passed, their hate hitting my face like heat from the roaring inferno. Ahead the bonfire snapped and crackled, its reddish claws tearing into the night sky.

  More Berserkers lined my route. The ones in wolf form snarled and snapped at my heels. I set my face in stone, marching past hulking men and giant wolves. They will not see me cry or shrink in fear. Not tonight.

  My foot caught a stone, causing me to stumble. A few warriors smirked.

  “Careful,” one of my guards muttered, but made no move to help me. At last we reached the bonfire and my place to stand judgement. I stepped onto a long flat stone, holding up my chin and keeping my gaze on the fire.

  Across the huge bonfire four Alphas ranged on a crop of giant rocks. Two stood with arms crossed over their chests. One sat on a throne-like rock, solemn as a king. The firelight turned his hair to gold. As soon as I’m in place, he rose and spread his arms. The assembly fell quiet.

  “My brothers, we have gathered to pass judgement on a grave matter. The spaewife Sorrel stands before us accused of treason.”

  “Murder,” someone muttered. Probably Ragnar.

  “Silence,” the tattooed Alpha growled. “Samuel speaks.”

  After a pause the seated Alpha, Samuel, continued. “We’ve heard the story of what happened, as best as we can guess. Three days ago, Sorrel left the safety of our borders and entered the lands controlled by the Corpse King. With her was an unmated spaewife named Rosalind. We do not know why they left. We do not know how they survived three days journey, even though the Corpse King’s soldiers patrol the area they walked.”

  “Traitor,” a voice at my left spat. “She is league with the Corpse King.” A wolf snarled.

  Samuel raised his voice. “We do know how the search patrol found them: Sorrel armed with a sling and pouch of stones, her friend fallen from a blow to the head.”

  A great murmur flared from the assembled warriors, blending with growls from the wolves.

  “Silence,” another Alpha ordered the crowd, and the muttering died.

  Samuel continued. “We captured both and brought them back here. Sorrel is as you see her. Rosalind lies as if sleeping, suffering from her wound. There is evidence they struggled. If Rosalind dies, Sorrel will be guilty of murder.”

  I slumped, unable to stand proud any longer. Fatigue rolled over me, a great weight. I bowed my head and closed my eyes.

  The warriors shouted around me, calling for my death. “She is guilty. She tried to kill her own friend, one of our treasured spaewives. We found her with the weapon, standing over the unconscious woman.”

  “Why did she leave the mountain?” One of the Alpha’s asked. He didn’t raise his voice,
but it carried over the roar of the rabble.

  “She will not explain why she and Rosalind left the home of unmated spaewives, and escaped the mountain,” Samuel said. “She will not speak to answer the Alpha’s questions. So, we must draw our own conclusions.”

  “She did it,” someone muttered at my side. Perhaps one of my guards. “She is guilty.”

  A low growl accompanied the accusation. It cut off suddenly.

  “The Corpse King is growing stronger. Every day he batters our defenses. How is it two young women slipped through our fingers, and his?”

  “Is it not clear? She was headed for the Corpse King to betray us.”

  “Treason,” one muttered.

  “She is in league with the Corpse King,” another said, and spat in my direction.

  I kept my mouth shut. I still felt the weight of the stone in my hand, small but deadly. I still heard the whir of the sling as I aimed and saw the bright red blood blossoming from Rosalind’s head before she fell. It played over and over in my head, always ending with my friend on the ground, blood leaking from her skull.

  My fault.

  “Enough,” Samuel finally called, and the warriors fell silent.

  “Sorrel of the Berserkers, you’ve been found guilty of betraying the pack, conspiring with the enemy, and harming your own friend. Do you have anything to say?”

  I didn’t bother to raise my eyes or shake my head. Anything I had to say, I’d already said. The Berserkers who found me standing over Rosalind did not believe my fantastical tale. Why should I repeat it?

  The Alpha let the silence stretch one, two more moments before continuing. “Very well. The Alphas will confer to decide your fate. Take her away.”

  A warrior yanked me from my perch and dragged me past jeering warriors and snarling wolves. We walked up the path a little ways from the standing stones into an alcove in the forest. The great fire reached through the trees to stripe us with its light.

  “Here,” he pointed to the ground and my heart stopped.

  “No please,” I whimpered as he dragged me toward a gaping pit. I hadn’t begged or pleaded before, but this broke me. “Anywhere but there.” I kicked but lost my balance and foothold. The warrior guard would put me in the deep hole and bury me. I’d scream and my mouth would fill with dirt and nothing would save me, nothing—

  A roar gusted the leaves around us. The warrior released me and drew his weapon.

  “Who’s there?”

  Something slunk between the trees, shaking the undergrowth.

  “Show yourself,” my guard whirled to follow, pointing his long knife towards the threat. It roared again, the sound echoing all around and making the guard turn this way and that in panic. Whatever great beast lurked in the gloom, it was hunting, taunting the guard. Now was my chance to run.

  I backed to the edge of the clearing, only to slam into a large, hard body.

  “Be still,” someone growled in my ear. A strong hand coiled loosely about my throat. Shock hit my system, turned my bones to stone.

  “Show yourself,” the guard cried, unaware that another held me. “Unless you’re a coward—” he barely got the word out before a huge silver wolf leapt from the forest and slammed into him.

  On instinct, I fought the warrior holding me, thrashing and kicking my feet. He hauled me off the ground, holding me clear by the throat. I flailed harder, my need for escape eclipsed by the need for air.

  He dropped me to the ground beside a great pine, and I scrabbled backwards until my back pressed into the bark.

  “What—” my words died when I recognized Thorsteinn, saw the rage written on his face.

  “Be still,” Thorsteinn ordered. He didn’t draw a weapon to threaten me. He didn’t have to. His human features were transformed into that of a monster. Everything in his hulking body and bright, feral eyes told me he was close to losing control.

  I swallowed carefully, my hand at my bruised throat. The monster cocked his head to the side as if waiting for me to panic or run. After a moment he grunted and gave me his back. His giant body blocked me from the raging scuffle between guard and wolf.

  When my cruel guard broke away, the wolf let him go, slinking behind Thorsteinn with hackles raised and snarling teeth.

  Thorsteinn drew his axe and pointed it toward the sprawled warrior. “Keep your hands off her.” His voice was a guttural growl.

  The guard rose with hands outstretched. “I meant no disrespect. I did not know she belonged to you.”

  “Now you do,” Thorsteinn hefted his axe and smacked the head against his palm. “You touched what doesn’t belong to you. You’re lucky I don’t take your hands.”

  The wolf’s snarls echoed around the clearing.

  “The Alphas ordered—”

  “Damn the Alphas,” Thorsteinn snapped and roared loud enough to shake the trees. “Go.”

  The warrior scrambled backwards until he almost fell in the brush before turning and making his escape.

  I stood trembling behind Thorsteinn and the wolf. Both glanced back at me, their eyes bonfire bright. There was a sudden wind and the wolf’s back arched, his shoulders growing broad as the shaggy form rose from the ground on two legs. The warrior, Vik, stretched into his man form, grimacing and angling his head to crack his neck. When the Change was complete, he wore a silver wolf pelt on his shoulders, and nothing else.

  They both turned to me. I shrank against the tree. I’d never been afraid of these warriors, but they were no longer mere men. Their bodies were Changed into something betwixt man-shape and monster. They stood a head taller than me, their eyes bright with the beast, their fingers tipped with massive claws.

  “Sorrel,” Thorsteinn rasped. He pointed a claw at the ground in front of him. I pushed myself to standing but couldn’t make myself move.

  “You’ve returned,” I whispered. “You came back for me.”

  Vik tilted his head, angling his face to sniff the air. “Did you think we would not?”

  After they abandoned me? “No.”

  “Sorrel,” Thorsteinn repeated with less patience. “Come here.”

  Out of habit my back stiffened. “No.”

  “You will not obey?” Thorsteinn’s eyes flashed.

  I glared back.

  Vik’s laugh broke the tense silence. I jumped at the sound and he came at me, his features calm and eyes less bright. “That is the Sorrel I know.” He pulled me from my hardened stance, propelling me easily to the center of the clearing. There he proceeded to inspect me from head to boot, running large hands over my head and shoulders, gripping my arms and coasting over my hips and legs. He raised my bound hands but didn’t free me.

  “Unharmed?” Thorsteinn growled.

  Vik grunted.

  You could’ve just asked me. I glared at Thorsteinn, but he didn’t respond. He stood tense beside us, his clawed hands fisted as if holding tight to the last of his control.

  Vik examined my fingers, testing each one as making sure they still had feeling. He checked my skull for bumps and even my ears.

  Satisfied I was whole, he stepped away and nodded to Thorsteinn.

  I licked my lips. “Happy now?”

  Now Thorsteinn did meet my eyes. “No.” In a flash, he closed in. Clamping a hand around my neck, he backed me into a tree truck. I stared at him, my feet scrabbling on the ground, unable to find a foothold. He held me aloft with an iron arm, his palm covered my windpipe, firm but not crushing. My breath came in spurts as he touched his brow to mind and growled in a voice more wolf than human, “Why did you leave the mountain?”

  “I had to—”

  He snarled. “Did we mean so little to you, that you would run?”

  Run from them? They left me first. “You were gone,” I sneered. “I did not think of you at all.” That was not true, and he would know it. But I would deny otherwise to the last.

  “Lies.” Thorsteinn’s hold tightened. His eyes were a blinding yellow, fur starting to ripple down his arm. He was clo
se to a Change.

  “Thorsteinn,” Vik called a warning, and the enraged warrior let me down. My legs crumpled and I would’ve fallen if he didn’t support me.

  “Steady,” he murmured, his voice clearer. I gulped and dropped my gaze. The beast was close.

  I couldn’t stop myself from baiting it. “Why do you care?”

  Thorsteinn snarled and started for me again, and Vik stopped him with a hand. “Choking her will not show her you care,” he said in his usual half mocking, half amused tone. Vik waited for Thorsteinn’s agreeing grunt to turn to me. “Do not toy with us, Sorrel. You know very well we care.”

  “I know you left me at the home of the unmated spaewives.” I crossed my arms and stared at the ground. “I don’t know why you returned.”

  Vik and Thorsteinn exchanged glances. “We were on patrol near the Corpse King’s lair when the word came of what you had done.,” Vik said. “We ran day and night to reach you before the trial.”

  “We could not believe,” Thorsteinn started in a choked, guttural voice, then stopped. After a few heaving breaths he continued in a more normal voice. “We could not believe the reports we were hearing. Two spaewives left the lodge where they were protected by countless guards and magic and ventured beyond the borders of the mountain. Slipped past the guard and patrols and ran straight into enemy territory.”

  “Seems we trained you too well to move with stealth,” Vik murmured.

  “What possessed you to run?” Thorsteinn asked in a growl.

  Biting my lip, I stared at the ground. He shook me by the scruff of my neck, as a dog shakes a misbehaving puppy.

  “Sorrel?” Vik squatted close. “Answer us.”

  “No,” I whispered, barely a sound escaping between my lips.

  “You will tell us,” Thorsteinn growled with another shake. “We will make you tell us.”