Tamed by the Berserkers: A menage shifter romance Read online

I pressed my lips together. Thorsteinn’s eyes sparked.

  “Why would you leave the mountain? What reason could you possibly have?”

  I looked to Vik for defense, but the bearded warrior stood back, face inscrutable, arms crossed over his chest as his warrior brother plowed on.

  “Do you have any idea how it felt to learn you had run away?” In the darkness of what used to be our dwelling, I couldn’t make out Thorsteinn’s expression, but there was no mistaking the rage in his tone. “To know you were off the mountain, away from the boundaries that kept you safe. After all we had given you. After all we had done. Do you know how it feels,” he advanced on me, the floorboards shaking as he stomped to loom over me, “to know the woman you fought for, cared for, coddled and claimed had rejected your protection and run into the arms of the enemy?”

  I should cower. I should be frightened. But I have never been frightened of these warriors—not from the first. And I would not start now.

  “You left me,” I shouted, leaping to my feet. I stood a full head shorter, but I drew myself up to the last inch, clenched my fists and bawled into his face. “You returned me to the home of unmated spaewives.”

  “We had a mission,” Thorsteinn snapped. “We sent you to where we knew you’d be safe. And then we get word that you had left the lodge. Left the mountain entirely! Snuck past patrols and run unchecked into the enemy's territory.” Thorsteinn ran a hand through his hair, gripping the base of his braid in a gesture I knew well. He tugged his braid often when he was frustrated with me. “How far were you going to run, Sorrel? How long before the enemy found and killed you?” His roar shook the walls. My hair flew back but I stood firm against the blast. “You could’ve died out there.” He raged, pacing back and forth. Behind him, Vik stroked his beard.

  I scoffed. As if they were worried about me. “Don’t pretend you care about me. Not after you left me.”

  “We care,” Vik put in. “We ran from our post scouting the enemy’s lair, all the way back here. Only to find you on trial and the pack calling for your blood.”

  A lump formed in my throat. I knew they cared for me, but they’d taken a patrol deep in Corpse King’s territory. I begged to go with them, but they left me at the lodge with the unmated spaewives. At first, I thought they’d come back, but moons passed, and I finally realized they no longer wished to keep me as mate. Or so I thought—

  “Months we spent at your side. Taking our time, teaching you to trust. And then you repay us by running. Tell me, Sorrel,” Thorsteinn fisted his hand in my short hair, drawing my head back. “Did you think you were fooling us? Biding your time, earning our trust... were you waiting all this time to run?”

  Heat suffused my body, followed by chill. They didn’t believe me. No one did. But of all those who thought the worst of me, Thorsteinn and Vik’s distrust felt the worst. A betrayal.

  I would never trust anyone again.

  “Was it all to fool us?” Thorsteinn tightened his grip on my hair until the sting brought tears to my eyes. But I would never let them fall. “Answer me.”

  “Let go of me,” I growled at him. The Berserkers aren’t the only ones who can growl. “You have nothing to say to me. You rejected me before the pack.” Made up awful stories. Portrayed me in the worst light.

  “To save your life, lass,” Vik spoke up. “Part of our plan.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Thorsteinn raised a hand, cutting off Vik’s answers. “You do not get to ask questions. Not until you explain to us the real reason why you ran.”

  “I told you, I followed Rosalind,” I said, knowing they would not believe me.

  “How did you make it off the mountain?”

  “I used the training you gave me. I tracked Rosalind. There were a few warriors on patrol, but it was easy to slip past them.”

  “How did Rosalind get past them if she was not with you?”

  “I don’t know.” I had a guess, but to speak of it would name Rosalind traitor. And I was not a traitor. Even when the nuns beat me, I had never told on my friends.

  “Sorrel—” Thorsteinn growled.

  “What’s it to you?” I blurted. “You already decided what happened. You told the Alphas I was plotting all along. You think I did this.”

  “We had to tell them that—” Vik began, but Thorsteinn chopped his hand to silence him.

  “We said what we had to say to save you,” Thorsteinn rasped.

  “You should’ve let me be.” I glared at the floor.

  “You’d rather we threw you to the mercy of the pack? There was no mercy for you. We were your only hope.”

  I snorted even as my heart sank. It was true. The pack hated me. If the spaewives, my friends from the orphanage, heard what I had done to Rosalind, they would hate me. These warriors were all I had left.

  And they’d thrown me to the wolves.

  Vik and Thorsteinn left me crouched on the floor boards as they made a fire in a great carved stone they hoisted into the tree for this purpose. When smoke spiraled up from the small blaze, Thorsteinn squatted close.

  “Because of the story we told the Alphas, they handed you into our care. We can protect you now.”

  “You lied to them,” I whispered. “You said horrible things.”

  “To save you,” he insisted. “You would not speak, so we had to say something.” His voice gentled. “If you tell us the truth, we will work to make things right.”

  I stared into his glowing eyes.

  Never our mate. I thought I owed them my life and safety. But after all I had given them, my heart and my trust, they had rejected me. I would never give an inch or a quarter. I would never give them anything willingly again.

  * * *

  Thorsteinn

  Thorsteinn, stop, Vik said directly into my head. She’s not listening. The more you shout, the more stubborn she gets.

  I straightened. He was right. Sorrel stared at a point past my head, her brows knotted, and mouth pressed shut. The picture of a woman preparing for a brutal, endless battle.

  For a moment, another face flashed in my memory. I remained frozen as Vik stepped around me.

  “If you will not speak, you will eat,” he ordered. When Sorrel made no move to obey, he gripped her arm and drew her to the fireside.

  I stood, frowning at everything and nothing as Vik coaxed Sorrel to accept some bread and dried meat. She barely took anything and after washing her face and hands, he sent her to bed.

  She fell asleep before he covered her with a pelt, her brow still creased even as her mouth went slack with exhaustion.

  Are you going to stand there all night? Vik asked.

  She’s not Hildr.

  I know, I returned. I pushed thoughts of Hildr away, but not in time for Vik to not see in my memories.

  Sorrel will not share Hildr’s fate, Vik said.

  “Not if I can help it,” I spoke aloud. At my feet, Sorrel twitched in her sleep. I will not let them kill her.

  They will not. We will see to it. Vik joined me in gazing down at our sleeping woman. We will claim her. We will teach her to be ours.

  I will go to the Alphas and plead her case. Watch over her, I said to Vik. Tell me when she wakes. We will not leave her alone, not once.

  Never again, Vik agreed. He moved to sit close to her, and I stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  No matter what the Alphas say, we must do what needs to be done.

  Vik clasped my hand. We will. I’m with you brother.

  We waited too long make her ours, I continued. Now we must make her understand. It will be hard, because she does not trust us. But there is a way. Pleasure her when she obeys, punish her when she rebels.

  Vik grinned. She is strong. She can take it.

  I thumped his shoulder and left the lodge. Vik was still grinning, probably imagining all the punishments we could use to chastise our mate. To him this was a game, but I knew better. This was life or death. From now on, I make the rules. She will follow them o
r face the consequences. I will never let anyone in my care be hurt again.

  * * *

  Sorrel

  Under Yggdrasil’s giant canopy, I slipped in and out of dreams that were not dreams, but memories. I remembered the first moment I first saw Vik and Thorsteinn…

  * * *

  Then

  “Stay back,” I forced the words out. My fingers gripped my small bow and arrow. If the nuns found me with such a weapon, they’d beat me half dead. So, I hid them with the rest of my belongings in the stillroom, where the nuns were not allowed.

  The abbey was under attack. Underneath the stillroom table, Fern and one of the young orphan girls cowered. A warrior hunted me, a demon-eyed invader with an axe and long knife in his belt and a grey pelt over his shoulders. He held up his hands, weapon free.

  “No need to fear, little warrior,” he crooned. But at his feet, a giant creature prowled—an enormous white and grey wolf with glowing eyes. The warrior murmured something else and the wolf stepped forward.

  I jerked my bow towards the creature. “I’ll shoot you.”

  The warrior chuckled.

  And the impossible happened. The wolf hunched and changed, its back lengthening and body reshaping. My hair blew back from my face, though there should be no wind in this small, underground room. A flash and a man stood before me, a second hard-muscled warrior naked but for a grey and white fur pelt across his shoulders.

  The colors of the pelt matched the fur of the disappeared wolf.

  It could not be. It was not possible.

  The warrior who was once a wolf reached out and plucked my weapons from my nerveless grasp. I flinched but he had me out and wrapped in his arms, my back to his chest. I kicked and struggled but he held me fast.

  “Got her,” his voice rumbled, more like a wolf’s growl than the speech of a man. “She’s a fighter.”

  My mind separated from my body and I thrashed as hard as I could. I pushed and contorted against my captor’s iron hold, but his grip did not budge. He carried me past the first warrior towards the steps to the abbey.

  “Easy,” the first soothed, and held up my bow and arrows, an amused look on his face. “Hush, little warrior, I’ll bring your weapons. We’ll let you use them again, once we get you to safety.”

  I called to mind all the worst curses I’d ever heard and used them all. The warrior holding me laughed, climbing the stairs, stepping aside to make way for two more warriors. My captor clamped me tighter, squeezing the air from my lungs. I cursed, struggling to move, to breath.

  The first warrior I’d met emerged from the stillroom.

  “It’s all right, little warrior. You’re safe with us.” And with that, he ran to the end of the hall and leapt through the broken window. My captor followed, landing on his feet with the soft grace of a cat. Without hesitation, the two men raced to the forest, plunging into the dark.

  I don’t know how long they carried me or the direction they went. Branches slapped at my body, but the warrior holding me shielded me. He ran uphill and down, around lichen covered boulders and over small streams. My arms froze. I wish I had thought to pull on makeshift trousers and boots under my nightgown. I’d hidden them in the stillroom, where the nuns would never find them. In the confusion of the attack on the abbey, I’d grabbed my bow and arrow, but not thought to change into warrior garb. I’d been too busy fighting, trying to protect Fern and one of the young ones.

  As my captor paused on a moonlight hill, I spared a thought for my captive sisters. Where were the warriors taking us? Would we be enslaved or killed?

  “Here,” I’d given up on hope when the warrior dropped me to my feet. I would’ve crumpled to the forest floor, but he steadied me until I could stand on my own. I pushed him and backed away.

  “Careful. You’ll muddy the water.” Again, that amused tone.

  My feet splashed into a flow of water, a brook welling up over the carpet of dead leaves. I froze, wondering if I could run.

  The first warrior appeared before me. “We’ll make camp here. Drink while we make a fire. Try to escape and we’ll bind your hands.”

  I stared up at him. The moonlight softened the sharp lines of his face

  I shivered.

  The warrior shifted his stance over me. He raised his hands and I flinched, but he only smoothed back my hair.

  He dropped the pelt over my shoulders. I huddled under the heavy pelt, letting the warmth of his body seep into my chilled skin.

  I crouched and drank.

  He turned to speak to his fellow warrior, and I threw myself into the bushes beside him, fighting through them to escape into the night.

  * * *

  I kicked my legs in the air as the long-haired warrior carried me back the way I’d come.

  He’d caught me easily, letting me weave through the trees and brush. When I finally realized he was tiring me out, and dropped to my belly under a thorny bush, he reached down and plucked me from my hiding place before I knew what was happening.

  These warriors moved with greater stealth and skill than I’d ever seen. They were stronger, so much stronger than me. I was a fool if I thought I could fight them. But I’d rather die a fool than submit.

  Firelight winked through the trees, a dark shape moving between us and the small flames. The bearded warrior had built it while the other had fetched me from my failed escape. I dug my fingers in the leather jerkin, tears pricking my eyes at how helpless I was.

  My captor crouched next to the fire and rolled me off his shoulder, catching my ankles and binding them together before I could think to kick.

  “There,” he left me lying on my side, facing the small blaze. I lay stunned a moment, my cheek buried in soft fur. He’d placed me on a wolf pelt.

  “We have a warrior in the making,” he announced to his comrade.

  “I see that,” the other replied from his seat on a rock next to the fire. He grinned at me, showing white fangs, and stroked his beard. “She is fierce.”

  The warrior who’d tied me returned, brushing back my hair. I jerked away from his touch, propping myself up. He wasn’t intimidated by my glare. Instead, he studied me, cocking his head to the side. “What’s your name, little fighter?”

  I pressed my lips together and refused to answer. With a sigh, my questioner rose and stalked away.

  The grinning one took his place. “Come on,” he reached out to tug a lock of my hair. My arm whipped out and batted him away before I froze like a rabbit cornered by a large wolf. I couldn’t fight these warriors. They could snap my neck without even trying. I cringed, waiting for a blow to fall.

  But the bearded warrior did not retaliate. Throwing back his head, he laughed.

  “Wait until she bites you,” the first said.

  “I think not.” The warrior in front of me caught my hands before I knew what he was doing and bound them tight.

  “There.” He sat back on his haunches. I glared at him. I could scoot and try to kick him, but how much good would that do? Trepidation rippled in my belly, threatening to take over.

  The long-haired warrior called across the fire, “We’d rather not bind you. But if you insist on fighting…” he shrugged.

  “No need to fight us. We’re on your side,” the warrior close to me winked.

  I shook my head at him. What did he mean? This made no sense.

  “That’s Thorsteinn.” he spoke the unfamiliar name in an accent I’d never heard before. “I’m Vik. We’ll know your name when you’re ready to tell us. Until then, we’ll call you ‘shield maiden’.”

  I stared at him. Was he making fun of me? Somehow that was worse than them hurting me.

  He dug in his pouch and held a piece of dried meat to my mouth.

  “Here. Eat.”

  I hesitated and he shook it. “Take it. You must eat to keep your strength if you are to fight us.”

  Darting my head forward, I snapped the food out of his hand. He chuckled and fished in his pouch for another, holding it to m
y mouth after I had swallowed. I chewed the second piece more slowly, my eyes darting around the clearing. The warrior didn’t bother to hide his scrutiny of me. His large hand circled one ankle. I tried to pull away and he clucked. “You’re bleeding. We must care for you better.”

  The other warrior, Thorsteinn, stalked over. He tore a piece of his jerkin off, and, wetting it in the stream, used it to clean the cuts on my legs as Vik held me still. By the end, I stopped fighting. Vik offered me more meat, a reward for submitting to their ministrations.

  When Thorsteinn was done, he gripped my knee and fixed me with his grey-eyed gaze. “No more running. We’ll protect you.”

  I scoffed and looked away, only to catch Vik’s eye.

  He winked again. “In time you will believe us.”

  * * *

  I did not believe them. How could I? They’d stolen me from my home. A home I hated, but the only home I’d known.

  I continued to make plans to escape. I tore the bottom of half of my nightrobe into strips and used rope to bind them around my legs. The warriors studied me but said nothing about my makeshift breeches.

  The next time I woke, a pair of boots and a set of clothes had been placed by my head. Not a dress—a jerkin and pair of long breeches. At first, I couldn’t believe it. Had fairies come in the night and gifted me with what I most wanted?

  I quickly pulled the breeches on under my robe, crouching to dress so as not to show any skin. When I was done, I didn’t recognize myself.

  “Shield maiden,” Vik said.

  Thorsteinn stalked across the campsite. He looked me up and down but didn’t touch me. At last he handed me my bow and arrows. “As promised,” he told me gravely. I blinked. He’d said he’d return them, but after I had tried to shoot him in the abbey, I didn’t think he would actually let me be armed. “Use them to defend yourself.”

  “Against you?” I’d been brave enough to ask. Vik guffawed. Thorsteinn looked at me a moment, then grasped the back of my neck and pulled my forehead to his.