Tamed by the Berserkers: A menage shifter romance Read online

  “Shoot us and we’ll never arm you again.”

  I nodded. What choice did I have?

  But standing in warrior’s garb, armed like an equal, it was easy to agree.

  * * *

  In time, the warriors explained why they had come to the abbey.

  “There is a mage who feeds on the magic of spaewives,” Thorsteinn said. “He was coming for you and the other spaewives in the abbey.”

  My face must’ve shown confusion, for Vik laughed and explained, “A spaewife is a woman with magic.” He tugged a lock of my hair, chuckling when I pushed his hand away.

  “Like a witch?” I asked. The friar had spoken against witches.

  “Different magic,” Vik said.

  Thorsteinn continued, “The mage married many women and grew in power until one of his wives rose up and bound him for a thousand years. The spell wore off, and now he has returned.”

  “We call him the Corpse King,” Vik said. Both warriors looked grim, their hands going to their weapons as if checking to make sure they were still armed. “He has the power to raise the dead and make them his slaves.”

  “Draugr. That is the word for his undead servants,” Thorsteinn added.

  I shivered but thought Vik and Thorsteinn were exaggerating. Doing what men do and making the enemy sound like the most powerful force anyone had ever faced. Even if it was true, I had faith in these warriors. I shouldn’t trust the men who stole me from my home, but something about them made me feel safe. They could face anything, even an undead army—not that they were real. It wasn’t true, I told myself. It was just a story.

  The next day, we ran into a party of draugr. A fetid mist rolled over the hills, choking us as it robbed our sight.

  “Run,” Thorsteinn ordered, and I did. We raced through patches of the stinking fog. For a moment it cleared, and we scaled a hill, dropping to our bellies to peek over the rise.

  “There,” Vik pointed at a grey river of moving bodies, laden with spears and shields. At a distance, the draugr looked like men. When they came closer, I caught glimpses of their decaying faces and rotting skin.

  With a gasp, I threw myself on my back behind the rise.

  “They cannot see us,” Thorsteinn gripped my arm to steady me. “But the contingent can sense us. Your magic calls them.”

  I frowned at my chest. I’d never thought of myself as having magic. I had many sins, but being a witch wasn’t one of them.

  “Look,” Vik nodded to the mist creeping up the hill behind us. “There are two forces.”

  Thorsteinn swore.

  Goosebumps broke over my skin. My stomach flipped, turning to stone. “We’re trapped.”

  “Not yet,” Thorsteinn pulled me up and propelled me forward. Slowly, we crept along the rise.

  “You do as I say, when I order it and not a moment sooner,” the big warrior whispered in my ear. I nodded.

  We slunk between the enemy’s lines, hiding behind rock croppings and weaving through trees. When the mist grew thick, Thorsteinn guided me with slight touches, his breath on the back of my neck as I inched along the ridge.

  At last the mist cleared. The thumping of marching draugr faded in the distance. We had outpaced them. I had snuck around the abbey plenty, but never with such high stakes or with such able comrades. Despite the danger, my nerves hummed with triumph.

  I made a mistake. I looked back. A massive beast with glowing eyes loomed over me, fur sprouting from its giant body. Its face was a long muzzle, black-furred like a wolf’s, but it stood on two legs like a man. One hand held an axe. The other was tipped in viscous claws.

  I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Every instinct screamed at me to ‘run!’

  “Stay calm—” the monster had Thorsteinn’s voice.

  I flung myself off the path. The hill was steep, and the fall claimed me. I flailed as I rolled, trying to stem my descent. A rock broke my fall. I slammed into it, my leg wedged in a crevice. When I tried to move, something snapped. I screamed.

  A paw slapped over my mouth.

  “Easy, little one, it’s just me.”

  Pain filled my world with red hot pincers, the devil’s teeth at my leg. I thrashed and giant arms slid around me, clamping me tight.

  Pain receded in the face of terror. My eyes rolled like a horse faced with a wolfish predator. The thing was half man, half wolf. It was not real. It was not possible.

  A second beast dropped next to me. It wore Vik’s loose breeches, the belt with the axe and knives and short sword. But it was grey-furred like a wolf with white splash on its muzzle.

  “Hold her still,” the creature growled in Vik’s voice. I started in terror, but the hard body behind me kept me from jarring my throbbing leg.

  The black monster held me as the grey one clawed the boulders apart. The mist swirled, filling my nostrils with the stench of rotting corpses. I gagged against the black-furred paw and it tucked me more firmly into its body.

  “Easy, be still,” Thorsteinn’s voice crooned. “Vik’s almost got you free.”

  Face buried in the thick pelt, I drew in big gulps of the rich scent. Fur, earth, tangy pine, and a fresh smell like the air after a storm. A paw settled on the nape of my neck. I glanced up—and met Thorsteinn’s grey eyed stare.

  “How?” I breathed.

  The beast’s face had a human expression of regret. “Forgive us, little one. We should’ve told you.”

  Another wave of mist rolled over us, thick and oily. I hugged the monster’s neck, listening to the dreaded slow, steady thump of a hundred undead soldier’s marching in lockstep. I gasped. “They’re coming closer.”

  “It’ll be all right,” Thorsteinn soothed me. To Vik he said, “Hurry.”

  With a final grunt, Vik broke the rocks holding my leg. Thorsteinn pulled me free. I looked down and almost swooned. My breeches were torn, red lining the seam. Underneath there was a flash of white bone. At the sight, agony shredded me. I gritted my teeth against my cries of pain. I had endured beatings and never cried out. This was no different.

  “Broken,” Vik reported grimly. “I can set it but…” his hand hovered over my leg. I would’ve begged him not to touch me, if I could speak.

  “There’s no time,” Thorsteinn snarled. The drumbeat footsteps had grown closer.

  I whimpered as Thorsteinn lifted me in his arms. Already his feral looks were less frightening. This was Thorsteinn. My tortured body recognized him, was drawn to him as it had been from the first, in way I couldn’t explain.

  “Forgive us, little one. We have run out of time.” Smoothing back my hair, Thorsteinn reared his head back, baring his teeth. Before I could shout, he snapped and sunk his teeth deep into me, at the tender juncture where my shoulder met my neck. A flash of red as he broke the skin. His hand muffled my scream.

  On my left side, Vik ripped open the neck of my jerkin, lifted my hair, and bit. A ferocious sting flashed through me, followed by a glimmer of something else, something wonderful. The pain ebbed and swirled away.

  “There,” Thorsteinn lifted bloodstain fangs, and I fainted.

  * * *

  I woke, blinking blearily. Strong arms tightened around my body.

  “Thorsteinn?” I mumbled. “Where are we?”

  “Safe. high in a tree.” He sat cradled in the crook of a giant branch. My legs dangled off his lap, my feet swinging in midair. Far below, the mist swirled around the trunk. “Nothing can touch us here.” I shivered, and he palmed the back of my head, steadying me. “How’s your leg?”

  In a flash it returned—the mist, our route along the hill, the monsters who were really Thorsteinn and Vik. My broken leg, their fangs flashing as they bit me.

  With a gasp, I grabbed my neck. The pain was gone. There was no broken skin, no blood, no sting.

  “There’s still a mark,” Thorsteinn told me, faint amusement in his tone. “But the healing worked.”

  “How—?” I gaped further as I touched my leg. The breeches were still torn
.

  “That’s what the bond does, little one.”

  I felt it then, a honeyed warmth rushing over me. Two strong cords, one Thorsteinn, one Vik.

  “What is this?” I whispered.

  “We marked you. You’re ours now,” He cradled me closer, mouth curving in a rare grin. “You belong to us. No more running, little one.”

  I stared into his storm grey eyes. I wanted to ask what they’d done. I did not understand but I knew it was magic that joined us together, magic that had healed me. When I opened my mouth, not a protest or a question came out.

  “You saved me.”

  Thorsteinn gazed at me steadily. “Yes.”

  Ahead, on another branch, Vik set down the knife he’d been sharpening, and waved. I raised my hand in greeting, still filled with wonder.

  I did not know these warriors. I did not fully understand their enemy, the Corpse King, or why he targeted the abbey. I did not know what my life would be like as their captive or why, among all the young woman of the abbey, they chose me.

  I pressed the tight skin of my leg where the bone had once broken through, marveling. The healing had left no mark. It wasn’t even sore. In my blood, the bond hummed.

  “You asked my name, once.” I swallowed. “Do you still want to know it?”

  Thorsteinn’s brows quirked as if to say, Of course.

  “Sorrel.” I told them, sitting high in the tree, my feet waving in the breeze. “My name is Sorrel.”

  * * *

  Now

  “Sorrel. Sorrel.”

  I woke with the two warriors standing over me. I rolled to a sitting position. I was back in the tree lodge. All that had passed between us—every good memory—paled in light of my sins.

  “It’s done.”

  My gaze flitted between them until Vik explained, “The Alphas passed judgment. You are guilty of harming Rosalind.”

  My hands fisted in the blankets.

  “Do you wish to know your sentence?”

  I didn’t answer. They’d tell me anyway.

  Sure enough, Vik squatted close to me. “The penalty for harming a spaewife is death.”

  So, I’d been told.

  “But since you are a spaewife yourself, the Alpha’s agreed this is a special case.” He ran his hand over my head. “They also took into account that we had tried and failed to form a bond.”

  I flinched and looked away. I did not need to be reminded that I had been used and cast aside.

  Gentle hands settled on my shoulders, right over the twin bite marks they’d given me what seemed like so long ago. “Sorrel, it is a good thing. If there is no bond, then there’s a chance to redeem you.” His large, tattooed hand settled on my shoulder, right above the old bite mark. “To claim you.”

  I held my breath. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?

  “Sorrel, look at me,” Thorsteinn ordered, and waited until I raised my gaze.

  “They’ve given us another chance. We have one moon to bind you to us and turn you into our mate.”

  I frowned, my brow wrinkling.

  “The Alphas spared your life,” Vik said. “The story we told them worked.”

  Thorsteinn knelt in front of me, crowding close until all I saw was his stern face. “You are wild and disobedient. A threat to yourself and all others. To save your life, we must prove you are bonded and submit fully to us.” His voice was a guttural growl.

  I lick my lips and challenged, “And what if you fail?”

  Thorsteinn snarled and Vik spoke up. “We will not fail. Sorrel, we’re going to tame you.”

  2

  Vik

  “No,” she raised her head. “You can try. But you will never tame me.”

  “That is what you think,” Thorsteinn growled, and I put a hand on his arm.

  “Are you so eager for your own death? You attacked another spaewife. She lies asleep, on the edge of death, and the pack is calling for your blood. If you do not submit to us, your life is forfeit.” I motioned to the lodge entrance. “Even now there are warriors prowling the mountain. If they found you unattended, they would snap your neck and not feel remorse.”

  “Let them come for me,” she said fiercely. “I would fight them.”

  “You would die,” Thorsteinn said.

  “Sorrel,” I started to reason with her and Thorsteinn waved a hand.

  “Enough. We will argue with you no longer. You will submit to us. We will teach you to obey. If you do not, you will not like the consequences.”

  “Do what you will,” she hissed. “I will never submit to you.”

  I squatted close and caught a lock of her hair, tugging on it playfully. “Not even if we make the rewards greater than the punishment?” I caressed her shoulder and her eyes dropped. She flushed. Ah, yes, she was still affected by us. “You remember,” my voice grew deeper. “We shared a bond.”

  “A bond?” She wrenched her shoulder away. “That’s not what you told the Alphas.”

  “We explained why we said that. To save your life. To give you a chance.”

  “I don’t want you anymore.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Have you thought of that?”

  “Enough,” Thorsteinn said. “You do not trust us. You will in time.”

  She swallowed, her head bowed so her short hair covered her face.

  Do you think this is the way? I asked Thorsteinn.

  He jerked his chin up. Hold. Hold steady. “Tonight, we begin. First, we punish you for leaving us. For putting our property in harm’s way.”

  “Very well,” she muttered.

  I raised my brows. Could it be so easy?

  “You want to punish me? Fine.” She rose and ripped off her jerkin. “Do your worst.”

  I stifled a laugh. She was still defiant. Still the Sorrel we had fallen in love with from the first.

  She turned her back to us, and I sucked in a breath. In an instant, I was across the room and touching the scars on her back. Long white lines on her brown skin. “Who did this to you?”

  She whirled, holding up her jerkin between us like a shield.

  “You said you wished to punish me.” Her chin rose. “What does it matter that someone else already has?”

  “Answer me,” I growled. I brushed her arms aside. My hands clamped on her shoulders and turned her to face me. “If one of the pack has hurt you, I’ll—”

  “The nuns,” She burst out. “The nuns did it. Back at the abbey.”

  “Why?” I turned her and ran a hand down her back, brushing every ancient weal. How had I never seen this?

  She hid from us. Always. Thorsteinn reminded me. And we let her. She had suffered trauma both from the Corpse King and us forcing the bond. We thought we would coax her to open to us, in time. And then we ran out of time.

  We made a mistake, brother. We never should have left. I told him, regret filling my voice, choking me. We never should have accepted that patrol. We should have stayed with her and made sure of the bond. If we have missed our chance—

  It’s not too late, Thorsteinn insisted. I was not so sure.

  “I never saw this,” I said to Sorrel, still tracing the marks. “You hid them well.” Always bathing out of site. Never stripping in front of us. We had thought she was shy. We allowed her to hide.

  We had missed so much.

  She shivered under my touch but did not draw away.

  “Why did the nuns hurt you?” I asked again.

  “Because I would not submit. You see, I have never been good and obedient. Following the rules never gave me anything. The only remedy is to go my own way.”

  I cupped her chin “You will obey us.” I hunkered down to meet her angry gaze. “You will find you enjoy it.”

  She wrenched away “I will never enjoy it.” She backed away and I let her, for now.

  “I swear this. We will bring you to heel. But you will find pleasure in it.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You won’t have to believe. You’
ll know,” Thorsteinn said.

  “Firm, fair correction,” I said. “Nothing that harms you. Just enough of a sting to teach you who is your master.”

  “You are not my masters,” she hissed.

  “We are,” Thorsteinn strode forward, herding her back to me. Her stiff form bent and swayed. We read it in her posture and her scent—that slight hesitation. The desire to yield.

  “It’s been a long road, Sorrel.” I kept my voice soft. “You don’t have to run any more. You don’t have to fight.”

  “We will protect you, little one.” The way Thorsteinn towered over her, it seemed ridiculous such a small woman could turn us inside out. Yet she had.

  “I do not need your protection,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “No? We are all that stands between you and the angry pack.” Thorsteinn crossed his arms over his chest. “They call for your blood. Shall we turn you over to them instead?”

  “No,” I said before she could answer. I drew her close. “We will never let them touch you. Never. We will wrap you in layers of safety, so nothing harms you again.”

  Emotion rippled across her face. I caught her chin before she could hide.

  “Yield to us, Sorrel. I promise it will be worth it. Now come,” I patted my knee. Thorsteinn and I agreed I’d be the first to punish her. Of the two of us, I was more level headed about her attempted escape. Thorsteinn was surprised that she ran. I was not. Women always leave.

  “Over my lap,” I ordered, smoothing my face of all emotion.

  Uncertainty flickered over her face. Confusion. Anger. Stubbornness. She would not bend easily. Good.

  “You will lie over Vik’s lap and accept your punishment. Or we will march you up the mountain and bind you to a post and whip you for all to see.”

  She stiffened. You fool, I opened the bond between me and Thorsteinn and blasted him. Did you not see the scars on her back?

  I rose and caught her chin, forcing her to look at me. “We would use a soft flogger. One that leaves marks that fade. Never, ever scar.”