Mated to the Berserkers: A Menage Shifter Romance (14 page)

“Who are ye?” I asked for Samuel.

“Yseult calls me Odin. Like him, I gave an eye for wisdom.”

The Viking wolves who were watching grew unsettled. They were likely to believe a blind old man called Odin really was their god.

I rolled my eyes. Yseult playing tricks again.

“What is your business here?”

The man spread his hands. “Yseult bade me come. She said you would give me food and shelter, in return for my services.”

“What services does a blind, old man offer?”

The greybeard smiled and spread his hands. “I am going to teach your beloved to speak.”

*

It took another night and day before we allowed the old man near Brenna. She approached curiously, stopping when I caught her arm.

“Hello, Brenna,” Odin said, using his hands to make symbols in the air. He repeated his greeting, motioning slower.

Samuel and I watched in fascination as she mimicked his gestures. After greetings, the greybeard pointed to things in the room, naming them out loud and with a gesture.

After a few days, she’d mastered this new game. Samuel and I practiced along with her, but we learned more slowly.

“Did you speak like this with anyone?” greybeard asked.

Yes. My sister,
she signed back.
The one closest to me in age.

“Sabine?” I asked. I knew her sisters’ names from reports of the wolves who checked on them from time to time.

Brenna looked at the floor, as she always did when we spoke of her family.
Yes.

“Leave us,” Samuel ordered the greybeard. Wisely, the man called Odin obeyed.

“Brenna,” I crouched near her, to meet her gaze. “Do ye miss yer sisters?”

Yes.

“Do ye wish to see them?”

A pause, then she shook her head.
It is easier if I don’t.

Samuel and I exchanged glances.

“Do ye wish to leave us?”

Her gaze jerked up at that. No. She indicated, and I felt relief. But she didn’t leave it at that. I would miss you more.

With a growl, Samuel crossed to her. Tugging her head back by her braid, he claimed her lips. “Then you are ours, lass. Forever.”

*

I was standing at the fire when the Yseult appeared beside me. Even though we’d had guards posted for days, on the lookout for the blonde woman, she’d cloaked herself to show her power, coming close to our beloved without warning, without asking permission.

I smelled her awful scent, cold smoke and stone, and kept my eyes on the fire. “I hate it when ye appear out of thin air.”

“I know you do.” She smiled. “Did you enjoy my little gift?”

“The old man? He knows some tricks.”

My flesh crawled as she studied me. “Has she bonded with you?”

“She speaks with us, using the language of the hands,” I hedged.

“Take me to her.”

I led her inside. Brenna sat with the old man beside the pool, their hands flashing as they spoke with gestures.

I stopped in the entryway and threw out my arm to keep Yseult back.

The witch obeyed my silent command. Together we watched Brenna converse silently. She didn’t notice us, but Samuel did. The Alpha prowled closer.

“Well, Yseult? What do you think of our mate?”

“Is that what she is? Your mate?”

“Yes. We do not care what the runes say. She is the one we choose.”

“Hmm,” Yseult made a noncommittal noise. “Her scent is different. Stronger. You awakened something within her.”

“What do you mean? Speak plainly, or not at all.” Samuel ordered.

“She smells like she is in heat. Her body responds to the pull of your magic.”

“Explain.”

“When I last visited, you promised me a night with the pack. During the summer solstice. That is today.”

“The pack is ready for you. We will uphold our end of the bargain. Now tell us why Brenna smells like she is in heat.”

“And why she survived the dog attack when she was young,” I added.

Yseult smiled her damned enigmatic smile. She loved lording over us. “Brenna has magic.”

“Witch?”

“She’s not a witch. Not quite. Hers is a more subtle, earthy magic.” Yseult sniffed, and we knew she felt Brenna was beneath her. “Your Brenna is a hedgewitch, like her mother, and her mother’s mother. Also called a spaewife. They are less powerful than witches.”

“But she has some power? What is it?”

“That you must find out. I searched for the answer and learned of Brenna’s grandmother, who had some healing abilities. Not much power, at least, not enough to keep the villagers from burning her alive.”

“What about Brenna’s mother?”

“After the grandmother’s death, the mother took her children and fled. If she has any power, it deserted her when she took to the drink. What powers a spaewife has, Brenna and her sisters have the answer.”

Samuel and I exchanged glances. Whatever we thought the witch knew, we hadn’t expected this. “This is all you discovered? Our woman is a spaewife, perhaps with healing powers?”

“It makes sense,” I added. “She soothes the beast.”

“But she has not fully tamed it,” Samuel said.

Yseult cleared her throat. “Power grows with sacrifice. There is always a price.”

“What’s Brenna’s price? She already lost her voice, almost her life.”

“The same price we all pay,” Yseult said. “Pain.”

*

By evening, all the pack had assembled around the fire pit on the mountain. Samuel sat on his throne. Yseult stood to the side, wearing a white shift and an enigmatic smile.

By Yseult’s request, I stood with Brenna at the mouth of the cave, a safe distance from the pack. We would watch, and learn.

Pain.
The witch had said. I knew that witches like my mother and Yseult sacrificed for magic. The sacrifice could be small—a rabbit or a dove. Or personal—like Odin, who gave his eye for wisdom. Or something else…like surrendering to an erotic beating. I wondered if the flogging had awakened Brenna’s powers.

Brenna and I waited as Samuel gave his orders to the pack. For one night, they could take Yseult and use her as they would. No maiming or death. Those were the only rules.

When Samuel finished, Yseult descended into the pack of wolves, her eyes alight with a primal hunger. She walked through the warriors until one stepped in her path. A wicked smile curved her lips. She spoke to Siebold. Then her hand flashed out and slapped him across the face.

No one breathed.

Siebold’s eyes glowed gold with the beast as he reached out and gripped her hair. He dragged her head back and kissed her.

Three other warriors closed around her, ripping the shift off her tall form. Siebold lifted and carried her to the ground, already rutting.

Yseult’s teeth found his neck and bit down. Blood flowed, and Siebold roared, pounding her into the ground with his hips as her nails raked down his back.

When she orgasmed, magic whipped through the pack. All the wolves howled. All but Samuel and I.

“Come, Brenna.” I started to turn away, sickened not by the display, but by my cock’s reaction to it. Brenna stopped me, tugging on my arm.

“What is it, lass?” My mouth dried as I saw the heat in our beloved’s eyes. She hooked an arm around my neck and brought me down into a searing kiss.

I almost staggered back when she let me go. “Really? Now?”

She nodded, her hand on my chest. I wasted no time throwing her up over my shoulder, and carrying her to our bed chambers.

*

Brenna trembled when I set her down on the dais.

“Are ye all right, lass?”

Yes.
Her hands fluttered.
Need. You. Now.

Samuel bounded into the chamber, looking younger and more carefree than I’d seen him in a long time.

“I can smell her,” he said, his eyes swimming with gold. His beast was close to the surface, I could smell it, but it did not seem angry.

“Brenna,” the big Alpha choked out. “You’re in heat.” He came to stand before her on the dais, running his hand down her breasts to her cunny. She pressed into his touch, her eyes fluttering.

“Your heat calls to us. It is intoxicating.” He pressed his face to her stomach through the gown, looking like a supplicant before a queen. “I will do whatever you ask.”

She looked thoughtful, then a wicked smile crossed her face and she pointed to the ground in front her.

“You want me to please you, little love? You want your Alpha on his knees?” He sank down before Brenna, his head coming to her knees as she stood on the dais. Pushing aside her gown, he lifted one foot, then the other, nibbling at her ankles and moving up. Grabbing his hair to steady herself, Brenna pulled him between her legs.

I bounded up onto the dais and raised her gown, pulling it over her head. Earlier that day, I’d shaved and plugged her. Her body was smooth and ready. I kissed her neck.

“You are the only one, Brenna. The only one we kneel for.”   

I lifted her and Samuel draped her legs over his shoulders. Brenna sighed and writhed as he nibbled on her folds. I steadied her, freeing one hand to brush her breast. Her head fell back onto my shoulder, but she kept holding Samuel’s head to her cunny, even after her orgasm crested.

Samuel and I laid her down, stroking her pale skin as she recovered.

“So fragile. So delicate…and yet you are stronger than us all. Your frailty calls to our beast, turns our brutal beast into a protector.”

I drew in a deep breath, realizing it was true. The beast wasn’t stronger because we were losing our grip on it. It was stronger because she needed it, wanted it, accepted it.

Samuel put a finger to her lips. “You knew before we did.”

Brenna’s lips curved against his fingers as she smiled her secret smile. That was when I knew the runes had been right. This was the woman for us.

“Up,” I commanded, holding out my hands to help her to her knees. Reaching around her, I slid my hand over her bottom and seized the plug. “Here.”

Her eyes widened, but she allowed me to maneuver her to all fours.

We’d plugged her often, stretching her back hole for us. And now we would claim it.

“All of ye belongs to us.” I fucked her arse with the plug, sliding it in and out.

Samuel handed me the jar of oil. I pulled out the plug and rimmed her with a finger coated in oil. Brenna lay with her chest to the pelts and her arse waving in the air, ready for us.

“Don’t be afraid, lass.”

Samuel stepped forward, fisting his cock in readiness. First he pulled her to all fours and plunged into her cunny. I slid under her and lapped at her breasts until her breathing changed from forced to ragged.

Samuel pulled out and prised her arse cheeks apart. “Beautiful.”

I held her in my arms as Samuel set his cock against her pucker and started to press in.

Sweat appeared on her brow. She hid her face in my chest.

I stroked her hair.

“Focus on us. Focus on pleasing yer masters.” I whispered. 

Without raising her head, she nodded.

“Breathe in. Then breathe out and bear down.”

Samuels’ grunt told me when he’d sheathed himself in her.

“So tight. So fucking tight.”

“There now, lass, ye did it. Now,” I scooted back so my cock waved in front of her face. “Suck on this.”

Her body moved back and forth between us.

We came in unison. 

We hadn’t taken her cunny and arse together, but soon.

*

The next day, a few hours after dawn, I climbed the mountain to the overlook to take the first watch.

A wind wafted by my face, carrying the scent of snow and cold stone, a touch of death. Yseult.

“Did ye get what ye came for?”

“And more.” The woman practically purred. “You didn’t join in?” she ran a finger down my arm. I caught her hand, willing myself not to crush it.

“I’m spoken for.”

“I see that,” she laughed, and touched my shoulder, where I noticed marks from Brenna’s nails for the first time. “You survived her first mating heat.”

“That was—” I choked out. “It didn’t seem real. Or I thought it was a response to yer magic in the pack bonds.”

“That was her,” Yseult murmured. “The spaewife grows stronger every moon she spends in your care. Be careful, wolf,” She shook a finger in my face. “There are werewolves who will smell it too, and try to take her from you.”

“Let them come,” I growled. “There is none as strong as a Berserker.”

“Are you sure?” Her smile was beautiful and terrible at the same time. She walked away, hips swaying like a woman well fucked, until she vanished in a bolt of lightning that left my hair standing on end.

It struck me, then, that Yseult had smelled more powerful than before, more than just a boost she would get from spilling her bedmate’s blood. Had she eaten one of the pack? I thought through each member of the pack—all wolves were accounted for.