Mastered by the Berserkers (Berserker Brides #8) - Lee Savino Page 0,18

while, it licked my face clean of tears with its broad, pink tongue.

“What am I going to do?” I clung to the wolf’s neck, burying my face into its thick pelt.

It was a long time before Jarl returned. By then Fenrir had cut down the deer and butchered it, lashed a few tree trunks together to lean against the entrance as a makeshift door, and built up a fire. I’d slept in the bed again, waking with a start when Jarl stomped in.

Jarl threw down a brace of dead pheasants, glowering at everything and nothing. I shrank into the bedding.

Jarl stopped before me, tossing a few long strips of leather onto the bed.

“Run again and I will hobble you,” he said, looking pointedly at the leather ties. I glared down at them. What more could I do?

Fenrir set about plucking and spitting the pheasants to roast over the fire. Jarl stomped to the wood pile and started savagely thrusting logs into the fire.

Fenrir glanced at me, his mouth twisting in sympathy. “He is angry because you allowed yourself to suffer so long.”

“What would I have done?”

“You could’ve come to us,” Jarl said, slamming the last log down in a shower of sparks. “You belong with us.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “I belong to god.”

Jarl stood and stretched out his arms. “Then why hasn’t he saved you?”

Before I knew it, I’d flown off the bed and risen on tiptoe to scream in his face. “If you’re so strong, why didn’t you throw me down and take me when we first met? On the lawn of the abbey, in the light of the torches.”

Gold shone in his eyes. “Is that what you wanted?”

“No!”

“Isn’t it?” he crowded me backwards to the bed. “Why do you defy us? Why do you defy your nature?”

“Because it is not my nature. Or if it is, it is sinful and unholy.”

“Who told you this?” Fenrir asked. He crouched by the fire, adjusting the cooking spit.

“The priest.”

“Priests,” Jarl scoffed. “Weak men who make rules others must follow.”

“They are not weak—” I protested.

“They are. They made these rules to bind you.” He snatched up the leather strips of the bed into his clenched fist, and shook it under my nose. “We are Berserkers. We are bound by nothing, least of all words chanted by puny priests.”

I clenched my fists to keep from hitting him. “I am still bound.”

“Yes, you are, little nun. And we will not let you leave. Push me, and I’ll tie you to the frame.” He threw the bonds on the bed and turned away, muttering. “I should punish you for running.”

“Do it then,” I spat.

I never saw him move. I ended up on my stomach, face pressed into the soft furs. Jarl’s hard hand clamped on the back of my neck while the other jerked up my shift. I bellowed into the bed, clawing the pelts, writhing like an eel. His palm cracked down on my bare skin and I screamed. I kicked, but he smacked me again.

He knelt on the bed, capturing my flailing arms easily behind my back. “Is this what you wanted?”

I yelled and got a mouthful of fur. His palm caught the bottom of my buttocks and beat a tattoo on either cheek, painting them with pain. After a while, I stopped fighting and gripped the furs, surrendered to my punishment.

Jarl stopped to fondle my heated backside, and I held my breath, my heart pounding against the bed.

“I should’ve done this moons ago,” he murmured, sounding calmer. His fingers dipped lower, straying close to a place no one had ever touched. Pleasure prickled in my belly, the feeling intense in contrast to my stinging bottom. There was the slightest touch to my tender folds, and then I wrenched away, flinging myself across the bed.

Jarl let me go. I rolled and drew the furs up to my neck. I expected to see him smirking, but instead he stood staring at the two fingers he’d used to touch me. “You’re wet.”

“No.” My bottom throbbed and my core pulsed in reply. I grabbed a huge bear rug and dragged it over me. I was covered head to toe, but it was meager protection if the warrior decided to pounce.

But Jarl stayed where he was. He bent his head and sniffed his fingers before closing his mouth over them and sucking hard. He held my gaze the whole time. “Do not worry, Juliet. We will not give you pleasure. Not until you beg.”

“I will