Bonnie whimpered. Her grip on the headboard white and shaking.
Somehow her body had born the Barbarian's pleasure.
Mine certainly won't. I'd never survive that. My mouth was dry and I was shifting uncomfortably.
"Thank ye, Bonnie." He rolled off her to lay next to her. Moving the leather pouch back over his slickened groin and dropping a palm to his abdomen as he relaxed. Reaching aside his bed, he withdrew a couple coins and put them into her waiting hand.
He followed Bonnie out of the bed. Walking over to unchain me from the fireplace. Handing the chain to Bonnie.
"Another coin for ye, if ye take her down to the pond and show her how to clean up for a servicing."
Servicing?
Is that what'd just happened? I swallowed. But it felt like a jagged rock rather than my own saliva.
Bonnie nodded and took my chain.
I could escape her. Run while I had the chance.
Though Bonnie seemed sturdier built then me I thought perhaps I could still take her.
Mardichi caught Bonnie's other hand and stuck a thick switch into it. Giving me a meaningful look.
"If ye lose 'er. Ye'll be takin' 'er place." Mardichi told Bonnie sternly.
Bonnie looked petrified.
I was petrified.
We both need to get out of here before the beast decides to partake of us both.
She looked at him a bit desperately before her back straightened and she tightened her grip on that switch.
Yes, she would most definitely hit me with it to avoid belonging to him.
I grimaced eyeing her. Clearly, I won't be escaping at the pond.
***
"He's not that bad." Bonnie had my chain hooked around her waist while she stood thigh deep in the pond. Splashing icy water over her body and careful to splash it with great momentum, between her legs. "It's just the sheer size of his part. He's as good a man as any."
She paused thoughtfully. "Probably better than most. Least he treats me as a woman and not just a mere slave."
"Are you his slave?"
"Nay." She shook her head. "I belong to the neighbor just there." She pointed. "Jimmy. But Mardichi buys my favors from him now and then for a bit of coin. Then he sneaks me a couple for bearing the pain. He tells me to keep it for meself, says Jimmy ain't the one doin' that!" She laughed slightly.
Groaning and holding herself as the laugh obviously caused her pain down low.
"Why don't you escape?"
"Oh, no!" She shook her head adamantly. "You don't understand. A slave woman can have some power in her position. Men will favor you, give you things you want if you keep his cock happy. But if you try to escape him he'll punish you with that same bit. And the pain can be unbearable. Then they'll really treat you as they own you."
Seems that's what was intended for me as it was.
She shook her head meaningfully. "Don't do that, Girl. Learn to take him into you." She gestured to my lower body. "Please him. Making him happy. He'll treat you good, if you do."
"Look at the size of me, Bonnie!" I cried gesturing down my overly slender frame. "He'll never fit that in me!"
"He'll make it fit." She grunted.
I gave her a wide-eyed, horrified look.
"Perhaps not the best turn of phrase." She admitted in way of an apology.
I'm going to die. I realized.
***
Bonnie guided me through what to wash and how to properly clean up for a man. Than she walked me back toward the hut. She'd have had to fetch a wheelbarrow to push me had I locked my heels any harder.
He's going to shove that thing in me and I'll split apart. I'd seen how Bonnie struggled and she was far more voluptuous then me.
I felt far from up to the task.
Bonnie opened the door and soundly shoved me in. Slamming it closed behind me.
And leaving me with the monster.
"How was yer bath?" Mardichi was at the table. His heels up on the corner as he leisurely whittled at a bit of wood near his middle. His waving red hair slung around his shoulders as his head was tipped down. Blue eyes intent on his task.
I turned stiffly in his direction and chewed my lip.
"What would it take to make you let me go?" I blurted the only thing I could think. The same thought pouring over my mind. A desperate desire to live.
He scoffed in laughter and slid his feet to the ground. Rising from the chair and setting the bit of wood aside. Slipping the dagger in the strap of leather circling his pelvis.
I eyed it desperately. Wondering if I could get to it before he swung one of those massive fists and knocked me across the hut.
He grunted as if sensing my thoughts amused him.
My eyes trailed up over densely muscled thighs, well-honed from battle. Up over the bit of leather that concealed his most dangerous war hammer. And up over his abdomen which looked carved of stone. His chest seemed constructed of two square blocks branching from wide shoulders. His arms were as thick as tree trunks I'd seen.
I swallowed. Mouth suddenly dry.
"Please me well. Impress me and I might consider it. But I find it unlikely. I doubt you can properly prepare a meal. Much less service a man well."
"Well I-I...I've never done that."
"A fact which I found glaringly clear when ye looked scared enough to wretch on me floor while Bonnie and me meshed skin."
"Meshed skin?" That seemed a terrible term for it.
He chuckled.
"I-I can cook. What if I cook well, clean well?"
"Nay. Willna be enough." He shook his head. "Not what I want."
My eyes flicked over the floor as my mind frantically worked.
"You're not getting out of it, Little One."
A sound very much like a whimper escaped me.
In-fact I'm very sure that's what it was.
He towered over me, a dark shadow cast so far beyond, that it darkened the floor behind me.
I've never seen a man so massive.
"Can I please go home?" I squeaked. Begging in desperation.
"Nay."
"I must admit that I am surprised a woman of your age has managed to remain untouched for this long." He remarked thoughtfully as he strolled over to the door and flipped the latch on the top to lock it before moving over to the fire to crouch and add a couple logs.A latch I clearly couldn't reach without dragging a chair over.That was pretty much my primary plan at this juncture.That or slitting his throat with his own dagger if I could get it from him before he snaps my neck. I winced at the thought."My, my..." He remarked. Peering over his shoulder pensively at me. "Ye're always thinkin' aren't ye?"I gave him a dumbfounded look. Likely belying his remark on what may've been, a compliment to my intelligence. I was trying to remember if I'd been staring at the lock on the door when he'd commented.Had I been so obviously trying to plan an escape?"Here." He walked to a pantry and returned with potatoes and carrots and a skinned rabbit he drew off a hook. Slapping them on the tab
With the same wild reluctance and fearful glare I eased from the corner toward him. Weighing my options and not liking any of them.But the pot of stew was still on that table.Maybe I can slosh it on him and scald him. Or conk him with the pot well and good enough to get a chair to that door and out.It seemed my only plausible option. So I walked around the table to where he stood. Facing him as boldly as I could muster despite that I wanted to panic and slide under the bed and pray he couldn't get me out."Bold one, ye are. I like that." He gave me a proud look."Now off with me tunic." He slid a huge callused palm under the shoulder of it and pushed it off. Dropping it over my shoulder and down to my elbow.I gasped, reflexively lifting my arm to stop the fabric from falling further but already one small breast stuck out above the neckline.He reached and methodically did the same with the other sleeve so only my lifted forearms held it around my waist.He gave me a warning look.
The sensation of his finger inside me was unlike anything before. I could feel my body stretching around as he swirled it in slowly. Finding the unique crevices inside me and rubbing along each until one made me gasp."Do you feel that?" He rubbed it again. "That is the pleasure you can have, if ye're a good 'un."My breath shivered as it entered me.He rubbed more roughly along the spot that was making me lean forward and slightly back against his hand.What the hell was I doing?"Uh, uh." I moaned as something tightened inside me. Making my whole body feel icy cold. Then heat blew up from my core and bloomed through me. Making my whole body shiver.My thighs vibrated against his as they flexed with small spasms."Now ye're ready for me, Lass." He murmured and I felt him leaning back and withdrawing his hand."No." I whispered."Yes. It's time."***I couldn't think of any time in my life I'd been less ready. "Please don't.""Here's how it's going to work, Sweet. I need ye ta breathe
"You feel like satin. Like ye were carved from the softest things to make a sheath fer a man.""You're utterly soulless." I leaned up to shout."Who needs one when I have this." He stuffed me full again. "Fucking you feels so good, Little Raven. In-fact," He murmured. "You're so delightfully surprising, I'm certain now I'll be keeping ye for my little slave.""Isn't that what you intended to begin with?" I sneered.He was thrusting so fiercely that there was a guttural sound coming out of me. Broken each time he entered me again. "But I've come ta an even greater decision now, Wee Lass.""What?" I looked over my shoulder at him. My eyes darkened with bitterness. Resentment for what he was doing to me."Ye're well suited to be one of my kind.""You're kind?" I blinked at him in confusion. Even he had paused his ministrations to more slowly slip in and out of me. Still gripping my wrists to keep me from reaching the pot I so yearned for.The one I want to smash over his head."My kind."
"When it comes to fighting me, you're only going to hurt yourself." His low voice rumbled from the bed and I realized that despite his stillness he was far from asleep."I won't stop.""I'm aware that's very likely. But if you were to do so, I'd let you off that chain and let you lie next to me. Realize the softer side of companionship. Care to try?""No." I whispered."Fine." He said. "Let me know when you do."The night was the most awful I'd known. Something about that cold chain made me feel like I was an animal at the end of a leash. And the room seemed cold then overly hot."It's going to get painful." He cautioned. "I can give you comfort.""I'd rather die." I spat on the floor."It's going to feel like you are." He rolled over to his side, staring at the wall in the corner. Unwilling to meet my penetrating gaze.***He had not lied to me. Midway through the night there was pain coursing through my middle. A dark twisting that felt like someone was spinning my insides in wild c
He walked to the bed and lifted the blanket. Giving a sweeping gesture for me to climb in.Staring at him nervously I slid into his bed. Immediately awash with the male scent of him.Dirt and trees and everything wild. But it seemed far more intense now. My nostrils flared and I felt like they were peeling open nearly up to my tear ducts to take in the aroma. And immediately I was damp between my thighs. Remembering that smell as he'd taken me over the table.Like an animal.Suddenly it seemed very obvious what he was.How'd I miss it before?I scooted as far into his bed as I could without completely pinning myself against the wall. I felt the bed dip behind me as he crawled in.The bed groaned in objection and sunk in with his massive weight."This isn't how it works." He sighed as he adjusted into the bedding to get comfortable. Slipping a hand over my hip and to the front of my belly. Dragging me backward until my back jolted against the unrelenting hardness of his chest and abdom
"I don't think you're weak." He added eying me.I'm not.I glared at him impudently. Still trying to conceive a plan to get the key and out while I had clothes and before he put me back on that chain.But to call him a formidable foe would be like saying that about a bear.He's not formidable. He's an impassable wall.He sucked in his cheeks as though he knew precisely what I was thinking. "Why did your mum name ye, Raven?"He strolled over to me, and I reflexively tensed. My shoulders and arms hardening in-case I had a need to strike him if he tried to toss me over that table again. But he gave me a slight unworried glance before reaching for my hair before he even stopped. Catching a lock and curving it around his large finger."Ye're hair isn't particularly black. Yer eyes are the brightest green I ever saw. Far from the dark of the birds. It makes little sense. Unless she was so senseless as to simply like the name?"I growled in my throat. My mother wasn't senseless!"She has mor
Mardichi walked through the mist. A great splash of red and tan amongst the dim gray. He was eyeing me like something foreign.And I couldn't help noticing that the bit of leather he'd worn when we left was long gone now. Leaving the thick bit of flesh exposed against his leg. He was as heedless as any animal as he sidled up to me."You should've become a wolf or a beast.""A beast?""Well, you'd be the first woman I marked.""What does that mean?" My voice rose."I'm not entirely certain of the details as to how it's supposed to work." Mardichi entered the clearing and looked up at the trees just above us. Blotched with darker spots.What are those?His voice drew my attention back to him. "I've heard others of my kind speak of it. They explained how the woman became a wolf soon after she was marked as their mate."He eyed me purposefully. Making it a point that it was odd."Mate?" I frowned at him. "So, what does that mean?""It means magic is activated in you as it should be. But t