Bonded to the Berserkers

Laurel

Laurel

I rushed from the hearth, sloshing through cabbage soup. The warriors bellowed in my wake. If I got to the pantry, I could barricade myself in. There was food there, I could eat for days. I could hide.

Strong arms closed around my waist and swung me back.

“Got you,” a warrior said. I howled and kicked. Somehow my foot connected with the right place, and the warrior dropped me. I trembled as I backed away. He was fine-looking, with brown hair streaked with gold and tanned skin. Fierce, golden eyes. Strange eyes—like a wolf.

His gaze fell on my breasts, and I cursed the fact that I’d stripped off my dress earlier this night. It was so hot in the kitchens, I liked to wear my shift when I knew I’d be alone.

“Come on, little fighter,” the handsome warrior coaxed. “It is not safe for you here. We came to rescue you.”

“What?” I half-sobbed. My feet throbbed from the hot broth. I slipped on the soup- covered flagstones and landed half on the hearth. Reaching towards the fire, I thought that if I got close enough, I could grab up a burning stick and rush them—

“Enough,” growled a second warrior, pulling me toward him. I froze. He was ugly, a harsh scar marring half his face. I recoiled and he growled again, and caught me in his arms.

“Stop, Ulf, you’re scaring her.” That came from the handsome one.

Ulf grunted and pushed me forward. “Take her, then, Haakon.”

Grinning like he’d won a prize, the handsome warrior Haakon bent so his shoulder hit my middle, and then I was up over his shoulder hanging down his back.

“Stop! What are you—”

“Quiet,” a hand clapped on my bottom. I hissed at this outrage, and the hand caressed my right buttock. I almost started shrieking, but a draft hit my face. We were outside.

Muffled sobs and cries came from all around. The moonlight illuminated quite a scene. Large warriors milled about the abbey grounds, some held my friends—the orphans. One giant went by, dragging one of the nuns, who railed and fought him. Sister Juliet—a kind young woman who’d grown up in the orphanage until she took vows. She screamed as he tossed her up over his shoulder and strode into the forest.

“Let me go,” I struggled, beating my fists against the warrior’s back. My hands might as well have been flowers for all the damage they did to the leather jerkin he wore or the powerful muscles of his back.

He gave a great leap, and landed atop the abbey wall. My stomach flipped and I screamed, but he only crouched and leapt from the wall. Cradling me in his arms, the one named Haakon jogged across the road and plunged into the forest. Trees blocked my view of the abbey, and just like that, the home I’d known all my life was gone.