Page 10 of Hungry Like a Wolf (Vikings Rock #3)

“No!” Carmel said, marching up to Ravn. “I will not go with you. I will not be a mother to your motherless son. He is not mine. I did not birth him. I will not do it. I will not leave my beloved homeland.” She pressed her hands together and looked upward.

“Dear Lord Almighty, please be with me in this time of need.”

“He will not help you and you will leave with me,” Ravn said.

Ravn was so sure and calm, it made her blood boil. “You are a selfish boar-head and no wonder loneliness is your best friend.” She jabbed his hard chest. “You think only of yourself.”

He scowled at her. “That is not true, I—”

She turned and stomped past Noah and Anna, going out the door into the bright daylight. She didn’t want to hear Ravn’s deep, accented voice full of excuses for his barbaric behavior.

The first thing her eyeline settled on was the watchtower and she made straight for it. She’d go. Run away. Take her chances. There was a very strong likelihood her mother’s army was at the valley campsite right now. She only had to reach there and then tell them to retreat with her in tow.

Or maybe attack but with advance warning of the Norsemen’s hideous tactics.

“Carmel!” Anna called. “Wait.”

Carmel ignored her and pushed into a sprint. She wasn’t hanging around to be stowed onto a longboat and taken to foreign shores against her will.

“Hey, stop!” Anna called again, her voice a little closer.

Carmel sped up, her hair whipping behind her and her breaths quickening.

“You there. Halt!” a villager on the watchtower shouted down at her. “I order you to halt in the name of King Haakon.”

Again, she ignored the instruction to stop and flew out of the village. She took the track between the neat rows of crops that led east, toward the forest. The dark shadows of the trees were welcoming; they’d embrace her, hide her.

On and on she raced, thankful for the fact that she’d always been a good runner. She tore past rows of beans on poles, sprouting cabbages, and spring greens. Making it past a couple of horses grazing, Carmel found new hope springing inside of her.

She was gaining on the forest. Anna wasn’t calling her anymore. She’d done it. She’d gotten away from the devilish Vikings who sought to own her.

“Carmel.” A deep, breathless voice.

Her heart roiled and her stomach clenched. A gasp caught in her throat. Taking a moment to look over her shoulder, she saw Ravn racing up behind her with a look of such fierce determination, she knew her chances of escape had just been drastically reduced.

“Stay away from me!” she shouted, taking a sharp left and choosing a different route into the forest. She felt like a deer being hunted and trying to outmaneuver teeth and claws and arrows and spears.

Panic twisted her guts and a new speed gave her legs energy.

But then he was behind her. His heavy breaths and the stomp of his feet on the earth thudding in her ears.

“No!” she wailed as his arm came around her waist, pulling her to his hard body.

Then she was flying through the air, a moment of suspension. She braced, waiting for impact.

It came, but not as hard as expected because she landed on top of Ravn, her body sprawled over his. Her hair filled her face and her legs were akimbo.

He grunted on his collision with the earth then wrapped his other arm around her, holding her close as though not trusting her not to jump up and run away again.

“Get off me!” She wriggled and shoved at him.

“In the name of Odin… woman… would you just stop?” He was breathless and his arms like vises around her.

She could feel the entire length of his body against hers. “How dare you? God sees this and His wrath will rain down.”

“You will feel my wrath in a minute and—”

She jabbed her knee into his groin.

His sudden long groan was deep and guttural. For a moment, his grip on her slackened as his face twisted in agony.

Making the most of it, she pushed to the right, rolling off him.

But she didn’t get far because suddenly, he was over her, pinning her to the ground, her arms either side of her head and his weight as binding as any ball and chain.

“You brutish monster,” she hissed up at him. “How dare you?”

“I dare.” Furrowed lines plowed over his brow. “Because you are a brat, my little princess. You are a brat.”

She squirmed, thrusting her hips and legs. It was no use. She couldn’t shake him off. “Do not speak to me that way.” She was breathing hard. “You have no idea who I am.”

“And you have no idea who I am.” His grip on her tightened and he lowered his face so his nose was bumping up against hers. “You have absolutely no idea what I am capable of, so quit this nonsense.”

“Urgh!” She twisted harder, but to no avail.

He sucked in a breath, his eyes flashed, and his grip on her forearms tightened.

She’d never felt so trapped, not even when Orm had carried her from the battlefield and cuffed her ankles.

“Let me go.”

“You are coming with me to the northlands.”

“I am not.”

“You are. Say it.”

“No!”

“You are coming with me and you will behave and you will be a mother to my son. Say it.”

“Why on God’s earth would you want that? Any of it?”

“Because…” He swiped his tongue over his bottom lip. “Because I want you.”

She stilled. Frozen. “You told me you didn’t. That you wouldn’t.” Heat filled her pussy just at the thought of being naked with him and his cock filling her. It was a sin of the highest order to even think such a thing, but to physically react to it? Oh, Lord, have mercy.

Her breath hitched in her chest and her heart skipped a strange beat.

“I didn’t say I wanted your gold-plated cunny, Princess. I said I wanted you.”

She curled her hands into fists. “You could get anyone to tend your son.”

“I don’t want anyone.”

“And I don’t want to leave these shores.”

“It is the only way to protect Tillicoulty and the people my siblings have come to care about.” He paused and searched her eyes as though looking for something. “I need to atone. I need you to understand that.”

“Atone without me. Praise be to the Lord. I am not your salvation, Ravn.”

“You are exactly that.” He lowered his face.

He filled her vision. His lips were only a hairsbreadth from hers.

“The gods put you in my path for a reason, Carmel.”

“What reason?”

“That, I have yet to understand, but until I do, you are coming with me.”

Suddenly, he sprang up, nimbly for a man of his size. He stooped and took hold of her arm, hoisting her to standing.

She shoved at him and pushed her hair from her face. Looking down, she brushed the leaves and twigs from her clothing.

“Where did you think you were going?” he asked.

“To my people.”

“You don’t even know if they are there.” He frowned. “Or do you?”

“How could I? I am trapped here!” She pointed at the fort. “But I know my mother and she will not delay now that spring is here. God willing, she is only moments away.”

“In which case, we should set sail while the weather is fair.”

“What? No.” Oh, dear Lord above, had she just hastened her fate?

“It will not take long to restock the boat. My crew has made the few repairs needed and she is ready to sail.”

“But… But… Orm. He will not let you take me.”

Ravn curled his arm around her waist and urged her back along the track. “Orm does not get a say in it.”

“That’s not what he thinks.”

“I am his big brother and a king. He will do as I say.”

The determination in Ravn’s tone made her believe him.