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  “And when the truth comes out?” Brenna whispered.

  “Eerika was not thinking of that at that moment. Her only wish was to save you from certain death.”

  Brenna nodded. “Tell her I thank her.”

  There was a sound at the door, almost a knock, it seemed.

  Brenna and Astrid both turned toward the noise.

  Calder stood there, an axe in his hand.

  Brenna shivered and wondered if he was the one who’d nearly killed her. And for some reason, she hoped not.

  “Your bath, lady.”

  Now she knew why he called her that. But yet, when he said it, it was as though there was mockery in his tone.

  “You may bring her to help, if needed.” He turned away with a final word. “An assembly of guards will accompany you.”

  Chapter Four

  In the hut that held Brenna prisoner, Calder watched her interact with the other woman. He’d actually caught a portion of their conversation. He’d heard Brenna ask what would happen when the truth came out.

  He’d not have heard it if he were a mortal man, but being a shifter meant his senses were amplified. He could hear better, see farther, move faster, smell subtleties that most humans couldn’t.

  What did she mean about the truth coming out? What truth, he wondered.

  The two women rose to their feet. The fur blanket was still wrapped around Brenna, in her hand she clutched a new tunic.

  The other woman gathered several furs, murmuring, “You can wrap yourself with these while you dry; the river has not yet begun to warm.”

  “Thank you, Astrid.”

  “You’ll be going with her to assist,” Calder told the other woman.

  She nodded after glancing at Brenna.

  Calder, his best friend Gunnar, and Torsten—another close ally in the tribe he ruled with his brother, all followed slowly behind the two women as they made their way toward the river.

  The path was wide enough for three men to walk shoulder to shoulder, the weeds brushing thighs encased in leggings. The women’s long skirts rustled the brush that covered the oft-used path.

  Calder hadn’t told Halvar he was taking the statuesque red-haired beauty to bathe in the river. He knew that for one reason or another, his brother had a bone to pick with Brenna.

  And Halvar was still ensconced in his hut, in the depths of sleep, an arm slung around each of the two village women who lay next to him, all three unclad.

  The cabin smelled like sex, making Calder’s rod twitch. For too long, he’d been without a woman. It wasn’t that he had a problem with taking one of the captives as his own, to bury himself in deeply and release the tension that had built in him.

  It was that every time he thought of sex, Brenna’s face flashed before his eyes. The image of her countenance while she’d been sleeping, the way her body had risen and dropped with every breath while she’d lain unconscious.

  And now that he’d seen at least part of that body, a set of glorious breasts, he couldn’t scrub her from his mind. He’d entertained the idea of taking one—or two—of the women to his own hut, but every evening, predictably, after he’d had his dinner, he’d post himself near her door, sharpening his blade, his mind immersed in thoughts of her.

  Gunnar elbowed him. “We’ll be catching a glimpse of her now, won’t we. I’d like to see if her hair is as red—”

  Calder halted, whirled to face him. “You’ll do nothing to jeopardize our getting the ransom from her husband, you understand? Nothing.”

  Gunnar took a step back from the viciousness in Calder’s tone. “I was not going to touch her. Just looking.” He held out his hands, palms up. “Just looking.”

  Calder snorted, then continued to follow the two women. He was angry with himself for having reacted. Since when did he care what his men did with captives?

  At the water’s edge, Brenna faced the water, away from the men while Astrid helped remove the fur from her shoulders.

  Brenna turned to look at the men. “I’d like my privacy.”

  Torsten guffawed. “She’d like her privacy,” he mimicked her.

  “Turn around,” Calder said.

  Gunnar slapped Torsten on the back. “Do as he says.” But he gave Calder a questioning look. “And if they run?”

  “Where will two women run to that we can’t catch them?”

  Gunnar laughed.

  Calder gave him a pointed look and Gunnar turned his back on the women.

  Brenna pierced Calder with a glare, apparently waiting for him to comply.

  He scowled and turned.

  The soft sounds of splashing told him that Brenna was washing and that he didn’t need to turn.

  And yet, he did. He couldn’t resist. His bear couldn’t resist.

  Brenna was facing away from him, submerged in water to her neck. Her rich red hair had darkened in the river.

  Astrid was facing Brenna and therefore could see that he was watching, but she didn’t give him away.

  He didn’t have a chance to wonder why she kept his secret because just then Brenna rose out of the water and his attention was transfixed. Her long hair covered her back and ended at a set of dimples that served as a crown over a rounded arse and a set of flaring hips.

  He held his breath as she ran a cloth over her arms, then Brenna pushed her hair to the side, collected it and wrung it out.

  The vision before him was unspeakable.

  Calder grunted, then glanced at his cohorts to see if they’d noticed.

  Gunnar was watching him with a raised brow.

  “Too much ale last night.” Calder rubbed his sternum as though he’d just burped.

  Torsten nodded sympathetically, as he was always one to put down a bit more ale than the others.

  Calder chanced another peek. Her back was still turned.

  He regarded the white flesh; it was crisscrossed with angry red slash marks.

  Frowning, he turned away from the horrific visage.

  Who had beaten her with such fierceness as to break the skin and leave those scars?

  Who would whip a married woman?

  He wondered how long she’d been married. Had her husband seen those? Had he taken issue with her father for having caused them?

  Then it occurred to him. Perhaps it wasn’t her father. Could her own husband have done that to her? What man would?

  An anger built within him, seething and simmering like stew in the cauldron.

  In Calder’s mind, his bear roared at the sight of the scars.

  Chapter Five

  Astrid hissed when she saw the horrific scars on Brenna’s back. Brenna herself had seen them in the copper mirror.

  “Beast,” Astrid exclaimed. “Your husband?”

  Brenna nodded. “I’m not anxious to return home.” She released her hair to let it cover her humiliation.

  “I’d imagine you are not.” Astrid scooped water in her hand and poured it over Astrid’s shoulder. “Your father, he knows of this?”

  “I cannot speak of the shame I endure at my husband’s hands.” And Brenna could not. The scars on her back were just the beginning of it. How was she to explain that her husband was not fond of her womanhood? Of any woman. He preferred to mount her like a stallion and do to her what she’d witnessed him doing to the stable boy.

  It had been a rude awakening for her when she’d discovered her husband preferred not to sleep with women. That he did what he did to her out of anger.

  Her father would do nothing to help her, this Brenna was sure of. Her husband held the land between her father’s lands and her father’s enemies. He’d never risk losing the advantage by calling Brenna’s matrimony null. Never.

  “And so you will suffer? Endlessly?”

  Brenna nodded. She felt Calder’s eyes on her. And had no doubt it was him. She didn’t want to turn his way so he wouldn’t know she was aware of him. She hoped he hadn’t seen her back. And then she wondered why she cared.

  “And what of you?”
Brenna changed the subject. “How are you faring in our new wardens’ hands?”

  “My wish is that they will be stricken down by the hands of the gods.”

  Brenna had stopped believing in the gods. She believed in nothing but had no wish to dispel Astrid’s hopes. “Let us hope.”

  Astrid leaned in. “Last night, they asked Eerika where your husband was. She told them to the east.”

  Brenna sucked in air. “But—”

  Astrid frowned at her. “I know. This will buy time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “Time for you to live. To escape.”

  “Escape? Did you miss that I am kept behind a locked door in a building made of stone?” Not to mention, she knew Calder had been nearby last night while she’d tried to sleep.

  “I did not miss that. We will have to be crafty to set you free. Or pray these men are struck down.”

  Again, with the striking down part. Brenna exhaled. “Indeed,” she said. She had no interest in telling Astrid that no god would be sending lightning bolts to smite their captors.

  “Will you get the blanket and hold it for me?” Modesty reigned, and she had no interest in sharing her body with these men. Nor of sharing her secret either.

  “Eerika’s misdirection will grant us at least ten days. Five for them to arrive at the place she told them you live with your husband, and five to return.”

  “And then they will know of the treachery.”

  Astrid nodded.

  By the gods, now I have ten days or less to escape these heathens.

  Chapter Six

  Calder considered the almost-setting sun. Three days ago, Halvar had sent six men to Brenna’s husband to get the ransom. While Brenna had been unconscious the second day, Halvar had cut a lock of her hair and removed a ring from her finger. The six men had taken them as proof so her husband could pay the ransom.

  He’d avoided being alone with Brenna since the morning of her bath. The desire in him to ask her about those scars was great. The scars were still angry. Calder visited the healer in his hut, a hut taken over from one of the local villagers.

  “Rangan,” Calder smiled at the wizened man. “I’m seeking tea tree oil.”

  “Have you a scar that needs tending?” Rangan frowned. “Let me take care of it.”

  “No. I’ll do it. Do you have any?”

  Rangan rummaged through a scarred, old oak chest, then popped up like a rodent from a hole in the ground, a small clay pot in his hands. “Here you are, brother of Halvar.”

  “I’ll return it in a few days.”

  Calder unlocked the door to the small stone room that doubled as Brenna’s cell. He rapped on the door softly with his knuckles before he opened it a crack.

  Her “Enter” came seconds later.

  She looked at him. Her eyes were clear and vividly green, like precious gems, but glittering as though angry.

  “Remove your tunic,” he told her softly.

  “I will not.” She glared at him.

  He held up the pot. She frowned.

  “For your scars.”

  Her eyes narrowed even more. “While I bathed. You looked.”

  He nodded. “I saw nothing. Only the scars.” He didn’t mention the glimpse of her plump ass or the ivory hips that tempted a man to want to hold them during the act.

  She scowled. “I don’t believe you.”

  He shook his head. “Believe what you will.” He tilted the pot back and forth. “But this is to help with your scars.”

  “Leave it with me. I’ll have Astrid help me with it tomorrow.”

  “I can’t leave it. If they know I helped you—”

  “Then why are you?” Her tone was hostile.

  I have no idea.

  “Do you want my help or not? Because I will not leave the pot here.”

  She nodded. “But even more… I’d like your help with…” She chewed on her bottom lip, worrying it so that Calder was sure it would chafe.

  He raised his hand and placed the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip and freed it from her teeth. It returned to its place, plump and red.

  “Help with what, lady?”

  “Please don’t call me that.”

  “Don’t call you lady? What do your husband’s servants call you?

  She shook her head. “Don’t call me that.”

  “I shall not, then. What do you want help with?”

  “It is close to the solstice, a time I make a wreath in remembrance.”

  “In remembrance of what?”

  “My mother. She passed two years ago.”

  Calder scowled. He had no idea where to find any such thing as a wreath. “And you want me to fetch you a wreath?”

  “I need to collect the plants myself, weave it myself.”

  Calder pondered this. “It’s almost dark. I’ll have to bind you to me. I can’t have you running off into the night.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes, making the green hue glitter more. “I will not run. You can bind me.”

  He slipped the pot into a pouch at his waist, went outside, securing the cell door behind him then procured a leather strap from near the oxen shed, and returned to Brenna’s cell.

  “Put your hand out.”

  He bound her wrist with the strap, then attached it to his own.

  He tapped the axe affixed to his belt. “Let this serve as a reminder. Do not try anything, lad—” what was he to call her if not lady? “—woman.”

  She nodded as though woman was better. Then she said, “My name is Brenna. You know this.”

  “Brenna,” he said her name aloud, the second time ever, though he’d said it in his mind more times than there were stars about.

  His reward was a small lift to her lips, a ghost of a smile.

  By the time the sun had fully set, Brenna had an armful of flowers and leaves for the wreath she’d be weaving. Calder had walked about with her, patiently attached at the wrists with the strap he’d placed there.

  It had occurred to Calder as they’d moved about that it reminded him of a commitment ceremony. His mother had told him his father had been in a commitment ceremony with Halvar’s mother first, but she’d died from the winter storm one year, shivering and at the same time burning with a fever, and less than a year later, Aevar had a commitment ceremony with Calder’s mother.

  Calder’s mother died when he was ten, but Calder could remember the stories she’d told him of how she’d met his father, and how they’d been soulspliced. He’d asked her what that was. She said that one day, he’d know. One day, he’d find that woman whose soul was spliced to his.

  Calder had grimaced that day and stuck his tongue out as if tasting the most bitter of meads. His mother had laughed. Her laughter brought his father into their great hall to find out the cause of her mirth.

  She’d told Aevar that their son found the idea of soulsplicing to be repulsive. Aevar had kissed her on the lips, his eyes gleaming, the ring of gold in his eyes caused by his bear had flickered like firelight.

  “One day, he’ll know,” Aevar had said.

  Now both of his parents were gone, and the only one left of his immediate family was Halvar. An older brother whom Calder loved, but had an on and off tenuous and rivalrous existence with, at best.

  At that moment, Calder realized that Brenna had stopped moving. She’d been still, and was staring at him.

  He locked gazes with her and wished he knew what was on her mind.

  Chapter Seven

  Brenna couldn’t take her gaze from the man before her. Calder was nothing like the others he traveled with. What was he doing with them? Why did he seem so different?

  She studied him.

  Was it true he could turn into a bear?

  “You have enough for your wreath?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you for letting me collect them.”

  “The moon is rising.” He pointed toward the horizon.

  “It’s a blood moon.” A shiver crossed over her spine. />
  “Cold?” He raised a brow, took a fur off his shoulders and wrapped it around her.

  “Thank you.” Brenna didn’t want to tell him that the blood moon was a harbinger of bad. Her worry was that it did not bode well. She knew they’d sent the warriors to find her husband and claim her ransom. She’d noticed her hair had been cut close to her scalp at the nape of her neck. She’d also noticed her missing ring.

  After Astrid told her they’d taken proof of her abduction, Brenna quickly put together the pieces. She’d not made a fuss, not wanting to attract any more attention from Halvar. She’d kept her presence quiet around Calder’s older and more temperamental brother.

  “You look worried.” Calder tied the fur beneath her chin.

  “I am fine.”

  “Let’s get you back. I will apply the tea tree oil, then you can get to your wreath-making.”

  “Calder?” She touched his shoulder where a tattoo of a large bird met with this chest.

  “Hmmm?” He turned to face her, his eyes glowing in the red moon’s rays.

  “Is it true that you can become a bear?”

  He frowned.

  “They told me you could.”

  “Me?” He put a finger on a chest that was broad, muscular, tattooed and scarred. The expression on his face was fearsome.

  Brenna swallowed a gulp at the scowl he presented her with.

  “I do not know if they said you personally, but you, your group—your men.”

  Calder nodded. “That’s what your village women told you. Do you believe in such foolishness? That men can become beasts? That witches exist?”

  She frowned. “Witches do exist. They do. Helga’s mother is a powerful witch.”

  He smirked. “If that be so, then why did your witch not save you? Not save any of you? Not save the men?”

  “Freyja is not here. She is out of the village.”

  “I see.”

  “Calder!” A voice called from the other side of the brush.

  Brenna recognized Halvar’s growling, gravelly voice. She flinched and lowered herself closer to the bushes, hiding behind Calder.