Page 72 of Her Viking Master

I spread my legs wider, offering myself to him shamelessly. “You can have my pussy,” I whispered, hardly believing how easy it was to say it, and how thoroughly I meant it despite my shame. “Or… or my ass. Whatever you want,Leo.”

Marmareus’ expression remained impassive. “Show me,” he said, his voice low and commanding. “Show me where you think you should be fucked,Columba.”

My brow furrowed as I tried to figure out what the last word Marmareus had said meant, or even what the word was.Columba?Like…Columbus? Columbia?Or… like French, and maybe like Latin…colombe?Dove?

I blinked at him, watching him assess my reaction. I realized that too much curiosity might give something away. Had he meant to say that, as some kind of a test? Had it slipped out?

“I gave you an order,” Marmareus growled. “You will learn to obey me at least as thoroughly as you obeyed your last master.”

I swallowed very hard. In his voice I could hear, somehow, the terrible way he punished disobedience: the whips that must be close to hand and the merciless way Marmareus would wield them.

I tried to remember the last command he had given, the one that had ended with the strange word,columba. My face burned as it sprang back into my mind:Show me where you think you should be fucked.

My face burning hot, I turned around and bent my cheek to the stone floor. My heart pounded as I reached back with trembling hands to spread the halves of my bottom, exposing the tiny hole of my anus to Marmareus’ gaze. The cool air of the cell against the cringing, exposed bud made me shiver, and I felt my face flame even hotter with shame.

I could feel Marmareus’ eyes on me, examining my most private place. The silence in the room felt oppressive, broken only by my ragged breathing. My muscles trembled with the effort of holding the humiliating position, and I fought the urge to squeeze my eyes shut against the mortification.

“Well,” Marmareus said after what felt like an eternity, his voice dry and sardonic, “at least you’re correct about where you should be fucked. In the Guard, we call it the act of civilization. You still haven’t earned it, though.”

I whimpered softly at his words, a confusing mix of relief and disappointment washing over me, even as I tried to understand this latest, strangest thing my captor had said. Part of me had hoped he would take me up on my offer, would use me roughly and fill me with his seed. The idea that the Pretorian Guard had a special name for anal sex, and that it involvedcivilizationmade that perverse desire burn all the hotter.

I felt sure Sven needed to know about that, given that the Sons of Odin had dedicated themselves to saving civilization. Hadn’t my master said that the Pretorian Guard claimed to believe in the necessity of that, but only as a cover for their insidious hunger for power? This little revelation, though, about theact of civilization… something in the wayLeoMarmareus had said it sounded so much like what I had heard among the Sons of Odin that it gave me pause. Did the Guard, their enemies, truly have a similar mission?

Worse, the similarity had made me suddenly, insanely want to experienceLeoMarmareus’ version of the idea. I felt a pang of humiliation at the thought that I didn’t merit his use. Another part of me, though, felt grateful for the reprieve, ashamed of my own eagerness to submit to this man who was supposed to be my enemy.

I heard Marmareus’ footsteps moving away from me, toward the cell door. My heart raced as I realized he was leaving. I wanted to turn around, to beg him to stay, to use me, to believe me. But I remained frozen in place, my bottom still shamefully presented, afraid to move without permission.

The sound of the cell door opening reached my ears, followed by Marmareus’ voice, cool and detached. “We’ll continue this conversation later, Mary. Think carefully about how much you truly want to cooperate.”

With that, he stepped out of the cell. The door closed behind him with a soft, but final click, leaving me alone with my thoughts and my conflicted desires.

I rose on shaky legs and went back to the bed. I sat, blinking at my surroundings as if I had never seen them before. Suddenly I wished desperately for another vision, or at least some hint of how to think through what had just happened.

What did Marmareus think of my story? Why hadn’t he seized on the intelligence about the virus? What would happen to Camille now? I closed my eyes, searching inside myself for some sign of Yggdrasil… the branches, the trunk, the roots. I found nothing, not even a sign in my mind and my heart of what road to travel, across what seemed to me a vast inner landscape.

Abruptly, instead of a vision of the world tree, the wall opposite the bed, which I had thought made simply of stone, became deep black for a moment, and then turned into a view screen. My heart flipped as I saw Camille, in a cell precisely like mine, andLeoMarmareus, who had obviously just entered.

What did it mean? Obviously Marmareus wanted me to see what he did with my friend and fellowvölva. But why?

My heart raced as I watched the scene unfold on the view screen. Camille sat on the edge of her bed, her body tense and her eyes wary as Marmareus approached her. I leaned forward, my hands gripping the edge of my own bed so tightly my knuckles turned white.

“Camille,” Marmareus said, his voice smooth and controlled, his French perfect. “I’ve just had a very interesting conversation with your friend Mary.”

I saw Camille’s eyes widen slightly, a flicker of fear crossing her face before she schooled her expression into one of defiance. My breath caught in my throat as I silently pleaded with her not to give anything away.

“Mary seems to think you know more than she does about certain… matters,” Marmareus continued, his gaze fixed on Camille’s face. “Care to enlighten me?”

Camille’s jaw clenched, and I could see the wheels turning in her mind as she tried to decide how to respond. I held my breath, praying she would choose her words carefully.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Camille said finally, her voice steady, the tension visible in her shoulders notwithstanding. “Mary and I were both prisoners. We didn’t know anything beyond what they forced us to do.”

Marmareus raised an eyebrow, his expression skeptical. “Is that so? Mary seemed quite convinced that you had valuable information. Information that might be of great interest to my organization.”

I watched as Camille’s eyes darted around the room, as if searching for an escape. My heart ached for her, knowing the pressure she must be feeling. I wanted to call out to her, to tell her it would be okay.

“Look,” Camille said, her voice taking on a harder edge. “I’m not going to tell you anything until you reunite me with Mary and give us some clothes. We’ve been through hell, and I’m not playing your games anymore.”

I felt a surge of pride and admiration for Camille’s resistance, even as fear gnawed at my insides. I knew the Pretorian Guard wouldn’t take kindly to such defiance.

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