Page 30 of Hungry Like a Wolf
He frowned as he stomped ahead, towing her at his side. His plan hadn’t been to hit the seas today, but he would. He couldn’t trust her not to slip away in the night. He wouldn’t get a moment of rest while they were still ashore.
Anna ran up to meet them. Her cheeks were flushed. “Carmel, why would you run? The forest is dangerous and—”
“You would run if you were me,” Carmel snapped.
Ravn bit back a smile. It seemed a sharp tongue appealed to him—a woman who said what she thought and didn’t layer words in honey so they would be sweet to his ears.
As he’d spent time with Carmel over the last few weeks—always under the pretense of helping her with chores—he’d come to admire her spirit and sense of self. She had a confidence his wife had never had. A way of saying things that made him think anew. Perhaps it was her god that gave her a different perspective. Maybe it was because she was unique.
Coming up with the plan to take her back to Drangar had been a good one. Win-win for him. He’d been away long enough, he was in danger of being usurped by some would-be king—Helga could only hold the fort for so long—and his son needed to know his face. Returning with sagas of his siblings, a new land,and with a regal new woman in tow would do his reputation good. A lot of good.
“And don’t try it again!” the watchman shouted down as they walked beneath the tower. He shook his pike. “You can never escape.”
“I can if the good Lord has mercy and takes me to heaven,” she muttered.
“You will like Drangar,” Ravn said softly. “It is like…heaven.”
“I think you mean hell.”
“I do not know what hell is. But if it’s cold and mountainous and full of bears, elk, and wolves, thenja, that is what it is like.”
She said nothing. Her body was tense as though turned to wooden planks as she walked.
“Where did you go?” Orm rushed up to them, his face flushed and his kohled eyes wide and manic. “You bad thrall.”
“Carmel took off,” Anna said, “but Ravn brought her back.”
“You took off?” Orm stepped up close to her, his mouth a severe, flat line. “You ran away.”
“I’d still be running if I had the choice.” She glared at him. “My life here with you is miserable and with your brother, it will be torturous. You are an imbecile, Orm, a pathetic creature who barely resembles a man and may God have mercy on your mad soul when you crawl at the gates of heaven and—”
Orm raised his hand, palm flat.
Ravn recognized the fury flashing in his brother’s eyes. Orm hated to be told he was mad.
Quickly, Ravn snapped out his hand and caught Orm’s wrist seconds before it connected with Carmel’s cheek.
She flinched, nestling closer to Ravn as a gasp caught in her throat.
“Don’t you ever,” Ravn said, anger making his jaw so tense, it was hard to speak, “raise a hand to this woman again.”
Orm was breathing hard, spittle in the corner of his mouth.
“Do I make myself clear?” Ravn asked, a brittle ache clawing at his heart at the thought of someone hurting Carmel.
“She is mine. I pulled her from the battlefield. She is mine.” Orm glared harder at Ravn.
“No!” Ravn stepped closer to his brother. “She is mine.” He tapped Orm on the side of his head. “Get used to that, as of now, this minute, she is mine.”
“No, she is mine.”
“No. Mine!”
“Sheis a woman and a princess,” Anna said, slamming her hands onto her hips. “And a neat shot with a spear, from what I’ve heard. She doesn’t belong to anyone except herself.”
Ravn turned to Anna.
Orm did the same.
