Page 12 of Mastering their Maiden

The door to the small hut opened right as I got there, startling me so badly I jumped back. A timid face peered out, rounded nose and cheeks, wide brown eyes that relaxed when they saw me.

“Aria.” Summer exhaled my name like it was a prayer, reaching out to take the small satchel of berries, roots, bread, and meat I’d wrapped up for her. “Thank you. I haven’t eaten in two days.”

I stilled, my chest tightening as I looked toward the cluster of houses where the Elders lived. “I saw you in the line for rations today. Don’t tell me they denied—”

“They halved them again. Just for us.”

Her eyes were sad, and I was sure mine were filled with rage. Us meaning the mothers of unsanctioned children, like my own mother had been. It was punishment for disobeying the Elders’ decree that no child could be conceived without their blessing.

I cursed softly, and Summer opened the door wider for me, allowing me to peer past her to the small sleeping figure on the bed. “I didn’t want Lucan to go without.”

My throat felt hollow and achy as I stared at the boy. Lucan’s father had been a traveler between villages, like many of the men had become after the Elders cast them out years ago. He’d promised to take Summer away, but when she fell pregnant, he hadn’t wanted to travel with her. It was dangerous. Other travelers weren’t so kind, and there was always Skepna to fear. So, she stayed, and he brought her supplies and fawned over her growing belly.

Then he’d vanished months ago, before the boy was born, and Summer struggled ever since.

The Elders said it was punishment for her sins. Micah was particularly cruel about it after Summer refused his advances. He wanted her, and told her every day that if she wanted to cleanse herself, she’d come with him to the sept and submit to sanctification with the other Elders. Summer refused, because she knew the girls taken there were never the same when they were freed, and she refused to allow any of the Elders close to her son.

I flinched at the thought, and more words from Esme’s letters popped into my head. How is my Aria, Master Kaiden? Is she safe? Please keep her away from the Elders. I can’t imagine what they’d do to her if given the chance.

I shoved the thoughts aside and gave Summer a reassuring smile. “I’ll bring more by in a few days. I caught a deer, which should give us meat to last a few weeks.”

What I’d packed in the satchel would stretch a few days on top of her meager rations, as long as the Elders obeyed at least part of the Kavari’s decree that each citizen should have ample food. Kaiden and the other soldiers were too busy squabbling with each other to notice the Elders steadily reducing the portions day after day. Just like they were too busy to notice how the Elders’ wives hassled the girls until they broke down in tears or snapped into a rage. Then they laughed when the other women were put into the stocks. Or dragged to the sept. They didn’t care what happened to us as long as it gave them a taste of power.

I frowned as I walked away from Summer’s hut. My own people were just as cruel, if not crueler, than the Kavari. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d be leaving children and women like Summer to fend for themselves, I’d run away from this place. I had the skills and the means to survive. Daya talked about it often enough with Esme in the days before they were taken. The sea was to the east, and there were rumors about great cities and tribes that lurked in the mist across the Faelos Strait. Maybe that area would be less barbaric than the lands I’d been born into.

The sea is just as lovely as I pictured it. I can’t wait to show you someday, sister.

I kicked a stack of empty water pails over as I stalked back to my bunk, more of Esme’s words racing through my head. It was just scraps of information. Little notes she’d tacked on at the ends of communication between the men who held her captive and Kaiden’s crew. There was only one letter Esme had written all on her own, and it was addressed directly to me. Inside it was pleas to stay away from the Elders like she’d taught me. Keep quiet and avoid drawing their attention. And she all but begged me to trust Kaiden and his men. Trust them.

I couldn’t trust them. They hadn’t told me exactly what had become of my sister, handing me these letters and wholeheartedly expecting me to believe they were really from Esme. She could have written them under duress with a knife held to her throat. Or a cock positioned behind her, ready to violate her if she didn’t obey. Maybe, if she wrote to me and convinced me to submit, they’d give her a night off from being a bed slave.

They will demand your obedience, yes, but submitting will bring you safety and affection. And so much pleasure. I promise. You must trust me, Aria, and trust them.

I bit my lower lip, and immediately winced. It was still a little sore, so was my jaw from being opened wide while Kaiden, Zander, and Umber took turns pushing their cocks down my throat. I could still taste their cum, salty and sweet, despite rinsing my mouth. And I’d washed in the baths and in the stream, but their heady scent lingered on my skin. Like I’d been marked. At this point I would have to flay myself to get them off me.

It didn’t help that the new one, Dex, had been watching me since he arrived yesterday with six new soldiers in tow. He hadn’t seen me come in the fence this morning, but I noticed him lurking outside my barracks after I changed, staring at me through the window with Umber at his side. When I stood in line for daily rations, he’d been with Kaiden, the pair of them murmuring back and forth.

Dex remained even after Kaiden moved on, but I’d ignored him, keeping the supplies I was dropping off to people hidden in a basket filled with bedding I’d washed. He’d strolled casually behind me the whole morning, keeping his distance, and whenever our eyes met, he smiled while I scowled. The others were never far away, loitering and talking casually, as though stalking a woman through her village was an everyday occurrence. Umber had blown me a kiss. Kaiden threw me a warning glare. And Dex just… watched.

Despite the outward animosity, my curiosity about their foursome was as restless as my body had been since they’d touched it. I hated them, there was no question about that, but I wondered how the four of them came to form a partnership. Dex was older than the other three, but he was not the leader. Kaiden was. How had they met? What was the bond between them that made the other three so fiercely loyal to Kaiden specifically? What had he done? What was his rank in their hierarchy?

The Kavari were like wolves. They did everything in packs. Masters had three to four men in a house, and squadrons were clusters of four to five. All of them were close, physically and emotionally. It was a bond that went beyond friendship into love, and I wondered if maybe the women were just playthings to toy with. Breeding stock and nothing more.

Viggo and Quade are teaching me Kavarian. Lavan taught me how to use a dagger. It reminds me of the one Father used to carry.

My stomach twisted when more of Esme’s words popped into my head. Why hadn’t she taken the dagger, stabbed the bastards, and come back for me?

They must have bewitched her. Made her lose her head. It wouldn’t be the first time I suspected they had that power. There were women in the village whose procurement by Kavari soldiers was merely a formality. They stayed in the barracks with the squadrons, willingly becoming their bed slaves without a second thought.

Kaiden’s soldiers, I clarified to myself. Those women only wanted to be with Kaiden’s men. It was clear there were two troops occupying my village. The difference between the men that came with Kaiden a few months back, and the ones who arrived after, including a few that came with Dex, was drastic. I’d grown used to seeing Kavari customs over the years. They braided their hair in various styles, sometimes decorated the strands with beads or other ornamental jewels. Some of them had matching tattoos of varying colors. Estate colors, I’d heard one of them explain.

I stared out one of the windows of the barracks, watching some of the outlier soldiers wander by. They had none of the markings I was used to, and their hair was cut short, almost buzzed to the scalp. No beads for decoration, or tattoos to indicate they were part of a whole. And there were differences in how they acted. They did not like to answer Kaiden’s orders. Their obedience to him was perfunctory and reluctant, as though they were getting commands from a different source.

“They receive directives from the king.”

I jumped at the sound of the voice, turning around to find Dex standing behind me, hands clasped behind his back. His eyes drifted up and down my body, and mine did the same to his as we sized each other up. His features were softer, missing the scars Zander carried, but still rugged. Blond hair that was darker than Umber’s or Kaiden’s hung to his shoulders, braids scattered around the sides of his head to help hold it back. He had a short beard where the others only had stubble, but it made him look handsome. Distinguished. Like the gentlemen Esme used to make up stories about when I knew he was anything but. His shoulders were broad, the muscles of his arms and chest visible under his tunic, but he was softer somehow. Kind of how Umber was built. There was no question that if we were to fight, I could not resist him, but I may face a better chance than if I went up against Zander or Kaiden.

Dex said nothing as he moved closer, but I stood my ground even when his gaze turned dark. “The soldiers who wear the purple and gray tunics. You were eying them through the window.” He tipped his head to where I’d been staring out the small window near my bed. “They receive directives from the king, and even though he raised Kaiden, they don’t… respect him the way they should.”

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