Page 56 of Mastering their Maiden

But these men hadn’t just threatened to expose our carefully laid plans to that bastard; they’d turned on me as a leader. They’d looked at the guidance I offered—the training, the support—and decided he was better. I’d given them liberties to speak with the women and look for potential paramours to take back, but still they stayed loyal to a man who gave them scraps. Kaze had even said most of them only got the courage to stand with their tribe after hearing Quade and Klev would be fighting alongside them. They wanted the assurance of older masters, more experienced masters, rather than take my word that we would win, and life would get better.

And aside from all that, Rober had taken Aria. He’d put his hands on my woman. He’d threatened her, taken a belt to her. Punished her unjustly. He hadn’t done it to shape her, to make her stronger, or bring out her submission through pleasure, pain, and praise. He’d done it to subjugate her. Turn her into a shell for Ryne to have his way with.

And I’d let him. I’d ignored her worries and left her behind when one of us could have—should have—stayed.

Maybe I had no business leading these men into battle. Maybe I had no business leading anything.

Ellis elbowed me when we got inside, and I gritted my teeth as I stared at the soldiers I’d ordered to be restrained just days ago. They’d had food and water, but were in ropes, and under constant guard. Several of them looked at me warily, others with calm, even hopeful expressions. Rober glared, his eyes narrowed, expression furious.

And that was why I went to him first.

“A pack of thirty Skepna are on their way to this village,” I announced after I’d hauled Rober to his feet. “Dex and Zander saw—”

“What?”

“A pack?”

“We’ve been thinning them out. There can’t be that many!”

Questions and denials filled the room, voices overlapping until I held up my hands. “There are that many. And not only that, the Elders of this village believe they’ve made some sort of bargain with the beasts in exchange for attacking.”

Silence filled the barracks, then a soldier in the corner shouted out, “We’ve been protecting them for years! Why would they—”

“They’ve hated every second of our presence, that’s no secret. And Ryne made promises he never delivered on.”

A beat of silence, then men began snarling curses at their king and grumbling while Rober glared at me, his face twisting with rage.

“That’s a lie.” He twisted his body out of my grasp, almost falling backward onto the floor. “Our king would never make a bargain without fulfilling—”

“He’s made bargains with all of you, hasn’t he?” I asked the whole group, thinking of the women Ryne kept locked away, how he dangled them in front of his soldiers, promising they could have them when he was finished only to send them away to the villages or push them into fighting so they could prove their loyalty. “Why should the village Elders be any different?”

Rober continued to scowl at me, his eyes narrowing when the men in the barracks went silent. A few of them threw scathing looks in his direction, while others were wary, but they all turned to me eventually, silently confirming my suspicions. I glanced down at Rober, meeting his hard gaze before tipping my head at Ellis. My eyes stayed locked with Ryne’s captain while I crouched before him, listening to Ellis walk around the room. He freed a few soldiers, who then began freeing others. They stayed to the sides of the barracks, some with cautious expressions while others had hard ones as they awaited my next order.

“You have a choice.” I lifted Rober’s wrists and cut his binds, watching him rub his wrists before he got to his feet, still glaring when I rose and turned to face the men. “You can continue to fight for a man miles away from here, sitting on a chair instead of lifting his sword to help defend our people, or you can fight for your tribe. Not for me or any other master, but for your tribe and your—”

A loud, bellowing roar cut off my statement, the sound followed by a series of screams moments later. Men began shouting, metal clanging as the tall fence surrounding the village groaned. I ran past the men to the entrance of the barracks, about to shout that they should arm themselves, but they were all behind me, swords in hand, eyes wide as we took in the scene.

The Skepna were here.

Six of them had already scaled the fence, and my men were busy trying to beat them back with arrows and swords and spears. The distraction was just what the Elders had been waiting for. They all stood in the square, smug expressions on their faces. I clenched my fists, watching one of Hoval’s cronies dodge my soldiers and the Skepna they were battling to reach the gate. He lifted the latch, and with the next surge the wood gave way, and the rest of the pack poured in, snarling and spitting, roaring for blood.

The men behind me didn’t hesitate. We rushed as one unit into the fray. My sword was out, already swinging, rage sharpening my focus. I needed to hit the monsters in the neck or in the gut. That was the easiest way to take them down. It would be the easiest way to take Hoval and Micah and the other Elders down too, but I couldn’t focus on them. The man they’d sent to open the gate tried to break free of the chaos, but I watched him fall, a Skepna’s bone-carved blade buried in his back. Hoval shouted something about leaving them alone, ordering them to attack us and only us, but I knew his words would fall on deaf ears. They’d come for them eventually.

No one was safe.

The sounds of clanging metal and near deafening roars filled the evening air. The men I commanded had continued their daily training under my orders, but Ryne’s men had not. Rather than turning on us as I had feared, I found myself pulling them out of the battle as they sustained injuries. Or worse, leaving them on the ground and forcing myself to defend the men still standing. Dex was hauling a few of them out of the fray and shoving them toward safety while Umber guarded him, trying to shield them both from sprays of thick black blood when he took the arm off a Skepna in a single stroke. The beast bore down on him, but one of Ryne’s men rushed forward and drove his sword clear through the monster’s chest.

But that was only one. There were so many, many of them left.

My silver blade was streaked with black when I found myself back to back with Ellis and a few others. We’d formed a blockade of sorts, trying to keep the monsters from going toward the barracks where the women and children were sheltering. It was a futile effort as a few of them surged past us, no longer caring if they killed us or not. It was a frenzy of blood they were after. They thrived on the fear, and it didn’t matter where it came from.

A few Elders were trying to keep the monsters away, screaming for assistance from Kaze, Makan, and two other men guarding the women and children. My first thought was to worry that Aria was with them, and the fear for her safety intensified when I watched one of the Elders fall to the ground, his body so easily broken by the Skepna’s strength. The other man turned to run away, screaming as the monster chased him down. None of the Kavari came to his aid.

I didn’t have any space to think of whether it served him right, or if I should feel guilty that no one bothered to help. They’d caused this madness. Their hatred for us and desire for power had driven them to make this foolish bargain, and now they were paying the price.

But not in the way they’d imagined. The Skepna were succumbing to our defenses. Several of them lay on the ground, but so did several Kavari. Sickness twisted in my gut when I watched one of my men stumble and fall to a heavy blow. I was too far away to save him.

A series of loud screams cut through the air, and Ellis turned and raced toward the women’s barracks. I moved to follow him, but was bowled over by a heavy, sweaty, sickly pale body. Before I had a chance to right myself, a fist hit my jaw, and I was knocked back so hard it forced the breath from my lungs. Through the pain, I managed to grab my sword, but it was swatted aside. Clawed hands wrapped around my throat, and a sickly, rotten smell was the last thing I breathed in.

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