Siebold Read online

  “How much?” I asked, and they told me a sum. I pursed my lips as if considering it. The amount didn’t matter, I knew it would increase.

  One of the men grew impatient at my thoughtful silence, and stepped forward as if to threaten me. Instantly, Siebold was on his feet with a bowel-unhinging sound. His big body blocked my view, but the scrambling boots told me my visitors were leaving.

  “We’ll be back,” the last one shouted before disappearing into the forest.

  As I rose to my feet, my heart plummeted to the ground. The men would be back and bring reinforcements. Again and again until there were too many to drive away. Warrior wolf or not, I’d be driven from my land and my home.

  I would not celebrate. This was a bleak day. The wolf had won me two battles, but in the end we’d lose the war.

  8

  Siebold

  I trotted the perimeter of Meadhan’s land, pausing every so often to cock a leg and mark a tree. Any wise predator would scent this territory was mine.

  The men who’d threatened Meadhan had gone. I hadn’t comprehended their words at first. I was too intent on the offense of their presence too near to her. Their eyes had roamed over her. Their breath had come too close to her sweet scent.

  I still didn't understand why I’d left their throats intact. Especially since Meadhan now smelled like sadness.

  "You can't stay," she’d said after they’d gone. "If they find out what you are they will kill you. If you are near me when they discover your secret, they'll kill me too." Then she’d swayed into the hut and shut the door. Shut me out.

  Her problem was simple enough to solve. The men made her sad, so I'd kill them all.

  Then Meadhan would be safe and she’d welcome me into her hut once more and I could spend my days with my face buried between her thighs, resting in the valley between her breasts, sipping at those lush lips as she cried out in pleasure.

  I had a plan.

  I nosed around a great pine tree and raised my leg to coat it in my scent, when I caught a whiff of raw meat. Perhaps Meadhan had come out to break her fast with me. I let my stream spatter the trunk, then crouched and willed the Change to come. I’d defended her as a wolf, but it was time for Meadhan to see me again as a man. She needed to get used to me.

  Pain rippled down my spine, but the Change refused to come. I clawed the earth and tried again, but I remained on all fours.

  In my former life, it was easier to change between man and wolf. I’d let the beast free for so many years I had forgotten how to be a man. It was going to take me some time to shift back now.

  It was no matter. I had no plans to be anywhere else.

  I was heading back to the hut when I caught the strange scent. Meat, fresh, wrapped in cabbage leaves, but carried by a man. A stranger.

  I broke from the forest at the back of the hut just as a man loped out of the woods, carrying the food in his hands like an offering. He was tall, smiling. Eager. He strolled up to the garden gate and entered like he owned it.

  My hackles rose as I watched the dead man walking onto my woman’s land.

  9

  Meadhan

  “Mistress Meadhan.”

  My head snapped up at the deep voiced greeting. Donna’s son stood just inside my garden gate, a dimpled smile on his face.

  I brushed chaff from my skirt and rose. “Good morn, sir.” What was his name? A-something… “Alwyn. How are you today? How is your mother?”

  “She is well, as am I. She bid me bring you--” he was already proffering the meat, walking towards me when a flash of fur caught the corner of my eye. The wolf charging Alwyn.

  “No,” I screeched and threw myself onto the wolf’s back, my arms around its ruff. It dragged me forward a few feet before it stopped.

  “Run, miss!” Alwyn ordered. He’d dropped the meat and drawn a long knife. His face was pale under his brown beard, but to his credit, he hadn’t backed down. “This beast is wild.”

  “No...he’s mine. A stray. He obeys my every command. Sit,” I tried to keep the pleading note out of my voice.

  Siebold dropped his haunches onto the ground, but kept the snarl that showed his teeth.

  “Stay,” I said, praying to every goddess I knew that the wolfman would listen. “Down,” I lowered my hand. With bristling fur and a baleful glare, Siebold lowered his body to the ground.

  “See, he listens to me.” I blew out a breath and resisted the urge to wipe the sweat from my brow.

  “I suppose so,” Alwyn said slowly, easing back but still holding his knife. “What breed is he?”

  We both looked at the great blond body lying at my feet. The wolf’s legs were curled under him as if any second he could spring into attack. I knew if Alwyn moved toward me, he would.

  “A...wolf dog.” Siebold’s ears twitched towards me. Dog?

  I heard the word clearly in my mind. I sucked in a breath and Alwyn looked at me sharply. Did he sense I was hearing voices?

  The wolf’s gaze was still on Alwyn, his lip curled away from his teeth a fraction more.

  “Er, hound,” I amended. “A mountain wolf hound. From my mother’s country.”

  Alwyn nodded politely. “I beg pardon. I didn’t know he was...tame.” He sheathed his knife and moved slowly to pick up the fallen meat. “Apologies, Mistress--”

  “I’ll wash it. It’ll be fine. Please convey my thanks to your mother.” I stepped forward and reached for the gift, and Siebold the mountain wolf hound blocked me.

  I sighed and said to Alwyn, “Leave it on the gate post, if you will.”

  Reluctantly, Alwyn left the package where I bid, said farewell, and left.

  “You,” I rounded on Siebold as soon as Alwyn was safely out of hearing. “Bad, bad dog. You don’t bite my friends.”

  Friend?

  This time the word echoed clearly in my head. I wasn’t crazy. The wolfman could speak into my mind.

  The wolf put a paw on the hem of my skirt and butted his head against my hip, asking to be petted.

  “Yes, friend, you overgrown beast.” I wrenched my skirts out from under his paw and batted him aside. “I can’t believe you were so rude.” I hustled to get the meat, but a streak of tan fur beat me to the gate. In a blur, the wolf snatched the bundle down in his jaws.

  “No,” I shouted, too late. With a sharp toss of his head, Siebold snapped the meat into the air, and swallowed it whole. I stood in wide-eyed disbelief as his huge jaws closed. A gulp and the meat was gone.

  Tastes of cabbage. Blech.

  I stomped my foot. “That was my meat! You ate my meat!”

  You didn’t want that meat.

  “I most certainly did!”

  Very well, Mistress Meadhan. The voice murmured, smug. You shall have meat. I will fetch it. The wolf started to trot away, pausing to look back and order, Lock the gate and do not open it for any man. I will soon return. And he disappeared into the forest, leaving me glaring in his wake.

  “Stupid men,” I hissed, hacking at the raspberry brambles in an untamed corner of my garden. “Always wanting to take over.” I tossed my hoe aside and grabbed the little green runners, tugging them violently. They resisted, clinging to the earth. And I was done.

  My power bubbled up out of me. Heat struck my skin as if I’d bent too close to a fire. I yelped. Light sparked from my fingers, flaring like a match--a shocking blaze and then it was out, leaving me trembling.

  Scorched earth extended in a perfect circle around my feet. The fire hadn’t harmed anything beyond a small section. My cucumbers were untouched. But the stray briars were burnt to a crisp.

  “Ceridwen help me.” I stared at my hands, then tucked them under my chin. My gaze darted around, even though no one was near. I’d built my hut in the wild for a reason. No one would ever see me use my magic. Not that I used my powers often. Usually I kept it locked up tight, in the darkest corner of my heart.

  Now it was threatening to break free. It had never been so unruly, not even when I was a g
irl. I’d chained it up like a dog, but it was a wild wolf now. It would never be tamed.

  Like Siebold.

  “This is all his fault,” I muttered, running a hand over my braids. My hair crackled as if each strand contained power. Scuffing the earth so the perfect circle was marred, I marched to the front of my home and leaned over a water barrel. The reflection showed a mad woman, wide-eyed and wild-haired. If Mistress Donna and her son saw me now, they’d know what I was, and forget any friendship. They themselves would call for the priest and Offa’s men to hunt me down.

  What was I going to do?

  A twig snapped and I jumped as a monstrous form emerged from the forest. When it stepped into the light I could make out what I was seeing: a man carrying a giant buck slung over his shoulders. A lesser man would’ve staggered under the weight, but this man easily maneuvered around a few bushes and strode right up to my garden gate where I stood with my mouth open. Then he lifted the buck off his shoulders and let the giant body crash at my feet.

  “There,” Siebold tossed his shaggy blond head and grinned at me. “Meat.”

  He looked as pleased as a boy who’d built his first fire. I should’ve examined the buck, but my eyes were only for the muscled warrior standing before me. He was totally naked.

  My stomach did a slow, lazy flip. His beard was short but unkempt, a few white hairs threaded with the blond. But his body was young and strong, if a bit hairy. The hard-muscled plane of his chest was lightly furred with coarse blond hair. The hair trailed from his taut lower belly and ended in a bush between his legs, surrounding his giant cock.

  And I was staring. I was staring at his cock.

  I forced my gaze back up to his face, where Siebold’s smile had turned wicked.

  “Meadhan,” his voice was a purr. He started towards me and then stopped short to sniff the air. His eyes narrowed. “Magic.” His head swiveled towards the back of the house and then to me. His irises shone bright gold.

  “It’s nothing,” I said quickly. “A mishap.” I hid my hands in my skirts. “Was it a good hunt?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. You tell me.

  “Don’t do that,” I muttered, shaking my head as if gnats were buzzing around my ears. “Don’t speak into my mind.”

  Meadhan. You needn’t hide from me.

  “You need clothes.” I ducked my head and hustled to the hut, returning with a leather hide, cured until it turned soft. He took it and fashioned a loincloth around his hips. The scrap of leather barely covered his powerful buttocks. I tried not to stare.

  And failed. And of course he caught me at it.

  “Meadhan--”

  “Thank you for covering yourself.” I rubbed my hands in my skirts and stepped around the buck’s extensive antlers. “We should do something with the kill.”

  In answer, Siebold strode to the side of my hut and took up an axe. “Fire. Spit.”

  We worked together to raise and drain the buck, and lay wood for a bonfire. Each of Siebold’s moves taxed the loincloth to its limit. And when he lifted the buck, his muscles stood out sleek and shiny with sweat, and the loincloth also lifted to reveal what was underneath.

  Not that I noticed.

  Having a huge warrior around to help lift and chop and carry things was handy. A few swings of his axe and we had a whole tree downed for a fire. Not to mention the giant buck.

  I wouldn’t need to forage for food for a while, I realized as the pile of wood rose. We could feast for days and then dry the meat. I could live out here with my pet warrior wolf and pretend the village wasn’t near. Never return…

  A shadow fell over my face as Siebold stepped close. He studied my face, his golden eyes teasing out secrets until I felt bare before him.

  “What do you want?” I sniped, raising my chin. This is why I never kept a man. Most were too intimidated by a woman who challenged them instead of folding herself into something smaller to make them feel large and important. I would not do it. I refused to make myself small.

  Siebold’s grin told me my defiance did not cow him. He stepped closer, and closer still, even when I folded my arms across my chest. Fool warrior must have a death wish.

  “My meat. My kill.” He gestured to the hanging buck. I looked to it and back to him several times before I understood.

  “Oh, I see. You want me to say you’re the better hunter. That I like your meat better than any other man’s.” I blushed as I said it.

  He cocked his head. Yes. His voice slipped into my head, teasing.

  “I won’t do it. How do I know this meat is better? I haven’t tasted it.”

  Yet. He smirked, cocky as a god.

  “Maybe I’ll never taste it. Maybe I don’t eat meat.”

  A hint of insecurity slipped into his smile.

  “Maybe I prefer mushrooms,” I went on. He stared at me a moment, then pivoted and walked towards the forest. Heading off, no doubt, to find the largest mushroom in the forest for me.

  “Wait!” I threw myself at him. He let me grab his arm and drag him back. “I merely jested. I like meat. I will eat it.”

  He turned, grinning again. Somehow I was in his arms, plastered against his broad chest. His shoulders flexed under my hands as he lifted me and carried me easily back to the fireside.

  “Meat,” he grunted, stopping by the fire but refusing to let me down. “Mine.”

  I threw back my head and heaved a large sigh to hide the fact that I was enjoying the feel of his arms around my body. “Very well. Yours is the best meat. The only meat for me.”

  He looked so smug I couldn’t keep back my laugh or my smile.

  “Mine,” he huffed again and loosened his hold so I slid slowly down his body. The loincloth did nothing to soften the hard ridges of his body. His eyes held mine, his gaze like a torch, igniting sparks in the secret places of my sex.

  A flush came over me. A wind rose and whirled around us, lifting his hair, tugging at my braids. Then it was gone, and I realized how much dirt and ash clung to my hands, my dress.

  Siebold was also filthy. He stank of blood and the hunt. We both did.

  “I need to wash,” I muttered.

  Siebold lifted his grimy hands as if to say So do I.

  “There’s a waterfall nearby, with a deep pool.” A part of me knew it was dangerous to invite him, but I couldn’t help it.

  Siebold regarded me a moment before lifting his head to scent the wind. Show me.

  10

  Siebold

  Meadhan walked like a cat, graceful and precise, never making a sound. We strolled side by side. She took two and a half steps for one of my strides, but never seemed to hurry or fall behind. My body still thrummed, remembering how she felt in my arms. Her scent rose around me, a rich herbal fragrance my wolf wanted to bask and roll around in.

  When the path turned, she signaled me to follow her lead. She was careful not to touch me. But when I held her, I felt her body respond. I frighten and intrigue her. She would not be easy prey, but no matter. I am a patient hunter.

  As soon as we came to the pool, deep and clear to the rocky bottom, I strode out in front and pulled off my loincloth.

  This time she did not hide the fact that she was watching.

  I faced her and held out my hand.

  “Oh no,” she shook her head and pointed to the far end of the pool. “I’ll bathe over there.”

  I didn’t move. She held my stare but a red tinge started to creep up her glossy brown cheeks. I raised a brow in dare.

  “This is a mistake,” she finally muttered and loosened her apron while kicking off her shoes.

  I’d won, but I didn’t press the matter. I turned my back to give her privacy, and leapt into the pool.

  The freezing shock made me roar. I surged out of the water, gasping.

  Meadhan was laughing, a low chuckle that sent rivulets of warmth to my cock despite the freezing cold. I did a few strokes, swimming briskly to warm up. If I stayed in any longer, my cock was going t
o shrivel up and fall off.

  Then I turned and caught a glimpse of a forest nymph, long legs and rounded buttocks, dark brown skin flashing and braids flying as she flew through the air and crashed into the water. The perfection of her made my heart stutter.

  Her face broke the surface. “C-c-c-eridwen, it’s cold,” she gasped.

  I reached for her before I could stop myself. She let me gather her into my arms and share what little warmth I had. Our bodies fit together perfectly.

  “Your lips are blue,” she brushed cold fingers over my mouth. I tried to kiss her and she pushed me away. “Whoever can hold their breath the longest wins,” she cried. She gulped a huge breath and dove.

  I followed, my head bursting from the cold. When I opened my eyes, she was swimming away, her long body lithe as a mermaid. I tried to follow but had to surface for air.

  Meadhan had disappeared behind the waterfall. She’d sat up on a rock and drawn her long legs up to her chest, and was combing out her hair with her fingers. She looked so regal and serene, a daughter of the forest, a ray of warm sunlight, calm and perfect and lovely.

  And I knew: I’d searched for this woman for a century. Now that I’d found her, I would never let her go.

  The wild cry of the hunt echoed in my mind, a howling long and melancholy as a wolf’s song.

  And the beast within broke its chain.

  11

  Meadhan

  Siebold rose up before me, water running over his golden muscles. He was wet and wild-eyed as a river god.

  “What--” I started to ask when he leaned down and stopped my mouth with his. For a moment I let his lips speak for him. His beard brushed my face. Other than that, he didn’t touch me, but I sensed the coiled energy inside him. He would catch me if I tried to run.

  I wasn’t going to run. I wrapped my arms around him and he lifted me, his mouth never leaving mine. My legs hooked around his hips and tugged him even closer.