Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (81 page)

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J.E.
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stories in one way or another, from elicit trysts to forbidden love.

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By

Alara Branwen and Christie Sims

Copyright © 2013

“You
sold
me? To a dragon?!” Kara
growled, hands on her hips. The rough homespun of her apron itched against her
raw palms. She’d been in the fields all day, trying to get the blasted mule to
hoe a straight row while her father went down into the town to sell the last of
her mother’s pearl pins to buy more seed. The little ones had tried to lend a
hand, but they were more hindrance than help to be honest. They were much too
small to do anything more than basic housework.

The oldest, Penelope, would be only seven
at her next birthday. And young Jamie, the only boy among them, aside from her
Papa, was barely two. It was mostly left up to the four year old twins,
Gertrude and Sarah, to keep him out of trouble. Since their mother had died
last winter, everyone in the house had to do their part to keep them all from
starving. Kara knew that. She had accepted the fact that she would have to plow
fields, chop wood, and hunt game.

She had not been prepared for her father to
come home from the village, aglow with good news, and tell them their money
troubles were over. Nor was she in the least bit expecting him to say that a
man in the village had offered to
purchase
her in exchange for a wealth
of gold. Papa flinched at the edge in her voice. Even the little ones huddled
down behind him, trembling.

Kara sighed, trying to reign in her anger.
It was hard. Her mother had always said she had a temper as fiery as her hair.
“Tell me again, Papa. Slowly this time.”

He rubbed a gnarled hand against his
stubbled cheek, not meeting her eyes. “I was down in the village, hawking your
poor mam’s pins to buy the seed, when a grand lord rode into the square. He
were all in fine clothes and had a servant with him carryin’ a banner with a
great dragon blazing across it. Everyone stopped what they were doing, waiting
to see what he wanted. And then, right outta the blue, the servant calls out
‘Which o’ you men is Angus MacPherson?’”

She dropped into the chair opposite her
father, her heart doing a tight little flip. “He had a dragon on his banner and
he asked for you by name? And you didn’t find that odd, Papa?”

They’d all heard the dragon’s roaring from
on top of the mountain. So far, no one had spotted the great beast, but
everyone had a story about the last dragon attack (which Kara well knew hadn’t
been for a hundred years or more) or a theory on what would bring him down upon
them.

“Found the whole thing right odd to tell
you the truth.” He scowled at her. “I’m not dim, Carrot.”

She gritted her teeth at the hated
nickname. “I know that, Papa. But...” She trailed off, shaking her head. Her
father took it as a sign to continue.

“Anyway, before I could speak up, the
tanner’s boy, Aloysious I think he’s called, points to me and says ‘That’s
him’. Next thing I know, I’m at a table at the Gilded Swan with a small beer
and a pile of coins. And this lord and his man are saying as how he needs a
woman of virtue to...” He trailed off, face going tomato red as he mumbled the
rest.

Kara didn’t catch the words, but she
thought she understood the meaning well enough. Her father had sold her
maidenhood to some vile foreign lord for a pile of gold. And the gods only knew
why he was willing to pay so much for a poor farmgirl.

“He wants to buy a wife?”

Papa coughed, face darkening toward purple.
“Well,” he said, drawing out the word. “No, not exactly.” He caught sight of
the little ones and scowled at Penelope, thick white brows beetling low over
his prominent nose. “You lot go outside and play! Now!”

Jamie and the twins scampered quickly out
the open door. Penelope was slower, casting worried glances back over her
narrow shoulder at Kara. She tried to give her younger sister a heartening
smile, but feared her expression was more grimace than grin. “Papa?” she asked
as soon as Penelope was out of earshot. “What, exactly, does this ‘grand lord’
want with me?”

Angus MacPherson rubbed his hand along the
back of his neck, not meeting her eyes. “Seems as how his family line has
dwindled down to just him.”

“I can’t imagine why,” she muttered under
her breath. Her father shot her an aggrieved look and continued.

“He needs a lass of good, sturdy stock to
provide him a few heirs is all.”

Kara’s mouth fell open, flapping
momentarily at her father’s words. “Is all? Is ALL? You mean I’m not just to
give this stranger my maidenhood.” Her father flinched, but she bowled on. “But
I’m to bear him children as well? How long am I meant to stay as his brood
mare? Forever?”

“No, no, no. Just until he’s gotten a few
healthy babes off you. Then you can come home!” Angus smiled wide, as if it was
a simple matter of going to the market for tea cake they were discussing.

She shoved herself away from the little,
rough-hewn table and began pacing. They were desperate. She knew it. Without
money, the children would starve. Jamie had already become sickly, and the
twins didn’t look very well lately. The last of their winter stores were gone.
Honestly, even with the meager seed the pins would buy them, they wouldn’t last
much longer. Papa had begun talking about sending the girls down into the village
to find jobs as servants and even giving up little Jamie to foster.

But with the money this lord was promising,
her family would all be fed. They could stay together, and Papa could hire a
boy to work on the farm. Maybe even make some of the improvements that were so
desperately needed. All she had to do was go live with this man for a time and
let him into her bed. And her body. Could she do it? Could she lie with a man
she didn’t know, bear him children, and walk away?

Little Jamie tumbled into the dirt,
coughing and crying. Kara sighed. She didn’t know if she could do those things.
But she did know she couldn’t afford not to try.

***

The lord, whose name her father had said
was Mervyn, arrived right on schedule. He rode up on a fine white palfrey, dressed
in dark blue velvet and silken hose, with long golden hair tied back in a
queue. His servant trailed behind him on a huge, black destrier. The beast
suited its rider well. The servant was nearly as big and broad and dark as his
mount. He led a lovely blue roan mare behind, presumably for her.

“Be nice now, Carrot,” her father muttered.
Kara clenched her fists.

“I will be as nice as I’m able. But if you
call me that name in front of them, I may strangle you all and to Hell with the
bargain.”

Angus MacPherson wrung his hands. “Don’t
let Lord Mervyn hear you cuss, poppet. I told him you were gently reared.”

“You lied, you mean.” She snorted. “He’d
purchased a brood mare, nothing more. What should he care if I’m mannerly or
not?”

Her father sighed, but managed to plaster a
smile on his face as he pushed open the door to the cottage to welcome their
guests. “Ahh, and here you are, my lord, just as you said! Please, come in,
come in.”

“Is the girl ready?” the servant asked. His
wide face, with its high cheekbones, was quite handsome Kara noted. His long,
dark hair brushed the collar of his shirt. The lower half of his face was
obscured by the thick fur of his close-cropped beard, but his eyes were a nice,
clear blue as they scanned the front of the cottage. Looking for her, she
guessed. His voice, too, was pleasant. Deep, like the rumble of stones sliding
down the mountain when the dragon roared.

The little ones cowered and hid when the
beast keened in the night. Even her father trembled in his bed. But Kara had a
secret, one she’d never even whispered to her mother’s grave. The sound always
made her shiver, aye, but not in fear. She felt a strange and overwhelming urge
to comfort the creature. It sounded so forlorn, that rumbling cry. She wanted
to wrap herself around it and give it solace with her body.

That, perhaps as much as the tired faces of
her siblings, had driven her to agree to this mad plan. She wanted to see him,
this dragon. And she reasoned this lord either was him, or was bringing her to
him. The coincidence was too much. Now, looking at the slender, blond man on
the white horse, she felt disappointed.

He was handsome, she supposed, but too
pretty for her tastes. The servant was more appealing to her. He looked a
proper man, with wide shoulders and muscled thighs. Looking at him, his full
lips pressed into a thin line as he studied the farm, Kara felt a shiver go
through her. Her breasts felt suddenly heavy, her nipples tight and aching.

“Why don’t you have a bit of supper with
us, my lord? Kara’s cooked a fine meal,” her father was saying. The servant
ignored him, leaping down from his immense horse and unstrapping a small trunk.

The golden haired Lord Mervyn shook his
head. “We have to continue on immediately in order to reach my home by nightfall.”

Angus’ mouth flapped open. The servant
offered him the chest, but he merely stared, not taking it. Finally, the big
man set it at her father’s feet roughly. The chest tipped, spilling gold coins.
Her father snapped out of his trance at the sight. “Kara! Girl, come on out.
It’s time for you to go.”

She gritted her teeth, shouldered her
meager pack, and kissed her siblings goodbye. “Be good now. I’ll be back as
soon as I can.” Little Jamie, and Gertie and Sarah, too, didn’t really
understand what was happening. They knew only that she was going away. But she
saw the knowledge in Penelope’s solemn eyes. The little girl hugged her hard.

Tears stung Kara’s eyes as she stepped
outside, but she kept her head high. She brushed a brief kiss on her father’s
cheek, murmured, “Goodbye, Papa,” and walked over to where the servant waited
by his enormous horse. She handed him her pack with a small curtsey. “Please
tie this to my horse.” She tilted her head at the mare. “I’m guessing that
one’s mine. Unless you mean me to ride this great, dark beast.” She patted the
destrier’s side. It whickered in greeting.

“And if I did?” the servant rumbled. Kara
quirked a thin reddish-blond brow at him.

“Then tie the pack to him, by all means.”
She bobbed a small curtsey again and strode the several steps over to the other
man. She looked up at him on his fine horse and he looked down at her. He
smiled. Again, she noted that he was handsome in a way. “And you, I presume,
are Lord Mervyn?”

“I am,” he answered, his voice light, with
an edge of amusement.

“Then you have bought me, my lord. Fair and
square, I suppose some would say. But know I’m only coming with you because you
hold me hostage to my starving family. I find that, and you, despicable, sir.”

“Kara!” her father moaned in mortification.
She ignored him, turning on her heel and marching back to the mare. She stopped
beside the horse and stroked her neck, speaking gently to her. The horse
whinnied and nuzzled against her. When she was satisfied the mare had gotten
used to her, she turned to the burly servant. He was watching her with an odd
expression. He seemed torn between amusement and shame. Perhaps on his master’s
behalf, since that one didn’t appear to have any.

But a servant’s expression didn’t matter,
she told herself, and motioned him forward. “Please help me up.”

She expected him to offer his laced hands
as a step, but he grasped her waist and lifted her effortlessly into the
saddle. Kara stared down at him, skin tingling at the touch of his hands,
amazed at his strength. She was no willow sapling like the rich girls in the
village. She had hips and breasts and bit of a belly. “Thank you,” she
remembered to whisper. He nodded, turned, and climbed back up on his own mount.

Kara gave her father a final wave, blew a kiss
at the kids peeking from the cottage window, and turned her horse’s head to
follow after the men.

***

“We’ll bed here for the night,” the servant
informed her as they reached a clearing on the mountainside. The sky was
quickly growing dark.

Kara frowned. “I thought your master said
we would reach his home by nightfall.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. She saw it
even through the heavy beard. “These are Wyvern lands. Technically, we are
home. But we won’t reach the keep until midday tomorrow.”

“Your master’s name is Mervyn Wyvern?” She
giggled, pressing her fingers to her mouth to keep it from growing into a full
guffaw. The servant’s eyes crinkled slightly at the corners.

“Does sound ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

Kara glanced around, surprised he’d say
such a thing with his master around. But she realized he wasn’t in sight. The
big, dark man again grasped her waist and lifted her down from the horse. Her
body pressed briefly against his, her breasts to his chest, his thighs to her
pelvis. She shivered, blood going hot again at his nearness.

“Where did he go?”

The other man shrugged. “Off a bit. He’ll
be back. Let’s get a fire started and make some supper.”

“What’s your name?” She spoke the question
without really thinking. But the servant fascinated her much more than the
lord. He gave her an odd look that she couldn’t interpret.