“Which god, Brother?”
“The One.” He pointed up and smiled at Fin.
“Thank Him for me, will you, Wolf.”
“You just did, Fin.”
*
Camelee knelt overa patch of brown grass in the snow-dusted field. Her belly ached and her heart, as well, as memories of Wolf rocking Hild to sleep filled her head and drove her mad. Was this why she’d never met anyone in the future? Because she wouldn’t be staying there in the twenty-first century, and it would have been worse to lose a man like Wolf than to never have him at all? Did that mean she was stuck here for the rest of her life? Would Wolf take her home and get her pregnant and then dump her the first chance he got? She’d said he was like the others. But he wasn’t. Did she want a future with him?
She couldn’t give up the hope of returning to her own future. But she was and that was why she was in the position she found herself in right now.
But she would never ever forget the fierce Viking warrior putting the need of a little orphan girl before his own brother. While many at home might think him ruthless and disloyal to his family, she found him admirable and honorable to the innocent.
And it was so very attractive.
But there couldn’t be anything romantic between them because if she were given a chance to go home, she would take it.
Home to what?
Um…prime-time dramas, pain killers, coffee, cell phones, electricity, down comforters, a solid roof over her head? She’d refuse all that for some guy. Right.
She stood up and thought of Karen, her “assistant”. Camelee treated her more like a servant. In fact, most of the people around her behaved like her servants. Had she ever told them to stop waiting on her hand and foot?
No.
She bent over again.
“Woman,” Ivar, one of Wolf’s men, called out. He’d escorted her when she left the king’s guest chamber. “What is your trouble?”
“Self-loathing, Ivar…and where did you say Odger was?”
“Seeing to his wife.”
“Well,” she smiled reassuringly. “Don’t be afraid. I’m well.”
“Return to your chambers then.”
Yes. It was too cold for her down jacket. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I came out into the cold.” She went toward him but instead of letting her pass, he hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her in with her back against his chest and her backside against his groin.
For a moment, Camelee was too stunned to move. She should have been prepared for this! She tried to fight back, but it seemed to excite him further when she did. He tore her jacket and the sweater she’d had from home, washed by her own hands, and dried in the sun this morning. She thought it strange that she would think about her stupid sweater or the jacket her mother picked out at Macy’s last month while on one of mother’s rare trips back home to NYC. They’d gotten together the day after Thanksgiving for lunch and a bit of shopping. Then Claire Pendrey was gone again.
It wasn’t that she had some important job to save the world that made her miss Camelee’s life. It was parties and playtime with the rich. Her mother was a socialite and nothing more.
Genevra liked the jacket. She said it brought Wolf’s eyes down to Camelee’s butt often. She and Genevra had shared more than a few furtive giggles about it when Wolf was here.
Wolf. She wished he was here now. “Wollllllfffff!” she screamed because she needed to. She was going out of her mind thinking about sweaters and her mother now.
Ivar reeled back and smacked her in the temple. She swayed in his arm, locked around her waist. She prayed that she wouldn’t pass out. She felt him shove his hand under her torn sweater. When he felt her bra, he groaned behind her as if she’d worn the thing just to keep him from her. She wished it could have done such a thing. He grabbed hold of it between her breasts and pulled as hard as he could. It snapped and tore away.
She screamed and sank her heel into his foot. He loosened his hold a bit and then completely. She spun around to find Alric staring and the soldier’s body falling to the ground, Alric’s short-sword in his back. He pulled his weapon free and they both watched Ivar sink to the snowy ground.
Alric dropped the sword, and Camelee dropped her defenses and hurried to him. “Oh, Alric! Alric, I’m so happy to see you! He was going to rape me,” she cried and pulled away, then covered her body with the cloak Alric offered off his back.
“Where is Wolf? Why are you alone?”
“He left to find his brother, Fin. He put Odger in charge of us, but Odger’s wife delivered his baby, so he left for an hour. I thought it would be okay.”
