Page 25 of Her Viking Lord
The conflict felt like it would tear me in two. How could I give myself to that monster when I belonged to Aksel? How could I let Horakovsky touch me, use me, when every fiber of my being recognized only one master? The thought of his hands on my body, of pretending to enjoy his brutal attention while myHerrawatched from afar through whatever surveillance the Sons of Odin could manage—it was too much.
I fled. With a violent wrench of will, I tore myself away from the silver branches, plummeting back into my body just as I felt Aksel swell inside me. His grip on my hips tightened as he drove deep one final time, and I felt the hot pulse of his release filling my claimed bottom. The sensation should have sent me spiraling into another climax, but I was sobbing too hard, the conflict in my chest making it hard to breathe.
“Lorna,” Aksel’s voice came from very far away, though his hands were already working at the bonds holding me to the saddle. “Little one, what did you see?”
The moment my wrists were free, I felt his strong arms wrap around me, lifting me from the saddle with a gentleness that made fresh tears well up at the corners of my eyes. My body felt boneless, overwhelmed by what I’d seen and what I’d have to do. Aksel cradled me against his chest as he carried me to hisbed—a massive thing covered in soft furs in the corner of his subterraneanhús. He laid me down carefully, then stretched out behind me, pulling me close.
“Shh,” he murmured against my hair, his hand stroking down my spine. “Tell me what you saw that upset you so.”
The words spilled out between sobs—the vision of seducing Horakovsky, of letting him use me while Takken watched, of betraying everything Aksel had so quickly trained me to see as my new destiny. MyHerralistened without interrupting, his touch never faltering even as I described the degradation I’d have to endure.
“I won’t force you to do anything you cannot bear,” he said when I finally fell silent. I turned my head over my shoulder to look at him, my brow furrowing. His steel-gray eyes met mine, and I saw something there I hadn’t expected—genuine concern, even tenderness. “There are other ways to gather intelligence. You don’t have to?—”
“But I do,” I whispered, the realization settling over me like a weight. “You know I do. No one else can get that close to him. No one else has the access, the opportunity.” I turned all the way around so I could press my face against his chest, breathing in his scent. “The vision was clear. This is the only way to stop what’s coming.”
Aksel’s arms tightened around me, and I felt him press a kiss to the top of my head. “My brave littlevolva,” he murmured. “You’ve seen the threads of fate more clearly than seers with decades of training.”
I pulled back to look at him, and the words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I love you.”
The admission hung in the air between us. I hadn’t meant to say it, hadn’t even fully realized it was true until the words left my lips. But lying there in his arms, my body still trembling from everything he’d done to me, I knew it with absolute certainty. Somewhere between the collar and the strap, between the visions and the claiming, I’d fallen completely, irrevocably in love with myHerra.
His hand came up to cup my face, thumb brushing away a tear I hadn’t realized had fallen. “Lorna,” he said, and my name on his lips sounded like a prayer. “My sweet, perfect bed thrall. I love you too.”
My heart stopped, then resumed at double speed. “You do?”
“From the moment I watched you at that first reception,” he admitted, his usually controlled voice rough with emotion. “You were so beautiful, so lost, so desperately in need of someone to show you what you truly are. I told myself it was just the mission, just the need to develop an asset. But when I finally had you here, when I saw how perfectly you responded to the training, I knew something else was at work—something even more ancient and mysterious than my brotherhood. Yes, I love you.”
CHAPTER 14
Aksel
Lorna looked at me with wide eyes, her astonishment so adorable that I couldn’t resist kissing her, long and gently, until I felt her hips twitch, and she whimpered up into my mouth. I broke the kiss slowly, studying Lorna’s flushed face in the soft light of my underground chamber. Her eyes still glistened with tears from our emotional confessions, but beneath that vulnerability, I could see the steel forming in her spine. My brave littlevolvawas beginning to understand what would be required of her.
“You’re right about the mission,” I said, my voice carrying the measured tone I used when discussing operational necessities. “But you’re looking at it from the wrong angle, little one.”
I rose from the bed, my muscles still warm from our intense session. As I crossed to the small sink in the corner of my house, I felt Lorna’s eyes following my every movement. The soft gasp she made when I began washing my cock—still impressive even in its softened state—sent a pulse of satisfaction, andreawakening arousal, through me. Even after everything I’d just enforced upon her, Lorna clearly remained mesmerized by my body, by the physical evidence of my dominance over her.
I took my time cleaning myself, letting her watch, letting her see how thoroughly I tended to the tool that had claimed every part of her. When I returned to the bed, I positioned myself behind her, pulling her back against my chest. My hand settled naturally around her throat—not squeezing, just resting there with possessive weight, fingers curling gently but dominantly enough to draw a whimper from Lorna’s lips. My other hand moved between her thighs, finding her still slick and swollen from our joining.
I made sure she could feel my cock beginning to harden against her bottom, that tender flesh still bearing the marks of my strap. The way she trembled at the contact told me everything about her state of mind.
“Listen carefully, my sweet bed thrall,” I murmured directly into her ear, letting my breath ghost across her skin. “I command you to offer yourself to Horakovsky.”
She stiffened in my arms, an audible sob half formed in her chest, but I continued before she could protest.
“More than that—you have my permission to enjoy what he does to you.” My fingers found her clit, circling with practiced precision as I felt her whole body react to my words. “In fact, I command you to enjoy it.”
“Herra, no—” she gasped, but her hips were already moving against my hand, her body’s needs and the beginnings of her training overriding her conscious resistance.
I shifted slightly, positioning myself at the warm entrance to the slick sheath between her thighs. I pushed inside her delectablefissewith one slow, inexorable thrust. She was so wet, so ready despite her emotional turmoil, that I slid home easily. The angle let me go deep while maintaining my grip on her throat, keeping her pinned against me as I began to move with deliberate, dominant strokes.
“You will climax for him,” I commanded, punctuating each word with a thrust. “Almost the way you come for yourHerra. Your body will respond because I’ve trained it to respond. And knowing that you’re obeying me, even while in his hands, will make me so happy, Lorna. So proud of my wisevolva.”
Lorna
I cried out as much at Aksel’s dominant words as at the thrusts of his huge tool in my pussy. The sensation of him filling me so completely, combined with his command still echoing in my ears, sent conflicting waves of emotion crashing through me. Shame burned hot in my chest at the thought of letting that monster touch me, use me like one of his broken dolls. But beneath the shame, something darker and more primal responded to Aksel’s words with a pulse of liquid heat that made me clench around his thickness.
“No,” I sobbed, even as my hips began to move of their own accord, pushing back to meet his thrusts. “Please don’t make me want it. I can’t bear the thought of?—”
