by G. A. Aiken
He smiled back at her. “Hello, little one.”
“Are you here to watch?”
“I am.”
She scrunched up her nose nervously and said, “Oh. Well, remember…I’m still learning!” And she gave him that hopeful look that tore his heart out.
He nodded at her and muttered to Brastias, “It’s only been seven months. Perhaps, you could give her another—”
“You have to see.” Brastias motioned to the trainer, who motioned to a huge bear of a man. A man Briec recognized from battles they’d been in together. This was no fellow trainee, but one of Annwyl’s favored warriors, whom she affectionately referred to as “Slaughter-Bear.”
Briec felt his anger grow, wondering why they were trying to push his daughter out. Most trainees had until they were twenty-one winters to prove they were worthy of any more time and training before they were sent packing. “This is cruel, Brastias. I won’t allow—”
“You have to see,” Brastias said again. “Go!” he yelled at the two combatants, and Izzy smiled and nodded.
Briec did see then. He saw so clearly that he knew his problem was worse than he could have imagined. Worse than he’d ever dreamed of. For the first time in his life he didn’t know how he was going to handle something. Because he knew this would get dangerously ugly before it ever got better. And he knew there’d be no avoiding it. Not now.
Every warrior standing outside the training ring grimaced when they heard bone break and a cry of pain seconds before Annwyl’s favored warrior flew into the fence, knocking part of it and himself completely out.
“Oh!” Izzy said, her teeth briefly gnawing her bottom lip. “Sorry, Captain, about your…uh…face.” She grimaced and slowly peeked over at Brastias. “Sorry about that, General. I guess I forgot to back off…again.”
Slowly, so slowly, Brastias looked at Briec. The expression on the man’s face, the tic under his eye made it clear what Briec needed to do.
But how was a dragon, any dragon, supposed to tell the woman he loved that her only daughter, not yet eighteen, would be going off to war?
Dagmar made sure the last of her dogs were in their runs, fed, and cared for. It took some time to calm them down, the fear of the dragon lingering, but for being not even a year old, they’d done well. They hadn’t backed down from the dragon at all. Good. She couldn’t afford for the dogs to be cowering during battle.
After saying good night to Johann, Dagmar headed back to the fortress, Canute by her side. When she walked into the Main Hall, she wasn’t exactly surprised to find her kin in the midst of a fight. It was a verbal altercation, not yet moving into a physical one. Although it most likely would. Her brothers needed very little reason to fight and as long as she stayed out of their way, she rarely got injured.
Yet the arguing stopped as soon as she walked in, her brothers immediately focusing on her.
Dagmar paused. “Yes?”
“He’s in your room?” Eymund asked, leaning against one of the long dining tables.
“Yes. He wanted to take a bath.”
“A bath?”
“Yes. In a tub. Not everyone feels the need to face the freezing cold water of the river.”
“That’s all well and good, but he shouldn’t be in your room, sister.”
In no mood for any of this, Dagmar walked off, tossing over her shoulder, “I know. He might be writhing all over my bed like a big cat or sniffing my shoes.”
“Or having a hearty snack.”
It was something in his tone that made Dagmar stop. “I sent up cheese and bread.”
“That’s not hearty. Not for him.”
“Is it true?” Valdís rested his arm on Eymund’s shoulder. “Da says he’s that dragon from earlier only changed to look like a man. Can they really do that?”
“Yes. It’s true.”
“That must be from those gods you don’t believe in.”
His sarcasm unappreciated, she said, “I am not, once again, explaining my belief system to—” She stopped abruptly. They were all smiling. Her kinsmen didn’t smile unless they were drunk or they’d killed something. They wouldn’t kill the dragon, or even try, since he was under the protection of their father for the night. Then what had they done?
Dagmar glanced around the room, looking for something that might tell her what was going on. Something out of place or missing…
She scanned the room again, counting this time. “Where’s that puppy from Tora’s litter?” Unlike the rest of the puppies, who were already in training, the too-small, scared little bundle would become a house pet instead of battle dog. He’d feast on scraps, play with children, and basically live a happy, if useless, life.
“What puppy?” Eymund asked, trying to look appropriately innocent.
Dagmar glared at them all. “You bastards!” she nearly yelled, lifting the gown of her skirt and tearing across the hall. Her brothers’ laughter followed her as she ran through the back hallway to the stairs and up to the second floor.
She was panting by the time she reached her closed bedroom door, horrified she could actually feel a tiny bit of sweat trickling down her back. She didn’t sweat! And that her brothers made her exert herself in any way was something she’d be getting retribution for at a later date. Yet for now…
Dagmar pushed her room door open, but the dragon was not in the tub. Quickly surveying the area, she finally spotted his wet, naked ass trying to wiggle under her bed.
“Come here, little one,” he crooned seductively. “Just a little closer, you yummy little thing you.”
Disgusted, appalled, and angry beyond anything she could ever remember before, Dagmar grabbed the naked bastard by his ankle and yanked him out from under her bed, her outrage temporarily providing the strength she needed to move such a large, dog-eating son of a bitch.
“Oy!” he yelped before turning over and cradling that frighteningly large weaponry he had between his legs. And, if she weren’t so upset, she might notice what an amazingly gorgeous human body he had. Unlike her kinsmen who were muscles on top of muscles, some of them appearing to have been born without necks because the size of their shoulders hid the evidence, the dragon at her feet was large but lean. No fat, no oddly shaped, overdeveloped muscles. His thighs were strong and powerful, his abdomen flat and tight, with an interesting but clear delineation between it and his hip bones.
Staring down at him, she realized her fingers twitched and her tongue rubbed the roof of her mouth, but she decided to ignore all that in favor of her anger.
He glared up at her. “I don’t appreciate the stone burn against my balls, woman!”
“And I don’t appreciate you going after one of my dogs—again!”
“Oh. That.” He cleared his throat and gave a little shrug. “Someone opened the door and threw it in. I’d just assumed it was a little treat from you to me.”
So the little barbarian did have a temper after all. At least when it came to her dogs. And her temper was in full swing as she raised her leg and brought her foot down over his cock.
He knew he had the area protected by his hands, but Gwenvael still curled on his side, grunting in pain as her foot slammed down on the area near his kidney instead.
“Stay away from my dogs, dragon! All of my dogs. From the smallest to the largest,” she ordered, marching over him and over her bed to track down the little fur ball hiding on the other side. “Every dog in this fortress and on these lands belongs to me. You are not to touch them, speak to them, or go near them in any way.”
She marched back over the bed and over him, with the puppy now in her arms. She petted him and crooned to him softly.
“It’s a dog, little barbarian,” he sighed with absolutely no pity. “And only a dog. Sometimes I use their bones to pick my teeth.”
With a snarl, she leaned down and grabbed a handful of his wet hair, nearly yanking it from his head.
“Ow! Get off!” He slapped at her hands, trying to get the unhinged female to release
his precious and lovely hair. Women always spoke of how they loved when his hair draped across their bodies and how they loved to stroke it before they eventually started stroking him. The last thing he needed was some mad woman removing it.
She gave one more strong tug before she released him and stepped out of his reach. “Listen well, creature. Touch my dogs and I’ll do to you what I do to the male dogs I decide not to breed!”
With fascination, Gwenvael watched Dagmar carefully and precisely rein in her sudden burst of temper. When those grey eyes locked on him again, they were as cold as ice.
“Now that we have that clear, I’ll leave you to finish your bath, Lord Gwenvael.”
She started out, then stopped. “One thing. The men of this land don’t wear their long hair out. They have one plait down their back. It’s custom and to keep the complaining of my siblings down, I’d appreciate if you’d abide by that.”
“Of course.”
She nodded and again started toward the door.
“Tragically,” Gwenvael said to her back, enjoying how she stopped and her entire body tensed.
“Tragically…what?”
“My hair is so long and unmanageable…I’d never be able to braid it properly.” He grinned. “Perhaps you can do it for me.”
“I’ll send a servant to take care of it for you.”
“But as hostess of the house…”
She turned to face him. “As hostess of the house…what?”
“Shouldn’t you tend to your guest?”
Her face showed nothing. Her demeanor didn’t change one bit. But he knew he’d gotten to her because the puppy yelped in her arms and she had to loosen her grip before he stopped squirming.
“If you insist, my lord.”
“Oh”—Gwenvael grinned—“I do insist!”
His groaning seemed awfully excessive and only added to the absurdity of her situation.
Really, she should only be doing this sort of thing for her husband or her kinsmen and only before they rode off into battle. She’d been putting warrior braids in her father’s hair for years. And then when he returned from battle, she’d spend an hour at least trying to get any remaining blood and gore out of it that his “dip” in the river had not touched.
What she should not be doing was braiding the hair of this dragon. Even more appalling, he didn’t simply want her to braid it.
After putting the puppy outside, he’d explained to her as if she were some servant girl, “First comb it for me, love. Carefully. Don’t want you to pull any hairs out, simply get out the tangles.” But he didn’t stop there. “Then three hundred strokes of the brush—each side gets a hundred and then one hundred for the back.”
After he’d explained all that, he’d relaxed in the chair with a fur casually tossed over his naked lap, appearing as if it could and would drop off at any second.
It briefly crossed Dagmar’s mind to use the eating knife she kept tucked in her leather girdle to cut his throat, but that would not be in the best interest of her people. And, more importantly, her. So, instead, she took the ivory comb her father brought back from one of his raids and began to carefully untangle the dragon’s hair. It reached to the floor, so this was no easy task.
Even worse, he never shut up.
Dagmar didn’t know any being on the planet could talk as much as this one dragon. He talked and talked and then talked some more.
Perhaps she wouldn’t have minded so much if he actually said something of interest. The spark of hope she’d had when he mentioned knowing Aoibhell was quickly extinguished. How had the great philosopher that Dagmar based most of her belief system on tolerated an entire dinner with this…this…dragon? He seemed only to manage inane babble about all the women he’d known, which apparently were many!
Eventually Dagmar exchanged the comb for her brush, and that’s when the groaning started and, tragically, did not stop.
“That feels wonderful,” he’d sighed out at one point. “Have you thought of doing this for a living? You’re very good.”
Dagmar kept silent and went through the first one hundred strokes. When she started on the second side, she didn’t think the dragon would notice if she’d brushed fifty times or fifteen hundred. She was wrong.
“That was only seventy-five, love,” he’d told her when she started to move to the back. “Another twenty-five and you’ll be done with that. Then you can do the back.”
Again, she considered killing him but thought better of it.
Three hundred strokes later, Dagmar slammed the brush down. Now to the task of braiding all this hair!
Dagmar began braiding it and was halfway down his back when she said, “It would help with the rest if you’d stand.”
“All right.”
He stood, and Dagmar was greeted with that naked ass. That magnificent naked ass, if she did say so herself. His front had been exquisite, but his back was…reason help her.
“Think you could wrap the fur around you completely?” She feared she may start petting his ass the way she’d petted the puppy’s head.
“I could. But isn’t your question more of a ‘do I want to’?”
“You do know that I and my eating knife have access to much back here and—”
She didn’t even have to finish before he quickly wrapped the fur completely around his hips.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said sweetly.
“Welcome,” he grumbled back.
It took her a bit, but eventually she finished braiding all that golden hair and tied a leather thong to the end. When Dagmar stood, her fingers ached from the task, and the dragon turned to find her flexing her fingers.
He reached for her hand. “Need help with that?”
“No,” she told him, pulling her hand away before he could grasp it. “There are clothes for you—in your room. Evening meal is in another hour. Until then, stay away from the dogs.”
“I will.” He took a step toward her. “This has all been very kind of you, my lady. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Another step. “Perhaps you could come to my room and help me dress.”
She pressed one finger against his chest and the dragon stopped in midstride. “What are you doing?”
His smile was shameless. “What I always do.”
“Well, don’t do it with me.”
“Are you sure? I’m known for my skills.”
“And I’m sure that’s the only skill you possess. But in the Northland, women, including the servant girls, are given proper respect. Do not think because of how their husbands may treat them that anyone, especially an outsider, may do the same.”
“I have no plans to harm you, my lady.”
“I’m sure you don’t. But don’t think because you’re a dragon my brothers will show you any fear. So if you hope for your manhood to stay intact, you’d best watch your step.”
His grin, the absolute beauty of it, lit up the room. “What are you trying to tell me, my lady?”
“I’m telling you to keep your cock in your pants and your hands to yourself.” She walked to the door and pulled it open, a tense Canute jumping to his large feet, ready to defend her honor. “Take it as a friendly warning.”
“Did you just tell me to keep my cock in my pants?”
Dagmar ignored him and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. She was halfway down the hall when she turned right around and walked back. She knocked, and the dragon opened the door.
“It’s my room you’re in,” she snarled.
His laughter made her jaw clench. “I was wondering when you were going to notice.”
Chapter 8
She had no idea what he was doing, but she was absolutely fascinated.
True, he was ignoring her, but Dagmar had long been used to that sort of treatment. What she wasn’t used to, however, was a man—or in this case a dragon male—ignoring her sisters-in-law. They weren’t all beautiful. Several had features that made Dagmar quite
grateful to simply be plain. Yet what they lacked in beauty, they made up for in eagerness. And Kikka—who’d replaced Eymund’s beloved first wife when she was killed during a brazen raid by Jökull several years back—was eager and beautiful.
Yet Kikka’s generously exposed bosom, her perfectly coiffed hair, and the scent she simply drowned herself in didn’t seem to hold the dragon’s attention as well as Eymund’s habit of eating with his fingers.
“So have you been in many battles, Lord Gwenvael?” Kikka asked, making sure to lean over to give him a better view of her chest.
“A few out of necessity. But I’m not much of a swordsman.” He turned in his chair and looked at Eymund. “But you must have quite the way with the sword. So strong.”
Dagmar almost spit out her wine.
Carefully placing her chalice on the table, Dagmar glanced at her other brothers and father. They looked as uncomfortable as Eymund and as…panicked? Yes. It was definitely panic she saw among her kinsmen.
The truth of that did nothing but amaze her. They find out he’s a dragon, and they barely blink an eye. No one said a word or showed a bit of interest when he sat down uninvited at the head table with her father, her four oldest brothers, their wives, and Dagmar.
Yet the idea he may be interested more in them than in one of their women had the lot ready to bolt from the room. The dragon knew it, too. He knew exactly what he was doing and seemed to be enjoying every moment of it.
Her father caught her eye and motioned to the dragon.
She shrugged, unsure of what he wanted. Her father had never offered her to a man except as a wife, and she doubted he’d start now.
But her father scowled harder and she could only guess that he wanted her to distract the dragon’s attention from her brothers.
If she had to be bothered, she might as well make it worth her time.
“So, Lord Gwenvael…What exactly is your connection to Queen Annwyl?”
He gave her a lazy smile while continuing to stare at poor Eymund. “She’s a very good friend of mine.”
“Do you run errands thousands of leagues from your home for all your friends?”