Savages: A Reverse Harem Romance Read online

  “I can’t fight a bear.”

  “No. You will follow after us and do as we say. It is important that you obey us precisely. Other predators will have picked up the trail of blood. We may not be the only ones looking for a meal.”

  “We’re going to eat it?”

  “Bear meat is good meat,” Hans says. “It will feed the tribe for many days. Maverick will take the head. He will earn his trophy and wear the skin.”

  It sounds violent and cruel and I don’t want to be a part of it.

  “I don’t want to hunt the bear.”

  “Understandable. You are not prepared for a hunt, but we can’t leave you alone,” Hans repeats himself patiently. “You will come with us.”

  “No. Just take me home.”

  He ignores my request and returns to his work, preparing an instrument of death. I don’t understand why we are doing this. The bear was wounded, but so was Maverick, and they are going to kill him. How could they know that the bear won’t heal too?

  “What is the problem?” Maverick is apparently aware of my whining.

  “She does not want to hunt.”

  “She has no choice,” Maverick says bluntly. He doesn’t even look at me. He speaks as though I’m not there.

  “Just take me back to the city. I won’t ever come back into the forest, I promise.”

  “You see, Hans has spoiled her already,” Ice growls. “She has no sense of obedience.”

  Maverick nods, his eyes cool on me. “You must obey us. Instantly and without question.”

  “I don’t want to…”

  He reaches out and grabs me by the back of the head, taking a thick handful of my hair. Before I know what is happening, he has dragged me to the hut and pushed me face down into the furs.

  My skirt flies up.

  “Hand me the soaked leather.”

  A strap has been sitting in a bucket overnight. I saw Ice put it there when we got into camp. I didn’t know what it was before, but as his brawny hand brings the wet leather down across my underwear-clad ass, I tense. And then I scream. A single lash of the leather sends a bolt of pure pain through my body. Tears well in my eyes as whimpers and whines of helplessness escape me.

  “Easy!” Stryker pushes his way in between Maverick and me. “She’s from the city. She’s probably never been disciplined in her life.”

  Stryker has not so much as smiled at me since I met him. I am shocked that he is the one defending me now.

  “Out of my way, Stryker,” Maverick orders.

  “You will break her,” he insists. “She is not like the women of our tribe. Her skin is soft. You will make her bleed with that.”

  “She has to learn.”

  “Not like this,” Stryker says. “If you hurt her, you will ruin her.”

  “Pain never ruined a woman.”

  “Yes, it did.” I hear a growl in Stryker’s voice.

  “You are protecting her because she is one of your tribe. You should be loyal to us now, Stryker. You wear our marks.”

  “I am loyal,” Stryker said. “But she is a city girl and should be returned.”

  Yes! That is what I want. Stryker understands what the others seem to refuse to understand. I don’t belong out here. I can’t take this harsh lifestyle. I definitely can’t take the brutal soaked lash that has left a mark that still burns even now.

  I don’t dare get up and earn even more of Maverick’s ire, so I lie there face down and let Stryker argue for me.

  “We’re not giving her back. Get out of my way.”

  “Kick my ass if you need to,” Stryker tells Maverick. “But she’s had enough.”

  “One lash is not enough for disobedience.”

  “Look at her skin! It is already welted!”

  “Out of my way, city boy.”

  There is derision in Maverick’s tone. I shrink further into the furs, realizing that Stryker is lower rank because of where he comes from and probably so am I.

  “Stryker.” It is Hans who speaks. “Maverick isn’t going to break her.”

  “You will do it without knowing it,” Stryker argues. There’s a certain desperation to his voice that makes me wonder what he is thinking of, what he has seen before.

  I sneak a peek behind me. Stryker is standing there, his legs spread wide in a defensive protective stance. Maverick is looming over him, that leather lash still in his hand. Ice is standing off to the side, smirking as if all this amuses him, and Hans is about to get between Maverick and Stryker, protecting Stryker just as Stryker is protecting me.

  “Both of you get out of my way before I beat you,” Maverick growls. “She will take three strokes for her disobedience.”

  Two more? I don’t know if I can take that. I begin to whimper and cry again, to plead for his mercy.

  Maverick pushes Stryker out of the way, takes hold of my hair and turns my face so that I have to look at him. His eyes search my miserable face, and I know he wants the truth.

  “Is Stryker right? Will you break beneath my lash?”

  “Yes,” I whimper, soft and scared. Maverick is a dangerous savage, a man who could utterly break me within minutes. I do not have the strength to resist him, or the will. “I’m sorry I was disobedient. I didn’t know…”

  “What didn’t you know?”

  “I didn’t know there would be consequences.”

  “Stay in position,” he says, releasing my hair.

  I do as I am told, tears running down my face.

  The lash rises into the air and cuts down across my flesh again. I scream, but a moment later I realize that it has not landed nearly as harshly. He has used a fraction of the strength he used on the first stroke, and though this one stings, I am not racked with the same pain. That’s not to say my ass isn’t on fire, and that there aren’t tears in my eyes. I am sore and I am sad and I am very sorry for myself.

  “Don’t make me regret my mercy,” Maverick says. He pulls me up from the bed, holds me by the shoulders and looks deep into my eyes. “Obedience, Riley. Above all things. Understand?”

  I give him a small nod.

  “You will follow in Stryker’s steps. Where his foot lands, so will yours. If you deviate even one inch from his path, I will whip you and there will be no mercy.”

  I nod emphatically. I don’t trust my voice. Maverick is terrifying. Even now, with his flesh held together with medical line, he is the undisputed leader of this group.

  “Give her a knife,” Ice says.

  “Why?” Maverick turns toward Ice. All these men seem to have their own ideas as to how I should be treated.

  “She may need to defend herself.”

  “The only thing she is likely to do with a knife is sink it into one of us,” Maverick says. “Stryker can protect her.”

  I stay silent as they make their preparations for the hunt. Maverick appoints Hans and Ice to take the lead. With his wounds he has lost mobility and speed. Stryker will follow Hans and Ice. I will go behind them and Maverick will take up the rear. My rear.

  “Shoes,” Maverick says before we leave. “She cannot wear those things. Stryker, wrap her feet.”

  Stryker takes me over to the hut and removes my shoes. Sitting on my rear that has been lashed with Maverick’s leather is not comfortable, but I know better than to complain now, as Stryker tosses my little plastic-heeled shoes away and reaches for a bag beneath the sleeping platform. He pulls out leather and two soft pieces of fur. I watch curiously as first the layer of fur, then the outer leather are fitted to my feet, each of which wrap around my feet and rise a short way up my calves. He secures them by wrapping long leather cords around my feet and ankles, creating a pair of short boots in minutes. I watch, quite stunned at his alacrity and the ability these men have of taking simple things and turning them into useful items.

  “Stand up,” he said. “Comfortable?”

  I stand, and find that it is a lot like walking in bare feet. My toes aren’t squeezed into my shoes anymore, and there’s no bliste
r-inducing rubbing around my heels.

  “Yes,” I say, allowing myself a smile. “Comfortable.”

  My mother would be horrified to see me wearing these. Animal skins on my feet, held with leather twine. They look barbaric, but they are one of the most comfortable things I have ever worn in my life.

  “Good,” Stryker says. “Come. We are losing daylight.”

  The sun has really only just risen, but the savages are impatient.

  We head into the bush, going back in the direction we came. All the walking we did the night before is going to be done again. I am not used to this amount of exercise, and though I do my best to keep up, as one hour turns into two, I find it impossible. My legs are burning, my joints ache. I am so tired, but the men don’t seem to notice. We haven’t eaten. A water skin has been passed around, and I have had a couple of sips from it, but it is not enough.

  I don’t dare say anything. After Maverick’s lash and his insistence that I do as I am told, I know that I will be punished for failing to keep up with them.

  I stumble over a root and fall to my hands and knees, the skin on both grazing. Before Maverick can chastise me, I struggle back up to my feet and hurry after Stryker. They don’t break their stride one bit. The mood has changed over the last half hour or so. They are getting closer to the trail and every single one of them is hunting for hints of the bear. I think they have forgotten about me entirely. Though I am in their midst, I am not one of them.

  “Paw,” Ice hisses.

  They gather around to look at the mud, crouching down next to it, inspecting it in every way. They find other prints, notice that one is more shallow than the others. From that, they conclude that the bear is injured in a shoulder.

  “Blood,” Hans says, pointing to the insects that are swarming around the little droplets, carrying the bear’s essence away to their dens and burrows. Nothing is wasted in this forest. Even the blood of a fleeing predator sustains life.

  I am relieved to have a break for a moment. It has been two hours and we have marched faster and harder than ever in my life.

  “Quick. This way!”

  They head off, not at a walk, but at a lope. I scurry to try to catch up with them, but I can’t. My muscles are tired, I have no energy. I stumble over another root and darkness swallows me.

  Chapter Six

  I wake, cradled in someone’s arms. I am being carried.

  “She needs to be fed and watered,” Stryker is lecturing off to the side. “She cannot hunt as we do. She is weak.”

  There is a rumble of agreement from the group at large.

  “We should take her back to the city before she wakes.”

  “No.”

  It is Maverick who refuses flatly.

  “You will kill her out here,” Stryker replies. “I cannot explain how weak city women are. They do no exercise at all. Most of them never leave their huts. If they do, it is to walk a few steps to the public transport.”

  “She will grow strong with proper care, as you did,” Maverick says.

  “I was not weak. I was ready to come out here. She wandered into the woods.”

  “I am not giving her back, and that is final,” Maverick growls. “She kept pace with us for a good time. I do not think she is as weak as you say.”

  Darkness swallows me again.

  When I wake the next time, I am wrapped in furs. There is a fire crackling nearby and when I open my eyes I see stars high in the sky. The air is cooler than it was before. I can feel it on my nose, but the rest of me is so bundled up and warm that I am in no discomfort at all.

  After a moment or two, I realize that I am not alone. I am being held. There are two strong tattooed arms wrapped around my fur-clad waist. I look up and see Hans’ face above mine.

  “Hello,” he says with a smile.

  “Hey,” I say shyly, burrowing into the furs a little more.

  “How are you feeling, my little rabbit?”

  I smile. I like him calling me his little rabbit.

  “I’m okay. I just got tired.”

  “Is she awake? Feed her.” It is Maverick. I hear his dominant rumble nearby.

  Hans picks me up, still wrapped in warm animal skins, and carries me over to the fire, where all things happen.

  They have obviously been at work preparing food. There is a big green leaf shining as if it has been washed, and atop it are several food items. There is meat, and there are roots and berries, and at the corner, the sugar cookies I packed but didn’t have a chance to consume.

  Hans sits down with me in his lap, offers me water and the selection of food and tells me to eat. I am hungry and thirsty and I don’t hesitate one bit. Usually sugar would be of most interest to me, but the meat is rich and calls my name. I start with a chunk of that, cooked to rare perfection.

  They watch me intently, all four of them looking at me as if a girl eating is the most fascinating thing they have ever seen in their lives. It only serves to make me feel more shy.

  “Aren’t you going to eat too?”

  “We fed already,” Stryker says. “This is for you.”

  I finish every bit of food on the leaf, and when I am done my belly is full and I feel much better. There is a peace at having eaten a meal that satisfies completely.

  I avoid looking at them, knowing I’m probably in trouble. Maverick must be so mad at me. I ruined their hunt.

  “I’m sorry I ruined your hunt.”

  “No need to be sorry,” Hans replies. “You walked until you fell. You did as much as you could do.”

  “I’m sorry,” Stryker murmurs next to me. “I’ll try to convince them to take you back. You don’t belong out here.”

  I agree with him, but his words also make me sad for a reason I can’t quite explain. Maybe it’s because I wish I did belong out here. I don’t like being sad and weak and afraid. Maverick doesn’t respect me now. Ice never did. Hans is perhaps the only one who seems to like me as I am, but he would have let Maverick beat me without interference.

  “I don’t want to go back.”

  I speak the words softly, but I mean them.

  “You were worked to exhaustion today,” Stryker says. “It will happen again. We can slow the hunt, but this life is hard. You will get sick and there will be no cures, no relief. It is not as it is in the city, where illness is inconvenience and injury is rare. This life hurts, Riley. It is painful and it will not end in a comfortable coma bed. You will pay the price for your place in the wild a hundred times over.”

  “Stop trying to frighten her,” Maverick says. “She wants to stay. Come here, little rabbit.”

  They are all calling me that now.

  I slide from the furs and feel the chill of the night air on my skin. The warmth of the fire emanates only from one side.

  “When I am mended, I will take you as you should be taken,” he says as he reaches out with his good arm and draws me down into his lap. “You are ours. The bear delivered you to us, and I will not give you up for anything in this world or the next.”

  He speaks with passion and decision and I feel his possession. I am his. That is the end of it. We do not know one another well. We come from separate worlds. I do not know what it is like to be him, and he does not know what it is like to be me, but we see something in one another, a sameness that bonds us in spite of our limited knowledge.

  I sit on his thigh and he wraps the good arm around my waist, holding me tight against his hard body. I am not cold anymore. I am cradled against him, the heat of his body keeping me warm. While I shiver, he is shirtless. These men are all far more acclimated to the weather than I am and don’t seem to notice the way the coolness nips and bites at their extremities. I curl up against him, enjoying the feeling of being held by a man. I never knew it was possible to feel this way, to be protected and cared for by another human so much bigger and stronger.

  I can’t keep my eyes off the stitches in his chest and arm. Stryker did a good job, but Maverick will bear the scars of tha
t encounter until he dies.

  “I am sorry you were wounded.”

  “It was the price to have you,” Maverick says. “I pay it gladly.”

  He’s not putting on a brave face. He means it. There is a sincerity in his tone that tells me he does not see the world as I do. I have been taught to stay far away from things that hurt.

  But pain is not something to be avoided. To him, it is something that must be paid. It makes sense. In the wilds nothing is free. The city gives us everything we need as a matter of right. But here there are no such rights. There is only what a person can endure, can take, can hold. If you put it in your mouth, it’s yours, but that’s it. There are no great deposits of wealth. Every creature takes what it needs and little more.

  “I hope I am worth it,” I say softly.

  “You are,” he says. “You have the red hair of the firebird, beautiful skin, and eyes that flash bright green. You left the city and sought us out. Your feet were guided by fate. You are worth it many times over.”

  He runs his fingers through my hair and looks deep into my eyes. His gaze does things to me, makes my heart beat faster and my palms sweat. I am afraid of him in the best way possible. He has a brutality and a power that it is wise to fear, and that makes my flesh quiver.

  I want him. I need him. These men have woken something in me that calls to be sated. I am no longer hungry for food, but I am utterly ravenous for him.

  Maverick seems to sense my desire. I see his gaze spark and his arms tighten around me. “You are going to be worth it so many times over. You have much to learn, and we have much to teach.”

  “Such as?” My hips squirm with the question.

  “It is time you learned to please a man,” he says, easing me to the ground slowly. My knees touch the ground, warm from the fire and I look up into Maverick’s face. This position is perfect in a way I cannot explain. I feel a sense of belonging I have never felt before as he reaches down and settles me into position between his powerful legs.

  “How can I please you from down here?”

  He smiles warmly. “Such an innocent little rabbit. Take my cock out.”