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Staring down at the display of gathered forest delights, my stomach rumbled. I wanted to grab a handful of berries and shove them into my mouth before Rood changed his mind and kept the food for himself. But then I paused. Why was no one else eating the berries? Why just me?
Poison?
Was that their intention?
I still didn’t know what their intention was and what they would do next. What had they done to the other sacrifices who never returned to the village? Would my fate be the same as theirs? And if so, what was that fate to be?
To kill me by poison? Deadly forest berries?
Or maybe it wasn’t the kind of poison that would kill, but would simply act to cast me in a deep sleep so they could have their way with me with no resistance. Though they didn’t seem to care if I resisted or not.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Rood asked from the other side of the fire. The flames blazing in front of his frame gave off the impression that he was the devil himself. In leathers and fur with little coverage of his muscular frame, he could easily be mistaken for an ancient god, though I knew the animalistic nature that lurked beneath the chiseled flesh.
“I’m not hungry,” I lied.
“Eat them anyway.”
I shook my head, my mouth watering with how plump and inviting the berries appeared to be.
“Eat,” he demanded as he stormed over to me. His insistence convinced me even more that the berries could indeed be poison.
“No,” I somehow had the courage to say even though I saw thunderous clouds approaching before I could seek shelter from the storm.
I had just enough time to look at the other men as they stared on in curiosity before Rood gripped the back of my neck and squeezed.
“Do not mistake me as a weak man because I offered food,” he warned as he forced my head down to stare at the fruit.
I placed my shaking fingertips to the berries and couldn’t drum up the courage to eat them. If I were to die, it would not be by my own hand. No. They would have to kill me and face eternal damnation for the brutality. And if the berries were to pacify me or make me sleep through their violations rather than to have them face their acts, I would not submit. They would have to taste my salty tears as they pressed their lips to mine. I would not make this easy for any of them.
Rood’s grip on the nape of my neck slid to the base of my skull as he took hold of a handful of hair and tugged. With my head pulled back, Rood leaned down to my ear and said, “Are you going to eat the berries?”
I swallowed hard, which was difficult since my head was tilted back and my neck stretched. “I said I’m not hungry,” I somehow said as my body shivered in anticipation of what would now come.
I knew Rood wasn’t a weak man. He didn’t have to say so. I would never consider any of the five men around this campfire weak. They were creatures of the forest to be feared and appeased at all costs. Every single villager believed it to be so, and I was no different. But I couldn’t eat the berries. I just couldn’t.
“Very well,” Rood said, yanking my hair even harder as he stood to his full height once again. “If you won’t put the berries in your mouth, then we will put something else in instead.”
Pulling me to standing with his fist rooted in my hair, he cast the fur he had just placed on my shoulders to the ground. The berries that had been on my lap had fallen to the dirt, and now I wished I had just simply eaten them. I had a feeling my foolish mistake would be one I wouldn’t soon forget.
He tugged my head back again, exposing the front of my neck. Lowering his mouth to my throat, he licked a path all the way to my ear where he whispered, “Take off your clothes immediately unless you want me to tear them off of you. It would be a shame to destroy the outfit you haven’t even had for a day yet.”
Remembering how Helm had effortlessly ripped my gown from my body at the spring, I quickly complied. I didn’t want to have to be naked before these men all the time, and if this outfit got ruined by Rood, the possibility of me having nothing to wear but maybe one of their heavy furs had my shaking hands fumbling with the material to remove it on my own terms.
“Hurry,” Rood growled. I whimpered when he yanked on my hair even harder.
I desperately wished for one of the other men to step in and help calm Rood’s growing temper. What I wouldn’t do for one of them to have mercy on me right now. But I had also started to see that they all respected each other completely. Not one of them was about to contradict or go against another from their pack. They would watch, but never intervene. I had to admire the level of loyalty they had to each other even though I wished otherwise.
