Page 1 of Ulf's Destiny
PROLOGUE
“Wolf’s son needs to die.”
Ylva stared at the woman who was talking with her gaze lost in the distance but the shocking words barely registered. All she could concentrate on right now was the thug she had hoped never to see again, holding a knife at Judith’s neck.
“Please,” her friend was saying, doing her best to stay still. She knew she was one ill-advised move away from having her throat sliced. Walstan was not renowned for his patience or compassion. “Let us go.”
Why, oh why, had they decided to stay in town? Ylva could have kicked herself. Couldn’t they have guessed that it put them at the risk of running into Mildred one day? The woman might well decide her self-imposed exile had been long enough.
And indeed this morning, what they’d feared for months had come to pass. As they were making their way home from the market via a narrow alley, Ylva and Judith had found themselves face to face with their tormentors, Mildred and her right-hand man, Walstan. The man had immediately pounced onJudith, preventing their escape, and brought them back to their crumbling lodgings.
It had been like the first abduction all over again.
And now here they were, slaves again.
“He needs to suffer as I have suffered.” Mildred was rambling on, pacing up and down the length of the room, talking to herself. “Having my father, my brother, and my peace of mind taken away from me so suddenly was shocking. After their death, I had to flee, leave my house and my friends, I had to hide and now I cannot find any boys with which to take my pleasure. The cursed Icelander needs to pay for what he did, ruining my life so completely when I did nothing wrong.”
Nothing wrong. Ylva exchanged a glance with Judith and clenched her jaw. Nothing wrong. How could anyone be so deluded?
As to the “cursed Icelander,” Ylva knew all about him. Everyone in town did. The infamous Norseman had freed her and Judith five months ago when he’d killed the slave trader holding them captive at the time, forcing his daughter to flee for her life. Terrified of punishment, Mildred had disappeared without bothering to take her two slaves with her, and Ylva and her friend had hoped they’d seen the last of her.
Evidently, they had been wrong because she was back—and she wanted revenge.
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is what I say. One of Wolf’s sons needs to die. It is the only way I will be satisfied,” the woman repeated, planting herself in front of Ylva. “And you will be the one to kill him.”
1
EAST ANGLIA, WINTER 1075
Ulf smiled to himself as he entered the forest. He was certain that he had interrupted what had been about to become a scandalous tryst. Haakon and Gytha, one of the newly-wed couples in the village, had been kissing with unbridled passion when he’d rounded the corner of the forge. Not only that, but Haakon had sat his wife on the stone wall and settled himself between her spread thighs. There was no doubt that he had been about to suggest they did more than just kiss, there out in the open, despite the risk of being walked up upon.
And Gytha would have agreed.
Ulf shook his head. Haakon was a lucky man to have married someone who shared his taste for experimentation thus. In his, admittedly limited, experience not many women were as ready to embrace what they considered unusual, or even willing to give it a try. The girls he’d kissed at the various fairs he’d attended in the last few years had never allowed him to do anything unless they were safely hidden from view. But even then, even if they had allowed him to kiss and caress them, they had never thought to touch and caress any part ofhim. He suspected that a fewwould have allowed him to bed them if he’d expressed the desire to do so, but their lack of initiative had rather cooled his blood.
If they balked at the mere idea of touching his cock, chances were they would lie immobile and wait for him to do everything, and that was not what he was after. He wanted more than a passive conquest. He wanted a responsive lover in his bed, a woman who was not afraid of her desires, of her feminine urges, and would prove eager to indulge them with him.
Growing up in a village where happy couples were plentiful had given him the impression that this harmony was easily achieved. Seeing more of the world had made him realize that such attitude was perhaps not as common as he’d thought. Pity, because he didn’t think he would be satisfied with less.
In fact, heknewhe would not, his dalliance with Revna had proved it.
Their encounters had left him oddly dissatisfied. Something had been lacking every time, some spark, some passion, some reciprocity. She had been more than happy to lie on her back and let him take her but she had only ever allowed him to do that. Not once had she agreed to try another position and when he’d told her, in the heat of passion, that he would like to lick her, she had been so shocked that she had refused to continue what they had started and fled the hut.
That had been six weeks ago and she had not visited the village once in that time. The only conclusion to draw from this was that whatever they had shared was over. She probably thought him a dangerous deviant and he was certain she would never give him satisfaction, only a purely physical release, which was not what he was after. He had his hand for that. What he craved was something…more, even if he wasn’t quite sure what that might be.
Well, it was no use thinking such things now. He would not find the answer to his problem out here in the woods, and hewould only get depressed thinking about it. He had come here to forage for food, not to bemoan the lack of adventurous women in his life.
As if nature had decided to help him forget his glum mood, Ulf spotted the familiar shape of the crumbling log ahead of him. After the rain they’d had in the last few days, it might well have sprouted some delicious fieldcaps. He placed his basket on the ground and knelt down to check. To his delight, a cluster of tender-stemmed mushrooms was indeed waiting for him. These, along with garlic, made the best omelettes. Perhaps this time he could try to add?—
A rustling sound interrupted his culinary musings.
Ulf straightened up and turned in time to see a woman burst out of the bushes, her eyes wild with panic, her long hair flowing behind her like a living flame. A Saxon, evidently, and one he had never seen before.
“Help!” she cried out, heading straight for him.
What was going on? Who or what was she fleeing from? An attacker, an animal? He hadn’t heard anything worrying. But there had to be something to justify her agitation, people did not behave thus for no reason. Had she been stung by a bee? Was she simply mad?
There was no time to think. At the speed she was going, she was going to crash into him at any moment. If he remained crouched on the ground, she would topple all over him. Ulf stood back up, opened his arms and braced himself to absorb the impact. Not a moment too soon.
