Free Hers to Claim by Patricia A. Knight

barrier only to fall back, dissipate and attack once more. She shuddered in fear at their relentless pursuit.
    “Healer.”
    At her feet, Hel lay on his side, an arm holding his blankets open in invitation. “Don’t look at them. Your fear incites them. Come here.”
    She paused for only a moment before crawling into the shelter he offered and settling along his length.
    He lay back down and covered them both. “The diaman crystals will hold them at bay. The wraiths’ evil finds the pure energy of our mother planet abhorrent. Trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you. You are too valuable to me.”
    A s a healer and partner in the rites. For some reason, just as in the grotto, the thought did not satisfy as it should have. She lay snugged to his body, listening to the regular thump-thump of his heart. Its dependable rhythm finally lulled her to sleep.
    ~~~
    Adonia craned her head and turned in a circle, trying to encompass the stunning landscape of a valley lush with grass divided by a clear, wide, swiftly moving stream and framed by towering, snow-capped mountains. They had startled a herd of graceful, lyre-horned chital grazing in the early morning light and, after handing off the packhorse and extra mount, Hel and Ramsey had given chase. Dismounted, she and Steffania stood and let their animals graze, waiting for the men to return. 
    Adonia watched the horses pull up huge mouthfuls of long green grass, clods of dirt and roots hanging from the sides of their mouths. Bit by bit, the dirt and roots fell away, while the good grass remained. A horse’s ability to separate the dirt from the edible green always amazed her.
    Steffania glanced over at her. “Did you get  any sleep last night?”
    Adonia shuddered , remembering. “After I curled up next to Hel, yes.”
    Steffania grinned. “The big louts are good for making a woman feel protected.” Her grin broadened. “Among other things.”
    “What did you mean yesterday? When you said ‘for men like Ramsey and Hel’?”
    Steffania wrinkled her brow as if replaying their conversation. “Oh! You’d asked if it was common for—”
    “Yes, that question,” Adonia interjected. She didn’t want to hear it voiced again. She’d felt awkward enough the first time she’d asked. “You are ferocious—a deadly fighter. You command a mercenary squad of elite killers and yet…” Adonia lifted her shoulders helplessly.
    “Ramsey control s me sexually.”
    For long moments, the loudest sound was the  crunch, crunch  as the horses cropped grass. Adonia studied the movement of the waterweeds streaming out in a straight line as the creek ripped past. “Yeah.” She straightened. “And you like it.”
    Adonia turned to find Steffania still watching her.
    Steffania nodded. “Yes. More than like it, I need it—and that puzzles you.”
    “Yes.”
    The redhead sighed. “The Blue Daggers consider me a ball-buster. As their commander, they fear and respect me, and that is how I want it.” Her voice softened. “There is also a part of me that yearns to be known in a different way—desired as a female who sexually completes a male—a feminine being who surrenders herself to serve him.”
    “And that is what Lord Ramsey sees?”
    “Oh, he sees the other, too, and we butt heads.” Laughter filled her eyes. “The miracle of Ram is he respects the warrior yet still sees the soft female. His dominant sexuality liberates that woman, and the more I abandon myself to him, the more he gives of himself to me. It’s a delicious contradiction. He is never more wholly mine than when I am under his total control, in complete service to him.”
    “ In complete service…” Adonia’s memory leapt to the night in the inn and the deep male murmur of command, the female moans that filtered through the shared wall. Her imagination supplied scenarios that brought a flush of heat to her lower regions. “And you don’t mind when he leaves you frustrated?”
    “Oh, I mind,