Free Viking's Love by Karolyn Cairns

fell from his hand. She drove her blade deep
into his shoulder before she withdrew.
    Hakon cried out in pain. He slid to his
knees. Many cheered from above as he fell forward into the dirt.
Allisande knew she wounded him grievously, but he would live. He
lay inert, expecting her to move in to finish him.
    She glared up at the crowd, her violet eyes
spewing with hatred. “Have you seen enough?” She shouted as she
kicked the dirt at her feet, sending a spray of it upward towards
the steel grates. The crowd seemed to grow quieter now, seeing the
Englishwoman was in a fury. “Do you wish to see more? Send me
another of you!”
    “ It is finished,” Joran told his sire,
seeing Ivar’s eyes light up at her words of challenge. “No more!
You have what you demanded of her!”
    Ivar looked disappointed and shrugged. “Very
well, get her out. It appears the little English girl has won her
life. Now you can make it miserable as your slave, my son.”
    Joran shouted at Sarne and Grogan. The pair
helped him open the grates in the floor. He reached down inside,
stretching out a hand to his slave. Allisande withdrew from his
offer of help and proceeded to climb out on her own, finding
footholds in the dirt wall.
    Two burly thralls jumped inside the pit to
assist Hakon out. The man eyed her with grudging respect as he was
lifted from the floor and borne out of the pit.
    Joran eyed his lovely slave with admiration
as she crawled out of the pit on her own. He confiscated her
bloodied sword. He handed it off to a chuckling Grogan, who grinned
ear to ear before he withdrew to seek out more mead.
    Allisande refused to look at him. She was
still bristling in outrage. He could see the battle with the huge
Viking depleted her strength. He drew her to a chair, pushing the
tankard of mead towards her. “Drink it this time,” he commanded and
she complied, her hand shaking slightly as she lifted it. “You did
well. Why did you not kill him when you had the chance? I thought
killing Vikings was what you now lived for, Girl.”
    She eyed him with little humor in her gaze.
“Because it was what your father wanted. I’ll not give him the
satisfaction, or these bloodthirsty barbarians that follow
him.”
    Joran shrugged, his blue eyes filled with
amusement. “Hakon might disagree when he is heckled for the rest of
his life for being bested by a woman.”
    Allisande drank the soothing mead, relaxing
to know she’d live to make all of those suffer who merited her
hatred, including the man who was now her master. Her violet eyes
narrowed as she saw how puffed up with pride and arrogance he
was.
    “ A pity you did not meet me down there,
Viking. I would have not been as merciful with you.”
    Joran chuckled at her and his lips curved
into an engaging grin. “No, I can see you have much skill with that
little blade, Lady, but I am not Hakon. I would have had you in a
minute.”
    “ Hah! One of these days, we shall see,
Master!”
    Joran frowned at her rash words of challenge.
“You best take care with your threats, Allisande. You are a slave,
whether you choose to acknowledge it.”
    Allisande chuckled and tipped the tankard
back. “We shall see about that too, Viking. You will find I don’t
take authority well.”
    Joran’s eyes darkened. “I have until spring
to make you bend. It would appear I have my work cut out for
me.”
    Allisande bristled, reminded she’d have to
endure his company until then. “You will regret bringing me with
you, Viking! I do not bend!”
    “ You will bend for me before we part
ways, my sweet slave.” Joran’s blue eyes filled with amusement.
“And you will like it too, I think.”
    Allisande blushed at his obvious innuendo,
her violet eyes smoldering with anger. “Whatever you say, Master. I
would sleep with one eye open should you force me to that.”
    “ Force won’t be necessary, Allisande,”
Joran replied with an infuriating smile. “I think I can make the
she-cat purr with