Dreams of a Dark Warrior Read Online Free Page A

him.
    “You’l understand when you go through the change.”
    “You mean when I become immortal?” When she would change from a growing, vulnerable girl to a nigh
    invincible woman. Her sisters spoke of this time in whispers, but Regin didn’t know why. Mayhap this male
    would tel her.
    “Those months wil be sweet.” He lay on his back, his hands behind his head. In a knowing tone, he
    said, “You’l definitely want me around then.”
    “Why? What happens?”
    “You’l become a woman. And you’l need me as much as I wil surely be needing you.”
    “Would you try to kiss me?” she asked slyly.
    “Depend on it.”
    “And?”
    “And now you should go to sleep. We’ve a long journey ahead of us.”
    “Warlord, tel me!” She crossed her arms over her chest and lightning struck outside.
    He chuckled .
    “Why should I choose you to kiss, then?”
    He turned on his side again, his gaze holding hers. “Why not me?”
    “Al you do is war.”
    “True, and I’m damned skil ed at my trade. Which means I’l always be able to protect you. And by the
    time you’re grown, I’l have accumulated enough loot to spoil you.”
    “You’re not noble or refined.”
    He nodded easily. “I possess no refinement. But that also means I’ve no guile—you wil always know
    what I’m thinking.”
    “And you believe you are entitled to a Valkyrie for your bride?”
    “I am the most powerful berserker ever to live,” he said, not with conceit but as if he merely stated an indisputable fact. “So if not me, then who?”
    She shrugged. “I remain unconvinced of your charms, Aidan.” Also an indisputable fact.
    “There is another reason. …”
    “Tel me.”
    His voice gone gruff, he added, “You should choose me because … I wil love you, Reginleit.”
    Her heart seemed to skip a beat. “How can you say that? You cannot know the future!”
    “I know because, at twelve years of age, you’ve won me with your wit and bravery. Your staunch loyalty,
    too.” He leaned back once more, grinning up at the roof of the longhouse. “When you have your wiles
    about you, I’l be no match. I concede defeat wel in advance.”
    “When I’m grown, others wil vie for my hand.”
    “Undoubtedly. But you belong only to me.”
    Lightning struck again from her frustration. He truly believed he had the right to take away her freedom,
    to keep her as his untouched prize while he continued his debauched lifestyle. Perhaps that was the way
    of things with mortals. But such is not good enough for the likes of me.
    “Berserker, hear my words,” she said. “I vow to you that I wil stay as true to you as you do to me.” That would shut his mouth. He couldn’t go a week without a Birgit. “Every wench upon your lap means I sit upon
    a warrior’s. Every woman’s mouth you kiss is a man’s lips upon my own.”
    His fierce gaze met hers, his eyes ablaze once more—as if the mere thought of her with another sent
    his ire spiraling. Seeming to struggle for control, he grated, “Then I give you my oath that I’l not touch another. Now are you satisfied, little wife? Any more demands?”
    “I have to go with you to find Lucia.”
    “In this I wil not bend, Reginleit. You are vulnerable. You can be harmed. And that I could not abide.”
    Before he doused the candles, he leaned over to press a quick kiss against her hair, then chucked her
    under the chin. “Brightling, the time til you’re grown wil pass slowly for me. Every night, I wil dream of the woman you’l become.”
    He returned to his pal et, and in the dark she saw his eyes closed and his lips curled, as if with
    anticipation.
    She inwardly sighed. You will never see me grown, warlord. But from time to time, I might think of the stubborn mortal who was kind to me.
    -ii-
    Nine years later
    “What are you doing, sister?” Lucia the Archer demanded as she barged into Regin’s room.
    Though Regin had hoped to slip away this night from the manor house she shared with Lucia,