Raider’s Treasure (Alpha Barbarians Book 1) Page 3

  Large arms caged her in between his chest and the horse’s neck, leaving her nowhere to go, and no chance of slipping away unnoticed while they traveled. Biting back a growl, Lyric resolved to wait until the opportunity presented itself. He wouldn’t be able to watch her forever.

  Guilt ate at her, though. She was planning to run off while he kept others of her clan in a cage, destined for the same fate she was trying to escape. She could attempt to free them if she got the chance, but a group would be much easier to hunt down than a single person, and Lyric had doubts about her own ability to get away and fend for herself. A group of unmated omegas lost together with no real survival skills was a recipe for disaster, and a prize no alpha would pass up. They would have no chance.

  Sighing, she focused on what was going on around her. Distracted while she was thinking about the others, Lyric had missed the alpha giving the order to get moving. They still stood in the same spot as he watched his people riding by, calling out occasionally to the ones passing.

  Once the last of the wagons rolled away from where they had camped around the house she had been kept in overnight, her alpha clicked to the horse between her thighs and nudged him forward. Coming up behind the last of the men, a shrill whistle sounded behind her head.

  Jumping and clamping her hands over her ears which caused pain to lance through her shoulder, Lyric shot an angry look behind her. About to ask him why he had done that so close to her head, she saw something large and dark come running at them from the right. Gasping, she didn’t have time to warn the alpha before she noticed more dark shapes closing in from each direction. They were almost as tall as the horses, their head coming up to the horse’s shoulder, able to rip out it’s throat or lunge up and reach the rider. Clenching her hands on the alpha’s arms, Lyric whimpered and tried to make herself smaller, waiting for the animals to attack.

  Holding her breath with her eyes scrunched closed, she waited.

  The chuckle she felt rumbling against her back brought Lyric out of her terror, and she cracked an eye open to see one beast trotting along next to the horse, a mere couple of feet from her leg. Flinching away, she noticed another on the opposite side. As she watched, two more passed them on the left, running towards the front of the line of travelers. Seeing that no one else seemed to react to their presence, she turned a questioning gaze up to her captor.

  “They are ‘Nicaavet’. We breed them in the north to help with hunting and protection. They tend to bond with one person and are loyal to death. They are the reason your plan to escape will never work,” he said with a grin, whispering the last part in her ear. “Once they lock on a scent, they never lose the hunt.”

  Eyes narrowing, Lyric straightened her back and pulled away from him as much as she could while pinned between his legs.

  “Did you really expect anything less when you announced you were going to claim me? Am I just supposed to bow my head and say, ‘Yes, Sir’?”

  Grin spreading wider he said, “Well that would have been nice. Most omegas would have responded that way.”

  Wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her back against him again, she could feel his erection dig into her back as he whispered, “I look forward to punishing you when you fail to escape.”

  Struggling in his hold, he relaxed his arm a little to allow her to lean forward.

  “I am not most omegas. Why don’t you choose one of them instead?” she hissed.

  “For precisely that reason. My mate has to be strong and unique.”

  7. Lyric

  Watching the Nicaavet that stayed closest to them, Lyric tried to figure out what type of animal it was. The body and tail reminded her of a cougar with brindle striping, but the muzzle and ears, as well as the paws and fur, seemed more typical of a canine. Whatever they were, they were large, with large teeth, long legs, and were obviously carnivorous.

  Shivering as she watched two of them play tug-of-war with a rabbit startled from their path, she turned away. The air had picked up as they traveled, and while she hated to admit it, Lyric was grateful for the warmth of the horse between her legs and the alpha at her back.

  “Are you cold?” his voice rumbled from behind her.

  “No, I’m fine,” she responded, trying to maintain her anger at him.

  He gave a grunt of acknowledgment but seemed to adjust himself to block more of the wind from her. Refusing to let herself snuggle back into his chest, she continued to sit stiffly in front of him.

  Realizing she had never asked him with everything else going on, Lyric turned her head to look back at the man.

  “What’s your name anyway?”

  Dropping his eyes to hers for a moment, he remained silent and went back to scanning their surroundings.

  “What am I supposed to call you? If you plan to keep me and force me to be your mate, you can at least give me your name,” she said scowling at him.

  The corner of his mouth tipped up in a smirk as he looked back down at her.

  “You could call me Mate, or My Alpha.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Lyric turned back to face the direction they were heading.

  “I suppose Raider would do for now if you cannot bring yourself to say the others yet,” he said to her back.

  Ignoring him, she could see a break in the trees coming up ahead, and she was curious to see if there was anything to show where they were in location to her village. She knew he said his men came from the north, but they had appeared to be traveling east. While she had never left her village before, she knew that the east side of her father’s territory ended at a river.

  Leaning forward, she strained her ears and thought she caught the sounds of rushing water. Raider put a hand on her hip as they passed the last of the trees and came out on the edge of the river she had been told of. It wasn’t very wide, but it was fast flowing and choppy in this area.

  Worrying about another introduction to the cold water, Lyric looked up and down the banks until she spotted a low bridge farther upstream that the wagons were heading to. Sighing in relief, she felt Raider pat her thigh before directing his horse to trot along the side of everyone to the head of the line with the Nicaavet still at his heel.

  Stopping to talk with the same alpha that had held his horse, she realized she really hated that she couldn’t understand what was being said around her, and decided she would have to learn their language as soon as possible. Trying to follow their conversation and gestures, the two alphas went too fast for her to pick up anything. Letting out a frustrated breath, Lyric turned her head to watch the river.

  It wasn’t long before the two finished the conversation they were having, and the other alpha moved away to lead the warriors over the bridge. Raider once again stood sentinel so that none were left behind. Attention drawn away from the water, she tried to pay more attention to how many alphas there were now that they were out in the open and she could keep count.

  The three wagons had two people each on them, one man and one woman, but the rest were all mounted on horses. There was a bit of milling around, so she was sure her count wasn’t accurate, but there were at least fifty warriors. For a village that had over two-hundred people, it seemed like such a small amount to have caused the destruction they had wrought. Her last glimpse of the village had showed parts of it on fire, and she was sure the screams would haunt her.

  Peering inside the cage as it rolled by, Lyric wondered how many of her people were in there and how many had escaped. It wasn’t a very large cage. Raider said he had destroyed the village, but did that include the people along with it? Every alpha she had seen on her way out of the village had been slain. What was going to happen to the survivors with winter coming and the village gone?

  Lyric was shaken from her thoughts when their horse began to move again. Passing over the bridge with the hollow thunk of the horse’s hooves on the wood, it hit her that she was no longer home anymore. She wasn’t even in the territory her father had claimed before his throat was brutally slit b
y these raiders.

  Tears welling in her eyes, she wondered if she would ever feel at home again. She’d known since she presented as an omega that she could never choose her own mate, and there had even been talk of sending her to some alpha from a different clan to cement an alliance at one point, but Lyric had always expected her home to be there. To visit it and return to if needed.

  Unable to stop them, the tears began to spill down her cheeks, causing them to chill further in the cold wind whipping around her. By the time they were across the bridge, most of the warriors were done watering their horses, so they continued on while Raider stopped. Glad to be in the back where no one would notice her tears, Lyric did her best to stifle the sobs that wanted to break free.

  As if he knew, Raider began to purr, the vibrations soaking through her back and easing the tightness in her chest. Even though he was the one that had caused this, she needing the comfort, so Lyric leaned back against him and rested her head against his shoulder, turning her face into his neck where the wind wouldn’t freeze the wetness on her cheeks. The purr helped her get control over herself again and she wiped her face as his purr faded away. He made no mention of her moment of weakness and she was grateful for it.

  Unwilling to pull herself away from him, she began to wonder if submitting to Raider was any different than what she had already prepared to do with the alpha in her village. Lyric hadn’t chosen either of them, and didn’t know the other any better than she did the man at her back even though she had seen him her whole life. At least Raider seemed closer to her age and had shown her small kindnesses when he could have been much more brutal. Though he was the one who had shot her, she believed that he only did it as a means to save her and not to injure.

  Raider was not the one who had killed her father, and she understood that as an alpha and the leader of the village, there was no way he would have been spared. It wasn’t in their nature to surrender or be merciful to other alphas.

  Her mother had died from illness when Lyric was young, and she had never been close with her father since he was always busy. She had been raised by whichever mated omega he happened to drop her off with on any particular day, and she hated to realize that she was more upset about what would happen to her people now than she was over her father’s death.

  Sighing and relaxing into Raider’s arms, Lyric breathed in his earthy scent and closed her burning eyes. Too torn and confused about what to feel, she decided to just go with what would keep her alive. She had risked everything when she ran, thinking being taken was the worst possibility, but when she slipped into the river, she realized there were worse outcomes.

  8. Lyric

  Lyric realized that she must have drifted off when the horse stopped moving and jolted her awake. Raider had her cradled against his chest with one arm while the other hand still held the reins.

  “We are stopping for a break,” he said as he released his hold on her body and dismounted.

  Grabbing her waist, he waited for her to swing her leg over before pulling her down, catching her as her legs tried to buckle. Stomping feeling back into them, she straightened up and looked up into his eyes.

  “Do not try anything foolish,” Raider warned.

  Flattening her lips together, Lyric replied, “You do not have to keep reminding me. I have nowhere to go and you will send your pets after me. I have gotten the message.”

  Snorting, he wrapped a large hand around her wrist and pulled her along behind him. When he realized she was stumbling from his fast pace, Raider slowed so that her shorter legs could keep up with him. Letting out another shrill whistle, Lyric watched the Nicaavet take off away from the train at his command.

  The wagons had stopped in a line so they could move on with ease once their break was over, and Raider checked on each one, talking with a majority of the men he passed. Many had tied their horses to the wagons or nearby trees and were walking around while they drank from their canteens or munched on whatever they had.

  Feeling her own stomach rumble, Lyric pressed a hand to it and hoped Raider would feed her again. It had been a long time since breakfast.

  Seeming to read her mind, he pulled her over to a large pine tree that had a bed of thick needles below it cushioning the ground and motioned for her to sit as he pulled the strap of his canteen over his head. Passing it to her, he dug into his pouch and pulled out a handful of dried strips of meat.

  Accepting the water and a piece of the meat, she drank eagerly before biting into the jerky. It was tough and she had to saw at it to get a bite off to chew, but Lyric’s stomach thanked her when she could finally swallow it down. Finishing the strip, she drank more before passing the canteen back to the alpha who continued to stand over her, watching the area.

  “More?” he grunted at her, holding out another piece of meat.

  Trying to shake her head, Raider pushed it at her until she finally accepted it. Watching the men wander around, Lyric noticed there seemed to be two different groups. Though they were all dressed similarly, she could see a few differences in their clothing, and they seemed to stick with others that had the same markings and colors. One group of men was larger than the other, but they all seemed to answer to Raider, so she wasn’t sure what the difference could mean.

  Looking around, she began to squirm as Raider continued to stand over her.

  “Umm…”

  “Yes?” he said, turning those dark eyes down on her.

  “I need to… you know… uh, relieve myself,” she managed, ducking her head and focusing on the ground.

  Grunting, he motioned for her to stand when she looked up again. Taking her wrist once more, Raider pulled her farther into the trees until the noise of the other men faded. Stopping next to a fallen tree, he pointed and then crossed his arms over his chest, watching her.

  “You expect me to go while you watch?” Lyric squeaked out.

  “Well I don’t trust you not to run, so yes,” he answered looking down at her like that should have been obvious and she shouldn’t be objecting.

  Mouth hanging open, she stood there, debating on if he was seriously going to watch her, and if she really needed to go that bad. A shout from the wagons caused Raider to jerk his head in that direction, so she hopped to the other side of the fallen trunk before squatting. He was glaring between her and where the other men were at when she glanced back up towards him.

  Lyric shrugged her shoulders, giving him a wide-eyed look before climbing over the tree again to his side.

  “A girl needs her privacy.”

  Grabbing her wrist, he took off back the way they had come, causing her to have to jog to keep up with him. All of the jostling was causing her shoulder to ache again, whatever he had given her that morning having worn off.

  When they could see the wagons, it was clear to see where the yelling was coming from. Stopping at the last tree before the clearing where everyone was gathered, Raider let go of her wrist.

  “Stay here. If you move beyond the branches of this tree, I will punish you,” he growled, glaring down at her before turning to go deal with whatever was going on in the clearing.

  Lyric could see a group of warriors close to the wagon where the other omegas were being kept, but they were too many of them for her to be able to tell what was going on. Raider waded right into the men as she watched, grabbing them by coats and arms, or whatever he could reach, to haul them out of his way. He disappeared behind the wall of men except for the very top of his head, which she could see stopping next to the wagon. The men had stilled and quieted when they became aware of his presence, and she could hear him arguing with two other males, though she still did not understand what they were saying.

  Raider’s voice rose above the others before silence descended and the men began to head back to their horses. There were a few whispers here and there, but it was clear he had called an end to whatever was going on and ordered everyone to move out again. When he walked towards the back of the train with the two alphas that
had been in the middle of the circle with him, Lyric couldn’t resist the impulse to go check on the other omegas.

  After being sure he was out of sight, she sprinted over to the wagon, wrapping her hands around the wooden slats.

  “Hey, are all of you okay?” Lyric whispered into the cage.

  She could see now that there were five women buried in the pile of furs, and she wondered what had happened to the other omegas from her village. There weren’t many more, and if she remembered right, the others were all mated.

  The dark-haired one in the back corner nodded her head. “They haven’t touched us since they stripped us and put us in here, and we’ve been fed.”

  “What are they going to do with us?” another girl asked. She looked like the youngest of the group, and everyone turned pitying eyes to her.

  “I don’t know,” Lyric whispered in response, avoiding the girl’s watery eyes.

  A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder from behind, yanking her around to face dark, angry eyes.

  “You disobeyed me,” Raider thundered as a shiver of fear went down Lyric’s spine.

  9. Lyric

  Her heart pounded in her chest as Lyric took in his angry expression, and her breath caught in her throat. She had been hoping that she could check on the omegas and get back to the tree without him noticing, but her luck was out.

  “I just…”

  Raider’s roar of anger cut her off and she cowered into herself, slick seeping from her core in an instinctive reaction to appease the angry alpha.

  “I gave you an order and you blatantly disobeyed me,” he growled as he began to pull her away from the wagon.

  Stumbling in his wake, Lyric tried to stammer out an explanation, but he cut her off again.