"I'll take her." He'd already hardened at the thought. He pulled coin out and poured it in his hand.

"Good luck." The slave trader laughed. "I'd watch for teeth."

I plan to do more than bite! I looked from one to the other of them like a feral animal.

Mardichi caught my arm. And took the key to my shackles from the slave trader. Paid for me in the purchase price they'd agreed on.

A bit lower than the original.

Then he drug me to his cart. Tempted to toss me over the cart door and take me right there on the edge.

"Enjoy the woman." The slave trader crooned.

"Oh, I plan to." Mardichi countered. Giving me a long look.

I didn't like that look. It seemed to remove all my clothes as it lingered over my body.

"You gonna make it until you get her back to yer hut?" The trader grinned. "Or take her there in the cart midway."

"Hmm...I haven't decided yet."

I yanked at his grip on my arm so brutally, I was sure his fingerprints would leave bruises on the inside of my biceps.

Though his grip didn't hurt it was unrelenting.

Like he was cast of iron.

"I'm tempted. But it'll have to be far from the village so when she fights and shrieks like a little animal it willna draw a crowd." Mardichi grinned. Baring big square teeth.

I eyed his huge frame. So wide shouldered he'd have to squeeze his elbows together to get through a normal doorway. And his chest looked like to shields molded over his shoulders above a washboard abdomen. His hips were lean and his legs well-muscled as though carved from stone.

Every inch of him looked solid as a rock.

I'd only gotten as old as I was in my village, without a man, by my parents being overprotective and my own ability to fight the boys off.

So, I was ready to show this man no fear. Despite that I was inwardly petrified.

How the Hell do I fight off a man this big?

He'd crush me if he laid on me. I was certain. He looked five times my size. Literally.

The only thing he wore was a bit of leather which draped over his man part in the front and flapped over his buttocks in the back. With a strap crossing his bare chest that he hung a dagger scabbard and an axe from. Obviously, a formidable man. The scar told me that.

Hardly clothing.

"You could take her here." One man said. Clearly excited to watch him intrude into me.

"Nay, Friend. I'd rather enjoy her in private."

It was the first thing he'd said all day I was happy to hear.

But even as he was loading me into the cart, I felt the need to announce acidly for everyone's benefit. "You won't be having me. Neither in public or private!"

He laughed. "Tell yerself what ye wish, Gel."

***

The girls of my village knew better then to be out. But I'd always been stubborn. I cursed my foolishness all the way to the slaver market.

I should've stayed with my sisters.

If I'd waited to go with them, would I have escaped captivity entirely or condemned my sisters to join me? I grimaced at the thought.

That would've been even worse.

But I'd never been so afraid as when I saw the size of the barbarian inspecting us.

I was aggravated to find that apparently my fight intrigued him. All I could think was that I'd make sure he regretted it.

Be more trouble than I was worth.

"You won't want me in a sennight!" I vowed.

"I may be done with you by then." He laughed. Hooking the chain from my shackles to his waist and tossing me in the back of the cart.

The ride there was rough and jouncing.

And I ached a little inside from him stretching me with his finger. Something I was unaccustomed to.