Beowulf's Claim (Viking Warriors Book 3) Read online

  Beowulf’s Claim

  Jessica Knight

  Copyright © 2019 by Jessica Knight

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Description

  I found out his secret and ran.

  But there’s nothing Beowulf won’t do to have me.

  Especially now that I’m carrying his baby.

  Big, mysterious, and utterly captivating.

  Beowulf is the beautiful Viking warrior from my past.

  A broken man, full of battle scars…

  We’re two people that should’ve never been together.

  Yet, I fell for him.

  The day we shared our first kiss, I was taken from my home.

  Time has passed and after years of searching. He found me.

  I was left in the woods unconscious, on the brink of death.

  He brought me to his cabin and saved me.

  I became a caretaker to an orphan boy that he was raising.

  But when I recovered my memory and discovered his dark secret, I ran.

  What was I thinking?

  A poor girl like me isn’t meant to have a happily ever after...

  Especially with a man so dangerous and wild.

  I don’t care that he’d search the world for me.

  I’d never be Beowulf’s Claim.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Jessica Knight

  Prologue

  Beowulf

  Twelve years ago

  All I can think about is Lilith. Her sun kissed skin and her honey-colored eyes. If only Grant would let me rejoice in her beauty, in silence, but my brother can’t seem to stop talking.

  “Come on, Wulf. Come out with us tonight. We have no training tomorrow due to the Lord having his feast. Let’s go to the next village over. There’ll be mead.”

  “Nay, I can’t. I am visiting with Lilith tonight,” I shake my head, schooling my features from bursting into a smile. If I let my friends see how excited and happy she makes me; I’ll never hear the end of it. I have to stay strong and seem heartless because that is what warriors are meant to be. We are cold killers. We aren’t allowed to find happiness.

  But I have found happiness in Lilith. She’s the light on my dark and doomed path. I want to hold onto her forever. I want her to be my lady. We are young, but many people get married now and start families. I’d love to do that with her. I dream about it every night. She’s always on my mind.

  “You’re always with her. Is something going on?” Grant prods, lifting a big, bushy brow as we walk back to the castle. The sun is high in the sky, not a cloud for miles, and I know Lilith is waiting for me in the overgrown meadow on the edge of the cliff, bathing in the sun. I’m missing her beauty because Grant can’t seem to shut the fuck up.

  I want to confide in someone, but I can’t. Lilith is beneath me. Grant shouldn’t even know she and I are friends, but I let it slip one day. He doesn’t care, and I know I can trust him, but a warrior of the kingdom being friends with a girl who is meant to polish my armor one day? It’s unheard of. Forbidden, even.

  I care for none of that. I want Lilith as my own. I’ve thought about running away together. Far away from the rules and royalty and just live. But that isn’t how life works. We have obligations and responsibilities, but damn it, I want to run away with her.

  The worst part of it all? She doesn’t know how I feel about her. I dreamt all this up on my own. I’m too afraid to let her know. I don’t want to ruin our friendship if she doesn’t feel the same, and I can’t live without her. She keeps me grounded and sane. Seeing Lilith is what I look forward to every day. I can’t risk all of that because of what my heart wants.

  “Nay, nothing is going on. She’s my best friend, besides you, Grant. I’ve known her since we were wee ones. Not seeing her would just be odd.”

  Once we come up to the castle, I take a hard left, away from the entrance and toward the meadow.

  “Alright, I’ll see you on the morrow, brother, aye?” Grant asks me.

  “Aye.”

  I give him my back and stomp through the grass as it gets taller. My heart pounds in my chest at the thought of seeing her. Lilith is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her long blonde hair and pink, supple lips make me go mad at night when I’m alone in my bed. I want to hold her, feel her skin against mine, hear her voice whisper my name intimately. My goddess, I wager there isn’t a better sound.

  The closer I get to our spot, the smile that I hid around my brother comes out. I get jittery with excitement. I can hardly contain it. I want to shout it to the world how she makes me feel, but it would ruin my life – and hers. We sneak around behind everyone’s backs, just for a moment of each other’s company.

  I break through the treelines, marching onto the path she and I created on the ground from always hiking through the same spot. The trees are tall, but the leaves are starting to turn, signaling a change in the season. Lilith loves it when it gets cold. The leaves become beautiful shades of yellows and reds. She can stay in the woods for hours, just staring at the foliage. She says it makes her calm, and who am I to stop her if it is something she loves to do?

  My boots crunch against the small twigs on the ground. The sun breaks through the treeline up ahead. I’m getting close. More light starts to illuminate the natural darkness of the forest with every step I take. Butterflies flap around in my stomach. I take a deep breath. I need to relax. Lilith is the only one who can subside the warrior in me. I’m not sure what kind of man she makes me, but I know I’m softer with her. Kinder and gentler.

  I’d fight a thousand men every day for this woman, just to gain a smile from her lips.

  After what seems like an eternity, the swaying flowers of the meadow brush against my thigh. Up ahead, near the edge of the cliff, Lilith waits for me. I’d know those shiny blonde strands from anywhere. She must hear me stomping through the field because she turns her head, holds her hand over her eyes to block the sun, and when she sees me, she grins, showing dimples on either side of her cheeks.

  A woman, a good woman like her, is actually happy to see me. And that makes me feel like I’m on top of the world.

  She stands and starts running toward me, her long hair blowing in the wind, her dress flowing behind her as she frolics. I hold my arms out, ready to embrace her, laughing heartily as she runs to me. My arms wrap around her, finally at home. Right where they should always be.

  I hold her a bit longer than usual, inhaling the warmth pouring
off her skin. She smells of the sun. My favorite.

  “Beowulf, are you okay?” she asks, pulling away from me. Her long lashes fan over her cheeks with every blink as she stares at me with worry. She’s so small, but she isn’t weak. She is strong and smart and the kindest woman I’ve ever known

  I should be the one asking her that. Three weeks ago, we buried her father. Three weeks ago, I changed from a boy to a man, and it is a secret I will take to my grave.

  Because what I’m hiding will make Lilith hate me. And I’m too selfish to risk ever losing her.

  “I’m fine, Lilith. It’s been a long day, and it’s good to see you. You look good.” Fucking beautiful, actually. “The sun is treating you right.” I smile, plopping down in the grass and staring over the cliff where the ocean goes on for miles. I can smell the salt in the air, carried by the breeze, and the birds sing as they fly over us. This is why it is our favorite spot. “How are you doing?” I nudge her knee with mine.

  Her sigh breaks my heart. It’s my fault she feels like this. Guilt eats away at me. I’m so close to telling her the secret weighing down my heart, but I can’t.

  “I’m getting better. My father wasn’t always the kindest man, you know, but he was still my father. Mother is a wreck. I don’t know how she will get through this.” She tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear, showing silver jewellery lining the outer rim.

  “You always have me,” I offer in the softest voice I can muster.

  “If anything happens to you, I’ll kill you myself, Beowulf.” She rests her head on my stomach. I hold back a hiss of pain. The slice across my stomach is still healing. A wound she has no idea about. A wound I will never discuss with her, ever.

  “Always insistent of calling me by my full name,” I run my hand through her silky hair, loving how it glides through my hands so easily. “Call me Wulf, like everyone else.”

  “We’ve had this conversation a hundred times. I am not everyone else. Your name is Beowulf, and that is what I will call you.” She lifts her head from my lap and gives me a hard, calculating stare. “Is that clear?”

  “No, I’ll still try and convince you to call me Wulf. I can’t stand my full name.”

  “Always so annoying, Beowulf.” She rolls her eyes and lies her head back down on my hard stomach.

  “You love it,” I whisper, running my hand down her arm until my hand is covering hers. I hesitate for a moment. Should I try to intertwine our fingers? Would she accept it? I’m not a man afraid of much, but I’m afraid of this.

  I swallow my fear, telling myself if I can run into battle, I can hold the hand of the woman I care for. Taking a deep breath, I hold it and take the plunge, locking our hands together. When she doesn’t pull her hand away, the beat in my chest pounds so hard I can barely hear myself think. Seconds go by, and she still holds my hand tight.

  Nothing has ever felt so fucking good. It feels right and natural. I feel complete. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her I love her. That I always have and will. I want to tell her all the dreams I have for us, but one mountain at a time. I consider her holding my hand an accomplishment. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will tell her that we are meant to be together. She must know. She must feel what I feel.

  Something this powerful and strong, it can’t be one-sided. It just can’t.

  “You always make me feel so safe,” she says, her head turned to the other direction as if she is speaking to the sun.

  I hear her words for me though, and tighten my hand in hers, leaning my tall frame forward and kiss the top of her head. “I shall always keep you safe, Lilith. I do not care if it kills me. You’re always safe with me.”

  She turns around, straddling my waist, and I gulp heavily. I’ve never had a woman in my lap before. Lilith wraps her arms around my neck, and my hands land on her slender hips. She’s fragile and delicate. I had no idea I was capable of a gentle touch until I got to touch her. She showed me the kind of man I truly am. The man I want to be for her.

  “You truly mean that, don’t you?” She tilts her head to the side, never taking her eyes from mine. Her hair tickles my arm when the breeze causes it to dance in the wind.

  I gather the wayward locks in my grasp, so they don’t get tangled, and nod. “Aye, of course I mean it. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you, Lilith. I think… I think I’d go mad. You are like an angel to me.”

  Her forehead falls to mine, and her sigh brushes across my lips. The chance to kiss her is here. It’s right here.

  “Angel,” she giggles softly. “I like that. I feel the same, Beowulf.”

  She tilts her head back up, and we inch forward, our lips closer than ever before. My heart stops beating. The world fades away, and it’s just her and me. Her body on mine, my hand brushing her cheek, and our noses brushing together. Goddess, this is what I have been waiting for.

  “Lilith!” a woman screams from the other side of the forest. It sounds like her mother. The sudden intrusion snaps us both out of it. We groan in frustration.

  I flop to my back, and she stays upright, on top of me. She looks good up there, something I’ve also dreamed about multiple… no, a hundred times. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Beowulf.” Lilith swings her leg over and stands.

  I follow suit and grab her wrist before she gets too far from me. “Let me walk you home, so I know you are safe,” I say, rubbing my thumb on the soft skin under her palm.

  “You worry too much. I’ll be fine. Like I am every time. No one can see us, remember?”

  “Fuck them,” I growl. “Who cares? I don’t. I want to know you are safe.”

  “Beowulf,” she repeats my name with exhaustion. We have had this conversation a hundred times. “You know we can’t. Not yet. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She slides her knuckles down my cheek, and my eyes close, embracing her touch. I place my hand on hers, not wanting her to go. And suddenly, she places her lips against mine. It’s quick. Almost too quick to even know it happened.

  But it did.

  “Tomorrow,” she whispers.

  “Always, Angel,” I say, watching the love of my life walk away from me, taking a piece of me with her.

  Chapter One

  Beowulf

  Present day

  “I should have followed you home,” I whisper to her still body lying in a bed that swallows her small frame. “I should have told you that there was no arguing. That I was going to get you home safe, but like always, the love I had for you made me weak in the knees. And I let you go.” I hold her hands tight, but not too tight; I do not want to hurt her more than she has been already.

  She’s so thin. Her cheeks are sunken in, showing how high her cheekbones are. Dark circles frame her eyes. She has cuts, bruises, and dried blood in her beautiful blonde hair. All these years, she has been with the Jackals being tortured. Goddess, the images running through my head of what they may have done to her make me so fucking angry. I should have looked harder and longer. I shouldn’t have given up.

  How will she ever forgive me knowing I gave up after five years? She stayed with those monsters for seven more years. “What did they do to you, Angel?”

  I run my hand over her head, hoping my touch is enough to open her honey-colored eyes.

  “Wulf,” my Warlord Einarr’s voice brings my warrior to the surface. I shake my head and get myself together.

  Placing her hand down on the bed as gently as I can, I lean over and place a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be right back. I won’t leave you again. Aye? I promise.” I don’t bother whispering. I no longer care who knows how I feel about her. If they have a problem with it, they can take it up with me, and being six and a half feet tall, no one challenges me.

  I tuck the thick wool blanket to her chin to make sure she is warm, and turn around, giving my Warlord my full attention. “Aye, Warlord?”

  Einarr peers around my shoulder to get a look at Lilith. I shuffle my stance to block his view. He lifts a brow at me, a silent question p
assing, but I keep my mouth shut.

  “So it is true. You know this girl?”

  “Woman,” I correct him. “Aye. We were childhood friends.”

  “Is that all?” he asks. “I need to know if she will be a problem for you to perform your duties. We are preparing for war, Wulf.”

  “I know that Warlord, but with all due respect, I have not seen her in twelve years. I searched for her for five of them. I thought she was dead. She is my priority. Everything else is secondary. And if that’s a problem, I don’t really fucking care.”

  I shrug my shoulder and run my hand over the beginnings of a my beard as he watches me. Many emotions pass through his eyes, anger being one of them. Einarr is a fair leader, but he hates disrespect. I don’t mean to disrespect him, but I will not tolerate anyone speaking about Lilith that way. Not even my Warlord.

  “You won’t speak to me like that again, or I’ll make sure you won’t see her for months, understood?”

  “I’d just break out from wherever you put me, Warlord. Nothing shall stop me from protecting her. As if you wouldn’t do the same for your Lady.”

  His eyes soften immediately when he thinks of Lady Thyra, the woman by his side. “You’re my best warrior, Wulf. I need you.”

  He spins on his heel, his long fur on his back swishing as he goes. “Don’t ever use Thyra against me again. It won’t end well for you.” Einarr doesn’t give me a chance to respond. He disappears through the doors, Trident at his side.