Ares turns and disappears through the door. I sag against my restraints and sob.
***
I’m dehydrated and famished when he enters the room again. His clothes are different from the previous two times he’s visited. Did I lose hours or days? Or is he just toying with me? My head hangs low, but he grasps my chin and jerks it up to meet his eyes. “Who owns you?”
I’m tired of fighting. My body is broken. My mind is broken. All common sense has leached through the cracks and left only a weak, agreeable girl in its wake.
“You,” I whisper, the word falling from my traitorous mouth before I even know what I’ve said.
“Good girl.” He smooths the sweaty strands of hair back from my face.
“Who gets to touch you?”
“You.”
“That’s right.” Ares’ smile is devastating. Monsters should never be this pretty. It isn’t fair. “Are you going to behave, little one?”
I swallow thickly. “Yes, Sir.”
I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.
“You’ve done well, Pet.” He reaches up and unfastens my restraints with one hand. The other is firmly wrapped around my waist, catching me so I won’t fall. And thank god, because I can’t keep my body upright any longer. As the blood flows back in, the pain in my limbs is so great that I collapse against him, my body shaking with silent sobs, my tears having long run dry.
I think I hear him chuckle as he rubs my arms, one after the other, assisting the blood to flow through again in agonizing bursts. I breathe in his clean, spicy scent and curl into his chest as if he wasn’t the man who just tortured me until I broke.
Ares sweeps me up in a honeymoon hold, and I can’t keep my eyes open. I hear the beep of the door. I don’t want to be here in this room anymore. I don’t want to be alone in this cell, in the dark, the cold. I want out. I’ll do whatever he wants, but I want out.
I attempt to say this before he leaves, but then I realize that nothing in my cell is this warm, and this comfortable. Am I dead? He shushes me, pressing a kiss to my hair, and I realize that he hasn’t let me go at all. He’s carrying me out of that horrible room, and I hope I never have to go back.
I sleep, I must, though I never would have thought it possible to fall asleep as a man carried you upstairs, but when I wake again he’s lowering us both into warm water. The bath. Just like my first day. Only this time my captor is in here with me, naked, erect, and strangely comforting.
I lie back against his chest as the warm water laps at my breasts. He cleans me with a sweet-smelling soap and a soft cloth, and I close my eyes because I’m so tired I can do nothing else.
He’s washing between my legs when I open my eyes again. It feels nice after all the teasing and the horrible blows from his belt. A moan escapes me.
“Who owns you, Pet?”
“You, Sir,” I mumble, unsure if I’m actually speaking aloud, or just inside my head.
“Good girl.” He presses a kiss to my hair again as he continues to stroke me down below. The water splashes against the tub with his movements. His hands work me faster, and when I come, I break apart. Like a china doll thrown on the concrete. I shatter, and it’s both cruel and glorious.
Ares wraps his arms around me, and whispers, “Good girl.”
I preen. I’m warm and safe, and free from pain—at least for a little while.
Eventually, he pulls me from the tub and dries my body. He rubs me down with the gardenia oil again, and I become putty in his hands. Malleable. I’m a good girl, one who is willing to do whatever he asks of me.
CHAPTER TEN
Pet
I wake and roll over, staring at the clear glass walls of my cell. “No! No! No! No!”
I sit bolt upright. Not this cell. Not this room. I stare at the mattress beneath me, at the thick thermal blanket over my body, and at the pillow. All of which are new. All of which are unwanted.
“Didn’t I do everything you asked? Didn’t I give you enough?” I shout to the empty room.
Outside my cell, he walks to the door. The keypad beeps, the lock opens, and he enters.
I toss the pillow at him. “Why? Why did you put me back in here?”
“This is where you belong, Pet.”
“I don’t belong in a cage.”
“You’re behaving like a brat,” he says through clenched teeth. “Is that the thanks I get for providing you with a bed and blankets?”
“Take them back! I don’t want them. I want out of this room.”
“You want out of this room?” Ares grabs my face with one rough hand. He leans in, his warm breath skating across my ear as his stubble grazes my cheek. “Then you have to earn it. And trust me, your bratty antics aren’t doing that.”
He releases me and walks away, pressing his hand into the keypad to unlock the door. Without another word, he leaves.
I launch off the bed and throw myself at the glass wall. He doesn’t look at me, and I know I’ll pay for my behavior later. I’ll pay this tithe in pain and bruises, in welts on my body, and in pleasure that he steals from me. For now, I circle my room like a caged animal, because that is what I am.
Caged.
I scream, bang my fists on the glass, rip my blanket from the bed and throw it at the wall. He’s almost at the staircase. I know he hears me. I know he’s keeping a tally in his head of all the things I will be punished for. Well, fuck him. I can’t do this anymore.
He’s thought of everything. All the ways I could harm him—or myself. He’s removed them all.
All except one.
I walk toward the reinforced steel door, take a deep breath, and smash my head against it. Pain, white-hot and searing, reverberates through my skull, so hard that my eyes roll in their sockets. Blood trickles down my forehead. I’m woozy, nauseous. Bile rises in my gut as if it were acid. I rear back and slam my head into the metal, harder this time.
“Fuck!” Ares shouts. I can’t see him, but I know I have his undivided attention now. I stumble back against the wall as the familiar beep sounds, and he enters the room. “Fuck, Pet! What did you do?”
I shove my hand out in front of me to swat him away, but instead, I find myself caught up in his arms as I sink into the darkness that calls to me with its siren song. “Fuck you and your freedom.”
Everything goes black.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Pet
I’m dizzy, sick, and I don’t feel right. My head doesn’t feel right. I don’t attempt to open my eyes, because my world is spinning enough as it is with them closed, and I don’t want to vomit.
As I lie here, I become more aware of my surroundings. Outside my room there’s a conversation taking place.
“She’s more trouble than she’s worth.” The voice has Ares’ same musical husky tone, but it’s different. Angrier—if you could believe that—and though he speaks with a similar cadence, it lacks the restrained poetry of my captor. His brother then.
“Yes, well, for now she’s the only choice we have. Unless you want to make that call and spend the rest of your life running. If you have another plan, I’m all ears, but she needs a fucking hospital, Hermes.”
Hermes? That’s his evil twin’s name? And what does mean by running? What do either of these men have to run from? What do monsters run from? Bigger monsters? I have a hard time believing Ares and his brother would be afraid of anything.
“Oh, what a great idea, because that wouldn’t raise suspicion at all. She’s all over the news.”
Oh my god. I knew someone would be looking for me. I knew it. I might not know who, but they’re looking. If I can just stay alive long enough for them to find me, or if I try to escape again . . .
My door opens with its usual mocking electronic beep. Such a strangely happy sound that sends dread coursing through my body. I feign sleep, but my heart is beating so rapidly I don’t know how they can’t hear it from across the tiny cell.
“The bitch isn’t even asleep.” This doesn�
�t come from Ares, but Hermes, the man in the suit.
The hard slap of his leather shoes eats up the floor between us. My eyes flash open as he lunges for me. I scream and scamper back across the mattress, huddling against the glass wall like a wild animal as I stare at the twin brothers.
“It’s okay, Pet.” Ares’ hands are low, held in a warding gesture.
“Pet?” The man in the suit scoffs. “As if you could tame her. We should kill her, and find another.”
“No! Please, please don’t kill me.”
“You didn’t seem too upset with the idea of dying when you beat your head against the door a few hours ago.” He steps closer, penning me in. I scamper down the bed and launch myself at Ares, kneeling at his feet and wrapping my arms around his leg the way a frightened child might with a parent. I bow my head in submission, clinging to him, crying hysterically. “Please don’t let him kill me. Please. I’ll be good. Please don’t hurt me.”
His large hand pats my hair, and he tilts my tear-streaked face up to meet him. Those dark brown eyes are filled with amusement, and perhaps even a little compassion. “What are we going to do with you, Pet?”
“I have an idea,” Hermes says. A chill creeps along my spine, which is exposed to him. I refuse to turn away from Ares, though. I need him to believe it. I need to behave, to play his little game until help comes, or I can kill them both and escape.
“Please don’t kill me. I’ll do whatever you want. Anything.”
Ares arches a brow. “Anything?”
I dart my gaze to the floor and flame scarlet, remembering how he shoved his fingers inside my ass yesterday, or has it been longer than that? I don’t know. I’m always in this room, deep underground, and when I’m not, I’m in the windowless bathroom. It could be four a.m. right now, or it could be four in the afternoon. I have no way of knowing.
“Control your sub, Brother, or I’ll do it for you.”
I whimper and press my face against the fabric of his dark jeans. I’m probably smearing snot and tears all over the expensive denim. I’ll likely pay for that later too, but I find a small kernel of comfort in his quiet shushing and his hands that stroke my hair protectively. With a sneer, his brother leaves the room, and I glance up at my captor. “Please don’t let him hurt me, please.”
Ares runs his thumb over my cracked lips. I feel the split open up, and wince at his eagerness to cause me even the smallest amount of pain. Blood, sharp and metallic, rolls over my tongue. “Please what?”
“Sir, please, Sir,” I hurry to correct myself because I don’t think I can take another beating right now.
“Good girl.” He lifts his blood-stained thumb to his mouth and sucks it clean. “And the only one who gets to hurt you is who?”
“You, Sir.” Sobs, uncontrollable and so thick I can barely breathe, rack my body. “Only you.”
“That’s right.” His eyes are deeper than sin as he smiles down at me. He’s pleased, as if I passed some impossible test. “Come. Let’s get you back to bed.”
I nod because though I know I’ll never sleep right now, the alternative, the uncertainty of what he’ll do next, is harrowing. I wonder if he’ll try to touch me, try to fuck me now that I’ve told him I’ll be a good girl and do anything he says. A shudder runs through me.
“Don’t worry, Pet. You need to rest and to heal before we do anything else.” He pulls me to my feet and helps me to the bed. I lie down at his insistence, letting him fluff my pillow and tuck the blanket over me. The mattress dips with his weight, and fear seizes my chest, but he strokes the hair back from my face and whispers, “Such a beauty. You’re going to make an incredible submissive, little one.”
I frown and fight back tears that spill over my cheeks anyway. How can anyone be capable of such tenderness, and yet be so malicious in the same breath? Ares has the face of a god but the heart of a monster. There is true ugliness in him—darkness, bitter and rotten. But there is compassion too, I realize, as he strokes my face, carefully avoiding the bandage on my forehead. He must have taken care of me. I saw his expression earlier when he realized what I’d done. He sprinted toward my cage. He was afraid. There was fear in him after all. Fear for me. I’ve seen it. And I plan to exploit it.
Despite the adrenaline and anger surging through me, my eyelids grow heavy. A ghost of a smile teases my lips, and I hear his voice, low and soothing in my ear. “Sleep, Pet. You’re safe with me.”
***
When I wake again, my head is still pounding, but the fogginess had abated enough for me to know I’m being watched. Which is ridiculous, because I’m always being watched.
I sit and pull the blanket to my neck to cover my body, which is also ridiculous because my captor has seen me completely naked. He’s touched me, had his fingers inside me, and is familiar with all of my most intimate places.
“How long have I been asleep?”
He grins. “Long enough.”
Bastard. He’s determined to keep me confused at every turn. “It’s time for your bath, Pet.”
My experience with the bathroom so far hasn’t always been unpleasant. The first time was terrifying, and after I’d tried to escape I’d paid for it in pain, in hours of agony hung from the ceiling, unable to relax at all. But the memory of the warm water soothing my tired body, and the orgasm that followed, comes flooding back, and I’m suddenly longing for the tub.
“Now, are you going to obey, or do I need to use these again?” He holds up a leather cuff. My leather cuff. The one I was wearing yesterday. The one I used to get myself off with. The one I didn’t even realize was missing from my wrists. I’d climbed out of the bed, I’d bolted across the room and thrown my arms around Ares and begged him to protect me, and I hadn’t even realized I’d been free, or at least a part of me had been free. I hadn’t noticed at all.
He runs it along the underside of his nose. “It smells like you.” His tongue darts out and licks the thick black leather. “Tastes like you too.”
I gulp. I don’t know what choice to make. On one hand, having my arms free would be a much smarter option. If I got the chance to escape, it would be easier to fight them both with my hands free. Then again, with my hands bound I couldn’t stop him from touching me. Maybe that sounds crazy, it’s not as if I want him to touch me, but in allowing him to do so, I could gain his trust. Wait until he lets his guard down and then strike.
As if sensing my unease at the question he smiles and climbs to his feet. Ares takes my hands, crossing my wrists one over the other, and fastens the buckles tightly. Not so tight it cuts off the circulation, but tight enough to feel the pressure there and mourn the loss of my freedom. I should have said no cuffs. Why did I hesitate?
“Come, Pet. I don’t mind making your choices for you.” He walks toward the door, but then turns when he realizes I’m not following.
“Ares?”
He frowns, anger sparking in his eyes.
“Sir,” I finish quickly, darting my gaze to the ground. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“Do as you’re told, and I won’t need to . . . No more than necessary.”
“Necessary?” I ask. Why does he have to hurt me at all?
“There are things I must teach you, and not all of it is easy. You will be pushed to your limits, and when you think you can’t take anymore, I’ll show you how strong you really are.”
“Why? Why are you doing this? Why do you have to train me at all? Why hurt me at all?”
“Enough questions, Pet. Come.”
I rise from the bed and do what he says. I don’t want the bathroom, I want my freedom, but even with my body on display, exposed and at the mercy of his every sick desire, I prefer it to the dank quiet of my cell.
When I’m standing behind him, he turns, and pulls a rectangle of black fabric from off his wrist. I just thought it’d been a cuff, a fashion accessory. I take a step back. “No. No please, not the blindfold. Anything but the dark.”
“Shh. We must blindfold. If you d
on’t wish to be blindfolded, then you need to earn that right. Prove to me that I can trust you not to try to escape again, not to lash out and hurt your Master.”
“I won’t, I promise. I’ll be good.”
“I know you will, but until you are, until you can prove to me that you’ll be my perfect little slut—”
I flinch at the word and he chuckles.
“—you’ll wear my blindfold, and you’ll say ‘thank you, Master,’ when I tie it around your pretty little head. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Sir.”
He holds the blindfold out again, and I accept my fate and close my eyes. If he needs me to be blindfolded in order to earn his trust, then I’ll do it. He ties the fabric around my head and secures it tightly. His breath, warm and minty, washes over my face and neck. My nipples form two hard peaks. He trails a finger down my collarbone and over one breast, pinching my pebbled flesh. A gasp escapes me. My pussy tightens. He lets go of my nipple and grabs my cuffed hands, leading me through the room. The cheery beep fills my cell as the door springs open, and stale, dank air whooshes in to greet us. Ares leads me into the darkness, and I have no choice but to follow blindly.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Pet
The bathroom is warm. I stand quietly by the door, I think—I can’t see with the blindfold in place, but the sound of the running water and the sweet scent of gardenia oil soothes my frayed nerves. I hear the clinking of a belt, and the rustling of clothing as it thuds to the floor, and then his arms are on me, lifting me into the bath. He climbs into the tub behind me and pulls my back against him.
He’s hard. He’s always hard. I try not to think about it.
Instead, I breathe deeply of the aromatic oils and close my eyes, praying it will go away, begging to gods I abandoned the first day I woke in that cell not to let him ask for more of me than I’m willing to give. I know that’s stupid; he’s already taken everything from me. He’s taken my life. I don’t have anything else to give.
In the Land of Gods and Monsters, Part One Page 5