Once we made it to the landing on the main floor, Thom yanked me towards the front foyer. “Come on,” he grumbled. “And try to keep up. There’s nothing to see here.”
Curiosity got the better of me as we raced for our lives towards the set of double doors leading to the world beyond the castle walls. My eyes darted around with dread as I observed the horror unfolding around us.
There were a handful of guards on the floor. Some were dead already, while others were bleeding and writhing around in pain as they attempted to crawl or scrape their dragging bodies across the floor.
There were slaves who had shifted and were trying to escape in the best way they knew how. Their wings were spread in grandiose spans. I wished I could do the same, but if it happened again Thom would have my head on a stick.
“Just close your eyes,” he barked at me. “I have your hand. Just follow me and you will be safe.”
I had no choice but to believe him, and I was wondering where he came up with the spontaneous idea for me to close my eyes. It seemed like too gentle of a gesture for him to suggest. I wondered if it was a trap and whether he would lure me somewhere that he could inflict more harm and pain on me as soon as I closed my lids.
I was still trying to recover from how he had beaten and forced rough intercourse on me a few days ago, and I didn’t want to be on his bad side. Nor did I want to be set up, so I decided to narrow my eyelids into slits, so I was still able to see where we were going as we jogged along.
Thom’s guards rushed in front of me as we approached the set of double doors leading out of the castle.
“Move out of the way,” they told me in urgent, gruff voices.
I jumped away as they instructed and watched as they burst the doors open. Thom and I breezed through first. The chilly night air slammed into my face. I inhaled sharply before the cold took my breath away.
“Get in this carriage,” Thom ordered.
I glanced behind me, over my shoulder. I didn’t know why, but I felt wary about this.
“What are you doing, foolish girl?” Thom’s voice sounded exasperated. “Get in the fucking carriage now before I leave your ass behind.”
I stumbled into the carriage, wondering why we weren’t taking a car, because it would have been faster. At the same time, I saw other carriages leading away from the castle. Perhaps Thom’s heart wasn’t as black as I had assumed all these years. It appeared as if he was using the carriages as a method of removing his horses from the stables on the castle property in an effort to also lead them to safety.
Then as soon as he spoke again, he snapped me back to reality of how vicious he really was underneath the surface.
“Scoot over so I have room,” he yelled into my ear, shoving me across the seat.
I fell over and quickly regained my balance to slide towards the far edge of the carriage window.
Once we were safely inside, I took a moment to stare in awe at the orange flames as they danced towards the black sky. The entire castle was engulfed in lashing fires. I glanced at Thom. His jaw was set firm and there was a flare of fury blazing in his eyes that was as bright as the flames swelling over his house.
I even noticed a tiny flicker of tears shimmer in his eyes. I took a deep breath. I couldn’t feel sorry for a monster. Whatever happened to his house was his problem. He had made his own bed.
His hostile reputation had finally come back to bite him in the ass. Everyone said karma was a real thing, and I had no doubt about that proclamation as I watched his castle collapsing under the pressure of the fire.
The blaze was already spreading across the lawn. There was not going to be anything salvageable about that castle in any capacity. He would have to rebuild it from the ground up after the ashes were scooped away. That seemed far away into the future, and I hoped that I would be long gone and away from his stone grip by then.
The driver of the carriage took off with a galloping horse in the front, pulling us along and in the direction of the wooded forests off toward the mountains to the north.
I wanted to ask where we were going but at the same time, I didn’t want to receive the back end of Thom’s hand slamming into my cheek.
So I kept my mouth shut and decided that I would probably learn more by just keeping quiet and listening to Thom discuss the events with his guards. Maybe if I got lucky, they would forget that I was there with them at all.
Now was my opportunity to blend in like a wallflower.
“I think the rumors are true now, Master,” one of the guards said with a timid tone.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. He was panting hard and he had a thick neck. I looked at him and then flicked my gaze quickly away so that he wouldn’t notice me eyeing him.
“Are you just coming to that conclusion, you fucking moron?” Thom spat in response.
The guard looked offended as he peered out the window and uncomfortably tried to pretend like the exchange hadn’t occurred.
“The uprising is here.” Another crestfallen-looking guard hung his head in shame. “I wish we could have had time to prepare so that we would have been ready for them when they arrived.”
“You fools are afraid of your own shadows,” Thom said in a mocking tone. “You couldn’t be prepared for an attack of this magnitude if you tried.”
The guards exchanged a glance with one another. They appeared bitter, but they were smarter than they looked because they too kept their mouths shut in order to keep a gap between Thom’s wrath and their lives.
Needless to say, my head was now swimming with the information about the uprisings. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know who was behind the uprising, and what kind of shifters might have banded together to take out the Masters and their guards.
Masters couldn’t shift. They had no magical abilities, which made them extremely jealous of the shifters who could.
That was why they were trying to take over the villages and make the shifters their slaves. They enlisted guards who also didn’t have magical abilities. It was almost as if the world we lived in now consisted of a constant battle between shifters and humans.
As if reading my thoughts, Thom spoke again. “As if the uprising militia thinks that they can really overthrow all the Masters.”
There was animosity in his tone, but I also noticed a tiny hint of fear and doubt as if he was afraid for the future. I had never witnessed that side of Thom before.
It was both unnerving and amazing all at once to see such a powerful man caving under the pressure of the world.
His enemies were literally knocking at his door.
I kept my gaze on the window and continued to stare outside. I didn’t want to engage the men in this carriage in any kind of lasting conversation, but then again, it wasn’t as if I would be invited to do so in the first place.
The burning castle was now a part of my past. Going deep into the woods might be my future. No matter what, I needed to be prepared for the unexpected.
Anything could happen up in those mountains. I had heard rumors of what lived up there in the wilderness and I didn’t want to face any of those dangers.
Thom and his guards might not be ready for the obstacles up ahead, but I had to be prepared for anything. As far as I was concerned, I had already been to hell and back in that castle dungeon.
If I could survive that torture, I could survive anything.
15
Sophia
I was in my tent.
We had set up camp in the wilderness where we had already been trekking through the mountains for one full day.
The elements were harsh. The wind was severely brutal and every time I had to leave my tent, it lashed at my cheeks like a stinging whip.
I was trembling from head to toe, but not from the elements. I saw the shadowed silhouette of Thom’s body directly outside of the enclosed tent that could only protect me for so long.
As soon as he unzipped the opening, then there was nothing I could do to prevent his sexual frenzy fro
m unleashing itself onto me and the other slaves.
I glanced over at another slave named Mia. Her eyes were wide and full of dread. She had her sleeping bag tucked all the way up to her chin.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told her, but my voice sounded hollow and flat.
There was no merit to my words because we both knew that, in fact, things were not going to be okay at all. I was simply trying to make her feel better for a microscopic moment in time.
I could hear Thom’s hushed voice as it carried on the breeze outside the tent. He was discussing something with the guards, but I had no idea what it was. One thing was for certain, it wasn’t politics or a course of action for the long run. Thom’s mood was all about sexual domination, and I knew that we were going to get a pounding tonight.
“Hey,” I whispered to Mia, who was still staring at the shadowy figure of Thom’s body outside of our moving tent walls. “You need to be strong.”
Mia slowly turned her head to look at me. “What’s the point?”
I licked my lips and sat up in my own sleeping bag. “What’s the point?” I responded in a squeaky voice. “To survive? To overcome the things in our lives that bring us pain and suffering?”
Mia tucked her head down and I watched as a tiny translucent tear began to trickle down her chin. Tears marked defeat and I wouldn’t let her quit on me. Not tonight, not ever.
We didn’t owe our souls to the monsters who tried to rip us apart.
I was frustrated with her, but I was even angrier at Thom for not protecting our psyches better. We had already been through more than enough.
“Who knew,” I chuckled, aiming to make a little joke to lighten the mood, “that sleeping in a tent would turn out to be worse than sleeping in a cold and moldy cell?”
Mia glanced over at me and I noticed that a trace of a smile began to crack at the edges of her lips.
“Yeah,” she breathed out with her arms still nestled cozily into the sleeping bag. “I guess you are right about that one.”
Deep inside, I was a breaking dam. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold up this emotional wall of strength. I was losing it, but I didn’t want to let on to Mia that I was letting any of these events crawl under my skin.
Thom’s figure moved closer to our tent. There was another slightly lankier figure beside him. I held my breath and waited, while Mia panted raspingly beside me, as if her heart was going to explode from sheer fear of the unexpected.
“Hey,” I whispered again and slid my hand out of my sleeping bag. I extended it to her. “Whatever happens, I’m here for you.”
“Thanks.” There were tears gleaming in Mia’s eyes.
She was a couple of years younger than me and not as good at keeping her protective barriers up. She wore her heart on her sleeve.
My muscles tensed as soon as I saw Thom crouch down on the ground. Then, with excruciatingly slow movement, he began to peel back the closed zipper of the orange tent that sheltered Mia and me not only from the elements outside but also the wickedness that lurked out there.
Mia whimpered beside me.
I gave her one last encouraging look. “Don’t show your fear to him,” I said. “It will only make things worse for both of us, but especially you.” I hoped my hasty pep talk would resonate with her.
Mia nodded but her eyes were puffy, red, and swollen. Our fate was already sealed.
Thom was dragging the zipper up in a precise, sluggish motion. He was doing it on purpose. I clenched my jaw in anger and balled my fists. How dare he try to fuck with our mental stability like this when we didn’t even have a real home anymore?
We were destitute, struggling as it was. We were nomads just shuffling through the forest with no real sense of direction. Anything or anyone could come out of nowhere and attack us at any time. Thom didn’t seem to care about any of it. He just wanted to get off. His orgasms were more important than his own life, but if he wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t have a life anymore, and neither would any of the slaves and guards marching in our troop of lowly and defeated souls.
Once Thom had officially unwrapped the entire slit in the tent to expose us to the outside world, and to him, he viciously grinned from ear to ear. His eyes gleamed with mischief that made my skin crawl.
I gulped and tossed a subtle glance over at Mia. She was ashen and paralyzed with fear.
“Well, well, well,” Thom dripped in a hungry voice. “What do we have here? Two beautiful girls who are all alone and look like they are in need of company from a pair of men.”
I didn’t respond, nor did Mia.
Thom climbed into the tent, but he wasn’t alone. He had another slave with him. It was Justin. Justin had freckles peppering his entire body and bushy, fiery red hair. He had the greenest eyes I’d ever seen.
“Well, get in here, you idiot,” Thom said, glancing over his shoulder at Justin. “You would have to be a fool to pass this up. It’s not every day that your Master invites you to share his gold.”
I knew what he meant by gold. He was, of course, referring to me and Mia.
I clamped my hands under my thighs to keep them from shaking off my body. The tension was rising. Justin looked like a deer caught in headlights, as if he had no idea how to react or behave without setting Thom off. We all knew what that was like. We all had to walk on eggshells in Thom’s company.
“Come on,” Thom growled impatiently. “I haven’t got all day. I have other things to do, you know.”
Thom gave Justin a superior glance before turning his attention back to where Mia and I sat huddled together under our sleeping bags. The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention. I felt a prickling shiver run like ice up and down my spine.
Thom sat down next to me with a grunt. “You are looking stunning today.”
I couldn’t understand how he came to that conclusion. My hair was askew and in a messy bun. I had dark circles under my eyes. I hadn’t bathed in a couple of days. From my own perspective, I looked and felt like shit. But from Thom’s view point, I was his magnificent black swan, his unique prize that he could toy with and abuse to his own glorious delight.
I swallowed down a sob. There was no one to turn to, no one to hear my cry for help.
“Now get down here,” Thom ordered and snapped his fingers toward the empty space next to Mia. He glanced up at Justin, who appeared to be shuddering as much as Mia and I were.
“What are you waiting for?” Thom asked, his voice thick with venomous impatience.
Justin’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, clearly gulping with dread as he stared between Thom and me, then his eyes reverted back to Mia.
“You want me to sit down here?” he asked in a rattled tone as he pointed to the space next to Mia’s sleeping bag.
“That’s right,” Thom confirmed. “And be quick about it.
Suddenly I felt queasy. My stomach churned in a sea of nervous nausea. The room started spinning and my hands became clammy. My hair stuck to the back of my neck as a film of sweat beaded on the surface of my skin.
“Now.” Thom’s eyes gleamed wildly as he zipped the tent back up. “Take off her shirt.”
“Whose…sh-shirt?” Justin stammered.
“Mia’s shirt,” Thom emphasized through clenched teeth.
Justin gave Mia an apologetic look. She nodded as nobly as she could. “It’s okay,” she whimpered. “I’ll do it.”
Thom didn’t stop her. In fact, he seemed pleased with the way the events were unfolding now. He still wore that atrociously giddy expression that made my stomach roll in the most unpleasant way possible.
Thom’s voracity electrified the room. I held my breath as Thom instructed Justin to begin performing sexual acts on Mia. I squeezed my eyes shut as Justin reluctantly opened Mia’s legs and pushed himself inside of her.
“Look,” Thom demanded and slapped my face. “I want you to see.”
I flinched as Thom took my chin in his hands and forced me to look at my friend being
fucked by a very hesitant Justin.
But after a while, I could tell that Justin was starting to enjoy it. Thom continued to coax them along. “That’s right,” he groaned. “Fuck her hard. I can tell she’s starting to smile. She must like it.”
I wasn’t sure whether Mia was actually enjoying herself or whether she was pretending for the sake of getting it over with quickly.
After several more minutes of watching them have sex, Thom turned his attention to me. “Take off your shirt,” he instructed.
I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t protest. I already knew the drill. If I just appeased him, it would make the act easier to endure.
I stripped off my clothes and laid flat on my back as I felt Thom’s pulsing snake throbbing against my bare inner thigh. I inhaled sharply as he pushed his way inside of me, groaning and making all kinds of sexually euphoric sounds as he pumped enthusiastically in and out of me while watching Justin and Mia too.
“Don’t cum before I do,” Thom instructed Justin.
Justin whimpered as if he was close and might not be able to contain the eruption of an orgasm before Thom did. If he knew what was good for him, he would suppress it for as long as possible to avoid receiving a severe beating from the guards afterwards.
“Look at me while I’m fucking you,” Thom grunted.
He was looming over me, thrusting in and out. “I told you to show more emotion, did I not?”
The truth was, there was still an element of sex that thrilled me and turned me on, even if Thom wasn’t the most enticing lover in the world and the sex wasn’t consensual. Even when he rubbed my clit the right way or hit my g-spot at the perfect angle, I didn’t want to show him my pleasure zones had been hit. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. He was already atrocious to deal with as it was.
I felt Thom tense up after several more minutes. He cupped his hands over my breasts and squeezed them. Then he flicked my nipples with his thumb and forefinger after twisting and yanking on them.
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