Oh, Daisy…I’m so sorry I hurt you, my heart cries loudly inside my mind. Were you sad the entire time you were with Bella and her husband?
A soft purr escapes my lips, proof I am touched to know my heart feels sorrow for causing the rest of my body pain.
But soon, I feel markedly less tender toward the powerful muscle beating inside my chest when violently and without warning, it twists inside my ribcage. It then speeds up in a galloping rhythm, skipping several beats. The uneven pounding sensation frightens me and I jerk my arms downward, wishing I could clutch them between my breasts. But I can’t, my wrists are still bound tightly and I’m still a prisoner flung over a giant’s massive shoulder.
This drug induced conversation is becoming too painful to bear, so I move to put an end to it.
No, I wasn’t always sad when I was inside my barn with Bella and the farmer. I was mostly happy in their care. It’s just that, I need verbal assurances of their love for me, if I’m ever to open my heart to them…or to my beloved Magnus. I need each of them to confess their love for me. I purse my lips tightly then rapidly open and close my eyelashes to keep my eyes from spilling tears. Now, please stop speaking to me. You’re making my chest ache, I moan, begging my heart to stop torturing me with this conversation.
I’m sorry…and I love you, my heart answers. I won’t bother you any longer.
I continue blinking amidst the fresh silence.
Heart, are you still there? I call out inside my mind, suddenly desperate to converse with my much abused organ again. When I receive no reply, I feel my tears begin to pour from my eyes.
I can’t help but weep at the knowledge that my experiences in life have left me so emotionally scarred that having an intimate conversation with my own subconscious disturbs me. And if I’m being honest with myself, I’m also weeping because I’m afraid. I’m frightened as hell that one or all three of the people I love most in the world may be hurt, or even dead.
I cry for them, but I also weep bitterly for myself. I fear that for the third time in my life, I’m about to be all alone in the world again. I’m soon to become a zombie trapped alone with her thoughts, although she’s surrounded by a sea of rotting corpses.
I’ve gone and gotten myself captured. I’ve failed to rescue the woman and the men I love. That knowledge will haunt me every day of what I fear is about to become my very short-lived future as a zombie.
“Don’t cry, Laura.” The sweetness of my captor’s tone makes me want to ball louder. This young hubull really is a poor starstruck, lovesick fool. The big brute is no criminal mastermind. He’s just a deluded kid who got suckered into doing something awful. I’d feel genuinely sorry for him if he’d bother to display any remorse for his horrific actions.
“Would you consider letting me go,” I beg through tears.
“Please don’t sob,” he says, this time speaking more ardently. “I can’t allow you to go back to that farm. I must take you to safety. The zombie queen promises to take good care of you. She promises to keep you safe from harm. You deserve to be with people who love you.”
“You’re mistaken, Decimus,” my voice squeaks, and I lose my breath for a moment. “The zombies don’t love me, and they certainly won’t keep me safe. Please release me,” I beg again with every ounce of air left in my lungs.
“No. I’m doing this for your own good,” the deluded kidnapper says with finality while giving my bottom one swift smack that declares he’s made his final decision on the matter.
I continue to cry, allowing the stinging pain gripping my ass cheeks to pull more tears from my eyes. I force my exhausted eyelids shut again, trying not to think about my fate. Unwilling to remain conscious any longer, I stop fighting the need to pass out again.
Chapter 21
Daisy
I wake as my captor stomps through a patch of tall brush. The foul odor invading my nostrils tells me we have arrived at our destination. The putrid smell of rotting flesh makes me cough and gag. I hold my breath to prevent myself from throwing up the bile rolling inside my belly.
“Please lift me up before I vomit,” I shout with what’s left of the air in my lungs. To my surprise, my kidnapper quickly complies, carefully placing my bound feet firmly on the ground. My sandals sink into the tall grass below me, and the bottoms of my feet tingle from the insult of being asked to support my body weight again.
I lift my fingers to squeeze my nostrils shut then unexpectedly I hear voices. But, the voices aren’t coming from the grassy hillside. No, the mountain is empty, except for the stinking corpse rotting on the ground next to us. The voices I hear are inside my head. I’m hallucinating again, and it’s got me frightened. It feels as though something or someone has reached inside my brain and opened up an intimate channel of communication where none existed before. The conversation I’m listening to feels real, even though I know it is simply an imagining of my drugged mind.
“I’m sorry. Is that want you want to hear?” the voice that sounds eerily like the farmer shouts.
“It’s about fucking time you gave me a sincere apology,” imaginary Magnus screams. “And Flavi, don’t think for a moment that I’m going to let you get away with not apologizing to Daisy for everything you’ve put her through. After I break us out of this prison and we’re back at home, you’re going to get down on your knees and beg her forgiveness.”
Flavi. I laugh silently. I wonder if that’s what Magnus actually calls his best friend in private. Flavi. I like it. Now that he’s bred me, and I may become the mother of his future children, I suppose the farmer and I are on intimate enough terms for nicknames. Flavi. I chuckle inwardly again. I wonder what the tough-guy farmer will say when I call him Flavi for the first time. If I get the chance.
The too-proud men continue to fight over me inside the hopeful imaginings of my wildly narcissistic hallucination.
“I won’t give her up—”
“I never expected you would—”
“She can’t be both of our wives—”
“You’re wrong. She can and she will—”
“I need you to know I genuinely love Daisy—”
“I love her too. That’s why I won’t allow you to keep her locked away from me any longer. I should have fought for her when you first ripped her out of my arms. I won’t make that mistake again. I love her too much to endure not having her by my side. I will make her my wife. She will be our fourth—”
“You’ve gone power mad—”
“You would know, farmer—”
“If you have your way I won’t be farmer for long. It’s clear you want the job—”
“I will be farmer, husband—”
“You’ll demand to move us all to the new farm you’ve built, won’t you?—”
“Yes. Every member of my family will live with me in the new farmhouse—”
Listening to imaginary Flavi and Magnus fight over me makes me feel wanted and loved for the first time in years. But, I wish the conversation I just overheard were real and not a product of my hopeful imagination.
Feeling both drowsy and dizzy again, I shake my head and push the imaginary voices out of my mind. I’m unable to clearly follow the made-up conversation, anyway. The drugs have my head spinning, and I feel as though I’m about to fall head first into the rotting corpse decaying on the ground just a few feet away from where I’m standing in my now barely visible sandals.
I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I do. “Please pick me up again, Decimus. I feel as though I may faint.”
“Anything for you, Laura,” my muscular kidnapper says while reaching down to grab me at the waist. As my tiny body lifts into the air, I lose consciousness, again, collapsing onto the massive hubull’s chest.
Chapter 22
Daisy
“I love you, Daisy.”
I hear the words whispered over my head almost inaudibly. Opening my groggy eyes, I look up to see my best friend Bella’s face gazing down at me. Her arm is soft and warm
as I snuggle up to it. I adjust my body in my chair to discover she’s been propping me up, keeping me from falling out of my seat. I raise my chin higher and grin, overcome with happiness at the comfort of being held in the arms of my best friend.
Bella shifts in her seat and I right myself, sitting upright in my chair and supporting my own body weight. Widening my vision, I see that I am on a wide stage. I twist my head to the right and witness Hamma sitting in a chair at the other end of the stage. A zombie with bright golden hair is sitting at attention in the chair next to hers.
I turn my head more and look into the faces of thousands of zombies in the audience. Each individual zombie is shouting out a name, in some bizarre roll call. Some zombies raise a hand while others stand when it's their turn to speak. There are so many zombies that this roll call must take over an hour to complete. Luckily, or unluckily depending on what’s to come next, the shouting is almost over. It’s the zombies at the back of the room who are yelling out their names right now.
A chill spreads over the surface of my naked flesh. I look over at Bella and see her round, shapely bosom jutting out from her chest wall. Little beads of white cream are dripping from her nipples. It’s the first time in years I’ve witnessed her breasts overflowing with milk. My Bella looks beautiful when she’s bursting full with sweet cream.
She’s in need of a good milking. I watch her wiggle her shoulders, squirming in her seat, her fullness clearly causing her some discomfort. Suddenly, I am aware of the tightness stretching across my own breasts. I am already full with milk again, and I taste the flavor of butterscotch in my mouth. Perhaps Bella slipped me another piece of protective candy while I was unconscious.
“How long have I been out?” I question.
“Good, you’re finally awake sleepy head,” her eyes smile down at me and my eyes open wider to take in the warm kindness in her gaze. We sit in stillness, sharing our deep feeling for one another for several seconds.
“Please, tell me.”
“Oh, I’m not sure how long you’ve been unconscious for sweetie. But you’ve been sitting here with me for only about ten minutes.”
“I was kidnapped by members of the human resistance,” I confess.
“I know,” she sighs like she’s already heard all about it. “I was kidnapped myself, by Hamma.”
My shoulders rise in shock, and I feel a sharp pain in my wrist as I shake out my injured fingers.
“Hamma kidnapped you?” I whisper my disbelief. “Mama Hamma is a betrayer?”
“Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. She’s either our betrayer or our savior. I’m not certain which it is yet.”
“Okay,” I say, barely allowing the two syllables to pass through my lips.
“Oh, sweetie, please don’t lose hope. Let’s give Hamma the benefit of the doubt. She’s been good to us so far. Hasn’t she?”
Bella says ‘hasn’t she’ like she’s trying to convince both herself and me of Hamma’s good nature. I want to ask my best friend about what had happened between the two of them on their journey to the zombie compound. But, I don’t want to make her discuss anything that might make her lose hope in our ability to survive our captivity.
“Why are we sitting here on this stage?” I ask instead.
“Hamma is to have a public audience with the zombie queen. Then— then,” she stutters.
“Then what?”
“Then we four are to put on a show—”
“We four?” I ask, hoping the other two people she is referring to are Magnus and Flavi. If it is, it means they are both still alive. There is hope we can all escape this captivity unharmed.
“Me, you, Magnus and my husband—”
“Where are they?” I ask, my voice lilting joyously at hearing the news they are both alive and well enough to perform in whatever show the zombies want us to participate in. If it means keeping us all safe and unharmed, I’ll dance on my head while juggling a handful of balls for these zombies’ entertainment if I have to. I’ll be their willing clown. They can throw whatever taunts they desire my way. I’ll endure mean words. I’ll do whatever it takes to save the three people I love most in the world.
“They had to be removed from the meeting hall about half an hour ago. Their zombie captors took them both into one of the rooms behind the stage. I suspect they’ll remain back there until it's time for our performance.”
“Why? Why were they removed?”
“Because both my husband and Magnus became agitated.”
I listen in silence as Bella gulps hard.
“Why were they agitated?” I ask meekly, part of me not wanting to hear the answer to my question.
“Because of the nature of the show we are to perform.” Bella inhales deeply then blows out a forceful puff of air. “There’s no delicate way to say this, so I’ll just say it crassly. As soon as the men were escorted into the meeting hall, my husband started yelling at Magnus. He vowed never to allow his best friend to fuck his wife. Magnus raged back, accusing Flavius of being the ‘wife fucker’.
The bigger hubull said ‘Turnabout is fair play, so I’m not going to just fuck your wife, I’m going to breed her. Your…no, our wife’s pussy will be stuffed full of my seed and her belly will begin swelling large with my baby by the end of the night.’ That just pissed my husband off more, so he tried to throw a punch at Magnus. But his fist never made contact with the big brute. Magnus ended up snapping Flavius’ fingers in two before my husband’s fist could even rise into the air.”
Reflexively, I tighten my shoulders, squint my eyes and wrinkle my nose not even trying to hide my grimace.
“Oh, just jealous guy stuff. That’s all.” Bella sputters her words then laughs a nervous chuckle.
“I’m confused,” I confess. I want to ask more about the ‘fucking’ that’s apparently going to occur between the four of us when we put on our ‘show’ for the zombies, but instead, I ask what I deem to be a safer question. “It sounds like the farmer had sex with Hamma’s wives. Why would he do that?”
“Oh, so you know about Swinea and Pigletta being pregnant with Hamma’s babies,” Bella says with wide eyes and bright pink blushing cheeks. “And for your information, the farmer hasn’t had sex with anyone other than you and me.”
“Um, yes, I knew that. I know about everything,” I say pretending to be fully informed.
“Maybe not,” my friend mutters.
“Then educate me,” I snap, more than a little irritated by Bella’s dismissive remark.
“Do you know Magnus considers you to be his wife?”
“What?” My head spins and I inhale deeply trying to digest the new knowledge. Echoes of the imaginary conversation I overheard between Magnus and Flavi earlier in my mind bounce around inside my head.
“Actually, Magnus considers both of us to be his wives. As far as he’s concerned, we’re both his property. He means to be our mutual husband and the farmer of us all.”
“Where did you hear this?” I want to shout, but I keep the volume of my voice low to avoid drawing unwanted zombie attention to our conversation.
“I can hear the man’s thoughts in my mind,” Bella says matter-of-factly.
My lower jaw falls open in a gasp.
“I think I can hear Magnus and Flavi in my mind too,” I whimper. “I heard them arguing about me earlier. I thought it was a drug induced hallucination…but now I guess I’m supposed to believe everything I heard them say was real. Was it?”
“It was real,” Bella nods her head up and down. “I used the power of my mind to transport their thoughts into your head, so that you could hear their conversation.”
“So, they didn’t just invade my thoughts on their own?”
“Oh, no, sweetie,” Bella says averting her eyes. “I was the one who penetrated your mind. Only me.”
My eyes widen and my cheeks flush hot as the reality of Bella’s invasion of my mind hits me. She penetrated my private thoughts. She knows all my secrets. I clasp one clenched fist aga
inst my chest and stretch my jaw wide in a silent scream.
“Please don’t be angry with me for invading your mind,” Bella begs. “Please believe that even though I know all your secrets …I still care for you. Oh, no, that came out wrong. I care for you more because I know the secret desires of your soul. I know everything.”
“Everything?” I hear the terror in my voice as I slump down in my chair.
“Please allow me to explain,” Bella says in a hushed and hurried tone. “I never meant to expose your secret thoughts. At first…at first I was just searching for your mind to be sure you were still alive. Then, when I found your mental wavelength and discovered I could access your thoughts I tried to reach out to you to let you know that I was alive and okay—”
“How can you access my thoughts?” I question my best friend with a shaky voice and fear rattling my heart against my rib cage. Has she already been turned into a zombie again? Her eyes aren’t glowing blue. But, maybe she’s been transformed into a special type of zombie. One who doesn’t have blue glowing eyes. One who can hear my thoughts and control my mind.
“No. I’m not a zombie and I have no control over your thoughts,” Bella answers the question I just imagined inside what I wish were still the privacy of my mind.
“And I don’t know how I came to be able to hear your thoughts. But, ever since I was recaptured by the zombies, my telepathic abilities have resurfaced. I can see into the minds of you, my husband, Magnus and even the zombie hucows. But, for some unknown reason, I can’t access Hamma’s thoughts. I also can’t hear the thoughts of the zombie queen or my cousin.”
Bella points to the golden haired zombie sitting in the chair next to Hamma.
“That’s my cousin, Arissa. She’s the zombie queen’s right hand woman.”
Luckily the golden haired zombie’s eyes are looking elsewhere and she doesn’t notice Bella pointing in her direction.
“Please don’t point or gesture at any of the zombies again,” I beg my telepathic friend. “I’m worried that if you draw attention to us, something bad will happen.”
Taboo Desires: Dirty Forbidden Secrets Bundle (The Complete Miranda Cougar Collection) Page 37