Rurik clicked his tongue. “You seemed so…fearless when we were marching,” he commented, stepping even closer. His silver hair lay long and disheveled, his mustache curling upwards with his lips. “But in here, you are completely helpless.”
In a blink, he gripped my neck and slammed my head against the stone wall. Stars clouded my vision, and I fell to the ground when he let me go. He bent down beside me, and his hot breath against my ear made me want to vomit. “I can’t wait to break you,” he whispered.
My head throbbed as he grabbed my feet, pulling me down against the concrete floor. I screamed, and to that, he punched me in the face. Hard. I heard a crunch, and the pain that shot through my body and the liquid that began pouring from my nostrils told me he had broken my nose.
“We’re going to rough you up a bit beforehand.”
“P-please, I don—” I began before a different man kicked me in the side so hard the wind was knocked out of me. The kicks kept coming, in my side, my face. Rurik grabbed me by the neck and slammed my head against the ground, the taste of blood following shortly after. With his other hand, he ripped my shirt open and cupped my bare breast.
“Stop!” I pleaded, blood spilling out of my mouth. I flailed my body as hard as I could to no avail, as he held me down and sucked on the skin of my neck. I sobbed as I thrashed.
Silas…he must have sent them…
“Pin her to the ground!” another yelled, and so he did.
I knew what was about to happen, but no matter how hard I struggled, no matter how much I begged, I couldn’t break their grip. I kept wailing, and Rurik put his hand over my mouth.
‘Shh, it will be much nicer if you don’t fight it.”
“Come on, it’s more exciting that way,” another voice chimed in. I was starting to lose consciousness, the pain from my injuries becoming unbearable. Rurik tugged my pants off and began to unhook his belt.
No, no, no!
I lashed out with all the energy I could muster, but two of the men grabbed my legs, spreading them to either side, and there was nothing I could do as Rurik leaned down and plunged himself inside of me.
I cried out, but he wouldn’t stop. Repeatedly, he forced himself inside me. Over and over.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to die. I sobbed as my body went limp, accepting that there was no way I could stop their assault on me.
But despite my wishes to be gone…to close my eyes and have all this pain erased, there was a sliver of me that wanted to survive. To overcome all this killing and hate. To save my people.
You will not break.
Those were the words I had told Silas before I left. The words I told myself countless times on my way to Ames when I was sick during travel.
What I told myself the day I got my fire.
“How does my cock feel, you witch slut?” Rurik grunted into my ear, his grip on my hip painful. “Your kind may be a mistake, a complete disgrace,” he huffed as he thrust into me harder, tears streaming down my face as I held his horrid gaze. “But your pussy feels amazing.”
I didn’t know how long I lay there, how long he whispered his filthy words into my ear, how long it was before the door flung open, and I looked to see Silas in the doorway, completely distraught.
“Get the fuck off her!” he bellowed as he raced towards us. “OFF! NOW!”
They quickly began to scramble off me, but that’s all I can remember before the world went black.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
SILAS
“Youlookexhausted,”Eramurmured when we entered our quarters, brushing my hair out of my face. “I was wondering when you’d return.”
“Exhausted is an understatement.”
Erabella had traveled with me and my men to Fort Laith; otherwise, it would’ve been months until we’d see each other again.
“You kept me waiting long enough.”
“Forgive me,” I whispered, kissing her softly. “You wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing me as filthy as I was.”
