I couldn’t help it—I jumped at the sound of that smooth, cultured purr, then went utterly still. Eyes fixed to the tips of his scuffed boots when they stopped before me, I exhaled a careful stream of anxiety as the entire company stood and saluted.
Leaving me curled around myself at the captain’s feet, Cal stepped back. His fingers sliding free of my hair.
“I believe you were asked a question,” the captain cooed, and when the company fell silent, he took a knee. Forearm braced atop his thigh, free hand skating up my bicep. “And here I thought we’d already gone over this.” Gentle fingers caught my chin, turning my face toward him.
At the sight of his regrettably handsome face, I sucked a breath between my lips. Chills spilling down my spine as the reality of my position settled in.
Naked in a room full of soldiers. Men who looked and saw nothing more than a future pleasure slave.
Helpless. At the mercy of this one man, I swallowed,hard, and in an intentionally hoarse whisper said, “I don’t know my name, sir.” Attempting to affect an air of obedience. To avoid a punishment I might never recover from.
“Ah, yes. My little blank slate,” the captain hummed, and, as I watched, a shadow traced the edge of his smirk.
One that reached his eyes in a blink.
Ensnared in an inky, bottomless void, I was held in thrall. Sucked deeper the longer I looked.
And despite how I wanted to twist away, Icouldn’t, even when his thumb moved to trace the bow of my lower lip. When it caught and pulled, exposing the points of my modified teeth.
“Good girl,” he said at length, and stroked my hair back. Pausing to wrap long fingers around the back of my neck, he stood and brought me with him. “You have your orders,” he said to the men. “Dismissed.”
The walk to his office was rife with the sort of tension I’d never experienced before. Not when I watched my city fall, nor when flames swallowed my parents in a single greedy gulp.
Tension made all the worse when the door snapped shut, and he left me standing in the same spot I’d been whipped the night prior.
Wound too tight, a ball of anxiety sat heavy in my gut. Gooseflesh rising up, I tried to hide my body from eyes gone dark as pitch.
Because I knew.
My destiny didn’t lie in sexual slavery to an entire garrison of Caledonian soldiers, but to the man who preferred to beat answers from a girl he thought helpless. Who meant to do a lot worse.
“How did you sleep?” he asked, jerking me from my thoughts.
Hands winding tighter about my ribs, I hid from his scrutiny. “I didn’t.”
He grinned, pacing circles around me. “You didn’twhat?”
“Sleep.” I turned with him, uncomfortable exposing my back to a predator of this nature.
Something heavy pulsed between us, something wicked that tasted like gleeful victory, but he breathed an almost musical sigh. “I can see your time in the hole wasn’t effective, as far as punishments go.” He glanced toward the whips still decorating his desk. One eyebrow raised in contemplation.
Sweat bloomed on my skin, panic making me flush hot and cold all at once. My mistake realized too late. “Sir! I didn’t sleep,sir!”
“Yesterday was a waste,” he added as an afterthought. As if he hadn’t heard my correction.
“Please,” I whispered, hands raised. Breasts exposed, though I knew it was too late. Knew this trick wouldn’t work twice now that he’d seen every piece of me. “I-I’m sorry, sir.” I took a step toward his desk.
“Hob, if you touch one of those weapons, I’ll introduce you to a whole new meaning of sorry.”
I froze—the thought had barely formed in my mind.
“Come here,” he said, voice a hard, unforgiving line. Promising things that drew an involuntary whimper from the back of my throat.
But my feet refused to move. “I—”
Seizing my bicep in a bruising grip, he pulled me toward the chains dangling from the ceiling.
“No!” I sobbed, and threw my weight in the opposite direction. Feet skidding across the worn hardwood floors. Knees locked. Fighting in the face of another punishment, for the thought of starting yesterday over was too much. “Please, I-I can’t—”
