Blood. He will share our blood in this sick, twisted ritual.
“And then…” He drags down the leggings, but they snag on the compression sleeve. With a frustrated growl, he rips them both off. My soul itself freezes when he tosses my leggings carelessly over my head so they slide beneath the bed, then throws the compression sleeve into the fire. Jude’s tether. My last tether.
I lurch, but it’s too late. The sleeve burns, along with the hat.
When the firelight reflects off something out of the corner of my eye, I turn to the twinkle. My heart skips a beat. He didn’t notice. I forgot. How could I forget? The arrowhead.
It’s just a few arm’s lengths away. If I could?—
—pain attacks my leg.
I scream and writhe as Alden digs his fingers into the raw scars of my calf. “Stop! Oh, God, stop!” The words leave my mouth in a savage shriek.
And Alden does.
“You believe it hurts, don’t you?” he speaks like a silk-wrapped nightmare. “You will know the meaning of true pain tonight. But first…”
The next sound causes my whole body to lock up—and then quake.
“No!” I swing my fist as wildly, knocking it into his jaw.
One swing is all I get before he chains my hands to the base of my spine, twisting ruthlessly.
With his other hand, he grips my jaw, turning my face to the side. For a moment, I don’t see him as a man. Biblical wrath consumes him, his bared teeth gleam like fangs, and his muscles are harder than thunder.
Especially the one between his legs.
When he releases my jaw to retrieve something from his robe, my chest caves in. I thought he might take my mouth. But no…
“I remember how well you used to take me, Gabriella.” Lust in his stare. Self-righteous fire in his filthy soul.
I squirm and struggle, but it’s no use. He lathers the oil all over his shaft, then uses two slick fingers, injecting them into my anus. The pressure burns. But when he slides inside? It blinds me.
White blurs my vision. Bursts of short whimpers and desperate gasps leave my throat.
“God, I missed this!” he exclaims, pushing in one smooth thrust.
It’s vicious and cruel. He violates me. Brutalizes me.
No meaty hand covered in tattoos for me to bite. No Seth murmuring sweet praises before tonguing me, giving me pleasure. No green eyes holding me through it all like the strongest chain.
My hands go slack. My body is boneless. Because the more I fight, the more my anus will tighten and hurt more. And…I’d give him just what he wants. Pain. The fight.
“This ass, my favorite one. Such a filthy, gorgeous ass.” He sinks his fingers into the flesh, digging in like claws. “You always pleased me, honored me this way as I gift you with my very seed.” He combs back my curls from my face, exposingmy cheeks, wet with my tears. “Yes, God, yes! Your silent tears, those are mine.”
I don’t make a sound. I’m just a hole to him.
The tears I gave Rory that night, the night he said ‘I love you’, may have been silent. But everything else inside me was moaning from the pleasure. His hands on my ass, massaging there and my back, my shoulders.
I hold onto that memory as the Prophet defiles me. Rory’s fingers tracing my scars. And how he held me, chest to chest. Blue eyes catching the firelight, wild with unhinged emotions I didn’t know but felt with my whole being. Coarse beard against my cheek. Lips parting. “I love you.”
I never said it.
Love you back, Red.
“Tomorrow, at dawn,” he continues, thrusting harder, quicker because he’s close, “Once your trial is done, once you have survived, you will be taken to the medical wing for the procedure.”
Procedure? No, God, no.
