Silas nodded lazily. “Everyone’s free, one way or another.”
Snow White’s mind raced. She thought of the forest: the cold, the hunger, the unknown. She thought of Liora’s hands and Hunter’s knife and the way danger seemed to seep from every stone of the life she’d fled. She thought of Grimm outside, alone except for her. She thought of the way these men looked at her—not as a rival, not as a pawn, but as something they wanted unabashedly. Something they were willing to name their price for, openly, instead of pretending it was something else. Were they cruel? Were they kind? She wasn’t yet sure.
Her stomach knotted. Her thighs still ached faintly from the clearing. Her ribs hurt when she breathed. Her heart felt like a bruised fruit. She could leave. Ride until she dropped. Keep trying to find a village where they’d take pity on a ragged girl with a good horse. But maybe not. Maybe she’d die a slow death of starvation in the woods before she ever got where she was going. Or maybe the wolves would eat her alive. Maybe Grimm would get hurt. Wherewasshe really going anyway?
She could stay. Trade her body—already used, already claimed—for safety, food, a kind of belonging. The choice would be hers. No one would push her into a corset so tight she fainted. No one would dress poison up as love. She let herself sit with that for a long heartbeat.
“I don’t know how to please six men,” she said finally, voice steady despite the blush burning her skin. “I barely know how to please one.”
Harry chuckled. “Oh, beautiful — we’re not picky!”
“We haven’t seen a woman in a long time,” Silas said.
Or ever, young Drew thought, though he didn’t say it aloud.
“And I think I’ve never seen a lady as beautiful as you before,” Bennett blushed.
Dax’s gaze softened by a fraction. “You don’t have to know everything now,” he said. “You will learn. We will teach. You have the right to walk away anytime if you decide it’s too much. No one chains you here—” Dax shoots a sharp look at Gage.
“No one,” Gage echoed, though there was a challenge in his smirk.
Snow White looked at each of them in turn. She saw their desire. She saw their loneliness. She saw a kind of rough, battered honesty that felt almost like kindness. Her mind went a hundred miles a minute:I feel almost sorry for them, all alone without a woman’s touch. But am I willing to be their play-thing? Is that what I was looking for when I left the castle? Why am I feeling like I want to say yes? Why am I feeling a pulse in between my legs? Why am I feeling intrigued? I wonder what they’ll do to me. I wonder how it will feel. The way Hunter looked at me made me feel so alive. They’re looking at me like that right now.The idea of being touched and desired on her own terms, of not being cold and alone anymore, tempted her more than it frightened her. And for the first time in a very long time, she felt something in herself reply to all of that with a word she hadn’t expected to think again:yes.
She took a shaky breath. “All right,” she said. “I agree.” Her heart hammered. “I’ll… do it. On those terms. Food, shelter, protection—for my body. Whenever you want, however you want.” She was nervous, but spoke with a sort of inspiration.
Gage’s grin turned feral. Bennett’s eyes went wide. Harry whooped once, then clapped a hand over his own mouth, suddenly aware of the gravity of the moment. Dax noddedslowly. “Then we have an agreement,” he said. “You can rest today. Eat. Get your strength back. Tonight…” His eyes flicked briefly to the bed. “We’ll talk again.”
Silas smiled, “I’ll warm the sheets for you,” as he approached the bed ready for a nap.
Gage, never one for waiting or following orders, had other ideas. He stepped forward, fingers already reaching for his belt, the bulge at the front of his trousers straining the worn fabric. “Or,” he said, voice low and hungry, “we can start right now.” His hand went to his fly. He tugged it down.
Snow White’s eyes widened as he freed himself. The sight stole her breath for a beat—not only because of the unexpected size and blunt maleness of him, but because there was no shame, no apology in the way he stood there, aroused and firm, letting her see exactly what she’d agreed to.
Her heart kicked against her ribs. Her mouth went dry. Her thighs pressed together under the blanket, a confusing mix of fear and anticipation and something she refused to name yet spiraling low in her belly. The hunger in the room sharpened, but it did not feel like Liora’s cruelty. It felt like six starving men handed the first real feast they’d seen in years. For the first time in her life, Snow White felt herself seen not as a weapon, or a threat, or a reflection. But as a woman. It terrified her. It thrilled her. And, on her own battered, complicated terms, she chose it.
Chapter fourteen
Earning Sanctuary
Shemovedtowardhim,a little unsure of what to do. With Hunter, he had taken charge and she had let her body do the rest. Now there was no map to guide her, no ancient law to follow—only the bargain she had agreed to, and six pairs of eyes waiting to see if she would honor it.
“Come closer,” Gage said, voice low, rough around the edges. There was defiance in every syllable, like he expected her to bolt but dared her to try. “You think you want this? Prove it.” He stepped forward first, as he always did. The hardened loner with scars etched deeper than any mine shaft, shoved in front of the others, his broad frame blocking them out. He had already stripped down, his trousers tangled around his ankles as he gripped the base of himself—thick, heavy, the dark head flushed and slick with a shining bead that caught the lantern light.
Snow White’s arms trembled as she crawled toward him on the bed. Her breath came in shallow bursts, her heart pounding hard enough to hurt. Up close, the sheer size of him made her throat tighten. He was thicker than her wrist, veins standing out along the length, the blunt head glistening with heat. Shehesitated just a second, unsure what to do. She looked up at him and he stepped even closer, pointing himself right at her face. Slowly, she leaned in, lips parting as her tongue flicked out to taste that first tentative drop. A shiver ran through her. The flavor was strange—salty, musky, undeniably male—but not as shocking as she’d imagined. The reality of it, the warmth, the weight, the way he twitched to her touch, all anchored her to the moment. This was the price she had named. She could give this.
Gage didn’t wait for finesse. His fingers slid into her hair, not cruel but not gentle either, a man ready to grab and hold. He tightened his grip and drew her forward until her mouth stretched around him. She gasped around the intrusion, jaw burning with the unfamiliar stretch, but she forced herself to relax, to breathe through her nose, to hollow her cheeks and seal her lips around him.
She let her tongue trace along the underside of him, clumsy at first, then bolder as she felt him respond. He began to move, short, hungry thrusts that pushed him deeper with each pulse. “That’s it,” he muttered, voice gone hoarse. “Just like that, aghh—,” he grunted a low moan.
The others didn’t need more invitation than that. Clothes hit the floor in a hurried rustle, belts clinking as they were unbuckled, boots kicked aside. The air seemed to thicken with heat and breath and male bodies suddenly freed from layers of rough work-clothes. The sharp, cold scent of rain and wet wool that had clung to them began to evaporate, replaced by the heavier, muskier scent of men suddenly stripped of their defenses.
Light glanced off bare skin—shoulders, chests, stomachs, each man shaped by hard labor and lean living. The sight ignited a fever in her blood she hadn’t known she possessed. She looked at the circle of men. In the castle, she was a princess who had to hide. Here, she was a queen holding court, and they were hersubjects, waiting for her time. They closed in, a half circle of warm flesh and rough hands, breaths ragged with anticipation. The thought of these men all wanting her, all desiring her, all about to have their way with her, made the warmth between her legs begin to throb. She longed to be touched.
Harry, the easygoing thrill-seeker with a grin that could light a room, chuckled low as he circled to her side, tugging his shirt over his head to reveal a broad chest dusted with dark hair. “Look at her go,” he said, awe threaded through the teasing. “Eager little thing, aren’t you?” His own arousal jutted from his open trousers, curved slightly and bobbing gently as he moved, the tip flushed.
Snow White’s cheeks burned, but something inside her loosened at their reactions. None of them were pretending they weren’t affected. None of them even tried pretending she wasn’t the center of this.
Gage braced his knees on the mattress, thighs framing her face as he guided himself into her mouth again, deeper this time. Tears pricked her eyes when his release hit the back of her throat, but she swallowed against the reflex, one hand bracing on his thigh, the other holding lightly around the base of him to steady her rhythm. “Swallow it down, girl—earn your keep,” he ground out, the words rough but not mocking. She gagged softly at the flood, but it wasn’t as horrible as she’d feared. When he pulled back, panting, his hand lingered in her hair for a heartbeat, almost like a silent, grudging ‘thank you’, before he stepped away, tucking himself back into his trousers.
