I hardly get a moment of warning before he produces a knife and rams it into Soren’s abdomen. I double over as a scream rips from my throat. It turns shrill when he twists the knife in Soren, making our synchronized agony fill the room. Micah laughs heartily at our pain, but I writhe in agony on the cot.
Henry pulls the knife out only to stab it into a different spot, and drags it down to slice open his gut. Soren’s face is bright red as he screams in pain, and I mimic him as I stay curled up on the cot.
I knew he was being tortured before, but I didn’t know exactly what they would do. This is the pain they were inflicting on my mate. They were gutting him alive, letting him heal, raping him, and then starting over. That is exactly what Henry does. They stab and slice him open until his guts are dangling out of his body, but he’s alive. He has just enough hold on his immortality that it keeps him conscious.
This is like some sick fucking game to Henry, and he doesn’t stop. He cuts off pieces of him and stomps them into the ground before slicing again. At one point, Henry walks around behind him with a knife, and I bury my face in the pillow right as the knife is shoved into his ass. The scream that we let out is ear-piercing, and I am nearly convulsing as the pain sears through my body. Even once the knife is pulled away, the pain continues to intensify. That can’t be a normal knife.
This is the worst pain I have felt in my entire life as he fucks my mate’s ass with a serrated knife. Blood is covering him and the floor below. Horrific doesn’t even begin to cover what is happening right now. Micah is fucking loving every second of this. So much so that he ends up on top of me with his dick buried in my ass as he relentlessly pounds into me. The combination is so agonizing that I’m the one to start losing consciousness first. Time flickers by like an old movie reel. One minute I am being violently raped in the ass, but the next is pure silence. The kind of silence that feels like impending doom.Maybe it is. Maybe this was the worst mistake of my entire life, but I have to hold onto hope. If not for me, for Soren.
I drag my head up and realize that so much time has passed that Soren is healed and watching me sleep. Everything is clean again. I want to run to him, but I don’t. I wrap the blanket tighter around my body and watch him from a distance.
Henry is standing by the door, and his voice has me looking over at him. “You may stay in this room. You may also explore the house. You may not touch, feed, or speak to him. Every time you break a rule, he suffers,” Henry says, and then walks out. He shuts the door behind him, but the lock doesn’t engage. When I finally look back at Soren, he looks sad.
“I’m here,”I whisper through our bond.“Are you okay?”
“Yes, Bunny,”he tells me.“Are you?”
“Uh. Yeah,”I say.
“Explain.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“No. I can’t. If I explain… What if they threaten me? You’ll break immediately. I just need you to trust me.”
He doesn’t say anything, because he knows that I am right.“I trust you,”he says finally.
“Fight to stay awake. You can’t go into a coma. Okay? Just keep fighting by staying awake.”
“Okay, but you need to rest,”he says softly. It’s not a command, but I listen to him anyway.
“I love you, Soren… Forever.”
“I love you too, Bunny. Sleep.”
Chapter Twenty Six
Talia
Day Two
I barely slept. Itwasn’t because of the cot or even because of this room. The cameras don’t bother me. It was because every time I close my eyes, I can feel him. He’s weak, hungry, and exhausted. The bond isn’t screaming anymore. It’s worse than that, actually. It’s like standing beside a dying fire and watching the flames slowly disappear into the ashes. I hate it. I hate all of this.
The sound of the door opening drags me from my thoughts, and Soren’s eyes snap open immediately. Micah walks into the room carrying a breakfast tray. It’s not for Soren, but for me. The sight makes something ugly twist in my stomach.
“Morning, beautiful,” Micah says warmly. I don’t answer, and he doesn’t seem bothered by the silence. If anything, he looks pleased. It’s like yesterday went exactly according to plan. Like, he won. My gaze flicks towards Soren and the murderous expression on his face. Micah notices and just smiles. He deliberately sets the tray in front of me as I sit up.
“Eat,” he commands gently. Oatmeal, toast, and fruit. It is a normal breakfast while Soren is hanging from the ceiling just a few feet away, slowly starving. I want to throw it in his face; instead, I pick up the spoon. Micah’s smile widens.
Good. Let him think he’s winning.
“Julie wants to see you,” he says simply. The words make me pause with the spoon halfway brought to my mouth. Not Mom, not mother, just Julie. Like she’s any other person, and maybe she is. She is the woman I called Mom, and I thought died two decades ago. I have distant memories of things that felt like happiness, but now I’m not even convinced it was actually her.
I still don’t answer, but I eat like I am instructed to. I don’t look Micah directly in the eyes because I don’t want him to take it as a challenge. I just eat until the tray is empty, and then look up at him.
He offers me his hand, and I just stare at it for a moment. When I take it, he pulls me up to stand, and then I am led to the door. I don’t even get a chance to take another glance at my mate before we are in the hallway.
