Page 27 of Owned By the Hvrok

A gasp left her throat. She bit it back.

Not in pain. Not from injury.

But from the sheer, violenteaseof it.

As if everything that had been forced on her—everythingshehadn’t chosen—meant less than nothing to him.

And then…

It was done.

She was naked.

Utterly exposed.

The air felt foreign on her skin. Too bright. Too sharp. Like light could cut.

She wanted to cover herself. To sink into the floor. To disappear.

But she didn’t.

She stood.

Her spine rigid. Her fists clenched. Her body trembling—but upright.

He stood before her, still clad in full armor. Untouched. Unrevealed. She was the only one bared. The only one vulnerable. And he didn’t evenblink.

Not a whisper of flesh.

Not a glimpse of face.

Just black metal, towering and expressionless.

Her voice cracked as it left her.

“Bastard.”

He didn’t react.

Didn’t speak.

Didn’t offer any sign that her nakedness meant anything to him at all.

He just watched.

And that—somehow—was worse than anything else.

CHAPTER 18

For the first time, he saw her.

Trulysawher.

Not clothed. Not half-shrouded in the filth of the trading station. Not flailing with fury or cloaked in pride.

Just her.

A human. Naked.

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