Page 39 of Bought to Break
Suddenly the one furthest away gurgled and fell, blood spurting from a small hole in his neck. Sorin stood behind him, a tiny knife the only weapon in his hand.
Ryon and the other one pulled their swords, but Viktor and Kane were already there. The next one died with his guts spilling out onto the floor. Even a Dark Brother was no match for three of his kind when he’d been caught with his cock out. Ryon was disarmed quickly and pushed to his knees.
He gazed around in fury. ‘You can’t do this, Kane. I have supporters. This will start a war. She was given to me fairly. You were there!’
‘A war?’ Kane laughed coldly. ‘I have more support than the old fool and you put together.’ He grabbed the man’s hair and pulled his head back. ‘She is ours.’
Ryon’s eyes widened in terror. ‘She is unclaimed! Our laws–’ His words were cut off as his head was jerked and a knife put to his throat.
‘Wait!’ Lana cried.
Miraculously, Kane did as she said, but he rolled his eyes skyward. ‘If he is spared, he is oath-bound to avenge his Brothers. He must die.’
‘Cut me down.’
Sorin came forward and cut the ropes that held her, catching her in his arms and letting her down to the floor gently. When he was sure she could stand on her own, he stepped back, and she walked slowly to Kane, hiding the fact that her legs felt as if they would give out at any moment. She reached out tentatively and grasped the knife he held. With an indulgent sigh, Kane let her have it.
Her fingers were cold and tingled after being tied above her for so long, but she held it fast, shaking slightly.
She looked into her torturer’s eyes. ‘I told you I would kill you.’
She plunged the knife into his chest hard with a cry, cutting through flesh and being deflected by bone in her inexperience, but she buried it to the hilt all the same and he flopped over, moaning on the floor as he died.
She looked at Kane and the others. They were frozen in place in various states of disbelief.
‘A cloak,’ she said simply.
Viktor gave her his, wrapping it around her shoulders, and only then did her knees give out. He swung her up into his arms and he carried her away. She kept her eyes closed through the camp until they arrived at Kane’s tent, and only when they were inside did she open them again.
She pulled away from Viktor and, feeling oddly as if she had come home, poured some warm water from a large jug into a basin. She let Viktor’s cloak drop, heedless of the Brothers, who watched her every move in silence, and proceeded to sponge the past hours from her body as best she could. Everywhere they’d touched her had bruised, and she was covered in dark marks.
When she was finished, she didn’t even spare them a look as she climbed into the nearest bed and went to sleep.
When she woke,the first thing she saw was Kane. He was sitting in a chair next to the bed. Without a word, he handed her a wooden cup. Discovering it was water, she drank thirstily.
Kane took it from her and set it on the floor.
Lana regarded him with disgust. ‘Betrayer’, she whispered.
Kane at least had the decency to flinch.
She pushed the covers away so he could see what they had done. ‘I won’t thank you for the rescue. Everything they did was because of you. You killed my father and then you did this to me. I don’t want to look at you.’
He stood up and she thought he would leave. Instead he began to unbutton his tunic.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked in alarm.
‘Greygor will just take you back and give you away again or put you in one of the pleasure tents to punish us for what we’ve done if you don’t truly belong to us by our laws. Whether you want to look upon me or not, it must be done before he hears that Ryon and the others are dead.’
She sat up with wide eyes. ‘What must be done?’
‘I should have done it before. I was a fool. If I had, Greygor wouldn’t have been able to take you from us.’
‘What must be done?’ she asked again, pulling the blankets around her as if that would keep her safe from him. Then she noticed Sorin and Viktor standing in the shadows, watching silently.
‘A woman who is not part of the Army is treated as spoils until she’s allocated a place either in the tents or in domestic labour. In many ways, taken women keep this camp going after they are forced to make their lives here.’ Kane kicked off his boots and she shrank back as he loomed over her. ‘We’ve decided not to give you to the Army so you must be bound to us and claimed.’
Her bottom lip trembled and she willed it to be still, hoping he didn’t see how afraid she was. After the day’s events, she was drained yet on edge. She wanted them all to leave her be, yet she feared being alone.
