Page 57 of Bought to Break
She looked up in alarm. Kane stood in front of her and looked angrier than she’d ever seen him. He closed the door abruptly and she scrambled up, putting herself safely behind Viktor and Sorin as she pulled a blanket from the bed to cover herself.
He stalked towards them, his presence suddenly making the room seem even smaller. ‘The other Brothers, the soldiers, everyone can hear you,’ he said quietly, the tension in the room thickening with every word.
Sorin was the first to say something as he tucked his cock away nonchalantly. ‘Who the fuck cares what they can hear?’
Kane’s eyes narrowed and he became even more intimidating. ‘She’s naught but holes to fuck, no better than a whore on the street. That’s what they think.’
Lana’s breath caught at his crude words and, before she could think better of it, she stepped out from behind Viktor as she wrapped the blanket more tightly around herself. ‘Or is that just whatyouthink, Kane?’
His jaw set as he gestured towards Sorin and Viktor. ‘When I and everyone else can hear you through the ship moaning and screaming and I see with my eyes what you’re doing, is there any reason for me not to? Shall I take my fill of you now as well? Shall the rest of the men on the ship?’ he growled.
She flinched and, unbidden, her bottom lip trembled, and she bit it to keep from making a sound. The tears, though, she could do nothing about but dash them from her cheeks. How could he be so cruel? How could he hate her so? What had she done? Suddenly she was ashamed of herself, not for what she had done with Viktor and Sorin, but for letting Kane make her feel that she should be sorry.
She raised her head and looked him full in the face, defiant in her anger. She didn’t take her eyes off him as she addressed the others. ‘Sorin, Viktor, please could you leave us?’
Viktor pulled open the door angrily and left without a word. Sorin, however, put an arm around her and whispered in her ear that he would be close if she needed him. She gave him a small smile and watched as he too left the cabin. Kane closed the door with a slam and locked it.
Taking a small breath, she let the blanket covering her nakedness slip to the floor. ‘There. Take your fill of me then, Kane,’ she sneered.
His eyes dragged down the length of her, lingering on her breasts and mound before coming to rest on her face. And suddenly he was not a step away, pushing her into the wall roughly and kicking her legs apart.
She quivered slightly, but her eyes didn’t leave his. ‘Am I a slave or am I one of you? I wish you would make up your fucking mind!’ she growled. ‘You tell me I’m a Dark Brother now, but you don’t act like it. There should be a bond between us, but there’s nothing but coldness and anger. I might as well fuck every man on this ship. Why should it make any odds to you?’ Her voice raised, though she tried to keep it low. ‘And that you would make me feel shame for taking pleasure with Sorin and Viktor, who I care about and trust while all you give me are hurtful barbs and cruelty, disgusts me.’
He was silent, and still there was nothing in his expression but impassive boredom, which, if anything, made her angrier. ‘Why don’t you put less energy into making me miserable and more into finding the man who destroyed your life? Perhaps then you’d actually find him.’
His jaw clenched and his eyes burned into her, and she realised she’d pushed him too far. She made to duck away under his arm, but his hands grabbed her roughly and spun her around, pressing her into the ship’s bulkhead.
‘It doesn’t matter what you make me do,’ she shouted. ‘Make me hurl myself into the sea. I don’t care. I hate you! Do your worst!’
Still he said nothing, but now it was a pregnant silence, one that made her feel dread. One hand left her and she heard him pull open one of the drawers that were built into the wall next to him. He pulled something out and she twisted her neck to catch a glimpse of it. What she saw made her stomach turn to lead.No.
‘No. No!’ She turned in his grasp so that she was facing him again, and she could see she wasn’t mistaken. He held a dark, leather crop.
Suddenly she was back in Dirk’s stable, bent over a saddle while Ather lashed her again and again with his favoured black one. She could see the gleam in his eye as he hurt her. She could even smell the horses. Her breath came in fits and starts. Her knees felt weak and tears leaked from her eyes. Her gaze found Kane’s, but all she saw in it was fury. This wouldn’t be like the spanking that Viktor had given her, where he’d comforted her afterwards and taken the pain away. This would be a vicious beating to ease Kane’s anger; one that she might not survive.
She was shaking as she took a deep breath, a muffled sob escaping as she turned back to the wall away from him, closed her eyes and waited for him to begin. There was nothing else to do, nowhere to run.
The room was deathly silent save for her uneven breaths and stifled sobs. She wondered where Sorin was. He had said he’d come back if she needed him, but how would he know to? She was too breathless to scream. What if Kane beat her even harder? What if Sorin came back but let Kane do it anyway? What if, like Kane, Sorin didn’t really care for her at all? What if all of this was some elaborate game they were playing with her? That would flay her worse than a flogging ever could. Her legs shook, and she was sure they’d give way by the time Kane began.
He was making her wait. Ather had done this as well. It prolonged her suffering if she didn’t know when the first blow would come. How did her tormentors instinctively know how to do these things? Ather had sometimes paused in the middle of a beating, waiting for her to believe he was finished before starting up again without warning. Cruelty came to these men as easily as breathing.
Lana pushed her palms into the rough planks of the wall, trying to hold herself up, tears blinding her as she cowered like a dog. She hated herself in that moment. She was no freewoman. She was a fraud. She might as well go back to Dirk and muck out stables for the rest of her days, dodging Ather as best she could.Pathetic.
Something suddenly thudded down next to her and her body instinctively recoiled, quaking legs making her lose her balance. She fell to the hard floor and immediately curled into a tight ball. A moment later the door opened and slammed shut. For a long time, she couldn’t make herself look. Would Sorin be there? Were they just waiting for her to let her guard down so they could continue their twisted diversions?
Finally, hearing nothing, she peeked through her arms. The cabin was empty. She sat up gingerly and pulled herself up onto one of the bunks. Not bothering to get dressed, she lay down, curled up and covered herself with a blanket completely. After a time, her breathing returned to normal, but as the terror ebbed, something else took its place: a sadness so deep she was racked with sobs that wouldn’t abate.
Chapter 29
Viktor
Sometime after his retreat from the cabin, Viktor leant with his back against the rail on the main deck, watching the sun begin its descent beneath the waves. He’d left because Lana had asked it of him and Sorin, though it had been against his better judgement to leave her alone when Kane was in such a mood.
He ignored yet another knowing look from one of the soldiers as he walked by and muttered a curse. Perhaps Kane was right. Lana wasn’t their slave or their whore, but maybe from the outside it would seem to others that she was. While no one could harm her, a lack of respect for one member of their unit would in turn affect the whole.
Kane appeared on deck, stomping up the stairs from the belly of the ship. Without even a glance Viktor’s way, he made for the prow, where the captain stood conferring with the navigator. At the same time, Sorin came up from the galley.
‘I thought you were staying close to the cabin,’ Viktor called.
