Page 66 of Bought to Break
‘That’s up to you.’
‘Please tell them I’m not,’ she said after a moment.
Not replying, he took her wrists and raised them over her head.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked, trying not to reveal her rising panic.
‘I need to be seen back at the citadel, and I don’t trust you to know what’s good for you. Can’t have you getting away again.’ He looped the rope through a convenient iron ring affixed to the cave wall and pulled it tight, putting an arm around her middle and sliding her along the ground backwards until her back scraped stone. He tied it off, but his arm around her lingered. His breathing quickened. She held hers, expecting at any moment for his control to snap and for him to ravish her against the cave wall. Thankfully, he let go and turned away from her as if he could no longer stand to look. He took a shuddering breath and swore under his breath.
‘I don’t know how Kane does it,’ he said softly to himself and, taking the only oil lamp with him, left the cave without a backward glance.
Lana pulled at the restraints, but they didn’t give even a bit. So she sat in the shadows and waited, the only light coming from the entrance, and soon even that began to wane with the approaching darkness.
Her arms began to ache, raised as they were, and as the hours passed, they became more and more painful. She let the tears come in the pitch black and fell into a fitful sleep sometime in the night.
A noise sounded outsideand her slumber was banished immediately. She sat upright, her arms numb and her body freezing from the damp stone. It was still dark, but she could hear footsteps in the gravel on the path, getting closer.
Torchlight suddenly flooded the cave, blinding her.
‘By the gods. You were right.’
‘You see? I told you what I heard them say. The bitch Greygor is looking forishere.’
She squinted in the light, making out two men – soldiers. They were both quite young, probably not much older than she, but dark haired and typically rough-looking, with battle scars marring their faces and tattered clothes. Each held a torch, which they placed in the brackets set into the stone by the cave’s entrance, illuminating every nook and cranny.
‘Free me,’ she ordered hoarsely.
They ignored her command, so she tried a different tack.
‘Please, I beg you. Cut the rope and let me go. There’s been a mistake.’
‘Greygor will make us Dark Brothers for this,’ one of them said to the other, practically rubbing his hands together.
‘What does a witch do anyway?’
‘Fucked if I know. Whore herself– if the tales are true.’
‘She looks unwell.’
They both really stared at her, taking in her half-naked, bound body and her utter helplessness. They approached her, one of them reaching for her.
‘I’m a Dark Broth–’ she gasped, pulling away as he backhanded her casually across the cheek. Her head struck the rock behind her with a resounding thud and she cried out, at the same time kicking out with her legs. She connected with one of them and heard an ‘oomph’, but her legs were quickly grabbed and one of the men straddled her, his fetid breath turning her stomach.
‘You’re making a mistake,’ she ground out as his hands slid up her body. The mercenary brandished a knife that he had pulled from somewhere on his person, grazing it down her face and nicking her cheek with a grin. She clenched her teeth as she felt a trickle of blood and stared him down. The knife skittered over the flesh of her neck to her chest, cutting her again before beginning to saw at the bindings that shielded her breasts from them. She spat on him and he chuckled, continuing to slash at the linen until it fell away.
She willed herself to look past them, focusing on the flames of one of the torches as she felt him pawing at her roughly. A whimper burst from her lips.
‘Stop wasting time,’ the other complained. ‘I want my turn.’
‘Get her breeches down then,’ the first one replied distractedly.
Her boots were ripped off and thrown unceremoniously across the cave and the other soldier began to tug the legs of her snug trousers hard, pulling her body with them, her arms taking the brunt of the pressure. She heard something pop in her shoulder and was glad everything was still numb.
Then she heard a sound – the tell-tale crunch of a boot on the path. She screamed, praying that they would help her. She looked back at the two men, their desperation for her body making them stupid. The other one continued to pull at her breeches and she saw a shadow at the cave entrance. Then Kane appeared behind them. He froze for a moment when he saw the scene before him and let out a murderous roar that at any other time would have terrified her, but not then. Right at that moment it was the best sound she’d ever heard. He pulled the one still trying to get her trousers off up by his hair and slit his throat with such force it practically severed the man’s head, throwing his body aside before pulling the other one off her and flinging him away. The mercenary turned, drawing his sword.
‘Wait your fucking turn,’ he snarled, attacking Kane head-on. Kane parried easily, feigned left and had his dagger embedded in the man’s abdomen before he could make another move.
The mercenary stared down at himself in disbelief, his cock still hard in his breeches. Kane looked him in the eye and pulled the blade upwards, gutting him like an animal. His innards spilled out onto the floor and he fell to his knees with a moan before falling to one side.
