Page 5 of Curvy Hostage Mate
While I appreciated it, half of me wondered whether that protection hadn’t backfired in the long run. I’d never had to speak up for myself.
“I haven’t forgotten,” I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “I was just saying I thought it was unnecessary.”
With an angry snarl, Cain gripped my neck and pressed me against the wall. “Watch your mouth,” he hissed. “You’re not here to give your opinions or talk back to me.”
“Please let go of me,” I whispered.
He barked out a laugh. “Or you’ll do what? You can’t do anything to me. Not with these.” He tapped the thick bracelet wrapped around my forearm. A pretty, bejeweled thing that seemed to shimmer in any light. Even if I hadn’t known what it could do, I could sense the magic radiating off it. I wanted to curse whatever witch had ever invented these in the first place.But I couldn’t. The bracelet prevented me from using any sort of magic that might harm Cain or any of his men.
Kendra had somehow managed to outsmart it, at least to a certain degree, using spells innocuous enough that it wouldn’t trigger. Since then, the spell on it had strengthened. I couldn’t cast any spell if I intended to use it to escape or cause any sort of harm, even if it was indirect.
My eyes flicked down to the floor, heat rushing to my face as I tried to make myself as small as possible. I heard Cain laugh. Two fingers slipped beneath my chin and forced me to look into his cold blue eyes. He gave a sinister grin with sharp teeth that made my blood run cold. A spark of hunger and lust burned in his gaze as his eyes flicked up and down my body. His free hand ran down my side to grip my hip, squeezing just a little too tight.
“You shouldn’t be worrying your pretty little head about that,” he said. “You have more important things to think about.”
I swallowed, lips thinning as I stared up at him, feeling helpless as he kept me pinned against the wall.
“I hope you’re looking forward to our mating ceremony next week,” he said, his hand reaching up. He wrapped a finger around a lock of my hair and tugged hard. “I have the prettiest little dress picked out for you.”
I didn’t answer, didn’t nod or shake my head. All I did was look to the side. The truth was, I doubted if much would change after the mating ceremony beyond Cain becoming even more possessive, if that was at all possible. He was controlling enough already. I didn’t know how he could manage to be more so. He already made me sleep in his bed and pulled me along at his side whenever possible. When he wasn’t at my side, he had at least one person watching me or had me locked in his room. I didn’t get a moment’s peace. I didn’t see how it could get much worse.
Once it happens, you’ll be stuck for good,a tiny voice in my head whispered.At least right now, you have a tiny chance of getting free.
It was a cute thought, but one I didn’t take much stock in. I couldn’t see any way out of this. Not on my own.
If I were Kendra, it might be different. She was the strong one, the pretty one. She wouldn’t give up. But I didn’t know what I could do, not without the risk of getting in trouble.
A broad-shouldered man with light brown hair and a scar along the side of his cheek strolled up. Thresh, one of Cain’s Inner Circle, one of the more dangerous ones. He gave me a dismissive look with a flick of his eyes, then turned to Cain. Thresh muttered in Cain’s ear, and Cain gave a curt nod before turning back to me.
“Darling, something has just come up,” he said.
I hated when he called me “darling,” and I was fairly certain he knew it. Just another game to prove he was in control.
“I’m going to have to go take care of it,” Cain continued. “Thresh, take her to our room, then come to my office.”
Before relinquishing the chain, Cain yanked me toward him again before forcing his lips against mine. Shivers of revulsion radiated through me, and I fought back the bile threatening to creep up my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for him to break the kiss.
He finally did. Giving my hip another squeeze, he handed Thresh the chain and strolled down the hall.
Without a word to me—I was fairly certain I’d heard Thresh say a grand total of ten words since I had first met him—he tugged on the leash and guided me back toward my room.
Out of everyone in Cain’s Inner Circle, Thresh scared me the most. Not because he was silent, or because he was almost as large as Cain, or even that cool brutality that seemed to lurk in his eyes, though all of those qualities certainly helped. It was the way he looked at everything, as if trying to figure out the best way to destroy it.
He brought me to Cain’s chambers, shoved me inside, and slammed the door shut. I heard the bolt slide into place as he locked me inside.
Letting out a deep sigh of relief that I was finally alone, I walked over to the window, leaning against the sill as I stared out at the purple sky. As I did, an overwhelming pang of loneliness slammed into me.
I missed Kendra. I had tried scrying just so I could see her, to make sure she was happy and safe. Except every time I had tried, it hadn’t worked. I knew I had talent when it came to magic. I was probably better than Kendra, even. It was one of the only things about myself that I actually took some amount of confidence in. So if I couldn’t reach my sister, it meant Cain had taken some sort of precaution to prevent it.
At the very least, I knew she was safe. Cain had thrown a fit the day after she had managed to escape with those guys, so I knew that whatever plan he’d had failed. He had kept me locked up in that other pocket of the Underside, sealed off from everyone but for his Inner Circle, for over a week while he waited to see what the fallout would be. Once he’d deemed it safe, he brought me back here and slowly started back up the trade. I’d been under his thumb ever since.
And unless something happened in the next few days, I’d be stuck like this for good.
Chapter 3 - Chris
“What’s it like?” Trent asked as we made our way to the clearing where the portal supposedly was.
“Besides revolting?” Nolan asked. “About what you would expect from an otherworldly city whose entire economy revolves around the slave trade.”
