I hit it with a thud, the pain only getting worse. He crawled between my thighs, and I attempted to keep him away as best as I could.
No, I can’t let this happen. I need to … I need to get him away. Right now. Luciano is waiting for me.
“No,” I screamed, clutching my stomach, my tears burning my vision. “Get away! I?—”
Alvin ripped off my pants, and suddenly, a warm gush of wetness spread down my thighs. My eyes widened, the pain becoming quicker and harder and stronger by the millisecond.
Did my … did my water just break?! And at a time like this?!
I shoved my hand forward in a weak attempt to keep Alvin back, but he continued to move between my thighs, shoving my knees to the sides and grabbing my waist to pull me closer.
“No, Alvin, stop!” I cried. “Please, stop. You’ll kill her. You’ll kill my baby if you don’t stop.”
“Good,” he snarled. “Then I can get you pregnant with mine.”
CHAPTER
SEVENTY-TWO
YEOSIN
Pain exploded between my legs, and I stumbled back against the wall, grasping at Alvin’s chest in an attempt to displace all the agony. My claws dug into his muscle as he continued to move closer to me.
Why?! Why did this have to happen now?
“Stop!” I cried.
My baby might have already died and come back to life, but I didn’t want a dragon touching her or touching her through me. What would she think of me if the first thing she saw was her mother being raped?
Alvin advanced, forcing me to spread my legs and touching me anywhere that he could. I had seen this part of him before, the vile animal that came out when I didn’t want him inside me.
He had raped me before, but I didn’t think that was what it was at the time. I’d brushed it off as something all guys did, but Luciano hadn’t dared.
Something creaked to my right, and I peered over in an attempt to look at anything but Alvin. I couldn’t bear seeing his face as he raped me. Luciano was right. I shouldn’t have come down here alone.
Because I hadn’t listened to him, I was about to … about to …
Alvin’s mouth met my jaw roughly. I stared through my tears at the vacant cell beside me. Surely, a moment ago, it held a phoenix.
Where … where did she go? Did she leave me? Did Gideon actually help her escape?
That bastard Gideon … he had betrayed me. He wouldn’t release any phoenix.
“You’re all mine, Yeosin,” Alvin snarled. “I don’t care what happens to anyone else whe?—”
Suddenly, Alvin was hurled off me with power so immense that a wave of air dispersed through the space around me. My body was thrust against the wall even harder, and I dropped to the ground, my legs spread and my vagina aching with indescribable pain.
Rush after rush rattled through my body. My head lolled back, and I sobbed, clutching my vagina. When I pulled my fingers away, they were covered in blood.
Blood? Why are they covered in blood?!
Another indescribable ache, and I found myself on my knees, leaning onto my hands and sobbing. “Please, be alive,” I said, feeling her crowning. I dropped down onto one shoulder and spread my legs wider.
I didn’t want to give birth in a prison. I wanted to be at home—in a packhouse—with Luciano by my side, him pushing the hair off my sweaty forehead and telling me that I was doing a good job, that everything was going to be okay. But was it? Was it really going to be okay?
I was giving birth to a phoenix in the middle of Alvin’s dungeon for phoenixes. I couldn’t tell where Alvin had gone, but the room around me was quickly filling with fire.
“Oh my God!” I screamed, pushing as hard as I could. “Fuck!”