Page 141 of Born in Depravity

Damien ran his fingers absently over my skin. “Whore or not, whether I care is not up for you to decide. What is mine is mine, and the only way you can take anything or anyone away from me is if you kill me first.”

I had a feeling Damien was talking about more than me.

Petrov stuttered something I didn’t clearly hear. Then another voice spoke up, a voice that had ice running through my veins.

“I think the girl was set to marry someone,” Henry said.

I bit my lip to keep from making any noise. I could still remember the look in his eyes as Father kicked me on the floor because I didn’t want him to touch me.

Nikolay laughed. “So?”

“So do you think she might get stolen right from under you? Although, I doubt the man the little princess was set to marry would want her back now.”

Damien spoke quietly, though I was sure everyone heard him. “Careful with your words, Ramos. You’re in my territory now.”

Henry didn’t respond to that.

The woman with Petrov clanged her fork against her glass. “This is a happy occasion. Let’s not talk about things that don’t matter, gentlemen.”

The way she side-eyed me told me she was talking about me. Thethingthat didn’t matter. I looked down.

Dinner seemed to have gotten back to normal—or at least as normal as it could be with ten women collared. I counted.

They were all avoiding eye contact, looking down at the floor.

A lump the side of a baseball made its way up my throat. I didn’t want to think about what would happen to them after dinner.

Damien moved beside me. I looked to see him holding out a fork with some sort of meat on it in front of my face.

I looked up at him as I took the food from the fork with my mouth. He nodded approvingly.

Dinner went by like that, with Damien feeding me most of the food on his plate, until I was full. I turned my face to his thigh when I didn’t want to eat anymore. He ran his fingers through my hair once and I rested there, closing my eyes.

I couldn’t wait for this stupid dinner to be over so I could go back to my room. Or better yet, I couldn’t wait for when I could leave this house and—

I didn’t know what was to happen to me after we left this house.

It hadn’t been long since they took me, but the thought of trying to survive outside in this world without them seemed unimaginable.

I opened my eyes, and for the first time since I sat down, I made eye contact with one of the women.

She was young. Probably about my age if not a little younger, and she was beautiful, with long blond hair and kind brown eyes. She seemed surprised that I was resting my face against Damien’s leg.

I looked back at her.

She shook her head, as if wanting to tell me something, then looked back down. Unlike me, she wasn’t wearing a dress but some sort of lingerie. In fact, the clothes the other women were wearing were just as revealing.

I turned back to Damien.

I was starting to think the men who had taken me weren’t as bad as they wanted me to believe.

I wasn’t broken.

The whisper of the wordyetechoed in my mind, but I shook it away.

Dinner passed by, but if I’d thought I could go back to my room, I was mistaken. Damien helped me up off the floor when the table was cleared. I felt eyes on me.

Both Petrov and Henry were looking at me.

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