14
Rosa knew it was futile, before she even began — but even so, she couldn’t seem to stop her frantically staggering legs, or the whirling, compulsive panic, screaming through her thoughts. She had to get away. She had to. She had to…
But she only made it a few steps down the pitch-black corridor until he caught her.Johncaught her, the distinct musky smell of him an instant assault on her already-choking breath — and even as she shoved and fought and flailed against him, he only yanked her closer in the blackness, his claws piercing sharp and shockingly painful against her waist.
“Stop this,” he ordered, his voice deep and deafening over Rosa’s wild, despairing wails. “Stop, woman!”
But he was hurting her, shouting at her, the pain and misery and shame howling all at once, breaking through her body her breath her skull. The black all around sparking with spots of white, she couldn’t breathe she couldn’t see she couldn’t evenstand—
Suddenly, somehow, she was falling. Falling into the darkness, straight into the familiar warm strength, while the white spots studded wide and powerful, and there were more talking voices, swirling faint and faraway, mashing all together. You fool Ka-esh, what happened, she’s having a panic attack, youstabbedher. No, she’s not all right, when was the last time she ate or drank, from something other than your prick —
The words were laced through with black-tongue, rumbling harsh through the heat against her, and finally Rosa was moving through space, being carried away in taut powerful arms. And while she should have fought it, fought him, her body could only seem to hang there, the white sparks still flaring behind her blank eyes.
She was trapped. Alone. Foolish.Useless.
Those rigid arms gently put her down, setting her limp body against something flat and soft, and there were more barked orders, the feel of a careful clawed hand lifting her head, and bringing something cool to her mouth. Water, Rosa’s distant thoughts noted, so she drank and drank, until the white spots behind her eyes faded, and the world blinked away.
She didn’t know how long she lay there, slipping in and out of consciousness, drinking whatever was given to her. Not only water, but something that tasted almost like broth, and something else that might have been goat milk. Always given by those same clawed familiar hands, and while part of Rosa wanted to revel in that, to sink into the reassurance of what that meant, there was something deeper, something stronger, that twisted tight and fearful inside. He’d used her. Mocked her. Humiliated her.Useless.
And when Rosa’s eyes finally blinked fully open again, the first thing she saw was —him. Wearing a new grey tunic, and sitting tucked in here with her, leaning back against the stone behind him. In one hand he held a bulging waterskin, and the other held an open book — one of her library’s books, Rosa noted with misgiving — but rather than reading it, he was gazing straight back toward her, his mouth a thin, disapproving line.
A hard chill raced down Rosa’s spine, and her tired, aching body scrabbled itself backwards, away — only to find something solid and cold and utterly unforgiving behind her. Rock, she realized, darting a furtive, desperate glance all around. Rock, and more rock, she was trapped here, trapped in Orc Mountain, trapped withhim—
Her heartbeat was dangerously rising, her breath lurching shallower — when John abruptly thrust the waterskin toward her. “Drink,” his low voice said. “And do not fear. You shall not come to harm.”
That was rather rich, coming fromhim— but the surge of irritation was enough, somehow, for Rosa to sit up, and to snatch for the waterskin. And then to drink, and drink, gulping the wonderful cool liquid down her throat.
When she’d finished, wiping at her mouth, she felt a little better, more like herself again. To the point where she could at least look around, and take stock of this — rock hole, or whatever it was, that he’d trapped her in.
And it was, indeed, a rock hole. But not a natural one, surely, again with the straight, smooth-cut walls, and gently curved corners. And it was deep and wide, with not even enough headroom above for Rosa to stand, and all along the longest side there was a perfectly flat stone shelf, which held a stack of unfamiliar books, and a single flickering candle. And the other long side was open to whatever lay beyond, perhaps — Rosa squinted in the dim light — a larger room, with two long, similar-looking holes in the wall opposite. Almost as if they were deep, carved-outbunks.
“W-where am I?” Rosa asked, her voice raspy and hoarse, and in reply John gave an imperious, telltale flick of his fingers toward the waterskin, still clutched in her hand. And for some fool reason, she actually obeyed, again drinking deep, feeling the cool water’s relief on her dry throat. And when John flicked his hand again, saying give it back, she obeyed that too, tossing the empty waterskin into his waiting fingers.
“You are in our mountain, in the Ka-esh wing,” John said now, with particular slowness, as though he were talking to a child. “And, you are in my bed.”
His bed. Rosa’s heartbeat picked up again, her eyes searching around her, but yes, that made sense. It explained the flat silken softness beneath her — furs, she vaguely thought, rubbing a hand against one — and another one lay heavy and warm over her, like a blanket. And truly, thiswouldbe a lovely, marvellous bed to sleep in at nights, so cozy and private and safe — if not, of course, for the fact that it belonged to anorc. Tohim.
The memories surged again, dragging up the humiliation, the mockery, the shame. The image, far too strong, of herself spread-eagled on her back, his big hand curved powerful and proprietary against her dripping-wet heat…
She scrabbled back further, closer against the stone behind her, yanking the fur tight up to her neck. No.No. He was a cruel, manipulative beast. Amonster.
“Y-you,” she breathed, to those dispassionate black eyes, “haveonechance to explain your actions, orc.One.”
Those eyes blinked, once, but then that cold, familiar sneer curled across his mouth. “What must Iexplain,” his flat voice said. “I have only done all I swore to do. I have brought you to my mountain. I have kept you safe. I have fed you and clothed you and tended you in my ownbed.”
Rosa’s head was already beginning to ache, and she glared at his face, at his smug self-servingbullshit. “And in that room?” she demanded. “When you used me, and mocked me, andhumiliatedme?”
There was a flare of something new in those eyes, hinting at frustration, or disbelief. “I did not use you, or mock you, orhumiliateyou,” he countered. “I only sated your hunger, and granted you the relief you craved. I gave youjoy. Youwishedfor this.”
A brief, unwilling vision of that flared across Rosa’s thoughts — him standing over her, warm and approving, while the pleasure flashed and soared — but she choked it back, shook her head. “You used it against me, to make apoint,” she gritted out. “And worse, you did it in front of your ownbrothers. Your ownfamily.”
Those eyes blinked again, and for an instant they looked almost — pained. “They are not my blood kin, in the way you humans think this,” he snapped, his voice even harder than before. “I have none of these left. Tristan and Salvi are my —”
He broke off there, frowning mightily at the stone wall beside Rosa’s head, and she frowned straight back at him, reluctantly following the pieces of that. He had no family either. And Tristan and Salvi were his — what? His friends? Hislovers?
The thought of that curdled in Rosa’s gut, and she pulled the fur up closer, covering where — she shot a brief glance downwards — she was still wearing the tunic, at least. “And you think,” she managed, “that that somehow makes itbetter? That I wouldwantto be mocked before them like that? Or thattheywould want to see such a thing?”
The curl was back on John’s lip again, the frustration glittering across those eyes. “You think my brothers have never before witnessed a woman’s taking thus?” he asked, voice cold. “We orcs do not find shame in our pleasure, as humans do. When Salvi had a mate, he fucked her before us each night, and made her beg and scream and spurt for our eyes. There was great joy in this.”
