The second the words leave his mouth, Dom casually hands him the knife without either of them needing to say another word, like they’ve done this together enough times to read each other without speaking.
Something cold crashes through me instantly.
“No, please—”
Cain grabs my jaw again before I can finish begging and forces another piece of meat into my mouth, then another right afterit, giving me no time to spit or breathe properly before he keeps going until my mouth is too full to get anything out except muffled sounds and broken choking breaths.
Tears blur my vision completely as he grips my face harder.
“Chew!”
Then the blade slices into my stomach again. The pain tears through me so violently my entire body convulses against the restraints while muffled cries vibrate uselessly in my throat around the food forced into my mouth. Cain drags the knife slowly across my skin, opening fresh cuts one beside the other over the burns already covering my chest and stomach, almost careful with it, like he’s taking his time deciding exactly where he wants me to hurt next.
“Look at that,” Dom says with a grin. “What a gentleman. He’s even helping you pee.”
The words barely register at first through the pain until sudden warmth starts running down my legs.
My stomach drops.
No.
Oh God no.
Humiliation crashes over me so hard I almost stop breathing as urine pours uncontrollably down my thighs, splashing against the floor and barely hitting the pot beneath me while both of them watch it happen.
I want to disappear.
I want to die.
Cain just keeps dragging the blade lazily over my skin while staring up at me with something close to satisfaction in his eyes.
“Now chew,” he growls. “Or fucking swallow. I don’t give a shit.”
This is so wrong. So fucking wrong.
My thoughts are spinning so fast they barely make sense anymore, panic and pain crashing into each other until it feels like my mind can’t hold all of it at once.
I don’t deserve this.
I don’t deserve any of this.
But my body stopped feeling like mine a long time ago. My mouth keeps chewing automatically around the food, like survival took over somewhere along the way without asking me first, while the burning sting across my skin keeps getting worse with every second. Blood runs steadily down my stomach now, dripping over my waist and thighs in thick crimson lines before splattering onto the floor beneath me, slowly mixing with the urine around my feet in a sight so humiliating it makes fresh tears spill down my face instantly.
I want to beg him to stop. God, I want to beg! But my mouth is too full to get the words out properly, and somehow I can feel that Cain knows it too, because he doesn’t stop cutting me. If anything, he almost looks like he’s waiting for it, waiting for me to finally choke out another plea before giving me permission to breathe again.
Instead, the blade drags higher. A broken sound escapes me as he starts slicing into the skin over my breasts, opening fresh cuts across already burned flesh before slowly moving upward toward my collarbone.
My entire body feels like it’s on fire now. The pain barely even registers as pain anymore, because there’s too much of it, too many places hurting at once for my brain to separate any of itproperly. My skin feels hot and numb at the same time, ruined nerve endings struggling to keep up after everything he’s already done, and every breath that leaves me comes out shaking harder than the last.
As soon as I finally manage to swallow, the begging bursts out of me uncontrollably.
“Please, Cain… please, I’m begging you, stop!”
Whatever was holding me together finally snaps completely, tears blurring everything while I feel snot starting to smear across my top lip. But for the first time in my life, I genuinely don’t care how disgusting I look anymore. I don’t care about dignity, makeup, appearances, any of the stupid things that used to matter before this place. All I care about right now is making this stop. I just want them to leave me alone for ten fucking minutes.
“Son of a…”
Dom’s voice suddenly cuts through my pleading, cold and feral in a way that instantly makes my stomach drop. My eyes move toward him before I can stop myself, and the second I see the look on his face, regret crashes through me immediately.
