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“It’s your lady, the queen,” Gold-tooth answered happily, only to glance at me apprehensively and add, “Isn’t it?”
“No, that’s not the fucking queen, you idiot.” He smacked Gold-tooth on the back of the head and then stepped closer to me to get a good look at my face. “She looks familiar to Yasmin, though. But she is most definitely not the woman who’s been assisting us these past few months.”
My mouth fell open, shock consuming me.
Yasmin, I thought with a sickening horror. What the hell have you done this time?
“Eh, sorry there, Prince, but there were two of them going on about it, insisting they were the queen. We must’ve taken the wrong one.”
“Yes, I’d say you did,” Prince Murdock growled, still staring intently at me. Then he waved his fingers toward the door. “You three… Go back and fetch the true queen. Lachlan…” He glanced toward Gold-tooth. “Help me make this imposter more comfortable, would you?”
I backed slowly away from the prince as the other three ran off to retrieve Yasmin. When he stepped slowly toward me, I suddenly realized just how absolutely terrified I was. I hadn’t had a moment to really experience the emotion yet. But now… Now it blared through me, like a warning horn, making me momentarily dizzy, my vision going unfocused as my breathing picked up uncontrollably.
Prince Murdock’s stare certainly didn’t ease my anxieties, either. “So…” he said, quite lasciviously. “You must be the sister.” A slow smile spread across his face. “I wonder if your breasts are just a pretty as hers are when they’re bared to a man’s eyes.” He moved even closer. “Do you prefer to be on top as well?”
I shuddered. Eww. How could Yasmin stomach being intimate with such a foul beast?
“You’ll never find out,” I swore, smacking his hand away and spitting in his face when he reached for my chest.
Shock, then instant rage, filled his features before he backhanded me. “Bitch!”
Pain exploded in my cheek as I stumbled backward. But he didn’t let me fall. He grabbed my wrist in a punishing grip and yanked me flush against him, sneering.
“Oh, you’re going to pay for that. Painfully.” He leaned toward me to wipe my spit off his face with the cloth of my dress, using the very area that covered my breasts as his towel.
I clenched my teeth hard and struggled, tugging against his grip and trying to kick him through my heavy skirt to no success. Failing spectacularly at that, I gave up on the attempt in order to jerk my face forward, head-butting him right in his jaw with much better results.
The satisfaction I got from watching his head snap back and blood gush from his nose quickly died when he cursed and balled up his hand before plowing it into the side of my face.
Seeing stars, I stumbled away from him, tripping over a small foot stool sitting in front of a chair and windmilling my arms as my feet went airborne. I landed hard on my back, momentarily dazed by the breath-stealing land.
The few moments it took me to get my wind back and realize the skirt of my dress had fallen up to my knees, he was already on me, grabbing the hem and yanking it up further. I tried to shove and kick him, but he pinned my legs apart with his knees and ordered, “Grab her hands.”
When calloused fingers manacled my wrists, I growled, “No!”
I thrashed for all I was worth, trying to wiggle my hips out from under Murdock as he hoisted my skirt higher.
Oh God. This wasn’t working. I wasn’t fighting them off. Cool air washed up my legs, and horror spiraled through me as he exposed me bit by bit. A chill raced up the back of my neck, the shock paralyzing a part of my brain, so that all I could think was, “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This can’t really be happening.”
I was already trying to process the fact that someone had stolen my baby earlier this very day, that a traitor had helped enemies infiltrate the castle, that a neighboring kingdom had invaded my beloved Donnelly, and my own sister had deceived all of us. Now this. Why this, too? Why?
No matter how I struggled, I just could not buck the bastard off me. Tears of frustration and terror filled my eyes.
Being as bare-chested as he was, there wasn’t a lot of clothing I could use as leverage to fight back with, either; it only put me into direct contact with his slimy skin, which unnerved me all the more.
“Time to pay, bitch,” he leaned down to murmur, flashing me a smile that pitted a dimple in his cheek.
I wondered if I’d have to stare at that dimple the entire time he violated me. Would I have to watch his smile as he finished and came? Would he laugh as he pulled himself from my broken, used body?
Dammit, no. I didn’t want this to happen.
For some reason, I thought of Urban. Would he be able to feel my pain and have to experience it with me? That made it even worse.
Then a voice roared, “Hey!” from across the room.
And I was never so elated to hear that familiar baritone in my entire life.
Gold-tooth let go of my wrists and sprang to this feet to deal with Urban, but the prince on top of me seemed determined to finish what he’d started. Turning my face toward my one true love, I met Urban’s gaze just as he knelt down on one knee and slid something across the floor straight toward my face. I didn’t even know what he sent my way until I reached out and wrapped my hand around the hilt of a dagger.
