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“Your what?”
The tip of Bleddyn’s ears turned red. “Cariad is the word for mistress.”
I sat still for a moment, my distrust and anger fizzing inside of me like a shaken coke bottle. It erupted in a hissed accusation. “Iknewit. This is all just a ruse to get into my pants, isn’t it? Well, you know what? Thanks for dinner, but I’ll be okay by myself. Have a nice life.”
I pushed past him before he could react and stormed out of the tavern. Outside, I stopped and listened. Nobody was following me. There were no shouts of “Stop her!”
Anger was still bubbling through my veins, mixing with a strange sense of being betrayed by a man I barely knew. But even as I stood, ready to walk away, a small voice in the back of my head warned me of the dangers that lurked outside.
I was in a foreign world, one that I hardly knew. Wouldn’t I be safer with Bleddyn, even if I had to buy his protection with my body? He wasn’t exactly bad to look at.
Night had fallen, but the air was warm. An owl hooted in the distance, and somebody laughed in a house nearby. I was in a city, for God’s sake. It couldn’t be that hard to find my way around. After growing up in in a big human city, a small Fae town held little danger.
Taking a deep breath, I dismissed familiar feelings—regret and doubts whether I’d done the right thing, staying behind when all my friends returned to the safety of the human world.
But underneath it all was an emptiness, a feeling I avoided as much as possible. The yearning for my dad made my chest ache. Unconsciously, I rubbed my hand over where my heart was.
When I noticed what I was doing, I clenched my fist and marched along the street before Bleddyn might get ideas about catching up with me. I was here on a mission, not to play footsie with one of the Fae.
The light from the lamp posts grew dimmer as I moved through the shadows. The noise of the tavern faded, and I was left with the rustling of vermin and the odd cat slinking away as I approached.
At one stage, I could have sworn there were steps behind me, and I turned sharply into an alley, hoping for cover as I walked away from the larger road. It might not be the smartest idea in an unfamiliar town, but there were plenty of doorways and cellar doors at street level to hide in.
Exhaustion clouded my brain like an ever-increasing fog, and I stumbled toward a horizontal entry in the ground. Maybe I could catch some much-needed sleep and be gone before the owners noticed. Pulling on the door, I lifted it with some effort. Then I turned to climb down the ladder.
My foot was already on the first rung when I realized there was a Fae giant in front of me. My face was in line with his crotch, and a strangled noise, half squeak, half hiccup, escaped me. I’d never heard the guy creep up on me. And he wasn’t alone.
Chapter five
Icouldn’tmakeouttheir faces, but their silhouettes were crowding me. The man nearest to me tilted his head and chuckled. “It seems we caught one of the tavern'sbutainred-handed. What are you looking for,hwr?”
He’d called me a whore, even though he pronounced it weirdly. I should have been insulted, but I never got the chance. The Fae bent down, grabbed my arms, and pulled me out of the cellar so quickly, my breath caught. He lifted me until my face was at his level, then held me tightly against his chest with one arm.
His breath stank of alcohol, and I remembered where I’d seen him before. He was one of the leather-clad men that had stared at me in the tavern. I struggled, trying to get free, but all it earned me was a stinging slap on the rear. I yelped, and he held a huge hand across my mouth.
Bringing his lips close to my ear, he whispered, “We can do this two ways. Either I take what I want by force, and then my men will do the same. Then, I will slit your throat. Nobody will miss a miserable human wench like you.”
I froze, my eyes wide with shock. My stomach turned to ice, and my whole body shook as I hung in his grip like a rag doll.
If only I’d stayed with Bleddyn, this wouldn’t be happening.
The thought kept circling in my mind, but what good did it do? The bastard Fae would rape me, then his friends would do the same, and then I’d die in this stinking alley.
A wet sensation brought me back to the presence. The man’s tongue ran along the outside of my ear, followed by a satisfied groan. I shuddered harder, grimacing at the intrusion. Squeezing my eyes shut, I went limp in his grip. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I imagined the pain he’d inflict on me before I died.
“Or…,” he whispered again, trailing off while I waited for him to continue. “Or we take pleasure from your comely body, and you shall live another day. You might be walking strangely for a while, but you will be alive. The choice is yours.”
He was letting me live. My head was spinning with the conflicting emotions. For a split second, I felt something like gratitude for my abuser, before common sense took over. I wouldn’t have to go through this if the Fae in front of me weren’t such sadistic bastards. But if he kept his words, I’d be alive at the end of it.
More tears wet my face, running down the back of my throat. I swallowed them down and asked, “You promise?”
His grip tightened, and I winced. “My word is my bond, hwr. If you submit, we will let you live.”
He moved his hand away from my mouth and shoved it under my shirt as I dangled against his chest. The motion pushed my chest away and my lower body tightly against his.
His erection was huge, poking me in the belly. It made it more real. This was happening.
His finger brushed against my bra, pulling the cup down. Then he pinched my nipple hard. I hissed, surprised by the sharp pain. One of his friends had stepped around us, and slipped his hand into the back of my pants, grabbing my ass.
