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“Stay still,” he said as he tightened his hold on my foot.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I tried to do as he commanded. I eventually opened them to see the man return with a bowl of hot water and a gray rag. The thought of having soothing water offer some relief to the burn on my feet kept me from finally breaking down and crying out for mercy.
“We could practically start a fire with all that kindling being removed from your feet,” he said with a chuckle.
Tore looked up from his work for the first time and gave the man a smile. “Very funny, you dope. Can you be of some use and fetch me that salve of mine from the cabinet over there?” He pointed to a cabinet quickly, but then refocused his attention back on my feet. “It looks like I got all the splinters out. Now we just need to clean them up so we don’t risk infection.”
“Thank you for being so kind,” I said softly.
“Do not mistake me for a kind man,” Tore growled. “I tended to your injury to prevent your blood from being poisoned and you becoming ill. You are no good to any of us if you are too sick to be of any use.”
I swallowed hard. Any hope of kindness from this man vanished as the heat of his gaze boring into me sent a deep and ominous chill through my body.
“Gentlemen,” he said as he glanced away from me to look at the rest of the huntsmen in the main room. “Since I spent all this time fixing our broken bird who tried to fly away, I think it is only fair that I get the first turn at breaking her once again.”
My heart stopped as bile built in the back of my throat. I glanced around the room, panic growing with every nod of approval from the other men. What were they agreeing to? What did Tore mean when he said he wanted to break me once again?
“That seems fair,” another offered as he sat down with a large cup of ale in his hand, propping his mud-covered boots up on the wooden table. “We will all have a turn soon enough. I can be a patient man. I always believe that patience leads to happiness eventually.”
“Just don’t be the first to claim every part of her,” Dagr said as he, too, sat down with his own ale. “Save some of her for the rest of us, and you know what part of the princess is mine.”
I couldn’t have protested even if I’d wanted to. Fear took hold of my body and squeezed tightly around my neck. Breath was stolen from my trembling frame as Tore effortlessly swooped me up into his arms. Being carried to his room was like being caught in a raging windstorm. Air whipped past my wayward hair, and my heart beat harder than ever next to his as he held me close—too close. I didn’t have the time to take in my surroundings because all I could focus on was the large chest belonging to this beast of a man cloaked in thick leather.
Entering a smaller, sparsely furnished room, he stood me near the edge of his bed. “Remove your nightdress,” Tore said, as if his command was as normal as any other spoken word.
I took a step back as my heart clenched. “Please…I’m…pure.” I didn’t want to beg, plead, or cry for mercy since deep down I felt my doing so would only fuel the savage within these men even more.
“I would hope so,” he said with a spark of humor in his eye. “Your purity is going to make this even more delicious for me.”
I took another step back, only succeeding in bumping the backs of my legs against the mattress.
“Remove your nightdress, my broken bird.” He took one step closer—the predator preparing to strike his wounded prey. He took another step. “You can make this harder than it needs to be, but the only one who will enjoy that amount of struggle would be me. So I suggest you do as I ask.”
I could see it. Feel it. There would be no mercy. There would be no kindness in this man. He had used up every last bit of decency inside of him mending my damaged feet.
I glanced toward the closed bedroom door, wondering if I had even the slightest chance of escape. But even if I somehow got around Tore’s brute strength, there would be six other huntsmen waiting to have their own turns with me.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he growled as he closed the distance between us. Before I could comprehend fully what was happening, Tore took hold of the thin material of my nightgown and ripped it right down the middle.
