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“You’re insane,” I whispered, my mind refusing to accept he’d meant those words.
Lorik’s expression went blank for a second, and then his features contorted with anger. He backhanded me with such violence, I feared my neck would break. Blood exploded from my mouth, and my teeth rattled in my head.
Dazed, my head hung down at the edge of the short spanking bench. Lorik’s hand closed around my long braid and yanked back on it, forcing me to look at him. His features twisted in an angry grimace, his eyes promised a world of hurt.
“I am not insane, you cunt!” he spat. “But I can be. Disrespect me again, and you’ll be reminded that Guldans know how to put whores in their place even better than Braxians.”
Ignoring the throbbing on the right side of my face, I pressed my lips together to keep my stupid tongue from getting me into any more trouble.
“Here’s what is going to happen,” Lorik said, in a voice sharp enough to cut steel. “My Braxian partner is going to pay you a visit to settle that score with you; twenty-five lashes and the night in a cage.”
I cast a horrified sideways glance at the empty animal cages.
“Oh no, sweetheart. Not those ones. Something a little more snug.” The cruelty of the smile stretching his lips had my stomach in knots. “In the morning, fifteen Braxians will come say hello. They hope to bring along that animal you’ve been fucking, but he’s a hard one to catch. Failing that, they’ll prepare him a nice video of them making an intimate acquaintance with that cunt of yours for the day he does fall into their hands.”
My body shook with an irrepressible trembling, each tremor sending new waves of agony along my tortured flesh.
“Now, now,” Lorik said. His grip loosened on my braid, and his fingers gently massaged the sting in my scalp. “There’s no need for this. I won’t let them hurt you or damage you. Well… at least, not permanently,” he amended. “By this time tomorrow afternoon, you and I will be on our way back to Guldar to celebrate our wedding. As you can guess, I’m not a fan of pussies. So I’ll only fuck yours to impregnate you. The sooner you give me a couple of heirs to secure the Vrok estate for my bloodline, the sooner we’ll both be free of such unpleasantness.” The mad glint flashed through his eyes. “Your ass though… your ass I will fuck often, once we’ve fixed your appearance. Through you, I’ll finally get to fuck my Varrek.”
Leaning in again, Lorik kissed my lips with something akin to tenderness. He rose from his crouching position and walked away from me, towards the counter ahead. Too many emotions ran through me, mixed with lancing pain, preventing me from forming a rational plan. That man was stark, raving mad. If I didn’t find a way to escape before the Fifteen arrived, I’d be dead or broken. And I didn’t even want to think about what that would do to Ravik.
Oh Goddess, Ravik!
If they caught him, they would give him a slow, painful death. Although I knew it to be hopeless, I tried to push my power into the metal shackles around my wrists again, in vain. My head jerked up as Lorik turned around and came back towards me, a large knife in his hand. Panicked, I pulled on my restraints, the hard edges scraping the skin from my wrists. I breathed loud and fast as he closed the distance.
“Relax, stupid female,” Lorik snapped. “I already told you I’m not going to harm you.”
On the verge of hyperventilating, I twisted my neck over my shoulder in a futile attempt to see what he intended to do with that blade. He picked up my braid and yanked my head back. For a split second, I thought he would slit my throat. Instead of the terror I’d expected, a cool blanket of peace and acceptance descended on me. Better death than what he’d planned for me. If my advanced scanners had failed to detect the hidden lift and the presence of an entire underground floor, Ravik and his men would never find me.
And then I felt pressure on my hair as the blade sawed through my braid.
“NOOOO!” I screamed.
With a soft snick, the pull on my scalp relented, and my head fell forward again, the short stump of my remaining braid brushing against my shoulder. Facing the metal plating on the floor, from the corner of my eyes, I watched Lorik walk back towards the counter. Something snapped inside of me at the sight of his hand casually holding my severed braid, its long tail dragging on the floor.
I wailed like my soul had been torn right out of me. What his beating hadn’t achieved, losing the one symbol of my Veredian heritage that I’d never had to hide, even as Ravena, broke me. Like all my Sisters, I’d grown my hair since birth. Its purpose as a weapon had always been secondary. The spiritual beliefs of the Veredians dictated that the longer the hair, the stronger its roots, which symbolized the bond that tied all Veredians, the greater the wisdom of the bearer, and the more powerful their psionic ability.
The dam broke as I bawled with heart-wrenching sobs. I’d always considered myself a strong female, but I had nothing left. All the sorrows of my life came crashing down; the little girl I’d been who’d pined for a mother she wouldn’t meet for decades, my lifetime of hiding in plain sight, the death of my father, the heartbreaking choice between my only brother and my Sisters, his untimely death by my fault, and my Ravik…
“Females… Always so much drama,” Lorik mumbled with disgust.
Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, but I’d gone numb inside. I didn’t react when Lorik came back to me, hands covered with surgical gloves. He loosened the knots of my remaining braid, then massaged some cream from a small container into my hair. A cold tingle spread through my scalp. His task done, he pinned my hair in a bun on top of my head. Taking a couple of steps back he admired his work with obvious satisfaction.
“You have very nice hair. It’s responding well to the treatment,” Lorik said, looking pleased. “We’ll have it styled properly on our way back to Guldar. For now, I suggest you rest. I’m afraid tonight and tomorrow morning are not going to be much fun. Here, let me fix this for you,” he said.
Lorik picked up a cushioned object from the counter and brought it over. Careful, almost gentle, he lifted my head and placed the headrest attachment to the spanking bench.
“There you go,” he said, resting my head on the attachment, relieving the strain from my neck.
With one finger, he wiped the tears that continued to flow silently from my eyes, then caressed my hair almost reverently.
“Rest, my love. Soon it will be over.”
His hand fell away from my face as he turned to leave, dragging with it a lock of my hair. It dangled in front of my eyes, its raven color having already paled to a light-grey which I knew would soon become the same silver-white my brother’s had been.
Chapter 16
Ravik
