by C. R. Jane
“Don’t stop,” I growled this time, the words coming out almost animalistic in their intensity.
Two fingers plunged into me once, twice. His tongue flicked and rolled again and again, and he launched me beyond the brink. I exploded, screaming out in awe as the crescendo hit violently. Waves of pleasure crashed through my entire body, and I bowed into him once more. His mouth and fingers continued to move on me, in me, pushing my orgasm on and on. When I could stand it no more, I tugged his hair, pulling him up to me. Diving into his mouth, I tasted myself on his tongue, relishing the feel of his lips stroking over mine.
Without thought, I grabbed his bottom lip between my teeth, sucking on it, mimicking what he just did to me. Drinking in his low moan, I spurred him on for more.
“Need something, my queen?” he taunted me.
“I want you,” I answered fiercely, moving suddenly so that I was the one on top. I just barely managed to avoid falling to the floor with my eagerness.
“What do you need?” he teased me again.
All I could answer with was a growl as I pulled him to me. In one swift move, I impaled myself on him, crying out as my body acclimated to the invasion.
His erection reached inside of me in a new way, a full tormenting stretch that had me forgetting everything else about my existence. We groaned together when I rotated my hips, deepening the penetration. Our eyes locked, the intensity staggering. Leaning down, I placed my hands on either side of his face, cradling him tenderly. My mouth hovered over his, not touching, just taking. Taking him into me every way I knew how.
His breath, his body, we became one, and I began to make love with Alaric for the first time. A sweet, beautiful, passionate love that I hadn’t known we were capable of.
I felt it all. I felt all of him.
My hips moved, rounding gently at first, pulling him in and out at a taunting, tortuous pace. Our breath mingled together, held tight against us as our bodies joined, again and again, over and over. In time, I pushed up, sitting on him fully so he sank in further, a new humbling depth that had us both groaning again in unison. Our rhythm changed. We needed… We wanted… We moved passionately against each other again and again.
The joy in this moment, in us, was achingly sweet. Who knew that the sweetest moments of my life would somehow come amongst the worst?
“Alaric,” I whispered again as our eyes met, his that striking steel grey I’d never seen on another being. I’m sure mine looked confused, bewildered by the staggering emotion I felt at this moment to this man who should never have been mine.
My thoughts scattered, frayed with unbridled tension, and I dissolved around him, mind and body surrendering to the mystifying connection. I cried out as his hips pushed me higher, rocketing with him, trusting in wherever he wanted to take me, and I came. I erupted around him, vaguely hearing his cry as he joined me. We were one—we were us.
My breath shattered, I fell, splayed out on his chest. His hands wrapped into my hair, holding me tight as our bodies calmed.
Eventually, he pulled my lips to his, kissing me gently. We breathed into each other, sated.
Eventually, I fell asleep.
And when I woke up, I was back in my cell, dressed once again in my ugly prison issued jumpsuit, like it had all been a dream.
Only the pulsing ache in between my legs and the silver dress that was tightly gripped in my hand told me it had all been real.
And I didn’t know what to do with that.
Chapter 8
The next day, I felt off. That was the only way to describe it. I fluctuated between being glad that I had space to absorb what had happened last night, and needing to see Alaric or Keon to confirm that everything between us hadn’t been my imagination.
Today, a guard had informed me it was a mess hall day, and now I found myself floating through the room to get into line, not paying much attention to my surroundings.
Which was always a dangerous thing to do in a place like this.
“Siren,” a deep and familiar voice whispered in my ear from behind me. I jumped as I swirled around, only breathing a small sigh of relief when I saw that it was the hellhound shifter.
I really should find out his name.
My heart began to beat rapidly in my chest, and I couldn’t tell if it was because I was scared of him, or because of how good he looked… Maybe it was a little of both.
“Hello,” I answered awkwardly. He seemed to always be here when I was here. Which was odd in and of itself. The prison kept the mess hall schedule random so that fights couldn’t be pre-planned. Which made sense. If you didn’t know when you were going to be somewhere, and you didn’t know who would be there with you, it followed that you couldn’t exactly plan out how to shank someone.
Which made the fact that the hellhound was always here strange. I hadn’t noticed anyone else who had been in the mess hall at the same time as me even twice. And somehow, he managed to be here every time.
“What are they serving today?” he asked conversationally as he grabbed a tray for me and then one for himself.
“Thank you,” I said politely as I took the tray, ignoring the fluttering feeling I got when his fingers brushed against mine.
It had to be the fact that I was having so much sex here. Keon and Alaric were keeping me in a constantly sexed-up state of mind, and that was the cause of the fluttery feeling. It couldn’t possibly be anything else.
At least, that was what I told myself.
“Looks like the usual slop,” I answered as I looked in disgust at the grey colored stew that one of the workers was serving up to prisoners just ahead of me.
My stomach panged at the memory of the delicious dinner from the night before. I still had suspicions that last night was a dream… There was no way it could have actually been that good.
I winced as some of the grey matter splashed onto the front of my shirt as the worker sloshed the stew onto my tray. Looking ahead, I was relieved to see that there were some apples left in the fruit bowl. At least I would have something to eat, because I was pretty sure that this stuff would kill me if I ate it.
I grabbed the apple and headed to a table on the far side of the room that was empty, very aware that the hellhound was following me. I sat down at the table and ignored him as he sat directly across from me.
“My name is Laz by the way,” he told me cheerfully.
“Laz?”
“Short for Lazarus. My mother had a thing for biblical stories,” he explained as he took a big bite of the stew and then grimaced, looking a little green as he dutifully swallowed it. “I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.”
I snorted. “I didn’t plan on it,” I told him as I bit into my apple. The apple had a few brown spots, but all in all, it didn’t taste that bad. I’d also managed to snag a slice of carrot cake, one of the only desserts that was edible in the mess hall. Hopefully, that would tide me over until the next meal that I could stomach here.
Laz sniffed his apple warily before carefully biting into it. It must have been alright, because he proceeded to munch away. “So, what are you in here for?” he asked casually, making me choke on the bite of apple I’d just taken.
“Refusing to sleep with my vampire overlord and then giving my virginity up to a stranger,” I said straight-faced.
Laz’s jaw dropped… as did his apple, landing with a splash in his stew… which went everywhere.
“Fuck, why would you joke about something like that?” he moaned as he tried to wipe himself off with a napkin. I was just lucky that none of it had landed on me. As it was, I would have to scrub my uniform in the sink from what had splashed on it earlier. I didn’t want to spend the day smelling like dirty socks.
“I wasn’t joking,” I told him as I lifted an eyebrow.
He stuttered for a second before I took pity on him. “It’s okay,” I said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t have believed that story either if I hadn’t lived it.”
He shook his head, and there was a h
eavy awkwardness between us. I could feel anger wafting off of him. I couldn’t decide what was making him angry. Surely, it wasn’t about my situation. That was a lot of anger to feel about a stranger’s predicament. I’m sure there were a lot of innocents in this place with stories to tell. Maybe not quite like mine, but probably equally terrible.
As far as I was concerned, any story that involved an innocent person ending up in this place was a terrible tragedy. I didn’t think most of them had a prison mouse and men like Alaric, Keon… and Seth, I belatedly added, to keep them company.
“That’s fucking terrible,” he finally said. “I knew you were a siren, but I didn’t know the rest of your story.”
I moved around uncomfortably in my seat. His kindness felt like it was too much. I still wasn’t used to others being kind at all, much less in a place like this.
“It hasn’t been so bad,” I told him, reaching out and tentatively patting the top of his hand, which was clenched tightly on top of the table. “Really. It’s probably better than what my life was out there.”
He finally pulled up his head and looked at me, and the empathy in his gaze threatened to overwhelm me. We just stared at each other for a long moment. I opened my mouth to ask him what he was in for, it only seemed fair that he had to tell me now, when suddenly, the crowd in the mess hall quieted.
Two burly guards had entered the room, the looks on their faces like they were just daring the prisoners to bring trouble.
“Selena Alexander,” the guard on the left barked, looking around the room. I shakily stood up, knowing that these guards weren’t here to give me a surprise from Alaric.
Laz had stood up as well and looked ready to run at the guards if I asked him too. I shot him what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile, and shook my head briefly to signal to him that I didn’t want him to do anything.
Catcalls broke out as I began to walk towards the guards who were watching me wickedly, as if I was about to drop down on my knees in front of them. I heard a snarl behind me that I knew belonged to Laz, but I didn’t look back. I didn’t want to get him in trouble.
“Pick up the pace, Ms. Alexander,” the guard on the right snarled as his hand twitched by his side, like he was just itching to pick out one of the weapons attached around his belt. I hurried my stride, taking a deep breath right before I reached them to calm myself down.
The guard grabbed my arm tightly, and I winced, knowing I would have a handprint shaped bruise on my arm there later on. Asshole.
Another growl broke out behind me, and the second that we stepped out of the room, it was like the whole room went insane. I looked back as I was frog-marched away to see most of the prisoners attacking each other. Evidently, their inability to fight their oppressors meant that the only way they could get the aggression out was to attack each other.
I sent up a silent prayer that Laz would be alright, when I heard what sounded like a dog yelp in pain somewhere in the crowd.
But maybe I should have been praying for myself.
The guards were silent. Their menacing presence seemed to take up the whole hallway, and it wasn’t the respectful silence of the guards that Alaric had sent to my cell with gifts.
It was the kind of silence where you’re just holding your breath and hoping that everything turns out okay and the monsters don’t appear out of the shadows.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved or frightened when I realized that they were taking me to the warden’s office. Surely, he couldn’t have expected me to have found out where the scepter was hidden already? He’d been beating Seth to the brink of death daily, and the guy was not inclined to trust anyone… for good reason.
A guilty pang reverberated through my chest. He definitely shouldn’t trust me.
All thoughts of Seth faded away as I stepped into the warden’s office. He was standing in front of one of his bookshelves, the one that held my glowing orb of power actually. I closed my eyes for a second, enjoying the pulsating waves of power that I could feel, even across the room. It had taken me a bit to recognize it, and now I couldn’t miss it whenever I was summoned by the warden.
Someday, I was going to have it back and be whole. Someday.
“Selena, so nice of you to join me today,” the warden remarked without looking back at me.
A wave of unease flickered down my spine. “Did you need something?” I asked blandly, not knowing what else to say but too annoyed to be more polite.
At my tone, he finally turned around. He was in all black today, and the effect was frankly foreboding. He stalked towards me, and I struggled not to cower in fear. He changed course at the last second, gliding behind his desk, as if that had been his intention all along. My hands shook beside me, and I clasped them tightly together in an effort to hide my fear.
The warden’s smile told me that I hadn’t succeeded.
“What do you think I need, my little siren?” he asked pointedly.
“It’s barely been any time at all,” I responded defensively, my throat coming out raspy from the fear that was coating my insides.
“My guards say that you haven’t made any progress at all.” He lifted an eyebrow as if daring me to argue with him.
“I wouldn’t say that,” I responded hesitantly and sat down on the seat across the desk from him. “I’m building his trust. Torturing him every day hasn’t exactly made my job easy.”
He stood up from his chair slowly, leaning over his desk so that he was towering over me. I forced myself to keep my spine straight, even though the dark waves of power emanating out of him demanded that I cower.
“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear last time exactly what my expectations were. I don’t want you to become his friend. I want you to get his secrets. I don’t care if that means that you have to hang him by his fingernails to get them. YOU WILL GET THEM!” His voice came out in a roar. Other voices were threaded with his voice, a million demons joining him as he made sure to get the point across.
Tears were streaming down my face from the force of his power. I felt something wet under my nose. Wiping what I thought was snot off my face, I was surprised to see that my hand was smeared with blood. It became clear to me that despite what he’d said about my freedom being at stake if I did not get him what he wanted… it was actually my life that was at stake.
The warden suddenly jerked his hand up, and my body flew out of my chair, crashing against the back wall so forcefully that a bookshelf nearby crashed forward from the impact.
Which only made the warden even angrier. Again, he moved his hand up, and I flew off the ground where I had laid crumpled, and once again, was smashed against the wall, shaking the entire room with the force of my impact. I lay strewn on the floor, pain coursing through every part of my body.
The warden always seemed to be controlled before this. Dangerous and deadly, yes. But controlled. None of his control was present anymore. His anger was tinged with desperation—the most dangerous form of anger, I’d always believed. It was a little far-fetched to believe that his desire to help out the light fae would lead to this kind of reaction.
What exactly did he want that scepter for…?
The warden took a deep breath, squeezing the bridge of his nose as he tried to calm down. My whole body ached. Recovering from this was going to be killer. I was pretty sure that he’d broken some of the vertebrae in my back. If I was any lesser of a creature, I would have been paralyzed.
I struggled to stand up from the floor where I’d landed after the crash against the wall. I could feel my spinal cord struggling to weave itself back together inside of me. Blood was gushing out of my nose copiously at this point. I wheezed as I pushed myself up. Evidently, I’d punctured one of my lungs as well. I fell back to the floor, unable to keep myself standing.
Too bad the nurse here was insane. I probably could have used some medical attention right about now.
The warden watched me, looking like he was taking pleasure from my agony. “I think we need
something a bit more to drive the point home about how important this task is, Selena. Don’t you?”
I struggled to try and find something to say. How was what he’d just done not enough?
“Braden,” the warden snapped, and the guard appeared that had brought me to the office. “Take her to our special prisoner’s cell.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard replied immediately. My stomach sank ominously.
Who was the special prisoner? And how would this be part of my punishment?
The guard hauled me up from the ground as roughly as he could, causing me to almost pass out from the pain.
“I want to see results,” the warden called out after us as I was dragged out of the room. I heard something crash against the wall in the office after we got out into the hallway.
Something was definitely not right about all of this.
I couldn’t worry about the warden’s intentions for long though, because with how rough the guard was being with me, I wasn’t sure I would make it long enough to have to worry about what the warden wanted from me.
Every time we rounded a corner, the guard made sure to slam me against the stone wall as we turned. My arms more closely resembled ground hamburger meat than they did human skin as the journey went along. I didn’t bother asking him who the “special prisoner” was. I had a feeling that this guard wasn’t about to tell me the answer.
I couldn’t walk, and the guard obviously wasn’t keen on carrying me in his arms, so I was basically dragged along beside him. The ground was the furthest thing from clean, and I knew I was looking at an infection in all my wounds… if the guard didn’t kill me first.
Maybe the “special prisoner” was some sort of monster that they tortured prisoners with here. Maybe it was that beast whose tail I’d seen walking to dinner with Alaric the other night.
