Captured (The Captive Series Book 1)

by Erica Stevens

  ***

  Aria was nearly breathless by the time Braith hauled her into his apartment. He radiated fury, but somehow managed to silently shut the door. “Braith...”

  “Your Highness,” he grated.

  Aria recoiled, she felt as if she had just been slapped. She could understand why she was supposed to call him that in public, but they were alone now and there was no one near to question them. “What?” she managed to sputter out.

  “I told you to call me Your Highness.”

  Aria gaped after him as he released her leash and strode across the room. She was well aware of the fact that he hadn’t removed the loathsome golden chain from her wrist. She stared dejectedly at the thin strand, wondering if it would ever come off again. She was afraid that it might not, and as long as it was upon her she would never be able to break free of this awful place. He’d told her that the chain was linked to him, that he could find it anywhere, and that he was the only one that could ever remove it from her. She would like to believe that wasn’t true, but she suspected it was.

  She knew now that she had been completely wrong about him; he was just as cold and cruel as everyone else in this hideous place. She folded her free hand over top of the golden chain, itching to rip the offending thing from her skin. She’d heard rumors, stories that if a slave tried to pull the chain free, it would slice through their skin, tearing into the flesh. Their blood would run freely, staining the gold. It was the reason the leash was also known as the blood chain.

  At the moment, Aria didn’t care.

  Terror drove her as she dug at it, trying to rip it free. She didn’t care that her flesh was shredding, didn’t feel the pain, or notice the blood spilling freely down her fingers and wrist. She just required freedom; she simply aspired to be out of this thing, and to have her life back. She didn’t want to be someone’s captive anymore, someone’s thing to use and order about as they saw fit.

  Braith’s hands seized her. A strangled cry escaped her lips as she tried to rip her hands free of his grasp, but he clung to her. She jerked wildly, resentment and frustration boiling in her veins. She was tired of living in this place and playing by his rules. Tired of being ordered about and having her life dictated over. “Let go of me!”

  “Stop it!” he snarled, pulling her toward him. “You’re injuring yourself Arianna.”

  “You’re hurting me!” she snapped back, fighting to escape his hold. “I’d rather be dead then be trapped like this! Why didn’t you just let me die!? Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with!?”

  He pulled her hand away from the leash. Thrusting it down by his side and pinning it there. “Enough!” he barked. “You would prefer to die than be separated from your lover?”

  Outrage froze her as she gaped at him. “How dare you!” she spat. He released her hand, tossing it away in abhorrence as he took a step back. “You know nothing of me! Nothing of my life! Nothing of who I am! You sit in this palace, where you have had everything handed to you, and you judge those that refuse to be beaten down and broken beneath your rules, your poor treatment, and your death sentences! You have no right to judge me!”

  His dark eyebrows lifted sharply, his jaw clenched and unclenched as a vein began to throb in his forehead. She could feel his revulsion as his lip curled in a sneer. “There isn’t much of you to judge.”

  Acting on pure instinct, and with the reckless abandonment her father had often cautioned her about, Aria’s hand snaked up his side with the agility and speed that had kept her alive for the past seventeen years. That same recklessness would probably be what brought about the end of her life now as her hand connected with his face. The slap echoed in the deathly silence that followed. Aria panted, trying to catch her breath as she glared furiously at him. The mark of her bloody handprint was clearly evident against the hard curve of his cheek.

  His head, which had been knocked slightly aside by her violent blow, slowly came back to her. His mouth parted, his eyebrows rose sharply over the dark glasses as he stared at her for a long moment. Beneath his astonishment though, she could sense the growing wrath building within him. She knew that she should be scared, but she wasn’t. She knew that she should probably be begging for his forgiveness, but she wouldn’t. She didn’t give a damn what he said or did to her anymore. She almost welcomed this as she sensed it was the end, that one way or another there would finally be an end to all of this unknowing.

  He stepped into her, forcing her against the wall, his face mere inches from hers. Aria found it hard to breathe; her hands were shaking as she awaited her inevitable fate. He pressed closer to her, his hands rested on either side of her head as he bent low, his nose nearly touching hers. He was vibrating with rage as his lips peeled back to reveal the sharp edge of his now elongated canines. Her pulse escalated as she focused on those fangs, it was the first time she’d ever seen them fully extended and she was certain they were about to destroy her.

  “It won’t be you I kill Arianna,” he snarled. Her knees buckled as the implication of his words sank in. “I’ll keep you alive, and I’ll make you watch as I relish in his slow death. I can take whatever I want, whenever I want it. I have been kind to you so far, I will not be kind anymore. No one disobeys me, no one goes against me. I will show you what kind of a monster I can truly be.”

  “No,” she managed to whisper.

  “Oh yes, and I am going to enjoy it. I’m actually rather parched at the moment, it’s been awhile since I’ve fed.”

  Horror tore through her, she was rapidly shaking her head as he shoved away from her, moving with fleet speed toward the door. She knew where he was going and who he was after. She had to stop him. Max was going to be punished because of her, because she was an idiot. She couldn’t allow that to happen. Not again.

  “Wait! No! Stop! Your Highness, please don’t do this! Please!” She scurried after him, nearly tripping over the leash still tethered to her. She seized hold of his hand but he shook her off like a bug. “No!” she implored. “Don’t do this! Braith, I’m begging you, please!”

  Her feet tangled up within the leash, jerking her awkwardly down, and causing it to slice deeper into her flesh. “He’s my friend! He’s been my friend since we were children! He’s like a brother to me!” she practically wailed. Despair threatened to choke her as tears clogged her throat. “I have never begged for anything from anyone in my life; but I am begging you, please don’t kill him! He did nothing wrong! I’m sorry, I’ll do whatever you ask, whenever you ask it of me! Punish me! Punish me!”

  The force of her sobs shook her, making it almost impossible for her to breathe through her broken rib. She couldn’t move; her entire body was wracked with agony. Blood continued to spill from her wounds, forming a puddle beneath her, soaking into her dress, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything anymore. She had ruined everything; she had destroyed Max’s life. She hadn’t freed him; instead she had given him a death sentence and from the look on Braith’s face it would be a long and tortured process.

  There was a long moment of silence in which she couldn’t look at him. She felt as if she were dying, felt as if her misery was going to kill her. Then, to her surprise, she felt the gentlest, most tender touch she had ever felt. His hands were upon her face, cradling her cheeks as he lifted her face to his. His lips were on her, brushing against her cheeks, her forehead, whispering against her ear as he tried to soothe her. Aria was stunned; her mind spun as his hands and mouth caressed her with a tenderness that nearly undid the horror of the past half an hour.

  “Don’t.” The word slid over her skin making her body tingle with electricity at the same time that it completely undid her. Her sobs shook her, rocking her as a low moan escaped her. She didn’t know why she was crying now, didn’t know where the source of this distress was coming from, but she could no more stem the flow of it than she could stem the flow of the wind. “Arianna stop, you’ll injure yourself more. Stop Arianna, it’s ok.”

  His h
ands were in her hair, pulling her toward him, drawing her against him as he wrapped his arms around her and soothingly rocked her against his chest.