Hunted!

by Terri Pray

  A crack split the air, the heavy smell of gunpowder filled the air.

  “Gods! You shot me!” More a series of gasped words as he stumbled to the ground. Bloody poured between his fingers as he clenched his hands over his gut. “You've killed me, haven't you? I'm going to die here.”

  “That normally happens when I wish to kill someone. They tend to end up shot and dying somewhere. And you did make it so very easy for me.” Davien waited for the flintlock to cool before slid it back into the simple holster. “Do hurry up about the process. I don't have all day to waste.”

  “At least... least the girl will belong to someone else.”

  “Ah, and are you sure of that?”

  “All that time... with me... wasted.” Kenneth coughed, blood flecking his lips. “Should hurt, shouldn't it. Dying I mean. Doesn't. Just feel cold.”

  “Cold is normal, be thankful you don't hurt, I believe its what doctors call shock. Or hysteria. Though they seem to use that only with women. Now do hurry up and die like a good chap.”

  “The slave.” Kenneth's voice had become little more than a whisper.

  “Oh I know exactly where she is.” He moved suddenly across the small clearing, reaching into the bushes where Celeste lay hidden. His hand tightened on her arm as Davien yanked Celeste out from her the small area of limited safety. “She's been watching this entire little exchange. Seems she figured out about the trap as well, and used the area to hide in, knowing that most would get caught up in the net.”

  She tried not to look at the dying man, or see the blood that spilled over the dirt. Her stomach rolled with the smell of the blood, the bubbles of red flecked foam on his lips, the hole in his gut. It was all too much.

  “All the time, she... saw that... heard it all?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “Shamed me... ”

  Davien pulled her tight to his form, one hand gripping her by the hair as he all but crushed her to his body. His lips claimed hers, covering them, parting them beneath his in a kiss that stole her breath. Her nipples hardened, pressing against his chest, heat built in her core, inner walls rippling with a desire she had suppressed until that moment. Yet his kiss, a simple thing, had set the blaze to life once more. He pulled back, looking into her eyes before he glanced back at the dying man. His voice softened for a moment. “It could have been so very different, Kenneth. If only you had stepped away from the path your father had begun.”

  “What... ”

  “We could have been friends, Kenneth. Had you but stopped to think. You had to follow his lead though, and it's too late to change now.”

  Ice-cold fingers of fear gripped her heart as she witnessed first hand the shift in his gaze. The concern vanished, any trace of kindness was wiped from existence, his eyes hardened, glittering with a cruelty that terrified her.

  “I don't want... ” Kenneth coughed up blood with each new word.

  “What you want no longer matters. Die quickly lad, die easy.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The last harsh rattled breath of the dying man filled the clearing, then faded into nothing leaving Kenneth as nothing more than a corpse with open eyes that stared blankly up into the rapidly fading daylight.

  “I could take you now, right here, but even I'm not that brutal.” Davien growled against her throat as she tried not to look at the dead body. “When we return to my home, then I will show you why you belong to me. I'll teach you the meaning of being my slave.”

  “So he tried it then?” Harold and his son where amongst the first to reach the blood soaked clearing, the elder man speaking out within a moment of entering the death scene. “Damn it all, he tried. Just like his father. Too stubborn for his own good.”

  “Yes, and paid the price.” Davien held her close, his fingers wrapped in her hair. “Now I want the body returned to his family. The hunting accident story we all agreed to will be the only one repeated to anyone who was not at the hunt, is that clear?”

  “Yes, of course. We all agree to that.” The replies filled the small clearing.

  “Good. The slave remains mine.”

  No one voiced an argument to his declaration or spoke as he used the grip on her hair to lead her out towards the grass beyond the woodlands. Those left behind more focused on what to do with the body and the fate of Kenneth's property than the business Davien might have planned with his slave. “As for you my pet, I think we will retire.”

  Only now that they were free from the trees could she see that the entire day had passed by.

  “I didn't realize how long I had been out, Master.”

  “You did well, slut. Very well indeed. No slave has lasted as long in the hunt as you managed to this time.”

  Pride surged through her weary body. “I beat the odds?”

  “Yes, you did, in some ways. Though you didn't manage to completely avoid being captured you did come closer than anyone had managed before.”

  Celeste nodded, her legs shaking from the effort of running most of the day. “You didn't want to kill him, did you Master?”

  “I didn't speak of that to you, nor will I. Such things are not discussed with a slave still in training.” His grip in her hair tightened. “You're a mess slut, after that little romp through the forest.”

  “Yes, Master,” she murmured as she hurried towards the house. Each step hurt, her thighs ached constantly from the exercise she had been forced to endure. Now she tried to half run towards the house with him.

  “And you're cold, worn out. Shit, you're almost ready to pass out on me. The sooner we get you rested the better it will be for us all.”

  Almost was an understatement.

  She managed to take a dozen more steps before her body finally gave out, her knees buckling despite the grip he had on her hair. “Master... ”

  “Hold on my slave, I'll have you safe soon.” Without missing a step he scooped her up from the ground, holding her against his chest for the remainder of the distance. “Your feet are bleeding, from the hunt?”

  “Yes, Master,” she nodded slightly. “The stones on the drive.”

  “Ah, I had not thought of that.” Strange, was he actually concerned at the damage done to her during the hunt? “In future the hunts will start on the lawn, it wouldn't do for a slave's ability to avoid the hunters to be reduced because of a minor oversight. No, that wouldn't do at all, we will learn from this.”

  Not quite what she had hoped he would say, but at least she didn't have to walk the remaining distance.

  “A bath slut, then the cage... despite what I want to do with you, giving you a night of rest would be for the best, then when you are rested, able to serve me fully, then I will claim my prize from the hunt.”

  He would let her rest? She glanced up at his face, searching it for some signs of weakness, a hint that he had come to care for her as a human being. Her skin tingled softly, teasing her with the idea of his touch tracing her nude form.

  She arched closer to him in his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest. “You care about me, in some small way, Master?”

  “A good Master knows when his pet needs to sleep, to recover and will allow for that, unless he wants a dead beast on his hands. I've far too many things planned for you to waste your life due to foolishness on my part.” He carried her into the house, calling out for the maids to prepare a tub and hot water. “You will bathe, relax and then bed down for the night in the cage. I will retire shortly.”

  * * * *

  The bath had helped, though it hadn't eased her need for a more intimate touch. She almost shook with the desire, yet there was nothing she could do about it. He was in the room, bringing herself to the release point wasn't an option. He would hear it, and she couldn't bear the thought of that. But the restlessness, the uncertainty of the day, left her trembling in the bottom of the cage.

  Her body had been stroked, pampered by soft hands that had taken delight in teasing across her sensitive body. Her nipples had been pinched, her clit stroked,
labia parted for moments as fingers had delved into her core, urging her fires higher only to leave her alone and wanton, locked behind the steel bars of the slave cage.

  “Can't you sleep my slave?” His voice broke through the near darkness of the room. The only source of illumination coming from the full moon beyond the window. Even the fire had died down to little more than a handful of glowing embers.

  “No, Master.” No matter what she had tried, sleep had been a reluctant companion. Celeste had curled this way, and that, in the bottom of the cage, but to no avail. “The hunt, I'm afraid of what will happen if word gets out about what happened to Kenneth.” There was so much more to it than that, but she feared to speak of it.

  “I gathered as much. It's understandable, but it will all work out. Those invited to the hunt will keep our secret. They have as much to lose as we do.”

  “What would have happened if someone else had won me, or you had been killed?” She shivered, wrapping her arms about her body. All those men, one of them might have taken her away if she had not hidden and watched the confrontation between Davien and Kenneth.

  “Ah, I see what the problem is, the little pet fears belonging to someone else. Could it be you have come to accept your place with me?” The bed creaked in the dim room, the sound of his feet against the floor giving her a hint of his movement before the shadow fell over her cage. “Do you wish to stay with me, Celeste?”

  “I don't know, Master.” Her voice shook as she looked up at the dark shape she knew to be him. “I really don't know anymore. I should be rejoicing at the idea of finding a way to break free from you, but I keep seeing the face of that Kenneth and I feel cold inside. I see him both alive and dead in the woods. How he wanted me, but just because you had me.”

  “You were worried he would succeed in killing me.” His tone softened as he crouched at the side of the cage. “That you would end the day knowing that I was dead? Interesting.”

  “Yes, Master. Stupid I know.” Foolish, she shouldn't have been giving him that information. It weakened her. Worse still, it gave him a way of controlling her further. Not something she needed to be doing, yet here she was, spilling out her heart to him.

  “No, it's not. You're beginning to face the reality of being a slave. You hate me, I don't doubt that. I expect that, but I'm the only constant in your world. All your training to date has been focused on me. You've been taught only to please me, to react in ways you know I will find favorable. And though you fight it, the thought of belonging to someone else, another who you don't know and learning everything from scratch again terrifies you.”

  “But with another, I might be able to escape, you said as much yourself. Shouldn't I have been looking forward to that chance?” She peered into the gloom, trying to picture his face but all she could see were the shadows.

  “If you truly wanted to be free, yes.”

  “But I do.”

  “No, you don't. And somewhere inside you is the part of your mind and heart that has already accepted that. You need to belong to me. I claimed you, in the most intimate way a woman can be claimed. I touched you before any other, then reduced you down to a beast. Now I push you further, into a creature to be hunted, just alike any other animal.”

  “I hate it. All of it and... ” She hesitated, swallowing the words.

  “Go on.”

  “I can't.” She edged back in the cage, away from the outline of his form.

  “Yes you can.” His voice softened. “Give the words life before they eat you up inside.”

  Would they do that?

  Yes, she could feel them, burning in the pit of her stomach, eating away at her. They needed to be spoken, had to be given life, but she feared it. What if the words doomed her?

  How could things become any worse than they already were?

  “Well, lass?”

  “I... ” The words caught in the back of her throat.

  “Take a slow breath, close your eyes and say the words.”

  So easy, yet so hard. Just a handful or words. It wouldn't take much. So why couldn't she do it?

  “Say it,” he whispered.

  “I need this.” The words slipped from her lips. “I need what you do to me. I hate it, loathe it, want to see you dead at my feet, but it does something to me inside. I can't explain. Gods, I'm damned for this. Cursed.” Tears slid down her cheeks, at least in the darkness he wouldn't be able to see that extra touch of weakness. “I want you dead, I want to see Kenneth kill you, but I fear it. I hate the thought of losing you. Gods. What have you done to me?”

  “I've taken the first steps in molding you into the woman you will eventually become,” he murmured. A sound of metal against metal filled the room as she realized that the cage door had been opened. “Crawl out my pet, come out of the cage.”

  Her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she peered into the room, the slight movement of shadow enough to let her know she had been right about the door being opened. Slowly, she eased to her hands and knees, crawling out onto the rug-covered floor.

  “Arch your back slut, raise those hips and crawl to the bed, seduce me with your movements.”

  How, it was dark. How was he going to see what she was doing? Or not doing? About all he would see was a shadow. Still it was what he wanted her to do and she wasn't about to give him reason to be angry with her. Not with the memory of Kenneth's death so clear in her mind.

  Slowly she crawled towards the waiting bed, arching her back, forcing a deep sway into her hips with each new move. A soft tremble worked through her body as she edged towards the waiting bed. What did he want to see from her? How could she seduce him like this and why did she even want to consider it?

  Because she needed him.

  Loathed him, hated him, but needed him nevertheless.

  Her body craved his touch. Her skin tingled with the thought of his caress, even the pain he inflicted on her would have been better than going without his touch for the rest of her life. Foolish, she had fallen into the very trap he had warned her about from the start.

  She glanced back towards the outline of his form. He hadn't move since opening the cage but she could feel the path of his gaze through the darkness. Was he pleased with what he saw in her? She couldn't be sure, but had not heard any sound that might indicate his displeasure.

  “Keep going.”

  She nodded, turning her attention back to the bed. “Am I to crawl onto it, Master?”

  “Do you think you have earned that right, slut?”

  She shivered, lowering her head quickly. “No, Master. I don't think I have.”

  “Continue.”

  With a soft whimper she rolled her shoulders back and lifted up her head. Her thighs parted further under his gaze, baring her core to him through the deep shadows of the room. Slowly, she stalked towards the bed, trying to mimic the gracefulness of a cat as she did so. He had drilled into her being the lessons of how they moved just to teach her to eat in the manner he desired, and now she put those endless hours of training to good use.

  “Better, much better.” His words carried by a soft growl of pleasure.

  Celeste tossed her hair back until it fell over her bare flesh in a wave of silver white silk, trembling with the caress it granted her already sensitive flesh. Her nipples crinkled into hardened points on her full mounds as they were tugged towards the floor. Heat, silken heat, coated her inner walls, her intimate muscles tightened, clenching on air, the desire to rock back onto his cock, to feel his hands grasping her hips, was almost too much to bear.

  “You want my touch, don't you my pet?”

  “Yes, Master,” she admitted with a low sob.

  “Onto the bed, but stay on your hands and knees. Then lower your head to the bedding, part your thighs fully and cross your hands in the small of your back. Submit yourself to my will. You are to be bound in that position by my words alone.”

  “Yes, Master.” Her stomach clenched. Held by his word, his wishes, not cords or bonds
, not chains or the grip of hands, but nothing more than his desire, the thought delighted and terrified her in one fell swoop. Shaking she eased back onto her knees at the side of the bed and pulled herself onto the soft covers.

  How long had she wanted to feel the touch of his bedding beneath her form?

  He watched, she knew that without stealing another glance, his gaze never left her body. Davien Blood focused on her every move, each breath taken, those small hesitations that she pushed herself through in order to obey his orders.

  Silently, she eased up onto the bed, lowering her head down to the pillowed covers. She bit back a whimper as she parted her thighs, arching her back before she crossed her hands in the small of her back.

  “You're in need, slut.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “And do you beg my touch?” A step, nothing more than a soft sound as he moved across the room, but it gave his intentions. Or so she hoped. “Do you plead for my caress, or would you rather I simply take you like the slave you are?”

  Her heart tore in two. She would have killed for his caress, to know he loved her, or cared for her as something other than a piece of property, but lying to herself was pointless. “I'm your slave, Master.”

  “Yes?” he pressed.

  “I would love your caress, Master. To know you care for me, love me and want me in your life as something more than a slave. A part of me wants to know what it would be like to walk at your side, Master.” Tears stung at her eyes, her throat threatening to close. It would have been so much easier to keep silent about her wants, the cravings and foolish dreams that she held on to. “But I'm your slave, such a touch would never come. So I beg you Master, take me as you wish. Let me feel your hand upon me in any way you wish.”

  He brushed a light over the taut curve of her ass. “You are a slave, slut. You will never be anything more than a slave. Not to me. And I have no intention of letting you go free. You're a challenge to me. The fire, the fight in you, it's rare little pet. So very rare. Perhaps one day you will come to realize that.”