by Dagny Aldan
She glanced back at Ahmed, judged her time and decided that after all his spying on her, she was owed this one time. She opened the letter and held it to the moonlight, reading the cursive scrawl.
My friends,
By the time you read this, it will be too late. I honestly wish things had not come to this, but I had no choice.
You see, I have a confession to make. My original intentions for the Dukedom may have been what I shared with you, but as time went on, I became possessed by a dizzying, incredible sense of love I have never felt before, and never will again.
The more we struggled to find Isabel, the more I grew to love her. She was able to avoid our methods and our tactics and she did not even know she was doing it. I saw a girl who could not handle basic social interactions in school run off to join the military, and then I watched with fury as she blossomed into an incredible soldier.
I grew to love her, and realise that while the other slaves in the Dukedom were destined for ruling, Isabel was not. She was destined to be mine, but not even my influence could make our love a realistic end to things.
That is why, before the rest of the world could try to take her away from me, I chose to keep her with me forever. Know she did not suffer, she knows her place, who owns her, and she met the end with stalwart bravery.
Please bury us together in the woods of the Dukedom, where Isabel first said she loved me. Look after the other slaves, and ensure Isabel’s parents are able to find an adequate replacement for her.
Ahmed.
Isabel’s hands were shaking as she lowered the letter and looked back at Ahmed. He had planned to kill them both to keep them together. He was not just unhinged, he was deluded. Isabel picked up the gun, finding the clip full and a spare one too. She pocketed both and then went to the foot of the bed, looking down at Ahmed, blissfully asleep. She should just leave before he woke up.
Instead she picked up the crop next to the bed, and brought it down on Ahmed’s leg. He woke with a yell of pain and thrashed as he found himself bound.
“What-what the fuck-?” His eyes roamed around in terror before finally seeing Isabel standing above him. “Isabel? What are you doing?”
Isabel brought down the crop again, earning a yell from him.
“Isabel! Isabel, stop!”
The command made her freeze and she glared down at him, hating him and wanting to apologise at the same time. Ahmed tried to sit up, but the restraints held him down, so he settled for lifting his head,
“Isabel, what are you doing?” he demanded.
“I know what you did,” Isabel spat. “I know what you planned to do!” She dropped the crop and pulled the gun and the letter out of her pocket, holding them out. Ahmed paled at the sight of them, then met her eyes again.
“Isabel, let me out of these restraints. Now.”
“No,” growled Isabel, feeling her arms start to shake as she tried to focus on her anger.
“Isabel! Do what I say!”
“No!” she shouted, pulling the safety off the gun. Ahmed’s eyes widened in alarm.
“Isabel-”
“Stop saying my name!” she snapped, “You are a sick man! You lied to me, you manipulated me. You were going to kill me!”
Ahmed’s Adam’s apple bobbed and he struggled for a calm tone,
“Isabel, I know this is hard for you, but you have to listen to me-”
“I don’t have to do anything you say!” she shouted, and it was oddly relieving to say it. “I don’t have to listen to you. I don’t have to release you. I don’t have to do a thing.”
Ahmed closed his mouth, considered her, then said quietly,
“So what are you going to do? Shoot me?”
Isabel bit her lip, suppressing the no that was about to escape. The truth was she did not know what she was going to do.
“You took Hans away from me,” she said instead.
“He didn’t ask for your submission, he took it, didn’t he?” said Ahmed softly, “I helped you see what he really was.”
“No, you framed him, you and Lena framed him. Whatever he did, he did not do that crime, so he should not be in jail for it.”
“Isabel, whatever I did was for you. I knew you needed someone to save you. You were drowning, you’ve been drowning all your life, haven’t you? Your classmates, your parents, your teachers, even the military. None of them could see you needed help, could they?”
Isabel’s stomach turned and she looked away, her eyes stinging again, Ahmed lifted himself into a half sitting stance, looking at her calmly.
“I saw you. I’ve always seen you Isabel. I saw the way you tried to find a place, tried to be what everyone wanted you to be. I saw how much you wanted to do well, and it broke my heart that no one else noticed. You deserved better than that.”
“The others deserved better too,” said Isabel, lowering the gun and flipping the safety on. “My team… they didn’t deserve to be forgotten so you could get me here.”
“You’re right, I overstepped there. You have no idea how much that incident scared me. The idea that I could have lost you before we’d even met? No, I needed you here, as soon as possible.”
“So you manipulated my parents, manipulated the government, to bring me home, where Lena could get her claws into me, just for you.”
Ahmed sighed,
“Yes. I manipulated everyone to get you here. You deserve to be with people will love you.”
“That’s not your decision!”
“Well you constantly make the wrong decisions!” Ahmed snapped. Isabel stepped back, stung. “You put yourself in danger, you hid your panic attacks so they could not be treated, you fucked Adrian, Sander, Hans like a whore when you should have been mine from the start!”
Isabel didn’t realise she had moved until the crop, back in her hand, came down on his thigh. Ahmed howled in pain, but Isabel did not care.
“So you’re the only one meant to fuck me, is that it?” she demanded. “It doesn’t matter what I want, what I feel, you’re the one who gets to fuck me, and then what? Kill me before anyone else has a chance?”
“You wanted someone to take away your fear, I did that for you.” Ahmed was red faced and shaking. He didn’t look attractive anymore, or particularly commanding. “I made you happy for the first time in your life.”
Isabel swallowed and looked down, her whole body a tumult of emotion. Anger, hate, fear, love, desire. It swirled around her unceasingly and she grabbed at her head, the gun digging into her temple. It was true that he had made her happy. She had hurt but the pain had been good, he had quieted her fears, made her feel like the future was not a gaping maw ready to chew her up. She didn’t want to lose that.
“Isabel… come to me,” Ahmed called softly. “Put down the gun, and come to me.”
Isabel shook her head, she needed to get away, she needed to flee from this place that was making her madder than she already was. Ahmed leaned his head forward,
“Isabel, look at me!” he ordered. She could not stop herself from obeying, and met his eyes. She knew what he was going to do, and shook her head again, silently begging him not to.
“Isabel… Come, Now!”
There was nothing she could do to stop it, the orgasm crashed over her like a tidal wave, knocking her to her knees. The gun slipped from her fingers and she gripped the metal frame of the bed, trying to fight her own body.
“Isabel, come now!” Ahmed said again, and again her body obeyed, making her wail and writhe on the floor, completely overwhelmed. It was pleasure, but it was also terrible, she could not think or see as Ahmed called again, commanding her to climax, and she obeyed, yowling like a cat in heat. She sobbed and tried to still her quaking walls, fighting the orgasm with everything she had. Something bumped her hand and she looked around, gasping for breath.
The soundproof headphones.
They must have fallen off the bed and been forgotten.
“Isabel, come now!” Ahmed shouted again, and Isabe
l screamed, arching her back and twitching uncontrollably. She fumbled for the head phones and managed to jam them over her ears, feeling for the button.
“Isabel, come-”
Isabel flicked the button on and Ahmed’s voice was gone before he could command her again. Isabel collapsed back onto the floor, panting and shaking, her stolen trousers uncomfortable against her over sensitised sex.
Ahmed had just used her own body against her, to try and make her ignore the terrible things he had done. He had betrayed her trust in him, and she was done trusting anyone.
Isabel groped for the gun, hauling herself onto her feet and glaring down at Ahmed who looked alarmed to see the headphones.
“I am done with people like you!” she spat, her voice loud inside her head. “You will never see me again Ahmed.”
She put the gun in her waistband, walked on shaky legs to the toy cabinet he had, looking for the knives he had used on her before. Finding the box, she carried it over to the bed and set it down. She had no idea what Ahmed was saying, but he looked quite frantic now. She sneered at him, opening the box and taking out the packet of antiseptic wipes. She lifted her left arm and wiped the area just next to her arm pit, the numbing agent doing its work quickly. Then she picked up the blade, steeled herself and brought the blade to her skin. Her heartbeat was so loud inside the headphones she found it easier to focus on that than what she was doing.
In two minutes Isabel had removed her contraceptive device. Tossing the knife down, she held the bloody bit of tech up and smirked victoriously at Ahmed who looked horrified.
“Here’s a little trick you learn in the Marines, Ahmed,” she said making sure he watched as she pressed a small button on the side, then tweaked the internal circuitry. “A contraceptive becomes a beacon to the world. I’m going to hide this somewhere in this building and everyone is going to know where you are.”
She knew the other heirs would hate her forever, but she did not care anymore. She wanted Ahmed’s work to come crashing down around him, the same way he had brought her world crashing down twice.
A quick dermal regeneration and bandaging, and her arm was as good as it could be. Isabel set the knife out of Ahmed’s reach, gave the man one last look, and then she left.
Chapter Twenty-Eight –Hans
(Seven Months Later)
Technically Hans knew he was not supposed to be doing this. He was supposed to find Isabel, and let the king and queen know where she was and then the government would send someone in to bring her back. However, he had been searching for her for seven months since she had fled the Dukedom. The second she had activated the beacon of her contraception device, the various teams that had been scouring the area further away had been able to find the building in minutes.
Inside they had found almost all the world’s heirs, naked, bound, getting fucked or whatever other sexual thing that could be dreamt up, and one Grand Duke tied to his bed and freaking out. A letter had been stabbed to a medieval stocks, revealing Ahmed’s intentions to commit murder-suicide with Isabel at some point in the future.
It had been a shit storm of biblical proportions, between arresting all the so called Dukes and Duchesses, trying to decide what to do with the heirs who were all devastated, ashamed and scared, the media circus that broke out about everything, and then realising that Isabel had gone missing. Without her contraceptive device, she had no other trackers in her skin, and she had somehow managed to disappear into the woods around the mansion.
Hans and the rest of the security service had been searching for her, but getting nowhere. It was becoming clear that if Isabel didn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t be.
That was why Hans had to hope that she was changing her mind about disappearing. Isabel had sent a video out into the Internet, detailing her own experiences with the Dukedom, condemning society for leaving the heirs so vulnerable to manipulation by demanding they have no sexuality, and requesting that no one come looking for her.
The last request had been ignored, and Hans doubted she had expected any less. Hence why he felt cautiously hopeful this time. A sighting that seemed to be genuine had led him to Canberra, standing in a rundown street, looking up at a block of apartments.
It was a long way from the palaces and mansions the heirs would have grown up with. Hans knew that was probably exactly why Isabel had chosen it. He hovered by the gate, waiting for someone to open it, slipping through before it swung shut. He climbed the stairs to the twelfth floor and went to the 3rd door, hoping the tip was right.
He swallowed nervously, wiped his hands on his khaki shorts, then knocked three times.
Nothing happened.
Hans waited for a few moments, then knocked again, listening intently. Then he heard the lock click and the door swung open a little. Alert for danger, Hans pushed the door wider and looked around the space he could see. It looked very Spartan, a couch and a table and two chair, with no personal touches. Nothing to tell him who lived here.
Hans stepped inside, looking around behind the door in case someone was hiding there. There was no one. Hans sighed, guessing he would have to step into the space fully and be the vulnerable one. He shut the door behind him and sat down on the couch, waiting.
He heard the gun safety click off before he saw her. Isabel stepped out of the next room, the gun aimed at him. Hans’ heart expanded at the sight of her. Isabel had dyed her hair black, and she was wearing contacts so her eyes were brown, but she was unmistakable to him.
“I wondered when you’d catch up to me,” she said quietly.
“You didn’t make it easy,” said Hans, matching her volume. “You did good, Isabel.”
“You still found me, so obviously I need to do better.”
Hans shrugged, not sure what to say to that.
“I’m on my own Isabel, you don’t need the gun.”
“Last time you chased me down you put me over your knee without my consent. I don’t feel inclined to let my guard down again.”
Hans swallowed, and nodded shamefully,
“Fair point. Can we start with my apologising for that?”
Isabel’s eyebrow ticked up,
“You want to apologise?”
“Yes. There’s no excuse for what I did. I shouldn’t have done it, and I’m deeply sorry.”
Isabel lowered the gun a little, frowning at him.
“You actually mean that?”
Hans nodded. Isabel did not seem to know what to do with this for a moment, then she snapped,
“I hope you’re not expecting me to say all is forgiven and climb on your lap!”
“No, no I’m not. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t forgive myself. My feelings may have been genuine, but my actions were wrong.”
“Yes, they were,” said Isabel, her cheeks colouring. The gun lifted up again and she took a step forward, “You had no right to do that to me!”
“I know!” Hans lifted his hands peaceably, “I know Isabel.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have to keep replaying things over and over, wondering why things happened the way they did? Why it seems that so many people just look at you and see prey to toy with? What was it about you that made them all think they could manipulate you?”
“I don’t. I’m sorry,” said Hans quietly.
“Stop saying you’re sorry! You’re not going to get your way with me by abusing the damn phrase to death.”
“All right! All right!” said Hans quickly. “Isabel, I only came here to see you were safe, and you were well. I’m not going to tell your parents where you are, or anyone else. I just… I just needed to see you.”
“And to hell with what I want, right?” she snapped. “To hell with the fact that I don’t want to be found, that I don’t want to see you!”
“Isabel, no one knew where you were. Someone had to find you, just so the country knows you’re alive.”
“Maybe it’d be better if they thought I was dead,” she replied coolly. “I don’t
know why they’d want me back.”
“You haven’t been watching the news much, have you?” asked Hans.
“I’ve been busy,” said Isabel shortly.
“You’re the only heir that isn’t under inheritance question. Everyone knows it was you who revealed the location of the Dukedom.”
For the first time Isabel showed an emotion other than anger. She looked a little regretful,
“The other heirs, they probably hate me now.”
“I don’t know. Some of them have asked your parents if you’re safe. As to the rest…” Hans shrugged. Isabel lowered the gun completely and clicked the safety on.
“Who?”
“I think it was Princes Sander and Benjamin, and Princess Jingyi.”
Isabel’s expression cracked a little and she dropped into the chair opposite him.
“I didn’t think about them, when I used the device. I just wanted to punish Ahmed for what he did.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“What’s happened to him?”
“He’s in prison. There was some debate about whether he should be sectioned, but he was deemed mentally stable for trial.”
“What about Lena, Justin, or Luke?”
“I don’t know about the men, but Lena was able to talk her own sentence down by giving over information about Ahmed. She’s already been released from prison.”
Isabel nodded, rubbing her thumb over the length of the gun. Her sleeve pulled up and Hans saw faint bruises. His eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing. However, Isabel must have noticed and she smirked, holding her hand aloft.
“Like it? It’s a few days old now, but it’s still pretty good, isn’t it?”
“So you still…” Hans gestured weakly at the bruise.
“I found a place. It’s not cheap, but one of the Doms there is really good.” Isabel traced the bruise for a moment, then looked at Hans. “It’s not a relationship. No one’s trying to fuck with my head except the way I want. Hell, half the time it’s barely about sex.”
Hans swallowed, unable to take his eyes off the brusies.
“Are… are you happy?”
