Sold to Serve: The Dark Brothers Book 1

by Kyra Alessy

  He changed tack, using the flat of his tongue on her in long strokes until she was thrashing and squirming, trying to escape his touch yet yearning for it. Suddenly she froze, her mouth open in a silent shriek. She came apart hard, this time with a loud scream that reverberated off the walls of the chamber.

  He smiled at the confusion on her face as she tried to catch her breath.

  ‘What did you do to me?’ she panted.

  ‘What Mace should have done the other night,’ he answered simply. ‘Would you like more?’

  She nodded hesitantly and he chuckled as he lined up his cock. He sheathed himself to the hilt in her tight channel in one swift movement. She cried out, her fingernails digging into his shoulders, and a guttural roar burst from his throat at the sheer joy her body gave his.

  He waited a moment for her passage to stretch around him and then he began to move slowly. In and out, in and out in shallow strokes before plunging deeper in a pattern that he made longer and longer until she was a shuddering puddle beneath him and he wasn’t much better. Finally, when she began to tense around him, he thrust himself into her hard and fast. Her back bowed in ecstasy and she began to come undone once more, but this time around his staff. Only then did he throw back his head with a howl of pleasure and empty himself into her.

  Sometime afterwards, he lay next to her languid and well-sated body with no small amount of masculine pride. She was still catching her breath, but finally she reached up and drew her fingers over the hard ridges of his scarred face, stroking downwards to his ruined shoulder and chest. He almost flinched, but then he understood as he saw the contentment in her face. She wasn’t touching him to feel the damaged skin, she was just touching him to feel him. His mutilated flesh simply happened to be in her hand’s path and she didn’t seem to notice it at all.

  He relaxed beside her, watching her expressions. He feared he might see regret, but no such thoughts marred her features.

  ‘Can I assume you enjoyed that?’ he murmured.

  She grinned so beguilingly that he almost turned her over to take her again. But she was very tired. He could see that in her countenance as well.

  ‘I’ve never felt such a thing,’ she whispered.

  He laughed. ‘I know.’ He drew the blanket over her and couldn’t resist bringing up his Brother just once more. ‘I’m sure Mace will make it up to you.’

  She frowned. ‘I don’t think – ’

  He stroked her cheek once more. ‘The three of us are bound together as Dark Brothers even though we are no longer part of the Army,’ he explained simply. ‘Sharing a woman is not new to us.’

  ‘Well, it’s new to me!’ she said somewhat indignantly. ‘What if I don’t want to be shared?’ she asked in a small voice.

  He heard the apprehension and winced. Mace’s roughness had taken its toll. He swore silently, knowing that he and his Brothers were all equally to blame for her fears.

  He laid what he hoped was a comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘You have my word as a warrior that you won’t have to do anything if you don’t want to, Kora.’

  He stood up and began to dress.

  ‘Are you leaving?’

  He frowned at the note of worry in her voice.

  ‘I have some business to attend to, but I’ll be back soon, I promise. I’ll send Davas to check in on you soon, but you need rest now. Sleep.’ And he bent down and kissed her soundly.

  Chapter 11

  After Kade left, she thought for a long time, confused about her feelings. She had enjoyed being in Mace’s bed, though she saw now that, in comparison to Kade’s treatment of her just now, Mace had not been considerate of her at all. Ironic that the Brother who looked most like a barbarian was the gentlest of the three of them. But then Mace had believed that she’d snuck into his chamber to seduce him like a practised courtesan. He’d probably been quite disappointed by her lack of skill in bed. She snorted. Good.

  She put him from her mind. She had genuine troubles to worry about and she was feeling quite tired after ... her cheeks heated. Kade had been right. It had exhausted her. She lay back in the bed and curled up, falling to sleep almost immediately.

  She slept fitfully, plagued by dark dreams and fevered nightmares. She was still in the well. A beast pulled her under. The monster from above climbed down the rocks like a spider and sank its fangs into her flesh. She screamed and fought, tried to escape, but she was back on the hill, running and running but not moving, unable to get away from the things that were behind her.

  Then a warmth and a sudden feeling of safety blanketed her, chasing the gory visions away. She nuzzled closer to her salvation, breathing in a tantalising fragrance of mint and lavender very much at odds with the wood smoke and metal of Kade, but it calmed her and she drifted down into a blessedly dreamless slumber.

  The morning brought with it a thirst and a loudly rumbling tummy. She sat up, surprisingly lucid, as she heard the door open, wondering at the lingering scent in her room. She’d dreamt of that smell last night and she was sure she recognised it, but she couldn’t place it for the life of her.

  She waited for whomever it was to speak, surreptitiously ensuring her blanket was pulled high though she still wore the shirt Kade had given her. The smell of roasted meat preceded him, making her mouth water.

  ‘How do you feel this morning?’ Mace.

  ‘Better than yesterday, I think,’ she said coldly.

  He was silent for a moment before speaking again. ‘I’ve brought you a meal if you’re hungry.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, wondering if she was in any danger from this Brother. Davas had told her he was the one who’d brought her out of the cave. That counted for something, she supposed.

  A tray was placed on her lap and he put a cup in her hand. ‘This is a tea that Davas brewed for you.’

  She took a sip and made a face. It was awful.

  Mace chuckled. ‘All his teas are horrible, but they do help.’

  She wrinkled her nose, but gulped the rest as quickly as she could.

  ‘Good girl,’ he praised her, making her stomach flutter and her cheeks redden reluctantly.

  She frowned. Was it her imagination or had his tone become huskier? What was the matter with her? After how he had treated her, how could she find any of his attentions pleasing? She swallowed hard, trying to cover the warmth of her embarrassment by feeling for the food he’d placed in front of her.

  ‘Let me,’ he commanded softly. The bed next to her dipped as he sat, his proximity making her heart beat faster. She took a shuddering breath, hoping he wouldn’t ask about Kade’s shirt that she still wore.

  ‘Open your mouth,’ he coaxed.

  He slipped a bit of meat past her lips and she all but moaned at the taste of it. How long had it been since she’d eaten anything other than bread, gruel and porridge?

  He fed her slowly until she was full and she couldn’t help but sigh contentedly.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said suddenly.

  She drew back, trying to keep the grimace off her face. She didn’t want to speak of what had happened the other night. It was too mortifying.

  ‘What for?’ she heard herself ask politely and cursed her upbringing.

  ‘For the other night in my chamber. I thought … you appeared and I should have known it wasn’t what I assumed. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I know it’s a poor excuse.’

  Kora cast her eyes down. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she could feel his eyes on her and knew her cheeks were crimson yet again. ‘You didn’t hurt me,’ she finally said quietly.

  ‘I know that I did. Forgive me.’

  She knew her face showed her surprise that he was asking for absolution. She cast her thoughts back to that night, his touch, his mouth doing those wicked things, and she put her fingers to her hot face. She would have forgiven him. It was in her nature to do so.

  But what about all the weeks before? She closed her eyes. At best he’d ignored her. At worst he’d he
lped Lucian make her miserable. She grimaced. There was another, ever present suspicion that made her question everything: What if this was a trick – something Lucian’s twisted mind had thought up to torture hers? Perhaps it was just another part of her never-ending punishment.

  ‘I want to. But there’s been so much – ’ she began, but he hushed her.

  ‘Let me at least try to make amends.’

  She shrugged, not believing for a moment that he would do as he promised once his guilt wore off. He would forget his shame, and the fickleness of human nature would divest him of this current need for forgiveness sooner rather than later, she was sure.

  Over the next several days she fell into a routine while she convalesced. Every morning Davas brought water in ewers for washing and her breakfast and, after him, Kade would usually appear, bringing a clean shirt for her to wear. Always one of his. She found this odd, but when she asked him for something more substantial to cover herself with, he told her that they’d had to send to the village for women’s clothes because they had no others – and that while she was stuck in her room it didn’t really matter anyway. Kora didn’t say anything more about it despite how peculiar it was though the second time she caught Kade leaning in to smell her, she told him she wouldn’t wear anything he brought her unless he stopped. He seemed a bit perturbed, but he hadn’t done it since.

  If Kade wasn’t there practically sitting on top of her, Mace would sit with her for hours on end, talking with her about his life before joining the Brothers. He was trying to make up for what he’d done as he’d promised he would. It was a welcome surprise. She was amazed to find that he was the younger son of a noble himself. His childhood had been similar to hers. He’d found his years cloistered within his family’s estate as suffocating as she had hers and had run away to find adventure and glory.

  She remembered walking the halls of her family home or even just sitting in her chambers, feeling the walls closing in on her. She’d have to get out or she was afraid she’d go mad. She’d sneak down to the stables to ride her horse, Brisa, in the twilight or run through the meadow down to the river that ran through their lands and hope that none of the servants who saw told tales to her father. He had very specific ideas regarding how young girls of noble birth should behave and his punishments typically involved taking away things he knew she loved. She frowned as she remembered the day he’d sold Brisa. She didn’t even remember what she’d said or done to make him do it, just the hollowness inside her and the realisation that there wasn’t much left that he could take away.

  Kora shook herself free of her musings. She could well understand Mace’s feelings. They weren’t much different, Mace and she, and Kora wished she could share her own memories with him. She was tempted, but there was always a voice that cautioned her. She couldn’t trust anyone even if she did feel a connection of sorts beginning to form.

  Mace thought of ways to break up the hours as well. One afternoon, he brought her a tray of foods and made her guess by taste alone what each dish was. By the end they were both in fits of giggles and she couldn’t remember ever having such fun with anyone.

  As he took the tray from her knee, his hand brushed hers. He hadn’t touched her once in these past days, not even by accident. She pulled her hand away with a tiny gasp, and a sudden heat pooled in her belly.

  ‘Your skin is flushed,’ he observed.

  She drew away from him and drawing her mouth into a thin line. She was still embarrassed whenever she thought of what had happened with him before, but the other conflicting things she’d felt hadn’t gone away either. If anything, the need she felt when she was around him had only increased.

  She felt his weight leaning forward on the bed and squeaked as he touched his lips softly to hers. He hadn’t kissed her once the other night, but he was now, and it was very different from Kade’s aggressive, yet no less pleasurable, invasion of her mouth. Yes, she liked kissing, she decided.

  He pulled away from her just enough to speak. ‘I’m only going to kiss you. You can tell me no, Kora,’ he murmured. ‘I won’t force you. You won’t be punished if you refuse me.’

  Kora felt for his face and cupped his cheek, sliding her fingers into his short flaxen hair, remembering how it had shone so golden in the sun the first time she’d seen him. Unable to help herself, she surged forward, capturing his mouth with hers. A moan slipped out and was muffled by his lips. She needed to feel him next to her. She needed her other four senses to make her forget she was lacking her fifth. But mostly she needed him to finish what he’d begun that night. She longed for that pleasure. Before Kade had shown her, she hadn’t known what she craved, and it had irked her that she yearned so for something she didn’t understand. But she knew now and found she wanted that feeling again. She wanted Mace to make her body succumb to it.

  What had happened with him had scared her, but over the past days, he’d been kind. She’d seen beneath the mercenary leader’s veneer and she liked it.

  And when she thought back to the night she’d shared his bed, the fear and the pleasure had been a potent combination. After years of crushing any feelings of exuberance down lest they be noticed by her father, she now found peril too thrilling to ignore.

  She’d taken risks before; of course she had. She’d left her room in the night to watch the servants in their festival revelries. She had disobeyed her father at every turn, even knowing that the price would be high if she was caught. She’d rebelled as much as she could in that stifling house while still ensuring he believed her to be a timid maid. But none of her adventures had ever excited her like Mace and Kade did.

  She wrapped her arms around Mace’s neck, afraid he would pull away from her, but instead he pushed her back onto the bed and lay down beside her, one leg draped over hers and effectively securing her to him.

  ‘You aren’t well enough for this,’ he murmured even as he pushed the counterpane down, pulled Kade’s shirt over her head and took the tightening peak of her breast into his mouth. His tongue played with it, sending such a delicious sensation straight down her body that she couldn’t help the tingle she felt in her belly and between her thighs.

  ‘The only things not well are my eyes,’ she moaned, ‘and I don’t need those at the moment.’

  He laughed warmly and the sound of it was like a caress in itself. His hand moved to her other breast, kneading it gently as he kissed her mouth again. As she relaxed next to him, his tongue moved past her lips, exploring her as his hands did.

  Caught up in his touch and her body’s response, she didn’t hear the door open. It wasn’t until someone coughed lightly that she realised someone was in the room, a voyeur who casually watched them. She froze, curling into Mace’s body as she felt for the blanket. She pulled it over herself like a child hiding from imagined monsters – except here the monsters were real.

  ‘Can’t you fucking knock?’ Mace growled. Then he made a sound of irritation. ‘And why are you walking about spying? You should be resting. You look terrible.’

  ‘I can take care of myself, as you well know. Besides, I would have missed the show. You shouldn’t be letting her exert herself. Come. We need to talk. Now. There’s been another raid on the village.’

  Lucian. What was he doing here? Kora stayed under the covers, hoping he’d forget about her.

  Mace shifted off the bed. ‘If it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t be languishing in this bed.’

  Lucian snorted. ‘That’s true enough. If it wasn’t for me, she’d still be sleeping on the floor in the kitchen and going about her back-breaking punishment chores instead of enjoying these soft sheets and your pleasurable company.’

  Under the blanket, Kora’s face contorted with rage. Before she could think better of it, she uncovered her head and turned it in the direction of his voice.

  ‘You made me go and pick those poisonous flowers,’ she cut in coldly, her body shaking in fury. ‘You knew what would happen to me! I might never see anything again because of you!
’ she railed at him, eyes swimming with tears. She dashed them away angrily. ‘What if my sight never comes back? What will happen to me then?’ She laughed derisively. ‘Will you sell me on to a place where my eyes aren’t needed? A dockside, mending nets? A brothel in the north?’ She stifled a sob as she lay back, turning away from them both.

  Lucian was blessedly silent for once. Mace’s hand found hers, trying to comfort her she supposed, but all it did was remind her that he had helped Lucian, however indirectly. She pushed him away. ‘I’d like to be alone now, please.’

  When she was sure they were gone, Kora got out of bed. She knew the room well after the countless days she’d spent here, but she still stumbled a bit as she found the bottom of the bed and then the table in the corner where she knew the ewer of water sat. She bathed as well as she could, wishing for the hot pool in the cellar while she did so. Then she dragged the chair by the wall over to the casement and sat in it. Even though she couldn’t see the view of the valley, she could imagine it and still feel the breeze and the warmth of the sun on her face.

  She finally let in the fears that had been hounding her thoughts. What if her sight did not return? What would she do? She didn’t have an answer.

  A while later someone knocked, but she told whoever it was to go away. She was neither hungry nor in any sort of mood for company. When the warmth on her face disappeared, she began to feel sick and dizzy. Perhaps she wasn’t as well as she thought if simply sitting in a chair tired her out.

  She made her way back to the bed and resolved to map the rest of the keep in the same way she had this room. It was either that or be dependent on someone’s arm to lead her everywhere. No, she would hate that. Tomorrow she would ask Davas for some of the men’s clothes if necessary so that she could move about unaided. Even with Mace and Kade coming to visit every day, knowing she couldn’t simply leave this room whenever she liked made it feel like a prison in the same way her father’s house had.