He let himself get taken by the dogs. It was a strange act of heroism. "Go! Now is your chance," he said.
I tried to run but I heard a powerful gunshot ring out. The force of the bullet rushed right past my leg, hitting my defender directly in the shoulder blade. The dogs ran off into the forest.
A painful cry escaped my protector’s lips, akin to an animal hit by a car.
"No." I collapsed near him and felt near his wound. Blood. “I won't leave you."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because you saved me."
As I saw tears well in his eyes, he shook his head. "You have no idea what you've just done. You've let him win."
I held onto him, despite it being against my best interests. I heard the cock of a pistol, felt the heat from the barrel warm against the side of my head, and heard the man's callous laughter.
"Got ya."
Lucian
She was everything a man wanted. Petite and curvy. Practically raised to be bred. Virgin whore.
I spent years dreaming of meeting the one woman that was off-limits, and now she was here. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
The pact between families was shattered. It was what I wanted, but it was supposed to be different. Now, my father had full control.
She was too damn curious for her own good. Didn't she heed the warnings of the childhood proverb about the cat with too much gumption? She seemed hell-bent on getting herself raped, or worse—killed.
None of that mattered now that she had gotten herself caught by my father, the trapper of these woods. She wasn't the first, but she would be the last because she was special.
Her family was the reason we were all here. She was given the same rules that I had been so long ago. The Great Divide was not to be crossed. Ever. We stayed on one side. They stayed on the other.
Lucky for her, my father wouldn’t kill her. That was not how the man worked. He was slow and methodical, and thrived on the terror he gave to others.
He fucked with my plans. I had planned to grab her, rape her body, and leave this place. I was going to take her far away from the forest, to a place with no forest divide, a place with no masters. I could have found us a sanctuary, but she acted too soon.
I sat in the basement of our cabin, locked in the cage that my father forced me in every single day. My blood ran down my chest, wound stinging from the hammered bullet that sat lodged inside me. Above my head, a solitary light swung, creaking loudly. The entire time, I could hear her panicked cries coming from the cellar above.
I lived in a nightmare. If I wanted to get out with her, I was going to have to play my cards right. That meant persuading my brother to back the fuck down.
"What was that pathetic display out there?" Kahn asked me. He was locked inside his own cage. Together, we were treated like the animals we had become.
I stayed silent, and he grew irritable. "There's no need to discuss. I will murder you and Father when I get out of here," I replied.
"You're too injured to hurt me," he said.
I laughed and sucked in a deep breath. I pointed my nail directly at my wound and dug it deep inside until I felt the bullet, still searing hot against the muscle. Although the pain was excruciating, I breathed diligently and pried the thick piece of metal from my muscle. As I tossed it aside, the blood came pouring out. I applied pressure to the wound with a piece of torn cloth.
"I could have killed you out there, but I let you live," I said.
My brother looked away and huffed. "Father will beat me for your sins," he said. "It always falls back onto me."
I had grown used to living in these conditions, but with the addition of the woman upstairs, I was feeling unruly and ready to kill. She was pure innocence, and I wanted her now.
Her flowery scent presented images in my mind of things I had once forgotten about. For once, I could rest on the beauty of the world. When I held her in my arms, I could feel like a human again. Of course, all of that went out the window when I got shot.
Ultimately, my sight took me back to that basement, back to the harsh stare of my younger brother, and I remembered where I was again. Hell on earth.
"You can't touch her, you selfish fuck," Khan growled, lunging toward the bars with dumb force. He knocked his head and winced, but it didn't stop him from trying again.