Page 87 of Servitude to Serpents

I wanted her to say she loved me again.

She didn’t.

She stared into the bath water, avoiding my eyes. Avoidingme.

Her master.

And I deserved it.

“All your training, and you couldn’t do theonething I required of you?”

She stares up at me, but all I see is my weakness, the only one I’veeverallowed myself reflected at me in blinding clarity. “And what was it you required of me,Sir? To open my fucking legs? To let him shove his fat cock in me? BecauseI did.” She shoves up from the mattress, scrambling off the bed. “I did,and my cunt was wet, just like you wanted it to be when you told me to fuck him!”

It was the wrong move. Her anger, like his, merges with mine, feeding it as my cock comes to life in my pants, despite how sick her words make me. The truth behind them settles in my chest like a dagger, because she fucked him. She fucked him, and Iforcedher to. Not with threats or violence, but because I knew she wouldn’t say no. She couldn’t say no to me. I offered her up to him on a fucking platter! She yelps, trying to move away, but it’s too late. She’smine. “You think I fucking wanted that? You think I wanted him to touch you? All these months dressing you in blue, coddling you, adoring, fuckingworshippingyou, and you think I wanted this?”

“I wasn’t in blue tonight. I was in black, and I hated it!” She screams back at me, her blonde hair ruffled like flames around her head.

My hand tightens on her collar, sending her crashing against me. “You didn’t seem to mind while you were getting fucked, did you, baby? Those were your words, yes?Your wet cunt. All this talk of your success, but myhonor, my father’s, is in ruins, andyouended up floundering in the fucking water!”

Her chin wobbles, her eyes filling with tears, and I can’t see it.

I can’t fucking see it.

We’re too far gone, my control slipping through my fingertips. I should turn around. I should walk out, but I don’t. I don’t, and no god or prayer has the hope of saving us now. My mouth slams against hers, kissing her deeply, taking every breath she has, because they belong to me. Not to him. Not to the fucking water, not her family and her trauma. She’smine. So, I take her mouth like I’m trying to remind myself of that. Pain flares in my lip, her teeth cutting into it, shoving me with everything she has. I pop free, panting.

“No.” It’s a single word, said with such anger, such finality. For a moment, it halts me. She glares up at me, my blood smeared across her soft lips, and she has never looked more devastatingly beautiful. I double down, pressing my cock into her and leaning into it now as she leans into me back, and she hates it. “I tried tofuck him for you because you ordered me to, just like I fuck you because Ihaveto. Isn't it true, Master, that I am doing what I was trained for? That’s why you fucking bought me to perform like a well-trained dog! I didn’t want him more than I’ve ever wantedyou.”

There's a thick, impossibly heavy silence while her cutting words sink in.

Then…everything detonates.

She screams as I jerk her by the collar, forcing her back to the bed. “Stop!”

“Why should I? After you’ve gone through the fucking trouble of reminding me of your place! How had I ever fucking forgotten?” I laugh. It’s a disgusting, maniacal sound, one that has lived in my nightmares as I choke her, holding her up off the bed as I secure her collar to the rigging.

“How had I ever forgotten that you’re the fuckingdog?” I toss her down on the bed, hopping off to stalk her, watching her crystal tears run down her cheeks. Her chest heaves in quiet sobs. My thoughts are jumbled by the alcohol and my own venom as I head over to the built-in compartment on the wall. She knows what’s in here; she paid attention, and her sobs are evidence of that.

“I don’t want to do this anymore!”

My fingers slide over my snakeskin bullwhip, one I’ve never taken to her. She seemed too sweet, and from the very start, I wasfuckedfor her. “What you want is of no consequence to me, little pet. You belong to me, dead, alive, bloodied, or beaten. Iownyou. Your choice in what happens to that praise-desperate cunt of yours ended the day they drugged you at that bar.” I snag my marker next, wanting, needing to inflict, knowing what I write will have far more effect than the whip, but I intend to use both.

I should’ve given her away that day. I should’ve let Tyet have her. Even that thought feels acidic in my brain.

She sobs. “I don’t want you to hit me with that. I don’t want to do this, please!”

“Poor pup, still not understanding that you don’t have a fucking choice in the matter!” I don’t even turn back fully before I bring the whip up and strike her, adrenaline rushing through me as her scream fills the room. A beautiful red whelp blooms across her cheek, right where I intended it. “I suggest you get on yourknees. It would be a pity if this hit your good eye. Not much use for me in a blind dog.”

She’s sobbing as she turns, sinking her upper body to the mattress. Her tether tangles in her braid as I whip her again, her scream releasing into the pillow as the end strokes her ass. Her nails dig into the pillow, gasping and bracing as I bring down another flurry of hits. Each one leaves her marred. I could take off the cover at the end, razor whipping her, but even now, her sobs resonate somewhere deep inside me, and if I was a better man, I’d stop here.

I am not a better man.

We continue like that until her pale flesh is whelped and red, her throat hoarse as I flip her onto her back, dragging her down the bed toward me. “I don’t want it,” she sobs. “Master, I’m sorry.I’m sorry.”She chants it like a mantra.

But I need her.

I need her because I’m still not breathing.

I need her to take this, to hold it until I’m me again.

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