Page 90 of Her Tortured Beasts

If I thought there was nothing worse than being chained to Xander, I was wrong. Being chained to his father is much worse.

Luckily, I’m too numb to really feel it when his hand slides down my ass for the first time in his office. Or when I’m told to kneel on the floor by his seat the entire time he has his meetings. Some of them are in person, some of them are on screen. The first meeting is with Fabian Drakos, and the fucker runs his thumb along my bottom lip with great interest, then tugs experimentally on my hair before taking his seat.

They talk of things I don’t even hear, because there’s a ringing in my ears that makes hearing anything impossible.

Or caring about anything.

The next meeting is with Ragnar Firewing, the father of Selena’s children, and I barely pay attention to that too. In some weird power play between the two dragons, Ragnar requests to touch my breasts. Flores declines with an arrogant drawl.

I fall asleep after that, my head bowing as Flores speaks figures and plans with people on his computer screen. It’s not until the evening when Francesca arrives, standing primly before me, that I’m forced to wake up.

Because she yanks me up by the hair. I grunt, getting my feet under me just in time before she slaps my face, hard. I choke on my own spit before she slaps me on the other side for good measure.

“Whore,” she hisses. “You reek of him.” She paces the room, huffing and puffing, her face pink and shoulders heaving.

Flores chuckles. “Get it out of your system, my love, but leave some for tonight.”

Francesca points at me. “You might have escaped this week,” she spits. “But the first beast to take you won’t have as much class as us. You will be expected toperform.” She addresses Flores now. “Why don’t we just strap her down and inseminate her with your chosen ally? We could make a healthy sum if we do it now. Her heat is due any time now and it would placate everybody.”

Flores nods. “Great minds, Francesca. I’ve already put the plans in place for a private auction. The Collector will not pass up the chance.”

“Nor will Lord Agnis,” Francesca nods. “He’s especially impatient.”

“As am I,” Flores murmurs. “Let us go to dinner.”

“Not with her,” the dragoness sneers. “She only gets dog food from now on.”

The next three days are the same. I sit by Flores Drakos’ knee in his office, and when he doesn’t tote me around, I’m locked in my cage in his room, forced to hear him loudly fuck Francesca every night.

I understand pretty quickly that he’s trying to get her pregnant. It has to be the only reason he hasn’t tried with me.

I don’t see Xander or any of the other family members. They only feed me tiny brown kibble in my dog bowl, and on the second day, I’m lightheaded and desperate enough to try some.It’s actually not bad, and if I squint a certain way, it tastes like Vegemite.

The worst part is that I’m not allowed to use his bathroom. The servants, a new set of humans who don’t talk to me, actually take me outside three times a day. None of them want to do the job the old-fashioned way, so they all end up sneaking me into the servant’s toilet in their quarters under the castle.

Got to count your blessings where you get them.

Finally, on a day that I think might be the fourth, Flores tells his butler he’s going out for the day for an important business meeting.

I assume the business is me, but they don’t take me and he tells everyone to keep me in my cage. After he leaves, I sigh in great annoyance because my back is starting to hurt from being cooped up in there. The numerous servants all look around sort of sheepishly.

“It’s the children, miss,” one says quietly. “They’re asking for you. Daily. Miss Selena was hoping you could come down to the garden for a bit now that His Majesty is out.”

The butler hisses in shock. “You can’t do that! He’ll have our heads!”

“Miss Selena will take the blame,” she says quickly. “She said so herself.”

My voice emerges as a croak from disuse, but the thought of sun on my skin and the sight of the open sky sparks a light in me. “Let’s go then.”

Lady Drakos sits in a chair, arranging flower pots on a trestle table. Her hair is tied in a chignon and she wears white longsleeves protecting her arms from the warm sunlight. “Aurelia, darling!” she says with delight. “There you are!”

Eugene rushes at me, squawking loudly, as his bedazzled goggles reflect the sun and he peers at me to check if I’m okay. I catch him in my arms with a pained grimace and he pecks at me affectionately.

“I’m glad to see you all,” I say quietly, letting Eugene down. He presses himself against my leg.

“Are you alright?” Selena asks worriedly, getting up from her crouch and lifting her sun hat to get a better look at me. Then she pinches her nose. “Stupid question. I’m sorry.”

I rub my tummy where there’s now a constant, empty sort of burn. “There aren’t any snacks around here, are there?”

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