Page 52 of The Hellbeast's Betrayal

And because I really didn’t want him touching me, I stormed over to him and snatched the dress, making him look amused. Then I stomped my way toward the screens, seeing a pot there to do my business in and a bowl for me to wash. Both of which I needed to do, seeing as the last time was in our tent before the whole snake incident.

Gods but what would Jared be thinking right now? The thought was such a heartbreaking one. I knew he would be devastated. He would be furious, worried out of his mind and hurt that it had all gone wrong. His biggest fear had come true.

The one I had convinced him wouldn’t.

“Is there a problem?” he asked when he didn’t hear anything, because I had stopped dead as the pain of this had struck me. Making tears come to my eyes as I fought myself on trying to keep it together. I wiped them away angrily, not wanting to give the villain of this story the satisfaction of my pain.

“I need to pee,” I forced myself to say, hating the way my voice wanted to break.

“I think you will find the means to do that, my dear,” he replied calmly, making me glance around to find him now sitting in an armchair looking comfortable. The smug bastard once more looked at his claws before picking lint off his pants.

“I can’t pee with you here! You need to leave,” I demanded, making him chuckle.

“I have all evening, Ella, does your bladder?” he asked, making me sneer at him and again, he found my hostility amusing.

With a huff, I had no choice but start to undress, using the undignified ‘pot’ to pee in, making sure not to sigh in relief.

Then after I did this, I pushed it back under the hole it was meant for and started to put on the dress, keeping on the boots Jared had conjured up for me. Ones he had purposely made with a thicker, fluffy lining so as not to hurt me this time.

In fact, it made me feel better, because at least I had something of Jared still on me, as well as my engagement ring. But then, one glance at the man forcing me into this dress, and I knew that I was better off hiding it.

I was afraid that if Garmr saw it, he would take it from me and destroy it. So, despite hating to be parted from it, I pulled it off my finger and hid it in the pocket of the clothes I had been wearing, before folding it on the chair.

As for the dress, there was a lot of layers to the thing, making me huff and puff my way into it. The material was one I had never seen before, like thin translucent paper, its natural creases flowing downwards. As for its color, or should I say, lack of it, it gave off an ombre effect. As if the lower half had been dipped in black dye, letting it creep up as it soaked into the light grey.

The design made it look as if some dark entity was taking over my body, with intricate black lace around the edges of each layer. This continued curling upward from the darker bottom of the skirt, first to the shorter layers that gave the skirt volume. Then the pattern continued after first coiling around my waist in a swath of black and up to my breasts, like two lace tentacles had found their bounty. This emphasized the sweetheart neckline of the strapless of stress.

“Having difficulties, my dear?”

I shivered at his voice.

“No, I am fine thank you very mu… hey!” I shouted when he was suddenly there, making me hold the back pieces together because I was yet to tighten the ribbon that would hold the dress together.

“Turn around,” he said, twirling his finger and making me narrow my eyes at him.

“You will cut me to shreds if you come near my skin with those claws!” I protested, making him grin before purposely holding up both hands and flipping them around, at the same time, his nails disappeared back into his fingers. This left just the ends so they weren’t half as dangerous looking.

“Now turn around,” he said again, giving me no choice, and I didn’t see the point in fighting this. Not when I knew he would only win by force. Something he admitted he would enjoy, so I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Which was why I turned around, giving him my back.

“This is new, so many curls…so soft,”he said as his hands first came to my hair, grasping it all and twisting it up out of his way. Then with one hand holding it all in place, he brought his other hand to the front of me. This was so I could watch as he produced a delicate black glass flower attached to a hair comb. It looked like a delicate rose in full bloom.

“Is this to your liking?” he asked me, and I had to clear my throat first because it was unexpected that he would even care what I thought.

“It’s beautiful,” I admitted, because anything else from my lips would have been a lie and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of that either. So, he slipped it into my hair, effectively keeping it up in place as my curls spilled over the top of the twist.

After that, he put his hands on my shoulders, this time making me tremble because it reminded me of all those dreams he had forced upon me.

“Mm,not as beautiful as you,”he told me softly, and I closed my eyes against the compliment because coming from him, it meant nothing. I continued to keep them closed, trying to hold myself ridged and still as he started to tug at the corseted back.

“Relax, you’re so tense,” he told me, making me want to snap at him, ‘I wonder why!’ but like before, I held my tongue.

Instead, I focused not on his hands as they brushed against my bare skin, but on the way the dress kept getting tighter and tighter, wishing for the whole ordeal to be over with.

“There, all done,” he said, now stepping back and giving me room to turn around. His eyes glowed a brighter crimson the second I did, his gaze traveling the length of me, the sight giving him reason to grin.

“I knew it would be perfect when I had it made for you,” he said, again surprising me, making me look to the rest of the clothes in the armoire. Of course, he followed my gaze and told me,

“I had them all made for you, knowing you would soon return back to me.”

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