Page 1 of Trapped to Tame
Chapter 1
Eve
She crept along the forest floor, her eyes peering through the undergrowth, her bow at the ready. The sun shone through the leafy canopy, its rays gathering into little pools of golden light.Sensing movement, she let the arrow fly, striking a deer through its heart some distance away.
She started towards it, but found herself in its place, the bolt protruding from her own chest instead. A man she didn’t recognize knelt next to her. He didn’t look at her but, with a grim resignation, he began to pull it from her flesh. She screamed, trying to fight, but she was too weak.
Eve woke gasping, clawing at the air above her head, but there was nothing there. She was alone in her freezing room.
She collapsed back onto the thin pallet that barely protected her from the cold floor, letting out a harsh breath. She’d been having the same dream for months, the man in it changed, but it was always one of three. She didn’t recognize them, but she’d found herself starting to study the spectators in the crowds while she fought in the ring, almost hoping to see one of them. Gods only knew why. Did she hope they’d save her? She almost smiled at that foolish thought. More likely, she’d get herself killed while she wasn’t focusing on her opponent.
Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her face and listened to the sounds of the men outside the tiny hovel at the edge of the fighting rings where she lived. The fights had already begun for the day which must mean it was late evening. It would be her turn soon.
The main attraction.
Glancing around her small room, Eve noted that there was no food on the table next to her worn, leather jerkin. Her heart sank. That was Jays’ way of telling her that she was meant to lose tonight. Her body didn’t need food if she wasn’t exerting it to win, and her keeper never spent money when he didn’t have to.
Heart thudding hard, she padded across the dirt floor, the iron chain attached to her ankle clanking. She ignored the evidence of the rats that ran rampant down here in the poorer part of town. She was used to them. So long as they didn’t try to steal what was hers, she didn’t bother with them much. Well, except to talk to them when she was feeling lonely, pathetic as that was.
While donning her red leather armor – and she used that term loosely, for the jerkin was much too small, affording her very little in the way of protection and only real purpose being to show off her small chest advantageously for men to ogle during the fights, she tried to calm herself, not think about later. It would soon be time, and she needed a clear head even if she would be beaten by the Bull tonight.
Swallowing hard, Eve thought about the last time she’d fought him. She’d been given a bowl of thin stew. That meant she was to win. At the time, she’d been glad of the respite, but now her comeuppance was here. The Bull didn’t like to lose, no matter how strong his opponent was, no matter what he was told to do. He’d take it out on her later when he returned for his payment – for it wasn’t coin he’d take, it was her body.
How much time would Jays allow him after the fight this time? Sometimes it was just enough for him to bend her over and plow her into the table, others he spent hours making her cry and beg for him to stop before Jays finally opened the door and told him to fuck off.
She heard Jays’ footsteps outside her room and her stomach leapt into her chest.
It was time.
Taking a long breath, Eve pushed back her shoulders, drawing herself up and ensuring her eyes weren’t on the floor. She didn’t want to meet their gazes, see the excitement in their faces at the prospect of her humiliating defeat in the rings, but looking down was showing fear and showing fear was like throwing oil on a fire to the Bull. He reveled in her panic even more than her pain.
She put on her old, holey boots and opened the door, masking how the onslaught of sound made her want to cower; men roaring and chanting for the Bull, hoping he’d win tonight and strip her bare in front of the crowd while she hung her head in shame because she was too much of a coward to disobey, showing everyone the trophy he’d won like he had the last time while the town’s soldiers turned a blind eye.
Eve was a prize no one else had attained, after all. She was strong; stronger than all the men here, which was a blessing in that she’d only ever lost to the Bull because they told her to, and a curse because her remarkable strength was what had made Talik choose this as the way she must pay her dues.
If she could go back in time, she’d never have joined him officially. She’d have found another way, but street children who didn’t ally themselves with a gang died early and Talik was the logical choice. His gang was strong, and he’d looked out for her as long as she could remember. She’d been lucky he’d taken her in, truth be told. She’d never have survived once her unnatural strength made itself known if she hadn’t already been one of them.
She watched the Bull, already in the ring and staring at her with a sneer on his face. He knew by now that she’d been told to let him defeat her. He didn’t care that it wasn’t real so long as everyone else did and he could play with her body after. Feeling sick, she resisted the urge to retch in the dirt. She could practically hear the guffaws from the men around her atthatsign of weakness.
Money began to change hands as she was assessed. Bets were called, and she knew that more than one man would lose too much coin tonight and find himself in over his head when his debts were called in with Talik tomorrow.
Eve knew how she looked; thin and ill. That was another reason she wasn’t fed much. She was strong enough to beat all the men she fought regardless, and it was all part of the hustle – when she was meant to win anyway. Making her lose to the Bull was just another way of Jays and Talik reminding her of her place.
Jays came forward and unlocked the manacle around her ankle, freeing her for the first time since her last fight three days ago. They knew by now that that was all the time she needed to heal from injuries sustained in the ring as well as whatever the Bull did to her after, so that was her only reprieve.
She began to stroll unhurriedly through the throng, smelling unwashed bodies intermingled with the perfumed ones of the monied. Talik would be happy she was drawing the attentions of the wealthier freefolk, that was for certain.
Eve stepped into the pit and, at the Bull’s lingering gaze, made herself meet his eyes.
She could hear comments behind her; hoping the Bull would win, put the bitch down, what he’d done last time to make her scream and what her body looked like.
Bile rose.
She couldn’t take whatever the Bull had planned today, she just couldn’t. She made up her mind in that moment that she would not be losing. She might be fatigued from lack of food and shuddering with real fear, but she would not let him touch her despite the punishment she would undoubtedly receive from Jays later.
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Drax
