Page 37 of Mated To The King's Gamma
“You will help him, it will take you only a few minutes,” she snapped but I shook my head and started backing up.
“You will help him, Abbie, or I will make Ivy help him,” she snapped at me, and I should have known something was up because she said Ivy’s name. She never referred to us by name, always you, or rogue, or some other filthy, vile thing.
We hadn’t eaten in three days. Mrs. Daley used to make us share whatever scraps were left over. There was nothing left over for the last three days, and I knew Azalea wouldn’t last much longer. She was fainting frequently, and each time Mrs. Daley caught her, she accused her of slacking and whipped her more. She couldn’t handle much more; she needed food and time to heal.
“You just need to help him stack the freezers. If you do, I will let you eat with the rest of the children tonight. It's a reward. I know you girls have been working hard today.”
“You’ll let us eat?”
“Of course,” she smiled. I swallowed, glancing at the basement door where the freezers were kept.
“It will only take you a few minutes. He has already put half of it down there,” she told me, and a shiver ran up my spine. I ignored it.
I shouldn’t have.
“So chop, chop, then you can prepare dinner and eat with the rest of them,” Mrs. Daley said. So I helped. I rushed around, helping carry the meat down, taking the last box down, and setting it in the freezer. I turned toward the stairs just as Doyle sauntered down them. I stepped aside to let him pass with the chicken he had, but he didn’t.
“Excuse me,” I murmured, keeping my gaze on the floor. He cleared his throat, and I saw Mrs. Daley close the basement door—my heartbeat like a drum in my chest before I heard the TV turn up.
Too loud.
The butcher reached for me, and I shrieked at the look on his face before he grabbed my hair, shoving me toward the back of the basement where the freezers were.
“I want to leave, you’re scaring me,” I told him, trying to pass him. Then he grabbed my hair, bending me over the freezer as I struggled and kicked. I almost froze in fear when I felt his breath on the back of my neck as he pinned me down.
His calloused fingers skimmed my thighs as he gripped my tunic and yanked at it, tearing the bottom open.
Then the sting of my flesh as he ripped my underwear down and felt the warmth of my blood as it cascaded down my legs when he shoved his way inside me and made me scream. His hand closed over my mouth to muffle me. His scent was putrid, like rotting meat and steel, as I choked on the breath stolen by the pain.
“I have waited so long for this!” he groaned, using his other hand to hold my head against the cold freezer top. The taste of his fingers as he muffled my screams of agony made me gag and retch.
The voices above us from the TV grew louder, and I knew Mrs. Daley turned it up so the kids wouldn’t hear me. The tune that played at the start of it, I would never forget. It taunted me as I tried to focus on it instead of the agony tearing up my backside as he raped me. It felt like it stretched on for hours before he was finally done. I remained frozen in place, staring at the wall covered in cobwebs, as I heard him zip his pants before he pressed his lips to my cheek. I squeezed my eyes shut. “Good, girl, hopefully by next week you’ll be ready for round two,” he purred before I listened to his footsteps climb the stairs.
I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed with fear, paralyzed with the humiliation I felt as my blood streamed down my legs. I wanted it to stop when I noticed the rope hanging on the wall. My hands shook as I reached for it and tossed it over the banister above before dragging a chair over to it and making a noose. He would come back for me. He would come back. So I slipped it over my head.
I wouldn’t let him do that again. Tears streamed down my face. The chair wobbled and I am about to take a step off when I hear the door open. Fear momentarily paralyzes me again, wondering if he returned when I saw her.
Azalea had stepped into the basement, and her eyes roamed over me and widened in horror as they took in my torn tunic, my thighs covered in blood. Then the rope around my neck.
“Abbie,” she had whispered, taking a step toward me but I shook my head, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t live like that.
“Go, Ivy,” I sobbed, my shoulders shaking with each breath I took as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Not without you,” she choked. I shook my head, and she moved closer before peering around the room. She moved toward a chair and placed it next to mine. She climbed up on it and loosened the noose, slipping her head in beside mine.
“More than my life. Mine isn’t worth living if you aren’t in it. If you go, we go together because I am not without you,” she told me.
We both jumped, but the rope didn’t hold our weight. I felt the burn of the rope as it slashed through my neck, and our heads clanged together before we hit the floor.
“Stop!” Azalea commands.
The word cuts through the darkness, and I gasp, my body jerking as I am ripped from the memory.
The warmth of the present comes rushing back—Azalea beside me, her hands pressing against my temples.
“Enough,” she whispers.
I blinked rapidly, my vision hazy, and suddenly, the walls around me change.
