Page 41 of Mastering their Maiden

I had.

I’d trusted them to believe me when I told them not to leave. That they couldn’t trust the Elders, or the men Ryne had stationed here. That despite Kaiden’s belief that he had control over all the Kavari in this village, the truth was he didn’t.

But they disregarded me. They’d brushed aside my worries like kisses were the solution to everything. Like their lips would make me forget everything that had happened before they arrived.

For a moment, I had.

But not now. Never again. Not now that I knew what I really was to them. A silly little princess with silly worries. One they just wanted to stay quiet while they spread her legs wide. That’s all they wanted me for.

Rober appeared in the doorway, his face flushed with anger. “Find that child. She won’t stop screaming until we do.”

The soldier behind him nodded, and Rober turned to me, a smile creeping across his face. “I’ve wanted you under the whip for a long while, girl. If we work hard, you might be tame enough by the time we get to Magilin that the king will have you as his first ride to celebrate the death of the traitors. Perhaps he’ll fuck you next to the gallows we’ll build to hang—”

I launched myself at him, letting out an animalistic roar as I went for the dagger on his belt. It was a stupid decision, but I couldn’t stop myself from trying something—anything—to stop what was coming.

Rober batted me away like I was a fly, and I hit the stone floor again, gasping for breath as he grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to the wall. Before I could gather my wits again, he had me strung up by one wrist and was working on the other. He twisted away from my kicking, yanking my skirt off while my legs dangled uselessly, my bare toes barely touching the stone floor.

“The king likes his maidens to be quiet, so you’ll stay here and take the whip until your screams have been exhausted and you learn your place. You are nothing, girl. Nothing but a vessel for his seed.”

Rober spit in my face at the same time he reached down and groped my bare backside, his low, lustful murmur making my stomach heave. “And don’t you worry. If Ryne can’t put a child in you, I promise someone will.”

Bile rose into my throat, and I physically gagged at the thought of him or any of them putting anything inside me. But my rage-filled cries were lost to the world when Rober retreated through the door and slammed it so hard I swore the walls shook.

Or maybe, the shaking came from inside my chest. Because my heart was cracking. Crumbling into pieces because I’d let it be broken. I’d let my guard down and this… this is what trust got me.

Never again.

If I got out of this alive, I’d leave that city, or this village, and start my life anew with no one else. No one to let me down or lure me into a false sense of security.

I vowed I would never need anyone again.

CHAPTER 14

Umber

Ten. Ten. And twenty.

The first ten soldiers were from Niall’s battalion. The second from Edvall’s. Draven had sent the most men, likely more than he could spare. His letters had indicated their house was under Ryne’s constant surveillance, watching for ‘treason’ in their ranks, looking to find an excuse to turn the other masters against them.

We needed to return to Magilin as fast as we could. Before Ryne did something truly awful, or more people were taken in by his lies and the conflict became larger than it was already.

Kaiden was talking with the captains of each squadron along with the Elders of this village. The latter weren’t pleased with the influx of Kavari because it disrupted their day-to-day living a bit. I could tell Kaiden wasn’t nearly as worried about that as he was about what would happen when we marched. The men who’d bonded with women from this village would want to take them now, given how bad things were with the Elders. They wouldn’t want to leave them behind.

I thought back to what Aria had said. The warnings she’d given us yesterday before we left. You’d be foolish to underestimate them. I know how treacherous Hoval and Micah can be.

She had reason to distrust them; I wasn’t going to deny that. And while I was, admittedly, wary of the Elders, listening to the soldiers speak about the chaos Ryne was sowing concerned me far more. He hadn’t spent the last months focused on our tribe; he’d spent it calling anyone who crossed him dissidents and blasphemers. One of Draven’s soldiers spoke of how Ryne began proclaiming his power to rule was ordained by the old gods of the sun and moon. He said our ancient goddess Vaari would reawaken to bless his reign.

“He’s gone mad,” Kaiden said, and I couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“Madness or not, there are some who want to believe him,” the soldier said, wrinkling his nose. “Ryne is calculating, playing on the deepest fears of our people and pulling straight from our old doctrines and texts.”

“No one believes the story of Vaari and her Kaadenas anymore,” I muttered. “It’s myth.”

The soldier shrugged. “If the reality they face is unappealing and myths offer an alternative…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, leaving the thought to hang in the air. Myths and fantasies could be indulgent, decadent things, or they could cause war and worse.

I suspected Ryne’s fantasies were the latter, so long as it meant he could keep his power. At this point he’d be king of corpses if it meant he could wear the moniker.

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