Page 18 of Betrayal

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Sleep was pretty much non-existent. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to greet Damon when he arrived. I quickly stripped out of my robe. At least I had that out of the way. With the click of the door, my heart raced while I scrambled in position. My head bowed; I could see Damon’s lower half as he stalked toward me. The smell of breakfast engulfed the room. He sat the tray down on a dresser.

“Good morning, Dove.”

I lifted my head and looked at him. “Good morning, Master.”

“Your first lesson. I want you to forget about your shithead of a father and submit to me completely. I need your complete trust and loyalty. I know you are capable of it because we shared a silent connection before I took you away. I can take care of you, Dove. I don’t know why you want to fight it.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t have a comment or answer for him. Right now, I considered him to be a monster. Until he showed me otherwise, I couldn’t fully submit to him.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Scoot closer,” he said. He hand fed me a blueberry muffin and fresh blueberries. They tasted heavenly. My taste buds were thanking Susie for such deliciousness.

“Good?”

“Yes, Master.”

“I knew it was a favorite of yours so it’s a treat for being a good girl thus far.”

I wondered how he knew. But he probably knew more about me than I did myself. Damon even helped me drink some fresh squeezed orange juice.

Damon nodded. “If you are full, you can get back in position, Dove. I want to see that you can be a good girl.”

I obeyed every command Damon ordered. “Susie will be in later with some lunch and a small reward for your obedience.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Damon exited the room and every time he left me alone, a pain shot through me. If only Damon knew how bad I felt for disobeying him. A sense of guilt settled within me. I deserved worse than this cage I was in.

A couple of hours passed, and I was beyond bored. But the door clicked and I rushed into position because even though Damon said Susie would be coming, it could have been a trick. Better safe than sorry.

“Good afternoon, Miss Kara,” Susie greeted. She held a book in her hand and a pillow in the other.

“Good morning, Susie.”

“Damon said you deserved a reward, so I’ll let you pick. Pillow or a book?”

That was a no-brainer. “A book, please.”

She passed it to me through the bars of the cage. “Here you go. If you keep doing well, you should be out in no time.”

“I’m trying, Susie. I am.”

“Obviously not hard enough. Besides, if Damon didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t be doing all this.”

“He cares about me?” I questioned.

Susie laughed. “You are a stupid girl if you can’t see that. He can give you the best life if only you’d submit to him. And I know deep inside, you have some sort of feelings for him. He could have any woman of his choosing. And he chose you.”

I was stunned by her words. He chose me. Those words remained on a loop in my head.

“Maybe that’s something you need to think about.”

She disappeared for a moment and brought in a food tray. It had the same food as yesterday’s dinner. I didn’t care. Only now I was realizing how well I was being taken care of, even being in this cage. And I had so many more questions to ask Susie, but I didn’t want to press it right off the bat. My thoughts were all over the place, so I wasn’t sure how to process the information Susie just gave me.

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