Chapter 2
“ Temperance !” Rhyder bit out, his voice hoarse.
I hadn’t heard that name in so long. All women rescued from the Congregations were encouraged to choose new names to emphasize our break from life in the cults. I wasn’t expecting how it would feel to hear my real name for the first time in so long. Tears almost sprung to my eyes but Eli had twisted around, my legs still dangling helplessly in the air.
“Let her go,” my brother said.
Eli lowered me to the ground, only for his big hand to close over my throat. I knew it was foolish to struggle, but I couldn’t help, my hands scrabbling desperately at his tight grip.
“Let her go,” Rhyder growled. “ She’s mine .”
There was wild, feral threat running through his voice, and I saw his hand move toward his belt, flicking out a shiny jagged blade.
Eli sucked in his breath and tightened his hold on me.
“I saw her first,” he said. “Those are the laws.”
“I claimed her a long time ago,” my brother returned. “From our mother’s womb. When it was her birth-giving time, they told her Temperance was stuck, that she’d probably die. But when I came out my hand was wrapped around my sister’s foot, pulling her out with me. They said I wouldn’t let her go. And that is how it’ll always be.”
My heart was hammering in my chest, Eli’s hand tight around my throat.
“Interesting, Rhyder,” the Enforcer said. “You, who never partake of any of the whores, suddenly want to claim one for your own because she looks like your sister?”
His hand on my throat was terrifyingly tight, making dark spots dance in my vision. My feet still dangled off the ground.
Rhyder started toward me, but Eli’s hand only tightened around my neck, making the city street swim sickeningly before me.
“Not so fast. I could break her scrawny neck with one twist.”
My brother froze, the agony in his eyes palpable to me.
“What do you want?” he bit out. “Take what you want from me. Only give her to me now .”
“Why do you want this one so badly?” the Enforcer asked curiously.
“It’s Temperance,” Rhyder said, his Adam’s apple moving in agony.
For a moment there was silence, then Eli began to chuckle, a grating mirthless sound. His darkly yellowed teeth swam in my vision.
“Are you still a freak about your sister, holy warrior?” he laughed. “Is that why you’ve never even taken a whore? I remember you used to be fucking obsessed with her. But I thought you’d grown out of that.”
“No,” Rhyder bit out, his hand still on his knife, his legs spread wide apart, tense, coiled and waiting. “She is mine and that will never change.”
I felt a strange mix of fear and defiance from Eli. I wondered if the Enforcer felt threatened by my twin, by his ironclad devotion to the Allfather and his Prophet.
Eli loosened his hands around my throat a bit, just barely, so I could draw a gasping breath.
“What would you do to get her as your whore?”
“ Name it ,” Rhyder said, his voice low, making my gut twist.
My body seemed to vibrate with the awareness of his closeness, being in his presence after so long.
There was silence for a moment on the city street, the only sounds the distant traffic, those who could fleeing that part of the city.
“ The cane ,” Eli said, and there was a note of triumph in his voice.
Prickles of panicky anxiety broke out all over my skin.
That was a harsh punishment, usually reserved for the worst offenders in the Congregation.
“Done,” said Rhyder. “Do what you need to do.”
Eli let me drop, hard, on to the cement, and I felt Rhyder’s eyes drag down my body with every inch.
My ankle stung where I landed on it, and my throat ached as I pulled my hoodie tighter to shield my face.
Rhyder was already on the ground, pulling off his thick leather jacket so he was only in his thin white T-shirt. He knelt beside his bike, his eyes locked on me, eating me up. I felt the familiar shiver of his eager consumption.
“12 blows,” Eli said. “One for each month you plan to keep this common whore all to yourself.”
Rhyder’s eyes seemed to blaze into mine, and I was trembling so hard I couldn’t even stand up.
The Enforcer stalked around him with the long thick cane, as if looking for the best place to hurt my brother.
There weren’t a lot of options. My brother was built like a tank.
The first blow fell across his shoulders with sickening force that would have sent a smaller man face-first into the ground.
But my brother didn’t even flinch.
His jaw was set as his eyes were fixed on me and I recognized the look in them very well.
When Rhyder looked like that, there was no moving him. No changing his mind. He was as strong as a bull and as stubborn as one too.
The next blow came down on his shoulders, the Enforcer grunting with his clear attempt to punish my brother.
“You’ve always been a bit of a psycho fucker about your sister, haven’t you?” Eli asked.
Rhyder said nothing.
I wished I could say I didn’t know my twin after all this time, that I had no idea what was going through his head.
But one look into his eyes confirmed it.
He hadn’t changed
My brother was single-minded, stubborn, and absolutely ruthless when it came to getting what he wanted.
And if he wanted the right to have me as his exclusive whore.
He’d do whatever he needed to.
“Arms on your bike,” Eli said.
Rhyder stretched his big arms across the space to his motorcycle, the tattooed lines of Holy Writ curving around him with dangerous power.
The cane came down on those solid bands of muscle, a hard punitive blow.
Eli was a big man, too, and he was putting every ounce of muscle he had into caning my brother.
Big welts rose on the thick bands of Rhyder’s arms.
But his knelt legs were set like roots in the ground, his arms unmoving under each blow.
Oh, Allfather, each one of his arms looked practically the width of my waist. . .
“Women are deceitful,” Eli said, glancing between us. It was impossible to miss how my brother looked at me. “An immoral woman has lips like honey and a belly full of poison.”
Rhyder said nothing, but I saw the next blow on his back force a brief exhale of air from his lungs. Nausea and bile burned in my throat, my fists clenching together.
His eyes were unblinking, fixed completely on me.
I wanted to get up, but my legs were like jelly. Each blow made me want to shrivel up inside. Each one brought me closer to being completely owned.
How many were left?
When the final blow came, Eli’s foot collided hard with Rhyder’s knees, knocking my brother onto the ground.
The other men were silent, watching.
The Enforcer seemed infuriated that he hadn’t gotten so much as a moan of pain from Rhyder, and he halfway raised his arm to strike another blow, but my twin’s arm shot out and gripped the cane, and I heard the wood crack under his strong fingers.
“12 blows, Enforcer,” he said, and his voice was harsh and gravelly. “That’s what you are permitted under the Holy Writ.”
There was another crack and the cane split in two, both halves falling on the ground.
I wondered if the other men would say anything, but I wasn’t surprised when they did not.
“Correct,” Eli said, and he didn’t make another move toward him.
Rhyder stood up to his full height and walked toward me.
His eyes seemed to gleam the closer he got, darker and darker intensity.
Surely he must be in incredible pain
But if he was, he didn’t show it.
He bent down and picked me up gently, setting me back on my trembling legs.
Although he had shown no emotion during the caning, I could see his big chest heaving now as he looked at me.
With one finger, he gently pushed a sticky strand of hair away from my face.
“No wonder it took me so long to find you,” he breathed. “They carried you so far away.”
He bent and kissed my cheek, his fingers tight on the back of my head, one low jagged noise breaking from his chest.
I’d always known this, hadn’t I?
This had been the thrumming, pulsing undercurrent to my entire life. This had encircled me with chokingly dominating power.
This had meant I was never free. But my mistake had been thinking getting rescued from the Congregation would free me. It hadn’t freed me at all.
This is my truth.
My twin loves me far beyond the way a brother is supposed to love his sister, with a dark twisted love, a jealous unholy obsession.
His mouth moved to my neck, his lips against my throat, his beard rough on my sensitive skin and I felt my insides contract.
“Oh, Temperance,” he almost gasped, his voice so low that no one else could hear him, his fingers curling possessively into the hair at the nape of my neck. “I knew the Allfather would bring you back to me. He knows how much I need you.”
“Rhyder,” I protested, but my brother only encircled his arms tighter around me, one hand twisting my hair so tightly it was almost painful, the other on my waist, burning through my T-shirt.
“Warrior, put her with the other whores,” Eli called.
“I do not want to go with you,” I whispered, finally able to get words out, my throat feeling parched and dry.
Was there any point to saying it? Had there been any point in trying to escape him?
Had this always been ordained, destined?
Was this the Allfather’s doing to reward Rhyder for his many deeds in service of the faith?
“Temperance, you belong with me,” Rhyder said with awful finality, his arm around my waist as he led me over to the cart.
“Oh, Rhyder,” Eli added as I walked up the steps, “don’t forget to check her. No whores in camp unless they’ve been examined.”
My brother turned to the Enforcer with a frown.
“Temperance is not unclean.”
“You know the rules, Rhyder,” Eli said. “No one from the cities comes into our settlement without ensuring they won’t spread the pox or other disease. Now check your sister’s fucking cunt or I’ll do it for you.”
Rhyder’s hand was on the front of my sweatshirt, tightening it with a growl. His hand was so massive it almost spanned the width of both breasts, and I tried to tug experimentally at his hold.
Nope
Utterly caught
Like I always had been
“If you touch her again, you will die . I swear that on the Allfather,” he snarled.
“Then do it, Holy Warrior,” Eli said.
Oh fuck no
Did that mean he was going to examine me like Eli did all those other women in the coffee shop?
I might’ve lost my head and run then, but my brother didn’t let go of my sweatshirt.
Instead, he twisted me around to face him.
There was a frown on his harsh face, and I shivered as I looked at him.
Should I try to run away? Push him off? How could I fight my brother?
“Stay still, sister,” he said, pulling me in front of him so I was visible to the other Congregants waiting in a circle on the gritty, filthy city street.
I felt almost frozen with terror, my stomach roiling with the sound of his big fingers undoing the button on my jeans. The rip of the zipper was achingly loud in the stillness of the city street. Whenever a raiding party came to town, all city sounds vanished as everyone sheltered in place fearfully. Just waiting for the Congregants to take what their lust and blood demanded and leave.
But my brother’s lust was demanding me this time.
Vainly, I tightened my knees as I felt his fingers on my belly. Then his hands gripped my jeans firmly, dragging them down my hips so they rested on my thighs.
I felt horribly, shamefully exposed, in only my worn flowered panties.
Rhyder grunted behind me and I felt my cheeks burn as he hooked his fingers over the edge of my panties and pulled them down too, leaving my pussy fully exposed in the slanting afternoon sunshine.
I didn’t want to look out at Eli, Abel, or any of the other Congregants, seeing how their eyes circled my pussy lips. But I also didn’t want to look down at where Rhyder’s fingers moved, tanned and thick against my pale stomach, the callouses rough on my soft skin, sliding down to the crest of my sex.
His big arm brushed against me, and I felt a thick width pressing on my back, making a prickly anxious heat break out on my neck.
My core felt on fire as his finger brushed by my clit, curling around my pussy lips and then there was one inside me.
I wanted to scream with fury.
Rhyder drew his finger back out, the wet sound of my cunt embarrassingly loud in the silence. I knew the men only a few feet away could hear it and my cheeks flamed with the embarrassment and shame.
Everyone knew he was my brother. Everyone knew I was powerless to resist him.
He wasn’t unaffected, and I felt him suck a breath in as he pushed two fingers inside now, deep inside my cunt, then dragging them out again.
I tried hard not to gasp. My brother’s fingers seemed to press at each inch of my sensitive pussy walls. The other hand on the front of my sweatshirt tightened further, his knuckle brushing my tightened nipples.
I was so close I heard the pounding of his heart, saw the rush of blood in his veins, felt where that pulse throbbed at his throat.
Then again, this time with all four of his fingers, and I wanted to die of shame as he had to grunt a bit to fit all four inside me.
“Good girl to stand so still,” he hissed in a low tone, his lips brushing my cheek, and I strained away from him, turning my head so he couldn’t see my face.
Rhyder pulled his fingers out, and they dripped with heat as he raised them to his mouth, letting the drops from my cunt fall on his tongue one after the other. My nipples tightened painfully as he sucked each finger.
My own cunt was pounding now, and he whirled me around and pressed me firmly into his belly.
My eyes met those of the other women as they cowered in a corner of the truck bed.
I heard the other’s men’s heavy breathing as Rhyder pulled my jeans lower, down to my ankles this time.
The leather of his jacket creaked as he reached over my back and stretched my cheeks open with both big hands.
I felt my asshole pucker in shame and fear, knowing I was spread for all the Congregants to see.
“My sister is perfect,” Rhyder said sternly and I trembled as I was smashed into the familiar scent of his leather jacket, his finger sliding between my ass cheeks.
I had never had a man in there, and my hands tightened in fear as Rhyder began to push a finger inside my asshole. His fingers were big, making my ass sting.
I swallowed the whimper down my throat as my brother’s stomach tightened under me. He added another finger until I was practically upside-down, my ass spread by his big hands, two big fingers pressing into my sensitive back channel until I felt with one more inch he’d tear my asshole in half.
I wanted to moan in pain as he kept going, my ass stinging like hell.
Surely it was over soon.
But he went until his fingers bottomed out.
“She is—tight,” he grunted. “Perfect.”
“Mph,” Abel grunted. “That tight asshole looks good. I’m next.”
“Her body is mine ,” Rhyder growled, his fingers holding me open, spread before my former Congregation. “ Stay away .”
Something jabbed my face and I gritted my teeth to see that it was his cock, a thick length straining against his work pants. Holy fuck, it felt uncomfortably big as it dug into my face. I only had a moment to stifle a shriek when he pulled his fingers out, leaving my asshole feeling raw and used, and then he yanked up my pants.
“You are perfect,” he murmured in my ear. “Your body made by the Allfather for me.”
“We’ll see what the Prophet says,” Eli retorted as I shivered.
My stomach sunk as Rhyder lifted me inside the back of the truck and closed the gate.
I gripped the bars tightly, my fingers clutched tight on the chains, as the truck started and we rumbled away. My brother and the other Congregants hopped on their motorcycles and followed.
The other women who had been kidnapped were crying, some quietly, others louder. Some were dressed in office wear and had obviously been snatched from work, others in yoga or exercise pants and had been taken from gyms or off the street. One woman was even still clutching an emptied grocery bag.
“Shh, shh,” I said.
No one could hear them now but any of the noisy ones would be in danger as soon as we stopped.
“Are they really as bad as everyone says?” a very pretty auburn-haired woman cried, holding me with hands so panicked they pinched my skin.
I glanced over at the Congregants, riding behind us in a tight formation.
“They’re worse,” I said. “The only way to survive this is to stay quiet and do exactly as they say.”