Chapter 6
H e carried me to his motorcycle and brought out a big sweatshirt, pulling it gently over my head.
I shivered uncontrollably as he pulled my limp arms through the huge arm holes and settled me on the seat.
He didn’t say anything like “hang on” or “hang tight.” Because he would never let me fall off.
“We’ll ride all night,” he told me.
And then we were off, my brother’s big body curved around my much smaller one.
He smelled like ash and cruelty, his big hand splayed over my belly.
A lone Congregant could be a target for other raiding parties, but when we passed a small group of other Deacons, the patches on their jackets showing their allegiance to another Prophet, they only turned their bikes around when they recognized Rhyder.
If they couldn’t stand against my brother, why did I think I had a chance?
We rode down city streets, Rhyder using his walkie-talkie to meet up with the other men from his Congregation.
We stopped to let some of the men take a piss, but when Rhyder got off the bike he motioned to me.
“Come on.”
“What, can’t piss by yourself?” I snarled at him.
“I don’t want you trying to run off,” he retorted.
The evening crowds at the movie theater parted in haste as Rhyder stalked toward the building, people literally sprinting to avoid him.
And I’d sprint too, if it wasn’t useless.
I turned my back as he pissed against the wall, a heavy powerful deluge, like everything else about Rhyder.
My eyes burned as I focused on the shady car dealership on the opposite end of the street, listening to him zip his dick back in his pants.
Then we headed back on the bikes, Rhyder taking my hand to make sure I didn’t stumble in the dark, the ground uneven and crumbly.
I tried to yank my hand away, but he still held it tight.
“I don’t need your hand,” I hissed.
He made a low, angry noise as he set me in front of him on the bike.
“I’ll hold your hand if I want to,” he bit out.
I folded both hands across my chest, wanting to hide in his enormous spare hoodie.
“Your body is mine,” Rhyder said, his big hands reached forward to scoot me closer, my sore ass hitting the thick length of the hard cock between his legs. “Every goddamn square inch of it, Temperance. And you are going to be purified, covered with righteousness so we can gain the blessings of the Allfather.”
His legs were set firmly on the ground, and he reached forward, putting both hands on my thighs and spreading my legs so I was stretched wide in front of him.
My heart began to pound painfully and I started to struggle in Rhyder’s arms.
But his fingers crept closer until he grabbed at my cunt, fingers digging into me, the dress pooling around my waist and my thin panties barely any protection at all.
“Mine,” he rumbled in my ear. “Every inch of this.”
My breath, caught, ragged in my chest and throat, his rough fingers grinding over my clit without him even realizing it, pressing down with his knuckle in a way that made dirty wrong heat pool low in my belly.
Then his fingers dragged the tiny scrap of fabric away and plunged into my pussy.
My stomach tightened as I heard the slick wet sounds.
“I’m fucking losing my mind being this close to you, sister. After so long. . .”
I yanked and pulled on his wrist, but he only moved closer to my ear as Eli made the call for the Congregants to move out.
“Accept it, Temperance.”
“Never!” I cried.
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted you?” he groaned. “My cock is swollen for you. I need you now .”
His broad chest heaved behind me.
“There’s other women,” I said, trembling.
Rhyder pulled his fingers from my pussy and he yanked on his zipper, swiping through the precum that was wetting the back of my skirt, then put his thumb on my mouth, dragging my bottom lip down, and forced me to taste.
My tongue writhed as he covered it with his precum, the sharp pop of sweet wicked taste making me scream helplessly around his fingers.
“There will never be another woman,” he ground out. “There has only been you. Knitted together with the same matter, bound in the same womb. I never knew a time I didn’t need you, sister, never knew a time my heart wasn’t beating for you.”
“Holy Warrior, let’s go!” Eli snarled, and Rhyder let out the throttle, moving into the dark streets with a hum of pleasure still vibrating in his throat.
We rode through the night, Rhyder’s movements smooth, easy, the headscarf keeping my hair from flicking all over my face, but not his thick blonde hair from occasionally wrapping around my neck, bringing the masculine scents of my brother’s soap and leather.
I felt him occasionally touch the Holy Relic around his neck, kissing it and saying a prayer to the Allfather.
Your mercy flows over me
O Allfather
You have listened to my prayer
Brought my sister back to me
Given me the desire of my heart
I felt my blood run cold at his whispered words.
Was there never any escape from Rhyder’s obsession?
He had made it very clear what his desire was.
How could I avoid this thick cock parting my cheeks and nestling between my asshole?
*
I T WAS PAST MIDDAY as we approached the gate of a Congregation. Like the one we had grown up in, it was smaller, on poor land, and surrounded by others constantly angling for the same shitty territory.
I felt exhausted from riding, but I knew we had a few more days until we would reach our Congregation lands.
“These will be our allies,” my brother said confidently. “The Allfather will make sure we have a strong holy army to take out Ronan.”
It was not at all surprising to me to see the deference with which everyone treated him. He didn’t have Elder status, but he was Rhyder Oathbringer, and since I had been taken he had obviously made even more a name for himself as a warrior.
People feared him, the ease of his power, the way he towered over the rest of the Saved. The rest of the kidnapped women, perhaps a dozen strong, were left in the barred and chained cart while the Congregants greeted each other.
Except for me, of course.
I was plucked off the seat by Rhyder and guided over with him.
I was too exhausted to protest, even if he hadn’t had a heavy hand on the back of my neck.
The Congregants darted curious glances at him. It was obvious seeing the Holy Warrior with a whore from the cities was not usual.
And if anyone wanted to treat me as the common property whores usually were, the look on my brother’s face would have discouraged anyone.
But Rhyder only gave them curt nods before propelling me across the sparse fields of their Congregation.
“Here,” he said, his arm around my waist, directing me into their small Holy Place.
Holy Places were where private rituals or penances were performed, and I shivered as I walked past the manacle and whip, some slick smears on the manacles that made my stomach turn over.
But my brother walked me past all those, lit a few candles, then pulled off his leather jacket.
This Holy Place was small and poor like the Congregation itself, one dark-wood room with barely a candle or two to light it, the shower only a narrow partition at the back.
“Get in the shower,” he said, moving to stand in front of me with his arms crossed. “You need to wash the City off you.”
His shadow passed over me in the flickering candlelight, looming over me, always able to impose his will and his zealotry on me.
“I hate you,” I said.
Rhyder seemed to still, his big fingers digging into his massive, tanned arms. His eyes were unblinking, his jaw looked like it could cut glass. Because I was glaring at him I could see exactly when he swallowed convulsively.
I knew he hated it when I said that. Sometimes when we were kids I had said it just as a way of getting back at him. Sometimes it felt like the one chink in my big asshole brother’s armor.
“ Temperance, ” was all he said, but there was a whole fucking cosmos in it.
I felt viciously pleased to see that it still bothered him, but he didn’t say anything more.
“I do hate you,” I said again, feeling stupid but saying it anyway.
His jaw tightened.
“You’re the fucking worst, Rhyder.”
When we were kids he had sometimes flinched when I said that.
While Rhyder had always been bigger, stronger, able to make me bend to his will, I had sometimes had a vicious small satisfaction in the slices of pain my words caused him.
When we were young, he had sometimes lost control when I said it, turning and slamming his fist into the side of our small cabin, making a low animal cry of despair, or if we were outside digging up mountain potatoes, he’d tighten his hold on the paring knife so hard he’d slice into his fingers.
As he got older, he’d merely wait, the heave of his big chest and the haunted look in his eyes the only indication that my words had affected him. And he’d wait patiently until I wasn’t mad at him.
It was stupid and petty, but sometimes I felt so small and powerless, trapped by my brother’s overwhelming love for me, that I didn’t know what else to do.
Rhyder’s strong hands were digging deeper into the thick bands of his muscles.
“Take your clothes off and get in that shower,” he said, indicating the little camp shower in the corner. It was a very basic affair, with a small stack of towels beside it. “I want to cover you, and then I’ll be able to complete your purification once we get back to our Holy Place.”
“No,” I said, and to my horror I realized I was stamping my foot on the ground. “I don’t want to do this.”
Rhyder’s eyes flicked to me, narrowed and hard.
“Get in the shower, Temperance. You need this to start the purification process.”
“I can’t be purified,” I said hotly. “I’m too wicked. I’ve sinned against the Allfather too much to be forgiven. Don’t bother.”
I could hear Rhyder’s heavy breathing. “I have been faithful,” he said harshly. “The Allfather will see that you living among the Unsaved was my fault, not yours. I’m to blame. He could not be mad at you.”
I felt speechless in the face of my twin’s unshakeable beliefs, and he growled at me. “Now get your ass in the shower, sister. Unless you want me to strip you and throw you in.”
I backed away hastily. “You wouldn’t dare,” I squeaked.
Rhyder stepped toward me. “You’re mine,” he said with awful finality. “You should have been mine the moment you turned 20, only the Gray One took you from me. But the Allfather has been good. He has given me the blessing he has always intended for me. You . Now get your godsdamn ass in the shower. Please.”
I turned and scuttled away, closing the door behind me, and I undressed with trembling fingers. This door seemed like such a flimsy protection against my brother.
But what would protect me against him?
I’d have to hope something would happen between now and the time we got to the Silver River that signaled the border to our Congregation’s lands. But that was only a few days’ journey.
The water was fucking freezing, and I let out a few choice curses, just to hopefully piss Rhyder off. But he said nothing.
I felt nervous at his silence, and quickly soaped off, feeling chilled in the water, then washed my long dark hair, disappointed that Rhyder hadn’t chastised my swearing.
But my inflexible zealot brother had always had one enormous impenetrable blind spot.
Me .
He was absolutely pig-headed and determinedly blind to any of my wrongs, and I had more than once gotten out of punishments with my parents after Rhyder had argued, his voice throbbing with suppressed blood, that he was responsible for all of it, that it was his fault, on his head should fall the punishment.
When he appeared over the low partition, I was afraid he would push his way in and try to shower with me, but he only watched, holding a towel in his hand. Although it was made of scratchy bark-colored material, it seemed to dry me well enough.
I cringed at the idea of putting my filthy red party dress back on, but I didn’t have any other option.
That dress had belonged to a different girl.
Still shivering, I was moving to my hair, when he took the towel in his hand and began to carefully dry the long wet strands off.
“I will cover you with my blood, sister,” Rhyder said.
“Get away from me,” I cried, jerking out of his grip, but his hand shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me back. My brother’s fingers were like a vice grip.
“This is necessary,” he growled. “Why do you have to fight me on everything, sister? I only want to help you.”
“Then let me go!” I whimpered, not caring who heard us. “Let me go back!”
“ Never, ” he said, and his blue eyes were darkened with his suppressed passions. He yanked my towel off so I was standing naked before him.
I screamed and turned, but there was nowhere to go.
My legs twisted together, trying to keep him from looking at me.
Rhyder had me boxed into the corner, and I put my sweaty palms back on the rough wood of the Holy Place to give me some leverage to push off and attack him, but he moved before I had a chance to.
Above my astonished eyes, he brought his sharp knife out and opened his wrists over my head, with a reckless, violent slash at first one arm and then the other.
I was struck speechless as his blood began to flow all over my freshly washed hair and body, flowing so hard and fast the drops rained like liquid depravity down my face.
I wanted to dart away, but there was nowhere to go, never any escape from Rhyder.
Covered by my blood he began to sing
Allfather take my blood
Accept it as my sacrifice
Cover Temperance with it
Let my righteousness cover her
Wash away the cities
Leaving her cleansed and pure
He had a low, gravelly bass singing voice, and it had always been the strongest, most comforting sound of my childhood, but now I looked at him in mute astonishment.
Was that where we were always going to end up—Rhyder over me, opening his body as a sacrifice to the Allfather? I pictured the Allfather opening the door to heaven for Rhyder with his long list of faithful deeds and me getting sent down to The Gray for being nothing more than a dirty whore. I knew my brother wouldn’t even let me have any peace in Hell. He’d storm down there, spit in the devil’s face, and drag me up to heaven with him.
His blood felt heavy and viscous, endless, as Rhyder sliced in a circle, twisting his own flesh to get more out.
I tried to duck down, maybe even fall to the floor, anything to stop the terrible weight of his righteousness.
And the way his face looked. His eyes glittering like he’d dig down to the bone, open every vein, if it meant I would be right with the Allfather.
But as I tried to fall to the floor, he gripped my chin, easily keeping me in place.
In the name of the Allfather he intoned.
Take and drink
His voice seemed to rumble so deeply it vibrated through me, filling me with a deep, uneasy fear.
And Rhyder thrust his wrist over my mouth.
The blood streamed down my head, trickling down and pooling in my ears.
I tasted his salty blood in my mouth, tried to pull away, almost windmilling my arms in my efforts to get away from the depravity, the sick wrongness of it.
But Rhyder put his other big hand on the back of my neck, holding me firmly in place.
Take and drink, sister, he ordered again, his voice like steel, his grip like iron.
He moved his wrist up and down, smearing the blood all over my mouth. My lips were stretched wide around his wrist, the blood sticky and slick, my tongue trying to cringe away, but I couldn’t escape it.
His blood filled my mouth, metallic salt and darkness, and then Rhyder was massaging my throat with his other hand, stepping so close to me that his masculine scent overwhelmed me.
“Swallow, sister, swallow!” he urged. “This will protect you.”
The Holy Relic on his leather chain dangled in front of me and I had the crazy urge to grab it, try to rip it from his throat. Do something that would break his obsession.
I shook my head back and forth, refusing to swallow.
“Temperance,” he growled, and I gathered the blood in my mouth and spit it in his face, splattering across his strong jaw and the handsome cruel planes of his face.
“I don’t want it!” I hissed at him. “Let me go to the fucking Gray in peace, Rhyder, fuck!”
“ No ,” my brother said, his eyes glittering at me, his big body looming over me, the incredible power of his massive hands. “You can’t go anywhere in this world or the next to be free of me.”
Then he reached for my jaws, prying them open with both hands as he pinned me against the wall with his hips. I pushed him as hard as I could and he sucked viciously on his own wrist, tearing it open further with sharp teeth.
I wailed in fear and terror with my helplessness before my brother’s monstrous obsession with me. His hips dug into the soft skin under my breasts, and I had to clench my thighs together so I wouldn’t faint.
And Rhyder filled his mouth with his own blood and leaned over me, one hand on my upper and lower jaw, forcing them open, and he spit the mix of spit and blood directly down my throat with a harsh, sharp sound.
My throat tried to reject him, but Rhyder reached into my mouth and rolled my tongue back, forcing the mixture of blood and spit down my throat as I swallowed convulsively.
Then he was clamping my mouth shut, massaging my throat as I swallowed again and again, the salty tang of his blood filling me.
Rhyder’s breath exhaled hard with relief when he felt the blood go down, down to my stomach and into my limbs, and I felt like I was marked permanently with my brother’s obsession.
“Praise to the Allfather,” he sung, as I glared wordlessly at him, bitter gall and salty tang in my mouth. “You are covered, Temperance. The Allfather will not blame you for anything that happened in the cities.”
Then he captured my chin with his hand and bent forward and kissed me.
His kiss was hard and possessive, and I realized with a lurch in my stomach that this was his first kiss.
“Oh, Temperance ” he said, breaking off for a moment to put his hand on the back of my neck, tangle in my hair. “ This is Paradise. ”
I felt chilled to the bone, my hands trembling uncontrollably as I pressed them against the wall.
His lips met mine again, his whole body curving against mine suddenly, pressing into me as hard as he could, his hard cock digging into my stomach.
Rhyder’s hands were cradling my head then, his mouth descending ravenously on me, sucking on my bottom lip hard, then harder.
My brother kissed me with years of suppressed desire, the whole broad width and huge height of his power focused on me. He hadn’t waited patiently. He had been impatient, ravenous for me.
And now he could take as he chose.
I wanted to die of shame when I felt my nipples tighten so hard they stung.
My lips felt swollen when he broke off to press his forehead against mine.
“I knew I would find you,” he said, the triumph evident in his voice.
“Maybe next time you won’t,” I said bitterly.
“What do you mean next time?” he growled, pulling back to scan my face.
His eyes were so blue. I wanted to press so hard into the wall that I fell through it and could run away from my brother.
“Maybe I don’t want to be your fucking whore, Rhyder.”
He breathed through his nostrils. “That’s just temporary,” he said, moving a big arm up to rake a hand through his ponytail. “Only for a few months. The Prophet will understand. After the traditional time of concubinage he’ll allow me to make you my wife.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be your Helpmeet either!” I almost screeched. “Give me to someone else!”
Rhyder’s face darkened, and I knew it was reckless and stupid even as I said it.
“There is no one else for you,” he said. “You have always belonged to me.”
In blind fear and rage, I tried to wrench myself out of his grip, only ending up face-first on the rough wall of the Holy Place.
“Sister, I have waited,” Rhyder said, and I shivered as his big hand touched my shoulder, cried out as it ground down my back. “I have needed your body for so long. I am not waiting anymore .”
“Rhyder, no!” I yelped in a panic, feeling his hand on my ass. “We can’t. It’s wrong.”
But his breathing was harsh in my ear as he bent over me, his breath rough as his beard scratched against the side of my face.
And when he spoke I had known this would be the outcome for a long time.
“ I can’t stop .”
My hands clutched desperately at the wall, trying to dig my fingers into the chinks to pull myself away from him, but he grabbed them easily and held them above my head, pulling down one of the metal restraints to lock me in place.
“Oh you bastard !” I cried, incensed.
Rhyder’s breathing was so ragged, his chest heaving against my back as he bent down.
“To keep you from hurting yourself on the wall ,” my brother said as his fingers moved down my thighs, tightening on my legs as he sucked in his breath, the air feeling like it froze around me.
I tried to kick back at him with my bare feet, but those hard cruel hands held me tight.
“I am trying—to go slow,” he said. “But you drive me mad, sister.”
His hands moved to my naked breasts, rough fingers plundering what he wanted, rubbing my nipples until they were painfully rosy and pebbled.
He seemed to move them reluctantly, then I heard the sharp rip of his zipper.
Fuck
He dragged his cock down the curves of my ass, the tip wet and lascivious, fucking soaking my skin with eagerness to be inside me.
“It’s—wrong,” I gasped desperately, knowing it wouldn’t do any good.
“It could never be wrong to love you, sister,” he said. “You’re my blessing, my birthright, my flesh and bone.”
He groaned as his fingers brushed by my pussy, then he pulled my legs further apart.
“Spread—wide,” he grunted. “It’s—big.”
My fingers tightened on the metal of my restraints as he rotated my hips upward, then clutched convulsively as I looked down between my legs at just the tip of his dick, thick and engorged, an angry, urgent color.
Godsdamn I was way too small for that fucking thing
I strained against my cuffs as his cock split my pussy lips, making me yowl in shock, and I tried to tighten my thighs to keep him out, but he put his other hand between my legs, forcing them to stay open, his rough skin scraping my sensitive flesh as he pried me wider.
“No, Rhyder,” I tried again, but his hands burned me.
“You’re mine, sister. Mine to claim.”
His cock between my thighs kept me from closing my legs, the wet of his precum soaking my pussy lips. Then he grabbed my hips and rotated them down over the head of his dick and I wasn’t a virgin, but I felt a slice of panic as just the tip began to stretch me out.
Gasping, I balled my hands into fists, my chin scraping the rough walls.
Rhyder grunted with pleasure.
I fucking hated him then as he forced my pussy down over his cock. My bare nipples dragged down the rough edges of the Holy Place, and I felt a bit of slick give deep in my cunt.
Rhyder’s breath was hot and terrifying on my throat, his fingers biting deep into my hips and thighs to force my cunt down.
But he was way too big for my narrow channel.
I squeaked with distress as my cunt and lips began to burn with his size.
I was terrified he was going to rip and tear my flesh, and I let out an involuntary little whimper.
His lips were on my throat then, kissing me so fiercely, sucking my skin so hard that I knew he was trying to control himself even as his teeth sunk into my neck. I arched my back, trying to get some fucking angle I could take him at that wouldn’t sting and burn and he groaned loudly at the position and snapped his hips forward, jamming me harder into the wall and sinking the rest of his cock deep inside me.
It was a deep throb of pain and I cried out as he drew up on a groan and slammed inside me again.
He was just too big to take comfortably, and I squeezed my eyes shut as he plunged deeper, his strokes becoming more urgent now.
My whole core buzzed with his rough cock, the terrifying feel of my brother claiming me as his.
“My angel, ” Rhyder groaned. “Oh, sister. ”
My hands tightened on my restraints, helpless to stop him, and I could feel bruises blooming on my hips as he gripped me with vice-like strength, forcing me to take each painful, thick inch of him.
“Take everything I give you,” he groaned, his chest feeling slick with sweat.
As if I had a choice!
As if I had ever had a choice with Rhyder.
I squeezed my eyes tightly as he had had his way with me, and he came inside me with a roar, his cock so big I could feel every twitch, every pulsation, so much cum it ran out my cunt, was soaking my thighs, splashing up to my belly.
I didn’t want to look at him when he pulled out, especially not as he took my face in his hands so his lips could meet mine. My brother’s release ran down my legs in an agonizing slow trail.
Claimed and fucked, and there was no going back now