Chapter 14
“T he Allfather has blessed me beyond measure,” my brother said, the pride and satisfaction evident in the clearly joyous tone of his voice. “I have found my sister again. She was lost and now is found.”
The Prophet’s eyes flicked across me with a finely-threaded disgust.
“She was in the city? Place her in the house with the other whores.”
“Father, no,” Rhyder’s voice rung out. “She’ll stay with me.”
There was a beat of silence and my heart started pounding.
“Rhyder,” the Prophet said, “She has been living with the Unsaved for years. Her place is with the common women, to be used as any in the Congregation see fit, a body to purge our unholy lust on.”
Fear flickered through my body.
I had only known my brother to disobey a direct order from the Prophet one time before.
And that had also had to do with me.
“Holy One,” Rhyder said earnestly, “It is unjust to visit my sins on her head. It was my failing. I was filled with pride in my own hunting ability, and I stayed out that day longer than I should have, because I was proud of my own hunting ability and wanted to display it.”
Not true , I thought. He stayed out because he was pissed I said I didn’t want to be his wife.
But I saw the Prophet stroke his chin, considering Rhyder.
Eli made as if to speak, but the Prophet held up his hand.
“You may keep Temperance for your own exclusive use, in your home,” he said, and Rhyder bowed his head.
“Praise be to the Allfather for your mercy,” he exulted.
As he bowed his head, I saw the Prophet shoot Eli a warning look.
He was warning Eli to be quiet, not protest.
It benefited the Congregation to keep their most powerful warrior happy, but they did not like it.
But why? Why did they care if Rhyder took an exclusive whore or not?
I felt unease flicker through my body.
But then Rhyder spoke again.
“When the purification process is done,” he said, “I intend for Temperance to be my wife.”
“Wife?” the Prophet asked, clearly startled. “Whores cannot be Helpmeets.”
“She is pure of heart,” Rhyder insisted. “The Allfather will recognize her goodness.”
“We will speak about this later,” the Prophet said after a tense moment. “For now you may keep her in your home.”
Rhyder nodded, seeming pleased with this.
But the Prophet flicked another glance at me, and this one was longer, more measuring.
Assessing.
Like he was assessing a threat.
Me .
Slivers of fear shot through my body at the venom in his eyes.
Was he that angry at Rhyder for finding me?
Or would he have been very happy if I had never been found?
After dismissal, I started almost automatically heading toward the small wooden house I had shared with my brother, but he put a rough hand on my waist.
“Up here,” he said, pointing to a well-worn pathway. “To our old spot.”
There was a peak right outside the camp that we had often walked up together, taking bread and cheese and our after-supper work, which was often sharpening knives for Rhyder and mending our clothes for me.
I followed my brother.
Once we got to the top, Rhyder gestured out, where we could see a long distance, the endless rolling green hills and mountains of Ronan’s Congregation, the rocky jagged harshness of ours, and way off in the distance clouds that covered even greater peaks.
“All this land will be ours, sister,” he said, moving behind me and taking my chin in his hand. “Can you imagine it? All the land as far as you can see for hunting? The best lands for your gardens? The paradise promised by the Allfather.”
When I didn’t respond he growled angrily.
“What do you want, Temperance?” he asked, his fingers biting into my scalp, sliding under my head covering in a show of such intimacy that it took my breath away.
I said nothing still, the words feeling choked in my throat.
My brother, my captor, my tormentor, my protector
What could I say?
Rhyder suddenly dropped his hands and stepped closer to the jagged edge of the cliff, then whirled around, spreading his arms wide so the wind tore through his golden hair, making it spin around his face.
Each golden lock whipped his well-formed cheekbones, strong jawline, his blue eyes blazing at me with fanatical devotion.
“Do you want me to throw myself off this cliff, sister? Will that show you how deeply I need and love you?”
I felt a stab of fear go through me.
“I will do it,” Rhyder grated out.
He stepped back so that the heels of his huge boots hung over the edge and my heart clutched, my instincts betraying me as I leaped forward, my throat dry, the begging cry spilling from my lips.
“Rhyder no , stop, godsdammit ”
My hands were reaching for him but he had already stepped forward to pull me into his arms.
“How dare you frighten me like that!” I cried, the tears prickling in my eyes as I beat on his chest.
My twin only looked at me, the love raw and exposed in his eyes.
“What, then?” he said. “What do you need, Temperance? I have sought you every day, thought of you every second since they took you. And to have you turn your face from me? I can’t bear it, sister.”
His eyes blazed into mine and he crushed me against his chest, rubbing the side of his beard on my cheek, My heart stuttered inside me. I was always weak for that, the way it felt like he needed to touch me so badly.
“You have never let me fall, Rhyder,” I said, swallowing hard.
“Fall?” he asked sharply. “Never. I would never let you fall. The world is dangerous. I was put here by the Allfather to protect you.”
“OK, well you never let me try anything, Rhyder. Never gave me a choice. It didn’t matter what I wanted. All that mattered was what you wanted. Because if I wanted to do something, and you didn’t think it was safe, we didn’t do it. I just want one time you to trust me. Even if you’re worried.”
He frowned and I wriggled out of his arms, heading to the cliffside like I was going to do the same thing he was.
“You’re such a hypocrite! You do the most reckless things, Rhyder! But you never let me do anything. And what if I did the same thing as you?”
I spread my arms, letting the wild winds at the edge whip the long tails of his shirt around my body, and he was on me so fast the mountains and sky spun around me as he threw me over his shoulder.
“You do that again and you won’t be allowed anywhere higher than my cock for the rest of your life,” he growled. “ I will never lose you again .”
Rhyder started moving down the peak, heading directly for the Most Holy Place as soon as we got back to camp, stepping into the fragrant wooden space and locking the door behind us. It clicked with a harsh finality.
His Most Holy Place was bigger than the ones we had visited, a fairly sturdy wooden structure used for multiple ceremonial purposes.
My brother set me down and turned to face me, that damn T-shirt stretched across his broad chest, blocking me in.
I knew from the look on his face.
He wasn’t letting me go until he broke through.
“I am getting it from, you, Temperance,” he said.
I knew what he meant and I knew exactly what he wanted.
My pleasure
He wanted my face upturned to his, my mouth kissing him, and my cunt spasming over his cock.
He didn’t just want my body. He wanted my love and devotion, too.
In the center of the room there was a raised platform, and Rhyder set a wooden chair on it.
I eyed the raised platform nervously, but first he ran hot water into the big tin bathtub.
He didn’t even order me to get in, just lifted the dirty bedraggled shirt over my head and plopped me into the tub.
The water was warm and despite myself I sighed in pleasure as I sunk deeper, fitting my small body easily in the big tub.
He spread big legs around a stool and then began to gently soap off my arms and face, then my hair. I looked down at my arms as the dye began to run out, long streams of jet-black against my pale skin, and Rhyder dipped a handful in the tub and brought it out, his fingers gently rubbing the silky strands.
“I recognize this color,” he said.
I did not reply.
My twin scrubbed me gently, carefully, sucking in his breath as he saw any of my bruises, the marks he had made by gripping me so tightly, trying to fuck me until I loved him.
I didn’t want to say anything or feel anything, but I couldn’t control the full-body shiver that shook me at the feel of his fingers, the calloused tips scraping by my skin.
He flicked his eyes over to mine but didn’t say anything for a moment, moving from my hair to the back of my neck.
“I looked for you,” he said. “Did you think I had forgotten you?”
My throat suddenly prickled with tears.
Had I thought that?
There were times. . .
Sometimes I wondered, my brain oscillating between fear and uncertainty.
“It certainly took you long enough,” I said, working to keep my voice sounding cool and unconcerned. “I expected you to find me a lot sooner.”
Why was I being such a fucking bitch?
He made a low grunt of pain.
“That is—must have been the Allfather testing me. I will find out why you were taken so far away. On my life, I will find out who sent that raid.”
Rhyder’s fingers tightened for a second, and I felt his breath on my skin, prickling it and sending goosebumps along me.
What was making me feel like that?
I finally allowed myself to directly look at him, study him carefully.
The blue eyes, hair that now was the same shade as mine. The way his big, tanned arms rested on the side of the tub, even the way the muscles in his neck and jaw throbbed. The way I could even see the outline of his thick dick against his dirty work pants.
Temptation
I couldn’t deny it. There was something in me that responded to his touch, the way his fingers worshipped every inch of my skin.
Whether it was cult trauma or blood calling to blood, it was there.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You were taken so far away. Every single city we went to, I rode up and down the streets, showed your picture to city officials.”
I knew it was true. They had taken me days away from him.
“Usually they wouldn’t bother,” I said. “I wonder why they rehomed me so far away.”
Rhyder’s eyes moved down my body.
“I’m going to find out.”
He bent down to kiss my throat, fingers tightening in my hair, his tongue flicking over my skin, sucking me greedily into his mouth, his other hand dipping in the bathwater to curve around my waist.
“Rhyder, no,” I said, feeling that squirmy twist in my gut again.
He darted a sharp glance at me, then put both hands under my armpits and lifted.
“You can get out now. The last stage in your purification process.”
He handed me a bathrobe and began to gently dry my skin.
I clutched the robe tighter about my chest. It smelled like the strong, milky soap the Congregation always used, and it brought back so many memories I could almost feel tears starting to my eyes.
“Take off your robe and get on that table,” Rhyder said, indicating the raised wooden platform in the middle where the holy oil and relics were laid out.
“Wait, no, Rhyder,” I protested.
“Why?” he growled.
“I don’t want you to see me naked!”
He put one big hand on the collar of my robe, tightening his hold.
“Temperance, your body is mine. You’re mine and you’ve always been mine and there’s nothing you can do to stop that. I want to get this done so I can finish purifying you in the eyes of the Allfather. He will see your heart, Temperance. It’s pure.”
It most definitely was not, but my brother could never be convinced of that.
Rhyder had taken off his leather jacket, even though it was cool in the Most Holy place, and I could see the shredded T-shirt stretched tight across the huge width of his shoulders, the thick bands of muscles in his chest.
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. My knees felt weak.
“Get on the table, Temperance,” he said sternly, and I swallowed again.
When I still hesitated, unwilling to obey him but too frightened to try to run, my brother ripped the belt out of my robe and lifted me bodily up in the air, carrying me easily to the raised platform and tying me in a few swift motions to the chair.
“You’re such a fucking controlling psycho,” I cried.
The chair was raised so high I could look him directly the eyes.
“Controlling you?” he said, his voice low and gravelly as he stroked down my cheek with a big, rough finger, then moving to gently pull my hair affectionately. “ Alway s. I love you so much, sister.”
My legs were still free and I kicked out as hard as could, first hitting him in the gut and then catching him under the chin.
My psycho fucking brother didn’t even flinch.
“My angel,” he said, curving his hand around my throat and pulling me closer.
Then he kissed me, gently at first, then the kiss rapidly deepening as I felt his breath begin to change.
It wasn’t fucking fair that he could kiss me like that, that his kiss could make me feel like this, a heated panic that barely concealed the way my nipples tightened painfully against the fabric of the robe.
I strained against the tie that bound me, and his fingers curved around my throat, each one huge and dangerous, but strangely delicate and gentle with me.
“You’re mine and you’ll always be mine,” he whispered in my ear, raising all the little hairs on the back of my neck.
It reminded me so much of the way it had always been. He’d always told me I would be his.
“I’m not yours,” I’d say sometimes. “I’ll have a proper husband when I’m 20.”
“No, you won’t,” he’d say. “You will have me. ”
“What if I want another husband?” I’d retort, almost breathless sometimes. “What if I love someone else?”
“I’ll kill him,” Rhyder would say flatly, his eyes bright blue but cold as an ice storm. “You can only be mine, Temperance. You aren’t allowed to love anyone else.”
It was wrong and something was wrong with my brother, something in his zealous heart had turned his protectiveness into something that was dark and twisted, obsessive and depraved.
Did I really think I had escaped from it?
Or had I only been treading water in the cities, always with one eye on the door?
Knowing one day Rhyder would come for me.
“No one else takes their sisters,” I said as he spread my thighs wide. “Aren’t you afraid this is a sin?”
“No one else has you , Temperance,” he replied.
His hands moved down to my robe, flicking the fabric away so it fell off my body, his breath sucked in as he looked at my body, naked and bound before him.
I pulled and strained at the ties as Rhyder bent down to up the holy oil and he began to pray.
Consecrate her O Allfather
Bind her to me like she always should have been
He raised the jar and let one drip of holy oil fall onto my face, his fingers tracing the sweet, supple drop, his fingers gently massaging it into my forehead and down my cheeks.
Then another drop. And another.
I felt covered by him, not by his piety before the Allfather, since I thought that was bullshit, but by the strength of his suffocating love and protection.
I wanted to look away, stare at the ground, but I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from Rhyder. The way his chest heaved at every inch of me he covered with the oil.
I wanted to arch my back from the chair when his finger traced a path down my throat and into the hollow there.
His fingers rubbed gently, hypnotically, the oil soaked into my skin, seeping between his fingers.
I wanted to rip my arms out of the ties that bound me and run away from Rhyder.
Run away from the confusing mix of feelings in my gut.
I shouldn’t want him.
I didn’t want him.
Whatever he did to me was simple biology, just unnatural animal attraction, and nothing more.
My brother tipped the oil on my forehead, letting it run in long, velvet lines down my nose and cheeks, seeping down to my mouth.
“Spit it on me,” Rhyder said.
His eyes shone with a zealous, obsessive light.
I opened my lips and let the savory, smooth liquid fill my mouth.
Rhyder’s heart thudded through his chest, beating so loud and so close to me that my skin started buzzing.
“More,” he said, his voice low. “Fill your mouth.”
I obeyed him, trembling, as he slipped the robe from my shoulders with one hand. His other hand was on the back of my neck, his eyes shining with a frightening light.
When it had begun to dribble out both sides of my mouth, I drew my cheeks in and spit it at my brother.
He made a low groaning noise, closing his eyes in ecstasy as the oil sprayed over his face.
Then his mouth opened eagerly and he sucked the golden drops of oil onto his tongue.
I felt my cunt fucking liquify at the expression on his face, as I sat bound on the chair before him.
He made another low noise, then he raised both hands and dragged the drops of oil from my throat down my chest with his fingers, trail of depravity down my breasts, down to where my pink nipples were diamond-bright hard points.
I tightened my lips as hard as I could, swallowing the moans that threatened to spill from my throat. The callouses on his fingers caught on the tips of my nipples as he rubbed them gently in a circular motion.
“You know how many times I have had to repent for picturing you during services?” Rhyder asked in a low voice. “Dreamed about putting my hands all over your beautiful soft body. How many times did I stroke my cock when I should have been preparing for the Blood and Body? Your body has tormented me for years, sister. Now it is mine to take and you will give me what I want.”
His fingers moved down to my belly, his hands tipping the jar forward so more oil spilled on me, pooled between my hips, dripping down my thighs to my cunt.
No more! I wanted to scream as he reached the cleft of my sex and I determined to make no noise or motion.
“Beautiful sweet cunt,” Rhyder rumbled as he rubbed my pussy lips, massaging the holy oil in. “this is the source of Paradise.”
“That’s blasphemous,” I said through clenched teeth.
His big index finger brushed by my clit, the small bud straining and soaking wet with unwilling desire.
“It’s my blessing,” he said. “Blessed is the one who kills for the Allfather.”
And my hips jerked, just a bit, but Rhyder with his sharp eyes noticed, and he stepped even closer, his fingers back on my clit again, trying to figure out what had made me make that noise.
“ No ,” my lips mouthed.
“ Temperance ,” he groaned in my ear, and suddenly my skin felt too tight and itchy. “I want your pleasure. It’s not wrong, sister. I promise. How could it be wrong when it feels like this?”
And it was wickedness, it was wrongness, but the temptation was so dark and intense that I couldn’t resist it.
Moans began to burst from my lips as he circled my clit.
“Oh hell and godsdamn,” he cursed. “You’re fucking soaking my hand, angel. Give it to me.”
“Rhyder—” I gasped, not knowing what to say, only that I couldn’t stand the pressure anymore as he fingers made my pussy lips swell with heat and need, my hips jerking forward and back with little desperate motions.
“Want something more?” my twin asked, slipping a big finger inside me as I gasped with pleasure. “I’ll give you more, Temperance. Every filthy fucking thing you want.”
He added another finger, my cunt sucking down on him, eager for more .
More of my brother
I came apart for him, writhing on the chair, straining at my bonds as I rode his hand until the stars burst in my vision, feeling mastered and dominated as exquisite pleasure pounded through my body, my release soaking his hand as I pulsed over him.
“Oh is that how to command your sweetness, sister?” Rhyder said, and it didn’t even need to be a question as my head rolled backwards. “This sweet little spot?”
My body was pure liquid, and he reached back to undo my bonds, pulling me out of the chair and drawing my naked panting body closer to his. My slick ran down my legs, and Rhyder drew his cock from his pants, his hands bending to prop my lolling head up with his big palm. I could tell he was still trying to go slow and be cautious, his eyes tight on me. But the soft liquid pleasure still suffused every limb to the tip of my fingers, and when the head of his massive cock parted my pussy lips I only moaned wantonly. Rhyder sucked in his breath and began to press deeper inside me, slower now, his other hand gripping the table to make sure he took me slowly.
But I was wet and open as his fingers bit down on my ass.
I gasped at his size, still a little sting even though I was so wet and open, and he froze, carefully spreading his fingers on my back.
“ Keep. . .going ,” I said.
As I opened my eyes, my lids feeling languid and heavy, I saw his jaw tighten at this, the muscles in his strong throat and jawline tensing even further.
I looked up at the ceiling, a drop of purifying oil rolling between my breasts and down the tips, and Rhyder bent his head and scooped it up, his tongue swirling around my tight nipple.
“You’re my wife, Temperance. Before the Allfather, I swear that I will protect you and love you as long as I live.”
He was almost all the way in and he began to rock back and forth cautiously. My cunt was sensitive and ripe from my first orgasm, and I felt the telltale twitches in my pussy that meant another one was already building.
Rhyder looked down at where our bodies connected, where my clit was rubbed against his cock, and he tangled his hand in my wet hair.
“ Yes . You have no idea how you feel, Temperance.”
He clutched my hair tighter, grunting as he began to fuck me harder, in agonizing rolling thrusts.
“So many days, Temperance, I thought only of you as we did morning prayers. So many times I was tortured by not knowing where you were or what you were doing.”
I could feel him waiting, wanting, his lips on my throat, my cheek.
Wanting me to turn toward him.
Wanting me to say I loved him, vow I’d love him forever.
I couldn’t say it, the words sticking in my throat, but he was going to get my release, as I felt my thighs tremble and my body convulse around his in rolling liquid pleasure.
Rhyder guided my lips to his and plundered me, his tongue on mine, his hand on my lower back, dragging out my orgasm as he came inside me, feeling each twitch of his cock all over my body.
Then he scooped me up as my eyelids fluttered shut, my body feeling limp and boneless, and he carried me to the house we had shared and laid me down on his bed.