Chapter Eleven
………………………….
Ily
I FOUGHT MY COLLAR’S HOLD.
Tears streamed down my face as Victor backed away from Henri and purred, “You’re running out of minutes. I suggest you get to it. Tick-tock.”
The image of Henri with his arms splayed above his head, shackled on the cream chaise lounge placed in the centre of the stage, seared into my soul. One of his legs lay along the length of the chaise while another fell off, his foot planted heavily on the wooden floor.
His hollow belly flexed beneath his bandages and his cock…
I fought and struggled.
I sobbed and clawed.
I couldn’t take this anymore.
I couldn’t stand by and watch anymore.
I couldn’t be the reason why Henri suffered anymore.
I-I can’t do this!
“Ily…” Peter dared to speak from his position on the other side of the stage. “Don’t.”
Don’t what?
Fight?
Try to save him?
Tomorrow was Christmas, and it was too late.
Henri’s bandages had soaked with blood.
His collarbones were stark.
His body was failing.
He couldn’t take much more.
None of us could.
So if we didn’t fight now…then when?
Tomorrow on Christmas?
The day after on Boxing Day?
What if we didn’t make it to those days?
What if all the plans Faiza believed were in place were a mere fantasy?
What if tonight destroyed the final pieces of Henri, and he broke?
What if Victor raped him like in my nightmares—
Oh God.
Sickness splashed on my tongue.
Fear pushed me over the edge. “Let him go! Let him go! LET HIM GO!”
Victor’s eyes snapped to mine. “I was wondering when you’d break my rules, Ilyana.” With a sly smirk, he snapped his fingers at a guard. “Kindly give Peter ten lashes for Ilyana’s outburst.”
“No, don’t!”
“Make it twenty.”
I bit my bottom lip so hard I drew blood.
I shot Peter a horrified look.
He merely sighed and shrugged. “It’s okay, jaanu .”
No, it wasn’t.
Nothing was okay.
None of this was okay!
Tears ran down my face as a guard grabbed a whip from the rack in the corner and stalked toward Peter.
I collapsed to my knees, my heart racing so hard.
I only had eyes for Peter and the punishment I’d stupidly given him.
I didn’t see Victor until it was too late.
He appeared in front of me. Sick. Twisted. Vile.
“Time for a little game,” he murmured.
I reared back.
I didn’t get far.
Shoving a dank, dark hood over my head, he chuckled as he gathered me close and whispered in my ear, “If you speak a single word, I will cut out Peter’s tongue. Do you hear me?”
Somewhere past my blindness, a whip sang, and Peter’s grunt echoed across the ballroom.
I gagged and stumbled as Victor released my collar from the chains and pushed me into walking. “Remember, my sweet. I’m not going to gag you because I want to see how obedient you can be. But a single whisper and Peter will pay the price.”
Holding me by the nape, he marched me forward.
I tripped and crashed against him, unable to see a damn thing.
Holding me tight, Victor raised his voice. “If you don’t get hard in the time it takes me to go over there, Henri, I’m going to give Ilyana to one of my guests.” Shoving me forward, he laughed as another man scooped me close. “Here. Have her. Fuck her—”
Henri groaned behind his gag.
“Well then.” Victor sniffed. “Get it up and prove to me that every part of you belongs to me. Even that.”
The man holding me scooped me from the floor and tossed me over his head like a dead carcass.
Vertigo made me dizzy.
My heartbeat gushed in my ears.
I tried to calm myself with tricks and concentration. I begged white light and grounding cords to keep me sane. But the hood’s darkness and the island’s cruelty and Henri’s suffering and Peter’s whipping—
I-I can’t.
For the first time in my life, I couldn’t find that pocket of peace.
I couldn’t stop myself from panicking and choking and reaching the end of my very frayed, very broken tether.
“Good boy,” Victor cooed.
Henri groaned again.
And my heart shattered.
What was happening?
What was Victor doing to him?
Henri.
God, I’m so sorry.
Peter.
God, I’m so, so sorry.
This is all my fault.
All of it—
“Remember. Make a sound, and Peter pays the price,” Victor murmured. “Go. Take her.”
The man carrying me over his shoulder lumbered forward and slapped my ass.
No. Wait. Don’t—
It took all my willpower not to cry out.
Not to scream and shout and beg.
But I would never forgive myself if Peter was maimed because of me.
So I choked on all those words.
I gagged on all my screams.
With tears flowing the wrong way from being upside down, I sniffed and trembled as the man carried me somewhere, tossed me onto my feet, and wrenched the tight silver teddy that I’d worn every night since this torture began over my hips.
Baring me, he picked me up again, spread my legs, and made me kneel.
Tears poured down my cheeks as he arranged me over someone and pushed my shoulders down.
No.
Please.
Something hard and unequivocally male pressed against my core.
No.
Despair echoed in my bones, my blood.
Horror and panic howled in my lungs as an unseen man penetrated me against my wishes.
My head tipped forward as shock pushed me toward faintness.
Black spots and weakness.
I ran toward them.
If I passed out, I wouldn’t know.
I wouldn’t have to feel everything…endure anything.
Unlike the last time Victor raped me, the blinding hood ensured I watched far too closely. Not having my sight made all my other senses explode.
I felt the man’s heat.
I heard his gasped grunt.
Our skin touched; our bodies merged.
And I didn’t want it.
Stop—
But the man kept pushing me down, forcing me lower and lower—impaling me onto some Master’s erection. Gifting me to someone against my will. Against my knowledge. Against my very sanity.
My body pinched and pained at the invasion.
Not ready.
Not wet.
It hurt.
Everything hurt.
The scream percolated inside me until it drew blood.
But I didn’t let it free.
I wouldn’t be the reason Peter lost his tongue.
I was stronger than this.
Braver than this.
But…as the unseen man’s thick, hard cock spread and took me, as he groaned as my body unwillingly let him in, as the man forcing me to sit over him let me go…my scream switched into something else.
Something savage and strange.
Brilliant and blinding.
I froze.
I quietened my terror and listened instead of watched.
I listened to his heartbeat, his soul.
And I knew.
I knew who it was.
I knew, and I was no longer afraid …