Chapter Ten
R aven
Three months later...
My breaths quickened and my heels clicked against the stone steps as I made my way to the dungeon, the most dreaded part of the estate. Zeke had told me to go to the usual spot, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to bow down to him, but a part of me lost the battle the night I had that fight with Father.
My left heel landed on the final stair, and I sucked in a sharp breath. In the dungeon, at the very back, was a room that nobody knew about. Not even Father, the King of Amenida, knew of the small, forbidden room.
To the left of the dungeon was where the prisoners were kept along with the secret ‘torture’ rooms that no one was supposed to know about but everyone did. To the right, was storage and a few spare rooms. This was where all the goods that have been shipped were placed and stored.
There was a hidden door that could only be opened by a bookcase. Similar to Slade’s childhood room that led to a tunnel, this bookcase led to a small room. Fucking cliché as hell, but somehow Zeke discovered it and well, it became my own personal torture room.
I let out a harsh breath when my hand clasped the knob and turned. I closed the door behind me and locked it. I stopped to take a breath of air, and get the trembling in my body to stop. I couldn’t show him any weakness. I had to get through this. Walking over to the dusty bookcase, my fingers skimmed the books one by one until they landed on the lucky winner. My finger tilted it down and suddenly, the bookcase moved on its own, showing a sliver of a door hidden behind it. I stood up straight with my head held high, and opened the door and saw him standing behind it, in nothing but his underwear.
The man was easy on the eyes, sure, but he wasn't Slade and never would be. No one would ever own me the way he did, no matter how hard they tried.
Zeke looked up from the book he was reading and grinned. His smile wasn't an easy going smile, it was almost sinister. He was like a predator stalking his prey. Beneath his All-American facade, he was a serial killer waiting to torture his victims.
He developed a precise skill of luring in someone weaker than him, and trapping them in his own little web of deceit. He took a few steps toward me and I had to mentally prepare myself for what would happen next.
Zeke was the puppeteer and I was his puppet. I couldn't believe I’d let myself stoop so low, but then I was reminded of Zeke's dark promise he whispered in my ear only a month ago.
"What’s your endgame Zeke? And don't fucking tell me you want to find true love because you and I both know that's a load of bullshit."
He rushed me and placed a knife next to my throat. "Watch your mouth!" He pressed the tip deeper into my neck, pricking my skin. Any normal person would have felt something, but I didn't feel a damn thing. "You're going to do exactly what I tell you, or that sweet little princess of yours is going to suffer."
I stiffened. He could hurt me all he wanted, but no one touched my daughter. My eyes burned. "If you even think about touching her, you'll be sorry."
His narrow lips tilted at the corners. "Try me, bitch." He leaned in and sniffed my skin. Fucking creep. "I'm going to enjoy having you bend at my will, but you want to know a secret?"
I rolled my eyes. "Sure, go ahead and tell me while you hold me fucking captive."
He moved the blade deeper, and I knew tiny drops of blood were sliding down my neck. "I'm drawing him out so I can take my place on the throne."
My eyes widened. "What the hell are you talking about? You already have the throne. What else do you want?"
He moved away from me and closed his pocket knife, stashing it away in his pants. "No, I don't have the throne. Not until he's dead."
"You're going to kill my father? Have you lost your goddamn mind?"
He chuckled darkly and pushed me to the ground. I fell to my bottom in a graceful fashion. "No, not your father." His eyes met mine and realization dawned on me.
"No," I whispered.
He nodded. "Yes. The rightful heir needs to be removed, for good."
I frowned. He wasn't making any sense. "I'm the rightful heir. Hell, I'm already Queen. Technically, that means you have the throne by marriage."
He shook his head. "Wrong. But that's okay, my sweet, with time, you will understand."
The guy was talking in riddles. I stood up and brushed myself off. "You're delusional and I'm leaving."
He pulled me back against his chest. “Not so fast.”
I tried to break away from him, but it was no use. I slumped against him. All that training when I was younger wore off. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I couldn’t fucking think. I was his prisoner. His cock poked me in the ass, and I resisted the urge to gag. I didn’t want him touching me at all. The one person I wanted to be touched by wasn’t here, and because of that, I was forced to be around this asshole.
Through gritted teeth, I managed to get out a few words, “I would much prefer if you wouldn’t put your hands on me, Zeke.”
He sniffed my hair and somehow proved my creep theory. I wondered if he preyed on the innocent more often than I originally thought.
"And I don't give a fuck what you want. You might as well get used to me touching you. If your father gets his wish, we're going to be married and I'll be touching you for the rest of our lives." My intestines twisted in a tangled web, cutting off circulation. His lips skimmed my ear, and I clenched my teeth. If I were any other woman, I'd probably be all over him right now, but my heart, body, and soul belonged to another. Even if he didn't want me like I wanted him.
I sucked in a breath when his fingers trailed down my shirt and cupped my breast. My body was screaming at me to wake up and realize this wasn't our soulmate, but my mind was in a hazy fog.
"C'mon baby, give in. Moan for me..." Much to my betrayal, a moan escaped my lips. I didn't know why it happened, but it did, and now he seemed to think I was enjoying it. I wasn’t enjoying it, far from it, in fact. This nightmare would be ingrained into my mind for the rest of my life. I would never escape this horror.
His hand traveled dangerously low, until he was at the band of my skirt. I tried to skitter away, but his firm grip held me in place. A strangled tear escaped my eye. "Please Zeke, don't do this."
"Too late..." before I could blink, he had me up against the wall. He assaulted my lips and I was powerless to stop him. He ripped my shirt and moved my bra down to expose my breasts. This couldn't be happening. The Queen of Amenida was being defiled, and no one was here to stop it.
I should've known all along...
I closed my eyes and tried to pretend it wasn't him touching me. I tried to pretend it wasn't his hand that tore my underwear. I pretended it wasn't him that unzipped his pants.
He wrapped my legs around his waist and the next thing I knew, he was pushing inside. My eyes flew open as his hand went around my throat, and a ripping pain went through my body. He squeezed harder, cutting off my circulation as he fucked me. My throat began to hurt as my body shook with fear. Fear of what would happen to me. Would I survive this? Why couldn’t I fight him off? What was wrong with me? With each thrust, he went harder. My back scraped against the stone walls leaving scaring, red marks. His fingernails dug into my neck, scratching and tearing at the skin.
I placed my hand around his wrist and dug my nails into his skin to try to stop him. When he kissed me, I bit his lip. That only encouraged him to thrust harder. When he finally let me go, I thought it was over.
I was wrong.
He ripped away the remainder of my shirt and tossed it to the ground. He had me completely naked in seconds, and then bent me over on the cold, hard ground. He pushed my head to the concrete and lifted my ass in the air so he could defile me even more. He roughly shoved inside, breaking me even more, and everything went black.
"Raven, are you okay?"
I blinked back to the present and looked around. Zeke was in front of me with a concerned look on his face. Why was he concerned? He did this to me. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, but the memories from that day came rushing back. Two months ago, he took what was rightfully mine. He took away my consent, my right to say no. He took away the one thing I had given Slade that I intended for no other man to have.
The last thing I remembered from that dreadful night was waking up naked, bruised, and bleeding with a failed memory. I didn’t know what happened in between my black out and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I often wondered why I continued to let him do what he wanted to me and my body, but had to remind myself that if I didn’t, he would easily harm Julianna.
His dark promise that has haunted me for months. Plaguing my dreams, haunting my smile. Making it hard for me to be around my daughter without letting my tears flow and my screams escape. If I didn’t follow his lead, he would take away the most precious thing in my life. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I mumbled under my breath and stripped in front of him. Every time I was with him, it was an out of body experience. The outside let him do what he wanted, but on the inside, the woman was screaming, hitting every wall possible for someone to hear her. I’d stooped so low that I let him dictate my life like Father did. I’d turned into someone I didn’t recognize, and I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that.