Chapter 32
If there was ever a voice that could freeze her blood, it would be the one in her ear.
The effect that the monster had on her was immediate and visceral. Her skin tightened, and every hair on her arms stood on end as she fought the urge to shudder.
It had seemed impossible that she would find herself alone with this thing pretending to be a man ever again.
Dread curled in her stomach as helplessness truly started to settle over her. She knew that she was helpless, but there had been a glimmer of hope in her heart until he spoke.
The hand curled in her hair trailed down the side of her neck to the shoulder of her dress, pushing down the sleeve to expose her shoulder for his touch. His unwanted touch, just like it had been when they had been engaged.
Every single day of her betrothal to Graham had been a struggle to keep his hands off her, to stop allowing him and his proclivities to frighten her.
He had had no qualms about telling her what their marriage would be like and the sort of wife that she would need to be.
Never mind the activities that she would be required to participate in.
She hadn’t run away quickly enough.
Her father had asked her over and over why she had run from him, given his holdings and how influential his clan was known to be. Graham had the largest private army across the four territories, even if they weren’t known to be the most lethal. No, Kaden had quickly snatched that title.
“Ye ken, ye left so suddenly that ye didnae even give me a chance to say goodbye,” Graham said in that sickly sweet voice that he used when he felt like he had the upper hand.
Emily bit down on her bottom lip to keep from spewing the very unladylike list of obscenities that she would have liked to use against him. But given that she was restrained, antagonizing him wouldn’t be wise.
She could only imagine what would have happened if she had told the bastard that she was planning on leaving, the things that he might have done. Well, she imagined that it might have been something like this. He had threatened it plenty of times before.
“I hope ye daenae think that yer leaving was enough to break off our engagement, do ye?” Graham asked, his hand trailing over her shoulder, drawing a line across her chest and rising to her face.
He was just as hideous as she remembered him to be. The worst part was that he was very conventionally attractive. He looked like a powerful laird ought to—tall, with long, flowing blonde hair and an abundance of muscle. He was well-formed in battle and was only a little bit shorter than Kaden.
It was his blue eyes that she hated the most. There was something cold about them. Every time she looked into them, she felt horrible, like he was attempting to tear out parts of her soul and trap them inside of him.
“It’s alright if ye daenae answer me, because I think that we both ken the truth.
Ye belong to me, and therefore yer marriage is null and void.
Ye cannae have a real marriage if ye belong to another, and I didnae give ye permission to be touched by another man.
” Graham chuckled, and the sound made her skin crawl.
“What I really need to ken is if ye allowed him to touch what is mine.”
He grabbed her face roughly and tilted it to his. He pinched her jaw so hard that she didn’t know how he expected her to answer.
He leaned closer, his nose brushing against hers, his warm breath ghosting over her skin. “Ye have plenty of uses still, but I willnae be kind if ye allowed yerself to be sullied. I might need the alliance, but ye will be mine wholly and completely.”
Emily shuddered. She could tell the truth, of course, but she knew that he would only take it out of her skin.
He had all but promised as much when they had been betrothed to one another.
Every single transgression that he felt she made was followed by the exact same threat over and over again—to take it out of her skin, to punish her with a pound of flesh.
She had never met somebody who was more obsessed with blood than the man in front of her now.
There were a great many things that Graham wanted her for, and she had been made aware of them again and again—her father’s support, access to their clan, their coffers, and their resources.
But most importantly, he wanted to keep her as his doll.
Not just in sweet nickname, but in perfect reality.
Displayed like the bears and other hunting trophies that decorated his macabre castle.
Every time she had looked around had been a reminder of death and the things that Graham had killed, and that one day she might be one of those things.
“Ye need to return home to me, Aphrodite,” he whispered against her skin, his hand moving down her jaw to possessively hold her neck. “Whether ye come willingly or nae, I’m going to fix the mistakes that ye have made.”
Emily swallowed with some difficulty, given the pressure he was putting on her vocal cords. “There was nay mistake.”
If this was her time, she wasn’t going to go out with her tail between her legs. That, or she still couldn’t control what she said to save her own hide.
The pressure on her neck grew, and so did her panic. She gritted her teeth together and added, “Ye are still the lunatic I left, and ye will never have me.”
Graham chuckled. “Let me guess, ye would rather die?”
Emily mustered her strength and spat in his face.
He released her throat and sighed as he wiped the spit from his face with his fingers, before flicking it toward the dirty floor. He chuckled again, the rage in his eyes growing.
“Ye are lucky that ye are the last one for me to acquire.”
He took a step back, and for a moment, she thought that she might get a small break from him, but the next thing she knew, the back of his hand was colliding with the right side of her face.
If she had been standing on her own two feet, she would have collapsed sideways.
Stars burst across her vision, and she tried to move her jaw to ensure that the joint was still in place.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she could do nothing to stop them.
The burn in her cheek immediately spread across the whole face.
“If ye have nothing nice to say…” Graham lifted his shoulders in a shrug. He pulled a cloth from his pouch and used it to gag her. “I daenae need ye to speak. Ye will remember how to behave, or this will be a very painful marriage, indeed.”
“I’m already married!” she growled, feeling very much like her husband might have as she gritted the words through the gag.
“Ye and I both ken that ye havenae consummated yer marriage, dolly.” Graham chuckled. “It’s the only reason why I brought ye here in one piece. Otherwise, ye would have been punished.”
The confusion on her face must have been obvious. There was no way he could have known that. She would have known if he had been in the castle, just as she knew that there hadn’t been anyone watching her and Kaden last night.
“I see ye havenae gotten any smarter during our time apart.” Graham smirked. “I had me men ask yer maids. It’s incredible what one might find out that way. I’m very upset ye didnae take me little note seriously, by the way.”
Of course, it had been him.
She should have noticed that he had been too quiet as of late. She should have known that he wasn’t going to stay with his tail tucked in his own lands.
She wasn’t sure exactly what she had thought he might be doing, but then again, that was the whole point, wasn’t it? She hadn’t wanted to think about him at all. Every time thoughts of him had started to surface, she had shoved them down as quickly as possible.
“The way I see it, yer supposed husband and I have some unfinished business,” Graham continued, his crooked finger trailing down her arm and over the ropes binding her in place.
“Then, there’s still the matter of our marriage, which will be perfectly legal as soon as I dispatch him.
I think that might be a better deal than simply securing an alliance with yer faither.
The way I see it, I collect me wife and two separate clans at the same time. Three birds with one stone.”
He shrugged, then walked backward to the closest wall and clasped his hands in front of him with an arrogant shrug.
“The priest is on the way.” He fixed her with that soul-stealing glare. “Then, ye will be with yer rightful husband, the only one worthy of ye in the first place. So, just hold on there.”
With that, he turned to leave the small cabin, leaving her to face the cold and the terror all by herself.