Sold to Serve by Kyra Alessy

Chapter 14

Kora walked slowly down the corridor. She carried an ale horn for the lord, who had been sitting in the great hall for quite a while now. She’d tarried as long as she could, hoping the Brothers would return, but they hadn’t, and there was only so long that the man would wait passively.

She opened the door quietly and he turned his head towards her.

‘Finally. Your keep’s hospitality is lacking,’ he sneered.

‘My apologies, my lord,’ she murmured but didn’t offer an excuse.

She approached slowly, noting that his eyes took in her opulent gown and cursed herself for not thinking of exchanging it for one of the rough-spun ones in the stores. She saw his eyes drift to her chest and suddenly recalled, in vivid detail, when he had touched her in the market. She shivered and hoped he hadn’t noticed her fear, but when she looked up and saw his lascivious smile, she could see that he well knew his effect on her.

‘Come, come. Surely you can greet your betrothed with more warmth than that.’

Betrothed? She didn’t let her confusion show, but the bile rose in her stomach immediately. What was this? Another of Lucian’s tricks? But how would he know? She’d been so careful.

‘I’m sorry, my lord, I don’t understand your jest,’ she said faintly.

‘Oh, Kora. You’re wondering how I found you after so long. Well, you can blame your uncle for that.’ He gave her a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. ‘To be honest, when I intercepted the man he’d sent to find his wayward niece and I was told that the woman I’d been searching for was in this very keep, I couldn’t believe it. I do business just down in the valley. How’s that for providence? You had been in my grasp and I’d just thought you were a pretty bauble I could play with. You were almost mine that day in Kingway and I didn’t even know it – nor did you from the looks of things.’ He shook his head in bafflement. ‘I’d probably have killed you that night,’ he said, half to himself, ‘and that wouldn’t have done at all. I suppose I have the gods and their whimsy to thank though it would have been so much easier if you hadn’t run off in the first place.’ He stood, not bothering with the pretence of ale any longer. ‘You’re going to come with me. Now.’

She took a step back, the first of a few concerns coming to the forefront of her mind after his tirade, idiotically, was that he knew her name. ‘I don’t understand.’

He laughed loudly. ‘Your father was right. You are a bit simple. I’m your future husband, of course. I’m Blackhale.’

Blackhale. Her mind didn’t comprehend what was happening. This was Blackhale. The man from the market was Blackhale, her betrothed whom she had been running from for so long. Blackhale. How was it possible? She stared at the crest on his tunic, the same one she couldn’t place that day in Kingway, and remembered, with a dawning realisation, where she’d come across it. Papers on her father’s desk. The marriage contract. This was Blackhale, the man her father would have given her to with so little thought. This was the powerful figure who commanded a personal army, who had been married three times before her and whose wives had all disappeared, and who bought slave girls to torture. This was the man the servants had whispered about behind closed doors where they thought she couldn’t hear even as they lamented her fate. If Mace hadn’t bought her that day …

She took Blackhale in, this man whose existence terrified so many. He was large and broad, but with little of the honed muscles of the Brothers His greying hair was thinning now she looked closer and he looked tired in the eyes. He was older than he first appeared too, yet his towering presence still had her quaking. And now he knew where she was, what she looked like. There was nowhere to hide from him. He would make her go with him. He would pay the Brothers for her and make her marry him. She covered her mouth with her hand, afraid she would be sick.

‘You’ve led me on a merry chase, you know. Now you’ve lost. Don’t make a fuss, girl.’

She didn’t move, still rooted to the spot. Then he lunged for her. She threw the contents of the drinking horn in his face, an instant reaction she couldn’t help. He jumped back with a yowl and she ran for the door in a last-ditch effort to spare herself this awful fate. Something heavy thudded into her and knocked her over like a skittles pin. She lay on the floor, stunned, vaguely realising he’d thrown one of the heavy wooden dining chairs at her like she was nothing but a nuisance. Ageing his body may be, but it had held its strength. Luckily nothing seemed broken. He hefted her up and she let her head loll, pretending to be senseless before she struck, gouging a chunk out of his cheek as she raked her nails across it.

He yelled in pain and shook her. ‘You little bitch,’ he said quietly. ‘It will be my pleasure to break you.’ He pulled her head back by her hair to look at him. ‘I think I’ll start now.’

He threw her face-down onto the large table in the centre of the room and she let out a cry as her head bounced painfully off the rough wooden surface. She struggled under the hand keeping her down as he hiked her dress up. She kicked at his shins and tried to pull herself across the tabletop.

‘I’m not yours yet, Blackhale!’ she bellowed. ‘If you do this, my father will have you flayed alive!’ She wished she could speak as coldly and dispassionately as he did, but found she couldn’t quite manage that in her current state of panic. What she said was true, though. Her father may have no love for her, but family honour was paramount to him.

‘Your father is dead,’ Blackhale sneered. ‘Your simple mother too. Your childhood home is a pile of ash. I watched your mother burn as she sat in that faded blue chair with the yellow flowers. The ridiculous creature didn’t even try to save herself.

‘You lie,’ she said through clenched teeth, her stomach dropping.

She knew it was true. He’d described her mother’s chair from her private rooms. No one went there but the servants. She felt a pang of sadness at his words. Less than she should have at learning her family and home were gone, however. Her family’s house had always been simply a roof over her head. Her father had been a tyrant and though her mother had given birth to her, she had done little else.

‘My uncle, then,’ she tried as she heard him loosen his belt.

He ignored her, so she screamed as loudly as she could, praying that the men in the yard would come to her rescue even knowing that they’d be too late.

‘I’m no longer a virgin!’ she cried suddenly, grasping at straws now, but his body froze over hers as if such a thing had never crossed his mind. Imbued with hope, she elaborated, ‘All three of the Brothers have had me. In every way you could imagine!’

‘You were meant to be mine!’ he sneered, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head into the table.

She cried out weakly, her mind going fuzzy.

The door banged open and she turned her head to look, but where she expected a guard stood Lucian – a dark, malicious knight with his sword drawn. He looked more furious than she’d ever seen him as he advanced into the room, not saying a word, but Kora had never been gladder to see anyone.

Blackhale put his hands up in surrender and she slid dizzily off the table, pulling her skirts down and skittering as far from him as she could get. She felt her head and found it already swelling, but there wasn’t any blood.

‘Your slave is mine by rights,’ Blackhale said by way of explanation. ‘I’ll give you the twenty pieces you paid for her, but I’m taking her with me.’

If Lucian was surprised, he didn’t show it. ‘Do you want to go with him, Kora?’

‘No.’ She shook her head for extra emphasis, pleasantly surprised he had bothered to ask her.

Lucian shrugged. ‘Well, the lady seems to prefer us to you, and we have the of Writ Ownership.’

‘My men are in the yard,’ Blackhale said easily. ‘Surely you saw them already within your keep’s walls. You’re outnumbered. Give her to me now or there will be bloodshed.’

The other two Brothers appeared in the hall. ‘Your men are all too drunk to help you,’ Mace interrupted. ‘Get out or we’ll kill you all regardless of the law.’

Blackhale let out a growl of frustration. ‘This isn’t finished,’ he promised, storming from the hall, his heavy steps echoing loudly.

Kora heard the massive front door crash against the wall as he left the keep and she half fell into the nearest chair. Blackhale knew where she was. All of a sudden, great gasps of mirth began to erupt from her chest. She giggled and giggled and then she was sobbing; heaving cries that choked her as she laughed. Great tears tracked down her cheeks as quickly as she could wipe them away, but she couldn’t stop.

The Brothers stood by, staring at her and then at each other. They probably thought she’d lost her wits. Perhaps she had.

Kade stepped forward slowly and knelt in front of her. ‘What happened? What did he do?’

‘Nothing, really.’ She laughed harder, gasping for breath. ‘You don’t understand. I ran for so long and so much happened. I tried so hard and, in the end, there’s still no escape. He found me regardless, and even in the market that day, he would have bought me if Mace hadn’t. I would have been his anyway, then or now. None of it made any difference.’

She knew she wasn’t making any sense. She tried to calm herself. The Brothers were silent until the only sounds in the hall were her slow breaths.

Someone stroked her hair and hushed her, and she closed her eyes as she felt herself being lifted; more easily than when Blackhale had picked her up. She wasn’t sure why that mattered, but it did.

She was taken upstairs and into a room she knew by the smell of the books alone. Kade sat in one of the chairs by the hearth, settling her on his lap like a babe. He heaved a great sigh and she followed suit. The slow rise and fall of his chest and the smell of him lulled her into a drowsy haze.

‘Thank you,’ she blurted out, ‘for not letting him take me.’

His arms tightened around her and she drifted slowly into slumber.

She woke to whispered conversation and opened her eyes. The fogginess in her vision had gone now, leaving her sight as it had been before the blindness.

All three of the Brothers were there. Mace and Lucian sat at the table. Kade still had her in his arms by the hearth.

‘How do you feel?’ he asked her.

She eased herself from Kade’s arms and he let her go, albeit reluctantly.

‘Better.’ She looked out of the casement. It was late afternoon, and the sun was still high above the mountains beyond the valley.

Another day gone. She wondered if it would be her last at the keep.

‘Davas brought you food and drink.’ Mace gestured in front of him where a goblet and a plate of meats, cheeses and bread sat.

Her stomach still revolting, she shook her head. ‘Perhaps later.’

Something passed between the Brothers and she looked down at the floor morosely. ‘What do you want to know?’ she asked quietly.

‘All of it,’ came Lucian’s cold reply.

She flinched and nodded, not able to look at them. ‘My father made a contract with Blackhale for my hand.’

‘In marriage?’ Mace exclaimed. ‘But I don’t understand. He was at the market that day …’

‘A chance encounter. I didn’t know Blackhale’s face before today, nor he mine. We’d never met. My family owns a vast estate. My father is – was – a wealthy man. I wasn’t a slave before.’

‘Does anyone else know?’ Kade asked.

‘Davas. I didn’t tell him. He guessed it.’ She smiled in spite of the predicament she was in. ‘I ran away from my home before I was to marry Blackhale. I joined the Priests of the Mount. I knew that once I had taken the final rites, contract or no, he wouldn’t be able to stake a claim to me. No matter how many powerful friends he has, no one would let him insult the gods. But the night before I was to begin, I was stolen from the dormitories.’

Kora rubbed her eyes in fatigue. ‘Next I knew, I was in Kingway to be sold by that slaver.’ She glanced at Mace. ‘He knew nothing of me. He made up lies to sell me for a higher price because he was afraid I wouldn’t sell at all. Blackhale had told him I wasn’t worth much. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew I didn’t want him to buy me. I was glad when you did.’

‘So you tried to escape to get back to the priests?’

‘Yes. I had six days to return to them.’

‘And do you still want to go back?’

She shook her head. ‘The ritual had to be started while the moons were in position. That door is closed to me now.’ She shrugged. ‘But even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t choose it. It was just the only way I could think of to put myself beyond Blackhale’s reach. But now he knows I’m here.’ She heaved a sigh. ‘He has more men than you do. You and the keep are in danger because of me.’

‘Why does any of this matter,’ Kade muttered, ‘She’s here with us now. Who cares who she was before or where she comes from?’

Lucian spoke over him. ‘You’re not from this world, Brother. I wouldn’t expect you to understand the nuances of the situation.’ He turned on her, ignoring Kade’s answering growl. ‘What do you suggest we do with you then?’ Lucian asked her, his tone condescending.

She hung her head and tried to keep the tears that threatened at bay. ‘You could ransom me to my uncle if he still lives,’ she bit her lip, ‘or to Blackhale if you wish. My dowry was vast. That’s what he wants. He won’t stop until he gets it and my family’s property if my father really is gone.’

‘But the property won’t pass to him in marriage unless it’s part of your dowry,’ Mace said.

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘Not until I’m dead …’

The Brothers were silent. She didn’t need to look up to know that three pairs of eyes were fixed on her and she wanted to sink into the floor. She could feel their ire. She should have simply told them the truth before. Then at least Blackhale wouldn’t have found her here. They’d put so much work into the keep, into their new lives after their tragedies. Because of her it was all in jeopardy.

‘I’m going to … go to my room,’ she muttered, practically running for the door. Thankfully they let her go. She rushed for her chamber and closed herself inside before she let her tears begin to fall.

* * *

Lucian watched Kora leave the library. She blamed herself for everything, even Lucian could see that, but the others didn’t seem to. They thought she was just afraid of Blackhale. But Lucian knew guilt. He knew it well. He’d felt it every day since he’d left Lori to fend for herself while he went and joined the Army.

He was at a crossroads, he realised, but he’d already decided what path he would take. He could do nothing else. He knew it was wrong, but he didn’t care. She was weakened now. She felt responsible, thought they hated her and he would use that to his advantage. It might very well be his only chance.

He left the other two talking and made his way to her room. He listened outside the door to her muffled sobs for a time before silently opening it and slipping inside.

She was on her bed, crying into her pillow – great wracking sobs. He stole closer, watching her sadness and her fear and he suddenly saw her, really saw her.

The realisation that she was no devious creature, no heartless wench, slammed into him. She was simply a girl with a shit family who’d caught the attention of a very powerful and dangerous man. What would he have done if such a man had wanted Lori? He knew at once he’d have gutted the bastard while he still breathed to save her from even one lecherous glance.

He sat on the bed and pulled Kora gently into his arms. She startled, but curled into him at once the way she had when he’d come to save her from her bad dreams while she slept. How many nights had he secretly lay here with her? He remembered the first time he’d woken to the sounds of her screams deep in the night. He’d burst in expecting to find an intruder. Finding none but the girl writhing around in her bed, he’d intended to shake her awake, berate her for his lost sleep and leave. But for reasons he still didn’t understand, he’d wanted to comfort her when she’d been at her most vulnerable. And so, careful not to wake her, he’d cuddled her to him – something he’d only ever done with Lori. But, as his cock sprang to life, he’d seen how different it was with Kora. His feelings were most definitely not brotherly.

And now – he adjusted himself – it was doing the same.

Her tear-filled eyes rose to look at him. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked softly.

And though he deserved nothing of the kind, she looked at him with such trust – even after everything he’d done. It crossed his mind that perhaps Kade was right. It almost made him reconsider what he was about to do. Almost.

‘I’m here to make you feel better,’ he said truthfully, ‘if you’d like me to.’

She cast her eyes down. ‘I don’t want to feel better. I deserve to feel this way.’

He chuckled. ‘None of this is your fault, Kora. I don’t think so anyway.’

‘And the others?’

He could lie to her, he supposed. It would make things simpler if she felt cut-off from the others. He lied to everyone, after all. Even himself. But he wanted to tell her only truths. He frowned, not sure why that was. ‘The others feel the same,’ he conceded. ‘Do not dread Blackhale. We are Dark Brothers. He will fear us by the end.’

‘But you aren’t part of the Army anymore,’ she sniffed, ‘and I’ve brought the worst trouble to your door.’

‘Hush.’ He angled her face up to his and silenced her with a kiss, gentle and soft. She didn’t struggle as he moved a hand over her chest and kneaded her breast. In fact she made a noise that sounded suspiciously like she was enjoying his touch. He grinned against her mouth as he felt her nipple bead in his palm and she moaned.

‘Please,’ she gasped.

‘What is it you want, Kora?’ he asked, not above making her beg just a little.

‘You,’ she breathed. ‘Please.’

He had her on her back before she’d finished speaking, hand sliding under her gown and up her thighs. He parted them slowly, giving her ample time to stop him, but instead she pulled at his shirt, trying to bare him to her eyes. He took it off in one smooth motion, only to see her eyes darken in distress.

‘What is it?’ he asked, suddenly terrified that she was going to stop him, but her eyes were on the bruises that still marred his chest. He cupped her cheek. ‘Pay them no mind. I deserve them.’ He was shocked to discover that that too wasn’t a lie. He’d earned that beating from Kade and more besides if he was truthful.

His breath hitched as she ran her hands over his shoulders and down his chest lightly as if afraid she would hurt him. Her eyes caught his and he was ensnared by them. He couldn’t look away. He didn’t want to.

He freed her breasts from their confines and licked them into hard peaks. She began to writhe under him, rubbing herself on the leg that was between her knees. He sat her up and pulled the dress over her head, revealing her body to him. He drank her in, the swell of her breasts, the widening of her hips down to the dark thatch of curls. He dragged his fingers through it gently, making her shiver, before parting her lower lips and doing what he’d wanted to since he’d seen her that first day. Her body was already slick for him and he groaned, almost not believing that she was allowing him this.

Then she widened for him willingly, angling her hips up for him to touch her, and he was ruined. He opened his breeches and took himself in his hand, watching her face as she stared at him. Her eyes flicked to his and then back to the very hard cock in his fist. And then she licked her lips and he almost spent himself there and then like a callow youth. Unable to wait any longer, he entered her gently – more tenderly than he’d ever been with anyone, letting her channel adjust to his size gradually. Then he began to move slowly and she gasped as he filled her.

Her fingers grasped his shoulders, digging into his skin as she turned her face into his neck and stifled a moan.

‘No,’ he growled, drawing back from her to look into her face, ‘I want to hear every sound I make you utter.’

With that, he took her mouth with his, nipping her lip hard enough to cause a yelp and a clenching of her nethers, he noticed. So she liked a little pain, did she? He groaned as he licked the blood from her lip before moving down to her nipple. He took it in his mouth and bit down, making her squeal. She whimpered, her eyes flying to his in accusation even as her legs wound around his waist to urge him on. He grinned.

‘Now I know another of your secrets, Kora,’ he murmured, not slowing his movements, nor quickening them. ‘You like a little pain with your pleasure, don’t you?’

She looked away, not meeting his eyes as her cheeks coloured and he licked her to sooth the sting of his teeth.

‘So do I,’ he whispered and her lips parted on a gasp.

He kept the pace slow, burying himself in her fully with each stroke. She felt exquisite around him and it was torture when all he wanted to do was rut her hard, but he wouldn’t. The agony was beautiful.

And, just when he thought he couldn’t possibly take anymore. She moaned in pleasure, her channel spasming around him. Then, she did something he would never have expected of her. She dug her nails into his back and drew them down, hard. He gave a yell at the sudden act and his release hit him like a hammer, spilling his seed deep into her. His body shook with the force of it and he collapsed on top of her, breathing hard and biting down to keep from making a fool of himself by telling her the first thought in his mind – that he loved her.

Instead he did something else; his own blood on his tongue, he kissed her deeply. He couldn’t not. A delight he’d never known before zinged through him. His plot forgotten, he basked in what he’d done. She was his now. Theirs. Irrevocably.

A moment later, her door practically flew off its hinges as it was thrown open and he looked back at both his Brothers, their expressions thunderous.

She squirmed beneath him, and he moved so she could breathe though everything in him screamed to crush her into the bed and take her again. He grinned down at her and she met his eyes shyly. Gods, she was perfect.

‘What have you done, Lucian?’ Mace snarled.

‘What does it look like?’ he countered. ‘I decided to have her myself to see if she was as good a fuck as you both said.’ His lips quirked up as he looked down at her confused face. ‘And she was.’

Her eyes clouded in the familiar despair that he found he no longer wanted to see there. He would banish it from her countenance forever, he vowed silently.

‘Another trick?’ she asked softly.

He caressed her hair away from her face and gave it a sudden tug that made her gasp. ‘No.’

Kade pulled him away from her, throwing him halfway across the room. Lucian hit the floor hard and groaned. He turned over and looked up at his Brother with a dark smile, refusing to be apologetic.

‘That’s not what we mean and you know it!’ Kade said, his rapidly darkening eyes boring into him. ‘You began the ritual.’

‘Oh, that.’ He shrugged as well as he could from the floor.

‘Did you even tell her what you were doing?’ Mace yelled.

Lucian sat up and considered. ‘No,’ he said finally. ‘I didn’t know I was going to do it until I did. It’s a bit late to ask her now.’

He looked up to where she was on the bed, sheet pulled up to her neck, swollen lips and looking adorably tousled. Her eyes were moving from one to another as she tried to understand what they were talking about.

Kade loomed over him. ‘This morning you didn’t believe she was our Fourth. What changed?’ He looked from Lucian to Kora and back again before letting out a roar that had the girl cringing. ‘You were being left out and, after everything you’ve done to her, you decided to wait until she was vulnerable to have her. That’s why you’re here.’

Lucian winced. He hadn’t wanted her to know about his previous plan. One taste of her was all it had taken to leave it in ruins anyway.

She was still in the bed, fumbling to get her gown over her head. Her tell-tale sniff had Lucian grinding his jaw, his eyes narrowing at Kade and his big mouth.

Mace ran a hand through his hair. ‘The urge to bind her caught you unawares or you’d never have done it. Fool!’ He stomped forward and hit Lucian’s face so hard he fell back against the wall with another groan.